Hey All, If you're like me, you love it when someone starts a thread about things they're doing to their car. Earlier this year I wrote off my old F6, which I loved. It was the fruit of many months of hard saving and long hours work as well as hours spent on carsales.com.au trying to find the right one. After I got the payout from insurance, I was in the same situation again, needing to find one to replace it, although nothing ever would. After looking for a few weeks, a mate sent me a link to one with some minor mods done, much like my old one, just this was silver and had a big CAPA cooler. I drove it round as it was for a little while before my awesome DWF00N plates were reprinted for me, then shortly after that I had the exhaust split over the diff to get the quad tips I always wanted. End result was this: Its a tad dark, but those tips are awesome I think. When I bought the car, it already had a pretty extensive car audio setup with a VDO Dayton hooked up with a GPS, DVD player and HiTV HD TV Tuner all controlled through the ICC...with these in the back of the headrests: Shortly after, I got bored and started investigating how to add a set of subs I had from my old lancer into the equation. End result being line inverters and a nice neat install done by Incar Audio & Security in McGraths Hill: It was when attending the Crescent Motorsports Dyno Day not long ago that they wouldn't run my car in its current condition because the engine was pinging. I had no idea why and hadn't heard it do it before. I blamed the tune that was on the car and decided it was time I sorted out the X3 flash box I had from my old car. Turns out that had to be sent to SCT to be unlocked. Off that went to Herrod to be sent to SCT. Anyway, over the next 5 or so weeks, I spent come time accumulating parts for my retune. After inquiring about different cooler kits and speaking with Chris from Rapid Systems on multiple occasions, I joined the crowd over here at fordxr6turbo.com and started looking through the classifieds section. It was then I stumbled upon the following goodies: Nizpro Stage 2 Intercooler with Nizpro hot side piping and a Rapid Systems UB Intake. I thought these would go well with the Process West Surge tank I had come across on AFF not long before getting the new car. Parts below: After my parts rocked up, I decided to have another conversation with Chris about setting me up with some cold side piping for me and getting me a wiring loom for the PW Surge tank. He basically explained out everything that had to be done in order to get it on and I was booked in for the next business day. (This past Monday). So it started with this when it left my house Monday morning: You can see the top of the CAPA cooler I had above. And below is the engine bay. Just looks like your run of the mill turbo falcon The guys from Rapid Systems cleaned up my cooler as it was a bit dirty, found a hole somewhere in it and fixed that up brilliantly, recoated it in a nice black as it had stone chips and some rub marks on it from the previous owner, fabricated some custom brackets to mount it up, then went over the whole car with a fine tooth comb and fixed up all sorts of little things. The mechanics there are very picky about the cars and they found a couple of things on my car that needed to be looked at like the rear bearings and hubs. Due to the previous owners lack of attention to shocks and bushings, they needed to be replaced. (Shortly after I bought it I had to do the shocks and diff bushes as well as front lower control arms). Thanks to Pat from Wholesale Suspension for sorting me out with that too. They even found why my engine was pinging. One of the studs on the dump pipe had snapped, causing a massive exhaust leak. No wonder my exhaust sounded so deep when I was idling after just starting it up. So they also found the dump pipe that was on there wasn't the greatest (modified 3.5" with a 3" intake), so I purchased a 4" X-Force one and they put that on for me. Actually turned out cheaper then fixing up the current one as they would have had to do a fair bit of work to drill out the snapped stud and fix up the housing for it. So basically, while waiting for the hubs from Ford, the guys set about fabricating the new Rapid Systems V2.0 Offset Piping and Intake Kit to suit Nizpro Intercoolers. See bottom of this post for the different versions. After removing my crossover, airbox, piping from both sides they went about installing all the new gear. I have to say they did an amazing job everywhere from installing the piping and cooler to fixing up my dodgy wiring jobs with HIDs and Angel eyes. Its all now neatly tucked away behind the headlights. The end result of all their hard work: An engine that doesn't ping anymore, a proper dump pipe, a wealth of knowledge gained about my car, less rattles, an awesome set up in regards to the intake, cooler and piping. I also purchased a Plazmaman P1 BOV and they adapted the piping to fit and hid it from general view also. Pics below: Realising they couldn't use the boot space (Sorry guys, subs are important), they courteously wrapped all my old gear up in plastic sheeting and put it in the back seat for me. Once I got it home I took it out the back. If anyone is interested in the cooler, let me know. Its been good for 339rwkw in this car and bolts straight up to the standard brackets and piping as far as I know. So tomorrow 8:30am I am off to Crescent Motorsports in Liverpool to get one of Joes awesome tunes done. Chris and Joe were in communication the entire time the work was being done to my car so Joe knew what was coming and could start preparing for the weekend. Joes great relationship with Herrod Motorsports was also highlighted to me when I rang them to organise the shipping of my X3 to Joe instead of my home address when I mentioned Crescent Chris said "Oh Joe, know him very well, great bloke and a very smart tuner". So I am looking forward to tomorrow. I will post up the results and a video for those interested. (Dont act like you're not) Some of you might be asking about cost, and I don't like spending bucket loads of money to get the results I want. The cost of all the parts I purchased, from Rapid and guys from fordxr6turbo.com was about 2k. The majority of that was the cooler and intake. But the quality of the work was what impressed me the most. Looking through the engine bay they have done a really great job, and the level of knowledge and relationships they have with vendors is second to none. I will definitely be going back for more when the time comes. Also, for those who are interested in the style of kit I have received from Rapid Systems, here are the details: Name: Rapid V2.0 Offset and Piping Kit Contents: Nizpro cooler (supplied by me), Rapid systems UB Pod intake and Rapid Systems custom cold side polished piping Other variants of this kit are: 1.0 - Just the cold side piping to your cooler 3.0 - Cold side piping and 4 Inch intake as well as a battery relocation kit 4.0 - Same as 3.0, but with a Plazmaman Plenum. Any enquiries, contact Chris from Rapid Systems: chris@rapidsystems.com.au or catch him on 0403 981 831