900 kg, 102 HP @7000 rpm and 7.5k red line, viscous coupling AWD, manuel, air conditioning, 90s/00s Toyota reliability, dirt cheap (~$1600).It seems hard to go wrong. I heard that it's well known from the Grand Turismo games and was popular for rallying in Japan.I already own two cars. Between those and my wife's car, I'm not quite sure where I would park another car, but I can figure something out. I just can't stop thinking about how much fun I would have bombing around the local sand dunes at 7k rpm in first gear.
Well, nobody talked me out of it. CoPilot, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok all think it's a good idea, and so does my wife. I'm going to look at it tomorrow morning.Here's a "concept" picture of what I want to do with it and a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR1mT8A_e0k
>>28966444Let us know how it goes. I don't know shit about Daihatsus but if you can spend a grand or two for that do it, looks like a fun experience. Car looks in good condition, cheap parts, worst case scenario you can resell it
>>28966566Thanks! Here's a photo of one of my other cars-- AWD Suzuki Swift. I guess you could say that I have a "type". The Sirion is ~150 kg lighter than a Swift while having 10 more horsepower. Should be fun. I just checked, and it it's possible to swap/share wheels and tires between them-- both 4x100 with 54.1 center bore and similar offsets.
>>28965599>Talk me out of itno, buy it
>>28965599rustparts availability
>>28966626>4x100 with 54.1Same as the 453 smarts, renaults, and mazdas
>>28967649Most Renaults are 60.1 CB, so you'd need some hubcentric rings to fit Renault wheels.
Thanks for the replies. I went to check it out today. It is indeed a genuine M111S with the K3-VE2. The guys selling it entered it incorrectly in the used car website, so the ad only shows it with 87 HP and heavier weight from the later generation. They don't know what they have.Unfortunately, the engine isn't quite running right. There was a bit of smoke when it started up, but it cleared quickly. It's occasionally stumbling at idle going from ~700 rpm down to ~500 and recovering.After it warmed up, I took it for a quick test drive. I was in the middle of the city, so I couldn't really get it up to speed, but I did manage a couple of pulls in 1st, including revving all the way out to 7500. There is still an occasional "miss" feeling, but when it's running right, it pulls pretty good and feels great.Other things... brakes are a bit spongey, and the shifter is sloppy. The "pedal box" area is a bit tight, and I have wide feet, so it took a minute to get used to it, but then it was fine. AC is nice and cool. No clunks or worrying noises from the suspension, no evidence of past overheating, oil and coolant look fine, no visible oil leaks, and no codes came up when I hooked it up to my OBD2 reader.If the thing had been totally mint and the engine perfect, I would have bought it today. As it turns out, it's more of a "20 footer"-- various dings and imperfections that you notice when you get close-- and there's the engine issue. The seller states that it hasn't been started in a while. It may be that it just needs a fresh tank of premium and a tune-up.I still like it, but I think the smart next step will be to book it into a garage with a lift and mechanics who do this shit for a living to make sure I'm not biting off more than I can chew.
>>28967499Rust one of my worries. I looked at lot, and I couldn't find any serious issues! The wheel arches are totally fine. The door sills look like they may have had some rust in the past that's been repaired. They are now sealed with textured stone chip coating and feel/sound totally solid.Parts availability is somewhat of a concern. The 1.3L Daihatsu K3 engine is also used a couple Toyotas (I think the Yaris is one of them), and I suspect there's a lot of Toyota parts-bin, but this is genuinely one of my concerns. I know of a shop that specializes in "JDM" stuff. I'm thinking of taking it to them to look over and give some opinions.>>28967649>>28967656Yep, my other car is a Renault, which uses 60.1 CB. The alloys I just bought for my Swift are actually 63.1, so they'll fit all three (with spigots). The Daihatsu is on 14" steel wheels right now. If I buy it, I'll likely try to find some nice 13" basket weave style alloys. It would be cool to have three cars with basically interchangeable wheels and tires. Picrel, my Mk2 Twingo.
>>2896794513s won't fit over the brakes on a mk2 Twingo GT.t. mk1 owner with the same size brakes on 14s
>>28967931just get new spark plugs and ignition coils it's not a big deal. a full set of the best spark plugs and ignition coils (6) for my fancy bmw was 150
>>28967931Honestly I wouldn't worry too much. How much time and money are you willing to spend on it? Spark plugs and coils are cheap af for a vehicle this size. Check and clean the throttle body, also purge your break liquid (spongey pedal). Check the catalyst (I think it's called that in English) and the exhaust line. Give it an oil change, and I think that idle movement is gone.When it comes to parts availability, didn't you say it was just a 3rd vehicle that you kept for fun? Tbh I would mind more parts being expensive than hard to find. Small cars like these are cheap to maintain, sometimes parts are a bitch to find indeed, but it's never too expensive. Just get a good clutch for when it inevitably dies
>>28967993I was thinking more along the lines of running the spare set of 15" wheels with street tires from the Twingo on the Sirion than doing 13" wheels with all-terrains from Sirion to Twingo, but it's good to know they wouldn't fit anyway. Thanks! (Twingo I used to own in photo).>>28968045>>28968151The guy selling the car said that they had changed the plugs. There were a few (presumably the old ones) sitting around in the center console. I probably should have looked at them. But, yeah, fresh plugs, new coil and wires, new filters and fluids, bleed the brakes, etc. seem like pretty basic things when buying an old car like this.Actually, while I was driving in Africa earlier this year, I got some "bad gas" a few times, and it caused very similar symptoms to what the engine is doing. The K3-VE2 is a fairly high compression engine, and it may be that the was was last filled up with regular 95 several months ago during the winter and has just been sitting since then.Anyway, thanks for the advice and encouragement. I got a bit burned on my last purchase with a cheap car that turned out to be very expensive to fix, so maybe I'm being a bit cautious here. I think I am going to continue moving forward with the purchase. They're not making cars like this anymore (it would be illegal), and the ones that are around still are either going to die or get bought up and become expensive, so now is the time to buy one.
>>28967656you're right. I was thinking of the other tiny shitbox, the aygo, not the smart. And the aygo has nothing to do with renault.
>>28968407I think some older Hondas at least use the same 4x100 pattern and maybe share the center bore, and E30 BMWs and old VWs are 4x100 and 57.1mm CB.I've got old VW wheels on my Twingo, bored out by a local machine shop.
