Cisco specific

This was the car in 2001 just before I sold it.

In this form, the car was equipped with: -

• 14" Pulsar Plus wheels
• N14 1.6 Pulsar front brakes
• King Springs
• Colour coded bumpers, grille, door handles, mirrors, number plate cover etc
• Opened up and plastic-welded front bumper and grille
• Custom high-flow air intake (filter visible behind grille)
• Custom made 4-2-1 extractors (secondary runners visible through bumper hole)
• 2" exhaust
• Increased fuel pressure (dyno tuned)
• Exedy 3-paddle performance clutch
• Tachometer
• Leather steering wheel and aluminium gear knob
• Pioneer CD player and 4 speaker installation
• European 16V badges that someone from the UK sent me
• Tinted tail lights and blinkers

This micra was in excellent condition with low Kms. It had very little scratches etc and the paint was in very good condition. It went very well, and it was a shame to see it go looking back now, but I was in a big rush to go and grab my new S14 200sx!

 

 

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Here's an extract from the original Cisco's Micra Files site in 1999...

This is the car as of 1 Jan 2001

This is the car with the old wheels

Click here to see the dyno readout that I got when I got my car dyno tuned after fitting the extractors.. I just had the airbox removed and a rampod fitted during this as my new intake pipe was not in place yet... which meant the engine was getting hot air, and had to suck air through a small confined space to get it.. because of this it started to plataeu at about 5500rpm from lack of air high up... thats why the guy only revved it to 5500 on the dyno..peak power standard is at 6000, and should be slightly higher with extractors and a bigger intake. In this form the car got 62.8kw (85.6hp) at the wheels and approx 117Nm torque at the flywheel. This equates to about 78 kw at the engine. and now with the new intake it would be about spot on 80kw. which makes sense.. Its faster than a Suzuki GTi with an exhaust and they have 74kw. plus 5 or so from the exhaust. The car is slightly quicker than my mates 2.0 pulsar SSS now, I'm pretty happy with that for what I've done.

With the custom intake pipe fitted the car is a lot better now from 5500 upwards, just keeps revving and gaining power instead of plateauing - plenty of air getting in. Looks awesome too. It revs right through to about 6900 super smooth, then the rev limiter kicks in. The redline of 6400 is about 500 too low, especially once you give the engine more flow.

