Keep Rolling!

The SPARKS Motorsports Gymkhana Course done, I returned to my everyday life with Hagane and my everlasting hunt for affordable deals to continue the build.

I strongly suspect that Hagane has spent a lot of time at open air carparks before I bought her, and the front seats' so-called "leather" was starting to blister and peel off, especially on the driver's side where the daily use caused it to wear off almost completely. It was definitely time to do something about it, especially since gymkhana practices had me slide left and right in the seat which had me I waste a lot of energy into trying to stay behind the wheel of my own car instead of focusing on my driving. Thanks to a friend, I managed to get a set of second-hand SSCUS sports seats at a good price and instantly dropped them in. 

SSCUS is a Malaysian brand that devotes itself to making seats that have a great bang for buck and buying them second hand got me an even better bang for my buck, with is exactly what I needed.

I forgot to mention that just before the SPARK Motorsports Gymkhana Course that took place in May, I did some further last minute "showoff" mod.

The two stock strengthening bars that were behind the back seats were calling out to me, and their grunge/rusty look asked for a more flashy intervention.

With a smirk and a can of white spray paint, I thus resprayed them white, giving the bare back of my car a more sporty look - for a handful of dollars, I just can't help but laugh when even now people ask me where I got the aftermarket bars in the rear.

To complete the rugged look, I removed the centre armrest and cup holders and uncovered the gear selector and handbrake in the process. I wrapped white duct tape around the handbrake to avoid pinching my fingers with the revealed lock-spring on the underside of the lever, and admired the gear selector. Although in its purest stock form, the uncovered shifter impresses and more than one time I have been asked if it is a sequential shifter. Go figure. I then bought a small round black knob from Autobacs to complete its looks and feel.

Did I mention how much I love my car? :)

 

Ready to Rumble!

Hagane was now the color I wanted, with a more charismatic exhaust tone and all I had to do was fill up the details.

I've always liked stripes on a car, yet racing stripes can be a real make or break in terms of looks. The line is fine between looking like a doofus in a racer-wanabee car and achieving a proper style. As you might guess, looking like a dodo was never my thing, so I went to find the guys at Project De Creation to make my ideas come true.

My idea was simple: two black stripes, off centre, the inside one thicker and the outer one thinner, which turn to white on the black roof. I also added the 9tro brand in cutout, since I was going to represent the magazine with Hagane. The sticker guys delivered flawlessly, and seeing the result made me realise that the sides looked plain, so I added the same stripe pattern to them, and totally loved the result!

With this and the cold air intake resprayed black, I considered the exterior looks to be done, and moved on to the interior.


Mid may, Spark Motorsports organised a Gymkhana Course, which I eagerly signed up for. In order to get the most out of it and have a bit of fun, I removed as much as I could from my car to save some weight. It was a quite straightforward affair, which I started by removing the spare wheel, jack and the heavy foam and wood floor of the boot. I then finished the diet by removing the back seats (just three bolts and two clips).

As I did not want to kill my everyday tyres pulling handbrakes and potentially creating bald patches on them, I decided to get a set of 15" TE 37 SL replicas for my gymkhana needs, a set I shod with the cheapest tyres I could find, the perfect thing for my tyre-unfriendly passion!

With this done, it was time to get down to business!