Truenotch

It's looking angry eh! The fronts are running a 13mm spacer at the moment and the rears have a 25mm bolt on spacer and an extra 13mm slip on for now until I can find a better way to space the rears (don't tell MSNZ). So the rears are currently 15x9 -38 . If I run the same setup with the Simmons, it works out to -51 offset. You can fit these in standard-ish arches with a 205 tyre and no spacers.

With the holiday over, it was time to load the van full of stuff and get on the ferry. I only brought a small portion of my stuff. Lucky I can keep the hoard of stuff I'll never use in my garage in Palmy! Pukaki pesting: Oh yeah! I also didn't have time to fit the transmission cooler before leaving Palmy. Somehow this van appears to have magical powers and the temp has stayed below halfway throughout the whole summer of 3000+km. I'll still fit a cooler for peace of mind, but it's behaving itself surprisingly well so far. Another amazing thing is that the fuel economy barely changed between unladen travel and towing a car with a van load of stuff (probably an extra 2000kg over normal driving). It moved from an average of ~13l/100km to somewhere around 15l/100km. Maybe 1KZ's just like taking massive loads? It needs a bit more boogie, so a 3" exhaust and a few other mods are on the cards soon

The 1KZ towed just fine. It's no rocket up hills with a car on a trailer and a full load in the van, but it did the trick. And the check engine light only flashed twice on my way south . No idea what it was for. The first time was around 10 seconds just out of Amberley and the second time was just a flash near Geraldine. Good van though. I started my North Island holiday around Christmas time and have been driving and camping in it since then. The IRS makes it handle nice enough and I've only had a couple of minor issues so far. Had to stop on the Desert Rd for the standard photo: Then South Waikato was so humid the OUTSIDE of the car fogged up: Note the single wiper conversion. The driver's side wiper spindle is so sloppy that the wiper wouldn't touch the screen over 80kph. Whangamata: Katikati: Te Puna: Rotoiti for @Gaz's NY birthday: Taupo: Kaimai Camping:

I've had this out for another couple of hoons since the last post, but it's mostly been sitting while I renovated my house and raced the MX5. Here's a couple of shots from December 2022: And @Iggy made this awesome thing for me on the laser at his work. That's going straight to the pool room! Then I moved to Queenstown in June and left the car locked away in my garage in Palmy for another 6 months. My new job has a full workshop and some other cool things (like a dyno), so I've been itching to get it down here! That mission came together over the Christmas break. I bought a 1KZ Granvia in the North Island, flew up and towed the 86 down at the end of my holiday. I loaded it with as much stuff as possible and filled the van with even more. There's an engine, gearbox and a few other fun parts in the stash, so I'll be building an engine in the next wee while. Very keen to see what a Beams engine can do with bigger cams and more compression. The poor old Granvia was loaded! I stopped at lake Pukaki for a photo op with Aoraki: Made it to Queenstown safe and sound. I only have half a garage here, so have to be pretty careful with my hoarding (it's probably for the best). Feat a wild @TimShadboltfan27 Looking forward to getting out onto all the South Island tracks this year!

I find it interesting that they need such a big fan. Is that just a Hiace thing because of the radiator location? Or do Surf's and Hiluxes have the same issues? The Granvia rad sits way up the front and has sat under halfway for all the driving I've done so far.

Once I got home from my pickapart mission it was game on to start getting the van ready for a few weeks of adventure around the North Island. First job was seats. The Regius seats mount to the floor exactly the same as a Granvia, so doing a straight swap would be a piece of cake. Unfortunately the seats I bought had ripped upholstery, and the seat rails mount to the bases slightly differently on these two models, so some mucking around was needed to make them fit. Dad figured out that the seat backs are almost exactly the.same shape, so he set to work swapping the covers over. The bases unbolt and mount the same between the two models. So after a bit of mucking around, we were left with rotating seats in Granvia trim colour: While Dad was doing that, I removed the fear seats and knocked up a quick bed base. It should be strong enough for a few acrobatic activities... The captains seats are so lush. Refitted the factory trims to make it look normal: Next up was to get curtains into the thing. I'd been looking for a set of genuine ones, but they seem to be the first thing to sell from any wreck... Mum came to the rescue and sewed up these lush velvet curtains using material she scored for $10 from a thrift shop. Hey baby, want to stroke my velvet curtains? We ran out of material, so the rear curtain is a vibe of it's own. Aaaaand with that, it was time for the maiden voyage - a night mission from Palmy to Whangamata. It felt slow and was struggling to kick down... it felt like the throttle pedal wasn't going all the way to the floor. It has thick universal floor mats, so I removed that at 100kph and boom, full power!!! It goes great now. Heading through the Waikato my windscreen was fogging up. I eventually realised it was the OUTSIDE of the windows that were getting foggy. Wtf Waikato, why so moist?!?!?!?! Also note: the racecar spec single wiper conversion. The drivers side spindle is so floppy that it wouldn't touch the windscreen over 80kph. The single works well enough for now. Safely arrived in. Whangamata: Pretty happy with it so far. The engine and transmission seem solid for a 300k+ van. I'm looking forward to adding some more goodness to it soon!

