Finding My Partner For Life

Five months and two weeks ago I proposed to my girlfriend and got a 'yes'. Going from being single and without a care in the world to being engaged has in itself been a blissful experience. I knew from the beginning that it would no be easy, and it was a challenge that I looked forward to facing.

In retrospect, I'm looking back at how this all started.

I met her at work. As if it was the script in some cheesy romantic movie, she was my boss, and if that cliche was not enough we started out as friends. It started with coffee. Hanging out together after work and just talking. I had come from a point where a previous relationship had ended on a rather sour note, and I was trying to kick a drinking habit that was already boarding on alcoholism. She had also been through something similar. It was nice to having a friend to talk to, I didn't have to keep things to myself and at the very least I kept me away from drinking. It's hard for me to remember at what point exactly I started entertaining the thoughts that we could be more than just friends. Towards the end of 2010 I had realized I was starting to fall for her. I decided to leave the company and pursue other things... her being one of them. When you find a girl who's willing to ride in your loud stripped out aircon-less car that's been sitting in the noon time sun, and she has to hop over the roll cage in her short dress, that has to be someone worth pursuing. Even if it meant leaving my comfort zone of a Job that actually paid quite well. After some courtship that would not be out of place in a John Loyd Cruz movie, including going through around 9 different cities just looking for a Starbucks that was open, we exchanged the verbal agreement to become mutually exclusive.

Bliss. Probably the most overused term in describing relationships. However, I can defend why I'd say our relationship has been blissful. Over the last couple of years, we experienced a lot of things together. Good things, bad things. We had our moments of joy and shared laughter, and also moments when we've hurt each other. Yes, we've had fights. Nasty ones sometimes involving somebody getting out of the car in the middle of traffic and walking away. An innocent post may also have been punched out of frustration leading to the injury of an innocent hand. We never broke up though, maybe somebody may had said something to that extent out of spite at one point, but without the acknowledgement of the other it was never official. The good times of course outnumber those, however believe it or not it's in those low moments that a relationship is forged. When your happy and having a good time, it's easy to gloss over things and get lost in the euphoria. When you're sitting a lone brooding about how you think the other person is unreasonable and imagining breaking up with them and how much easier and stress free things would be if you were single, is the time that you really test and see how much you love the other person, or not. Single life was great, you get to do whatever you want, when you want and you don't have to consider anyone else. You don't have to do things you don't want to do. You don't have to worry about hurting anyone. But when the desire to be with someone is stronger than all of that, when you'd put up with long (very long) shopping trips in a mall, wearing gay looking loafers and colorful clothes, not being able to grow an incredibly long beard that has a life of it's own because she thinks it looks dirty... The only explanation would be that you genuinely love the person and every moment spent with a person you truly love, both the good times and the bad, is bliss.

We had been boyfriend-girlfriend for a couple of years. How I decided it was the time to 'pop the question', I don't even really remember. I guess it's a sum total of all the feelings I had developed in the time we had been together. I can offer no logical explanation why I decided it was the right time to, all I knew is that on that early Monday morning on the 8th of July this year, everything felt 'right'. I had spent a lot of time looking at 'epic' wedding proposals on YouTube, thinking of elaborate ways to surprise her, but none of them felt right or really as sincere as I'd like. I didn't need anything fancy with video coverage, I felt like it was something that had to be private, shared only by the two of us. So again, after catching a movie, over some coffee, while talking and reminiscing out how things have been like over the time we had been together, I asked her if she would like to marry me. And so the adventure began.

