Marmite Modification

About a month ago, I sent off my wing mirror covers to have some work done on them. I purchased some Chrome ones to have on the car temporarily while I waited for my originals to come back!

Well they turned up yesterday. I had them 'dipped' by Jap Performance Parts and they are in a Skull pattern. Jas fitted them to my car this morning and I love them, very different, perfect to go with the overall quirky look my car has!

Here is the only picture I have at the moment

Big thankyou to the guys at JPP

TLC

Thought I would give the IQ some TLC and buy it some new brake pads as I felt that the current ones that I had had from new could do with a change, especially as I had sprinted it a couple of times. I got in touch with my friends at Fensport and ordered Front and Rear Brake pads. I also couldnt resist buying some 21mm Front ARB bushes, Tim advised me that they would make a difference!

Total Cost - £60.70

Im Famous...! Pt 3

Today I was featured on RotaShops Blog!

Link Found Below!

http://www.rotashop.co.uk/blog/2011/06/toyota-iq-running-on-rota-grids/

Big thanks to Rota Shop for featuring me on the blog :)

Im Famous...! Pt 2

Was in the Readers Rides section of Banzai this month! I only sent it in about a year ago, so totally out of date now but hey!

Sorry for the awful picture quality!



I Have Been Tango'ed!

Fancied a change of colour on the wheels as they have been gold for over two years! Really struggled with what colour to go for, but I decided to make my car stand out more than it did anyway and got them refurbed in Florescent Orange! Cant stand out much more than this now!


Cant lose me in a car park now!

Sticker Me Up

Got a new sticker from eBay, just a bit of fun!

Also I was given a Second Class Place sticker at the Rockingham TSS sprint so I decided to put it on my numberplate

Rockingham Race Circuit

Today I drove round Rockingham Race Circuit in the IQ with the Toyota Sprint Series! I wasnt very competitive but it was great to drive round the circuit! I had a sunstrip fitted for the occassion, which I think will stay on for a while as I love it!

I really enjoyed driving Rockingham, deffo an experience! I managed to improve my time by about 15-16 seconds from my first time as I got more confident with the track and the way my car handled. The only brown pants moment was when they let a GT4 running 350+ brake out after me and it caught me up, not fun seeing that in your rear view mirror I can tell you!

I came second in my class! But there was only two of us in it! I think to have a chance of winning I need to go down the coilover route, so maybe that will come but its not a priority right now.

Absolutely loved it though, I just love all the guys n gals involved with the series!

My New TSS Sunstrip

To find out more about this great grassroots series please visit
http://www.toyotasprint.com/tss/index.php

Im Famous..!

Its been hard to keep this under the radar, but I had a shoot done on my car back in May this year. My car was 'spotted' at BHP Show @ Lydden Hill at the beginning of May. Less than 2 weeks later, I was meeting a couple of freelancers at Brighton Seafront for them to take some pictures/words of the car for Japanese Performance magazine!

Here is the resulting SIX PAGE spread!

Sevice #2 - 2 YR / 20K Miles

The car had its 20K miles service today. Slightly early as I have been doing more miles than usual in the past year, as Jas has also been using my car a fair amount.

The second service included-
Enviromental Charge
Consumables
Screenwash
Brake Fluid
GSKT, Drain Plug
Oil Filter
Brake Cleaner
Fully Synthetic Low Ash Oil
Gas Treatment
Motor Flush

Total Cost - £307.92

New Shoes Pt 2

I was toying with the idea of another set of wheels for ages, but there was only one set I would only really settle for, and it was a set of Advan SA3r's. I had been searching the net for months trying to find a set to no avail. Thne one night I came across a set! I was so excited, they had only just been put up for sale on the Yaris Owners Club UK. They were a set of 15" x 6.5" refurbished in Blue wrapped in Toyo T1Rs. Didnt even try and haggle with the guy, I wanted them that badly, I thought they would look perfect on my quirky little car and perfect for sprinting with!

Really notice a different in handling and accelaration speeds compared to the heavy day to day Rota Grids, but the downside is the car is alot lower on these, it hates speedbumps and you can forget about going into Brighton multistorey car park!

Rolling Road Day

My local car club organised a Rolling Road Day at Surrey Rolling Road. We have been there many times before, I have always had a different car! I took my IQ along just for a laugh really, and to make up the numbers. Wasnt expecting big power, or even an improvement on standard, just wanted to see how healthy the car was running as I had the new custom exhaut and the induction kit etc.

My car managed to get a max bhp of 75.5HP. Im quite pleased with that, obviously they are meant to be 69HP but as I hadnt had it rolling roaded before the modifications, I cannot accurately say how much they have improved things by. 

Toyota Sprint Series Round 2

I went on my very first trackday with the Toyota Sprint Series, It was Round 2 at RAF Barkston Heath.

