JDM JZA80 in the Alps

[banpei]

(12-03-2020 11:22 AM)r.ave Wrote:  I read it as he got a better car than he was expecting for the money paid.
Very pretty car indeed! Have fun with it!

I just re-read it and you are right. The car was in better condition than described. That hardly ever happens!

[decryphe]

(12-02-2020 10:55 AM)banpei Wrote:  But I understand your doubts: turning such an (almost) unmodified nice car into a track car will be seen as a blasphemy a few years in ahead in time.

Correct, that's what really troubles me now. It really would be a waste of a good car to turn a stock Supra into a track car.

(12-03-2020 11:22 AM)r.ave Wrote:  I read it as he got a better car than he was expecting for the money paid.
Very pretty car indeed! Have fun with it!

Correct, it's way better than I was hoping for. I still owe the guy a box of beers or something, he helped me out a lot to organize the transport as well.

I hope they accept the car as-is at the local inspection so that I can drive it a couple years just the way it is. It's super comfortable and quick enough. In essence it's a sporty Lexus.

In the meantime I have to save up money anyways now, race/track cars are expensive...

[banpei]

(12-04-2020 09:42 PM)decryphe Wrote:  It's super comfortable and quick enough. In essence it's a sporty Lexus.

That's exact opposite of what they say about the SC300 / Soarer: it's a Supra in Gran Tourer guise!

[decryphe]

All right, let's revive this!

End of this month I'll be discussing this car and how to go from what it is now to where I would like to be with it. This means mostly planning what parts to get and what would need to be fabricated. As with most my stuff, I'm looking for an OEM+ kind of streetable car, so I can enjoy it as much as possible.

First off: I can't register it the way it sits. OEM doesn't count, there's no Certificate of Conformity for the European market. Swiss inspection wants that regardless of what it is, otherwise I have to bring the paperwork myself.

So, what's the intention?
- Manual swap it. I have a Tremec T56 kit from Grannas Racing with all the adaptors and brackets sitting in the garage. This will yield me a gearbox that can hold some serious power.
- Supercharge it (or... Supra-Charge it?). This will be a one-off build with a Vortech centrifugal supercharger. Power target is some 350-400 hp with positive intake pressure at idle.
- Mostly stock exterior, maybe front bumper to fit an intercooler, maybe a carbon hood. I'll keep it white and probably add some of the Tom's Supra decals (Castrol red and green!).
- Some really nice seats, rear seat delete, fresh carpeting around the rear instead of the seats.

There may be a bifurcation later, if I can't get it to pass emissions: Then I'll cage it and make a track car out of it, which was the original intention. Possibly find a rusty shell for swapping around stuff.

[decryphe]

I'm trying out a video format to document the progress on this project ("I'm hip and young now!"). First two episodes are up and public. As I'm new to this, I would be really happy for any and all critique you have on the videos. I want them to be mostly informative and maybe a bit entertaining too.

Also, if you know any reasonable easy-and-quick-ish video editor software, I'd like to hear of it. I made the second video in Shotcut (it's FOSS: shotcut.org), and would like to compare/try out.

[banpei]

Subbed and I'll watch the second video later tonight!
I personally use Finalcut Pro as I'm a Mac user. I purchased it many years ago when I had my own company and needed to edit videos. Prior to that I used iMovie, which is the "free" version of Finalcut Pro with a lot of functionality disabled.
On Windows/Linux I used Lightworks which has many many professional plugins and features, but it crashed regularly. I hear good things about OpenShot from a friend of mine who runs Wasabi Cars, so it must be good.

[decryphe]

Okay, long time since the last update, there wasn't much to report on.

I had some trouble with the transmission, making grinding noises and otherwise unpleasant noise. I was wondering if I had damaged it in the installation process due to first running it with the wrong weight oil for about 15min. To ensure that it wasn't an install issue, I took it down to confirm alignment (it was spot on already) and filled it up with the correct oil. Unfortunately the noise was still there, but I decided to take it for a ride anyways. Turns out I'm just not used to the noise coming from a Tremec with a single mass flywheel - one of the instructors at the drift event once had a track-built Mustang with the same setup, he confirmed it sounds the way it should. That means I've successfully finished the swap, the car drives absolutely fantastic.

Indexing with index plate and micrometer:



Going sideways:



Bonus, labelling all the things:



Now I'm out of budget for a while, but the car's finally parked in a garage. I'll continue with downpipe and Swiss paperwork sometime in the future.