Tearing up the roads of merry old England

[BRIT-LIGHTNING]

Welcome to the forum brit-lightning. Glad to see another fellow member from Blighty join :beer:

With that 13mpg or less, I hope you have a good job mate Funnily enough, I have seen a sharp increase in the number of true yank vehicles on the roads here, particularly F150s and Silverados. I did get excited when they started selling Chevys over here, but instead of true Chevys like Vettes, Camros, Silverados, they just appear to be Daewoo s**te with a Chevy badge.

May I ask, how much did you buy it for and who did you get it from?

Hello matey
I dont have a particually well paid job i'm a motorcycle mechanic but i'm 38 and bought my home when I was 20 and worked evenings on the doors for 15 years to pay off the mortgage , I always wanted a lightning so this year I thought sod it and borrowed on my mortgage (you only live once!)
with regard to the fuel consumption I dont use it as a daily driver as long as I can put twenty quid in the tank and go out for a blast and hear that superchager whine im happy I bought it from a mate for £18000 I think I payed a bit over the odds but it's a good straight truck ,he got it from an importers in the midlands, he was'nt planning on selling it but he took me out for a spin and after that I just had to have it!
its good to hear you're seeing f150's up your way not many have filtered down here just the odd dodge ram ,
its good to hear from you and my sympathys for whats happened up your way in the last two weeks take care
be lucky
Brit-Lightning.

 

[nastynivek]

sorry mate I didn't reply to you in my last posts so I had a couple on your behalf last night :beer: were you posted over here or on a visit?
be lucky
Brit-Lightning

No problem, I understand the time difference. I spent about a month and a half over in Edinburg, Scotland for the Edinburg Tattoo back in 2002. I did manage to get a visit in to London prior to returning to the states.
Thanks for having a couple for me. I noticed that anytime I drank more than two pints of Stella, my world started to spin. Cheers. :beer:

 

[lightninmike]

welcome to the board mate! any info you need someone here can help you out :thumbsup:

 

[punky]

£18k? not too shabby. What the hell can you get for £18k these days? You can't even get a Golf GTi/ Focus RS (SVT focus, but with a turbo) for that. You can only just get a Honda Civic Type-R. The only car that comes close to your lightning is the Evo 8 and thats £30k. Nice buy mate

And importing vehicles is expensive, ask this guy...

 

[Mark@LFP]

Welcome from LFP.

I have heard they do have exhaust Nazi's over there. The decimal level can't go above a " recommneded level ". Which is determined by the decimal noise level of the factory muffler.
But I have still shipped several Bassani kits to the U.K. How do some get by?

 

[gbgary]

decibel...sorry.

 

[punky]

As far as I know there are no specific exhaust noise requirements, I have seen a scooby with one hell of a loud exhaust on. Every vehicle must have catalytic converters, otherwise it would fail the yearly inspection (MOT). You could always swap back to stock for the inspection. I don't know how well versed the cops are here about spotting catalytics converters.

 

[2004SVTLightnin]

Thats awesome man, welcome to the site. Like I tell everyone, you can be confident any problem you have can most likely be figured out by one of us. Hopefully you can do a few mods, but you sound satisfied. A nice cat-back system always sets you apart IMO. Keep the cats though, I feel the L's loose torque do to the loss in back-pressure. Ive taken cats off of a N/A 5.4 and it lost just about every bit of torque it had.

Once again, Welcome!

 

[quicksig]

welcome to the forums...very cool to hear from a lightning owner from across the pond. i bet it turns some heads over there...

exporting/importing cars is definitely NOT cheap...one of my friends in the business buys 'vette's, cobras, and harley trucks mainly for export to Sweden. the restrictions and duties are crazy...especially since Chevy started selling cars over there and it seems that Ford would rather not have imports from the US coming in. sounds like you got one hell of a buy though as even the harley trucks he sells in Europe go for some CRAZY amounts...

good news is that quiet old Lightning exhaust is also pretty efficient so you can sneak plenty of mods in before swapping it out...the only thing they'll hear is the whine from that Eaton :rockon:

again, welcome aboard...

 

[BRIT-LIGHTNING]

hello mates
thanks for all the great feedback
with regard to exhaust noise regs its all a bit of a grey area there is as yet no noise test at m.o.t.only a co2 test , but the tester can fail it if in his "opinion" it is too noisy ,the main problem now comes from V.O.S.A. (the vehicle and operator services agency) these people are the real fun-nazis they work in conjunction with police or alone and use number plate recognition cameras linked to a data base that can tell the legallity of a vehicle tax,m.o.t. and insurance ,they also have the power to detain you to inspect your vehicle and if in thier opinion any defects are found they can issue a prohibition order that means you cannot use your vehicle from that moment and it has to be towed until you can satisfy them the fault is rectified , it was due to a police V.O.S.A.operation that I recieved my letter about my side window tints and that was just by driving past while they were all busy with other motorists but one still spotted me (these blokes really must love thier job!!) :bash:
below are the regs regarding decibel limits,
"The external noise emitted by passenger cars has been controlled since 1929 when the Motor Cars (Excessive Noise) regulations were introduced. Since 1973 new cars have been required to meet Europe-wide noise limits. These have been progressively reduced from 82 decibels (dB(A)) in 1976 to the current limit of 74 dB(A). This means it would take 7 new vehicles to make the same amount of noise as a vehicle that just meets the pre-1976 limits.it should be noted that off-road vehicles are allowed to be 1dB(A) louder, as are direct injection diesels and these are cumulative i.e. the limit for an off-road vehicle with a direct injection diesel is 76 dB(A)"
this is for new cars but is used as the yardstick to determine excessive noise.
be lucky
Brit- Lightning.

 

[2004SVTLightnin]

Damn, 74 dB? Im way past that!

 

[BRIT-LIGHTNING]

Damn, 74 dB? Im way past that!

Hello mate
thanks for the welcome earlier also to SVTsig and all the others,
i'm glad you can get away with your exhaust like they say i'ts "the land of the free" and more power to your elbow ,it seems that over here you're not supposed to stand out and if you try, you get persicuted but hey I WONT let them grind me down , like a mate of mine said just keep saying to yourself
"I'M A RUBBER DUCK AND YOU CANT CRACK ME" :lol1:
be lucky
Brit-Lightning.

 

[2004SVTLightnin]

HAHAHA! I set off alarms everywhere I go with my exhaust. Its very loud. When I blew the mid-pipes off my muffler I freaked cause I couldnt hear myself thinkin.

 

[BT2001SVT]

Welcome; way to represent :beer:

 

[BRIT-LIGHTNING]

hello mate,
:lol1: sounds like your exhaust could "crinkle bricks at fifty yards"
I've been checking back through post and see you were going to fit a ftvb how did that work out for you? if I start down the modding route that might be my first mod (more research still to do) whats your thoughts?
take care geezer
Brit-Lightning.

 

[BRIT-LIGHTNING]

Welcome; way to represent :beer:

Ta very much matey its just great to have found a home with so many cool people as I said in my first post I dont know what I can contribute in the way of knowledge as there are some seriously clued up people on here so all I can do is try and play my part in the family
stay lucky
Brit-lightning.