One must die, so another may live.....the long convoluted story of Red and Tippex....

It's about time I wrote a thread, it might even prove to be catharthic, in light of today events....

So, a long time ago, after running through pretty much every MK1 variant of the Uno, it was time to buy into the Turbo dream...

After much criss crossing of London, day trips out to the middle of nowhere, the mrs found:

A very late G plate, one previous owner, pretty tidy insode and out, and £925...a ten minute drive and I was smitten!

Over the next three years, works progressed, as you would expect, 30mm lowered suspension, grooved dics and green stuff pads, powerflow exhaust, Powerflex bushes, nice stereo, alloys and low profile rubber...


But, as is the way of anything made with cheap shit soviet steel, rust started to take hold, and the rear was the first to take a beating, driving home one day I heard a louder than usual clonk, stopped and investigated to find both rear turrets swinging freely, the semas having totally rotted out...then the rear arches decided they'd like to rot too...


But still she soldiered on, performing daily drive duties, and doling out grins every day. Remember that nice stereo I mentioned further up the post? yeah, well some local shitbag decided to screwdriver the door, and rip it out of the dash, along with the amps, subs, cd autochanger in the boot...fuck

And since i was moving house the following week, didn't really have time to sort it all out, so plan A, stick her in my newly acquired garage, run a hack, when time permits, get her roadworthy and sorted again. Life though has a funny way of changing plans...

and the years rolled by...other cars came and went, some stayed longer than others..a golf gti, bmw e30, alfa 155, nissan bluebird, mitsubishi pajero, fiat multipla, you get the picture, but alway in the background was red...waiting...

parts were acquired and stored, plans made and changed, lives moved on, and still she waiting, patiently, even after being humiliated...

And then, Tippex happened...those of you who were on the old TC site will remember the thread, a shed in Southampton, bits missing, washing machine white all over, and generally looking pretty sorry for herself...

But, £120 later, and a another £100 to have her brought up to my house:


I still remember how fucking nuts the wife went when she saw it, and what I did to the fence to get her in...

the eagle eyed will see what's missing..and how bad she was, and that she was silver!

But, with the help of friends, we got her going, with some serious effort she actually made her MOT, and got to her first big show, AI Brooklands..

As time rolled by, the look changed, which itself was a battle against yet more rust and crud..


being a wheel whore though..

led to a change of looks almost every week...

which was fun..


There was always something else though, something that nagged at away at the back of the mind..man cannot live on his cars look alone, he has to chuck it up the road and test himself and the car at their limits...but, being a responsible type of bloke, playing on the road was never an option. So, then it got seriously silly, and the trackday action started....

So, where to start with "pushing it"? PPC seemed to be as good a place as any, although the quater miling wasn't really my thing, the slaloming was fun..but moving along, to cold, crispy Novemeber at Oulton Park, and the fun really began..




It would be nice to say I just montered the Cossie in the background....

Best of all, she got to play with a future housemate..


One of many trips to Bedford Gt circuit..



Malllory was another place visited a few times..



Cadwell was...different..



Angelsey was spectacular...

even the mrs had a go!


Then it happened....time to take the show out to europe, and tackle the most feared of cicuits..



Of course there are always issues

but nothing a little tape couldn't handle....


All along little changes here and there were implemented, better brake discs and pads, slightly firmer suspension, exhaust from supersprint, experiments with wheels size and tyres, which led to the open secret that are r888s...


which proved a massive change over using standard road tyres...


In the end it appeared that whilst 13" road tyres are ok for hacking about the roads on, 15s on 195/50/15 gave a much better ride, handled nicely and made cruising along bearable. For track, a choice between r888s on 13 or 14 inch rims seemed to do the trick, tippex held on pretty hard, but as a result rolled a lot more as teh tyres clung on...yet firmer suspension and poly bushes, and we were ready for the double header of Spa Francorchamps and the Ring!



But as ever, if you are pushing hard, and placing various components under more stress than usual, you will inevitably break something...


That was a long journey home, six weeks, and all to discover that the supposed fast road, heavy duty track biased clutch had torn itself to pieces, was about as much use as swiss cheese...so in went a standard item, which has been there ever since.

back to Bedford, almost her second home!



Everthing seemed all good and rosy, but as ever trouble is never far away.....

Time for a little digression, something touched upon a little earlier, trouble...

Tippex has always been a bit of a pain in the ass, from niggles when bits fall off, don't work as they should, MOT failures that run to pages, or for those tiny little hard to fix items...she's been there and done them all...

how about a little entertaining video to illustrate? Here you go...



fun and games indeed.....

but there were days when it wasn't so funny...



this was the last of 6 times she's been on the back of a recovery truck...in four years! this time was a little more serious, off the back straight at bedford, into the twisties, and....well that noise like a large bag of spanners thumoping away inside a washing machine most certainly isn't the M3 going past......

towed back to pits, bonnet up, and much head scratching later...bottom end, spun or damaged bearing....toasted engine....double bollocks....

Let's get back to happier times....

Shows! Love them, hate them, good one, bad weather, bbqs, old friends, new faces, and cars...we go we park, we hang out, chat shit, and just chat...






She was never teh belle of the ball, or a concours candidate, crikey, none of the panels even colour matched each other! But I always got the feeling she was according a level of respect for exploits and longevity in the face of abuse...shoud've cleaned her a bit more though...

sometimes the show would be at home...


Bit of urban grit..


Hopefully the good times will return...

Cool write up, good to see an Uno being used and also tracked

Theres defo something fun about punching above their weight on a track!

plans are in place for a one day rush to get reds engine dropped into tippex, the idea is refresh the spare, new parts and service items, and in theory it should work....after all, how hard could it be?