Hello from across the pond! Searching for a 240z

moelk · August 17, 2018

4 minutes ago, Patcon said:

That is a quick collection of cars! What is the first car in line, the dark blue one, next to the Noble?

Its a Toyota MR 2

Patcon · August 17, 2018

21 minutes ago, moelk said:

Its a Toyota MR 2

Nice looking car. I don't think we got that model here. I have seen the older version, a couple of cars down but don't recall that newer version. Unless I missed them somewhere...

rturbo 930 · August 17, 2018

1 hour ago, Patcon said:

Nice looking car. I don't think we got that model here. I have seen the older version, a couple of cars down but don't recall that newer version. Unless I missed them somewhere...

We got loads of those here lol. I'm amazed you've never seen one.

Woody928 · August 17, 2018

1 hour ago, Patcon said:

Nice looking car. I don't think we got that model here. I have seen the older version, a couple of cars down but don't recall that newer version. Unless I missed them somewhere...

As above it's a Toyota MR2 Mk2, that one has got a slight bodykit fitted to it and also has had a turbo engine conversion. Running about 300bhp, coilovers,, underbracing etc very quick and fun car, I've got a white JDM one as my daily car. T-bars are also great for the summer ? I believe you only got them up until 1995 in the US rather than 2000 like the UK and Japan. The gen3 cars in the US seem to be a lot more sought after due to the improvements and lack of them available.

Patcon · August 17, 2018

I looked at some other MR2's for sale and it must be the body kit throwing me off. They can be had for decent money, interesting...

Woody928 · August 17, 2018

16 minutes ago, Patcon said:

I looked at some other MR2's for sale and it must be the body kit throwing me off. They can be had for decent money, interesting...

More than likely, as an example of what a bodykit can do here's what mine has looked like, now back to stock bodywork. I still think they're the biggest performance bargain to be had out there! As a JDM Turbo model mine will do 60 in just under 5 seconds with bolt on mods, handles superbly and can embarrass much more expensive cars quite easily. They may get properly appreciated one day...

IMG-4507 (1) by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG-5647 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Woody928 · September 9, 2018

Well update time again, not too much to report in a way. Since we've had the car back on the road in the middle of July the car has done just over 1000 miles as a shake down to really dial things in and see where we stand. It's made it on various runs out, breakfast meets and car shows in the interim where it's performed very well. It's just been dropped back to passion engineering with a snagging list to be tweaked to make perfect for now hopefully to collect in time for Goodwood's JDM Sunday all being well.

Most notably I took the Z up to JAE with the MR2OC who are great friends and like my second family and had an awesome weekend with them, the car was somewhat stealing the show for a lot of people with people in awe of its condition. Rather unusually for me I entered JAE's show and shine competition as for once I actually felt I had a car nice enough and set about doing some detailing before chucking it in to see what happened. Not knowing very much about cleaning other than clay baring the paint, waxing it and generally giving it a clean up I thought it would be nice to show the car off if nothing else.

Despite some amazing competition in the form of a fully restored Fairlady roadster and another 240Z I managed to win the Retro category by 1 point which completely blew me away. Having spoken to the judge afterwards I nearly threw the competition away and lost a lot of points because I hadn't cleaned the inside barrels of my wheels which just goes to show why I never enter cleaning competitions and much prefer driving and picking up dirt instead! Either way I now can claim to own a show wining car and was quite smug having seen other entrants trailer their cars there or only turn up to enter the competition which just seemed wrong to me!

After a lot of stress and hassle earlier this year its been amazing to just get out and use it, I never lose that smile whenever I get in and just turn the key and just enjoy it. I still find plenty of excuses just to go out for a drive even if I have nowhere to go. The ridiculous attention continues to flow in, on the way back from JAE a guy in a McLaren 720s and his partner were going crazy next to me, taking loads of photos and shouting loads of compliments and loving it despite being in a supercar nearly 50 years younger. Still making great progress, hopefully more positive news to follow shortly.

