Still no GTO?

So, when I set the time aside this weekend to write my next entry, I was fully anticipating having got the GTO  back from having the work done on it, posting images from taking her for a hoon through the countryside to celebrate her return. Unfortunately due to a slight miscommunication she is not yet ready. Cue sad face emoji.

So instead I have been sat working out what my next few mods will be for the car, as I get stuck in to working on her properly for the first time. The next big purchases are easy, I live up in the hills and as a result have a wealth on winding, apex filled country roads which are national speed limit, so it would almost be insulting to the car to not start with a big brake kit and some suspension upgrades. Brakes will probably come first, and I'm in the process of saving up, but don't think they'll happen until July. 

Big brake kit for a Mitsubishi

So what happens in the mean time? When she's up and running again I don't exactly want to wait to July before I can start with improvements... Well, as mentioned at the end of my last post I have a 57i induction kit waiting to be installed. When I install this I will also trying to use up my stash of elbow grease to clean up the engine bay. For some reason I don't quite trust 25 year old electrics with the power spray, so it may be a long and tedious job doing it by hand, but it's gotta be done! 

K&N Logo

Along with the induction kit, I also have ready and waiting a set of JDM speed tow hooks and a Summit Racing windscreen repair kit. Although my insurance covers me for windscreen replacement, I would have to pay a rather large excess, and as the chip in mine is only small thought a gamble on repairing myself first was well worth it! 

My JDM Speed Tow Hooks, hope the red against black looks mint!

If I fluff this one up can always cover with a sun strip I suppose!

The first thing I want to try when I get her back is Sleepy Eye. In theory it should be the easiest, most straightforward mod I do on the car. Aaaaaaaand I shouldn't have said that because I've just jinxed myself. The picture below demonstrates sleepy/lazy eye, but when I do it I'm going to consider removing the side light cover from below the main headlights as it looks cleaner without that there.

'Sleepy Eye' or 'Lazy Eye' on a Mitsubishi GTO (3000gt)

Whilst we're in the head light area, driving the car in the dark and rain before she was taken off the road was a little scary. I want to do a bit of a DIY headlight restoration as I went to turn my full beams on, thinking my normal dipped headlights weren't enough.... only to find I already had the full beams on. This won't be as important for visibility through summer, but if I'm drawing attention to the headlights doing Sleepy Eye, they gotta look good!

I also want to try and polish some life back into the paint, I would love a full respray eventually, however priority with budget will be on performance first. With that in mind I'm hoping a good seeing to with a rotary polishing tool/mop will do the trick! (at least in the short term) and in my head I'll be silently hopeful that I wont burn the paint having never used one before or the respray may be moved up in the schedule.....

If these mods don't keep me busy until I can afford bigger and better mods, there is always weight reduction. I don't really want to do this until the new clutch is broken in, so I can do before and after 0-60 runs.  She is a rather large girl, and does need to go on a diet rather badly, but we shall see how the other mods progress before we get started with this.

GTO having been on a diet

I'm hoping the next time I post it will be with the GTO back in her home in the garage. Keeping my fingers crossed for the next few days!

I'm currently running a poll on Garage Amino. 'Which reinvention of 90's JDM muscle looks best?' At the link below:

http://aminoapps.com/p/h1ztc4

Top left: Mitsubishi GTO (3000gt) Top Right: Toyota FT-1 (but will evolve to next Supra)
Bottom left: Mazda rx9 (possibly first true replacement to rx7?)
Bottom Right: Nissan GTR - for the fanboys,  I once read it would have carried the skyline name were it not for a legal hiccup between the Nissan and Infinti brands.

Head on over to the app to cast your vote! I have already had a couple of messages denying the FT-1 becoming the next Supra, for doubters check this link http://www.teamimports.com/2016/03/finally-officia-new-toyota-supra.html regardless, the Supra is currently smashing the vote! Lets face it, none of these cars will have many parts left over from being used on their predecessors, so lets just enjoy the next breed of Japanese muscle!

If you enjoyed this post, check out my previous entry E85 Society - April Meet. Caution, the entry contains much car porn.

If you would like to laugh at my lack of progress in real time you can follow me on social sites by clicking the links below or search the @s :

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E85 Society - April Meet

In my last post I mentioned that I wouldn't leave it as long before my next post, so as promised, here goes. But first a disclaimer. This post comes with a warning:

So warning over, shall we begin?


