relicr31act

As an ex drag racer who has driven cars other than road cars down the strip I would have to say that the "skill" is having the ticker to get in one and drive it. I offered quite a few ppl the opportunity to drive my big block front engined dragster down the quarter and never got anyone that would have a go!! But having also competed in and finished an internationally sanctioned rally it is obvious that from a pure test of driving skill rally is by far the more challenging. Having said that I haven't driven a fuel dragster!! It may only take four seconds but I think that there is quite a lot that can and does go wrong in those four seconds and how it was handled would be a very severe test of instinctive driving skills!!

Keep an eye on the letterbox. In a couple of weeks you will know one way or the other!!

Did you watch the Rally of Sweden? Didn't see too many guys trying to go slower! In fact on one straight they topped 200 kmh on snow with trees less than ten metres from the side of the road!! Also in rally the cars regularly leave the road altogether don't remember seeing that in circuit racing too often (except for Mark Webber at Le Mans a few years back). Also in circuit racing you can have multiple attempts at perfecting a corner until you get it right! In rally it all about commitment and SKILL. It is a no brainer rally drivers are the best by quite a long way!

Rallying, so many variables, different surfaces from snow to sand and everything in between. Driving at 200 with trees either side!! Rally drivers tend to be good at other forms of motorsport, very rarely is the reverse true.

Left foot braking is a skill that should be taught to all L plate drivers whether they drive auto or manual!! If you drive an auto it should be mandatory! Yes it cuts your reaction time, not by much admittedly, but how much do you need to miss an accident by? I suggest a couple of inches will do the trick! As far as balancing front drives and even 4wd in the wet it can save you from plough understeer and it gives you much better control once mastered over the brake pedal. If someone is so uncoordinated that they jump on both pedals at the same time in an emergency it's probably best that they don't drive at all! Like all driving skills such as double de-clutching, heal and toe, threshold braking, opposite lock and throttle control it is a skill worth cultivating, full stop. It has no down side.

I think you will find that the left lane is the "fast" lane being left hand drive and all.

Hey Duncan well said. And Morgs do you think Nissan fitted ABS to GTR's just to look after "unskilled" drivers? No. The reason they fitted it is because that it is the best system!! By your estimations Grand Prix drivers are "bad" drivers because they lock brakes occasionally!! They lock brakes because they are pulling 6G under brakes with NO ABS not because they don't know how to cadance/ threshold brake!! If you are so skilled can you left foot brake your GTR and downshift clutchless? When you can maybe you could give us all some driving lessons! How is it that someone who has been driving for ten minutes assumes they are great and everybody else is shite?

Or maybe you don't brake hard enough in the first place?

How many "methods" are there?

What is cadance braking? Is this a fancy word for threshold braking? For what it is worth at 22 years of age I think you have a lot to learn about driving so don't lecture others on their apparent shortcomings (in your somewhat inexperienced opinion!)

What sort of budget are you looking at? I can get em but they aren't cheap!!

I haven't read the thread from beginning to end but has anyone mentioned the problem with LS1's being there insatiable need for oil!!! I am in the car trade and just about every early LS1 has been replaced under warranty for excessive oil consumption in some case up to four litres per 1000km's!!! Don't seem to remember that happening with RB engines!! Not to mention dickhead LS1 owners running the bearings out of them because they didn't think or know how to check their oil level. Duh. OHV is high tech? It's a wonder they don't still have leaf springs and king pins!!!

LOL How can that much plastic be so f****n heavy!!

Primer is porous so if it rains or gets wet and is left for an extended period rust can develop through it. but other than that you can still drive it just looks ugly!

A mate in Japan sent me these and they can go for what they owe (sort of) GTR mags were 1200 ea so $18 each inc post and the Skyline club was 1500 so $20 posted. These are porn for Line addicts!!! phone 0431 939 906 or msg me.

Pretty hard question to answer. It depends on how much work there is in the prep. Paint jobs are 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration! If the car is straight and I mean straight (which is rarely the case unless it is new or close to it) you would still be looking at maybe 20 hours at 80 an hour which is 1600 without materials. Paint you pay anywhere from 40 to 1000 a litre and an average car will take 4-8 litres of acrylic lacquer (which I would recommend rather than two pack) then there are all the other consumables which would be another 500 so maybe 3000 if the car is pretty close to start with. Once the car is painted there will be various things to finish the job (when using lacquer) like a rub back with 2000 and a buff some days or preferably weeks later, so it depends on how good a job you want and how good the car is before you start.

Realistically if you do everything yourself which if you have not ever wielded a spray gun before I would not recommend you could have it done for less than $500. But to do it properly eg paying a guy $200 to paint it $200 for some booth time and materials would cost you maybe a grand and would get a good job subject to the prep work being up to the job. don't forget that you will always get the best standard job if you remove everything that is not being painted, bumpers, headlights, indicators, door handles, glass( if you want the best possible job) and remember to mask everything else tyres(old blankets work well for these) exhaust tip etc. A good tip is to invest in a tack cloth (sticky cloth that is used at last minute to make sure that the car surface is free of debris( guaranteed paint job wrecker) and use liberal amounts of prepsol. Also watch out for silicone (this shit should be banned, responsible for many painters tearing their hair out by the roots) which causes a phenomenon called fish eyes (because that's what they look like) there are solvents that can remove it but almost every car will have some.

Just a small note, when using filler(bog) this needs to be applied to bare metal otherwise at some stage in the future it will fall out!!! The alternative if they are only carpark type dents is to use Dent or Dentforce or whatever they call themselves in your area. They can remove these dents for about $70 a panel and don't break the paint saving you the whole grind back to metal fill and prepare bullshit with filler. Everything else that has been said looks good to me. Make sure the guy with the gun in his hand is a pro. Pay the money to have a guy paint it in a booth by somebody who does it for a living and you will get a first class job at a fraction of the cost by doing all the donkey work yourself.

Chris Atkinson has given notice that he is one to watch in this years' WRC. Although he eventually finished 19th because of a mistake on stage 18 which took him 12 minutes to get out of, before that he was running 9th only four seconds behind eighth and setting some amazing times. Remember this is his first rally in a World Rally Car, first rally on studs in the snow and he was absolutely kicking his team mate ex F1 driver Sarrazin. He set many top ten times and decided to go for it and try and learn something rather than cruise around and finish. He was beating guys like Rovanpera in the Ford who have been doing this for years. Mexico is next and I would think that he will be worth watching on a dry and dusty rally something he knows something about!

Nice work!!

bump

You could just sell it and buy something decent like an R31!!

You need to buy one from a travel agent (at least that is how it works in Oz) and have it on you when you arrive in Japan. I think it is because it is so cheap. The shinkansen is fantastic but quite expensive, especially if you want to travel a bit. Tokyo to Nagano return was I think about 18000 yen and it is about an hour and a half trip. Anyway ask a travel agent and they will be able to steer you in the right direction. It covers you for subway, shinkansen and ferries anywhere in Japan so it is a great deal! www.japanrail.com/ will answer all your questions I think.

If the argument is (and I'm not saying that it is) that the greatest engine is the "winningest" (nice word huh?) engine, then the Chevrolet small block V8 would be first with daylight second. This engine has won in everything from jet boats to speedway and everything else besides. Admittedly there ain't a whole lot of Chevrolet bits spinning around inside them but they were originally a Chevy small block designed by one of the greatest engineers, Mr Duntov.

I was there last Feb and went to a Big foot ( sells new and used wheels and tyres) in Saitama and they had at least six sets of genuine R34 GTR wheels and tyres for around 80,000 yen/$1000 oz which would be maybe 450 quid? Don't know about the rental the trains are that great I don't know why you would bother especially if you are not with someone who can navigate while you drive. Have you got a rail pass? If not you will need to get one BEFORE you arrive in Japan, they are not available in Japan. Also to be eligible you need to make sure that the immigration bod stamps on your passport that you are on holiday otherwise they won't honour the pass. A weeks unlimited travel around Japan I think from memory was 35,000 yen which is dirt cheap. you can't ride the Nozomi which is the fastest but hey the other ones (can't remember what they are called ) still haul arse!!