Mods

Performance

	Koni adjustable shock absorbers These are just great. On the front they are just inserts for your complete strut unit, they replace the internal cartridges and stuff, but the rears as they aren't inside a strut are just complete replacements. You get a little plastic dial that you plug on top of the one that you wish to adjust. I have them on pretty firm, but that's at present with the soft cut stock springs, once I get the hard springs I will most likely soften it up a bit.
	Custom made Adjustable rear pan-hard link . This was made for me by G&L Machining at Broadmeadow. They are good kids who do a top job for a reasonable price. This adjustable bar enables the axle offset to be adjusted to anything. This keeps the axle in center when you lower it so much.
	Exedy 3 Paddle Racing clutch . I was very lucky to find this on an Australian web site who imports them. It was very cheap. Approximately a third of the price of the NISMO one and its exactly the same clutch. Made in Japan. Its bites like a bitch now. Its basically ON or OFF. there is some shudder if you aren't quick enough on the clutch, but it just launches heaps better now, and never ever slips at all.. I got it fitted by Capital Brakes in Newcastle. They did a top job and a great guys. Not very often you find a place that you are 100% happy with. They adjusted/fitted the whole unit including bearings.. I took them the parts that I ordered myself though over the internet from http://www.discpads.com/. They also machined the flywheel as the old clutch left its mark(s)..! You have to basically when you fit a heavy duty or any new clutch machine the flywheel or it can be a bit rough.. It chirps into second in the dry in a straight line, but it did before with the old clutch, just squats heaps more now as its such a sudden bang! Second will light right up when changing into it around a corner, and third will chirp when going around a corner with the weight off the inside wheel.. OK for 205s on a little 1.3. You should see my original clutch, it was completely down to the rivets and had ran tracks into the pressure plate from the rivets digging in. hehe it would slip in every gear..
	Custom-Made Mandrel-Bent 4-2-1 Extractors wrapped in heat shielding tape to reduce intake temperature + High Flow catalytic convertor. Got the front resonator removed, so its all free flowing 2" right back to the backbox and out the dump pipe. Got this done at Lilford's in East Maitland, they are awesome, all their work is top knotch, I'm really happy with it. Sounds awesome and goes a lot better aswell. After putting on the extractors on, it seems to now have a big surge of mid-range torque from around 3700 - 5500rpm.. From there up it only seems slightly better.. Which is weird.. Extractors are meant to affect high up the most.. It accelerates nicely now, but I think it may be leaning out or something high up in the revs.. SOLVED! (Jan 2000) Took my car to BD4s on saturday.. Paul from BD4s looked over my car and sussed out why it didnt seem to be gaining much up top... He said the current air intake was mega restrictive, and high up where it needs heaps more air, it was lacking big time. So he suggested what I do to the intake.. I have a completely new huge filter thing that is on the end of a 50cm piece of 3" flexible PVC tubing. This joins onto a 3" steel mandrel 90deg bend which does the bend from the throttle body to the PVC duct. I also sourced 2" of silicone turbo hosing to clamp around the join of the steel bend and the throttle body. Overall It didn't cost much at all, and the results are bloody awesome for such s do-it-yourself upgrade. The steel bend was like $20, $20 for the 3" bit of duct PVC (0.5m), $9 for the silicone turbo tubing, $1 for a hoseclamp, and the conical double-flow filter on the end was about $56 - So roughly $100 for easily a couple of kw high up. Especially noticeable with the extractors, coz the engine only really needs all that extra air once it has the extractors. When the guys at Scott's Dyno tune tuned my car, they increased fuel pressure by 5psi. The engine was also not getting enough petrol from the extractors! I blew up a catalytic convertor as a result of the engine running too lean. but its all fixed now and the engine has never sounded healthier - so smooth, just keeps revving to almost 7000rpm. This photo is before the heat shield tape went on, you can see the heat shied tape in the air intake picture a bit below..
	2" Sports exhaust system from the cat back. Sports backbox muffler, no front resonator. 3 1/2" chrome Dump Pipe. Sounds awesome. I got this put in first, way before the extractors came.. It made it slightly faster, mainly at higher revs.
	Custom High Flow Cold Air intake. . Designed and made by myself. Way more power high up, very noticeable when you have extractors can utilise so much more air flow.
	Front Calipers and slotted, ventilated Discs FROM N14 pulsar - These bolt straight on. I wasn't sure about this.. So i measured them up and bought some. The calipers bolt straight on, and as a pulsar has the same bolt pattern as the micra, the larger ventilated! discs slide straight on aswell. Braking power is much better, and also there is ZERO fade no matter how hard you drive. These were designed for a 1050-1100Kg car remember. The great thing about these calipers is that they mount in exactly the same spot as the micra ones, but their dimensions are bigger and even though mounted in the same spot, they allow a disc with a larger diameter and also wider (ventilated). So it accomodated the larger disc and as long as you bleed them as soon as you fit them, away you go with awesome brakes on your little micra! I'm going to chase up a Super S rear end or rear discs sometime soon too. Even though the front brakes do most of the work and I wouldn't notice stronger back brakes that much.. it will still be nice and look great. I have to find out if I need the whole Super S rear axle complete with brakes, or if there is just some extra bracket that it uses to mount the disc calipers.
	14" X 5.5" Pulsar Plus Alloy Wheels . I sold my 16 X 6's. They looked lovely, but I got sick of how bouncy and jittery the car was and there was lots of extra strain on the clutch also. Even though I have a 3-puck racing clutch, its still only a small diameter. You can't fit a larger clutch in, just a stronger ceramic one. The 16's never rubbed at all, but the 14's are noticably lighter (yes also including the higher profile tyres), don't bounce or jitter the car anywhere near as much, don't put strain on the clutch that I don't need, and are heaps cheaper! The 16" wheels were nice to look at and give you unstoppable cornering, but that's the only two good things. Even though I have heaps less rubber on the 14" wheels, there are still some handling advantages : Heaps lighter steering Tracks, follows and responds to bumps way better than the 16" wheels.
	Extra weight removed (Spare tyre, jack, wheel brace, screw in clip for baby seat, rear boot carpet, parcel tray etc) . I know it seems fanatical. But in small cars where you don't have very many cubic inches, weight is crucial. Ditching 50kg on a car that weighs 810kg is improving your power-weight by about 1/16th. But in a fat-arse commodore or something which weighs 1600kg you are only improving it by 1/32nd. Some freak I read about somewhere pulled everything out like trim, handbrake housing cover, floor carpet etc! That's taking it way too far! You're better off putting a turbo in which doesn't even compare to the minor gains in pulling all of your trim out. I got all the stereo gear when I first bought the car, now I hardly have the subwoofer and extra speakers in the car. They sound great, but the subwoofer box is pretty heavy and you can seriously notice the power loss. It feels like almost having another person in the car, and when you just randomly get dragged by some meat head in a big 6 or 8 cyl car you want to be at your very best !

