My new Mini project.....

[IT]

Well, Its my second one actually.

My first one, here:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4490

Went a bit south as the engine looks to be too far gone to save practically. So, its been declared a write off in my eyes. It has 2 cylinders with low compression, on seperate banks. Way too much effort to bother with really.

So, project number two:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4714

Meet Frank 2:



Now, theres some history here which I'll bore you with.

I bought a Frank in May 2007, and by Frank, I mean a car identical to this, and by identical I mean down to the last spec, option, build code, nut and bolt. I've not checked the VIN's yet, but I reckon they'd have been in the factory at the same time. There were a number of these identical, high spec, non sport early facelift October 1998 cars built, and in 2007 I bought one in desperation as I could not find a tidy high spec, A8 4.2 quattro sport. Even back then I knew the S8 was overrated, thirsty and not as practical as the A8 sport, so sought to build myself a nice, frugal (ish) a8 4.2 QS.

In the same month, I bought a very high spec Prefacelift 4.2 Quattro Sport to use as a donor. The idea was simple. Take all the sport parts off the donor car, and make Frank a sport.

In short, my idea was flawwed. The Pre face interior was never going to fit into a FL car, and as that was a key part of it all, I set about getting rid of the parts. I popped a few adverts on Ebay and was inundated with requests. In July, a8parts was born and you know the rest.

'Frank' hung around for a while. I found a nice Dolpin Grey S8 (now Richards) and Frank was ultimately sold to the business as an LPG test rig / demonstrator of all things.

The parts business took over everything, LPG never really got going and the retrofit stuff we used to do we just didnt have time for. Frank became a little surplus around the time that Oli's beloved Santorin Blue 3.7 QS took a turn for the worse and chewed up a timing chain. We agreed to sport spec Frank using parts off the shelf, and do a p/x with the broken 3.7.

Alas, Frank was made good at last, but not for my benefit.... He was fitted with our first ever Facelift sports black interior, an RS6 paddle shift steering wheel and the wheels and suspension from Olis sport car. It looked great. Looks even better now Olis popped on the 20" wheels, big brakes and S8 tailpipes. Jealous?. Well, yes, I was a little.

So, here I am. Exactly 5 years on. I have a 'Frank' and an early Prefacelift donor..... What can go wrong ?

Interestingly, in 2007 this project cost me £10k and failed. Today, my donor cars cost a sum total of £2545. Far more reasonable.

However, the Frank of today has lost some of his youth. He's piled on 40K on the clock, and let himself go a little. After a full medical I can confirm:


* Screenwash level sensor faulty - So it stays on the dash all the time
* Pad wear indicator on
* Power steering faulty
* Xenon self levelling fault
* Faulty clicky flap motor behind dash in passenger footwell
* RNs-C screen flickers a lot
* Frong fog light broken
* Front fog light grill missing
* Wipers need replacing
* Electric fan squeals in operation
* PDC intermittent
* Boot carpet filthy
* Low brake fluid causes (!) symbol on corners
* Broken cup holder
* Missing jack and screwdriver from tool kit
* Broken ski hatch cover
* Scratch on passenger door
* Not a lot of rubber on the tyres
* Bit of rubber missing of drivers door
* Dodgy pixels on Cluster, temperature dependant.

The great thing is that all of these are really quite simple DIY jobs.....

On the plus side, it has:

* Recent Aircon regass
* Cambelt
* Water pump
* Thermostat
* Private plate to help hide its age
* None of the usual corrosion around the windows
* Lowish mileage at 103K
* Low tax being < Mar 2001.
* Solar sunroof - Really been whizzing along in this sun too
* Bose, TV, Phone and Navigation. All the bits I need to make a nice upgrade, easy
* Blinds
* Xenons
* Avus wheels already - Bonus
* Autodim rear view mirror
* MFSW - Makes fitting a better one really easy
* Heated seats all round - Perfect to accept my donor trims



So thats good. Its also taxed and tested for 6 months, so no need to worry there.....


So, a few things to fix. and a few things to change:

* S8 mirror cases
* S8 Bonnet and lower grills
* S8 Tailpipes (maybe....)
* S8/Sport suspension
* RNS-E
* Bluetooth
* S8 Sports seats
* Remove A8 and 4.2 badging


Probably:
* Multifunction tiptronic steering wheel from Amars RS6....

Maybe:
* Maybe a splash of leather / alcantara and some new wood....
* Tv, Reversing Camera...


This is my daily driver. The D3 is long gone. Already I'm feeling a smugness wafting around in it. I have a 4.2 Litre V8 petrol powered car that happily does 30 mpg on the motorway. Not, 'If I go at 55mph and take it gentle' get 30 mpg, but a case of whatever I do, its tough not to get 30 mpg on the motorway. But. It also gets a move on, really quick swiftly it turns out....

Thats brilliant. You'd think the D3 4.2 V8 petrol with its 6 speed box would be more economical, but no. You'd be completely wrong, and no, I cant explain it either.

and at 'only' 310 bhp, I know its not an S8, and I've broken some of my own rules of sticking badges on things that aren't, but in my eyes, this is way better than most D2 S8's 99 % of the time. And for that 1% of the time you really want more straight line speed, you do that, and I'll just mozy on past whilst you're at the petrol station.....


I'm hoping to document these easy fixes - as they are all easy fixes - then folks can run off to a8parts and buy some stuff. That way, David might overlook the vast quantity of stuff I've removed from the 'S8' I agreed to sell to him....

[Oli18]

Stunning car Ian! Couldn't have picked a better combo myself!

I will try and dig out the vin for you if you want to compare it.

Oli

[A8 Doc]

Ian, will you just drop an RS6 motor in one of these and be done with it?!

Still remember the days when my old D2 S8 was almost part exchanged for your RS6. Shame really! But the wife loves her engagement ring

[IT]

I seriously considered (and haven't dismissed) dropping a 2.7 biturbo in a d2..... They can hit 500 ponies and are way more compact to avoid the heat issues..... Anyway, this 4.2 is working at the moment so we digress.... ;-)

[A8 Doc]

Originally Posted by IT

I seriously considered (and haven't dismissed) dropping a 2.7 biturbo in a d2..... They can hit 500 ponies and are way more compact to avoid the heat issues..... Anyway, this 4.2 is working at the moment so we digress.... ;-)

Indeed... And yes we do. I'm game when you are for the electronics side

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by IT

There were a number of these identical, high spec, non sport early facelift October 1998 cars built

Did you really mean Oct 98?
My PF S8 is Oct 98........

[IT]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Did you really mean Oct 98?
My PF S8 is Oct 98........

Yes, totally. Oct 1998 is when they started *building* the facelift car. They were still *registering* preface cars for months after that with the dvla.....

[HPsauce]

Not knowing how many they build in a month I don't know how near "the end" mine was, but I think someone (possibly even you) has said before it must have been one of the very last PF ones built.
VIN ends 01540 if that's relevant...

[Singh]

That silver A8 of yours Ian has the wheels from my cactus S8 before I put the final editions on. The guy three owners back bought them from me.

[The_Laird]

Interesting project write up, but I don't think there's any need to be so scathing of the S8. We're all entitled to an opinion and a prefernce!