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RedCarDriver

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Posts: 1211

Location: United States Arizona
Occupation: it's complicated... more complicated than my relationships
Age: 30
V$: 86310
#90781   2016-02-07 02:30          
Helloooooo, Pudsey!

Okay, that was intense. I came expecting to work all day, and now I'm glad to have more experience really getting my hands dirty with this stuff. I've done engine swaps before, but mostly into cars that were already set up for the swaps, in terms of engine mounts and stuff (RB26 into S14, LS7 into G8 V6). This was entirely new territory and we had to do a lot of figuring out stuff by ourselves, but, we handled it - and I think the result came out pretty good, all things considered!

The night I arrived, as well as tonight, I managed to take some nice pictures of all of the cars around the shop.

The first thing I said to Marco when I arrived was: "Let me see it." He knew what I meant, immediately - the other 2JZ powered R33 across the world, the twin to the one built locally at the VS Garage branch in Arizona. Indeed, he took me to the garage to show me how things were going to be set up, and I saw it there:


The green R33 back home is an S1. I think this is too, but I don't know the year or whatever. Marco has been, let's say, "coy" about the details of the car - no fair, in my opinion, especially since it's kind of a demo car! ("Street drift" car, aka, used for demostrations and exhibitions.)


That derrière, though? Off topic: XS Engineering was a local shop in Phoenix (yes, in real life too) and it's cool to see their brand and parts here.


Yes, yes, the steering wheel is a kouki version, and so this might be an S2 with some S1 parts - but that's not even the point here. Marco surprised me while I was admiring his car, and he said "Catch!" suddenly. He threw the keys to me! (I'd like to say I was cool enough to have caught them properly, but I'd be lying. I mean: jet lag.) He told me that I could tool around town with it if I wanted, and that I could even burn up some tires at a local skid pad if I wanted! I told him I was honored and that I'd have to take him up on it - though, not until I had had some proper sleep. My sleep schedule was never truly "local" to Arizona to begin with, really more like somewhere out in the Pacific, so I felt entirely messed up sleep-wise.


Then I stepped around the corner and - holy crap. VS Garage must have some really rich folks for customers or something. I saw what looked like just a tuned Ferrari 355 and a TVR - both exotic for Phoenix (though maybe the Ferrari would have been expected in Scottsdale), but I didn't think I was looking at anything too rare.


Then I looked closer. The TVR, especially, gave me pause, because I wasn't believing my eyes for a moment - I thought I was actually looking at the genuine TVR Cerbera Speed 12, aka Project 7/12! No, as it turns out - this is a 4.0 Speed Six powered Cerbera with a custom turbo kit on it (see also the HKS intercooler) and a full bespoke Speed 12 body kit made out of carbon fiber. The 355 was a surprise, too - it was a genuine Challenge with a low-digit serial number (one I won't disclose, out of privacy).


Beautiful pieces of art. Also confirmed to me that, yes, I was smart for choosing big enough brakes to put onto my own R33.


After taking these pics, I stopped acting like the doofus tourist I felt like and went to bed. We worked all day the next day, and Marco took the few pictures we have of that; but, I snapped some more pictures of some cars in and around the shop.

Marco's very own Supra. Love it - especially the glass roof, which is a pretty sweet styling choice, even if I wouldn't have gone with anything but a fixed roof on one of my own cars.


I love the carbon diffusers on this car. I'd get something like this for the Supra if I thought they were good for aerodynamics or if they fit the theme of the car, but sadly, they are neither (and are outside of my budget while I hunt for more BCNR33 engine parts!).


Another customer car: a Corvette C6, obviously not a base C6 Z51 because it had the wider GS / Z06 / ZR1 fenders, perhaps ZR1 especially.


The car was indeed a ZR1, but I was really surprised when I got close enough to look at the engine. Visible through the transparent engine cover was not the stock Eaton supercharger I was expecting, but instead an individual throttle body intake - connected to two air boxes fed by twin Rotrex centrifugal superchargers! I'm told that this setup was inspired by a mix of Koenigsegg and Ferrari influence, and makes much more power on the same LS block than is usually extracted from the ZR1. Something I've never seen before, that's for sure.


Something I've rarely seen: center lock wheels. I have to say that, on this particular car, the look works excellently.


Outside was the shop's British Drift Championship car, painted with a rather, uh, "confrontational" paint job. I got a chuckle out of it when I first saw renders of the paint job, but I was surprised to hear that they actually printed the wrap like that! Still... funny to some tastes.


At least they're not joking around about the safety of their car. Proper cage and fixed-back seats; and I was wondering about the stock steering wheel and whether or not it had an airbag, until I looked closer and realized it was one of the non-airbag types that they fitted to some early ECR33s as well.


At least the paint was really good looking, underneath the Dogeritolicious wrap.


These wheels looked mega expensive, and were really cool to look at (and fun to photograph).


Sorry, S14, but you're being upstaged by your much cooler big sibling behind you. Keep trying (but, seriously, never stop having a sense of humor, even if that sense of humor might have to grow up a little).


Anyway. That's how my week went. I'm going to be back in the 'States before I know it. But for now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a helmet, an ECR33, and a skid pad...
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