Thursday, 19 June 2008

Photo Shoot with Dino

This will be the Final Entry for RE-Xtreme II. The car is sold to a lucky guy in the UK who fitted new seats. You will notice in these pics the Bride Stradia Carbon backed seats. I also installed some Project Mu Carbon HC+ brake pads in the Rear.



Thanks to Dino Dalle Carbonare for the awesome pics. You can catch the feature in High Performance Imports no.98(HPI). An Australian Tuning Magazine.
The location was Maihama Resort near the Hotel Mira Costa and surrounds.
Russ.

Friday, 16 May 2008

Final Drive

Here is the final drive for the RE-Xtreme Project II FD3s RX7 with Newera.


The car is now sold to a lucky owner.


One last drive for me.


Russ.

Thursday, 15 May 2008

RE-Xtreme Ver.II with Newera.


A Newera of car ownership awaits for me. So you can now own this awesome vehicle.
Sadly, I've never really had the chance to use the car as I would like and with the 1 year build, it really doesn't suit my requirements any more. It's time unfortunately let her go.
Unless someone want so buy it for me as a gift. Oh to be rich.

Some very lucky person will have the opportunity to have one the best RX-7's around at just a fraction of what it owes me.

Russ.

Wednesday, 14 May 2008

FD3s Matsuri.

Festival ( Matsuri ) time in Uraysu city saw the streets lit with Japanese style lanterns.


It was a very nice atmosphere for some final shots of the now sold FD.

The car looks great at night but shooting the colour on a camera is very difficult indeed.
Russ.

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

Fuji Speedway

Here is the car in attack mode. I couldn't get number 7 for the side :(
But the car really looked good.

Performed well. Temps just creeping up when attacking very very hard. Need some proper ducting under the bonnet.

Other than that, it was a lot of fun. Hours of playing GT5 paid off as the line was embedded in my brain. Fuji is an awesome circuit. Feels very safe and it was a good shakedown for my car.

Stay tuned for some video and more pics.

Russ.


Fuji Speedway Video




http://vimeo.com/8684401


Here is the video I edited that Steve took of Newera's AE86 and My FD @ FSW at a Nishiki track day in April 2008.

I'll move it back down to april 08 after a while. I'll just make it visible for now.

Sunday, 27 April 2008

Preparation - II

Brake Fluid - New

Brake Pads - Purchased as a spare set

Thursday, 24 April 2008

Preparation - I

Tidy up of some things that were irritating me or forgotten.

Light Covers - Secure

Master Cylinder Brace - Secure

Front Under Tray - Secure
Almost ready.

Sunday, 20 April 2008

Canon IXY

Testing the new Canon IXY IS25

It's 10.0 Mega Pixels.

I tried them all but this one is the fastest to focus and take a picture.

And it was only 300 dollars.

Takes a pretty good pic too!

Russ.

Thursday, 17 April 2008

Carbing Bling

Well the Carbing 3 point brace is on. Thanks to Miguel again for tools and gentle fitting technique. :) We recently ordered two. He already fitted his to the black Main Newera Demo car below. We also trimmed the engine damper rod for fitment and clearance.

Other than that, I still need to adjust the brake master cylinder brace... Forgot about that... hehe.

Drives much nicer now the strut towers aren't trying to meet in the middle and feels stiff again.
It also clears my RE-Amemiya AD hood 9 with water trays installed, which was the main reason for purchase.

Now I need to get polishing because everything else is very very ugly under there.

Russ.

Thursday, 10 April 2008

Daikoku Futo

Went down to Daikoku to meet the fellows in Japan. A small turnout but still fun. Did some Rajidori.

This shot of my car shows how absolutly huge the GTR 35 is. I parked far enough away as not to scratch anything.

Russ.

Friday, 4 April 2008

Under Construction


Here are some shots from a construction site.


Kind of fitting for the point in time.


The car was almost but not quite finished.


Looking good. It's all in the detail.
Russ.


Thursday, 3 April 2008

Clean and Polish

Miguel from Newera is a great motivator. He gets me to the stuff I have been putting off for a long time. After installing the radio, I gave it a wash and polish.

It has been almost 6 months since the car has seen polish so this was a bit of hard work.
Some more frequent cleaning is on the cards.

I then took the car for a small photoshoot of which I will post pictures soon. Check out the camera starbursts in this shot...

Russ.

Stereo Install

My new head unit came today. It is a Carrozzeria DEH-P530 or Pioneer in the normal world. It has multi colour changing display so you can match your interior. Red Blue White... I might do a combo to match the defi's

It also has Ipod and USB reading and control facilities. And it looks cool. Very simple design. Easy to clean etc.

I was lucky here also becuase the previous stereo was the same brand so it plugged straight in, so I finished in 20 mins.
Russ.

Neova Fitting

I took the car to have the tyre fitted near my house. I was lucky because the inside of the tyre was munched from driving a small way on the FLAT. So It was definitely a good decision to get a new tyre.
The guys were friendly at the Bridgestone place. I got a couple of pics of the rear Aragosta and Cusco Bars that are now on the car.

Russ

Wednesday, 2 April 2008

Inside

A small interior update with the addition of the atc suede Sprint gear knob. It looks excellent and matches the interior well, But.

