My New Car's Here (long post)
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:26 pm
It all started a few months ago at Marhams trackday in September with me using my S13 that I had just built that had an RB26 the morning went well with a few spins but that was the numnut behind the wheel trying to get the back out out of shape and loosing it lol, the afternoon came and just after the first session started i went out and only a few minutes later was being towed back to the pits as all my hard work had gone out of the block so to speak as No1 piston decided to leave the engine via a great hole in the side of the block 
. After a long think i decided rather than fix it i broke the car for spares and sold everything allowing me to buy an import.
The next choice was what car and who to get it from an R34 GTT was decided upon and from JapaneseUsedCars as the Japanese source as I'd heard good reports from them. So after a long search i found the right one and was lucky in winning the auction, after paying for it it got put on a boat on its way to Southampton. Now i needed a customs clearing agent as i didn't now anything about this process JUC recommended Kleerfreight so a phone call later or few and all was ready for the car turning up at the docks.
Well after a few weeks I rang Rob at Kleerfreight to find out my my new car has arrived or did at Southampton on Tuesday morning, everything was payed for and was just waiting for it to clear customs, but whilst sorting out a trailer to pick it up ran in to a little snag the trailer i was going to use was out of action with a broken hydraulic jack. Tuesday then turned into mayhem with me ringing around a load of places near Kings Lynn to find out there was no trailers available for Thursday
. Whilst doing this i sent Lee (Iwant1) a pm asking if i could borrow his trailer which he agreed to Mucho grateful sigh of relief came over me :notworthy:.
Wednesday came and went pretty uneventful with myself and Ants13 going over to lee's dad's to pick the trailer up and take it back to ants where i was staying over Wednesday night as Myself and Ant had an early start Thursday 5am we wanted to miss the Heathrow rush hour on the M25.
Thursday morning came and as it stood we set off at about half 4 quick stop off to fill up the tow car with diesel we were on our way to Southampton docks. The trip down was very uneventful we got a bit of traffic around the M1, M4, and M40 junctions bit the traffic kept flowing so we probably lost about half hour but not too bad. We arrived at Southampton just after 9 so not bad missing there rush hour. A quick stop off at YA logistics to sign some paperwork and over to the car park to wait for them to go and fetch my car. About half an hour had past waiting for the car and I was getting a bit impatient to be honest I wanted my car I had waited 2 months after paying for it to arrive and clear customs, but i didn't have to wait too much longer as we saw and heard it rumble down the road and stop just behind the trooper and trailer, a big smile then came over me as all the waiting was over
, it had taken so long to fetch as it had a flat battery :roll: . Before we loaded it up we both had a good luck round it, as i thought from some of the pictures that got sent to me before the car was loaded onto the boat it had some Tein Coilovers with the EDFC gizmo attached, it also has tinted rear door's and rear window, headlight eyebrow covers and also a Kakimoto Exhaust which makes a lovely noise. As I'd waited so long for the car it would be a crime to just stick it on the trailer there and then i jumped in and took it up and down the road by the docks just to say I'd driven it, It then came time to strap it onto trailer so we lined it up and I slowly drove it onto the trailer but as soon as the front wheels started going up the ramps the whole trailer started moving forwards, I was pushing the trailer and Trooper slowly forward lol, After Ant put the trooper into gear and pulling a bit harder on the handbrake we tried again. This time it went on without a hitch so i turned the engine off and proceeded to get out of the car but hit a snag the door opened out onto the wheel arch of the trailer not a problem i thought I'll get out the back door but that hit the same snag but as I'm a skinny bugger i managed to squeeze out of the car and proceeded to help ant strap it down.
