BodenM

So now that my car is running I thought I should make a little thread to document progress and the things I do to it. My name is Boden, I'm from Brisbane, and this is my RVR Hyper Sports Gear R. I came to own this car almost by pure chance. I had just sold my previous daily driver, a 2002 Smart Fortwo and I was in the market for something new. I nearly picked up an E39 BMW 525d wagon with a manual (how's that for weird and rare?), but someone sniped me before I had a chance. Disheartened, I turned to Gumtree, and said to myself "hm, I haven't looked at RVRs in a while, I wonder what the market is like right now." Punched in "RVR", hit the search button, and there it was. A black, manual RVR HSGR, not only very close by but for a very reasonable price. I sent the guy a message, and worked out to check it out the next day. Owner was an old bus driver, real nice guy, although I'm 99% sure he was pretty much unaware of what he was selling. Considering it came with rego and a roadworthy, I almost felt a little bad for how little I paid for it, with just 147,000km on the clock it drove sweetly and pulled strong throughout the rev range. I was smitten immediately. I've always had a major soft spot for the oddballs of the car world, and the RVR has to be right up there near the top of the list of my favourites, so to have an opportunity like this fall into my lap at just the right time was awesome. I told the owner "I'll take it!" and bought it on the spot.
 
The day after I picked it up:

The only modification on the car, an RS*R exhaust (likely fitted before it left Japan in 2008), which has a lovely tone to it when you give it a bootful but is very civilised when just pottering about.

 
Unfortunately, the honeymoon came to an unexpected and displeasing end very soon. The same day after the picture above, I was driving home after hanging out with a few friends. Indicate right to pass on the highway, roll onto the throttle just a bit in 5th, and after a second, I hear a strange noise. A, short, muffled "ping!". Immediately, the car loses power, and sounds weird. I limp it home, fearing the worst. "maybe it's just a bad plug lead or plug?" I tell myself. The next day, I pulled the plugs, and immediately, there was a problem.
 
The first three plugs came out alright, if not a touch oily.

 
But, then there was cylinder 1's plug, can you spot the problem?

 
I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm 90% sure a spark plug shouldn't look like that. Then, praying that by a stroke of luck the engine was ok, I threw a fresh set of NGK BPR6ES plugs in. Quick spin around the block. No dice. Still down on power, running on 3cyl and sounding like a god damned Subaru. "If I wanted dead engines I would have bought a Subaru, quit sounding like one!", I yelled at the car. Unfortunately, cars are not living objects and hence do not respond to being yelled at. I borrowed a compression tester from a mate, dreading what was to come. "Maybe it's just a clogged injector?" said an increasingly nervous me. Hooked it up, throttle open, give the starter a few turns.
 

 
WELP. Not even enough compression to make the needle wiggle. Cylinders 2 through 4 all reported 170psi+ each of compression, which confirmed the engine was basically cactus on cylinder 1. I put the call out on an RVR group on Facebook. Bazeng responded, coming through with the saving grace, a freshly rebuilt RVR HSG motor with ARP head studs. A deal was struck. I dropped the car off the following weekend with Taz (who is also an awesome guy) to begin the engine swap. By this point, I was ready to light the car on fire, so having someone to do the bulk of the heavy lifting (both literally and metaphorically) was a good thing. The weekend after that, I headed over with a mate to help get the old engine out and the new engine in and sorted. Despite our best efforts we were foiled by a ridiculous storm, so we had to stop and call it a night, with only a little more work to go. Taz got the rest of the work done during the week, and I was able to go back to driving it! That leads us to today, and a much happier me now that I'm back in a properly grunty, boosted car, especially after coming from a car, despite being turbo, with just 55hp.

Now, what do I plan to do, you might ask? Well, in short form, in the short term (and in no particular order):

• Enjoy it, naturally.
• Evo 8 ECU
• New wheels (the Koyas on it currently are F U G L Y)
• Evo Brembos
• Evo 7-9 coilovers
• Hektik stereo uleh
• More sound deadening
• Get the driver's side seat repaired (the right hand side lower bolster has collapsed, and there's some holes worn in the fabric on the bolsters)
• Clean up the body - repaint the bumper to get rid of the failing clear coat, buff and polish out the scratches and love marks, replace the fugly bumper lights fitted for compliance with either OEM or some better fitting ones, slap some TME stripes on it because they look awesome, etc.
• Other misc. things that I've forgotten about.

Over the longer term, once I fix up my other car and get that on the road so I'm not left with no running cars again:

• 4-spider center diff
• Holset HX35
• W2A intercooler
• MOAR BOOST
• when engine goes pop, forged rods and pistons.