Adam's Stagea Drift Car ... Wait What?

[Run-It-Hard]

Just edited a photo I took last week cause I was bored.

Hopefully I'll fit the adjustable arms I have lying around tomorrow and get an alingment on Saturday ... will be the first one for this car lawl. Oh, I want to sort out the height a little still to ... just a tad more low

Edited May 26, 2011 by Run-It-Hard

[krzysztof]

love the stance! whats the dimensions on the wheels? i have some 17x9's in GTR offset which since seeing this though would never work..

[Run-It-Hard]

love the stance! whats the dimensions on the wheels? i have some 17x9's in GTR offset which since seeing this though would never work..

Thanks mate

My wheel dimensions are the following:

18x9 -5 (25mm spacer) on a 215/40

18x10 +16 (5mm spacer) on a 235/40

17x9's will fit with ease

[Run-It-Hard]

It's all a mess!

Yeah the garage hasn’t looked like this in quite a while. I’ve got all sorts of stuff sitting in here, waiting to make it’s way into the Stagea.

Today I picked up most of the remaining parts for the manual conversion. There is a wreckerin Wetherill Park called “Skyline Spares”, and Erwin sorted me out with a clutch pedal, master cylinder, slave and other little bits and bobs. Erwin actually owns a Stagea too!

Let’s see, what else is there. Oh, the Greddy E-manage Ultimate and C’s short shifter for the R32 GT-R box arrived today too. I also ordered a Greddy style inter cooler kit which should be at my door sometime soon.

[Run-It-Hard]

A bump in the road

A big bump in the road, there’s been another twist to my story with the Stagea. This afternoon, I got a phone call from Julie as she got home before me. She then told me the bad news.

Remember that mischief I got upto when I was on the outskirts of Geelong? well that has bitten me in the arse, much more than I thought it would.

“The RTA has received information from VicRoads, the driver licensing authority in Victoria, about a licence sanction imposed against you for a period of six months suspension in that state. As a result, the RTA does not consider you a fit and proper person to hold a driver licence in NSW for a period consistent with the sanction imposed in Victoria”.

COOL STORY BRO!

So I’ve got four days until I have a suspended licence. I’m unsure what I should do with the Stagea within the four month period. Do everything according to plan and let it sit at home for the time, or do I get rid of it and buy another car when I get my licence back, hmm.

[Daleo]

1; Car cover/ garage

2; Accumulate moar parts

3;?????

4; Profit?

Lol, just put it away and wait; it's not that long (well, it is but...), then it'll be ready when you get your license back.

Buy a pushie, and get super fit in the meantime...

[2EZEM8]

definently keep it mate, get parts and install them and time will fly by and you'll enjoy it even more

[Run-It-Hard]

Driving Sports – Twilight Drift June 03/06/11

A drifting event right at the beginning of the month, what’s not to love? I’ve been getting sick of hanging on the skid pan, and I don’t think I’ll be doing any driving on the track anytime soon, so I said to myself ”f**k it, I’m not waiting until it’s manual to hit up the peanut, let’s see what it’s got”.

As soon as I signed in, passed scrutineering I was lined up on the peanut and ready to roll. That smell of burnt rubber is something I hang for, I’m actually suprised that scent could get through my blocked nose seeing that I’ve had a cold all week!

In a nutshell, the Stagea managed to do this.

I was quite proud to see the “damage” I did to the tyres within a few sessions. I was also quite surprised I managed to link most of the track with the Stagea on 5PSI and auto. This thing has a bucket-load of potential!

I’m not going to lie, I did come off the track quite a few times but that just adds to the fun. The Stagea was a champ the whole night, yet again I haven’t had a problem with it and last night I was pretty much on the limiter constantly.

Silly me brought only a pair of tyres for the night, in my mind I was thinking they’d be enough (I did the same thing with the MX-5 a few times too), but they weren’t and I went back to the skid pan the rest of the event. I should really start bringing all the tyres I can now, seeing that I’ve got room to carry them all.

[Run-It-Hard]

Mascara

Over the weekend I was forever alone at home. So I made some use of it and finally got around to painting the Chargespeed eyelids.

I got the paint from a place called Peps auto spares, I’m sure you Aussie readers have heard of the name before. My Stagea’s colour code is KR4, and little did I know it is the same colour on the kouki Stageas too. I didn’t primer the eyelids, instead I just sanded them back with 1200 grit wet/dry sandpaper, cleaned them up with wax and grease remover, and applied the paint along with a few coats of clear.

I let them sit overnight to dry, then fitted them the following day. At first I wasn’t too set on them but they have grown on me.

[Run-It-Hard]

New seats - Take 2

"

So after my first pair of Drift Blade (R34 GT-R style) seats fell apart at a previous skidpan night. I got myself a refund and went on a hunt for another pair of seats. After weeks of searching I came across a supplier that made Bride “style” seats that didn’t break the bank.

I know what you’re thinking, “what a poser, buying fake parts blah blah blah” lets face it. We’re not made of money! Anyway, I was expecting the quality of my Frides (as I like to call them) to be on par with the Drift seats, but to my surprise they are far superior. All the bolts used on the seats are stainless steal, the material is durable and the seats feel solid.

The real test was whether the seat would hold up when I’m pushing the car to it’s limits. So far they have been great! One day when I have money to burn, I’ll have the real deal, but for now I am more than happy to rock these. Let’s just hope they last a while. If anyone is interested in getting hold on similar seats, feel free to contact me.

