as another thought for cheapest option -
-and if you’re not going fast anyway
-have you considered fitting L700 hubs and brakes and going down to a wide 12" wheel combo?
I have not !
Is this for Front, Rear or Both?
I would’ve through the L700 brakes would be even smaller than the GTVi’s - and they didn’t perform that well.
I’m really not that familiar yet with all the Daihatsu models.
Depends on how wide a 12" you’re talking - I’m undecided about any width increase through flares etc.
Just looked at the other thread - for improvement in gearing you’re saying not only change the Final Drive Ratio, but reduce the wheel diameter also. Then facilitate that with the L700 Hubs. With low power, wider 12" rubber the intent is to be off the brakes 
seems like an interesting concept!
you’ll need to forgive me - i consider things with the intent of what i can get out of it by spending the less possible
in doing so, i will often be accused of neglecting things that others may seem important, so you’ve been warned 
secondly please excuse if i talk over the issue with what could sound like plain language - i like to address the obvious - this is not because i assume you or anyone is an idiot - only because i try to pad it out for discussion
so, yes, the brakes are smaller - so you can fit a smaller wheel - which will allow for effective higher ratio of total gearing - like changing the final drive - so yes, total pad size is a chunk less, so yes performance is less - how good do they need to be though? did i read you’re doing 100km -ish top speed?
i could double check on my wheels i have in storage - but i’m pretty sure the gtvi rear’s stock will handle a twelve inch rim without issue - not that rear brakes matter much anyway - nor does it matter much if you’re low speed and just running stock rears either- unless considering the rake angles - because you’re only concerned about drive ratio’s to the tarmac for now - at least to start as a test
in my opinion unless in the wet, all the braking interest is forward anyway - so i always dial out rear braking if anything anyway - but that’s a feel thing that’s personal - and for another topic
so the L700 cuore / mira will share all the components of the gtvi if you just swap the hubs and brakes
the lines swap over easily and the booster and master are fine - and the axles will fit etc easy
im not sure on the oz market - but there are a lot of aftermarket pad and disc options if you wanted to get into gruntier braking - but i would suggest oe would be fine - because you’re not doing massive speed anyway - and remember that with better drive ratio to increase time of speed to increase - it will also decrease time to decrease speed
width wise, i have been testing up to 7" wide and are fine without flares - which is another thing i think people get confused with - that traction is basically about contact patch - achieved by width - not diameter
explore this stuff a bit more and you’ll unlock some decent pace - always good fun
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Not much action since last year. Have been enjoying the car on the street and in the hills.
About to have some time off work so trying to get some additional parts in.
Incoming are:
- Myvi Rear Sway Bar 18mm
- Lowered Seat Mount for early Recaro’s (will use a mates L-series Recaro’s from the Proton GTI as a tester)
- Header-back exhaust - not only is mine still factory, but the rear section that goes over the rear axle fell off
Lower Final Drive/LSD/Bigger Brakes still in discusions…
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Sweet looking exhaust. 2 inch? Nice work on the seat rails too.
Yep 2" / 50mm, then the little cannon has a 80mm exit.
Just need a bung for that O2 sensor hole as my model only has 1 sensor.
Although was thinking it could be useful spot to put a wideband O2 sensor hooked up to the gauge…
The current one is mere centimetres from one cylinder port exit, I’m lead to beleive it should be further downstream and likely after the cylinders have merged.
The seat rail is a bit of a gamble…we’ll see if it works!
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The seat hight was one of my biggest gripes when taking my old sirion on track. I could never comfortably heel-toe or left foot brake. Would be such a big improvement to lower it.
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If you need anything welded, feel free to contact me. I only charge for Argon.
Thanks! I greatly appreciate that.
At the moment, I’ve been doing my best to get “bolt-on” things so that I can do most of the work myself. Which was part of the intent of getting a car like this - for me to learn and have fun without much risk of things going wrong, or the risk offset by the car having inherently low value. So suspension/brakes/headers/exhaust/seat mount etc etc have all been simple bolt-on affairs. Whilst maybe a bit more expensive in some aspects, I get the enjoyment of doing it.
I’m sure there’ll come a time where I’ll run out of options and need some “proper” work done on it. Again, appreciate the offer 
Sidenote:
Went ahead and got some of the Siberian Bushings.
Main concern was the rear axle bushings that mount to the chassis - my concern is those bushings at nearly 2 decades old, with much grippier tyres on are moving too much which is impacting alignment of that axle with respect to the body of the car. Didn’t get the swaybar to chassis mounts and figured would get them locally through Superpro or the like and will try to add more mounting points as has been suggested.
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Oh, I also forgot to post this at the time, but posting something to Facebook made me remember.
Behold!
Our hire car in Mauritius over Christmas time!!
Couldn’t resist when travelling to a country that had Perodua’s not to hire one. Also turned out to be a stroke of genius as its small size and nimbleness meant heaps. Also to get the lazy auto working, it happily revved out most gears. It also kept us safe in some downpours and with all the crazy roundabouts there!
