I was bored today and realized i just lurk in certain sections... so i thought i'd sort of "formerly" introduce myself and my car to this forum. Here's my intro/build thread in a nutshell.
I am a UCI alumni and have always been interested in getting a job in the automotive field. I think I first met Jonathan who had a 1JZ MKIII back when I was in college who introduced me to Mike Urbano, through who I've met other people here in the community. Since then I've met people here and there and did this and that.
Now I currently work with Jose and Ernie at Kaizen Motorsports, wrenching and smoking cigarettes, and trying to be cool by fabricating little doodads here and there. I am a 2nd gen Japanese so I am also a sort of half-assed interpretor. Oh and I forgot to mention my name is Ray, if you haven't noticed already.
Anyways, on to my car. It's a 1989 Toyota Cressida. Unfortunately during high school I could not afford a Supra so I researched and began modifying my Cressida instead. At the time I could only find info on 1J swapped Cressidas in kangaroo land and only knew a whopping 2 people who've successfully swapped 1J's into Cressida's in the US. This was about the time the Y2K bug was crashing computers all over the world creating mad chaos and destruction all over the world... I slept through it and missed it unfortunately.
ANYWAYS.. So I started with a stock 7M and made an aftermarket intake using a Blitz SUS metal filter and a MAF adapter made out of a chunk of 2x4 (yes, as in 2x4 chunk of wood). Also made aluminum under tray out of an aluminum sheet from Home Depot after trashing my stock one. Under braking it vibrated and made thunder sounds (cool huh?), it scared the kids off their bicycles in my neighborhood.
I also bought a real HKS Titanium Race muffler back when "titanium look" wasn't even available, which was mated to muffler shop special 2.5" cat-back that never stopped leaking. Who would have thought that titanium exhaust would be all the rage today along with titanium knobs, titanium intakes, titanium tint, titanium seat covers, titanium bulbs, and titanium tires.
So yeah, my car was loud and slow, and I rocked 15x7 Borbet Type E's all around shod with 195/65/15's.. thanks to Tire Racks "recommended" wheel/tire combos. I meant business. Well this was all back in 2002 and prior. Below is a pic of the proof
ballin'
Fast forward two years to about 2003. I was working almost full time now and decided to step up and buy a brand new set of coilovers from JDM land. They were Tein HA coilovers with the pillowball upper mounts. The 195's, although comfortable on the street and great on mileage, weren't cutting it anymore so I went to Autoconxion and bought of set of used wheels off a JZX90 Chaser which I scored on since they came with Bridgestone Grid III's in front and Grid II's out back.
They are 17x8 +30 and 17X9 +40 Laimer 3 piece wheels (these wheels are for sale btw, $500 OBO w/o tires)
2nd best investment so far after the 1J in 1st.
Tein HA Coilovers with shipping from Japan - $2300
Installation and 4.5 hrs of labor at Autobacs - $145
Passing modified Civics and Integras on freeway on ramps on the inside with a 3500lb sedan - Priceless
Fast forward another year or so and I blew a headgasket. I babied the car for a long time when it showed symptoms of BHG and managed to drive it a year. I used to drive the 7M hard but it managed to survive about 40K miles after already having about 84K on it when I got it. One day I was cruising around giving a chick a ride and the 7M called it quits. So much smoke/steam billowed from the engine bay and exhaust that opposing traffic had to stop dead in its tracks until it cleared. Ironically the car stopped right in front of a fire hydrant and since I didn't have AAA with me, I had to borrow the girl's AAA for a tow. I never heard from her again.
My car was towed to a nearby UCI parking lot (which I had a commuter parking pass for) where the car sat for 2-3 weeks. I happened to have an old parking permit in my car so I put a year old parking permit in the cressida (while I commuted in a Camry with the current permit) and pushed the car to different spots at night so that they wouldn't suspect that the car wasn't running.
About this time I met Mike and he started the 1J swap into the Cressida. Unfortunately he passed away and I was left without too many options. I contemplated whether I should pick up a beater AE86 to put around in or go DSM with a AWD Turbo Talon. Well luckily that didn't happen since I met Jose and Aaron where my car was finished up roughly a year after the BHG incident. The build was simple, nothing crazy. It was a stock 1J swap with a R-154 5 spd tranny. Custom intercooler and piping, with a walbro 255 in-tank and generic intake filter.
Stock 1J swap.
Sometime after the swap was completed in 2006 I had Jose and Aaron at Driftmotion install their Z32 brake caliper/rotor kit. Brakes have worked perfectly with zero flaws. At this time I jacked Jose's FN01R-C's for better caliper clearance (4 pot cast iron calipers).
Wheels are 17x8 +35 and 17x10 +35
Fast forward again and two turbos later, the 1J is still rock-solid and has survived many top-speed runs to Vegas and drifting in Arizona in the middle of the desert. Only issue I've had was a coupler that had torn due to a severe 90 degree bend to the core. We replaced that here at Kaizen Motorsports with a custom welded hard pipe utilizing a straight coupler to the core.
Here's how the car currently looks as of 8/2008. Brake, suspension, exhaust, and motor have all been left as-is since 2006. Only things I've changed are wheels and tires and a fixed ECU.
Wheels are NC10-R 17x9 +20 all around (with 8mm spacer in front).