I haven't even checked the tow rating @Roman, but it has 6 stud wheels, decent sized brakes and a substantial tow bar, so it'll be fine (compared to my 3.0 manual Legacy). The tow rating might drop compared to a Hiace as these have IRS with coil springs, so might get a bit saggy? But it also handles way better than a Hiace. So far fuel economy is decent for a 4WD auto van @Raizer. It was 10-11L/100km on the open road and ~14 around town. I also unlocked full power by removing the thick ass driver's floor mat. That'll get a trim before it goes back in.

A 4wd Wind Tourer is still the dream, but this will work for now. I have access to a 4wd dyno too... so mods will likely happen. Wouldn't mind unlocking some zututus.

After years of thinking about it, I finally bit the bullet and bought a van! Not just any van either, it's a luxury 1997 Toyota Granvia 4wd with 1KZ turbo deeeez. I've been living in Queenstown for 6 months now and realised a couple of things: 1. I need my racecar in the South Island 2. 4WD vans are super handy for towing and mountain bike missions Being the smooth-brained creature I am, it seemed like a great idea to buy a van in the North Island so I could tow the AE86 down after Christmas. Enter: Francis Jellybean GranV a.k.a the Lizard Lounge. @DodgySam and @Ogre were GCs and went to check it out for me in Rotorua. The consensus was that it's dirty, but mechanically solid. The guy wanted to move it on, so we struck up a deal and I sent him a few macaroons in the electronic-post. @UTERUS collected it for me and my parents drove it back to Palmy North, where it's be sitting until I got here for the Christmas break. Someone marked their territory before it got back to Palmy... I originally wanted a Regius, mostly for the rotating front seats and rear seats that fold into tables, but beggars can't be choosers. Luckily there was a Regius at Pickapart Wellington, so my first job was to shoot down there to investigate if Regius seats could be swapped into a Granvia. The answer is "kind of". The seat bases mount to the floor the same, but the actual seat rails are slightly different. That's annoying since seat rails are $15ea at pickapart and complete sears are $55ea. I bought both complete front seats, even though the upholstery was ripped and stained and figured there would be a way to make them work. I may have got carried away buying things... the front shocks were a score! And the Regius I raided was a gold mine for Yen. This more than covered the $2 entry fee at Pickapart.

That would be awesome if you could. Happy to contribute a bit of beer money / lettuce funds to say thanks. We can figure out pick-up when I'm up there in a couple of weeks I'll flick you a PM.

Hey guys, Is anyone planning a mission to Pickapart Tauranga in the next wee while? There's a Granvia there that I'd like to harvest the curtains and maybe another couple of interior parts depending on what's there. I'll be in BOP from December 26th-31st, but there's no guarantees they'll still be there by then! This is the pup: https://www.pickapart.co.nz/eziparts/Display_Vehicle.asp?PriceListID=0&VehicleID=205485&$Location=112105099107097112097114116099111110122&LocationID=5&VehicleDesc=Toyota VCH10 Any help appreciated.

Catching up on this thread. The new shed looks like a great spot! And sounds like it's wicked fun to drive on the road. Also glad to see you've finally started an OnlyFans.

The FOMO is gonna be real for this one. Have fun everyone! Do a skid for me.

Oh wow, I haven't kept up with your thread so didn't realise this was yours when we met up on Sunday. It looks so good IRL. Nice work man!

We'll likely have my buddy Ian along for the ride too. He's ken for a beer and lunch.

Yeah bud. Keen as a flicked bean.

Oooh yeah, CBK. @TimShadboltfan27 likes drags too.

Sounds like @RUNAMUCK's place will be free for us to party in. Burn pile ON.

Yeeeeah boi, let's do some chch stuff.

That'd be the dream, but 5e bottom ends are 42mm and the 1e crank is 40mm, so 1.9:1 will have to do.

Get that 74x64mm bore and stroke up ya!

There's a few options to run DI now. They're all pricey, but it's good to have the option.

Put a carb on it for the tech inspection. Job's good.

I reckon charge cooling is the other benefit for some engines. Both you and @kpr showed minimal gains from trying it and you both had plastic parts insulating your intakes. I wonder if I'd see more benefit because my intake is all metal and gets quite hot... I really should test that theory sometime...

The lifter arrangement in this engine is really interesting. Pretty sure the RV8 was designed in the USA, so they must have rockers ingrained in them.