SORN'd

Lirin

Sorn'd my car and driving my partners. We have 3, and two are identical makes/models.

My partner's coupe has just hit 130,000 miles, and barring a caliper needing replaced, has little wrong with it. Mine's not being driven, as his preference is the V6, so no point insuring/taxing a car that isn't being used.

Our plan is to keep mine off the road until I've racked up a few miles on his, then spend a lovely weekend removing anything useful- body panels, dash, suspension, doors and glass- everything that is in a reusaable state. Our cars are quite rare over here, so there's endless bits I can take off her.

I've set myself a goal- I'm going to try and get her as close to 250,000 as possible.

Meanwhile we're rebuilding the engine with a few modifications on the V6- anyone know of a suitable turbo kit for a 6A12?

Gloomendoom

!!!!!! is a 6A12?

Lum

Did you mean to post this here, or on the FTO owners club forum or something?

I'm assuming you have a Mitsubishi FTO, since you mention "coupe" and "6A12". Wouldn't know about turboing it, though the Galant/Legnum VR4 has a twin turbo version of that engine, which may be worth looking at. That said the twin turbo version runs a lower compression (8.5:1 vs 10:1 so be careful, though it'll be a lot of fun if it works)

Lirin

Yup Lum- it's an FTO engine. The car isn't an FTO though- it's a Proton Perdana- Mitsi Eterna body shape. The coupe's are 1.8 4g93's. Something we've been mulling over since we got it, but info on the car is scant, but was thinking low compressy would be best.... FTO sits differently in the engine bay, so what we've found so far means a bit of tricking about to fit everything in.

Asking everywhere about the 6A12, as we hear different bits from everyone!

Lum

I'm far from an expert on these things, but isn't the Eterna just a "liftback" version of the Gallant? How does the engine bay compare to the Gallant?

If it's similar, maybe have a look around http://www.clubvr4.co.uk/ ? Easiest way might be to swap in a complete engine, drivetrain, loom and ECU from a VR4?


Out of interest, is that an official UK car or did you explicitly import it? I'd say it's an odd choice but I get the same sort of comments about my A31 Cefiro and I love that thing to bits.

Good luck.

Lirin

It's not an official UK car- was imported by Proton to drive around the factory on VIP visits, and was never registered on the road- 100 in total.
Proton had bought over Lotus by this point, and Lotus modified sections of the engine slightly from the original Mitsi...
Then was bought by Police, so while it has a full service history, first I've had on any car, we had a few problems insuring, taxing etc, as it wasn't on any database.
There's probably about 20 working ones in UK (that we know of).
Have problems with engine in that while it runs perfectly- gave it a check when I bought it- there's a few additions by the Police as well. Most notably, a full set of connectors tied up in the engine bay for blues and two's!
Since it has work by both Police and Lotus it's occasionaly a gamble finding bits- the bay is quite cramped, and though Malaysian owners have posted me lots of info, there's sometimes em, interesting breaks in communication where I'm reading thinking 'that doesn't sound right!'.
We tested her on the track and she pushed just over 150mph without any hassle- would guess from driving her I could manage 180mph.
Body- 7th gen Eterna, so yes, Galant (mostly anyway....)
It's very fun to drive, and more so from reactions I get- back says Perdana only and barring steering wheel, there's little else really says Proton on her. Very funny reactions from people- my partner was recently pulled by the Police who just wanted a look at her!
Downside- insuring a Malay car in NI is.... fun.

Why'd you go for an A31? It's a stunning-looking car, which engine do you have, and what setup do you have it geared towards?

Lum

That car does look interesting. Very subtle, but I think Google Image Search may be giving me duff results. Do you have any pictures?

I went for the A31 because I prefer my performance cars to not stand out. That's why I previously had a twin turbo Subaru Legacy. This time I fancied a Skyline, but didn't want something that looks like a Skyline, IYSWIM. The other reason was for the cheap insurance. I'd recently written off my Subaru (poorly timed engine failure leading to lift off oversteer and a crash) and to get insured on an equivalent Skyline would cost me £1600. The Cefiro, £400

I have the Cefiro SE-4 which has the RB20DET engine (2.0 inline 6 turbo) 4spd auto and 4WD system. The main reason for going for an auto 4wd is because the A31s are at best 16 years old now and they are popular in the far east as a dirt cheap drift car. Mine came over with 28,000km on the clock and looking almost like new. I was very lucky as according to a guy I know who lives over there, there were only 3 SE-4s for sale in the whole of Japan at the time. I'd already found them, one was a complete shed, and the other was a very nice one that was very heavily modified and thus would cause insurance difficulties.

Now that I have a company car as well, I'm setting it up as more of a B-road toy. I live in the Welsh valleys so there are plenty of good roads. I've gone for R33 GTSt brakes, slightly bigger wheels to clear those brakes and allow me to run a 20mm wider tyre and have recently fitted a custom stainless exhaust. Plan to do a mild tweak to the boost and the intake and that's probably about it. Looks wise I'm keeping it as standard as possible since it gets very little attention from the local chavs.

Lirin

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Proton_Perdana_V6_(front),_Kuala_Lumpur.jpg/800px-Proton_Perdana_V6_(front),_Kuala_Lumpur.jpg&imgrefurl=http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/607363&usg=__GvT1T09eUZT7zHfY9a4Ad4t142Y=&h=397&w=800&sz=83&hl=en&start=37&zoom=1&tbnid=hHC1exSOaAxMiM:&tbnh=71&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dproton%2Bperdana%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1

Not mine, but same model- pics of mine on home pc. Yes, it is very subtle- I like being able to park it in a multi-storey and not have to worry.

My own coupe is showier- I put a Nissan Silvia S15 front end on it.

Cefiro's sadly, I've never driven one, though I did see a few at car shows. Looks as if it would be nice to drive- and certainly can see the drift appeal- nice spec for it!

We had talked of heavily modifying the Perdana, but given how rare, are leaning more towards the stock standard look. All I've really done externally to date was strip and refurb the alloys- I kept the original, but although they were silver originally, I redid them in the same shade as the body. Original alloy colour looked cheap against the body.

Haven't done much on her so far, barring cleaning/checking the engine bay, and idly wondering what a few of the aftermarket buttons under the dash actually do. I'll trace them someday- I'm hoping for an ejector seat from the big red button.

Lum

S15 front swap on a "coupe"? So I take it you drive an S13 200SX or 180SX then Oddly enough that's what my partner drives.

What is it with Nissan people and front end swaps? The silliest I saw was the new GTR front end on an M25 Stagea

Lirin

No Lum. The S15 front end is on..... a Proton Coupe!

Have 3 cars, 2 Proton Coupe's, and the V6 Perdana.

GTR link- yuck. Were they blind?

Lum

Ok that I have to see. Bet it annoys a lot of Nissan fanboys.

Unless you have an SR20 in there.