soviet_merlin

This was good fun, thanks for bringing it back! Some photos from our end as well.

Just following Duncan's lead on possibly not being very helpful. What happens when you select Pair Phone? If the previous pairing got corrupted for whatever reason and the car can pair new devices, you need to go to the phone's bluetooth settings and forget the previous pairing. Then pair again. Apologies if this is obvious.

Great comments and food for thought everyone! Good stuff!

Maybe a stupid question, but do people stick to just 3-4 laps like that in a session or repeat it? For example in a 15 minute session there would be time for more than 3-4 laps. Do you then do something like warmup, hot lap, cool down lap, hot lap, cool down lap and so on?

This one's coming up on Sunday. Looking forward to it. I don't think I have been around there before.

Probably worth mentioning https://www.hpacademy.com/ as well. Haven't tried it myself but people here have been recommending them. Been meaning to look into their ECU tuning courses...

Check out these guys. They are making them already or have it planned. https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/484505-nissan-stagea-manual-shifter-surround-now-for-sale

Measured this at some point in my car. I think it was 9 minutes to get to 65°C on a 12°C morning. City-driving. And it feels like an eternity.

Hah, someone also please let Chris know. The time has come for the ute to shine. It was made for this.

Thank you! I like your style. I had kms left last year and just felt a bit bummed. Your approach is so much better. I'm saving this route for future trips. Also thank you for reminding me that the mountains in VIC are nice for driving. I have been around the Snowies before years ago in a Subaru wagon shitbox running on 3 cylinders. It was a mix of worrying about overheating before making it up and toasting the brakes going down. But thinking back on it, the roads were great for the right car. I would feel much better about it now. No worries about my Canberra drive as it was really just an example of one thing for us coming up. I started using the 'avoid freeways' option in google maps whenever we are going somewhere at a time without traffic. It already makes it much nicer.

Just as an aside, it is going to be double demerits still on that day.

Thanks for mentioning it again! Just booked my ticket. Hopefully it works out this time. @Nyoom I question you'd want to be splurging on track days right now but pinging you regardless. This might be much more enjoyable in a RWD Skyline.

Haven't driven it but would love to try it. I mean the GR Yaris is homologation so that makes it cool by default. At that price tag it's pretty much competing with the Civic Type R. Personally I'd probably lean towards that more. Have you considered getting your wife to learn to drive manual? I have been pushing for that with my partner. We did a few hours on a parking lot and she's had 10 lessons with an instructor. The problem is that we only have the Stagea and it's not very forgiving to drive for a beginner. And I care about the car a lot. So she hasn't really driven much since. But the intention is there! A modern manual would be super easy. Pretty much drives itself

Oh wow, I thought they weren't going to sell them in AU and NZ. I more or less stopped following the news on them because of it. This changes... not really anything for me... but makes me want to read up on some more impressions of it. Fingers crossed it'll work out for you. Have you had a chance to drive one? Or the GR Yaris? Looking forward to see what it will look like in person. At least on the photos the GR Corolla seems to look just like a Corolla. Except for the triple tail pipes. The GR Yaris compared to base model is quite different and has a lot of road presence I find. This might be a proper sleeper I guess.

Ooo, thanks Duncan! I'll have a closer look at those options Don't want to derail Greg's thread too much. Maybe I'll do a separate thing or get in touch.

How did you go about this? Was it the goal to do all the twisties or did you have to go somewhere anyway? I'm asking because we are going from Sydney to Canberra in a few months. Sitting for 3.5 hours on the highway seems like a nightmare as it brings up everything I don't like about the car. But I'm happy to spend double the time driving the scenic way. I'm wondering if there is a good way of finding the right roads to drive on. PS: I'm actually quite glad to hear that you still have the car! I was already getting a bit concerned because you didn't post anything for a while.

Next time! You were a few cars in front of us in the twisties. All I could see was a glimpse of red every now and then. Otherwise it was just rumble and thunder in the distance when you put the pedal down. It certainly sounds the part!

This was good fun! And great photos as usual Sam! A bit late to the party but here's a bunch of photos that Jen and Ronald took. We have to practice a bit more with those action shots, but we'll get there eventually. The auto focus on the phone seems to be messing up a fair bit. Maybe we take a proper camera next time.

Ooo, nice to see you post on SAU! I did come across your parts just recently. Looking forward to see what you come up with in the future. I don't have anything on my wishlist in regards to Stagea parts currently but will follow this with interest.

Interesting, I have been told the opposite and to avoid running a spare tyre in the front. And shuffle a good tyre from rear to front if necessary. Mostly because there is more weight in the front, more demand on it in corners and also in general when braking. It doesn't seem very safe to run a puny spare in the front when there is a lot riding on it.

Ooo, thank you for mentioning this! The door strikers on my wagon have been bugging me since forever. But I didn't know what they were called and had no idea what to search for.

Well at the very least you have the whole day to come up with a better excuse than that. Appalling 😛

Yes, do it! I mean you probably have kid's birthday parties every other weekend now. This cruise comes up only once a year. And it heads off nice and early. (This is not parenting advice. I don't even have kids.)

Finally. Been looking forward to this for weeks. @Dose Pipe Sutututu are you coming?

Hah, there is nothing wrong with proper M cars but they are just way beyond my budget. Can't tempt me with what I can't possibly afford