Dan's 1600 CC Vauxhall Astra .

Dan's Vauxhall Astra 1600cc.

This car is effectively just a 1.6 L model. When you look at the car this is all you will
notice. Then you start to realize that there are modifications aplenty. Most Vauxhall boys go
for the more is best look whilst the Volkswagen boys are in to the Euro look at the moment. The
Euro look is concerned with smoothing the lines of the car and losing the aggressive corners.
 
 

With Dan's Astra the first thing to hit you will be the alloys with the low profile tyres. These
are standard alloys from a Cavalier Cesaro but they complement the car perfectly. The glacier white paint work is the next thing you notice, a standard Vauxhall colour, which has
been flatted and polished to lose the orange peel. The paint work has been
polished and t-cutted to lose any surface imperfections.
 
 

The wing mirrors have been re-sprayed to match the rest of the car. You will notice on this car that the rub strips and stripes have been removed. Removing the stripes is not a major task as a
hairdryer will warm the plastic and help it soften so it just peels off.  For the bump strips to be removed we had to firstly go to a breakers yard so we could rip off the bump strips to find out if they are riveted or stuck on as when we called a Vauxhall parts department they were uncertain. Luckily we found they were stuck on with trim tape and glue, if they had been riveted we would have left the job as copious amounts of filler and paint would have been needed. With the aid of a hot water kettle and plenty of brute force and ignorance Dan and I managed to remove the bum strips. Whilst we were doing this we decided to remove the badging again out came the hot water kettle. We managed to remove the badges as well.
 
 

At this point I started to become decidedly worried the majority of trim tape and glue was still
stuck to the side of the car. I could see it was going to be a mission to get this glue and tape
off, and once it was off the paint protected by the rub strips was going to be a different colour
compared to the rest of the car due to the effect of weathering.
 

Oh well, we could not turn back now so we started to remove the trim tape with a combination of
hot water and bug remover. I know it sounds spoddy but it was all we could think off. I was
throughout this project more of a technical advisor liaising between Dan and my mechanic Graham at Elite Motors, top bloke call him on 01322 441282 for all your motoring needs.
 
 

At this point I decided to leg it and leave Dan to do the hard bit and remove the glue. After
several hours Dan had only managed to remove half a doors worth of glue. He then turned to meths for the answer; he stopped drinking the bottle of meths and applied it to the door to remove the glue. Bad idea it started to take the paint as well back to the drawing board, it took several days to get the answer we needed. After speaking to a few mates and Vauxhall we were no closer to an answer. Dan then decided to e-mail the Nova mailing list. These top blokes suggested we use petrol, I was admittedly decidedly against the idea, petrol !!!! But there goes Dan like a mongrel that's been thrown
in a kennel full of pedigree bitches on heat.
 
 

Out comes T-Cut and copious amounts of elbow grease on Dan's part and he manages to blend it all in.

A set of clear indicators have been added to the car to set it all off.

All in all a lot of work but quite a result, the car to a stranger would look different but it was subtle.
 
 

The engine mods are even subtler, well not so much subtle but non existent. The breathing
has been improved by a K&N filter, which was taken from my crashed Cavalier and modified to fit the Astra. I recommended to Dan that he use some tubing to get some cold air
into the engine. The only tubing you can get is four inches in diameter and that is what I
normally use and therefore it is what Dan used. With the improved breathing taken care of by the K&N and tubing throttle response had improved but Dan wanted more. I explained the concept of getting more power out of an engine i.e. more air and fuel, he takes this information on board and plans how to get more air into the engine. Whilst wandering round the garage he discovers tubing destined for a tumble drier. He decides to cobble this together and make his own Blackwall Tunnel , the tubing he used had a diameter of at least 9 - 11 inches which forced air in from 6 inches above the ground where are is coldest and straight into the filter.
 
 

The timing was retarded and fuel mixture was reset by Elite motors to get the most power.
The climb in power was only a couple of BHP but the throttle response was improved greatly.