Marriage. Scary word that. A lot of guys liken it to losing all freedom. The colloquial term for it translates to getting tied down. I don't remember ever fearing that. Although honestly I never also gave it much thought. It's said that you really have to prepare yourself before you consider getting married. You should be mature enough to handle the responsibility of starting your own family. You should be financially stable with a good amount of savings. You have to be sure that the person you are about to marry is the person you are willing to commit your life to. If there was a test to take that would allow you to get married, I certainly won't pass. 1 out of 3. Only the last case would apply. I know I'm far from ready for this sort of thing. Savings? I've been living it up indulging my self in all sorts of things, so I don't really have any, I wiped out whatever I had buying an engagement ring. All I knew was that I was sure she was the person I would like to spend the rest of my life with. I could imagine waking up next to her every morning, taking a shower in the bathroom while she poops, maybe having kids, and growing old together. I knew it was not going to be an easy journey, but it was just my style. I've always gone into things without really being prepared and figuring out how to make it work along the way. Think of it as cramming for an exam. It's definitely not the best way to go and things would be a lot easier if you prepared well ahead of time, but at the same time it is exciting, and in the end maybe even more rewarding. I'm well aware that things to come will be difficult, it will involve a lot of sacrifices, blood sweat and tears. There are still a lot of uncertain things, but I am sure that on August 8, 2014, when we exchange our vows and commit 'till death do us apart. It will be the happiest day of my life.

Unassisted Brakes.. Full manual conversion!

The upgrade that involves removing something that was already there.

First, a quick back story. My 1979 Mitsubishi Lancer originally came with a power assisted brakes by way of a Firewall mounted brake servo (aka. hydrovac). When I upgraded the engine, the original brake master and servo were in the way of the bigger carburetor so I switched to a custom brake system using an AP Lockheed remote servo mounted in the front of the car where the battery used to be. 

I can't really complain about the performance of the Lockheed system. Aside from the fact that is has a cool name and looks really trick (always starts a conversation when people see the setup for the first time) it actually performs quite well. It's really powerful, I'd even call it overassisted. You get full braking power with just a light touch of the brake pedal. I've used it for almost 5 years already covering a whole lot of driving, mountain runs, high speed runs and even slalom racing once. The system is not perfect though. Because the brake servo is remote from the pedal, it lacks feel, or more accurately, there is no feel. The pedal acts more like an on/off switch, although with enough time and experience, knowing how the car will react when I step a certain amount, I was able to learn how to control it, but I never could use 100% of the brakes without locking it up. Another disadvantage was that you lose the split circuit safety of the original brake system, because the lockheed is fed by a single line in, if you have a leak anywhere you lose all brakes. I had a slight scare once when the bolt of a t-fitting came off and caused one of the brake pipes to crack. I've been paranoid about it ever since. Lastly, it's an old-tech system. Even 5 years ago, we were selling the things 'new old stock' coming out of decaying boxes. I have sold the last of our stocks of the things even the one I was keeping as a spare, so I figured if it were to break it would be best to look for a more modern alternative. Although, I must give the Lockheed some credit there, as long as they have clean brake fluid, they seem to last forever.

For a while, I had been researching alternative options that can apply to the car, given the tight space constraints of the engine. There is no modern version of the Lockheed remote servo, and even the smallest thinnest firewall mounted servo from a Japanese Kei car will still be too long for our application. There was always the option of switching to a down draft car and manifold to get the space back, but I felt that would be giving up on the side draft system that already works so well. Eventually, I started looking into Motorsports solutions. I was drawn in particular to the Tilton design dual master cylinder brake system that had a separate master for the front and rear brakes and a balance bar for adjustment and tuning. This is where I first encountered unassisted brakes. I had always thought that unassited brakes were reserved only for really really old cars that date back from before the brake booster/servo/hydrovac was invented. My 60 Chevy has manual brakes and they were terrible. I learned since then that a large number of race cars actually remove the servo and run unassited brakes for better control. Also learned that one of my favorite cars, the early Porsche 911 also did not have any brake servo up to some of the earlier 930 series. So based on the logic that most race cars and Porsche's are faster than my car and they run unassited brakes, I figured that would be the way to go.

I had originally planed on making my own version of the Tilton dual master cylinder system (of course we could always buy one, but there's no fun in that), but as I later decided that I don't really need the bias adjustability it offers over the increased cost and complexity of making one. The simpler the better, I figured as less parts would mean less areas to R&D and less places where things could possibly go wrong. I decided to pattern my brake system after the early Porsche 911 design which is basically a 2-pot master cylinder directly actuated by the pedal.

Master cylinders actually work like gears, with a ratio in relation to the piston in the brake caliper. The smaller master cylinder actually applies more pressure while the bigger it is means it moves more fluid (you also have to consider your brakes, discs have big pistons compared to the wheel cylinders in drums). The idea is to find the balance between having enough fluid volume to move your brakes within a fairly short stroke and having enough pressure. I understood this to mean that you use the smallest master you can get away with. According to the Porsche experts and racing people, a 20mm master cylinder was best for unssisted brake applications (any bigger and you'll probably want some assist already) so I figured that's a good place to start.

I dropped by favorite local parts place (Alabang Parts Center in Las Pinas) because those guys are patient with putting up with my strange requests for parts. I asked them to bring out all of the master cylinders they had on stock so I could choose one, considering both the 20mm bore size I needed and the need to get the shortest possible one to clear our engine mods. I settled with one for a '89 Lancer (yeah, funny to end up with a Mitsubishi part again) 13/16" = 20.3mm so close enough and it was also physically the stubbiest master the had available.

I fabricated an adaptor plate out of aluminum to mate it's 2-bolt flange to the 4-bolt hole in the cars firewall, which as you'll see in the pic, just barely clears the backing plate on the side draft carb.

I then fabricated a rod that connects the brake pedal to the master with an adjustable link so I had the option of adjusting pedal height and even preloading the master to shorten the pedal stroke if I wanted to. [no pics of that, I'm calling that a trade secret]

Took out all the complex brakes lines the old remote servo had and was left with a simple 'one for the front brakes, one for the rear brakes' setup. Still in the same armored copper pipe as before.

All done, there's a lot less clutter in the engine bay now.

Finally. The most important part. How does it perform?

I have to say that I like it a lot! In fact I've been driving the car all week just so I can keep testing it. Of course compared to any assisted setup it requires a lot more pressure to stop the car. There is nothing helping you so it's all muscle power. I would have to say it takes about 4 to 6 times more force from the right leg to stop the car. One noticeable difference is that there is now a progression in stopping. With a servo you just step, and the longer you leave your foot on the pedal the more stopping the car does. Without the servo you step and you have to step harder and harder to stop the car. It's not as bad as it seems though, as it's still quite easy to lock up the tires at speed if you step hard enough. I like it actually, and what I really like with the progression of the manual system is that it is very easy to modulated the brakes.

In order to use 100% of your braking system, you have to be able to brake at 'impending lockup' meaning any bit more pressure and you lock the wheels. On most cars I've driven with a brake assist this limit is very small, so you end up braking, locking the brakes, releasing, adding pressure, locking again and releasing, in order to balance the car at the limit. With the unassisted system, because of it's progression, it is SO easy to find that limit and keep it there, just perfect that you can hear the tires scrubbing just about to lock up but not locking up. I can imagine that this would be a great advantage at the track, which we may have the opportunity to test next year. For fast road use I am very satisfied.

In normal driving, the pedal does feel a lot harder than an assisted system. But after a bit of time to adjust to it, it feel normal and natural. City driving with stop and go traffic is easily handled without any more effort than if it had power assist.

In summary, I'm very happy with it. Pros: Great feel, excellent control and much simpler than the previous system. Cons: Very hard pedal (although I actually like that, it feels very reassuring to kick when your going for it) and more effort needed from the human to operate the car. So I don't think it's an mod for everybody and it probably won't be as easy if it was in a different application i.e. a much heavier car (remember our Lancer is like 750kg). I know a lot of people prefer over assisted systems because it makes the brake feel really strong, but really boosted pressure from the pedal does not make the actual brakes perform any better than if the pressure was manually supplied. 

Motoring on a budget: Honda City Project Car

I have an interesting new project. But a little back story first. My younger sister is now at the age where she needs a car of her own, so my Dad decided to get her one and since we're not kicking back on any Pork Barrel funds, we didn't have that much of a budget to work with. So the idea was to find a cheap car, with an automatic transmission that we could fix up and turn into a reliable daily driver for a first time driver. I'm taking care of fixing up the car and I figured I'd document the process and treat it like a challenge to see how we can get everything done on a budget. Kinda like those cheap car challenges on TopGear!

So here's what we got! 

It's a 1996 Honda City EXi with a 1.5L D15B engine and an automatic transmission. We got it for only 75,000 pesos. Way below market price! These things usually go for around 160k to 180k, but the catch is that it was not running. My dad noticed the car parked in front of a neighbors house, he called and made and offer and we got it. This is where our adventure begins. 

So, we start with a non-running car. The owner said the car last ran in June of this year (3 months at the time of this writing). It was running before they stopped using it, and after not using it for a while it didn't want to start anymore. The culprit was likely just a dead battery. I had already enrolled the car into one of my AAP accounts so I could tow it to the shop and work on getting it to run there, but I needed to wait 7 days before the free roadside assistance would kick in. I decided we'd give it a shot and try to get the car running on the spot. We swapped in a fresh battery and the car started on the first try. It didn't sound the healthiest, for sure in desperate need of a tune up and change oil (the oil was filthy!) but good enough to drive home which was just a few blocks away.

The short drive home was enough to tell that we were going to have to work on a lot of things on the car. It ran ok and the automatic trans shifted fine. The interior was dirty and I kept my work gloves on because the steering wheel was sticky. The front power windows go down but need help going up and the brakes are noisy. At this price level though, we can't be too choosy. The car was running, the registration up to date and the aircon even works so that's a good start.

Once home, the first order of business was to pick out dirt and dried leaves from the crevices and hose out what we could. The car as seen in the first pic had been parked under a tree and had a lot of dirt and soil under it. 

The interior could use a good cleaning and smelled funky. I ripped off the yucky sticky steering wheel cover to find that the original steering wheel was pristine beneath it. It's got a rather ugly set of seat covers that actually cover the seats quite well. We suspect that the seats underneath are in pretty good shape. 

The roof on these early Honda cars seems to be a problem area. Seems like it's got something to do with the structural supports under the roof rusting through. We will get this properly repaired when all the mechanical work has been sorted out on the car but for now, I did a quick fix just to cover up the holes to at least try and prevent the rust from spreading. 

Using my industrial grade 'Nashua' aluminum tape. 

So that's where we are today. I didn't have much more time to work on the car today since I had work to do. Dad and I are hoping to get everything done and sorted with in a 100k budget. So far, we're at 75k for the car, 3.8k for the new Amaron battery, and 750 for the AAP membership (1500 divided by two since one membership takes two cars) running total for the project is 79,550. 

Tomorrow I'll drive the car to the shop so we can give the mechanicals a once over.

To be continued. 

Epic Tanay Matsuri 2013: The Tänaybürgring

Long story short; it's over 300 kilometers of fun across four provinces, with some of the best driving roads the country has to offer. If you haven't seen it yet, check out this little teaser video to get an idea how awesome it was. It was epic, it was awesome, it was the kind of thing serious car enthusiasts dream about. Three days after and I'm still feeling the high. 

The awesomeness of the event however goes beyond just a day of having fun in the mountains. With a line up of around 60 vehicles ranging from 60's Mercedes Benz sedans, a classic Datsun Sunny Pickup, our usual group of 70's and 80's Lancers, a classic Porsche 911, a selection of 90's era Japanese sports cars consisting of a few S-Chassis Nissans, Toyota MR2's and a Mazda RX-7 FD, Civics, Corollas, Lancers, and a Lancer EVO V, several Subaru Impreza's... and a Forester turbo, several Hyundai Genesis's, Diesel powered pickups and SUV's, a E46 BMW, a Volvo wagon, an AMG Benz, a Kawasaki bike, a 1.2L Mirage, a Hyundai Elantra and (the wildcard surprise of the trip) a Toyota Avanza. (and more that I just can't remember now) Our convoy through the mountains had a representative from almost every branch of our local car culture; Race cars, stance, classics, 4x4's, stock rides, factory tuned, professionally built and home built cars. It would have been the equivalent of all the religions in the world getting along together in once place in spite of having different beliefs and priorities. 

Sure, you could argue that you'd get a similar diverse layout in even small scale car shows, but only a real enthusiast can go out and drive. Driving is the litmus test here. Those who build cars to impress others can put all the parts they can buy and slap together an impressive show car, but only if you build your car to impress yourself will you be willing to take it on a 300+ KM round trip where breaking down or falling of a mountain side would be real possibilities if you didn't know what you were doing. 

It may not have been a huge meet with hundreds in attendance, but the quality of the people (not just the cars) was impressive. As I like to say, we were a small but powerful crowd.

For quite some time I've been bored, even disenchanted with our local car scene. I've written about that before and could give a long litany about all the posers and asshats I've come across which have made me stay away from going to car meets and the like for a while. Just go on the Facebook page of a certain popular automotive magazine (clue it rhymes with hop rear) and if you were to judge what the Philippine car culture was like based on the posts there alone, it's not something you would be proud of. Unless you'd be proud to say that you're a jealous sports car hating whiny bitch. The results of the Matsuri (that's festival in Japanese in case you're wondering) give me hope for the local scene. It shows that we can all get together and have fun without the need for any real organized structure. No need for presidents or admins, or complicated groups with all sorts of fees and memberships statuses. Everybody just acting as individuals, united only by our shared passion for cars and driving. I guess that's part of the reason I still feel the high three days later. Because I feel so refreshed. If you hang out too much with people who just have the same type of car, you will develop a certain herd mentality that will prevent you from full enjoying what our car culture has to offer. People for example in Mitsubishi only clubs seem to think that people who drive Honda's are our rivals. 'mayabang ang mga naka Honda' in the colloquial as a lot would say. But out on the mountain you will realize that the guys driving the Honda (or whatever your perceived rival might be) are just enthusiasts like you and if you open your mind and talk to them you might find it surprising that you have some common ground between the two of you. 

With that realization, I'm seeing a bright future for our local car culture. The Matsuri is the first of many fun events organized by us enthusiasts for enthusiasts. In order to keep in touch with everybody who joined and to bring together more like minded individuals we have setup a Facebook group called the EPIC Awesome Drivers Lounge. Anyone out there who finds this post and would be interested to join is most welcome.

The event aside, this was also a debut run in the mountains for my '79 Lancer. While we've made more runs around the mountains than I can remember this is the first with the new engine and new setup with the AC and all. This is also my first run with my new partner, my soon to be wife, and this was an experience I wanted to share with her. 

I started preparing the car for the run a few months ago. Shaking it down so it won't break down on the road. I was getting confident with the new setup, the newly built engine has almost 2500 KM on it since it was built and is only now really starting to feel broken in and is really feeling strong. I'm also adjusting to the new suspension setup and new tires (brand and size I've never used before). This is also the first time in many many years that the car has aircon (a sign I'm getting old perhaps).

The night before I was up late having a 'steak party' at my house with friends and that combined with being so excited and having to be up early meant I got at best 2 hours of sleep. I was up by 4:00AM because I had made arrangements for a small convoy for us based in the South to leave Petron Westgate at 5:30AM. At exactly 5:32AM our small convoy left Alabang en route to the kick off point for the Matsuri. The Shell gas station along Marcos Highway. By 6:00 AM we were at Shell. On the way I stopped by the Petron station along Marcos Highway to fill the tank of the Lancer with the new 100 Octane Euro 4 Petron Blaze. Having calculated that we should be able to make it all the way around on one full tank of gas.

The atmosphere at Shell was electric. There were already quite a number of cars gathered by the time we got there and more and more arrived by the minute. It took a bit a time to get everybody together and organized. We were put on the #taco group which meant we were with the faster cars. We left Shell at around 8AMish (I really was not keep track of time anymore). After snaking our way through the traffic of Marcos Highway we eventually entered the Devils Playground and started to climb to Tanay. A nice group we were in, initially we were along side a pair of MR2's and an S14 Silvia. I was driving with the AC on and a passenger but the engine was pulling strong and we were keeping pace easily. By the time we were half way up to Tanay at our first stopover to take pictures I was already synched in to my car again. If you are the crazy type who would believe that cars are more than machines and could possibly even have a soul this may have been proof. I don't know if it was the adrenaline or the excitement getting to me, but the car felt like it was running smoother. It felt like it was responding faster. It's almost as if you could feel that it was happy doing what it was doing. It was incredible. The torque of the new engine setup meant I didn't have to ring every last RPM out of the engine like before. 3000 to 4000 RPM shifts in 3rd and 4th gear was enough to keep pace. Only a few times did we need to call upon a full power when the need to overtake arose. As a result the car was relaxed and running cool. I didn't even feel the need to switch off the AC at any point because I didn't feel any lack of power and my sleepy co driver appreciated to frosty cold AC. By the time we were heading down the mountain towards Caliraya we were properly on it! With a mean black Subaru WRX filling my wide angle rear view mirror urging on. It was driving nirvana!

There were a few casualties for the event. Cars with mechanical problems of course, no death or anything like that. Being among the oldest cars in the group we impressively did not have any major problems. Our only hitch was that the left wiper linkage came loose while running in the rain causing the both wipers to bind. It was a quick fix to convert it to a single wiper temporarily get us through the day. The '77 Lancer of my friend got through with no problems at all. We ended with a late lunch (Pizza! I like pizza if you didn't know) at Nuvali in Sta. Rosa Laguna. Exhausted but totally satisfied. 

It's been a while since I've had a feeling of being satisfied with the performance of my car. I want to upgrade the brakes since I feel with the new performance they could be better (already have some ideas brewing), but otherwise I can't ask the old car to do anymore than it has. 

Lastly, if you noticed the Save the Ring stickers and banners in video, that is in support of the Save the Nurburgring petition. 

The rest of the pics we took can be seen here! You can also go the the Epic Tanay Matsuri 2013: The Tänaybürgring events page for more pics and videos from other participants.

Our Story So Far

So, some buddies of mine wanted to do a video feature on me and the Lancer and asked me to sort of make an outline about what I wanted to say so they could plan the shots. I realized I’m not good at making outlines so I decided that I’d tell the story here and have them figure it out. I also realized I haven’t updated the blog in a while so, here goes.

So I guess I begin with me; car crazy since birth, largely due to my Dad who was also a car nut ever since he was young. Not too much new there, there must be hundreds of father and son stories like that. The interesting thing is our difference in automotive lifestyle. My Dad is the guy who’d go for all original. He likes things clean and simple. He’d buy a good car and keep it that way. He rarely changes anything, unless it’s a practical necessity- like using a washable K&N Filter and running up rated tires rather than the crap they usually fit as stock. He usually disapproves of aftermarket wheels and wild modifications. Then, there’s me. I like modified engines, I like cars with roll cages, the more highly tuned the engine and the more bars my girlfriend will have to climb over to get into the car the better! It’s a bit strange to have such different tastes, but also, it’s largely my dad’s fault why I’m like this.

I was around 7 or 8 years old. My dad and I were going somewhere in our 1993 Lancer GLXi (CB Chassis). The car was fairly new at the time, and its fuel injected 16-valve 4G92 engine had some performance that was quite a level up from anything previously available locally. On a particular stretch of road, he would gun the engine and tell me to feel ‘how the power surges when it goes past 4000 RPM’. I don’t know how I reacted, but I still remember how I felt. I didn’t know what the heck those numbers meant, but I knew I liked what I felt. I have since been addicted to that feeling of the surge of power.

I read about a saying once that there are two types of car enthusiast; the racers who have gasoline flowing through their veins, and the mechanics who have oil flowing through their veins. I’m not really one who cares too much about racing; in fact I’ve only attended one organized motorsports event ever (a charity slalom/autocross when they were trying to raise some money to support the Ramirez family who were battling cancer at the time). What really interests me is tuning and building engines, trying to see how to get more power out of them, to satisfy the need to feel that surge of power when you step on it.

Which now brings us to the car; it’s a 2-door 1979 Mitsubishi Lancer. My dad bought it brand new from Diamond motors on September 27, 1979. It was his daily car throughout the 80’s until he got the GLXi in 1993. He did a pretty good job preserving the car and it even won ‘best original stock’ at the 1997 Mitsubishi Classic Concourse. He always promised to give me the car when I grew up, so when I started driving it was mine. I used the car as it was through high school and college before I really had the means to do anything with it. In 2005, after not letting me buy a 6^th Generation Galant GTi that had a 400HP Evolution III engine in it, my dad said that we should just fix up the Lancer.

It was then that I started researching about the car. Thanks to the internet, I quickly found out that the car had a pretty interesting history. It was a pretty successful Rally car where it was applied. The car was successful in the Australian Southern Cross rallies and it dominated the African Safari rallies in the late 70’s, beating (in Safari Rally conditions) the likes of the Porsche 911 and Lancia Stratos. Read more here!

I wasn’t really able to do much back then, aside from getting a 5-speed transmission and re-gearing the rear diff to 4.222:1 which according to the specs should have come with the car had it been the version sold in in Japan, there was only so much a college student on an allowance could do. I enjoyed driving and using it as much as I could but, it was not until I started working that I could really get serious with the car.

It’s been quite a long time in development and I have to admit I made a lot of mistakes along the way including something as painful as having an engine that I just built myself blow up after a little over 1000KM. But that’s how you learn. I read and researched a lot. You have to really geek out to become really good at this sort of thing. I’ve had a good amount of guidance from my friend who goes by the handle ‘Oldie’ in our 1stGen Lancer Forum, and from my friends at SMT Competition headers in Makati.

My idea for the setup of the car was to do it like how some Japanese tuners would build cars; take an original car from the factory. Do a built engine, modified drive train and suspension. Bolt in Roll cage and a bucket seat for the driver only. It’s sort of a take on what it would have been like if they were doing that in the 70’s. It’s also sort of a Restomod, but not quite. A Restomod usually means converting the old car to modern engine and running gear and leaving just the classic body. I prefer to keep the original engine, although fully built and modified for more power and modern drivability. I believe the term people are using now for this sort of build style is a ‘Vintage performance’, but I don’t really care for labels. It’s more expensive and difficult to do than an engine swap because it involves tracking down rare parts and fabricating those you can’t find. It’s not necessarily better than an engine swap, there are advantages and disadvantages to either option, but this is much more challenging.

So let’s go through the car. The body was fully restored in 2008 at my shop which is at the back of our furniture factory. Taking down to a bare empty shell, we rebuilt it to be better than it was new. We stripped off all original insulation and undercoat. All the rust was removed and repaired. The body was reinforced in key places. We used modern paint urethane paint system and rust proofing. My estimate is that the body is around 20KG lighter than the original because of the weight of the factory rust proofing and undercoat. The car has a bolt in roll cage made by SMT based on the one for the original Safari rally car. I have a mechanic and metal fabricator in the factory, Dongdong who made the stainless steel strut tower brace and a bunch of other custom parts for the car. The bucket seat is a locally made Carbon-Kevlar piece I bought from a friend online, the harness is a Simpson 5pt. Camlock harness also bought online. The rest of the body and interior is original.

The engine is the original 4G33 block that came with the car, rebuilt by me in 2011. What we wanted was what we call a Max street engine. So we have some power of the race version while retaining reliability and driveability. Originally 1400cc this has been oversized to 1597cc using ART GS spec. High compression pistons. Internal parts are static balanced and blueprinted before assembly. The head is also the original head, ported and shaved. The camshaft is an original Mitsubishi works cam #4, aka the Rally cam. The cam is originally meant to go into the older version of the engine that used a timing chain instead of a timing belt like what my engine uses, so I also got an Ichiban adaptor to use the cam with my engine. Currently the engine is fed by a Weber 40 DCOE ‘single side draft’ carb on a Lynx intake manifold. We don’t run an air filter, just velocity stacks. I have a cold air tube to bring cold air from outside to the carb while the car is running. A Mitsubishi electric pump replaces the original engine driven one. The Long runner, equal length headers, stainless steel headers have a true merge collector are fabricated by SMT, as is the complete exhaust system. I made the stainless steel flanges though. The headers are wrapped in an industrial grade fibreglass insulation to reduce underhood ambient temperature. Keeping the heat inside the exhaust pipes also improves the gas flow and makes it more efficient in scavenging. For added reliability, there’s a custom oil cooler system made by SMT with hard oil lines and a remote oil filter system. The engine runs on Motul 5w-40 synthetic oil.  The ignition system is an MSD Digital 6 plus ignition box with Blaster SS coil and is triggered by a Pertronix Ignitor in the original distributor. The MSD Digital 6 system lets us have a high speed timing retard, so we can run more ignition advance for good low end acceleration and then step it back for more top end power. It also features a two step rev limiter that is used as a launch control system. Launch control is activated by pulling up the handbrake lever and flooring the gas.

Backing the engine is a close ratio 5-speed manual transmission with an SMT fabricated quick shift kit. The rear end is now a 4.625:1 final drive which I interchange with the 4.222:1 depending on the kind of driving I’ll be doing The lower ratio gives better performance, the higher ratio is better for highway cruising. The suspension upgrades consist of Cusco adjustable camber plate top mounts originally for a Lancer EX-Turbo modified for the ’79. Front springs are original and rear leaf springs are Tiger super leaf springs. I had the springs powdercoated green to match the roll bar. Front shocks are Kayaba Ultra SR, helped by O-Sulee spring cushions. Rear shocks are Kayaba Gas-A-Just. The front stabilizer bar is supported by polyurethane bushings. The car is currently set as low as it will go without upsetting the suspension geometry. If find this just right as I prefer to drive with a good amount of ground clearance so we don’t have to slow down. Everything underneath the car has been neatly tucked up in order to maximize this.

The brakes use an AP Lockheed remote brake servo in order to clear the side draft carb as the original brake system would have interfered. The remote servo is triggered by a Toyota clutch master cylinder repurposed as the brake master. Everything is connected with custom armoured brake lines. Driving a car with a remote brake servo is a little weird if you’re not used to it since it does not have that much feel so the brakes seem like they are either on or off, but when you are used to it, modulating the brakes comes naturally. Front brakes and rotors are the original discs. The rear drums were ditched in favour of rear discs from a Boxtype Lancer GSR mounted to the original rear axle housing with custom brackets. Sportech high performance pads all around.

The Car also has a modern Aircon system built by SMT giving the old car better air conditioning than most modern cars. We added a switch to disengage the compressor when we want to, in order to free up some extra engine power, but with the engine I built, I don’t really feel the need to do so. The radiator is a 3-row Evercool radiator cooled by two large electric fans which are automatically controlled using a Toyota thermoswitch. All the wiring has been redone with modern relays and connections. The battery relocated to the trunk to make space for the brakes and to improve weight distribution. The gauges were rebuilt by SMT and all work, the tachometer is a 5” Autometer Phantom tach, mounted at an angle to put the rev range that we frequently use right in the ideal spot for easy reading. The headlights are a Hella Halogen H4 conversion kit replacing the original seal beam units with Narva 90/100 all weather headlights. I usually have some form of auxiliary lighting system up front, but lately have not had one since the headlights are really good. At the back a Cibie spot light goes on with the reverse lights to illuminate the back.

The car has been through several sets of wheels, currently installed is a set of 3 piece mesh wheels. The fronts are Heroes Rock Racing Mesh measuring 14 x 6.5” +8 offset and the rears are Rays Engineering Volk Racing Mesh wheels measuring 14 x 8” with zero offset. The wheels, despite having different brands width have identical centre mesh and lip profiles. We believe it to have been sold as set originally. Why source the front and rear from different brands, I don’t know. I had the wheels refurbished by Master Wheels in Las Pinas in 2009, the mesh was originally gold, I had them done in green to match the roll cage and springs. Tires are Dunlop SPsports LM703, 185/65/r14 in front 195/60/r14 at the back.

That pretty much sums up the car for now. It’s an ever continuing project and I don’t think it will ever be done. In the future I’m considering building an individual throttle body fuel injection system controlled with a standalone computer for the engine and maybe ditching the rear leaf springs for a equal length 4 link rear suspension with a Watts linkage.. But for now I’m just enjoying the driving the car.

I’m not really afraid to use the car, because to me cars are meant to be driven. If anything were to happen to it, like how I blew the engine a few years ago, I will simply rebuild it and make it better.

Recent cool pic of the car; 

Photo credit: Anthony Magat