mattievRS
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Registered: 20th May 06
Location: Leicester
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Proper thread this! Love reading the little bits you do, and if it's anything like the Impreza thread it'll be a decent read and a cracking car/journey. Subbed.
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Thanks Mattie!
More to come this weekend, just need some decent light for photos 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Wrighty
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Registered: 28th Feb 04
Location: Howden
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Airbox is a nice little mod mate GG
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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quote:
Originally posted by Wrighty
Airbox is a nice little mod mate GG
It sounds brilliant. At idle and low revs there's no real difference, but does introduce a sucking sound when blipping the throttle.
When revs start to gather at 4k RPM it's a lot throatier, then when the VVTI kicks in it's a completely different sounding car - very good.
I took it out last night in the dying sunlight, put a massive grin on my face but not enough light for photos or videos. I got a bit giddy over a little hump in the road nearby which disconnected the airbox to throttlebody hose and cut the engine out 
Managed to limp it 1/2 mile home by starting it, and revving the balls off of it as I made the noob mistake of going out without any tools...
Quick 5mins with a socket and the hose was clamped much better...
The engine in these moves around on its mounts a LOT. I'm guessing that's why the hose tore off and you can feel the weight shift through the car even when coming off the gas at motorway speeds. I googled it and it's very normal, but also high on many owners' fix list with some stiffer mount inserts. I may consider these, as apparently it sharpens up the gear-change nicely, reduces weight movement and NVH is much less of a concern for me in this car than it was in the Subaru...
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Right, wheels!
If you remember, these were my considerations:
Option A: Get new alloy wheels in Exige fitment, with brand new tyres all round. Probably of track spec.
Option B: Replace just the fronts. Get Bridgestones again, probably S001's to match the rears.
Option C: Replace tyres all round with AD07s. These were OEM fitment for pretty much every other Elise of the era, think the bridgestones were a one-off.
I ended up kinda going for Option A, but not quite. To get Exige wheels would have been quite lucky, they come up rarely it seems and are expensive when they do. With that in mind, I was likely to go after-market - my good old faithful TD Pro Race 1.2s were high on the list.
Brand new I could get a set in Exige fitment for around £500, priced up tyres for about another £400 - so I parked the idea for now.
I was then cruising through eBay as you do, and saw a set of 1.2's in Exige fitment, with A048 LTS tyres... apparently only done 2 track days and had loads of tread left. Stuck a bid in, ended up winning them for £550 
They arrived this weekend and I'm over the moon with the condition of the wheels and tyres. The wheels had a couple of tiny chips, but to be honest they look like handling damage rather than stone chips... perhaps even happened in transit to me but they're invisible from more than 2 feet away
Tyres are equally brilliant, they barely look scrubbed in with loads of tread and equal wear all around.
Oh, they came in black too. Never had black wheels before as I've never been a fan. 9 times out of 10 the colour hides the detail in the wheel, and they scratch easily (or at least show scratches easily), but these were cheap and I quite like them on the car. If/When they come for refurb, they may go to silver or whatever but I've got time to think about that.
Starting to look like a naff pit garage...
 WP_20160205_11_32_33_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Got them polished up and coated in Poorboy's finest. I think I'd quite like some Lotus centre caps for them to break up the black a bit.
 WP_20160205_15_36_50_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Had technicolour wheelnuts too, so they got a scrub up and a dusting of gloss black. Would like to do a stud conversion at somepoint.
 WP_20160131_15_15_35_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
 WP_20160205_16_40_31_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
 WP_20160205_16_39_57_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Went out for a drive today with some NYLOC members, went over the Pennines and had a look round a Lotus dealer in Cheshire. I was by far in the oldest/crappest car, surrounded by V6 Exiges which sounded fantastic.
As the roads were wet in the morning, I got one last photo of a clean car!
 WP_20160207_08_34_28_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
View of some of the Oakmere Lotus collection. I did get some ideas for "modernising" mine a bit aesthetically from the newer Elises'.
