Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

Hrm... I really wanted to see how the text looks close-up. Can you snap a better picture some time?

Also, how did you paint it in order to preserve the white text? Does the text still light-up with the dash lights?

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

Everything still lights up as factory. The one in the pic was a backup I made which isn't perfect. The origional one that came out flawless crack when I stepped on it before I went to Reading:( All I did was spray about 2-3 coats and carfully scratched off the paint from the lettering with a small allen head wrench the same width as the leters. I'm planning on redoing them here soon but i'm going to have some overlays made to put over the lettering before I paint for a better, stcok look.

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

any thoughts on the pearl white factory paint idea?

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

Personally, I think it would look like a crappy show car interior circa 1989. Then again that's what the prototype SVX looked like... but it actually did have crappy show car interior circa 1989 IMO.

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

I don't accept the "auto gearbox was the only available model that could take the torque from the EG 33" reasoning either.

Twin turbo Legacys dish out more torque and they could be had manual. Likewise the Sti Impreza made very high figures in Japan guise, no problem getting a manual to work with it. Subaru was insinuating that the new EG 33 engine was so powerful it needed a special gearbox. Marketing hype. :barf:

It was a conscious decision to go auto only, and the reasons are multiple. IMO the primary factor was the fact that you guys in the US have a strong preference for autos. Fuji saw the US as the major market for the SVX in a volume sense, and to keep costs as low as possible it was offered only as an auto. The numbers sold tell the story; USA 15,000, UK 260, Australia 250.

The other factor affecting the gearbox choice is what Fuji saw as competitors. The car was designed as a GT, a long distance comfortable cruiser, rather than as an out and out sports car. The Jaguar XJ-S would be a European equivalent. I'm willing to bet 90 plus percent of XJ-S Jags sold in the States are auto. They are often slated for getting the marketing wrong. Measured against those predictors they actually got it right. It's just that the world changed soon after the car was launched.

:)

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

according to a bit of light reading, twin turbo legacys werent available untill 1996...

so the claim that they didnt have a tranny "powerful enough" to handle the 230 lb/ft of torque might be true?

i mean there was a turbo variant of the legacy avail from 91-94? that used the EJ22T, but that only put out 163 hp, somehow i doubt its torque was in a comparable range...?


and then i continued reading, and it turns out there was a legacy turbo (JDM model tho) that had about the same numbers as the EG33
227 hp (169 kW) @ 4000 rpm and 230 bhp (172 kW; 233 PS) at 5,400 rpm, respectively

now i'm wondering the same thing...
i doubt COST coulda been the issue if the afforementioned holds true. a manual tranny is ALWAYS cheaper than an auto, what stopped them from just throwing some MTs :(
perhaps we would have had too much space left over in the engine bay...

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

I had both a 96 and a 97 Legacy TT. They had loadsa power and torque and used the exact same 4EAT as the SVX, albeit with lower final drive of 4.111.

The earlier Legacy used the same gearbox too.

[From pre-release photos it does seem like Fuji may have considered releasing the SVX as a twin turbo car. If this had actually happened none of the available manual gearboxes in 1990 would have been as easily adapted as the 4EAT to handle the torque available from a blown EG33. Maybe that's where the urban legend started]

Just on your point about the space around the manual gearbox, I was wondering if anybody from a hot climate has run an SVX with an air conditioning problem, say no gas for cooling, or whatever?

The reason I ask is mine needs a recharge at present, and last Summer during a heat wave I drove it long distance to England. I found the amount of heat leakage into the cabin from the auto transmission to be staggering. There is no space above the gearbox for air circulation, so whatever heat the transmission makes is radiated to the floor of the chassis and leaks bigtime into the cabin.

Anybody else notice this?

Joe :)

[I know it might not be all that hot in parts of Canada :rolleyes: :rolleyes:]

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

I didn't know that - I wish I could see a picture!

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

http://www.geocities.com/jamsvx2/prototypeinterior.jpg

Tons of awesome SVX design history here: http://www.geocities.com/jamsvx2/prototype.html (Who's site is this BTW? I have to imagine they're on the Network...)

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

Woah pseudo-futuristic. I like it, but I'm thinking more in-line w/how would the wood grain pieces look if they were all pearl white, and the dash and suede remained their trippy gray color.

