S18 RSG

Rob - The issue, as I stated, was more the fact that Lauren seemed to be making out that what I wanted to do was "wrong", just because it's not what she would do. At the end of the day, we are all in different situations and all have different priorities. As I've said multiple times, making my car handle really well isn't a priority. I like the way it handles, and if I could keep the character, but enhance it slightly with springs, bushes and ARBs as I did with my last car, then that suits me down to the ground. I don't care if someone else's car could beat mine around track, my intention isn't to make a race car, but to make a fun car, and fully adjustable, expensive coilovers aren't required for fun.
 
I'll also point out that I didn't ask for advice about coilovers vs springs. I said from the beginning what my intentions were, and without knowing my goals for the car, was told that I was wrong straight away. The closest I got to asking for advice was, "Maybe someone can try to convince me otherwise, but please try to avoid the typical forum opinions of "springs are pointless, coilovers or nothing", which I've already covered." Regarding the last bit, that's basically all that was said, even though I asked for people to avoid it.
 
Anyway, I'm not carrying on now. Wasn't my intention to start any drama here, just to get some advice as to when I should do each stage of modification, which I got, so thanks to everyone for that.
 
Spec K: Thanks for summing everything up in a much more meaningful way. You're exactly right. You and Lauren have setups which allows you to adjust your car's behaviour depending on where you're driving. Clearly for you two, spending all that money was worth it, as having that luxury was a priority for you. Adjustability and flexibility in suspension is not a priority for me. As I said, I've done the whole coilovers thing in the past, and found that I never made the most of them, so thought they were a waste of money for the kind of driving I do. Maybe at some point in the future I'll change my mind, but I can cross that bridge when I come to it. As of right now, I would rather NOT delay all my other plans for the car just for the sake of "maybe" changing my mind.
 
As for your manifold comments, I appreciate the feedback a lot. I have only ever taken my car to one place for exhaust work (Prospeed Exhausts in Cardiff). Charlie does amazing work. When I went to do the secondary decat (which he did for £100), he offered to do me a full 2.5" cat back system with twin 4.5" slash cut tailpipes, and some special design silencer that helps bring out the boxer burble (no idea, just what I can remember) for £450. He also said he could do me a UEL catted header for £550. He does UEL headers for various flat four engines quite often, and mentioned to me that I should do it, rather than the other way around.
 
For the above reasons, I've never bought a prebuilt exhaust, nor indeed any part of a prebuilt exhaust, as I just let Charlie do his thing, but I could be persuaded to change my mind when it comes to manifolds, as honestly, I don't really know where to begin.

Can't believe I had to turn my PC on at this time of night just to reply 
 
I'll begin by saying, I have listened to every point you've made, and have replied to, or made comment on what you've said in every post, so I clearly AM listening to your points. In fact, I would counter that argument of "not wanting to listen", back to yourself. I have made my intentions quite clear on several occasions, and given my reasoning for doing so. At no point have you offered any advice that helps me. All you have said is that I'm wrong, and your way is basically the only way, as well as told me why your way is right by explaining how, where and how often you drive your car. That's all great, and I'm sure something I could read in depth in a topic that you've started covering the matter (if such a thing exists). This is not that place. I asked for opinions, explained why I wasn't sold on your opinion, and expected some other reply than being told I'm wrong.
 
As everyone else has said, this whole debate is opinion based, and I've never said otherwise. Some people have agreed with me, some have agreed with you, some are in between and can see both perspectives. My issue isn't that someone has a different opinion than mine, my issue is that my opinion is being passed off as inferior, and wrong, just because it's different.
 
Also, the fact that so many assumptions are being made about me, by a senior member of the forum who should know better, when in reality, nobody here knows anything about me.
 
I worked damn hard for this car. I saved, I worked extra hours and I shopped around for a long time to get a good deal. As part of that saving, I also put aside a bit of money to replace parts that I would consider worthwhile replacing after reading so much about the car, so I find it very disrespectful to have, what was a big deal for me (buying this car) brushed off as if it's some sort of everyday thing. I didn't just "spend £20k or 30k" on the car, I worked hard and achieved a goal I set for myself (try to remember how it was for you growing up in your early 20's trying to afford a decent car).
 