 WP_20160207_12_22_55_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Car was fantastic all day, with the exception of left hand turns! I developed a scuffing sound when pulling a consistent left turn and got home to find the rubber sheathing on the handbrake cable must have been catching on the balance weights as they rotated past. Nothing a cable tie couldn't sort
10mins of daylight left, so of course - car got cleaned before being tucked up again
 WP_20160207_17_11_10_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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The "bad" bit though, is that these wheels and tyres have put me in a sticky spot. Internet said I shouldn't track this car on these wheels and tyres without both a baffled sump and uprated toe links.
Realistically, I'll drive this car like it's made out of glass for the first few track days until I learn it - so no way will I be pulling enough G's to cause problems, but paranoia has still got a hold of me.
Considering solving the initial problem on the skinny wheels by getting some part worns to replace the cracked ones. For sub £50 I could get them "safe" and perhaps do a couple of trackdays on my crap wheels and tyres first.
That way, I get to experience the car in OEM format (as I wanted to do in the first place), I'm not worried about oil surge or toe-links snapping and I get to get my moneys' worth out of the bridgestones!
AO48's can wait in the wings, then I can step up performance later in summer after the sump and links have been sorted.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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chris_uk
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Registered: 8th Jul 03
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Deffo worth getting the toe-links sooner rather than later and its relatively inexpensive.
What did you think to the grip of the a048's?
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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quote:
Originally posted by chris_uk
Deffo worth getting the toe-links sooner rather than later and its relatively inexpensive.
What did you think to the grip of the a048's?
Yeah I know, but the sump is also pretty much inexpensive - but together they're the same price of two or three trackdays!
I've only pushed on with the car a couple of times. On the old tyres I had a bit of understeer on damp roundabouts, but the rear would rotate at silly slow speeds and big jabs of the gas.
On the A048s, I've not had it understeer yet but the back got a little lively this morning when it was only a few degrees above zero and the road was a bit damp. Other than that, it's gone exactly where I told it to and it's heavy as fuck in a carpark
This is why I'm still quite tempted to replace the perished bridgestones and try the car in anger on track so I can feel the difference. If I had a boot, I'd take both sets to my first trackday I think so I could do a morning on bridgestones and afternoon on the A048s.
Need a pit crew to go with me in a proper car 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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chris_uk
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Registered: 8th Jul 03
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Thats what i do. My mate drives my vectra estate to trackdays which i load to the brim with everything i need
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Wrighty
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Registered: 28th Feb 04
Location: Howden
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Looks crackin on t'new rims 
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Wrighty
Looks crackin on t'new rims
Had a fun few days with the car, just driving around really when I probably should be nursing it in the garage 
Had my first bit of on-the-road drama in it on Saturday, took it out for a leisurely drive to test some go-pro mounting positions and about 400metres from home I came round the same 90degrees left that I take several times a day, and the road was a combination of greasy/slimey/cold and the car understeered into it a little bit at very slow speed. Gave it a bit of gas and the back came round nicely, caught it and carried on like a boss - but I fucking shit my pants Since I was testing gopro mounts, I actually got it on video too - but it looks nowhere near as dramatic or cool as it felt!
Since then I've half-intentionally done that a few more times on various corners just playing with the low limits on terrible slippy roads, I can't wait to get some proper circuit time with this car and hopefully some tuition - it seems to have so much more potential for driver input than the Subaru had, at least at lower speeds.
Today I popped in to see the guys at Track Torque in North Yorks, they did the geo on my Subaru a few times and they also happen to be Lotus specialists so they had a quick look over the car to see if it had any lurking nasties for me to deal with. Nothing major, but the handbrake cable has been scuffing on the inside of my driver side rear wheel on heavy left turns. As a result, the rubber sheathing has worn through and the cable has started corroding. Additionally, my rear flexi brake hoses are looking questionable due to heavy corrosion at their fittings so advised to swap them out.
Normally I'd go for braided hoses fairly early into ownership of a car, just because they're cheap and (IMO) make a considerable difference for no real drawbacks. With the Lotus however, I'd read that the front clam needs to come off for the fronts. That job doesn't scare me particularly, but if/when the clam comes off - I'd want to tackle a load of other preventative maintenance at the same time, which I don't really want to be funding right now
That said, Track Torque suggested I could just about do it with the clam still in place, and some further googling suggested that it's doable on Elises but not Exiges. With that in mind, I've ordered some braided hoses and collected a handbrake cable from JCT600 Lotus in Leeds this morning
I've got some time off work this week, so depending on how the weather is I may get the car jacked up and get this work done this week... or at least see how far I can get. Worse case scenario I can do the handbrake cable and the rear flexi's which are the priority. The fronts can come later if needed.
