My Old Flame

Seems like my previous S15 was for sale again and quickly snapped up on SGcarmart.

And it was the most viewed car in Singapore's most popular online car listing, right besides a hot white Gallardo Spyder.

Can't say I didn't felt a tinge of pride and nostalgia :)

Time To Part Ways

I have owned my S15 for the last three years and its been a wonderful journey getting it to where it is today.



All parts on my car will go to the new owner (with the exception of only the Momo steering wheel and Alpine head unit which will be replaced by stock S15 items) as I prefer not to de-mod the car.



I have spent about S$32k on the car (bulk of the receipts are available) and at its last dyno tuning by Furukawa from ST Powered, the S15 cranks out 374 ponies at the flywheel. Power is courtesy of a Garrett GT2871r turbo, expelled through a GK Tech exhaust manifold and dump pipe to a HKS Silent HiPower exhaust. Cams are Tomei bolted onto a new SR20 head, sealed by a Cometic 1.2mm metal gasket to the stock bottom end. I should also mention that I have the one & only GruppeM carbonfibre enclosed air intake. Brand new price of this baby alone is $2.2k



Current exterior is a Vertex front bumper, Nismo sideskirts and rear bumper (all genuine items with perfect fitment!) with Varis carbonfibre bonnet and CWest full carbonfibre GT wing



Other choice bits include Prodrive GC-06H forged rims (lighter than equivalent size TE37s and rarer), R34 GTR Brembo front and rear, Ogura twinplate clutch (just changed two months ago), Varis CF bonnet and CWest GT wing just to name a wind. Supporting mods including a HKS oil cooler, HKS FMIC, Koyo aluminium radiator, Nismo 740cc injectors, Walbro fuel pump.

Suspension are Cusco arms and a BC 32-stage adjustable coilovers



Interior goodies include a Nismo 280km/hr speedo and tachometer cluster (this baby is S$800 brand new), Nismo titanium shift knob, 2 x Recaro SR3 reclinable bucket seats. Greddy Profec boost controller, Pivot electric fan controller (with oil/water temp monitor) and HKS turbo timer. The rear seats are also trimmed in matching Recaro red fabric, the side door panels have perforated red leather inserts, set off by carbonfibre pieces for the centre console

Basically these are the stuff I remember and I am pretty sure there are more stuff (pricey as well) I forgot to mention. The next stage for the new owner will be just a 2.2 stroker engine and bigger size turbo if he/she so desire.

I am asking just S$58k for local buyers. For my COE, PARF and other details, please refer to my SG Carmart ad here.

For overseas buyers, my tax and ownership rebates will come up to about S$37k so my price is $21k. All import, shipping and related charges to getting the car from my country to yours will be borne by the overseas buyer. Do the maths, I spend S$32k just on parts and tuning alone, you spend S$21k for the same parts AND a drift legend of a car.... My financial loss, your motoring joy! All part of the modding game :)

Its time for me to move on to another project (to be announced shortly) and I hope the new owner will cherish the S15 as much as I did.

Please email me your offer at gabriel@carbonclad.com

P.S I have ready buyers on queue for several of my car parts and varying degrees of de-modding are possible if a lower price is preferred (though I must reiterate I much prefer to sell the car to one owner who can appreciate the amount of work put into it)

Left Leg Training Time Part 2

In a previous post, I mentioned that I got a Ogura twinplate from ST. Got the car back today and here's the review.

Wrapped myself into the Recaro, fired up the ignition.. The exhaust growl filled the cabin as the PowerFC commands the engine to rev up to 2000 rpm during the cold start.

Concurrently, there was a 'zing' sound that lasted about 1-2 seconds, signature of the Ogura twinplate.

The ball of my left leg touch the clutch pedal with trepidation. Is the pedal effort going to be so heavy that I will have to undergo strength training with sumo squats and calve lifts?

SURPRISE! I was driving my dad's stock Lancer during the last couple of days and the Ogura requires at max 15% more strength to depress compared to the Mitsubishi's.

I jabbed the clutch a few more times for good effect. Another Ogura signature - a high pitched grinding sound resonates throughout the cabin from the drivetrain. Some drivers called this the 'ice cream van' sound effect.

I wind down the window, depress the clutch again. Yep, I sound like a ice cream van, albeit one with 374 bhp.

I don't really mind the sound (call me masochistic) and I can see how NVH-conscious drivers will find the noise intolerable. BUT these type of people don't drive sports cars with twinplate clutches, do they?

I put the S15 in reverse, built up a bit of revs and release the clutch slowly... Halfway through, the clutch engage fully and rather shockingly. Un-used to this dichotomous behaviour, I did stall a few times embarassingly at traffic times.

Not a big problem, its just a matter of getting used to matching the revs and releasing the clutch. Another friend who used this clutch warned ominously that I will grow to hate upslopes...

Then the fun part begins once I moved off. Downshifts and upshifts are so much easier due to the smooth engagement of the Ogura and the light pedal effort makes me feel like I am just driving a stock car. Sporty driving with a daily driver level of effort. I like!

Like:
+ Rated up to 550ps which is more than I will ever need
+ Light pedal effort comparable to a stock econobox
+ Once moving, shifts engaged cleanly with no drivetrain judder

Dislike
- On or off engagement means traffic light and upslope starts takes a fair bit to get used to
- Grinding noises during ignition start or depressing of clutch
- Pricey S$2k++ brand new (but you do get what you paid for)

Bushes From Down Under

Pardon if the title of this post sounds like one of MJ's! :)

Got a set of polyurethane bushings from Australia's SuperPro to freshen my suspension setup.

My rear camber arm and toe arm bushings are fairly new as these arms were swapped for aftermarket items but that's about it as the rest are with the S15 since it left the factory seven years ago. Particularly excited to see how much the steering rack bushes will improve steering response by.

Here's what I bought and the SuperPro part numbers for fellow S15 drivers that's keen as well.

1) Front control arm inner SPF1483K x 1
2) Front strut bar to chassis SPF1202K x 1
3) Rear arm bush SPF1638K x 2
4) Rear lower toe control arm kit SPF2296K x 1
5) Rear lower control arm inner bush kit SPF1750K x 1
6) Steering rack mount bush kit SPF2551K x 1

Items 1 to 6 comes as a kit labeled KIT117K.

Actually bought these a while back during a car event promo sale but never got around to installing them. Guess I got off my arse to sort them out as I am in a tinkering kind of mood recently. Will post a review sometime next week.

Left Leg Training Time

Silvia is now at ST Powered for a clutch change to a twinplate ORC559 as the old Exedy hyper single is slipping badly. According to Ogura, "the discs are the damperless type which will maintain durability and handle up to 550ps in addition to having excellent engine reponse with the lightweight chromoly flywheel."

A bit of a overkill for my current power level but got it 2nd hand for cheap at S$1,500 including installation, as the previous owner bought brand new, used it for a week and found it a bit too erm.. harsh.

Well, I'll know soon enough whether I can tolerate it.

For Love of the Game

The modifying game that is.

The last two weeks have been the most frustrating time of my life where ownership of the S15 is concerned. In short, the tuning and wiring were screwed, resulting in the S15 breaking down 4 times in a row and I had to have it towed 3 times, including once on the highway at midnight...

Sometimes I really wonder whether driving a modified Japanese performance car is worth all the hassles - the pathetic fuel consumption, the erratic unreliability (I mentioned half in jest to my girlfriend at times that my theme song should be Coldplay's "Fix You"), the endless attention from traffic cops......

Goddamn it, my S15 couldn't even make it for the Silvia Club Singapore shoot which I organized last Sunday.

Finally, I got everything fixed by ST Powered - new ECU harness wiring, properly set-up earth wiring in the engine bay, new NGK spark plugs, Splitfire coilpacks and a fresh tune by Furukawa (more on his renowned tuning in a later post).

When I finally fired her up, blipping the throttle a few times for good measure and felt the roar of the HKS exhaust reverberate throughout the cabin, my doubts went away.

When I heel-and-toe and power through the corners with a sh*t-eating grin on my face, I consider myself blessed to enjoy the thrill of a turbo-charged, well-sorted, gorgeous-looking, rear wheel drive sports coupe.

They just don't make 'em like they used to anymore.

The Tale of My Tails

I was using WiseSquare LED tail lights and a Vertex lip spoiler previously, which looks like this:


A buddy sold me a carbonfibre C-West GT wing for cheap, so off came the lip spoiler. One rear end collision later, I had to switch back to stock tail lights. So the rear now looks rather different like this:

What do you guys think?

Surprise Banzai Attack!

A photographer friend of mine took some pictures of my car a few months ago and liking the way they turned out, I sent the pictures over to Banzai magazine's Street Life column. I kinda forgot about it after a while. So you can imagine my delight when I bought this month's issue and saw my car staring back at me.

Silvias of Singapore

This was taken a few months back at Kallang. Due to the fact that Singapore doesn't allow for the importing of used cars older than 3 years old, the population of Silvias in Singapore is declining with exporting and accidents taking their toll gradually.

Having said that, we still have a very active group of core members and our forum is a lively place. Click here to visit our forum.

With prices of cars being one of the most expensive in the world (a 2nd hand 5 year old S15 cost S$50-60k and when brand new, a S15 goes for S$120-130k in the showrooms!!!), most of us use our S15 as daily drivers. To me, that just means more time to enjoy driving this modern classic.

I recalled once when I was out car shopping with a friend who's looking to buy a 2nd hand BMW. The sales guy asked me what I am driving and I said a Nissan. He said that he'll give me a good price if I am looking to upgrade my car to a BMW as well.

I said "Sure, show me a rear wheel drive, turbocharged coupe with 400 bhp AND a sub 1300 kg kerb weight, I'll be really keen." :)

The club has our fair share of drifters, with a few of them having participated in D1GP in Malaysia as well as the first Formula Drift held outside of USA in Singapore last year. As for the rest of us, there are also track junkies, show&shine specialists etc. Expect a slew of Silvia features soon.