LarZ' Black 180sx (The Ugly Duckling)

Thanks for the feedback guys :) Keep it coming :p

It has been about a month and half since i posted. during this time i took the car out on its maiden track voyage. It was a grip voyage not a drift session. I absolutely love the way the car performed. Anyone who is interested should check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnVJRBK_7p0

lifestyler photo:
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...80700671_o.jpg
Mazda - set your wallet on fire...
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...36580663_o.jpg

Breaking necks at Auto Heroes:
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...86343603_o.jpg

Speedhunters took note:
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...80257885_o.jpg

More hard parking from that day:
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...90758185_o.jpg

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...15428871_o.jpg

Love having this as my daily
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...74889667_o.jpg

Paint was a great investment
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...75737812_o.jpg

Picked up a set of nismo clocks
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...59114498_o.jpg

They needed a light refurb. Thanks to Michéal Kirwan for the replacement glass!
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...62196096_o.jpg

I was at Auto Heroes 5 too
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...29328825_o.jpg

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...14323818_o.jpg

Fitted my OEM spotlights. They're not wired up yet but they look absolutely epic IMO
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...76468917_o.jpg

Also, this happened. Shite pic but stay tuned for fitted pics
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...92009850_o.jpg

Any feedback appreciated :)

looking awesome bro, i really really like this car

Looking well larz. Had a quick look at it last autohereos. Liking it a lot. Took ml the 32 out for a grip session as well and had a blast.

It was my birthday 2 weeks ago and I splurged on a pair of seats as I hinted at in a previous post. When I brought the car out on track at auto heroes 4, it was made very clear to me that standard seats just don't cut the mustard. So the hunt was on. After weeks of searching on facebook, adverts and donedeal, all I seemed to find were seats with holes and tears in them which the owners assured me were a 'quick cheap fix' yet they haven't bothered their arse getting them fixed yet still want a tonne of money for them. The few nice sets of seats I found, the sellers decided against selling them after reaching out to me saying that they'd sell them to me. I think it might be getting too easy to sell these days and buyers are no longer the main 'time wasters'. that rant is for another day :)

Here's what my interior USED to look like:
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...68330715_o.jpg

I wanted something that looked factory, but wasn't too common either. no fixed seats, weird patterns or blues or mismatched colours. Love the look of the starlet fishnets and for some reason I got the idea of evo X seats although they probably would have looked out of place in my 180. Eventually a fella in Mayo got on to me saying he'd sell a pair of seats that came in in a vzr. After a bit of negotiating on the price (i caved and just accepted his initial price :p) I arranged to pick them up at Mondello. The pics I had seen looked decent and I had transferred him a deposit.

So I picked them up at the last auto heroes and was blown away by them. They may as well be new to be honest. One last piece of background info: My wife drives my 180 regularly and she's short so needs to sit close to the steering wheel. I've had issues before with aftermarket seats so was determined to have a proper factory sliding range for the driver's seat at least. Which could only mean one thing. Don't buy cheap rails and don't go drilling rails.

Here's the bolt pattern I needed:
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...94661373_o.jpg

I found a passenger side bride s14 rail luckily here in Cork, thanks to lady89 on here. I offered it up to the seat and looked a perfect fit. I had a driver's s13 super low bride rail but that wouldn't fit, so eventually I was contacted by none other than Andrew32 (owns the site now) and he had exactly what i needed. A genuine Recaro driver's side s-body rail. Delighted!

Driver's rail (needs a drop of paint):
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...50309372_n.jpg

Huge shout out to Nick Russell who sent me seat bolts to fit the rails to the seats. Legend.

The important stuff:

Seats: Recaro SR3 Trail Black
Rail P/S: s14 Bride rail NO28SR
Rail D/S: s13 Recaro rail

Here's a pic of the rails, fitted to the seats:
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...49716601_o.jpg

And here's the finished product (pic taken in the evening so it was a bit dark):
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...04932745_o.jpg
Check out the quality of the bolsters!

