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Well done Mr and Mrs Evil. I can’t wait to hear more and to see pics.

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Congratulations on the purchase @evilhighway. Cant wait to see more photos! And as for the spring, usually dsport is yellow, correct. Also another indication is if the “D” is in a red circle.
Regarding the infamous seat belt retraction, mine doesn’t suffer from it as much. Mine still retracts fine, however my mate’s old one suffered from it and he just helped it retract by feeding it in. Also taking it off the seat belt guides make it better.

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got seatbelt sorted the guides do slow them to nearly a stop but under the plastic on the top munt of the seatbelt if you take about 1mm out with a dremel where the seat belt slides through then it free’s it all up. :slight_smile:

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Hello all!
Just checking in :sweat_smile: :v: Hope you all have a great long weekend :smiley:
No significant changes lately, But she’s doing fine! I’ve just been enjoying her as it is.
Although recently I ordered a CUSCO front strut brace for it.

Unusually enough, it came in a box. If you’re familiar with CUSCO strut braces, you’d know they always come in a plastic packaging with a little cardboard card on top. That’s it. So this got me wondering, WTH. and it also had some extra weight to it.
Here I am trying to fit it in my daily :joy: clearly failed haha.

Anyways so as soon as I got home, I started unboxing! :smiley:
And here it is! The typical Cusco packaging for strut braces.

But still the box looked wayy to big for what it needed to be and still felt like there was something in it!
So I dug into the box and found something wrapped in bubble wrap. And Yes, I popped the bubble wrap before chucking it away haha :sweat_smile:
And found these! I didn’t expect it to come with these.
It’s a new battery tray and fuse box mount! Because on the Copens, the battery and the fuse box gets in the way of the strut brace. I’ve seen the D-Sport kits come with this, but all the Cusco photos I’ve seen never included the relocation kit.

Also here is the part no. for those interested! :smiley: I can’t wait to install it!

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Fitted the strut brace last nightt… and took a few photos :slight_smile: Sorry it’s not as detailed as usual guys! :slight_smile:

Here’s the what the old battery tray looked like
Faded paint and covered in surface rust and Very bulky.

And here’s the new replacement one from Cusco. Nice and clean.
Also came with bolts and nuts to assemble it!
Unfortunately I had to reuse the old bolts to mount the battery tray on to the car. :frowning: Ordered new M6 bolts for it, so hopefully that arrives ASAP! :smiley: And as you can see, the new tray is much neater and I managed to tuck some wires that are around the battery/fusebox.

Here’s why Cusco supplied a fusebox reclocation for. The stock location for the fuse box was too high and too far backwards.

Now for the Before and after photos. drum roll
Here it is before… and also pay attention to the mess of wires around the battery.


and after.

I’m really happy with how this whole kit fits. The brace is close to the firewall, almost giving it that tucked appearance. The hole on the supplied battery tray lined up perfectly as well.
And managed to clean up the wiring heaps as well.

Took the car out to work today, and instantly noticed the extra rigidness the brace have added to the front end. The steering feels sharper and also the ride has become more compliant.
It still felt stiff (cos spring rates are very stiff.), but felt like it absorbs the bump better and also noticed less noise coming from the body flexing.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS TO ALL, COPEN OWNERS!

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For everyone with a Sirion and want some good sounding speakers without doing any wiring, Copen speakers are a straight bolt-on, plug-in replacement!
And they sound really good for stock speakers. I sometimes wish I still had these in the Copen since it has a really good overall sound. Deep smooth bass and has good clarity.
Right now I have Focal speakers (still debating on what sub to run without sacrificing roof operation), they blow the stock ones out of the water in terms of clarity and volume. But it lacks the low end the stock ones had.


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Picked up a cat-less downpipe! :smiley: Not sure if it’s gonna make that much of a difference since I’ve already taken the cat out of the stock downpipe, but it’s cool to have hahah. and probably flow a bit better.


But… I’ve been thinking of getting the smaller pipe for the wastegate chopped and extended to act as a screamer pipe haha. :thinking: like this one for a 1JZ

We had a screamer pipe on our Evo IX for a period of time.
It certainly was fun in the beginning - but in the end we revert back to recirc’ing the wastegaste.
There was no ability to ‘accelerate quickly’ in normal traffic without making excess noise.

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Thanks for your input @TPG I’ve decided I’ll just keep it recirculating.

Anyway I’ve started to put the new down pipe in. And removing the stock one was a mission and a half. The only way out for it was down the bottom, and Trying to feed it through a hole smaller than it’s size. Took me about 1.5 hours to get it out with a lot of swearing. :joy:

And putting the new one in is a mission of its own. Haha. Putting it in place was as easy as reaching the turbo. However… one of the bolts is in a really bad spot (lower right bolt) and I can’t get any tool on it to tighten it. So I’ve given up for now haha. The car has been up on the jackstands for the past 2 days.

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Love your work Carl! I really like the copens and glad to see some getting some love.

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Thank you @b_hoves ! I love this car so I give it my all!

Here’s an update! 1 week later, I GOT TO TIGHTEN THE EVIL BOLT!! :smiley: [fistpump}
Eventually removed one of the studs off of the turbo so I can get better access to the bolt.
And also found the skinniest 14mm spanner I have! any other spanner wouldn’t fit between the head of the bolt and the pipe.

Once I got that all tightened. While putting it all back together, I decided to paint the heatshield in wrinkle black.
To clean things up a bit.
Here’s the before

and after… :smiley: Even painted it inside haha even though no one can see it.


Here’s how it looks in the engine bay. This part doesnt really get seen that much once the engine cover is back in place. But I just thought it would be a nice little touch.

I’m really happy with how the car sounds now! Videos coming soon! :smiley: Stay tuned :wink:

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omg that sound so good

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When you need to get into difficult areas for bolts, it’s handy to buy a dirt cheap spanner, heat it up with the oxy torch and give it a good bend. The alternative is to buy a better spanner that has the bend in it, for awkward areas.

I think Carl’s looks better and is a balanced design. The one above is just bits and pieces with the rhythm of a train wreck.

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I agree I am not a fan of the new style copen’s. I feel alot of cars are starting to look to transformer in style. I guess in future they may all be autobots or deceptorcons.

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I like the new Copen’s as to me they have gotten away from the wannabe beetle look, but this GTR one just looks hideous

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I get what you mean by the beetle look but after owning one I just dont see the beetle anymore. Maybe becasue of the body kit we have on our’s looks more refined porga lol

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Hello guys! It’s been another long while since I’ve posted on here. Lately I’ve been busy working on the car again. So here’s the back story. One time me and my mates were just talking about the upcoming World Time Attack Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park.
And how cool it would be to bring our cars to the show and shine.

So I applied for it. And got through! Over 500 cars have submitted their entries and only 150 spots we open.

When I got the news that I got through, I immediately ordered a bunch of stuff! :sweat_smile: All within the same week I bought a new set of wheels, new tyres, vinyl wrap and a modified rear axle.

Few days later… I got started pulling the car apart. Getting it ready for the vinyl.

Here’s some more photos.

Laying the rear quarter down


And finished.

So that went on and on and on for weeks.
There were times where I told myself, I bit more than I can chew.
Some parts I had to do in multiple pieces. For longevity and ease of application.
Here’s an example on one of them
I wrapped the number plate surround first (inlay) and also around the exhaust tips. Then wrapped the rest of the whole bumper with one whole sheet. All together the rear bumper has 4 separate pieces.


And here’s me laying the big sheet over the bumper.

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Really clean! nice work on the wrapping.

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