Build Thread: Adam's Nissan Stagea C34

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I've always had a fascination with the Nissan Stagea, it's quite an odd car that many people either don't know about, or completely under-estimate.

Until recent times, I never actually had a good long look/drive of them. My first drive of a Stagea was a few weeks ago, and from that point on I knew it would be my next car.

I was never happy with the Kouki (Series 2) front end, and I was torn on whether to put up with it, or to buy an S1 and convert it to manual (the Zenki/S1 models never came in manual). I was leaning towards the S2 for a while, until I found something that caught my eye.

It was a Zenki DAYZ edition, with twin sunroofs and all the factory extras, it also had extremely low km's. Problem was, that that it was in Camperdown, which is over 2 hours west of Melbourne.

With a bit of planning, Jo (J_HUI), Yuan (RR-04-RR), Julie (MY-514) and myself were on our way to Victoria.

5am Saturday March 5th was go time!, Yuan and Jo made it to our house and we caught a shuttle to the airport.

After arriving and checking, we had time left to spare. So we grabbed some breakfast ... my foot long was awesome!

Here's Julie holding the tickets for our flight, Julie had never been on a plane before, so I was a little worried if she'd chuck a Marge Simpson and freak! ... thankfully, she enjoyed every bit of it.

We landed in Melbourne at 8:20am, first thing we noticed when we walked outside were the yellow taxi's!, I don't think we saw a white one during our stay, wierd.

Anyway, we headed to Budget to get our car hire sorted. We were orignally booked for a Hyundai Getz, but we recieved a free upgrade to a Toyota Corolla, as no Getz' were avaliable.

After that was all sorted, we were off to Camperdown to check out this Stagea we traveled 1000km's for. All I had running in my head at the time is "God I hope this is the one".

To be continued.

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The drive to Camperdown was lonley, we'd be lucky to see a car every 10 minutes. On the way we saw some beautiful things though, like massive fields of sunflowers ... it was like they didn't end!

The further we went on, the shittier the roads got ... we were really heading into whoop whoop now.

On our way, we went past a few lakes. It's pretty cool how you can see the deep spots in the middle.

Ok ok, that's enough scenic touring for now.

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Fast foward an hour or so and there it is, the Nissan Stagea we travelled all this way for. It looked awesome just sitting there, so clean! much better then the photos posted on carsales.

We spent a good amount of time checking everything, and found a few minor problems (as expected). I told myself as long as everything is in decent condition, and there is no rust in the chassis I'd take it. Anyway, after we scoped the car out, Yuan, Jo, Julie and I had some lunch and discussed about the Stagea.

After we ate, we went back to the Stagea. I was hoping that I could haggle the price down a little, but the owner was playing hardball. I guess he knew he had the upper hand considering the effort we've made to see this car. So about 20 minutes of negotiations later, the car was mine!

So we were on our way! but before heading back to Melbourne, we had plans to go to Geelong.

We travelled via the Princess highway, and after doing some stupid things this happened.

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Long story short, I've lost my rights to drive in Victoria for 6 months and was fined. I'm very lucky in a way that's for sure!

Ok, so why were we heading to Geelong? to pick these beasts up of course!

Now it was time to head back to Melbourne, they were some nice twisty roads along the way.

Here we are on the outskirts of the city. This is where things started to get conjested and crowded. I also had a problem arise with my newly aquired Stagea too.

After driving around in this confusing place for a while we managed to find our hotel for the night. I think we checked in at about 6pm!

We were all pretty knackered and chilled out for a bit before deciding what to do next. Yuan was keen on getting take out and bringing it back to the hotel, but Julie and I wanted to check out Ligon street. Apparently a lot of the restruants are very competitive and offer freebies if you eat there.

We all started walking down to Ligon street and was stopped in our tracks as the restruant owner started haggling with us ... it was true!

As usual Yuan ended up finishing his food first, and Jo almost finished all of his!

Ok, so we then took the hire car back to the airport and went out to Crown casino to try our luck. Yuan ended up coming out ontop whereas the rest of us didn't.

Anyway, after a long ass day we headed back to Quest hotel and got ourselves some shut eye for another big day just around the corner.

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at 10am we were out the door and ready to head back to Sydney. Yuan and I decided that we'll split the driving up every 2 hours. Yuan was the first driver out of Melbourne, I'm glad I wasn't driving ... it's confusing as hell! in some spots you have to share the road with these damn things.

half an hour later, and we were just getting out of the CBD ... We all had a long day ahead of us.

So it was time for a fuel stop and some breakfast. Yuan was still keen to drive some more, so off we went.

This picture was taken at about 4pm and 400km's from home. The Stagea turned into a insect destroyer!

Here's some windmills I snapped, on the outskirts of Yass, they were so peacefull to watch.

It was time for dinner and our final stop before we were back in Sydney, and I noticed the turnoff to see the Big Merino ... I haven't seen it in it's new location before, and Julie has never seen it.

Here I am with the Stagea at Cabramatta Hungry Jacks cleaning off all shit off the 900km drive. The Stagea ran flawlessly, and with four people, a set of wheels/tyres, one suitcase and three bags everyone was very comfortable.

It was an eventful weekend, we travelled over 2000km's and probably had upto ten hours sleep during the whole of it (Joe only had six). Actually come to think of it Julie and Yuan had like a million naps! haha.

So there you have it, our epic journey to pick up, my perfect Stagea.

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Since ownership, I've done a major service replacing all belts and fluids, and bought a shitload of parts locally and ex-Japan. I also took it skidding last week ... and I will be going again this week!

Edited March 20, 2011 by RoadsterGarage

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The Weds should look boss too, once I get them on.

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Ok, so last sunday the gang and I were out in the Campbelltown area shopping and shit. I wanted to swing by Autobarn to check out the GT-R replica seats they stock ... I said to myself that if they were under $500 for the pair that I'd buy some ... we ended up walking out with 6 seats! (well, four really but ordered another two in). They just happened to be on sale for $199 each seat, and the end of that sale was today, rad! We also met Kyle off the forums, good meeting you dude

I'm also organising a shitload of parts to come over from Japan ... some of the things include Kouki tail lights, HyperRev books, tie rods/ends etc.

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I ordered some clear front indicators on monday, and they arrived on Wensday, so I put them in as soon as I got a chance.

It seems that unless you want to pay $300ish for a set of "Dolphin" indicators you'll need to buy a set of Altima/Bluebird indicators and modify them slightly.

I also did a major service yesterday, changed everything with high quality parts and the Stag runs quite a bit smoother now. Next up, rego, seat install and coilovers!

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Here's a pic Joe took today, that RX-8 in the background is mums, and it's for sale!

Oh, and I ordered coilovers yesterday too, BC Racing BR series with 10/8 spring rates.

Ok, I think I'm up to speed now

[Run-It-Hard]

So, why a Stagea for a drift hack?

I like to be different, and I don't want to be picked up by the po-po everytime I drive it ... like my last car, a Mazda MX-5. I owned this beast for 6 years, at the begining of it all, it was very uncommon to see these things aggressively modified (low offset, wide wheels, low to the ground etc).

Anyway, I set it up for drift, and it was quite a good drift car, but a back condition has led me to part it out, and I'm thinking for the future a little here too. The MX-5 would become a burden when it was time to have a family, and I was looking at another 10-15k for some more power out of it (which was the point i was getting to). So I decided enough was enough and went for the complete opposite of what the MX-5 was.

So there you have it!

Edited March 20, 2011 by RoadsterGarage

[kidafa]

Welcome to the stagea community :-)

Looks like were going to have another very helpful contributing member around the place

[ironpaw]

Cool thread. LOL @ the "stupid" thing which got you in trouble with the cops...

I guess it doesn't affect your NSW license right?

reminds me of my trip when I picked up my M35 from Sydney. Was fun...

[Run-It-Hard]

Welcome to the stagea community :-)

Looks like were going to have another very helpful contributing member around the place

Haha, thanks dude!

I'll try my best, I plan on keeping my Stagea for a long time!

Cool thread. LOL @ the "stupid" thing which got you in trouble with the cops...

I guess it doesn't affect your NSW license right?

reminds me of my trip when I picked up my M35 from Sydney. Was fun...

Yeah, I was seeing how fast the big boat could go, I must say this car suprises me regually somehow.

Nah I asked the copper if it affected my NSW licience, his exact words were "No it won't so if your driving back to Sydney, then shit you don't need to worry". lol.

Funny how you can't find the Stagea you want in the same state as you live huh?

[ironpaw]

did u need to pay the fine though?

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Yeah I'll need to pay it still, ohwell shit happens.

[32TAXI]

Sounds like our trip, we flew from gold coast to newcastle for our bargain stagea!

if drifting, why didn't you go 2WD model?

Edited March 21, 2011 by RED513

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I wanted a dayz edition, I like the kit that it comes with ... this one also has 65,000km whereas all the others I was looking at had double that, and were asking for more.

So I'm getting sick of listening to the same CD over and over ... the Stag still has the factory headunit, meaning the radio frequency stops earlier then all the Australian frequencies.

After having a look on ryda.com.au, I bought myself a JVC KD-R416 head unit for $150 shipped. I had a JVC in the MX-5 and it was good to me, so I figured I'd go for another.

If your looking for cheap audio gear, be sure to check out www.ryda.com.au

Edited March 21, 2011 by RoadsterGarage

[ironpaw]

BTW the food on Lygon st sucks..lol

Don't you guys have your own version in Newtown or somthing?

[Run-It-Hard]

We all found it quite nice actually

No idea, I don't venture into the city too often.