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(Continued from page 4)

start.

I was determined to simplify thing for myself and decided to stick to my 6 rules and look for THE donor car the fitted my needs.  So I went back to the engine lists I had compiled and found the SR20DET and the CA18DET.  What wonderful engines they are and started to look for cars that had these in them.  The SR20 turned out to be a but expensive, was very hard to get yet very popular with people doing conversions.  Putting them in 1972 Datsun 1000 sedans and thing like that.

This is when I discovered the Nissan Silvia (Sylvia), 1.8ltr and 2.0ltr also known as the Nissan 180sx and 200sx depending on the country they were exported to.  And yes you guest right, it was never imported as a standard line into good old Aus.

The car had all the attributes I wanted and came from racing stock so had nearly everything cast in alloy. Transfer case, gearbox, diff housing and had a lovely turbo charged, intercooled 1800 engine delivering 180hp and standard IRS LSD.

My search was over, I had found the car I wanted and all that was left to do was find someone who had one and buy it.  Quite simple really.  In fact it turned out to be just that...although I went through a dozen or so importer before I found one who was interested in helping me do a deal for my project.  I wanted a car but I didn't want the doors, lining, bonnet, rear seat, boot, glass etc and as coincidence would have it, the importer turned out to have worked in Weipa for 12 year and was really interested in what I was doing with the car. 

One last detail to finish and that was to con a mate into taking a Silvia for a drive, take lots of PICs for me to look at  and to assess whether I can fit all the paraphernalia into the clubman.  The photos were excellent and the word I got back about the performance was ......... it bloody well HOOTs

So there it was.  The pictures,  the word, the car, the steal and the nod from the boss.  I was away.

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