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I may have found the source of my front right suspension noise when going over bumps... One of the LCA bushings looks to be completely shot. I had it on my list of things to inspect when going back in to replace that corner's ABS sensor.
Rearmost bushing of the right front lower control arm.
The '95 has been limited to around town duties, warming up faster than the V8 and being best suited to hauling stuff. I finally took it out for a field trip today to pick up a few car parts, hitting the open roads for the first time since babying it home. It's not nearly the chill cruise of the '98, but it gobbled up the miles by the hour and was hungry for more.
Between the two stops, the car received a surprising amount of positive feedback. Person #1 immediately keyed in on the motorcycle mirrors and Mustang-sourced wheels, noting how well they fit the car. Person #2 led with, "drift car?" followed by, "you interested in selling it?" There's no accounting for bad taste.
For those who don't "get" The Work Truck, or feel it's an abomination, here's something relevant. Road & Track ran a great article comparing all four generations of Miatas, with widely varying levels of modification. Some key quotes:
Miatas foster goofy; they take the air out of serious moments. Everyone needs that. What better way to celebrate the thing than chasing that feeling on purpose?
Not many people do naturally aspirated—it's expensive but seems reliable. I've seen a lot of reliability issues with forced induction.
The car is ferociously hideous but charming anyway, like Auger's Spec Miata but weirder. The whole car seems to be held together with zip ties and a healthy dose of middle finger.
This is my second Miata. I sold the first one six months after I bought it and regretted it. I wanted more horsepower—I went to a 400-hp SRT-4, a 500-hp supercharged Mustang. But I came back, because nothing beats a lightweight car.
For one thing, it reminded me that cars are only as interesting as they people they attract. I met and talked with dozens of Miata people at Laguna, and each was friendly, encouraging, awesome. Just open and welcoming, willing to share their cars. You like what I like? Awesome! You must not be a crappy human.
I've driven supercharged and turbocharged Miatas, and ridden in a truly bonkers engined swapped one. It's true that power is addictive, but I've learned that the underlying truth is actually that performance is addictive. Everyone's taste varies, but I've found light, nimble, simple, raw, and reliable to be the most compelling qualities.
I continue to hold out hope that the Lexus/SC community can develop some of the Miata communitiy's open-mindedness toward individualization, personality, and goofy fun. Status is overrated.
Not particularly. I'd like to do header/exhaust work at some point and see if that opens up any N/A performance. Mostly, it's something to keep tinkering with to see where things can be improved. As mentioned previously, a battery relocation is in the works. I've thought about doing the same with the washer bottle (not a big payoff), charcoal canister (roadmapped by the MKIV guys), and ABS (impractical). Best of all would be a MKIV (or similar) spare tire well fuel tank, freeing up all that space behind the seats for a pass through.
I've got a set of LS400 calipers sitting in the garage that will probably go on it at some point, but I need to check the wheels on the '98 first to see if they clear. It looks like it'll be close. I could use the MKIV winter wheels on the '98 with all-season rubber as a permanent setup on the '95, but then I'd be back to needing winter wheels that clear the LS400 calipers...
Several friends want me to drift it, and it's definitely got potential for that, but we'll see if I ever feel drawn that direction. I met a guy two years ago who builds MKIII Supras, and something he said still resonates with me, partly because it jives with how I've long felt about cars. He said loves going to the drag strip, but never takes his own cars because he'd rather watch other people break theirs.
^ hahahaha Totally agree with your friend about the dragstrip. I did that for a bit with a LS1 Camaro I had, even won my class once with it doing bracket racing. But yeah, that car was mostly stock, put any real power and a hard launch to any car running stock trans, rear end, etc and you are going to be breaking things left and right.
I got a bunch of battery relocation items in the mail yesterday and today, enough to do two cars with multiple configuration options to see what I like best. I still have to decide if I'm routing the 2 ga power wire through the cabin or under the car and probably won't tackle it for a few weeks until the weather warms/dries up.
The red junction box is from a 4th Gen Camaro. I hadn't found many ideas I liked for engine bay junction boxes, as most of what's available is uninsulated or very poorly insulated. I read that the Camaro had a junction box mounted on the passenger shock tower for the battery in the trunk. That turned out to not be fully accurate, as all the ones I found had a battery tray and cables right next to the junction box.
