Nissan S15 Spec-R
Discussion
So I figured it was about time I started this thread, been meaning to for a while now.
I passed my test aged 19 but never needed/could afford a car as I worked locally and was at college, then got to the stage when I wanted to branch out so to speak.
So, aged 22, I went looking for my first car.
Looked at many options, then finally found a car that would suit me...
Yes, a gold Saxo VTR. No, I still don't know what I was thinking! (I know the pictures sideways
)
She did me good for a year, just to get a year's no claims under my belt so I could make a step up.
After a year, I started looking again. I've always wanted a S15 but insurance was ridiculous, so I went hunting for a nice quick car I could insure.
The result..
Found her with 49k miles and good service history in near mint condition for £5k so snapped it up
She's now on 66k after about a year and a half, never let me down no matter what I threw at her and to be honest I will miss her a lot.
I say miss her as I've just placed a deposit on what will be my third car now.
I was saying earlier about an S15 being a dream car of mine well circumstances are right, the funds are there so I went looking again.
Lo and behold I found one perfect for me....
Fresh import sat on around 106,000km at the moment. Standard apart from an exhaust and the alloys.
She's not perfect, there are a few very early rust warning signs which will be fixed straight away but other than that I think I've found a good one!
Just waiting on the DVLA (shock) for the registration to come through and then I can pick her up and sell the Civic
Will keep this updated with the ownership experience as I'll be running the S15 as a daily driver.
Thanks for reading
I passed my test aged 19 but never needed/could afford a car as I worked locally and was at college, then got to the stage when I wanted to branch out so to speak.
So, aged 22, I went looking for my first car.
Looked at many options, then finally found a car that would suit me...
Yes, a gold Saxo VTR. No, I still don't know what I was thinking! (I know the pictures sideways
)She did me good for a year, just to get a year's no claims under my belt so I could make a step up.
After a year, I started looking again. I've always wanted a S15 but insurance was ridiculous, so I went hunting for a nice quick car I could insure.
The result..
Found her with 49k miles and good service history in near mint condition for £5k so snapped it up
She's now on 66k after about a year and a half, never let me down no matter what I threw at her and to be honest I will miss her a lot.
I say miss her as I've just placed a deposit on what will be my third car now.
I was saying earlier about an S15 being a dream car of mine well circumstances are right, the funds are there so I went looking again.
Lo and behold I found one perfect for me....
Fresh import sat on around 106,000km at the moment. Standard apart from an exhaust and the alloys.
She's not perfect, there are a few very early rust warning signs which will be fixed straight away but other than that I think I've found a good one!
Just waiting on the DVLA (shock) for the registration to come through and then I can pick her up and sell the Civic
Will keep this updated with the ownership experience as I'll be running the S15 as a daily driver.
Thanks for reading
So finally after the DVLA dragged their heels for as long as possible I finally have it!
Not the best picture I know, will be taking more soon.
So, good points & bad points!
Good:
- Pulls like a train
- Very little rust
- Good interior
- One of the best looking cars ever made (imo)
Bad:
- Tracking horribly out (in garage atm being sorted)
- Needs 4 new tyres & 2 new brake pads (yet came with 1 year's mot somehow!)
- Radio doesn't work at all
- Exhaust is a bit on the loud side and does bang on some speed bumps
So let's look at the costs so far (to date and expected):
Car - £8000
Tracking - £25
New tyres plus fitting - £325
Underseal - £70
New Pads - £75
New Radio - £300 (Higher Estimate including fitting)
I had budgeted £2k to get it to the condition/how I wanted it so quite happy so far!
Very 50/50 with the Exhaust as it is quite loud but that can wait for now.
If it's nice tomorrow again then I plan to head out to take some better pictures!
Not the best picture I know, will be taking more soon.
So, good points & bad points!
Good:
- Pulls like a train
- Very little rust
- Good interior
- One of the best looking cars ever made (imo)
Bad:
- Tracking horribly out (in garage atm being sorted)
- Needs 4 new tyres & 2 new brake pads (yet came with 1 year's mot somehow!)
