Turkish's Astra G 2.0 Turbo "Sleeper"
Discussion
Thanks for the replies all.
Not much going on with Dogbus at the minute. Unfortunately the oil leak has reared it’s head again… last time I drove it maybe 3 weeks ago I noticed once home it was absolutely howling out so going to have to revisit that again. I’m anticipating the upper sump is warped - you can get new ones easy enough but I think they’re about £220 from memory. MOT ran out on Thursday, will probably SORN it now for the winter and bring it back out in March/April.
Jobs for the winter then are…
- Sort the oil leak
- New hard brake lines throughout. A few are looking a bit crispy so may as well change the lot. I may also fit a manual bias valve as in the wet the rear locks up way before the fronts.
- Get the steelies acid dipped and repainted/powdercoated. No one will see them behind the hubcaps but they’re properly rusty now so just fancy tidying that up.
- New tyres… The Nankangs are good in the dry but they’re terrifying in the wet, something I never struggled with on my EP3 or Evo 6. They’re also over 5yrs old now and with lack of use they’ve gone quite hard and have some flat spots, it’s quite noticeable when driving it for the first time in a while.
I’ll be dropping the profile from 55 to 50 to try and gain some corner stability and reduce the occasional rub that happens on the rears during hard compression. I really rate the Uniroyal Rain Experts I have on my V70 but I’m concerned Dogbus will likely chew through them too quickly… but then again at £82 a tyre it’s not really the end of the world I guess.
Probably won’t happen until mid next year but it desperately wants a quieter exhaust system. The older I get the more it annoys me
On boost it’s unbearable, even more so with the rear stripped out. The mrs absolutely f
king hates going in it because of how ridiculous it sounds
Not much going on with Dogbus at the minute. Unfortunately the oil leak has reared it’s head again… last time I drove it maybe 3 weeks ago I noticed once home it was absolutely howling out so going to have to revisit that again. I’m anticipating the upper sump is warped - you can get new ones easy enough but I think they’re about £220 from memory. MOT ran out on Thursday, will probably SORN it now for the winter and bring it back out in March/April.
Jobs for the winter then are…
- Sort the oil leak
- New hard brake lines throughout. A few are looking a bit crispy so may as well change the lot. I may also fit a manual bias valve as in the wet the rear locks up way before the fronts.
- Get the steelies acid dipped and repainted/powdercoated. No one will see them behind the hubcaps but they’re properly rusty now so just fancy tidying that up.
- New tyres… The Nankangs are good in the dry but they’re terrifying in the wet, something I never struggled with on my EP3 or Evo 6. They’re also over 5yrs old now and with lack of use they’ve gone quite hard and have some flat spots, it’s quite noticeable when driving it for the first time in a while.
I’ll be dropping the profile from 55 to 50 to try and gain some corner stability and reduce the occasional rub that happens on the rears during hard compression. I really rate the Uniroyal Rain Experts I have on my V70 but I’m concerned Dogbus will likely chew through them too quickly… but then again at £82 a tyre it’s not really the end of the world I guess.
Probably won’t happen until mid next year but it desperately wants a quieter exhaust system. The older I get the more it annoys me
On boost it’s unbearable, even more so with the rear stripped out. The mrs absolutely fking hates going in it because of how ridiculous it sounds Cool as ever.
Pilot sport 4’s are still available at around £70 in that size, with a 94 sidewall load that might help offset some of the softness you mentioned.
If you struggle with those, efficientgrip performance 2’s are £83 a corner for the same spec and seem to be walking away with a lot of tests, especially regarding the wet performance.
I imagine they’d be better than the rainsports which I’ve always found to be ok at best in the wet in exchange for a few downsides, like the poor wear characteristics you mentioned.
Pilot sport 4’s are still available at around £70 in that size, with a 94 sidewall load that might help offset some of the softness you mentioned.
If you struggle with those, efficientgrip performance 2’s are £83 a corner for the same spec and seem to be walking away with a lot of tests, especially regarding the wet performance.
I imagine they’d be better than the rainsports which I’ve always found to be ok at best in the wet in exchange for a few downsides, like the poor wear characteristics you mentioned.
Demelitia said:
Cool as ever.
Pilot sport 4’s are still available at around £70 in that size, with a 94 sidewall load that might help offset some of the softness you mentioned.
If you struggle with those, efficientgrip performance 2’s are £83 a corner for the same spec and seem to be walking away with a lot of tests, especially regarding the wet performance.
I imagine they’d be better than the rainsports which I’ve always found to be ok at best in the wet in exchange for a few downsides, like the poor wear characteristics you mentioned.
Cheers, PS4s are also on the list, but a quick look on Camskill when I posted my last reply didn’t show PS4s in the size I need (205/50/16)… well certainly not in stock but I did only quickly look so probably wrong! But if they can be had elsewhere cheaper than Rain Experts then I’ll definitely look into that! Pilot sport 4’s are still available at around £70 in that size, with a 94 sidewall load that might help offset some of the softness you mentioned.
If you struggle with those, efficientgrip performance 2’s are £83 a corner for the same spec and seem to be walking away with a lot of tests, especially regarding the wet performance.
I imagine they’d be better than the rainsports which I’ve always found to be ok at best in the wet in exchange for a few downsides, like the poor wear characteristics you mentioned.
micloi said:
Regarding the exhaust you should see and hear the valved backbox I installed on my Forester. Night and day from the one I had before and still made the same power.
Nice idea but I’d rather it just be quieter all the time really. If I actually manage to get it on a track one day it’s one less thing to worry about too, same reason my GSXR has a baffle welded in permanently it just gives peace of mind you won’t set off any noise meters ajprice said:
Not sure about the noise but to keep it looking subtle you could do the exhaust with a fake standard looking peashooter tailpipe sticking out the back attached to the real pipe behind the bumper, like the Corsa in the sleeper thread, 'vauxhaulin' on Instagram.
I like that, it fits perfectly with how the standard Corsa probably was. The standard back box on mine was a down-turned tip mostly hidden away behind the bumper, so want to try and stick with that as it looks as close to the original… I also thoroughly enjoy it when it kicks up loads of dust off the road when on hard throttle 
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