Vard's (New) Vitesse

[Vard66 1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1993 British Racing Green Fastback 820 Vitesse.

 

Bought this 15th October 2011 from a good friend, who I know I can trust, who's fully as OCD about a car's condition as I am, with the added point that he can bring himself to polish a whole 800 by hand!

 

180PS Vitesse.

 

Bought at 91k, Good service history and in very good condition overall, as well as being polished half to death!

 

 

Parts I've replaced since owning her -

 

16/10/20011 - Tired interior wood/doorcard trims.

17/10/2011 - Rear bumper mounting brackets

21/10/2011 - Elbow back stainless Powerflow exhaust fitted,

22/10/2011 - Front brake caliper carriers,

22/10/2011 - Front brake discs - Genuine Unipart GBD 90800,

21/11/2011 - Distributor cap,

21/11/2011 - Rotor arm

 

 

General maintenance -

 

22/10/2011 - Brake & Clutch hydraulics flushed and bled

 

 

Planned maintenace -

 

Replace cracked/faded reg plates,

Rebuild gearbox, with a full compliment of steel caged bearings,

Fit later MY Recaro front seats,

Fit later MY Recaro 2 seat rear upright,

Diagnose and sort map light unit's issues,

Diagnose and sort temperamental Valeo fob,

Replace Radiator,

Replace oil filter,

Replace fuel filter,

Oil change,

Gearbox oil change,

Fit Vitesse Sport steering rack, new rack ends, gaiters and TREs,

Replace bottom balljoints,

 

 

Current modifications since my ownership -

 

??/??/???? - Goodridge Braided Brake hoses,

15/10/2011 - Stem type Atmospheric dump valve (of unknown manufacturer),

15/10/2011 - Prosport Smoked Amber Boost Gauge,

15/10/2011 - Late R17 Smoked Puddle Light Lenses,

21/10/2011 - Elbow back Stainless Steel Powerflow exhaust - 2.5" bore, single silencer box, 3" Flexi, decat pipe, all joints sleeved rather than flanged, twin 2.5" inward rolled tips, with inserts to reduce noise.

22/10/2011 - XX 827 285mm front caliper carriers, new Unipart genuine vented discs.

 

 

Rubber of choice -

 

 

 

 

Planned modifications -

 

Remove OEM front number plate mount,

Vitesse Sport 17" Alloys,

Late R17 High Level Brake Light Unit,

Magnecor ignition leads,

Retrofit rear cigarette lighter,

Retrofit front footwell lighting,

 

Of which;

- are in my possession and waiting to be fitted -

Custom 20" x 15" Double Pass Front-Mount Intercooler - retaining OE boost pipe arrangement,

PowerTek Ball & Spring type Manual Boost Controller,

A'Pexi Power Intake type air filter, replacing OE airbox,

76mm Single Ply Neoprene Cold Air Ducting,

Full set of front bushes in Polyurethane,

Modified crash bar to accomodate the FMIC,

 

- have been ordered -

 

- are yet to be acquired -

Nissan Pulsar GTiR type Garrett T28 turbo,

 

 

Emissions results -

 

- Fast Idle Test -

CO2 (%vol):

Lambda:

[2spark 6]

That's a very nice piece of rover

 

My father in law had one very similar by th name of Kermit. He's passed away now but this pic has made the Mrs smile.

[Anjenha 44]

That's a very nice piece of rover

 

My father in law had one very similar by th name of Kermit. He's passed away now but this pic has made the Mrs smile.

My Dad had a red one a bit like that .... Sorry not up on Rovers.... but it was similar.

 

Good condition for its age! blimey...

[Vard66 1]

Aye, she's more'n 18 years old and still looking good! She's not perfect but overall she's damn tidy.

Today's update;

 

Interior anal retentiveness.

 

The original doorcards had no leather, solid plasticky handles/arm rests, charcoal switchpacks, early (red) puddle light lenses and dark wood trim without the gold script, so I've taken the whole lot off my donor Vitesse and painstakingly swapped it over - including having to drill the rear doorcards to get the leather on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New light grey floormats courtesy of MG Mal, whom we visited yesterday after picking up Wedge's new 216 GTi.

 

 

With some help from the Wedge, who drove her up from Devon this weekend, I've also got swapped all the wood in the centre of the dash, fitted, plumbed in and wired in my nice Prosport boost gauge, fitted my dump valve (*which isn't dumping, curious issue there, assembled correctly, diaphragm is fine, the car is boosting, but it won't dump... :? ).

 

BIG thank you to Master Wedge, gentleman and a scholar for firstly, a lovely car, and secondly, help and expertise getting the ruddy rear doorcards off and back on the car, when he should in fact have left for Devon an hour and a half earlier!

 

Tomorrow; elbow back exhaust, rear bumper off and replace the mounting bracket, which is splayed wider than Jon's mum's legs on a Friday night, and probably the induction if I have time.

 

Because this is an early, 180PS Vitesse, the MEMS unit is on the bulkhead and the charcoal canister is on the N/S suspension turret. This means the battery is a good 2-3" further back in the bay, and there's no charcoal canister in the N/S bumper cavity - the perfect location to route my A'PEXi down and bolt it in place in a neutral, heat shielded environment, and lots of space in front of the battery to route it!

[Vard66 1]

Update;

 

Saggy, wobbly corner'd rear bumper sorted.

 

I noticed the O/S corner of the rear bumper stuck out a little yesterday - "I know what that is", I thought.

 

Sure enough, when I pulled it back to have a peek, I found the bumper bracket was... a little out of shape.

 

 

 

Pulled two workable examples off my donor Vit, and used one of them on the new BRG Vitesse (note to self: must name this car, I can't keep calling it 'The BRG Vitesse').

 

 

Shiny, non wobbly bumper.

