As some of you may know I recently broke my SR20 powered R32, the car was a lot of fun and I really loved it but with some new road laws coming into Ireland it was quite clear that it was going to be a complete nightmare to try and get the car road legal which I had decided that, going forward, I wanted any car I owned to be.
It was a massive shame to have to break the car as it meant a lot to me but having it sitting around doing nothing just made no sense to me.
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I believe that I will have another R32 one day but once I had decided to break mine I had a little think about where I was going with cars. I think anyone involved in drifting has had the 'I should sell up everything and just buy a nice normal road car' thoughts at one point or another and I was no different. I even started to look pretty intensely at BMW E61 Diesels but there was another car that kept entering my head also, a car that I had always wanted to own, to see what it was like to drive/drift and learn more about the chassis of by developing it myself. That car was a JZX chassis car.
Once I had settled the idea that I wanted to start looking for a 'JZX' in my mind ghen it was time to decide which one. Now I appreciate all types of JZX cars and so this decision took a little time, I considered all sorts; JZX90 MKII, JZX81 MKII, JZX100 Chaser and even put serious consideration into bidding on some Verossas I saw in the auctions but I finally settled on a JZX100 MKII.
This seemed a wise choice to me as compared to the 81 and 90 the 100 is that bit newer but also would not cost quite as much or be as hard to find parts for as the Verossa. I decided the MKII was the JZX100 chassis I wanted as firstly they are a bit more of a rare sight on this side of the world when compared to the Chaser and secondly I prefer the way they look.
So with that decision made I begun my hunt, pretty much immediately I realised that finding the car I wanted in the UK or Ireland was not going to be a viable option, I turned to the Japanese auction sites and Yahoo Auctions Japan (YAJ). I enlisted the help of JDMDistro - Buy JDM Parts Online Worldwide Shipping | Japanese performance car parts direct from Japan in this search who I must say have been a massive help throughout the whole process.
There was a couple of cars that popped up in the auctions that got my interest but for various reasons where not suitable for me. It turned into a daily ritual of checking the auctions and checking YAJ. Then one day a car that seemed to fit the bill appeared on YAJ, it was a good colour, good spec and a fair (buy it now) price, I was all set to make a purchase! Unfortuantley someone else beat me to the 'buy it now' button. I was a little dismayed but continued the search, however a couple of days later I got a message from JDMDistro informing me that the same car was back up on YAJ! It appeared the person that had tried to buy it before me could not actually come up with the money (well that is what I think I think I gathered from the google translation of the advert). I wasted no time in telling JDMDistro to go for it and after a nervous couple of hours got a message from the guys simply saying 'We have bought a car' Brilliant!
So here is what I bought; a 1998 JZX100 MKII with a few simple mods such as Vertex Aero, Tein coilovers, FMIC, Power FC, uprated clutch and some adjustable arms. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, it would appear not everyone in Japan is as technologically advanced as you would think, it would aseem the 'man in Japan' has a camera phone from 2003, but anyway:
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At the time of writing the car is on a boat on it's way to Dublin port with an ETA of 25th April, I am excited to get my hands on it but this is also very close to my college exams so I think realistically it is going to be late May before I can really start getting stuck into it. I do not have any 'out of this world' plans for it just yet I mainly just want to get it looking the part as it already seems to have enough mods in the power and handling department to make it fun. In my head the immediate plan is, fix up any bodywork that needs doing, fit cool wheels and much much lower.
With that in mind I have be collecting a few little bits awaiting the car's arrival:
https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...4b&oe=55AD4400
That is the VS-KFs I still have from the R32 (Although I plan to switch the 17 inch fronts out for 18s), a new Nardi Deep Corn steering wheel (thanks to DW), a GX100 grill and LED side and bumper lights.
I think that, along with a healthy lowering should have it looking the part pretty quickly, here is a little inspiration:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...b19d627bee70e2
The only other thing I think I would like to source relatively soon is at least one, but preferably a pair, of Red Bride Zeta 3s. So if anyone has a lead on them let me know.
So that is pretty much the story up to know, I will go back to refreshing the boat tracking website!