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...97821200_o.jpg

mind me asking how much you paid for the seats? I'm after something along these lines. my e36 is full black leather so want something black that won't look out of place

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fluffmister

mind me asking how much you paid for the seats? I'm after something along these lines. my e36 is full black leather so want something black that won't look out of place

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Yeah man no worries. Paid 550 for the pair of seats and 240 for the rails so 790 total. Dread to think what it would all cost new :p

Recaros look the job Larz! Nicely done.

those seats really set it off well. glad you stayed away from the eve x seats.

A part of me still thinks that Evo x seats in an s-body would be awesome. The're quite like the Bride Cuga. But it would want to be a kouki at the very least, if not a big kitted car. If i found a set cheap i deffo would have tried them, but seat rails are supposed to be a right pain with the newer oem recaros. They're bad enough as it is with the older type.

Thanks for the great feedback lads :)

No real update. Still daily driving this and absolutely loving it. Well, no update is a lie. I may have bought a garrett 2835r turbo and nismo 550cc injectors. should go nicely with my walbro fuel pump, Brand new powerFC and my brand new z32 AFM. However, I'm loving standard power so much, I might just keep those power mods to make something special out of my ps13. So no immediate plans to fit them.

I picked up a Tanabe Limit (Jasma) exhaust. It's not a HKS Hi Power Silent but it will hopefully do. I'll post some pics of that when i polish it up a bit.

Other than that, Here are some pics of me out and about, enjoying my daily driver :)

dat beading
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...57658833_o.jpg

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...14825495_o.jpg

IDC1 with Sarah Markey's immaculate ps13
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...81898986_o.jpg

This kid reminded me of me when i was his age... Plotting out his route to actually owning one of these one day...
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...72662878_o.jpg

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...13157151_o.jpg

Garrettstown beach
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...53449754_o.jpg

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...63399443_o.jpg

I've also picked up a pair of bumper brackets to fit my front bumper a bit better. When the bumper is off i'll sort out the headlight lid fitment too.
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...79732377_o.jpg

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...16983855_o.jpg

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that i'm not running my kouki spats at the moment. Reason being that I didn't have them fitted properly in the first place. I need to get a heat gun to the rear bumper so that I can work out a slight kink which forces the spat away from the body. I don't have a shed and it has rained quite a lot lately so I haven't made the time to be honest. It still looks good without them in my opinion, but i feel the spats really set it off.
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...34582500_o.jpg

That's me for now. Thanks for reading :)

Nice to read dude. Ya can tell your passionate about the car and yes spats make a great difference

Nice this is the type of 180 i want haha standard lookin but low on 15" 16"

No major updates on this. Getting rid of the raised cupholder centre console compartment. It wrecks my head when I change gear while driving it in anger. My funny bone is wrecked from it.

It flew through the NCT recently but it's still raised and looking crap. I have some minor bits in with the painter to touch up so I should have it looking great again soon. Still meaning to swap out the dash for a non-cracked one and get the wheels refurbed.

It was a great compliment when Dave Daly (who owned the car 3 years ago) drove it and told me I had done an amazing job with it. He couldn't get over how well it drove.

Still driving this daily but it will be coming off the road in November and parking up beside the ps13. I have a baby due in January so I'm going to have to be seen to make some bit of sacrifice :p Need to find another daily. Something 'sensible'. I have my eye on a mid engined rear wheel drive car. Yep... Sensible... Because I'm looking for a smart brabus. I've always wanted one :) Don't give me that look :p

so it's now november and i just taxed this again... Can't put it off the road yet... the baby will have to put up with it!

so much to update in this. Please reply if you want me to go to the effort :)

Quick update on this. Baby is happy and healthy and well over a year later the 180sx is STILL taxed and insured and STILL my daily. I just love the thing! It has gotten loads of new little bits here and there.

