New member from the Netherlands.

[Mux213]

banpei Wrote:Welcome!
You can also put a rotary in that hachi. Has been done before. >

Yeah but if you put anything other then a 4 piston engine in, you get into trouble with the RDW here in Holland....

Yesterday Andreas visited me with his new car. I've seen it a couple of times before when I met Seth but never gotten a chance to actually drive the car.

I have to say, I was very pleasently surprised by it in all respects. I knew Seth had put alot of work into welding the car some years back and knew the body work needs to be finished from there. Now its a matter of doing the last bit of welding, fixing returned surface rust and getting it properly painted. Except for the usual bootlid and door problems all the serious stuff looks like its been properly fixed.

The car currently stands on real crappy tires that have little grip and are HUGE. New tires have been ordered and I think this will make a world of difference.

What did pleasently surprise me was the mechanics. Andreas was worried about sounds from his diff but I didn't really hear much. I have to add to that that the sound of his ricy muffler has a bit to do with that so once he's got a nicer exhaust you may here it more clearly but I dont think he has to worry about this.

I did not have a chance to try out the diff itself, Andreas is not a fan of drifting and I don't want to take any chances with another persons car. But at one point taking a sharp corner the rear wheels did sounded like they lost traction and it felt more like an open diff then an LSD, but this could simply be due to the crappy tires on the car. Winter tires squeel much more easily and still have 'grip' when you think they are spinning.

The gear box and clutch feel alot better then my car, you wouldn't give those the 300k km on the odo.

The engine.... damn that engine. Most hachi's I've driven that have 300k on the odo you can feel the engine is getting old. but this one.. it misses a slight bit of power in the low end but once those tvis valves open, it brings a BIG BIG smile on your face. I'm pretty sure the low end power is there but the engine just needs to get a small tuneup. I don't think there is much power diffference between my car and his, and mine has only driven half as much in its life time.
Anyways, technically I'd give this car a 9 for sure, I would not think this engine as been in this car for 300k km.

All in all, this car is a good base to continue on. Yes the body work is going to take some effort to finish if you want it done properly, but it has much potential for sure.