Soooooooooooooooooooo!
The parts collecting has begun!
So far, I've got two sets of R32 / TT wishbones and hubs, one to throw on right now to get the car going again, and one set of early TT wishbones with the rare 30mm bushes (the type that defcon inserts recreate!), which I'll poly bush and paint up in time.
I've got a TT convertible subframe with the extra brace, although it just looks like the S3 lower brace to me. Still, happy days.
I've got a pair of new driveshafts, the CV has popped on mine on the damaged side so I'd rather replace the whole lot.
Suspension is in hand, with help from Ben at Parsons Performance, but that won't be sorted for a few weeks yet. No hurry.
Now for the slightly more interest bit!
After scouring the world (internet) for new seats, I was none the wiser. Those who've met me will know that I'm reasonably sizeable, to put it politely, at 6'2'' and 17 1/2 stone, I'd make a crap jockey!
This left me with a problem finding a seat that fitted me well.
I tried the Revolution, but decided in the end that it was just too tight for me, and not tall enough.
Browsing Demon Tweeks, Dad came across the Cobra Sebring Pro GT, which looked very promising indeed. After a few phone calls and e-mails I wasn't sure if it would fit me well, so decided to drop a line to Cobra direct.
To my surprise, they invited me up to the factory to have a custom seat fitted for me, as we were buying a pair, Dad decided to come up as well and have a seat fitted for him too.
So, today arrived, and Dad and I both made the 250 mile journey, from opposite corners of the south coast, up to Telford, Cobra HQ.
There we met Mark, MD of Cobra Seats, who showed us the pair of Sebring Pro GT's which he had made specially for us in 'Pro-Fit', a new style not currently available through the retailers!
My first glimpse of our new seats:
Pro fit is a new customisable seat system from Cobra, unifying their entire range of seats to use the same cushions, base, back, and leg, available in a number of different thicknesses to tailor the seat to the individual.
On top of this, based on several conversations about mine and Dads size / shape, Mark had tailored the fit out of the seat shell for us too, Using a thinner, yet higher density padding in the base area to lower us in the seat, and also from around the kidney and shoulder area to give maximum room for my very broad shoulders and back. This kind of customisation would never be possible if the seats were bought from a retailer, so it was well worth the trip.
So, we spent about 30 minutes each going through all the various seat base/back/leg cushion combinations to find a set up that suited each of us. Mark was absolutely great and knew exactly what we'd each need to be comfortable and safe. Dad is slightly shorter than I am, so had ended up with a thicker back cushion to move him forward 25mm, as well as a different combination of base cushions. We also got a set of Cobra Pro-spec 4mm steel side mounts, to replace my bent sparco ones. the difference in contruction is substantial, I can't see these failling any time soon.
After all the fitting, Mark decided to give us all the other option cushions as well! Just incase we wanted to tweak the driving position further when they were installed, or fit larger cushions in the base on a trackday when taking out normal size passengers. The service we recieved was absolutely first class, and we even had a tour of the whole factory and saw it all being made. Very cool indeed.
Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of any of this, so my rambling will have to make do I'm afraid
So, with that done, I set off on the 250 mile journey back to work, to start a shift at 9pm
Rubbish.
I dropped the kit off at home, and had one quick chance for a picture of all the new kit waiting for find it's way onto the car:
Seats, side mounts, Strut brace, forged rods, and some Eibach eccentric top mounts I've decided to try out as well, which should add some negative camber, and a little more caster too.
Just need to find time to fit it all now!