Who has a Soarer here?

[UZZ30]

Been a while since I've chatted on TS. Just curious who has a Soarer? Any generation Z10, Z20, Z30?

I've currently got two Z30s, 1996 Non turbo 3L 2JZ in red (getting a factory respray at the moment) and a V8 active UZZ32 as my main project car, all in good working order - although its needed a bit of TLC and continues to do so.

Both are 99% factory as I like, but I have some subtle tweaks for both in due course.

Most of the time is spent dealing with age / wear related problems a 24 / 19 year old car has. Bushes, seals, electronic (capacitor) repairs etc.

[MAC_HATER]

I don't,(unless you want to get into the A70 Supra and Z20 Sorarer sharing the same chassis haha) but I have a friend with a UZZ30 that has been the centerpiece of many good times and roadtrips, even if the wallet suffers at the petrol station D:

your UZZ32 is the one with the witchcraft suspension yeah? if so thats awesome have never seen one before as they are pretty rare?

[Lith]

blake_nz on here has a mid 11s one with the stock motor/turbos

[steroidcontaskie]

I have a soarer.

JZZ31 project car. Non-turbo to turbo conversion, lots of mods, lights, water injection etc etc. Kind of works.

I just got the factory ECU reconditioned by a guy named Mike Beck. Had a chat to him and he has a UZZ32 that was on springs, but he reinstalled the active nitrogen shocks. Seems like a nice guy. Good to talk too.

You going to supercharge that Active?

Cheers
Ed

[KwS]

Im pretty sure the OP is Mike...

I dont have one, but eyeing up a local UZZ32 that needs some love if my car sells. The active shocks are a bit daunting.

[steroidcontaskie]

LOL

Lucky I didn't say anything bad.

I should have known, how many people would have both an active and a jzz31.

[UZZ30]

Hah yep, witchcraft suspension is the one.

Once you have it all explained its quite a simple system, but it does have a number of elements to it. Fortunately its a Toyota, so they were the one company to pull off such a feat of engineering & see it last (with a bit of TLC)

Its not a gimmick either, like TEMS / EDC and those older early shock systems, the hydraulic system runs at 1750psi, each strut gets in the ball park of 850psi with a one way system, linked to a return drain. Theres 4 g sensors to detect motion in all directions, 4 wheel height sensors and steering position, among a few others. Theres also the rear 4 wheel steering rack that really makes it nimble at lower speeds. Theres two computers one, for the 4ws and one for the active suspension, it all goes to a big 15kg lump of alloy up front called the 'valve body' where soleniods regulate it all automatically, keeps the car level and flat and the body free from any wobbly behavior.

Just makes for a really great drive, but it does need more power, given its loaded weight with me in the car and fuel of approx 1850kg / roughly 135rwkw if I'm lucky - Ideally it needs an efficient low boost supercharger to bring it up to the 200rwkw mark with torque to match.

HA, small world Edward, sure is me.

Also KwS - From Bimmersport too yeah? I'm "Michael." there.

You should by that modified UZZ32 in Wellington, I'd love to but I just don't have the means for a 3rd Soarer haha. That car used to be pampered for 10 years by Fred Fuchs, but he sold it about 5 years+ ago and it seems its gone down hill since then, but could be saved easily enough.

[KwS]

Hah yep, witchcraft suspension is the one.

Once you have it all explained its quite a simple system, but it does have a number of elements to it. Fortunately its a Toyota, so they were the one company to pull off such a feat of engineering & see it last (with a bit of TLC)

Its not a gimmick either, like TEMS / EDC and those older early shock systems, the hydraulic system runs at 1750psi, each strut gets in the ball park of 850psi with a one way system, linked to a return drain. Theres 4 g sensors to detect motion in all directions, 4 wheel height sensors and steering position, among a few others. Theres also the rear 4 wheel steering rack that really makes it nimble at lower speeds. Theres two computers one, for the 4ws and one for the active suspension, it all goes to a big 15kg lump of alloy up front called the 'valve body' where soleniods regulate it all automatically, keeps the car level and flat and the body free from any wobbly behavior.

Just makes for a really great drive, but it does need more power, given its loaded weight with me in the car and fuel of approx 1850kg / roughly 135rwkw if I'm lucky - Ideally it needs an efficient low boost supercharger to bring it up to the 200rwkw mark with torque to match.

HA, small world Edward, sure is me.

Also KwS - From Bimmersport too yeah? I'm "Michael." there.

You should by that modified UZZ32 in Wellington, I'd love to but I just don't have the means for a 3rd Soarer haha. That car used to be pampered for 10 years by Fred Fuchs, but he sold it about 5 years+ ago and it seems its gone down hill since then, but could be saved easily enough.

Haha yeah it is me, im everywhere. Been following your progress on FB too, very interesting and promising for the future of the UZZ32.

Interesting to know about the one down here. My car is for sale, so if it sells and the 32 is still around ill take a look for sure. He mentions it bounces at low speed, and everything i have read indicates possible issue with the nitrogen charge in the struts. Need to read more about how to fix it, but would be nice to have the suspension in the same condition as yours.

[BlakeNZ]

Hi guys! well Facebook has seen the rapid fall away from (previously)excellent forums like this one, which kind of means i drop out of the loop, given i'm not on Facebook.
I've always liked the wine red Soarer, Mike.
Fred Fuchs car is RENOWNED.
I bought my first soarer in 2000. it did 230,00km (and 22 years) before i spent a dollar on a suspension component( a front ball joint from memory). If you kept the car fairly stock, and serviced it well, I'm sure the drivetrain would do half a million km. They are so well engineered.
My original car is currently for sale i see(I owned it twice!) by the guy who bought it from me. it has a LOT of fruit.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-ca ... 138573.htm
They really are a great looking coupe, i love that fat rear end(on cars, just cars), but a fat rear end requires FAT rear tires to look tough/good IMO.
my current soarer has 275 nitto drag radials out back, but i yearn for wider. they main thing i don't like is the separate high beams. the appearance would be more classy and less fussy if they were incorporated into the main light unit , like the mk IV supra (jza80)
There used to be very few manual cars around, now they are importing plenty of them under the '20 year old' rule. But none of them are cheap, especially given that for your $12-14K you only get a standard car, and modding any car gets expensive. I guess at least you don't have to build the motors.
all the best guys.

