Well here we go again, the start of the show season, and the start of meeting old friends at the various shows and meets around the country. Traditionally the first show is Japfest at Silverstone. This is one of the biggest and attracts people from throughout the UK due to the location of the circuit. Once again i hardly left the MLR stand so didnt see much of the show!  I personally think this speaks volumes of the members who attend, and the visitors it attracts. Unfortunately due to time constraints i was unable to attend in the TME, though if i was to do it would have meant taxing the car on the last day of the month; hardly ideal for obvious reasons! Its a real shame they don't host it the first weekend of the month rather than the last, i'm certainly not the only one who SORN's their car over the winter months.

What wasn't such a pleasure was finding out that the car's MOT was due to run out in 3 days time! Fortunately the local garage was able to fit me in the following day, and true to form the Mak flew through the test. As it was also the start of the month i decided to also tax the car, which now means she's all road legal and ready for some more shows and events. Bring it on! 

In other news my collection of spare parts is growing, so much so that i've recently sold a set of spare TME wheels that i had due to a different set of wheel's freshly arriving from Japan. I'm currently on the hunt for a new house and so to have so much money sat there tied up in wheels made no financial sense. I just need to get some tires for the new wheels and they can go on the car, but that can happen in time, no rush. So that just about sums things up. I did take the opportunity on the way home from the MOT station to take a few snaps so i will leave you with those. Cheers!

So as usual there i was just having a brief look at red TME's that have gone through the Japanese auctions over the last few weeks and i happen across the same one..... twice over. The first auction it went through as Grade 3c and quite rightly sold ....

....However this wasnt the end of the story as a few days later the car appeared again, this time at a different auction house. This time it went through as a Grade 4b and fetched an additional 512,000jpy .... thats £3,500 gbp!  Wow! Someone must have been very happy indeed with that kinda profit in 3 days!

Third surprise was an different car, this time 'Grade RA' ... with 141,000km (88,000miles)  on it - this fetched 1,615,000jpy (£11,000gbp)! Thats a fair bit for a Grade RA. If importing into the UK your looking at over £1000 additional fee's for agent and shipping, plus 10% import tax and then 20% vat on top of that ... roughly £15,500 and thats just landed in the docks! You then have to pick it up, convert it for the UK, MOT and register it .... so over £16,000 by the time you've finished! Phew!

It just goes to show, take the grades with a pinch of salt and always get the car fully inspected before committing. Or buy through a reputable trader such as TorqueGT as i did. Either way you can see why the red TME is fetching the price it is doing over here in the UK. The Grade 4b (formerly 3c) car would be hitting £20,000 and thats before the trader over here add's his chunk of profit on, and after following numerous cars from the Japanese auction houses to the UK forecourts i can tell you now it isnt always a small chunk either.

Have a great Christmas everyone and i wish you all a very happy New Year. Drive safe and lets all see what 2017 holds in store, i'm sure it's not going to be dull!

So the end of the show season has come and gone, not that i actually managed many - two shows this year in fact! Hey-ho, roll on next year and hopefully lots of Evo action!

So the cars been SORN off the road (UK law means you have to declare the car off road) and she's been treated to a liberal coating of GT85 (which is a moisture displacer amongst other things and also leaves a PTFE film to help protect parts). When i say liberal that is literally anything that isnt waxed underneath. So the complete engine bay, all wheel arches, hub's, suspension, diff's and diff hanger, exhaust .... intercooler ....  yup, everything! Better to be safe than sorry!

Check out the pictures!

Well its certainly been quiet since the house move - work work work and no car action at all, apart from the daily commute in the Mitsubishi Colt that is! The 1.3 Cleartec is averaging 52mpg so i'm happy enough with that, last oil service was £97 at Hull Mitsubishi so she's serviced up for the next 12 months, will be interesting to see where we are then with everything!

Only news on the Evo is that i actually got across to see her yesterday, exactly 4 weeks since she arrived at her new home. All seems well apart from i seem to have acquired a slow puncture on the front left tyre. It wasnt flat but was down to 20 psi so not happy. I've now pumped all the tyres to 40psi and i'll sort the puncture out in a few weeks when i have more time. You never know, i may even get out for a drive, ha!

