Newest owner of S15 Spec R

[japmadlad]

I am now the new owner of a 99 S15 Spec R previously owned by Jono.
Been on here for a while now researching and must say thanks to Nicely and every1 else for all the help to my questions. This is probably the most friendly owners club forum I've been on:thumbs:

Bought the car on saturday from Torque GT after 2 months of searchin the jap auctions for 1. Every car that I wanted and the lads thought they could get for 11-12K ended up going for 14-15K so in the end I bought Jono's pewter S15 that they had in stock.

Left Armagh at 4.30am to get to airport. Flew into exeter airport and met Tristan drivin a lovely Type R civic. Got everything sorted and headed for fishguard for 6.30pm boat (delayed to 8). After passin every caravan and camper in the uk not to mention a mitsubushi pajero in flames on the hard shoulder. I made the boat. After the roughest crossin:hurl: I've been on in a long time I had another 3-4hr drive in torrential rain fall
(sideways action) to get home at 3am. lets just say I was slightly tired.:yawn:

I must say I was very impressed with the car:nod: especally the fuel economy. The power is unbelieveable. Very happy. Only problem I had was with the gearbox which decided to stop working properly after a couple of hundred miles in Swansea service station. I have posted this in the mechanical section if any 1 can help.

 

[sushiming]

hey bud welcome :wave:

 

[Topper]

Hello and welcome, glad you kept us informed of the cars travels, just sorry to hear about the box.

 

[japmadlad]

yea bit of a downer to the day but hey, **** happens. When it happened I was :hurl::rant: but then I thought better it happen now than 4mths down the line when the warrenty has run out.

 

[LuPix_S15]

Hey - glad you got yourself an S15. Good choice going for Torque GT and hope you get the box sorted as soon as...

Hope to see some new pics soon!

 

[japmadlad]

pics will hopefully be comin shortly. just gota sort the box then set about replacing all my mods that Jono sold on me:rotfl:. thinkin BOV, FMIC, Induction kit, Turbo timer & maybe rims. not goin to mad

 

[Robbyp]

hey excellent another owner on my side of the water congrats on the buy lad these are an awesome car!!

 

[j0nbubz]

Congrats buddy

No doubt that our S15's are great cars =D

 

[japmadlad]

Yea or cars are gr8, just gota get mine back on da road now, Fg gearbox:rant:. I do luv it tho:smitten:. The 400+ mile drive home was such fun.

Hey Robby theres a diff on up round cookstown next sunday. if da silvias back on da road by then I'm taking it up to it. if not I'll have to settle with a drive up in my m8s wrx scooby. either way I'm goin. last week was in Armagh & was mad craic. Mite c u der if ur goin & get a look at ur silvia

 

[Robbyp]

keep me posted might make it up i somehow never seem to hear bout these things!

 

[japmadlad]

puttin in gearbox thurs. will try and get more details for you

 

[jp]

Welcome dude! :wave: From Dublin myself & drive a 14a but still considering the last of the S-shapes!

 

[japmadlad]

do it lad, u won't regret:nod::thumbs:

 

[jp]

Had I gone for the last S15 I was looking at as a swop for the S14a I would have been in serious regret: not only would I have been more out of pocket, down 125-odd bhp & have a dodgy 6-speed, about 2 months after it was sold the turbo went bang, & about 2 months back there was apparently a leak in the rad system & the block warped! :smash:

So yeah, that's why I'm looking for a relatively mint new one or just a rolling shell in good condition! :thumbs:

 

[Topper]

jpo, what power is your S14a running? 375hp+?

 

[jp]

Complicated to answer & short is I don't know:

Last dyno'd at 325bhp after we'd put the GReddy inlet plenum & new exhaust mani + derestricted elbow into her.

Before that she was running 343bhp so we figured something's gone horribly wrong but what we were figuring was happening was that the S14a 50mm throttlebody on the new enlarged GReddy plenum wasn't big enough to maintain the desired manifold pressure to feed the cylinders (by the way I've de-AFM'd the car & it's running on an PFC D-Jetro normally for an S15), so we needed a bigger TB so we managed to (with a lot of effort & custom-work) get an RB25 TB to fit the new plenum at a healthy 60mm! :thumbs:

So to conclude I'd hope near enough to the 350+ mark but won't know until I get her on the rollers. Also, the torque's gone up 30+ lbs/ft between those 2 dyno's & maybe some more now that the breathing's improved!

Oh, on another note, my elephant trunk decided to die on me last weekend so I'm getting a hard-pipe fitted next tuesday so there'll be no more (touch wood) breathing problems for her now!

 

[japmadlad]

unfortunately that the luck of the draw, s**t happens. The reverse & 5th went in my gearbox after 300 miles but lucky it was under warrenty. Buy from a quality importer like Torque GT in Devon and all your troubles will be taken car of. I had to fly over and drive 400-500 miles back + a ferry but it was well worth it

 

[jp]

Don't get me wrong, I'm overjoyed with my current SX & if anything it's the modding I've done to her that's made the inlet collapse so I've no problem there! At least it highlighted one of the weaknesses in the engine-bay that I should have to deal with, after that it's a case of keep her serviced & if the engine blows up I'll end up going REALLY mental with her!

If I was going for an S15 though I'd either buy one I could inspect myself or else buy a cheap one & expect the worst, have money left-over & get her sorted properly before driving her. With the wealth of knowledge I've gained to-date with my SX & with the help of forums like these you can't go too far wrong & catch things before or as they happen!

 

[japmadlad]

Life is like a box of chocolate... and surprisingly enough so is a box of chocolates :rotfl: mmmmmmh chocolate :smitten:

But u do know wat u get, thats wat the cards for, lol :rotfl:

 

[jp]

Mad as a hat this one! :wack: Just been checking the VRT on these cars: the Irish Government claim that the open market selling price (what market exactly..?) of a 99 S15 Spec-R with 98k kms on the clock is ?14868 or something ridiculous like that. Absolute rip-off artists! Sure the ones already in, with VRT PAID aren't even that expensive! :annoyed: Stuff like that is what makes the car so prohibitive to buy! :rant: