hrd-hr30

you're definitely not the stig

I love the opportunity to get out on a wet track - it happens so rarely up here. its great for refining al aspects of car control, and the experience will make you a smoother, better, and probably faster driver in the dry.

personally, I reckon fitting a proprtioning valve is treating the symptom rather than the problem. I would go looking for the actual problem if it was me. rule out alignment issues - slightly out alignment (that you can't pick by eye) will never cause brakes to lock. it is either: 1) rear wheels loosing contact with the road - worn or just poorly valved shocks, worn subframe bushes, worn upper or lower arm bushes. it may pay to go to a pedders and have them check out the rear shocks on their "shock dyno". how have the pineapples been fitted? I think its misleading for them to call pineapples a "lock & align kit". "all-round" will still allow some vertical movement under accelleration and decelleration - depending on the condition of the bushes. "traction" setup will stop vertical movement under accelleration, but do nothing under braking where it will rely totally on the condition of the bushes, and "drift" setting will do nothing to stop torsional movement of the subframe under accelleration, again relying on the bush to do the work. You still need bushes in good condition with pineapples. They certainly do not lock the subframe in place. And they do nothing (or very little at best) to locate the subframe laterally either. have the subframe bushes leaked? 2) brake system problem. bleed and flush fluid in the front circuit if the gtst has seperate resorviours, otherwise the whole system. start by syphoning or sucking the old fluid out of the resorviour with a syringe, top up with new fluid and bleed, bleed, bleed. starting with the left rear which is furtherest from the master cyl, then right rear, left front and finally fight front. doing each one until nothing but clean new fluid is coming out. remove and inspect flexible brake lines to front calipers, checking for internal blockages/obstructions. replace if even remotely suspect - they're not very expensive. if there are steel lines downsteam of the rubber hoses to the caliper, remove them (both ends disconnected) and blow them out with compessed air. and visually check the condition of all the steel lines looking for damage (ie dented or partially crimped). That's all the cheap things covered... finally if none of the above steps helped, its either master cyl or front calipers. I'd probably lean towards the master cyl out of these two - its possible that the front circuit piston seal isn't in great condition.

I was just watching some footage of him on the weekend from Bathurst 87. Some of the most awesome driving ever seen on the mountain in the wet. this sucks.

with the power you've got, its always going to be hard to deal with that using leaf springs. But it can be done - alot of very powerul and fast Group N Historic race cars running the Biante series do very well on leaf springs. Depends which way you want to go.

the MR30 L24E has a better cyl head and higher comp pistons too. If the budget allows, I'd get the whole engine rather than just the EFI gear to convert yours.

I've removed alot of very old pinstriping, well it was actually like a big 80's lightning flash graphic down the side of an old Patrol I bought a few years ago. It was a bastard of a job! Best thing I found (and I tried everything!) was a household cleaning product called De-solve-it. It is a citrus based solvent that is safe for paint and really does a good job of dissolving glues. It comes in a trigger pack - clear bottle with a blue and orange sticker. Got it from Bunnings. Spray some on and let it soak in for 10 minutes and then spray a bit more and start peeling the sticker off. It may help to keep spraying a little under the sticker as it lifts off. If its really on there a flexible plastic putty applicator can be used as a scraper that won't harm the paint. Any glue residue can be removed by a rag sprayed with the de-solve-it. It will ball up and come off the paint.

excellent - looks like we're Team White GTR32!

what type of car (and engine), and what do you use it for? leaf springs can be made to handle very well. There are alot of things you can do to help control the rear end better, from a better designed leaf pack, to additional links. A well engineered 4 link should be better, but not those 4 link kits you'll see available around the place that are simply deigned for drag/traction. And alot of production 4 link setups can be worse than leaf springs for racing applications.

They're vents for the intercooler, fitted to N1 versions of the GTR. But you'll find aftermarket ones fitted to alot of normal GTRs.

