FTO AUSTRALIA

hye guys, i'm still holding on to my AWD conversion dream.

so atm i'm looking at where, how and how much i can get a complete rolling shell from?

any idea? maybe go halves with someone wanting to transplant the fto engine into something else?

,.... anything at all?

cheers.
Yang

seriously, you'd be better off trying to source a GS from New Zealand, apparently they're cheap as chups there

mr-charisma wrote:seriously, you'd be better off trying to source a GS from New Zealand, apparently they're cheap as chups there

ok... in that case... can anyone tell me roughtly how much a GS with a sh!t engine will cost in NZ? lol

NO, that wont work. You must have a complianced shell. And to comply a FTO it has to be stock!!!

dstocks wrote:NO, that wont work. You must have a complianced shell. And to comply a FTO it has to be stock!!!

confused now, so i have to find a shell from a donner car that's already complienced?

BorepYano wrote:

dstocks wrote:NO, that wont work. You must have a complianced shell. And to comply a FTO it has to be stock!!!

confused now, so i have to find a shell from a donner car that's already complienced?

Yep .. You do ... Otherwise you can only use it as a race import as it has been too modified...

rock_it wrote:

BorepYano wrote:

dstocks wrote:NO, that wont work. You must have a complianced shell. And to comply a FTO it has to be stock!!!

confused now, so i have to find a shell from a donner car that's already complienced?

Yep .. You do ... Otherwise you can only use it as a race import as it has been too modified...

OMG I hate australia lol
so... i need to look for a cheap fto that's already complianced here, hopefully one with a shagged out engine, and hope to god that whoever that abused the car didnt crash it....
F-it, i'll just take my car off the rd and get work done on it i guess...
looks likes in a yr or so i'll be drving around in a bombed out car for a few yrs lol

BorepYano wrote:OMG I hate australia lol
so... i need to look for a cheap fto that's already complianced here, hopefully one with a shagged out engine, and hope to god that whoever that abused the car didnt crash it....
F-it, i'll just take my car off the rd and get work done on it i guess...
looks likes in a yr or so i'll be drving around in a bombed out car for a few yrs lol

Thats what Joe (Nacho) did 3yrs ago, he bought a cheap FTO for the same reason as you, still doing it.....so good luck with yours.

FTO338 wrote:
Thats what Joe (Nacho) did 3yrs ago, he bought a cheap FTO for the same reason as you, still doing it.....so good luck with yours.

do u 1 cheaper, use my car and buy a cheap old BMW or something lol (cos they just dont die )

LOL yeah or get another cheap turbo FWD like the Starlet, Pulsar ET turbo so you get use to a turbo FWD.

The best thing is, you can move all performance part across to the FTO when its ready.

this is just my opinion, but personally I am not gonna bother with AWD / Turboing my FTO (Supercharging might be a different story... but meh - still not for a few years)

The best reason I could see for going AWD / Turbo / Engine Conversion for an FTO would be to have a v. unique race car ... as a daily driver I really don't see the value in it...
even as a race car, the FTO is already up there as a top performer in the 2.0L N/A v6 class & does pretty damn well against most similar cars ... its already hella fun to drive & even with just a few suspension mods it gets a shitload more fun - I can't wait to get the rest done

Without spending around of $30k-50k for an AWD + Turbo + Engine Conversion, you will never see BIG power out of an FTO ... sure it would be very unique, very cool, & make a few people very jealous ... and if you're really keen on doing it & don't mind spending the money on it then thats awesome & I say go for it & good luck
but ..... realistically, $50k is just the tip of the iceberg ... once you have the AWD /turbo / engine projects finished (or actually, before that), you will then need to look at
suspension - at least $5k for a good setup - thinking coilovers & complete upgrade of all suspension components,
brakes - $1k-3k (don't want to cheap out on them)
brake pads - a lot more often than usual
Big headaches - something is bound to go wrong (more $$$)
gearbox - BIG $$$ - Manual Conversion from another car if you have Tip
Weight Loss - Carbon Fibre - EVERYTHING, Lightweight seats, wheels, pullies / H/D Clutch , LW Fly
I'd rebuild any engine that I would be transplanting into the car & strengthen the internals (if needed)
Whatever other things that I don't know about / stupid little things that noone has thought of yet that are bound to show up when they're doing the work on it - $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ :P:P

I would much prefer to max out the handling / responsiveness / braking / & overall look & feel of the car ... as that is what it was made for ...
& then I would get a cheap & quick (possibly turbo) little RWD car (Older style supra / mr2 etc) as a bash around / DORIFTO car

I already think that theres so much more I can do to an FTO to get a lot more satisfaction for a lot less cost -

Re-upholstering the interior in gen. leather for that Luxury look & feel

Completely sound deaden the entire interior of the car to reduce road noise, make sound system sound better, give the car back its new car sound & feel + make it feel a bit more like a luxury car (picking up my 40sq m of Stinger Roadkill tonight )

Custom Front & Rear bumpers

Custom or modified headlights

Quality Sound System

Upgrade Suspension/Brakes/LSD/Tyres/

Secret Projects - Seems everyone has a "secret project" these days - So just to be totally legendary I have one too lol

Rebuild the engine to get it running as quiet as a brand new car - For me, absolutely nothing would top that!

