Shunter8

Are they the rear 8.5J or front 8j please?

As it’s a JDM would it not be for your rear fog as they don’t come fitted as standard in Japan.

Well been what feels like an eternity since I washed it, sadly had the father in law diagnosed with cancer and shortly after pass away so not really done much on the car other that trips to and from the hospital. But anyway, here’s some pics of when she was clean, but currently she’s looking like the first set of pictures now again, so due another good bath.

I’ve got a pair of each size spacers here, both 2nd hand sets but never got round to using them myself as I went with aftermarket wheels. 350Z is now moved on and they’re no use to me on the Stagea. Will grab some pics and details later today/tomorrow morning on the 25mms as they’re in the garage. 20mm Eibachs as pictured below:

There’s a brand called BC Racing that make coilovers for many cars that are decent quality, so when saying BC most people would relate to them before Black Circles as this is the first time I’ve heard Black Circles referred to as BC.

Tyre lettering is the bottom of the list on that cars list of offences

My apologies, managed to sneak in there first then.

Thanks, yea I like the touring wheels on it. I managed to keep my forged Rays that came off my 350 too so once they’ve been refurbed and got tyres back on they’ll eventually end up on here I reckon.

Ah cool, originally I had quite liked the R35 front swap done on these but then the more I’ve looked at this the more I like it how it is. I remember reading a comment somewhere, I think it may have even been on a thread on here before, about needing GTR power to go with the GTR look of a front end swap and I kinda agree with it. Plus I quite like the idea that this can fly under the radar to almost all other road users except those few who know what it is. I like the R34 front on the C34 Stageas but not too sure it flows with the M35 lines personally.

Well after a flippant post on a friends FB picture about lockdown boredom having me browsing eBay for cars and thinking of selling the 350, another friend then commented saying his brother was interested in my 350. A few messages back and forth later and what had just been a half baked idea in my head turned into him buying my 350. So then ensued the need to source a replacement. For that, what had driven the initial thoughts was to get something auto (for the boring work commutes) and more practical as when the world opens back up again I’d like to get back into mountain biking. So after looking predominantly at Golf GTI Mk5s but never falling in love, I saw this pop up. I’ve always loved Stageas in general but never really read the tech specs on them so when I saw this being a VQ25DET with AWD it piqued my interest enough and just had to have it. So this one is a 250t RS Four V (Also known as an Autech Aero Selection in some parts when I’ve run the chassis number). It’s high Kms but a decent spec and looks as though it’s been well looked after through its life so I’m very happy with it so far. First things first will be a lot of the service bits as I did with my 350 so engine oil and filter, gearbox oil, diff oil and spark plugs should be a good start (air filter and coolant already look brand new). Then on to a few simple and tasteful mods eventually. Anyway, excuse the dirt as it’s -2 here so not going to be washing it just yet as the neighbour did his yesterday and it was freezing as he was doing it and has now left a nice big ice patch in the road. Any one with experience of these with recommendations on good places to source parts and mods feel free to let me know. So far have learned of quite a few things crossing over from 350s so shouldn’t be too difficult to keep her well looked after.

Yep still plenty of us here just absorbing in all the updates, fantastic work

Ah not just me then, I was getting the same message too on my iPhone about it suddenly not being secure. But come back today and seems fine and now has the updated cosmetics. Hopefully just a blip whilst it was changing over.

No worries, happy to have helped

Only thing I can spot is in the screen shot you’ve put 1971, but your display name just has 71 at the end?? Hopefully someone with admin right etc can shed some better light on it but that’s just my one quick observation.

Interesting that as I currently run 225/45/18 and 265/40/18 on 9.5J and 11J wheels respectively. May look at those sizes for mine then. Just gauging ideas at the moment so probably won’t be in a position to fork out on tyres until end of Jan/Feb time at the earliest as I’ve got to stretch furlough pay through the 90 days of January yet Valid point, I currently run Bridgestone S001’s (no idea why there’s all the hate for Bridgestones as they’ve served me well in all weathers so far) so will probably go for a set of those then as that makes sense to keep it somewhat relatable to what I’m currently used to.

Merry Christmas all, hope it’s all as good as it can be wherever you are in the world. Stay safe

I’ve been getting the urge more and more to take the Zed out on track and now I’ve had all the alignment and corner weighting done I’m confident the car will be good for a track day. However, the road wheels aren’t exactly the spec for racing around on track due to their width and offset and I think when pushed hard will be scraping the arches, plus I don’t want to shred my road tyres either. So I have the original Rays that came on the car and plan is to get some OEM size tyres to go on those for track day duties as it’ll probably only be a handful of times. But I want to be able to throw the Rays on at home and drive to the circuit and back save trying to carry wheels etc. So recommendations on decent tyres for the odd track day that are road legal for the drive to and from please? Preferably an all rounder just in case said track day ends up being greasy or wet as it is England after all! Not looking to set the world on fire with the most expensive tyres for the fastest lap times, just something half decent at least while I get used to the car in track conditions and progress as I’m not sure how many times I’ll get to go around work so don’t want to break the bank on tyres that may only be used once or twice.

I think they’re still trying to keep it as a newer AE86 of which turboing would move too far away from its heritage. Although I do get your point too as from what I’ve read it is underpowered compared to its rivalry. Can’t say I’ve ever been near one or driven one so can’t comment on its performance so it’s hard to judge what power and form of induction it needs to be, but it’s a balancing act of them trying to stay true to the evolution of the 86 and making it competitive to its current competitors.

If I’m honest, I’d give a VXR8 more street cred as that looks too plain to me. Just looks like a modified Insignia at a quick glance and not something I’d even give a second look at out on the road.

Whilst my 350 is on paper the highest bhp car I’ve owned it doesn’t feel the fastest. I still think my supercharged R53 Mini I sold before it was faster or at least felt it. That was a lot of fun working it up and down through the gears with the supercharger whine. But that was half the reason I got rid, the way I’d modded it just encouraged me to drive it hard everywhere (semi stripped, bucket seat, harness, roll cage, smaller pulley, bigger cooler, etc etc). Still was probably only just touching 200bhp at the fly but out on the road it was a rocket ship to me. It was fun building it up to what it was but I never had the time for track days so it was wasted on me. I love the 350 more as although I’d say it feels a tad slower or maybe the same-ish to me it’s the feel of the car that’s more important. It’s a GT car to me, I can get in and drive in comfort for long distance but also have fun in it when I want to. I think I’d say even anything more than 200bhp on the road is a little wasted nowadays with how quick some cars can put it down. I had an eco boost Fiesta a few years back and although it was only the 125bhp model it still didn’t hang about and with the fact it was fairly quiet and smooth doing it again it was too easy to speed in. The 350 to me is the right balance of power/speed and “drama” for want of a better word to me. Quiet enough when you want to plod, but enough noise and spectacle enough when you play a bit without having to go to licence losing levels.

Wow! Now I’m a big fan of pop up headlights on the right car, but double pop ups.....here is a case when less is definitely more! Almost looks like a blend of a Diablo front with a Testarosa rear.

I’ll be honest I’ve not heard of one until now, just googled the original one and can see why it didn’t sell in big numbers, pretty hideous looking thing. But that new one looks very smart indeed. It actually looks like a £50k car now at least, how they expected to sell the old one looking like it did at £66k I’ll never know.

See that’s the thing, I love them, and the idea of having one, but I trawled through loads for sale at the time and had the same feeling, none of them screamed at me “that’s the car!” Then ironically I went onto FB marketplace to look for other cars and came across my 350 and it did exactly that, leapt out at me and screamed “that’s the car!” and as they say the rest is history. The bigger irony was, I’d signed up to here about 8 months before that when I was first trying to sell the Mini in the hope someone may have miraculously fancied a swap but to no avail. So yea subconsciously came back around to a 350 without intentionally thinking about it.

Welcome aboard. FN2 is still on my list of cars to own, it was a toss up between one of those and the 350 I have now when I sold my R53 Mini, but clearly the 350 won. Be interesting to find out what you think between the FN2 and 350 once you’re settled in with it, although I know they’re not exactly comparable models of course.

If I’m being honest, can’t say I’m a massive fan of it. Not saying it’s a bad looking car, but doesn’t reach out and grab my attention. Tail lights/boot lid just reminds me of the USDM Civics (not sure what Gen) but looking at it that’s just the first thing that comes to mind....Civic. Although can also see some Lexus-esque styling notes too, which again Lexus are nice cars but this is meant to be a Subaru, doesn’t really stand out as one to me. Not that my opinion matters as I’ll never be a potential customer buying one new anyway as way out of my budget. But if I was, it wouldn’t be the one I’d be running for, I’d be browsing about for what else is in a similar price range instead.