DJKOR's Aurion

[DJKOR]

*Latest photos located below or by clicking here*

I got my Aurion back in March and posted details about it one month down the track, but I never put it into this section of the forums. It is quite a long story and if you have the patience, it's all over on this thread:

My Aurion is now on the road

If you don't want to read through it, I will sum up the basic details on the life of this car. It started it's life straight off the production line into Hertz Car Rental at Cairns Airport. Eight months and 24,522km down the line, it's registration is then transferred over to a dealer and put up for sale. It's quiet for the next couple of months and the car doesn't get too much interest and few test drives. Then all of a sudden, some strong rain hits North Queensland and unfortunately the poor Sportivo gets a bit of a flooding, not too much, just enough to wet all the carpet. It then works its way down to Manheim Fowles and is listed as a Repairable Write-Off. This is where it then becomes my car. It is cleaned, inspected, registered, and now my pride and joy.

Anyways, since then, I have done the following and due to the external changes, I thought I would take some photos. This seems to be all I will be doing with the exterior for now. I was previously just interested in making this car look good with little to no regard to performance. I now have some new aspirations for this car and that is to make it a daily driver with track like performance. In the meantime though, here is what has been done to it (mostly cosmetic):

- 35% Midnight Express tint

- Auspacks aftermarket 7" OEM fit DVD/Navigation head unit

- MTX Thunder 300W RMS monoblock amplifier driving an MTX 400W RMS Sledgehammer subwoofer

- LED bulb replacements for parkers, number plate, reverse light, boot light, dome light, and side door markers

- LED footwell lighting wired to function in the same way as the dome light but run independently

- Aftermarket 8000k HID's

- Debadged except for one Toyota emblem on the boot which has been painted black

- K&N Typhoon intake

- Replaced stock muffler tips with cleaner looking tips

- Single 2.5" QTP electric cutout

- Dual oval Varex mufflers

- TRD Aurion suspension

- Ultra Racing front strut brace and 19mm rear sway bar

- DBA 4000 Series slotted front rotors

- DBA Street Series slotted rear rotors

- 17 inch Kappa wheels

- Mesh front grille replacement

- Painted engine cover and front trim

- Personalised plates (not really a mod, but helps with the look of the car)

- Eyelids

Modifications coming soon:

- Maybe some exhaust headers and custom pipework to the Varex at the rear

So that's enough talking for now, onto the photos.

This is what it looked like on the day I got it. Bad photo but I was excited. Wasn't quite perfect at this point, and still smelt a little damp:

Then it was time to clean it all up:

Parked next to my old Camry (which was slowly being restored to stock):

The day I got it all registered and on the road. The paintwork had quite an amount of swirls in it at this point in time (even though it doesn't show on this photo):

My first 'photoshoot' with my Aurion after many hours removing swirls and waxing:

And the most recent photos taken on 30/10/2008. I tried to replicate the scene but failed:

The one thing I have noticed with the mesh grille is that no photo can capture just how good it really looks. In person, it looks many times better. It must have something to do with having a stereoscopic view of it.

For when I had my cutout, I took a video of how it sounds. This was taken from 4.5 metres away from the rear exhausts. The car is obviously under no load. I will try and get some video of it while moving to demonstrate the sound under load. As of now though, this cutout has been... well.... cut out. I've changed it over for dual oval Varex mufflers:

<div>Please wait a few seconds for Video to Load!</div><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib8Qkjof51g"></param>'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib8Qkjof51g"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib8Qkjof51g" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

[Evo7]

Definately looking awesome :D

especially after 'the incident' :(

but its fixed :D

Evo

[marc2020]

Looks good, I just wish I can watch youtube at work. Cant hear it :(

Edited October 31, 2008 by marc2020

[apg39]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

[ELEGNT]

WHEEW

[CLIFFSTAR 616]

Cool ride. I'm bloody Jel.

What was the incident? :o

[SportyAsh]

It looks like an absolute joy to drive...

fingers crossed when i get my aurion shortly. Ahhh :o

[DJKOR]

Cool ride. I'm bloody Jel.

It looks like an absolute joy to drive...

fingers crossed when i get my aurion shortly. Ahhh :o

Thanks guys for the comments. I am bound to update this fairly soon with a couple of additions. It feel nice to have my thread pushed to the more recent list once again.

What was the incident? :o

Well, the day was October the 7th 2008. The long story can be seen here:

I need to vent

The short story is best summed up with these photos:

[Evo7]

Cool ride. I'm bloody Jel.

It looks like an absolute joy to drive...

fingers crossed when i get my aurion shortly. Ahhh :o

Thanks guys for the comments. I am bound to update this fairly soon with a couple of additions. It feel nice to have my thread pushed to the more recent list once again.

What was the incident? :o

Well, the day was October the 7th 2008. The long story can be seen here:

I need to vent

The short story is best summed up with these photos:

Yes, but you got it fixed now and your car = awesomeness :D B)

Evo

[apg39]

Haha, I forgot about that one, cant even tell its been damaged now.

[DJKOR]

Well with all this latest talk about the photos taken by Tangcla, I thought I may as well jump in and update my thread with the photos that were taken. Here I give my thanks to Clarence (Tangcla) for coming up and taking the photos, Rowan (ELEGNT) for orgainising the photoshoot, Michael (51DER) for organising the venue for the photos, and Evan (Evo7) for organising the group buy for the eyelids and getting them to us in time for the photoshoot. And now; the pics:

[Evo7]

Photos look absolutely MINT

they turned out so well, and i lol'ed at the chicken

Evo

[chicken]

very nice photos dj

the black eyelids fits so well to the black trims of the sportivo kit

[DJKOR]

Thanks for the comments guys. Just another update on things; I now have a front strut brace and rear sway bar on my Aurion. A big thank you to Luis at Ultra Racing Australia for the prompt shipping and excellent service.

