It's been so long since I have posted on these forums... that I didn't even realise it had a separate Readers Rides section now! So here is a rather comprehensive (boring perhaps?) account of my pride and joy, and the trials and tribulations it has faced during the course of my ownership, so sit back, have a cup of coffee and read on folks........ *cue intro music*
I bought the car on the 1st of October 1999, as a $500 near wreck, the thing was absolutely rotten, having originally been a UK car, (salt on the roads in winter) and then imported to Wellington in 1986 (sea breeze....) so it was always going to be a mission. Talked the chick selling it down from $3000 so it was a good deal really. Basically I bought it for the fact it had a great deal of the hard to get Sud bits in great condition - namely an intact interior, all the plastics and electrical parts, as well as the more desirable 14" Speedline alloys versus the weird metric Speedline alloys of the same design (340mm - part way between a 13" and a 14"). On the way back to Palmy from buying it... we ran over a Chep pallet in the middle of the road at 140km/h, completely buggering the LH strut, wheel, tyre, and output shaft bearing on the transaxle. Luckily, my uncle who was following managed to track down the truck the pallet had fallen off, and a healthy insurance payout from the transport company assisted in a full respray and panel job. This was pretty extensive, bascially involved putting on new front guards, stitching in new rear guards, welding up extensive rust at the base of both A-pillars and the base of the LH B-pillar, and also some in the floor. In total it was off the road for about 8 months while I found the time to do the work amongst exams and the busy social life of a 6th/7th former at the time
These are the oldest photo's I could lay my hands on.... fresh out of the panelshop, the day I finally got it all back together, circa mid 2000.
Check those styly 14" rims, the absurdly high ride height and the somewhat comical wee exhaust!
I drove it like this for a wee while, doing minor mods in it like a 2" exhaust and the usual K&N filter, until I chanced upon a ridiculously cheap set of mags at the local Partsworld.... thus I became the owner of a set of ROH Spider 14" wheels in a 4x98mm PCD for the princely sum of $150 - they actually came off a Lada and the wrecker guy was convinced they wouldn't fit anything else, so who was I to argue???
Here's a couple of pics of it resplendent in all its glory, still riding high on the 14" rims... this is around October 2001, both of these pics snapped en route to 4nR Nationals 2001.
Time went by once more..... until I decided it was time I had more go. By this stage I was on my 2nd 1500cc 105hp boxer, as the initial engine that the car had in it died from a cracked piston due to leaning out, the substitute engine being a $200 boxer pulled from a wrecked Alfa 33 until I could afford my planned 1712cc Alfa 33 engine conversion. I purchased a low km example of this engine from Italian Autos in Auckland in May 2001 for $850 including freight. Usual maintenance stuff was completed, such as cambelts, all new fluids, new hoses where necessary, and a few other seals and gaskets, before it was completed around August the same year during a weekend. Added was a new 2.25" exhaust with a set of tuned length split pulse extractors. Also took the opportunity to build a fresh gearbox, and install brand spankers brake hardware while I was at it.
So with a new engine, I got interested in doing some track time at Manfeild, and it became apparent that even though a standard Sud handles absolutely brilliantly (contrary to many peoples belief of FWD handling) some work would need to be done to go even faaaaaassstteeer! Cue a suspension upgrade. All four corners were fitted with Spax 50mm progressive lowering springs brought back from the UK by an AROCNZ member, and matched Spax adjustable dampers. It sat nice and low, as well as displaying improved handling characteristics mainly due to the stiffened rear end, and made the car more susceptible to oversteer as opposed to the usual FWD understeer.
The resulting ride height was something like this:
As happy as I was with the performance for the time being, I turned my attention to some interior mods, namely a stereo as I hadn't had anything in the car since I had purchased it, and for a music lover, that was hell, even though the raspy boxer sounds wicked (especially on the overrun... mmm popping and crackling!). A moderate system was installed, namely a Pioneer CD player and Blaupunkt front speakers, Sony sub, amp and 6x9s. This got stolen eventually but that's another story. Joining it in the cabin was a period 80s style MOMO steering wheel that I scored complete with a Skyline boss kit for $70... then I sold the boss kit for $50, making it a cheap wheel.
In the months following this set of mods, not a lot was done to the car, I drove it daily, took it to the track when I could and also did a fair few long haul trips up North in it, until I shifted to Chch in 2003, where the car soon became known as SUD0FF when I had the opportunity to buy the plate for a very cheap price. In October 2003 one of the lifters packed a sad in the left hand head, so I pulled both heads off, recondtioned them, including a slight plane, cleaning up the ports, k-lining the valves, and installing valve stem seals on the exhaust valves, which they don't have as standard. Summer 2004 was when the next noticable mod came - the set of 15" TSW Apex wheels.
During 2004 I managed to get out and do some drag events, culminating in a couple of trips to the DYO semi-finals and a best time of 16.14 @ 139km/h, with a 60ft time of 2.3 secs. I will venture out again soon, aiming for a high 15 with some tuning this time!
In between times, I found time to meet up with other Sud enthusiasts and snap piccies like this one:
So this brings this epic saga to 2005... where the full interior and audio overhaul took place after some serious hours at work, and some serious saving. I designed a basic, boxed boot install trimmed in carpet, as I figured it was in keeping with the car's overall style. 2 Rockford Fosgate 10" subs were to be the bass makers, powered by a Rockford Fosgate P3001 382wrms mono channel amp (2ohm parallel wiring), the front speakers were Alpine Type R 6.5" components, running of a second amp, another Rockford Fosgate, this time a P2002 2 channel 2x92wrms amp. A whole heap of quality wiring was run throughout the car, I worked for ages building the boot setup, and even taught myself a few new skills, such as trimming and fibreglassing, courtesy of some good mates who helped me along the way!
I turned my attention to the seating.... I bought the complete seating arrangement from a 2000 Alfa Romeo 145QV for the meagre sum of $200. This included a pair of wickedly comfortable Recaro reclining seats, and a rear seat, which I ended up cannibalising for the material in order to trim my existing seat to match the fronts. This turned out to be the only work other than the paint that I farmed out to someone else... Patrick Auto Trimmers in Chch did a wicked job for a fair price, also installing the headrests from the 145 rear seat for a subtle custom touch. The steering wheel in thse pics unfortunately doesn't belong to me (cheers Paul!), but I am searching for one in the exact style but a 350mm version.....
So that is the story so far of my (very) long term project, as well as daily driver and track car and..... yeah. Next plans involved pulling the engine out again... and replacing with a hot 1.7 8v, still running twin Dellortos, this is scheduled for sometime early 2006 when I should have enough saved to do so! Until then, here's some of the nicer pics of the car as it is now....
I bought the car on the 1st of October 1999, as a $500 near wreck, the thing was absolutely rotten, having originally been a UK car, (salt on the roads in winter) and then imported to Wellington in 1986 (sea breeze....) so it was always going to be a mission. Talked the chick selling it down from $3000 so it was a good deal really. Basically I bought it for the fact it had a great deal of the hard to get Sud bits in great condition - namely an intact interior, all the plastics and electrical parts, as well as the more desirable 14" Speedline alloys versus the weird metric Speedline alloys of the same design (340mm - part way between a 13" and a 14"). On the way back to Palmy from buying it... we ran over a Chep pallet in the middle of the road at 140km/h, completely buggering the LH strut, wheel, tyre, and output shaft bearing on the transaxle. Luckily, my uncle who was following managed to track down the truck the pallet had fallen off, and a healthy insurance payout from the transport company assisted in a full respray and panel job. This was pretty extensive, bascially involved putting on new front guards, stitching in new rear guards, welding up extensive rust at the base of both A-pillars and the base of the LH B-pillar, and also some in the floor. In total it was off the road for about 8 months while I found the time to do the work amongst exams and the busy social life of a 6th/7th former at the time
These are the oldest photo's I could lay my hands on.... fresh out of the panelshop, the day I finally got it all back together, circa mid 2000.
Check those styly 14" rims, the absurdly high ride height and the somewhat comical wee exhaust!
I drove it like this for a wee while, doing minor mods in it like a 2" exhaust and the usual K&N filter, until I chanced upon a ridiculously cheap set of mags at the local Partsworld.... thus I became the owner of a set of ROH Spider 14" wheels in a 4x98mm PCD for the princely sum of $150 - they actually came off a Lada and the wrecker guy was convinced they wouldn't fit anything else, so who was I to argue???
Here's a couple of pics of it resplendent in all its glory, still riding high on the 14" rims... this is around October 2001, both of these pics snapped en route to 4nR Nationals 2001.
Time went by once more..... until I decided it was time I had more go. By this stage I was on my 2nd 1500cc 105hp boxer, as the initial engine that the car had in it died from a cracked piston due to leaning out, the substitute engine being a $200 boxer pulled from a wrecked Alfa 33 until I could afford my planned 1712cc Alfa 33 engine conversion. I purchased a low km example of this engine from Italian Autos in Auckland in May 2001 for $850 including freight. Usual maintenance stuff was completed, such as cambelts, all new fluids, new hoses where necessary, and a few other seals and gaskets, before it was completed around August the same year during a weekend. Added was a new 2.25" exhaust with a set of tuned length split pulse extractors. Also took the opportunity to build a fresh gearbox, and install brand spankers brake hardware while I was at it.
So with a new engine, I got interested in doing some track time at Manfeild, and it became apparent that even though a standard Sud handles absolutely brilliantly (contrary to many peoples belief of FWD handling) some work would need to be done to go even faaaaaassstteeer! Cue a suspension upgrade. All four corners were fitted with Spax 50mm progressive lowering springs brought back from the UK by an AROCNZ member, and matched Spax adjustable dampers. It sat nice and low, as well as displaying improved handling characteristics mainly due to the stiffened rear end, and made the car more susceptible to oversteer as opposed to the usual FWD understeer.
The resulting ride height was something like this:
As happy as I was with the performance for the time being, I turned my attention to some interior mods, namely a stereo as I hadn't had anything in the car since I had purchased it, and for a music lover, that was hell, even though the raspy boxer sounds wicked (especially on the overrun... mmm popping and crackling!). A moderate system was installed, namely a Pioneer CD player and Blaupunkt front speakers, Sony sub, amp and 6x9s. This got stolen eventually but that's another story. Joining it in the cabin was a period 80s style MOMO steering wheel that I scored complete with a Skyline boss kit for $70... then I sold the boss kit for $50, making it a cheap wheel.
In the months following this set of mods, not a lot was done to the car, I drove it daily, took it to the track when I could and also did a fair few long haul trips up North in it, until I shifted to Chch in 2003, where the car soon became known as SUD0FF when I had the opportunity to buy the plate for a very cheap price. In October 2003 one of the lifters packed a sad in the left hand head, so I pulled both heads off, recondtioned them, including a slight plane, cleaning up the ports, k-lining the valves, and installing valve stem seals on the exhaust valves, which they don't have as standard. Summer 2004 was when the next noticable mod came - the set of 15" TSW Apex wheels.
During 2004 I managed to get out and do some drag events, culminating in a couple of trips to the DYO semi-finals and a best time of 16.14 @ 139km/h, with a 60ft time of 2.3 secs. I will venture out again soon, aiming for a high 15 with some tuning this time!
In between times, I found time to meet up with other Sud enthusiasts and snap piccies like this one:
So this brings this epic saga to 2005... where the full interior and audio overhaul took place after some serious hours at work, and some serious saving. I designed a basic, boxed boot install trimmed in carpet, as I figured it was in keeping with the car's overall style. 2 Rockford Fosgate 10" subs were to be the bass makers, powered by a Rockford Fosgate P3001 382wrms mono channel amp (2ohm parallel wiring), the front speakers were Alpine Type R 6.5" components, running of a second amp, another Rockford Fosgate, this time a P2002 2 channel 2x92wrms amp. A whole heap of quality wiring was run throughout the car, I worked for ages building the boot setup, and even taught myself a few new skills, such as trimming and fibreglassing, courtesy of some good mates who helped me along the way!
I turned my attention to the seating.... I bought the complete seating arrangement from a 2000 Alfa Romeo 145QV for the meagre sum of $200. This included a pair of wickedly comfortable Recaro reclining seats, and a rear seat, which I ended up cannibalising for the material in order to trim my existing seat to match the fronts. This turned out to be the only work other than the paint that I farmed out to someone else... Patrick Auto Trimmers in Chch did a wicked job for a fair price, also installing the headrests from the 145 rear seat for a subtle custom touch. The steering wheel in thse pics unfortunately doesn't belong to me (cheers Paul!), but I am searching for one in the exact style but a 350mm version.....
So that is the story so far of my (very) long term project, as well as daily driver and track car and..... yeah. Next plans involved pulling the engine out again... and replacing with a hot 1.7 8v, still running twin Dellortos, this is scheduled for sometime early 2006 when I should have enough saved to do so! Until then, here's some of the nicer pics of the car as it is now....
cost him £14,000 to build...
