Lauren
Totally Hooked
I've had my car one year and one day, today. Mine was the first to be delivered by RRG Macclesfield and beat the arrival of their demonstrator the famous 'Mule' as it came to be known by a week.
Upon site of the Estoril video largely thanks to Monkey London and the thought of owning a homologation special, left me in typical mid-life crisis. When I contacted my old friend, Richard at RRG, he was almost surprised that I was interested in the Yaris. But the spec and that it was a pure homologation special perfectly timed with my tiring 8 year old and 150,000 mile GT86, a deposit was put down at the first opportunity on 7 March 2020. A pure white Circuit Pack was on the order books.
As many will be familiar, the next part of this is a very long wait, with added bonus of COVID uncertainty. I was looking forward to a birthday weekend attending Goodwood FOS for the grand unveil, only for COVID to yet again scupper my plans. An online unveil, just isn't the same. I also felt I missed out on what could have been with invites to those of us with a car on order. But oh no, COVID strikes again.
By the time I got to the 10th November 2020 I was slightly nervous about how the British press might receive it. So much anticipation and nervousness ensued as friends asked me what I would do if it gets lukewarm reviews or worse still bad reviews. I tried not to speculate is about all I could say. Fortunately my punt on a car that didn't really yet exist at the point of ordering, had paid off. Have you ever seen a Toyota get such rave reviews? No, neither have I!
All of this made the long wait even more painful and the delay to mine and all the other first batch of cars stuck in Burnaston Derby due to a lack of the right colour wheel nuts, was almost too much to bear.
Eventually the day came. My car arrived on the 2nd December 2020 and collection day being a Saturday on the 5 December. Richard could have given me the car on the Friday, but bless him, he made me wait another day so he could organise for 5 friends to come down and stay legal in the bloody law of 6!
Now there is my happy face!
So much excitement ensued in fact that the very next morning I apologised to my fiancee at 6am saying that I needed to go for a drive on a cold and wet December morning and that I'd see him later. This was I admit as I didn't want him to come, I just needed to have my time alone with the car and start the bonding process. I felt bad for eating a Maccies in my car in Wythenshawe, though this could not be helped due to the COVID rules of the day preventing you going inside.
A quick scoot off to Oulton Park and down the borders on absolutely deserted roads on the Welsh Borders was just some kind of wonderful in three degrees centigrade, pouring rain in the gloom of a damp and cold dawn. But I was impressed how surefooted my car was and revelled in getting that running in mileage done.
It's funny, but as soon as Richard got his demonstrator, there we were in ever increasing numbers going for dawn raids down the Welsh Borders at 7am for the next three Sunday mornings running! What a hoot. But really with no pubs open and not much to do, why not eh? These were back in the tier days of COVID and having recovered from the virus myself and allowed out just in time to collect my car, I thought why not?
We'd drive down to Shrewsbury and have some food out. I even managed to catch up with an old friend of mine, Ross, a fellow petrolhead to test each other's cars as he had an FK8 Civic Type-R at the time.
Of course, Ross being Ross, jumped in my car with a 1000miles on the clock and sent it. Blimey, he was confident straight out of the box. I had a lot of fun in his Civic Type-R as well. Though I still struggle with the looks of it, it was mega to drive and the way it put the power down and the composure of the chassis was stonking. Ross liked my car, but as ever preferred his own, it didn't feel special enough to him he said. He drives a Supra now.
Still, much discussion ensued in the Smokehouse as we chewed the fat. A good day was had and it was great to try each other's cars.
I guess the next thing that happened was a bloody lockdown. What to do? Well, Richard had been talking with Andrew at DTUK and he had a tuning box on the Mule, so every Saturday he'd pull up, I'd drive and we'd spend testing maps, which became a real skill in itself. I had the time though and within a week had a box on my car where Andy would give me files and in the end ask me to explain how they felt on the way to work in Burnley and back.
I even had a dog co-pilot. Mascot Indy in residence of course!