Went to the last minute juicebox meet in 2016:

https://scontent.fdub1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...13&oe=5B0F31F5

A couple of local Cars and Coffee events
https://scontent.fdub1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...a1&oe=5B49B560

https://scontent.fdub1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...bf&oe=5B0DC7E3

https://scontent.fdub1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...4b&oe=5B05B290

I even got approached by Ryan Tuerck and Chris Forsberg at Festival of Drift in 2017 and couldn't resist going all 'fanboy' on it and got a pic with the two lads and of course also my car:

https://scontent.fdub1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...dc&oe=5B46EA84

Other than that, not been doing much other than daily driving it. The alternator packed in at one point and I changed it myself. very proud moment for someone as mechanically retarded as I am :)

https://scontent.fdub1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...e7&oe=5B006036

Picked up a cool old school Cusco front strut brace
https://scontent.fdub1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...c1&oe=5B0B7B33

Also fitted some of my prized nismo bits. My 400r steering wheel and horn button and also an old logo nismo chrome shift knob.

https://scontent.fdub1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...c3&oe=5B15C1B0

NCT has been a bit of a battle this time with tiny stupid things going wrong. an imbalance in the front coilovers and lack of a helper spring in the rears causing the springs to be loose when the car is jacked up prompted me to get new coilovers which i still haven't fitted. I got Pedders Extreme Xa coilovers. They came up for sale relatively cheap, and they're brand new.

https://scontent.fdub1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...ac&oe=5B44B94A

Other than that, my meshes need a refurb but the silvia is eating all my money so i've gone super OEM and put some linglong rubber on some OEM wheels that i have. And I think the car actually looks unreal. It's a nice change. I need to put the kit back on though

https://scontent.fdub1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...c7&oe=5B47BABF

Life has been crazy with the baby arriving and my time is very limited at the moment. I'm lucky to be able to have this on the road all the time, otherwise i wouldn't be able to enjoy it at all.

Delighted to see you use this daily man. I always say I'm going to run something cool daily but I always end up doing stupid things and spending to much money 😂

When this and your PS get parked beside eacthother I think it'll almost be an over-load of old school cool :cool:

Yes, keep updating it :)

its so cool that its still a daily, i hope it will stay that way for a loooooooong while!

This has definitely come along ways since you bought it. Did you ever do anything with the Nismo rims I dropped to you?


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by japgarage

This has definitely come along ways since you bought it. Did you ever do anything with the Nismo rims I dropped to you?


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They're still waiting to be fitted to this. They'll be getting a refurb from sodablast as soon as i can afford it. They're going to be my winter wheels for both s13s depending on which one i have on the road :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lady89

Yes, keep updating it :)

its so cool that its still a daily, i hope it will stay that way for a loooooooong while!

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Yeah there are no plans to change that. Going to keep this insured as the daily and insure the ps13 as a classic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jeff nelson sileighty

When this and your PS get parked beside eacthother I think it'll almost be an over-load of old school cool :cool:

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I have a photoshoot with rhys planned already. just need to get the ps13 home first :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hoopsbhoy

Delighted to see you use this daily man. I always say I'm going to run something cool daily but I always end up doing stupid things and spending to much money ��

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The first thing anyone should do when they want a nice fast road car is to get something and get NCT on it and start driving it. Too many people spend years building their dream car and then sell it in a moment of madness that they regret forever more. And then the prices go up by so much each year that they don't ever buy a new one out of spite :p

I have been chasing a HKS Hi Power Silent for many many years now. And been quite vocal about it, and thankfully someone spotted one for sale on the sxoc forums. He was in the UK and there was no price on the ad but I messaged him anyways. Pics looked ok, a little bit used looking but no leaks. I ended up buying it and getting it shipped very reasonably.

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Those of you who know me know I’m a wannabe driveway mechanic with fairy soft hands. But I have a go anyways. So yesterday I took off my old exhaust and offered up the new one and bollocks anyways...

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...acc546e88b.jpg

Turns out it’s an s14 exhaust [emoji20] what a balls!!

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While I was under the car I noticed that my downpipe was a bit loose from the elbow so I tidied that up too.

Anyways, now i have my dream exhaust for the wrong car. Now my skill set and toolset ends here so I like to admit defeat and give the job to someone who knows what they are doing. So I took the car to automania here in ballincollig this morning. They custom fabricate exhausts and the main goal is to put the hi power silent boxes into the s13/old exhaust. By whatever means they deem necessary.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...de01ba146c.jpg


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Did you get sorted in the end now? :(

What a crazy 24 hours... got a call around this time yesterday to say “your exhaust is ready”. I was a little bit surprised as I hadn’t had any word on costs or anything so asked them how much it was gonna cost me....

