Currently parked at my sisters, depends where your travelling, has presence but needs the balls to back it up. Too many cars as projects and working ridiculous hours spoils play though... Its all about swag with velour armchairs and a fridge in the back though haha.
Weekend Workout This weekend was mostly spent in the workshop. I had a few jobs that I wanted to do on the car but I also wanted to do just a general check over the underneath, Since running the car so low on a daily basis it has taken a few unexpected impacts. After the usual struggle to get the car firstly on the ramp itself, I fired it up in the air to see what was what. Immediately I spotted something I didn't want to see, My sump had taken a beating and was creased up at the front of the pan. This is my second sump already as the previous was also dented so I did a straight swap with a spare my friend had. It seamed like this time it would be easier to just removed the sump pan and beat it back out flat. After removing and beating with a hammer a few times I got a pretty good shape back and was happy with it so I cleaned everything up ready for sealing and fitting. With that job finally out of the way, I moved onto my oil return. I had been meaning to fix the small leak I had coming from my return pipe since I did the swap. After removing the pipe and then the hose clamps I didn't realize that the hose had split in two, I was surprised this had happened but I think a combination of heat and maybe the hose clams being too tight have cut into the hosing. This was again not good news but luckily a local friend had some spare hose off an engine that would be a perfect replacement once cut to size. The shape of the hose was spot on almost identical to the OEM hose, However before fitting this time I thought it would be a good idea to simply heat wrap with my favorite foil tape. With that all wrapped up I bolted the return pipe back onto the turbo and job DONE! With the two unexpected jobs out of the way, I finally got chance to have a look at the rest of my car. Surprisingly my buddy club exhaust is still intact although it has been scrapping a lot, there are no holes as of yet. Another thing that needed sorted was my front wheel clearance, My 205/45/17 tyre's have been shredding against everything. I took a hammer to both front inner arches and rolled back the front wings as much as possible where it had been catching most. As you can see some holes have appeared too, I'm not so worried about this really as I'm planning of tubbing the front arch's out at the end of the year. Also I'm dropping my profile on the front to 215/40/17 so this should clear better under the stock inner arch's for now. I'm now happy with the clearance on my current tyre's so there shouldn't be any issues with the new tyre setup on the front. Back to the engine, With the sump and the return pipe fixed it was time to pour in some good quality oil. I had been running generic 10w40 previously, But I was glad to finally use this Titan Race Pro S 10w50 fully synthetic oil. Also the colour of this stuff is mad! I finished off by taking a few pics of my current interior setup. I recently fitted a box fresh 340mm Classic Nardi Wheel with a DW 60mm Snap Off Boss Kit. The 60mm snap off kit bolted onto my HKB boss spaces the flat wheel out perfectly for my driving position. The wheel feels really nice to drive with and suits the period of my interior, and I have to say I am impressed with the quality of the DW boss kit! Before heading home a quick wash was necessary so I took a few pictures, The bodywork is still pretty shocking but I'm happy with the fitment of my car for now and I do plan on cleaning things up but driving is most important for me. Practice practice practice ! Roll on Three Sisters...
Pre Drift Day Update A small update of what I've been up to, I spent last Saturday at the workshop to fit a new rear lower arm as my previous arm had been bent from a crash and was only unbent temporally but still needed replacing as it had thrown my alignment out and was pulling to the left and wearing my front right tyre out from dragging. Simple job really just a few bolts but I wanted to remove my rear anti roll bar as I don't think its necessary with my car being so low and the ARB being so thin it would hardly make a difference, If anything would only give me more grip which is what I want really for when I up the power to Stage1a. While the car was up in the air I swapped over the rear tyres first for some fairly healthy part warns. Then I got the front up and changed from my old 205/45 17's to some cheap 215/40/17's. Ling Long Tyres actually have a very good wet rating better than Nankang which I have always ran in the past so I thought I would give them a go at £35 a tyre XD The car sits ridiculously low at the front now, the ARB rarely leaves the ground but it looks sweet and clearance is spot on now! I really need to sort my bodywork out soon but driving it is more fun and other things still need to be bought that are more important.
Wait, your rear ARB was in 2 pieces? Or did you cut it to remove? If you ever get to the point you feel it's got too much rear grip keep an eye out for a GTR or a GTS4 rear ARB (R32/33/34 all fit). Tightens the rear up loads, makes it feel like you can steer it on the throttle, eliminating the need to fight body roll. Interesting to see how you find the Lings compared to the Nankangs. My 215/40 NS2's were awesome for 4 wheel sliding in the dry, but the wet weather performance shitted me. I ran them relatively low at 28psi (215/40 on a 9) to help with grip but always ran the risk of debeading
Hahah cut to remove it was easier that way, And yeah we will see how it is, if anything its just going to make my driving much more aggressive which is what I want
Well I drive it every day still on the streets so I've done a few clutch kicks and it seems to be much more predictable already so I think I might like it without
Quickly went through this and gotta say I love it Great progress, youre using the car which is how it should be Great ride!
Really like your attitude towards this. Any pictures of subframe/sump clearance? As this is the ride height I'm aiming for on 17s too
Thanks man, I don't have any pictures of that but basically my front anti roll bar is sitting about 15mm from the ground. You really need to learn your local roads to avoid hitting it ahaha
