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January 2015 - essNchill

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    Posted: 29 Dec 2014 at 11:14am

Congratulations on winning January 2015 MOTM Shaun! How does it feel to be our exclusive Member Of The Month and having your name up in lights?

It’s an obvious mahoosive honour but for me I always miss out on the total surprise element, as I always pick MOTM, so I knew this one was coming LOL! That said and as much as I am a private person (yeah seriously), here I am and I’m smiling as I write these replies out. I hope you guys and gals find my feature interesting. I also just wanted to add, that some of the questions being asked are the normal ones that all winners get asked and the others have been thought up by Laura, in a sneaky bid to probe deep inside of my Fluffy lil’ mind!

When the old COTM feature was ended in December 2013 and the current feature (MOTM) was announced, there were a lot of shouts from the members saying that your Nissan Primera P11 SE “Pinky”, never got featured as COTM and this was wrong, well here we are now.. Why has there been a 12 month wait?

I guess there were other members that I wanted to feature in the last 12 months and they all had very deserving reasons behind them being featured too. I had always penciled in January 2015 for my feature and here you go. BIG thanks to all the members that did point out Pinky needed to be seen in a club feature, sorry for the wait. During this feature I’ll be using some old piccies of Pinky, to hopefully take you through the evolution from standard car to the sexy Pink beast she is today.

We’d love to find out about you the person. Please tell us about yourself and what you get up to, away from the NPOC.

I am 43 years old and still living on the South Coast in Hampshire. I have a beautiful 22 year daughter Stefani-Jean and a 2 year old grandson Tommi-Shaun, with another grandchild on the way too! 

I have been with my current girlfriend Laura and her lovely Staffordshire Bull Terrier Tyson since March 2012 and life right now is awesome!

I have just clocked up 21 years service for the same company! I work in IT and my official work title is “Senior Operations Analyst”, I head up a team of guys and now work day shifts, after moving from 20 years of permanent night shifts in July last year. Working in the daylight is very odd LOL but the role is more challenging and my personal life (not being a vampire anymore), is so much more rewarding too.

Most of my non working time is taken up watching films (blu rays / Netflix) and club social life with meets up and down the country. Oh and I should also add gaming (Xbox) onto this list too, as I got spoilt with an Xbox One for Xmas from Laura, so I’m back into a console after a 2 year sulk since my old 360 started throwing RROD errors and got lobbed into a drawer under my bed!

So this isn’t the first time you have been featured, you won ye olde COTM (Car Of The Month) way back in October 2007 and featuring your gorgeous Nordic Loon GTLE, so what’s changed in your life since 2007 and tell us more about the Nordic, what happened there? As a reminder to all, your 2007 COTM is linked up below.

http://www.npoc.co.uk/forum/october-2007-essnchill-p11_topic7427.html

I’ll start with the changes in my personal life.. I finally got divorced in the latter part of 2014, after separating from my ex-wife in 2011 (shortly after hitting 40) and as already mentioned in my previous answer, met Laura in 2012 and my life changed so positively in 2012. I think I chilled out as a person and I’m much better for that today. I’m now a Grandad too, with another one on the way, sometime in June 2015.

I used to work for Amex but we got bought out at the end of 2013 by someone from Amex, who left Amex to do so.. He saw something in us as a company and put his money where his mouth is, so I’m enjoying my new role at the company and also my new hours. I work harder today than I used to but I totally respect our company owner for the risks he has taken and I know my hard work will be rewarded.

My old Nordic (RIP), well in 2009 she went on her annual Rolling Road Club Meet and pulled in a low 130 BHP, which seeing as she was in the 160’s originally and was now using a litre of oil every couple of hundred miles and some tinworm had also taken residence, my mind was made up and she was on a countdown until our relationship was over.. In early 2010, NPOC’s finest Reaper “Grim”, got hold of a low mileage and completely standard AT9 coloured P11 and my radar (gaydar) was locked on! Thankfully Graham took my Nordic in as part exchange as part of the deal and I became the new owner of Pinky and the Nordic went to Graham. I know that the Nordic lived on for a few more years and with a couple of new owners and then she ended up with member GT786 (Tan) and he broke her for bits and then the shell got cubed. The Nordic was a cracking car during my 6 years of ownership and even when she lost the power (I took her to 170K miles) and the engine wasn’t 100%, she still got redlined in every gear and never let me down.

