Performance garage for Casares

Most people who say they live in Casares mean one of two places. There's the old white village up in the sierra, reached by a twisting climb from the coast, and there's Casares Costa, the stretch of developments either side of the A-7 between Manilva and Estepona. One is all hairpins and steep gradients; the other is short hops to the beach and a car that sits in sea air most of the year.

Both are reasons to think about how your car is set up. On the road up to the village, a well-judged remap on a turbocharged engine shows itself coming out of tight second- and third-gear bends, where a standard map can feel flat until the revs build. Down on the coast, an exhaust made from stainless steel and TIG-welded in our own workshop tends to cope with the damp and salt better than a lot of factory systems. Lowered or air suspension can be set so it still clears the speed bumps on the urbanisation roads.

We don't quote power figures before we've seen the car. Every performance job starts with a proper look over the engine, clutch, vacuum lines and any stored fault codes, because tuning a tired engine just makes its problems bigger. Then we talk through what you want and give you the price before any work starts.

Exhausts, cut-out valves, remaps and suspension are all done to the owner's spec. Some of that can affect the ITV in Spain or an MOT, so we'll explain what you're getting into, but keeping the car road-legal is down to you as the owner.