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It has been five days since I took delivery of the Soarer (I almost typed Sprinter then…) and it still brings a smile to my face almost every time I see it. I guess one and a half years without owning a car does that to you, especially when you love cars as much as I do, let alone rwd Toyotas!
The big news this weekend is that I took the Soarer for a drive, well I drove it up our very short and quiet street anyway, that counts as a drive doesn't it? I must say I was very surprised by the power and torque, sure I've driven many a V8 and turbo car, but the 7MGTE turbo six cylinder feels simply awesome, I wonder how good a 1JZ or 2JZGTE must feel, I can only dream for now.
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No doubt the three inch exhaust from Trust helps the power output, however it's only a cat-back system so once I fit something decent all the way from the back of the turbo it should go even better, along with the other mods I have planned for the Soarer, but more on that later.
Before driving the car today, the first thing I did was give the car a good clean. On the outside the pearl paint came up quite good after a quick clean, once I get a chance to polish it up I would expect it to look very nice indeed. There are a few scratches and dents in the bodywork, but this is a fifteen year old car you have to remember, so it's going to have those things.
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I also had a crack at the full leather interior. The interior is actually in quite good condition, the only thing not up to scratch is the driver's seat which is a little worn, but nothing too bad. There were a few greasy hand marks and the like around the interior, but it was nothing that some interior cleaning foam and some hard work couldn't fix up. The interior is all nice again now, and the brown/tan colour is even starting to grow on me.
The sunroof shroud that can be seen in the first pictures of the Soarer has been removed now also thankfully. It has left some marks on the roof, but I'm sure these will polish out without any problems. Even if it does leave some permanent marks on the roof, it will still look better than that big black thing sitting on there! I'm sure that the shroud is great for stopping the wind when the roof is open, but even for someone like me who usually goes for function over form, I'd still rather it was gone.
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Next step for the Soarer now that it's looking a lot more respectable is to start on the compliance. As far as I know, the only thing that needs to be done is to replace the tyres as with any import, to replace the seatbelts and install lap sash belts in the back seats as opposed to the lap only belts in there at the moment. Other than that all I need to do is place an 'Unleaded Only' sticker on the fuel flap and fit an English language tyre placard sticker to the car. Sounds easy and I hope it is!
I don't know when I'll be writing next about the Soarer, probably once I start the compliance process. In the meantime I'll just keep washing it and thinking about what I'm going to do to it next, and when I'm actually going to be able to take it out for a proper drive, I think the answer to that last question can be answered below.
* 7 months and 6 days to go...
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