We left Southampton just after 10 me with a big grin and Ant calling me a lucky Tw@t. The trip back was a little more eventful we stopped at a set of services just as we got onto the M3 to check all the strap's on the trailer for security, as we checked them we found one had come loose so we sorted that one out and was back on the road new car in tow again the trip was uneventful until we reached the top of the M3 when we felt a rather large rumble through the trooper, so stopping on the side of caution we pulled over on the hard shoulder to check everything car was still strapped down well, all trailer and trooper tires still inflated no obvious abnormalities so back in we got and set off again on our journey back up to Marham. The hours passed by off the M3 and onto M25 round the M25 to M11 with no set backs. M11 junction came up so we got off and set off up the M11 towards Cambridge stopping of near Stanstead for fuel. This brought on our next problem as we pulled away from the pump here was a load noise and bumpy ride as we pulled round the back of the petrol station Ant noticed a flat tyre on the Trooper so we had to stop and change that . With the tyre change and a leg stretch later we was again on our trip up to Marham thankfully nothing else popped it's head and we arrived at Marham about 2.30ish.
We then set about unloading the car from the trailer not an easy as it sounds as i had to squeeze into the car again, but once in the car was pushed off due to a flat battery, but once off we turned the trooper around and set about giving the car some electrical charge via the use of some jump leads and about 15litres of the finest SUL fuel. about 10mins later we fired the car up and my big smile came back again :-D we disconnected the jump leads and closed the bonnet. I then took it for another spin round the car park and barrack blocks just because i could just fell in love with it just pulled so smoothly the auto box silky with its gear changes and the noise :smt060, we got back to the car park and as Ant had helped me out so much i let him take it for a drive, it was the least i could do, he came back and said it was so nice to drive, but alas the fun had to end and i needed to get the trailer back and we both needed some decent food and sleep.
The day ended with myself and Ant taking the trailer back to Lee's dad's and helping load his AX back onto it and with me thanking them a fare few times as i was grateful for the use of the trailer. All in all it turned out to be a very long day with many miles covered both myself and Ant were very tired and needed some sleep and food.
Finally i want to say a Big thanks to
Ant for taking me down to Southampton to collect my new car and Tow it back
Lee (Iwant1) for the last minute use of the trailer again big thanks mate
Rob from Kleerfreight ( I believe he's a member here) for putting up with my numerous questions and phone calls
the guys over at JUC for winning me the car
All of the above helped me out alot and i am truly grateful for.
Now a couple of pictures I know you all want a look and after that lot you wait no more
Once its been cleaned tomorrow i will be getting more pictures 8)
. After a long think i decided rather than fix it i broke the car for spares and sold everything allowing me to buy an import.The next choice was what car and who to get it from an R34 GTT was decided upon and from JapaneseUsedCars as the Japanese source as I'd heard good reports from them. So after a long search i found the right one and was lucky in winning the auction, after paying for it it got put on a boat on its way to Southampton. Now i needed a customs clearing agent as i didn't now anything about this process JUC recommended Kleerfreight so a phone call later or few and all was ready for the car turning up at the docks.
Well after a few weeks I rang Rob at Kleerfreight to find out my my new car has arrived or did at Southampton on Tuesday morning, everything was payed for and was just waiting for it to clear customs, but whilst sorting out a trailer to pick it up ran in to a little snag the trailer i was going to use was out of action with a broken hydraulic jack. Tuesday then turned into mayhem with me ringing around a load of places near Kings Lynn to find out there was no trailers available for Thursday
. Whilst doing this i sent Lee (Iwant1) a pm asking if i could borrow his trailer which he agreed to Mucho grateful sigh of relief came over me :notworthy:.Wednesday came and went pretty uneventful with myself and Ants13 going over to lee's dad's to pick the trailer up and take it back to ants where i was staying over Wednesday night as Myself and Ant had an early start Thursday 5am
