Re: Gabby the Nurburgring Challenge STi: C3 x TT x MSI x ARC x IAG x Varis x Ron Davi
Mate,
I am interested in purchasing this group N shifter and wonder how you are getting on with it? I am trying to choose between this and the STi shifter which seems to get mixed reviews, although my car is a daily driver.
Cheers
Adrian
Thanks for the question Adrian...without spoiling it right away because one of the upcoming write-ups will be a review of it with video footage, I can honestly say it is well worth it! It is such a direct and precise option, and the entire mechanism itself is improved/efficient.
Alright so it's update time!
So in case you forgot, I sold my ARC Titanium Alternator Cover over 1 year ago. Now you're probably thinking, "Why would Alex do that, it looked nice in his engine bay?" And you're totally right, I
LOVED having it...the problem however was that it interfered with my OEM oil dipstick.
Everytime I needed to check the oil, I would have to remove the cover, and it just became such a hassle that I sold it; I've regretted that decision since. I haven't regretted the hassle part, but I regret that I couldn't figure out another option to make it work.
I considered a bunch of options that made sense in my mind, like relocate the oil dipstick (if that's even possible...remember I'm not a technical guy, so I'm not even sure if that would be possible, I just know I pay the bills) :lol:
So anyways, I never really considered the option of "modifying" the Titanium Alternator Cover. See there is a part of it that could be modified to hopefully allow for more clearance...the kicker...the coveted ARC Titanium Alternator Cover
would have to be cut!!!
NO! DID ALEX SAY CUT THE HOLY GRAIL OF ALTERNATOR COVERS! GRAB THE PITCHFORKS!!!!
Wait wait! Please hear me out...as crazy as this idea sounds,
it just might work. :lol:
So I purchased the ARC Titanium Alternator Cover on a whim from a gentleman named Nick. Interesting story was I tried searching online, and normally I'm pretty good at finding the rarest of the rare parts. For the life of me though, I couldn't find anyone selling an ARC Alternator Cover, one did come up but it was in extremely beat up condition that was not salvageable (I considered trying too btw) :lol:
So I started getting a tiny bit desperate...what did I do you may ask? I went onto the ARC Magic group that I'm a part of, and searched for Sold listings of the ARC Alternator Cover, and reached out to any person that commented in it, as they may have been the ones who purchased them at the time of the listing.
And that's when I stumbled upon reaching out to Nick. Funny enough Nick had literally just posted his ARC Alternator Cover on the local forum of his, and what a coincidence that me not even knowing him or seeing his listing, that I randomly message him asking if he has one available!!
It must've been fate lol...the ARC gods were talking to me! :lol:
Anyways, so Nick was selling his because he recently bought one that was in much better condition than the one he had, so he decided to sell his "worse" condition one.
His one had some evident flaws, but I knew that it could be repaired, not to mention I was going to go to town on it anyways...so I purchased it from him.
Very special thanks to Nick for allowing me the opportunity to be reunited with one of my favourite parts of all time! Most importantly as always, I met a really cool guy and made a friend out of it...after all, that's what this community is about right...
cars are temporary, friends last a lifetime!
I hope you all enjoy the pictures of it:
So as you can see from the pictures, there are a few areas of wear-and-tear /damage that are of concern, but here is my plan:
- Fix the areas of concern
- (The purpose of this whole plan): Figure out a way to address the clearance issue with the oil dipstick.
Based on this plan, I needed to find someone locally who has experience working with titanium...I knew just the person to reach:
Matt@GT Customs.
Matt came
HIGHLY recommended by my friends and people online for titanium work; and there's not too many people in Toronto who are capable, let alone can get top notch results working with titanium.
So I gave Matt a call, super awesome guy; very chill, humble, and even better he's Portuguese so he's got to be good :lol:
I presented him the following idea:
The actual burn theme, I wanted to go with something along these lines:
So now in terms of the picture showing where we are going to cut (the "X" area), I am really hoping that by cutting off that area and keeping the edge of it, when we weld the edge back on closer to the vented part, that it will provide me with enough clearance for my IAG Oil Dipstick...fingers crossed! This has never been done before, so I'm happy to
pioneer this project and give GR owners some hope that they can achieve this too!
