GSS on the Wellington Scene

How's the spring weather treating you all? As days get longer, the feel of summer begins to creep in and for me, the smell of sea springs to mind. A wee while ago (I apologise for the delay, I'm frantically cramming for exams in the upcoming week and they're not gonna be a walk in the park!) my friend Mikey wanted to play around with his video feature on his SLR. I was willing to provide some static cover (admittedly, it would've been nice to shoot some video but shooting 1080p on an 8GB card would mean no photos) whilst he was shooting. Excuse the continued experimentation in the logo and watermark. I'm looking to finalise soon enough, let me know your opinions upon the new stuff!


Matt and I were a bit early, so we popped off onto the marina for a few quick shots. Car's way too jizztastic for it's good. I love the stock look, but upon closer inspection, there's much to it that is very subtle. There are big plans for this car, just need the time and money to make it happen. Ravi's beautiful RX7

Sits rather well, practical yet staunch. I've not seen a set of XD9s in this colour, Ravi tells me they're limited edition. I don't put it past Work to do such a thing, they look very, very good. Goes really well on the car - and yes it is a factory colour! Had a wee sit in these. Despite my fat (and ever growing) ass, I fit in them snugly. I'm sold. Want! (Dear Santa...) Very nice piece of kit under the hood too! It's not just all show, got plenty of go to boot.
Bit of a laugh! Dom - a regular on the Wellington scene. Seen plenty of track time in that S15, still reliable as ever! That's my goal very soon, fair bit of power and reliable. There's a long road to go on the 180, but it'll get there. Reliable 220kw at the wheels. Shreds the tires no worries!
He did say he just got some genuine drift bumper stickers. Enlarge the photo and take a look at the writing - amazing Engrish! Man himself, Mikey hard at work. Michael's AE82 Corolla FX-GT; notice the giant whale penis - it's loud. It's light, nimble...
and helladirty! It adds some character to the little thing.
Forgive me, the early Evos are all dominated Evo 3 bodykits - I'm unsure what this actually is.
However, it looks to run some big numbers at the wheels. I heard 300kw floating around at the meet, perhaps I heard wrong, though.
Unfortunately, I didn't get more photos of this. It's a very powerful Civic, running B20 block and B18CR head making a very healthy amount of power (300kw+?) at the wheels. I wonder how much he struggles to put that down, though. I can't imagine how hard it would be to control that beast. The bonnet and guards were both carbon fibre pieces, visually striking appearance too.
Another regular, Ryan and his RKLESS CL1. Drives it low, hard and fast. An emerging character, Matt aka Muscles, and his beautiful STI coupe. Take a closer look 'Nuff said. I really like the factory look but it had a subtle edge to it. I dig it.
Every time I look at this, it looks slightly wonkier than the other time. I've tried fixing it, I blame the shaky ground. This sums it nicely for the coverage. It was a quiet meet, on the eve of historical rugby too. When we left for a cruise, the streets were teeming with people cheering in jubilation. 3 guesses what had happened huh? You can find Mikey's video of the night here. At the time of writing, it is just a teaser with the full length (hopefully) coming soon.

Anyway, have a good night everyone. GO THE ALL BLACKS!

GSS x Phresh 'n' Phruity Spring Cruise

What's up everyone,
Few nights ago, the sky cleared and we decided on the sunny afternoon to do something about it. Admittedly, not a lot of these shots are my best but I had fun. I drove a nice Evo 7 (which is currently on sale! You'll find the number in the photos if you want it) and had good times all round. What's missing from these pictures is the amount of kids drooling at the cars when we (me) were getting petrol at BP. I haven't had reception like that for cars in a long time! Just a side note, I'm trying out some new watermark stamps, lemme know what you think of it - is it hard to read, is it too messy, is it easy to distinguish? However without further adieu, photos!


Spring is definitely here!

As per usual - full res pictures available by clicking on them!
Giving her a wee wash before heading out! Evo vs Subaru - the age old battle... Favourite of the night Photo isn't that flash but look at the stars! :D
Dat fitment! Brain explosion? Excessive use of Barbie and Transformer plasters - check. Rest assured without Bryce sitting on his car, it's still low! Nice.

What is Phruity aka Milk up to? Living up to his name I guess... I suppose that looks dope! :P Lololololololol

All in all, for a spontaneous meet, it was fun. Next time, I don't think I'll be buying plasters again at New World, though...
Peace

GSS x Phresh 'n' Phruity Preview

Crossroads

Dearest all,

Today has not been a great day. Perhaps, I'm just melodramatic but I really don't like breaking shit in my car. I guess a bit of background to this may give you some better understanding of where I'm coming from.
Manfeild - 27th August, first track day, awesome experience - y'all saw the post. The weeks leading up to that was me doing all my fluids etc. just to ensure the car had fresh juices in it to run good. In particular, oil was changed; there was nothing out of the ordinary for this oil change, everything went as expected (except I learned that SR20DETs have a cunty oil filter position). Now, keep this bit in mind, this is part one of background.

Fast forward to ~4 weeks ago, driving home in the afternoon after helping my mate set up his new in-line fuel pump, I see my oil light come on. I instantly pull over and turn the engine off knowing it's not gonna be good. I look back on the road and there's a good 10m worth of oil, I check my filter, and it's popped loose. At this point, I was thinking "I hope I haven't run the car dry", called up my mate and we ended up getting some more oil and two oil filters (at this stage, I had NO idea there were two SR20DET filters, one is Metric and one is Imperial. How fucking retarded is that?) We refilled the oil up and checked everything was tight (we tried the same filter as it was in the car at the time but the new one to double check the filter might have been busted) and turned it on. The car roars to life, but a light flicks on after a few seconds, I turn the car off immediately again. This time, the oil filter has come completely off! Argh, I wasn't feeling good about this AT ALL. So we hastily cleaned up the oil slick in side of my engine bay, and stuck the other one on (it is still on there to this date, fingers crossed, it won't pop off - if it does, it means the thread on the block is fucked). I managed to clean everything up and took it home, at this point, I sighed in relief as it was definitely a close call and people were suggesting I may have damaged my big ends by running dry. I'm still hoping it is not the case.

Today, I went to start my car and I drove it down the hill to university to do some study for my exams, and as I drove for a bit, I noticed the car was unbalanced and was shaking. I knew instantly the car was running on 3 cylinders - turns out I had a faulty coilpack which is merely 6 weeks old (lesson #1 learned; going cheap on your ignition helps no one in the long run). Thankfully, I still have my Nissan coilpacks which are all going great. I have also noticed my plugs (NGK Double Platinums) were slightly oily, which I understandably expect because the car is mysteriously running rich. For those who've recently joined my blog, the car is essentially standard minus a 3" exhaust system from downpipe back and electronic boost controller in terms of performance, the rest is not motor related. Anyway, I got some more friends to have a look and check a few things and there's concern that there is damage to the big ends. At this point, where I sit, if it is what the good doctors have said, it will be a rebuild or a new motor. If not, it will still probably be some bottom end work that will need to be done to ensure my motor is to remain in good condition. I will state it now, and will say it a million times, I won't be selling this car. It is as simple as that. I love the car too much to pour money into it and then turn around and sell it because "I've lost interest" or got sick of it throwing tantrums at me because I have done something wrong. It is that I am now simply at a crossroad as to what I want to do.

I know there's still a chance there's actually nothing wrong with the motor, but the tune is just out of whack. However, this makes little sense because the motor is pretty standard (I've reset the ECU a few times but hasn't really helped with anything) and I've been running it at 7psi instead of 15psi for safety and it's still popping, spluttering as if it was really rich. I know it is normal off load, but even when changing gears sometimes, it will backfire and pop (although it sounds pretty awesome).

