Battleaxe.

TTFN

2010-08-23T23:21:00.001+01:00

Ive moved the blog to Wordpress:

http://hudsonofc.wordpress.com/

2010-05-27T00:34:00.003+01:00

Rolling.

2010-05-26T11:56:00.000+01:00

New Zealand.

2010-05-24T22:34:00.001+01:00

Is doing it right.

http://seventeenbyseven.wordpress.com/

Ali | SeventeenbySeven from Taupaki Productions on Vimeo.

Now that I have it.

2010-05-24T14:12:00.002+01:00

Well I've had the car for almost a month now. I kept meaning to update but just didnt get round to it, ive actually been super busy and spending alot of time doing bits to the car.

It got off the boat on the scheduled day, Friday 24th of April and I was able to pick it up the following Tuesday, would have been sooner but my customs agent was was a bit of a failure to say the least. Picked the car up and took it for its MOT the next day, which it passed with nothing mentioned at all - result.

After sorting a split intercooler hose and a few other niggles I started swapping bits around. I fitted my Bride seat, although the Bride recliner that came in it is absolutely awesome. Was planning to sell it but it's definately staying and will be in the passenger side once I find the rail for it.

Removed some stuff too, boot interior, rear seats, complete aircon system, EGR stuff, carbon canister etc.

Then I swapped out the HKS coilovers that were fitted in favour of my low mileage HSD HR's. Wound them down completely. Then removed the locking collars up front.

While this was happening I was waiting and waiting for the customs clearance form to turn up, which is needed to register the car with the DVLA. I was hoping to take the car to Norfolk Arena practice day on the 9th of May, but the form still hadn't come though in the week. I contacted HMRC who issue the form and they had no record whatsoever that my car had gone through customs at all! Turns out my piece of shit clearance agent hadnt even sent the relavant stuff from his end to them, meaning id never get to Norfolk arena in time. I went with friends in their cars anyway and it was awesome, i'm gutted I couldnt drive it though.

After that weekend I set about getting my wheels fitted. But realised that after slamming the HSD's, there was no way the exhaust system would last 5 minutes on the street. So I forked out got some parts from Japspeed, parts being - Tubular manifold, high flow elbow, superlow twinpipe frontpipe and a decat. Also got some Driftworks camber arms/RUCA's.

Much better, sounds awesome. Really happy with it, it gives a fucktonne more clearance than the standard stuff, and actually sits so high that it vibrates on the exhaust tunnel, which is actually really annoying haha. No SR drone here, kakimoto makes it sound pretty raspy.

So yeah with that sorted, next on the list was getting the wheels fitted. I ordered some Falken Ziex ZE912's from Camskill. I was going to get Falkens for the fronts and Nankangs for the rears, but typically they ran out of Nankangs in that size a day before I ordered.

Was such a mission finding somewhere to get them fitted though. First off we needed to find somewhere man enough to have a go with a bead blaster/cheetah, after spending an hour or two driving around, we found one place, but then discovered that the valve holes were huge and they didnt carry the correct size. So we ended up in ATS trucks, who had the right size valves for the wheels. Truck valves! They also had a bead blaster but needed convincing that the tyres would fit. In the end, every tyre went on first time with the blaster and im really happy with the stretch.

Got home and test fitted them, my calculations seemed to be pretty accurate luckily, as the tread was flush with the fenders with no archwork.

Looked so cool seeing it down on the wheels. Although it needed more low, as the rear lip was sat on the top of the tyre stopping it from going any lower.

So I was in need of an arch roller, which I managed to source from a local guy (DanDan) who just lent his to me, which was awesome. So me and my homeslice set about pulling and rolling my arches, which turned out ace.

With the clearance from the pull at the rears, I maxed the coilovers out back and its tucking a decent amount of tyre which I wanted. Stoked with how it looks, so much better than I thought it would!!

So Japfest was coming up and id finally got that customs form through the post on the Friday 7 days before Japfest. I really wanted to take the car their and was pretty confident id have it on the road in time. Had gone to my local DVLA office the day I got the form and was told it would be 4 working days before I recieved my V5 with the reg on.

