Congratulations on being selected for Auszookers Zook Owner of the Month!How does it feel being honoured with the nomination for Z.O.O.M. 2015?I felt extremely honoured to be put into the mix with you guys, I haven’t been on the forum a lot at the moment and was surprised someone remembered I was still here
So tell us about yourself. Who are you, What's the meaning to your username, Where do you live, and what do you do for a living?Well, my name is Rick, hence the username RIKSTR. I have used that username since the internet began, back at school we used to do up numberplates for our RC cars they had to have 6 letters back then so RIKSTR went well. I was born in Canberra moved away with my girlfriend for an adventure and went to live at Uluru, then went up to Townsville for a while but now I live back in Canberra. I have done a heap of jobs in my time from working as an Auto Electrician, a Sheet Metal worker at a Stainless Steel shop, Barman, Sales, Storeman and now I am in the Public Service. I have 3 kids, a girl aged 7 and twin boys aged 5.
How did you get started in Suzuki's & how many have you owned?I was always into fast cars and owned an RS2000 as I left school. I had friends with Dattos and Escorts. We all grew up a bit and got bigger cars like Falcons and Commodores but still kept them low and fast. One day a mate bought a 4runner and decided to take up fishing, another mate sold his Datto and got a Sierra because he enjoyed this fishing caper as well then his brother’s girlfriend got one too. All of a sudden everyone I knew had a Hilux or a zook. One day I was driving past a car yard in my TX3 and spotted a Zook in the yard, it has 31”s, 2” OME springs and extended shackles but had never been offroad, the next day I was driving a zook. A year or so later I sold it and bought a brand new car but still needed to get offroad, I found a Zook that has been through a huge hailstorm in Sydney, bought it and started to build something to play with. It ended up with 32”s, SPOA, 2” bodylift, GTI seats. It was fully engineered and I drove it a lot. It was sold for my trek north. I then got a GV when I was in Townsville, when I got back to Canberra I lifted the GV but upgraded it to Calmini stuff later on. I started having kids and things changed a bit and now my Zook is a comp car.
In my time I have had a few zooks but the zooks I have had for more than a month are;
Sierra, 31”, 2” OME springs and extended shackles. But is don't have a pic of it anymore
Sierra, 32”, SPOA, 2” body lift, shackles
Grand Vitara, 2.5" Calmini, 1" body lift, 31" muds
Swift, Lowered, 15” chasers never took a pic of it
Vitara, 2door hardtop, Lowered, 32/36 Weber, 16” GV wheels
Vitara, 4door wagon, 6” Calmini, rear Calmini LSD, all the gear.
Vitara, 4door wagon, Trail Tough Kit, what was the Family CrAwleR but now The Riddler
How long did it take you to build your zook to what it is today?I guess I am still building The Riddler but I started it a few years ago now, I think I bought it early 2011
Any changes in store for your Suzuki?The next thing will be an exo roll cage and then an internal CCDA compliant cage
You see why I need the exo
What has been your best modification?It would have to be the Trail Tough kit, it works so well as an off the shelf axle swap kit and it so balanced front to rear that it makes the whole truck just work off road. The supercharger would be a close second.
What has been your worse modification? Everything I have done to it has been stepping stones to the final outcome but I would have to say the under body lights and a reverse light I put on the first time I had it going were just a mess and came off almost straight away.
We shall see how the supercharger goes, so far its good but it might end up in this list
If you could have anybody else's zook, who's would it be and why?I am not sure where to start with this question, there are so many good rigs on Auszookers and each of them would have a place in my shed. I guess it with where I am in my 4WD adventures these days it would be a tossup between Appsie’s trail buggy, Cut4b’s old TT rig, or that Vitara the Ethan was building if he had finished it.
What has been your best 4wding trip?Just had a cracker on the weekend, 5 comp trucks wheeling up on a property that we didn't really know and we found some great drives.
If you could go to any place in the world to wheel, where would that be?I would love to get my zook to Utah and get up on some of those rocks around there.
Who are you closest to in the auszooker's community?Not too sure, I guess it would be izook but he does not really get on here anymore. I think of all of you as my family hahaha
Tell us what the wheeling is like in your area?There is a lot of clay but most of the good stuff for registered trucks has been locked up around Canberra and it has been mainly from idiots tearing it up time after time. If you can get further down near Cooma there are a lot of rocks but mostly on private property.
What other toys/hobbies do you put a lot of time into?I have put a lot of time and money into RC car racing. I used to race state titles and National events and I was competitive at it as well, making A main finals and gathering trophies. I have stopped doing it since I decided to more effort into the 4wd comp scene. I have still got a heap of gear and every now and then get it out to blow the cobwebs off it. I also have an RC crawler that I like using. I have also started to get back into older cars, as I mentioned before I had an RS2000 Ford Escort back in my younger days and still have a soft spot for them. In the last year I had been looking around for an Escort to do a restoration on one. I have just turned 40 and for my 40th my wife bought me a Ford Escort! I had found it sitting out the front of a house near mine about a year ago, I had told her about it and boom! She is good to me.
My RC touring car
RC mini racecar
My new project car
What is it about the auszookers that brings you back for more?Innovation and just seeing what everyone is up to
What about the auszookers forum would you like to see changed?For me it would be two things, a section for competitions but I don’t know how that would look or work but a place that you can find out about what is on around the place. And maybe and RC section
Now for the million dollar question, who do you select to be the next Z.O.O.M. & why?Atari4X4, whether people like him or not this guy is a staple of Auszookers and a fellow Vitara nut
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