Big Rizza

Woops repost

I think my prediction of halfway between the original concept and the sketches was pretty good!

Your long spiel was unneccessary - the $$ don't add up because I cannot afford it, pure and simple . I couldn't really afford my R32 GTS-T either, but that just means I make some sacrifices like going without food sometimes. But I finish my Engineering degree at the end of this semester and hopefully will get cashed up enough to buy something like an Elise. Having said that, the offerings from Elfin, Westfied, Caterham, Arial etc. make the Elise look like a fat overpriced underpowered poser-mobile. Even the Vauxhall VX220 Turbo makes the Elise look bad from a value for money perspective (same platform, more power from 147kw Astra Turbo engine, lower price). But the Elise is a LOTUS, and you pay for their badge, motorsport heritage and incredible suspension and chassis knowledge.

3 hours 38 minutes to go

I think the F6 Typhoon + ZF Six Speed Auto transmission may possibly be the best Australian built car ever, on paper at least. A real transmission with a brilliant engine and balanced chassis, what more could you want? Considering that motoring journos have always complained that getting any powerful Australian manual car off the line cleanly is tough, and that the T56 manyal is rather agricultural, I have a feeling it may be quicker than the manual in all real world situations. Same goes for Falcon GT Auto. I have yet to drive one, so my final conclusion will have to wait.

Wheel alignment will fix tracking issues, wheel balance will fix vibration issues

Get a wheel balance

I know Audi, BMW, VW and Mercedes all told the environmentalists that they would never build a car capable of exceeding 250km/h, so all their cars have electronic limiters. What's the reasoning behind the Japanese 180km/h? Do they too have nagging environmentallists? By the way, stopping a performance car like a Mercedes SL65 or BMW M5 at 250km/h to keep a few environmentalists happy is criminal. I hope the Japanese don't throttle back their GTRs and Supras for the same reason. I would like to conclude by stating that I hate environmentalist hippies. Nah, make your own 400km/h speedo, coz then your car could do 400km/h. It says so on the speedo so it must be true. And a 20,000 rpm tachometer.

Check out this stagea on Yahoo! Auctions with an R34 front on it. Looks awesome! Not too sure about the GTR badges though. Yahoo! Auctions

I wouldn't get too excited. Petrol will never be "cheap" again. The only question is how expensive will it get? I've heard numbers thrown around by the media ranging from $1.60 to $2.00 per litre by Christmas here in Perth, although I'm inclined to think it will be closer to $1.40 at Christmas time.

It was more like 90% when I was looking!

You'd have to get the rover K series engined elise with a massive 82(ish)kw. Or the Elise 111S has a bit more power and still runs the K-series engine. Only the top spec 111R and Exige have the Toyota 2ZZ engine. I'd love an elise, but the $$$ just don't add up for me. A 111R is about $100k, which is TEN TIMES THE PRICE of my GTST!!! Still love the Elise/Exige though...

Dammit! I forgot! Remembered at about 5:00pm today - a little late. Anyone willing to post?

Magna would beat a GTS Magna would lose to a GTS-T

I have a pod filter on my R32, but had to remove it to pass the pits. It passed initial inspection because the bracket holding it in place was sufficient to stop it moving around, but apparently there was too much induction noise so it failed first time (the guy was an absolute tosser btw). So I borrowed a factory airbox to get it past the pits. The drive to the pits revealed no big differences between the two as far as performance (my car has a cat-back but is otherwise stock btw). The biggest difference was the change in noise - the factory box is much quieter. I think for unmodified and lightly modified cars, the pod filter has a bit of a placebo effect - you just think you are going faster. I am considering swapping to the factory box on a full time basis to kill some of the induction noise.

Go and find yourself a decent driver in a manual 3.5 litre magna dude. Ya gonna get chopped. EDIT: Speaking of Magnas, anyone see the new 380? Bottom spec model ran a 15.4 in Wheels if I remember rightly (don't have the mag here to confirm). Not bad at all, and certainly enough to worry the folden falcodores around the place.

Sweet. Cheers for the heads up! I'll be at uni doing work unfortunately (assignment due Monday), but I'll try to get it taped. Yeah I was there. The rain made for good drifting but I was so wet by the end it was rediculous. Driving home was an interesting experience - I think every hoon in Perth was on the road at the same place at the same time.