Typically I had nothing by the Thursday, so went down to the office again, only to find that they hadnt even started processing it yet!! SO pissed off, you cant rely on anyone. Kicked up a bit of a fuss and they said id get it through earliest on Saturday, the day of Japfest. So I missed it, but my V5 did actually turn up, and I got the plates made up that day.

So I went out that night, but broke down. Fuel return line had split at the hardpipe as it runs along the floorpan. Got some pictures while waiting for my mate to come rescue me with some tools.

Easily fixed. Then I went out and did some streeto with friends, and lost alot of power, finding my manifold glowing! Worrying, as it would be normal for a manifold to glow, but loss of power means there's something not right somewhere. I fitted a Walbro 255 lp/h fuel pump and installed an s14 lambda as I was running without one. Not entirely sure what caused the high exhaust temps, potentially wrong timing or lean mixture. The pump and sensor will help anyway until I get the car on a dyno find out whats what.

Slapped some stickers on and went out for a photoshoot with friends. Although I removed all the stickers up the side of my rear window, as it just didnt look right. Less is more y'hurrd!

So yeah, thats how it stands now. I love the car, looks awesome, drives well apart from being a bit violent with harsher roads and it slides real nice!

Cant wait to get stuck into things and take the car to some practice days, should be a good summer!! Dan Bridle from Motormavens - http://www.motormavens.com/, has been in contact with me and has mentioned a potential shoot/feature for the site which is really cool. Hopefully it goes ahead, sweeeet! Check out his blog too - http://danielbridlephoto.tumblr.com/, nice.

Quail from Okishima program - http://www.okishimaprogram.com/ , invited me along to the next meeting in late June, which is awesome and i'll definately be going if im not away working. Cool cars and like minded people. Been following OP for a while now and definately agree with what its all about, so im pretty stoked to be a part of it and to also add stuff to the blog aswell - so thanks dude!

Thanks to my mate Dave "Daze" Cooper aswell for the pics.

Yet another big ass update! When will I learn to post more regularly haha.

Seat time.

2010-04-06T17:42:00.001+01:00

Car is coming with a Bride recliner seat. Although its mint condition and looks good, id rather have a fixed back seat. Put up on Driftworks that I was looking for a swap preffereably but selling it. Got a few hits straight after I put it up and have a queue of people wanting it when it lands.

So I couldnt help but look for a replacement for it, trusty old ebay came up with a Bride Vios in good nick - just what I was after! A few emails later id secured the seat outside of ebay for the same price as im selling the recliner, breaking even baby! Result. So im happy with that, heres some pics, theyre shit because theyre off the auction (not that my iphone pics are any better), but i'll upload some more when its delivered.

Paperwork.

2010-04-06T17:33:00.004+01:00

So I got the paperwork for my car through from Japan recently.

The de-registration documents to prove to the DVLA that the cars legit and hasnt been stolen or anything. A bill of lading which I use to pay for the shipping and release the car from customs with. Then theres the receipt from japaneseusedcars which I show to the customs agents who then decide how much to buttfu... i mean tax me.

Cool bit of history about the car, it was first registered and has spent its whole life in Nagoya, Japan. The previous owner was "Kids Heart, Nagoya" who from what I can tell sell used parts and cars! I'd heard of Kids Heart before so was quite suprised to see the name on the de-registration form. They made the only official "sil80's", a run of 500 limited edition for Nissan. Pretty cool my car came from there, I like stuff like that.

Mein camcorder.

2010-03-26T19:04:00.002Z

Purchased myself a delightfull HD camcorder recently. Thought itd be cool to capture some of the things I do with the car.

Was looking at the GoPro's and 20twenty HD camcorders. These are primarily helmet/motorsport camcorders but I wanted to be able to film other stuff too like other events I go to. I love watching well-edited videos on the net so thought itd be cool to get a little handycam to start me off, perhaps making a few cuts of my own!!

Its nothing hardcore but these things arent cheap, I bought a Sony HDR CX105-E, along with a fast-films.co.uk suction mount for sticking to my glass or body panels.

Pretty happy with it, nice quality image and the setup seems to be pretty good from what I tried so far. Although my PC can barely run the 1080p videos this camera can record. Might make editing a bit tricky in the future...

