Mugen Power

I'm a serious Mugen whore. I love everything Mugen. I have a Mugen shift knob on Bumblestook so I wanted the same for Lupa.

Mugen shift knob - 7/2/2014

Then for the most awesome thing ever...I was able to get in just in time to order the Mugen titanium dual exhuast through Kingmotorsports. Such an incredible work of art with an exhaust note that is just sweet music to my ears.

Mugen exhaust installation - 7/21/2014

 

First drive with the Mugen exhaust  - 7/21/2014 

While we were at it we also installed the Innovative 75A motor and transmission mounts that used to be on Bumblestook. I like the stiffer mounts for the more raw/direct feel and the even more solid shifting. 

Innovative 75A motor mounts - 7/21/2014

Innovative 75A transmission mounts - 7/21/2014

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CR sway bars and intake fix

With the weather getting nicer it was time for a good old time at 234 with mods and grilling. Continuing on with the CR theme, I replaced both front and rear sway bars with CR bars.

Sway bar install - 6/1/2014

The heatshield around the K&N airbox had a broken rubber seal. I contacted K&N and they gladly sent me a replacement at no extra cost (yay for excellent customer service).

Installing new rubber seal - 6/1/2014

Fresh seal - 6/1/2014

CR lip and wheels

I wanted Lupa to take some design cues from the S2000 Type-S in Japan which is basically a CR with a soft top. The front bumper had seen better days so I wanted to have it resprayed as well as properly plug the license plate holes. To kill two birds with one stone, I ordered a CR lip and had that painted and installed at the same time at D&G Auto Body in Mineola.

CR Lip, resprayed front bumper and CR wheels - 3/14/2014

I also bought CR wheels from Jeremy and wrapped them in 225/255 Dunlop Direzza Z2s for the summer for superior grip.

New Brakes and V1 Detector

I'm a big stickler about being able to know the condition of the brakes on any of my vehicles. Since I had new idea when the brakes were last serviced, I decided to replace all the rotors, pads, install new stainless braided lines and put in some good brake fluid for good measure.

New Centric rotors - 2/22/2014

New OEM pads - 2/22/2014

New stainless braided lines - 2/22/2014

ATE Brake fluid - 2/22/2014

We also transferred over the Valentine One radar detector with remote display from Bumblestook over to Lupa (also using the Blendmount mirror mount).

V1 on Blendmount mirror mount - 2/22/2014

I also switch all the bulbs in the and around the car to LEDs. They're brighter, last longer and look great so why not?

New Headunit

Lupa already came with a decent head unit and speaker upgrades but the head unit had the USB port in the front and didn't have the Pandora integration I wanted. It was easy enough to replace this resulting in much cleaner routing of the USB cable to connect to my iPhone which is mounted using the Modifry dash / Proclip mount I transferred over from Bumblestook.

Alpine CDE-HD148BT Head Unit - 2/19/2014

Replacing the soft top

This is the major job on the Lupa that I knew I'd get into the day I bought her. Thankfully JDV was willing to tackle this so I ordered a new Robbins cloth top with a glass window. I decided to go with the Robbins top over the vinyl top since it's not only  slightly cheaper and also a much better, darker finish so it's really a win-win situation.

Ripping off the old top - 2/17/2014

Old soft top off - 2/17/2014

New soft top vs old soft top (underneath) - 2/17/2014

It was not an easy job and I'd probably never want to do this again but she sure looked great once it was done. Since it was winter, it made it even more difficult as the material didn't want to easily stretch so it took a few tries to even get the top to close again. She'd spend the next few weeks with the top up in the garage to make sure it stretched properly. Also applied a few coats of 303 Aerospace Protectant to repel dust and protect the cloth.

New top installed - 2/17/2014

New top installed - 2/17/2014

Protecting the cloth - 2/17/2014

Contidental DSW

Lupa came with stock AP2 wheels and pretty much bald tires so that had to be addressed immediately. Luckily, someone on the S2ki forum was selling a new set of Continental DWS tires in OEM size that were never used so we met up on Valentines Day of all days (thank goodness his girlfriend was cool about doing this after their had dinner) and had it mounted the next day.

Continental DSW tires picked up - 2/14/2014

All mounted and ready to go - 2/15/2014