[rshanker]

Karthik, I gotta say, what you've done to that little fire breather is just beyond brilliant! Its almost become a routine for me to come to this thread atleast once-a-day just to keep up with you. Also, thanks to you, I've discovered a 3M near my place (RMV 22nd Stage) Mighty impressed with their work & their CF wraps just worked wonders.
After looking at your car, I feel bad for neglecting my 2009 Punto :( I've now set off on making mods on my own car based on the 'Supersport'. Just placed the order for the badges off Partsworld UK (Have you had prior experience with these guys?)
I have to ask though, given that you're a big Abarth fan, did you try sourcing the original parts from overseas? Was it a case of Vitamin M (or) incompatibility with the current-gen Punto?

[guyfrmblr]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Another funny incident today morning, to be logged on the ownership thread as always .

One of my friend mentioned last week that he has spotted an Abarth Punto at Carmelaram railway crossing couple of times. I'm 100% sure that he is referring your car. I didn't reveal to him that its a Punto but have asked him to approach the driver and ask for the cost and other details of the car. So don't be surprised if a guy in White Cedia starts asking the details of your Abarth .

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

[b]I will be stripping that off and repeating the work, this time with matt black vinyl . That will give a more original look than CF vinyl.

Yes that'll definitely give it a close-to-original look. As someone else here had mentioned sometime back(I don't remember who), Why don't you put some kind of padding below that vinyl so that it becomes thicker and looks much more original.

If you don't get any padding, you can have 4-5 layers of any sticker below that and the final layer can be this matte-black vinyl.
Actually you can retain the current CF vinyl as it is and put 3 more layers before the matte-black.
The Base CF will also act as a reference for the final shape.

Also I would suggest you to have the entire shape in one single piece. Currently It think you have more than one piece of sticker to complete this shape

BTW, I feel you should now rename the thread title from "The Red Rocket" to "The Red HOT Rocket".

[KarthikK]

14700 km update:

There are still no new niggles observed. I've just booked an appointment for next Saturday at Vecto motors, for the Punto's second scheduled service at 15,000 km. The long awaited second service should be over and done with.

In other news, I've booked an appointment with Vivek and Siddharth of Tune-O-Tronics fame (cat's out of the bag now ) for the 2nd of October. The Red Rocket is going to be virtually free of turbo lag, accelerate like a true rocket and attempt to become a real hot hatch with a 115 PS remap concentrated on low-end and mid-end improvement, which is what I need most for my city runs.

I will also be heading to Red Rooster Performance to get dyno runs and results of the Before/After comparisons with comprehensive data logs and graphs, all of which will be updated here after it is done.

These past 2 months was a period of 'calm before the storm'. More to come soon. Stay tuned. My next update would be the 2nd service report next weekend. And then of course, the big one. 10 days to go for D-Day. And oh yes, there's the leather sport-seat makeover too.

Originally Posted by rshanker

Karthik, I gotta say, what you've done to that little fire breather is just beyond brilliant! Its almost become a routine for me to come to this thread atleast once-a-day just to keep up with you. Also, thanks to you, I've discovered a 3M near my place (RMV 22nd Stage) Mighty impressed with their work & their CF wraps just worked wonders.
After looking at your car, I feel bad for neglecting my 2009 Punto :( I've now set off on making mods on my own car based on the 'Supersport'. Just placed the order for the badges off Partsworld UK (Have you had prior experience with these guys?)

Thanks a lot for the kind words rshanker! Glad you enjoy going through this thread as much as I enjoyed doing up the car during the formative days.

I procured the order via parts-world UK. I had a contact get it for me when he was returning from the UK around the same time. As far as I know, they don't ship to India. There are however a few other vendors on ebay uk who might ship the badge set to India. Here's one that interested me:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ABARTH-upg...item3a7aaa5e63

The alloy centre caps are however not Abarth OEM spares. The rest of the decals are. He seems to have mentioned about that too.

I have to ask though, given that you're a big Abarth fan, did you try sourcing the original parts from overseas? Was it a case of Vitamin M (or) incompatibility with the current-gen Punto?

Do you mean body parts like bumpers?? Vitamin M wouldn't have been so much of a hindrance. I have 2 other grouses, one of which you guessed properly.