Anyway here's some dire iphone pictures ive taken of it, perhaps a DSLR should be next on my list to get!!

Sticker Collecting.

2010-03-16T18:24:00.000Z

Been a bit of a sticker whore/collecter recently. To the point i'll have too many if I stuck one of each on my car!

Recieved yet another packet in the post from the US this morning. This time from Andy Sapp.

I think its funny how whenever ive ordered stickers, ive got alot more than I actually order. Either the guys sending them are in a rush, or they appreciate the overseas support. I hope its the latter.

No problem, no problem at all..

Progress Report.

2010-03-16T17:47:00.002Z

Again, its been a while since my last update. Mainly as ive been working away and the car is in transit on a cargo ship at the moment, so not much going on really!

I was sent a few more pics of the car while it was waiting at the docks to be loaded onto a boat..

Spotted some goodies which werent listed in the auction sheets which is cool. Im happy with the rest of it all too. The bumper looks totally haggered, but theres nothing some tampering (zipties) wont fix!

Liking the seat too, thinking of switching it to the passenger side, so I can have a fixed back bucket seat for the driver. Having a reclineable passenger seat will be ideal, making life easier stacking tyres into the back.

Car is currently passing round the bottom of Singapore. Its aboard a beast of a vessel called "Don Pasquale", which I think is a totally badass name for a boat. Being a seafarer myself by trade I know of a few sites where you can track boats all over the world. Pictures and current locations can be found here (by searching "Don Pasquale") - http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

Boat is due to arrive around the first week in April - im stoked!

YUSSSSSS!

2010-01-20T14:50:00.001Z

So that white PS13 in my last update went for quite a bit higher than my maximum bid. I was pretty gutted that I didnt win it as I was quite confident! Turns out it was alot more popular and worth quite a bit more than I first thought - oh well.

Back to the search, nothing of interest came up for a while and I was getting a bit pissed off. Its quite frustrating how there always seems to be loads of them for sale when youre not looking to buy and seemingly nothing when you are!!

Then I checked on the auctions on Monday, a black 91' K's edition Silvia was uploaded. When I first saw it I thought, that needs to be mine, although I was being very cautious and wanted to make sure it was actually what I wanted other than a rush buy/mistake. Got in contact with Rees at JUC again and asked for the spec and a valuation. Thought about it for a while and put a decent bid in.

Turns out it was decent enough to secure the car, as I won it earlier today! Well pleased. Infact it went for 15,000yen more than my highest bid, which I was suprised to see. Turns out the guys who were bidding for me thought it was worth it and went that bit extra on my behalf. Im kind of glad now as I would have been pissed if I missed it by such a small amount.

Anyway, heres the pics from the auction:

Spec.

91' K's silvia.
75k miles on the clock.
Front mount intercooler.
Coilovers.
Full Exhaust system.
Bride bucket seat.
Aftermarket gauges.
Airfilter.
2-way lsd.
Momo wheel.

Some sort of wheels, round ones with tyres.

Happy, with, that.

Black wasnt my first choice, in fact I didnt have a first choice. Other than I wanted a White, Silver or Black car, so thats cool.

Ive got a few images of how I want it to look firing around in my head right now, which is making me more excited. I'm thinking factory aero sides (which arent fitted to the car for some reason), some standard brick headlights (hate the projectors), 17" bronze TE37's, Origin roof spoiler. Sounds good to me so far, nothing crazy straight away, as im thinking about practice days more than I am the image at this stage - cant wait.

Have plenty of inspiration for the direction I want to take, i'll upload some of it.

The best kid!!

2010-01-13T16:34:00.001Z

If I ever have a kid, I hope he's as awesome as this one.

ADTR are one of my favourite bands so it makes this video even better!

It's been a while!

2010-01-13T15:35:00.001Z

Its been nearly 4 months since my last update!

Have been away for most of it doing my new job offshore, so dont really have much to say while im away.

I got back home around mid December. While I was away I went ahead and ordered those diamond racing steelies from the US! They arrived home a few days before I returned so I was quite excited to check them out.