Last night I attended the April E85 Society meet and the cars in attendance didn't disappoint. There was a wide range of cars there, from Low n Slow VAGs, to JDM beasts, and even the odd bit of domestic muscle, speaking of which is where I'll start.

My favourite car on show was this 600+BHP Ford Escort Cosworth:

Simply stunning example

Engine bay - Car porn!

Boot build on the Cossie

Many of these cars spent much of the 80's and 90's either upside down in hedges or being plagued with rust, so to see one not only in such good condition, but also modified so well, felt like a very rare treat indeed.

So from one legend to another, Godzilla. There were not one, but three Skylines at the meet. When the White one pictured below arrived, just reversing into the bay it managed to set off the car alarm on one of my mates project cars. I think that this laid down the gauntlet for when I get the GTO back next week. Next meet I gotta try and do that! If it can't in its current guise I'm sure I'd manage it when the 57i is installed.

The blue r34 (also shown below) went one better though, as it left the meet it spat flames, damn big flames. Sadly I left the meet before it, so didn't get any pictures, but the E85 Society on facebook has plenty of videos of it I'm sure.

Loud Exhaust

Flaming Exhaust

 You might just be able to make out that the cars sat either side of the blue skyline are a little special as well. Both are imported JDM Honda's (well... sort of). To the right is an Integra type R. I think that if I was to own a Honda again, this would be the one I'd go for. They seem to carry a bit more presence than a lot of other Honda's, they look awesome and sound great. To the left of the Skyline is a Mugen Civic, not exactly something you see at every meet.

Teggy Type R

Mugen Civic

There was a variety of other Jap cars there, one of which was this rather clean Mitsubishi GTO. It made me a tad disappointed I hadn't been able to get mine back on Friday as planned. but I do look forward to getting her out to meets again soon.

Mitsubishi GTO SR

She is an SR model, so although not as fast as my baby, she is in really good condition in comparison.  This one gave me some goals for body work, eventually....  after she's had a bit of love and attention in the performance department. 

So, as I move on to the next couple of cars I was going to mention, I would just like to take a moment  and pause for a second to point out this is not a JDM society... honest... Here are 2 Supras and a couple of early MR2's:

4JZ Power!

Stock spoiler or carbon? Left or Right?

Toyota should never have changed form this early format

The later MR2s are like a completely different car

I think thats probably enough JDM goodness for today, if that's even possible.

As with most car meets, a large proportion of the cars there were VAGs, many of which rather than modifying for speed, instead chose to see who could make their car sit on the ground the lowest. I always find this relatively funny watching people trying to leave over bumps, but it can make for some admittedly dramatic and good looking pictures. There is also something strangely satisfying about the signature tssssssssssssst of an air bag signifying a VW has just parked next to you at a meet.

 Last but not least is probably the most unexpected car at the meet. Not every day you get a machine like this at your average car meet in a car park on a Saturday night. Dat Lupo tho!

Dat Lupo tho!

There were many more cars there, and I wish I could have featured them all in my entry, but I suppose I should save some for next time! Hopefully next time the 3 of Diamonds herself will feature!


If you enjoyed this post, Check out my previous post by clicking here. It contains less cars, but more humor, lots of laughs in that one... Well... OK... there is SOME humor at least... Check it out.

If you would like to laugh at my lack of progress in real time you can follow me on social sites by clicking the links below or search the @s :

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Project [Code name TBC] - Prologue pt1

This week I thought I would actually talk about the project car, after all that's why I was doing this blog and it's only been 5 weeks.... Finding Dori springs to mind...

So in previous entries I have mentioned why I wanted a project car, but I haven't answered a question I've been asked by a few other petrolheads since buying this car....

'So why a GTO?'

