so, spent some spare time just trying to tidy up the car before taking it for a rwc (safety certificate).

this car had been pretty neglected - i don't think it had been washed in a year, smoked inside, and dirt everywhere under the bonnet.

so just grab a spray of generic "black stuff"

and a couple of minutes later things are starting to look a bit nicer. Also took a microfibre towel to anything I could to mop up dust.

and more recently, i've reinstalled the stock diverter valve ("blow off" valve) and airbox with snorkel. one thing about S15s, there's always plenty of them being wrecked and spare parts are pretty common to come by.

why? well it probably wouldn't pass RWC with the bov blocked at the throttle inlet - plenty of stupid "SuTuutoottuutoooo" for the idiots out these but pretty immature. plus a big exposed pod sucking up engine bay heat is never going to do anything but add more noise and less power.

new jdmtune.com car - nissan s15 silvia

so back in the late 90s, the subaru impreza wrx was one of the best bargain performance cars available in australia. while nissan did have a limnited release of r32 GTRs, they didn't have anything that could really compete against the wrx - until they decided to release the s15 silvia locally as the 200sx.

with a turbocharged, 2.0l 4 cylinder engine, a 6 speed manual driving the rear wheels with LSD and a very sexy coupe body, the s15 has become a cult car in australia and holds its value incredibly well!

so yesterday, my brother sends me a text message saying - "buy this s15, it's a bargain" - and 7 hours later i did.

this is jdmtune.com's new 200sx spec r.

it comes with some godawful 19" chrome wheels and broken suspension.

plus the recirculating valve (BOV) has been blocked off so you get stupid flutter everytime you step off the accelerator.

it needs a lot of love & care to restore her to proper jdm spec, but at least it has some good points - a great gearbox & clutch, rare sunroof, and potential.

if i can remember to update this blog, hopefully keep track of the restoration process. today was mainly a massive exterior clean, involving a snow foam gun, 2 bucket wash, clay bar, rewash, wax. polish of the headlights, though i think i might need to replace them as they've previously been opened. a little tidy of the engine bay too, to restore the factory shine on most plastics. overall in pretty tidy condition for a 15 year olf car.

track car.... gone

so.... wrx track car is now sold (that escalated quickly)

let's wind back a bit.... after winton, I fitted a new aluminium radiator and slimline fans.

also ripped out the terrible brant alarm - these came standard on a lot of australian delivered wrxs, and they're crap. they spontaneously go off, or the solder joints go bad in the control unit, disabling your ecu or fuel pump (sometime when you're driving!), they don't disarm properly, the key unit goes bad - it's incredible how awful they are.



Replaced it with a Mongoose alarm which is more reliable (well, after month anyway), as well as putting in a nice double DIN Sony head unit with some MB Quart speakers, Pioneer subwoofers, reverse camera etc. Fitted in a set of "defi" gauges, wired in boost and water temp with an adapter in to the top radiator hose after I flushed the coolant again. Haven't wired in the oil pressure gauge yet.

Then my wife was in an accident in my accord euro - written off. decided I wasn't going to have 4 cars at my house, with 4 sets of rego and insurance to pay off, so the wrx was going to go. sold the wrx after listing it for 3 days, and going to pick up a new car for the wife this afternoon.

of course, knowing what's going to happen, i'll pick up another track car soon - but it won't be a road registered track car! a friend of mine has recently given up racing porsches to do go-karting - a lot cheaper to buy and maintain than a car, cheaper track days, and in a way a lot more competitive. now I've got my cx5 it's the perfect tow vehicle for a gokart, so it's just a matter of researching and figuring out how to get started.

winton may 2014

so after staying the night in benalla, enjoyed a very brief excursion onto winton with the combined track day of the WRX club and porsche club. Plenty of great machinery getting around the track was brilliant!

the plan was to have around 5 sessions on the track - but unfortunately during my third session out, my wrx suffered the pretty common problem of a cracked plastic end (top) tank, letting go of all the coolant :( managed to limp home - a pretty slow three hour crawl - without too many major issues.

up to then, was enjoying my first time at winton. Bit of a tricky track to learn, especially the hairpin leading onto the short back straight where I did go off a couple of times.

i've swapped in a full alloy radiator and slimline fans to replace the 11 year old stock radiator, and this weekend with re-flush the coolant as I'm installing a water temp gauge to keep a closer eye on temp, as well as swapping in an adjustable rear swaybar.

also just bought a new daily/tow car, a mazda cx5 - just got to hunt down a reasonably priced car trailer now!

time for updates - long overdue :)

can't believe it's been that long since the last blog entry. too many other things in life, yadda yadda yadda...

anyway after stepping away from the car scene for a bit, it's time to get reactivated.

long time ago, i bought a '04 wrx sedan, and had a few cars since then. bought another one recently, this time an '03. the plan is to make it a weekend track car, but with street registration so it can still be driven around to get worked on (i don't have a trailer!). bought this car pretty cheap - that way should anything go wrong while racing *touch wood* it won't be such a big deal.

first track day: philip island april 2014. pretty standard, just changed to dot5.1 brake fluid a few days before. the plan is to reduce weight and increase handling/stopping capability, rather than adding power.

next track day should be winton raceway mid-may.

(rant) on a final note, it never ceases to amaze me the number of people who spend crazy amounts of money modifying their car so they can stand next to it in a carpark. big power, big wheels, and never been driven on a track. and if you're that much of a moron to drive stupidly fast on public roads, you probably deserve to get into an accident and write your car off. (/rant)

teg gtr can nevar loose (again)

When a vehicle looks this good and performs that well, the legend will never die. though the current r35 gtr is a monster in its own right, for many jdm enthusiasts the RB26DETT is the original heart & soul of the gtr.

well... if you except the original gtr PGC10 which had a 2 litre, 6 cylinder engine - and not two, not one, but no turbos :)

still looks original, tough, and that's the way we like it.

toyota 86 - downunder pricing announced

somewhat unbelievably, Toyota are launching the 86 here at a price even cheaper than they originally hinted at! Starting at a few bucks under $30k (plus onroad costs?) you can get into the new 86 base model.

Hopefully subaru will price the brz very similarly...? I've actually been wondering whether the 86/brz might be a good buy. I loved the gen5 prelude i used to own, and also still rave about my old gdb wrx. a new brz, in blue... could be the way to go forward!

tim