Hello from Florida!

Chops

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Hello all! I'm Charles and am in Central Florida.

This is sort of a odd post, but here goes...

So within the next couple of months or sooner, I will be taking delivery of a 2nd gen pearl white GS400. It's all original, in great shape all around, no leaks, everything works perfectly, has brand new tires at all four corners, and has 197k miles on the clock. I will be the 3rd owner of this car, and the 2nd owner has been a long time friend of mine. She purchased this GS400 last Sept for her mother only for her mother to take ill the following month. Then a few months ago, she unfortunately passed away. However, in this past year, my friend has been driving it and maintaining it and driving it once or twice a week.

I told her that is she ever wanted to sell it, to let me know because I was thinking of selling my current car for something bigger (messed up knee and hip from bicycle stunts and such in my youth). She said she actually was thinking about selling, so that got me to decide to sell my daily, a 2016 Nissan 370Z. I'll most likely be selling it with all of the mods installed as well as the stock parts.

I prefer keeping my cars simple and clean, looking almost stock. I plan on doing the same with the GS400. Just subtle tweaks here and there as well as some performance tweaks just to liven up a 20 year old motor and transmission. I also plan on transplanting the majority of the sound system from the Z into the GS, totally geared to SQ and a total stealth install.

Anyway, I'll update in this thread when I finally do take delivery of the GS. Until then, I'll snoop around here gathering information, asking questions, probably buying up some parts and joining in on conversations.

Talk soon!
 

RAL

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Welcome aboard @Chops
Appreciate you sharing your story. Your 370Z is beautiful to say the least! You must be a Lexus enthusiast to part with it this way. Please keep us up to date with the coming GS400 through pictures, your impressions, etc. I wish you well.
 

Chops

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Welcome aboard @Chops
Appreciate you sharing your story. Your 370Z is beautiful to say the least! You must be a Lexus enthusiast to part with it this way. Please keep us up to date with the coming GS400 through pictures, your impressions, etc. I wish you well.

Thank you for the warm welcome.

I've always been a big fan of the 2nd gen GS', especially the 400/430. Funny thing though, I have never owned a Toyota or Lexus. I've had quite a few Nissan's and Mazda's though. The only 4-door "saloon" (sorry, picked that up from Top Gear - LOL) I ever owned was a 2002 Hyundai Sonata, and I bought it for a very specific reason other than price... Because from a short distance, it looked an awful lot like the Lexus GS, from the front anyway.

With this up and coming pearl white GS400, my goal is to make it look like it would have been a "Sport" edition straight from the factory, kind of like an AMG or "M" series. Just subtle tweaks here and there that I think Lexus would have made if they actually produced a sport version of the GS and that only true Lexus enthusiasts would notice. Of course, along the way, these tweaks will bring the GS into the 21st century.

Doing a clean, understated "stealth" SQ system install as well as proper LED lighting inside and out will be part of the mod list. After that, some very mild suspension and brake upgrades as well as factory looking wheels, most likely no larger than 18", and more than likely a staggered arrangement. A re-valved transmission and new torque converter, possibly a custom intake, definitely a custom cat-back exhaust, and the real biggie... Finding a stand-alone ECU solution that can actually properly tune this poor, highly locked down and de-tuned 1UZ motor, allowing that VVT-i to do its job the right way and reveal some REAL naturally aspirated power numbers.

Like I said, bring this GS into the 21st century.
 

Chops

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You don't have to worry about that. I'm all about taking and posting pictures!
 
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Chops

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Well here's an update for you guys...

I'm typically really good with cars and such, and this day when I saw my friend's 1998-2000 "GS400", we were busy at work, it was starting to rain out, and I was nursing a rather strong migraine. So here I've put my 370Z up for sale and have been researching and planning upgrades for my near future GS400.

Yesterday, I asked my friend to send me the VIN so I could do a little research on the actual vehicle, look at the history, etc, etc. When I received the VIN in my text and when I got home last night from work, I did a Google search on that VIN, and what did it pull up?

A 2001 Lexus LS430!!! (12/00 build date on the sticker - #198)

Holy smokes! I was excited enough to get a near mint GS400 at a great price, but to get a near mint LS430 for that same great price?! Yeah, I'm beyond excited!

I must have really been preoccupied with stuff going on at work and my migraine to remember this car as being a GS400. They don't even look alike. There WERE four things that stood out to me when I did see this car briefly that day, it didn't have a NAV screen in the dash (which I didn't want anyway), it had wood trim on the steering wheel, it had smaller wheels on it (which means it's not the fancy version which is also a good thing), and that I knew for a fact that it had a V8.

She gave me her address since I'll be going over in the morning to look at the car. I pulled her address up on Google Maps, and as usual it shows her house and her daily car parked out front. I decided to click "left" to move down the road a little, and all of a sudden, I see a big white nose of an LS430 staring down the driveway.

Also, it turns out that she is the 3rd owner. The first owner only had the car about a year in 2001, then her aunt bought it and drove it for the past 16 years until she sold it to my friend, which she has only owned it for almost a year. On top of that, no accidents or anything like that, and she has ALL of the maintenance papers on it!

Yeah, I'm thrilled to say the least!

Man, I had to really be hurting that day to screw up my own memory of that car and thinking it was a totally different model.
 
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Chops

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