Theyre the "trucker" series. 16x10j, I went for +/-0 offset for the fronts and a -12 offset for the back. Pretty hardcore! Theyre not light though, 12kg - what. Kind of expected it really.

The MOT was due on my car, it needed new discs and pads. Thanks to my mate Dave who works in the parts industry I managed to pick up some standard discs and pads for a very good price. While I had the car in the air, I HAD to whack the wheels on, just to see.

Nuts! I love it! They dont fit, but would once the car is under load, with some camber dialed in, pulled arches and some 215 tyres fitted. Would look the tits!

However while I was away I had quite some time to think things over, I decided I really wanted an SR'd s13 as the CA in mine was just getting to me, I had done quite a bit of maintainence on it which didnt really bother me, but I was just getting pissed off with the leaks and general crustyness of it. I've always wanted a ps13 silvia, so as you can probably guess, im after one!

When I got back, I pm'd Autospecs (Rees from japaneseusedcars.com), on driftworks.com and got talking about importing a ps. He's really informative and patient and dealt with all the little questions I had about importing. Ive chosen to import, as theres only a few already in the UK and theyre always way too expensive, or shit. Besides, importing is gonna be fun!

I laid my deposit down, which works out to be £1k, this enables me to look at the car's specs via the auction sheets (not possible if you just look up on the site without an account), and also means you can enter the bidding process once youve seen the car you like.

I wanted my s13 off my driveway and out of my hands before I set the wheels in motion ps13 wise. My friend Ben (who can been seen in one of the pics above helping out on my car), was interested in buying the car. I always knew he'd probably be up for buying it off me. But I had my reservations selling a car to a friend who I see all the time, though the easyness of not having to advertise the car and haggle etc was too tempting so I went ahead with it. Its cool that i'll be able to see the car all the time, its a great car!

We got it through the MOT, needed 3 new tyres, front passenger balljoint, rear drivers side brake pipe and the new brakes as mentioned before.

So now he has the car, we did a deal which meant the HSD coilovers, seat and steering wheel are still mine. When I get my next car, he can have the standard bits off it to replace my bits which are still on it.

I want a standard, solid base for my next car, prefferably with a few bits to start me off. Id be able to afford a pretty well specced car from Japan, but wheres the fun in buying a car thats already done for you? It annoys me when I see people who've bought a kitted out car on the auctions, stuck some decent wheels on and dont do the car justice by not driving it properly.

So yeah, for the past few weeks ive been keeping my eye peeled for a good condition K's ps13 silvia. Quite a few J's and Q's show up that id get, but I cant be bothered with the hassle of a DET conversion. I want a car that I can be taken straight out onto the streets and to practice days then progressed as my driving does.

Auctions in Japan were closed over the new year, but back on the 5th, I havnt had to wait long until the ideal car has shown up.

Its not amazing to look at, but it doesnt need to be yet. Heres the spec.

1992 K's Silvia

SR20DET - 40k Genuine miles - fuck!

Uprated fuel pump

T28

Stainless manifold

Front mount intercooler

Koyo Rad

Stainless front pipe

Exhaust

ARC Gt wing - selling this

OEM aero

R32 wheels

4-pot skyline brakes

5 stud hubs

Uprated clutch

2-way diff

Bride seats

Momo wheel

Guages

Perfect base, a few choice bits. The wing is coming off and going to be sold. The only thing that sucks is the 5 stud hubs, those Diamond Racing wheels are 4x114.3 - cockballs!

Kind of gutted, but im going to have to sell the wheels. I really wanted to get these on a car. I put an ad up on Driftworks and SXOC, got absolutely cained with PM's and responses from people who wanted to buy them for the asking price (pretty much what I paid for them all in), and others saying how badass they are.

They could be easily sold, but I had a change of heart once I saw how popular they are and wanted to keep them. If I win this ps13 on auction, the wheels will definately be going which I really hate but needs must - not converting back to 4 stud just for these, although im so tempted.

A guy on Driftworks was first to respond, he wants them on his Cressida - which would be sick! So if they are available, he still wants them, id prefur them to go on a Cressida, as ive not seen any s-bodys in the uk with DR wheels and itd break my heart to see them on someone elses s13 haha.

So yeah, ive put a max bid of 400k yen for this s13. Rees valued it at 300-400, I want it.

It goes through on Thursday, Japan time. So im hoping to hear in the early hours tonight / tomorrow morning - excited!

I really should stop with the mass posts, I need to update more regularly haha.

What's been happening.

2009-09-22T17:23:00.008+01:00

Not updated in a while!

Had a few things going on with the car over the past month or so. Including a few problems, a few alterations and some use!

Put alottt of miles on the car travelling back and forth training for my new job. This resulted in the top turbo gasket giving up the ghost. So annoying as i'd done the elbow gasket a few weeks before hand which was a pain in the ass to do with the turbo in situ.

Made a proper job of it with genuine gaskets, metal locking nuts, new oil and coolant. Car's now running pretty sweet!

A really local drift practice day had been on the cards for quite a while, I wasnt really planning on taking my car but in the end went with a few friends and had the best time! It was my first practice day and I dont think I did too badly, I only took 2 sets of pretty worn tyres which turned out to be a mistake, lasting about 8 laps in total, still pretty awesome.

My mate was able to don a hi-vis and go out on the infield of the layout and take some pics:

I only managed about 4 or so laps out of each set of tyres, my first run went pretty good and I suprised myself by not majorly sucking, the dude marshalling it said I had potential, yeah potential ;). I went out for my second run with more pressure in the rears, a bit more excited and didnt do aswell, cooked the tyres pretty quick and popped them after a few laps.

All out of tyres, I stuck around with my friends watching the others including our buddy in his mx5 who was dominating the layout all day. All in all a wicked day, I came away pretty pleased with myself and itching to have another crack. If I wasn't addicted before I definately am now! It's true what people say, you learn more on one practice day than you do in months of streeto, not that I got much seat time but I did walk away feeling twice as experienced.

A little after the practice day I started to think about setting up my controls a bit more. I stole a seat from my other car and bought some Driftworks super-low sidemount runners.

They're nicely made, but I had a bit of a time getting the mounts to line up, I think its just the shape of my seat made life difficult. Even on the lowest setting the seat wasn't as low as I was expecting. Again I think this is down to the mounting holes on my seat itself. Besides, the driving position is perfect for me now and the Nardi wheel feels even better than before.

As you can see from the pic, I also added a copied Nismo knob that I got pretty cheap from american Ebay. Only a little alteration but all these changes make your car feel so different, I really like it.

I also got another pair of prefacelift wheels for cheap off a local guy, sprayed them black to match the fronts. This is how it's all looking at the moment.

Also started to get info on SR conversions, as my CA is starting to piss me off with leaks and general crustyness. Been in contact with Mitch from Driftworks about the cost of the conversion, im competant to do the conversion myself, but would rather pay someone to do the job once and properly to save me the stress, that way I wont have the car off the road for too long either...

Fanboy status.

2009-08-12T13:44:00.005+01:00

So I was on the Fatlace site and catching up on the forum. Really wanting some stickers for my car I pm'd Kenny asking if they ship to the UK. He seemed happy to and sent me 3 sets, awesome!

Then 3 days later, another free set got randomly delivered haha, more stickers than I can shake a stick at:

I went back onto the Fatlace forum to thank Kenny, and saw a limited amount of Fatlace/Hellaflush/Illest number plate frames for sale. I was gonna buy a US spec plate (12x6) eventually as I prefur the size. When I saw these I instantly wanted one and when it turned up, guess what, more stickers!!:

Theres only so many I can stick on my car before I look like even more of a massive fanboy whore, so i've given a few to some friends and I guess will keep the rest as a collection! I feel bad as I am in no way "Hellaflush" at the moment, although when my wheels are fitted i'll have to get them to send over some "Mexiflush" (poke) stickers.

I guess they appreciate overseas following, I love free stuff!

ttfn.

Gnarly Charlie

2009-08-01T11:34:00.007+01:00

Me and a few friends have decided to make a blog to keep track of the stuff that goes on with our cars and stuff for a bit of fun. My mate Dave thought of the name Gnarly Charlie, which is random but has a ring to it.