So your profile join date shows as 2003 but I know the NPOC was formed earlier than this and you are one of the originals, how long have you been a Nissan Primera Nutjob and forum whore LOL?

The NPOC was officially formed in 2001, when a group of UK guys were regular posters on G20.net (USA webby), decided to set up a UK website. Back in 2001, we had 2 domain names, npoc.co.uk and nissanprimera.net which both pointed to one forum. In the early days, we were actually called the “UK Primera Owners Club”, before becoming the “Nissan Primera Owners Club” a few months later. I bought my first Primera in 2000 and was a lurker on GNet but embraced actually posting, when NPOC setup in 2001.. So that’s 14 years in total! Makes me feel like a right saddo haha!

So 14 years as an NPOC’r, what keeps you so interested in the Nissan Primera and the club / car scene?

I’m always been a people person, so for me it’s the people behind the screen name more than the actual car they drive.. So my interest in the club scene is the face to face interaction (as well as online interaction). I truly love everything about the Nissan Primera as a car too, it will always be the car that sits in the shadows, every petrol head knows what a good BTCC car it was but not many have ever owned one. They are sooooo missing out! The car scene as a whole completes the other parts, if it’s all about a forum only, you’re not getting the full flavour.

You’re one of the Club Owners here at NPOC, is forum life much different being behind the scenes and what do you personally get out of being one of the Club Owners?

The downside to being one of the Club Owners (and Forum Moderator) has always been and always will be, the “political” side of running a large online forum. When we started NPOC, we got the psycho head cases back then and all these years later, I can confirm those people still exist out there in the internet somewhere! These are the faceless keyboard warriors, who just want to kick off about something – Thankfully years of pressing the ban button makes it easier to do nowadays but I still don’t get it. All the paying members get on well for the best part and they at least keep me sane LOL!

Personal satisfaction will always be getting to a Club Meet and hanging out with my NPOC family, yeah I know I could do that regardless of whether or not I’m one of the owners but doing it and knowing that I organized the Meet in the first place, just puts a smile on my face. JAE each year is so rewarding, it’s hard work setting it up but kicking back with a beer, burnt burger and you guys, win win win!

The NPOC started from something so small and today it’s one of the biggest car clubs out there, I played a part in this as a member and Club Owner and that success is sooo satisfying! If you’re reading this now, that success is also yours – You’ve all been part of the journey!

So let’s get to cars.. Give us your car ownership history from the day you passed, leave any Nissan Primeras out of this list and we’ll look at them in a bit?

Sadly, I don’t have any photos for any of these! I passed my driving test in 1988 and stayed on 2 wheels for a few years, I also drove my Mum and Dads cars too  but here’s my previously owned (meaning I actually owned them):

1980 Simca (Talbot) Horizon - Bought this for 50p.. That was actually overpriced given the car lasted for about 2 days before it got towed away by a breaker.

1978 MK1 VW Golf – Blew the engine up racing a Cortina on the motorway! Swapped the car for a cot for my daughter bizarrely.

1981 MK3 Escort – My first modified car and I loved this one.. I even set fire to it whilst topping up the oil, only moved this on because I bought my dream car (see below).

1969 VW Beetle – Custom cabriolet, roof conversion with a kit etc. Loved this so much, it went in for a full nut and bolt restoration and came back to me as if it had rolled outta the factory. The problem was it had lost it’s character being all new and shiny, so I sold it on. Never lost a penny on this though, including the purchase price and resto!

1992 Vauxhall Cavalier – Lasted for a week before it went back to the forecourt I bought it from, they swapped it for..

1993 Vauxhall Cavalier – Kept this for a couple of years and then traded it in for..

1981 Jago Jeep soft top– SWB, RWD, light as funk being a kit car made from fiberglass and wood.. Donut heaven, until it blew up hahaha!

