My Wheels: Soaring high

Tell us about yourself...

I'm a graduate in Business and Marketing from ECMIT, and I work in the legal department of a bank. Right from childhood, I used to think that I'd buy a car and modify it myself. And so I did.

There can't be many cars like this one in the country?

You're right. There are only about a dozen Soarers in the UAE and mine is the only one with a Vertex body kit.

Most of the others are right hand drive, which means you can't even get them registered now, but I was lucky.

My Soarer was an original right hand drive import from Japan and completely stock, but I started by having it converted to left hand drive and upgrading the air conditioning system so that it wouldn't be compromised during summer in the UAE.

Now it's perfect, and the AC works fine. The interior isn't finished though. The dashboard is actually from a Lexus SC400, though it does have the Soarer's original digital speedo and I'm planning to completely re-trim the interior to make it an all-out show car.

What about the rest of the work?

Well, the most obvious thing is the full Vertex body kit — front bumper, wide fenders, Do-Luck side skirts, Do-Luck rear bumper, carbon fibre rear wing and 18in BBS rims. When I saw The Fast and The Furious, I thought, "I have to modify my car like that", and so my 17-year-old Soarer became the basis for a full D1 style Japanese drift car.

Any go to match the show?

Of course. The basic Soarer has a 2.5-litre twin turbo straight six anyway, which is a great place to start. I've added a 1JZ twin turbo, HKS blow-off valve, HKS intake and an APEXi intercooler. I also used to have a performance exhaust, but the police stopped me so many times because it was just so loud. So I removed it.

My car is registered in Ajman and I was lucky to get it done before they changed the rules about left hand drive only.

The problem is the original spec still says right hand drive, but mine was converted in time, and it's even registered in the three colours — orange, black and chrome. The trouble is, customisation of cars is often associated with street racing and cars like my Soarer tend to attract the attention of the authorities.

But even when the police stop me to check on how I'm driving and all the stickers and everything, they end up asking, "Will you sell me the car?"

So we sometimes end up becoming friends.

Think there's still more to do?

Well, I've got to finish the re-trim and I'd like to repaint it in a Murciélago orange, metallic finish. I've changed the transmission to an auto, because the clutch was so heavy.

Now I'm happy just to go cruising with my friends on Jumeirah Beach Road and the Marina and let the Soarer do the talking.

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