Very very enjoyable day out! Jas and I stayed in a hotel on the Saturday night as its a 3hr drive. Everyone was so helpful as I forgot a couple of bits and pieces but that was soon sorted. Lots of people interested in the IQ, Adrian Smith from Fensport even came over to say hello : )

I was in Class F which is for vehicles up to 1000cc Naturally Aspirated. There were 3 other competitors in my class:

Paul - Aygo

Dan - Yaris

Jane - Vitz

Us lot together!

They were really good fun and very helpful, even though its a competition they still help eachother out with ideas and advice on how to get the best from eachothers cars. They gave me a few ideas for mine as well!

My first practice lap was 1:25. By the end of the day I had got this down to 1:18 which im pleased with. My letdowns were my wheels, Im on 17s, the others in my class are on 14s and also the fact I had my full interior, the others in my class are stripped out.

My car in action

Limited Edition Gift

The first 100 people to place an order for an IQ received a paperweight in the post from Toyota. I actually missed out but someone was selling their IQ so I bought their paperweight from them for £20! Really pleased with it, its a great little keepsake!

Custom Exhaust System V.2

After all the dramas with the first exhaust system and also due to Toyota mentioning that my exhaust system was a poor aftermarket fit, I got fed up with the first garage and went to another garage. I went to The Exhaust & Auto Centre in Hastings.

They raised my car up on the ramps and we could not believe our eyes! The first garage had absolutely wrecked the exhaust system of my <1 year old car. Here are some pictures of what they had done to my poor little IQ.

This is how they stopped the exhaust knocking against the underside of my car...

As you can see, the pictures are shocking! Im now VERY pleased to say I have a complete new system made. The original garage used stainless steel, I dont think so!! Not quite sure thats how stainless steel is meant to go like after 6 months.

I am very very happy with Hastings Exhaust Centre, would recommend them completely. 25 years in the business and instead of using multiple pieces and welding together, they have used one long piece and bent it in the proper machine.

Here is some pictures of my new system

Here is a closer pic of the new silencer

 

Total Cost - £258.50

Service #1 - 1 YR / 10k Miles

Today my car was booked in for its first service at Toyota Uckfield. My car has done 9931 miles in its first year. As part of the service I asked them to check out a knocking noise I had heard recently. They found that the Front Strut Top and Bolt was loose and needed tightening.

The actual service involved:
Fully Synthetic Oil
Enviromental Charge
Consumables
Screenwash
GSKT, Drain Plug
Oil Filter
Brake Clean

They also carried out a free Visual Safety Report. This picked up an Exhaust issue, due to my custom system. They mentioned that the exhaust was not correct aftermarket and had poor build and fit. Also it was touching my rear suspension. We will cover more of this in a future post...

Total Cost - £178.28

Whats This Under The Bonnet?

Another package arrived today, this time from the lovely people at Fensport Performance! Inside was a...

Blitz SUS Induction Kit

A Blitz Radiator Cap and a Blitz Oil Cap

The instructions for the induction kit came in Japanese which was interesting! But luckily Jas has fitted a fair few induction kits in his time so had a pretty good idea of what to do!

Parts Fitted...Nice!

Induction Kit and Radiator Cap

Oil Filler Cap



Total Cost - £259.71



Exhaust Nightmare

Ws driving home from work today, as you do and my exhaust was knocking, as it has been doing for the past few days/week. Next thing i know, i hit one of the many uneven bits of road in Lewes and hear my exhaust *ding diiing ding* hitting the ground so pull over straight away on double yellows whack the hazards on

Exhaust isnt resting on the ground, but when i go along its bounces up and down, ring Jas and we just decide i gotta limp home as had no cable ties or anything in the car (lesson learnt there!)

So im driving through Lewes with the exhaust hitting the ground constantly, really embarassing! Decide to pull into Tescos petrol station to see if they have got anything i can hold it up with and they kindly gave me some string so its temporary fixed so i can get home
IQ is off the road until I can get it sorted, but at least I can borrow the other halfs Subaru Impreza!

My temporary bodge job, thanks to Tesco!

My temporary transport. Subaru Impreza STi RA

Rising Sun - True Jap

My IQ is one of the only few Toyotas actually put together in Japan. So I wanted something to show I was proud of its Japanese roots! Jas cut me a one off custom sticker for my fuel cap, and here is the finished product!

Bring On The Noise!

I decided that it would be time to get the IQ heard. I went to a local garage who said they could offer me a full custom stainless steel exhaust system from the cat back. The IQ has two catalytic converters so we decided to start the system just after these. We decided to not bother with a silencer as we didnt expect a 1.0 3 cylinder to be very loud. I also went for an oval exhaust tip. Unfortunately no pictures though.

We found out that we were very wrong, and the system was just too loud for my liking! So it went back to have the silencer fitted and for a couple of little tweaks.

Total Cost - £240.00

Little Bit Nutty

Well another exciting mod but there we are! Ordered some black lightweight wheel nuts and also a set of locking wheel nuts from Driftworks in M12 x 1.5 fitment. I love Driftworks, you get free sweeties with every order! I got a mini Wham! bar this time :)

 

Total Cost - £49.39