Last Wednesday I received my front strut brace and after fitting it, I was quite surprised at the difference one simple piece of metal can make. This then got me hooked towards changing my goals and make my Aurion handle much better. Not stopping at that, I then went ahead and ordered the 19mm rear sway bar (stock sway bar being 16mm), and timed it so I get a week in-between so I can feel any differences.

Just yesterday (Tuesday), my rear sway bar arrived. I promptly fitted it and have taken some time today to get a feel for it. I was sceptical about any handling differences that could be achieved, but wow... these two items in combination really make my Aurion feel more stable overall.

One thing I noticed after changing the rear sway bar is after making a tight turn then going back straight (ie. going around then exiting a roundabout), any force that you feel towards one direction is quickly restored back to centre without any bouncy feel afterwards. It's quote hard to explain, but it definitely feels more solid. Anyways, here are some photos of the two items, etc.

So next on the list is a suspension upgrade to improve handling even more. I have faith in the Aurion.

[1stKill]

Thanks for the comments guys. Just another update on things; I now have a front strut brace and rear sway bar on my Aurion. A big thank you to Luis at Ultra Racing Australia for the prompt shipping and excellent service.

Last Wednesday I received my front strut brace and after fitting it, I was quite surprised at the difference one simple piece of metal can make. This then got me hooked towards changing my goals and make my Aurion handle much better. Not stopping at that, I then went ahead and ordered the 19mm rear sway bar (stock sway bar being 16mm), and timed it so I get a week in-between so I can feel any differences.

Just yesterday (Tuesday), my rear sway bar arrived. I promptly fitted it and have taken some time today to get a feel for it. I was sceptical about any handling differences that could be achieved, but wow... these two items in combination really make my Aurion feel more stable overall.

One thing I noticed after changing the rear sway bar is after making a tight turn then going back straight (ie. going around then exiting a roundabout), any force that you feel towards one direction is quickly restored back to centre without any bouncy feel afterwards. It's quote hard to explain, but it definitely feels more solid. Anyways, here are some photos of the two items, etc.

So next on the list is a suspension upgrade to improve handling even more. I have faith in the Aurion.

i agree mate,i put mine in(front strut & rear sway) 3 days ago and its the best mod ive done to date followed closely by my tyres,the service and delivery from Ultra Racing was great big thanks to Luis also. :D

[Guest]

excellent... you got the sway bar in... bet you cant wait till you get the new susp. eh?

[DJKOR]

excellent... you got the sway bar in... bet you cant wait till you get the new susp. eh?

I can't wait alright. This one will require a little bit of research first to be able to make things work. If need be, I will butcher my stock sealed struts if the alternative shocks are only available as a cartridge. This Aurion has some potential. It's still a large family car, but that's not to say that it can't handle decently at least.

[juvenile]

So you must believe in all good things come to those who wait...

Looks fantastic in the photos..Classy job

[ELEGNT]

good one man so is the sway bar worth the 350 odd $?

im half considering it lol

look forward to seeing what ur going to do with suspension tho

[DJKOR]

good one man so is the sway bar worth the 350 odd $?

Well worth it. Did a fair bit of driving with it and it's hard to explain how cofortable it feels now when taking turns. Wide turns on the road just seem so un-natural now. The car feels like it is guided on rails or something.

look forward to seeing what ur going to do with suspension tho

Hopefully I can achieve what I want to, but it will take a bit of research and time I think. Patience is not one of my strong points.

[lateralus]

i like the eyelids, really suits the aurion and that wildfire red looks outstanding!

[DJKOR]

Since I have my own thread for my Aurion I think I will update it once again. Nothing new done to it yet since the strut brace and the rear sway bar, but I have been giving it a good drive in that time though.

Firstly, last week there was a dyno day happening so I brought the Aurion along to get a figure and the highest figure was 209.9HP at the wheels.

A video of it's dyno runs (I didn't think of pointing the camera at the figure for the first run):

Please wait a few seconds for Video to Load!

Then on Friday (08/05/09) it had reached the 60,000km mark (just settled in ), so it was time for it's major service. Straight after that (seriously less than an hour of it being completed) I was at a meet with some great guys over on Boost and went for a bit of a spirited cruise. To their surprise, I was managing to keep up with the guys at the front (MY08 WRX and GTIR) in all the twisty turns of the mountain run. The Aurion managed to earn itself some great praise which is a good thing since these cars don't get the credit they deserve.

Then the following night, Rowan and I headed to the drags to obtain some newer 1/4 mile figures for our Aurion's. This was my first time at the drags and it was a little daunting for my first run, but after that it was so fun. Rowan may have beat me, but I'll let him get away with it this time. For me though my best run was:

14.397 @ 98.06 mph

And the timeslip to show it:

After all that, I have realised just how soon I need to upgrade my brakes. The stock brakes on this car are shocking and as soon as I get some money, I am going to get myself a pair of slotted rotors for the front and some new pads. This is by far the most important modification that needs to happen ASAP. As well, I will work on improving the airflow to the discs at the front to help keep things in order.

[mrcrazyrolla]

Looks like a good dyno run! The one guy at the back with ear muffs on looks like a wimp :P

What did Rowan run?

[DJKOR]

I think Rowan's on the dyno wasn't an accurate figure so best not to consider it (199.7HP). As for the 1/4 mile figures, more information can be found over here:

Took my Aurion to The drags

[ST162_GTTwo]

in one of the pics, i see a chicken. what on earth's with the chicken?