Howdy Y'all

[aznriptide859]

Evening, wanted to pop in and finally register to say hi to everyone here on SAU!

 

It's been a while since I've been active on a forum, but back in the day I used to be relatively active on ClubLexus and other hobby-related forums. I'm glad to see SAU is still around, since with the advent of Facebook and Discord it seems forums aren't what they once were. As a recent new owner of an S1 260RS Stagea, I've found so many older guides and helpful tips from SAU that I figured I needed to join and say a grave thank you. My recent acquisition has only become legal in the US for the past year, and knowing that similar car enthusiasts from across the pond have already figured out the kinks and tricks to get these 25+ year old cars running well. I look forward to diving into more of the SAU forums as well as hopefully contribute some info myself for future posterity.

 

As a pic tax, here is one of the few good photos I have of my Stagea. I hope to get way more in the future!

 

 

[soviet_merlin]

Nice one, I'd argue that the white S1 RS260 is certainly the best looking of the Stageas.

And yes, fully agree on the forum situation. It's a bit of a shame, but at least SAU is a good place to be. I found the facebook groups to give me FOMO because people were trying to one-up each other and show off in some way. Feels much more natural here. There are people with seriously nice builds, but I can appreciate it rather than it making me question my life choices. Might be that people are more open with sharing how much work/money/suffering it takes to actually get there. 

[Rezz]

Welcome mate. Best Stagea is best Stagea.

How is it driving a correct hand drive vehicle driving on the right? The Japanese do the opposite here and they've made parking boom gate ticket things on both sides to cater for LHD and RHD cars, as there's so many of them (mostly German but there are quite a few American cars too).

[aznriptide859]

On 16/07/2025 at 11:14 PM, soviet_merlin said:

Nice one, I'd argue that the white S1 RS260 is certainly the best looking of the Stageas.

And yes, fully agree on the forum situation. It's a bit of a shame, but at least SAU is a good place to be. I found the facebook groups to give me FOMO because people were trying to one-up each other and show off in some way. Feels much more natural here. There are people with seriously nice builds, but I can appreciate it rather than it making me question my life choices. Might be that people are more open with sharing how much work/money/suffering it takes to actually get there. 

Oh trust me I've already had my gigantic hurdle with this car that I recently just solved lol. I'll be posting that at some point 😆

On 17/07/2025 at 6:45 AM, Rezz said:

Welcome mate. Best Stagea is best Stagea.

How is it driving a correct hand drive vehicle driving on the right? The Japanese do the opposite here and they've made parking boom gate ticket things on both sides to cater for LHD and RHD cars, as there's so many of them (mostly German but there are quite a few American cars too).

It's actually not that bad! RHD has been relatively smooth to get used to, but this being my first manual car I think I've had more hiccups getting nuanced with driving with a manual way more :P

[soviet_merlin]

20 hours ago, aznriptide859 said:

It's actually not that bad! RHD has been relatively smooth to get used to, but this being my first manual car I think I've had more hiccups getting nuanced with driving with a manual way more

Hah, fair enough! But if you learn with this one you can drive any other OEM manual. No modern luxury features like auto rev-matching or hillstart assist to give you a false sense of confidence. And a heavy car with not that much torque so it stalls easily. 

[Duncan]

Right, but not just first manual, but the shifter is on the right (wrong?) side for the land of the free too....

Anyway, good find, 260RS got rare as soon as people realised what was under the skin

[funkymonkey]

Nice car! I’m glad folks in the US have gotten past the FnF and are buying real cool cars like the 260RS

I was with a bunch of mates in Portland about a year ago and spotted a green Stagea (just a regular 2.5T AWD) parked about 2 blocks away and they were like “a what?” So I made a bet with them for a round of beers and said “ok one of you run down there and tell me if the steering wheel is on the correct side” 5 mins later the American comes trudging back up the hill and goes “he’s right guys. Ok what beer do you want?”