drunkcarlos

Yeah when I ordered the MeisterR hood, I asked about CF trunk and they said they didn't have any for the Soarer and none were planned to be made. I was hoping they made one too...

I avoided the Varis as its just too aggressive looking, but the MeisterR hood is a really nice quality hood, and the fitment was really good (except for retapping one of the holes where it bolts up)... I picked mine up through Yahoo and he had it to my door in 3 days from when I deposited the money in his account. So much lighter than stock... but you lose your hood shocks as it tends to bow the hood where the shocks sit. What I want is a CF trunk from the states or anywhere else possibly in Japan?? ... as I've found none here in mainland Japan. Does anyone know anywhere to get a CF trunk other than importfan.com?

I've had mine out a couple of times. The visible screw isn't so bad but its the 2 not so visible in the wheel well connected to the fender nuts that are a litte bit of a pain to reach. I had to use a 12" extension and and additional 3" extension to reach it easily, with the wheel turned towards the opposite side so you can get maximum room inside. If you haven't already removed your inner wheel well that will be one more obstacle. The lower inner wheel well cover shouldn't have to be removed only the main one. once you undo these 2 nuts plus the visible screw only thing left to do is unhook your light harnesses. good luck.

Yes FRP is a bit brittle, but it just means you have to drive a little more careful with FRP Aero. Sure it would be great to have someone build an aero kit which would stand up to a little more abuse, but there isn't too much support from those makers. Not sure what the cost is like in the US, but in Japan the cheapest Aero available I've found is on Yahoo Auction Japan. Many people make Vertex knock off kits for about 50000yen (just under $500.) Thats not too bad for an FRP kit. There is one guy who will ship overseas too. If your interested I'll find the link to his auction, but you'll need to enable Japanese to read most of the page. The part about overseas shipping is in English though.

Is a 245 the recommended size on a 8.5J wheel? and 275 for the 9.5J? How much were the Falken Azenis ST115 in those sizes? reason I ask is I've always used tires that fit the car not necessarily the required fit for the wheel. I guess you could say necessity over requirement. My Soarer/SC sits low so I've had to stretch 215/40-18's on 9J wheels before... not a fun task, luckily it beaded well and never broke bead. Now I run 225/40-18's for the front as the 215's were a temporary fix for the time and just didn't make me feel too comfortable and 235/40-18's for the rear on 10J wheels... The azenis are wonderful tires though quiet if not abused to badly and they stick well even for 225/40-18's in the front. They have held up to the abuse I put them through. Though even with a 225/40 it still hits inside the fenderwell under hard cornering, this could be due to low offset wheels as well as many different variables, but this leads me to my question... with such a large tire don't you have problems with hitting the fender or inside the fender as you turn?

what type of braces do you need?

The sus I'm using is an old set of JIC (silver) Coilovers, gonna replace it with a new set of coilovers this spring. The wheels are 18" Work Meisters 9J and 10J about +25 offset. Do you miss your AE86? I don't miss mine... :D hehehe. Anyways driving this car has been the greatest. I will be putting in a 6pt rollcage in it in the next couple weeks, so l'm looking forward to seeing how that stiffens up the already stiff chassis. It should make things faster (car movement that is) and less sloppy (not that there is too much slop to begin with). Other than the rollbar I have no chassis braces yet, though I do want front and rear tower bars. The funny thing was this was supposed to be my daily driver and the AE86 was supposed to remain my race car... my how things do change. We are searching for a DV camera now as my friend was borrowing our friends camera and our friend took his camera back so until we find a camera to pull the video I won't be able to post the video. Hopefully within the week or next I should have something, sorry for the delays.

H3 sorry... 1991 Soarer 2.5TT Purchased in December 2003 for $1800 with 85000km. Purchased with TRD 2-way diff, 5 speed swap completed, JIC coilover suspension, Beat up front bumper, unknown sidesteps and rear unders, and no muffler Current mods are speed and boost limiters cut on stock 5sp computer, 80mm Full stainless front pipe (2-piece, no cat) and 80mm full stainless exhaust, and drivers side Reclining bucket seat(much lighter). Planned mods include 6pt rollbar(purchased not installed yet), Oilcooler(purchased not installed yet), New coilover suspension, replace bushings, Full Aero kit and respray car new color, Power FC computer - Boost up tune, fix blinky dash, and passenger side reclining bucket seat Need to fix blinky dash (I envy you all with working analog guage clusters), as well as change timing belt and serpentine accessory belt.

Thats good to hear the sc400 was so easy to drift for you. I saw the drifting topic and couldn't resist, hope you don't mind. :D I just raced my 2.5TT Soarer(5sp w /2-way diff) for the first time a couple weeks ago and I couldn't get over how easy it was to drift. I've been used to driving/racing/drifting AE86's for the last 3 years now, and was a little worried about how the soarer would drive. Luckily to my surprise it handled better than my AE86 did and with the extra power of the TT helped me do things I could never do before. I was too worried about the weight of the car honestly, especially at this Ebisu circuit Minami track, but she was extremely agile and from what I was told looked very sexy sliding across the track. My friend took some video of the event and has promised me a copy of it when he gets back from Okinawa this weekend, looking forward to seeing what it will look like. The icing on the cake was qualifying for the best of 16 in my class at the Battle Magazine competition that day. Didn't make it past that round, but it was fun trying. After that day at the track I was definitely sold on the Soarer. In fact it made me sell my AE86 and all of my spare parts as well, so I could concentrate all my fund on the Soarer now. If your interested I'll try to post the video when my friend get done with it.