Samanator

Well this is a forum of owners and don't get me wrong I appreciate the fine details of a modification but being older I'm looking for something more that shows some craftsmanship ( a true lost art). When I was in my teens (About 33 years ago) my love of cars had me working with an old craftsmen hand building replacement body panels with an English wheel for a 50's Ferrari GTO. I love seeing detailed modification and simplifications and I’m not a fan of the catalog tuner world. Where is the skill and thought? If you want to push to the edge let’s talk about modification that you can’t buy out of a catalog. This thread suggest not for the conservatives. Here are some of my ideas (some good, some maybe not so good).

Who has started to look at putting the LS 460 engine and maybe the 8 speed trans. in an SC? This would be a subtle mod that would really add something to the car. I suspect that the engine will almost bolt in (the trans may not be so easy). This would be a clean cool modification that would yield close to 100hp gain. Play with the programming and you may be in excess of 150 hp.

The SC has very classic lines, so as in older cars like 50s and 60s British and Italian cars the round and flowing lines do not work well with over done body modifications. We also have one of the longest trunk lids on the market now. Fenders modified with vents similar to the new Jaguar and Austin Martin between the fender and door may look good. A well done set of stainless mesh grills (maybe add one across the whole lower portion of the bumper) is something I have not seen in the after market. Moving the third brake light into the top of the trunk panel similar to some of the Cadillac’s may clean up the back. A pop up wing ala Porsche would also clean up the back and add something trick. A soft top would defiantly be unique and may not be so hard to pull off.

One thing I notice is hardly any of these modified cars introduce new colors. I’d love to see an SC in some thing like Corvette yellow. Almost everything on the top of the car is aluminum (Except to the A pilar). Might be cool to strip off the paint and polish this up like a mirror and than powder coat it or anodize it clear.

Does any of this sound conservative?

Shawn808

Samanator
There are tons of import cars out there who have done mods like you mentioned and beyond. Problem is the inital cost of the SC430.



Problem is the car we have is too expensive for most to modify to that extent. I am sure if the price of the SC was about that of a 92 civic you would be seeing LS motor swaps, yellow paint jobs, fender reworkings etc.
[IMG]ttp://www.wrecklessonline.com/ctc/ctc04.jpg[/IMG]

Even the motor swaps you mentioned:


But is the price of the car that makes it hard to tinker with. I dont want to be modding my SC and lower its resale when its less then 10 years old. I am sure in the future (5 to 10 years) when the price of this model SC comes down a bit more you will see some wild mods. Trust me I come from the "import tuner" scene and to get ANY points at shows now days you have to do much more then "bolt ons". Here is one example of a older SC you would not have seen this 15 years ago:

Shawn808

Opps here is the yellow celica and MR-S that didnt make it into the last post. IMO that yellow MR-S is NICE. Minus all the stickers:

Samanator

[QUOTE=Shawn808;2227733]Samanator
There are tons of import cars out there who have done mods like you mentioned and beyond. Problem is the inital cost of the SC430.


Problem is the car we have is too expensive for most to modify to that extent. I am sure if the price of the SC was about that of a 92 civic you would be seeing LS motor swaps, yellow paint jobs, fender reworkings etc.
Even the motor swaps you mentioned:
But is the price of the car that makes it hard to tinker with. I dont want to be modding my SC and lower its resale when its less then 10 years old. I am sure in the future (5 to 10 years) when the price of this model SC comes down a bit more you will see some wild mods. Trust me I come from the "import tuner" scene and to get ANY points at shows now days you have to do much more then "bolt ons". Here is one example of a older SC you would not have seen this 15 years ago:

In South Florida there is a great deal of high dollar modified cars (mostly new) from BMW, Porsche, Audi, Ferrari, and Mercedes…. So in this crowd the SC is a bargain. Since I live close to the Champion Motors (Porsche and Audi Dealer that is also the US Audi factory race team) race and tuner shop I know of quite a few modified Audis and Porsches. Some of the body modifications I’ve seen roll out are amazing. When I was shopping the SC they had a Cayman with a turbo 911 engine. The price tag was over the cost of a new 911 turbo. Very clean job and supposedly unbelievably quick and fast! Given that people spend over $150K for custom bikes and I saw an article on an over $200K 1400hp Toyota Supra what is the cut off point? I would agree that these are very high end but so is the platform you are discussing as a starting point. As you said we are not talking Honda Civics here but I’m not aware that we were talking any price caps. Most of the pictured wheel and tire combos have to be in the $5K and plus range. Add the suspension package, brakes and the exhaust and you will be somewhere around $15K, but anyone can duplicate this.

My best guess is the engine could be done for under $20K. Some of the others are dependant on your level of skill are mostly just work plus finishing cost. When I have modified a vehicle I look for something that will be one of a kind. I had not been considering modifying my SC but now this has the gears rolling looking at the possibilities.

By the way, the scissor door modification can be bought at the Infiniti dealers here on new G35 coupes. Not really anything special, now the paint while not to my taste is very nice on the older SC.

One other point I have not checked this (I will confirm this evening) but I was told the hood, trunk lid and roof are aluminum. Is this correct? If not, I retract the polishing idea.

carlos

iTrader: (1)

more pics, less talk

etzel

i agree the sc430 has classic lines. design wise, i think of it a modern 356 done on a luxury scale. would love to see this car stripped of some of the clutter and weight.

Shawn808

Basically what I am saying is that its not so much a -price cap- of the car to be modded but in that most of the mods you want that are not "bolt on" require lots of work and time. As the SC gets cheaper it gets into the hands of younger people who have that time and extra money (teenages during summer with part time job etc me and my friends were once) and then they start doing things to "showoff" to thier friends and win at car shows. True the "high-baller" cars like SL550s with full kits etc belong to adults, but at most of these import shows with TONS of custom mods not bolt on like you mentioned (relocated taillights, reworked fenders, polished hoods on miatas (miatas have aliminum hoods) etc) are median priced cars or older luxury cars. The SC400 and 300 crowd is seeing this happen alot to their cars, many of them are being bought by younger people and being painted pink, purple, yellow etc in fact a light purple one with a vertex wanna-be kit, HUGE wing and generic rims moved in down the street from me. Some love it and others hate it. I think their is a "too many riced out SC300s" discussion going on now in that SC400 forum on CL. So what happens is that most "adults" dont want to mess with a car that is mostly stock for a few reasons. Mine is resale and inital cost but others because they like the styling of how it is and think its already exclusive enough and others who dont want to look -too- young by modding thier car too much. But as the price comes down and the resale goes down on the SC430 I am sure you will see many mods like you mentioned and more. Just wait 5 to 10 years and we will be having a discussion here like they do on the SC400 fourm about "riced out pink SC430s"

DPRSupra

note to self...next mod full Auto Couture bumpers...and AC 20's