A newbie who can't settle on a car...

A newbie who can't settle on a car...

Author
Discussion

kwak

210 posts

151 months

Sunday 2nd October 2011
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I hope you are busy writing about the next car? I loved reading the stories so far.

Laird

26,140 posts

213 months

Sunday 2nd October 2011
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Awesome thread clap

skene

2,280 posts

171 months

Sunday 2nd October 2011
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The BEST thread in the whole of the PH kingdom this one! Brilliant stuff OP, I thought I was spoiled having a 1.6 as a first car thumbup

harryowl

1,114 posts

180 months

Sunday 2nd October 2011
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Ten Four said:
Insurance was third party fire and theft only (covers someone else's car if I hit them but not mine) - this kept costs around $350 a year. Just had to be careful that I don't hit someone!
You should think yourself lucky... i'm 19 and out of interest looked how much it would be for me to insure a (standard) r32 GTR TPFT.... £8000
cry

Benjamin Shute

128 posts

153 months

Sunday 2nd October 2011
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Yeah. Over in England I have 1.25L (1.3L) as my first car and insurance is nearing £1400. Quite upsetting really, especially when reading a threat like this. An incredible list of cars.

Ten Four

Original Poster:

292 posts

150 months

Monday 3rd October 2011
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Haven't forgotten! Been reading comments too smile .
Just stupid busy with assignments at the moment - should get some updates real soon though.

I've noticed the insurance thing in the UK is awful... Hence why I've been putting off my holiday/trip till I finish uni but even then, age is an issue... We'll see though. £8000 is madness!

Benjamin Shute

128 posts

153 months

Monday 3rd October 2011
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Yeah. If you're going to spend a lot of time here you will get a nasty shock. at 17 on my own insurance without any No claims. It would cost me about £8000 for something like 1.6 Golf, 2.0 Passat an Mx5. I'm sure you can see the pattern. Anything over 100 Bhp.

Ten Four

Original Poster:

292 posts

150 months

Tuesday 4th October 2011
quotequote all
Yeah, not too keen on insurance costs considering what I buy will live in a shed...

Anyway, #8.

About the time the GTR sold, I lost the privilege of driving my sister's S13 as she had turned 16 and was learning to drive on it. So I needed something I could leave at uni, yet was fun to drive and would keep me debt free.

I was super impressed with the 540i and was disappointed that I couldn't get to know it better, so I set out looking at BMWs. There was only 1 other 540i for sale but it had 200k kms and the owner wanted 20k. Pass.
Then I began looking at M3s. There were 3 for sale.
- White E36 M3 EVO SMG 110km $25k
- Silver E36 M3 EVO SMG 70km $30k
- Silver E36 M3 EVO Manual 150km (UK import) $28k

Unfortunately, I don't have pics of all the cars. The white E36 had an awesome interior (imo). It was tan with purple suede dash and seat bolsters (individual spec?)

I did my research and saw that the SMG was one to avoid. Still, we gave it a shot and went to look at the white one. When we got there, the car wasn't there (wholesale place). After inquiring about it, we were informed that it had just been to the BMW main dealer as the SMG pump light was on.. Great. They said it'd back within 15mins so after making the trip, we waited anyway.

The car was pretty immaculate and I asked about any oil leaks - zero.
Looked underneath and there was oil everywhere... Apparently the reason the light came on, was that there was low fluid in the pump so it needed topping up..

After all the effort, I wanted to see how the SMG box performed but I wasn't covered by their insurance policy (too young, hah!) so the salesman drove it, then my dad.

I have to say, the changes are super slow I was generally super disappointed... Not sure if it was just us not knowing how to drive it but it felt poor.

Arriving home, I gave my dads mechanic a buzz asking him about them. He said not to buy.

Still, aside from the oil leak at the back of the block, it seemed relatively clean. They wouldn't budge on price, such is their policy... Fine, I went to the bank to get a bank cheque for 25k. (Borrowing 3k from dad). I still had strong doubts on the way to getting it.
10mins before getting there, dad received a phone call informing him that the M3 had been sold. I was kind of happy in a sense...

I looked up the phone number of the manual M3 and we headed there straight away to look.

This car wasn't in the best condition cosmetically. It had a crease just behind the RHR wheel arch (which I never spotted), some scrapes on the RHS of the rear bumper, a cracked fog light, peeling/scratched front lip, small hole in the driver's side bolster and the rear seats dented from something a former owner must have stored in it. It had a little light rust underneath but definitely wasn't bad. The AC also didn't work. (Coming into winter.. didn't really care)

However, the car drove great but it had a super stiff accelerator and this took a little getting use to. The seller said he'd paid 48k for it 3 years ago and brought it over from Canberra. He was a young-ish American bloke and did lots of fly in fly out work, saying he'd barely used it in the past year. He had lots of Royal purple invoices and assured me that every oil in the car was royal purple. He said the ECU had also been reflashed costing $1200 and he'd had a different cam installed? Other mods were Alpine sound system, Scorpion catback, HIDS with angel eyes, Eibach springs and ACS wheels.