- incompatibility with our Indian Puntos so it is difficult to retrofit the Evo version's bumpers and grill onto these cars.

- I use this car in choc-a-bloc traffic everyday, on roads filled with morons in perpetual hurry to squeeze into gaps. Bumpers are the most prone to damage and I wouldn't want to keep pouring huge money into replacing something which is likely to be scratched or rear-ended frequently.

Originally Posted by guyfrmblr

One of my friend mentioned last week that he has spotted an Abarth Punto at Carmelaram railway crossing couple of times. I'm 100% sure that he is referring your car. I didn't reveal to him that its a Punto but have asked him to approach the driver and ask for the cost and other details of the car. So don't be surprised if a guy in White Cedia starts asking the details of your Abarth .

LOL! I haven't spotted this Cedia lately, but will keep my eyes open and try to fool him with the fake Abarth, hehe.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Yes that'll definitely give it a close-to-original look. As someone else here had mentioned sometime back(I don't remember who), Why don't you put some kind of padding below that vinyl so that it becomes thicker and looks much more original.

If you don't get any padding, you can have 4-5 layers of any sticker below that and the final layer can be this matte-black vinyl.
Actually you can retain the current CF vinyl as it is and put 3 more layers before the matte-black.
The Base CF will also act as a reference for the final shape.

Superb idea hemanth. I'll overlap the matt vinyls on the current CF and rectify the shape. This should fix the issue

Also I would suggest you to have the entire shape in one single piece. Currently It think you have more than one piece of sticker to complete this shape

Actually it is one single piece now itself. I had him cut the shape from one large rectangle superimposed over the number plate area. Ditto with the front bumper. Maybe the CF vinyl and its (parallel lines) design is giving that illusion of being made of multiple cut pieces. Anyway, this illusion will also be removed with the matt black wrap which has a plain texture.

BTW, I feel you should now rename the thread title from "The Red Rocket" to "The Red HOT Rocket".

Haha, probably after the remap we'll get to this as well.

[Arkesh]

You have already done so much to make it Abarth. Just go for the much awaited performance remap and let it breathe the cold Bangalore air and spit fire from exhaust. Looking forward for your updates soon, as I was waiting for the same since long.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Guess what I saw today morning when i opened facebook?

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Superb idea hemanth. I'll overlap the matt vinyls on the current CF and rectify the shape. This should fix the issue

Sidhu says he is definitely not going to do matt black vinyls on your car. Something along the lines of - he has already blown too much money on the stickers.

[NFS2024]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

14700 km update:

There are still no new niggles observed. I've just booked an appointment for next Saturday at Vecto motors, for the Punto's second scheduled service at 15,000 km. The long awaited second service should be over and done with.

In other news, I've booked an appointment with Vivek and Siddharth of Tune-O-Tronics fame (cat's out of the bag now ) for the 2nd of October. The Red Rocket is going to be virtually free of turbo lag, accelerate like a true rocket and attempt to become a real hot hatch with a 115 PS remap concentrated on low-end and mid-end improvement, which is what I need most for my city runs.

Be very aware that remapping will drastically reduce the fuel economy very badly, but on the other had performance will be amazing..am quoting from my remapped swift experience with tune o tronics.

[rshanker]

Thanks for the update & the ebay link Karthik. Will look it up (or) suggest to a friend. The actual irony though is that I've yet to see your car on the road Can't wait for your feedback on remap.
I read some pages back that you tried the RD box~ Any idea if the FE drops off the cliff after the initial period (or) does it hold good / gets better with the continued usage of the box?

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Arkesh

You have already done so much to make it Abarth. Just go for the much awaited performance remap and let it breathe the cold Bangalore air and spit fire from exhaust. Looking forward for your updates soon, as I was waiting for the same since long.

Hang on, just 10 more days to go. Plus, october end is going to be an exciting period for the car's interiors too!

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Guess what I saw today morning when i opened facebook?

Attachment 1141700

Haha, and credit goes to BHPian eminenttismo who had given those superb illustration pictures he created on photoshop.

Sidhu says he is definitely not going to do matt black vinyls on your car. Something along the lines of - he has already blown too much money on the stickers.

I talked him out of talking me out of the revamp. Too late now. Appointment fixed for next Sunday , in addition to the annual paint sealant treatment.

