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Hi all! I thought I'd throw up a garage thread to finally introduce everyone to my little five. Nothing much has been done on her yet, still completely stock apart from a DIY CAI.

First of all, a history lesson. (And in tradition of my high school history teachers, I will keep it "short".)

Got my P's October 2009, my parent's bought me a 2001 Lancer GLi for my 17th, beautiful little car. Only had 58XXXk's on the clock. Sadly three weeks into my P's I hit an oil patch on a corner in heavy rain and fishtailed into a fence and tree, no injuries but the Lancer was written off.

Then a few months later I picked up another 2001 Lancer GLi, this one being the 1.8 Model with performance headers and a cat-back exhaust system. She had 145XXXk's on it when I bought her.


Meet Roxanne (Roxy) <3 Still miss her to this day. Her nickname was the Little Quiet Automobile

When I moved to Melbourne, Dad swapped me his 2004 Magna for Roxy. It wasn't long until the magna was christened 'Bargey'. I hated that car. Then the missus wanted a new car, so we got rid of Bargey and bought a 2006 Kia Rio Sports (I was already looking at a few second hand NC's at this time, we had no idea a baby was already cooking in her belly!)
I wasn't overly excited about the Kia, however it did have a bit of zip. Kept that around for a while.

We moved back to Brissie in May 2012 and the missus told me I can buy a new car if I wanted, from the showroom floor. EXCITE. Went and looked at a few lancers (The rule was it had to have 4 doors.) But then she saw a 2011 Nissan Dualis, in purple - her favourite color, for $25,000. She wanted it. You can't say no to a pregnant lady. So I signed my life away and got her the damn thing, in the end not getting my new car.

Well she felt bad for ruining my glory in getting a new car (The Kia was supposed to be hers ) so she said to me one fine morning, "Honey, you can go get a new car if you want. I know you don't like the Kia. Get whatever you want." Not the last line.

Looked at a beaten up old 73' Valiant Charger, needed some work but I was prepared. Had the cash, but the bloke sold it before I got a chance to have a look.

Nek minnit....



BAM. Meet Scarlett. Yes, I know shes not red. But still. The name suited her and it stuck.


Butt Poon.


Only thing changed inside is a Momo steering wheel and an Alpine Head. (Hopefully swapping that for a double din touch screen GPS thingy one day)


Needless to say, I was happy with my purchase.


Shes a bit wonky, but she does alright.


My three favourite girls

I paid $4000 cash for her plus my Kia, the dealer was asking $7990 for it. I still feel somewhat ripped off, but I can't complain because I have my five and she makes me happy. Haven't had too many troubles with her, shes a bit rattly and squeaky and the power cuts out on the CD head from time to time - but they just make her more loveable. The previous owner did a bit of work to her, but restored her back to stock. (apart from the body kit...which I've kind of grown to not like as much as I first did) And also the head rest speakers were missing :S So I went and picked up 4 4inch speakers and threw them in. The engine bay is a sight, needs a good clean and remodel.

But I bought her to learn these sorts of things in, hopefully if I treat her well I will have a few good years with her

So far she has a DIY Cold Air intake that I threw together and aftermarket H4 headlights from Mania.

The plans so far include: Throwing some coilovers on her in the next month or so, buying from a forum member.
Needs new brakes soon - so putting a set of NB's on her. I will also be getting some 949 6UL's (Still not sure what thickness), shes begged me for new shoes since I have had her (Like most women I know haha). Once I have that sorted, it'll be some X-force extractors and a Cat-back exhaust system. Roll bar, new wing mirrors and a few aesthetics will be also thrown on. And then I'll just play it from ear til then

Sorry to rant on

Go the silvers!! I think the wheel is a factory item too, just without the rubber centre.

Yay silvers!!! I'm still contemplating what color rim to go for. I wouldn't mind some black ones, but I have no idea what will go well Buddy Club have some nice whites, but again...no idea

Oooo thats nice to know. I've just thought they were some random cheap-ass rims. They're scratched to all hell though :'( Once I have my new wheels I'll do a bit of work on them to see if I can get them shiny and less dinged up again. The center caps on them have some random name on them, never heard of it before.

He means the steering wheel is factory.

Oh hahaha, reading mistake in my part Still, need to get those damn wheels off asap.

I think those wheels were a Hyundai excel option?

vrmmmpshhh wrote:I think those wheels were a Hyundai excel option?

