GDII's 1990 G-Limited

[Spykerwolf]

Your car is looking really really good Phil

[GDII]

Your car is looking really really good Phil

Thanks Will!

[GDII]

I headed out with the lower north island part of the club today. I couldn't make it to the start as I was out of town and only just flew in at 10am.
I had a good chance to test out the new tires and I like them a lot. They are very grippy and make the car very stable, predictable and respond very well to steering, braking and power inputs. Smooth ride with direct steering feel for the exact feeling I was after.

Heading down to Ngawi was great fun but I took a shortcut to try catch up with the rest instead of heading around the lake. Heading past Ngawi to Cape Palliser was a different story. Gravel roads. Not ideal for brand new wheels and a usually clean MR2. Owell, I took the plunge and just did it.

So that got the car extremely dusty throughout and an amazing amount of caked on dust to the wheels.

Proof it's not just a garage queen.






The front was still mostly clean.


Wheels, yeah that's not quite how I want them to look....






Tires, dust collected on the outer edges.


As it was when I returned home.




After only washing it down with the hose. That Hydro2 Lite stuff is amazing. Just beads off the water and takes the dust with it. Same for the wheels and the Max Coat Wheel Guard. I might try some of the Hydro2 Lite on them too as this could work to assist it.




Engine bay got quite a bit of dust in it as did the bottom of the car and inside the wheel arches.


Quick blast with the hose, most comes off which helps.


And after a final proper wash and dry. Back to it's former glory of the morning before.




Wheels still need to come off to clean the barrel and tires properly but the spokes and lip were easy to clean up.


The combination of DLUX, PERL and Hydro2 Lite helps keep the car protected from dirt even when it gets in this state.
The tires just needed a quick wipe and they came back to the nice finish the PERL provides. The dust didn't come off with the hose.
DLUX makes for cleaning trim parts way easier and the Hydro2 Lite is amazing on the paint and glass.

I put on some more DLUX to the trim of the rear quarter windows and air vents. Looks far nicer now being black and uniform.

[GDII]

Not an update on the MR2 but with the cars we own.

The daily driver was an NZ built 1990 EP81 Toyota Starlet 5 speed manual. Unfortunately it was getting worn out and not the best car for future proofing. Being a 3 door and rather small it struggled with more than 2 people. 1.3l 2E Carburetor engine and weighing in at 720kg it was a great car and lots of fun. Ran on very little petrol but the engine was getting a bit tired. It always started fine once I fixed a few ignition problems but we decided to move it on and replace it.















Manual choke still. Something most people don't know about. The car even has a specific starting procedure covered in the owners manual.

Pull choke out fully
Depress throttle pedal fully once
Turn key to start while applying some throttle
Once it starts after a short period push the choke in to the first click
Once engine temperature is up to 1/4 push chock in fully.

It actually has 3 positions where pulling it right out would allow the car to start in colder temps but soon after the car would struggle so push it back in a little bit.





This little car did 40,000km in it's first year and is now 26 years old with 190,000km.

[GDII]

The replacement car is a 2005 DY3 Mazda Demio in Iris Blue Mica. 43,000km Japanese import. We are the first owners in NZ. Extremely tidy inside and out.

The interior is perfect except for some wear on the drivers seat but no holes or potential holes in the bolsters.

The outside is very tidy almost like it was never driven in the rain. At less than 4,000km per year I guess it's expected. I suspect it was last owned in Tokyo. Not sure on how many owners but it could easily have been only one.

Engine is very clean on the inside and no oil leaks at all. It's quite powerful for a 1.3 (1,348cc). It's a really nice car to drive.

Apart from the ruined wheel covers it's in great condition. It will be getting similar treatment to the MR2 with black trim and paint protection. This will make it a lot nicer.


Joins the SW20 in the garage now.












Sat Nav/TV/Music but as it's Japanese only there isn't really any way to convert it to NZ.

It also has a toll card reader and ariels attached to the window. I will probably remove it as it's no use here with our one(?) toll road.

[JasonFriday13]

Did it have a flare, or was that removed when imported? That car is very clean and tidy, and low km's.

[GDII]

No flare. They all get removed when the come into NZ. It has the holder for it but that is part of the kick panel.

[Spykerwolf]

Color really stands out, and car looks very tidy. How much did you get for the starlet?