Originally Posted by NFS2024

Be very aware that remapping will drastically reduce the fuel economy very badly, but on the other had performance will be amazing..am quoting from my remapped swift experience with tune o tronics.

Thanks for the heads up NFS2024. I'll keep an eye on the FE figures since I will be using this car every day for my 70km per day office commute. TOT has told me they will be ready to make adjustments to the maps if I am unhappy with any particular aspect at any time. I'll see if we can arrive at a balance between FE loss and better driveability. I am hardly looking at top-end gains at all, so my FE loss shouldn't be significant according to what TOT said. Could you tell me a little about your remap and how was your experience with TOT, and with the map itself. It would be super helpful to a prospective customer like me.

Originally Posted by rshanker

Thanks for the update & the ebay link Karthik. Will look it up (or) suggest to a friend. The actual irony though is that I've yet to see your car on the road Can't wait for your feedback on remap.
I read some pages back that you tried the RD box~ Any idea if the FE drops off the cliff after the initial period (or) does it hold good / gets better with the continued usage of the box?

I'll put up my feedback (both theoretical and actual) as soon as I begin using it and can clock a few miles on it. Actually I haven't installed the RD box on my car at all. I have only briefly driven cRaZy DrIvEr's Punto 90HP with the RD box and had poured my thoughts out in this thread.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...ml#post3081088

For any RD box queries on the Punto 90, CrazyDriver and Scofield will be the best people to answer them.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by rshanker

Thanks for the update & the ebay link Karthik. Will look it up (or) suggest to a friend. The actual irony though is that I've yet to see your car on the road Can't wait for your feedback on remap.
I read some pages back that you tried the RD box~ Any idea if the FE drops off the cliff after the initial period (or) does it hold good / gets better with the continued usage of the box?

Some very interesting comparison reviews might be coming up within the next two weeks. Should be worth the wait for BHP'ians who are confused between the box or the remap thoughts!

[KarthikK]

14950 km update :

The second big milestone is almost here, and this also means it is the second time the Punto will be visiting the service centre for the routine 15k free service. The service is scheduled for tomorrow morning, so I will be updating the service chart and details as usual, by tomorrow evening.

Following closely will be the annual Paint sealant treatment at 3M car care and a major revamp of all faux Abarth panels (currently CF) to more original-looking matt black vinyls.

On the modifications front, there are 3 major updates to transform the car over the next few weeks.

- One sore thumb, the OEM plain headlamps will soon be replaced with OEM black headlamps, possibly with better headlamp bulbs. The part has already arrived at home from Mumbai based Kava automobiles, and it should be a DIY swap job taking a few hours to retrofit. Thanks to BHPians DRIV3R, and nkrishnap for helping procure this part. The current OEM headlamp set will be kept aside for standby, going in line with my policy of reversible modifications.

Parcel containing the OEM black headlamps, yet to be unboxed



- I have procured LED DRLs for the Punto. Yes it may stick out a bit and look awkward, but I also would like to have this as a safety add-on in addition to differentiating this Punto from the rest. There has been no compromise in quality, or the degree of alterations required. The brand chosen was the top-of-the-line OSRAM LED Light@Day, over the equivalent Philips DRL5 range which was not available with any of the dealers here. OSRAM Light@Day is a DIY kit with LED DRLs which last for upto 5000 hours, it comes with 5 years of warranty and does not require any wire splicing or electrical alterations. The DRL light is 6000K and even the illumination power is adjustable based on need. I can even interchange it onto the Linea when need be (on highway trips), so this product was well worth the extra cost invested. Step-wise fitting details with pictures will come out in a separate DIY thread, but the pictures should be up here after I do the fitting next weekend. Who says DRLs will look awkward on a Punto?? I'll see how we can integrate this into the existing grill in the angles most suitable. Nothing is impossible.

The fancy suitcase has arrived.


- The long-awaited remap plans are on for the 2nd October. The dyno runs will be done on 5th of October, after which there will be a detailed write-up on that.

- Largely inspired by the BMW sport range interiors, I am trying to convert the interior dashboard chrome strips and chrome AC vent controls into reflective red (masking with red reflective tape) on an experimental basis, assuming it does hold up well and doesn't end up looking cheap.
- A timepass nighttime eye-candy photoshoot, with a goofy name 'Red Devil Rocket concept' , planned sometime next week with Red Neons outlining the boring dashboard layout and possibly an ad-hoc setup for footwell neons tapping into the door open sensors. This is purely for photoshoot use (will not be using this on the road) and will be dismantled after the shoot is done with.