A few of us went out the other night on a random meet and my buddies Daze (green 14a) and Mike (white FC), got some pics:

Coilovers, at last.

2009-07-16T13:52:00.007+01:00

I joined in on a Driftworks group buy for HSD coilovers. Saved £200 on the list price, result.

Got them through last friday

Went round to a friends to fit them, who has a load of tools and a flat drive.

This how the car sat after fitting them. The rear was wayy too low for my exhaust and the front too high.

On satruday night, some friends noticed sparks coming from under my car. On monday I set about raising the rear and lowering the front to get a better stance. I found the chassis rails had taken a beating and some clamps had also been cained abit.

I adjusted the height settings and span the clamps round. Also fitted my skid wheels to the rear which my mate sprayed black for me and relocated the numberplate.

My drive points down and is quite a retarded shape, the front splitter is pretty close!!

Theres no way my jack would fit under that obviously, and the diff is too low for it to fit also. So i made some ramps out of wood which work a treat so I can actually get the car in the air again haha.

Amongst all this going on, I got the correct hub through for the Nardi wheel, a used one from Japan! So thats fitted now

Bit of a long winded update but I like to take pics. The car handles amazingly now, the wheel feels great, car feels like its on rails. Love it now.

Local meet.

2009-07-09T22:48:00.008+01:00

A group of the locals met up the other night. Pretty good turn out and some really good cars came along.

A guy called Mark who previously owned a pretty lairy s13 has recently got hold of the hardest looking r32 gtst that I have ever seen.

Its a very good spec car, an absolute weapon. Mark took me out in it and its a complete time machine!! Great fun!

My good mate Dave got some stills of the car:

Hope to see this car about alot more now, i'm sure its going get alot of action.

Kind of fited my Nardi wheel...

2009-07-06T16:24:00.004+01:00

So I won that Nardi Torino wheel and boss on eBay. £65 delivered which I thought was pretty good considering what i've seen them go for before.

I went to fit it today, but the holes on the Nardi wheel dont line up with the Momo boss already fitted.

So I took the Momo boss off and checked to see if the Nardi one fitted the s13 spline. But as I feared it didnt. Its too sloppy.

So i'm trying to get hold of a Nardi boss in s13 fitment, for the time being im just gonna tighten the nut down on the boss/column Chuck Norris tight until I get the right boss.

Looks sweet either way:

It's so dishy, might take a bit of getting used to. Happy with it anyway!

EH3 at Crail

2009-07-06T16:21:00.000+01:00

EH3 films have put together a video of a recent drift day at Crail, Scotland.

Great editing and sound track. In my opinion, the best video that's come out of the UK.

Cant wait to start taking my car and drive at days like this, shame I live on the other end of the country!!!

Mmmm bikes

2009-07-02T23:00:00.006+01:00

I want one!!

It's called a "Bobber", from what I've seen these bikes can be bought in a kit form which you build yourself, or from scratch using a custom frame and whatever bits you want.

They mostly all have a retro and minimalist vibe about them which I love. I dont like really showy choppers with bright flames/paint/chrome etc. This style of "chopper" (if you could even call it one), is the nuts.

I first came across this style on a site ran by a friend of my friends dad haha, who both build bikes. You can see the site here, http://www.attitude-customs.co.uk/

Anyway, this is pretty much exactly how i'd like one:

The old school parts like the springer forks, old style spring seat, mesh wheels and minimalist style of it are awesome. Its a cool bike that you'd be able to cruise one, which still looks light and nimble, this one has a 1300cc "evo" Harley engine, so its not gonna be slow either.

I love every part of it. In a few years time i'd love to build one, it wont be me building one though, i'd leave it to my friends dad as he's made some fantastic bikes!!

Cheers

Swiing!

2009-07-02T17:40:00.001+01:00

Both versions are cool!..

I get annoyed with eBay.

2009-07-01T12:31:00.001+01:00

For the past few days, I've been stalking a Nardi Torino steering wheel on ebay to go on the S13. They're quite rare and this one looks particularly cool.

I asked the guy to send me a pic side-on showing the dish:

Perfect! I love dishy wheels. I've been following a car recently on Zilvia and it too has one of these:

Nice!

