Ever since I started getting interested in imports, the Yahoo Japan Auctions (for Nissans of course) was a place to go to get inspiration on the latest trends out of Japan. There's also quite a lot of bunkies that you come across but every now and then you come across a gem. This type of post will be a regular in the future I think highlighting what I think are standout cars for sale.
In this case it's an absolute mint 1997 Nissan 180SX Type-X. The Type-X as many will know came with the updated rear taillights, rear spoiler and simple well designed front bumper/spoiler. This one here resplendant in white sits on some classic BBS LM 18x8.5 and 18x9.5 wheels with gun metal centres and red centre caps (the centre caps being an important component).
At the front you can see the classic lines of the factory Type-X front bar/spoiler. This one also has some subtle canards attached to the ends of the front spoiler, giving it that modern time attack feel. You can also see the small spoiler that runs along the rear of the bonnet/hood, and the aero mirrors that finish off the front end look.
Here we see those classic late model 180SX Type-X taillights. It's great to see in this day of clear taillight lenses that the owner has stayed with the original, the shape and light setup still looking up-to-date some 13 years down the road. I believe the rear bar is a Vertex item along with Vertex side skirts to match and the front canards that have been fitted to the standard Type-X front bar lower the front/side profile just enough to keep the lower edge line all in sync. There's not a huge amount of dish on the BBS LM's as most offset and disc options would be setup for large caliper brake setups. Also of note is the roof spoiler, possibly from Origin or other quality Japanese aftermarket body kit manufacturer.
Another look from a different angle at the front, a quick search through Google failed to turn up the maker of the front/side canards. A number of companies make them, so if you're looking for some, just Google '180SX front canard', and you're bound to find some. Through the timeless classic that is the BBS LM wheels, you can see some red brake calipers poking out which have a Brembo badge on them. On closer inspection of the Yahoo Photos page, they turned out to be Z32/R32 brake calipers painted red with Brembo logos applied.
Finally we see the engine bay, and although stock, is extremely clean given its 13 years of age. But then I suppose when you take into consideration the original owner was a Nissan Dealer, it's probably not so surprising.
Hope you enjoyed this look into one of things I enjoy doing on a regular basis, I think I'll bring up some other Yahoo Auction or notable car spotlights from time-to-time as I'm sure some of these gems should be highlighted more.
Driving back home on the Freeway after a day at the Great Escape in Hilarys (think water slides and rides etc), I hit something hard and heavy about the size of a small novel. I just didn't have time to miss it and my front left tyre collected it on the inside, followed by a heck of a thump on the underside of the car. I thought to myself that can't be good, and low and behold a few 100 metres up the freeway the steering started to get heavy on the inside. CRAP! So I limped off the freeway and onto a side street. The tyre was going flat fast. I managed to limp it to a garage where I got about 10psi into it and limped it the further 2kms back home. The above shot is the after math.
I got under there and found that the block of whatever debris it was had hit right on the inside edge of the tyre and split the sidewall, which is understandable given the size of whatever it was and travelling at 100kph at the time. This was a pain as the tyres still had a good 30-40% tread left and I knew finding someone with a used one of the same size was going to be difficult. Buying a single new one was out of the question too as it would really upset the handling as the tyre had been upgraded to a new model since I first got them not to mention having tread differences. So I bit the bullet and bought two new tyres in the same size. The originals were Federal 595RS, the new ones are Federal 595RS-R, which is basically the semi-street/circuit tyre and a good tyre given the cost and flexibility of use. Sizing was the same at 235/40R18 and Shane at Bridgestone Tyre Centre in Bentley had them fitted onto the rims the same day I dropped them off.
Now that they're on, they feel much smoother and quieter than the originals, whether this is due to being new and a different compound, or because they don't have a few small flat spots on them I don't know. Either way I happy to have some new rubber up front with an impending session on the skid pan running motorkhana early in December. I now have 1 spare front tyre which I will keep just in case.
Monday, 1 November 2010 | Comments (4) | Categories: General
Well it's about time. I put aside some 'me' time to get my blog sorted. You see back in March, Blogger decided to turn off the feature I was using to publish my blog to my domain - www.sillbeer.com, which sort of put a halt on any updating. So for the last day I've been exporting, converting, designing, templating, styling and generally cleaning it up to a point that I could relaunch.
It's sort of a sorry state that as a website designer and developer, my own personal blog was in such a crappy out-of-date state. I'm happy to say now that the site is in a much better way, converting it over to my website development tool of choice - ExpressionEngine.
Left to do is some tidying up and additions to the side bar including some of my own favourite blogs and websites, plus all the address redirects from the old web pages to the new pages so that Google can find all the new stuff rather than the old pages which it currently has indexed, and that all those links coming in from forums in various guises also get redirected to the new site pages. It's not a job I'm looking forward too, with over 200 posts and other various archive links.
Got some stuff to post about the current state of the car, yes it's still my street driven daily (although I do work from home now), and also about having participated in the recent Powercruise #26 at Barbagallo Raceway.
Now it's time to keep on going before I lose steam on this.
Tuesday, 27 July 2010 | Comments (0) | Categories: Shows
I received a phone call from Jeff Ash at C-Red about a week and half ago asking whether or not I had anything last weekend...being the weekend of Perth Autosalon. I said no not really, and he asked if I was interested in entering SILLBEER into Perth Autosalon. I said sure, how much? The reply was nothing, Just Car Insurance was looking for a decent vehicle to be placed on their stand and the organisers went to Jeff to see if he had anything, he said I'm sure I can find something...thus the call to me. So free entry into the show on the Just Cars Insurance stand sounded pretty good to me, so it was all set.
The lead up to the event wasn't so great though. The weekend prior, I was somewhat inattentive on the way somewhere and I gently rubbed up against a median strip putting about 3/4 circumference of gutter rash on both driver's side rims. Read about that here. Luckily Alliance Rim Repairs were kind enough to do a repair to them both within the week and I picked up the rims at 4.30pm on the Friday afternoon before the show.
I cleaned the car while it was on stands in the afternoon, and after refitting the rims I polished it in the dark until it was ready to be placed into the show about 7.30pm.
The show itself was pretty good, Perth Autosalon returning after skipping a year, there was a lot less cars, but feel the quality of those in attendance was up from previous years so that made up for it. There was certainly a lot less LCD TV's stuck in boots (trunks) and bonnets (hoods) this year, but there were still a couple of the 'sexy spec' cars there. Not quite my cup of tea, but the work they put into the cars cannot be sniffed at.
Simon (and the rest of the crew) from Just Car Insurance were all over from the east for the show and really pretty excited about have my car on the stand. Apparently at some of the other shows, the car they were provided were a little under what they were expecting in regards to style and build quality. They all loved it as they new it was a daily driven car and represented what their target market was with regards to insurance people's cars. We were lucky enough to have some promo girls on the stand as part of a promotion they were running and were happy to use the car as a prop.
Of course Simon and I couldn't let them have all the fun. I think we got a call from Cleo magazine later in the day
In the end the show was a great success and I really enjoyed myself. The car got a great deal of traffic going around it and everyone was really complimentary about it - some asking if I wanted to sell it (answer: are you on crack?). Here's a few more shows from the weekend.
Last weekend was the running of the inaugural World Time Attack Challenge at Eastern Creek Raceway (Friday 21 May - Saturday 22 May 2010), just west of Sydney, Australia. It was put on by the same crew that has done Super Lap Time Attack series over the last couple of years, but this time inviting competitors from around the world to come and pit themselves against the best from Australia and each other - all up over 90 entrants. The lead up to the event had a number of big hitters set to come down here, but unfortunately there was some attrition that took place. Given the logistics of bringing a car, supporting equipment and crew overseas and on the somewhat limited budgets of the teams, it was not unexpected, as least from my point of view. Having said that, those internationl players that did turn up, pushed hard and came away winners.
In those travelling from overseas were four cars from Japan, and 1 car from the United States. Japan being where many see as roots of Time Attack (placed fair and square at Tsukuba) we had the Cyber Evo Mitsubishi Evolution IV (driven by Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada), the Tomei/Cusco Subaru Impreza WRX STI (again driven by Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada), the Pan Speed Racing Mazda RX-7 FD3S (driven by Kouta Sasaki) and the Pro Staff R-Magic Mazda RX-7 FD3S (driven by Kinoshita Mitsuhiro). The lone gun from the United States was none other than the Sierra Sierra Enterprises Cosworth Mitsubishi Evolution VIII (driven by David Empringham), having recently beaten the long standing HKS CT230R Evo's record time at Buttonwillow Raceway with a 1:43.43, just nine-tenths quicker than the CT230R.