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So I used the Easter break to install the Myvi 18mm rear swaybar. With the help of Nicolas (nvergaraa) I used a combo of vise grips (locking pliers), ratchet straps and a drill.
If anyone else is doing it, I highly recommend notching / elongating the original sway bar mounting points on the torsion bar slightly. It just will give you a little more scope to install it first time. Or the sway bar holes, whichever.
The mounts ( L shape brackets) match the bolt spacing perfectly - but when you flex the bar to install it the angle may not be 100% so the slight elongation gives you room.
Actually I only needed to do that on some of the mounts not all, if you’re concerned amount movement here.
Would’ve taken a lot quicker had I had some tools /knowledge. But all in all a success.
First impressions on the street, feels like it makes the torsion bar heavier as it crashes over bumps…which It sort of has to as you’re adding weight. Will need to go on a proper drive to determine the rest.
Thanks again to Nicolas for his quick assistance!!
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hey! it’s good that everything turned out well! Enjoy the sway bar! 
Also using the time to complete a bit of a quality-of-life mod:
Before:
After:
Also looking to get a second hand set of headlights, as wanting to perhaps retrofit a HID projector in there. I did that successfully to my old evo, so should be able to do it here. Should be even easier as these reflector bowls are huge!
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great thread.
hows the exhaust sound? where abouts did you get it? looks like what im after is it d-sport?
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Hey, I’ve been off-work and not on my laptop much. In the Facebook group i’d posted this:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157199030712094&set=gm.2032446557059215&type=3&theater&ifg=1
Which has intermittent info about it.
Exhaust is this one
Made by Brave:
https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/p586749977?conversionType=search_suggest
It is for the Daihatsu Sirion/Storia / Toyota Duet - I don’t know how it would go fitting other models.
Pro:
- I could fit it myself
- 2" 3-piece
- off the shelf
Con:
- Price
- needed to source an M18 x 1.5 O2 Bung Plug as the later Storia’s had both pre and post cat O2 sensors. ($10 from a nearby Motorbike Exhaust shop)
About the price, it was a little cheaper than what it looks like now as it fluctuates vs JPY currency. Also, it is a large box - so if you’re getting bushes, rad caps, trinkets, or basically anything that can fit in and around an exhaust in a box - then you can consolidate freight, so it doesn’t seem as bad.
Fit and Finish; I can’t fault it, everything included, bolted fine to aftermarket exhaust header (Supersprint), very easy to get it centered in the rear bar.
Why no exhaust video clip? Well this exhaust would fit 100% perfectly on a stock car. The fact that i have the Myvi Rear Sway Bar (and the low height at the rear) causes this exhaust to foul on the sway bar mount. This is because the mount protrudes inside and backwards of the spring perch, which is where this exhaust runs. So nothing wrong with the product, if that sway bar wasn’t there it would be all good. Therefore at the moment I’m running without the final rear section of the exhaust.
So my options are:
- Take the final piece to an exhaust shop to modify to fit
- Take the car to an exhaust shop to get an entirely new section made up with or without a mini cannon muffler.
In other news, Siberian Bushes have just arrived - after a false start and one package getting stopped at the Russian border. Tracking shows this package is still in Korea, but it’s in my hands now so…
Additionally purchased some 54mm silicone tubings to make up an intake which should get some cold air and that doesn’t run across the top of the engine…
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Good write up! hope you can get the back end sorted without too many hassles. I wonder if bending or bashing it sightly would have any adverse effect. It might even increase the velocity of the cooler exhaust gases? I could also be talking out my butt, and have no idea 
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Unfortunately the exhaust basically sits on the sway bar mount, which since the exhaust can move slightly on the hangers, the rear section shifts/slides to one side of the swaybar mount. This in turn causes the rear cannon to then rest on the rear bar.
I went for a quick drive but it just clunked all the time. Not sure a gentle massage with a mallet would do it…
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Not much action to date, but will pick up soon.
- Exhaust was corrected by an exhaust shop. Basically cut out a small section in the over-axle part to change the angles to suit. Still 2" mandrel SS.
- Used some 3mm Aluminium strapping to install a fire extinguisher across front seat mounts - made more fun due to the different orientation of seat bolts.
- Tried a different seat mount for the recaro, still was higher than expected so a custom job might be the go. Perhaps the GTVI’s came with slightly lower seating position, as the JDM Rails that were meant to be -30mm position was nowhere near it.
Larger mods to come as will get all amassed parts fitted next week by the same team that modified the exhaust: final drive, lighter pulley, new drive belt, bushings, radiator, etc
And this weekend I should be able to do the battery relocation (plan to horizontally mount a Fullriver HC20) and modify the intake (2 1/8" piping and silicon bends to place filter roughly where battery was and feed it cool air from somewhere from front bar)
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Firstly, apologies there are no pictures for this track outing. It was on a weekday and a solo effort by myself.