Ah, too bad man. Mine is for sale but it's stroked to 2.1 litres, so you couldn't possibly want it... I'll give it to you for free if you let me have the back seat on the bus on the way to school tomorrow. Wait, you said you're in the navy. I'll give it to you for free if you let me have the top bunk.

Interestingly the Exelero wasnt actually built as a "show" car. In fact, Sydney Motor Show is the first time it has actually been displayed at a car show. It was built for high speed tyre testing (350+km/h). Butchering a Maybach is a rather expensive way of putting together a test vehicle if you ask me. And on another note, I NEED that FJ holden concept car. It is farkin sweet! So much cooler than other retro modern cars like the PT Cruiser, New Beetle etc.

A lot of the FTO's image problems are because they are front wheel drive (shock! horror!), non-turbo and they were predominantly sold as automatics. This gave it a hairdresser image. If none of these are a problem (keeping in mind manuals are around if you search hard enough) then it should keep you happy.

There are so many reasons why the HICAS light can come on, and it can be a real pain to get rid of. Some really strange things have been known to set it off. Try simple solutions like topping up fluids, checking fuses etc. When my light came on, I just topped up the fluid reservoir (which wasnt THAT low) and it went off again.

A friend of mine found some frilly laced ladies underwear in the spare wheel well of his Cefiro. I found japanese parking tickets in my Skyline. Alas no ladies undergarments though.

I'm pretty sure that now that the 15yo import rule has changed you won't be able to import a modified GTR from Japan (someone correct me if I'm wrong!). You'll need to look on home soil, or build one yourself. I had a look on CarSales.com.au for modified GTRs, and found a few: R34 600+awhp $83k. R34 600hp $88k R33 564rwhp $59k At this point I got bored. There might be more... None hit the power output you want, but I'm sure they would be quick enough!!!

Modern turbo cars are getting better and better at producing massive torque at low RPM. The old school of turbos were laggy and needed revs revs revs to make power, while the NAs made the low RPM torque. Now the opposite is true, with high powered NAs needing RPM to make big numbers, and turbo cars making huge torque at very low RPM. Some of the more rediculous torque figures are from small modern turbo engines: Holden Astra Turbo: 250Nm @ 1950RPM from 2.0 litre 4 cyl Volkswagen Golf GTi: 280Nm @ 1800RPM from 2.0 litre 4 cyl Saab 9-5 Aero: 350Nm @ 1900RPM from 2.3 litre 4cyl And just to make them all feel weak: Bentley Continental GT: 650Nm at 1600rpm Mercedes SL65 AMG: 1000Nm at 2000-4000rpm from 6 litre V12 Bugatti Veyron: 1250Nm at 2200-5500rpm from 8 litre W16 Power is dependent on both revs AND torque, so peak power does not necessarily appear near peak torque. This was for sale a few months back: 13B Rotary MX-5 Alternatively check out the Bullet Roadster. Basically an MX-5 with a 13B, 20B,Lexus V8 or supercharged V8. Bit more expensive than the standard MX-5 though! Mazda will never make a rotary MX-5 because it will eat into RX-8 sales, and perhaps the rumoured upcoming RX-7.

The final product never looks as good as the sketches. Two examples spring to mind. The 2006 Impreza facelift and Ferrari 612 looked stunning in the sketches, but it just didn't come together in the flesh. I feel that this car will be the same. The wheels will be smaller, the body will be less sleek, the roof will be higher, the wheel arch flares will be smaller, the ground clearance... well, it will actually have ground clearance (the sketch seems to have none). If they can get the final production model somewhere between this model and the concept car from a few years back things will be sweet I reckon. I didn't like the original concept car to start with, but now I love it. I think whatever styling direction they choose, the styling will "mature" with time, hopefully in time for the first cars to arrive downunder. The silvia didn't have a replacement - the 350Z was (theoretically) the overdue replacement for the 300ZX, which was $20k more than the 350Z. A new silvia would be awesome though, but they would need a parts sharing program to justify the budget. Perhaps they could use the 165kw Renaultsport Megane engine? Or a turbocharged XTrail four cylinder? Not sure what what chassis they could use cheaply though... I would guess the 350Z/V35 Skyline chassis would be too expensive.