It looks like there's supposed to be a hinged cover, but all the examples I looked at were missing it. I might use it as is, with a makeshift cover taped over the studs to avoid touching it with a ratchet or something. The design is perfect for 2 ga wires. I've since seen that several of the German cars (Audi, BMW, and Mercedes) have a variety of junction boxes used, some even fused for redundancy in our application, so I'll see if I can find something useful there.
I went with ANL fuses (150A) for alongside the battery, being significantly cheaper and more readily available (both important if having issues blowing fuses regularly) than Littlefuse MEGAs. One of the fuse boxes is ring terminal studs, the other is screw clamps. The terminal covers are for marine applications. They're a quality rubber that fit over most any terminal clamp and won't fall off once cracked like many. I figured one pack is sufficient even if I wire up two cars, using the black cover on one and the red cover on the other. No need to cover the negative terminal.
Update: 3rd pic added. I found a couple of the BMW fused junction boxes. The Mercedes I looked at didn't have that setup and the Audis I couldn't get into the trunks. One BMW box was accessible but the lid was broken off. That one has the reinforced bolt hole for mounting. The other BMW I had to really work to get to the box, as the trunk couldn't be opened but the tail light was conveniently removed from that side. It was just big enough to get an arm through, but not enough to see what I was doing at that point... It's got a clip system in back (very tough to release with one hand in cramped quarters!) that holds it in place, but the non-reinforced holes could probably accept small bolts.
I don't know that there's any value in adding a fuse up front in addition to the one back by the battery, but I could always put a metal strap in place of the fuse and use it as just an insulated junction box. Or, possibly use it instead of the ANL fuse holders. The BMW boxes are designed for 2 ga wire and have a little wiggle room to perhaps go bigger.
I thought I would be coming home with a black fender today, having lined up a parts car purchase. The car was in way worse shape than expected, though, with globs of bondo and extremely poor paint work from top to bottom, front to back. I still could have made my money back on parts, but it would have taken too much work to break even at that point and I wouldn't have had the key piece I was getting it for. There's no telling how bad of shape that fender was in underneath the bad makeup.
On the way back, I was thinking I may have actually looked at that car ('00 SC300) before. The seller said he got it a year ago, and it was somewhere between one to two years ago I looked at a '99 or '00 (can't remember for sure) within a few miles of there. The body was terrible on that one, with metal so badly rippled it must have been through a monster hail storm or something. I'm guessing it was very hastily smoothed over with bondo and flipped to the guy who has it now. The mileage would have been about right. It drove great previously, but since has been stolen, wrecked, and recovered, and the only key lost. Bleh.
Hello there, im really glad i found this thread! Im actually looking for a cheap sc400 to pick up just to convert to manual and possibly strip out all the weight i can like yourself. I figure with the 1uz, a 240sx 5 speed (which has slightly lower 1st through 3rd gear than w58), and about 400-600 lbs of weight reduction i can have a fun rwd v8 sports car on the cheap that is capable of running about a mid 14 second 1/4 mile, which is fast enough to make me happy for the time being and would be adequate power if i wanted to start drifting with it. I really appreciate that you have taken the time to do all this weight reduction and document how much progress you have made, do you have any plans for more reduction or to weigh it again anytime soon? If you happen to have a landfill near you they will usually let you weigh your car for free and i would wager to guess that their scale would be more accurate than a truck scale.
That'll be a very fun car, especially with the extra power of the 1UZ.
I haven't done any further weight reduction, but it's slim pickings from here on out unless I were to go with light weight replacement parts. A CF hood would be the obvious choice, being the most significant chunk of weight and in the worst place. I have some LS400 front calipers and rotors to put on eventually.
It took 7+ months, but I finally found a fender! It's green and mildly dented, but those are inconsequential details. Ironically, it was a junkyard car that I had looked at in an insurance auction listing a few weeks back, thinking, "no one will ever buy that." Completely caved in on the passenger side (as in, crushed to the tranny tunnel), wrapped up in biohazard warning tape... Ya gotta lower your standards a bit if you want to find a SC that wasn't wrecked on the front left corner.
I had to really work to get the fender off, with a car set down too close to it to open the ginormous SC door more than halfway. Now to see how much work will be involved in mating it up to the damaged body mounts.
01-14-17, 05:05 PM