Gathering parts so that I can replace this...
with an HKS turbo kit in the next coming weeks
For those who've actually sat on their ass long enough to read that, I'll give you a "Good Job!!" sticker
I am a UCI alumni and have always been interested in getting a job in the automotive field. I think I first met Jonathan who had a 1JZ MKIII back when I was in college who introduced me to Mike Urbano, through who I've met other people here in the community. Since then I've met people here and there and did this and that.
Now I currently work with Jose and Ernie at Kaizen Motorsports, wrenching and smoking cigarettes, and trying to be cool by fabricating little doodads here and there. I am a 2nd gen Japanese so I am also a sort of half-assed interpretor. Oh and I forgot to mention my name is Ray, if you haven't noticed already.
Anyways, on to my car. It's a 1989 Toyota Cressida. Unfortunately during high school I could not afford a Supra so I researched and began modifying my Cressida instead. At the time I could only find info on 1J swapped Cressidas in kangaroo land and only knew a whopping 2 people who've successfully swapped 1J's into Cressida's in the US. This was about the time the Y2K bug was crashing computers all over the world creating mad chaos and destruction all over the world... I slept through it and missed it unfortunately.
ANYWAYS.. So I started with a stock 7M and made an aftermarket intake using a Blitz SUS metal filter and a MAF adapter made out of a chunk of 2x4 (yes, as in 2x4 chunk of wood). Also made aluminum under tray out of an aluminum sheet from Home Depot after trashing my stock one. Under braking it vibrated and made thunder sounds (cool huh?), it scared the kids off their bicycles in my neighborhood.
I also bought a real HKS Titanium Race muffler back when "titanium look" wasn't even available, which was mated to muffler shop special 2.5" cat-back that never stopped leaking. Who would have thought that titanium exhaust would be all the rage today along with titanium knobs, titanium intakes, titanium tint, titanium seat covers, titanium bulbs, and titanium tires.
So yeah, my car was loud and slow, and I rocked 15x7 Borbet Type E's all around shod with 195/65/15's.. thanks to Tire Racks "recommended" wheel/tire combos. I meant business. Well this was all back in 2002 and prior. Below is a pic of the proof
ballin'
Fast forward two years to about 2003. I was working almost full time now and decided to step up and buy a brand new set of coilovers from JDM land. They were Tein HA coilovers with the pillowball upper mounts. The 195's, although comfortable on the street and great on mileage, weren't cutting it anymore so I went to Autoconxion and bought of set of used wheels off a JZX90 Chaser which I scored on since they came with Bridgestone Grid III's in front and Grid II's out back.
They are 17x8 +30 and 17X9 +40 Laimer 3 piece wheels (these wheels are for sale btw, $500 OBO w/o tires)
2nd best investment so far after the 1J in 1st.
Tein HA Coilovers with shipping from Japan - $2300
Installation and 4.5 hrs of labor at Autobacs - $145
Passing modified Civics and Integras on freeway on ramps on the inside with a 3500lb sedan - Priceless
Fast forward another year or so and I blew a headgasket. I babied the car for a long time when it showed symptoms of BHG and managed to drive it a year. I used to drive the 7M hard but it managed to survive about 40K miles after already having about 84K on it when I got it. One day I was cruising around giving a chick a ride and the 7M called it quits. So much smoke/steam billowed from the engine bay and exhaust that opposing traffic had to stop dead in its tracks until it cleared. Ironically the car stopped right in front of a fire hydrant and since I didn't have AAA with me, I had to borrow the girl's AAA for a tow. I never heard from her again.
My car was towed to a nearby UCI parking lot (which I had a commuter parking pass for) where the car sat for 2-3 weeks. I happened to have an old parking permit in my car so I put a year old parking permit in the cressida (while I commuted in a Camry with the current permit) and pushed the car to different spots at night so that they wouldn't suspect that the car wasn't running.
About this time I met Mike and he started the 1J swap into the Cressida. Unfortunately he passed away and I was left without too many options. I contemplated whether I should pick up a beater AE86 to put around in or go DSM with a AWD Turbo Talon. Well luckily that didn't happen since I met Jose and Aaron where my car was finished up roughly a year after the BHG incident. The build was simple, nothing crazy. It was a stock 1J swap with a R-154 5 spd tranny. Custom intercooler and piping, with a walbro 255 in-tank and generic intake filter.
Stock 1J swap.
Sometime after the swap was completed in 2006 I had Jose and Aaron at Driftmotion install their Z32 brake caliper/rotor kit. Brakes have worked perfectly with zero flaws. At this time I jacked Jose's FN01R-C's for better caliper clearance (4 pot cast iron calipers).
Wheels are 17x8 +35 and 17x10 +35
Fast forward again and two turbos later, the 1J is still rock-solid and has survived many top-speed runs to Vegas and drifting in Arizona in the middle of the desert. Only issue I've had was a coupler that had torn due to a severe 90 degree bend to the core. We replaced that here at Kaizen Motorsports with a custom welded hard pipe utilizing a straight coupler to the core.
Here's how the car currently looks as of 8/2008. Brake, suspension, exhaust, and motor have all been left as-is since 2006. Only things I've changed are wheels and tires and a fixed ECU.
Wheels are NC10-R 17x9 +20 all around (with 8mm spacer in front).
Gathering parts so that I can replace this...
with an HKS turbo kit in the next coming weeks
For those who've actually sat on their ass long enough to read that, I'll give you a "Good Job!!" sticker
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