Thing thats annoying me, is that yesterday lunchtime it was at £1.20, last night went up to £24, now its at £40. But it doesnt end untill 9pm tonight. Why do people bid days early, whats the point? It just annoys me because I thought I might be in for a bargain. At least bid at the last second like i'm going to, would be less frustrating that way.

With everything on Ebay, I get paranoid that the guy selling it is getting his mates to bid on it before the auction end, to hoik the price up. I gurantee it happens all the time on there, but if you want something, you're gonna keep bidding aren't you.

I think i'm gonna bid. My car already has a Momo "Race" wheel, which is actually quite nice, so can be re-sold near enough the value of the Nardi one, i'm hoping.

The S13

2009-06-30T23:39:00.001+01:00

I've got a UK spec S13 which im REALLY getting into. I've had it since December '08, although not much has happened to it, as I was layed off at around that time too which sucked. Been unemployed since but start a new job in September of this year so this car will start getting some decent attention.

It's a 92' Facelift RS13 in Kuro black. The only car i've ever had other than a mini haha. Been into the jap/drift scene for ages now and i'm getting TOTALLY hooked.

It was a pretty much standard but well looked after car when I bought it:

CA18
120k miles (20k since full rebuild and new T25).
Blitz turbo timer
Momo wheel and pedals
Had a Bailey dumpvalve which isnt there anymore
S14 front and rear seats
Mongoose elbow-back decat
Std VLSD

Since I bought it, on the doll money :(, i've fitted:

Walbro 255 l p/h fuel pump
HKS shroom filter
Apex Performance subframe locking collars
Lazy eye mod

It's been SO much fun so far to skid, even in standard form, really need to get to some DWYB days when I can afford to it'll be a riot.

Here's some pics:

So yeah, it's nothing much at all yet. I've been completely skint so i've not been able to do much. I've just been whoring forums even more than before, getting info about bits and getting inspiration for the route I want to take the S13.

The car is my daily, althogh the job i'm starting in september is offshore. So the s13 wont technically be my daily but yeah. I've got alot of plans for it, pretty much drift AS MUCH as I can with my time off, while in between turning the car into a complete weapon.

I've managed to do a bit of saving and about mid July i'll be getting some HSD monotube coilovers. I couldnt resist, Driftworks have had a group buy on these badboys recently with a huge saving of £200 off the list price. Couldnt turn the oppurtunity down so my deposits down on them while I get the rest of the cash together :

For about 6 months now, i've been trawling the net for inspiration. 90% of it coming from the US scene, I just love the grass roots scene and the way those guys are styling their cars. ALOT of my inspiration is coming from zilvia.net etc, Violent Running Tribe also. However recently VRT isnt useable as a forum anymore which kind of sucks, they have an invite only/application thing going on now, bit of a shame as those guys have some sick cars which I cant keep track of now.

I've not planned to do much at all externally. But so far my tastes are with simple, clean, standard body. Mostly because its simple and cheap, while I concentrate on making a better spec car/become a better driver.

One thing I do like is small-ish but as low as possibe offset wheels. Something which ive found is quite rare/disliked in some ways on s-bodys are wide steel wheels. It's more common on the US scene but still not the norm, and basically doesnt exist on the UK scene from what i've come across.

If done right and some effort put in, I think wide, low offset steelies look the shit on s13's. They suit that rat-rod look more than anything, but i'm thinking of attempting to retain a clean look with some gloss white 16" steels, as wide as I can get on metal fenders from a pull/flare/roll/stretch etc.

I was thinking about it alot and really liked the idea, so I spent a while searching for what sort of style wheel I was after. I came across Diamond Racing wheels and looked into them further, finding a coulpe of cars on the american and canadian scenes which were running this style of wheel:

This is the car that inspired me the most:

I can imagine to alot of people, this looks wank, but I think it looks the shit. So its probably what i'm going to do to start with. Perhaps lower offset on the rears, these are 15x10j et-22 front and rear with 205/45's stretched over. The fronts look a little silly on this one I reckon, and you need to slam the shit out of s13's to make them look decent on 15's. You can get these wheels made to order, so I reckon i'd go for 16x10j - 18 rear + 16x8.5j -12 on the front. I've had the tape measure out and thats the region id go for, needs a closer look. They're cheap and easy to replace. I'll go for something else later down the line i'm sure, the style of this car will probably change quite alot in the future.