Stay tuned. The Avalanche, part-2 has only just begun *winks*.

[nkrishnap]

Karthik, you forgot to mention how the shipment happend so quick. That is one heck of a trick you played on the courier guys. Ebay's shipment should have been the fastest in their history.

ROFL

[motomaverick]

Originally Posted by NFS2024

Be very aware that remapping will drastically reduce the fuel economy very badly, but on the other had performance will be amazing..am quoting from my remapped swift experience with tune o tronics.

Well I used to get bad mileage till i changed the air filter as well as serviced the car. I had got the remap done inbetween the 20 & 30k service. However, now in the city it gives me around 15 to 15.5 at best and at worst 13.5 (all as per MID). So I would not blame everything on the remap, it will depend on how you control that right foot

Originally Posted by KarthikK

14950 km update :


- The long-awaited remap plans are on for the 2nd October. The dyno runs will be done on 5th of October, after which there will be a detailed write-up on that.

.

Ah! finally you are taking the plunge with the remapping. I remember you asking me each time we met about the remap. So you are getting the 115ps adjustment, this is pretty good actually, around 245NM torque. Currently I am running a 260NM torque. Let me know when you are planning the DYno, I would like to see my car figures as well.

[KarthikK]

Few updates from me:

- The second service was done at 15000 km. Vecto motors are yet to give me the full invoice (They were facing some issue with their system on Saturday). I'll put in my worklog with service work details as soon as I collect the invoice and jobcard breakup, maybe in a couple of days when I'm able to go there again.

- Black Headlamps have been retrofitted on the Punto. I ran into a small roadblock with the parts supplied by Kava auto. The reflector on the RH (driver side) is broken off (probably due to improper packaging), so I demanded a replacement piece which is on transit. I'll upload the detailed pictures of this as soon as I exchange/fit the replacement lamp back into place. There was also some moisture trapped inside the lamps causing fogging. I'll need to get that out and re-seal the lamps. I'm still thinking I should have gone with Dayline Design in spite of the higher cost, really not a fan of all these side-effect fixes and adjustments. I still might go for this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fiat-Grande-...b8116e&vxp=mtr

- I got some Red reflective masking done for the interior chrome stripes inside the cockpit, at a local accessories' shop en route to my office. If BMW 320D Sport can carry off this red stripe inside, no reason why the same effect can't be replicated inside the 'Abarth' .

The red line inside the BMW 3-series sport range cockpit



How the Red Rocket's cockpit (supposedly a Sport version!!) looked before the transformation



How the Red Rocket's cockpit looks after the rebadging and chrome strips masked with red reflective



Another view - here's what a 'Sport' version of this car should look like, in my opinion. Next up, we will get rid of the OE seats and get full leather napa black seats with red stitching.



This week is going to be filled with updates of different kinds almost every single day. Stay tuned. Tonight's time for some special photoshoot moments from yesterday's team-BHP mega meet

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

- Black Headlamps have been retrofitted on the Punto. I ran into a small roadblock with the parts supplied by Kava auto. The reflector on the RH (driver side) is broken off (probably due to improper packaging), so I demanded a replacement piece which is on transit. I'll upload the detailed pictures of this as soon as I exchange/fit the replacement lamp back into place. There was also some moisture trapped inside the lamps causing fogging. I'll need to get that out and re-seal the lamps. I'm still thinking I should have gone with Dayline Design in spite of the higher cost, really not a fan of all these side-effect fixes and adjustments. I still might go for this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fiat-Grande-...b8116e&vxp=mtr

Sorry to hear that. I beleive the damage is due to mishandling by the courier which shipped it, as all of the lamps the rest of us bought are fine. (shipped through bus)

As for the fogging, there is no need to pry open the lamps and reseal them. After you park just keep the car running with the headlamps on for 10 mins, remove the dust cover at the rear of the headlamp while you are at it. The trapped moisture finds a way to escape and you can refit the dust caps before you turn off. Worked for me. Things would complicate if you try to open and reseal them.