- Radio doesn't work at all
- Exhaust is a bit on the loud side and does bang on some speed bumps
So let's look at the costs so far (to date and expected):
Car - £8000
Tracking - £25
New tyres plus fitting - £325
Underseal - £70
New Pads - £75
New Radio - £300 (Higher Estimate including fitting)
I had budgeted £2k to get it to the condition/how I wanted it so quite happy so far!
Very 50/50 with the Exhaust as it is quite loud but that can wait for now.
If it's nice tomorrow again then I plan to head out to take some better pictures!
So I've finally done it, the Civic is up for sale.
Still really want to keep it so if it doesn't sell for what I want I'll be making a track day car!
On the S15, had new tyres and brakes fitted, drives like a dream now! New head unit is on it's way and found a few other minor issues I need to sort.
Still no more decent pictures though! I don't feel like my iPhone will really do it justice so will be borrowing a proper camera to take some next time the weather is nice
Still really want to keep it so if it doesn't sell for what I want I'll be making a track day car!
On the S15, had new tyres and brakes fitted, drives like a dream now! New head unit is on it's way and found a few other minor issues I need to sort.
Still no more decent pictures though! I don't feel like my iPhone will really do it justice so will be borrowing a proper camera to take some next time the weather is nice
Little update now:
Civic sold near enough straight away, nice and simple sale.
Found that the front calipers on the S15 were shot to pieces, found a tidy pair of R33 GTR Brembos and got them fitted along with some new braided brake lines
Radio fitted makes a world of difference and turns out was a straight forward plug and play
Some drunken eBaying landed me a very cheap front strut brace which has been fitted and does seem to make a difference, could just be in my mind but I'll take it!
Day to day it's not that bad to drive, relatively comfortable, quite torquey low down especially compared to the civic!
The only thing I'm unsure on is the exhaust. It hangs very low down, every speedbump is a loud bang, and it quite loud. It's not a chavvy fart can, it's a very deep bass sound and I do like it, especially when out on a B road at night, but it can drone rather badly day-to-day.
I also hate just how quickly it gets dirty
Even with the loud exhaust, it's gotten nothing but positive attention from people, even when most don't know what it is!
So the TL;DR version: So far so good!
Civic sold near enough straight away, nice and simple sale.
Found that the front calipers on the S15 were shot to pieces, found a tidy pair of R33 GTR Brembos and got them fitted along with some new braided brake lines
Radio fitted makes a world of difference and turns out was a straight forward plug and play
Some drunken eBaying landed me a very cheap front strut brace which has been fitted and does seem to make a difference, could just be in my mind but I'll take it!
Day to day it's not that bad to drive, relatively comfortable, quite torquey low down especially compared to the civic!
The only thing I'm unsure on is the exhaust. It hangs very low down, every speedbump is a loud bang, and it quite loud. It's not a chavvy fart can, it's a very deep bass sound and I do like it, especially when out on a B road at night, but it can drone rather badly day-to-day.I also hate just how quickly it gets dirty
Even with the loud exhaust, it's gotten nothing but positive attention from people, even when most don't know what it is!
So the TL;DR version: So far so good!
Only a small update, no major changes so far.
The exhaust has decided it doesn't like it's baffles so they've come out for now and the result is a lot louder thsn I want it to be so a new exhaust system will be coming over the next few weeks or so.
Been happy with the amount of interest she generates, mainly people surprised to see how standard it is, especially under the bonnet
Did my first proper meet with her on Sunday for the Queen's Square Breakfast meet down at Weston, obligatory picture below.
Almost time to start planning what I want to do with her over the winter - I think the best idea is to store her as I commute through a lot of lanes which are often muddy and icy in the winter. Not a good combination!
The exhaust has decided it doesn't like it's baffles so they've come out for now and the result is a lot louder thsn I want it to be so a new exhaust system will be coming over the next few weeks or so.
