Monday, July 24, 2006

Blue Samco radiator hoses

Here you can see my new engine bay modifications, the Samco Sport radiator hoses. They are made of silicone and are able to resist higher temperatures, a great addition for hot weather conditions and sporty riding.

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Samco Sport


Apex Springs & Kyb Shocks

That's right my next mod has been added, a set of new front and back lowering springs, with new front and back KYB Excel-G Shock absorbers.

Kyb Shocks

The road handling is amazing, feels a lot more solid and has also quietned the noises I had coming from the rear end, I am really impressed, the car feels so much better, not as bumpy and rides like a new car.

Apex Springs

For anyone thinking of getting this done, I can only say go out and order your Apex springs now.
And here is my FTO with the Apex springs ready on the drive, looks realy good.

Lowered

Car looks amazing, lowered by 30mm, front and back, as the car sits quite low you can only see the yellow springs in the rear wings section.

Lowered

Leather Retrim @ Precision Trimming

Well I finally had the car retrimmed in leather, front and back seats, head lining, front kick plates and the front and back door cards, so the car looks amazing.

Leather

The front Seats and the Dashboard

Leather

Front and Back seats

Leather

It's dark in there, but looks so smooth. The finish feels as if it was meant to be, notice the silver stick matches the silver chrome fixtures on the dashboard and centre console, even the stereo is blending into the chrome theme, a realy impresive finish.

Precison Trimming

A big well done to Brett Wandsworth at Precision Trimming, thanks for a job well done !!!

Friday, July 14, 2006

Annual FTO Meet at Rockingham RaceTrack - DAY 2

Welcome to the second day of the FTO Owners club Annual meet at Rockingham RaceTrack!

The FTO Annual Meet 2006

FTO OC ANNUAL MEET 2006 at the Modified Nationals event held at the Rockingham RaceTrack in Corby

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Next morning the cars looked very dirty, as you can see this one will need a good dose of Poorboys Spray 'n Wipe. Good thing StevieG was on hand with a full boot of supplies.

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Rockingham racetrack

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The FTOOC car stand on the racetrack grounds, look at all those FTO's

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FTO Line up on the FTOOC car stand


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More FTO's on our club stand


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The crew and Freak's FTO

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The FTOOC Club stand in the afternoon was a full house, look at all the cars that arrived and parked up, amazing. We had the largest car stand, this shows what a well club we run here, come and join us and have some great fun!

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FTO team spirit, a bit of pit work before the car goes onto the racetrack.

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The whole FTOOC Club stand, photo taken facing the camp site


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Hyundai Coupe Car Club was also there and look at the nice blue cars they had on show, lovely bumper and great alloys, well done, good job on these mods.

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More Hyundai, this one was in front the racetrack, looked amazing with that carbon bonnet!

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A nice pink Ford Ka, not bad for a girls car!

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The empty racetrack

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FTO's on the racetrack

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Close up of black racing FTO

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Chris aka Diabolu, looking like a muppet all he needs is the kermit voice and job done, haha!

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The party ended with all the members leaving in a convoy, some followed up north, some down south and this was how we all had a great weekend at Rockingham, I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I did taking them, was a great experience!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Annual FTO Meet at Rockingham RaceTrack - DAY 1

Well here it is!!! The update you have all been waiting for. I attended the FTO meet that took place on the 3rd and 4th of June 2006, what an event, easy wait for it. It was my 1st camping outing ever, so I had to set up a tent, go and buy supplies and then sleep out in the open, was a great new experience. Sit back and enjoy some great pictures of what was truely a great event.

The FTO Annual Meet 2006

Welcome to the FTO OC ANNUAL MEET 2006 this year at the Modified Nationals event held at the Rockingham RaceTrack in Corby


FTOOC

I left home at 10 o´clock on Friday the 2nd of June, having taken a day of work for this amazing event. The trip up to Corby was easy enough, the GPS did not send me to Tokyo or to any other closed roads, hehe.

FTO Meet 2006, on our way down

Here you can see a picture of a few owners in their FTO's driving down in perfect weather, too perfect as it was so hot most people got sun burnt.

Camp grounds

Some realy nice cars showed up, just have a look at the convoy entering the camp grounds, that is my black baby in the front, followed behind by the imperial red FTO belonging to Diabolu, I lead the convoy into the grounds, that was kinda cool, seeing it was my 1st annual meet and my 1st time in a camping ground.

Joe Patane's FTO

You can see Joe Patane's car here, the red one, that is one big spoiler Joe, can I pull up a chair and have a drink on it, hehehe... He had over heating trouble later in the day, had to have his FTO taken to Eurospec, poor chap. It was said to have been the head gasket, but got sorted in the end.

FTO Annaul Meet camp site

The camp site was a mad house, no marked areas, all free space. We just parked our cars accross a few lines one next to each another. The main concern was the "chav corridor" as it was constantly being crossed by pimped up saxo's, corsa's, bmw's and all other monstrosities, packed with scantily clad women hangin out of the windows, out of the sun roofs, out of the boots and some just sitting on the edge of their convertible chav mobiles ... All the while chavs shouted and screamed speeding and wrecking their very lowered cars on the harsh grounds. A good laugh to see a few of them loose their bumpers and fibre glass custom bits and pieces... Some raced past while then handbraking and spining their back ends... Some "chavs" had very loud sirens, that was just annoying and completely unnecessary...

Nice FTO OC Gazebo

Here you can see the FTO OC drinks and BBQ gazebo, this is where we had long night chats and had a little fire going, as it was really cold during the night.

Voody & Lb

Voody's Car Tent & LB's Golden Wheels

Voody and Friends

More of Voody's Car Tent & some FTO Owners


BBQ Time

Ahh! Cometh the food and drinks time! Look at that BBQ on fire, easy chef, don't burn the burgers. What a great meeting, the crowd shared food, shared drinks we all had a great laugh!

Evening Falls

After a great day of setting up tents and getting to know a lot of new faces. As it was very, very hot, I was enjoying a super chilled Ice Tea !!! Thanks to Nick for his dry Ice, a great addition to the party. We had a go at some exploding water bottles and what a bang they did bring... Water bottles worked best...



Me and my Super Chilled Ice Tea

Fire in the hole

Nick prepares a dry ice water bottle bomb. Look at how it is fumming away, this so quick, if you are not quick on your toes, then it's too late... It was a matter of seconds, filling the bottle, preparing it and running for yer life, just chukcing it before it goes Kaboom in yer hands, ohh so much fun, hadn't laughed so much since I was a kid, hehehehe...

Kaboom

The exploded water bottles looked a little bit damaged... Now imagine that going off in your hands, not a nice thought...

Dan Solo

Dan Solo here cleaning his FTO. The grounds were so dusty, the cars looked so dirty, but we did bring them clean, honest.

FTO's

FTO's lined up near the Chav corridor

evening falls

And as the night rolls in, we all gather round for some drinks, jokes and long stories that just make you fall alseep. In the picture, you can see me on the bean bag with the blue top, next to me is Diabolu, then Zoef in the top right corner with Jay next to her, Dan Solo with the blue shades, then next to him we Nick and a friend on the left side.

Me looking silly

Can you believe I was not drunk, sure look it, haha. The party was just so good you didn't need to drink to feel overly happy. As you can see I already smiled too much and looked like a muppet in this photo, hehe.

More evening drinks

It was so cold, look that evening, we had to sit still and make conversation in order to forget how cold it realy was, but it was well worth it!

More drinks

The night just went on and on... Diabolu too tall to fit in the picture, see him bent over in the middle, what a plank, hahaha...

More faces

Here are some other faces getting warm around the fire in the FTO OC Gazebo, with Dan Solo showing us his light Sabre and the power of the force.


Postman pat Xan

Next morning... Xan gets a little surprise.

As some of you will remember Xan had his car written of by a Royal Mail van some time back and poor chap did have a whole lot of hassle with insurance, in the end he got a new FTO. We had to remind him of how the Royal Mail gave him the option to get a new car, so we placed a nice big sticker on thewindshieldd. This was done at 3Am in the early morning, all I heard was a lot of laughing and a lot of nutters chuckling away, this was the result in the morning. Look how well it is laid out, incredible, makes you wonder if working drunk is the way forward, hahaha. So here is a cheer to Postman Xan !!!