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| The first ever issue - Max Power - May 1993 |
| Front Cover Dimma 205 GTi Throbbing Purple Monster |
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| I like surprises, providing they don't involve a 40 stone semi naked
sex starved Sumo woman, peeling off in a crowded boozer on my birthday. That's the kind of surprise
I can live without. When Simon Merritt told me he had a surprise, I was quickly able to rule out the above. There's no way he's 40 stone and he gave up Sumo years ago. He told me
his surprise was a Dimma kitted Pug205 GTi, complete with a 210bhp turbo technics conversion.
He warned me the paint colour was, let's say, unusual - something like the aftermath of an
explosion in a Ribena factory...... |
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| We met at an underground car park. It's not often I agree to meet strange men offering to show me their purple throbbing monster in deserted places, but I made an exception, I'm glad I did. Thankfully, Simon wasn't wearing a
beige mac as I had feared but seriously loud purple
tracksuit with matching Dimma jacket and baseball cap. Very clothes show and a clue for what
was to follow. |
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Ever noticed how you can't find your shades when you really need them? Like in the middle of
January checking out Simon Merritt's Pug. We went down four flights of steps, rounded a corner and there it was - a Peugeot more purple than the rain in Prince's home town.
I couldn't have been more stunned if I had opened my wardrobe and found Madonna
naked
inside. My eyeballs were in shock.
Even in the gloom of a concrete cage, Simon's 205 looks terminally stylish, but outside the
effect is even tougher. The Pug has been "Dimma ed up", which means it's got just about
the widest and wildest body styling available. Width restricted roads are a problem... |
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The bodywork's dominated by massive vented wheel arches, a deep front air-dam, a vented
bonnet and a roof spoiler which looks like the take off ramp from the Ark Royal. The
styling is
based on the infamous Peugeot T16 rally car; the difference being that in comparison the T16s
look tame. This car looks like it was put together by a commune of spaced out hippies brought
up on a diet of mescaline and old episodes of Star Trek. |
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Because the body kit's so complex, Dimma had to strip Simons Pug down to a bare shell before the extra panels were blended in. This was just as well - the metal had more scrapes and dents
than an Italian taxi and a past history murkier than a mug of little chef coffee. Describing the body kit as a err, a body kit isn't doing it justice. It's like calling
Buckingham Palace a house
or the QEII a boat. You add the car to the kit and not the other way around.
Fitting the kit took around six weeks, giving Simon plenty of time to think about a paint
colour. Despite chewing over more colour charts than the Dulux dog, he couldn't see anything he liked. Then inspiration struck. In much the same way as Isaac Newton got
nutted by an apple
and discovered gravity. Simon looked and saw his purple tracksuit - and eureka! No that
doesn't mean he was sick over it.......
A sample (of the tracksuit....) was dispatched to Dimma, which did it's best to get a match. |
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| The colour it came up with is called "special effects blue-purple", "gobsmackingly amazing blue-purple"
would have been more accurate but you know how restrained the guys at Dimma can be - I don't
think. It's lucky Simon's tracksuit wasn't yellow with black spots: they'd have come up with
something called 'sunspot-gold' that would have caused instantaneous blindness if seen through
anything less serious than an arc welder's mask. Come to think of it, though.....
With the body styling sorted, Dimma's last task was fitting a decent set of wheels. When you've
got wheel arches bigger than my house, getting the right trims is crucial -
Dimma's own 16" split rim alloys which keep the original 1.9 Gti centres, look great. |
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