[diffuser]

Like most of us here there's something about vehicles which moves us on a deeper level just because of our connection to it. Have always loved vehicles so liked personalising my rides to make them more involving and exhilarating because I believe with a modified vehicle even a humdrum drive in the city gives moments of fun could provide opportunities to engage with and enjoy which is why an exhaust is one of my favourite mods. Inevitably being a biker at heart I loved the sound my vehicles make and to date only the bike I crashed on remains then only stock vehicle I've owned (only because my ownership lasted only a few months) but I've elaborated more on that in my introduction thread which I wrote a year after I became paralysed.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intro...-ex-biker.html (Greetings from an ex-biker)

Things have changed a lot since I wrote the above article for better and for worse however my 30s have helped me get better at taking the rough with the smooth.

Vehicle Journey

Step 1 - Honda City GXi (2006-2014)
Step 2- Yamaha R15 (2009-2012)
Step 3 - Kawasaki Ninja 250 (2011-2012)
Step 4 - Honda Civic (2013-2017)
Step 5 - VW Polo GT TSI(2018- current)
Step 6 - Skoda Laura TSI (2019-current)

Modification Journey

The R15 was the beginning of the journey where I could start making changes because it was mine while the car was used by the family as well.
Got a K&N conical filter and spark plugs because young me was told it makes a difference and I believed it. At least the sound changed and I just kept riding everywhere. a year later after I got a job decided that I want a bigger engine (don't we all ). so the ninja was shortlisted (more details in the introductory thread ). post delivery of ninja and riding it around often the R15 started seeming slow or maybe I was just looking for an excuse to modify. The R15 got a big bore (165cc) an air filter and a free flow exhaust. The changes made the bike seem more muscular and would make me giggle. There was now a great difference in the experience of both bikes and I loved having choice of vehicle for the first time in my life.



Accident Journey

This thread has the initial thoughts of my changed life post breaking my neck
and reading that back now 12 years later how misinformed and misguided I was then but also how many things I wasn't wrong about but that's for another time and place.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intro...-ex-biker.html (Greetings from an ex-biker)

mods(reposting link for context) please remove if repeating it is against forum rules

Post accident journey

The first few months I was completely helpless being paralysed neck down and recovery happened in steps

Step 1 - being able to move and balance my head (1 month after)
Step 2- being able to control some of my upper body to be able to at least sit a wheelchair (3 months after)
Step 3 - being able to walk with a walker which was taped to my forearms since I couldn't grip and then using a crutch for a year once I developed some grip strength.(12 months after)
Step 4 - during crutch times slowly started driving again short distances

2012
Finally being able to drive gave me a semblance of freedom all of which I'd lost and as I became more mobile (still very limited ) I started driving more and the old itch to modify came back.

The biker in me craved sound and the Honda City got a HKS Endcan , mid pipe and Hawk HPS pads. One of our rims got bent and I got a set of cheap alloys in my budget. This is how the car remained until we let it go.



In the meantime the realisation that I would never ride again had sunk in and so I thought okay lets get a faster car. The Laura VRS was the replacement I had in mind and got a test drive and almost finalised a race blue VRS however an unexpected medical issue in the family halved my budget so I started looking for a used car so that I can modify immediately. Was broadly looking for civic , cedia , laura .
The search for a bigger engine ended with a Honda Civic owned by an elderly couple which had run only 25K kms and felt during my test drive like it had never seen anything past 3k rpm far less feeling the VTEC kicking in.
So brought the civic home in 2013 to join the Honda city. Driving a stock civic was so aurally boring that I only completed 200kms before sending it to get modified.
Because I'd already planned what my VRS would look like I just applied the same on the civic. So it got a repaint in a custom metallic blue with the hood,roof,mirrors and boot in black. also added black Sparco wheels, EBC yellowstuff, Automech full system exhaust.