Now due to being an import, sale prices are around 25% less than that of Australian delivered cars. I basically called him, arrived 30mins later, drove it and told him I'd give him 20k, bearing in mind the import status and cosmetic issues. Eventually, he hesitantly agreed at 21k. I was stoked! Manual > SMG biggrin

The next day, we arrived with the bank cheque and while signing the documents inside his house, I noticed 4 BMW M3 models on the shelf. His wife then informed me that he'd actually cried the night before while thinking about his M3 and letting it go... Awkward. boxedin

Paperwork signed, I was handed the keys and jumped (not literally) into the M3. Turned it on and jumped forward. He'd left it in first furious . tongue out After I managed to find reverse and get it going, we trundled on home safely with a new toy! biggrin






Right, new car. This meant booking in for another run at the airstrip! I also noted the rear two tyres were mixed (crazy BMW owners...) and nearing the end of their life, so I kind of went with a no holding back attitude...

The car was great all day except towards the end when one exhaust mount broke and the clutch became hard to engage/disengage (later found to be stretched clutch cable). All in all, was a great day! It performed much better than the 540i..





(Wear our the tyres you say?)


(Cooling off)

After this, I immediately got a new mount welded on for the exhaust and two new rear tyres. Luckily, I knew someone in the interior business and he re-trimmed my driver's side seat bolster for $120 which included re-bolstering the whole seat. It now felt like new again! biggrin

I was driving the car daily now to get to uni and back. One week I decided to measure fuel consumption and got 8.8L/100km or 32.1MPG which I was pretty happy with.

Also, I hit up the place where my old R32 was tuned and got them to put the M3 on the dyno.



Was pretty chuffed with that at the rear wheels!

Next up was a drive through my usual hills route. This took place on a great cool, sunny Perth weekend. At the pub which was a slight detour, I spotted a E46 M3 cab so I had to have a few snaps..





Didn't get to meet the owner though. After a good fish n chips lunch without a drink (P plate = 0.00 blood alcohol weeping ), I set off back toward my dad's place with one final stop that gave me what was probably my favourite picture of the M3.



Time passed, me happy driving the beamer, waiting for another cruise to come up.
Finally one did,


(Raining in the picture)

This was one that went a fair way east inland. The weather cleared up by lunch time and on the way back, this is where things took a turn for the worse frown .

On the way back, still far from civilisation, I'd got stuck with a couple of others at the far back and we were trying to catch up. This was because of someone in something really, really old, doing 60kmh in a 110 zone and we couldn't overtake.
Eventually, an overtaking lane came up and I gunned it, leaving him far behind. I topped 160kmh (100mph in old speak tongue out ) and was just letting it roll back to 100kmh in 5th. As I was rolling back, a big flash went off.
A speed camera hiding behind a tree had been placed right in the middle of the overtaking lane, which was also a semi-steep downhill. The guy behind me also got flashed but I'm not sure at what speed.

banghead I was panicking. Anything 45kmh and over the speed limit meant car impound for 30days, huge impound and towing fees, fines and license cancellation for 3 months (plus I was on Ps - meant I'd have to redo everything including learning, test, booking 25hrs etc).

Anyway after making it home, I told dad - not too happy evidently. I panicked and put the M3 for sale. If they impounded the car, it meant $1500 in towing and impound fees plus I'd lose the car for a month - not worth it.

Listed at $23,500, it was the cheapest M3 on the market and within days I had someone keen on it (I did list AC as inoperative but had a quote of 1k to fix everything including gas and a new compressor). He made an offer of 21k and I'd half accepted this when someone else came and looked at it, wanted it but offered 22k. I told the guy who came first and said if he wanted it, 21,500. Deal done. Car sold. I lost around $500 on it but that was fine.

For sale pictures:









A week and a bit after the car had gone, I received my fine.
143kmh in a 110 zone, $700 fine and 5 demerit points. (Meant I had 5 left, after losing 2 in the R33 GTR, 70 in 60 zone).
I was so relieved. The $700 fine was hefty but could've been much worse. If I had done 139 instead, the fine would have been a mere $300 and 3 points but I wasn't complaining.



I was also beginning to miss the sound of turbo.....

Edited by Ten Four on Tuesday 4th October 06:53

Ten Four

Original Poster:

292 posts

150 months

Tuesday 4th October 2011
quotequote all
Right, so not looking for anything in particular now. I'd been without a "nice" car for a month or so. That horrific speeding fine had deterred me from buying another performance car for a little while....

Inevitably, I was back looking and was browsing a local newspaper. An ad half caught my eye, enough so that I read it. It went along the lines of: Supra, Toyota 1994. 43000kms, twin turbo getrag manual. 19000ono.