1995 Renault Clio 1.9 Derv (non Turbo) – Slow as shit, economical as hell! I bought this because I thought I should be sensible and stop owning fun cars, I hated it.

Have you got a favourite out of the “previously owned” list above and why?

The Escort was so much hooning fun!! The Jago made me feel like the Action Man toys I played with as a child and span on a sixpence too! But the Beetle put a smile on my face and everyone elses. I drove everywhere with the roof down and everyone always waved and pointed (probably because you look like a right twat driving in the rain with the roof down LOL).. I always wanted a convertible Beetle since seeing the Karmann Cabriolet but could never afford one of those, this one was close enough and had a dressed up engine bay and everything. I should never of put her in for restoration!

So bringing us into the Nissan Primera era but sticking with the cars “you have owned, which you no longer own”.. Give us a list and any specs you can remember please matey, oh and hopefully you have some photos stashed away too?

1995 Nissan Primera P10 Silver 2.0 SLX – YAY! My eyes were opened finally! I bought this on New Years Eve and at the start of 2000, I stopped calling the Nissan Primera a taxi LOL! Fate saw the end of this one (see my 2007 COTM).

1999 Nissan Primera P11 Nordic GTLE – Loved the colour and the comfort but always wished they did the P10 in Nordic.. This was traded in for Pinky.

Have you got a favourite out of the “previously owned” Nissan Primeras list above and why?

I can’t call this so will use one of my well known statements – “P10 for smiles, P11 for miles”, if only they could have made a Nordic P10 LOL! The P10 was raw, the P11 was refined and comfortable.

What got you into a Nissan Primera to start with, was it on the list of cars to own back in the day, or a chance encounter?

Complete fluke really.. My Diesel Clio was boring the crap out of me and I drove past a local forecourt and saw the front end of the silver P10 (it had the eGT bumper from factory) and thought that looks nice. I drove in and walked around and the salesman came out and did his bit but I couldn’t be arsed to go for a test drive with the guy sat next to me and neither could he! So he asked for my Clio keys and driving license as security and gave me the P10 keys and just said “We shut at 5, get the car back to me by then and enjoy the test drive by yourself”.. I was like “WTF!”, took the keys and spent 2 hours ragging the balls out of this car everywhere, I totally fell in love, I had never felt power or handling like this in any of my previous cars. This one was going home with me!

Back to the current day and we all know you have the infamously gay “Pinky” P11 haha! Tell us more about this one and let’s hear about your full spec and any goodies that Pinky has please:

The car is 1998 Nissan Primera P11 2.0 SE Saloon in factory colour code AT9, most purists call this colour Cerise but on the log book and according to the DVLA, it’s actually Purple! But sod all that… She be Pink!

Being the 2.0 SE (Special Edition), she has more goodies from factory than any other model of P11 (including all the GT variants), the SE is the top spec of the bunch! Pinky is also an automatic (not by choice but these cars are so rare to find regardless of transmission choice LOL!). The auto box comes with sport mode / overdrive / snow & ice traction control. It’s a good old skool auto and trust me, the power delivery is all good!

Factory Specification is:

Electric windows all round.

Electric sunroof.

Full grey leather all round with “SE” embossed into the headrests.

Heated front seats with side airbags.

Driver & Passenger front airbags.

Chrome interior handles and vent sliders.

Air con.

15” SE alloys / These are the same design as the GT alloys but with mirror cut / polished fronts.

Full onboard dash computer (same as GT spec).

6 disc cd changer.

280 brake disks all round.

Chrome exterior door handles.

The rest of the factory stuff is the same as found on any GT but the SE Loon doesn’t come with a rear strut brace or front strut brace, it also doesn’t come with any GT body styling, so normal bumpers and no sideskirts.

Here’s the extras / modifications that have been fitted since I have owned her:

KYB Excel G shock absorbers all round.

Vogtland lowering springs all round.

18” Inovit ST6 alloys (in the gold option) – These are a TE37 rep.

5mm spacers all round.

Drilled and grooved 280 disks up front.

Powerflow Duplex stainless exhaust.

421 stainless aftermarket manifold / header.

GT camshafts.