As the civic ticked all the boxes the city was sold off to a close friend and ran about 20k kms in 3 years after which an issue with our parking spot caused me to let go of the car. the hunt for a fun hatchback brought me to the only choice the of the Abarth Punto or the Polo GT. really tried to make the Abarth work but a hopeless showroom/service center/after sales support combo stopped me from pulling the plug and I vacillated for 15 months before finally getting a Polo GT TSI telling myself it would at least be a good daily as I'd driven it before but I really wanted a manual. The advantage of being able to drive around again was that I could get back in touch with nature and numerous roadtrips to hill stations and forests grew.




however I was struggling to gel with the GT because it felt so competent that I wasn't really involved with the drive. in the city I loved it but I found myself not taking the car for fun drives which I've done irrespective of bike/car. after a year of whining about my GT I decided to get a project car and the laura TSI was the obvious choice. a close friend found me a 30xxx run 2011 Laura TSI Ambiente which I immediately snapped up.




The stock car is quite a competent package and as I started driving it more (2000kms) I decided the order for my mods .

Sound obviously was first for me so a Milltek full system with racecat , EBC Yellowstuff pads &Bilstein B6 shocks. The exhaust left me needing a remap and I got a stage 1 tune came across a useless tuner copy pasting tunes and a lack of knowledge about supporting mods ( my lack of knowledge in the details of ECU tuning made me go for that brand just because of their pricing). the map was aggressive on first drive and I felt okay this difference is worth it however from the next day the car showed errors every single drive, any full throttle acceleration would cause EPC light to come on , blew plugs twice once leaving me stranded on the highway. Decided I need peace of mind and didn't drive the car much and kept doing research on who to take my car to. That's when I came across ICD Tuning in Chennai who deal with TuneOTronics maps. Took the car there and got a stage 2 tune (215bhp/320nm claimed) following which the issue of error lights hasn't come up except for some underboost warning when I've been lugging my engine because I got adequate advice on supporting mods. The map wasn't as aggressive as the previous tuner but I'd rather trade reliability over just power. so the supporting mods added were the usual red top coils, colder plugs and a GFB DV+ and an OEM+ intercooler. The stock one is so puny .









The Bilstein dampers did everything as advertised and I found the car more composed and refined at higher speeds. ran it for a few thousand kms and decided low speed rebound was a little jiggly which might have been the rough road springs which the car came with so decided to pair it with the Euro standard springs (10mm lower) instead of the Euro RS springs (18mm lower) which were the only two options. this fixed the rebound issues and completed the package beautifully for me. the speakers were dying so decided to upgrade and luckily my tuner found a OEM+ speakers system from some generation of the passat. as I put more miles on it realised the lighting was inadequate so got them upgraded to Hella G5 BRT and added fog lamps which were missing from my trim level. also with the trim level came 15 inch wheels so braking was the only part to be fixed. a used set of Passat









16 inch wheels and a BBK kit did the job with ATE rotors and Dixcel ES pads. I had been running on 205/55 R15 Conti MC5 earlier and kept the same profile as sidewall is important and I'd rather have some compliance in the setup rather than all out performance. in the meantime I'd already ordered a pair of Anti Roll Bars in a deal and they'd been in storage for over a year because I like spacing out my mods so that I can appreciate the differences. The ARBs were added and that made the heavy sedan as pointy as a hatchback however a little bit of ride quality is lost on rough roads. The car is complete and more than enough . Those were the last mods i made on the laura since the package is so quick and comfortable anything else would ruin my usability but I've ordered a CAI just to give it some more sound inside. have run 25k+ kms totally on this car till now.









The chaos of the city and the drudgery to get to good bits of road made the laura be relegated solely to roadtrips as the GT is a much better city car, however I still had issues with the polo especially the braking and soft suspension. got a set of ARC shocks when the stock ones failed last year and that transformed the dynamics of this previously crashy hatchback and then runs out of steam after 70-80kph . the only reason the polo remained stock for 5 years was the fear of the DQ200 and also it was under extended warranty until this year. over the last few years the new cars which launch have not interested me much mainly because of too much tech and ridiculous pricing. after the warranty ended got a downpipe , Stage 2 ECU Tune (130bhp claimed), Stage 2 TCU tune and drilled and slotted rotors. took it on a roadtrip to a sirumalai last week. its now a go kart with enough power and braking confidence. that was my first ever involvingly fun roadtrip with the polo . before the mods the only fun drives were because of duration/exhaustion was the reward. now its fun everywhere, a little bit of a handful in the city though but I definitely use it more than i used to earlier. Polo is at 40k= Kms



I'm so grateful for the people in my life who encourage me to experience different things despite being limited. Connection is everything.

Cheers

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Modifications section. Thanks for sharing!

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