Random Retro Snap

Random retro snap: C73A Mirage racecar @ Taupo

2
December 15, 2010
by

Piloted by none other than… myself. (As if the shades didn’t give it away)

It ain't pretty, but it's got it where it counts

Even with my relatively conservative (read: noob) lines I still managed to punt said racecar to a 1:56 PB around Track 1 at Taupo with the new ‘slow’ turn 12, which trumps my previous record in my own FWD TX3 by a whole twelve seconds. I can only imagine what sort of laptimes a more experienced/ballsy driver could be capable of doing in that thing.

the Mirage is running a mildly tickled Dirk-spec 4G63 out of a VR-4 and tricky diffs front and rear (yup it’s 4WD). There has been talk of re-tuning the car to run 20psi of boost; now we’re getting serious.

Thanks to Logan/Gorgasm for the photo, and to the guys from Rogue Racing for the chance to blaze around Taupo in this :)

: External Projects, Random Retro Snap

Nostalgic Car For Sale: Savanna RX-7 SA22C

0
December 9, 2010
by

Spotted on AMON: one very tidy 1980 series 1 RX-7. I kinda prefer the smoother lines of the updated series 3 fascias, side mouldings and bumpers but SA22Cs have one of the sweetest looking bodystyles in my books regardless.

All panda spec, albeit with a body coloured fibreglass ducktail.

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: Car Spotting, Cars for Sale, Random Retro Snap

Car Spotting; AW11

1
November 29, 2010
by

I see this Toyota MR2 (AW11) pretty much every day and it only occurred to me today to take a snap of it as I walked by. Keen to own one of these suckers at some stage in all their 80′s doorstop, wedge, wannabe Star Wars glory.

Toyota MR2

-Michael

: Car Spotting, Random Retro Snap

…and every day, the paperboy brings more

0
November 9, 2010
by

More spare parts for the BFMR, that is. The convenient thing about amassing a giant pile of spares is that you’re guaranteed to find something missing, broken, or jabroni’d on the project car which requires replacing, post-haste. Usually something trivial, too!

See, I knew this stuff would come in handy one day!

Been ferrying things daily from the lockup down to the garage as I need them, today’s pile of swag includes the radiator overflow bottle, a factory blow off valve return line, the rear washer bottle, a piece of intake J-pipe, and some assorted sensors and electrical parts for when I start testing that side of things.

Anyway, in my first project BFMR update I mentioned briefly that I had a theory the supposed engine failure wasn’t catastrophic. After the jump is a related photo, and some rumination on why I think so:

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: Authors Cars, Random Retro Snap

Nitpicker’s Corner: DR30 vs. HR30 tail lamps

1
November 8, 2010
by

Much like the “FC3S Infini has more power than the regular version!” rumour floating around the internet and countless forums*, there exists a similar old wives tale regarding the “smoked” (or facelift) tail lamps on the R30 Skyline.

I’ve now lost count of the number of times (no doubt Michael has as well) I’ve seen the dark coloured HR30 smoked tail lamps being advertised as DR30 ones, and usually with a hefty price premium attached. Simply speaking, when the facelift R30 range was released Nissan decided that they would set the DR30s apart in more ways than just the glaringly obvious front-end treatment by subtly colouring the backing of the rear lamps a different shade of grey to the HR30 ones.

Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself.

HR30 on left, DR30 on right. The difference in shading isn't a trick of the light

This is not to say, of course, that facelift HR30 lamps aren’t worth anything – in fact, they’re still worth quite a bit of coin – but yeah, just some misinformation that I thought I would clear up once and for all.

And no, my HR30 lamps ARE NOT for sale, don’t bother asking.

*they DON’T have more power, interestingly enough – see this link for proof

: Automotive Documentation, Random Retro Snap
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