Anyway, really k.o'd after writing this stuff, didnt realise blogging was so time consuming!!

More of a basic intro really, might have been a bit long winded but hey its a start!!

Cheers

Gonna start with this.

2009-06-30T22:57:00.000+01:00

My first car was a mini (retro type), when I was 17. I slowly started doing things to it on a cheap budget and have come along way since. For the past 3 or 4 years, since my engine failed in my first mini, I've got hold of another mini to replace it (had to scrap the old one).

This pretty long project which has been on-going through my uni years has snowballed into something alot more substantial than what I first planned. I got hold of a "metro turbo" engine, which was going to replace the tired old engine, however this turbo engine hasn't been in the car and used in anger yet, as I decided to take it apart and make a proper job of it, which has taken ages.

These days the engine is pretty much ready to go. The car has come a pretty long way now, but isn't going to be a "finished/complete car" for a while yet.

Here's a breif run through of the thing i'm talking about.

It's a 1990 mini mayfair which I bought as a rolling shell. Clubman front end, carbon arches, had 7x13 Ultralights but these are gone now. Most of the bits on the inside and out speak for themselves :

Ok my favourite bit, the engine. ALL of the bits on this car have been put together/built by me, I wanted to learn as much as I could so i've given everything a go and so far its turned out great:

Lowered compression ratio of 8.5:1 for more boosticles:

Straight cut close ratio gearbox that I built, has a 3.2 final drive:

For the moment this is that standard metro "T3" unit:

All ready to go in:

These are 7x13 wellers, which I got sandblasted and powdercoated satin black. Green rim tape. Unsure of offsets but there higher offsets than the ultralights, still look awesome though:

Pretty much how it stands at the moment, got to mount the intercooler properly and fit it under the removable fibreglass front end:

Here's the spec:

Standard T3 turbo, to be rebuilt
Standard turbo carb, to be rebuilt with noice bits
Avonbar Billet acuator, 12psi i think, dunno how I find out
15+ psi

1293 Metro Turbo block
10cc dish Omega Cast pistons
Standard crank and rods
Centre main strap
Heavy duty main, rod and camshaft bearings

Powerflow high capacity oil pump
Avonbar phase 2 cam kit
Piper Vernier Duplex kit
MED Ultralight steel flywheel

Minispares Molybdenum 4-pin differential
Minispares Clubman SCCR gearset
TRAN-X 1:1 SC drop gears

Fully modded Benross head

MED ultralight backplate

Grey Diagphram
AP Race/Rally plate
EDIS and MJLJ setup
2wd Cosworth intercooler, modded plenum and pipes
Some sort of dump valve
In car bleed valve
Clubman f/g 1 piece front
Curley carbon miglia arches
7x13 ultralights
2 Cobra imola s buckets with TRS harnesses
All sound deadening gone tubby bye bye's
SPAXtics shocks and some hi-lo's

Loads of other bits to come yet but as I say its not finished yet. The engine runs but is currently out of the car and the engine is split, I had a problem when I put my foot on the clutch that the revs dropped from idle and almost stalled the engine. This was because of a under-tolerance crank endfloat value from when I first built it. Sorted now, just needs to go back together and it can be run in. Cant wait!!

Expected power will be about 170bhp with similar torque to begin with, at around 1bar/15psi boost. After a bit of development and a different turbo i'm hoping to see 200bhp.

More weight saving after this, aiming for 550kg. Then paint etc to make it look pretty.

Will update more as things progress from now on...

Cheers!

So I've started a blog..

2009-06-30T22:33:00.000+01:00

So yeah, I've started a blog. Not sure why, quite bored and thought it'd be fun :) Something to look back on I guess!

I've not really got a set idea what i'll be blogging so its going to be a bit of anything and everything to do with me to be honest. Mostly about my car(s), project progress, mate's and their car's, inspirational stuff, music and some other cool shit probably.