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Kitaro - 2004 Daihatsu Copen

Introduction

Well here we go again... :devil:
Been wanting a little side project for a while as the daily commute is incredibly mundane and I want a little fun for the weekends.
I was looking at Cinq's pretty heavily but after being messed around by 2 sellers I started looking more broadly.
Had a keen interest in Japanese kei cars for a while, find the concept fascinating and so here we are :rolleyes:
2 weeks ago I scooped up this



It reminds me of my 92 Panda in some ways, so small and narrow makes UK roads suddenly feel open and wide, no issue having to squeeze past mums in their LR Discovery on the school run.



Being a kei car it is a 660cc turbo as required by the Japanese regulations although it makes an extra 4hp compared to the Japanese sold models due to not having the 64hp cap kei cars adhere to in Japan, so the ignition doesn't retard quite as much to keep the power under that 64hp limit.
It revs out to 8000rpm and has a twin-scroll turbo so boost is pretty even throughout the range :D
It's got some rust starting to appear but its last MOT was clean sheet, 1 owner from new, serviced annually and covered just 32k miles.

Oh and the roof folds down. I keep forgetting that and have only driven it once with it actually folded back :cool:
I like these, should be a fun little thing also partial to a Cappuccino.

You had it on a ramp? If memory serves the do like to rot in our climate (name a Japanese car from this era that doesn't :rolleyes: but they are worse than most). To the point it may be worth taking bumpers off etc and having a look if you have long term plans for it.

A quick bit of Google suggests it can be remapped to nearly 90 horses which in something this small should be surprisingly useful.

I would be tempted to get a JDM spec square front plate for it, does it have any holes behind the long plate? Seems the UK spec one both covers part of a sidelight and the grille. Usually hate that sort of thing (I'd never do it to mine as on UK supplied cars I tend to think it looks a bit ****) but in this case the plate seems to take up half the front end.
 
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Is the Capuccino directly related.. or just of the same style?

Nah just same style, I.e. small Kei car cabrio, but in the Cappuccino's case it is also RWD so like a more modern Honda S600. Either should be a fun thing for tooling around in at normal speeds though.

Honda Beat was also a similar thing but mid engined, however UK spec Cappuccinos are hens teeth, JDM ones are built to the regs so derestricting them tends to blow them up and the Beat was never sold here.

Copen is the cheapest and easiest to keep option as scene tax and rarity make the other 2 crazy money and parts availability is not good. With Daihatsu shutting up shop in the UK a few years ago now I seem to remember even Copen bits can be a bit rare in places.
 
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I like these, should be a fun little thing also partial to a Cappuccino.

You had it on a ramp? If memory serves the do like to rot in our climate (name a Japanese car from this era that doesn't :rolleyes: but they are worse than most). To the point it may be worth taking bumpers off etc and having a look if you have long term plans for it.

A quick bit of Google suggests it can be remapped to nearly 90 horses which in something this small should be surprisingly useful.

I would be tempted to get a JDM spec square front plate for it, does it have any holes behind the long plate? Seems the UK spec one both covers part of a sidelight and the grille. Usually hate that sort of thing (I'd never do it to mine as on UK supplied cars I tend to think it looks a bit ****) but in this case the plate seems to take up half the front end.

Yes they do rot like every Jap of this era :( I've had them on the radar for about 2 years and asked on a related forum about them so I knew all to look for. It's been garaged by previous owner for the past 18 years so broadly speaking its not bad but the sills have been welded in the past and the boot leaked once and has some corrosion in the floor.
Thought about remapping as relatively speaking its an under stressed engine and they easily take power (80hp is achievable with just advancing the timing really, it retards from 4000rpm upwards and holds a completely flat torque 'curve' until it starts to drop off at 6500.
I have it on a very cheap insurance policy as a second car and as soon as I suggested any modifications those cheap policy's disappeared altogether so its not on the cards for the moment, the VED at £220 for the year is eye-watering enough for me when my last two cars have been £0
It would've had a square plate from new, both were replaced some time ago according to MOT history due to delaminating. I may change it at some point but its low on priority list

They have interested me too..

But my younger days on motorcycles gave me a mistrust of Japanese 'Engineering'

Is the Cappuccino directly related.. or just of the same style?
Similar to a Cappuccino as in its a kei car yes, so it's built to the same dimensions and has the same cc engine to fit into the Japanese regulations.

Honda Beat was also a similar thing but mid engined, however UK spec Cappuccinos are hens teeth, JDM ones are built to the regs so derestricting them tends to blow them up and the Beat was never sold here.

