From Australia, BuzzPuppy's JDM Super VR-4 Legnum 8G

**BuzzPuppy** · 04-20-2008, 11:29 PM

G"Day Everyone,

Just wandered in over "teh interwebz" and spotted this site, and the photo gallery here is a good mix of Diamantes and Galants (google up Magnas and 380's for the Australian equivalent). I used to own a 1995 Magna Wagon (Diamante) and she looked like this...

A very slow auto with a carbied 2.6L Astron Motor... more show than "go" but Seth (the car's name, not the Admin!) hauled around the mountain bikes and guitars/amps for a number of years.

Until one day in June 2007, I was flicking through the 'web and saw this for sale:

-In Japan, at the docks after the Auction.

1998 JDM Super VR-4 Legnum
-1 of only 800 made Pre-Facelift (Series 1) model with factory bodykit
-6A13TT engine (2.5L V6 DOHC with TD03 twin turbos)
-260bhp
-INVECS II (semi auto) transmission
-All Wheel Drive with AYC (Active Yaw Control)
-Recaro/Momo interior (factory option and with VERY red carpets!)
-Factory "privacy glass" and tinted fronts
-Japanese Pioneer Carrozzeria head unit (some fiddling to work with Aussie radio station frequencies)
-A'pexi RSM to do my logging
-Turbo timer (aftermarket)
-57,000km

-interior

-the reason why it was cheap.

-Driving behind the girl, who's at the wheels taking it home after it arrived in Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) via Brisbane, Queensland (2,000km trip on the back of a truck!) where it originally arrived on the boat. She got to drive it first whilst I trailed behind in the Magna wagon :)

-In my driveway after a quick wash to remove months of dirt from sitting around the docks in Japan

Ok, so the work had to begin to get it road-legal and running!
-The repair of the door and respray of the bodykit.
-Immobiliser/alarm
-Rewire audio for Australian use
-Rewire tiptronic shifter so pulling towards you shifted UP a gear, and pushing for DOWNshifts (felt more natural to me).
-Colour-code the car

More photos to come...

**BuzzPuppy** · 04-20-2008, 11:37 PM

Ok, so let's continue where the story left off...

The guy who I bought it from (also a Legnum owner, who'd sold this car to me whilst it was being delivered since he spotted another Legnum to buy!)has a dad who works as a panel-bater and repairs/restores classic Australian cars and after seeing some of his dad's work, it was definitely a good choice to go with.

Into the shop it goes!

-As you can see, not in the best condition!

-Getting the door and rear quarter panel fixed, along with colour-coding

-Working into the night

Letting the clear-coat cure for a while

...and now for the moment I'd been waiting for!

-Oh. My. God. Wow...

-Somewhere at 1am in the morning... gently washing the residual dust from the paint before a soft dry (and a peek under the bonnet)

-A comparison for the repair. From this...

-...to this!

**BuzzPuppy** · 04-20-2008, 11:50 PM

And now it's time for "Extreme MakeOver's" GRAND REVEAL!

Enjoy!

Ed · 04-20-2008, 11:50 PM

I like the pics....the car looks good after the visit to the shop!!!

**BuzzPuppy** · 04-20-2008, 11:54 PM

heheh cheers :)

They were only allowed for importing into Australia as of middle 2007 last year, whereas the UK and New Zealand had them for years since they were officially sold through dealerships. We're learning as much as we can about the cars, and it's exciting to be there from the beginning!

Come visit us @ www.ozvr4.com anytime to have a peek at the JDM 8G Galants/Legnums, although we have the odd 6G and 7G there too.

**mtcavity1** · 04-21-2008, 12:03 AM

Like day and night! Outstanding job and color choice :smt112.

**BuzzPuppy** · 04-21-2008, 12:29 AM

LOL only because yours is silver too by the looks of things?

Here's a few from November last year when some of us went for a drive south to see Victoria's rugged southern coastline.

- Mine! Mine! Mine!

More of them can be found over here :)

**Hodgson316** · 04-21-2008, 12:43 AM

wow very nice car and nive paint job!

**beam514** · 04-21-2008, 01:04 AM

WOW looks great. Did you color-match the inside of the headlights?

and I am so jealous of you guys

**BuzzPuppy** · 04-21-2008, 01:31 AM

Well, the Super VR4's had the interior of the headlights colour-coded from the factory, and they only came in two colours.

Silver and Red.

So the red Super VR-4 had the red colour-coded headlights. It's a definite stand-out over your crystal/black headlight look you know.

**Distort** · 04-21-2008, 03:12 PM

Wow. Lovin it.

**99 galant** · 04-21-2008, 03:17 PM

very nice work done so far, i wasnt a fan of that style until now. you car is sick

**Strizi81** · 04-21-2008, 03:27 PM

Very nice car and got work !

**gtx** · 04-21-2008, 04:17 PM

Great looking Legnum!

**dknight3** · 04-21-2008, 05:00 PM

wow, car looks really good man, im gunna have to go to that site and check out the red headlights, im curious..

**Goku** · 04-21-2008, 05:10 PM

I can't believe you ruined the Super VR-4 kit by colour coding it....

The super VR-4 is ment to stand out, now it just looks plain and boring, like someone tacked the kit onto a regular VR-4....

**Distort** · 04-21-2008, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by Goku

I can't believe you ruined the Super VR-4 kit by colour coding it....

The super VR-4 is ment to stand out, now it just looks plain and boring, like someone tacked the kit onto a regular VR-4....

Wha? It looked shitty before...

**Goku** · 04-21-2008, 05:21 PM

It just needed a respray black on the very front lip, as it looked like it has been scrapped, but they are ment to be black, to make them different from the regular VR-4's, or at least a different colour to contrast.
Maybe if it wasn't silver it would look a bit better, but still....