Being in Perth, the journey to WTAC 2010 started early on Thursday morning with a 4 hr flight to Sydney, jumping into a hire car and tackling for the first time the freeways and toll booths out to our hotel in Blacktown, about 5 minutes drive from the track. Friday had us out at the track nice and early (if not a little seedy from the shenanigans the night before). My overall impression of the event is one that was very well run, with the best trade section I've seen at such and event and a good selection of cars out in the show and shine section too. Being able to get up and close to the back of the pit garages was great, probably something the Japanese can't do at say their Time Attack events which are generally closed to the public. Know this was the first day, I wasn't expecting a great deal in regards to times, as there was still all of Saturday to bang some fast laps in, but gave us all a good chance to take a peek at the teams doing their hard work and see what was available in the trade stalls.
Here's the 1st days pics, note that I'm putting these up in fairly high resolution (1280x960) so you can get a better glimpse at the goings on.
The Advan/Hi Octane Nissan R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R was hyped considerably before the event with plenty of news and the occasional video released showing it go through its shadedown paces. Unfortunately the weekend would see it plagued with problems that would keep it from running to its full potential. Hopefully next year, with much more track testing under its belt, we'll see this monster pushing it to the limit.
The Pan Speed Mazda RX-7 was a consistent performer throughout the weekend, not to mention an absolutely stunning piece of automotive engineering who's presentation was a standout on the weekend second only to the R Magic Mazda RX-7.
The Advan/Hi Octane GT-R coming back into the pits after 1 lap out, this would be a common site for this car which the team did the hard yards troubleshooting the running problems.
This strange looking snake piece is the roof trim from the Cyber Evo, ripped off at high speed down the long Eastern Creek pit lane straight. It just goes to show what sort of speed Tarzan was doing.
The Option film crew was on hand to document the efforts of the Japanese drivers (as well as the others), here seen doing a quick interview with Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada in the Tomei/Cusco Subaru Impreza WRX STI in what I recall was the first session out.
David Empringham in the Sierra Sierra Enterprise is seen here being pushed back into the pit garage after a quick practice session, and I assume still in shakedown/tuning/setup mode.
There were some really nice Mazda FD RX7's out there, one being this black example from Rama Racing driven by Brad Trenwith, and wearing a beautiful widebody kit from Bodyform. The sister car from Rama Racing was a Silver example, both the cars wrapped in vinyl by D&S Auto.
The immaculately turned out Pro Staff R-Magic Mazda RX-7 FD3S driven by Kinoshita Mitsuhiro trundling down pit lane after a couple of practice laps. This and the Pan Speed car were two of the best detailed race cars I've seen, certainly not '12-foot' cars by any stretch (a '12-foot' car is one that looks great from distances 12 feet or more away, any closer and you start to see blemishes).
This is the Prep'd Motorsport Lotus Exige GT3 driven by Warren Luff (a YouTube video of a full attack on Eastern Creek). There was a little bit of controversy about the fact this was a GT3 prepped racecar and it being allowed to race against what are essentially modified street cars, but considering the essentially 'no rules' type of modifications that have been done to the other cars, I thought there was a bit of a overhype on the issue. The more the merrier I reckon.
Tarzan brings the Tomei/Cusco WRX back in after a couple of laps. Again, as with the other Japanese cars, this was an immaculately turned out vehicle. It even turned up on the Autosalon circuit throughout Australia after WTAC.
A rear view of the Rama Racing Mazda RX7. The Bodyform widebody kit really is a nicely put together and design kit with the front guards and side skirts really lending their design from the FD race cars to an extent. And although that rear wing puts a Hills Hoist to shame, it doesn't look out of place given the tool that this car is.
This is a mix of the Motor Magazine Open Class and Yokohama Advan Clubsprint Class entrants lining up for practice. Considering there was over 90 entrants, the variety of different makes and models made for some great spectating and trainspotting.
Being an S13 chassis owner, I was really pleased to see Wayne Sutton in his Nissan S13 180SX Type-X. For what is essentially a late 80's designed chassis (first S13 appeared in 1988), it did extremely well in its class (Motor Magazine Open Class) even beating some of the times set in the Wynn's Pro Class. Not to mention it was immaculate too, with a widebody bodykit and all the essential time attack appendages. Just wish I'd managed to get some better photos (more photos I found on NissanSilvia.com).
As well as the on-track action, there was plenty in the pit paddock to keep any automotive enthusiast happy, from club displays to drift cars, aftermarket parts stalls and shop displays. One car that did catch my eye was this white Nissan S15 200SX/Silvia. The engine bay was immaculate and very well thought out. One item that did peak my interest especially was the placement and piping configuration for the GReddy Type-R Blow-off Valve, an item that I run on SILLBEER, and the cold air box that's been setup to keep initial intake temperatures down.