[GDII]

About %50 more than I would have expected. These cars aren't worth much.

[DravidDavid]

Very cool. Trying to convince my girlfriend to get a Demio. My '97 Toyota Chaser and my '97 Caldina GT-T both had their factory japanese flare under the dash. Pretty cool things!

[GDII]

I never posted up the information that I collected about the wheels I have before I mounted tires to the RGDs.

Not 100% accurate because I used bathroom scales for the wheels but close enough.

The stock GEN2/3/4 15s are
15x6+45 7.8kg + nuts x5 450g 8.25kg all up (includes centre cap)
15x7+45 8.4kg + nuts x5 580g 8.98kg all up (includes centre cap)

Here's where things get odd. I'm sure the 9" are heavier based on lifting them but the scales don't read that.
17x8+37 8.1kg + nuts x5 220g + 30g centre cap 8.35kg all up
17x9+29 8.1kg + nuts x5 220g + 30g centre cap 8.35kg all up

So 34.46kg for GEN2/3/4 15s fitted to car and 33.4kg RGD fitted to car. Tires will push this weight saving out but as the wheels are 2" wider and 2" larger in diameter it's not bad. The nuts help change the weight readings as they are far smaller. 17x40mm instead of the 21x67/50mm longer more solid nuts. The Advans are still steel nuts, not aluminium so can handle the abuse of removing them constantly. Mostly for cleaning the wheels. There goes my OCD again....

The BBS RG097 wheels I have been using for over 7 years are
15x6.5+45 5.4kg + nuts x5 240g 5.64kg all up (no centre caps)
22.56kg fitted to the car so significantly lighter than both the GEN2/3/4 and RGDs however the fitment and tire choice far outweighs this weight 'disadvantage' in handling feel and response. Sure the rotational mass has increased from more weight and larger diameter tires so acceleration suffers but cornering is so much better. Just add a turbo and that problem will go away. I know, all talk no do but good things take time.

Fun Fact No.1
The tyres on the wheels weigh more than the wheels themselves. I don't know the exact weight of the RE003s but other tyre manufactures who have provided tyre weights show about 9.5kg for 215 and 10.9kg for 245.

Fun Fact No2.
Tire width has increased from the factory 40mm in the front and 80mm in the rear!
Wheels have increased 2" in width and 3" in diameter front and rear. So that's 4" more width overall front and 4" more rear.

Wouldn't be much of a post without photos.

The gravel basher


The failed offset yet my favorite photo


The perfect setup

[GDII]

New parts arrived for the MR2. Hubcentric rings to go from the 60.1mm hub to 73.1mm wheels.

These fit well over the hub but are a bit small for the wheel. Only by a small amount like 0.2mm but not enough to be a problem. I am not 100% sure if these will actually do anything useful for the wheels as I had no vibration problems and the lug nuts already centre the wheel on the hub.




I think I got the wrong car...


Test fit on the hub. They just need a light tap to make them sit flush on the brake disc.




Without the ring


Ring in place but very easy to remove from the wheel. So they are mounted to the car rather than the wheel.


Final placement over the disc.


While I had the wheels off I installed the centre caps I bought with the wheels. The silver bag has a fixative for the cap to the wheel to ensure they don't come off easily.


Japanese instructions. Google translate helps a bit. We got some good laughs from it such as 'nail in the wheel'. I hope not!


Applying fixative. Clear and quick drying.




Placing the cap carefully so not to smear fixative everywhere.


The view from the back once installed.


Final install with the Advan Racing logo parallel with the Advan Racing wheel sticker as per the instructions. This is how I prefer them anyway.




Wheel chock I collected to complete my tool kit. I was offered some OEM Toyota 8/10 and 12/14 spanners too so grabbed those. Last thing I need to complete the OEM tool kit is the Philips/flat head interchangeable screw driver.


Looks much nicer like this with the caps on. Finishes the wheels off very well.


Before without the caps.





Bonus photos





Wheel fitment is spot on. Can't really get anymore flush than that.

[Gleshlich]

Centering rings are very important. Lug nuts are designed for axial loads only (in and out of the hub) and so should not be supporting the weight of the car

[GDII]

A few more to add to the photo album.

[Swampy]

Awesome photos!