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

Jamsvx is James. He is a member on here from way way back. James used to own a graphite grey car in OZ before he moved to London.
[Before that he used have a Toyota Camry chase vehicle for terrorising poor unsuspecting SVX drivers :eek:]

We can't tempt him back into SVX ownership at the moment. He is currently sampling various German ubertanks.

:D ;)

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

thats what i'm doing to mine just took out all of the dash i'll post some pic's when i get it done

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

thats what i was thinking to do with mine too but wasnt sure whether to go with flat black or or gloss black

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

I started working on doing flat black and it looked really good. I'm going to be using the aluminum dash covers overtop though. I just didn't want edges to show the nasty woodgrain.

I really honestly love this car and absolutely everything about it. The whole transmission issue. Honestly whatever their reasoning was.. underpowered tranny's, media hype and lack of desire to put money into two different transmissions, I feel it was a mistake to not offer it in a 5 speed as well like they had originally talked about. Hell even the TT idea was cool.

All in all it turned out to be a gorgeous car that was well beyond it's time and although it's short run and lack of initial success was probably discouraging and thus the halt of the line, it has obviously had a lasting effect on all of us. Thus why we are here babbling about it.

I personally felt like once my 5spd conversion was done, I had the true SVX, she purred like she never had before with the auto. She felt happier and more responsive and like she was brand new again like when a 20 year old woman gets told she looks like she's still in her 20's. Just my take.

As far as mods, I like to modify cars, not so substantially that it doesn't even moderately resemble an SVX anymore, but just enough. A car can always use some more power! Also, I just want to add a personal flavor and add my touch to guigiaro's genius. And honestly, how come the new mustang that giugiaro designed gets vertical doors and we didn't!?

EDIT: PS a little side note for those who think that putting a nice stereo that's touch screen such as a pioneer AVIC-F900BT like yours truely is, or adding sideskirts and a different front bumper or even the thought of turboing the car are so AGAINST THE SVX and huge modifications and what not, you don't know the true SVX then because it was supposed to have had all these features. They toned down the original design to make it more affordable for people and therefor those of us who plan to do these things, are merely giving this beautiful car what it rightfully deserves! :) incase you think I'm full of crap... from the original brochure for the prototype Alcyone SVX I give you....

Voice Operated and touch screen telephone, and climate control rolled into one fancy 1989 computer screen and cd player
http://www.geocities.com/jamsvx2/SVX...ay_Screen1.JPG
to compare to the pioneer AVIC F900bt, a 2009 version of a very similar idea...
Bluetooth phone support, gps navigation, DVD and Cd playback all with a beautiful touch screen monitor
http://www.alphacaraudio.co.uk/image...%20NavGate.jpg

The prototype had side skirts too!
http://www.geocities.com/jamsvx2/KCprototype.jpg
Not all that different from what Dayle is selling
http://i20.ebayimg.com/04/i/001/25/28/0bef_1.JPG

Even the front bumper on the prototype has a little less beak to it than the final product
http://www.geocities.com/jamsvx2/insidecover.html
therefor your choice of many aftermarket bumpers could arguably be closer look than the actual
http://www.geocities.com/pepesvx/silverkstaff.html

Turbo??
http://www.geocities.com/jamsvx2/tubomockup2.JPG
ya they thought about it too... but with the technology of today.... it might take a bit of work... but it was their idea before it was ours!

Another cool picture I thought I'd share... this dash looks pretty cool, looks to be similar in shape but quite different from the actual. Just thought since the actual original thread was about the dash...
http://www.geocities.com/jamsvx2/cabin1.JPG

and uh oh... here it comes... for all the "smoked tail lights are ricer" people....
http://www.geocities.com/jamsvx2/prototyperear.jpg
What's that.... slightly smoked tail lights???

so just some food for thought for all the nay sayers and the "I like it how it came from the factory and if you don't maybe you should get another car!" guys... It's not that we don't like the car... cause lord knows we all love this car! but some of us are of the opinion that some things could have been done better or should have more closely resembled the prototype! :)

sorry one of the pictures is a link because I was limited to 10 per post...

Re: the ugly wood dash is killing me!
 

I would love to re-do my whole interior, replacing all of the woodgrain with gloss piano black, make some brushed aluminum buttons to replace most of what's there, make some carbon accent pieces, and completely re-make the dash, with a brushed aluminum bezel and chrome tubes around the instruments. Swap all of the lighting to blue LED, and in time figure out a way to completely replace the instrument lighting with a more modern pseudo-electroluminescent system.

That would kick ass.