Author Topic: Pintara drivers car?  (Read 5541 times)

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Offline Pinhead

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Pintara drivers car?
« on: Jun 4, 2008, 01:07PM »
I've had an '87 Pintara auto for about 8 years nad it has served me well, being reliable and reasonably comfortable drive. Now the transmissioon is looking like it's about to die. So I've started looking for a replacment car with a budget of about $12k. I'm looking for a car that has reasonable fuel economy, but it must have good handling and be fun to drive.

The question arises, if I was to spend the $12k on the Pintara, would the result be worth it in terms of a getting a fun car with good handling? I'm thinking of replacing the auto with a manual gearbox, replacing the shocks and springs, probably lowering the suspension, new wheels and tyres and spending a bit on the bodywork to clean it up a bit. I would also attempt to reduce the weight wherever possible (removing anything that wasn't necessary). I'm not too worried about how the car looks, and I'm not worried about resale value, as I tend to keep my cars for a long time and run them into the ground. It might also be fun to do just for the sake of doing it?

So how would an improved pintara compare to what is available on the second hand market for similar dollars?

Offline Smiley Of Terror

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #1 on: Jun 4, 2008, 02:26PM »
12 grand could get you a cheap mr2  ::)
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Offline Pinhead

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #2 on: Jun 4, 2008, 02:56PM »
I'm assuming that I wouldn't have to spend whole $12k on the Pintara, maybe $8K.

Offline Budgie

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #3 on: Jun 4, 2008, 04:53PM »
Spend your money on an aussie FWD U13... 5k max will get you a very very neat SSS 5spd.  Great cars, will soon be my next daily driver! :D
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Offline phantom

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #4 on: Jun 4, 2008, 08:44PM »
theres a u13 attesa on carsales for $5000...QLD.133000kms, looks pretty decent
or you could spend $10k and buy SIR_TRX

Offline FuzzyDropbear

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #5 on: Jun 4, 2008, 11:01PM »
I'd be looking at some sort of U13, or, if you wanted a U12, go straight to the KA24DE conversion.

You can usually pick up a great TRX for 3-4k, then fun conversion times to be had!  :D

Or, 12k should buy you a decent FTO or something along those lines, depending on what you're looking for (4 door or a 2 door, wagon etc.).
« Last Edit: Jun 4, 2008, 11:10PM by FuzzyDropbear »
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Offline BILL*69

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #6 on: Jun 4, 2008, 11:39PM »
For handling, speed and the lot, i would be going with the U13 Attesa. Power @ all four, handle great, plenty of potential.

Luke from SA has about 170kw @ all four. And JelloBello is slowly getting there with his, his current AUTO ran a 13.8, and he only has an upgraded front mount and 3" exhaust with hsi stock turbo. These have plenty of potential in my eyes.
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Offline wombat

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #7 on: Jun 5, 2008, 09:02AM »
If you want a a fast car, buy a fast car. If you put 8-10K into a 20 year old pintara, you'll never see it again.
I'm so far behind at work, I'm almost retro!

Offline Kranzy

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #8 on: Jun 5, 2008, 04:09PM »
If you want a a fast car, buy a fast car. If you put 8-10K into a 20 year old pintara, you'll never see it again.

Very true...but after just going through this I have a one of a kind car that I was able to build from the ground up. Driving a fast car doesnt have that satisfaction with it, knowing I built this fast car is awesome!

If you have the time and patience and are willing to do the work yourself then go for it. If you just want to buy something and not worry about doing any work then wombat's advice is spot on.
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Offline FuzzyDropbear

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #9 on: Jun 6, 2008, 10:16AM »
Very true...but after just going through this I have a one of a kind car that I was able to build from the ground up. Driving a fast car doesnt have that satisfaction with it, knowing I built this fast car is awesome!

I agree totally. There is no better feeling than building your own monster. Anyone can go fast in a new sportscar, but it takes skill to build up and go fast in an old car. And it becomes more personalised, plus, you will gain more respect for doing the work yourself rather than just buying a supercar off the shelf and hooning around in a stock vehicle.

I would like to know, where all the people who 'love' their new sports car, will end up in the next few years, when the car gets a bit older. My bet is that they will upgrade to a newer car. It's the enthusiast who loves their car and wants to make it better than it was when it rolled off the production line.

So I think it depends on which type of person you are. I'm not saying that one type is better than the other, really is up to personal preferrance. Anyway, that is a bit off topic.  :D

You could look at it this way; Yes, it would cost a bit to build up your pinny and do all the conversions etc. But, do you stand to gain a lot more of an understanding about mechanics etc.? If so, then it might be worth doing simply for the knowledge that you will gain. If you love the car now, then yes, with that kind of budget, you would be able to build it up to basically be a brand new car if you can do the majority of the work yourself, plus, have a bitchin' pintara at the end of it.

Otherwise, you could buy something like a U12/U13/R31 skyline and do a build on that while you use the pinny as a daily. Or just do a staged rebuild of the pinny.... Lots of options out there.

Wow, massive post, apologies! :D
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Offline Pinhead

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #10 on: Jun 6, 2008, 01:24PM »
Thanks for all the answers. It's true that I could probably buy a better car for the same money. But I was looking at it as a project/hobby. I also think that in these times we should probably be thinking about recycling our old junk rather than turning it into landfill, which is where my Pintara will end up otherwise.

What I am most intetrested to know is whether anyone has done any suspension mods to one of these cars, and what the results were? My impression of the standard set up is that it is reasonably well balanced, but it drifts around a lot. The back end will let go farly easily in wet conditions. I assume that decent tyres may fix a lot of that? The fact that this car is RWD is one of its appeals as a project car.

Offline DTM

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #11 on: Jun 11, 2008, 01:52PM »
Coilovers are your friend if you wanna go hardcore.
S13 front suspension bolts into R31s, and you can get adaptors to convert rear S13 to R31 strut tower pattern.
Otherwise, get some customer Aurora springs and some decent shocks and be happy.

Plenty of 4 stud rims out there as the S13 has the same stud pattern, or you could go the extra mile and have a look on Yahoo Japan for some monster deep dish!

I am building my own project Pintara at the moment, putting in a CA18DET, high mount manifold, external gate etc, I can't wait.
« Last Edit: Jun 11, 2008, 01:55PM by DTM-031 »

Offline Unbalanced_

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #12 on: Jun 11, 2008, 03:43PM »
You get get yourself a pretty nice car for 12k - thats a lot of money.
My car history:
'88 Toyota Camry - Engine Died
'85 Toyota Corona - Engine Died
'82 Nissan Bluebird - Write Off
'88 Toyota Camry (same one as before) - Trans Died
'94 Nissan Bluebird LX - SOLD
'88 Toyota Hilux - Handed over to dad and now residing in Perth
'84 Nissan R30 Skyline - SOLD
'99 Nissan Stagea RS4-S - SOLD


Current rides:
'99 Mazda FD RX7 - Lots of fun, but currently up for sale
'95 Nissan Bluebird LX - Current sedate daily
'85 Suzuki GSXR250 - Motorbikes are fun! :)

Offline chr1S

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #13 on: Jun 19, 2008, 05:16PM »
buy my crx lol
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Offline aidee

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Re: Pintara drivers car?
« Reply #14 on: Jun 27, 2008, 02:00AM »
ive got a old 85 trx s3 bluerbird that could do with a freshen up (bit a rust here and there )handy with a dolly? it would love 12g spent on it  :o
« Last Edit: Jun 27, 2008, 02:14AM by datsunmad »
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