PRC's 855 T5

**prc** · Sunday 7th September 2014, 10:20

Well as i seem to be getting more and more involved with the old girl i thought i'd start a project thread to keep track of the goings on. So i can look back in a years time and marvel at how far i've come and how much cash I've thrown at it!

All started when i sold my mk4 Escort as i never got the chance to use it. Sat in the garage constantly, wasn't exactly that enjoyable to drive and only had lap belts in the back so wasn't keen on taking the kids anywhere further than a few miles.

I wanted a car that was a toy aswell as practical for family, work and dog duties. My daily was/is an Audi A6 2.5 tdi which i will be selling to free up some money as i enjoy the 850 a lot more as a daily.

Here is said 850.......

Excuse poor pics they were taken on an iphone5 which as just been replaced.

I used to be in the motor trade and drove a couple of T5s a few years ago and always fancied one, i love the noise and the low down torque. For ultimate all-rounder it had to be an estate. I work in property now i'm always getting involved in the renovations etc we do. Also had to be manual. Oh and i wanted an 850 rather than a V70. Just a personal preference thing.

Discovered pretty quick that manual T5 estates aren't as plentiful as they were a few years ago but after some hunting i found this one in Newcastle. I'm in Troon, Ayrshire so was reasonably close. Others in places such as Kent ended up costing a small fortune in travelling costs. My budget didn't stretch to a manual R model. Was only one for sale when i hunted and was near on £4k.

Interior is full black leather, tidy enough. Could do with a few wee trim pieces replaced here and there which i'm in the process of doing. Also has the 7 seats, proved handy picking up a load of friends from airport last week. Oh and nearly every bloody dash bulb is out except ones in cluster, thats todays job.

Modification wise it has a Rica ecu. Wasn't living up to it's full potential but a new set of plugs and a new mbc have sorted it out ok. A home brew decat exhaust with a carbon fibre effect ( not even kidding here....) backbox which looks like it was fitted by a gentleman with no welding experience or fingers. Cheapo ebay cone filter with obligatory cable tie mounting. Sooooooo needs attention but is mechanically very sound.

Wheels are not to my taste but i have some standard T5 wheels to go on just now. These newer V70 ones have destroyed the arch liners and ended up taking bits of the inner wing back to bare metal. As nice as they are as a wheel they don't suit the 850.

Suspension wise it has a full bilstein kit fitted to it. Handles really well for a breeze block barge.

I need loads of wee silly things for it. It hasn't been too well cared for in last few years. Needs a lot of boost pipes, clips, brackets etc etc you get the picture. So a mate of mine sent me a link to a Gumtree advert for an 850 T5 which seemed too good to be true, it was an Auto with tax and test until november for £300 and was only 20 miles away. Needless to say i expected a total dog that didn't run right. Turned out to be a good solid running motor! Drives great apart from tired suspension, stacks of history including a recon autobox 20k miles ago. Bodywork isn't the best either but at £300!!!!! Went and collected it on Friday evening.

The Mrs parents are in Tunisia just now so i left it in their drive so she did't ask any questions she didn't want the answer to! You know the "who's is that other old car outside the house???" type of question.

The thing that sold me on it was how untouched it was, will let me turn mine back to unmolested and i can work on modifying it from there. Also has what looks like a volvo rip kit which will do nicely. And it gave me the standard T 5 wheels with pirelli tyres.

So i'll rob what i need, keep anything useful and weigh the rest in. Yes it is a bit of a sin to break it but it's an auto with ropey suspension. Sad to say but it's better saving mine in the long run. I will be keeping the engine from it aswell but more of that later.

So both at the garage so i can start swapping and stripping. The car obviously, my garage isn't a seedy sex club as i just made it sound!!!

Hopefully loads more updates soon, hope i don't bore you all!