Paul's Toyota Crown Athlete - GRS184 - VIP-GT Diary
Hey everyone, surely by now, most people here know who I am. If you don't, keep reading because you probably do and have just forgotten as my name has become obscure over the last few years.
You're probably looking at the thread title and thinking "this guy is on the wrong forum". Well, you're right, but you're also wrong. I have spoken to the Bossman and have permission to create this thread, I should have created this a long time ago when I first got the car.
This was my DC5R <--(Link to Build). Her name was Tessa. She was my daily and my weekender all-in-one package from June 2008 when I picked her up from a now-dissolved car-yard in Auburn until the day I dropped her off to her new owner in August 2018.
Behold her in all her former glory!
However, life must go on, and marriage & family was just around the corner, I could no longer afford to throw my entire salary at my car. So I went on the hunt for a sensible car that was still unique and still modifiable.
So in late 2017, Iron Chef Imports went on the hunt for me, and after a few months of fruitless searching, Mr J. Hui brought out a friend of his who owned a white Crown Athlete for a photoshoot. Saw it, loved it. Mrs saw it, loved it and a few days later we had won an auction in Japan for a Silver one with a ton of options.
This is Serena, she's a 2007 Toyota Crown Athlete GRS184, a lot of car for the money, so much value. Everything in it is electronic and the technology is modern considering it's a 12 year old car.
All 4 seats are electric and reclinable except for the middle seat. The rear centre console which hides the fridge/cooler has the buttons for the rear seat heaters, AC controls, Audio controls and sunshade controls.
Folding mirrors, keyless entry, start/stop button, dual zone climate control, 3 seat preset seat settings, air purifier/ionizer, swinging vents, adjustable dampers, traction control, a Jap flare, a bin, an ETC card reader, a cute female Japanese voice that talks to you everytime you get into the car or whenever something is wrong, front and rear parking antennas, 4-pot big brakes, reverse camera and a hard drive full of Japanese music courtesy of the previous owner.
Imported by Iron Chef Imports, it was a Grade 4.5B. Top Secret Imports took care of all the compliance.
So what's it like going from a DC5R to a Crown?
It was a real game changer for me selling my DC5. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Maybe one day I'll buy it back, or buy another one. But most of the Hondas we "enthuse" over are a great bunch of cars. The responsiveness, they're quick, they're nimble, they sound great and they look great, the engineering is next to none. My DC5 was like a go-kart, I could throw it around corners all day and have the time of my life. Not once did I ever sit in my car and think "God this car is rubbish!" I always looked forward to driving it, to work and back, to old pac, George/Sussex Street runs, you name it. The fuel efficiency was great as well, I always used to get about 500km per tank.
The Crown on the other hand is not so different, it's torque-y, it's powerful, handles very nicely, to put it simply, imagine yourself driving your comfy leather couch. It's the perfect daily, combined with the fuel efficiency of about 800kms per 75 litres, which I'm getting with minimal highway kms. Plenty of boot space and leg room. It was purpose-built for executives and Yakuza bosses. I don't regret my decision at all. The Crown is an amazing car. No it's not as much fun as the DC5 but maybe I'm too old to be having that kind of fun, I don't know.
Updates & First Mods:
Plates & Front Lip.
After a few months of ownership, I was tired of the prison yellow plates, so I ordered a Jap size set of custom plates. Also put a set of legitimate (not the car's original) Japanese plates under the NSW plates.
Unfortunately I was not able to bring the Crown to the 2018 CITR BBQ as I was asked to drive Renel's whitebird on his behalf as he was too busy enjoying someone else's S2K.
So the Toyota Factory Option lip was group-bought and imported by Import Monky. The lip was supposed to come colour matched to my car, but instead came a dark gray metallic. So off for a respray it went and when it came back the next day, it was ready for fitting. So obviously, we installed it in a carpark at about 11pm.
This is the end result. Colour match was spot on. Lip looks like it belongs on the car.
Wheels.
Fast forward a month, and I was just going through the daily throes of life and all this time I had been scanning about 6 Facebook pages for wheels. Without really any intention of buying.
Wheels are one of the more important aspects of the car that I had no intention of cheaping out on. I never really have since my first set of Regamaster EVO's (Thanks Alex!). It makes or breaks the car so I wanted something unique, but still fit the requirements of VIP and also GT.
Fortunately for me, Import Monky had a set of wheels I was very interested in. Fast forward a month or so and they were sitting in my dining room.
A set of BBS LM F1's in a staggered setup of 19 x 9" +38 and 19 x 10" +40.
I waited about 2 days until I couldn't deal with them just sitting there any longer and hit up my friend James at Tyre Solutions for fitting.
The tyres that came on the front pair were and old set in 215/40/19. As soon as the car came down during the test fit, it looked ridiculous. There was just way too much stretch. So much you couldn't even see the tyre from certain angles. So I opted for the shop's signature tyres, Goodride SA-07's in 235/35/19's on the front and Goodride SA-07's in 255/35/19's on the rears. Minimal stretch, fairly square setup, doesn't throw rolling diameter and speedometer off too much. Looked good.
Fitment was bang on.
