HELLO EVERYBODY! We’re back in the basement, but this time we’ve brought a guest! Nick Nengas (norotornick) joins Dave, Gavin, and Mike to discuss why a LS powered RX8 is better than a C6 Corvette, and other stuff:
Formula Drift is going back to Irwindale, but we all saw that coming
Ferrari maybe okayed the rolling back of odometers on some cars?
Your questions for Nick
And your choices for cars that you thought would suck, but didn’t.
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Support our sponsor Steady Broke! Head to their site, and use the code CAMAUTO15 to get 15% off your entire order!
Thank you for joining us on this episode! You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever else you find your podcasts. Please subscribe, rate, and review us! Support the providers of this podcast’s theme song, Mathusaworm.
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Hello everyone, and welcome back! Or welcome, if this is your first episode! We’ve got an exciting one for ya, because we have the Grand Prize Winner of the big giveaway we had on as a guest: Taigon J Rider! Taigon, Dave, Gavin and Mike talk about some stuff
We have a new store! Hit the link and go grab some fresh, new CAM gear!
Support our sponsor Steady Broke! Head to their site, and use the code CAMAUTO15 to get 15% off your entire order!
Thank you for joining us on this episode! You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever else you find your podcasts. Please subscribe, rate, and review us! Support the providers of this podcast’s theme song, Mathusaworm.
Find us on social media, subscribe to the CAMcast podcast, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!
You remember Ian, right? Has that S130 we featured a while ago, and I swung by his house earlier this year to see what he was up to? Any of that ringing a bell? If you remember that last one, then this car shouldn’t be that much of a surprise to see. It’s the SR5 coupe he was working on when I was over there. What you might not know is what he was doing to it.
He got the car with a BEAMS 3S-GE under the hood. An amazing engine, that all the Toyota guys love and would love to swap into a Corolla, or an old Celica, or whatever RWD Toyota they can get their hands on. That amazing engine rod knocked on Ian at the first event he took the car to. Instead of shelling out for another BEAMS, or dealing with a 4A-GE and its associated costs, he went with something he knew. Something that filled his cold, dead heart with warmth and life: a goddamn KA24DE.
Yes, he ripped out a trashed BEAMS and threw in a truck motor. BLASPHEMY! I can hear you crying. Why would anyone do that??? The BEAMS and 4A-GE are made by God himself! First, no to that whole second sentence. Secondly, why not swap in something that is 1. familiar 2. proven and 3. cheap compared to building a 4A-GE or buying another BEAMS? Argue for purity, and I’ll come back with practicality. And this thing gets down, but we’ll get there in a minute. First we’ve gotta talk about this car.
It’s an internally stock KA that sits in an engine bay that’s been completely stitch welded. It does have a Greddy header meant for an NA S14, albeit modified to fit in the Corolla. That connects to a Buddy Club Spec II exhaust, meant for a Corolla. There’s a S14 Koyo radiator with a 16 inch SPAL fan to keep the whole deal cool enough.
Fueling is provided via a bevy of Aeromotive products! And by “bevy”, I mean 2: a 340lph fuel pump, and a fuel pressure regulator. This whole thing is run via a MegaSquirt plug and play stand alone set up. There’s a Painless switch panel, and absolutely no OEM wiring left in the car. Ian rewired the whole thing to his liking. Oh, and the battery is in the trunk.
That power (at least as much as that KA is producing) is sent through a one piece driveshaft to a solid rear axle. No, not the stick that came in the Corolla, but a solid rear axle out of a Chevrolet S10. Turns out it’s actually narrower than the Corolla axle. Oh, and it’s been re-drilled for four lug. AND the stock e-brake cables have been modified to work with the giant drums that are now out back. They grab REAL good.
Before we go on about the technical aspects of the car, let’s talk about that livery. If it looks familiar, congratulations! You’re either old, or a fan of vintage sports cars. This livery is inspired by a livery on both the Porsche 962 and 935. Both cars have sported many iconic liveries. When I visited him earlier this year, he had the KA mounted, and then showed me a bunch of pictures of the Porsches while saying “that’s what I’m doing”. He then grabbed a cutoff wheel, and got to cutting down the old grill. It was an interesting evening.
I did not doubt him, in fact, we wondered why nobody else has done this before. Seriously! There are so many awesome liveries out there, everybody knows someone who works with vinyl, the pieces are there! Make it happen, nerds. Back to what he did. The attention to detail is amazing! It’s not just the big, swoopy Coca-Cola logo, it’s all of the little sponsor logos too. Domino’s, 7 Eleven…
Even Jolly Rancher is on there! With the period correct logo! And the Advan logo, because it’s Ian. Advan logo, despite the fact that he’s running 14×7 and 14×7.5 SSR Mk3’s. Also period correct, and very awesome.