I also hate the fact that, due to the above, I'm being told I'm "skimping" on parts. No. Unlike some people, I can't just empty thousands out of my account willy nilly on parts so I can turn my PC on and brag about how great my car is. I have to be realistic, and balance what I can afford with what I want to get out. If I want to make my car handle a little better, £1000 on coilovers won't have as good of an effect as spreading that money equally on suspension, tyres, stiffening, lightening etc. and that's a fact. If I had money to spend on coilovers, I'd have already got them. I'd probably already have the car supercharged with a RB body kit and painted matte purple or something also, but I don't, so please, don't tell me I'm "doing it wrong" just because I don't have the luxury that some people do.
 
And as a final thing before I just turn my PC off and be done with this forum altogether, please don't assume that because I'm new here, I'm new to online forums. I help to run an online car forum with a couple of hundred active members, and have been signed up to various car forums since before I could even drive, probably over 10 years. I have even designed, owned and ran my own forum (unrelated to cars) for a good period. My opinions of online forums are not based on "preconceptions", but experiences.
 
I came from a club which some of you may have heard of, called "Rebel Motorsport Club" (I have no issue in talking about the situation as none of them have time for people outside of their group anyway). There were multiple people on that site who acted like spoiled little brats on a school yard. If somebody bought something for their car, a week later someone would buy something better, and all the people like myself, my dad, and a few friends of ours who had little interest in this competition, were looked down upon. Almost never invited to events, and had our opinions on anything dismissed. The funny thing is, none of the people on this site ever took their car on a track. They spent tens of thousands of pounds on their cars, just to brag about them online and explain how great their car was to people at car shows.
 
When I join a forum and see someone say "don't do that, it's pointless, do this", rather than "if you have the budget, do this, if not, your best option for what you want is this", I can't help but recall that situation.
 
Now I can see that Lauren is clearly respected here by many people, from both a personality point of view and for her talent behind the wheel, so I'm sure I'm not getting the best side of her here and am more than happy to see that, but nothing gives her or anyone else the right to tell anyone that they're wrong because they can't afford to be as spendthrift as themselves.
 
I'm not even gonna get back into the other, completely pointless and rather pedantic discussion. I know I'm right, and I could write another 10 paragraphs explaining why, but at the end of the day, that's not what this topic was about, and quite frankly, proving that I understand a good part of how I make a living, just to prove someone else wrong on an online forum is not my intention. 

I hate to repeat the same point again Lauren, but I really can't stand it it when people say you're not "doing it properly" by doing something other than what you think is best.
 
What exactly is "it" in that context?
 
If I want to build a car solely to race on a track, then I can understand how springs would not be "doing it properly".
 
If I only want to lower the car a fraction and have no regard for handling, then springs are definitely "doing it properly".
 
In my situation, I want to lower the car slightly, improve handling slightly and do so on a relative budget. Focusing on the budget part, spending £1000 on coilovers is not my idea of "doing it properly". 
 
Of course, we all have our opinions, and that's why we all have such different cars, but I don't think telling somebody they're doing their car wrong, just because they do it differently to you, is necessarily fair. There are a lot of people on this site, and in the car world in general that get just as much enjoyment out of their car which is lowered on springs, as you do with your multiple thousand pound setup.
 
Also, a damper's job is to absorb "shocks". A damper and a shock obsorber are the same thing.

Actually springs and good shocks (for example many prize RCE yellows + koni shocks) can be as good or better choice then many cheap budget low quality coilovers (which in turn sometimes are even worse then stock ones). Just that tein flex Z seem to also be exception among budget coilovers, price/quality wise. Yes, by taking rebuildability out, but it's by far not price level of some ohlins RT/KW V3/JRZ/RCE Tarmac */Billsteins.
As for - 'ride became firmer/harsher, lost daily driving comfort' - i've seen several times stated view of competent in suspension people, that much stiffer spring rates do not automatically mean loss of driving comfort, if they are accompanied by better quality dampeners matching well those higher spring rates. As example - even with something as stiff as 11K/12K spring rates of Tein SRC. But those are very same people that said that budget coilovers are no good, and usually prefer something from budget of £1500-7000 for coilovers alone . I can easily imagine that something of £500-£1000 can result in better handling in turns only at price of DD comfort loss.
As for 'need' .. yes, i second that even on completely stock suspension, toyobaru twins are surprisingly good, compared to other cars i've driven. Not that it cannot be improved upon, but nevertheless. And even for lap times and going faster in general, best improvement will be "upgrading driver" by more tracktime/experience, HPDE lessons and alike instead of putting that money to car upgrades. Be it performance, be it suspension upgrades. Without driver skills one will not be able to use all extra power, and same about improved suspension. Better driver on stock car in most cases will get better results then newbie on tuned or more expensive/higher end one.