A&S Performance polished CAI.

Genuine Nismo oil cap.

D1 spec radiator cap.

Polished and smoothed intake plenum with enlarged 64mm (standard is 60mm) Jenvey butterfly fitted.

Custom cam cover (letters ground down and powder coated in purple).

Custom E-Tech front strut brace.

Limo tinted (hit man black style) windows.

Front GT bumper with gloss black centre.

GT sideskirts.

GT rear bumper with gloss black section.

GT bonnet grills.

No boot spoiler! I like it smooth.

Debadged boot, leaving just the Nissan burger.

JDM front quad headlights (with upgraded bulb pack).

JDM rear light units, wired up to have all 4 units on (with upgraded bulb pack).

Clear side repeaters.

Blue LED twin immobilizer units.

Blue LED interior lighting.

Nissan Primera P11 144 sunglasses holder.

Exterior chrome door handles replaced with colour coded ones.

Subaru Impreza rear under body splitter.

Infamous Rampant Rabbit gear selector!

EONON all in one multimedia unit / ICE – This does everything!

Plenty of gold NPOC stickers, these add BHP!

NPOC air fresheners and NPOC tax disc holder.

Personalised number plate – P11 ENC

There’s probably more here somewhere as I keep thinking of things I forgot LOL!

I’ve also got loads of other goodies still to go on the car haha!

So what’s with the Pink car then Shaun!?!? Nordic to Pink, how did that work and you must get some odd looks getting out of Pinky?

I’ve always liked the rarer colours but have never been into Pink (ooo err missus!) but owning an AT9 P11 is pretty high on most Primera lovers list. Pinky appeared on the scene at exactly the right time for me and there you go.

The Nordic got admiring looks from most car lovers, men and women but Pinky attracts her own unique crowd – Pretty much every lil’ girl under the age of 8 LOL! If I drive by a school when it’s in or out time, I get big smiles and waves from the youngsters and comments like “look mummy it’s a princess car”.. Not really the crowd I was hoping to attract hahaha but any fan of Pinky is good with me. She gets a lot of attention on the motorway from the kids in the back of other cars too.

There’s no real negatives at any car show I attend, most people know it’s a big skinhead who owns and drives the car but I’ve had plenty of banter about my sexual orientation!

Both the Nordic and Pinky get attention from other people, so I’m happy to be noticed.

We read on the forums a couple of years ago that you were now riding a 50 CC scooter around to cut down on fuel costs, how did that work out?

Yay my little chicken chaser! She’s a Kymco Agility 4 stroke beast. There’s always a lot of talk about avoiding any Chinese scooter as they’re all shit and badly made and that’s something I agree with but Kymco is not a Chinese brand, despite what most people think and Kymco have been making motorcycles for decades now and were originally part of Honda! They are based in Taiwan and use Honda engines in most of their bikes, they also supply engines for some BMW bikes and work with Kawasaki too. No idea why I went on the defensive with that one LOL but I get fed up with anti Chinese bike comments when I don’t freakin’ own one hahaha!

I’ve clocked up 15K miles in just under 2 years on Kymmi (my pet name) and she is super reliable and I am an all weather rider too! No matter how cold or how wet it is out there, I’ll do my commute regardless.

She is as modified as I can go (I bought her standard), still a true 50CC but with all the bolt on parts and carb / variator tuning I have done, she’ll hit 48 MPH, which is fine. I do have a 100CC kit waiting to go on and this may happen sooner rather than later, as the company I work for is relocating 10 miles further away next year and my daily commute is 16 miles each way as it is. The extra 10 miles will just take me too long and I don’t want to be wasting my time getting back and forth from work.. I am also looking into my DAS test as another option, I really do enjoy being on 2 wheels!

The reason I ended up on a scooter was purely a financial one.. £60 fuel in a car per week, or £10 on the scooter – It was and still is a no brainer! If you can deal with the cold and rain, everyone should be doing this. It’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever commute in a car again plus it keeps the miles down in Pinky too!

So you have Pinky and Kymmi (sounds like they should be living in the Playboy Mansion or something LOL), ever fancied something faster as a weekend toy?

Like most of us, I do my weekly eBay hunt looking at boosted Jap beasts LOL! There have been plenty of affordable cars I could have bought BUT my inner sensible child has stopped me every time.. I hate this inner person thing!! I just can’t get past the reason I ride a scooter and I beat myself up so badly about this too. If I ever sell Pinky, the replacement will have a dump valve for sure, I need loud noises and a turbo and probably RWD as well, just so I can fulfill my wannabe drift demons. I can drift nicely on my scooter in the rain but it’s never intentional and certainly not fun either LOL!

So far we’ve established that you’ve owned a P10, 2 P11’s and kinda partly owned your girlfriends P12, so out of those 3 model of Primeras, was / is there a favourite?

What is with these trick questions! Yes Laura owned a P12 and very nicely spec’d as well and I seriously enjoyed the 2+ years we had driving her. All 3 models of Primera bring something different to the table and each have their pros and cons! I could happily make a FrankenPrimera out of all 3 though. It’s well known that my favouritism will always be with the P10, based mainly on the fact it was the first Nissan Primera I ever owned, so it will always secure a special place in my heart. Here's a piccy of Lauras old P12, just so it gets a shout cos we did many many happy miles in this one!

I usually ask for a spanner rating from our winners and how DIY they are when it comes to looking after their cars and you’re not escaping this question, so fess up.. Who looks after Pinky?

Thankfully, I am graced with having some awesome friends, all met through the NPOC and they have even more awesome mechanical ability then me, plus most of them are actual mechanics too! I do techy stuff and have soft computer hands LOL! So I’ll just throw their names out there and say thank you again!

Graham “Grim”

Steve “Dyp”

Pete “Yogi”

Mike “MysticMike”

Gaz “Sluffer”

Laura “L_Wylde” – Yes this is the same Laura who is the love of my life and I really lucked out when I found out she was also a mechanic working for a garage when I met her!! It’s really surreal sitting on your arse smoking bines and drinking coffee, watching your girlfriend work on your car.

All of the above have helped take Pinky from the standard car she was when I bought her, to how you see her today – BIG BIG thanks to all of you.

Time for the quick fire question round!

What makes you smile? 

Seeing Laura smile and watching my grandson Tommi-Shaun develop!

What makes you sad? 

Living in an unjust world

Tell us something we don't know about you..

I was a fully trained TGI Fridays grill chef (and you all take the piss at JAE!)

Your favourite colour? 

Pink

Your lucky number? 

23

What will it say on your gravestone?

Time flies but aeroplanes still crash

Your favourite drink (any)? 

Coffee (soft) / Newcastle Brown Ale

Your sub £10K second hand dream car would be? 

Probably an Evo of some sort

Your sub £30K second hand dream car would be? 

I’d love a MK1 Escort, which has been properly sorted and modified accordingly

If you could steal the keys to someone else’s car (on NPOC) for 1 day, which car would you steal and why? 

It would have to be a fast P10, which kinda gets down to Jimmy “Sprint” and his SR20VE converted P10 or Zed “RAZZLE” and his turbo’d P10. I’ve always said that 250+ BHP through a FWD (non factory spec) is too much and unusable, so Zeds Ten is out, which leaves Jimmys!! Here’s a photo below to remind us how awesome his P10 is:

You’ve shown up at more Meets (National and Regional) then most of us will ever remember over the last 14 years but I have to ask, which Club Meet has been your favourite so far and why?

Probably the JAE at Mersea Island in 2008. There was an awesome club vibe at this one and for the 1st time ever, the club took part in the IKO tournaments and pretty much won everything. I think most of us who were there, would probably say it was their favourite all time meet too.

Tell everyone who has never come out and joined us at a Club Meet, why they should..

We all see posts on the forums and on the Facebook group page and we all see the usernames behind them, we all see the photos of the cars online too.. But there is no substitution for shaking hands, having a chat and looking at the cars in the flesh. Most people who come to a meet and lose their meet virginity, will come out to future meets, all because they realized the benefits at their first outing. There’s so much to get out of coming to a club meet, whether it’s ideas for your car, or just speaking to other members about problems you’re having with your own car. We’ve all had car probs at some stage and we’re all soooo happy to get under your bonnet and help out. Just get yaself along, give the meet and us a chance, you’ll see that it was probably the best decision you ever made. No one cares what condition your car is in! “Members first – Cars second”.

