Went to the 30th anniversary meet this morning (..yesterday morning now..), and all good things! great turnout, location, and weather. Nice to chat to a bunch of familiar faces again too.. it'd been a while!
Unfortunately I wasn't able to take the AW11 though, which is still just sitting at home, unregistered. <_<
 
A couple months back I had tried to get a UVP to head off n get a wheel alignment, only to find that I was unable to thanks to the car having an uncleared defect as the last thing on Vicroads record. Shattered, and had never heard of this before. Just makes everything more difficult, as anywhere it goes from this point requires a tow-truck or trailer.
Sort of lost motivation with it again from that point, and has sat for another 3 months to now.
 
A little undecided what my next move is; whether changing a bunch of the engine/wiring parts back myself, and then just get it towed to a roadworthy place; take it as-is with a bunch of parts and getting it all changed back by them.. which is likely only happen if I magically find a heap of cash; or try and bodge up the ITB setup and other misc parts as-is and attempt to get a roady - least desirable for the risk of ****arounds towing it back and forth as it inevitably fails for those things anyway...
We'll see. It'll happen eventually..
 
Anyway..
Pics of it, as is, this afternoon.









 
Has been over 18months since I've properly driven this now..! argh...
 

But Seriously, i've admired this car for far too long. 
Such a shame it is off the road! Don't lose hope/interest in it, as this (as im sure many people have said before me) is the single best looking AW11 out there.
 
This is probably the single reason im looking for a red AW11 and not any other colour...

Done!


Skimming over the details between August last year to now; I mocked up an airbox setup for the car - plumbed into the factory intake, got a roadworthy, a wheel alignment, and as of friday just gone - got it re-registered again.
Cant fkn believe it. So stoked.
Drove it straight back home, pulled the airbox back off, and drove.
..and drove.
..and drove.
Did almost 1000km over the weekend alone.
It had been well over two years since It last on the road, yet instantly picked up where I had left off - just with the car having gone through a huge tidy up!
Its funny; I had almost forgotton how much I loved driving these cars. I still no doubt loved the adub; but after years of sitting in the garage, id forgotton how it was to really be in - loving it more for sentimental and nostalgia reasons..
 
but holy hell..
The familiar and rediculously-comfortable interior.. the razor sharp steering.. the willingness to rev.. to turn.. to brake.. and the noise..!
 
Anyway; probably sound a bit retarded right now, as I'm just so smitten with it.. while simultaniously bloody tired! But yeah.. awesome. Awesomeawesome.
Go AW11!

****ing awesome mate, you've made my day hearing that this is back on the road.
 
Now time to tell my missus I'm racking up the credit card to get mine working.

How awesome.. Congrats man

It's back! surprised your not on club reg

Cheers everyone!
 
With a somewhat shortage of description.. due to it being late.. tired.. adventuretimeison.. workinthemorning.. etc; I'll just post a sequence of pics of the airbox setup. Sorry about the phone quality..
The box was from EFIHardware here in melbourne. Its fibreglass, has a 4" inlet, includes the two halves, some rubber trim/seal, 3 screws and nutserts. It is a tight fit between the throttles and the firewall (particularly the bonnet catch, as well as the loom and water resevoir). I ran it into a 4-3" PVC reducer, into a generic 3" wrinkle hose, and into the factory piping. Looks neat, quietens drastically, and appears more legit for rego.. but..
..the factory piping just can't breathe enough! I pulled it off straight away - it noticably choked the engine - hitting a vitrual brick wall above ~4k...
 
Pics.




2" holesaw and some drillbits. Original 20V airbox gasket used as a perfect template.

testfit #5029059425058209850

Drilled holes for screws. Drilled holes in mounting tabs for the nutserts and pressed them in. Drilled drainage hole on the underside, and another for a brass nipple on the top.

Rubber trim/seal glued around the lid, and all done.
 
Like I said - its a tight fit! I just couldnt get the 20V airbox to fit no matter how I pictured dicing it up in my mind. It hits the alternator.. it hits the water line.. it hits the firewall. Too much fkn about, and this worked.
 
Box off.. but kept the rad ducting in place!








Couple marks on the underside of the right exhaust tip there, where It hit the ramps last weekend after an oilchange. Bummer..

Hilariously overfuelly. Loves a rev, but 100% solid 10-11L/100km.. and a constant burble/backfire on overrun if i rest my foot on the throttle! Obviously not great for it (or my poor once-blue headers..), but sounds so mad..
 
 
Didnt go club reg simply out of lazyness. They all seemed to want a RWC.. and once I had that.. it was just easy to go full reg. I can always cancel/transfer it later if I want.. but have been using this car every day...
..more on that later anyway.. including whinging about how hard filthy rushhour traffic is on poor old cars..

No worries. I had meant to link you to my reply here, but forgot..!
 
To update this thread with a little more AW11ing and driving in general..
I've been driving this car every day for the last three weeks - I registered it right before I went back to work. My work moved over the christmas holidays.. and although I used to catch the bus to work every day, it’s not really an option any more.
My work is now located in the outer northern suburbs, and the trucks/cars I commute with are a little too fast for the poor old 4Runner.. hence the push to get the AW11 back on the road. Driving this car also softened the blow of having to move work to a piece of shyte area, and being forced to drive. I love love love driving this car.. and this distracted nicely.. almost like some sort of retarded reward for myself.
 
Now driving little red every day in some of the pushiest stop/start and high-speed highway driving? The car nails it. It feels as though it can drive circles around every car while they're doing 100km/h..
..but driving like this, the constant stop start, hwy driving surrounded by cars throwing dust, and having to park all day in the sun/rain in an industrial estate, will no doubt take its toll. It’s just so hard on an old car, and (just as it was when I've daily’d this car in the past) it pains me to see it. :(
 
Also notsogreat for another reason; for the last couple years I’ve rarely driven. I would take the 4runner If I need to go somewhere, but id never just go cruising aimlessly at nights like I used to, or go on ridiculous detours on my way home just for the sake of it. Owning an old 4WD was an excellent decision (and no accident) for someone who has just a *few* issues with driving…
I distracted myself with tidying up the 4Runner, the AW11, and a fleet of old wheels and parts.. but now the AW11 is back.. and as I wrote above, everything is instantly back to how it always was. I've been driving this thing flat-out. :(
 
So yeah.. the good and the bad. Great that I’m driving the adub again – its excellent.. so so much fun and truly better than I even remembered – but bad that its getting worn out unnecessarily.. and very bad for the other obvious reasons.
Ideally I will put this onto club reg to forcefully limit my driving (not wanting to, but knowing I should..), and hopefully sort out the work commute a different way.
 
We’ll see how that goes anyway!
 
Some more odd-yet-relevant pics: Garage with a healthy dose of flattering shadows…











Bit of a thing for late-80's SSR..
 
Some for the 4Runner too..



 
Also ordered some new wheels specifically for the AW11. Work Seeker CX's in 16x6.5 +28 all round.. with plans to run a 195/40 S-drive. They would sit just how the gold Type-C's did a couple years ago...



Like a pretty snowflake.. right?
Dont worry.. I know they're odd. Just something different..
 
Wont change the wheels until the car is lowered (regular coils this time..); but I'm happy with the car as-is for the moment, so no rush..!
 
Anyway.. yeah. We'll see how that goes too! haha

done. :)