The car has coilovers as standard. So no-one is fitting coilovers, they are replacing their stock one with pre-done kits. Sorry, saying coilovers in that way is an annoying Americanism....

As for what's best, why can't you have a spring kit that can handle? The Litchfield kit was designed from a handling standpoint over a drop, as were the TRD/STi offerings due to the fact the drop wan't that large. There are also a couple of kits in the US that have been developed similarly and when mated to well spec'd dampers will equal any out of the box kits. In fact some of those are now being offered up as matched kits. Admittedly the stock dampers aren't of the same quality as some of the aftermarket ones, but they certainly aren't the worst ones about. A pre-done coilover kit may be the one of the easier ways, but it's definitely not the only way to improve the handling using the main suspension components.

Hi everyone.
 
I've already introduced myself by way of a few posts elsewhere, but figured I should officially say hi here also.
 
I'm Ross. I'm 24 and live in a small town around 20 miles away from Cardiff in South Wales. 
 
I recently picked up my red '62' plate GT86 after a few months of searching and deliberating, and so far couldn't be happier.
 
My car history started with a Peugeot 106 1.1 (for about a month), and then a typical Vauxhall Corsa.
 
With the "young driver" phase out of the way, I went into a Skoda Fabia VRS at 19, which I had running at stage 2, at around 190bhp and 300lb/ft of torque. While it was a monster, I had some serious bad luck with turbos. I blew the original turbo around 3 months after it was mapped, and then blew the upgraded turbo 3 weeks after it was fitted (due to it NOT being a brand new part, as specified). All these events put me off the car completely, so I sold it on and bought a 2010 Seat Ibiza Cupra.
 
As with the Fabia, the Ibiza was immediately mapped and taken to a safer version of stage 2 (with a full turbo back exhaust with sports cat and remap). The Ibiza dyno'd at 220hp and 240lb/ft of torque, and was a bit of an animal (it was nearly 100kg lighter than stock, and ran low 5's for 0-60 at GTI International).
 
Alas, after nearly 4 years of ownership and still loving the car, the time had come for a change. I test drove an E90 M3, a C63 AMG and a Lexus ISF before realising that I can't afford to run a 15mpg V8, so I started looking at the 370Z/G37S, and then even started looking at modern hot hatches (new Astra VXR and Megane 265) before realising that the answer was in front of me the whole time.
 
I originally saw a GT86 at Wilton House Supercar day in 2012. I sat in the driver's seat and loved it. I said from that day, "if they made one with 250hp, I'd buy one tomorrow". That attitude is what forced me to look elsewhere. After coming full circle and realising that the GT86 was a possibility, I test drove one. Despite being down on power to my Ibiza, and way down on power to what I'd been looking at previously, I loved it.
 
I loved the character of the engine, I loved the interior, I loved how it went around corners, and most of all, I loved that it was the most fun per £ of any car I had tried. With a few weeks of grinding and looking for the right car, a 300 mile round trip and some money later, brings me to today.
 
In terms of plans for the car, I've already got it booked in for a secondary decat next Saturday (£110 fitted at Prospeed exhausts in Cardiff, the only place I will ever go for an exhaust), and will be looking at options when there regarding a cat back system a few weeks down the line. I'm in the market for some initial, "sensible" upgrades (new gear knob, front splitter, armrest options and a few others) and when all that is out of the way, I'll start looking at some more expensive and significant changes.
 
The end game plan, is that in around 2 years time, the car will be supercharged (I just want to find a good twin-screw system before taking the plunge), on 18" wheels, slightly lower, bigger brakes and perhaps wrapped. The wrap is the only real unknown yet, as I'm not sure if I want to change the colour, but everything else is certainly in the plan. 
 