I’ve also shared a post on Facebook to the Live to Dai page.
So we left off with the last track day at Mallala with a 1:36.9 as the fastest time.
Since then has been added:
- Header back exhaust, 2" from BRAVE Japan (headers were already done and are SuperCircuit from Malaysia)
- D-Sport Slotted Rotors (stock GTvi size)
- Ultra Racing Rear Sway Bar
- Rear Torsion bar, front control arm and front sway bar-to-control arm mount bushing from Siberian Bushing
- Copen 5.545 Lower Drive from Compact Motorsport (and Daihatsu)
- 1.5 LSD from D-Sport
- New Gates drive belt and Lightweight crank pulley from Arospeed
The theory behind most of these should be straight forward and documented throughout the site. At Mallala specifically, due to the long gearing of the sirion, all I originally needed was 2nd and 3rd. The lower Final drive has brought 4th in to play on the track, with the acceleration out of 2nd quite astonishing for a small engine (aided by LSD too). I had concerns that this FD was toooo low - but at the end of the longest straight (realistically a kink) I was still in the top of 4th, so didn’t have to make a choice about a short upshift to 5th. Although through the esses I’m not sold on the quickest way through / which gear etc, something for next time.
Downside on the street (aka the drive to/from the track) is that at 110km/h the engine sits just above 4k rpm…so cruising at 90km/h was the ideal mix of keeping revs lowish, noise to a minimum and not angering the other road users.
Speaking of the LSD - given the modest power the cars have, I was surprised on the first track day that I was easily spinning up the inside front tyre. This could also be a factor of not enough wheel droop on the coilovers and/or too stiff a front spring rate. In any case, the LSD certainly solved it, with no wheel spin at all and the ability to pull the car through the corners. I also believe that the locking on decel helped braking.
Speaking of brakes - since they’re stock sized and the recommendation is to go to copen-sized at a minimum the first track day had them running out of puff early. The breaking immediately seemed better, which I don’t think was due to the rotors but the LSD. Though with Mallala being particularly harsh on brakes, the pedal was exceedingly long towards the end of the day.
The Exhaust, pulley, bushings I believe just added to supporting mods - extracting a bit of power, allowing it to rev freely and to feel as solid on the track as possible.
So, my previous best was 1:36.9 and the ‘challenge’ was to beat my friends Proton GTi whose time was 1:34.2 - so I had a bit of ground to make up. Well my actual best time of the day was 1:34.1 just surpassing the GTi. This was also a very consistent time, reaching low 1:34’s on numerous laps. However a bigger story is my theoretical best time pieced together from RaceChrono’s software. Which was a 1:32.9 which is significantly better again than the lap I could do. Having looked at the data RaceChrono does provide - in one sector alone on one lap I was 0.4s quicker. I do feel the area to improve on is the braking - not that the current brakes wouldn’t enable me to get to that lower figure - the variability in the brakes with such a large deadzone prior to braking I feel is where I can’t be consistent each time.
So where to from here?
Currently I’ve:
- purchased a couple of extra fog lights, with the intent to turn them into brake ducts. If anyone is curious, the ‘hole’ at the back of the foglights is 2 1/8" which is the same size as the throttle body, so left over piping / silicone joins can be put to use.
- purchased a ‘chrome’ trim of the passenger side to fashion into an air intake.
- A Fullriver HC20 battery will be mounted under the passenger seat.
- The fusebox has been rotated back 90deg to free up a space for
- Air intake putting a pod filter in the factory battery location, fed air from the front of the car (can’t be any worse than the ‘engine cover intake’), engine bay side ideally blocked by some panel.
- Exploring lighter front rims, with stickier tyres - waiting for a pair to pop up locally or the AUD:Yen to get better.
- Braking…either the Copen upgrade or the Compact Motorsport large brake upgrade.
- Stiffer Rear Springs
Prior to the trackday I did the usual maintenance: plugs, oils etc.
Interestingly, it seemed plug #3 (Counting from Left) was the ‘most oiled’ and likely the cause of the oil burn at high rpm…In any case at the track a large amount of oil was being burnt and therefore needed a few 100mls between sessions. But the 176k kms engine is holding together, I doubt it could be significantly down on power/compression and still create times to challenge its peers.
Next time out will be “The Bend” motorsport track in SA on the 18th August. This is a much larger track to challenge the Sirion.
***If anyone wants to compare the Racechrono data it can be found here: http://www.hyperdrive3d.com.au/pastevents/OtherData/index.php
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Sparkplugs:
Cyl #3 looks to be the primary culprit. Will try some of the internet mystery fixes of soaking the piston tops with a variety of solvents (Marvel Mystery Oil if you’re in the US, otherwise some kero/deisel here) to see if that helps at all. Otherwise i’ll tough it out until I do something about rebuilding it.
Fusebox Relocation:
Bracket was cut in half and re-bolted to the strut tower to orient the fuse box this way. A bit tight to the wiper motor…but another way to look at it is that it helps hold it in place
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