Right then. First off I want to say that this thread is going to be a bit backwards as the car has already gone through a lot of changes since I first purchased this in March 2020. I’m going to try and document everything from March 2020 until the present day. I apologise for the lack of photos – Most of these are just taken from my phone and never really had the intention of being used in a thread like this. I’ve always wanted to start a little ‘build’ thread for this car so I thought I may as well do it now. It’ll be a bit descriptive and boring to read for the most part, but I hope you get some enjoyment out of it, and I hope to show new people just how fun these little shitters can be. Here’s the car in its current form as of 2021: {}
Spec: 1995 Nissan Micra K11 GX Model (CG10DE) Exterior: 14” Watanabe F8F Wheels OEM March Front bumper OEM March rear plate/boot surround OEM March rear lights Impul front grille Mulholland rear wing Rear wiper delete Genuine One-Make-Race window banner Interior: Nardi Gara 3 steering wheel HKS Horn button OEM March dashboard pod Impul shift knob Impul K12 Emblem Impul pedal set Apexi RSM Hello Kitty ETC reader (lol) Mulholland keyring Engine: HKS Intake OEM March rocker cover Nismo oil cap Suspension + braces: BC Racing BR Coilovers Gizfab adjustable panhard rod Cusco front upper brace Cusco front lower brace Homemade rear upper brace Misc: Impul sports horns RSR Concept Magic backbox
So, some of you are probably asking, why a Micra? Well… I owned a red pre-facelift Micra before this current one, and I absolutely loved it. It was my first car and it was perfect for me at the time (Cheap on insurance, tax, fuel, parts, fun to drive and most importantly - Japanese). I’ve always been heavily into my Japanese stuff, and I felt that a Micra would just tick all the boxes for what I wanted at the time. After buying my first Micra an odd 5ish years ago, I decided I’d get straight to buying/collecting as many parts as I could (In the hopes of fitting them once insurance wasn’t insane). {} I couldn’t believe the amount of aftermarket support for these little cars in Japan. I fell in love with the N1 and N2 race cars that used to rag around legendary Japanese tracks like Tsukuba Circuit and Suzuka. I found out about companies like Mulholland, Kappatsu, Impul, Tommy Kaira etc etc and I was hooked. I knew from the start exactly how I wanted to make my K11 look. A period correct, N1/Cup inspired street car. Unfortunately, after around 3 years of ownership of my first Micra, I realised how absolutely rotten it was, so a large majority of the parts I bought just sat in storage (my bedroom) unused and gathering dust. Fun fact: I was jacking up my old Micra to install coilovers when the jack went through the floor… So, I set out to look for another pre-facelift Micra that I could use as a fresh base for all of the parts I’d collected over the first 3 years of my Micra ownership.
Fast forward to March 2020. I’d just moved in to a flat with my girlfriend and life was treating me good. I was daily driving my old MX5 up until this point but the itch for another K11 was still too strong to resist. I had stumbled across an advert on Gumtree for an AJ4 1995 K11 for just £400. It was pretty local so I decided to go and have a look. Needless to say, I ended up with the car that very day and drove it back home. {} {} Overall, it was a pretty tidy car. It needed a few small things but thankfully I still had my old K11 that I could use for parts. There was a patch of rust on the passenger side rear sill which needed looking at, but the rest of the underside seemed very good considering it’s a sunroof model (sunroof drain leaks into the sills and rots these things from the inside out). The car only had 45,000 miles when I first purchased it. The drivers side door was also pretty fucked – I think it must’ve been replaced at some point as it had severe sun fade. The rest of the car seemed to be okay though. I think I did pretty well for £400.
Not even a week after having the car home I put an order in for some BC Racing coilovers from my friend Wayne @ Kuruma Factory. Bad timing with the start of the pandemic meant that they would be delayed by weeks… The boredom lead to me deciding to paint my bumper strips to match the rest of the car: {} {} I should probably mention, I’d been getting some absolute bargains from Japan at this point as well as getting extremely lucky finding bits in the country. I managed to snag this mint condition Bride FOR FREE… {}
The 4th of April 2020. My BC Racing coilovers finally arrived in the UK. I also ordered a panhard rod from trusty GizFab to keep my axle shift from going on the piss, so that was waiting to go on too. {} Not long later, the car was finally on the ground with the fresh coils. I decided to go for a larger tire setup and a fairly reasonable ride height as this is supposed to be my ‘sensible’ daily driver. It’ll go lower in the future, but for now it’s all good. {} {} Nice.
A couple of days after the coilovers went on I installed a few interior bits. I bought an Apexi RSM as the car didn’t come with a rev counter (but mainly because it looks cool). I won it on eBay for £35 - OEM Micra rev clocks usually go for this price, so it seemed like a better alternative. {} Works great Also fitted were the following: Nardi Classic w/ HKB boss kit and HKS horn button. Impul pedals and shifter. OEM March rear lights RSR Concept Magic Exhaust backbox HKS air intake {} {} Took the car for a long drive that night as I was loving the way the coilovers felt. {}
Next on the list of things to do was replacing my disgusting, faded drivers door using my old K11. It was a pretty easy job as this car didn’t have any central locking or annoying tech stuff. I also removed the tacky side strips on the doors. {} {} Much better For the next couple of months I kept the car the same. I was pretty happy with how it looked and drove, but I knew I wanted to go further with the car eventually.
June 2020. An auction came up on Yahoo for a mint condition Mulholland rear boot spoiler – something I’d dreamed of owning since buying my first K11. I ended up winning it after a stressful battle with some Japanese lads. A couple of weeks later, it arrived at my door. {} The build quality and style of this wing is next to none - A true piece of K11 aftermarket excellence which was promptly ruined when I got too impatient and decided to rattle can the wing… (Don’t worry, it’ll get proper paint in the future). {} {} At this point, my vision of the K11 was escalating in my head. Up until now, the car was essentially a standard Micra on coilovers and wheels, but this Mulholland wing would set off the period correct itch within me. I had to do more.
I toyed about with the idea of doing a full race inspired livery using some old N1 cars as a reference. I scrapped this idea though which was a bit of a shame. Potentially a future plan for the car though as I still think it’ll look cool. {} {} Some pics of the N1 cars I was (and still am) inspired by: {} {} {} {} {} {} {} {} {} {} {}
July 2020. I spotted something that I never thought I’d ever see for sale. Something that people around the world have been making replicas of for years. A GENUINE, NEW OLD STOCK March Hachimaki (window banner) used for the One-Make-Race championships including N1, N2 and the March Cup series. {} I must’ve bought this thing within the first 10 minutes of it being listed on YAJ. This is an item that every car I obsessed over all these years has had. The seller says that it was a spare given to him in 1996, which he’d kept in his garage unused all these years. So cool. As much as it pained me to decide to put this on my car. I feel like it makes an incredibly large difference to the look and the style. {} To think that I’m possibly the only person outside of Japan to own a genuine One-Make-Race banner is mind blowing. It’s easily my favourite purchase of all time.
August. I managed to secure yet another bargain on Facebook. An OEM March plate surround with number plate lights for just £50. I didn’t originally want to buy the whole surround, but I admit it has grown on me now. {} These number plate surrounds are designed for the JDM boot lid which is a bit more rectangular than the UK spec boots, I think it fits alright though. I’ll paint this red in the future, as the chrome seems a bit tacky for the style I’m trying to go for. The car basically stayed like this until the end of the year. I didn’t really have much luck finding stuff for sale. {} {}
A new year! Someone on Facebook posted an ad for a CG13DE engine with a few goodies attached to it. I wasn’t really interested in the engine, but what I was interested in was the exhaust manifold. It was an OEM Z10 Cube manifold. {} For those of you who don’t know, the Z10 cube is based off the K11 chassis and running gear, so it shares the same CG13 engine. One of the main differences between the K11 CG and the Z10 CG is the funky exhaust manifolds which were known to be a pretty cool mod for K11 owners back in the day. They increase flow, while still being road legal/emission free due to having a catalytic converter. The plan at the time was to buy this and wait until I found a better engine to swap into my Micra (It’s still a 1.0L at this point, but I wanted to upgrade to the 1.3 CG13). However I think I’ll be sticking with the CG10 for now. You’ll see why further down this thread. So, into storage it went. {}
A few days after I picked up the Z10 mani, I spot another Facebook post from a banger racing lad that has a full K11 March he’s prepping to race. I sent a PM over to him, and offered him some cash for the front bumper. This is something I’ve been trying to get hold of years now so I was so hyped when I went to pick this up. {} Unfortunately, it’s the wrong colour, but thankfully I know a guy that can sort this for me. Sorry for the abysmal picture hahaha.
March 2021. Coming up to a full year of ownership with this car, I decided to spoil myself with another bargain on YAJ. A used Cusco front upper strut brace for just £28 {} Sorry for the terrible pic of the brace. I hope my doggo makes up for it. {} This is Dexter, and he loves the K11.
Later that month, I hopped into the car to find that it had flooded in the drivers side footwell. I traced the problem back to the sunroof drains (as I mentioned before, these things suck on the sunroof models). I decided to re-route the sunroof drain to the outside of the car by drilling a small hole in the bottom of the sill and running an extended tube through it. It seemed to work perfectly. {} {} After doing this, I thought it would be a good idea to finally sort the patch of rust on the passenger side of the car. By now, it had gotten much worse – presumably something to do with the leak. {} I took the car to The Figaro Shop in Didcot to have the sill repaired. I knew that the car would be in good hands because the Nissan Figaro is essentially a K10 Micra, so they should at least have a little bit of experience with rusty Micra chassis’ {} They came through with an excellent repair as expected. {} {}
May 2021. Surprise surprise, I bought another rare part for the K11. I saw this come up for sale on Facebook and had to get it. It’s a genuine Impul grille - and as far as I know, it’s the only one in the UK. {} I had it shipped over from Latvia to me pretty quickly. I want to say a huge thanks to Leonid for the sale. I’ve had my eye on this grille for a very, very long time {} Should look great with the OEM March bumper
I ended up using Ben @ Ben’s Shed near Basingstoke when it came to painting my bumper and grille. I couldn’t recommend him enough. He did an excellent job on these bits and offered great service - huge thanks to him. {} {} After I arrived home from collecting the parts, I decided to get the tools out and put everything on straight away. And here it all is. {} This is essentially how it sits now. I haven’t done much else to the car as it’s still being used as a runabout – Mainly for hauling my dog around. {}
I purchased a JZX110 in June, so my time and money has being going towards that car which is honestly as shame as I had big plans for the K11. I still secretly love the K11 slightly more than the JZX, so I have hope that I’ll be able to continue improving the K11 in the future. {} For now, I’ll probably just update this thread with updates on the car.
