HB Cosmo Build-Up
1993

I wanted to stick with a Rotary and preferably with a Turbo. I believed that a fuel injected rotary turbo was the way to go and couldn't decide on a late model series five RX7 or another Cosmo.

I spotted a beautiful red series five RX7 in a local car yard and it was selling for $35,000 NZD. I couldn't afford it but still wanted it. I drove down to look at it every night after work and really wanted it bad.

In the end it was sold to someone else and I missed out. It was then that I decided that I would get another Cosmo. I wanted a red one with a mint paint job and a 12A Turbo model. The 12A turbo model was better refined than its piston motor counterpart. It has uprated suspension and better brakes.

I searched all over the place and couldn't find one anywhere. I then decided that It didn't have to be red and that all it had to have was a good interior and be a 12A Turbo. I decided that I would re-paint it red instead.

A month later I found one. A mint example on the inside but it performed like a dog. I bought it for $9000.

The first thing I did after buying it was fill it up with leaded (super) and remove the exhaust that was choking it and replaced it with a 3 inch system. After a few minutes of driving it down the road it picked up in horse power dramatically and top speed went from 160km/h to around 210km/h.

The next thing to go was the emission control gear on the motor. Various solenoids and the air pump was removed for even more horse power gain.

New Cosmo	New Wheels & Tyres

I wanted to fit another good stereo system as I didn't really like the current Alpine models. I decided to try and track down the same models that I had in my old Cosmo. I managed to find the Tuner/Tape unit at Newmarkets Car Sound Centre as well as the EQ/Spectrum Analyser.

I couldn't find the CD player though. The thing that made the Tuner/Tape and the model CD player that I was looking for unique was that they were designed to work with each other. Both these models had the blue fluro display rather than the common green backlit display and they could control each other.

I rang Alpine USA, Japan and Australia but no-one had this model anymore. Alpine New Zealand provided me with a copy of all the New Zealand resellers and I phoned everyone of them. I found the CD player I was looking for brand new still in the store room in a shop in Hastings. I was very lucky to find it as it was already a model over three years old.

I removed the old factory stereo and installed the new head units. It wasn't as hard as last time as I remembered how all the wiring went from my last install.

Alpine head units fitted	Momo Steering Wheel

Next was some wheels and tyres. A contacted NZ Wheels and got them to custom make a set of Euro 5 16 inch wheels. They had to be custom made as my stud pattern was unusual and they didn't currently manufacture 16 inch wheels in my configuration.

When it came to tyres I selected Bridgestone Expedia S-01 245-45-ZR16 which is what I still currently run today.

By this time the date would have been around November 1993. I Then decided that I needed to get it lowered and stiffen up the suspension a little.

One thing that I promised myself this time was that I would do everything professionally and properly no matter what the cost.

I took the car to the boys at Autolign Newmarket where they custom made nolathane bushes to replace every bush right throughout the car. They then fitted adjustable bilsteins all round and custom made lovell springs. They then dropped the height of the front and the rear to the point where you couldn't get your fingers between the guards and the tyres.

After all this suspension work which took over 2 weeks, it handled beautifully. Over the Xmas period of 1993/1994 I drove it a lot and read a lot. I was deciding what I could do to get more horse power out of the 12A Turbo. I removed the factory Air flow meter and adapted a K&N filter. This gave me some more horse power. I then ran some ducting directly to the K&N to provide some cold air.