.....BEEN ON THE DAILY GRIND

WEW haven't updated in a while now! Fast-paced life in Tokyo was taking its toll on me i guess. Work at Nismo, progressing my personal builds, keeping up with friends and so on. I could barely find time to update y'all on things, but i've finally managed some spare time and now here we are! Let's dive in shall we-

ROTARY MOBIL

Not a lot of progress on this thing yet, just the fact that the MONSTER TRUCK ride height is now dealt with

Already starting to look SO MUCH BETTER! it sits on a set of Tein MonoSport coilovers now, which fixed the height issues and eliminated all the body roll. snagged a set from UpGarage for just V$1,500!

and to complete the look, it also has some slight negative camber on all sides. Oh and you may have noticed, the old Kouki wing has been taken off. Not sure what im gonna replace that with, or if im going wingless. we'll have to wait and see

Inside one small change made is a Nardi steering wheel. had one laying around the garage so i decided to plop it on

I've been driving it around every now and then too. So far the 13B has been pretty much top notch! im just careful to always premix sounds a bit muted now tho, maybe an exhaust is due soon??

Oh yeah and one of the brake lights has seemingly blown a fuse, that needs to be dealt with as well lmao. But yeah all in all, progress is coming slow and smooth for this car!

A DEAL I COULDN'T PASS UP

The E36 325i drift build got some progress over time too. As u can see, it had begun to look actually cool again!

Got a set of used AVS Model 5's with mildly stretched michelin pilot sports, a set of 326P Chakuriki coils, and an M3 front bumper!

I also dark tinted the rear indicators so it kinda flows nicer. And i threw together a full straight pipe exhaust!

AAAAAAAND then comes the title of this paragraph. A month or so ago now, I was informed of a local guy offering his car up for trade. He was in search for something rather uncommon but sporty, and possibly not japanese domestic. My E36 came to match all that criteria, and the car he offered was a 1996 Nissan Skyline ECR33 GTS25t! I've been itching REALLY BADLY to build something RB powered ever since i started working at Nismo Omori. Hell, i'm pretty much surrounded by RB's there, ofc im influenced to want one This deal seemed to be the perfect opportunity to calm that itch down, even though i'd have to lose the E36.

I shot Taka-san (the guy trading the R33) a message offering my E36, and thankfully he was interested to have a look! So the next day we pitched a meetup at my favorite local ramen joint.

And here is the car in question!

thing was packing some mods here and there too! has Cusco Street Zero-A coilovers and a Tomei expreme muffler. had wheels too but Taka-san wanted to keep those for future use (They were CE28SL's. makes sense why he wanted to keep em, they aint cheap xd)

Condition wise, the stock silver paint was in overall average condition. Not top notch and shiny asf, but not filled with swirls and such either. overall 7/10 exterior.

Interior wise, only mod so far is an ATC Volanti sportivi steering wheel. Condition is pretty much the same as the body- Not excellent, not bad either.

After i finished checking out the R33 and taking it for a small test drive around the block, we went in for a bowl of steamy Ramen and and some Onigiri's. After that Taka-san thoroughly inspected the E36 and test drove it, just how i inspected the R33. Both cars have no rust issues, a mild amount of mods, decent exterior and interior. We were both pretty content and the trade was going thru! BUT sensibly enough, Taka-san put out the request for some cash to be added since an E36 325i doesnt really match the value of an R33 GTS25t. After some back and forth, we settled at V$2000 his way. Deal finalized, hands shaken!

We both agreed to keep in touch about build progress and such, we bid our old cars goodbye, and Taka-san was on his way in the E36!

....FAST FORWARD NEXT DAY

the first thing that had to be altered on the R33 was the wheels. i simply could not stick to the 5-lug stockies, and luckily enough i had some R18 Nismo LMGT1's laying on one corner of the garage (the same set that was on my Audi A5!)

already ONE MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT THERE

........FAST FORWARD PRESENT DAY

(aaaaand it looks like shit again)

Ofc i couldn't just leave it at wheels and nothing else, so im in the process of adding some more tasteful body mods. Starting off with a somewhat rare Series-II GTS25t optional front lip

The shaken etc. stickers were in the glove box (Taka-san preferred clean windshields more), but i decided to place them back on the windshield along with a silver gradient banner that i printed real quick

But yeah this is pretty much how it sits right now. awaiting some side skirts, maybe rear valances and a different rear wing to complete the front lip's style

While the LMGT1's were indeed a big improvement on full stock body, im not sure if they look as good with the lip on now. Maybe it needs a different set of shoes too? idk only time will tell i guess

Im probably gonna be at Ebisu summer Matsuri with this car soon. its pretty much a perfect grass roots drift recipe as of rn (which was also the purpose of the E36 it replaced). Looking forward to some good times with this boaty boi

KAMI-SAMA EXPANSION???

with the buttload of cars myself, AJ and Marc (not so much) are acquiring and wrenching on these days, Westkyo was getting pretty "claustrophobic" to say the least. Many of the cars had to be parked outside and there was always the hassle of moving cars in and out constantly. Let alone the increasing lack of movement space. SOOOO that had to change, and it did! (sort of)

around last month i started scoping garages up for rent nearby (of which there were many), and came across the perfect first candidate for an expansion. Me and AJ (RocketBunnyS13) went to look at it, place was good enough, deal sealed! the rent we agreed upon with the owner was an acceptable 950 V$ per month.

So far ive only stored some of my own cars here. Well, 4 of them to be precise. And the E46 i drove here to take pics of the place.

the garage is big enough to cram-pack about 7 cars, and outside in the driveway i can park 2 more. but yeah just for some space to breathe, i decided to keep 4 for now. AJ and Marc are also free to store/wrench on their cars here from time to time!

And now if we move towards the other part of the garage where the "working area" is,

'MURICA BOIS HELL YE

NOP i did not forget about these two! they arrived at Japan a while ago now and the E92 has got some progress too!

managed to scope out a full M3 style kit (minus the front fenders) made to suit a non-M body. Fitment is pretty decent all around, same goes for the material, So far so good! paid 2350 V$ for the whole thing from an UpGarage which was an hour drive away!

Oh and yeah i had to take the stock exhaust off in order to fit the bumper on. Doesnt matter since it'd come off a while later anyway

Birthday gift from Franklin which was intended for this car is currently all sitting in a box in the trunk (in case u missed, we got 2 BIG turbos and a lotta parts to accomodate em). Can't wait to get this thing Wangan-ready soon. Yes u read that right, this will be a Shutokou runner just like my Supra! tho maybe with some more power. Should def stand out a bit from the usual cars sprinting throughout the freeways!

And then theres the abomination FD3S (again in case u missed, this thing is LS swapped). No progress for it so far. it got a lot of head turns from the rather weird engine note when i was driving it home from the port im just glad i wasnt stopped and beaten with chopsticks and nunchucks

Tbh im still not even fully decided what i wanna do with it. The LS is coming right off, but what replaces it? i could go with a 1JZ or an SR20 or smth of those likes in order to still keep it piston powered, OR just go ahead and drop a good ole 13B back in. im veering a bit more towards the latter but we'll see!

....LETS MOVE ON TO SOME SAD NEWS NOW

Mika, My E46 M3, has to be one of the best cars i've owned and had the privilege to enjoy in my life so far. Its like the perfect balance between comfort, performance, styling, reliability, and driving feel.

I've driven this car a lot throughout the past year or so of me owning it. Hell, its probably my most driven car out of my whole car collection. And i've loved every bit of it!

But all good things do come to an end, and this is no exception. With the recent change in build plan and the now style-based look, i dont really know what else to do with it anymore. It's pretty much achieved a flatline from me and im out of enthusiasm to build it further; the same thing which led to me selling off my old S14. You may think this is nonsense because the engine is still pretty much pristine and untouched (apart from the exhaust), but tuning these S54's can get pretty expensive, Let alone tuning it in Japan. Forced Induction kits can cost upwards of 8k$! thats without the accomodation needed to keep it running healthy, and same case goes for an N.A. stroker build. Engine tunability is just pretty bottlenecked on these cars unfortunately.

Soooooo, yeah. I think its time for a move on to something possibly better. And im posting Mika for sale very soon. I'll most likely have to take the silver wrap off, but yeah. I probably dont have much time left with it.

Welp, i think that wraps up todays update. hope it wasnt boring to read since its all just car progress and not much driving but yeah as always, thanks for stopping by!