Blu's Suzuki Ignis Sport

Barcellos · Dec 16, 2014

Great car! I've never seen one of these in Brazil, maybe because Suzuki stopped selling here in 2001 or 2002 and in that days they just used to sell the Jimny, the Vitara and it's bigger brother Grand Vitara. Now they're back since 2008 once again with the Jimny (the same as MY1998), the Grand Vitara, the SX4 (Fiat doesn't sell Sedici here) and the Swift...

To own a Jap is never a bad idea... Even though I can't stop looking Fiat in a lovely way, now in my garage there are two of these: a muzzy (but efficient) CR-V and a Fit (Jazz). Know what? There's no regrets. Of course I'd rather own a Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde and a X1

rive 35i but I'm happy with my JDM rides...

blu73 · Dec 16, 2014

I shall be moving on in the not too distant future - thought it was about time i got a few of these cars I have always fancied having instead of buying little fiat after little fiat... I have in the past had quite a few other cars whilst still having fiats but when i started having 3, 4 or even 5 cars at once I never had enough money to do much to any of them, was a struggle to afford to insure them and keep them maintained!!!
So yeah when i have finished messing with the silver one it will be replaced with something else from the 'must own at some point' list of cars - which i'll admit there is several fiats I have never had on still. Namely 126, Uno Turbo, Coupe 20VT.. There is others but they are the 3 i want most at the moment - whether one if them is next or not depends whats for sale when i start looking at new cars i suppose

Barcellos · Dec 16, 2014

blu73 said:
I shall be moving on in the not too distant future - thought it was about time i got a few of these cars I have always fancied having instead of buying little fiat after little fiat... I have in the past had quite a few other cars whilst still having fiats but when i started having 3, 4 or even 5 cars at once I never had enough money to do much to any of them, was a struggle to afford to insure them and keep them maintained!!!
So yeah when i have finished messing with the silver one it will be replaced with something else from the 'must own at some point' list of cars - which i'll admit there is several fiats I have never had on still. Namely 126, Uno Turbo, Coupe 20VT.. There is others but they are the 3 i want most at the moment - whether one if them is next or not depends whats for sale when i start looking at new cars i suppose

I know what you I talking about, I'm on the same situation. In the last eight years I owned five Fiats and in the first four years my garage had only Fiats. Then there comes a time when another car worths more our money (and that's ok hahah).

As you do, I have some cars at my "must own" list. Are some of them the Opel/Vauxhall Calibra, Opel/Vauxhall Tigra and the Ford Puma. Some Fiats I'd like to own some time in my life are the Marea Weekend Turbo, Tempra Turbo and the Uno Turbo. Everything in it's time...

blu73 · Jan 27, 2015

So been messing... The bonnet catch seized recently so couldn't open the bonnet, eventually got the bonnet open and for now have just removed the catch completely and stuck some bonnet pins on it.

Once i had that done i really had to get my sport grill painted as i broke the grille a bit getting the bonnet open... So now it matches the red one more

.

And now i can get the bonnet open i got round to some servicing on it, new oil and filter, new ngk plugs, magnecor kv85 leads, new front discs and pads. Also changed the front suspension arms, in doing so discovered that it has the wrong arms fitted (12mm shorter than they should be, and totally rubbish quality - not managed to workout what they are meant to be fitted to). So having changed them and them being a different length clearly tracking and everything was totally off so got it good enough to drive and took it to have the tracking done and i can report that it is a completely different car now, much more like the other one which i had until now put down to the fact the silver one has budget tyres and the red one has good tyres but turns out it was all to do with suspension geometry so that's a decent result, not in such a hurry to spend loads on tyres now.

So this is what the arms that were on it look like

And this is what they should look like

Erm what else.... Got some rear discs and pads to fit still when i get a chance. Thinks thats all the updates for now

blu73 · Feb 16, 2015

So stolen the Cades wheels off the red'un for the silver one, for now at least - really not keen on the white wheels, they look silly on the red one as well but i am driving silver one now so I'm having the nice wheels on it, looks miles better.

