Almost There

The little car is so much fun to play with. You can probably changed the looks every month if you bother enough. But, I wanted a permanent look that is pleasing to the eye and experimentation is the only way to achieve the desired effects. I've always hated that whip antenna on the roof. It literally sticks out like a sore thumb. Using a working shark fin antenna cover does the job of covering up the base. But, I think it's too big. It stays for now until I find time (and guts) to rip off the roof lining and install the real shark fin antenna that I bought many months ago. The 18" OZ Ultraleggeras are in storage. They are great rims but the ride is just too harsh for my feeble body. In its place now are 17" Rays 57 ultra-lightweight rims shod with 215/45 Goodyear F1 tires. They look a lot like the stock rims and in fact, a guy asked me why I never changed rims. That's good. I don't like the car to look ostentatious and the stock-looking it is, the better. These rims are really light and I have been able to achieve a constant 13.6 km per liter compared to the SSW rims which gave me only 10.7 km per liter. I am a firm believer of lightweight rims now but weight is not everything. It needs to be strong too, which means you have to spend more because cheap rims may be light but they are not strong. The hi-fi department also went through some changes. Well, not really changes because I installed the stock head-unit with an iPod adapter. I cannot understand why I did not do this in the first place instead of mucking around with off-the-shelf head unit and DVD player. This is definitely one of the best thing I've done. It looks neat and tidy and when the light comes on, it looks really nice with the orangey glow. Maybe, I'm too used to the orangey glow thing because that's the same colour Daisy has. Speaking about Daisy, it's time that the little Suzuki gets a name too. It's Nickie. Yup, a little boy's name to reflect the fun nature of the car. It's also the name of one of my favourite Thai singer, Nicole. Back to the mods. The pedals have been replaced with original Suzuki Sports racing pedals. These are bigger and if you noticed the gas pedal, it has a little extension on the left to help with heel and toe. Back onboard are the side moulding that were removed months ago. I got sick of it lying around the store-room and decided to install them. No regrets. It has saved Nickie from a nasty dent. Some pricks (male, female, kids, old or young) just don't know how to open car doors. Thanks to the side moulding, it absorbed the blow. Last but not least, the rear lamps have been changed to the transparent type to match the front head lamps. The original tail lamps were just too red and the whole rear end did not have enough contrast. Bought these used lamps for a low price and spent some time cleaning them up and wiring them up at the same time. It uses normal bulbs except for the additional brake lamp which uses a LED. It looks great at night. Nickie is growing up to be quite a handsome lad.