Banzai Barry

Hey,

Just noticed there is one of these mad devices for sale on Ebay at the moment. 1998 vintage, and one of a handful to be officially imported into the UK.

Question is, how much is it actually worth? I noticed there is a full-on rally-spec one for sale on autotrader for 6 grand.

Oh yeah, and how much is it to run, insure, modify, etc. etc? I've doen an interweb search and I haven't found anything useful. I did notice that Scooby-doo has one, so he's probably a good person to ask.

I have 3 cars just now, and I'm thinking of expanding the fleet, at least until my girlfriend finds out. I could always say it's for her...

Cheers,

BB

what would scooby do

It's worth whatever somebody is prepared to pay for it

in my case 50p if I get a free bottle of wine thrown in to the deal

Angry

They're worth about 3-4k, cheap to run and insure and quick with your usual stage one mods. Harry Hockley Motorsport rally prepped a fair few of them.

Mods past an exhaust are pretty hard to come in the UK by though, most of it has to come from Japan, internals like the old GTti and GTxx are all forged and ready to take big boost. Past 14psi you need to swap out the intercooler.

Any more questions I can put you in touch with a couple of owners if you like

Comper100

I used to have one.

There good fun to drive, really nippy too. Let me know what you want to know

I have pics too!

Comper100

Alec

I've got one. I'm just getting it back on the road again. They are fun swift little cars, great around town but truely terrible on the motorway. I believe BBR motorsport do an ecu upgrade that boosts the power by 25+ BHP.

The one on ebay looks like quite a good one and as Angry says they usuallt swap hands for 3-4k.

comic cuts

I had one, did 65,000 miles in it.

More fun than any car I've ever had.....they see off most performance cars in normal driving! Autocar tested one, and gave one away as a prize after Motor Show in 1999. 86 were imported for road use, further 19 for rallying. There was one black one, one red one and the rest were silver (apart from rally version).

Common problem was with gearbox, also with speedo drive which when worn put ecu into failsafe mode. Cost coppers to correct! Alloys tended to "worm".

Performance figures showed mid range figures to be similar to Porsche 911......so don't dismiss as a toy! Handling was excellent with it being 4wd. Further power could be obtained by changing back to 2wd via a small peg on gearbox.......different car again!

I sold mine last year.....and know where there is one that has been kept "as new" and am very tempted to buy it.....!!!

CC

Alec

CC,
Mine had a gearbox rebuild at 30k. Was this a common problem then?

Cheers

Alec

Scooby-Doo

I have one that was imported new from Japan in 98. It has had a fair few modifications from Palsports in Japan that only deal with K-class cars. Peak boost as standard is 0.8 bar but I have the Palsports ECU running peak of 1.3 with 210cc injectors. Tuning in the UK is very difficult unless you have ££££ to spend. I have a second channel on the ECU already mapped for the palsports uprated turbo and intercooler that will raise power to 130 bhp which is not too shabby for 660 cc /650 kg. Best car I have ever owned and it is still looks like the day I picked it up.

comic cuts

Hi Alec,

Happened to mine at 40,000 and was covered under warranty. Daihatsu (UK) bought them without warranty and handled claims themselves. It was diff problem in some instances.

Insurance cost me £250 p a......got about 35 mpg, more on a long run.
Servicing every 6k, I occasionally also changed oil in between.

CC

Scooby-Doo

Alec I'm in Surrey if you fancy a meeting.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

That's been on there for about 6 months!!!

Also there is usually a home-based trader selling one (silver) for about the same price...it's not in this week, but it's been on autotrader's web site for donkeys

Alec

Scooby Doo,
Would be a good idea if I didnt live in Yorkshire.

Is there any UK owners club for these?

Alec

Scooby-Doo

http://forums.eis.net.au/index.php

is about the best forum for info etc

Angry

I'm an admin on that board Bit of a Charade nut, am on my third!

Auction ended at £4k, I was watching it with a vew to buy also.

The gearboxes and diffs are known to be a problem in terms of rebuilds, you have to treat them with respect.

The BBR rechip is merely an FCD, go for the palsports ECU, its a properly remapped item.

I know a guy over in NZ who modded one severely, i.e. 25psi, upgraded cooler, mappable ECU, bigger squirters, different turbo, squeezed something like 180bhp out of it

Theres also the Daihatsu Storia/Sirion X4, 714cc 4x4 turbo with full LSD's. One owner has pushed his one past the 200hp mark and it dumps on scoobs and evos at the hillclimbs he attends.

Banzai Barry

Hey Guys,

I just read on another forum that the winning bid for the car was probably a scam. Telephone number and postcode provided were "not valid".

I did think it was a bit suspicious when the bidding leapt from £1900 to £4000 in one go.

If anyone wants it, they can contact the seller direct.

Cheers,

BB

Angry

£1900

Someones on for a bargain!

Banzai Barry

Does Ebay work that way? I think the seller is going to try and sell it off-line, and he certainly wants more than 2 grand for it (closer to 4, actually)

Angry

Its up to the seller as to whether he wants to sell it to the next highest bidder should the winner default for any reason, second chance bid they call it or something. He's not obliged either way.

The only black UK car sold not far from me for £2400 about 18months back, neither seller nor buyer knew what they had, I looked at it but couldnt get the money up.

Banzai Barry

Hmmm...
I think I may be making an offer on this, based on what I've read here.

I'm going outside, I may be some time, as a famous (dead) man once said.

Thanks for the info, guys

frogsoft

Hi.

Don't k now if this is the best place to ask but...

My 98-S Avanzato (25,000 miles in 7½ years) has serious gearbox/differential problems.

Does anybody know a good garage, preferably somewhere near Milton Keynes, that can fix one of these for less than the car's worth? I'd hate to have to scrap it.

Thanks.