So many many years of NPOC membership now Shaun, is there a defining club memory in that lot somewhere?

Undoubtedly the LEJOG charity event that myself, Steve “Stevie-Boy” and Matt “Blue” took on. It was simply epic and we raised a load of money too. It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever been involved in both mentally and physically! Steve is forever hassling us to do something similar, so you never know LOL! Loads of awesome club memories and moments in 14 years but LEJOG will stay with me for life.

Anything you’ve regretted during your time at NPOC?

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this one because I tend to not dwell on regrets but I’ve got a genuine answer! I do regret all the club members over the years, that I have got close to (both online and offline) and they change their car to something other than a Nissan Primera and then subsequently leave the NPOC and just drop of the face of the earth, never to be heard from again. I’ve always found it odd, I wish I could lock people in LOL! I do understand that people move on with their lives and totally respect that but we all forge some good relationships in the club, that should extend beyond the model of car we all drive. Thankfully, as much as I regret those members who have moved on, we have so many other members who no longer drive a Primera, who have stuck around and are regulars at club meets in their inferior shitboxes hahaha!

NPOC for life (regardless of what car you own and drive) or leg it when you change car?

The shortest answer I’m gonna give in this feature – I’m a lifer, with no parole options and I don’t want any options either, NPOC is my life!

Tell Carlos Ghosn why he needs to bring back the Nissan Primera brand:

4x4’s, SUV’s, mini SUV’s, cross overs, micro cars, electric things, the mighty GTR.. Nissan are missing a 4 door family sized car. The Nissan Primera brought them so much success, which was sadly tarnished by the P12 (due to reliability ratings) and possibly the fact that the world wasn’t ready for that shape of car? Nissan have every type of car available for most people but they don’t have a Fleet car option, which would eventually become a popular family car too. 4 door saloon, 200 BHP, super reliable and nicely styled.. I’d buy one for sure! When Pinky goes, I don’t think you’ll see me in a Primera and that can’t be right! I like the Juke and it has 4 doors but it’s not a family car.

Member Of The Month is all about highlighting our Club Members and also their cars, should they be driving a Nissan Primera. You won this feature because you have spent 14 years, owning and driving a variety of Nissan Primeras. You’ve also been responsible for getting the NPOC where it is today, with years of dedication and hard work both behind the scenes and also in the front of house! With my thanks out of the way, it’s over to you.. Congratulations once again for winning Member Of The Month for January 2015 Shaun! Please end this feature, in your own words and feel free to thank anyone who’s made this one possible.

I always give massive thanks to everyone here at NPOC and as often as I can and I’ll never get bored of saying it! Yes I’m one of the Club Owners here but that just means I get to steer the good ship NPOC in the direction that the members hopefully want to go. I’m just a Nissan Primera fanboy at heart like all you reading this, I’m passionate about the car, the club and its members.

My thanks go out to all of the Staff Team here, who all work just as hard as me to make NPOC run as smoothly as it can.

Thank you to all of our members, whether you choose to pay for membership or not. The fact that you all come back day after day and participate in the forum discussions, means you keep the clubs heart beating.

Thank you to all our paying members, you lot mean our hosting fees are paid for each year, our software licenses are always up to date and we can purchase all our club merchandise and associated items needed to advertise this great club.

Thank you to all the members, their partners and family, who come out to represent the NPOC at all and any club meets / events. Your cars and your faces are what the public see at the big events.

BIG thanks as always to the members I have already highlighted earlier, who have all made Pinky what she is today, I’ll be forever grateful.

Well that’s me done, if I’ve missed anyone out.. Here’s a special thanks just to you hahaha!

Happy New Year to all of you and have a great 2015!

Many thanks and take care,
Shaun


Congratulations once again to Shaun!

January 2015 MOTM - essNchill

Written by essNchill with help from L_wylde

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