Finally I can be arsed to make a progress thread for my new car, most of you will remember my F:


But, in my opinion it was getting old and was close to needing a fair bit doing to it, so I sold up and got myself a VTR, yeah your all gonna call it chavvy and a french POS, but I feel, when done right, and subtle, they can look really nice, and hopefully its getting there, plus i've always had a little soft spot for these as they are cheap for their performance, whereas the Fs are a bit of a let down in that department of performance when compared with the cost to insure them.

Here is how I bought it pretty much, except I bought the wheels seperate
(One of the last pics of the mazda )

I firstly gave it a decent clean and polish, as well as tidying some bits up on it as I hate when things aren't perfect, even small details:

Then came to adding the subtle touches:
Firstly I changed the lights to some Ultra clear jewels and tinted the bottom half read...ignore the temporary wheels


I then picked up my wheels from the powdercoaters:

Bits I have missed out is small touches such as gold calipers, aero wipers, etc etc.

This is how it stands now with some HIDs


May aswell get ready to be flamed.

Certainly seen worse nice and clean. My neighbor had a dark grey one and a black one of these, or the VTR.. actually he had the S too I just can't remember which was which. White van man wrote the black one off though

Your F looked miles better though

The dark grey ones are rare yano, phase one i assume?

As for the F looking miles better, i disagree tbh mate, in most photos it looked nice but those two above it looks a bit too elongated, as i said in another topic, also it needed some skirts and a restyle at the back, the F is a very stylistic car for the time but are starting to show their age, thats why I made the bumper for it etc, in my opinion tho this looks pretty nice to me :/

Phase one? Not a clue, all just saxos to me From a quick google, it looks like it.

Looked at his pics, his black one was the VTR, that was written off. Then the dark grey was the VTS, don't know why he got rid of that one, think it had some problems. Both phase 1. Then he got a blue one, no idea what that one is, still has it but it started burning oil badly, so he sold it to his brother and got a scooby

I think the F looks better (despite the two photos above looking a bit wierd, not a good angle) because well, I like the F. It wasn't massively overdone, and I don't like small cars.

Yeh I think they only did grey on the older ones, I would love a VTS tbh, well a conversion may be on the cards if anything happens to this engine, but is only on 60k with the cambelt and clutch done, and pretty much full history

Its all personal preferance mate, the F was nice but it was time to move on in my opinion, I needed something newer, and I have always had a soft spot for small hot hatches lol.

Nice mate - love the finish on the wheels too


It is a bit french...but I'll let you off, as I've just bought german

Like this But then secretly Im a bit of a french hot hatch fan Wanting the Ax GT when tey 1st came out and a saxo VTS when they came out too. I did own a ZX 16v the 150bhp version and loved it, Rare as rocking horse shit back then now there platinum coated.

Nice touches on this Al, Keep us updated on what you do next

Surely a VTR actually costs more to insure than an F?

Seeing as more chavvy nutters wrap them around tree's

They can't be that quick, 1.6 8v engine?

What an absolutely hideous creature, couldn’t think of anything worse

Just my little old opinion.

It looks ok, but it looks like every single other modified saxo out there. At least your f was unique.

Thanks mate, yeah had them coated by that place near me, decent place



Don't admit that on here Yeah my folks used to have an AX each, not GTs though, but I did like them back in the day, a few people on the saxo owners clubs have AX's with tuned VTS engines in(ITB's, carbs, cammed, boost, etc) and theyre a bit of a blast from the past, but must fly.
I'm sure theres one of those ZX's local, although it might just be badged up as one, was on a transporter the other day though(typical).
Yeah i would of got a VTS if the insurance was feasible, although where the power is low down and easily utilised in this, with the S you apparently have to rev them hard to get the full power, the R is meant to pull on it in the low revs, not sure if any of that is true though.




Nope, when i changed from my 1.8 BA to this I got quite a refund.
They're not amazingly quick no, but they give a fair few cars a run for their money, its a fair bit quicker than my old BA and pulls so much harder. On paper its a match for a zxi(in standard form, theres so many cheap power mods available, im tempted to go for a manifold soon as they give decent gains on these), yet with it being so light and so easy to get on the power, it just feels a lot nippyer than my BA was. The only thing I will say is if you lift off in a corner, you'll be clenching



Your welcome to your old opinion, even if it is wrong.



You think that because you don't know much about and own one, think about it if somebody came on here who didn't have a BA, they would think they were all pretty much similar, as they don't know about things like ZXi splitters, flutes, etc. The problem with subtle being the in thing, is that its sometimes hard to notice and when somebody likes something, others will do it, how many BAs do you see on here with flutes, ZXi splitter, fogs, and lowered 40mm? Most of them lol, thasts why I started to change mine before I sold it. The saxo is a more common car, so this is enhanced greatly with lots of people getting the VTS wheels for example, i tried to go different by getting them powder coated that colour with gold calipers behind.

The F wasn't exactly unique, i just went a bit further than most on the styling, but i haven't finished with this yet.

Like I give a shit I drive an Estate remember

Alex why the hell have you bought this thing!!! its a French tin can!!!





Only joking!i quite like these to tbh with you, and they aren't to common these days anyways and rarely see a nice ones like yours! i like what you've done with it already looks subtle and cute lol. True about F's getting on as well when ever i drive a newer car i always refer to mine being an old dog compared to newer cars lol even tho mine drives ok!

whats it like to drive, looks like fun??

keep us updated with what you do to it matey boy

Lmao, i know i've always taken the piss out of the BJ model but in my opinion like i say yours is one that I would own



lol had me worried then, yeah your right about that, to say they are named as being a common car, theres only a couple of modded ones in my town, more than the F though lol.

Yeah my old boss used to say the F was shit and old and stuff(he was a car dealer that got to drive a new supercar every day of the week though) which is partly what made me realise it was getting on, but i defo miss it now its gone.
You got any pics of yours? didnt you get a new one?

Yeah its fun to drive mate, proper nippy, just a bit scary cos the back end are a bit scary on them if you lift off :/

Always thought Saxo's looked smart with sublt mods, But have to disagree with your opinion of the BA showing their age :/

Why on earth sell your Mazda to buy a French hatch?

Jokes of course, sometimes you've got to go somewhere different

I'm not a big fan but have to say that saxo is looking quite nice, the wheels are great. Glad you put it up in the end mate

Was stuck behind a nasty example of one of these today, lexarse lights, other halfords trinketry... do prefer the subtle changes you've gone for

god all mighty hes been taken to the dark side !!!!!!!!

bluearmy...cheers fella, nah what i mean is like when they start to develop rust and other problems is a sign of their age, the design is definately ahead of its time.

lol nick, read the first line before scrolling down and was like what the f***...pot, kettle, black haha.

Cosmos, cheers dude, yeah i got sick of people asking me to lol i was just waiting for a time i could be arsed to do a quick write up as its come a fair way already lol. People should try that wheel place if theyre near me, a bargain in my opinion.

Sloth, aye mate theres a lot about which is partly where they get their bad name, i admit i do like some of the subtle kittle ones, but a lot of chavvy examples do look tacky, did you really think after my f i would of kitted this up with some kinda vader 2 bodykit, lexus lights and quad japcans lol?

I have seen one around my area with what i assume is a supersprint exhaust, they look incredibly shit but was tempted my the asbo loud rasp from it haha, think i will stick with my powerflow system though as thats very deep and loud enough.

Mazda...haha your right mate, will always love the f though i wish i could afford to keep both.

No worries

You have a nice example, very clean Indeed

I understand about the rust side as they age but if kept on top of and cleaned they look absolutely stunning, as your F did

Thanks mate

and yeah it does help, but althought i cleaned mine religiously and undersealled the arch lips, it was starting to bubble through on the outer of the drivers arch...there was like literally 3 small bubbles but i wanted to sell it before it really broke out and pissed me off lol, yours doesn't look to have any from your avatar?

There is a tiny patch about 2mm across on the underside of each wheel arch, which has been sanded back, treated with rust treatment and dabbed over with a touch up pen, then finally sealed in, so we'll see how it goes.

Loved your F, seen it for sale on Autotrader when you were parting with it, and almost had a trip up

Saxo is looking great mate

All the Best

Ah yeah thats how mine started off, well less than that, there was just some really minimal spotting, which i rubbed back, treated etc, but i dunno if it would have been better left as it was? After that i had to keep sanding back and treating it as i kept seeing it coming through, with it being right on the edge of the panel vulnerable to stone chips it was ard to get a lasting repair, so i would deffo keep an eye on it

Thanks man, in some ways i do miss the attention it got, but we've all gotta move on, just take some inspiration from mine as it sounds like youve got a good base, in my opinion lowering and the wurher bumper were the mods that made that car

nice one alex, would never own another one my self

but you know what you like, and have more than enough knowledge to make this a one off
turbo is a piece of piss to fit as well well easier than on the VTS or VTL

Have you had one then?

And thanks mate
And yeah they are quite easy to turbo i heard, whats a VTL though?

Lift off over steer is fun mate :P just dont go into anything lol. TBH id only have a saxo if it was like yours and i was your age,

Yeh ive got another F white one that im putting Maiseys bits on and spraying up, honestly cant wait till its done and get rid, being swayed over to BMW's alot these days, hopefully a E36 M3 or a nice engined E46 coupe. Saying that i keep spending money on the old dog so thats got to stop soon!lol.

Any updates mate??

How you mean lol? dont hit anything ha?
And what do ya mean? A mk2 one or just modded like this? And yeah I thought I best get one whilst I am young lol.

You keeping it white or spraying noble green? And why you gonna sell up afterwards?

Yeah e36 m3s are nice, i like the e46 too...a guy i know has an e46 m3 and a gtr r35....the m3 is like nothing to him and everytime i see him in it hes doing donuts or got it sideways lol My mate has a 316i e46 though and seems to be having problems with the cooling system :/

As for updates, I'm trying to remember, I have a new one off grille in the making, and am on the look out for a decat mani...have also picked up a spare set of injectors so I can send mine off to get ultrasound cleaned, not really much has been done recently though except keeping it clean lol.

Really not a fan of these but you've modded it quite nicely.

Don't look up crash test vids of em by the way. You'll have nightmares!!!

Cheers bud, I need to get some motivation and order some more stuff, I want some wind deflectors for one.

As for the crash test....yeah i've seen it, I told my mum before I bought it and she said "Oh just don't crash" One thing I miss from the mazda is ABS, the lack of it on this means often when I slam on the car goes light and slides to the left, not sure how to remedy that?