€250!!! I had to walk there but on the way decided that if the exhaust sounds good and fits well then so be it...

Turns out they didn’t do what I had asked them to do at all, they simply tried to fit the s14 exhaust to my car and it was just a horrible piece of work... I expressed that I wasn’t happy but they said they’d fix it so I left it with them...

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...712c0c5092.jpg

The rear looked fine though

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a3fc32e23c.jpg

But there was no way I’m gonna clear a speed bump or even get into a multi-storey carpark with that middle box hanging so low...

Last night I had an absolutely horrible night’s sleep. Couldn’t stop thinking about the 3 cuts and 2 welds that they wanted me to pay €250 for and the terrible standard of work that they want to put their name on. I decided that first thing this morning I was gonna go down there and get my car back. I hated not having it in my driveway.

Long story short, they hadn’t worked on my car yet so it was ready to go in it’s saggy exhaust state. Fine by me and after a bit of an argument i did end up paying them €175 for the shitty work just so I could get my car back from ransom.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2a7f23361d.jpg

The middle box is sitting below the prop so can’t go higher. But they should have relocated that to the side where there’s a nice recess for the standard middle box to sit.

Anyways, ye’re probably sick of this post now [emoji23].

On a brighter note, they exhaust sounds sensationally good. I just need it tidied up underneath.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i08i5U8Z4II

Long story short (again), automania in ballincollig are a bunch of absolute robbing cowboys and I will never set foot in there again.

Hopefully my buddies can sort out the exhaust soon. We’re gonna throw it up on a lift and put their skills to the test while I make tea.


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Sounds like a nightmare. Its amazing how hard it is to find a place to carry out work properly even though you give them full details on what you want.

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So last night, my buddy alan and I got to work on the exhaust. I had explained to him that I had had the exhaust off and the downpipe and cat sat lovely and flush with the old exhaust and now they were a bloody disgrace, coming down at an angle and about 2” below where they should have been. Turns out the turbo elbow to downpipe was completely loose! Massive blow and they didn’t even fix it. Talk about not having pride in your work.

They cut the back pipe and shortened it, and the geniuses didn’t cop the fact that now the flange sits right under the half shafts! Dumbasses!!!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e35a4a9046.jpg

The exhaust was so low because they messed up the flange angle where it joins the cat. So when you tightened the bolts, it pulled down the exhaust! Novices. And to add insult to injury, they didn’t use a single gasket and it took us ages just to remove the exhaust putty that they used to mask their shitty fitment. Check this out:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4c3ea6e20d.jpg

Ridiculous. With a tiny cut, we got enough bend to match up the flange correctly after some careful thought. Alan welded it up after making a little bracket. I didn’t get a photo of the finished product but it was bang tidy. Here is a pic of him mocking it up:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e7f82b63f1.jpg

He rounded the corners, cut the excess and even sprayed it with some Edd China. With a few new gaskets we were ready to start it all back up again and hey presto, no bangs, no rattles, no knocks. We didn’t even need to relocate the box because we were able to raise it by at least 1”, possibly and inch and half. Which under an s-body is the world of a difference.

Anyways, that’s enough about my boring exhaust :) I was able to use my car again today and I’m absolutely delighted. Need to do the coilovers and camber arms soon too because I could really do with some nct!


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Holy moly thats fairly bad.

YAY for Alan!!! haha
I dont think i could stay calm after seeing this being done to my car :mad:

Absolute butchers. It’s like everything in this country... if you want it done right you have to do it yourself. Some people are only out to make quick money and couldn’t give a f$$k about your standards.


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Yeah it’s sad that one fella with minimal experience was able to fix a problem that a self proclaimed exhaust fabrication shop put their name to.

Anyways I’m delighted to be driving it again even though the whole ordeal only took 3 days. That’s a long time to be without your daily driver. I have oem wheels on it for now and full oem look as I really like how simple it looks and it’s easy to live with as a daily.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...835bd12162.jpg

I never put up any images before of my nismo steering wheel and my nismo gear knob. Both old logo. I need to fit my nismo clocks but the thoughts of removing my dash gives me the heebies... although I have a clean dash in the shed ready to replace my cracked one too...

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I fitted new hinges. Did a write-up here if you're interested: http://www.driftireland.com/forum/sh...200sx-or-240sx

Automania are a bunch of fucking morons. When I read that you were taking it there I was like Oooooh Jesus. If anyone's willing to Chuck out that brutal quality work then they're clearly not competent nor could they give enough of a shit to actually do the job right. I was relieved to see that you went back and got it the next morning.

I didn't know they had such a bad reputation. cowboys. they are still around purely because of their location i think..

So I changed the battery the other day as my old one was knackered. €56 delivered from micksgarage.ie! It arrived the next day even though I didn’t choose next day delivery.

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The bay really needs a freshen up. There was no battery tray but I sourced one a while back so I put that in place.

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Here’s the finished product. #ratlook

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I gave the two cars a quick wash on Saturday

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Then I got notions...

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So this is what it looks like now. 17s are so much harsher for daily driving and soooo much easier to spin up in the wet.

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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...bb15d19a4a.jpg

Other than that I tried to tidy up the rear spats a bit but really need to just tigerseal them in place because they keep coming loose no matter what I do.


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That looks really good, even without the rear spats in place. Excellent job on bringing this thing back from near doom!

I think im starting to like it now ha

Gave the exterior a good clean this morning. Re-fitted the skirts as the car really needs them in my opinion.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b086b61368.jpg

I must put the front lip back on but jacking up the car becomes an ordeal when that’s on as I need to drive up on planks to get at the nose.

Also, I like easy cleaning products and this tyre dressing is the business!

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Quick before and after

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I’m gonna swap back out the front bumper lenses for the Amber ones as they’re easy to swap for nct.

Other than that i STILL have to fit the new coilovers and I need to sort the steering rack gators and hopefully I don’t have a larger issue to deal with there other than a small leak.

Interior needs a serious clean too as I’ve gone lazy in recent months. Interior actually probably hasn’t gotten a clean in a year! Disgraceful...

Ordered some 3M double sided tape too to stick the kouki rear spats on properly hopefully once and for all. Will keep you posted.


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that exhaust was a a joke how do these places get away with that shit!!

loving it on the oem wheels tho :D

So a few pages back I detail how I came across oem Chuki fog lights here in Ireland and got them fitted. That’s about 2 years ago now but I hadn’t wired them up until tonight!

My car was lucky enough to have the oem fog light button from the factory. That’s why I wanted them so badly.

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So I’m a driveway wannabe mechanic as many of you know. So even the thoughts of doing some basic wiring really frustrated me. But having given the Silvia so much love recently I feel like the 180 has lagged behind and needs to step it up a notch again.

I got it all wired up last night after finding the original parts of the loom that were tucked and cable tied away. I was getting 12v on the wires when I turned on the fog light switch. Result. But the bulbs were blown. So I had to source bulbs!

They’re basically h3 bulbs but they have a round bullet connector rather than the spade connector we’re all used to


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And the bullet connectors look similar to the ones we can buy in the shops here but I said I’d try to salvage the existing ones. So I pried them open and fitted the new bulb’s wire. As they were recycled they didn’t sit great so I dropped in a lump of solder to seal the deal [emoji4] I then wrapped them in insulation tape and shrink wrapped them.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0c4999a0ba.jpg

So the fogs can be turned on independently and light up the dash and the running lights. Here’s a video to show the different combinations

https://youtu.be/_3ljj7cuNoU




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Another little update. I’ve been dodging the nct for a while because I’ve not been making the time to do some basic jobs on my car. Recently I said enough is enough so I roped in my buddy alan to give me a hand. He ended up doing most of the work.

We installed brand new camber arms at the rear, brand new pedders extreme coilovers sorted the steering rack gaiters. I must book the car in for retest now.

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Haven’t adjusted the height yet. The car is going into hibernation next month when I get the Silvia taxed. I’d love to store it away with a fresh nct so that it doesn’t become a chore to bring back out of hibernation [emoji23]

Must get the alignment done too, hopefully Friday.

On the lookout for a nice pair of S15 front seats for it too. I had to sell the Recaros to fund the Silvia project.


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