[GTO]

Congrats on giving your Esteem a new lease of life! This line had me

Originally Posted by garrett_t16

walked out of the house smiling, he had just allowed me to spend 1.50 lakhs on a '06 esteem you can buy today for a lakh !

6J wheels with yoko A539's

185 or 195? Nice wheels. Very unusual design.

roll cage 6 point (4 seats)

Please don't get a roll cage unless you plan to rally. It'll add 100 - 200 kilos of unnecessary weight to your car. Not to mention, the roll cage could end up making your car more dangerous for occupants!

you catch revs so fast in 1st and 2nd its un-believable

Must be really short ratios. The Esteem's stock 2nd gear was way too long (I remember touching ~100 kph in it!). What are the max speeds in 1st & 2nd?

Before getting anything else, please do get performance brake pads. I remember suffering on mine with only 65 BHP on tap. They are undoubtedly the weakest link on an Esteem.

Congrats again. And drive safe.

[garrett_t16]

@GTO - To be very honest, the stock brake pads are complete rubbish. As of now the car while braking hard from upwards of 150kmph feels like it has milk bottle tops for brakes. Have to upgrade them asap. Any leads ?
Tyres are 185's.
After this thread the roll cage is off the to-do list. This is a strictly daily drive car, drags, maybe. Circuit racing and rallying. Not even close.
Yes i picked up the wheels just because they were something different, I had not seen them at all, anywhere in Bombay on any car. Secondly they are dual pcd 114 and 100. So if i decide on upgrading to baleno hubs and discs in the future they will be a direct fit. Esteem is 114 and baleno is 100 pcd
Stock ratios in 1st 2nd and 3rd were 60kmph 110kmph and 155kmph respectively @6600rpm. and in the esteem 4th and 5th are both overdrive I.E gear ratios of 1 or above. The general mis-conception is that the esteem and the swift have the same gearbox&ratios. Well the ratios of 1st 2nd and 3rd are the same. After that the esteems ratios are even taller. The swift in 5th does 100kmph at 3000rpm but the esteem does it at 2500rpm. So acceleration is basically completely dead once you hit 4th gear. Also i was very sure on what i wanted, i very rarely drive this car on long distance highway trips so i wanted to go all out on acceleration even if i have to compromise on maximum achievable speed.
The new gearbox is 40kmph 80kmph and 120kmph, in 1st 2nd and 3rd.
so you can get a rough idea about how ballistic it is.

Cheers,
Manan

[paras211]

The esteem ratios seem similar to my corolla 60kph 100kph and 150kph in 1 st 2nd and 3rd respectively.

[i<3turbo]

Honestly adding a roll cage in a daily driver is not only a waste of money but also dangerous for the passengers in the car with you.

[Rehaan]

Nice thread man, thanks!

Originally Posted by garrett_t16

...in 1st from a stand still its just wheel spinning all the way to redline, on a moving start it shoots like a rocket and spins after 4k rpm, and on open stretches you redline in 5th !

Even stock Esteems suffer quite noticeable torque steer, how does your car fare?? Is this a major issue when accelerating?

Originally Posted by garrett_t16

...i thought it would be a curse in disguise in the city(need to shift too quickly), but surprisingly its a boon ! you just leave it in 3rd and stop bothering about it like an automatic it pulls away from crawling speeds in bumper to bumper traffic directly from 3rd. it was pretty surprising how much low end grunt i was producing.

Hmmm, well you are calling it "3rd" but the ratio is almost like stock 2nd gear - so just keep that in mind


Surprisingly we don't have too much info on Esteem replacement brake pads on the forum, though i'm sure there must be a ton of options. The racers that Nitrous mentioned would be a good place to ask.

cya
R

[garrett_t16]

hey Rehaan,
Torque steer is present only in 1st from about 3500-6500 rpm. Its just spinning and all over the place. I usually dont pull so hard in 1st. I love my tyres
Fahad Kutty is a well known racer boy for the IJTC (INDIAN JUNIOR TOURING CARS) at the Coimbatore track. And even he and his team (3 to 4 esteems and zens every year) use stock discs cross drilled to keep them cooler with stock brake pads.
In about a week or 2 if i'm lucky and i get time off from work i shall visit Sagar and do some timings on the device you sold him. Shall post them here

[mashmash]

How much of a difference would I see if I just upgraded the air intake? K&N cai?

[1self]

Originally Posted by mashmash

How much of a difference would I see if I just upgraded the air intake? K&N cai?

You will definately see a good improvement. However DO NOT use factory replacement K&N drop-in panel filter. Use a proper K&N pod filter, or better still, K&N Apollo with the tubing extended outside the engine bay for fresh, cool air.