I was fairly hesitent. 43k kms on a 94 Supra? Yeah right...
Anyway, it was only a 15min drive-ish to the suburb so I gave the seller a call and organised to view it.

The address led us to a main road through a town just before the hills, outside a shopping centre. The house looked like a standard sort of older house, nothing you'd look twice at.
There was a ML320 Mercedes parked outside.

I rung the doorbell and an old man (no other way of putting it.. lol) opened the door. I said I was here to view the Supra? (Was thinking I had the wrong house..) He said oh yes and said wait a minute while he opened the garage.

Unveiled to me was a Supra, hidden under 4 car covers. Each one had a methodical way of coming off. Dad and I just sat and watched in awe.
Finally they were all off. This left us drooling at an absolutely mint, unmolested Supra........ THAT HAD THE SAME WHEELS AS MY R32 GTR! I asked what the associated story was with it. Turns out this was the wife's car (she came to greet us 5mins later) and was a little present, 11 YEARS AGO!!! They bought it off an importer, 5 years old with 39,800kms, put on 4 new Kumho tyres and had done 3500kms since! (At a cost of $39,500)

I also found out that it was originally an automatic but the conversion was done before it hit Australian shores and was never registered as an auto in Australia. It did have the proper 6 speed getrag box though.

The mods the car had were the ones it came from Japan with:
-HKS fully adjustable coilover suspension
-Japanese catback exhaust (very very quiet)
-Sparco wheels
-HKS pod filter
-Sparco accelerator pedal
-Switch in engine bay to disconnect battery

It even still had original factory option wind deflectors, Supra floor mats and working factory auto front spoiler. I requested that we be taken for a test drive. The seller drove, dad in passenger seat and me with my tiny but round frame squeezed into the back. (Supras are NOT 4 seaters despite what Toyota say, lol)

The drive felt as it should, brilliant. The only noise came from the rear coilovers - probably due to age or simply not being used and needing refilling with gas.

After we returned to the seller's home. He pointed out a few D-type Jaguar framed photos on the wall that my dad had been noticing. Turns out, he built that car from scratch (replica) and that was his son racing it at Bathurst!
What was even more amazing, was the garage was drive through, the other side consisting of a caravan with a trailer for their Suzuki Jimny and next to it, another shed!
He brought us inside the shed and the contents were: The very same D-Type Jaguar replica in the pictures and an 1980s F1 car (this is what he told us, I can't confirm and don't have pics, sorry). The sight was awesome. He was a retired motorcross champion in his day and his son now races cars and holds a lap record at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth. They use the caravan and Jimny to travel across Australia to see their son race.

So awesome!!

Back to the Supra, I told them I was keen and asked for the best price although it wasn't really negotiable (fair enough, it was MINT.) We agreed at 18,500. It also came with an additional, never fitted Veilside spoiler (yuck) and a new in-box K&N pod filter to replace the old HKS one.

I also learnt the ML320 outside had a mere 49,000kms on it.

The day of sale, I couldn't wait! I'd also forgotten how good Toyota air conds were! We arrived, signed the papers and handed over the cheque and I jumped into the Supra. Excitement would be the understatement of the year.

Pictures:















Plans for it were to keep it as it is. It felt criminal to modify it so I kept it nearly the same as when I got it.
I brought it to my dad's mechanic for an inspection (after purchase) and to do a major service and fix anything that needed fixing.



He couldn't believe the condition of it. The only faults were poop brown (no exaggeration) coolant. It was also still running an automatic radiator. It wasn't overheating or anything but I just thought it'd be a good time to put in a brand new one especially since summer was coming. I also got a genuine Toyota oil filter and ordered some smurf blood (Royal Purple) for it.
The coolant system had to be totally flushed 3 times for all the poo to be removed!
The car was running better than ever.

So.... off to the air strip! This time though, we got to use the track next to it. Its only a small track though but still awesome fun.
By now, I taught myself to heel and toe and was super competitive...

My competition:

A man with a cone on his head.

A girl.

A toddler.

More seriously, my mate. His car is a 4 door R32 Skyline with 4wd (Disabled for his burnout..). His car has a GTR engine transplant, still running 4wd. He made 320hp at all 4 wheels on a dyno day... His number plate reads [V8EATER]...
I'd guestimated my Supra at around 260hp at the rear wheels as I had a run with my mates limited edition GTR and we were about even, him having the edge from stationary due to 4WD. His car made 246 at all 4 wheels.
However, both myself and my mate with the 4 door R32 had a disadvantage.
Him on Chinese tyres, me on 11 year old Kumhos lol.





Intense...

General pics





(England represent!)

If you're wondering why someone brought a shopping trolley, its a Mitsubishi Legnum. Stock they have 276BHP and are 4wd. That one wasn't standard.