Speaking of awesome: you know what’s awesome? Keeping things simple. The suspension on the car is pretty damn simple: Megan links, T3 tension rods, and Stance coilovers. The only big swap, aside from the KA, is an AW11 steering rack, which is a pretty standard thing. No Wisefab, no craziness. Just stuff you can buy, and that’s probably on the Corolla of your local AE86 guy.
Inside is pretty spartan. Again, no craziness. Just a Nardi Gara steering wheel, and a Bride seat that’s mounted on some Buddy Club seat rails, straight from Japan. And a cracked dashboard.
And a bunch of Auto Gage gauges, and an Innovative wideband.
And that Painless switch panel.
The car is running what Ian describes as a “Duraflex runfree knockoff” body kit. Could’ve fooled me, but then again I have no idea what I’d be looking for in the original. I’m a lover, not an expert.
Remember how I said that this thing get’s down? Well, Ian showed us how well it does. There was a concrete slab, like what’s under your local strip mall, right by where we were shooting. Dave guided him up, onto the slab, and then Ian did Ian things. The car will boogie, and it will boogie without bash bars, or as Ian calls them “confidence bars”.
Will people start slapping KA’s into Corollas? Probably not. Corollas are only getting more expensive, so you’d either have to have one fall in your lap, or start off with one. And then you’d have to make everything work, either make the Nissan mill play nice with the Toyota wiring, or go full Ian and just rewire the damn thing. And then there’s also the other Nissan motor that people shove into Corollas: the SR20DET. Why stuff the truck motor in there when the JDM hotness has been done enough that it’s not weird?
Much like New Coke, I don’t think Ian’s formula is really going to take off. However, it is a welcome change to something that hasn’t seen many updates. It’s different, it’s interesting, and it definitely brought a smile to our faces.
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Hello and welcome to this episode of the CAMcast! I have a question for you: What happens when one host is in France and the other has been missing for months? You get Dave and Mike running through the agenda! And they go off on weird tangents… But they do talk about some stuff:
The Singapore Gran Prix was interesting for a few minutes
McLaren and Honda’s break up is weird, and bigger than them
We could see French things aside from Gavin!
Will we see a 300C Hellcat?
Adventures in midsized sedans
And of course your emails, social media comments and questions, and we even get a text! Thank you for listening! If you haven’t yet, subscribe, rate, and comment on this podcast on wherever you get this thing. Check out the site for more awesome content, follow us on social media, and buy a shirt or seven! We’ll be back next week with more audiological shenanigans!
The Nissan GTR hit the US market when Gavin was fifteen years old, and he’s been a fan ever since. On this episode of The Driving Experience, Gavin takes fifteen year old GTR fan Parker up East Canyon, so Parker can meet his hero.
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Hey everybody! No, you’re not having a stroke. This is a special bonus episode of the CAMcast! Mike went up to SevenSix on Sunday morning, sat on the couch in the lobby, and asked Team Scoundrels a few questions over a few beers. The Scoundrels are Anthony Barnes, Blaize Potts, Chase Garrett, and Nico Wallace. There are probably some more, but those are the guys who were there. There was also a puppy, and we got a guest appearance from Estevan!
Stream the episode above, find it on iTunes, Google Play, and wherever else you get your podcasts, or download it right here. And while you’re at it, find the Scoundrels on their various social media outlets:
That’s a lot! Get to following. And while you’re doing all of that: find us on our social media, subscribe to the CAMcast podcast, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!
I went and did some drifty stuff in the middle of the Porsche GT3 Cup madness. Friday night the Salt City Drift folks got together at RMR, and slid the bowl with varying levels of success. There was a competition, but I bailed long before that went down. Anyway, here’s a gallery
Like many of us, Skitch Bryant fell in love with the Skyline GT-R’s whilst playing Gran Turismo. Unlike many of us, he imported one. One that’s a bit different than most of the R32’s you’ll see roaming around.
Yes, despite what the car looks like from the A pillars forward, this is an R32 GTR. It just has front end conversion, similar to the Bee R 324R. Unlike the Bee R kit, this one has some R34 Z Tune fenders grafted on to it. It also has a rear windshield wiper, which is a nice touch.
