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Soarer Newbie


andy bird
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hello all

ive seen a soarer on a jap website with a nice kit ready to drift and since then ive been smitten.

ive heard steve smiths name mentioned many times who is he?

i am after a 2.5 twin turbo manual not immedinatly but soon are these hard to get hold of? anyone drifted one?

whats the kits like to get hold of and what are the tuning potential say i want 400 to 450 bhp

thanks in advance

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Hi and welcome

Smiffie runs Smiffies Soarer Sanctuary in London and is heavily involved with all things soarer. He is good with service and advice and sales and bacon sandwiches (or so I'm told). People go from miles around to worship his knowledge, ok may be exaggerating there a little.

He is often on the Toyota Imports Forum

His website is http://smiffies-soarer-sanctuary.com/

Hope this helps

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  • 3 weeks later...
hello all

ive seen a soarer on a jap website with a nice kit ready to drift and since then ive been smitten.

ive heard steve smiths name mentioned many times who is he?

i am after a 2.5 twin turbo manual not immedinatly but soon are these hard to get hold of?  anyone drifted one?

whats the kits like to get hold of and what are the tuning potential say i want 400 to 450 bhp

thanks in advance

if you want 400-450 be prepared to pay around 10,000 pound in add on parts, one of our members (TIF) has spent 15,000 to get that. I am afraid nothing is for nothing eh ?

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hello all

ive seen a soarer on a jap website with a nice kit ready to drift and since then ive been smitten.

ive heard steve smiths name mentioned many times who is he?

i am after a 2.5 twin turbo manual not immedinatly but soon are these hard to get hold of?  anyone drifted one?

whats the kits like to get hold of and what are the tuning potential say i want 400 to 450 bhp

thanks in advance

if you want 400-450 be prepared to pay around 10,000 pound in add on parts, one of our members (TIF) has spent 15,000 to get that. I am afraid nothing is for nothing eh ?

wow i could get a 400bhp 200sx s14 for less than 10k including buying the car :huh:

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No need to spend that much really!

All the same principles apply to upgrading the S14, so the costing would be similar. The engine is easily OK with handling that, and the gearbox too. Maybe up to around 400 for the gearbox - I've heard they are not as strong as the auto, which handles around 450 comfortably.

So its maily turbo work, cool running, boost control, intake/exhaust, electronics.

But DON'T do anything on the cheap! It will be unreliable at best, catastrophic at worst! Expect a good few grand.

There are a few more extreme options, like fitting a Supra bottom end (2JZ-GTE) to create a 1.5JZ! Thats good for higher HP.

No Soarers have been used for drift in the UK, but there is one over here now that used to be drifted in Japan, and one of the VERY high profile drifters in Japan loves his Soarers!

They are heavy, but quite well-balanced.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Andy

There is anew kit being developed at the moment with a retail price of £1800 this will achieve 450-500bhp.This a bolt on kit so most of the work could indeed be done by yourself

See this thread for details and pics mate

http://www.jkwebdesign.net/lsocbb/viewtopic.php?p=7901#7901

Hope that helps you in the power dept

Now as for drifting the soarer it has a 70/30 weight distribution so you would need to be spending a few dollars on carbon bits moving the batterry and so on to bring it down to more like 55-60/40.The ueno drift car mentioned above has a 55/45 weight distribution so allowing much more chance of a controlled drift.It does in fact have carbon doors on it to which cost $4000 dollars each.

So basically there are still many modding bits still out there for these cars but most have to be imported from the states and japan

Hope that paints a better picture of whether the soarer is the car for you.

Me id say go get one mate best car youll ever have :o)

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  • 3 weeks later...

£1800 - looks as though that's just for the big single and manifold? There are going to be other bits you'll need as well if your car is currently standard - exhaust, boost controller, intercooler, better spark plugs, air/fuel controller, uprated fuel pump (maybe) and fitting it will cost you unless you are handy with spanners like Bedlam. He's a v nice bloke and I'm sure would give you some tips but I wouldn't want to try it.