Back to my mate and I.
He had been pounding round all day and set a best time of 1:09.8. Remember this is a short track, mostly corners and he has 4wd... He's no mug either, being a many time over sprint car champion...
I did a 1:10.0 and a 1:10.1 in my last run out. I was so annoyed! grumpy

The Supra performed brilliantly all day though. I did drive it really hard and it went perfect without a hint of disagreement. I still think that was the best handling car I've had to this day. I was simply at one with it and weight balance etc was predictable and easy to handle, even with stty tyres. (Maybe largely down to the coilovers?)

I met up with a guy I call my friend (cone on head dude laugh), for some photos and these are the results.








But I needed a daily drive as there was no way I was leaving this at uni.
I kept the Supra for a bit whilst I hunted for a "bunky"...

So while I had the Supra, I had #10; a 1999 Hyundai Sonata V6 auto with minimal paint...
Cost me $800 + $150 auction fee hehe.




It had 265kms, fairly high but seemed okay, until I showed it to my dad's mechanic who reckoned the head gasket was ever so slightly going... This wouldn't do especially since summer here is insane and I needed something totally reliable.
I sold it on for $1300...

Number 11
Won it on eBay for $950. I thought it'd be super reliable. It being a 1990 Toyota Corolla.
Got to the sellers house at a pre-arranged time, 6pm. He wasn't home. We waited till 6:30pm then called, said he'd been held up and wouldn't be too long.
7:30pm, still not here and pretty fed up, we called again and he apologised saying he'd be 30mins.
Fine, we waited.
He finally arrived at 9pm.

It was super cold at night and high up in the hills. I drove it and it seemed fine. Money changed hands and I went home in it.



This lasted me 80kms before spectacularly going pop with tonnes of steam coming out the engine... Sold it broken for $250.

At this point, I'd sold the Supra frown . Reason being, it became a shed warrior with me too scared to put kms on it and scared of other people hurting it. I sold it for $21750, profiting about $1500.
Again, my choice of buyer wasn't the best.
Firstly he was from Scotland rolleyes
Secondly, he was not much older than me and worked as a 2nd hand car salesmen.
Thirdly, the plans of what he told me he wanted to do to the car made me vomit inside...

Said plans were:
-Paint interior panels white
-Order stupid body kit for it
-Paint wheels 2 tone
-Aftermarket turbos (mmm fair enough)
-Race seats...
-Other things I can't remember right now that made me want to not sell it to him

I still have his number as he invited me to look at it after he was "done" with it... I haven't called him.

So now the Supra was gone, it was time for something I could worry "less" about while again still being fun/fast.

Edited by Ten Four on Friday 7th October 10:48

MrQuick

130 posts

159 months

Tuesday 4th October 2011
quotequote all
Ten Four said:

Listed at $23,500, it was the cheapest M3 on the market and within days I had someone keen on it
Hey were you selling this on CarPoint by any chance, I remember that dyno graph and the photo of the car on the hill overlooking the city.

If so, you have no clue how close I was to calling up and perhaps just buying over the phone, the car seemed as though it was in xcellent condition, especially for the price you were selling for.
I'm in Sydney though and it massively put me off that you're in Perth and never ended up calling you up.

Excellent read mate, can't wait for more.

Ten Four

Original Poster:

292 posts

150 months

Tuesday 4th October 2011
quotequote all
MrQuick said:
Hey were you selling this on CarPoint by any chance, I remember that dyno graph and the photo of the car on the hill overlooking the city.

If so, you have no clue how close I was to calling up and perhaps just buying over the phone, the car seemed as though it was in xcellent condition, especially for the price you were selling for.
I'm in Sydney though and it massively put me off that you're in Perth and never ended up calling you up.

Excellent read mate, can't wait for more.
Small world! Carsales mate but yeah, would've been mine! It sold pretty quickly and there is regret there.. Ultimate car with power, anonymity, comfort and economy.
Funnily enough, the 2nd guy who called and offered 22 did it over the phone and stayed by that after his test drive. He wanted to strip it and turn it into a race car!

The 540i was also sold over the phone and he transferred $500 deposit to someone he'd never met (me!).
BMW owners and buying over the phone? confused

Edited by Ten Four on Tuesday 4th October 10:08

MrQuick

130 posts

159 months

Tuesday 4th October 2011
quotequote all
Ten Four said:
Small world! Carsales mate but yeah, would've been mine! It sold pretty quickly and there is regret there.. Ultimate car with power, anonymity, comfort and economy.
Funnily enough, the 2nd guy who called and offered 22 did it over the phone and stayed by that after his test drive. He wanted to strip it and turn it into a race car!

The 540i was also sold over the phone and he transferred $500 deposit to someone he'd never met (me!).
BMW owners and buying over the phone? confused
Haha, to be perfectly honest with you, what that guy wanted to do is kind of what I wanted to do too, though it would have been a stripped/lightweighted road-registered track car which I would have used daily.
I just remember it was the cheapest EVO going around which made it pretty attractive and it was already slightly worked over which would have saved a bit of money.

