Diggory: the Y32 Nissan Cedric

Due to a recent move of cities and the only car in my possession down here being my PS13 (which spends more time in bits in between drift days than not, build thread here) I started browsing auctions to see what sort of oddball daily driver I could get my hands on. Preferably, something old, Japanese and with foor doors. I came across this, took the plunge and ended up winning it.

1992 Nissan Cedric Gran Turismo - VG30DET (single turbo) - Auto - 39,000 miles. Trekked to the other side of the country to pick it up with Alex, dropped it off at the workshop so I could take a look underneath.















I'd done a bit of research on Minkara and other Jap sites trying to translate what I could and, from what I'd found out, the Y32 platform is a weird mix of S-body and Z32 suspension/drivetrain components. I got it straight on the ramp so we could have a look and spot familiar parts. First all, the dreaded search for rust.







All good in the hood!



First spot: HICAS and GTR-style six bolt driveshafts/diff outputs



HICAS toe arms, S14 LCAs, camber arms and traction rods



Up front was a little weirder. S body lower arms and tension rods with all the usual holes, although the droplink hole was left unused. The shock and knuckle are a complete one-piece assembly along with the droplink mounting, which is a tad weird. The steering arms/rack look like Z32 items. The front subframe arrangement is completely different to an S-body in the sense that it includes bushes and various brackets, but the important bits are all the same.



Obviously I could keep things simple by buying Y32 specific coilovers from Japan and bolting them on, but that seems a bit pointless when I'm surrounded by S-body coilovers. (Here's a pic of Y32 front coilies for reference: http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr191/Autech_Y34/600x450-2009080700089.jpg).

However, I'd seen a build thread on Minkara where the car had been converted to use S13 front knuckles and coilovers - the car was also running a manual conversion (I presume using a Z32 box) and was being used for drifting. Must resist the temptation! But as I've got spare S13 knuckles sat at home and a whole pile of S body bits lying around, it could be worth a punt.









Had a few hours before heading to Birmingham Wheels today so thought I'd finally fit the curtains that I bought in Japan to something.



And thought I'd start getting a rough estimate of wheel fitment and sizes, so chucked on this Cosmis N5R 18x9 ET15 for reference.



So...plans for the car? Well for now I just want it slammed, good wheels and a fresh coat of paint. But for some horrendous reason I can see the manual conversion and lock mods on the horizon. I just think it'd be a massive laugh and totally worth it to have a few pics of me attacking Teesside or Lydden in it.



Quick Photoshop Adam did for me:



Here's a few examples of what he could look like (the different lights are for the different platforms, the Y32 has the Cedric, Cima and Gloria, similar to the JZX series having Mark II, Chaser, Cresta etc.)

 

Started having a bit of a play - was eager to see what coilovers I could make work. First finding was that the rear top mounts are S14/R33 items, so tried an R33 setup with an S-body lower cup. Was all technically correct but way too long for slamming.



Tried an S14 CS2 setup instead - all seemed well with this. Although after doing more research, a shorter S13 damper with S14 top mount is the best solution for correct ride height.



Maiden voyage.



Found out some more info on the S-body front suspension swap, I've got pretty much everything I need lying around anyway, I just need to decide whether I want to make custom top mounts or drill the strut tops and use S14 ones.

235/40, chucked them on to test fitment on my PS originally.

Only about £600 each, both fully declared.

 

New wheels for the PS turned up. Would have been rude not to do a test fit

 

Bit of an update. First up was figuring out how to change the head unit as the factory CD player was broken and the tape deck was hopeless.



In goes the double DIN unit that I nicked out of Rich's S15.



Then on Monday night I got sick of staring at my broken PS13 so decided to make some moves with the Cedric. Off came the peculiar factory front suspension setup.





Superstyle knuckles from my PS, Tein tie rod ends, standard S14 LCAs that I found in my spares box.



All fitted with my HSD DTs also taken from the PS. I had to redrill the strut tops as I couldn't source Y32/33 top mounts anywhere, even in Japan. This has been done a few times in Japan and America, although I haven't seen it done in Europe before.



Strong look.



For the rear I used my S13 DTs again but with S14 top mounts.



And here's how it currently stands. The rear is as low as I can get it without the tyres catching on the upper arch (lateral fitment is ok now that I've hammered the lips flat). The front can go lower as soon as I've relocated the loom, as it sits right above the tyre in typical Nissan fashion.

The wheels are WORK Emotion T7Rs in 18x9.5 +12 in Matt Gunmetal finish.

 

I've no idea to be honest at the moment...I'm booked on for Teesside August Bank Holiday but no idea what car (if any) I'll be doing it in at the moment :/

 

Well Diggory's been out and about in his new slammed form for the last week or so. One thing I obviously had to do before even driving him out the unit though was to sort the standard Nissan arch loom issue. Excuse the Snapchat photos.





It's not a drift car, so I wasn't going to go down the same route as my PS and disconnect the SMJ and run the loom through the bay.



A bit of loom stretching, lip hammering and drilling/cable tieing and it's far enough out of the way for now.



The loom on the passenger side is about a third of the size, so I managed to relocate it, tie it up and hammer the lip without going through the ballache of removing the wing (the driver's side wasn't a fun job).

Because of the chopped knuckles that are on there for now I needed to fit some extended tie rods to get the front wheels pointing in the right direction, so fitted these +25m items from Mo at Superstyle Garage.



Boom.







Need to do some more work on the rear inner arch areas as there's still some catching under compression, and I want to be able to drive with four passengers without rubbing, so I'd best get to work.



Also tried to get the front fitment looking more to my liking, but if I ever want to turn it's going to take a bit more work on the front wings. Where's my hammer and jack handle...

 

Diggory is a him, definitely not an it.

Yeah I'm going to try upping the rates soon to experiment anyway. The ride at the moment isn't bad at all and is fairly neutral - when I was looking at Y32/33 coilover kits in Japan they all had the same spring rates as their counterpart S13 kits, so I thought I might as well give it a try before slapping mega springs on there.

Haha, it's crossed my mind, but my SR in its current form would just make it slower. I think if I was to swap something in, it'd have to be six cylinder, or a pretty significant SR setup.

Oh yeah, Bon made me do a burnout. Turns out Diggory does good burnouts.