[UK Carrera]

I've doen some work on my car over the last few weeks - new Bilstein Sport dampers all round, replaced the track rod ends, new steering rack gaiters, new inner anti-roll bar bushes, and a few misc. bits.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to make some decent trips in it, to Castle Combe circuit and Shelsey Walsh. Despite it needing some work on the ride heights the car feels so much better. Although my car only has 49k miles the improvement in damping is significant - the car no longer feels as though it is 'crashing' into road 'features'. It's firm, but very well damped.

I replaced the tie rod ends due to the fact that the previous owner had fitted a Turbo tie-rod kit and the track rod ends in tis kit were of veru poor quality - in less than a year the gaiters had literally dissolved! My surprise is that the steering feels distinctly smoother - perhaps the joints were of poor quality in other respects. I also replaced the steering gaiters and added some more grease to the rack.

Most difficult part of the job? What should have been the simplest - refitting the belly pan and anti-roll bar bushes/brackets. The rear bolts go into the body and pass through the belly pan, antil-roll bar bush bracket and another bracket before the body. Getting all three to line up was a pain - with the added fear of a cross-thread!