So ... I found that after I fitted the BD roll bar, the stiffening effect that it had on the car, especially in the rear end, showed up deficiencies in the front chassis.
Ages ago, I fitted a cheap ebay strut brace, something poo poo'd by many
But I bought it as it was cheap, looks good when I open the bonnet, and can't really do any harm
Anyway, as mentioned, the BD bar had a great stiffening effect, but it also had a crappy effect on Mexie's front chassis. I decided to try tightening the strut brace to see if this would actually have any effect on the front end. Tried one turn each end, but not much difference, so turned even tighter and wow! to my surprise, it had quite a beneficial effect! Didn't sort it completely, but there was a sufficient difference in the feel to know that these things do actually have some benefit after all!
But by doing this it showed up that the car needed more sorting in the front end. So that is why, after much searching, I decided to try the Thompson Products front lower chassis brace. I really wanted the Racing Beat brace, but at half the price the Thompson brace appeared to be just as effective and had great reviews.
Having fitted the brace, the feel in the front end completely changed character once again! During all this I also developed a horrible vibration which felt like a wheel out of balance or a wheel bearing failing. I took Mexie in for a wheel balance/alignment and a wheel completely out of balance sorted my vibration issue, but when I drove out I had a bounciness that wasn't apparent before. Turned out they'd put 40psi in the tyres!! Ouch!! Also, since fitting the Thompson brace, the front end had become rather jittery. So when I got home and reduced the tyre pressures (geez!!) I also tried backing off the strut brace. I figured that now my chassis was stiffened, maybe the strut brace didn't need to be as tight? So after adjusting and test driving a couple of times, I found that setting the strut brace back to it's original setting made the front end feel great.
The result? Well, I'm no high performance driver as I've mentioned before, and I don't drive the car anywhere near it's limits, but to me the car now feels tight, nowhere near as much shaking through bumps and my confidence going further in to corners has improved hugely!
Amazing what a few cheap upgrades can do
So, can't help wondering what a nice set of coilovers, bigger wheels/tyres, lowering and some track time would do
Only a matter of time me thinks ......
... can laugh about it now but .........
So had a look at it and thought what if I just turned it around, would it fit? Way too easy I thought. But would it even function turned around and angled in the opposite direction? Only one way to find out ... 
- had the airconditioning fixed.
