Hey guys! I've been drifting for a year and a half now with my e36 325i missle and have decided to switch over to something JDM. For a long time I have had a soft spot for IS/Altezza chassis but the 200 and Altezza are fairly lacking in the power department. my queston is- Would an IS300 be worth converting to manual? (if so, which box-zf,r154,w58) I'd probably drive the car n/a for a season just to get used to it all and get the chassis up to scratch and eventually look into a turbo conversion. Looking to hopefully get something starting with 3 power wise on low boost. Nothing too fancy. Me and a friend of mines have a reasonable bit of knowledge with cars and have a garage so would be looking to do majority of the work ourselves. Would this all be worth it money wise or am I better off spending the cash on an s body? Cheers! Arthur
If you're not chasing big figures then why would you not go for the Altezza? The 3S and 2J have the same bhp but the 3S is more responsive, revs almost 1000rpm higher, is smaller so aids with weight distribution and is lighter than the 2J. If you were to go 2JZ-GE+T and manual convert then i think it would be a lot more cost effective in the long run to just do a full 1/2JZ-GTE conversion
My issue with an Altezza is that if I do end up wanting a bit more power, it's gonna have to be an engine swap. would a 1jzgte with all necessary bits and bobs end up cheaper than a home done turbo conversion? The engines on their own seem to be selling for £1200+?
I've had an IS200 and an Altezza, IS200 is gutless, the Altezza isn't particularly fast either but it's a completely different animal to the IS200, I love them and would love another, there are turbo kits available for them if you want more power, wouldn't necessarily have to swap the engine. I've asked the same question about manualing an IS300 and aparantly it's not straight forward, wiring is complicated as everything is tied in to the Ecu and you'd need to source a manual ecu from the U.S. That's what I was told anyway.