Never ended up buying an M3 in the end, driving me nuts though, I still have the M-car itch to scratch.

Buying over the phone is a bit of a brave move, with M-cars you kind of see that there is always 2 kinds of owners, those who take good care of their cars and those who have chrome wheels.

waseemrafiq94

85 posts

155 months

Thursday 6th October 2011
quotequote all
When's the next update?

Proper looking forward to it. Top work smile

kwak

210 posts

151 months

Thursday 6th October 2011
quotequote all
Great read!
How did it feel driving the sonata and corolla after the previous beasts you had? Was it as dissapointing as I would expect?

Mark_Karting

899 posts

181 months

Thursday 6th October 2011
quotequote all
Brilliant story, can't wait for the next one. Although:

Ten Four said:
Firstly he was from Scotland rolleyes
fk you man! biggrin He does sound like an idiot who doesn't understand the true value of the car however frown

Ten Four

Original Poster:

292 posts

150 months

Friday 7th October 2011
quotequote all
The M-itch is an annoying one... It never goes away tongue out

Thanks for the comments.
The hyundai was actually good, comfy, quiet, cold AC and had enough power for overtakes etc.

Corolla was crap... lol. Clunky, cheap plastic, individual door locks, no p/s and broke quickly..

Haha nothing wrong with the Scottish! He was plainly bullstting (imo) cause he said he'd had an 800bhp Impreza, been in cop chases etc... (In Scotland)

Right, first things first, I needed a daily to be left at uni. This time, I was a little wiser after the Corolla pooped itself. The budget was still to be as cheap as possible. This meant browsing gumtree tongue out

One day I saw advertised, Nissan Pulsar SSS Vector 1990. Top model in its day, it had 170km and was white, however no mention of AC (meaning broken). It was at $900. Within 2 hours of the ad being posted up, I was on my way to view. Annoyingly, the seller called me when I was halfway there saying someone else had already been to view and drive it and were deciding on whether or not to buy.
This being the case, I put the pedal down a little harder in dad's LS400...

Anyway I got there, car was still available. Good. (or bad??). It was fairly clean bar a gigantic rust patch (to me) in a semi-weird spot, the LHS door but nearer the top of it above where the hinges are. Sort of on the A-pillar. There was also no air con, the pipes were in the boot... Happily though, 6 months rego had just been paid. It drove fine, temp gauge didn't work (dodgy) but there was no oil in the coolant and vise versa. Box and engine seemed great. What probably sold me, was the seats.. COMFY! They looked like little recaros.

$700 and the papers were signed.






It was actually quite fun to drive (to my surprise). Apparently it had a LSD according to the sticker on the boot. Sporty suspension and being generally nimble made it "fun" to drive.
The exhaust was stuffed though, had a decent rust hole in it. Back on gumtree, I found someone wrecking a hatch version and to my luck, it had an aftermarket exhaust on it with a oval shape muffler (not loud). $70 and my car now sounded quite decent - a nice bass-y sound without that silly "ricer" scream.
I kept it like this for a little bit as it gave me the opportunity to buy something not so sensible..

To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to get next. I just had a look at everything really.
I quite fancied a boxster but they were still 30-35k for the standard 2.5L, about 10-15k above my budget and slow... That passed, I was then being bored and browsed eBay.
Bad move.
I stumbled across this R32 GTR that needed some work and was unlicensed but it was "cheap" at 14k and had a forged engine rebuild (according to the advert/owner, no papers to prove - more later) plus many other mods.

Next thoughts were of the utter joy experienced with the previous GTR... This had a half cage so I could do proper track work. I rang to view it. It was located about 45mins from me, straight down the freeway a fair distance south, so I booked a weekend to go look.

Advert pictures:







In person, it looked like a proper beast, though there had to be many changes for it to be road legal. There was only 1 tiny, tiny spot of rust on the drivers side side skirt where it joined the body. After getting him to start it up, piles of black smoke came out the exhaust. It hadn't been tuned since leaving Japan, 6 years ago. He'd bought it when he was 18 in 2005 with 141,526km and loved it to bits since. However, he worked in the Navy and would be out to sea for 6-10months at a time and never got to drive it, also forgetting to pay registration in the process. I got the owner to take me for a very brief (illegal..) drive round the block, it wouldn't rev past 4k properly though up to the point of that, it felt damn quick.

I then learnt he'd been yellow stickered (defected) for having a leaky injector in the past and he replaced them with standard items - most likely the reason for the inability to rev properly past 4k (insufficient fuel flow for the power).

I wanted it, the stupid idiot kid inside me wanted to buy an unrego'd, 99% chance ex-circut car in Japan, 21 year old R32 GTR with 147,747km on a replacement dash. (Standard go to 180, this went to 280).

$13000 bank cheque later, I was driving it to the nearest petrol station on a temporary movement permit. You can imagine the head-snapping that occurred.... P plates in this mean, track-spec R32 GTR.

