Category: Random
Sunday, 12 December 2010 | | Categories: Random, Spotlights
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.
Cheers
Brendan
Thursday, 1 October 2009 | | Categories: Random
Just noticed that as a result of the JDMST Feature Ride article, I made it onto
Speedhunters.com as a RANDOM SNAP.
Thanks to Jeroen Willemsen for his pickup.
Cheers
Brendan
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 | | Categories: Magazines/Blogs, Random
Fantastic, just seen the feature story on JDM Style Tuning. Many thanks to Justin Fox over at JDMST for doing the interview and putting together the story.
Friday, 6 February 2009 | | Categories: Engine, Paint, Random, Track
Damn, didn't realise it's been so long since my last post. Well, simple reason is I've been busy. Not with the car unfortunately, but work and life in general.
The car though has been used on a daily basis for to and from work duties, and the occasional weekend outing. Even some family transport duties thrown in for good measure, although only when there's four of us (I have three kids, but only two can fit in the back at one time).
Last October, we had the Powercruise come to Perth for the first time. Different to Motorvation, which is more a show and shine with a bit of cruising up and down the drag strip and around the car park, Powercruise is two days of watching the Power skids, and taking you car out onto a race circuit with 20-30 other cars. Racing per se isn't allowed, but it was fun nonetheless. The majority of the those in the event were V8's, many of which had 300+ horsepower, problem was though was having to wait for them to go around a corner. They mostly had no brakes, and suspension setup for drag racing or straight line work. Very frustrating when your car has power, brakes and handling. So I, and others with a similar setup, spent our time weaving around the traffic in a safe manner. At one point I took a died in the wool V8 lover for a drive, and he was amazed at the handling and braking on the car, and it wasn't too shabby when it came time to going in a straight line either. Will definitely be doing it again this year and hope the same guy I was following around in the Commodore ute is there again, we had great fun dicing around the track together.
Now, there has been problems since the car has been on the road with regard to response, which was mentioned back in September after the time out on the skid pan doing a motorkhana. Well, I took it into Sean at Allstar for him to take a look at it on the dyno and basic diagnosis was that either a lifter was sticking, or the heat at high revs was causing the valve to get pinched and stay open. After further conversations with Marc, Josh and Boney over at C-Red, it was decided that a head replacement could be the best solution...but why? Well the head that was used way back then was taken from the block that it sits on, it was ported already so seemed to be logical. It was then sent off to get a full service, but the problem we now have deduced is because it may have already been serviced a couple of times, too much meat had now been taken out of the heads and specifically the valve seats (note this is basically my understanding). As there's now less meat on the seat, the valve sits up in the head too far, and having used way undersized shims, the rockers are now also sitting at an angle they're not really meant to. This would explain why changing the adjustable cams gears during the tuning process didn't make too much of a difference.
What now you say, well during November and December I found and bought a head from Donny at Street Forced Performance in Melbourne. The head has already had porting work undertaken among other stuff. It's now been sitting at C-Red for a couple of months, but finding a time (and cash) to now get the change over done is the problem. I'm now working for myself, which means time off means money I'm not making...and I don't need to tell anyone what takes precedence at the moment.
So, that's where the cars at. There's a few paint problems starting to rear its head now the car has been on the road including some massive ones on the rear bumper where the old bog that was put on it before I started is cracking under the paint. Car still looks a million bucks, and for something that was taken off the road and rebuilt in such a way, it's had relatively minimal problems. Have another day at AHG on Sunday, so hopefully get some pics up from that too very soon.
Cheers
Brendan
Monday, 14 April 2008 | | Categories: Random
Have just entered SILLBEER into Zoo Weekly's Real Cars competition. If you feel like voting for my car, clink on the grab above and click on the 'Vote for Me' button.
Cheers
Brendan
PS> Next update brewing, SILLBEER now has a brand new Tanabe 'Medalion g-FORDAN blue' cat-back exhaust from C-Red.
Wednesday, 26 April 2006 | | Categories: Random
Yep, we had a beautiful baby boy last Friday 21st. Both mum and baby are now back home and just settling back into some form of routine now. Photos etc are here:
http://web.mac.com/sillbeer/
He's a little champ.
Cheers
Brendan
Tuesday, 30 August 2005 | | Categories: Random
Well, it came as a surprise to us, but my wife and I have another addition to the family on the way. This will be the third and final one for us, and will join our other two lovely kids.
This new addition however won't have much impact on the Sillbeer project for the foreseeable future, I certainly won't be able to take the whole family in the sports car for some time now - unlike when there was four of us (my wife actually drove our GT-R around as her car with baby seat in the back for some time).
Cheers
Brendan