soviet_merlin

Just out of curiosity, what is the warm percentage on the left hand side above the water temp?

So, what's the goto for turbo blankets? What are you guys using? Asking as someone who hasn't looked into this much before. You have this uncanny ability to make me worry about oddly specific things. In a good way. Yes, I'd like to go around GP Circuit at Eastern Creek and no, I don't want to watch things melt. Not that I'm running crazy power but stuff still gets hot.

Fixed photos in the quotes above. The original links are dead. Luckily they were captured by the internet archive.

Will be there, looking forward to it!

Sounds like a good arrangement to me. No opinion on the car itself, I don't know enough to judge it. I would put it like this: If you are concerned about reliability, buying a heavily modified car sounds like a terrible idea. Especially if you don't have the experience to work on it or there are no good workshops around or there are no funds to pay for the work. But, considering that the car was built by a workshop and they are nearby this sounds pretty sweet. They know the car inside and out, they know where to look for issues, and they will have ideas for future improvements down the line. And you can pay them to work and spend time on it. Reliability-wise I'd still be prepared to drop off the car there regularly and expect to spend on it accordingly. A look through the forums shows the kinds of issues that people get to deal with. If you end up buying the car, please consider starting a build thread. Would love to hear how you go with it

Hah, looking forward to see where you go with this. Do you have more photos of the Stinger? It looks good, very much not the stock body kit?! They have always been meant to be a decent GT car. Once one stops judging it for being a Kia. Also, how are you finding the R1 experience compared to the Skylines? They are meant to be nuts. Widowmakers.

Would you mind elaborating on that Duncan? Oil gets thinner when it gets warmer, and if that means less protection then there should be more noise not less, no?

Not sure if you are aware, but there are recommendations against using the Nismo slave cylinder with the super coppermix clutches. Can't speak from experience though, just saw that when I was shopping for a new clutch. Ended up ordering the regular OEM slave cylinder. Hasn't been fitted yet though. For example on the rhdjapan listing in the specs: Or on the nismodirect listing for the slave cylinder itself:

Maybe one thing to consider is that you have to be quick. At least on carsales a good deal in that price range might be sold literally within the hour. The ones that are still listed are the ones that don't sell because they are priced too high for what they are. It needs notifications enabled in the app and funds ready and basically be willing to put on a deposit straight away with no questions asked. I found it depressing when I was looking a few months ago. Also because I imagine that a lot of them get sold to people who flip them. Because what normal person buys a car in that way?! Good luck!

I have been meaning to start one of these for a while. I always enjoy reading people's build threads on here. And I like the idea of having a log of what's being done to the car. This one is going to be quite basic and humble. But maybe that's just how it starts before some kind of derangement takes place and the cheap-ish Japanese import ends up with a billet engine and a samsonas sequential and spends more time on the hoist than on the road. Storytime. Kind of. It's 2021 and I don't have a car. And whilst I don't strictly need one, I want one. I'm also increasingly sick of using Goget economy shitbox rentals by the hour. I have always liked cars and enjoyed driving and I want something Japanese. Not that there is anything wrong with other cars, but I grew up in Europe and Japanese cars were rare and special. And Australia being somewhat close to Japan and also driving on the right hand side feels like it makes it convenient and affordable. It also must be fun to drive. And it must be manual. And it needs to have character. And it needs to be somewhat practical for taking two dogs, i.e. 4 doors. Initially I had my eyes on the FK8 Civic Type R as it ticked pretty much all of those boxes. And every single person who drove one was raving about how much fun it is. Hideously ugly, though the looks grew on me after looking at them for a few years. But then Honda stopped making them, the 2021 facelift model became unobtainable, the prices went up, and paying big on finance for several years seemed not that attractive anymore. Queue weeks and weeks of looking at all kinds of used cars on Carsales. None of them quite right. But there was someone in the neighbourhood with a yellow wagon that I had never heard of or seen before. It was always parked in front of one of the apartment blocks. It was lowered, had a big exhaust, tinted windows and various lifestyle stickers. But it was still looking somewhat understated. And it was boxy. Oh so very boxy. Kind of like my dad's Volvo 940 back in the day. I didn't know what it was and I had been noticing it every few days over the course of months. And at some point had a closer look to find out. It was a Nissan Stagea. Turns out they have some of the Skyline pedigree and are actually somewhat affordable. So it became another car to look out for on carsales. In the end there were a handful for sale at the time. I didn't know anything about them other than from what I got from browsing through various stickies here on SAU. I decided to aim for something in the middle of the power range. This one had a bunch of work done already; including a reconditioned engine, quality parts and workshops, reasonably low kilometers, it was fairly clean and the description was written by someone who seemed nice and seemed like they cared. In the end I contacted the seller on a Thursday morning, arranged to look at the car in the evening that same day, transferred a deposit that night, got out a cheque for the remainder on Friday and did the handover to pick up the car on Saturday. As it turned out the seller cared a whole lot about the car and was super nice. I had learned about the typical Stagea issues in the buyers guide here on SAU, and he was very up front about those as well. In the end I didn't even drive the car myself. It was a bit of a "holy shit!" experience when he drove it and full boost kicked in and I was just too intimidated. I had driven cars with similar or more power in the past, but they had been German and super refined. This was raw and a bit nuts and quite unreasonable and I loved it. The specs at the time. - Factory manual RB25DET. Full engine rebuild 4000km earlier with rings and bearings, metal head gasket and ARP head studs, timing belt, water pump and Nismo engine mounts - NPC heavy duty organic clutch - Tuned to 260awkw - Haltech Elite 2500 including Haltech patch loom - Alcon Grex front brakes with 2 piece rotors - R34 GTR rear Brembo brakes - Garret GTX3071R turbo - MCA Street Essentials coil overs - Fujitsubo Legalis R exhaust - Prodrive forged wheels - Koyorad radiator - Walbro 460 fuel pump and Bosch ID1000 injectors - Cusco rear strut brace - AEM X-series wideband - Aeroflow FMIC Some photos from the next day. Looking pretty good in my opinion. Very understated. On our way home we stopped at a set of lights and a whole group of ratbag teenagers crossed right in front of us. Not a single look from any of them. So great success on the flying under the radar front. TBC