First pictures home:




This was the mod list that I had, I'm sure there would've been plenty more additions that I wasn't aware of.

Engine:
N1 turbos
Greddy piping
Twin Blitz bovs
HKS pods
Rebuilt engine with forged internals. (The importer said it had a full build before being sent over which was why it was imported. No receipts however. The only parts I confirmed were the metal headgasket and baffled sump.)
Catch can setup
3" Blitz exhaust, mild steel

Electronics & Accessories:
HKS F-CON V PRO ECU
HKS Kansai dash
Turbo Timer (Not used but is there and fully functional)
APEXi boost gauge
Blitz Sequential Electronic Boost Controller
Greddy oil pressure & water temp gauges (with memory & high/low settings)
Alarm with immobiliser
GTR gear & handbrake boots
Carpeted parcel shelf (to make it look tidy)
Silly metal gearknob that got hot in the sun

Suspension/Drive line
Half cage (bolt in, legal with permit)
HKS Coilovers (rock hard, adjustable)
HKS Twin plate clutch
HICAS lock bar
Strut brace
Rear strut brace
Cusco Camber Arms

Exterior:
East bear mirrors
Enkei wheels (255/45/17)
Tommy Kaira front bar
N1 side skirts
N1 front lip
N1 rear window (no wiper hole)
Huge genuine carbon fibre spoiler
Bonnet pins
Boot pins

Now this was a bit of a project to get it on the road, but it was ok as in the meantime I had the Pulsar.
This being the case, I took it to the pits to get a list of what needed doing to make it legal. I took off the bonnet pins (legally not allowed - they aren't 100% flush with the bonnet.... What if you were to hit someone and they rubbed against it.. Yeah, extremely dangerous), left the boot pins and took the spoiler off (also illegal).

This left me with 6 holes in the bonnet, 20 in the boot (6 current spoiler, god knows how many others its had) and and I still had a cracked bottom corner fibreglass front bar. There was also the problem with the cage, but I had a secret weapon...

There was no dash lights and tail lights but brake lights were working. I took it to an auto sparky and got raped, lucky I had some lube.. I was charged $220 to diagnose and replace a faulty headlight switch eek , which I had to get the switch myself and that cost $50.

Pits day, I lined up behind a fair few other cars. This is the biggest time waste ever. I ventured to the one 35mins away cause I heard the inspectors were the most lenient...

After a couple of hours, it was my turn. The inspector came to me and said, ah, this'll be fun eh? I nodded cry

Nice roll cage he commented, what are we going to do with you!
I yelled.. "I'VE GOT A PERMIT FOR IT!"
I ransacked the glovebox, trying to avoid turning the AC on, found it and handed it over.
He read it, walked back to his office and said it all checks out. Woohoo, only 100 other things to fail me for!

He then went through the usual things like lights, wipers, washers (didn't work) and under the car to check for leaks. Next was opening the bonnet to find any illegal modifications. I had twin pod filters but they were secured. There were also 2 illegal blitz blow off valves but these were well hidden in the tyre guard. As the bonnet was up, it started flapping about in the wind, the support not holding it. This is due to it being aluminium which luckily, the inspector knew was a factory issue. I must add, the twin plate clutch leaves a distinctive rattle, sounding like something is broken.
After checking if there was any play in the suspension, he requested keys and took it for a test drive.

Surprisingly, he didn't stall and took off, bouncing over any slight bump in the road (totally solid suspension).

Eventually he came back, said he'd go write up the paperwork. I asked if I passed? He said I did. I was bewildered. Not known to me then, was that this car being an 89, didn't have to comply to "modern" standards and it was listed on the car registration document. Still, it should have failed for: suspension not having enough movement, steering wheel too small, washers broken and lots of holes in the bonnet and boot. Hah! I was so happy!

Sidestep here, I was looking in the Quokka (local paper) and found a 1994 Nissan Skyline R33 GTS4 Manual (non turbo but with GTR 4wd). It was $2200 and had minor damage in the front drivers guard/door. There was also some paint fade on the RHS rear and boot/bumper. I bought it purely for the money-making potential.





So right now, I had 2 skylines and 1 pulsar. Along with my sister's car, my mums place was now looking like an old Japanese nissan dealership...



I put the GTR on a hold for a bit whilst I fixed up this R33.
The point of it was to make money, so I kept spending to a minimum but wanted it to look tidy-ish. I sourced a new guard for $25, door complete with glass, motor and trim for $100. Sadly they were a different colour but were cheap enough. There was also no gearknob so I put the one from the GTR in it. The handbrake trim was non-existent so I ordered a new one for $20.




The car was mechanically great and I advertised it with both the pics of the car before and after panel replacement to show damage wasn't structural. I got LOADS of calls when I put up on gumtree at $4300 with pictures. First person to view and drive offered 4k which I gladly accepted. Easiest $1700 I'd ever made! biggrin More money to blow into the GTR!

