Kip

180 kph limiter? Thanks. I didn't know that. 180kph would be about where it topped out (topped at 162 kph). How does one get around the limiter? Some sort of EFI or is there a mechanical solution? -Kip

The shop owner ran it, so I don't know what gear he ran it in. That said, I've used this shop before to test a modified 911 that was supposed to put out 475 hp at the crank. He was able to confirm that. Interesting thought on wheel spin. Given the time of year, I ran the pulls with my winter tires on the car (stock size, Blizzaks). I asked before we started if that would be a problem and I was told it wouldn't. There was a high pitched squeal when the car was at full tilt. Maybe that's what I was hearing. -Kip

I put my Stagea 260RS on a dyno today (Results in the Stagea Forum). Not a bad result. It gives me a baseline. Getting some pulsing when it makes power. The guy running the dyno thinks it could be plugs, wastegates, or cats. Going to start with the easy one and change out the plugs. Regardless, an interesting thing popped up on the two pulls. Speed topped out at 101 mph (163 kph). That seems low for the power it's producing. Is there a speed governor/limiter on this car? Did Nissan find some way to cap top speed on this car or engine? -Kip

I put my new-to-me Stagea on a dyno today. I don't know the history of this car, so I thought I'd get a baseline. You know, figure out my starting point before I change a couple things up. I thought some of you may be interested, so I've attached an image of the 2nd dyno run. Results are decent: 252.54 ft-lbs (342 nm) and 292.78 hp (218 kw) peak at the wheels and 311.29 ft-lbs (422 nm) and 359.38 hp (268 kw) peak at the crank. The car has a cat back exhaust and mushroom filters on it, but the rest is unknown. Since it's supposed to have around 280 hp stock, I'm guessing something else has been done to the car. No way a cat back and air filters gave me 80-ish hp. Time to do some poking around and figure it out. -Kip

Sounds very similar. I changed out the terminals to SAE, but am using the stock wiring, stock tie down, and even the stock positive terminal cover. I would have preferred to leave the JIS terminals, but I would have had to order it and wait. Meanwhile, the car was blocking the girlfriend's car in our tandem garage. -Kip

Alternatively, buy a handful of hockey pucks (used ones on eBay can be cheap). I've used them for years. For the pinch welds, you can cut a channel in them like in the pic from ChrisW434. For the diff or other jack points, you can use one without cuts to disperse the load across the saddle. Lots of good info in this thread, btw.

Completed the first mod on my new-to-me Stagea. We had a cold snap here. Overnight temps dipped down to somewhere around -6C. Despite the car being in the garage, my 18-month old battery didn't make it through the cold. Was sitting at 11.9v without a load, but dropped to something between 2-3v when the starter was engaged. Swapped the old AC Delco out for an Optima Yellow Top Prius battery. Had to change the battery connectors to SAE though. Luckily, I was able to find a couple kits that made for a very stock looking change. Arguably not a performance mod, but the car performs a lot better when it can actually start. 😉 -Kip

Bummer. Was hoping maybe we could both help each other out. Good luck with your search. Let me/us know what you land on.

Hey LateApex72. I'm in the States too. I have a '98 260RS. What part of the States are you in? Like soviet_merlin, I have an OEM+ (HKS brand) that has nic burble, but drones a bit too much for me. I think I'm going to replace it. Depending on how quickly you're wanting to move on this, I may have a pipe for you. @soviet_merlin What are you looking at to combat the drone? Curious what the magic ingredient is in a custom exhaust to avoid it.

Thanks all. I'll try to get a recording when I take it out next, but it sounds like it could be a feature, not a bug. I don't expect this thing to be a sealed vault like a modern vehicle, Just was hoping it wouldn't be so loud directly in my ear. Bummer that the seals aren't readily available. Good news that I can replace my missing wind deflector and save money on little blue pills. -Kip

Hi all, Enjoying learning about my new C34. Question for you experienced folks about wind noise. There seems to be a some around the A pillars. But for me, I think there's also some air leaking around the driver's window by the B pillar (e.g. right in my ear). Is this normal? It becomes significantly noticeable as you get up to 120kph. It gets louder as you add speed. The door seal is soft and in one piece. No rips or tears. The window appears to be seated properly. I am missing the external air deflector on the A pillar. Thoughts? -Kip

Dusting off this ancient thread. As a new Stagea owner, thought I'd share that the Volvo sentiment is still alive and well in the States. Was parked outside a pub last week. Random guy is walking by as I'm getting in and he says "I like your R. I miss mine." He assumed it was an 850r. Gave him the same 4-sentence explanation about the car that I give to the people asking what kind of car it is.

I read about the rust in the door mirrors. From the outside, they seem solid. But yes, going to get in there and check them out at some point. The dash light isn't too bad. Some modern ones really glare. These are reasonably subdued. At this point, not worth it to install a resistor. It was more of a question about not finding the adjuster. I thought I was going mad. Again, thanks, Duncan. You seem to know your stuff.

It drove beautifully. It really likes to just cruise around 130-140 kph. The exhaust quiets down. It's off boost. It just eats up the kms. It's almost zen like. 😉 You're right. The exhaust has something to do with it. I believe it's some sort of HKS exhaust, at least from the cat back. It has an ~10cm tailpipe that has both limited clearance of the bumper cover and points upwards a little. It's a cool visual that's a total 90s throwback for me, but it's creating some of the discoloration.

Good plan. I usually change out O2 sensors on new-to-me cars. I see them as wear items that most people don't deal with. But yeah, I was prepared for a thirsty car. It's a porker and has the aerodynamics of a brick.

Excellent info. Thanks (Great detail, Duncan!) Sounds like everything is working properly as far as dash lights are concerned. Good to know. Yeah. I know the backlight comes on as an indicator that lights are on. I was just wondering if I was missing something. My previous cars, old ones too, have had a low beam indicator light. Maybe it's a US thing, IDK. Good to know about the fog lights, not driving lights. It's funny you mention helpful people letting you know you have a burned out reverse light. My bonus daughter's boyfriend let me know that one of my taillights was burned out. In reality, I was driving with the fog lights on, so only the one side lit up. He's "helpful" too. Winter options pack. Interesting. I'll look for the element on the windscreen. I do think I have an indicator on the side mirrors, but I shouldn't trust my memory. I'll look for those too. Where would the differential lock switch be? What do you mean "fog lights from a q 2/3"? New question: Is there a way to adjust the brightness on the dash backlight? Feeling stupid, but I'm not finding it in the "normal" places. -Kip

Thanks. Just picked it up last week. Drove it 32 hours across the country to its new home and then some more local, holiday travel. Over 4,000 kms in all. The car can really eat up the miles. And the petrol! It seems the car is more modified than I realized. I think it has an old school tune on it that is dumping too much fuel into the mix, based on the soot collecting on my rear bumper cover and the 13l/100km consumption I'm seeing. Regardless, it's an interesting car. I'm enjoying getting to know it. I'll get it off the ground this week and go on a fact finding mission. See if I can get a better understanding of the mods.

Hahaha. Totally appreciate that. It took me a good 15 mins to write all that up, what with checking conversion rates and plugging in the math. No promises I didn't totally bottle it(?).

Thanks all. This is very helpful. I'm pretty sure I have an old school tune on this thing that is dumping too much fuel into the mix. Between the soot I'm collecting on the rear bumper cover and the 13L/100km at freeway speeds (130-140 kph), this thing is too rich. I'm going to get this car off the ground this week and set out on a fact finding mission. Hoping I can start to understand the list of mods to start determining my next steps. I did misrepresent a little though. The low fuel lamp comes on around 475 kms. That's about when it takes ~65 liters to top off. Also, totally screwed up my model designation. It's a 260RS, not RS260. Newbie fail! -Kip

Hi all, Newbie here. Just picked up my Stagea RS260 last week. I'm low on the learning curve, but working on it, so please bear with me. I'm trying to get an idea of the type of kilometers you R33 drivers get out of a tank. I'm in the States, so I'm doing a lot of conversions over here. From what I've read, I have an 80 liter tank. That equates to about 21 US gallons. When the trip meter reads about 400 kms, the low fuel light will come on. It takes a little over 16 US gallons or ~65 liters to fill the tank at that point. If I'm doing the math right, I'd expect that I could get about 500-520 kms out of a tank. I know that there are a lot of variables here (e.g. turbos, driving habits, tire size, etc.), but what do you all see out of a tank of gas? What do you all see from a kpl or mpg perspective? Thanks in advance. -Kip

Hi Stageans, I picked up a new-to-me RS260 last week. Having a good time getting to know the car, but have some things to learn. A couple general questions about what I'm supposed to be seeing light up on the dash and one random button question: When I turn on the headlights, there is no indicator light on the dash. I assume there should be the usual, generic headlamp image (usually green) somewhere on the dash. I have the blue, high beams, headlamp issue when the high beams are on. Assuming I have a bad bulb, but don't want to tear into the dash to chase an indicator light that doesn't exist. Does it exist? Similar question about the driving lights. The switch on the stalk has two positions for the driving lamps: fronts only and rears and fronts. When I roll the switch to the first position, I have no indicator light on my dash. When I rol the switch to the second position, the amber, driving lamp image lights up on the dash. Is that the correct function or is there potentially another dash bulb out? Rear driving lights: I assume there are two of them in the back. I only have one working. Rear driving lights are a bit of an anomoly in the States, so wanting to confirm I should have two in the back before I go disassembling things. To the right of the steering wheel and below the instrument binnacle, there is a two position toggle switch. It has the image of the rear windscreen, if I'm interpreting it correctly. Press it up, a light on the switch comes on, so I'm assuming it's "on". Press it down, the light goes off. I can't tell that it's doing anything. What the @#$! is this switch? Rear defrost? Thanks in advnace.Sorry if these questions have previously been answered, but my search turned up nothing. -Kip

I didn't know Nissan USA would help me out. Very cool. That's half the battle (the first being tracking to the right part numbers). Yeah. Reading a lot about the R33, since mine is essentially the wagon/estate/combi/avant model of it. I'm excited to have one of the ultimate sleepers.

Here are a couple of the "glamor shots" from the dealer. It's pretty much stock (as mentioned above), but does have a set of meister coilovers and a modified exhaust. The interior is untouched which is nice. Tires are on order to add a little more sidewall and I'll adjust the coilovers to put the wheel wells just above the tire instead of down on the rim.

Hi all, I just purchased a '98 Stagea Autech 260RS. Based on my research, it's #412 of 1784 across both series. It has 142k km and is mostly stock, save some GT-R R34 rims and a Tomei(?) front grill. I'm based in the States, so this car was never sold here in any form. We didn't get the GT-R here until the R35, so the drivetrain is an unicorn (ironically). I'll be picking up the car in a couple weeks and driving it cross country to its new home. For now, I'm scouring the internet and educating myself on the care and feeding of these beasts. So far, I've determined that I can't just look up parts anywhere in the US, so starting to amass a list of cross-referenced parts. Anyway, I'm excited that there's an active forum for these cars and their sisters. I plan on gleaning all sorts of information from you. Hi. I'm Kip. I've bought a car that doesn't exist where I live. I'm a fool. -Kip