Doesn't get any more JDM than this!

[soldave]

Bought my first rotary in the form of a 1991 FC in February here in Okinawa, in southern Japan. When I bought it the car wouldn't start, so I got it at a pretty damn good price. Took my until last month to get all the little issues ironed out (and there were a bunch of them; previous owner hadn't actually been able to start the car in over a year, and the owner before that hadn't done any real maintenance on it.




But I eventually got it started and running with a nice steady idle. Was given the inspection and certified road legal about 3 weeks ago. The spec list isn't huge, and isn't going to grow too much as my income isn't what it was a year or so ago, but it's a nice starting point:
Strut bars, front & rear
JIC Coilovers
Apexi intake
Injectors freshly cleaned by Witchhunter
Some old as hell HKS EVC boost controller
Fuel pump rewire
Optima red-top battery

Once I got the car moving under its own power I noticed that the rear calipers were sticking a little. Rebuilt those, and at the same time threw on some Endless pads, Dixcel rotors and Dunlop Star Spec tyres. I might not have a huge amount of money but I don't worry at all about paying money for decent brakes & tyres.



And then today I just fitted this little thing. Out with the old...


And in with the new...


Namely a Ron Davis racing spec radiator. One of the best things about my used parts supplier here in Japan is that they don't have much of an idea how much US performance parts should cost, so on the rare occasions you see US stuff for sale it can be at a bargain price. Case in point. Should be pretty useful in the Okinawan heat as I'm sure you all know the rotaries run hotter than Boney M in their prime.

[MaczPayne]

Nice.

[Voodoo]

Hopefully those American feet are as good a mod as the others

[soldave]

British feet

[speedjunkie]

^I was going to ask if you were military or what. I was stationed at Kadena from 00-03, I kinda miss it there. I still have friends over there too, and most of them are into rotaries, or used to be when I was there anyway.

Loving the FC man.

[soldave]

I got here in '04. Am not military but have plenty of car friends who are. The rotary scene has died down quite a bit, as there aren't too many tuning shops who know about tuning them down here. Plenty of FDs around, but they usually have the normal upgrades.

Thanks for the comment about the FC. It's a lot to learn compared to my 1992 Mitsubishi Evo that I used as a daily driver and drag racer, but seems a pretty nice ride.

[wanganwarrior]

Very nice fc. Is the whole car scene dying over there or just shops?

[soldave]

Okinawa's taken a bit of a hit as Japan's poorest region. The quarterly drags arranged by Japanese companies HKS and Omega Oils are not taking place (although fortunately a couple of military guys have invested in a set of drag lights and timing equipment). And while there are events here for drifting and gymkhana, shop politics is bad for everyone. Military guys will always have a fair bit of money though and Okinawa must have one of the highest amounts of horsepower relative to area around.

The car scene in Okinawa seems to switch from racing type to type every so often. In the past it was actual rallying, but I heard shop politics killed that off. Drag racing was in about 8 years ago, but cases of bias against foreigners came up quite a bit (lights going to green at different times, and being caught on camera, timing equipment "problems" when a non-Japanese won etc). It came back in about '07 but seems to be taking a dip at the moment in favour of drifting and touge. Gymkhana has had a pretty stable following, especially among the Japanese here. Unfortunately we don't have any circuits and the only real 1/4 mile drag strips have traffic lights at the end of them

[speedjunkie]

I used to go outside Kadena's gate 1 to watch the drag races on Sunday nights on 58. And I used to go to Naha on Saturday nights to watch the drifting down by the docks. I had several friends that had FCs, a couple friends that had Skylines (mostly R32s). It was a good time.

I think the fiance and I are going to come over and visit sometime though, maybe in the next year or two. Maybe I'll see you.

[soldave]

The drag racing at Mizugama still happens on Thursday and Sunday night, as well as some "test 'n' tune" at Henza, out near Ikei. Think the drifting near the docks has moved on though after there was a crackdown on it.

Might be worth heading to http://blacklinux.com/innersanctum/ and seeing if there's anyone you recognize there. There's a fair few old skool guys on there.

[speedjunkie]

Thanks for the link but I don't have a sign on and it won't let me in to see what you've posted. Is it just a forum for Okinawa? Maybe I'll sign on anyway haha.

[soldave]

Yeah, it's mainly Okinawan military guys who are into the car scene. A couple of guys from mainland & a couple who are now back in the States or downrange, but mainly in Oki.

[wanganwarrior]

Seems like drama takes over on the other side of the pond as well. I will join up on that forum

[soldave]

Public Service Announcement: If your brake rotor looks like this it is not a good sign:



You can also play "spot the messed up wheel spacer"


Yeah, not good. But it's back together after a little incident and mobile just about. The new rotor seems a little close to the caliper on that side, but am hoping it's just me being paranoid and not the wheel bearing going. There doesn't seem to be any movement in the wheel so will drive around with it and see how long it takes for something else to fall off.

[soldave]

Could hear a bit of rubbing on the front passenger rotor for a little while, but that seemed to go away at the end of my drive around. Got to check that wheel area again though as it made a couple of rubbing noises at full lock left and right from time to time.

Also found out that the old skool HKS boost controller just doesn't seem to be controlling boost or something else strange is happening. I had boost set to standard, and the overboost fuel cut should come in at 0.58bar anyway. Put my foot down in 3rd and the rpms and boost started rising. Flew up to 0.7bar before I got out of it and let it come back down. The car doesn't have a visible fuel cut defender so I don't know if the previous owner before Justin cut a wire or something to stop the fuel cut, but I shouldn't have got above 0.5bar anyway with the controller on there.

Might throw on my known working manual boost controller in the next few days and see if that makes any difference. If not it might be the wastegate stuck closed or actuator stuck or something. But I'd love to know why the fuel cut didn't come in.

Idle also seems to have gone up from about 7-800rpm when I started today to about 13-1400rpm this evening. Am hoping it's just the idle stop screw come loose a little.