I would suggest that you get started on the suspension / handling & brakes side of things first ... it will give you good bang for your buck in the short term + it's something you will have to do eventually if you're gonna go ahead with the AWD + it will be fun as hell to drive with all the suspension / brakes upgraded etc even without the AWD

Like I said, if you're gonna go ahead with it, thats awesome I really can't wait to see someone pull it off! Just a few things to think about ... and some info for new members as well ...

I think for most people an FTO is their first car & a stepping stone onto other bigger, more powerful (uglier looking) cars & for some people it will be their only car - even if they own a few other cars they will keep their FTO until they're too old to drive or have their licence ripped from their old wrinkled hands ... For anyone who is seriously thinking about dropping this much cash into their FTO they first need to decide which of these applies to them & weigh up whether they think its worth it ... At this point in time I am thinking I would like to be buried in my FTO, but I am still hesistant to spend too much money on it...

yep to much to read thanks michael

eThix wrote:yep to much to read thanks michael

mr-charisma wrote:this is just my opinion, but personally I am not gonna bother with AWD / Turboing my FTO (Supercharging might be a different story... but meh - still not for a few years)

Hmmm I don't see much different in supercharging and turboing the FTO, if people going to get it done properly, its going to take the same amount of effort and similar amount of money.

After driven two different turbo FTO (Tip and Manual), i agreed to what you said, i would rather keep the FTO as N/A and get a turbo RWD to play around.

i just figured i'd do this once the price of FTOs drop even more (so it would be a much less expensive mistake if i fcuk up)

and as for my reason... it's not to have a unique race car, it's not to make ppl jealous. it's not so i can drive around like an idiot all the time.

most ppl that have sat in the passenger seat of my car make this comment: you drive so peacefully safely and slow (slow being the speed limit )
my response is: yes it's called common sense.
So i wont be driving the finished project hard much at all on the rds, and i havent never been to a track, am just not a lets-try-to-go-spastically-fast person

my reasons for doing it:
the learning process,
somethign to aim for and work on
and see how long it takes me to "save" $50k when i really want to.
and eventually (hopefully) have something that i will be very proud of... (and would probably stab the first person to put a finger print on it lol)

oh and michael, also about the weight reduction part, why do u think i'm trying to fibreglass things atm lol, hopefully will move on to cf once i'm confident enough

and i'm not overly interesting in pumping out a massive amount of power (of course more would be nice, so 2oo-250kw would be enough for me lol), but i want the handing to be perfect, so i've thought a lot about the brakes and suspension, thinking about evo7/8 brakes and a few grand on adjustables.

mr-charisma wrote:Rebuild the engine to get it running as quiet as a brand new car - For me, absolutely nothing would top that!

i've been trying to prove for years that a light fwd car set up right will beat most rwd/awd set ups around a track...as long as the straights arent that long... you dont need awd for that

SG wrote:

mr-charisma wrote:Rebuild the engine to get it running as quiet as a brand new car - For me, absolutely nothing would top that!

obviously not planning to do this anytime in the foreseeable future, but lets just say I can't wait for the day it hits 300k Major, Major service time

I don't get the bigger brakes thing, I mean bigger is better most of the time for sure but no matter how fast your car gets to 100 it still takes the same amount of time to stop whether you got there in 5 seconds or 10 seconds. Don't get me wrong I'm all for uprated bits that just gets me sometimes.

Dr_Jones wrote:I don't get the bigger brakes thing, I mean bigger is better most of the time for sure but no matter how fast your car gets to 100 it still takes the same amount of time to stop whether you got there in 5 seconds or 10 seconds. Don't get me wrong I'm all for uprated bits that just gets me sometimes.

So how do you explain all those test in different magazines that some cars able to stop faster then others or with less distance from 100kmph to 0?

I've done this test in an advance driving course, and it does makes a different if you have different rotor and brake pads. I was able to stop at the same amount of distance from 60kmph to 0, when i was doing 70kmph to 0.