3rd Gen everyday car

[DC-TYPER]

Where does the dog go then? On the roof rack:Laugh

sits in the back my friend, baby in front. wife on the roof:Giggle

[brooksie]

sits in the back my friend, baby in front. wife on the roof:Giggle

lol

Clint .. yes m8 they are getting into the territory of performance bargain but its a car you have to buy knowing it is going to cost you money to run .. i spent roughly £2500 in 6 months, thats not including petrol/tax/insurance .. that was just keeping it on the road !! (clutch/service/tune and balance)

a pic or two of it

[Clintuk]

Yeah I understand the high the car\'s potential the more it costs to keep going.

Clutch I\'d look at myself, but what do you mean by engine (tune) & "balance"

I get that specialists with computers are needed to kee the car in tune but my use of the word balance is when you rebuild the engine ?

[DRAGON]

I use my 380hp fd as a everyday car, its fine, you just need to look after them.
Reference the TVR, I had a Tuscan and it was a piece if crap, handling braking was awful a chore to drive, and the reliability was much much worse than a FD.

[20B_boy]

I\'ve driven one FD or another, ranging from stock to 500hp, as a daily driver for the best part of the last 4-5 years. Bizarrely, they\'ve probably been the most reliable cars I\'ve used - and the only type of car I havent done an engine in!

The only issue is the 15mpg.

[brooksie]

Ross sums it up well .. they are a chore to drive ..

throttle pots constantly seem to change settings and i found that this needed to be looked at all the time, timing wise, idle settings, matching and balancing both banks of the engine whilst trying to look at your laptop ..  Cerbera was the only car to use their own AJP V8 which is just like to 4 cylinder engines bolted together and a flat plane crank (no idea what one of those is ) , it doesn\'t sound like a V8 .. more like a bag of spanners to be honest with you .. anyway get an FD, they rock.

[stylus350]

Ross sums it up well .. they are a chore to drive ..

throttle pots constantly seem to change settings and i found that this needed to be looked at all the time, timing wise, idle settings, matching and balancing both banks of the engine whilst trying to look at your laptop ..  Cerbera was the only car to use their own AJP V8 which is just like to 4 cylinder engines bolted together and a flat plane crank (no idea what one of those is ) , it doesn\'t sound like a V8 .. more like a bag of spanners to be honest with you .. anyway get an FD, they rock.

Saw a Cerb with a 6.3 Ls1 at Craigs the other day and looks sweet. Funnily enough he\'s practically a hero with cerb owners for it which is a slightly different reaction to putting one in an Fd..... anyway.......

I use my fd every day but it might be coming on to the market soon if you can afford it and handle it BUT because of the very large ports it does about 12mpg I think. Goes a bit though and is no trouble, maybe because every part was new on the rebuild needed or not. They are great great cars.

[Clintuk]

Right then TVRs off the list :WaveBye

There are some good looking Rexs for sale on here. Was advised a while ago - it\'s probably best to get one with everything done you want even if it\'s not quite the way you\'d do it.

So I\'m probably looking at a Street port single turbo or upgraded twins (don\'t know much about that option yet) with cooling sorted etc... but are there specialists that sell modified ones or is the market usually personal? Had a quick look but they seem to be modifiers or standard car sales, but not both.

At 15mpg and my current milage equates to £5300 a year in fuel :2eek Oh well - there\'s a price to being cool, no trumpet blowing here, that goes when I get out of the car

[stylus350]

Right then TVRs off the list :WaveBye

There are some good looking Rexs for sale on here. Was advised a while ago - it\'s probably best to get one with everything done you want even if it\'s not quite the way you\'d do it.

So I\'m probably looking at a Street port single turbo or upgraded twins (don\'t know much about that option yet) with cooling sorted etc... but are there specialists that sell modified ones or is the market usually personal? Had a quick look but they seem to be modifiers or standard car sales, but not both.

At 15mpg and my current milage equates to £5300 a year in fuel :2eek Oh well - there\'s a price to being cool, no trumpet blowing here, that goes when I get out of the car

Send me an email in case you want a spec list and pics of mine.

pmaoudis@hotmail.com

[elford_tim]

So I\'m probably looking at a Street port single turbo or upgraded twins (don\'t know much about that option yet) with cooling sorted etc... but are there specialists that sell modified ones or is the market usually personal? Had a quick look but they seem to be modifiers or standard car sales, but not both.

Well...

I bought my FD off RoTechniks and they modified it to my spec (so in the end I bought a modified car off them). So yes, I think they do sell modified cars...

That said, I think most tuners are busy enough with their workshops so they don\'t have to trade cars on the side; in fact, that may get in the way of things.

The other way of getting a car you want is engage the services of someone like Miguel (Newera) to find you the car you want in Japan.

[gonzoninja]

I use my FD every day and the more I\'ve messed around with it the more things have gone wrong with it and because I use it everyday, I don\'t have the chance to say \'oh well I\'ll look at that next weekend when I\'ve got time\'

To be honest if I was getting one again as a daily drive I would keep it as standard as possible, save for a few reliability mods, e.g. a Power FC to get it mapped for UK fuel.

[Clintuk]

gonzonija, what did you start doing that caused the problems if you don\'t mind.

Just for sympathys sake I had woes after doing a DIY hybrid turbo swap on my Impreza. Poor workmanship by the 1st guy I used to build the turbo put me on a path of having to change the damn thing 5 times :mad: !!!!  People thought my car was unreliable, but to be fair it was me prating around with it :rolleyes:

Sorted now and I know my way round my car very well and know more about turbos than I ever thought I\'d need to.

Also I\'ve learnt that for a daily driver, go to the specialists and pays your money, cos they know.

If it\'s a toy you\'re allowed to mess around and face the consequences yourself :yes

[gonzoninja]

oh all sorts. Changing the Air Seperation Tank (AST) it has different pipe sizes to standard so it leaks a bit.

Engines going. I had my car for about 2 weeks and it dumped coolant over the floor, needing a rebuild. It was rebuilt by someone with less than a good reputation (however they were close to where I lived), and I\'ve had to have it rebuilt again this year.

dunno all sorts of stuff...the biggest problem is the constant drain on my bank account.

Remember its going to be a 13 year old car, everything will be worn. Bits need replacing. If its your daily drive you don\'t have the luxury of changing bits at the weekend, or being able to do without the car for a week.

Don\'t let me put you off, for all of this, I simply would not drive another car.

[michaelb]

oh all sorts. Changing the Air Seperation Tank (AST) it has different pipe sizes to standard so it leaks a bit.

Engines going. I had my car for about 2 weeks and it dumped coolant over the floor, needing a rebuild. It was rebuilt by someone with less than a good reputation (however they were close to where I lived), and I\'ve had to have it rebuilt again this year.

dunno all sorts of stuff...the biggest problem is the constant drain on my bank account.

Remember its going to be a 13 year old car, everything will be worn. Bits need replacing. If its your daily drive you don\'t have the luxury of changing bits at the weekend, or being able to do without the car for a week.

Don\'t let me put you off, for all of this, I simply would not drive another car.

I was lucky in a way, I bought a 96 jap import with NO RUST ( no salt in Japan ) rebuilt engine by RX Motors, new tain suspension and a 99spec nose, new alloys and Mazda Speed Spoiler.

Buying a newer car with “new bits” will generally pay off..

Regards,
Michaelb

[jasonlel]

I\'m from Malaysia and the weather is always hot + humid.  I drive my car everyday too.  Rule of thumb from my side is, good cooling system + keep my car stock std. condition.


Cheers,
Jason