 

 

I've also replaced several trim clips in the boot, and affixed the RT stickers in my usual place.

 

As soon as I can order one, I'll also get an 800.info sticker in the windscreen, above the tax disc holder.

 

 

However, a working dump valve still elludes me; I'm beginning to wonder if the diaphragm I looked at and found to be fine, doesn't have a little split in it that I missed, despite my thorough examination.

 

I have also put the first thin coat of rad paint on my FMIC, in preparation for fitting it, hopefully some time this week.

[Anjenha 44]

Blimey, Vard, you've been busy!

 

Good work so far

[keithyboy 1]

That looks a nice car. I love the Recaros in Rover Vitesses

[Vard66 1]

Aye, with the notable exception of me knocking the ECU multiplug enough to stop her fuelling earlier, which scared me BADLY after two days of ownership.

Wedge suggested I check it because I was working around the MAP line earlier while sorting out vac lines for the dump valve and boost gauge, and BINGO, she starts and runs again, panic relieved.

[Vard66 1]

Today's update;

 

Exhaust on!

 

With help from Rich, I fitted the 2.5" decatted stainless Powerflow this afternoon, old system looks pretty good, including the back box which looks new.

 

It was however, not loud enough.

:twisted:

 

I *think* I've butchered the turbo oil drain pipe however - it's a tight fit between the downpipe and the drain pipe, and my UJ has made a bit of a mess of it.

 

Not a major problem, I have two or three spares, so I'll bang one of those on tomorrow morning.

 

Will put pictures up tomorrow.

[jhc 28]

Pics of you, drills and cars worry me.

 

But contrary to history, you seem to be doing well

 

 

Alex is from devon??? North, south, east, west? I'd love to go and have a gander at his silly collection of British metal someday... perhaps over a pint or two...

 

 

Oh and for the record... the bloke in the shirt is... erm, someone. The hairy one wearing shades when its inappropriate is dongalot At least the kowboy hat is gone...

[Vard66 1]

Failed to get pictures of the exhaust this morning and afternoon, because I've spent the morning picking up my freshly shotblasted and powder coated 285mm caliper carriers, and buying some brake pipe spanners, and the afternoon fitting the above and new 285mm discs.

 

 

 

I did however fail entirely with the first union I encountered (which was basically circular instead of hexagonal, just a blob of rust somewhere between 14mm and 15mm in diameter).

 

So instead of fitting my nice Goodridge braided brake hoses, I gave the system a proper bleeding, engine running, then went for a blat and got the ABS to kick in, then bled them again.

 

The clutch shares the hydraulc system with the brakes on the 800s, and clutch pedal (which was pretty stiff and hard, hur hur) brake pedal and overall braking performance are all at least 1000% better than they were when I first drove her. The bite point is still quite high, but the clutch is nice and smooth and light now.

[Vard66 1]

Induction setup on, A'PEXi routed down into the bumper cavity, after much swearing and hurling of tools - not because it was difficult, just because I kept being a tw@t, and tightening the clamp up without thinking about where it was in relation to the bolt I needed to put through the chassis leg.

 

MBC also plumbed in, and I'm about to head off to the pub, so I'll go early and get the boost set to 12PSi on the way, got the tools in the glove compartment.

 

Also, big thanks to Rich_1988, for spending a good few hours here helping me wire in my sub and amp - and then subsequently for lending me his spare ones when we discovered that the speaker in my sub doesn't work.

 

:annoy:

 

So I currently have the wiring all routed beautifully, along the sills and tidily under and behind trim everywhere along the route, until it gets to the boot, and then I have what looks like a cable based abortion, wired to a bright grey sub in my dark boot, with a funny lavender coloured amp on it, and a light switch wedged between the amp and the sub box. Epic ghetto setup.

 

So now I'm going to have to buy a new 10" speaker for the sub. Anyone recommend any particular brands? I'm not terribly up on what's good and what's not worth buying.

[Vard66 1]

Diagnosed my befuddling overboosting issue this afternoon, when I opened the bonnet and immediately spotted the actuator hose - which was split at the actuator end, and in fact almost ripped right off. THAAAAT'S why the actuator hasn't been opening, methinks.

[SpiderMonkey 12]

I find myself worryingly interested in this thread

[Vard66 1]

That's because it's made of awesome, and covered in British Racing Green paint.

 

Latest little interesting thing is that my boost gauge has stopped working, which is probably going to be a vacuum leak somewhere in my somewhat botched T piece and gauge feed, but is kinda looking like my boost gauge, brand new in '09 and unused until now is broken. Wonderful.

[Vard66 1]

New cap and arm yesterday, solved my intermittent missfire, very gratifying.

[Vard66 1]

New plates arrived a couple of days ago, found a few moments to put them on this afternoon.

 

So off with the old

 

 

AND the awful, broken number plate mount;

 

 

 

And on with the new!

 

 

 

 

Back one too, ofc.

 

 

Mildly disappointed that I have managed to put the front one on just a tiiiiny bit on the piss, but pretty pleased with the site Paul linked to, so happy out.

[noonan mckane 3]

Tidy.

 

It's great how much fresher a motor looks with new plates, aint it though?

 

Here, I hope you got a bit of a discount. You know that's not the flag of GB?

 

Only kiddin'. My dad has similar plates, only with a wee St Andrews flag. On holiday in Belgium a few folk asked him 'Which country is 'X'?' Silly billies.

 

It's all falling into place, Vard. She's gonna be a heartbreaker.

[Vard66 1]

It's remarkable, yuh. Especially if the plates were looking a little tired or were cracked or had run, it just makes a world of difference.

 

TBH, Gary, what I really wanted was just the dark green backing on the normal GB letters/ring of stars. My options however were Union flag or St. George's Cross, so I figured I'd take the more specific of the two..