iTonehh's Garage

So, what with me selling the AE86 to TRK earlier in the day, I had to find myself a new car. So I started looking around, and came across a guy selling a 2002 Toyota MR-S. I wasn't sure which car I wanted to buy at the minute, so I told him I would have an answer for him within a few days. Later that day I got talking to a friend of mine who used to own one, and was asking his opinion. He told me how much he loved the car, and how unfortunately, due to money issues at home he had to sell it. He showed me a few pictures of it on his phone, and I have to admit, after seeing the car in all it's glory, I was sold. So I quickly called up camaromanLS1 and told him that I'd located a car I was interested in buying. Within 20 minutes camaroman was waiting outside my house in his Pontiac GTO, along with MSMX6 in his new Nissan 300ZX. So I hopped into the GTO and off we drove to find the guy selling the MR-S. We drove for about 15 minutes and finally found it parked out on the road beside the guy's driveway. I was a little surprised that he drove an MR-S when I seen his house, as it was the kind of house you'd expect to see a Ferrari parked outside of, but I wasn't going to complain, he had the car I wanted, and didn't live too far away. MSMX6 and camaromanLS1 parked their cars just off the road infront of the MR-S, and I quickly hopped out to take a photograph on my phone.


Just after snapping the photo, the owner noticed me out of his window and made his way out of his house and down the driveway. I started walking up the driveway to meet him, as I hear car doors shutting behind me. I turned around to see camaromanLS1 and MSMX6 have gotten out of their cars and are checking out the MR-S. The owner throws a price at me, which to be honest, is a little on the high side. He wants $10,000 for it. I think he can see by the look on my face that the price is a little higher than what I wanted, and quickly tells me that his price is flexible. I decide to try and push my luck and offer him $7,000. He starts to chuckle, and tells me to make it $8,000 and we have a deal. I didn't need to think about it for long, before shaking his hand and taking the cash out of my back pocket. He takes down my details so he can get the log book sent to me, and gives me the keys. I nigh on run back down to the MR-S, as I can't wait to drive it home. The roads were pretty quiet, so I decide to put my foot down and see what she's capable of. She pulls quite a bit through the lower gears, but struggles to put the power down in fourth.


So me, camaromanLS1 and MSMX6 were cruising along, and we find another stretch of road that appears to be empty. I quickly take this as an invitation to put my foot down again, much to the surprise of camaromanLS1 and MSMX6, who quickly turn into little blips in my rear view mirror. However, I knew this wasn't going to last, as the GTO was runnin' 400 BHP, and the 300ZX had almost 370 BHP, meanwhile I was sitting at around 140 BHP. Needless to say, within mere seconds, the 300ZX was right on my tail. I could hear the roar of the 3.0L engine behind me, so I swerved to the side a little to let him pass. I look in my mirror and notice that camaromanLS1 is only just starting to put his foot down, but within seconds the 6.0L beast under the hood is making my little 1.8L engine shake in terror. I hold my line, but the GTO effortlessly pulls up beside me, almost taunting me, camaromanLS1 gives me a little wave, before shooting off towards the 300ZX in the distance.


The road ahead of me starts to become a bit crowded with cars, so I slow back down to a sensible speed, and proceed home. I drive past camaromanLS1's place, and notice his GTO already sitting on the driveway. I chuckle to myself at how much quicker he got home than I did, looks like I'm gonna have to start opening my wallet more often if I want any chance of keeping up. Overnight parts from Japan? I arrived home and debated putting the 15" TE37's, Eibach sport springs and dampers and Sparco racing seat with Recaro four point harness, that I had sitting in the garage, after taking them off of the AE86 before I sold it, but I decided that as it wouldn't take me too long, I'd just leave it until tomorrow morning, giving me a bit of time to tune the suspension, before MSMX6 had decided where we were going to have our open track day tomorrow night. I have a couple of ideas where I'm going to go with this build, but one thing's for sure, I need to get the inside stripped out to shave a bit of weight off, but I'll deal with that tomorrow.

I woke up this morning, eager to get the work on my new MR-S started. I couldn't really be bothered to go rummaging around my garage looking for everything I'd need to put my Eibach race springs and dampers, and the wheels from my Hachi onto the car, so instead I made some orange juice and toast, and began tearing out anything that I thought weighed too much for the benefits that it gave me. I removed the stereo and all the speakers first, followed by the passanger side airbag. The electric window motor stayed in though, and I left the door panels on. I might remove them in the future, but for now they don't really weigh all that much to warrant taking them off. I removed both seats, and installed myself a Sparco racing seat, with a Recaro four point harness, as it weighed less than the original seat, and the harness would help keep me safe, if I was ever unfortunate enough to find myself running into a wall.


