View Full Version : 6 years with an S15...
Well!
Just logged in for a look around and couldn't remember if I ever had a project thread. I don't. May aswell make one so :p
I've owned and daily'd this Silvia since June 2010.
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...I'm going to be keeping it to short posts instead of huge long ones. No I'm not trying to get my post count up :p
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I always wanted a DC2 Integra. Back early in 2010 I was in my mid 20's and rang up Liberty Insurance asking about insurance on one. I was driving a 1.4 non-vtec EK Civic at the time. That was the first car I'd bought.
Liberty told me I'd have to be at least 30 to get covered on a DC2. Fucking Ireland. Somehow though a non-turbo S15 was grand. I would have expected it to be the other way around. Off I went hunting for a 15 :D
I test drove one in Limerick but it didn't feel right. Then the guys on SXOC pointed me at this one which had been minded like a baby by it's previous owner Colin. He was looking to buy a house at the time, so the 15 had to go. I'll have that, says I.
My dad drove me up to Meath to collect it. We gave it a good run back to Galway. Didn't take long to find the speed limiter :D :D
It wasn't the prettiest 15 in the world, but that didn't really bother me because it was always going to be a long term project, and the kit was pretty rare. I still have the rear bumper, but the front and skirts are long gone.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5264/5647089224_4842464509_b.jpg
I was getting into photography around the same time, and met up with Matt Pym and Dara Cooley in Oranmore (Galway) to get some shots of his PS13. They'd be some of the first of the hundreds of car people I've met through cars and drifting since. Gotta love that about cars :D
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4110/5001502761_c78d5a5c68_b.jpg
Had the car about a week when I got pulled by the shades in Galway and told my exhaust was offensively loud and had to go. It had an Apexi cat-back on it when I got it, and the insides of the backbox were broken and rattling around inside it, so it may aswell have been a straight pipe. It was N/A with a HKS intake, so it didn't have a turbo to soak up any of the noise. I'd probably be deaf by now if I hadn't changed it in fairess.
Picked up this Silent HKS back-box from Christy Carpenter and it's still going strong 6 years later. Now it's a bit too quiet, so I think I'm gonna get a Nur Spec R next.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/5/4086/4968481396_b55a7624e6_b.jpg
I didn't do anything major with it for a while, just enjoyed driving it. The first few things I changed were minor, like snap-off steering wheel and removed the rear wiper. Who needs wipers in Galway sure...
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Apart from the questionable kit on the car when I got it, it did come with some nice bits. The suspension setup was sweet. It was sitting on pretty new Driftworks CS2 coilovers, and had a full compliment of toe/camber arms and rods, and front and rear strut braces. It also had an Apexi radiator and Apexi cat-back as mentioned earlier. Smoked side indicators, 50/50 tail lights, 17 inch CrKai wheels...
I'm not proud of the shopping list :D
https://c3.staticflickr.com/5/4152/4968479630_41c147fba1_b.jpg
...to be continued...
Love it. can't remember ever seeing the history of this car. I need a hi power silent exhaust for my s13... shame the s15 one is completely different otherwise i'd bite your hand off...
Love it. can't remember ever seeing the history of this car. I need a hi power silent exhaust for my s13... shame the s15 one is completely different otherwise i'd bite your hand off...
Cheers Lar! I saw you looking for one on FB a couple of times alright. Will let you know if I ever see one. They're very quiet alright, but you can make them sing at higher revs :D I'm no longer commuting to work in this every day now so I want to stick a Nur Spec on it for the odd weekend spin :D
The first expensive thing I bought for it was new wheels. I never liked CrKai's. Still don't.
Got/get plenty of stick for replacing them with Rota GTR's (front) and GTR-D's (rear), but I liked them and they were affordable. Had to go and get Stiv to roll my rear arches after that because they poked out at the back. Was the first time she and I would meet Stiv, but not the last :D
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The next milestone after that was probably my first track day. Up in Mondello for the charity drift day for SOSAD, organised by Nikki and Miguel a few years back.
I had called in to Jules Chambers the day beforehand to get something else sorted, and came out with a welded diff. Anyone who knows Jules wouldn't be surprised by that!
First time on track was great. I needed and still do need better rear brakes and a hydro though. 18 inch wheels don't help either.
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After that I made little visual changes here and there, like installing HIDs that I had to remove again for the NCT, and Trying different things with the interior.
(I'm hot-linking a bunch of photos from my Instagram here, so if they disappear I'll have to come back and upload them to imgur or something)
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Represent :D
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I had come across this photo ages back and loved how the Chargespeed bumper looked on it, and must have mentioned it to Alan Drury at some stage because he stumbled across one for sale on Driftworks a while later and sent me a link.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu41/jvd626/Automaxx%20Streetpower%202010/DSC_0017.jpg
So I went and bought it and got it delivered to my work office in Dublin city centre :D
...then brought it home on the LUAS at rush hour, as you do.