IMG_7835 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7827 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7818 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7805 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7842 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Photo CO Chris Presley

IMG_7853 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Photo CO Chris Presley

IMG_7859 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Possibly one of my favourite photos that I've taken of the Z to date

IMG_7675 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Edited September 9, 2018 by Woody928

Woody928 · November 3, 2018

Well time for another update as its been a couple of months. Sadly the car has been off the road for a little while owing to some teething problems and a couple of planned and necessary tweaks since the last major overhaul. The biggest gremlin that we had been investigating was a severe vibration through the car which occurred at both 60 and 80mph upwards which was really effecting drive-ability.

Iain at passion engineering had tweaked the gearbox and diff angles so that they are now within .6 of a degree and we sent the prop off to a specialist near Heathrow as we were both fairly convinced of the cause. We've since had it confirmed that the prop appears to be the cause of my issues for a variety of reasons and we've decided to have a new custom and uprated one made up to the cars exact specs which its currently awaiting to complete the jigsaw so keeping fingers crossed. Also did hot oil changes on both the gearbox and diff now they've been run in on the car to keep everything in order.

The car has had various bits tidied up, we've added an extra mishimoto fan on the rad thinking of hot European trips and Le Mans traffic. Engine bay wiring is also getting some attention however the headlight wiring was looking particularly tried and we had been suffering with one of the high beams failing, given the car is driven regularly and at night there's been some work to do. All of the headlight wiring and connections have been refreshed and we've also acquired a plug and play loom with relays incorporated for both the headlight system (big thanks to Dave Irwin), interior lights and taillights from the USA to take as much strain out of the system as possible and hopefully protect the headlight combination switch and fusebox. Some uprated Osram Nightbreaker H4 bulbs have gone in to the headlights at the same time to freshen things up.

There's also been some work up front on the chassis to allow the fitment of the uprated ST front anti roll bar to complete the suspension work, sadly some welding was required before bolting into place some reinforced straps over the chassis legs (I think that's right) to mount the anti roll bar off of to keep things in check. The idea being the extra reinforcement will keep things together and reinforce the key areas so that the anti roll bar can do its job effectively without putting any undue stress on the chassis. I'm getting quite conscious of the chassis age and want to try and uprate it where possible in a non invasive way. Triangulated strut braces front and rear are on the long term list in this regard still however money and priorities are constantly changing!

Finally I've placed a deposit on a Zstory Race Sport system with JDM muffler for delivery early 2019 to help the engine breath a lot easier. It will be great to get rid of the home made rear section which I'm sure is choking the engine now. Things will likely slow down for a while though as I have to leave the car behind in my dad's safe hands as I head off to Singapore for at least a couple of months with a new job opportunity in the New Year. Only time will tell how fast things will move from here or not, hopefully the car will be back with me again shortly to make use of some of the last dry Autumn days....

IMG_7960 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7962 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7961 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7964 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7965 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7966 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

calvinhg · November 6, 2018

You have dry days in England?

Sent from my OP 3T using Classic Zcar Club mobile

Woody928 · November 6, 2018

6 hours ago, lordkarma88 said:

You have dry days in England?

? Contrary to popular believe it doesn't always rain in the UK!

We're still making the most of some crisp and dry autumn days, how many more of those we'll get before winter hits hard though is anyone's guess. I'm hoping to get the car back and really enjoy it before the salt starts getting put down on the roads....

Woody928 · November 11, 2018

Well I'm pleased to say that the car is back and tucked away in the garage for now. Picked the car up on Saturday morning and was straight over to Wheels in Motion to correct the alignment on the car which needed to be redone on all four corners due to the complete overhaul done on the car this year. Safe to say there were some hairy and slightly sideways moments on the way over there with every corner having its own idea of where it should be going. The good news was despite the monsoon weather and all of the standing water I was driving though on the way home the car felt completely planted and much more sure of itself and its even fair to say that the windscreen wipers performed valiantly getting me back in one piece.

