The initial issues had me pretty worried. The coolant leak was a complete non-event, thanks mainly to Mark sourcing and fitting a new thermostat housing for me while I was at work.

The flex plate was a slightly bigger problem, and involved a tow-truck. It was fixed same-day, and since the car has come back, it’s been great to drive.

I’m surprised that the fuel economy is so good. I’m well on track to getting 450k out of the tank. The best I’d got out of it previously is 420k. I figure that on the highways, the improvement would be more noticeable.

Performance seems to be as expected for what’s been done, but hasn’t really been tested. It has a wicked exhaust note, though.

Ten minutes after I picked it up, I had a rupture in the cooling system, a problem that my friend Mark fixed for me on Sunday, while I was at work.

To be safe, I brought the car back to CV, to get them to check it out, and to finish the exhaust.
Car came back Tuesday afternoon, with a pass and a lovely exhaust note.
Tuesday evening, I broke it again. All reports currently point to a broken flex plate (kind of like a flywheel in an automatic).

How badly is it damaged? I’m not sure yet. The tow truck will be here at 10am tomorrow, to pick the car up.

The plan was to put some of the guys on assembly for the car until late-night, and call in an extra guy for Today (being that it’s 1:30am Friday..).

With any luck, the car should be finished around 4pm. I’ve got my fingers crossed. I really don’t want another weekend without it.

It’s now been four weeks since I’ve seen my car, and the longer it goes on, the emptier I feel.
Not even the promise of good performance seems to be cheering me up at the moment, even though everyone says once I put the foot down on the accelerator, everything will just wash away, and I’ll be as happy as a pig in the proverbial.

Work tomorrow until 2pm, then I phone the workshop, see if the car will be done.

I haven’t been informed of what the issue is exactly, but I’m assuming that the stuff-up was when it was sent for waste-gate porting. It makes the most sense to me.

The down side to all of this is that my car has now been gone for a week and a half, and I have no idea when it will be finished.

The up side? CV Performance discovered the issue with the turbo, and have sent it back to get resolved, and I’m not going to have a dodgy turbo fitted to my car.

CV Performance do take their time with their jobs, and honestly, I like it.
When the car has been there, they have always been very informative when I’ve shown up, or when I’ve phoned them about what stage the car is at, what the hold-ups are, and what needs to happen next.

Knowing that the car will be done right is very important to me, and CV Performance truly do leave me with the feeling that they are spending sufficient time checking that everything will be in good working order.

On another note, over the time I’ve been driving the Corolla that I’ve borrowed from Bas I’ve put more air in the tyres, topped up the oil slightly, and topped up the water in the radiator and reservoir.
It’s considerably less noisy now, and it feels much more stable at 100kph on the motorway.
At some point, I’m hoping to have a quick look at the power steering, it’s a bit on the noisy side.

There was a small shipping hold-up with the parts from Process West. Apparently I’m going to be getting a new experimental intercooler, which is similar to their stage three. Instead of being 100mm deep, it is only 90mm deep, and because of this, it needs no modifications to the car to fit it.

I was told that the new cooler has the same flow capacity, and the same ability for heat dissipation as the old one.

Right now I’m a bit antsy about the delays, but the cause is simply a lack of knowing where things are at right now. I don’t do too well when I’m out of the loop, or so to speak.

I’m curious, excited, and a little nervous.

At one point of my life, I did have two mice, even though I was never really comfortable with them.

A friend of mine, Catie, has had pet cockroaches (eww!), and when I was visiting for coffee once, when she lived in Canberra, she told me that her snake had got out. I was certainly not comfortable, and considered standing on the lounge.

Tonight, while I was sitting at the tavern with Mark, Jaron, Woody Daniel and others, I had no idea that Daniel had an 80cm coastal carpet python wrapped around his neck, until someone pointed out the fact that a snake had appeared on the front of his shirt.

After startling the staff that came to clean the tables, one of the other guys took interest in the snake, and held it a while, then it was returned to the warm inside of a jumper.
Half an hour later, I asked if I could hold the snake. I explained that I wasn’t comfortable, but that it was one of those life experiences that I wanted to notch up.

All said and done, while I was pretty tense, I held the snake for a couple of minutes, but all was pretty smooth until it slid up my sleeve. Daniel grabbed it, and put it back in my hand, and I pulled up my sleeve, for another minute or so of snake holding.

I think that I would do it again, given a snake this small. Perhaps I should talk to Meredyth about hers.

I’ve always hated shopping centers, crowds and hoards of screaming girls. Don’t get me wrong, I like looking at girls, and Westfield is completely filled with eyecandy, younger and older. It’s the noise I can’t deal with.

As I type this, Adam and I are sitting on the roof, drinking hot chocolate, just taking a break from the screaming crowds.
When the drinks are finished, we’ll head back downstairs to EB games, some shoe shops, and eventually to Supercheap.

In one way, I’m glad, as the plans were fairly expensive. In another, I’m now just that little bit more paranoid that Telstra’s plans will be even more out of my price-range.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been looking at switching to Telstra as my provider for the iPhone.

In Australia, they simply have both the biggest, and the best network available.

With 3, I’m having all sorts of reception issues. Any time I walk in to a building, things go to pot, and as Tim(b) said to me not long ago “Telstra has service everywhere. Carparks, indoors, pluto, etc.”

The plan with Telstra is $10 per month more expensive at a whopping $79, and has 750mb of data per month. I don’t even come close to using 300mb on my plan with 3 (which allows for 1gb).

My call credit per month would go up from $600-ish to $800, although I have no idea if calling would be more expensive, but given Telstra’s ability to take arms and legs, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are much more expensive.

Is it really worth the extra money for decent coverage, and hopefully-decent mobile internet speeds? Who knows.

The car feels solid and well constructed all round, no flappy plastic-ey bits.

Performance is as can be expected from a diesel, boring, but it’s very fuel efficient, and on a shade under three quarters of a tank, I drove more than 500 kilometres. Dad says he regularly gets around 650-750 kilometres around town.

The suspension was firm, but not sporty. Cornering did not feel at all boat-like.

All up, if you’re looking for a cheap runabout that’s fantastic on fuel, this is a good car to consider.