jasonlovesfrench
Paid Member
It's weird how things work out. I've spent literally my whole life of cars owning VW's, from post war Beetle's to Polo TDI's it's all I've ever had (except a Fiat Uno). My Polo 130 was getting boring and out of nowhere my next door neighbour managed to crash into it. That was it for me, I got to repaired and started thinking about a new car. I was talking to a petrol head friend at work and he mentioned the 197, said he had owned them and they were one of the best track/road hatch cars you could get.
One week later i'm on my way to view one (no intention of buying, just looking
) the misses hated the idea so took a little convincing. Needless to say I fell in love with the car, it was the F1 model number 139 so was full spec, everything worked and bar a few stone chips and a worn seat its perfect'ish. The milage was higher than I wanted at 87k but it had full service history, and I mean full, so I kinda felt ok about it. The guy who owned it worked for an F1 Racing team, and was only selling to fund a new BMW. With all this considered I went for it, took a gamble on the 1st one id seen, it felt right although I wouldn't say its the best way i'm happy with my car.
The push button start, keyless entry, auto lights, auto wipers, and all the other perks of the F1 are simply stunning, i've owned this car a few weeks and it literally has blown me away, it has this way of making you feel special, despite it's saggy glovebox and faint promise of steering rack blues.
I'm still getting to know it but from what i've seen it has some K-Tec goodies, LED bulb upgrades and a rather nice Sony HU with handsfree all plumbed in, there could well be speaker upgrades as I haven't checked but it sounds great. My initial plan is a visit to the body shop and get the rear bumper resprayed as its a chipped in two places and rubbed on the bottom. (It's there now) it's also having two alloys refurbed as they had a couple of marks. I then need to get a spot on the passenger Recaro sorted due to wear.
First picture (before body shop work)
View attachment 15159
I dont have any huge plans for mods right now, I want to get new tyres all round and keep up its perfect service record it's due in 6k miles. I might also look into the steering rack click issue, it's early to tell but i'm pretty sure it clicks now and then at parking speed. I'd like some of those £120 RS rubber mat sets but I'll see what happens, I need to own it and drive it longer to see if it needs the niggles that normally appear fixed before thinking about mods. I'm looking forward to getting it back freshly painted and i'll get a proper set of pictures up. Anyhow, thanks for reading and having me around the forum.
One week later i'm on my way to view one (no intention of buying, just looking
) the misses hated the idea so took a little convincing. Needless to say I fell in love with the car, it was the F1 model number 139 so was full spec, everything worked and bar a few stone chips and a worn seat its perfect'ish. The milage was higher than I wanted at 87k but it had full service history, and I mean full, so I kinda felt ok about it. The guy who owned it worked for an F1 Racing team, and was only selling to fund a new BMW. With all this considered I went for it, took a gamble on the 1st one id seen, it felt right although I wouldn't say its the best way i'm happy with my car.The push button start, keyless entry, auto lights, auto wipers, and all the other perks of the F1 are simply stunning, i've owned this car a few weeks and it literally has blown me away, it has this way of making you feel special, despite it's saggy glovebox and faint promise of steering rack blues.
I'm still getting to know it but from what i've seen it has some K-Tec goodies, LED bulb upgrades and a rather nice Sony HU with handsfree all plumbed in, there could well be speaker upgrades as I haven't checked but it sounds great. My initial plan is a visit to the body shop and get the rear bumper resprayed as its a chipped in two places and rubbed on the bottom. (It's there now) it's also having two alloys refurbed as they had a couple of marks. I then need to get a spot on the passenger Recaro sorted due to wear.
First picture (before body shop work)
View attachment 15159
I dont have any huge plans for mods right now, I want to get new tyres all round and keep up its perfect service record it's due in 6k miles. I might also look into the steering rack click issue, it's early to tell but i'm pretty sure it clicks now and then at parking speed. I'd like some of those £120 RS rubber mat sets but I'll see what happens, I need to own it and drive it longer to see if it needs the niggles that normally appear fixed before thinking about mods. I'm looking forward to getting it back freshly painted and i'll get a proper set of pictures up. Anyhow, thanks for reading and having me around the forum.
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