Hiro Protagonist

Despite the bit saying "I checked snopes and it is real", Snopes actually list it as a mixture of both a real virus and a hoax - the virus exists but it doesn't do anything near what the email says it does (it only installs your average Trojan, nothing as severe as a full hard-drive wipe). Oh, and it's about 3 years old. Snopes link

Yeah, the whole bottom of the door was re-moulded, which fortunately got around the issue that the stock door trims always crack down there...

You can have any colour you want, as long as it is black

Only problem was she initially wanted a Supra, which made me want a Soarer for the cruisier option....then she changed her mind to a Soarer, and now I want one even more :P

"Austin" Martin? Don't you mean 'Aston' Martin? And besides, there hasn't been an Aston posted in this thread, methinks you're getting confused with the Maserati Gransport And besides, that S15 is more of a satin than a matte black, which is perfectly fine in my books (plus it has the shape to carry it off)

I still disagree that it looks good on the Rolls. Most likely this is due to a crappy/small photo and/or lighting, but the shape just doesn't lend itself well to a flat finish (it's too slabby, for a start....coincidence that KE70s are rather slabby too?). The Maser, 911 and the Veyron work well because they have smooth flowing lines to break up the lighting and avoid that flat slab look. The Lambo gets away with it because even though it isn't smooth, it has lots of angles to break it up (the whole "stealth fighter" look that the Reventon went with, for instance), but you can still see some slabiness in the sides and the bonnet which doesn't work well.

I know it's hard to do properly, and that the Rolls wouldn't have been done by can, but it is the perception. Most of the matte-black resprays you see are backyard rattle-can jobs that look like arse, and because of that the perception of even quality products and jobs is dragged down purely by association (like how defected drift-pig KE70s devalue nice cleanly modified minters). You could say the same thing about chrome wheels - you could have a wheel machined out of solid metal, beautifully chrome-dipped and then hand-polished to a mirror shine on a half-million dollar Bentley, but Habib down the street will still put $400 17" Tempe Tyres chromies on his Civic and think that his ride is totally Gangsta, whilst the rest of us stand back and think that it looks gayer than the crowd at a Village People concert. Still, regardless of the quality or the craftsmanship, I still don't like the style, and think it is totally out of place on a car which is supposed to represent the upmost in fine quality and elegance

Personally, I think it looks shit. Then again, I have never really liked flat/matte black paint jobs, they always look incomplete or like you've forgotten to remove the backing paper. Rolls are supposed to be about quality and presence, and a paint job that looks like it was done with a rattle-can does not portray that in the slightest. Give it a satin finish though, or a piano-black full depth gloss, and then we would be talking

Introducing Lexi (yeah I know, original, but I didn't choose it), Cara's first turbo car, and also her first car which is noticeably faster and better than mine :P. Looks like I'll have to tread the family car route in a few years then, maybe something like a Chaser for the practicality as well as the speed, can't let her out-do me can I? Anyway, I digress....... Specs: AS OF 09/08/13 1995 (build) JZZ30 Toyota Soarer GT-T (thought it was a GT-TL, but the build plate says otherwise) Engine-related 1JZ-GTE twin-turbo APEXi Power FC + hand-controller Front-mount Hybrid dual-core intercooler K&N pod BFI in sealed box, custom alloy intake pipe Lews split dump pipes with separate wastegate pipes, split twin 2 1/2" stainless mandrel exhaust with two twin-tip Lukey mufflers Suspension/driveline R154 5-speed factory manual HKS HipermaxII adjustable coilovers Polished alloy strut-brace KAAZ 2-way mechanical LSD DBA 4000 Clubspec slotted rotors front, DBA 3000 slotted rear EBC Redstuff brake pads f+r TRD leather gear knob Exterior 18x8" Speedy Cheetah wheels 235/40 Kumho KU39 Le Sport Interior Tan interior, velour Electric seats Sunroof Flip-out cupholder Scroll dash, blue filtered Refurbished climate control screen w/ blue button lights ICE Kenwood DNX5360 2DIN DVD/GPS receiver Audison Bit One processor JL Audio 2.1 amp Front Morel splits in custom door trims Rear Morel speakers 12" Treo Sub in a moulded box in the boot Entire cabin + boot Dynamat'ed except for roof Mongoose alarm/immobiliser Waiting to be installed: HKS adjustable cam gears Future list of mods/fixes: Paint Re-leather steering wheel New bushes Paint cam covers New cams (a while off now) Photos: Looks like it has two black holes for wheels... Mid-life taillights are the best of the bunch Can see some of the phat-ness of the rear tyres there Plates are like that because previous owner's mate had a HQ with a worked 202, so he did what any self-respecting Toyota owner would do Neat boot install. Amp is tucked up underneath parcel shelf where stock sub would sit, completely out of site Interior is interior It's a headunit No wait, it's a DVD player! Custom door pods...well entire bottom section of door-trim is custom actually... Engine-bay is engine-bay Except for extensive earth kit Current insurance policy.