I can answer part of your question. My GTR has 17*8 and 17*9" wheels. I've done a track day and a road rally on them and the handling was very good. I have 235/45 on the front and 245/45 on the rear because the 9" wheel wasn't within the recommended wheel widths for Federal 235/45 tyre - other tyres makes may fall in suitable range in the same size. Can't remember the offsets of my wheels, but i could check if you want? I used to have semi-slicks on the standard 32 GTR wheels 16*8" +30? (if my memory is right) and handling was very good. I really couldn't feel any change in the car's balance going from the road tyres on the 17's and the semis on the very different offset wheels. I wouldn't be at all concerned about running 8s and 9's on the track if you find a reasonably priced set.

I'll take you up on that offer as long as I get a go on both tracks they're using in the arvo.

I dragged the PS2 out of the cabinet and brushed the cobwebs off to get some of my Tsukuba times last night. I've been doing Tsukuba Super Lap challenges on sports soft tyres against a mate for ages, so I have a few times to submit here... Not all the cars are fully modified, some are very mild on power. I've noted which cars have wings fitted too. I know there's a couple of ring-ins (non JDM cars) - sue me...set a few more times with different cars last night too. I haven't played it in ages... Skyline GTR '89 738bhp 55.127 (identical to Butler's best time in the RX7!) Mazda RX7 Type RS (FD)'98 495bhp 55.679 wing Mine's GTR N1 V-Spec (R34) 600bhp 55.722 Silvia Spec R AERO (S15) '99 445bhp 56.369 wing NISMO GTR LM road going version '95 610bhp 56.441 FPV F6 Typhoon '04 566bhp 56.665 RUF BTR '86 478bhp 56.941 300ZX 2 seater (Z32 )'98 565bhp 57.615 wing NISMO Fairlady Z Z-Tune (Z33) '03 390bhp 57.756 WRX Sti '02 431bhp 58.319 R34 GTR V-Spec N1 384bhp 58.404 wing Evo VII 419bhp 58.714 Honda NSX Type S Zero '97 336bhp 58.770

wasn't that already covered? while we are being pedantic, Aus 1600's (PL510) did not come with L18s or 5spds. JDM HL510 did though.

a 33 is not a classic skyline. you'd be better off posting your questions in the normal "forced induction" section.

there was a 5spd in the 180B SSS. I wouldn't use a 4cyl L series box behind the 6cyl. They're smaller and weaker.

but they do have access to larger than 3" off-the-shelf mufflers that you can't get here. That is a big advantage for some cars.

NDSCC will be much more open courses than the typical motorkhana stuff like the pic above. More of a cross between a motorkhana and a khancross. a bit more speed and fun.

yeah it was a good day thanks to everyone who came along. it was a good group and nice to meet some more of you.

as far as other tracks go, there is Carnell Raceway at Stanthorpe, which is a good fun little track. I'm not sure of the club that runs events out there, but its probably STANTHORPE & DISTRICT SPORTING CAR CLUB. There is obviously Mt Cotton Hillclimb too. www.mgccq.org.au IWMAC run Autocross events on a smooth graded dirt (decomp granite) racetrack at Ipswich too - right next to QR. We had one event at Norwell (owned by Holden) a few years ago, but they soon put a stop to that. Apparently a few cars that had 'offs' during the day ruined their nice manicured lawn infeild... Lakeside may be up and running again soon, and that's an awesome track there may be some hillclimbs held at Warwick next year too - according to some rumours from locals...

about 40km NW of Kilcoy, up a mountain range. Its a nice country drive.

if you are after a semi slick, make sure you get the 595RS not the 595SS as shanef mentioned previously. I am very happy with the 595SS as a road tyre, but that's all they are. They're not anywhere near the Bridgestone RE55S semis I've used on the GTR, and I wouldn't expect the 595RS with its 180 treadwear to be in the same league as the RE55S either. But it would be a good option if you want a longer lasting semi-slick, or if you don't want the hassle and expense of a second set of wheels/tyres for the track. If outright pace is all that matters go with something else.

just got the results - 3rd outright in Speed Classifications, including 2 stage wins. Not bad for Federal 595SS road tyres!