My Never ending IS200 Project!!
My Never ending IS200 Project!!
Well some of you may already know me or the car, ive owned it for around 3 nearly 4 years now!. I brought the car basicly standard and didnt really think it would of got as far as it has today! A friend of mines dad owned a platinum ice sport IS200, after seeing and going in it i decided this is the car for me! I later purchased this 99' Astral Black SE
The day i collected
I decided to do a few small touches and this is how it stayed for a little while. The tints didnt last long with the police around here!
Main modifications where HID's, 18" mille miglia wheels, Lowered on springs, Tints, Private reg, Sports grille.
I just went around enjoying the car, Few months went by and then i really wanted to change the look of the car... this is where it went on a bit of a mad one!!
I changed the rims to 19" Vemiri's
Next i got hold of some coilovers, Decided to go low!, very low! Also brought myself a Greddy Front lip!
Next i went to lexus and got late spec front and rear satin lights, to darken it down a bit!
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Now this is the part that you have probley came to this thread to view!
The part of the car thats had most of my wallet!! the engine!.
It started off i brought a used turbokit and went about buying extras and bits needed for it to fit! This included a universal front mount intercooler... very big!
I had all the pipe work, oil return, oil feed, intercooler mounts etc made up custom for this project.
It was all in, running. but very very poorly! i was no way happy with it. wouldnt drive like it should!. Got really mugged off with the work i had done, This was quite a low point in the build as i was close to selling it off.
I had to trim the bumper for the intercooler to fit so i decided to take it to work and flush off the front bumper for a clean look.
Firstly i cut a old bumper up and bonded it into the recess to fill it.
Then used body filler to shape the bumper
Primed it
Basecoat.
clearcoated
really happy with how it looked now!, but there was still this running issue! so decided it was time to get it running properly!
It then made its way to charlesworth motors!, i brought a 1g-gte from ******-uk to use in my build. I wanted to keep the vvti etc so we decided to put the pistons, rods and crank into the FE motor. I upgraded to a Emanage Ultimate, Power enterprise 550cc injectors, decat exhaust. From here it was away for quite some time.
Had many issues with it all working correctly because this was the first of its kind to be done, It later ended up a noble motorsports for mapping!. It made [email protected] 290lb/ft at 3450rpm
I was over the moon when i drove it home for the first time! such a change from the **** i got from the last garage! it felt as if the car was factory boosted!! I even quote simon from charlesworth calling it 'insane'.
The car had no lag at all, peak boost/torque was so low down it took the head off your sholders on acceleration!! couldnt be happier!
When i originally brought the car the only thing i disliked was the cream interior. it was quite worn and tacky. I found a member on LOC breaking up a black interior apart from seats! this was perfect as i had already sourced some black 2005' IS200 seats!
The 99' IS only had the drivers seat electric, where as the late spec had both seats. i retro fitted the wirring so i had two front electric seats
I just went around enjoying the car after this, making shows etc etc. Just basicly keeping it clean!
Then the car developed issues along the way and was back at charlesworths. Here it stayed for 6months. I then got the phone call to come collect, as you expect i couldnt wait to get the car back but on the way back from southend a week after picking it up the car done this.
so it went back for a rebuild this again was so hard and i felt like packing it in!, the car has been at charlesworth motors for a couple of months again this time. But fingers crossed im picking it up this weekend!! cant wait!
ive purchased a AEM Wideband to keep a eye on the AFR. I dont want a repeat trip back to the garage!! so with any luck il be along to more shows and meets soon!!!
theres probley loads ive missed out my build but ive spent about a hour typing this up and sourcing photos so im sure you will understand :biggrin:
great to see you across here mate.
Hope the build goes well and the car has some long time reliability and performance.
My brother has seen your car in charlsworth a few times when hes been down with his. Hopefully it will all be sorted, drive it nicely and it shouldnt be a problem
good luck sam for the future with the car,and make sure you got oil in it this time