Honestly the only real 'problem' I've had in nearly 18000 miles. This popped off. I popped it back in again never to come out again.
Upon site of the Estoril video largely thanks to Monkey London and the thought of owning a homologation special, left me in typical mid-life crisis. When I contacted my old friend, Richard at RRG, he was almost surprised that I was interested in the Yaris. But the spec and that it was a pure homologation special perfectly timed with my tiring 8 year old and 150,000 mile GT86, a deposit was put down at the first opportunity on 7 March 2020. A pure white Circuit Pack was on the order books.
As many will be familiar, the next part of this is a very long wait, with added bonus of COVID uncertainty. I was looking forward to a birthday weekend attending Goodwood FOS for the grand unveil, only for COVID to yet again scupper my plans. An online unveil, just isn't the same. I also felt I missed out on what could have been with invites to those of us with a car on order. But oh no, COVID strikes again.
By the time I got to the 10th November 2020 I was slightly nervous about how the British press might receive it. So much anticipation and nervousness ensued as friends asked me what I would do if it gets lukewarm reviews or worse still bad reviews. I tried not to speculate is about all I could say. Fortunately my punt on a car that didn't really yet exist at the point of ordering, had paid off. Have you ever seen a Toyota get such rave reviews? No, neither have I!
All of this made the long wait even more painful and the delay to mine and all the other first batch of cars stuck in Burnaston Derby due to a lack of the right colour wheel nuts, was almost too much to bear.
Eventually the day came. My car arrived on the 2nd December 2020 and collection day being a Saturday on the 5 December. Richard could have given me the car on the Friday, but bless him, he made me wait another day so he could organise for 5 friends to come down and stay legal in the bloody law of 6!
Now there is my happy face!
So much excitement ensued in fact that the very next morning I apologised to my fiancee at 6am saying that I needed to go for a drive on a cold and wet December morning and that I'd see him later. This was I admit as I didn't want him to come, I just needed to have my time alone with the car and start the bonding process. I felt bad for eating a Maccies in my car in Wythenshawe, though this could not be helped due to the COVID rules of the day preventing you going inside.
A quick scoot off to Oulton Park and down the borders on absolutely deserted roads on the Welsh Borders was just some kind of wonderful in three degrees centigrade, pouring rain in the gloom of a damp and cold dawn. But I was impressed how surefooted my car was and revelled in getting that running in mileage done.
It's funny, but as soon as Richard got his demonstrator, there we were in ever increasing numbers going for dawn raids down the Welsh Borders at 7am for the next three Sunday mornings running! What a hoot. But really with no pubs open and not much to do, why not eh? These were back in the tier days of COVID and having recovered from the virus myself and allowed out just in time to collect my car, I thought why not?
We'd drive down to Shrewsbury and have some food out. I even managed to catch up with an old friend of mine, Ross, a fellow petrolhead to test each other's cars as he had an FK8 Civic Type-R at the time.
Of course, Ross being Ross, jumped in my car with a 1000miles on the clock and sent it. Blimey, he was confident straight out of the box. I had a lot of fun in his Civic Type-R as well. Though I still struggle with the looks of it, it was mega to drive and the way it put the power down and the composure of the chassis was stonking. Ross liked my car, but as ever preferred his own, it didn't feel special enough to him he said. He drives a Supra now.
Still, much discussion ensued in the Smokehouse as we chewed the fat. A good day was had and it was great to try each other's cars.
I guess the next thing that happened was a bloody lockdown. What to do? Well, Richard had been talking with Andrew at DTUK and he had a tuning box on the Mule, so every Saturday he'd pull up, I'd drive and we'd spend testing maps, which became a real skill in itself. I had the time though and within a week had a box on my car where Andy would give me files and in the end ask me to explain how they felt on the way to work in Burnley and back.
I even had a dog co-pilot. Mascot Indy in residence of course!
Honestly the only real 'problem' I've had in nearly 18000 miles. This popped off. I popped it back in again never to come out again.
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I suppose this is what can happen in daily life.