Also jdm style plates fitted and it has a stereo at last.

blu73 · Mar 27, 2015

So not a huge amount goes on..

Been out a few times for a blast about with Paul who bought the seiT off me, the seiT has come on along way since i owned it I must say, he has fitted everything i had collected while owning it and much more - Needless to say its quite a bit faster than an Iggy is (was before the changes to be honest lol)

Bonnet catch has been fixed and refitted and the bonnet pins removed and and the bonnet realigned. Bonnet has been poorly aligned since i fit got the car and has been annoying me for ages....
Here is a pic of how the bonnet sat, the catch was holding it over a bit and it got worse when the catch was removed. But check out the fitment round the grill and the panel gaps on either side of the bonnet :yuck:

And a pic of how it is now.. I not decided 100% on what to do about the holes from the pins - might fill them and sand back and then wrap the bonnet or i might get a new bonnet if i can find one for reasonable price and not at the other end of the country.

And just because, some pics of it all clean

blu73 · Mar 29, 2015

Well I went to meet Bushboy and his Bravo HGT yesterday..

And this happened..

So its a farewell to the Silver Ignis, but I will continue to update on the red one (if Amy lets me ever do anything to it, she taking her test next week and so the Red'un is going into her name next week and she is in charge of it).

Bravo thread started here: https://www.fiatforum.com/members-motors/421798-fiat-bravo-155-hgt.html

Punto1cab · May 18, 2015

Just joined this forum with a Punto Cabrio, & came across tis stuff on the Suzuki Ignis Sport...great little cars. I took one in 2004 on the London to Sydney Marathon (Rally!) Didn't miss a beat until the owner rolled it 2 days from the end! Put it on it's wheels, a bit of welding & Hammering & we made it to the finish & won the class! Not a car to be underestimated.

blu73 · May 18, 2015

yep, very capable cars indeed - i feel they lack a bit of character that you get from most fiats but very good cars nonetheless. My red one is now in my other halves name, its back on factory alloys as well. Doubtful anything is really going to change further other than i want some not-silly-tuner-style wheel bolts for it and i want to change the tyres to a better and different size.

blu73 · Jun 5, 2015

well i bought a non-sport grill for the Iggy. I knew it wouldn't be a direct fit from trying to fit a non-sport bonnet to the silver one - totally mad how many things are sport only items.

Well I wanted to put a stock style grille on and to save myself painting one in satin black i thought i would just buy a non-sport one which are black plastic (just think it looks better black than body coloured which sports have from factory).

Turns out i should have just painted a sport grill as it was a nightmare to get it on and sitting right!! The end result looks good though (when the bonnet is shut at least). And this grill was under £30 whereas sport grills tend to go for 50 or 60 quid. And the SuzukiSport grills go for over £100!!

So once i get this grill sold i should be about £100 up on the whole escapade.

Think i might (if i can be bothered) take the badge off the grill and paint it red - that's a maybe one day afterthought though.

Peter Pick-Up · Jun 5, 2015

You can put a Fiat badge on it, after all, Fiat does the same with the (ugly imo) Sedici, or whatever it's called..

blu73 · Jun 5, 2015

Its the Suzuki SX4 that is the same car as a Fiat Sedici. The Ignis is a Suzuki only car, and the Ignis Sport strangley shares very very little with a basic Ignis - I read this before i bought one but i really am amazed how different they actually are!! different slam panel, different bonnet, different grill, all the suspension is Sport only, it has different shocks and springs but even so far as the Suspension arms are Sport only items, the rear suspension also is all completely different to the non-sport. Wings, quarter panels, bootlid is all different too. Pretty much the roof, windows and doors are the only bits that seem the same. Totally mental really and the opposite of what you generally find on most marques where stufff is all shared across loads of models - apparently Suzuki doesn't roll like that haha.. Only thing i have found that fits another suzuki is the parcel shelf (if you can call the bit of cloth they call the parcel shelf a parcel shelf) is the same one found in a Wagon-R.