I'm currently running 350bhp (dyno'd at Thor) at 1 bar on stock turbos. That cost me about two grand. The best bang for the buck came from the electronic boost controller (£250) followed by the exhaust (£500).

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Hi Andy,

Manual Soarers do come up for sale in the UK but they are quite rare. I tend to keep an eye out for what's selling on AutoTrader, eBay etc., and for about 6 months there wasn't a single manual for sale. Then all of a sudden there were 4 (yes FOUR!) all at once, all '92-'94 models. There was a '98 manual on eBay a while back that went for £7K.

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Simon is indeed wholly correct that more parts are needed as there always are with cars. but there is a very detailed walkthrough being written up for the single tub installation with lots of pics so you will be able to do the job yourself.

In all id say a tad undr £5k would set the car up with a shade under 500bhp

As for a manual version why not just get an auto and fir the Supra 6 speed getrag box.Now this does indeed involve a bit of fiddling and some bit need to be made for it to fit but then you have an excellent box on the car.The getrag box is way better than the standard griff one

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As for a manual version why not just get an auto and fir the Supra 6 speed getrag box.Now this does indeed involve a bit of fiddling and some bit need to be made for it to fit but then you have an excellent box on the car.The getrag box is way better than the standard griff one

Now that is interesting :shifty: . Do we know anyone who has done this? Rough cost?

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As for a manual version why not just get an auto and fir the Supra 6 speed getrag box.Now this does indeed involve a bit of fiddling and some bit need to be made for it to fit but then you have an excellent box on the car.The getrag box is way better than the standard griff one

Now that is interesting :shifty: . Do we know anyone who has done this? Rough cost?

Hi Simon

The aussie forums have loads of info on this mate quite a few of the boys have done it down there now.Not sure if anyone has done it up here yet

Andy may know someone in the UK thats done it.If i remember ill ask him and if he knows i am sure hell give you a call.

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  • 1 month later...

I looked into this and it's not as easy as it sounds. Looks to be in excess of £2k once all the ancillaries have been purchased and everything has been put in.

I have seen some stuff about people drifting auto Soarers. Maybe I'm just old but I don't see the attraction of this. Mind you, lots of people I know think I'm mad for drag racing. :D

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Can I add my 10 pence worth, the Soarer is a great car to start with, don't play with it, unless you want to spend lots of money. I have been playing with my car for the last 3 years, and about £25000 lighter, but at the last count have managed a little over 370bhp at the wheels, it takes a lot of work and loads of money, please be warned :D

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I'm mainly on TIF, always up for a chat if you want to PM me. At the moment the car is at Abbey will tell you next week what power it has now, but I'm expecting over 400 at the wheels as long as the intercooler is up to the job. I forgot that it was running close to capacity last time, so will need a new one soon. The heart of the main power is from the CT12's that where sent to Aus, and they have made 480 at the wheels with these turbos :D

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  • 2 weeks later...
I'm mainly on TIF, always up for a chat if you want to PM me. At the moment the car is at Abbey will tell you next week what power it has now, but I'm expecting over 400 at the wheels as long as the intercooler is up to the job. I forgot that it was running close to capacity last time, so will need a new one soon. The heart of the main power is from the CT12's that where sent to Aus, and they have made 480 at the wheels with these turbos :D

Neil, what intercooler are you running and how do you know if it is running close to capacity?

I've just bought an HKS GT3040 and I'm assuming that my Greddy V-SPL will be man enough but you've got me worried now. :crying:

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When we had the 370, the rear boxes where taken of to prove what the problem with the car was, that the flow rate on the Greddy exhaust was crap over 300 atw, when we run these fiqures the intercooler was not cooling things well enough and the temps where rising. I appreciate that it was run on a dyno, but in hot weather the same problems will arise. It was surgested that trying to get more power was not posssible with the current intercooler. So I have been looking at the ones in Aus which I think where 300x600x115. I have been trying to fing a similar size over here so will be looking at the option of a custom made one. Mind you with the problems I having with the tunning of the car I wonder why I bother( see post on TIF) :D

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