we wanted to miss the Heathrow rush hour on the M25.Thursday morning came and as it stood we set off at about half 4 quick stop off to fill up the tow car with diesel we were on our way to Southampton docks. The trip down was very uneventful we got a bit of traffic around the M1, M4, and M40 junctions bit the traffic kept flowing so we probably lost about half hour but not too bad. We arrived at Southampton just after 9 so not bad missing there rush hour. A quick stop off at YA logistics to sign some paperwork and over to the car park to wait for them to go and fetch my car. About half an hour had past waiting for the car and I was getting a bit impatient to be honest I wanted my car I had waited 2 months after paying for it to arrive and clear customs, but i didn't have to wait too much longer as we saw and heard it rumble down the road and stop just behind the trooper and trailer, a big smile then came over me as all the waiting was over
, it had taken so long to fetch as it had a flat battery :roll: . Before we loaded it up we both had a good luck round it, as i thought from some of the pictures that got sent to me before the car was loaded onto the boat it had some Tein Coilovers with the EDFC gizmo attached, it also has tinted rear door's and rear window, headlight eyebrow covers and also a Kakimoto Exhaust which makes a lovely noise. As I'd waited so long for the car it would be a crime to just stick it on the trailer there and then i jumped in and took it up and down the road by the docks just to say I'd driven it, It then came time to strap it onto trailer so we lined it up and I slowly drove it onto the trailer but as soon as the front wheels started going up the ramps the whole trailer started moving forwards, I was pushing the trailer and Trooper slowly forward lol, After Ant put the trooper into gear and pulling a bit harder on the handbrake we tried again. This time it went on without a hitch so i turned the engine off and proceeded to get out of the car but hit a snag the door opened out onto the wheel arch of the trailer not a problem i thought I'll get out the back door but that hit the same snag but as I'm a skinny bugger i managed to squeeze out of the car and proceeded to help ant strap it down. We left Southampton just after 10 me with a big grin and Ant calling me a lucky Tw@t. The trip back was a little more eventful we stopped at a set of services just as we got onto the M3 to check all the strap's on the trailer for security, as we checked them we found one had come loose so we sorted that one out and was back on the road new car in tow again the trip was uneventful until we reached the top of the M3 when we felt a rather large rumble through the trooper, so stopping on the side of caution we pulled over on the hard shoulder to check everything car was still strapped down well, all trailer and trooper tires still inflated no obvious abnormalities so back in we got and set off again on our journey back up to Marham. The hours passed by off the M3 and onto M25 round the M25 to M11 with no set backs. M11 junction came up so we got off and set off up the M11 towards Cambridge stopping of near Stanstead for fuel. This brought on our next problem as we pulled away from the pump here was a load noise and bumpy ride as we pulled round the back of the petrol station Ant noticed a flat tyre on the Trooper so we had to stop and change that
. With the tyre change and a leg stretch later we was again on our trip up to Marham thankfully nothing else popped it's head and we arrived at Marham about 2.30ish.We then set about unloading the car from the trailer not an easy as it sounds as i had to squeeze into the car again, but once in the car was pushed off due to a flat battery, but once off we turned the trooper around and set about giving the car some electrical charge via the use of some jump leads and about 15litres of the finest SUL fuel. about 10mins later we fired the car up and my big smile came back again :-D we disconnected the jump leads and closed the bonnet. I then took it for another spin round the car park and barrack blocks just because i could just fell in love with it just pulled so smoothly the auto box silky with its gear changes and the noise :smt060, we got back to the car park and as Ant had helped me out so much i let him take it for a drive, it was the least i could do, he came back and said it was so nice to drive, but alas the fun had to end and i needed to get the trailer back and we both needed some decent food and sleep.
The day ended with myself and Ant taking the trailer back to Lee's dad's and helping load his AX back onto it and with me thanking them a fare few times as i was grateful for the use of the trailer. All in all it turned out to be a very long day with many miles covered both myself and Ant were very tired and needed some sleep and food.
Finally i want to say a Big thanks to
Ant for taking me down to Southampton to collect my new car and Tow it back
Lee (Iwant1) for the last minute use of the trailer again big thanks mate
Rob from Kleerfreight ( I believe he's a member here) for putting up with my numerous questions and phone calls
the guys over at JUC for winning me the car
All of the above helped me out alot and i am truly grateful for.
Now a couple of pictures I know you all want a look and after that lot you wait no more
Once its been cleaned tomorrow i will be getting more pictures 8)
