6 years with an S15...

[ConorS15]

The next milestone after that was probably my first track day. Up in Mondello for the charity drift day for SOSAD, organised by Nikki and Miguel a few years back.

I had called in to Jules Chambers the day beforehand to get something else sorted, and came out with a welded diff. Anyone who knows Jules wouldn't be surprised by that!

First time on track was great. I needed and still do need better rear brakes and a hydro though. 18 inch wheels don't help either.

[ConorS15]

After that I made little visual changes here and there, like installing HIDs that I had to remove again for the NCT, and Trying different things with the interior.

(I'm hot-linking a bunch of photos from my Instagram here, so if they disappear I'll have to come back and upload them to imgur or something)



Represent







I had come across this photo ages back and loved how the Chargespeed bumper looked on it, and must have mentioned it to Alan Drury at some stage because he stumbled across one for sale on Driftworks a while later and sent me a link.



So I went and bought it and got it delivered to my work office in Dublin city centre

...then brought it home on the LUAS at rush hour, as you do.

[ConorS15]

The main problem with living in Dublin is parking space.



It's the main reason I want to move back to Galway and have a garden and a shed. Carrying tools from the apartment to the underground car park any time you want to do anything is a pain in the fucking ring.



But it could be worse. At least it's dry

Went at the bumper and managed to get it off...



...and get the other one on (with cable ties, because I managed to snap the bolts that hold it into the fenders)



Went for a spin to get a proper look at it.



...oh and the single wiper thing wasn't intentional. My linkage snapped near Gort one winter night and left me with no wipers, in the pissing rain. Had to get the car back to Galway without them. Scary as fuck. Handiest quick fix was to use one wiper at 45degrees temporarily, but ended up staying like that for a while because it worked fine

[ConorS15]

So that was grand for a while, but the next big thing was either to get it resprayed, or get it turbo'd...



Actually before I did that, I turned 30 and my better half brought me to Japan. That was awesome.



Made a video of it all too.

[topdog]

Japan trip looks epic! Wifey that misses of yours haha
S15 is looking sweet. Any more pics of how it currently sits?

[ConorS15]

Japan trip looks epic! Wifey that misses of yours haha
S15 is looking sweet. Any more pics of how it currently sits?

Cheers man! Yeah there's a ton of them on flickr, here

I won't stick them in here until I get through the engine swap and respray updates first

[ConorS15]

After Japan I ended up working in Liberty Insurance for a year building their website. That paid for the turbo conversion in the 15, ironically enough.

I handed the car over to Marini Motorsport and got it back a couple of months later with an SR20DET, with a HKS GT-SS turbo and a fresh Exedy clutch. The difference was unreal. So much more fun to drive.



Brought it over to Snetterton with a few of the guys from SXOC, for the SXOC weekender. Convoyed across the UK with them and Stiv brought walkie talkies, so it was a right laugh.

Just remembered there's a video from that too:





Sneaky DI sticker on the front quarter.



There was separate tracks for grip and drift, but had to take it fairly handy because we needed to drive across the UK again after the weekend, and my new engine had also decided it wanted to leak a bit of oil. At the time we were sure it was coming from the turbo, but after we were back in Ireland I had dropped the car down to DI Motorsport for a bit of work and Bob Stevens found it was coming from a cracked corner on the rocker cover. He fixed my wipers too, and a bunch of other stuff. That man is a legend

[ConorS15]

Just before we went over to the SXOC track weekend, I got the front callipers upgraded to R32 GTR ones because the old ones turned out to be half seized when I went to put new pads into them. Rear brakes are still shit though, so I need to get Z32 or R33 ones for the rear soon...

I got a flat tyre and found out that the spare space saver wheel thing in the boot doesn't fit over any of my brakes and is completely pointless, and I had wanted to get a pair of GTR-D's for the front to make it more aggressive looking anyways, so now I keep a Rota GTR in the boot for a spare, and have GTR-D's all round. I can't remember the offsets. Must measure them next time I have them off.



Got them wrapped in Toyo Proxes. Everyone loves a good poke

[ConorS15]

It was still sitting way too high up, but the CS2 coilovers were proper seized. I had tried to lower it a couple of years previously and they weren't budging, so I had left it as it was for the time being.



When it failed the NCT on a blown rear coilover and rusted sills I figured it was bout time I bit the bullet and got it painted. Ended up buying BC coilovers from Jay Rockett, but wasn't going to bother with them until I got the body work done first.

It wasn't just the sills that needed attention. There was spots of rust all over the place really. The rear arches were bad;



But the roof at the top of the windscreen was getting bad too, and the petrol door area was just embarrassing.

[ConorS15]

I gave the car to Stephen O'Leary in Westruck, down in Galway. I think he regretted taking it on once he realised the amount of work it needed.





Even the seats and carpet had to come out...