Been happy with the amount of interest she generates, mainly people surprised to see how standard it is, especially under the bonnet
Did my first proper meet with her on Sunday for the Queen's Square Breakfast meet down at Weston, obligatory picture below.
Almost time to start planning what I want to do with her over the winter - I think the best idea is to store her as I commute through a lot of lanes which are often muddy and icy in the winter. Not a good combination!
Time for the winter update.
So I caved and bought a Winter Car. A lovely (poetic licence used) Peugeot 306 Dturbo with only 182,000 on the clock!
No pictures as it really doesn't deserve them, but it's MOT'd until September and will probably be run into the ground. So far I'm loving the 60+mpg and not caring about where I park/leave it So where does this leave the S15. Well, I have a garage to store it in, once I clear it out, but unfortunately it's spending more time being driven than my daily 
Turns out the S15 is exceptionally fun to drive when the road is wet/slippy
There's been a few changes made under the bonnet, an Apexi cone filter along with a BOV and recirculation delete has made the car so much more responsive and fun to drive. It's definitely running a bit rich at the moment but that's being addressed next year along with new fuel pump, injectors, FMIC and a remap (along with potentially a new turbo depending)
So with the cold nights (and gritter lorries
) rolling in, it's time to tuck it away until spring and start saving for/purchasing goodies for next year (he says knowing full well it'll be driven on every sunny weekend we have )
Thanks for reading!
So I caved and bought a Winter Car. A lovely (poetic licence used) Peugeot 306 Dturbo with only 182,000 on the clock!
No pictures as it really doesn't deserve them, but it's MOT'd until September and will probably be run into the ground. So far I'm loving the 60+mpg and not caring about where I park/leave it
So where does this leave the S15. Well, I have a garage to store it in, once I clear it out, but unfortunately it's spending more time being driven than my daily Turns out the S15 is exceptionally fun to drive when the road is wet/slippy
There's been a few changes made under the bonnet, an Apexi cone filter along with a BOV and recirculation delete has made the car so much more responsive and fun to drive. It's definitely running a bit rich at the moment but that's being addressed next year along with new fuel pump, injectors, FMIC and a remap (along with potentially a new turbo depending)
So with the cold nights (and gritter lorries
) rolling in, it's time to tuck it away until spring and start saving for/purchasing goodies for next year (he says knowing full well it'll be driven on every sunny weekend we have )Thanks for reading!
So I'm sat at my PC annoyed as I have a very broken car outside.
Luckily it's the 306 and not the S15 though! Unluckily it broke 100 miles from my house yesterday
Re-read through the thread in my boredom while getting prices to fix the 306/looking at replacement cars already and realised there's not enough pictures here, so thought I'd add some more I have.
V40Vinnie - Yes that's true, one five is Ichigo which is also Strawberry!
So picture time, we start with one I have (which is possibly my favourite and was my desktop background for a long time) while it was waiting to be imported:
The next few are just some random ones I have:
Last one is off my phone so it's a bit bad quality wise, I need to invest in a decent camera!
Unfortunately it's going to have to be out on the roads for a little while longer, I swear I can hear it rusting from here
Hopefully I can either sort/sell the 306 and replace it and store the S15 properly this week but I'm not holding my breath!
Thanks for reading.
Luckily it's the 306 and not the S15 though! Unluckily it broke 100 miles from my house yesterday
Re-read through the thread in my boredom while getting prices to fix the 306/looking at replacement cars already and realised there's not enough pictures here, so thought I'd add some more I have.
V40Vinnie - Yes that's true, one five is Ichigo which is also Strawberry!
So picture time, we start with one I have (which is possibly my favourite and was my desktop background for a long time) while it was waiting to be imported:
The next few are just some random ones I have:
Last one is off my phone so it's a bit bad quality wise, I need to invest in a decent camera!
Unfortunately it's going to have to be out on the roads for a little while longer, I swear I can hear it rusting from here
Hopefully I can either sort/sell the 306 and replace it and store the S15 properly this week but I'm not holding my breath!
Thanks for reading.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff