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July 2006 - Davidevans007 (P11)

Printed From: Nissan Primera Owners Club
Category: General Open Forums - NO TRADING!
Forum Name: 2006 Archive
Forum Discription: Winners from 2006
URL: http://www.npoc.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3112
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 7:40pm


Topic: July 2006 - Davidevans007 (P11)
Posted By: NPOC_COTM
Subject: July 2006 - Davidevans007 (P11)
Date Posted: 15 Jun 2007 at 1:08am

Congratulations go to Dave (DavidEvans007) for winning Car of the Month for July 2006

His fantastic P11 GT is loved by all and he now becomes the first ever NPOC member to win the award twice!!

Well done Dave, how does it feel to win Car of the Month not just once, but now twice which is an NPOC first?!

I don't know, its a strange feeling, one half of me is saying "bugger ive got to clean the car again" and the other half is saying "I wonder if I could make it a hat trick. I like to keep as near as possible to the top step in the Primera modifying game, in the UK anyway, being awarded 'Car of the Month' in my eyes shows I'm doing something right.

I remember us talking about a possible 'where are they now' type of thing with old CotM winners to see where they had gone with the car that won the award, I suppose this is that feature !!

For the new amongst us, can you tell us a bit about yourself before we move on to discuss the car?

Since the last time one of my cars was featured, I've got more kids so that makes 5 in total (4 boys and 1 girl), I'm still working for the M.O.D in South Wales carrying out 3rd line servicing on the Tornado (both F3 and GR4), but I'm on the move in January as the Facility at St Athan is closing down (big fat redundancy cheque heading my way!!), I might go abroad and earn silly amounts of money and go mental on the car as it will be parked up most of the time.

After the untimely end to your silver GT, where did you draw the will from to move on and start again? Any close brushes with buying another model of car before buying the new GT?

The car died doing what it loved best, attending NPOC meets !!, the main reason why i stayed with the Primera is I couldnt leave the club !

Having been with the place since day one, I've made loads of friends, some are like family, so I couldn't go, ive seen others on the forum leave after selling their Primera and buying something different and it doesn't seem to be the same, you can't really get into the "my car does this" conversations any more.

As for other cars, I was going to get an Evo 6 or a Skyline, but then I thought about the debt side of it having a bank loan over my head and the running costs and decided to go back to what  I know, the Primera holds no surprises for me, ive paid for just about everything you possibly could do to the car so I know its yearly costs.

Plus I know its a strange thing to say, but the accident was probably the best thing to happen to the old car, it was getting so that there was nothing new  I could do to it, taking it to another years worth of shows it wouldn't be any different from the last year, I would never have sold it, I loved it too much, so i was given the chance to get a blank canvas and go again.

Not to dwell on your silver GT but now things have moved on, do you feel happy that many members were helped out with the parts from that car including my getting your engine, almost like it lives on?

It was great being able to help out, when I was at Japfest this year with the new one, there were loads of other cars there that had bits from the silver one throughout its life, from the original spoiler right through to the last thing to go, the carpet. It's very hard to find good cheap parts for the Primera and taking the silver one to bits has helped out a lot of people that would otherwise have to dig deep into their pockets.

Plus, it wasn't just the other members that were helped out, I've got a load of spares myself now to keep me going should anything go wrong.

There was a huge buzz around the club before the car was finally shown at Japfest earlier this year, how did you manage to keep a lid on the details and pictures until the event?

That was hard, there have been loads of times in the past that ive done something and posted it straight away on the NPOC forum, I saw Japfest as a chance to get more people there for the club stand, who could resist a chance to see what i'd done in the flesh !! The car was actually on the web right from the day i bought it, I have kept a diary on another site of the cars progress, a few people did see it, but they were extremely helpfull in keeping it under wraps

The colour of the car is pretty special, do you often get asked whether that is a non-factory finish?

I get asked all the time, "who re-sprayed your car and whats the colour"
i'd only seen another 2 like it around the club when i bought it, things have changed now though, theyre everywhere, maybe its time for me to change the colour too !!

The bodykit is pretty awesome, can you describe the work involved to create the look?

The amount of work involved was more than i expected, the front end was pretty simple as it came off the other car, the M3 mirrors were fitted to the silver one 2 days before i was shunted so they were transplanted over after a colour change, all that needed was someone to repair the broken bumper with the Stillen extension on and spray it up in the burnt copper colour.

The sideskirts were originally designed for a P10, they came from Germany courtesy of E-bay, to make them fit they had to be lengthened by about 3 inches and new end caps and underside supports made to keep them solid on the car. The rear apron is grafted onto the original GT bumper, that part started life as part of the Lummer kit for a ford focus estate, i remember seeing a guy from Denmark cut a focus bumper in half, flip it over and graft that onto a primera bumper years ago, so i thought it would be a near enough fit, how wrong was I !!, luckily i found a brilliant bodyshop and they took pictures of the progress as it went on, you can see what they had to go through here:

 
Seems a good moment to get the specification of the car, sit tight for this, it?s going to be long!!

Right then, I bought the car it had the following on it:

Lowered suspension (G-Max springs only), 18" Ace Alloys (215/35/18 Nankangs), Blue engine dress up kit, Powerflow catback 4" burnt tip exhaust system, Laguna Splitter, front bar removed from the bumper, drivers door lock removed, as it stands today, its a bit more like this:

Engine and suspension:

K&N 57i induction kit, JWT S3R inlet and exhaust Cams, Tube Torque stainless steel 4-2-1, 2.25" mandrel bent manifold, Powerflow stainless steel mandrel bent cat back exhaust system with 4? titanium pipe, Custom stainless steel MAF to throttle body intake pipe, Blue SAMCO top and bottom silicone radiator hoses, 7.5 x 18? Fox Evo 3 alloys, 215/35/18 Nankang tyres, Koni adjustable shock absorbers, Koni lowered and uprated springs (-40mm), Nissan disks, Nissan Pads, Anodised blue factory fitted strut brace

Exterior & Underbonnet Styling:

Stillen 'Infiniti G20' front bumper extension, Nismo 'Infiniti G20' single piece bonnet grill, Drivers door de-locked, Custom rear GT bumper with modified LUMMER Ford Focus Estate rear diffuser, Primera P10 aftermarket sideskirts stretched to fit the P11, Nissan Skyline R34 clear side repeaters with LED bulbs, Solar Solutions window tints, Nissan wind deflectors, Orange undercar neons, Stainless Steel all in one plug and distributor cover, Stainless steel relay box covers (x2), Stainless Steel power steering pot cover, Replacement aluminium black roof mounted aerial mast, Blue engine dress up kit, M3 Style electric wing mirrors with custom fibreglass base plates, INXX chrome bonnet lifters,

Interior Styling:

Primera P12 gear knob, L.E.D. interior lighting, Nissan 'Primera' etched stainless steel door sills, Nissan carpet floor mats, Nissan Bluebird solid headrests, Primera SE chrome interior door handles, Custom stainless steel dashboard rings, Custom silver dashboard, Later spec (1999) GT rear electric windows

I.C.E.:

Alpine CVA-1004RR multimedia head unit, Alpine KCE-104V AV source selector, Alpine 6 disc CD changer, Boot mounted rear facing 17" widescreen TFT monitor/TV, 2 x 5" headrest mounted TFT screens, Boot mounted DVD/VCD/MP3 player, Boot mounted digital TV / radio tuner, Boot mounted PS2 with 2 x radio frequency controllers, Pioneer 180w co-axial speakers mounted in front doors, Pioneer 180w 6x9 speakers custom mounted in the boot, 2 x JBL 12" GT3-12 subwoofers in custom 2 chamber sealed box, Rockford Fosgate 200S amp running at 2 ohms, 2 x Shark (Caliber) SCA2260 amplifiers, 1.0 Farad capacitor with voltage display, Orange L.E.D lighting, Stinger cables, Boot mounted Maxima DC900 gel battery (ICE only), Gold battery terminals, Autoleads split charger, Sony Ericsson HCA-60 Advanced Car Handsfree Kit for K750i mobile phone

It's not a spec I'd personally want to change, do you have any changes planned for the rest of this show season or moving into next year?

As soon as the money from the insurance comes through (yep, 6 months on i'm still waiting !!) there's going to be a few changes on the interior front and the car will be getting re-sprayed, possibly a slightly darker more redder copper than it is now, as after getting all the bodykit on, it has shown up a bad paint match when the previous owner got the drivers doorlock removed, possibly some new wheels (maybe 19" dark coloured ones), I've also got a few changes planned in the boot that i'm working on at the moment.

If money were no object, what modification would you most like to make to the GT?

Its very hard to say but money isn't an object, I was going to go down the GTiR engine conversion route, then after weighing up the pro's and cons of an everyday car with daft amounts of power going through the front wheels, I decided against it, but its still at the back of my mind !!... if money was no object then I'd make a 2 door convertable, ie get rid of the back doors and make the front doors longer, I think that would need a saloon GT though to use the boot to hide the roof, oh and theres the Primera Limo, I can take the family out then!

What's your favourite modification to your car and why?

My favourite mod? Hard to say as the whole car is the package, although I've had loads of fun since I fitted the manifold to this car as the exhaust can now be heard over half a mile away, it's great to get the road cleared in front, it's amazing how quickly someone will move when they think a rally car is heading their way banging and exploding on every gear change.

Your boot install often gets a crowd, do you mind this or enjoy the attention it brings to the car and also to the club?

It's what it was built for, the club gets the crowds onto the Primera stand at shows and they'll pop by to see me, it can be a bit of a pain at one day shows as it stops me from getting about to see whats going on, my first tour of Japfest this year happened at about 3pm in the afternoon!

Its good to see the attention it gets, it's not one of your £10,000 installs, it was done on a budget to show that you can get a good quality sound from cheaper products and its good to hear mums and dads saying to their kids "don't even ask" when they see the playstation and the big screen

You're well known for attending and organising club events, which do you enjoy more, the attending or the organising?

The attending for sure, organising the show events starts months and months before it even gets a mention on the forum, it has to be that way to get us in any where, it's also getting difficult to chose events that everyone would be willing to attend other than the usual yearly gathering at JAE, there are so many I'd like to go to that are all over the UK, but it would be crazy getting a stand for 1 car.

Last question Dave, you were around in the early days when the club had a membership in single figures and you're still here now we're into five figures; Do you prefer the explosion of the Primera scene or prefer the memories of struggling to find the wheel offset for a P11 and trying to find exhaust manufacturers etc?

I think it's great that there are sooo many coming out the closet so to speak, even before NPOC there were a few modifiers kicking about on another forum but the most they had done was filter, exhaust (system not manifold) wheels and springs, even Mr Shek hadn't delved into the Primera world like he was to do later, he was just setting out on the turbo route and importing bits of bodywork into the UK.

I was kind of used to not being able to get stuff for a car, as my old Citroen AX was ahead of most available items at the time.

It helps now that if i want something, I know ive got the back up of the club to throw at manufacturers when trying to pursuade them to do something about it, (prime example was the stainless manifold, its just a shame the manufacturer saw it as a money maker rather than a chance to help out and get his company noticed),whereas years ago, telling them that 3 others were interested didnt really stand up.

With regards the explosion, I think its still getting bigger, I regularly see modified and good looking, well kept, Primera's (even P10's!!) on the road knowing that I haven't seen them in the club.  Also Germany has a massive following of the Primera, thats I got half my bits from there, it won't be long before they find us and we become a world owners club apposed to a mainly UK based one.

I think the more the merrier, as long as they dont all drive ginger GT's done up like mine !!

Congratulations for winning Car of the Month July 2006.

Please give your shouts and thanks to anyone you wish:

Firstly I'd like to thank the NPOC management, if it wasnt for them taking over and running the place for the members, I'd still be missing from the boards.

Then I'd like to thank everyone that thanked me for helping them, whether it be with a problem on their car, a part they urgently need, or advice on what to do to theirs, or they've seen something I've done and tried the same, although I don't crave the thanks as I'm only to glad to help, it's great to see it when it comes.

I must also thank the wizards at Moorcroft Motors in Newport for all their help on the bodywork and the great prices they've charged me for the weeks of work they've put into the car. I'd also like to thank Chris, if it wasnt for him coming round most nights after work I wouldnt have got the old car stripped and the bits sold on to help me fund this new one, of course he gained a set of larger discs and callipers for his P10 I think he's happy!

Car of the Month July 2006 - DavidEvans007 - P11 GT

Written by Stevie-Boy




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