Project Hagane

Here it is, I have finally got my own set of wheels and thus have just started a build project. I decided to call her Hagane (pronounced Ha-ga-neh), mostly due to her colour. For those of you who don't know about the language of the Rising Sun, it means “Metal” in Japanese.

The Toyota Vios is a subcompact sedan made for the South East Asia, China and Taiwan markets, introduced in 2003 as a replacement of the Tercel. It stands beneath the Corolla in the Toyota family hierarchy, and sits on equal grounds as the Yaris, offering a sedan option for those who do not like the little hatch, or just want a small car with a boot.

Hagane is a 2006 model; a first generation face-lifted, and is powered by a 1.5 litre In-line 4 DOHC VVT-i, 16 valve 1NZ-FE producing 110bhp and 141Nm of torque, mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. It is not a sports car, but it does the 0-100km/h and also has a top speed.

I will now take you for a stroll around Hagane, and point out a few immediate and long-term modification plans.

First of all, seen from the outside, she is a respectably well maintained car, and other than a few distasteful stickers that the previous owner had stuck here and there in an attempt to attract members of the opposite (I hope) gender, such as a Hello Kitty on the gas trap and some small yellow go-go dancers on the rear fender that were probably sourced at the bottom of a box of cereal, the car looks, body-wise, stock. You will not get to see the amazing sticker job as I made sure that the dealer would remove them before I picked up the car.

As you can see, this Vios is also equipped with very cool grandpa-style wind deflectors, which will be ripped off very soon. Window-tinting is very common here in Singapore, as it helps protecting from the sun, thus keeps the interior temperature lower and saves on the air-conditioner, but honestly, who puts a dark purple film on their car? This is yet another line in my To-Do list, and it will soon be changed to a proper dark black tinting.

Hagane currently sits high enough for me to smuggle illegal immigrants under each wheel-well, so this will be addressed in due time with something that hugs the road properly, and that gets the wheels filling the wells properly. The rims have been changed, and will be changed again as soon as I find what I am looking for.

Inside, everything is quite close to stock and was well thankfully well maintained by the previous owner, with the only hint of the car’s age being a small tear on the driver’s seat, probably caused by in and outs. The car is mechanically sound and gives a good drive, the only flaw being the dashboard. I wonder who was in charge of designing the dashboard, but I sincerely wonder which planet he came from. I think the only way I can share what I feel is by showing you – this is what I see when I drive.

Anything missing? 

Yeah. No dials. If you want to see them, they are in the centre of the dash, very much out of the way of the eyes. Is that smart or what? The first time I sat at the wheel, I immediately started my To-Do list with a set of gauges, which will find their way behind the wheel, where they should be, stay tuned for more on that.

Oh, and check out the radio; it's a CD player! And it can load... One CD at a time! Amazing! It doesn't have any auxiliary in at all, so I cannot plug in my iPod, which means that I had to rediscover how those flat circles work and am now limited to 17 songs at a time. What a change, I really need to upgrade that!

Last but not least, Hagane is equipped with some aftermarket blue LEDs under each door to make the ground look like an alien world every time I step in or out of the car. Tacky. That is scheduled to go. And when I thought I was done with the little gifts left behind by the previous owner, I was once again surprised. I was innocently driving, when I went in a tunnel; as a normal driver, I turn on the headlights and then... WOOOOAAAHHH! Blue light filled the foot wells like in some super duper 21st century sci-fi-like show.  Ultra tacky. Blue LEDs bumped up to the top of the “To Remove” list.                                                        

Well, that will be all for today, you now know all about my Hagane, and I’ll invite you to stay tuned on Gordini’s Pit Stop to follow the build of what is set to become my gymkhana/ autocross partner, and maybe even track toy in due time. Just bear in mind that this is still my daily drive, meaning that it will remain street legal and still cater to some (relative) comfort, and be build on a budget.