Can't really have a thread update without a photo, so here's a before and after from today...
 IMAG0321 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
 IMG_1936 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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Love the side profile, kyle. Really nice. Alloys look fantastic also.
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BeetleGav
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Registered: 27th Jun 10
Location: lancashire, nelson
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I like the dirty abused look!
Rwd is always fun for slow speed drifting on greasy roads, I have really crap tyres on the back of mine at the moment so as soon as the temp drops with it being a little damp too. It just drifts everywhere. No TC either so that makes it more fun
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AK
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Registered: 5th Jul 00
Location: Aberdeen City
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Aye Aye,
Came onto projects to see how the Impreza was doing and found you have turned into an ageing hairdresser 
Na, good fun cars! Had a drive in a few now
Test drove a S2 111R like yours around 2005 or something but just couldn't get comfy with the steering wheel and my leggies. Fee loved it, but I was not for it.
Did about 30laps on track in a SC'd 1.9 'yota S2 (JPS Special Exige) and loved it. I thought it was gutless on the straights (coming froma turbo punch to the SC constant) but found it quite nice and nimble on the corners. VERY similar to drive when compared to my old 911.When the front goes light its telling you something.... hold on as the back will be coming round soon. Never span it, but had fair few wiggles and kept beeping the horn by mistake.
Friend has a Jackson SC'd K20 S1. Would be a great car if he had it working for more than 5 laps at a time. 340bhp or there abouts, 6-700kg... Must be fun.
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Was gonna reply to your u2u this morning... thanks but you're a month or two too late
Loving the Lotus so far, on the road it doesn't feel much slower than the Subaru tbh. The lack of peak power and torque is made up through throttle response and the fact I'm sat an inch off the road I guess.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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gavin18787
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 05
Location: Basildon, Essex
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Very nice
Was toying with the idea of one myself when changing cars but gave up on the vx/elise idea until I have a place with a proper garage. Would be a shame for me to get one and not be able to keep it properly.
Will be keeping an eye on this thread.
I've also gone for less power and rwd but have the more everyday version in gt86 guise.
Steering feel rwd and a sitting on the floor are great fun though aye. Well apart from been intimidated by trucks and blinded by lights as you say
[Edited on 21-02-2016 by gavin18787]
Drives supercharged Tec with torque
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Cheers Gavin
In light of the feedback I got from Track Torque, I picked up a replacement handbrake cable and some braided brake hoses.
Last week I got to work fitting them:
This is where the handbrake cable was catching on the rear wheel.
 IMAG0330 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
It seems like water had gotten into the "springy bit" of the cable and had effectively expanded it, causing it to bulge out at the side and catch the wheel under moderate cornering.
Handbrake cable was a doddle to get out, quick pin release to detach the halfmoon bit from the primary cable and then just slacken off the adjusters... though I did take a dremel related shortcut to get it off.
 IMAG0331 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Pre-Adjustment shot of the new one fitted:
 IMAG0333 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Next up, brake hoses... as I said before, I'd been under the impression that front clam needs to come off for the fronts but that appears to be Exige specific advice.
 IMAG0343 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
With the service panels and grills off (few allen bolts and clips) you get access to the resevoir:
 IMAG0337 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
And deeper down you can see the unions between the brake lines and rubber hoses:
 IMAG0338 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
The passenger side wasn't obstructed by the ABS plumbing, so was much easier - but either way, it wasn't massively difficult to undo the rubbers.
The front hoses actually looked in decent nick, perhaps they've been changed in the recent past of the car. The rears though looked ancient:
 IMAG0335 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
I'm really not a fan of this type of brake hoses which is threaded at each end, I much prefer the ones I had on the Subaru APs which had a banjo fitting at one end.
With these Lotus ones, I had to removed each caliper so that I could screw the caliper onto the hose (if that makes sense) once the hardline end was attached. I got there eventually, though.
