Another S800 story.



Farming information here's been a great help. Thanks all. Neko.

 

Neat! That paint looks perfect.

 

what color paint is that?

 

Supposed to be the original gray. Looking in the engine compartment, it looks original gray-like, but its got a touch of bronze in real life... Neko.

 

beautiful car

 

Thanks! Fun too...

 

One of these recently came up for sale here in Portland OR.

It ran, was LHD, had a chevy V6 and automatic, fat wheels and tires, and needed complete restoration for $ 1200. usd. I passed it up. I now feel sorry

 

Well... unless you had planned on reinstalling a twin-cam unit, I would not feel too bad about it. There are still a lot of viable cars available, many at reasonable prices it seems. Not sure their price will ever go up appreciably into the collector realm either, but happy to see them affordable now myself. With interested in Japanese classic cars increasing, this may yet occur though. Neko.

 

Neko, I recently visited a high end restoration shop. They had one completed S600 roadster belonging to a client and one in the owner's private collection, which I'm guessing would be worth nine figures. It would be the among the least expensive cars in it and a pleasing expression of interest from a serious collector (actually two expressions, if you count the client's car). So I agree that the technology in these cars may eventually achieve wider recognition.

 

A Chevy V6? Why didn't they just go 350 SBC!?

I don't think I could ever swap in something that wasn't a motorcycle engine.

 

Nine figures? Yen or peso? Mine's not that much. But I can drive and enjoy...

 

Ayayay! What a cool shot in front of futurist architecture!

 

^ Thanks. Kind of lucky having the 1962 Tange Olympic stadium just down the road from where I live. The local grocery store looks neat too... Neko.

 

Very!

 

Neko,

Just curious..about how much do you think your S800 is worth? God I would give almost anything for one like yours. Holy moly. It would complete my garage.

 

Hey thanks! Price would depend on where it was sold I guess... If sold here in Japan, perhaps \2,500,000, but maybe less than half that in the UK or Australia. US prices seem somewhere in the middle these days? Coupe of course are cheaper, but that's fine with me! I am about to fit these, so that might add another few thousand yen to the selling price. See ya! Neko.

 

Those are two great photos!

 

Wow, beautiful. Nice work and interesting read. You aren't planning on selling that, are you? For those wondering (because I was too, 2,500,000 yen is equal to about $31,500 USD). I would certainly be sad to let that go, if it were mine.

Those wheels should look great on there.

 

^ No plans on selling, and the Watanabe do indeed look rather good... Arigato!

 

wow!! Those wheels are superb man!!! Love that car.. Looks a little high

 

Beautiful car. Love the color.

 

Thanks folks! Yes, its a little high now, having shed the 185s, with only 175s now she needs to be dropped a least a little. Unfortunately, crawling around under the front yesterday I was unable to budge the torsion bar adjusters (which should give me a 12 ~ 18mm drop), and the rears require a different spring or lowering kit. I'll try the fronts again next weekend with a bigger hammer, but the rears will have to stay as is. At least until I've worked a few more important items like cooling & ignition system preventative maintenance... Neko.

 

When you get around to the rears, consider the spring/damper units from Sherwood Garage. The spring perches and dampers are both adjustable. These units were designed to accommodate racers. Mine are set with the perches well up in their adjustment range, to give something like original ride height, and the dampers on full soft.

It should be a nicer car to drive on 175s than on 185s. I've come around to the view that it can be a mistake to go much above the original section width/height, which was 145/82 on my S600. I'm on 155/80 at the moment. Adding width to the wheels and tires changes the driving feel of cars this age, often not for the better. The steering gets heavier, the turn-in changes noticeably with lower sidewall height, and the car has more of a tendency to 'tram-line', which is a tendency to dart around as the wheels try to follow irregularities in the road. All of this makes the car a less comfortable and forgiving drive. A different story if you're going to compete with it of course.

 

^ - So much good info here Bob, and I agree entirely with your observations. The smaller tire, even with the modern sport compound feels so much better, and the one thing I noticed over anything else, was the nicer turn-in feel. Compliance does not seem to have changed much either, even with same same tire pressure. I like the sound too of the Sherwood spring / damper combination too. Its never going to see a track, so lowered a little with a soft setting sounds just about perfect. I was contemplating a set of these:




But as new dampers are to be required at some point, I might as well do it properly as the above is really just a compromise. It must look reasonably OK as is though, as out for a drive last night, a guy in a Boxster stopped and wanted to know if I wanted to swap cars. I think he was joking... Neko.

 

I'm in love with this photo.