I met up with a different mate, new to Perth and keen to photograph cars. These were his results:










The tiny go-kart size steering wheel was on my replacement list but finding a standard steering wheel is extremely difficult in good condition. (1989 car, go figure..) So for the time being, the momo remained. (Must admit, pressing those red buttons for the horn was pretty cool... Wish it was a seccret NOS button like the fast and the furious movies! laugh )

I was getting stty fuel economy with the old tune and I bet the spoiler didn't help. (Went back on after I passed the pits.. Looked worse without a spoiler imo. Yes I know it was huge..) I bought some brand new Sard 700CC injectors online and brought it to a performance shop (also an importer of parts / cars). They installed them. However, it was at this point that I spied an absolutely awesome exhaust they had for sale.... It was a custom, front pipe back piece with no resonator, no cat and the only muffler being a cannon on the end. After some convincing, I bought it biggrin
I'd bought loads of stuff from them before so I was known, he installed the new injectors and exhaust (including purchase price!) for $700. smile



Now that all that was sorted, it was time for a tune. I should mention that the previous owner thought the turbos were standard. They weren't. Sadly, there was only 1 place in the whole of Western Australia that could tune the ECU I had. They told me it would cost $900-1200 to tune. cry
With a new ECU costing about $1600 then a tune required for it at my preferred tuners ($400-500), it was cheaper to go ahead, and I did.

A week later, I got a call saying it was ready but they'd misjudged how long it would take to tune... I asked how much as I would be bringing cash.

$1600, CASH! furiousfuriousfurious
With no choice, I reluctantly paid up. The upside was, 400HP at the wheels at 20psi, dropping back to 18 at max power output.


This was fun...

Next step, change gearbox oil (not that it needed it, but I didn't know what was in there or for how long). I didn't change engine oil as the previous owner said he changed it 6-monthly when he could and had big bottles of Castrol to prove it (also gave me 2 more bottles as he now had no use for them). Redline lightweight shockproof was ordered for the box at a discounted price of $120.

I'd also finally sourced a standard steering wheel.



It was coming together nicely smile

I'd booked a day with the photographer as my other mate had sold his R33 GTR LM (the blue one) and the new owner wanted to meet up, plus the photographer wanted to take pictures of it. He said he wouldn't be selling it for a good many years to come (older bloke) and it would be his daily drive with minimal modifications. He's a really nice guy and I've kept in contact since. (Also, you're never going to read this, so I'd like to point out that your daughters are all pretty hot evilbiggrin )






Righto, next. I was fed up of looking out for police and evading them because my spoiler stood out like dogs balls (Plus I hated it, it ruined the car's look even though it was actually functional - don't ask how I know). I sold it off to a Silvia owner for $100 to go on their drift car. This spoiler was genuine carbon fiber and would have cost an arm and a leg new.. Oh well. I scored another boot and standard spoiler for $165 in white. Finding a replacement bonnet was proving a mission and a half as all the GTST owners wanted them for upgrades and because it was aluminium, no one wanted to work on it. Happily, I found someone keen to give it a go. (First impressions were great, he had an old escort in his garage fully restored to a race car - currently without engine but with huge 335 rear tyres. It wasn't his but a customer's he was working on). He managed to weld on some new metal and the holes were gone! Just paint now.

Before the paint shop and repairing of bonnet holes, I organised a cruise out to the country. (In the pictures, I have a standard spoiler. I found this cheap to cover up the boot holes as a temporary replacement). This was insane fun and I won't talk about the speeds achieved on a public forum... Speed limit officer!

Pictures - apologies for quality







Booked it into the paint shop, I'm using a different one these days due to quality control. The new place did a fantastic job, however they weren't cheap. Painting and fiber-glassing the bonnet (due to uneven sink-age where the new metal had been welded on) and front bumper, painting the boot, spoiler and rear bumper (getting rid of those awful boot straps) came to $2150. It looked like new now and I don't regret it one bit.

Pics with my mate's R34 GTR (so mint...)




(^favourite pic of my car and still my background)

There was to be a JDM car meet (Show and shine) so I attended. Unfortunately, I only managed to find a few pics of my car. The turnout was huge, approximately 500-600 cars turned up!




Sidestep again...

The Pulsar was leaking oil. The originally clean engine bay now had seepage coming from the block. I had to top it up weekly with about 500ml. Needless to say I chucked it up for sale for a cheap price and someone came and bought it.

Now I needed a new daily as everyone knew when I was at uni..... I even had mates texting me saying I'd been spotted - quite often I'd return with both my wipers up irked . I had to drive the GTR and it just stood out like crazy. You also have no idea what its like to drive with solid suspension and a half cage... Any little imperfection in the road is felt. Going over bumps means neutral, 1-2kmh. Hell, I got it on 3 wheels everyday while reversing back into the garage. (Angle of entry, that's how stiff it was..) Luckily no damage was done during that in-between period for during which I hunted for my next car.