I look forward to hopefully meeting a load of you at various shows as the year goes on, and look forward to sharing my progress, as well as following a lot of yours as I have been already.

Hi everyone.
 
I've already introduced myself by way of a few posts elsewhere, but figured I should officially say hi here also.
 
I'm Ross. I'm 24 and live in a small town around 20 miles away from Cardiff in South Wales. 
 
I recently picked up my red '62' plate GT86 after a few months of searching and deliberating, and so far couldn't be happier.
 
My car history started with a Peugeot 106 1.1 (for about a month), and then a typical Vauxhall Corsa.
 
With the "young driver" phase out of the way, I went into a Skoda Fabia VRS at 19, which I had running at stage 2, at around 190bhp and 300lb/ft of torque. While it was a monster, I had some serious bad luck with turbos. I blew the original turbo around 3 months after it was mapped, and then blew the upgraded turbo 3 weeks after it was fitted (due to it NOT being a brand new part, as specified). All these events put me off the car completely, so I sold it on and bought a 2010 Seat Ibiza Cupra.
 
As with the Fabia, the Ibiza was immediately mapped and taken to a safer version of stage 2 (with a full turbo back exhaust with sports cat and remap). The Ibiza dyno'd at 220hp and 240lb/ft of torque, and was a bit of an animal (it was nearly 100kg lighter than stock, and ran low 5's for 0-60 at GTI International).
 
Alas, after nearly 4 years of ownership and still loving the car, the time had come for a change. I test drove an E90 M3, a C63 AMG and a Lexus ISF before realising that I can't afford to run a 15mpg V8, so I started looking at the 370Z/G37S, and then even started looking at modern hot hatches (new Astra VXR and Megane 265) before realising that the answer was in front of me the whole time.
 
I originally saw a GT86 at Wilton House Supercar day in 2012. I sat in the driver's seat and loved it. I said from that day, "if they made one with 250hp, I'd buy one tomorrow". That attitude is what forced me to look elsewhere. After coming full circle and realising that the GT86 was a possibility, I test drove one. Despite being down on power to my Ibiza, and way down on power to what I'd been looking at previously, I loved it.
 
I loved the character of the engine, I loved the interior, I loved how it went around corners, and most of all, I loved that it was the most fun per £ of any car I had tried. With a few weeks of grinding and looking for the right car, a 300 mile round trip and some money later, brings me to today.
 
In terms of plans for the car, I've already got it booked in for a secondary decat next Saturday (£110 fitted at Prospeed exhausts in Cardiff, the only place I will ever go for an exhaust), and will be looking at options when there regarding a cat back system a few weeks down the line. I'm in the market for some initial, "sensible" upgrades (new gear knob, front splitter, armrest options and a few others) and when all that is out of the way, I'll start looking at some more expensive and significant changes.
 
The end game plan, is that in around 2 years time, the car will be supercharged (I just want to find a good twin-screw system before taking the plunge), on 18" wheels, slightly lower, bigger brakes and perhaps wrapped. The wrap is the only real unknown yet, as I'm not sure if I want to change the colour, but everything else is certainly in the plan. 
 
I look forward to hopefully meeting a load of you at various shows as the year goes on, and look forward to sharing my progress, as well as following a lot of yours as I have been already.

Hi everyone.
 
I've already introduced myself by way of a few posts elsewhere, but figured I should officially say hi here also.
 
I'm Ross. I'm 24 and live in a small town around 20 miles away from Cardiff in South Wales. 
 
I recently picked up my red '62' plate GT86 after a few months of searching and deliberating, and so far couldn't be happier.
 
My car history started with a Peugeot 106 1.1 (for about a month), and then a typical Vauxhall Corsa.
 
With the "young driver" phase out of the way, I went into a Skoda Fabia VRS at 19, which I had running at stage 2, at around 190bhp and 300lb/ft of torque. While it was a monster, I had some serious bad luck with turbos. I blew the original turbo around 3 months after it was mapped, and then blew the upgraded turbo 3 weeks after it was fitted (due to it NOT being a brand new part, as specified). All these events put me off the car completely, so I sold it on and bought a 2010 Seat Ibiza Cupra.
 