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The main problem with living in Dublin is parking space.
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It's the main reason I want to move back to Galway and have a garden and a shed. Carrying tools from the apartment to the underground car park any time you want to do anything is a pain in the fucking ring.
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But it could be worse. At least it's dry :D
Went at the bumper and managed to get it off...
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...and get the other one on (with cable ties, because I managed to snap the bolts that hold it into the fenders)
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Went for a spin to get a proper look at it.
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...oh and the single wiper thing wasn't intentional. My linkage snapped near Gort one winter night and left me with no wipers, in the pissing rain. Had to get the car back to Galway without them. Scary as fuck. Handiest quick fix was to use one wiper at 45degrees temporarily, but ended up staying like that for a while because it worked fine :)
So that was grand for a while, but the next big thing was either to get it resprayed, or get it turbo'd...
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Actually before I did that, I turned 30 and my better half brought me to Japan. That was awesome.
http://40.media.tumblr.com/3b652dd62207b3c477cf60b5ecac7cfc/tumblr_n3av3wOcVQ1rs8uldo8_1280.jpg
Made a video of it all too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8aVr6psELo
Japan trip looks epic! Wifey that misses of yours haha
S15 is looking sweet. Any more pics of how it currently sits?
Japan trip looks epic! Wifey that misses of yours haha
S15 is looking sweet. Any more pics of how it currently sits?
Cheers man! Yeah there's a ton of them on flickr, here (https://www.flickr.com/photos/conorluddy/albums/72157664955285895)
I won't stick them in here until I get through the engine swap and respray updates first :D
After Japan I ended up working in Liberty Insurance for a year building their website. That paid for the turbo conversion in the 15, ironically enough.
I handed the car over to Marini Motorsport and got it back a couple of months later with an SR20DET, with a HKS GT-SS turbo and a fresh Exedy clutch. The difference was unreal. So much more fun to drive.
http://36.media.tumblr.com/c530ada791634b695eed03cb73cf400b/tumblr_n9uryj1viN1rs8uldo3_1280.jpg
Brought it over to Snetterton with a few of the guys from SXOC, for the SXOC weekender. Convoyed across the UK with them and Stiv brought walkie talkies, so it was a right laugh.
Just remembered there's a video from that too:
https://vimeo.com/105079325
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Sneaky DI sticker on the front quarter.
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There was separate tracks for grip and drift, but had to take it fairly handy because we needed to drive across the UK again after the weekend, and my new engine had also decided it wanted to leak a bit of oil. At the time we were sure it was coming from the turbo, but after we were back in Ireland I had dropped the car down to DI Motorsport for a bit of work and Bob Stevens found it was coming from a cracked corner on the rocker cover. He fixed my wipers too, and a bunch of other stuff. That man is a legend :D
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Just before we went over to the SXOC track weekend, I got the front callipers upgraded to R32 GTR ones because the old ones turned out to be half seized when I went to put new pads into them. Rear brakes are still shit though, so I need to get Z32 or R33 ones for the rear soon...
I got a flat tyre and found out that the spare space saver wheel thing in the boot doesn't fit over any of my brakes and is completely pointless, and I had wanted to get a pair of GTR-D's for the front to make it more aggressive looking anyways, so now I keep a Rota GTR in the boot for a spare, and have GTR-D's all round. I can't remember the offsets. Must measure them next time I have them off.
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Got them wrapped in Toyo Proxes. Everyone loves a good poke :D
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It was still sitting way too high up, but the CS2 coilovers were proper seized. I had tried to lower it a couple of years previously and they weren't budging, so I had left it as it was for the time being.
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When it failed the NCT on a blown rear coilover and rusted sills I figured it was bout time I bit the bullet and got it painted. Ended up buying BC coilovers from Jay Rockett, but wasn't going to bother with them until I got the body work done first.
It wasn't just the sills that needed attention. There was spots of rust all over the place really. The rear arches were bad;
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1486/26050005225_0ca0092158_h.jpg
But the roof at the top of the windscreen was getting bad too, and the petrol door area was just embarrassing.
https://c4.staticflickr.com/2/1586/26050006675_035e15b9f6_b.jpg
I gave the car to Stephen O'Leary in Westruck, down in Galway. I think he regretted taking it on once he realised the amount of work it needed.
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Even the seats and carpet had to come out...
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Got him to flare the rear arches too. I'm not a bit fan of over-fenders, so wanted to be able to keep the cars natural lines and still make it look aggressive.
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It was great getting regular Snapchat updates of the progress.
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I was either going to paint it bayside blue or a darker grey, and decided on grey in the end. Wanted to go with a colour similar to this, but the BMW has Lamborghini paint, and that was a bit out of my budget :D Got close enough though.
http://stancewords.stanceworks.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/liberty-walk-e92-bmw-nitto.jpg
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Moar Snapchats of the progress. Was getting excited now :D
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More updates. Was dying to see how the colour would look...
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I asked him to paint the underside of the rear bumper black too, because it already looked a bit like a diffuser, so I thought it would work well.
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The car was painted and it was being put back together. I was dying to get it back.
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Finally got it back and was very happy with the colour. Cillian O'Malley helped me out with a bunch of little things that needed to be done. Installing the BC coilovers and fixing a few electrical problems that the car had come back with.
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We left it sitting fairly high up so that the coilovers could settle in. It was suitable for off road rallying though :D
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I wasn't going to bother taking photos of it until it was sitting right, but it was a nice day so I grabbed a few sneaky ones...
Finally got around to lowering it properly. Was a bit too enthusiastic though and wound the BC's the whole way down. Ended up chewing up the right arch-liner before I got to raise it about 15mm. This was it at its lowest :D
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...
...and this is how it sits now. Speed bumps are a cunt, but apart from that it's all good. It needs 10 or 20mm spacers at the back until I get some better fitting wheels for it, but it's taking shape. Finally looks presentable :p
Forgot to mention that I swapped the Trial skirts for Vertex skirts when I was getting it painted too.
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JordanCoupe
26-03-16, 19:34
That thing is fucking beautiful!!
Really really good job you've made of it it's crazy aggressive looking but still really smooth.
What kinda power is it running with the hks turbo?
That thing is fucking beautiful!!
Really really good job you've made of it it's crazy aggressive looking but still really smooth.
What kinda power is it running with the hks turbo?
Cheers man! It's pretty tame at the minute. It failed NCT again on Lambda this time, so I figured I'd get it remapped while I was at it. I picked up some Nismo 555's and an RB AFM and went down to Stiv to get a Nistune just to make sure I'd get it through the NCT this time. It hadn't had one since 2012 and I was getting pissed off trying to pass it.
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It still has the cat, no boost controller, no gauges, and the fuel pump from when it was N/A. I figured I'd get it Nistuned and then could just drop down to Stiv again in future when I pick up the other bits.
It was making around 266bhp at 0.7bar when the fuel pump ran out of abilities, so Stiv brought it back to a safe 233bhp for the time being. My priority at the time was just to get it through an NCT. I picked up a Walbro 255, a Greddy Profec B II, and a decat for it over the last few weeks, so I'm hoping it'll reach 300 easily enough when I get everything sorted and get the map tweaked. I'll be happy with 300 for a road car for now. Won't try to squeeze much more than that out of an SR - will probably drop an RB25 into it in the future instead :)
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The office above ours at work was being gutted and renovated, and I spotted these strips/trunking things being dumped...
https://c7.staticflickr.com/2/1700/25960411582_d931ca93cb_h.jpg
Went into DIY mode...
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and test stuck them onto the skirts with double sided tape...
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I've pulled them off again and wrapped them instead with carbon fibre vinyl for the craic, and drilled them so I can bolt them to the skirts instead. Haven't reattached them yet... Hopefully they won't look shit, but we'll see!
fluffmister
26-03-16, 21:08
fair play some about of work car looks great was admiring it before but can't remember what mondello event it was. like the skirt extensions
fair play some about of work car looks great was admiring it before but can't remember what mondello event it was. like the skirt extensions
Cheers man! I brought it to Autoheroes last month, that might have been it. Wasn't really out much with it since it was painted. Only got it done over the winter :) I'll see what the skirt extensions look like when I bolt them on again. At least they're easy to add/remove :)
kenokennedy
06-04-16, 16:37
Fine car and a great thread Conor.
Brief yet informative, could do with taking a lesson or 2 from you :rolleyes:
Those strips on the skirts look very cool. Give them a go!
Fine car and a great thread Conor.
Brief yet informative, could do with taking a lesson or 2 from you :rolleyes:
Those strips on the skirts look very cool. Give them a go!
Thanks man. Car's not getting much use at the minute so I haven't gone near them. Should get some free time this weekend to fire them on :)
Couple of new pics. Should be collecting a HKS Hi-power cat-back for this tomorrow...
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Looks sweet Conor. Great work done refreshing it.
This is stunning! Nice photo's too.
Thanks lads! Still a work in progress :)
Great read and a class car. Great to see it was saved from the tin worm.
yomamagoes/sideways
16-06-16, 11:27
Jesus thats a nice s15 fair play man
Thanks lads! Don't think anything can be saved from the tin worm in this country, but it'll last another while at least :)
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yomamagoes/sideways
26-10-16, 19:55
Lookin sick
Couple of pics from a couple of weeks ago. Linked from FB, will probably disappear sometime :p
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Bump for the hoodie competition :p
Bump for the hoodie competition :p
You're a cute hooooor
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