Nathan's Daily Drive BB4

[stk prelude]

^^^what he said!

[nucleustylzlude]

Looks loads better Nath - bet it's nice to hear a nice deep rumble from the exhaust note again.

[mart609]

yeah, agreed. that exhaust looks loads better

[nitin_s1]

Looks cool.

[NafemanNathan]

Cheers guys

I can't believe I forgot to mention the sound! (That's what I get for rushing the post to catch the start of Desperate Housewives ) So so so much better! The Powerflow didn't sound bad by all means, but the Pro-Speed is such an improvement. Sounds like a proper Honda now And with the decat... When Vtec kicks in... You definitely know it's a Vtec now to

She now sounds like how my Project lude used to sound, which I love! And speaking of which, I definitely need to check out what the ECU is running. Before the project lude was parked up, or more importantly, before the cambelt snapped and she had a replacement low mileage PDE head, she was running the same exhaust and decat, but with a Mugen Manifold & Downpipe and BMC CDA filter and producing 205bhp. After the new head was fitted she felt more responsive again. Well I'm fairly convinced this lude is faster ... Even before I put the Pro-Speed on.

After I'd fitted the exhaust, of course I had to take her for a test spin. So I drove to the other side of town and to the dual carriageway which leads on to the next town (about 5 miles long). I pootled up and along it with a big Vtec induced grin on my face Then, when turning at the other end to return home again, whilst giving way to get back on the dual carriageway again, three hot hatchbacks flew by. A 106 Gti, an Astra VXR (I think. The Sporty one) and something else (That one was a blur as I past it). So I did the obvious... from a standing start As said, I blurred past the first one in an instant. The Gti was in the fast lane gunning it past another car. Once it pulled in I casually cruised by followed by a delightful Vtec kick (That's the way to do it ) So next thing I know I was up behind the Astra who was doing a fair speed to be fair. I had to slow up as he was in the fast lane, but then he pulled in and I can't say what speed I was doing as I past him at this point, but all I can say is I hadn't imagined it was as fast and my other lude wouldn't have been doing it quite so easy

Shaun had said he suspected it had a Mugen chip in it as that was it's closest match (Vtec kicks in at 4500rpm), so now I really need to know

[bristol_bb4]

how did ur lude compare to the 106? ive had one of them and it was pretty quick!! always wondered how the lude would do against one

how do u find driving around town with the 4500 vtec engagement? and what rpm does it hit the limiter?


what are u gonna be doing with this lude when ur project is back on the road?

[NafemanNathan]

Well put it this way, the 106 really wasn't worth mentioning. It was more a point to stress that these were three boy racers putting "the pedal to the metal" I absolutely flew past him

I don't find the Vtec kicks in at all around town. I generally stick to 3k max when pootling.

And I have no idea what I'll be doing with it once the Project's back on the road. I've never thought that far into the future before I imagine the the project will be quite thirsty once she's back, so she definitely won't be a daily. And then I only have the Aerodeck, so the chances are I'll be keeping this one as well. She is a dream to drive after all... well she will be once I've replaced the rear ARB

[ludeswamp]

Nafe, I cant even begin to tell you how much I miss this car I genuinely didnt know about the rear ARB Drops links so apologies for that, but I am glad however like I said before that it went to someone who could give it the level of care the car deserved.

I said I was done with Ludes after this one because I dont think I could find one that is anywhere near as good or fast as this was (without heavy mods) but Looking at it makes me want another one to build up from scratch (like I had planned to before I found this car ) but not sure still.

Keep up the good work mate.

Like I said when you bought it, Pinky had a lude with DC sports manifold cold air induction and full stainless with decat from engine to tip (japspeed car back) and my car.....sorry your car was quicker with a fleabay induction and powerflow rearbox alone. So I can only imagine how much better she is breathing now although surely with all that set up underneath the car an induction kit would allow for even better breathing and thus more power from little mods????

[NafemanNathan]

Hey Shaun. Yeah no worries about the rear drop links. It's all part and parcel of buying a second hand car I think one of the CV joints will need replacing soon as well lol. It's sounding up every now and again. But most noises coinside with the rear ARB which is now rattling around in it's bushes, so I need to sort that before I can seriously diagnose anything else. I'm going to look at the one on the project lude this weekend and see if it's worth powder-coating, or just going brand new Whitelines.

I also popped in to see a local body restorer the other day, to see about getting the small patch of rust on the door and the new rust that had just started showing itself on the rear arches sorted. I definitely want to catch it before it can be classed as serious rust I also asked him to price sorting the graze on the front bumper and the small nick in the spoiler. He'd collared me before when I was looking for a second hand car sales near there, as I was driving my project lude at the time with it's mis-match panels and he asked if I need them painting? He said he was good and cheap. Anyway, for respraying both rear quarters, both doors, the front bumper and touching up the spoiler (that's all I asked him to do) he said £270!

... So when I go back I'm going to ask him to fill in/pull out the subtle dents on the NS rear quarter as well and I also I remembered after I left that the roof needs doing where there are two or three small dents and the paint has come off. I'm going to remove the rear spats and get him to blast the rear bumper to. I recon he'll probably do the lot for under £500

[RattyMcClelland]

Very good price for the bodywork Nathan.