Under the hood is…
…
*sips soda*
An RB26DETT that’s been given a lot of NISMO upgrades: N1 turbos and oil pump, bigger intercooler, and other stuff we’ll file under “etc”. It also has…
A BUNCHA SHINY-ASS HARD PIPES! And a shiny Top Secret catch can.
All of those pipes, along with the downpipe, exhaust, oil cooler, and oil filter relocation setup are GReddy/Trust pieces. There are also Spitfire coil packs, and a Cusco strut bar in there, but since it’s an RB26, people will focus on the power adders. Which is a shame, because this thing has seen some upgrades in the handling department as well.
Behind the NISMO branded Enkei wheels are the OEM brakes and rotors. And behind them are a set of Cusco Street Zero coilovers, and NISMO stainless steel brake lines and sway bars.
The interior has been given the NISMO touch as well, in the form of seats, floor mats,…
And 320 kph gauge cluster.
That orange, blurry thing in the last photo is a MOMO steering wheel, because it can’t be all NISMO all the time. While we’re here, can we take a minute and appreciate the late 80’s goofy awesomeness that are buttons and switches on the cowl of the gauge cluster? Man, makes me miss my Legend and its radio controls on the cowl.
Skitch picked up the Bayside Blue Skyline from a seller in Japan. He did all the paperwork, and flew to Long Beach to drive the car back. And that drive was interesting, because everyone was snapping photos of the car. Especially in California. From the email he sent me (because I forgot some of the details when he told me the story during the shoot):
I stopped at a Walmart along the way in Cali to grab some snacks and supplies for the road trip. I was literally inside for only about 10-15 minutes and come out to an entire Nissan club with their cars parked next to mine, taking pictures and geeking out over the Skyline. I asked them how they got here so fast and they told me that one of their members was following me and phoning everyone in the club to come out before the car disappears. They were super cool and we hung out for a little bit before I had to move on.
Stalkers can be fun sometimes!
People love it at car shows, especially kids. I love it when the little kids run up to it and recognize that they’ve played the car in a video game or that it’s their favorite color. Although I wasn’t expecting anyone else to really pay much attention or freak out over the car, it’s fun to know that it’s so well received and love in the community. After all, I bought this for me and because I love the platform and heritage of the car. It’s nice to know that others know of the car as well in some form or another
I can attest to the kids freaking out when they see it at a show. I was the guy shooting the roll in photos at ISS, and when Skitch and the Skyline rolled past, the crowd behind me lost their minds.
I’m glad that we can finally, legally, have R32s of all varieties. Especially ones like Skitch’s: super unique, and driven frequently. Now let’s see some crazy time attack builds!
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In the not too distant past, last Sunday A.D. to be exact, Garage Kyusha held their first official meet. The club brought out their classic J Tin, along with some stuff that was cluttering up their garage and they’d be willing to part with, and took over a corner of one of the parking lots at Cottonwood Regional Park. I found the park easily, having driven past it quite a bit and being caught in a sudden downpour one time. Others not so much, despite numerous maps being posted in the Facebook event page. I blame ALL KNOWING AND BENEVOLENT Google. Most found it though, and good times were had!
In one corner of the meet, tucked between the cars JDM Legends brought out, the Lamely Group was selling some rare Hot Wheels and other collectables, along side Eric who was slinging some JDM Legends gear.
One of my favorites was this Z20 Soarer, which ironically parked next to an A70 Supra. I love Soarers, and really wanted to cut the nose off of a Z20 and stick it on Ronda when I had her. Ahh, what could have been… Anyway, there was a lot to see, which is why there’s a big gallery attached to this post! Enjoy it! And while I’m here, I want to thank the Garage Kyusha guys for organizing a fun meet, that went pretty damn well for it being their first one. Anyway, GALLERY:
While technically true, the 80eighty Scrapefest premeet was a full eight days before Scrapefest. Weird? YOU BET! Well attended? DAMN STRAIGHT! There were a ton of cars in attendance, so many that some resorted to parking in the undeveloped lots near the 80eighty building.
There was a wide variety of cars in attendance. Everything from clean, modern builds
To some classics
A pretty cool rat rod was there
And that was spitting distance from the R8 that Envision wrapped at Autorama. Not for, AT. While the show was going on. Looks good.
And then there was this guy, who kept staring at me while I was taking pictures of his edgy-ass xB.
So kawaii it causes me physical pain…
Anyway, here’s a big gallery of some of the other cars that were there. Saturday we’ll be at the track for the first NASA Utah event of the season, then up at Scrapefest on Sunday.