Copen is the cheapest and easiest to keep option as scene tax and rarity make the other 2 crazy money and parts availability is not good. With Daihatsu shutting up shop in the UK a few years ago now I seem to remember even Copen bits can be a bit rare in places.
The Beat and Cappuccinos are definitely cooler cars, annoyingly UK spec kei cars of any variety are thin on the ground, they never sold in great numbers and the Copen was mildly successful being on sale for 4-5years in the UK hence still some around.

I've actually been using it for commuting as the Ampera is off the road with a cracked windscreen and the companies my insurance are willing to use don't stock it so 10 working day to come from Germany :mad:
It's stood up to the wet weather and motorways surprisingly well, it has no issues holding 70mph even on steep gradients the only time it feels slow if you get caught out in a too high gear at low speed, it is completely gutless below 2000rpm.

Drove it with the top down at the weekend, it feels nicer to drive with it open as you feel less hemmed in (it is very tiny inside if that wasn't already obvious!) :D
I even remembered to take a picture :cool:

The red leather heated seats are a nice touch but other than that and the electric folding roof it doesn't have much in the way of creature comforts :p
 
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Hi.
If you ever need any help with insurance for modifications then please feel free to drop me a line.
Regards,
Dan.
 
Well here we go again... :devil:
Been wanting a little side project for a while as the daily commute is incredibly mundane and I want a little fun for the weekends.
I was looking at Cinq's pretty heavily but after being messed around by 2 sellers I started looking more broadly.
Had a keen interest in Japanese kei cars for a while, find the concept fascinating and so here we are :rolleyes:

Any news with this?

Still sounds very interesting :)
 
Any news with this?

Still sounds very interesting :)

Nothing too major but have been meaning to update this

Ampera was out of action for about a month whilst incompetent insurance tried and failed to get me a new windscreen (I appreciate its not a common car but the cowboy companies they insisted on using either didn't bother to show up or brought the wrong glass, when they finally agreed to let me pay for autoglass and reimburse my costs it was done within 3 days /endrant :rolleyes: )
So little Copen was pressed into daily use and quickly racked up 1000 miles :eek:

We had a weekend in the Cotswolds booked and planned to take the Ampera for comfort but alas Copen undertook the 300mile round trip.


Here he is parked next to a bin on a hill.
The journey was loud and a bit unforgiving on bums! But other than that he screams along at 70mph without issue, returned 46mpg on the trip.

Since then back to short weekend trips really, low + hard suspension has resulted in a slow puncture on a rear tyre when I went over one of those horrid squared off speed bumps which he is simply too low for. All 4 tyres match so I'm hoping to get it repaired as plenty of tread left, if not I'll have to try and get the same tyre to replace it, I usually always do tyres in pairs but they've got loads of tread! :bang:
Oh an the EML came on the other day, o2 sensor preheater or something along those lines so need to change that before it gets too chilly :eek:
 
Well he got a little use into the autumn, then sat around for much of the winter until the MOT expired at the end of January where I plonked him in the garage and made it future Dom's problem. The summer months came and I got too busy to do anything with him so sunny days ideal for convertible driving slipped by until I finally took the time to get him sorted. Bought an oxygen sensor but couldn't get my spanner onto it in the tiny engine bay so that was a job I'd pass onto the garage come MOT.
The passenger side headlight had gone particularly cloudy so I used some Meguiars PlastX, its not perfect but it came up better with not too much elbow grease.
Before;

After;

Brushed some of the loose rust from the suspension components, it only appears to be surface rust and nothing too seirous, the sills are ok but they were done about 2 years ago, there's some rust appearing where some of the body panels meet so will have to put that in the to-do list for later on.
He still has a slow puncture, its annoying as the tyre has loads of tread and all 4 are matching. Its an awkward tyre size (165/50/15) which only 2 manufacturers actually make a tyre that size and currently I can't find any stock so again it'll just have to do for now :oops:

Got him booked in and off we went to the MOT, just about in the door!

Of course he failed the emissions as predicated but the garage fitted my provided oxygen sensor and he flew through!

Gave him a full tank of E5, was shocked at how quickly the pump shut off after filling up the Brava's 50L tank on the regular, unsurprisingly filling the 30L tank takes about half the time!
Well since the unfortunate passing on of my Brava the little Daihatsu is my daily driver, hopefully not covering too many miles as I won't have a commute soon (new job)
Something I've wanted to do for a while is fit some smaller wheels with more tyre, the factory wheels are so crashy on bumps making it genuinely scary to drive down unfamiliar roads, if you hit a large enough pothole it feels like something will almost certainly bend.

So new wheels & tyres are on, down from 15" with 50 profile tyres to 14" with 60 profile, the circumference change is about 2.5% so speedo isn't massively affected.
Old on rear, new on front below;


I think they look a bit more interesting than the factory wheels but they're not too showy (I didn't want it to be too obvious it was on aftermarket).
The ride is notably improved, much more so than I thought it would be. It doesn't corner as flat at speed anymore but it could be the tyre compound, previously it had some performance orientated Bridgestone Potenza RE040's (which are impossible to get in this size anymore). Now running some Vredestein Sportrac 5's which is a brand I haven't heard of but they seemed fairly well received, they feel grippy enough but either the increase in sidewall or the different compound adds a bit more roll to the cornering which is a shame. Nevertheless the compromise is worth it for being able to go over potholes without shattering a suspension arm 😂

EDIT: I've just noticed the 'sweep' of the alloy design in the pictures kind of looks backwards? Should they be on the other way round? :unsure:
Bit of extra sidewall trumps fancy suspension every time.

The tyre can flex to the road surface faster than the suspension can react/deflect so a bit more height in the sidewalls is good.

You'll probably also find the wheel itself weighs less being smaller reducing unsprung weight which should again help with ride quality a little with less momentum in the wheel for the damper to control.
 
Bit of extra sidewall trumps fancy suspension every time.

The tyre can flex to the road surface faster than the suspension can react/deflect so a bit more height in the sidewalls is good.

You'll probably also find the wheel itself weighs less being smaller reducing unsprung weight which should again help with ride quality a little with less momentum in the wheel for the damper to control.
yep, just done same with my suzuki, actually fit higher spring rate springs on my coilovers but with smaller wheels and higher profile, rides better than it ever has
 
Have been piling on the mileage of recent and all has been going well, in the region of 45mpg, the small tank is only good for about 300miles though so trips to the petrol station are more frequent...

Until last Monday when....

Disaster!
The first time he's ever left me stranded, hopefully the last as it was not pleasant in the cold & fog on the hard shoulder (fortunately a retro motorway which still has one).
Red battery light popped on, never a good sign, about 500 yards later the temp gauge rapidly started climbing so I coasted onto the shoulder. Aux belt completely shredded, nothing I could do about it then and there so the AA came to my rescue. Quite keen to get me off the motorway I was flat towed on a bar which was most unpleasant at 50mph with lorries passing... 20 miles of terrifying towing later and deposited at a local garage. Fast forward a week and all 3 belts replaced, front bumper was removed for access as there really is next to no space in the engine bay. I've only driven him a few miles since but here's hoping all back to normal.
Well the Daihatsu has been doing ok until I noticed with a lot of electrical load at idle the belt will squeal when pulling away. I'm not sure if duff alternator, battery or just the belt is too loose. It looks tight... I'm suspect of alternator or the battery itself as charging voltage is low at idle (13.8v no load, 13.2v under load), I can mitigate the squealing by holding it at about 1000rpm whilst idling which keeps a 14.2v charge. The belt doesn't have a tensioner and is merely under tension by the placement of the alternator.

He did pretty well in the snow given he's on summer tyres. Low weight + skinny tyres in snow is always a decent combo only coming unstuck when trying to set off from a standing start up a gradient, even then I managed with plenty of revs to scrabble up any incline I tackled.

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Poor thing is absolutely filthy now...
the copen is terrible for it, i really like them but when i looked around at them they were all rust buckets, not quite as bad as cappuccino's but bad lol
Pretty much, I do jet wash the underside of it frequently... Mine had full Daihatsu service history up until they closed shop but it was only covering 2-3k a year and was garaged by the previous owner. Still it has needed both sills doing.
Mine isn't bad compared to many but even in the panel gaps there are small rust bubbles. The paint is about .5 of a micron thick and practically no rust proofing was thought of. But who can say no to the giggles provided with 659cc screaming at 8000rpm 😂
 
yeah i was paranoid about the cube so its all covered in schultz style underseal as soon as it arrived, the whole floor and inside the arches and also had teh rear bumper taken off and all behind there done. I still need to drop the side skirts off and get the sills covered better though.. a job for next summer.

Its amazing the difference the salt makes, the cube is a 2006 and when it arrived everything looked brand new underneath, even the rear drums weren't rusty, but after nearly a year in the UK there's that think surface rust on the axle and suspension arms etc. Apparently in a place with no salt all that can look brand new still even when its 16 years old.
 
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