Today I sold my AW11.

Small milestone for me, as this is the first car I’ve ever gotten rid of for any decent amount of coin, and in tidy running condition, i.e. it’s not being sold for parts or with broken bits or anything silly like that. The new owner is an acquaintance from Christchurch that I know through another forum who promises to slowly restore it to its former glory, and keep it in tip top shape. One day I may even see it again, who knows?

Seven cars down to six – but never fear, the search is already underway to find another AW11 to plug the gap with (and for keeps this time). Hopefully I shall acquire one ex-Japan but who knows, I may find a gem here in NZ worth paying money for. In fact, the only reason I decided to put this AW11 up for sale was to fund the acquisition of a mint one. Yeah, I have strange priorities.

Goodbye faithful MR2… thanks for the good sideways times and almost 2 1/2 years of reliable supercharged motoring!

AW11 SC (Jan 2009 - May 2011)

I apologise for the lack of updates, my world is a bit up in the air at the moment.  Just as a random token of nothing, here’s the latest thing that I bought in recent times.

It will be a while until I can actually use it but I managed to pick up the package for less than what the stainless valves would cost, so even though it was an extreme stretch of my current financial situation, I think it was worth it.

-Michael

If you thought my pace on the Skyline was glacial, the task of converting my RX-7 to a pure two seater is proving to be a few orders of magnitude worse. At the rate this is going, I don’t see it being back on the road this year unless I fly over to the States and hand pick the parts myself.

the first piece of the puzzle has now arrived in the form of a complete rear carpet section (in the correct colour and trim). Discovered it going for cheap on eBay partway through last month, so I promptly bought and had it shipped to NZ – and the goddamn freight ended up costing more than the item. At least it only took 14 days to get here.

One thing down, about 400 to go...

the search continues in the form of a daily trawl of eBay; a listing for a pair of rear trim panels has now appeared, but the seller has quoted phenomenal shipping to NZ – easily over $100US. Fun times.

Some days I wonder if it would’ve just been easier all along to have the rear pillars re-engineered, the interior hacked to pieces, and an extra $3000 handed over JUST for a pair of seatbelts in the back.