The car has been away for a variety of reasons however the vibration we were suffering from was ultimately prop related and the installation of a new single piece custom prop which was uprated with larger greaseable joints which has completely removed the issues. With the suspension setup and solid diff mount there's still more feedback going through the chassis that originally however that seems to be expected. The upside is now with those issues resolved and drivetrain overhaul the car seems to be happy to shift up to around 6k rpm which is higher than I previously thought however it really needs a dry day to properly explore the current levels of performance both engine and suspension wise now. I'm even thinking that the very hard all season michelins may get scrapped in favour of some much stickier Yokohama AD08R's given they're availability in the perfect size which will hopefully step the handling up another notch again.

Underneath the front of the car the new front anti roll bar mounts have been bolted in place and I must praise Iain as he really has outdone himself with the work on these, they are very subtle but have really beefed things up so that we don't have any concerns. At the same time the entire headlight wiring loom has been removed and used as a template to build a completely new and more weather proof wiring loom with the addition of the relay kit from the US to massively improve the reliability. While I was there we've dropped some Osram Night Breaker Lazer bulbs in which have massively improved the lighting and was very noticeable from my limited use coming home in the rain, there seems to be plenty more light upfront now. While in there sorting the wiring, Iain also noticed that our sidelights had previously had their wires cut to be removed from the system with the bulbs hijacked for our indicators in the past. That's since been rectified and the wiring reimplemented so we now have independently working side lights and wing lights working as well.

Some areas of the chassis have been treated from very minor surface rust that had developed and been covered in wax oil for protection however I seriously need to get the car professionally undersealed to protect the chassis for the UK climate. If anyone has any recommendations in the South of the UK I'm all ears for suggestions?

Minor tweaks have also been done to tidy up the engine bay wiring including the movement of the electronic ignition module to move things along, there's still plenty to be done though. The exhaust has been repainted in VHT paint to tidy it up but its really highlighted how restrictive the exhaust becomes by the silencer, I have no idea what the diameter is however I have high hopes for the full Z story system that's arriving for the car in the new year.

I'm sure there's more however those seem to be the highlights, we're getting closer and closer to getting the car where I want it to be. Lots of little details and mods here and there to get her where she should be and I'm desperate for a dry day to have some fun but that's enough for now. On to the exciting bit now, the shiny bits.

IMG_8147 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_8148 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_8203 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_8150 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_8180 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_3526 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_3529 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

My exhaust restrictions, no idea how much difference to expect with the shiny Story one going on...

IMG_8168 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Where we now stand

IMG_3531 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Edited November 11, 2018 by Woody928

Woody928 · December 11, 2018

Well time for another update, nothing too dramatic but there’s always something to do with a 48 year old car!

In an effort to reduce some of the chassis flex and now being aware that the car is as much of a show car as a fast road toy, I caved into TTT’s black Friday sale and have purchased Tri strut braces for the front and rear of the car and also grabbed a cpillar bar between the seatbelt mounting points in an effort to help matters as well as look pretty. Soon to be sitting in San Francisco I’m still trying to work out how best to recover them.

Over the weekend disaster struck twice for my dad with the car, many of you will be disappointed to hear that the Bosozoku gear knob shattered and fell off! It must have cracked and fatigued, having salvaged the thread I’ve taken temporary measurers and gone homemade having inserted the thread and shaped a block of Oak. It seems to have kept the car on the road and useable while I source a suitable replacement anyway. Works much better than expected and keeps the car usable for now

?

He also had the misfortune of applying the handbrake yesterday on a hill only to have the car role backwards, having pulled on the handbrake some more I’m told there was an almighty bang before the handle flew up. Safe to say I’m convinced he’s snapped the handbrake cable so I need to source a new one (hopefully not from the US) and work out how easy or not (I’m sure not) it will be to fit and whether it’s doable on the driveway….

In amongst the drama I’ve finally done some minor jobs and fixed the ashtray handle having tidied up the area from the previous shoddy job from a previous custodian, had some Dremel action and glued it back together. It now looks the business again and I’ve also like several others been suckered in with purchasing a Chrome pen and now detailed several items of lettering and trim. It even seems to have hidden the blue plastic trim appearing on the door cards!

IMG-8405 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG-8434 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG-8430 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG-8431 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

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IMG-8419 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr