April 2002... It's back at last.

I got my car back from RC Developments just before 1am on the 31st March... Hooray!! Since getting the car back, I've been busy fitting the air/fuel ratio meter and tidying the engine bay up. But that's all I can do for now, as my car's gone in to the bodyshop to have the new bumpers sprayed.

Whilst the car's in the bodyshop, Rob will also be repairing a dent in the passenger side wing and door... another battle scar from SST. Hopefully the car will look good at the Donny 2002 show with the new D&M front bumper and the Dimma rear...

February 2002... Time to strengthen a few things.

There's been a bit of a delay getting my car back on the road, as RC Developments have moved premises. This has however given me some time to gather a few essential components. Top of the list being a stronger clutch!

GMC Motorsport were able to get an AP Racing 4-paddle clutch and strengthened clutch cover fabricated... It looks like a bit of a beast and should cope with whatever power the engine can throw at it!?

Next on the list was a new set of caliper spacing brackets from Severnside Motorsport....

November 2001... $hit Happens!

Unfortunately, SST went bankrupt a couple of months ago, before there was time to properly finish the latest mods on my car. This left me in a very sticky spot as everyone knew the car had a huge SST history.

Things have to continue and so I found a really good tuner who was local to me! This tuner came in the form of "RC Developments". I told Jenny and Clive at RC the history behind my conversion and they were really keen to help me out... "Phew!"

The car had developed a bad bottom end knock and a...

September 2001... Everything changes.

Since January, a huge amount of work has been done to my car and almost every area of my modifications has been re-worked...

All previously planned modifications were completed and then things just went mental! The first addition was a pair of Cobra Monaco race seats. These are rigid frames and can be quite harsh, but around the track they do the business!

Straight away the engine got a little more attention. Low compression pistons were fitted at SST and the boost was increased to approx 10psi. The difference between...

August 2000... So What's next?

At this point, I had my Saxo tested on a rolling road at Automech in Irlam. The result was 138bhp at the flywheel... A healthy increase from the stock 120bhp, but was this enough? NO was the answer!

I was now faced with a dilema... with options of throttle bodies, nitrous injection, turbo charging or a supercharger conversion. The choice was not easy! What direction did I want to take my car!?

I got on the phone again to Gary at Saxo Sports Tuning (SST) and asked his opinion of the turbo charging route. As it happened,...

January 2000... New Shoes.

It was now time for some new shoes for the Saxo. I took a trip over to Wheelbase near Manchester and after a few hours deliberation, I opted for a set of 16" TSW Evo-R's, dressed with 195x45 Michellin SX-GT Pilot Sport tyres. The new alloys worked really well with the subtle lowering, and snuggly filled the arches. Minor mods were required to the rear bumper brackets to stop scrubbage over road bumps.

With a small number of engine and handling goodies now on the car, it was time to make a few styling mods. I picked up a set of M3 mirrors...

December 1998... The beginning.

In December 1998 I went along to my local Citroen dealer (Barclays of Warrington) to blag a test drive in a Saxo VTS. I originally had no intention of trading in my nicely modded Escort Si, it was just one of those days when there was seemingly nothing else better to do than take a couple of cars out for a test drives.

Unfortunately, there were no VTS models left in the North West region, so I took a VTR for a spin instead. I was so impressed with the VTR's handling and performance that I decided to order a VTS straight away, without...

Just before the French Car Show myself and DannySp8 fitted a new gearbox to my VTS , as the old box had suffered from a damaged crown wheel (again). It was a bit of a rush job to colelct a gearbox and fit it before booking the car for an MOT.

Unfortunately whilst fitting the box the clutch release bearing moved and became mis-aligned... meaning that the clutch was slipping constantly when driving - the car missed the FCS event

Anyway... in preparation for TRAX I am doing the same job(s), only this time, instead of the luxury of a ramp in a garage, I'm fdoing it...