It was about six years ago that Jason Murphy decided he wanted a Seca. "I liked the looks and shape," remembers Jason. And when he found a neat '92 model CSi ex-company car at the right price, a Seca was in his garage sooner than he expected.
Jason picked up the automotive mods bug when he spent some hard-earned dosh on a woodgrain twirler; it was the first thing to go on his ride. Next followed the usual succession of visual mods. These included tinted windows and some 14-inch aftermarket alloy wheels. Not wanting to stop there, he moved to the inside for some aural pleasure by upgrading the factory sound system. "Back then I didn't know much about cars," was Jason's excuse for steering clear of major mechanical changes. Yep it seemed he was looking for watts - but not of the 'kilo' variety - so in went a succession of different audio gear including Kenwood 12-inch subs, a quality Pioneer CD player and a power-sucking amp. Jason installed all of these items himself - the start of a long up and down hands-on relationship with his lil baby...
The start of the performance bug has been blamed on a friend who was showing off his new Swift GTi. To say the least, Jason was surprised by the competitor's performance. Despite the 4A-FE having the help of a $100 exhaust from "Right Price Exhausts" and a Unifilter ram pod, it was no match for the stock standard GTi that was powered by only a "tiny" 1.3-litre engine.
That night Jason hit the net and found that there was a myriad of engines out there to give his Seca the power it needed. Deciding on the 127kW 20V engine from the Japanese market Corolla GT, he hit the phone the next day. Asian Autospares came up with the goods in the form of a 12 month old "black top" 20V that had less than 9000k's on the clock. Four days was then spent in his parents' shed stripping, labeling and taking notes. He was getting close to the stage when he could take the engine out of the half cut, only to then find that the new block was cracked from the front-end damage the car had sustained in Japan. He got a refund but it was enough to turn him off conversions for another year.
Time passed... Jason forgot about his 20V dramas and started thinking along the lines of a supercharged 4A-GZE lines. The suggestion was to use the supercharged engine's bottom end as the basis for a strong NA engine, but thinking about it further, Jason thought he might as well get a GZE, keep the 'charger on there - and push it to 12psi. And then dramas with engine suppliers landed him back at the front counter of the very place that he'd got the broken 20V from! When Jason walked up and said, "Remember me?" they sure did - and were able to sell him a (good, this time!) 4A-GZE Levin front cut.
A week or so had passed and then, looking on the AutoSpeed forums, Jason noticed a post about a cruise organized by the local AutoSpeed club. But the drive happened to be through the mountains which only exasperated the Seca's performance - or lack of it, to put it more precisely. During a stop Jason got talking to another cruiser - Chris Rogers. In the chat that followed, Chris offered to help with the transplant because "it should be easy". Ahhh those were the famous last words - the swap ended up being eight days of 8am starts working through till 2:30am the next day. The big hurry was to get it done in time for a club-organized driver-training day. And the pair ended up having it almost ready in time for the event - the Seca was only missing a piece of exhaust, which was fixed the morning of the event.
Jason's first real drive of his new supercharged thrill machine was on the way to the training day. And the reaction? "Laughing - I couldn't stop laughing it was so much fun." Yep he'd got what he had wanted - the result was certainly worth it.
But there is more to this ride though than just tinted windows and the 'charged engine. Behind the engine's now lightened flywheel is an up-rated Levin clutch sporting a 2080lb pressure plate. A strong close ratio 5-speed Levin box is employed to send power down the heavy-duty Levin drive shafts, which are just the thing to cope with the extra horses. This power is put to the road via Falken Ziex 205/45's rubbers which complement a set of 16-inch American racing alloys. With all this new-found performance, a serious upgrade of the anchors was needed - luckily half the solution was still sitting on the front cut. On went the Levin calipers and ventilated discs while a set of Bendix Metal King pads is used to provide the friction.
To get closer to the action, the car was lowered 40mm using King Springs working with Monroe GT Gas shocks. Handling is improved further with an up-rated Selby rear sway bar while up front is the heavy duty Levin sway bar. Under that lot hangs a 2¼-inch exhaust sporting a high-flow feline purring into a straight-through muffler.
Up in the cockpit Jason changes gears with a woodgrained gear knob that matches the Slem 4 spoke wheel. His original stereo system was stolen (yeah the one he spent 2 years tweaking) so the car now has an even better system, which consists of a Pioneer CD player being amplified by a Kicker ZR-360 amp. Music is delivered to the ears via two Kicker 12-inch Comp VR subs, two 6-inch Kicker resolution mids, a couple of their tweeters and last but not least, a pair of Pioneer 5¼-inch two ways. Jason says the systems is a bit unusual being a full passive setup making use of high and low pass crossovers and was designed with the help of Kicker in the USA (gotta love that email). The result is as you would expect - "it kicks some butt".
Owning the car for six years, Jason has had plenty of fun - but he's now found a new car he likes the looks and shape of. Unfortunately for Jason, Audi A4 Turbo quattros cost some $$, so the supercharged Seca is up for grabs. If a "Thrill Seca" takes your fancy drop him an email at jasonm@autospeed.com . If you get in quick he might even be persuaded to throw in that Toyota key ring....
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