Peter Pick-Up · Jun 5, 2015

Sometimes, when I pass them in the blink of an eye, I noticed the "Opel" emblem on them as well..
( That would be "Vauxhall" where you live...)

Peter Pick-Up · Jun 5, 2015

Poor habit: badge engineering...

Btw, a lot of "European" Jap (crap) cars, are actually build in Poland, Romania, Turkey etc.
It's far to expensive to ship those tiny, cheap, Japanese build cars to Europe...so they build them close by, where labor wages are low...

Peter Pick-Up · Jun 5, 2015

It maybe obvious, I don't like Jap cars at all....)-:

blu73 · Jun 5, 2015

lol, thats ok mate, we can't all like the same stuff

Yes Opel is known as Vauxhall in the UK, pretty sure we are the only market worldwide that has cars badged as a Vauxhall.

Yep, loads of jap cars are built in Europe. The Ignis Sport though is only made in Japan and infact all Ignis' this age, sport or not, they all came from a factory in Kosai, Japan. And the name is different depending on where you live, most places call the Ignis Sport a Swift Sport but they clearly thought people in some parts of the world couldn't grasp there being a car call a Swift and another called a Swift Sport and them be different cars :shrug: The newer shape ones are either built in Japan or Hungary though.

The thing with the Ignis Sport is Suzuki built it with the sole purpose of entering it in the JWRC Super1600 class of rallying - and they just so happened to use the Ignis as the base but its completely re-engineered from the base models - and they never really sold loads of them, just less than 2000 of them ever sold new in the UK so they are pretty rare sight and are really a cool little car - no-one ever knows what it is which is a good thing in my book. No-one expects it to be as capable as it is and I like an underdog too. But back when they were a bit newer you could walk into any Suzuki dealership and buy all the parts to make it a full on rally car as an optional extra, carbon induction kits, race-y cams, wide arch kit, factory decal kits, the rally spec alloys etc etc, all of it.

StevenRB45 · Jun 7, 2015

Peter Pick-Up said:
Sometimes, when I pass them in the blink of an eye, I noticed the "Opel" emblem on them as well..
( That would be "Vauxhall" where you live...)

You're thinking of the Suzuki wagon R which is also available as some sort of vauxhall/opel. Has as much in common with an Iggy sport as a mito does with an 8c.

As said the Ignis sport was a homologation special the wagon R is a travesty..

Peter Pick-Up · Jun 7, 2015

Possible.
I often pass Japs so fast, I don't notice/recognize them at all...

blu73 · Jun 7, 2015

if you were to compare it to say a fiat, its like a panda 100hp. Just a bit lighter, just a bit more powerful and genreally (in my opinion) just a bit better in general. As I have said before in this thread, it does lack a bit of character compared to alot of fiats. But when i got the Iggy was a toss up between it and a panda 100hp and i just thought it was an all round better car, and cheaper, and cheaper to insure and less common so thats why i got one. Still fancy a panda 100hp though lol.

blu73 · Jun 15, 2015

Well small update, I bought a grill from a poverty spec Ignis - so black plastic rather than colour-coded or mesh like the SuzukiSport one it had.

And i can tell you now i wish i had bought a sport grill and painted it, making it fit was a total nightmare - but it looks good in my view (better with the bonnet shut though as had to cut ALOT off to make it fit)

Not sure i like it as much as the mesh grill but this cost be £26 and about an hours cutting and fitting and cutting and fitting til it looked ok. And then i stuck my mesh grill on ebay and it sold in under half an hour for £125, so all in all I am happy with the result.

Car needs a damn good wash and polish too, will sort it after i move at end of the month though.

Blu's Suzuki Ignis Sport

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