Say that again.... A fun, diesel, Astra, van?
Discussion
Long story short, sold my V8 luxobarge Mercedes E500 to fund some house improvements, needed something cheap and ideally commercial so it can be owned by my company for reducing my personal outgoings too.
Hoped for something not too slow, and not a wallowy transit size van either if I could avoid it.
Enter the Astravan!
At a very reasonable price, I picked up a 2009 1.9 CDTi (150) Sportive.
[Pictures to go here soon!]
Not much you can say about an astra van, its a fairly pleasant cabin to sit in, bit noisy, good on fuel, and being the 150bhp version has a surprising amount of torque to play with. However I was pretty surprised in how it handles, it's not bad!
So that got me thinking.... could I make it properly fun to drive as well as make it a nicer 'car' with some modern touches on a very small budget?
We will have to wait and see!
Hoped for something not too slow, and not a wallowy transit size van either if I could avoid it.
Enter the Astravan!
At a very reasonable price, I picked up a 2009 1.9 CDTi (150) Sportive.
[Pictures to go here soon!]
Not much you can say about an astra van, its a fairly pleasant cabin to sit in, bit noisy, good on fuel, and being the 150bhp version has a surprising amount of torque to play with. However I was pretty surprised in how it handles, it's not bad!
So that got me thinking.... could I make it properly fun to drive as well as make it a nicer 'car' with some modern touches on a very small budget?
We will have to wait and see!
Edited by LEE337 on Monday 17th September 12:55
Nice idea, I had thought about that too!
However i don't thinka Z20LEH offers a vast improvement in performance in relation to the cost of buying a whole VXR and the massive reduction in MPG.
I will stick with the diesel engine for now, I'm going to focus on modifications that will improve the handling, probably a bit more power to though! And some tech too hopefully! 😊
However i don't thinka Z20LEH offers a vast improvement in performance in relation to the cost of buying a whole VXR and the massive reduction in MPG.
I will stick with the diesel engine for now, I'm going to focus on modifications that will improve the handling, probably a bit more power to though! And some tech too hopefully! 😊
Yeah, that pretty much covers everything the list of things I wanted to address!
- Suspension that can handle UK B roads but improve body control.
- Bit extra straight line performance
- Decent brakes (although won't be stretching to floating disks and monoblock calipers I doubt!!)
- Proper tyres
- Suspension that can handle UK B roads but improve body control.
- Bit extra straight line performance
- Decent brakes (although won't be stretching to floating disks and monoblock calipers I doubt!!)
- Proper tyres
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