2000: Diary of modifications
January 2000
The body kit has now been ordered. Fortunately Hyundai are running a special
offer until the end of January where the body kit comes ready sprayed in the
vehicle colour, so I will only need to pay for parts and labour. The kit should
be in by the end of the month. Although this is in the brochure it is also available from ATH Hinsberger.
Another addition this month is a cold air feed for the Pipercross filter, thanks to RGS Motorsport for coming to
the rescue again.
February 2000
The body kit has been fitted. The car now looks superb and the fluted design of
the side skirts accentuates the curves of the car. Also, it seems likely that
I'm the first in my county to have it done.
The car is going back to RGS Motorsport (
Superchips
Modem dealer) to see if it is possible to remap the ECU for better performance
and fuel economy.
It did transpire that it wasn't possible to re-map the ECU, instead an Superchips ICON
chip was added which controls the ignition timing. This created an extra 15bhp.
It's the end of February and I've ordered myself a set of tantrum look-a-like
alloys from
Wheel Mania
. They should be here in couple of weeks.
March 2000
The new alloy wheels have been fitted! I have now got 17" BK Racing 238's and they look fantastic!
Ok, it's the last day of March and I have ordered a short-shifter kit and front
strut bar, I might not get them for a while though as they are coming all the
way from Korea!!
I have also made my own grill for the front of the car, and for a home-made
effort it does look rather good!
April 2000
At last! I have a set of clear side repeaters for the Coupe. Its taken some
time to get them because there are a couple of problems -
1. No one does a standard replacement indicator for the Coupe
2. The hole in the body is approx 75mm long by 33mm high (big hole!).
Anyway, with some assistance from a helpful chap at
Carnoisseur
we found one that would kind of fit. The bulb holder needed
some hacking about to get it to fit onto the Hyundai connector but now the
crappy orange indicator has gone and a nice smooth clear one sits in its place,
it blends in with the rest of the car much better.
May 2000
Received the Strut bar and short shifter. The strut bar was very
straightforward to install; however the inertia sensor bracket was in the way
and needed some modification.
The short-shifter took about 2 1/2 hours to fit due to needing to strip down
the assembly beneath the gear stick. The main problem with the short-shifter
install is removing enough of the original plastic base plate to allow the
linkages to swing.
The gear knob is also considerably nearer to the console than before, and the
gear changes are incredibly short, but extremely good!
After much overtime I treated myself to a
Sony Active Black Panel
and
10-Disc multichanger
, very easy to install.
Naturally this meant that new speakers were required! I chose JBLs 180w 6x9 and
130w 6.5".
The 6x9 were easy to replace in the rear of the car, the real problem was the
door speakers.
The 6.5" fitted into the same hole as the stock speaker, but there wasn't
anything to screw it down to. I had to make a 'template' that would screw into
the original door fitting and then the new speaker would need to be attached to
the template. This was achieved by making a 'doughnut' shape out of some
hardboard (only 40p!). Surprisingly this was very successful and the new
speakers fitted nicely. The process was fiddly but well worth it, the sound is
much clearer, a better quality and definately louder!
September 2000
A few days holiday from work allowed me to spend some time tinkering with the
car, including some reapplication of blue bulb paint to the sidelights,
interior and number plate lights. The calipers got a fresh coat of paint, the
arches got a good scrubbing while the wheels were off and the leather seats
were treated to a spot of cleaning and 'moisturising'!
OK the car is clean and shiny, but there must be something else I could do to
it? I had been thinking for a while about tinting the side windows, but maybe
this was a bit too boy-racer-ish?
New tax disk holder should
match air freshner nicely...
A trip to a local motor store resulted in me coming away with a roll of dark
window tint film and a blue anodised tax disc holder (couldn't resist!).
I have learnt (after 3 rolls of this stuff) that it is not a job to be
undertaken lightly. The third attempt on the passenger window took 2 hours from
start to finish, but the end result was fantastic (as opposed to the
bubbly/creased efforts before).
I'm sure there is some kind of moral in there!
December 2000
Well, Christmas is approaching and it has been a few months since the car had
some new parts, so I gave the credit card an airing and bought the following
goodies - Blue on silver face gauges, rear visor and side flaps.
Of course what with the weather being so horrible I doubt that I will get them
installed for a while yet.
Next on the list are some lumpier cams and a performance exhaust when it drops
off (in about 3 years!!). I am also considering a change in the brake setup,
the car is now running at 157bhp (137bhp stock) and 191nm.
However, for a few thousands pounds a super charger or turbo might be on the
cards but having recently bought a motorbike (Honda Hornet CB600) there'll be a long wait!