I know for a fact I got the best person doing the job, and am so happy to have Matt a part of my journal!
Be sure to check out Matt at the following links for some more of his amazing work:
GT Customs Facebook Page
Matt's Instagram Page
Alright next part of the update is VERY VERY special!
Back in January, one of my best friends, fellow IWSTI member, and owner of the
BADDEST/BEST GR STi where a lot of my inspiration comes from,
Quincy (canadianwrxsti) went to Tokyo Auto Salon (TAS). This is his second time going to TAS and I remember last year he went, he scored a bunch of sweet JDM goodies. I knew that I had to ask that he pick up one of the last pieces of the puzzle for Gabby's exterior.
The only hint I'm giving you is it's carbon fiber, it's made by a very JDM grassroots company, and Quincy not only got it for his car last year at TAS, but also got to meet the owners of the company that sells this...still no clue??
L'aunsport Carbon Fiber Window Vents!!!!
Now I had a very special request for Quincy...while at TAS, he's got to get a picture of him with the owner of L'aunsport with the window vents!!
Quincy happily took care of this request for me, and got a really great picture of him with the CEO of L'aunsport and the CEO's son:
When Quincy returned home from Vancouver, he shipped out the L'aunsport Carbon Fiber Window Vents, and told me he had a couple of surprises for me in the box...surprises...I
LOVE surprises!!
I'll be honest, it was probably the longest 2 weeks of waiting for it to arrive at my house from Vancouver to Toronto...I couldn't control my excitement for the part, but also the surprise?
Well it arrived, and let me tell you, the surprise was well worth it; it had so much sentimental value, and really goes to show the friendships that this car has privileged me to have. Quincy is one of my best friends and he wrote a very thoughtful and heartfelt letter to me about our journey as friends, and how this whole thing with my car is a journey too and to be patient with everything. He touched on how these window vents symbolize and bring back really great memories he had this year in Japan at TAS. I called Quincy via video chat to thank-him and I came to tears of joy after we disconnected because of the thought and time that went into this letter, and how
GREAT of a friend he is...I'm so blessed and fortunate to have you as Gabby's biggest inspiration, and one of my biggest inspirations and role models. You've made such an impact on my life and I'm so grateful to call you a best friend and brother!
This will hands-down be my favourite write-up of all time, so Quincy this one is specially dedicated to you! Thanks for always pushing me and encouraging me to be a better human being. I always got your back buddy!
Enjoy the pics guys:
Oh and did I forget, Quincy threw in some JDM candies!!
I don't believe there is any clearcoat on these (See picture below), so I'm going to give them a good polish to make them pop again, and then get them clear bra'd.
What's cool about these window vents is that they've literally travelled around the world as Quincy travelled with them from Tokyo to Bangkok to Osaka :lol:
The last part of this update will address something pretty cool and unique that I purchased back in February...it's the JDM STi Gas Cap!
I actually never knew this existed, I always wanted the Top Secret Gas Cap, however they were discontinued somewhat recently. This one actually seems to be identical, just with an STi badge.
Now this one is pretty banged up, and it's debatable whether or not it can be salvaged. At the end of the day, I took a chance on this and got in touch with a gentleman named Juan to inquire.
It turns out he not only has this cap, but he also has the other Top Secret ones too!!!
Such a sweet collection of Gas Caps!! A very special thank-you goes to Juan for giving me the opportunity to buy this sweet part. I'm really glad to have met you and made a friend from the transaction. I'm hoping this isn't the last transaction we do, because you know my eyes are on that Gold Top Secret Gas Cap.
I'm going to be taking it to
JP@StrippingTechnologies to give it his best shot at restoring this to as good condition as possible.
Enjoy the pictures:
And this is how it will look installed:
Thank-you all for stopping by and joining me along this journey! Here's a small little teaser of what's going on with the Nurburgring Bumper Project: