Newby from Brisbane Australia

[s15dave]

Afternoon folks (for those on Eastern standard time),

My name is Dave 23yrs old, from down in the land of OZ.

im a mechanical engineer by day, and a car enthusiast by night...and day.

picked up this nice little pearl white s15 a few weeks back, got it for a nice price.

its a lateish 1999 JDM spec R, imported to aus about 1yr ago, just on 92,000kms

current mods are:

-the fog lights on the front (they are oem, but not standard on this car)
-unknown fibreglass bonnet (any ideas? fits real nice though)
-new exhaust (As of 3 days ago), split dump pipe (wastegate rejoins just before cat), and SMD high flow cat converter, 3" all the way, with a centre muffler and a muffler at the back. almost silent on cruise, but opens up when you want to have fun.
-some random pioneer CD player with some new front speakers (came with it)

thats about it, ive only put the exhaust on.

plans include:

-a 12psi wastegate actuator
-Trying to find a nice set of coilovers that will handle well, not just break my spine. HKS hypermax are looking good at the moment, not cheap though!!
-a front mount cooler, but dont want to drill any holes in my battery tray, so will try find one that has the pipes on both sides, PWR is looking good at the moment.
-some wheels!
-some oem sideskirts.

anyway here are a few pics, unfortunately my photography skills are somewhat lacking....

so thats about it,

also there is a grey/pewter car in the banner of this website. does anyone know what wheels it has? here is a screen shot

 

[mrpham]

Hey welcome mate!

I love the bonnet, I've always wanted one but wasn't sure about the fit and whether rain would be a problem. If you ever find out what brand it is, let us know!

 

[s15dave]

thanks mate!

yer i like the bonnet, however the rain thing is a bit of a problem...the gap is right on the front of the engine.....

im going to fab up a bit of a deflecter on the inside, with a drain pipe to keep the water away....but will have to think that one through carefully.

this one fits very well, from most angles you can hardly tell is not OEM...then you see the hole! i cant see any writing on the inside to tell me what brand it is, the guy i bought it off didnt know either, came with it from japland.

oh and ive just ordered a "S" badge for the front of the bonnet, so should make it look a bit more complete.

 

[craig8585]

Hi and welcome!

The car in the banner belongs to Ric - S15RKM. If you search for his build thread you may find out there. Or drop him a PM

 

[70YSR]

Hey bud welcome to the club, looks nice. hope you can come out and catch up with the rest of the brisbane crew.

 

[meddler]

Hi Dave,

Welcome. The Brisbane guys have their own thread. You should look them up. As for the no hole intercooler, GKTech in Melbourne do one. I have just fitted one of them to my car. To make it fit without cutting anything you have to modify the FMIC brackets, but it can be done. Let me know if you want more info.

 

[s15dave]

hey guys, thanks for welcomes.

yer i have seen that GKtech setup, looks like a nice bit of kit. and for ~600bucks its pretty decent i thought.

still looking around. im currently happy with the car at the moment with the exhaust, it certainly is fun to drive around. so ill wait untill im bored with this power before i add more. (though intercooler isnt a power mod, but you know what i mean...)

might go some coilovers before intercooler, my other car is a ke70 corolla with lots of suspension mods, and im missing the go-kart feeling in the s15! but loving the aircon...

 

[meddler]

some of the pics on the GKTeck site are actually my car. I did a trail fit of the prototype for Greg. I now have the production kit fitted and it is quite good.

I fitted my coilovers before the FMIC, but the best suspension mod I found was swaybars. The standard S15 suspension is very good from stock.

 

[s15dave]

ahh k, that is cool. im currently researching the tube and fin vs bar and plate intercooler, some interesting reading out there, not sure how much of it is true though...

yer you are right, the stocko suspension is very good, and i can see how sway bars would help, the only "bad" thing is the amount of body roll the car gets, i was looking at the whiteline adjutable swaybars, around $500 can get me front and rear. maybe those and a set of lowered springs will keep me happy (cant buy new wheels with the height it is at the moment, thats just criminal!).

im still amazed at how good the s15 is stock, its so good when pushing hard, and when you get it out of shape its so predictable. but we all know this....

 

[meddler]

I have the whiteline adjustables. I must admit, I never have adjusted them, but I can if I want! lol. They are definately worth the money. One day, I will play around with it and get different setups for different types of driving, but I can't be stuffed, I would rather just drive it. Don't forget that a good wheel alignment can make a huge difference too. There is not much adjustment in the stock arms, but every little bit helps.