Out of curiosity, what was the issue? As in how did they behave to get you genuinely scared?

Not boring, so thanks for sharing it all! Do you know the Nightride guys on youtube? They seem to constantly require body filler work on their cars. Also very much working as non-professionals. The latest is the engine bay of their S13 and getting it right seems to involve endless repetitions of applying and sanding off and starting again. And never quite being happy with it. I'm wondering whether this is going to be a bit like home renovations. You are going to forever be aware of every little imperfection in that engine bay and every little spot where you stuffed up. Anyone else who looks at it is not going to notice. Especially once it has all the engine bits in it again.

Oh, and as this confused me last time: there is no helmet or long clothing required for the cruise sessions. Only for the timed sessions. Not sure about the roll racing.

Doooo it! Yeah, I'm most looking forward to try the timed laps

Ooo, looking forward to it! Hopefully this time without any flooding and actually able to drive through the national park.

Anyone from here going to attend? I just bought my ticket. cc @Dose Pipe Sutututu

The tickets for All Japan Day next year are now up for sale. https://rollracing.com.au/event/ajd03may2023/ Details: Hosted by Roll Racing Australia May 21, 2023, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Sydney Motorsport Park No schedule yet, but going from last time it is along the lines of power cruising, timed laps, show & shine and roll racing. Good fun all around! Rules:

Thank you for mentioning that! Feeling relieved now because I was getting a bit concerned about you leaving your dogs in the heat in the car with a potentially dodgy setup. Not sure if I could live with myself if something like that went wrong

Thanks for writing this up! The ATOTO unit looks really good in there, like it belongs. Big plus that it has physical buttons as well for volume control. Trying to quickly control volume on a touch screen whilst driving can be a pain. Noted down for when I ever want to go down the double DIN path.

How does temperature affect the vacuum in the fuel tank? I'm curious now. Because normally leaving the car in the sun is what makes it happen even when not driving the car and using fuel. But heat expands substances so shouldn't it be the opposite?

Some thoughts on what I learned on this: - Think twice before drilling into your dash or A-pillar to mount your gauges. When you change your mind and take them out again it looks like ass. I have holes in my A-pillar where a gauge used to live and I hate it. The Stagea for example has one huge trim piece that covers both A- and B-pillars. It can be purchased but it's meant to be an absolute bitch to remove and put back again so I haven't dared. I wouldn't be surprised if you would have to pay drug money to buy trim pieces for an older GTR. - Go with something that can talk CAN bus. There are only limited spots to mount sensors. If it is on a gauge because it is important to monitor, it's important to the ECU as well for engine protection. - Having gauges stuck all over the place can raise extra attention by police when being pulled over. That said, especially at night I like the look of analogue gauges. Here's a photo of mine with Defi din gauges. Looks pretty much OEM. Also the mutilated A-pillar. The wideband lives in the glovebox so it's normally hidden.

Hah, where do you get one of those bonnet ornaments for the wagon? Travelling with class.

Hahaha. I bought those pedals as well for the wagon. And yes, they look good but they are f**ked. Was considering making a thread for it, because the resistance is different. So in the wagon the accelerator is now much lighter to press. I gave up on it. Jen ended up putting the covers on the brake and clutch pedal. Without whittling. No idea how she did it. At some point she was hanging upside down in the car. As in feet towards the headrests and head down in the footwell. She made it very clear that I better appreciate it and that they are not going to be swapped out for a very long time. I think it more likely that someone tried to fit the aluminium pedal covers, went "f**k this shit!" and put the rubber ones on instead.

Up front: I don't know much about these things. But I was wondering, isn't the whole point of alarm systems that you can't disable or disarm them unless you have the keyfob? I would think that the valet button only works after disabling with the fob. Otherwise it would defeat the point, right? Personally I would consider reaching out to someone who works with this stuff. Possibly someone - who installs alarm systems - or who deals with lost key situations like a locksmith Surely this happens all the time

Just as an FYI, these are in stock again. Lots of photos already in this thread. Just received mine recently but haven't had a chance to install it yet. Looks mint though. See www.trackdaysetup.com to order them.