VX220 Turbo: Faults or Character?

I had the phrase "fail to prepare, prepare to fail" running through my head all week and was questioning whether signing up to do a track day a week after buying my VX was a good idea.

The first problem I had to sort was the bonnet release handle. It wasn't opening the bonnet and I managed to pull it off whilst trying, doh!!! Luckily I hadn't broken anything and managed to fit the handle back in place. A liberal dose of white grease on the locking mechanism and wd40 along the release cable and it was working smoothly again.

After this small triumph I noticed a more pressing issue, a hissing sound. Turns out the header tank was cracked. Not what I wanted to hear the night before a track day. Amazingly Evan Halshaw had one in stock for the princely sum of £20 + vat, bargain! I guess that's one of the advantages of having such a common engine. The tank went on really easily. Just a matter of disconnecting 3 hoses and removing a small clip on the front and in the classic Haynes manual way, doing the reverse to put it back together. In fact it was so easy to change it makes me wonder whether they knew this was going to be a problem and rather then using a better header tank just made it easier to replace.

The old tank on the left is really badly discoloured and cracking where the small hoses come in at the top. Nice clear new one on the right, made in Sweden apparently. I wonder if it's a Saab part?

Apparently these are both common problems. I was even talking to a fellow VX owner(friendly bunch they are too) on Saturday who had to do exactly the same fix that morning. Annoying as it is to find faults with a newly purchased car, sorting these couple of problems has really endeared the VX to me. It actually feels like my car now.