Sadistic

Body work is body work I guess.. All of it is 90% labor, and what's what you're going to pay for. If it's in the plastic you can get away with a body kit or atleast a rear end, so you don't have to have actual body work done, just spraying. As for should you buy it? I really don't know. I haven't seen the car, but for 3K I would be prepared for atleast 1,000 dollars worth of extra things you'll want to fix, maybe more. All depends on the car, and the driver. I'd personally like to know why the car's first engine only lasted to 120k. If you haven't done already go and look at the car, tell him to take you for a ride and show you what the car can do. If he beats on it with you in the car, he's always beaten it, and be prepared for that. Also take a look under the hood, if under the hood is clean, that's usually a good sign that car has been maintained. Probably 80% of people that care for their car and maintain it, clean under the hood at some point in time. Just a natural progression. If there's oil over where under the hood, again, another sign that the car has had a rough life.

Advan if you'd like, I'll try and get some time together tonight or tomorrow and go through most of the US guys and try and find performance parts for the 1uz, and 400 exclusively. I'll post what I find here. I have about 400 catalogs I haven't opened yet, so I'm sure I'll find something.

The 180 I pulled was pretty shallow, just a quick snap around, The ground was really uneven where I did it, maybe that caused it? I went and looked at it, and it is pretty uneven. You would think on even ground that would more inclined to stop both tires from spinning, and who knows. There was ice on the ground, one could've stopped spinning and just slid, but the other kept the car turning.

I have 170K still no major mechanical problem other than the O2 sensor that was fixed not too long ago. Even that I don't consider a major mechanical problem.

I drove mine the first time while it was snowing after some rain, the ground was ice covered with a light dusting of snow. I pulled into a parking lot to turn around and figured I would just use the snow and do a 180. That worked fine. It didn't dive at all, the front pretty much stood still and the back came around I countere steered and that was it. I don't know why you wouldn't be able to spin the car completely around.

I'm not saying you don't, I'm just going by what Tein told me is all.

Sounds like a good use for new tires.

Clearcorners.com only has Red/clear from what I've seen.

I haven't seen full clears, I have seen half clears with red.

Unless you're modifying the thread, or body, the RA's and the Flex are the only Tein Coils that will drop your car that much out of the box.

What's the rear a/r on that? .7x?

Personally, I like the idea of a "factory" replacement idea in the SC. It has a Free air sub there now. There are some really well built aftermarket free-air subs that sound really good with some power. I would suggest going that route, I know I will be doing that when the time comes. I'm not really into the whole giant fiberglass crap built into the trunk or hatch. And just laying a box in there wouldn't look the greatest. It's a Lexus, I think a smart install is the way to go. The car caries a lot of class, the work done to it should also. Of course this is completely my opinion, and everyone is going to differ on this.

Well, I was curious because if there's enough demand, something could be made. Also, if that kit was $90 it was stickers that go over your factory pieces, and those don't look that great, trust me. AJ, I'm talking about full replacement, not stickers. Removing the wood, and building a piece to replace it with either Carbon or some other material. Making full aluminum pieces would be a pain, but could be done. Of course it doesn't have to be interior pieces, it could be anything really.. Stereo install plates, exhaust systems, header, turbo header, Intake, Brake kit, Gauge pod, is there anything that you guys want, that you can't get, or that you don't like the selection out there? I'm at the point in my career where I want to specialize in something, and R&Ding parts for something is the direction I'd like to go. So take this chance to speak out if there's something you guys are interested in.

I've never seen anything other than wood trim, sorry.. but this brings up a question, how hard are the trim pieces to take off, and would anyone buy pieces that weren't wood? And what material/ color would you buy?

Toyo beats out other companies in sales, not performance. They beat everyone out, because they were one of the first companies to 1) Make tires in sport compact sizes. And 2) Make extremely cheap tires. I was forced to run Toyo Proxes on my Eclipse when I needed a tire fast. (AWD so I needed 4 of the same size) And they were one of the worst tires i've ever driven on. They're tires that you would settle for in my opinion. I wasn't impressed with wet tire traction, nor dry for that matter. The reason why Proxes get such high praise, is because it's 16 year old kids with Civic's that are praising them.. "Mmm Civic make big smoke, cheap to replace." In my opinion your money is much better spent in a better tire. If you own a Chevelle and want to burn your tires off, they are the tire of choice. Right there next to Radial T/A's. Mark you have to remember one thing.. You bought a Sporty car, which the A/S tires were made for. If you had an all out performance car, you would have Pilot Sports on your car, not the Pilot Sport A/S'.

I hope I'm not in the wrong posting this here, but www.alldatadiy.com offers great alternatives to purchasing shop manuals. For 14.95 a month per vehicle, you pretty much get that for a year online. They offer book times, part numbers, and diagrams. I've been using them for about 5 years, and watched their library grow considerably. Sometimes they don't have all the info you would want, on the more obscure vehicles, or parts, but if you're going to be performing work that they might not have, chances are you don't need a manual.

If you want throaty, the Borla will definetly give you that. Even with Mufflers and stock pipe. After that, I think the JIC Bullets would come in for "throatyness."

That sounds like a plan to me. The RB swaps aren't exactly the easiest at times. The RB20 might be cheaper to begin with, but I don't think install goes quite as smoothly as an SR. I think you'll be surprised by the SC 5 speed. I know I was when I first drove it.

Good to hear Bandit, those Tokico's are really the way to go. They are great absorbers. Yes your suspension will settle. You'll notice it start to drop more and more as you drive it. Kind of interesting to watch actually. I'm glad to hear you enjoy the upgrade. That's always good to hear.

SPORT is right, the F-Max kit is just an entry level kit. I personally feel that it doesn't offer much for improvement without replacing major components to the kit. So make sure before you purchase a turbo kit, you have a plan on how much HP you want to make. Cranking boost can help tweak hp, but it's an extremely unsafe way to gain hp over turbo kits, if you don't know what you're doing.

Hey, welcome to LOC. Considering I came from Nissan's to SC's I figured I would chime in. I've owned quite a few Z32's both n/a and TT's and I personally wouldn't buy another one now that I have Lexus. Z's are nickle and dime cars. Their cost to maintain isn't bad, but you will constantly be putting money into them, here and there. Also after driving both a Z car and the SC side by side, I would pick the SC anyday. Far more control, not as twitchy as the Z's. Far easier to work on. The car is just more forgiving than a Z any day, in handling, maintenance, and overall enjoyment. Also, insurance for me cost more on my Z's than on the Lexus. So, what kind of troubles are you having with your RB swap?

Yup, you're right AWJ, it's Power House Racing.

It wasn't a JET module was it?

Other than E-bay, a junk yard the only other thing I can think of would be Tap Recyling. I wouldn't go buying a belt used though.