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I'm considering going for a cheap cefiro/laurel as my next car.

Basically i have my heavily modded SR20DET powered Gazelle now but since it's quite nice i don't really want to be going out to try and kill it every few weeks at the drift track. Also i can't fit SFA spare rims in it haha.

Anyways is there any particular things to look out for on these cars? As far as i understand the RB20 and gearbox are identical to R32, the front suspension, rear cradle etc is identical to S13 and the rest is cefiro.

It sounds like a good option since i've seen some uncomplied ceffies on importer websites from around $6500 (manual turbo) and if aftermarket coilovers and diffs are the same as S13 then it's going to be easy as pie to do up for drift.

Doing work on the car myself is no probs (since i built the gazelle from scratch etc) since i have a fair bit of experience with cars.

I saw the driveshaft post down the page a bit, i presume this is only with big power so thats not a worry, any other deficiencies or pain in the arse quirks?

Any other thoughts?

Thanks

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The biggest drawback is the engine. Pull it out and put a decent motor in there eg SR20det

*hides*

Have a closer look at mine on the way back from wakefield on Sat

*To answer some of your other Q's, the diffs are the same - I swapped my Cefiro and Sil80 diff over the other week as the mech is better off in the track car.

*Suspension is same (including castor rods) - yet to determine if sway bars are same

*Cradles and rear arms are same (so s13 pineapples/alloy bushes fit fine)

*Seat rails are same as R32

*Front brakes are same as SR20DET S13

*S13 front strut brace is same, and R32 rear brace is same

*uses mechanical speedo like R32 rather than electronic like S13

*Sr conversion is easy peasy

They drift real nice

did someone say something about the rb20?...  :cheers:  

well this particular ceffy here with an rb20 pulled a 13.9 @ 13psi down the EC stra8 the other day. Not bad for pretty much stock standard.   ;)

Off topic I know, but thats not bad! Theres hope for me yet!

BTW I've heard people having powerstear probs. Mines fine tho.

And if its a manual conversion, if you can tell just make sure its not toooo dodgy, like with the hand brake, much sure its been moved and isnt the stock auto foot hand brake thingy (that doest make much sence...)

The only consistent issues i have seen with cefiro's (I have had a few :cheers: ) is the main hose from the power steeringpump......they tend to become brittle and crack......ENZED are able to replace the hose for you for only $150 approx.

Overall they are a great car.........good luck getting one for 6500 though.....lol

Were there any stock 5 speeds?

The $6500-7000 cars i have seen are over 15yo imports, landed but not complied. By the way i guess anthony would know what has to be done to get them to pass inspection for an over 15yo car (i would guess sfa and that i can do it myself easily).

This is the kind of thing i'd be looking at

http://home.iprimus.com.au/jverban/993.htm

High milage but neat looking one

http://home.iprimus.com.au/jverban/558.htm

Or the ex drift pig

I probably wouldn't swap to SR, keep it as cheap as possible, modify things starting with coilovers, diff and rear brake pads for drift. I could remove the SR from the gazelle but then it'd just be a very shiney slow car.

i'd stay away from both of them n wait for a good one to come up, i bought a plain ceffy with virgin kilometres n i've had no troubles with it but i've read somewhere that as ceffy's get high mileage their electrics can have terirble problems,

riverside my power steering hose has ruptured and enzed (in wa) quoted me $350? are they gay here or am i being taken for a retart?

You can get them landed for as little as 5k if you get lucky on the yahoo auctions and have a cheap method of getting them here.

I paid 101,000y (about 1200bucks) for mine on the auction

I saw an SR one go for 90,000y

I like the white one you sent the link of. it is a bit rough through

Yeah as long as it's pretty ok it's good for me, since i'm getting rid of my nice shiney car for somthing a little dodgier for drift hehe, rough around the edges won't really worry me since it's likely to take a nudge or two over here anyways.

What kind of electrical problems do they have? My gazelle is decked out in the best of early 80s electrics (mirrors, roof, windows, funky radio) and the only one to fail on my 445,000km example is the radio. Or do you mean engine electrics?

all the ceffs i know have problems with the power windows its only a minor prob tho its the relay box that dies.

other than that they are excellent cars. are you selling the s12 neb? i like that car...

Yeah i don't expect stuff to last forever, i just got lucky with the gazellr probably (it's 21 or 22 this yeah hehe)

other than that they are excellent cars. are you selling the s12 neb? i like that car...

Yeah looking at selling the S12, it's a bit nice looking to drift to hard and it's also a bit harder to setup cos of the lack of aftermarket, of course i've pretty much swapped everything on it now haha. It depends on weather i can get a good price for the gazelle or not (i can go down to around $7000 if i take some stuff off it, but it's much easier to leave it mostly intact and try to get $8000-9000).

If i can't get a good price for the gazelle i'll do rear subrame bushes in nolathane, rear control arm bushes, rear springs and probably shocks to. It's not very good for higher speed drift as it is now.

riverside my power steering hose has ruptured and enzed (in wa) quoted me $350? are they gay here or am i being taken for a retart?

I think they may be taking you for a ride.........I have had 2 of them done one cost me $150, the other $165 (needed new belt)

The only reason i can think of for the massive quote is that they are removing the entire steel pipe (It runs under the engine and into the rack, BIG pain in the ass) The ENZED group that did mine actually cut the pipe in a convenient place, replced the hose then olive jointed the pipe. Neither of them have EVER leaked.

Tell them to get BENT.

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