Wouldn't surprise me. It's quite amazing how freaking scratched up they are. I also forgot to mention that it has two different brands of tire on the front I would have replaced them by now if I was going to keep the wheels, but its ALL going to go haha

I swear, some people should not be able to touch a vehicle, let alone a beautiful car like an Mx5

Whenever I hear the name "Scarlett", I can't help but think of one of my favourite cartoons when I was growing up:




- I still get a kick out of it, especially when he mentions "the FaiRRRRRR Lady MeliTHa!" (translated without Daffy's severe lisp: "the Fair Lady Melissa").


Nice car - Keep on Moddin'

I watched that the other day!

So not much has happened over the past month or so but here is the progress that Scar has to offer:

3 Styles of DIY Air Intakes have been tried and tested!

Intake #1 - Just a simple Pod Filter setup. Used a 45 Degree silicone reducer pipe to get the angle I wanted.

I quite enjoyed this setup, had a nice intake roar. I had plans to build a airbox for it, but never got around to properly bracketing this system in. It stayed on for a week or so.

Intake #2 - Second variant of my Pod filter setup. Quite normal type thing, cut the reducer pipe up to make it fit better.

This also had a nice intake roar, I could even jump to say it had a tiny bit of torque increase - but that is probably just the DIY/noise placebo effect kicking in. This stayed on for a matter of weeks.

Then THIS came in the mail, yay for shiny things!

Along with THIS, the best $175 I have ever spent - so so so useful!


Intake #3 - Third and final (so far) intake variant - The "Pirate Special CAI".

So I ditched the K&N Pod for the Simota filter, spent some time (and some burnt flesh) dremelling a hole into the back wall and went to bunnings to find a pipe. Stupid pipes and never being the size you want! I settled for a 100mm (or 90mm) - 75mm reducer (I think, I can't remember ) and used the smaller section of a joiner pipe to stick through the hole in the wall. Glued the filter to the 100mm hole to keep it from slipping off (Thanks for the suggestion Gladiator!). I then used the other half of the joiner to connect the Filter with the silicone straight pipe I had laying about which then connected to the AFM. It's all nice and tight, can't seem to find any leaks and nothings exploded on me yet so I believe it was a success.

Wrapped it all up in some heat wrap that was sitting idly by (I was going to paint, but was lazy) and this was the finished result, with the strut brace fitting nicely now
I LOVE the roar this gives, and the quiet sucking noise at idle you can also hear. Again, I think this does improve a tiny bit on performance (more than the open Pod) but could just be placebo. However saying that, I had to reinstall the open pod to duck down to the shops to pick up something and I could honestly say I think she lost a bit of oomph.

Next on the agenda wasn't anything too flash, new taillights! Thanks to TonyMax!


Currently in the process of swapping out the old crappy NA6 brakes for NA8's (They needed machining anyway, so why not an upgrade?! )

Hover Five is hoverin'


With the power of Thor, I finally got the damn thing off in the end! When I first saw movement, I was the happiest man alive.

And that's it so far. My coil-overs should be arriving in the next month and then it's time for new wheels.
I'm thinking a 15x8 with 25+ offset, but I understand that will mean rolling ze guards? I was thinking about maybe getting them flared...but I want to be able to see a NA with flared guards sporting the sized rims first.

I also have no clue what tires I would put on them

But that's what you guys are for, right?

If you want to get the coldest air possible into your intake then I trying to track down the standard heat shield to go over your exhaust manifold, unless you intend on getting extractors pretty soon anyway.

I wish my car lived in a garage, purely so I could have one of those hard top hoists.

That is definitely on the cards! Extractors/cat-back system will be after the new wheels.
However it won't be for a while, so I might try and track one down. I've done a bit of a google and they're not that easy to find? There is a mob in the states that are selling a 'blanket' for the exhaust manifold...I might get one but it just sounds dodgy

I might be moving in a month or so, and I'm not looking forward to it The house we're in at the moment is the in-laws investment property, so we can do whatever we want to the house. The giant iron girder that runs across the middle of the house is amazing, I hang so much off of it The hoist is just clipped onto a heavy-duty D-Clamp

Hopefully the next rental people will let me put a hole in the roof if I ask nicely If they don't, I plan on trying to fabricate a stand-type thing for it - kind of like a boxing bag stand...just alot bigger. It'll come in handy for renters

CaptainNate wrote:I've done a bit of a google and they're not that easy to find?

Put word out on the forum. Plenty of folks have upgraded to extractors and probably have their standard manifold and heat shield sitting around.

Great to meet Scarlett in the metal tonight, I like the plans you have for her, and what you've done so far!

Here's a (rather grainy) cropped shot of her for you - I'll put the others in the Photoshoot Run thread once you've started it, organiser gets the honours!

Thanks mate! I'm considering borrowing my friends light setup to do another shot there, that little alley definitely has potential with some light bounced around