1996 Nissan March 1.0 K11 (Marchie)

My dad got this car back in 2011, It was a base model Nissan March K11 (Also known as a Micra) with a 1.0 liter CG10DE engine. Does its job as a reliable mode of transportation well, but when we initially got it, the lack of power was obvious even though it was just used in a small city-state like Singapore.

Before long, we found the power of the engine to be dangerously insufficient, it definitely did not have the poke to overtake other vehicles or even get out of sticky situations, hence plans to drop in a CG13DE was on the way…
By the way, although it is a simple swap as both engines are technically identical just with a different stroke, this mod is actually a grey area in our country.

The swap provided the slight boost in power which was much needed, we even took this little econobox on road trips to the neighbouring country, Malaysia frequently. The top speed that we have achieved was 150km/h, definitely impossible with the stock CG10DE which was in such a poor condition, in fact after the swap the limitation was the 1.0 Automatic slushbox which sometimes get stuck on gear 1.

Despite it being a simple econobox with nothing to be proud of, it was a car that did its job and was loved by the entire family, it was also the car which i first drove after getting my driver’s license, it was the car which brought me to local car meets, to get to know so many like minded petrolheads and great friends.

My first ever purchase for a car was a replica Nardi Torino Deep Corn steering wheel, in fact this steering wheel was eventually moved over to the Lancer which replaced the March.

This was also the car which taught me a valuable lesson, there was once when i was following several silvias to a local car meet, one of them which i was following (too closely) braked upon the sight of a hump, instinctively, I slammed the brakes, which caused the front wheels to lock up (no ABS), the car skidded at least a car length, mind you, i have just passed my driving test 3 month ago and had close to nil experience in driving, i was scared shitless. However, after the incident i knew where the limit was for the car, i got to know the car better, and i got to understand the importance of not overestimating my capability.

Eventually, after around 3 years of owning the car, it was sold to make way for the Lancer as my dad wanted to get a car which was safer for the family (he always preferred sedan over hatches due to the extra boot area as a crumple zone in an event of an accident). I was very attached to this car after all i’ve went thru with it, after all my driving skills grew with the car.

Nissan K11 March 1.0A “Marchie”

Modifications

• 1.3l CG13DE Swap
• Replica TE37TT 15 Inch
• Falken ZE912 195/50/15
• Tokico Dampers
• Replica Nardi Torino Deep Corn 350mm Steering

As with all cars in Singapore, Marchie’s end of life was determined by the much hated Certificate Of Entitlement (COE), which is a piece of paper which enables you to own the vehicle for a short 10 year period, although it can be renewed but it is too expensive (~50,000SGD) and not practical for anyone to do so for such an old and mundane vehicle, as of now, the current owner of Marchie have no intention to keep it running on the streets as its COE is ending in July 2016. Bye Marchie…