The answer to this one was always going to be a bit more controversial as they are not a popular car in general, though from what I've read, owners of the car love it unconditionally. I actually think that my need to have something different, and its prettiness makes me prefer it to its competitors. When I knew I wanted a project, I also knew I wanted to meet certain criteria:

• AWD
• Turbo or Twin Turbo
• Manual
• Qualifies for Classic insurance
• Easy initial power gains (I know GTO gets harder past 500bhp or so in comparison to similar cars of the era but 500 is probably going to be more than my initial aims for power)
• Good looking 
• Something a bit different

So with those criteria in mind I kind of knew it was going to be some kind of 90's JDM muscle  so started thinking through my choices:

(Note: for those who like to argue in import vs muscle threads on Car Throttle, here in the UK you cant get American muscle and was I HELL buying a Rover 25)

• rx7 - the later models are pretty (FD), but I didn't fancy doing an engine rebuild every time I took the car to the corner shops and measuring my oil in miles per gallon! Rotary jokes aside I love these cars, there is one that lives the other side of town from me that I am admittedly slightly envious of it even with it's cheesy F&F style decals... I think they are beautiful, but think these are a car I would love to drive but not to own. I am by my own admission an AWD fanboy and they didn't tick that box, combined with being as rare as hens teeth when I was looking meant they were never really an option. Good ones were few and far between, and when you found a good one the price required me to give up limbs....

• Supra - With a supra, it had to be a mk4, it had to be twin turbo and it had to be manual. The choice for a Supra in good condition was phenomenal.... as long as you wanted an N/A.... or an auto.... or both... The only ones at a reasonable price that were turbo-ed and manual were the mk3 and earlier, which if I'm being honest are probably a really good car, they just don't do it for me....

• Skyline -  I went further in my search for a Skyline than for the Supra or rx7... there is something about that name, and that GTR badge that was just screaming 'Buy me!'. I actually went to buy one and was talked out of buying it by the sales assistant, it was an R33 GTR they'd had in part ex and he couldn't answer any of my questions about it, or its history, or anything about any work done to it in the past... so I walked away, and kicked myself for a couple of months after thinking it was probably him being a moron rather than being a dud car. After missing out on that one, I trawled sites for a while but struggled to find another one in budget. There were plenty of GTS and GTS-T to choose from (quite often falsely advertised as GTRs)... but that GTR was always at the back of my mind and meant I couldn't commit to a GTS-T. Maybe an R34 as my next project...

• Other random Unicorns - There were occasionally others that caught my eyes, Galant VR4s, 240zs or 300zxs GTFours... but I quite simply never got the same spark with them as when I looked at the GTO.

I have always considered the GTO a very good looking car, even by modern standards which I think is quite a rare trait for a car with a production run that was fully contained within the 90s (excluding the Dodge Stealth variants rear wing *gags*).

My first experience of driving one however was not the greatest. It was from a small locally owned garage, and it was an N/A 3000gt. The owner of the garage allowed my to drive around 500m before returning it to the forecourt, think he assumed because I was young I wasn't going to be serious about buying the car. I made a comment about it not being as quick as I expected as I gestured towards buying the car, to which he took offense and threw me off the forecourt... looking back now that was probably a godsend. The difference in the drive between that car and the twin-turbo I now currently own in unreal, they are the same car underneath but essentially not really comparable in terms of drive and what the car can do.

In truth I would have loved any of the other cars I listed as a potential for the project, but I was always strangely drawn back to the GTO. They are just so different and rarely seen. They were under appreciated in their time, and they still are which is probably why you can still pick up a good twin turbo version for relatively cheap in comparison to other cars with similar performance. 

I know people complain about the price of parts, but when you look into it good parts for this car cost about the same as good parts for any car of the era, you just cant get cheap knock off parts for cheap like you can on other cars... which to me, is in all honesty no big deal. I'd only want to use good parts anyway!

When I read comments on forums for wider car communities (rather than owner specific ones about these cars) it was funny how often you would read owners slate the car, calling its' transmission shit, saying it was a bitch to work on and source parts for, but then go on to say they wish they'd never sold it and they wished they still had it, and they loved it more than their Subaru Impreza/Mitsubishi Evo/whatever hot hatch they traded it in for.... and having it for just 4 or 5 weeks I can already see that.... I have been frustrated that the same day I bought it I needed to replace the battery and its connectors, and that next time I get it out of the garage I know I've got to try to un-seize the bonnet 

release mechanism that wouldn't let me close it when I put it away at the weekend..... But at the end of the day it makes me smile more than any other car that I have driven, let alone owned, and that's what really matters.... 

As the stolen meme says, don't build it for anyone but yourself.

And so I conclude yet again having not really talked about my specific car... So I will make this Prologue pt1 of 2 for now. To keep up to date you can follow me on social sites by clicking the links below or search the @s :

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