A close up shows the intricate piping configuration. Present in this pic are the GReddy Type-R Blow-off valve, which has a short return/plumb back into the intake pipe (seen with the K&N Air Filter). Interestingly it's still running the original plastic power steering reservoir. I'm not entirely sure what the tank is behind the power steering reservoir, but the black teflon braided line comes from the cam cover (see above overall photo) and is going to a custom breather can, which itself also vents back into the intake rather than venting to atmosphere keeping this package very much within the Australian ADR engineering guidelines and apart from the aftermarket parts, essentially a factory configuration. Bloody beautiful work whoever you are.
Another item that caught my attention, being another SR20 engine, was this one with an SR20VE/T head conversion. The heads come from either the SR20VE in the Nissan Primera or the SR20VET in the JDM Nissan X-Trail GT and house Nissan's Neo VVL (Variable Valve LIft) - see more on the SR16VE/SR20VE/SR20VET. The conversion allows for greater revs and superior response given a larger than stock turbo.
Well that brings me to the end of the Day one wrap-up. It was a top day, and on the Friday night we headed out and interacted with the locals, with some interesting social interaction witnessed at a local super pub (super because of the 3000 people capacity). There's plenty more to come.
Saturday, 1 May 2010 | Comments (0) | Categories: Engine
Jeez, what a hectic couple of months, and it's just getting stupider (is that a word?).
Anyway the car is back on the road again, and is currently being run on. Almost got 500kms racked up, which has been a little difficult as I work from home now so my daily commute is walking 3 steps from the bedroom to the office.
The guys at C-Red have done a great job. The head work done previously from the person I bought it from and the work done by Josh and Boney have produced an engine that doesn't have the usual truck rattles you hear from an SR20.
Additions on this full engine rebuild included new forged 9.0:1 compression CP Pistons (to replace the Z32 slugs in there before), ACL Race bearings (the original Nissan ones were living a hard life), Tomei N2 Oil Block (to replace the GReddy sandwich block), new Nissan S13 SR20 Oil Pump (to replace the GTi-R pump as it wasn't mating to the engine properly - causing oil leaks) and the Ross Performance harmonic balancer (to replace the lightened GFB crank pulley).
Cosmetically I also changed over the old rubber radiator and intercooler (yes there was still some) hoses with Samco Black silicon items. The oil breather hose that was originally rubber with an orange heat shield sheathing has been replaced with a stainless item.
It's a great feeling to get back in the seat. The Sigma is getting a little old and grumpy now so almost time to put that to pasture.
Will probably be a delay on the next post as Blogger is pulling the plug on FTP publishing to domains other than their own, so I'm having to move the site content to another system.
Been meaning to do this for some time, and finally got a few days off over the Xmas break to scan and process these magazine articles.
Fast Fours - June 2008
The first coverage was in the Australian Fast Fours magazine back in June 2008. I was stoked that it actually made it onto the cover too which is an accomplishment in and of itself. Then they went on to do a very comprehensive 8 page article with plenty of pics taken by Dean Summers.
Here's the cover (they were kind enough to send me a PDF version of the cover):
The rest has been scanned and resized for the web.
Table of contents:
Article itself:
Banzai UK - January 2009
The second coverage was in the UK Banzai magazine a year ago in January 2009. The photos and story were by local photo-journalist Rick McDowell. The photos used in the article were posted a while back.
Here's what the cover looks like (unfortunately I believe they only have UK cars on the covers) where I get a mention on the footer:
And the article itself (apologies for crap over saturation of colour):
Hope you like the articles and sorry for the overly long period between posts. I have a lot to post up while I'm on holidays including the subject of the engine rebuild...more to come.
Thursday, 24 December 2009 | Comments (0) | Categories: Engine
Dropped into C-Red this afternoon to say Merry Xmas et al. Marc started out with the bad news when I arrived...the block has been machined too much from past rebuilds and can't be used. Then he delivered the good news in that they'd already sent another block off to them. Apparently the workshop floor looked no dissimilar to how a South African lions meal looks like after tearing it apart with oil, coolant and SR20 gizzards all over the place to not stop the rebuild train.
Many thanks to Boney for getting this done quicksmart.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009 | Comments (0) | Categories: Engine
Just got word that the short block and related parts have been sent off to Heinz for it's rebuild where it will be fully balanced and blueprinted (a lot of the parts are already done, but assume it will be done again).
It doesn't mean it'll be started immediately as I believe there's a few engines already in the queue before me. But I'm excited anyway.
