Now for many of us a trip to Japan is out of the question and we cant all share in this experience due to financial restrictions, family commitments, work commitments... the list goes on and on.. a few months back some brilliant person down south thought why don't we bring Matsuri to Australia so those that cant go to J-land can at least get a taste of it down under.
Now to date there has been two so far run in the country one being at Winton and the other at Mallala, Well the people at Queensland Raceway have finally cottoned on and have decided to host their own Matsuri with 24hrs of non-stop drifting!!! starting for most at 12 noon Saturday till 12 noon sunday.
For those lucky first one hundred entrants (Myself and Nathan included) get to start at 10am.
It is going to be a huge weekend (October 8th and 9th) for us most likely spending all of Friday packing the cars, tools, parts and then getting an early night (Yeah right ill be lucky to sleep 1 hour) to be at the track first thing around 5am on the Saturday to unpack everything and get situated then slide the crap out of our cars until the next day. Then pack up on the Sunday Afternoon so I'm not with out doubt that the Monday after will be spent sleeping.
Now the whole point to this little spiel is the reason why the 180 has been booted back into gear earlier then anticipated as a drift car and not a time attack car... well the simple fact is Silvie is my daily drive and with her current track record when going out to QR well its not the best one!!! so why not build the 180 into something specifically for the one thing? well at least temporarily until we can sort out a more balance setup between sliding and chasing that clock around lakeside and QR.
So let the first part of the build begin!!!
As i said in the last post we left the warehouse on the Saturday night with a mission and that was to pile a crap load of parts into the old faithful falcon to get a good start on preparing the 180 for its quest towards twenty-four hours of punishment!!! well maybe not twenty-four hours non-stop because Ill end up crashing for few hours in the passenger seat (I apologize in advance for the Snoring)
So this is what we ended up with
Parts!!! ignore the GTR Junk above
-S13 Front Coilovers
-S15 5-stud. Brake and hub assembly
-Front and rear strut braces
-S13 Manual Tail shaft
-S13 Overflow bottle
-S13 Side mirrors
-Assortment of nuts and bolts
-S13 Clutch Slave
-S13 Fan Shroud
-S13 Dash
-SR20 Non-Hicas Power steering pump, lines, reservoir and bracket
-SR20 Top and Bottom Rad hoses
-Assortment of silicon joiners and pipes..
-Assortment of other parts!!!
GTR Cooler pipe setup for S13 - ignore black pipe
1 pair of Advan Racing 17x8.5 with la mans tyres
Ok well that was the parts we Jammed into the back of the falcon with all the tools we needed!!! I swear the amount of parts we jam into the back of that thing is ridiculous i think we should take up playing Tetris as a profession.
not to mention the parts still left in the halfcut like the power steering rack that was originally a Hi-CAS rack but Nissan being Nissan you can change it to be non-hicas hence the non-hicas bracket for the to mount the non-hicas steering pump.
first things first the GTR parts that are in one of the photos above were living in the boot of the 180 since we did a engine swap in a GTR awhile ago.. well they had to go and to prevent leakage a 180sx hatch rubber was installed
the most important part to be installed... hatch rubber.
Next was to pull out the old S13 struts, hubs and the stuffed power steering rack
Poo Rotar, 4-stud hub and strut
Yes different side.. but gone!!!
Old destroyed rack removed.
New goodies installed.
Wheels on
Nismo Engine mounts installed on engine.
Bearing and rear seal in good nick
Just incase you've never seen the bodacious rear of a SR20DET
Bonnet off and engine bay ready for poking in the motor and gearbox
Gearbox back on the motor ready to be lifted into the car.
Kristen making sure nothing is a miss
All in!!!
Crossmember meet engine mount, engine mount meet crossmember!!
GTR Cooler pipes test fitted.
Engine Loom all connected and through firewall.
Ohhh hello Mr cooler pipe!!
looking like an engine bay!!!!
So much torque it wheel stands!!!...
First time in over a year thats its been on the ground with a motor in it.
S15 Radiator installed.. problematic though.
Strut brace on
Front end all together!!! needs tweaking here and there.
Well apart from a few little niggling problems the front end is complete being the only problems are the s15 rad fouls on the bonnet as does the strut brace so they will get changed, another thing that you may also notice is the front bar is sitting lower then it should due to it fouling on the Reo so some alterations will be needed so the front bar sits right.
But apart from all of that which we can fix, the front end is done... well.. we still need to install the GTR FMIC but couldn't as i forgot to grab it.. gahhh.
All in all we made a load of progress with the car in pretty much one days work. As far as assembly goes it was maybe 8 hours worth of work, one thing that i did forget to take photos and mention is the dashboard installation but that can come later on as we assemble the rest of the inside.
As for the rear end we have a cradle coming with a mechanical diff (unsure if its a 1.5 or a 2 way) and a few other goodie and fuel tank to go with it but once we have everything we need ill post up about it.
As for now I would like to say thank you to the man that has made all of this happen in such a short period of time without him i would still be sitting here staring at that Matsuri poster dreaming about going instead of actually having my name on the list and a car that is fifty percent towards being complete, I can not be more appreciative then I already am for all of his help with this and Silvie!! Nathan my friend you sir are just purely awesome!!! without you I would be but a dreamer. Once again from the bottom of my heart thank you so very much :)
I would also like to thank Kristen for coming down and giving us a hand because every bit of help is appreciated and doesn't go unnoticed you are also awesome!
Well guys for now that's all five posts done in one night!!! I hope you are enjoying the recent additions to my blog and don't worry as there will be more to come!!!
this coming weekend we are holding the Next breakfast at QR and the first Hardtuned Motorkhana so I am sure that ill have a something else to write about on sunday.
this coming weekend we are holding the Next breakfast at QR and the first Hardtuned Motorkhana so I am sure that ill have a something else to write about on sunday.
As always
Stay safe my friends!!!
Bev!!
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