 IMAG0346 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
 IMAG0348 by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Then it was time to bleed. The missus and me got fairly good at bleeding brakes on the Subaru but the Lotus just wasn't playing ball. I did some Googling and found that it's typical of these front calipers to capture air pockets due to how the fluid is routed through them. The trick is to unbolt the calipers from the car and basically shake them around to dislodge the air pocket whilst bleeding.
So I didn't have to keep bugging the missus, I (finally) invested £20 into a Gunson Eazibleed kit. I know they get mixed results, but it worked really well for me.
Pressurised the reservoir with 20psi from a spare wheel/tyre (got plenty of those lying around...) and then just went round each corner bleeding off the bubbles.
I've now got solid brakes but still a fair bit of travel in the top of the pedal (had that before too). It may just be a pedal adjustment needed rather than further bleeding, the brakes come on nice and solid and bite much harder than they did pre-hoses/bleed.
Even if the pedal can be adjusted, I think I'm reluctant to do so as I'm finding a nice heel-toe position with the car now, and having that little bit of slack in the brake increases the theshold for getting that right IMO. You soon forget about the slack and "drive around it" anyway.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
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time to change those toe links mate.
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Yep, next mechanical job on the agenda.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Been collecting a few bits the last few weeks, got a smaller rear view mirror to help give me a better "gopro angle" and some mechanical bits before my first track outing.
Oh, also booked my first track outing - a CarLimits circuit tuition day at Blyton in mid-April. Read some excellent reviews and had a few positive stories from some NYLOC members about the tuition provided by Andy Walsh on these. He does two types of training day from what I can gather, circuit and airfield. I'd like to do an airfield day too at somepoint but they're not very local, but on these you get to do some very high speed oversteer stuff.
Blyton is my local circuit, I know it very well and really look forward to getting some proper tuition there to help my RWD/unassisted learning curve.
Speaking of Blyton, I drove there yesterday in the Lotus to spectate for a few hours for a LotusOnTrack trackday. Were some great cars out and got to see a few cars moving around a lot in directions I'm not used to! It got me excited anyway, bring on April.
Back to home, I've been collecting new supplies for the 2016 car cleaning campaign and with the good weather this weekend - got to work for the first "proper" clean of the Elise.
Gratuitous snowfoam shot first...
 WP_20160312_15_39_58_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Numberplates ripped off to finally replace the old branded ones. Also had the front cut to the minimum legal border (11mm from all lettering).
 WP_20160312_15_45_17_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
The car got detarred (lots of sappy stuff on the horizontal surfaces, parked under a tree for a while I guess...) and clayed before being wheeled back into the garage.
I've picked up the gubbins from the Meguiars Microfibre kit, intended for DA use.
 WP_20160313_11_40_10_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
It was a pleasure to use really, the correction compound goes on with a red pad and finishing polish/wax with a black one. The car had a really good contender for "correction" on the rollbar cover, it looks like a botched attempt at fitting the roof had scuffed the lacquer nicely. Happy to say that the Meg's kit resolved it completely, much better correction than I've had from any other DA setup... but still not as good as a rotary in the hands of a pro I'm sure.
Finishing stuff went on easily, intended to do the whole car and buff off at once... missus dragged me out for a walk half way through and as a result the compound ended up being on the car for a couple of hours... it still buffed off with barely any pressure or effort.
Quick drive out for some finished photos, will see how long this finish lasts but will pick up some carnuba topup spray to keep it nice.
 WP_20160313_16_22_13_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
 WP_20160313_16_22_21_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
 WP_20160313_16_22_40_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
 WP_20160313_16_23_02_Pro by Kyle Townend, on Flickr
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Ben J
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Registered: 31st Jan 05
Location: Cheshire
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Absolutely stunning!
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Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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Looks lovely Kyle. Whats.going on with the finish in the rear diffuser?
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Cheers Ben(s)
quote:
Originally posted by Ben G
Looks lovely Kyle. Whats.going on with the finish in the rear diffuser?
They're all like that... it's unfinished looking aluminium and the rivets holding it together seem to be bleeding
Not spent too much time on it as it'll likely come off for powdercoating at some stage. Probably black.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
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when you bringing it in for a service?
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Chris are you Jons' new mechanic?!
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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