That's it for now, coils will be on the way from the motherland shortly. Just trying to decide which coils. Then it'll be minor details from then on.
Thanks guys!
You're probably looking at the thread title and thinking "this guy is on the wrong forum". Well, you're right, but you're also wrong. I have spoken to the Bossman and have permission to create this thread, I should have created this a long time ago when I first got the car.
This was my DC5R <--(Link to Build). Her name was Tessa. She was my daily and my weekender all-in-one package from June 2008 when I picked her up from a now-dissolved car-yard in Auburn until the day I dropped her off to her new owner in August 2018.
Behold her in all her former glory!
However, life must go on, and marriage & family was just around the corner, I could no longer afford to throw my entire salary at my car. So I went on the hunt for a sensible car that was still unique and still modifiable.
So in late 2017, Iron Chef Imports went on the hunt for me, and after a few months of fruitless searching, Mr J. Hui brought out a friend of his who owned a white Crown Athlete for a photoshoot. Saw it, loved it. Mrs saw it, loved it and a few days later we had won an auction in Japan for a Silver one with a ton of options.
This is Serena, she's a 2007 Toyota Crown Athlete GRS184, a lot of car for the money, so much value. Everything in it is electronic and the technology is modern considering it's a 12 year old car.
All 4 seats are electric and reclinable except for the middle seat. The rear centre console which hides the fridge/cooler has the buttons for the rear seat heaters, AC controls, Audio controls and sunshade controls.
Folding mirrors, keyless entry, start/stop button, dual zone climate control, 3 seat preset seat settings, air purifier/ionizer, swinging vents, adjustable dampers, traction control, a Jap flare, a bin, an ETC card reader, a cute female Japanese voice that talks to you everytime you get into the car or whenever something is wrong, front and rear parking antennas, 4-pot big brakes, reverse camera and a hard drive full of Japanese music courtesy of the previous owner.
Imported by Iron Chef Imports, it was a Grade 4.5B. Top Secret Imports took care of all the compliance.
So what's it like going from a DC5R to a Crown?
It was a real game changer for me selling my DC5. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Maybe one day I'll buy it back, or buy another one. But most of the Hondas we "enthuse" over are a great bunch of cars. The responsiveness, they're quick, they're nimble, they sound great and they look great, the engineering is next to none. My DC5 was like a go-kart, I could throw it around corners all day and have the time of my life. Not once did I ever sit in my car and think "God this car is rubbish!" I always looked forward to driving it, to work and back, to old pac, George/Sussex Street runs, you name it. The fuel efficiency was great as well, I always used to get about 500km per tank.
The Crown on the other hand is not so different, it's torque-y, it's powerful, handles very nicely, to put it simply, imagine yourself driving your comfy leather couch. It's the perfect daily, combined with the fuel efficiency of about 800kms per 75 litres, which I'm getting with minimal highway kms. Plenty of boot space and leg room. It was purpose-built for executives and Yakuza bosses. I don't regret my decision at all. The Crown is an amazing car. No it's not as much fun as the DC5 but maybe I'm too old to be having that kind of fun, I don't know.
Updates & First Mods:
Plates & Front Lip.
After a few months of ownership, I was tired of the prison yellow plates, so I ordered a Jap size set of custom plates. Also put a set of legitimate (not the car's original) Japanese plates under the NSW plates.
Unfortunately I was not able to bring the Crown to the 2018 CITR BBQ as I was asked to drive Renel's whitebird on his behalf as he was too busy enjoying someone else's S2K.
So the Toyota Factory Option lip was group-bought and imported by Import Monky. The lip was supposed to come colour matched to my car, but instead came a dark gray metallic. So off for a respray it went and when it came back the next day, it was ready for fitting. So obviously, we installed it in a carpark at about 11pm.
This is the end result. Colour match was spot on. Lip looks like it belongs on the car.
Wheels.
Fast forward a month, and I was just going through the daily throes of life and all this time I had been scanning about 6 Facebook pages for wheels. Without really any intention of buying.
Wheels are one of the more important aspects of the car that I had no intention of cheaping out on. I never really have since my first set of Regamaster EVO's (Thanks Alex!). It makes or breaks the car so I wanted something unique, but still fit the requirements of VIP and also GT.
Fortunately for me, Import Monky had a set of wheels I was very interested in. Fast forward a month or so and they were sitting in my dining room.
A set of BBS LM F1's in a staggered setup of 19 x 9" +38 and 19 x 10" +40.
I waited about 2 days until I couldn't deal with them just sitting there any longer and hit up my friend James at Tyre Solutions for fitting.
The tyres that came on the front pair were and old set in 215/40/19. As soon as the car came down during the test fit, it looked ridiculous. There was just way too much stretch. So much you couldn't even see the tyre from certain angles. So I opted for the shop's signature tyres, Goodride SA-07's in 235/35/19's on the front and Goodride SA-07's in 255/35/19's on the rears. Minimal stretch, fairly square setup, doesn't throw rolling diameter and speedometer off too much. Looked good.
Fitment was bang on.
That's it for now, coils will be on the way from the motherland shortly. Just trying to decide which coils. Then it'll be minor details from then on.
Thanks guys!
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