So, that was that taken care of. I decided that as I was already in the mood to work on the car, and after being left in the dust by camaromanLS1's GTO, and MSMX6's 300ZX, that I would need to do all I could to the car if I was going to have a chance of at least keeping up with a few people at the open track day later on. So I jacked up the car and noticed that there were a few spots on the tyres that were starting to wear down. That can't help me with traction, so it's gonna be hard to get any power down with wheels that have no grip. Not that I mind, it's just more of an excuse to put my 15" TE37's from my Hachi onto the MR-S, as they were also sporting a set of brand new Toyo PROXES R888's. So I quickly got to work on removing the standard rims that the MR-S came with. When it came to fitting the TE37's, I had completely forgot that they were 225mm wide, but luckily they seemed to go on without any problems. If anything, I think I might even be able to squeeze a set of 245mm's on the rear, so maybe that is something I have to look forward to in the future, but for now, this was a massive improvement over what I had to begin with, and the car looked much better with the new rims on.


So that was me done, I quickly got myself cleaned up and decided I'd watch a bit TV, as I still had a bit of time to spare. I flicked the channel, noticing that the usual daytime TV was on, none of which interested me in the slightest, but noticed that an episode of Top Gear was on the TV station named "Dave" that I hadn't seen before. I'm not sure why anyone would call their TV station "Dave". It's not even like it's an interesting name, and why is it named after a real name anyways? But anyways, that's not important. So I'm watching, and listening to the motor mouth Jeremy Clarkson himself have a debate with James May over which they think is more important, tuning the handling, or getting more power out of the car. James was going on and on about how it's pointless having all the power in the engine, if you can't get it down on the road, it was then that he said something that stuck out a mile to me. Suspension tuning. Oh, hell no. I quickly got up and walked into the garage. I pushed open the door and there they were, my Eibach race springs and dampers, sitting beside the back of the car. How could I forget? I checked my watch, ever critical about the time I had, as I wasn't going to miss the track day tonight for anything, suspension on, or not, I was going to that track day. Luckily I still had quite a bit time, so I decided that I'd get to work. Thankfully the previous owner kept true to his work, and the original suspension was still in pretty good condition, with none of the bolts being particularly hard to remove. It didn't take me long to put the Eibach's on either, and within an hour or so the new springs were in. By now it was starting to get on in the day, with only a few hours left until the track day. But to cut a long story short, let's just say I know a guy, who knows a guy, and he arranged for me to be able to do a few runs around a local track that he worked security for, so I could get the suspension setup feeling the way I wanted it to. I drove a lap or two, and luckily the guy working security had the keys to the roller doors in the pits. So I drove in, having access to all the tools I needed, and got to work. I got to work, and after a while, I had her sitting lower to the ground, thanks to both the springs, and letting a little air out of the tyres, as I didn't really want them at their optimum pressure whilst cold. I adjusted a little more, until I thought I was happy with it, and took her out for one last run, and needless to say, I was happy with the end result. She not only looked better, but drove better too, tonight was going to be a fun night.

I woke up this morning, in absolute amazement. A local tuning shop had a few parts in that I was after, which I noticed whilst browsing their website last night after the open track day, but I'll talk more about that in a minute. So I was browsing through, and ended up ordering a Tom's front bumper, setting me back $600, a Top Secret rear wing, costing $1,000, and an HKS ball bearing turbo kit, setting me back $2,700. But like I was saying, the open track day last night. As you know I was attending, and had a lot of fun driving around with a lot of local drivers, but I noticed something. MSMX6's 300ZX, was so much faster than my MR-S, camaromanLS1's Corvette, was so much faster than my MR-S, Texas CHIA's 240SX, was so much faster than my MR-S. Noticing a pattern here? Even LainfordExpress turned up in his AE86, which I knew would be quick, as he was rocking the supercharged 4A-GZE engine that I had sold him, but I wasn't aware how much quicker it would be than the MR-S. So that is what led to me ordering the parts I previously mentioned. But to my amazement, when I woke up this morning I had a voice mail from the owner of the shop claiming that they would be ready to pick up. What? I had only ordered them last night, but hey, I'm not going to complain. So I quickly gave him a call and he told me that there was no mistake, I could pick them up. I told him I would be right down, and he informed me that the shop was packed today, and due to an oil leak out in the front yard, that it would be easier if I parked up near the rear service door and gave him a call to let him know I was there. I wasted no time, quickly brushing my teeth whilst getting ready, I was in such a hurry I completely bypassed my usual breakfast of toast and orange juice, there goes my metabolism today, but I don't even care. I drove for about 10 minutes, but would have been there a bit earlier if it weren't for the traffic, and finally pulled up beside the service door and gave the owner a call.


