public
Captain Slow Charging
A couple of things: Everybody always takes pics of their cars just after they've been washed and waxed, while mostly they're not very gleaming in real life, day to day. This thread's slightly different, since the cars are unwashed here. Also, since both of these cars are very boring by themselves, I have to put them together to reach a bearably interesting level.
So, the first to go is the 1990 Nissan Sunny Coup? I got my hands on when I got my licence. I still drive it every now and then, even if it's now registered to my brother. It's the regular, 12-valve 1.6-litre with 94hp, and its Achilles' heel is it's automatic. It's done 184 000 km, and it's slightly worn and bubbling around the edges. The underbody's solid, though, so a respray and the tiniest bit of welding would make it a winner. Mechanically it's in full working order, and the tests they run at inspection show the engine's working very cleanly for its years, so it's got to be tough as nails. Especially if you consider it's been beat for years; even the autobox still shifts tidily. It's never failed its inspection, either. Bad points? It's very harsh and jittery to drive. I hate the suspension and the squeaks it makes, and a regular 5-speed manual would rock mine and everybody else's socks with that engine, compared to the crippling 3-speed auto. The speakers suck, too. I love the looks, though, and the summer tyres have 5-spoke alloys that suit the car very well. What I would love to do/get done would be to strip the whole car, get the body fixed, throw the autobox in a bin and either hook up just a manual or to do a SR20DE(T) swap. I've seen it done, and I would love to turn it into a factory job -looking special that would stand out in the sea of dodgy E36:s and Calibras. No glassfibre, no candy paint, no silver paint in the dash, no extra weight from the ICE, just period everything with a kicking powertrain.
[YOUTUBE]8MFE9y8PQ_o[/YOUTUBE]
Youtube video of the Nissan's acceleration and the autobox's shifting.
The other one is my 'proper' car, the 1993 Mazda 323 HB with a fuel injected 1.3-litre 16-valve engine. It's actually quite perky, especially if you're not carrying your friends around. It's been rustproofed several times, so it's only got a couple of bubbles and the odo's not yet reached 170 000 km. There are a couple of small dings, but no accident repairs and the log book's very good. It's got absolutely no equipment whatsoever: no power steering, adjustable steering wheel, no tachometer; I'm amazed it's got a starter motor. The stereo in it is a Panasonic RDS + 12CD changer combo I salvaged from a burnt-out storage hangar (paid 20 euros) and while it's old tech, it's got an auxiliary jack so I don't need to get a USB head unit. The car's actually quite nice to drive for what it is, since it feels very light and chuckable, and it's a good daily driver since it's pretty economical as well. It uses a lot less fuel than the carburetted, autoboxed Nissan, too. I have 14" Melber alloys for it (from a Volvo 460, and they were on a Vectra before that so they've probably done hundreds of thousands of kms), but one tyre's apparently got a puncture so I'm rocking the 13" steelies for summer as well. At least they're not as rusty as the winter ones. I spied an original factory/dealer body kit for sale the other day, which is even the right colour, but I'm probably going to skip that.
So, what next? The Sunny's probably going to be driven to the ground by my brother, unless it's going to be retired to wait a future tidying-up. The Mazda's for sale (with the just-after-wash pics in the ad, of course), since I'm working to graduate by summer and won't really need a car then. The other option would be to get something more interesting to replace it, but it would have to be '80s-'90s, rustproofed, Japanese and red.
Bonus feature: Here's the 1988 Nissan Bluebird I had before the Mazda. It had done 250 000 km when I traded it in, and while it had some rust, it was in good, useable condition and it didn't burn a drop of oil between services. It also had the red car + tow bar combo, which really grinds my good friend's gears.
So, the first to go is the 1990 Nissan Sunny Coup? I got my hands on when I got my licence. I still drive it every now and then, even if it's now registered to my brother. It's the regular, 12-valve 1.6-litre with 94hp, and its Achilles' heel is it's automatic. It's done 184 000 km, and it's slightly worn and bubbling around the edges. The underbody's solid, though, so a respray and the tiniest bit of welding would make it a winner. Mechanically it's in full working order, and the tests they run at inspection show the engine's working very cleanly for its years, so it's got to be tough as nails. Especially if you consider it's been beat for years; even the autobox still shifts tidily. It's never failed its inspection, either. Bad points? It's very harsh and jittery to drive. I hate the suspension and the squeaks it makes, and a regular 5-speed manual would rock mine and everybody else's socks with that engine, compared to the crippling 3-speed auto. The speakers suck, too. I love the looks, though, and the summer tyres have 5-spoke alloys that suit the car very well. What I would love to do/get done would be to strip the whole car, get the body fixed, throw the autobox in a bin and either hook up just a manual or to do a SR20DE(T) swap. I've seen it done, and I would love to turn it into a factory job -looking special that would stand out in the sea of dodgy E36:s and Calibras. No glassfibre, no candy paint, no silver paint in the dash, no extra weight from the ICE, just period everything with a kicking powertrain.
[YOUTUBE]8MFE9y8PQ_o[/YOUTUBE]
Youtube video of the Nissan's acceleration and the autobox's shifting.
The other one is my 'proper' car, the 1993 Mazda 323 HB with a fuel injected 1.3-litre 16-valve engine. It's actually quite perky, especially if you're not carrying your friends around. It's been rustproofed several times, so it's only got a couple of bubbles and the odo's not yet reached 170 000 km. There are a couple of small dings, but no accident repairs and the log book's very good. It's got absolutely no equipment whatsoever: no power steering, adjustable steering wheel, no tachometer; I'm amazed it's got a starter motor. The stereo in it is a Panasonic RDS + 12CD changer combo I salvaged from a burnt-out storage hangar (paid 20 euros) and while it's old tech, it's got an auxiliary jack so I don't need to get a USB head unit. The car's actually quite nice to drive for what it is, since it feels very light and chuckable, and it's a good daily driver since it's pretty economical as well. It uses a lot less fuel than the carburetted, autoboxed Nissan, too. I have 14" Melber alloys for it (from a Volvo 460, and they were on a Vectra before that so they've probably done hundreds of thousands of kms), but one tyre's apparently got a puncture so I'm rocking the 13" steelies for summer as well. At least they're not as rusty as the winter ones. I spied an original factory/dealer body kit for sale the other day, which is even the right colour, but I'm probably going to skip that.
So, what next? The Sunny's probably going to be driven to the ground by my brother, unless it's going to be retired to wait a future tidying-up. The Mazda's for sale (with the just-after-wash pics in the ad, of course), since I'm working to graduate by summer and won't really need a car then. The other option would be to get something more interesting to replace it, but it would have to be '80s-'90s, rustproofed, Japanese and red.
Bonus feature: Here's the 1988 Nissan Bluebird I had before the Mazda. It had done 250 000 km when I traded it in, and while it had some rust, it was in good, useable condition and it didn't burn a drop of oil between services. It also had the red car + tow bar combo, which really grinds my good friend's gears.