RE Amemiya FD in New Zealand : Arie
03-31-16, 03:10 AM
#1
911 MAZ
Thread Starter
RE Amemiya FD in New Zealand : Arie
Hey guys,
My name is Troy, originally from Sydney Australia, i moved to Auckland New Zealand a year ago.
I have been a long time Japanese car fan, back in Aus i owned a mildly modified 2003 Lexus IS300 daily (tein coilovers, trd braces, trd sways, 3inch full exhaust, work vs-xxs and some other stuff) and a 1994 Y32 Nissan Cedric (VIP style car, moderately modified, body work, interior, one off work schwartz wheels, bare metal respray, audi projector retrofit, xbox).
I have always wanted a RX7, on my 13th birthday my grandfather gave me the Haynes FC service manual which i read back to front at least 10 times, around 6 years ago i was shopping around for a FD but they were out of my price range at the time (around 35-40k).
When i moved to NZ i thought i would try something different and picked up my first euro, a 2008 BMW 335i, before picking up the car i had a 7" intercooler, piggyback ecu, intake and full service kit on order. Its been a great daily, comfy, decent amount of power but in the end its hasnt been that fun when getting out on some of the great NZ roads. Its boring.
So that leads me to November last year, when i came across a importer in NZ that brings in around 2 FDs a month. The had imported a very special car which they had been negotiating over for a couple of months.
A 1992 R1 FD RX7 that was used by the RE Amemiya workshop as as promo road car! It features the RE Amemiya AC037 and AC987 body conversions. These are not to everyones tastes but i love unique cars and this FD certainly is! I put a deposit down 3 days later.
I decided to call her Arie
She has a couple of nice extras
Arigosta coilovers
Project MU 2 piece front and rear rotors
Blitz blow off valve
Replica TE37s (these will get sold for something else at some point)
A unknown (to me) catback (eyeing off the RE Amemiya double dolphin OR may go for something custom)
D1 Spec shift **** and mazda speed handbrake cover (these will go)
The team at the importer then went to work on the Low Volume Vehicle cert that was needed to get the car on NZ roads. Being so close to xmas this took a bit longer than expected and was not so easy (the front winker lights were not DOT stamped and the spoiler end caps were "too sharp".
On the 23rd of Jan the car was ready! Plates on, LVV cert passed, happy days!! It was a blazing hot day and i was nervous driving a car i had dreamt about since i was 13 so took my 1st drive very easy. I drove for ~45 min taking it up to a max of around 4k. I got it home so i could take a closer poke around and based on what i read the first think i did was open the bonnet to let the engine cool down (i know it has a vented hood but it also has rain guards, those will be coming out ).
This is when i saw a moderate amount of steam coming from the hot side of the motor, it was not obvious where it was coming from but i could hear the coolant boiling so i knew there must have been a leak in the cooling system to cause it to de-pressurize. I had a poke around and could not see exactly where it was coming from (turbos kinda and intake kinda gets in the road!).
About 5 min later the coolant stopped boiling and no more steam. There was a 20c coin sized pool of coolant on the ground.
I called the importers and they sent a towie on Monday to pick her up and take her in to a Auckland workshop the specialises in rotaries, later that day i got the good news bad news call.
The housing was leaking coolant. Damn.
Good news, they quickly sourced a replace motor, a series 6 motor with series 8 turbos and ~45,000kms, 116psi compression and in a car running. This motor when in smoothly and passed leak down and compression.
I already have some goodies for her!
RE Amemiya shift ****
RE Amemiya intake
RE Amemiya IC hard pipes
Apexi PFC with OLED controller
All FD the hyper revs
OEM floor mats
The plan for her is to first up the reliability with some of the standard stuff like a AST, koyo rad, aftermarket intercooler (still weighing up different setups on this). And then get her out for some track days!
Here are some pics in the meantime! Thanks for reading
The IS300
The Cedric
[/QUOTE]
My name is Troy, originally from Sydney Australia, i moved to Auckland New Zealand a year ago.
I have been a long time Japanese car fan, back in Aus i owned a mildly modified 2003 Lexus IS300 daily (tein coilovers, trd braces, trd sways, 3inch full exhaust, work vs-xxs and some other stuff) and a 1994 Y32 Nissan Cedric (VIP style car, moderately modified, body work, interior, one off work schwartz wheels, bare metal respray, audi projector retrofit, xbox).
I have always wanted a RX7, on my 13th birthday my grandfather gave me the Haynes FC service manual which i read back to front at least 10 times, around 6 years ago i was shopping around for a FD but they were out of my price range at the time (around 35-40k).
When i moved to NZ i thought i would try something different and picked up my first euro, a 2008 BMW 335i, before picking up the car i had a 7" intercooler, piggyback ecu, intake and full service kit on order. Its been a great daily, comfy, decent amount of power but in the end its hasnt been that fun when getting out on some of the great NZ roads. Its boring.
So that leads me to November last year, when i came across a importer in NZ that brings in around 2 FDs a month. The had imported a very special car which they had been negotiating over for a couple of months.
A 1992 R1 FD RX7 that was used by the RE Amemiya workshop as as promo road car! It features the RE Amemiya AC037 and AC987 body conversions. These are not to everyones tastes but i love unique cars and this FD certainly is! I put a deposit down 3 days later.
I decided to call her Arie
She has a couple of nice extras
Arigosta coilovers
Project MU 2 piece front and rear rotors
Blitz blow off valve
Replica TE37s (these will get sold for something else at some point)
A unknown (to me) catback (eyeing off the RE Amemiya double dolphin OR may go for something custom)
D1 Spec shift **** and mazda speed handbrake cover (these will go)
The team at the importer then went to work on the Low Volume Vehicle cert that was needed to get the car on NZ roads. Being so close to xmas this took a bit longer than expected and was not so easy (the front winker lights were not DOT stamped and the spoiler end caps were "too sharp".
On the 23rd of Jan the car was ready! Plates on, LVV cert passed, happy days!! It was a blazing hot day and i was nervous driving a car i had dreamt about since i was 13 so took my 1st drive very easy. I drove for ~45 min taking it up to a max of around 4k. I got it home so i could take a closer poke around and based on what i read the first think i did was open the bonnet to let the engine cool down (i know it has a vented hood but it also has rain guards, those will be coming out ).
This is when i saw a moderate amount of steam coming from the hot side of the motor, it was not obvious where it was coming from but i could hear the coolant boiling so i knew there must have been a leak in the cooling system to cause it to de-pressurize. I had a poke around and could not see exactly where it was coming from (turbos kinda and intake kinda gets in the road!).
About 5 min later the coolant stopped boiling and no more steam. There was a 20c coin sized pool of coolant on the ground.
I called the importers and they sent a towie on Monday to pick her up and take her in to a Auckland workshop the specialises in rotaries, later that day i got the good news bad news call.
The housing was leaking coolant. Damn.
Good news, they quickly sourced a replace motor, a series 6 motor with series 8 turbos and ~45,000kms, 116psi compression and in a car running. This motor when in smoothly and passed leak down and compression.
I already have some goodies for her!
RE Amemiya shift ****
RE Amemiya intake
RE Amemiya IC hard pipes
Apexi PFC with OLED controller
All FD the hyper revs
OEM floor mats
The plan for her is to first up the reliability with some of the standard stuff like a AST, koyo rad, aftermarket intercooler (still weighing up different setups on this). And then get her out for some track days!
Here are some pics in the meantime! Thanks for reading
The IS300
The Cedric
[/QUOTE]