Well its now the last day of June and what a whirl wind of a month its been! Not so much car wise, although abit of that, but mainly in my personal life. The biggest thing is the start of divorce proceedings, and secondly the sale of our precious family home seen in my previous bloggings (is that what they are called?!!). So we have a new home for the car (massive massive thank you to my Sister and Bro-in-law)... along with new oil in the rear diff and also the fitment of an alarm for the first time.

Alot of people found the last point surprising - an Evo without an alarm?! The truth is that on the supermarket sites there are lots of companies willing to insure the car without one. It might be my age (43) and location but they simply were not bothered.

However with the increasing value of the red TME's i thought it prudent to insure the car "properly" so to speak, and not just somewhere cheap who would only pay trade price for a TME. Enter Keith Michaels Insurance who once again, after using them for all my other  Evo's, has come up with the goods. I cannot stress how good it feels (yes - seriously!) to be using a company that you have total faith in. Yes, i paid more than at the supermarkets but the service and quality is second to none. I would like to thank Christian for the top job and i would recommend KM to anyone looking to insure their cars.

To meet the criteria of the underwriters i had to have a CAT 1 alarm fitted and hence the services of Pro Acoustics  just outside Bradford, West Yorkshire. These guys did a great job and resisted drilling the car for cable entry's and bonnet switches etc. instead taking their time and doing the job right. I was very anxious about having an alarm fitted as they can make a real pigs ear of it if done badly, not the case here! One thing i didn't expect was the confidence to now simply park the car up and walk away from it - in the past i was always on tender hooks knowing that if someone wanted to take the car then it was theirs once past my disclok. Not the case now!

So in the pipeline what do we have? Well not alot but i will see how things pan out. The future of My job is in question .... yes, it really has been one hell of a year so far!!! .... and the car is a good 40 minutes from where i now live so i think usage is going to be minimal. Hopefully i will see a couple of car shows out this year and i think that will be about it., though time will tell. Onwards and upwards as ever though, i am a firm believer that all things happen for a reason...

So i thought i would start looking for some worthy banners for the garage. Never did i in my wildest ( this is about as wild as they get... ) dreams did i imagine i would drop onto this baby. Had to import it from Japan, it's genuine Ralliart made too, as you might have well already guessed.... not sure i'll get away with it in it's current location mind!

Well where does the time go?!! Over the last month i've carried out more refurbishment of the TME - she's now got new oem graphics, new window seals, new muflaps to name a few. Check it out HERE.

The back end of last month saw the first big show of the year - Japfest at Silverstone. Here's  teaser...

Check out the rest of the pics HERE.

The TME world map has been updated - two new owners both from Adelaide Australia. Looks like Driven Motorsport had an offer too goo to turn down so their cars now sold on - congratulations to the new owner Mark!

In other news  i had a 3 hour drive yesterday to a local (wtf lol?!) club meet  (always a pleasure to be out in the Mak).... and 3 hours back again! Pic's were worth it alone...

So that just about sum's up the last month for me. Oh, attended a local cafe the other evening to the monthly Jap car meet. Later that evening on Facebook i came across this; nice to know what some thought of the car...

Well what a month March has turned out to be. Three weeks off due to surgery on my throat; i was warned by the consultant it was one of the most painful procedures you can have, and he wasn't kidding. I have literally been whimpering and climbing the walls at times. Much the same infact as the dodgy car traders who deal in JDM cars after i announced that i had found the first HPI check for Japanese imports. The results that people are getting are staggering and i dont know who is more chuffed, the owners or myself!

I have added a link to the navigation bar at the top of the website. I truly believe that this new Jap HPI check will turn the import business on its head. Cheers.

There appears to be no slow down to the prices of the red Tommi Makinens out in Japan. This weeks surprise was a Grade R with B interior selling for £11,200 !! Granted it hand slightly less than 50,000 miles on the clock but even so. This time last year Grade 4 cars were selling for £8,000! Where will it all end?!

I also have a 171mb zip file of photos of this car if anyone needs them, feel free to get in touch.

...is in the house! Finally completed the how to guide for seat cover removal and replacement. It is primarily for Evo 5 and 6 although i believe you can apply it to the later seats aswell. Shortcut HERE