I was sick of stupid cars breaking down on me so I upped the budget considerably for something a little more decent. #15 was a 1999 AU Ford Falcon. I spied it at a dealer and it needed a fair bit of TLC but was mechanically sound. Cost was $2500. I found out it was an ex-police car by looking through the logbook. There was a dent in the boot and a rip in the rear seats. Being an ex-cop car, it had firm aftermarket suspension. Because I meant to keep it, I spent a good sum of money giving it a major service, new brakes, exhaust and found some replacement seats for the rear. I removed the hubcaps for that proper "chaser" look tongue out







I did buy some wheels for it but when they wouldn't fit. The hub was different even though the stud pattern was the same (off a Japanese car). It would cost me another $400 to machine the hubs and at that point I gave up as I'd already spent $300 getting them reconditioned, excluding the initial purchase price. Fun fact, the guy I use to spray wheels used leftover Lamborghini black paint to paint the centres of these.



Pity really as I reckon they would have looked awesome.

I was happy with this as it had a 4L straight six so plenty of power, sounded good, was comfortable, super reliable etc.
One day my mate said he needed a tow car for his race bike and asked if I knew of any cars to suit (I'm the car salesman you see...) and I said I had this daily driver but it wasn't really for sale.
He convinced me to let him have a look / drive... I did. He liked it and wanted it if I could fit a towbar to it.
Sigh, off I went to find a towbar. I eventually got one and installed it then waved goodbye to my most liked daily driver (bar the R33 GTR). We agreed $4000 - I lost $109 on that but to this day, its still running strong and hasn't put a foot wrong.
It is absolutely awesome fun in the wet.... (He found that out too laugh )

Ugh. This meant I had to find #16!
I popped back on gumtree... One afternoon, I found a lovely 1992 Range Rover Vogue SE for sale. I saw it, freshly listed and thought... That car looks familiar... It was.
My neighbour owned it. I walked next door and asked to view, he'd advertised it stupid cheap at 3k because it had a condition - they got to use it till they left the country (going back to the UK). That was fine with me, deal done, $3000.








Err, 160km, seat covers since new, never been off road... yes

So now I had 2 grey cars, both gas guzzlers (obviously the RR being MUCH MUCH worse). The best ever fuel consumption I got out of the RR was 21.8L/100km or 13MPG.. HOW DO YOU PEOPLE RUN THESE THINGS???
That said, we found that it was consistently starting on 7 cylinders and would go to 8 (always), and it was also running rich.




Sorry for the poor quality pics.

The novelty soon wore off. I had planned to turn it into a full-time off-roader but decided there would be too much cost involved, plus I didn't want to do it to such a clean example!
Sadly, this went for sale and it sold for 5k with a million people crawling all over it. (Quick 2k profit, yay!)

I sold the GTR just after I sold this. The reason was, end of this year I would be going to England for a year or so as a study break / gap year. It was only AFTER I sold it, that my parents said it wasn't happening till I finished uni... Joy. It sold for $19500 - I lost about a grand on it.
The worst part was, that I never got to take it to the airport or the track at Barbagallo. The even more annoying part was, that I had actually booked and paid for a full day of track work at Barbagallo months in advance with the GTR but the bloke who bought it placed a deposit 2 days before the actual day, and collected it the day before... Worse still! He worked 7 days on, 7 days off and couldn't attend the track day... banghead

Didn't want to sell the GTR like that frown
That leaves me with 17 and 18, my 2 current cars. This has been an absolutely gigantic update and has taken .... ~5hours? yikes

Edited by Ten Four on Friday 7th October 18:16

mig25_foxbat2003

5,426 posts

210 months

Friday 7th October 2011
quotequote all
Top update, I can't even imagine what 17 and 18 are going to be! Couldn't believe it when a RR Vogue turned up - you really do have a fantastic car history. That R32 was gorgeous, what a shame you had to let it go - looked a bit daft with the carrying handle on the back mind.

Ten Four

Original Poster:

292 posts

150 months

Friday 7th October 2011
quotequote all
mig25_foxbat2003 said:
Top update, I can't even imagine what 17 and 18 are going to be! Couldn't believe it when a RR Vogue turned up - you really do have a fantastic car history. That R32 was gorgeous, what a shame you had to let it go - looked a bit daft with the carrying handle on the back mind.
Haha cheers mate! biggrin
I do love both Euros and Jappers smile

Agree on the spoiler.

uremaw

300 posts

196 months

Friday 7th October 2011
quotequote all
Strong work my friend. Best thread on here for a while. Kudos.

RevYob

3,560 posts

173 months

Friday 7th October 2011
quotequote all
uremaw said:
Strong work my friend. Best thread on here for a while. Kudos.
What he said!


Brilliant read biggrin