There's a few options for me at this stage (assuming I've got myself big end damage): 1) Do I rebuild this motor? 2) Do I buy another motor and run this one to the ground and swap them in? Regardless of what happens, this is money that would have been stage 2 of my car. Bear in mind that if my motor is in good nick, I'll go ahead with stage 2 and rebuild the motor in the next or so. That is the ideal path. Well actually, the ideal thing would be to have $10k~ and rebuild it with all the parts I want it in one go.
Lesson for the young kids out there - this is just the day-to-day real issues people face when they own high-performance cars. What you see in photos or at shows doesn't tell you how much work some people have put in to get to that point. A lot of my money I've spent have been doing maintenance work or ensuring the car is legal. These things do not reflect in any way on any car that we see on the road because we take those things for granted in the cars we daily drive. I endeavour to keep my car a daily driver, and I do not intend to take it off the road to become a weekend track car because I want it to be enjoyed all the time, not just for a day in every month or so. I simply cannot handle that.

I merely use this post as a reminder for myself and to serve as a progress marker. Perhaps in a year's time, I'd be chortling at this point, wondering how stupid I was or how I wish I hadn't done what I said I was going to do because it only ends up being a bottomless money pit. Regardless, I love my car. It might not be fast, but it has plenty of character and some subtlety which I have grown to appreciate more and more.

Insight into the 180SX

During the down time, with my time being spent on study (and procrastinating) I thought I'd give a bit of an insight into the plans for my car.
Thus far, it's pretty standard, doesn't have a lot on paper except upped boost (14.7psi via Greddy Profec B Spec 2) and a full 3" Blitz Exhaust (with an RS*R 3" downpipe). Doesn't even feature a front mount intercooler! Obviously the wheels (18" TE37 replicas with 25mm/15mm front and rear respectively) and Tein suspension has it sitting the way it does now.

So the plans for the car are as follows:
- Tomei Rocker Arm stoppers
- High volume baffled sump for track
- Adjustable castor, camber and toe
- Bride seats
- Bride interior fabric for door cards and glove box
- New headunit, speakers, amp and sub.
- BorgWarner EFR 6758 Turbo - Click for more details! I've decided to choose the EFR because 1) it's quite an amazing turbo from what I've seen and heard. It runs an advanced design which has an internal BOV and internal wastegate that arguably give me a better setup and response.
- Sinco Manifold - 6boost copies but locally made and just as good.
- HDi Front Mount Intercooler - Just as good as entry level GReddy/Trust kits, but half the price
- Injector Dynamics ID1000 Injectors - Never enough fuel, if E85 becomes more available, I'll switch to an E85 tune.
- Link G4 plug and play - obvious reason is obvious! For the international readers, Link is a local company which produces a standalone aftermarket ECU which is up there with some of the best like Haltech in my opinion.
- Kelford 272/264 in/ex cams - would like feedback upon this. I would like my car to be able to be driven relatively easily, so I dunno if I should go 264/264, 272/264 or 272/272.
- Walbro 255 or Bosch 040 in-line - Can't justify an external setup at this stage.
- 4pot/2pot + 5 stud conversion


Parts bought so far:
- New Gearknob: Blox Limited Edition 490 24K Gold

- Bride Material

- Adjustable Castor arms


Probably going "wtf?!" none of that makes me go faster. Yeah, you're right. I bought them when I had brain explosions (except the arms which I needed to replace the OEM ones which were busted.)

Fast forward to this week

I've nutted out most of the niggly issues out of the 180, next step is the power and move to turn the car into something more track friendly and less road friendly (not that it wasn't road unfriendly enough as it is with it's stupidly stiff ride). The leaning out and detonation is the fuel pump whining at 6000rpm+ (I couldn't hear it when I was on the track because I had the helmet on) at 15psi.

Whilst I'm in Japan, I'm gonna try and pick up more useless shit, like cup holders, stickers, bubble shifters etc. A set of gauges would definitely go down a treat :)

Blog post isn't complete without some pics :D
Peace out