[UZZ30]

Haha yeah it is me, im everywhere. Been following your progress on FB too, very interesting and promising for the future of the UZZ32.

Interesting to know about the one down here. My car is for sale, so if it sells and the 32 is still around ill take a look for sure. He mentions it bounces at low speed, and everything i have read indicates possible issue with the nitrogen charge in the struts. Need to read more about how to fix it, but would be nice to have the suspension in the same condition as yours.

Ah hah, so you're Kelvin S. I always wondered who some people were that joined my page. Theres a dozen or two really active, active soarer owners. Total documented known cars is at just over 200 globally. So support is good, no longer are owners left in the dark with some issues like they were in the early mid 2000s. My UZZ32 had coils installed in 2001 because of the lack of info about how to fix them back then - it had the dreaded bouncing issue.

Nitrogen is indeed the problem, the nitrogen gas takes out the higher frequency movements, if that gas is low or depleted it throws the whole balance out and the body gets a high frequency bounce when the hydraulics try firm things up. Mine did this before I installed valves and regassed them to the correct pressures noted in a big translated Toyota manual a guy from Australia did over 3 years with copyright permission from Toyota.

If you did end up with the car I'd be around to help for sure. Do eeeet!

Hi guys! well Facebook has seen the rapid fall away from (previously)excellent forums like this one, which kind of means i drop out of the loop, given i'm not on Facebook.
I've always liked the wine red Soarer, Mike.
Fred Fuchs car is RENOWNED.
I bought my first soarer in 2000. it did 230,00km (and 22 years) before i spent a dollar on a suspension component( a front ball joint from memory). If you kept the car fairly stock, and serviced it well, I'm sure the drivetrain would do half a million km. They are so well engineered.
My original car is currently for sale i see(I owned it twice!) by the guy who bought it from me. it has a LOT of fruit.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-ca ... 138573.htm
They really are a great looking coupe, i love that fat rear end(on cars, just cars), but a fat rear end requires FAT rear tires to look tough/good IMO.
my current soarer has 275 nitto drag radials out back, but i yearn for wider. they main thing i don't like is the separate high beams. the appearance would be more classy and less fussy if they were incorporated into the main light unit , like the mk IV supra (jza80)
There used to be very few manual cars around, now they are importing plenty of them under the '20 year old' rule. But none of them are cheap, especially given that for your $12-14K you only get a standard car, and modding any car gets expensive. I guess at least you don't have to build the motors.
all the best guys.

Haha Blake the drag racing man. Its been a while.

Yeah Fred's car was great, it had the FWF plate back when he had it, did a lot of work, even installed a sunroof!

I agree about the engineering, very tough robust construction. I had a 1UZ E36 BMW for a while and its rather the opposite, to the extend of me having to weld plates in to stop subframe mount points from cracking!

If you sell your car what will you run next?

[MAC_HATER]

Holy crap that explanation of the Active Suspension system was awesome, thanks for that!

You might also be able to confirm\stomp out a rumor I hear about them also, that the 1UZ engines, or at least the 1UZ ECU from the active soarer's are quite sought after, as due to the extra weight of it all, the engine is more powerful than a standard 1UZ you would get in a regular UZZ30?

[UZZ30]

Holy crap that explanation of the Active Suspension system was awesome, thanks for that!

You might also be able to confirm\stomp out a rumor I hear about them also, that the 1UZ engines, or at least the 1UZ ECU from the active soarer's are quite sought after, as due to the extra weight of it all, the engine is more powerful than a standard 1UZ you would get in a regular UZZ30?

Haha I could go into a lot more detail :p

But it gets a bit confusing unless you can visually see it all haha.

Nahh, that would be a myth. If anything I had a fellow 32 owner stating they are de-tuned to make it softer on take off or something but I doubt that too.

I've had both ECU types in a UZZ31, there was no discernible difference.

If there is its extremely subtle & not something that affects power. Sadly the Achilles heel of the 1UZ is the stock ECU tune, while it does its job well, its far from an aggressive tune.

Here's my 32 doing its suspension test cycle, goes through the main motions for 2 minutes and repeats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSNVSDzKc2s

[MAC_HATER]

Ahh cool, myth busted!

Yeah they are tuned to be a smooth V8, which is why they are in the Z30, a luxury grand tourer in its day

My friend's one has quite a barky exhaust in it, as when he first got it we went for a drive in it, and on the first WOT passing lane we heard a huge bang, and looked back to see a huge cloud of wadding and glass resin fly out the back of the mufflers, and ever since its sounded properly evil and yet perfectly legal decibel wise, on a standard exhaust haha

That self test of the suspension system is awesome, it can raise it really super high haha, is there an option to manually raise and lower the car for different roads and conditions, or is it all governed by the system itself to determine?

[KwS]

Id love to get the 32, itching to have another tidy up project after the M3.

[BlakeNZ]

Mike, the soarer that is for sale is my FORMER car, it is not me selling it. My current record holding car is not for sale. I have bigger plans.(Low elevens)If i ever did sell
that one... i'd like to drive a jzx81. Old school style.

[Mr Ree]

My current record holding car is not for sale. I have bigger plans.(Low elevens)

Thats the best news Ive heard all year