[Run-It-Hard]

So, found some photos of my rig from mondays skid pan

Looks chunky

I rike this photo, needs some sort of front lip though. More low would be cool, but that's not possible on the BC's by the looks of it (for the front anyway), I know, amazing right?!

[levinboy]

Looks tough mate!!!

front lip would be an awesome addition i reckon

[Run-It-Hard]

Cheers boss! I gotta find something off another car that'll work.

Bringing it together

I like my cars as solid as possible. I had almost every brace known to man on the MX-5 and it made a huge difference. Being a convertible, it did have a lot of chassis flex in standard form. On the other hand, the Stagea is almost as solid as a concrete block, but there is always room for imporvement right?

There is a downfall though. Finding braces to improve it are hard to come by. So when this discontinued Cusco rear strut brace popped up on Up garage, I knew what I had to do.

Here’s hoping I can find a few more braces to whack onto the Stagea over time.

[Run-It-Hard]

Framed

The Wed’s have found themselves a new home, they are now living on Julie’s S14 and they look great on it. What brang this sudden thought upon me you ask? Well after a bit of research and asking some members on SAU, I’ve discovered that it’s possible to eliminate the extra rear track on automatic Stageas.

The items needed are a S14 turbo rear sub frame, and R33 rear drive shafts. The main benefit of doing this is so you can fit a more aggressive wheel at the back, just like the fronts.

The items bolt straight up to standard mounting locations too which is a great bonus. I’ve got a set of wheels in spastic sizes lined up too (hopefully), the rears will be pushing it though so I hope I can pull it off!

I’m still very indecisive with the Stagea too, I can’t decide whether to let it go, or hold onto it … I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon enough.

[DJRIFT]

i am liking this build a lot. hats off to you.

Your building somthing out side the square, but not only building but using and styling. most people can only do one of these things to a car at a time.

keep it up.

[Run-It-Hard]

http://vimeo.com/25900971

and it's for sale!

[Run-It-Hard]

Ok so seeing that I'm continuing with this build, I best update the thread! here goes..

For those wondering, I've still got the Stagea. It's been on the market for a couple of months now and I haven't had much interest in it unfortunately. In saying that maybe it is a good thing I haven't sold it yet.

Since the whole loosing my licence thing, a lot of shit has gone down. I've moved out, and scored an awesome new job which means I can afford to keep both the Skyline and Stagea. I'll admit, the Stagea is the most practical car I've owned, it has saved my ass hundreds of times and well, I'd like to keep it that way.

So, I'm thinking of just having it as the daily, lowered on some nice wheels … continue with my subframe swap and add a tow bar on the back for when "shit happens" to the Skyline.

I miss how it used to look.

That Stagea of mine

[Run-It-Hard]

This time last year, I was on the way home from Melbourne in le Stagea!

So with a years ownership of a wagon I'm:

determined to fit anything and everything on/in it

drive it everywhere

sleep in it

f**k, could live out of it :lol:

[Run-It-Hard]

A few weeks ago, I took a few photos of the Stagea at work. Ever since I bought the R33 I feel like I’ve neglected it.

Seeing that the tyres were rubbish, I bought some new ones and got a wheel alignment. It’s one of those things I should have done earlier but I’ve been so caught up with the Skyline, that it slipped my mind.

Last weekend I decided to give it a good wash too. For the first time in a year I finally clay-bared it. I’m glad I did, there were a lot of contaminants on the paint work!

After I’ve pampered the Stagea a little it throws a curve ball at me. The cluster decides to shit itself!

I noticed it after Benny, Julie and I went out for dinner. The water temp gauge was maxed, as was the fuel. RPM or Speedometer wasn’t responding properly either. Oh and apparently the car had suddenly travelled 999999kms.

As we speak there is a replacement coming from Japan, lets just hope the Stagea will continue to be a work horse, and not become a troll car.

THE WORK HORSE

[Run-It-Hard]

The Stagea’s new set of wheels have finally arrived in Australia. For those who don’t remember, I had ordered a set of Superstar – Leon Hardritt Waffe wheels off Yahoo auctions, via Jesse Streeter.

I’ve been trying to sell these wheels to help fund my Skyline’s build, but after test fitting them on the Stagea I don’t think it’s going to happen.

I did a lot of trial and error on wheel fitments back when the Stagea was modified for the first time. I ended up fitting some 18×9/18×10 – +20/+21 wheels (the Wed’s that are currently on Julie’s S14) to it, only to find the fronts were sunken and the rears had too much poke. This is caused by Nissan designing extended rear subframes on automatic Stageas, they are 40mm wider than the manual versions (20mm each side).

It just throws it all out of whack, whereas the manual variants share similar track all round. Anyway, the conclusion I had come up with was that an 18×9 – 5 wheel would be perfect at the front, and something like a 18×10 – 4 would work on the rear, if you modify or change the rear subframe.

However there is one last issue to worry about. The rear shock absorber setup doesn’t offer much clearance. So it’s almost impossible to fit anything wider then a 9.5 inch wheel, under a stock body Stagea. I learnt this the hard way and needed to have my guards flared to compensate.

think that the Waffe’s will be a perfect fit with a little bit of work. The fronts will be exactly the same as my second setup (9 inch -5), the rears I’m going to try dial in some camber, if that fails I’ll swap out the subframe.

I wasn’t 100% on these wheels when I first bought them, but after seeing them in person and on a car, I have really grown to them.

With some low, stretch and camber the Stagea will look pretty epic. It won’t happen for a while though as my main priority is getting the Skyline up and running. Still we can only imagine how awesome it’ll sit.

MATHEMATICS