Toyota Blade V6.

[s4turn]

just got mine today

Not a perfect car, but im happy with it
Just glad to be driving again

I have the rubber oil line

[Al]

Nice one.

Get some photos up.

We need to form a TS Blade posse.

[Kiwi-Corolla]

The light up scuff plates are awesome, really rare too. My old man got the optional TRD ones for his:

[Al]

Taking my Blade to drags when they have their test n tune day in September. The seat of the pants meter reckons there is a 13.9 in it

[s4turn]

Managed to get some pics up of my car:

IMG_0714 by s4turn17, on Flickr

IMG_0708 by s4turn17, on Flickr

I want to do rear shot of the car again, should of used my wide angle here
IMG_0710 by s4turn17, on Flickr

[Al]

Looking sharp

[s4turn]

Cheers!

Im loving the car so far.
Its a bit heavy on gas, but i think its more my foot than the car haha

my last car had an aftermarket sound system in it, this car and its japanese headunit is really itching me to change!
I dont want to cut panels up or remove things just yet

Did you find out what the car can do on a quarter mile?

[Al]

End of September is the next drag day here. As long as the road is dry and smooth it seems to hook up really well and doesn't activate the traction control. Might be something to do with the Potenza S001 tyres

I don't find mine heavy on gas. It uses a bit more than the Corolla, but it's still less than the RX-8 that I sold last week!

I've worked out how to use the head unit in mine. The HDD is pretty cool, I removed all the Japanese music that the previous owner had installed, except for the m o v e album of Initial D songs. Then added a whole heap of my CDs.

[phoenix]

Which one of you is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLYbo7Dmiio

I wouldn't mind one for around town if they made a GRE154

[Al]

I'm guessing that is Kiwi-Corolla's father.

[Kiwi-Corolla]

I'm guessing that is Kiwi-Corolla's father.

No f**king comment.......

[Bling]

Get him a tripod for Christmas, I feel car sick

[Simon K]

Yep next job is headunit. There is a company in Christchurch, OEM Audio that does a kit, they have a Youtube channel showing you the units in operation.

Quite keen on one of these units, maybe for Xmas

[s4turn]

IF you dont care about the OEM buttons and look then I would check out alpine, pioneer, jvc, kenwood units as well
after market headunits can also control steering wheel controls too. So you don't loose any of that functionality

I mean you can get an apple play JVC headunit for $850, uses apple maps or google maps so no need for ongoing map subscriptions.
If you dont care about apple play, then there are units for around $400 which have Dual phone bluetooth, touchscreen, direct USB, siri eyes free, pandora, screen mirroring (android or older iphones/30 pin) from $400
they also support new lightening cable iphones too, but not screen mirroring, just USB audio and Siri

they have better specs as far as audio features too.
I dont see any audio features listed such as preamp output, preouts, eq, time alignment, x-over etc (if you care about that sort of thing) on the OEM units

Android Audio and Apply Car play units im sure will wipe the floor with most headunits out there now. Brands such as Alpine, pioneer now implementing them into their higher end models, but should flow down onto mid range models over time. The downside is that new tech is always expensive

Car manufacturers are also going down this route with using apple car play

the cool thing is, the aftermarket headunits run their own software for radio, CD/DVD etc as they always have
then they can switch over to android audio or apple car play (basically using your phone) and mirroring it onto the screen with full touch control and voice activation!

[flygt4]

I picked up a Blade Master G about 18 months now too. Awesome little car, heaps of pace and deceptively picks up speed. Good for around 6sec to 100km limited by grip. A couple of things I've learned

- The stock muffler is too quiet, can only really hear it at full song but it does sound good. This almost made me want to swap to an R32 Golf or R36 Passat just for the sound. Open to suggestions on good aftermarket mufflers that don't produce an ugly tinny sound. I've heard retaining the cats and putting a good muffler in helps avoid this? I wasnt lucky enough to get a TRD muffler with mine.

- The traction control is overly sensitive and cannot be disabled. Good tyres helps this a lot on dry roads but it still dislikes damp roads. TRC cuts in about 4500rpm and really takes the edge off 1st gear just as it starts to get fun and Its often faster to part throttle 1st gear than let the TRC cut in. I guess this is just the cost of a big engine on small 225 tyres. TRC and stability control are great on flowing twisty roads though.

- Limited bootspace - this is a given for a hatch but worth keeping in mind if you need it for day to day use. Only just fits a full family grocery shop

- I looked at upgrading the stock G Spec head unit. mostly to get NZ sat nav and bluetooth audio streaming. I spoke to an installer of the OEM drop in products and they still recommended looking at other aftermarket brands as it is better value for money and you can get more funtionality. Be prepared to lose the predictive steering angle lines on the reversing camera when upgrading too.

- It has built in reminders for services intervals. if u can work the jap unit you can program in service reminders for nearly everything!

[edwagon]

Every Toyota with TRC I've ever owned has had the TRC fuse....umm...'fall out'

[Al]

Mine has a Suruga Speed muffler. Sounds really, really good.

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Mine has a Suruga Speed muffler. Sounds really, really good.

We're gonna need a video of you revving it's tits off to verify that statement I'm afraid

If you don't want to splash out on an exhaust system or muffler then chuck a pod filter on. The intake sound from these engines is awesome, and is only loud when you really gun it. At light throttle you can't hear it and at medium throttle it has a nice throaty growl to it. Best of all, there's no error codes, no risk of drone and it's cheap.

[Al]

Ok I'll take one tomorrow

[Crampy]

The pedal dance (Google it) will see the end of traction control. I do it all the time on the IS350.