This one is very light and I'm not sure if I prefer the older heavy Veilside one. May have to think about some options here.

New stereo ordered (MD currently doesn't play anything) so I may have some CD tunes pumping soon.

Russ.

Tuesday, 1 April 2008

Less is more.

One benefit of the new suspension is that I reduced the ride height. It was sitting a bit high. I also removed the rear spacers. Wheels now sit comfortably on the rear, but I may add a small spacer just for looks more than anything.

Feed's recommendation of 18x10+25 and a 25mm spacer is no where near suitable. maybe 10mm is ok.
Russ.

Sunday, 30 March 2008

Yahaa! Yahaa!

Aragosta Coil Overs IN
Cusco Veranza Bars ON
Diff and Mission Oil Change.
Defi Oil Meters Installed.

Almost go. It's low. It's hard. I'll need to adjust the dampers after a bit more driving.

I'll try and get my new tyre sorted very soon. But it's all go.
Russ.

Friday, 28 March 2008

Sprinter!

My ATC Shift Knob arrived today. It is tasty leather and Suede with blue stitching that complements the Nardi wheel well. It has two types of bottoms for it, a chrome one and a black one. I fitted the black one which works well. It should also suit my new stereo when it arrives.
The new knob mounts without the thread and allen keys are used for securing it.

Which is lucky because we were fitting it, during the process the old Veilside POS decided to bind iteslf to the stalk. So we ended up snapping the shifter thread and totally butchering the Veilside knob with a big clamp. The only thing I could salvage was the gear change logo which I will fit with to the console.

Russ.

New Neova

My current rear tire has a nice little bubbly bulge on the inner sidewall and the hole in it after my puncture so I decided to lash out on a new rear. Just a pity because the tread was still 99%.

Russ.

Flexy Flexy

My Cusco Veranza Stabilizer bars arrived today.

Front spec is 32mm and the rear is 18mm.

They are still in their wrapping, but are a nice royal blue colour. They will be fitted on Sunday along with my Aragosta suspension snd an oil change. Almost ready for a drive.

Russ

Sunday, 23 March 2008

Definately!


I have had my defi guages for some time, but installation has been troubled. The Control unit I had was damaged upon removal from another car, so I finally lashed out on a new one.

I am going to try the conversion for the dash to look the same... stay tuned for a DIY guide to that.

Russ.

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

VS-One engine brace.


My new damper? Not really. Solid Brace... more like it!

These things actually look like real braces, this VS-One brace is really just a solid brace thats made to look good.

As far as feeling goes... It makes a huge difference. the car actually feels tighter and more responsive without the engine floating around on the rubber mounts.

Time will tell if it saves the PPF or Mounts them selves, but it feels a lot different. Thumbs UP!

Russ.

Thursday, 13 March 2008

Aragosta Shocking!

On my list for a long time has been some decent coil overs.

After a lot of research and weighing of options, I chose these Aragosta coil-over shock absorbers in standard form. The "Standard" model with a suitable spring rate will be good for my application or fast mountain driving and some non-competitive track use. Aragosta are recommended by Knight Sports, Top Secret Japan and Newera.

Front spring rate is 10.3 kg, 7.8 kg rear which will help the car bite nicely.

The main features of these shocks are :

All aluminium casing for ultra light weight. This has also been beautifully anodised in a gold finish. Full length threaded cartridge for ride height adjustment independant of springs adjustment. 12 stage adjustable damping rate for different driving conditions.
Pillow Ball upper mounts for exacting geometry changes. Construction features 50mm Aluminium Cartridge, 14mm Chrome shaft for strength and low friction and a 46mm Piston for high speed movement and damping balance. Design is also good for larger wheels where clearance is an issue.
I am also adding some Cusco anti-roll / sway bars front and rear to aid in body roll management.
Sizes are 32 and 18 which are an increase over normal and in-line with almost all manufacturers.


The next thing that will tighten things up is an Okuyama tri point tower bar. This has been rebranded for use by Auto-exe and RE-Amemiya in the past. This bar has a few features including a brake cylinder stopper thats built in and bolts to the firewall for structural support.

I'm also adding an engine damper to prevent the engine mounts from destroying themselves. It will be a tight fit with the bar, but the tight fit is possible.
Some other items to finish the interior. A new Defi control unit for the BFs and an ATC Suede gear knob
Just been ordered so I can't wait to get them, put them on and go for a long drive.

Russ.

Thursday, 6 March 2008

Mongolian Cloud

Dust has been blowing in from the mongolian desert to Japan. My car is filthy! Wash me please!
Washed but still filthy... haha.

Russ.

Friday, 29 February 2008

Just after a drive


Just went for a little drive. Keep the battery cycling.... hehe. Recently the car hasn't seen much use. Hopefully that will all change very soon.
Some new sus just around the corner. Then those mountain's should beware.
Russ.

Friday, 22 February 2008

Sunny Days!


Just a nice day so took a shot of my car.

Went for a short drive yesterday... burn off some cobwebs... haha

Sunday, 3 February 2008

Snow Plough!


I think my front spoiler could double as a snow plough. A bit of snow in Tokyo gives an enhanced cooling effect.

Russ