The owner came out to meet me, and quickly noticed that I was only in the MR-S, and asked how I was going to get the rear wing and front bumper in my car. Damn, I hadn't really thought, I was just so excited to be going out to pick them up, all the logic revolving around the situation just never even entered my brain. Luckily the owner was a pretty cool guy, who said that he had to go on a call-out, and that he wouldn't mind putting the parts in his van and following me back to my place on his way, and better yet, he wasn't even going to charge. This day just gets better and better. I handed him the money, and received the receipt for my purchases his, then helped him load his van with the stuff he needed, making sure to leave enough space for my parts in there too. By now the morning rush was pretty much over and the roads were pretty clear again, so it took me next to no time to get home. I waved goodbye to the tuning shop owner as he drove off on his call-out, leaving me with my new car parts. I knew the rear wing would be the easiest to fit, so I decided that would be my first job. It came with easy to follow instructions, a Top Secret decal that could be placed on my car, and even came with a thin metal guide, that I could place on the rear of the car, showing me exactly where I would need to drill the holes to fit the wing. I took my time to make sure I didn't make any mistakes, but a little time later, the wing was on the car, ready to force those rear wheels into the ground hard enough to put the power from my new turbo down onto the road.


Next thing to do would be installing the new Tom's front bumper. I removed the original pretty easily, but came across a problem whilst doing so, I was missing a retainer clip, the kind used to keep the bumper sitting tight against the front right wheel arch. I started searching through the box, hoping that it came with some new ones. Installation instructions, a Tom's decal, ahh, that was lucky, a little plastic bag containing brand new retaining clips. The Tom's bumper was a great fit, I had only placed the two bolts in that keep the bumper connected to the metal framework, but already it was seeming to fit pretty snug. I was almost finished putting on the new bumper when my phone started to ring. I was going to just ignore it, but something in the back of my mind was telling me to answer. So I answered my phone, luckily, as it was retro hoonage, a technician from M7 Technology, the shop I bought my parts from earlier in the day. He informed me that there had been a slight mix-up with my parts, and I was currently holding onto the turbocharger for a '99 MR2. However the situation was quickly resolved when he told me that he would be working the rest of the day, and that if I'm able to take the turbocharger back myself, they would fit the correct one for me, and tune the timing on it to get it running sweet. How could I say no? I told him that I wouldn't be too long and went back to finish off fitting my bumper. A few retaining clips later and the bumper was looking perfect. I couldn't believe how much better it looked, to me at least. I realise that I should have probably bought something that would benefit me more than just aesthetically, but for now I knew the turbo would be a big improvement in that department, so I decided to treat myself.


I wasted no time in getting ready to leave to go have my turbo fitted, I jumped in the MR-S and set off for the M7 Technology shop again. The roads were still pretty clear, though rush hour was quickly approaching, but I wasn't too worried as I knew that the shop wasn't too far away. Big mistake. I was only a few streets away, but noticed that in this particularly narrow street, there seemed to be a hold up. As the MR-S is a low car, I couldn't see a thing past the Ford Mondeo that was parked in front of me. So I got out of the car and decided to go and have a look. A fire truck? I don't see a fire, just an old lady crying and being comforted by neighbours, surrounded by a bunch of firemen. I'm guessing she called them as they all seemed to be asking what was wrong, but she just kept crying and mumbling incoherently. A few seconds passed and finally she said something clearly.. Cat. Tree. Really? She had been this upset, and had us all stuck behind the fire truck for this long, because her cat was stuck up a tree? I went back to wait in my car, hoping that now the problem had been found, it could be dealt with quickly enough. I couldn't reverse back due to the cars behind me, so I had no choice but to wait. I quickly rang up M7 Technology to inform them that I would be a bit late, and got through to another technician named B2BTuning, who was unaware of the situation I had discussed with retro hoonage earlier in the day. Thankfully though he told me that it was fine, and that if I was able to get there within the hour, he would be able to fit it whilst I wait, and then I could drive it home the same day. Luckily during the conversation, progress had been made, and the cat was safely down from the tree. With that sorted, we were back on our way, and within 10 minutes I was sat outside of the M7 Technology garage, awaiting the installation of what was going to be the best $2,700 I ever spent.

just to be a pain in the ass


sup dude

I have 10 placeholders, so it's all good for now. Besides, it's Impulse who feels the shitty end of it, when I get him to clean the thread again.

Lol gotta love impulsse <3

Nice story!
I enjoyed reading it.
Makes me want to continue mine :]

really nice story!

Good read!

For those who enjoyed part one, part two has been added.

Lol

Part 3 added.

more = always better