As with the Fabia, the Ibiza was immediately mapped and taken to a safer version of stage 2 (with a full turbo back exhaust with sports cat and remap). The Ibiza dyno'd at 220hp and 240lb/ft of torque, and was a bit of an animal (it was nearly 100kg lighter than stock, and ran low 5's for 0-60 at GTI International).
 
Alas, after nearly 4 years of ownership and still loving the car, the time had come for a change. I test drove an E90 M3, a C63 AMG and a Lexus ISF before realising that I can't afford to run a 15mpg V8, so I started looking at the 370Z/G37S, and then even started looking at modern hot hatches (new Astra VXR and Megane 265) before realising that the answer was in front of me the whole time.
 
I originally saw a GT86 at Wilton House Supercar day in 2012. I sat in the driver's seat and loved it. I said from that day, "if they made one with 250hp, I'd buy one tomorrow". That attitude is what forced me to look elsewhere. After coming full circle and realising that the GT86 was a possibility, I test drove one. Despite being down on power to my Ibiza, and way down on power to what I'd been looking at previously, I loved it.
 
I loved the character of the engine, I loved the interior, I loved how it went around corners, and most of all, I loved that it was the most fun per £ of any car I had tried. With a few weeks of grinding and looking for the right car, a 300 mile round trip and some money later, brings me to today.
 
In terms of plans for the car, I've already got it booked in for a secondary decat next Saturday (£110 fitted at Prospeed exhausts in Cardiff, the only place I will ever go for an exhaust), and will be looking at options when there regarding a cat back system a few weeks down the line. I'm in the market for some initial, "sensible" upgrades (new gear knob, front splitter, armrest options and a few others) and when all that is out of the way, I'll start looking at some more expensive and significant changes.
 
The end game plan, is that in around 2 years time, the car will be supercharged (I just want to find a good twin-screw system before taking the plunge), on 18" wheels, slightly lower, bigger brakes and perhaps wrapped. The wrap is the only real unknown yet, as I'm not sure if I want to change the colour, but everything else is certainly in the plan. 
 
I look forward to hopefully meeting a load of you at various shows as the year goes on, and look forward to sharing my progress, as well as following a lot of yours as I have been already.

Hi everyone.
 
I've already introduced myself by way of a few posts elsewhere, but figured I should officially say hi here also.
 
I'm Ross. I'm 24 and live in a small town around 20 miles away from Cardiff in South Wales. 
 
I recently picked up my red '62' plate GT86 after a few months of searching and deliberating, and so far couldn't be happier.
 
My car history started with a Peugeot 106 1.1 (for about a month), and then a typical Vauxhall Corsa.
 
With the "young driver" phase out of the way, I went into a Skoda Fabia VRS at 19, which I had running at stage 2, at around 190bhp and 300lb/ft of torque. While it was a monster, I had some serious bad luck with turbos. I blew the original turbo around 3 months after it was mapped, and then blew the upgraded turbo 3 weeks after it was fitted (due to it NOT being a brand new part, as specified). All these events put me off the car completely, so I sold it on and bought a 2010 Seat Ibiza Cupra.
 
As with the Fabia, the Ibiza was immediately mapped and taken to a safer version of stage 2 (with a full turbo back exhaust with sports cat and remap). The Ibiza dyno'd at 220hp and 240lb/ft of torque, and was a bit of an animal (it was nearly 100kg lighter than stock, and ran low 5's for 0-60 at GTI International).
 
Alas, after nearly 4 years of ownership and still loving the car, the time had come for a change. I test drove an E90 M3, a C63 AMG and a Lexus ISF before realising that I can't afford to run a 15mpg V8, so I started looking at the 370Z/G37S, and then even started looking at modern hot hatches (new Astra VXR and Megane 265) before realising that the answer was in front of me the whole time.
 
I originally saw a GT86 at Wilton House Supercar day in 2012. I sat in the driver's seat and loved it. I said from that day, "if they made one with 250hp, I'd buy one tomorrow". That attitude is what forced me to look elsewhere. After coming full circle and realising that the GT86 was a possibility, I test drove one. Despite being down on power to my Ibiza, and way down on power to what I'd been looking at previously, I loved it.
 
I loved the character of the engine, I loved the interior, I loved how it went around corners, and most of all, I loved that it was the most fun per £ of any car I had tried. With a few weeks of grinding and looking for the right car, a 300 mile round trip and some money later, brings me to today.
 
In terms of plans for the car, I've already got it booked in for a secondary decat next Saturday (£110 fitted at Prospeed exhausts in Cardiff, the only place I will ever go for an exhaust), and will be looking at options when there regarding a cat back system a few weeks down the line. I'm in the market for some initial, "sensible" upgrades (new gear knob, front splitter, armrest options and a few others) and when all that is out of the way, I'll start looking at some more expensive and significant changes.
 
The end game plan, is that in around 2 years time, the car will be supercharged (I just want to find a good twin-screw system before taking the plunge), on 18" wheels, slightly lower, bigger brakes and perhaps wrapped. The wrap is the only real unknown yet, as I'm not sure if I want to change the colour, but everything else is certainly in the plan. 
 
I look forward to hopefully meeting a load of you at various shows as the year goes on, and look forward to sharing my progress, as well as following a lot of yours as I have been already.

Hi everyone.
 
I've already introduced myself by way of a few posts elsewhere, but figured I should officially say hi here also.
 
I'm Ross. I'm 24 and live in a small town around 20 miles away from Cardiff in South Wales. 
 
I recently picked up my red '62' plate GT86 after a few months of searching and deliberating, and so far couldn't be happier.
 
My car history started with a Peugeot 106 1.1 (for about a month), and then a typical Vauxhall Corsa.
 
With the "young driver" phase out of the way, I went into a Skoda Fabia VRS at 19, which I had running at stage 2, at around 190bhp and 300lb/ft of torque. While it was a monster, I had some serious bad luck with turbos. I blew the original turbo around 3 months after it was mapped, and then blew the upgraded turbo 3 weeks after it was fitted (due to it NOT being a brand new part, as specified). All these events put me off the car completely, so I sold it on and bought a 2010 Seat Ibiza Cupra.
 
As with the Fabia, the Ibiza was immediately mapped and taken to a safer version of stage 2 (with a full turbo back exhaust with sports cat and remap). The Ibiza dyno'd at 220hp and 240lb/ft of torque, and was a bit of an animal (it was nearly 100kg lighter than stock, and ran low 5's for 0-60 at GTI International).
 
Alas, after nearly 4 years of ownership and still loving the car, the time had come for a change. I test drove an E90 M3, a C63 AMG and a Lexus ISF before realising that I can't afford to run a 15mpg V8, so I started looking at the 370Z/G37S, and then even started looking at modern hot hatches (new Astra VXR and Megane 265) before realising that the answer was in front of me the whole time.
 
I originally saw a GT86 at Wilton House Supercar day in 2012. I sat in the driver's seat and loved it. I said from that day, "if they made one with 250hp, I'd buy one tomorrow". That attitude is what forced me to look elsewhere. After coming full circle and realising that the GT86 was a possibility, I test drove one. Despite being down on power to my Ibiza, and way down on power to what I'd been looking at previously, I loved it.
 
I loved the character of the engine, I loved the interior, I loved how it went around corners, and most of all, I loved that it was the most fun per £ of any car I had tried. With a few weeks of grinding and looking for the right car, a 300 mile round trip and some money later, brings me to today.
 
In terms of plans for the car, I've already got it booked in for a secondary decat next Saturday (£110 fitted at Prospeed exhausts in Cardiff, the only place I will ever go for an exhaust), and will be looking at options when there regarding a cat back system a few weeks down the line. I'm in the market for some initial, "sensible" upgrades (new gear knob, front splitter, armrest options and a few others) and when all that is out of the way, I'll start looking at some more expensive and significant changes.
 
The end game plan, is that in around 2 years time, the car will be supercharged (I just want to find a good twin-screw system before taking the plunge), on 18" wheels, slightly lower, bigger brakes and perhaps wrapped. The wrap is the only real unknown yet, as I'm not sure if I want to change the colour, but everything else is certainly in the plan. 
 
I look forward to hopefully meeting a load of you at various shows as the year goes on, and look forward to sharing my progress, as well as following a lot of yours as I have been already.

My comfort/"quality of life" upgrades list goes like: Armrest, Brodit active charging cellphone holder, backup camera, replacing tyre repair kit with skinny donut spare, Weathertech floormats, Wheelhaus' 3rd brake light.
  Considering: Alcantara instrument dash cluster hood (to not see stock's reflections on windscreen), mudflaps (it was fun driving on gravel roads, but hearing all those small rocks hitting wheel arches .. imho they won't hurt to save better paint on car sides), kit to auto-fold mirrors when locking car. Also thinking how to better hard mount fire extinquisher inside spare donut wheel for it to not rattle and to not use any trunk or cabin space. Not decided on shark-fin antenna, don't like stock, but don't want to get worse radio reception. Not sure yet which way to go with audio upgrades.
  Todo: better hiding/routing charging wire to phone holder and usb extension wire to ipod in glove department.
  Didn't like - perrin 'drift' button. Installed it, tried out few times, seen that almost never really used it instead getting sideways using other methods, but in much more cases disliked removed spring, hence put it back, but then should have skipped this purchase in first place.
  Stock cup holders suck, but seems that my coffee mug fits well in doors bottle holders. Gave up searching one i would like (liked Tom's in airvent, but it's for RHD only)
  Biggest source of rattles are latches of rear seats (imho ~ 2/3). So far used duct tape around U latching hooks, but it's too short lived. I need to find some plastics that will fit well there and will do better wear-wise, to not need to re-tape after once or twice lowering seats and latching them back.
  Performance upgrades: biggest gains are from aftermarket decatted header (manifold) + ecu tune. Header upgrade in many cases also helps fixing torque dip. Hence imho you'd be better off with upgrading header and stock frontpipe with second cat, then vice-versa.
  I am rather happy with rest of car performance and suspension bits in stock, but am thinking of doing some lightening. For example going to some LW 16" forged wheels, lighter BBK, maybe pulleys/LWFW/driveshaft. Or even if 17", still lighter then stock ones. +some good rubber on them once i burn through OEM Primacies. Michelin Super Pilot Sport-s seem well spoken of.

Welcome along, I have changed my gearknob to a team voodoo one, there's a pic in my build thread. I changed it because the stitch line and shape annoyed me. 
 
The other improvement I have made is an arm rest, I made my own and trimmed it in black alcantara to retain use of a cup holder, but Toyota do a genuine one which covers the entire hole in the center console. Makes a huge difference to comfort for daily and distance drives.

Gongrats on your purchase, as for the rattles, well, just drive it. It's a car, it will make noises You're likely to get an influx of abuse for mentioning rattles here from a few members. But ignore them
 
Gearknob wise, I think most people are preferring just gearknobs without stitching on. Personally I don't mind the stock one, fensport sell a variety which vary in price. Other than that I don't know much about them
 
Cat wise, you can remove the 2nd cat with no issues and still pass an MOT with flying colours.

That would explain a lot if that's the case haha, looks like it was done by a monkey of some description, and I think you may be right with your point about the Clio. I came from a 2010 Ibiza Cupra, I sat as low as possible with the wheel as high as possible, maybe that was just my mistake.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome. I absolutely have a bunch of plans, and completely intend on attending as many shows as possible. I've been part of the club scene since I started driving, and my cars have featured in a few magazines, and one or two show winning stands, so I'm no stranger to it
 
As for plans, I am currently just enjoying the car, replacing the bits I feel like I need to (gear knob especially, followed by exhaust etc.). End game plans, sometime down the line (maybe 18 months or so) I would like to have a car sat on 18" wheels and coilovers, supercharged with a full manifold and exhaust system, 4 pot AP racing brakes etc. The car is a daily driver, but I've always done track days when available, so it will need to perform in that respect, and my past cars have all had a minimum of a few grand thrown at them to make them mine, so this one won't be any different. I hope to see you guys around, I would assume you'll mostly be attending Japfest etc., in which case, I'll make an effort to come and say hi (as I'll likely be on my own club stand).

Thanks James, yes, it is indeed that part, however, mine is fitted over to one side, not at all square etc. it just didn't look like the kinda job I would expect from the factory.
 
I generally like to sit as low as possible with the wheel relatively high and close to my chest. I can get it close enough, for sure, but I would generally expect to be able to get a good inch or so further down than I currently am.
 
It's no biggie, to be honest, just something that I thought wouldn't hurt asking about.
 
Also thanks everyone else for the confirmation and welcome. Wrote this post about 30 minutes ago and forgot to hit send.