Aesthetics

	Tinted Windows in Steel Blue colour. You can see me in the reflection in this photo.
	Polished Aluminium Gear Knob and short shifter kit. This just makes quick gear changes easier and looks cool. The old one was very tight to get off.. So I squirted hairspray up under it while it was levered away from the stick with a skinny screwdriver, hairspray is perfect for things like this, its mainly use for getting bicycle handgrips on and off coz its slippery at first then once they are back on it dries hard and sticky keeping them in place... It was still tight, so I got the multigrips onto it and it unscrewed anticlockwise easily.
	Leather Aluminium sports steering wheel . This is lovely to drive with. Autotecnica Winner is the model, its identical to the MOMO Champion that I was going to get only $125 cheaper! It has a Suede bit at the top to wipe off the sweat from your hands once you lose the cops !
	Custom open flow Grill I got the plastic welding done at Farmer Bros again, It came up lovely once painted. The air filter sits right behind it sucking in all the cold air it can get. Mesh Bumper Mouth I did the mesh bumper mouth myself. Farmer Bros Plastic Welders at Cardiff did a top job for pretty cheap of plastic welding up the gaps from where the slats were cut out from so it was all smooth one piece.
	Colour Coded Bumpers, door handles, number plate cover and mirrors. All done in 2pac, looks heaps better than before and also means that the black stuff wont fade and go all dry anymore. These are some pics of when the bumpers were first getting painted, as well as the car now..
	Authentic European Micra chrome 16V emblems next to the wheel guards. Sent to me from a fellow micra friend in the UK. These look cool, noone in Australia has them except me!
	3 3/4" Tachometer . This tacho is awesome, its all hooked up properly to illuminate when the dash lights are on, I did all the wiring myself. It has a variable shift light. The position the needle is at on the picture is where I have the shift light set too. It lights up your face bright red at night time when it kicks in.

Stereo System

This system was all hooked my myself and my mate mark. We spent a couple of 2am nights mucking around with it and getting it right. But we did a top job and got it all sorted out perfectly. I saved $300 from doing the installation myself, mark was also a carton of beer ahead.

	Pioneer 4x45W CD player head unit. Its a beast.
	Pioneer 6 1/2" Dual Cone Rear Speakers installed in the parcel tray by myself.
	Climax 2x200W amp bridged to 400W. This is mounted on the floor under the front passenger's seat out of sight.
	MTX 12" 400W subwoofer , enclosed in my custom made sealed box. This box was custom made by my uncle (carpenter). It has lots of volume for the sub to use, and fits the micra's boot perfectly. It sits between the back seat and the rear of the boot flush and doesn't move around.. If anyone else wants one like this for their K11 let me know, the dimensions are perfect. The sub sounds awesome. The box has a little terminal box thing put in its side to accept and clip in the wires from the amp. You can get these from Jaycar for pretty cheap ($5 or so). The box is getting carpeted sometime too.