Fastest car update, now have a 200kw ATW 1JZ Soarer....haven't done any drags/0-100s or anything, but it is by far and away the fastest thing we have ever owned. Speaking of which, I still have to do a thread for it, brb...

How different would the bellhousing for an Aurion 2GR be from an IS350 2GR?

The MG crowd like to hang on to them as well, seeing as how they also came out in the MGB GT.

I didn't "troll" Wikipedia for it, I knew it. I was looking into the 3500s a few years ago (before I had any sense, in practice they're a horrible car). Plus, I had a Vitesse (the top-spec of the SD1) model car when I was a kid.

Transfer case? As in a 4WD? If you just want a normal RWD one then you get the stuff out of a Rover SD1/3500.

What V6? What work has been done to the suspension? If you're referring to a Buick/Commo V6 then yes, it will turn as well as the Titanic, which is why most people only use them as drag cars. If you're thinking of a Toyota V6 instead (like a 1MZ) then it should be a bit better, but you're still putting a 3+ litre engine in place of a 1.3L, so it'll always be a lot heavier and bigger than what the chassis was designed for, so you can't expect it to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.

How about the way that you add a new reply over a year since the last post in the thread......

Here's hoping we get the new car by then too....

None of them are overly common, apart from the 2.6L V which came out in the uber-rare Crown Eight, the rest came out in the first-gen Century, which ain't exactly common here either. On top of that, even the biggest one only puts out ~120kw, so they aren't exactly powerhouses. Hot-rodders are starting to use them though because they're compact and an old-skool type design that isn't a Ford or Chev...

Toyota had the V series (2.6, 3.0, 3.4 and 4.0L V8s) if you want to go old-skool Hemi-style...

The bigport GZEs don't actually have TVIS anyway, unless you're talking about the NA engines, in which case you can remove the TVIS butterfly plates, block up the holes for the pivots and then Robert's your father's brother. Or there are adaptor plates which take the place of the whole TVIS plate so it all bolts up cleanly. As to whether or not they are worthwhile is a completely different story.

Probably the only instances you'll find would actually be carbie'd models, as there was a quad-throttle body 4AGE from factory in the 20V models so why put on something worse than a factory option :P (Note there is need of an adaptor plate and some mucking around to make the quads fit, but no more or less work than twins)

Remind me to tell F1 engineers that their engines can't rev because they're too oversquare (often up to 2.5:1 bore-to-stroke ratio). Using K motors as an example, the 4K is roughly square, the 5K is oversquare (basically a bored-out 4K) and revs better, and the 7K is undersquare (basically a stroked 5K) and makes better low-down torque (hence its use as a forklift and van engine).

2.25" mandrel or press-bent would be ideal for an aftermarket system - it's only a 1.6L but likes to rev high so you need to take that into account.

7AFEs are a decent engine, but I'd never recommend putting them in something when a 4AGE is just as easy to do. To get a 7A to keep up with a 4AGE requires a few mods and a judicious right foot, and once that happens any fuel consumption advantage of the FE head goes out the window - I get pretty much the same fuel economy figures in my 7A-powered AE102 that my g/f did in her bigport 4AGE AE82, both cars were within a kw of each other power-wise and were basically as fast as each other on the road (albeit with different characteristics). Add to that the fact that the FE head has the dizzy hanging off the end of the head (like a 20v) and no provision for RWD-style engine mounts, and there is no reason why you'd choose one over a RWD-suitable 4AGE 16v.

Wrong way around - oversquare (ie bore bigger than stroke) is generally for high-rpm power, undersquare (stroke bigger than bore) is for low-rpm torque. A 5K is a bored 4K (they use the same crank and thus have the same stroke), and thus the 5K tends to rev better than the 4K. Naturally it will make more torque because it is making more power (the two are fundamentally linked), but it will probably make less torque than a similar capacity motor but with undersquare dimensions. In short, a 5K is better than a 4K in just about every way (especially for hotting up) except _maybe_ fuel consumption, but who cares about that anyway :P