writeoff

*cough* ABS

I'm going to stick up for Adrian because we were the only two people out there that had absolutely no driver aids to hide our mistakes. That's right - the rest of you had aids.

Dave - remind me to stab you next time I see you. Luckily Task Manager ends all Rick Rollin'.

Do you remember the swamp that is now West Lakes? Delfin turned that into a residential development by covering the swamp with landfill - ie rubbish. Worked a treat until the houses all started sinking a couple of inches each year. Think I'll take your advice and look for houses elsewhere.

Turbo31 - you are new to these forums, have just purchased an R31 and I'm guessing are under 20. I checked your profile and in 4 posts you have started 3 topics and the 4th post insulted other members who have been here far longer and contributed much more - and said " i hope you all die a terrible terrible death". Poor form mate. Pull your head in. To help you survive these forums, have fun, get some answers to your questions and learn about the joys and agony of owning a Skyline I'll give some advice/direction: You should have started here Newbie Introductions You should use this whenever you have a question Search Function And you should read these SAU Guidelines I can understand your enthusiasm in owning a new Skyline and you may find that you know more about these brilliant cars than most people you hang around with. However there are many people on SAU that have decades of experience in owning, building, racing, drifting, driving, displaying and destroying them. You will gain the most by reading their posts and learning from their experiences. SAU is a brilliant forum that I visit daily and in 5 years on here have only been insulted once. You've managed that in less than a week. Think about it. Enjoy and take some consolation that this thread - whilst unnecessary and inaccurate for most on SAU has also provided the opportunity for those members who own an R35 GTR to quash some commonly held myths.

Wow. If only there was a way to send things to people all this could have been solved. Perhaps a genius idea that no one has ever thought of. I'm not having a go at Flick or Luke but perhaps a little communication between all parties could have solved this quite easily.

So we can go trick or treating afterwards Is it safe to accept candy from strangers at the Mount?

I wish that d**khead speaking would shut up. At least I was quiet when the cars were on the straight.

Chad - from what I've read the Mainline dynos always read lower numbers compared to the Dyno Dynamics ones.

Ordered my helmet today. 2009 Shoei TZ-R in Metallic Anthracite (to match my GMG GTR for ~USD$305 (including shipping and Visa charge) Shoei Helmet. Cheapest I could get it here was AUD$600. Hopefully it gets here in time.

Jarrad - just cut the rear bar so that the arch goes over both exhaust tips. I did that on my 205 GTI. Looks neat and you can keep the twins.

C'mon photographers & happy snappers. There are only 14 photos so far in this thread since the track day (not including the brake photos from Chad, Dave & Lance). There were 20 cars out there! I expect more images by midnight Sunday night or else I will put a formal request to the mods & SAU-SA executive committee that the photographers be given a warning and banned for a month

IIRC the 1994 R32 GTRs had the crank & oil pick up from the R33 GTR. This is better than the 1989-1993 crank & pick up but does not completely solve the oil issues of the RB26 as even R34 GTRs have spun the big end bearing. It is just less likely that it will go the first time you hit the rev limiter. You will also probably be able to rev the 1994 model slightly higher assuming that all three cars have standard internals (and none have indicated forged pistons, conrods or conrod bolts). I wouldn't say the owners are lying about kms or whether the cars have been tracked or not as they might be telling the truth as far as they know (ie they don't know what previous owners did with the cars in Japan). I would ask where the cars have been serviced and look at the receipts carefully. I would also ask to get a compression test & mechanical check done before handing over cash. IMO if you own a GTR and never intend to track it you are committing a crime against yourself and the car. Remember N1s were built to be track day specials.

Pretty hard for us to comment without knowing any of the details of these cars or your intentions. I'll refrain from voting for the time being. To give a considered opinion I need to know what you want the car for and more details. You need to know this as well and whether you have intentions to modify further, return to standard or remain as it is and to you have the $ for maintenance? I've said this many times before but too many people can afford to buy a GTR now and not enough of them can afford to maintain them. I have no idea if you fall into this category but you need to know. The N1 will probably appreciate in years to come if it is completely stock, has a full service history, has never been crashed and you spend the money maintaining it in original condition. To look at the N1 is no different to many other R32 GTRs. The wheels on the example Chef is promoting have been changed. What else has? Do you know? Are you buying the car as an investment, a daily driver, a weekend fun car or a track weapon? Do these are two 300kW 'plain' GTRs have steel wheeled turbos, forged internals, service history, twin plate clutches, have they sorted out the oil issue, has the stock suspension been replaced, timing belt?

[in response to Adelaideprosound] Well I'm glad you made it back to Adelaide but sorry to hear about the head gasket. I had intended to come over and have a good look at your 34 but you had gone before I got around to it. David [sLIDER] came around to my place on Tuesday night to help me set up a new toy and asked about you but I couldn't say much as I really only said hello to you when we were signing the forms at the start of the day. Hopefully everything goes smoothly next track day, especially if you add those modifications.

*** Disclaimer: I wasn't at the show and can only go by the photos I've seen and the comments that I've read. *** I just went over and had a look at the AUS 300ZX forum and apart from having a better collection of photos than has been posted on here I think some kudos should go to them. 6 of them drove over from Victoria including towing a race car over. Their display of red car, black car, red car, black car etc suited their Halloween theme. There is a lot more detail to their Halloween theme than what can be seen in the photos posted here. It seems that they were the only club that had a theme - and 1 week from Halloween I think showed good initiative. They were more appreciative and respectful of the SAU cars than SAU were of theirs. They make very positive comments about PURESX & appreciated PUREZED, HOSTILE, DOMHAR, ENR-034, Inline6 (no plates were on it) and SLED. I couldn't even tell how SAU lined up the cars until I saw it on the AUS 300ZX forum. One guy wants the DOMHAR plates too (his girlfriend is Vietnamese). One of their female members dressed up as a witch (to a degree given it was 34) and walked around giving the kids lollies. Simple but very kind (no smart arse comments please). SAU-SA is still in its infancy as a club and IMO we still have a lot of growing up to do. I for one see absolutely no value in making derogative comments about another car club unless they are exhibiting behaviour which will cause problems for all motoring enthusiasts. From what I gather the people at AUS 300ZX were a lot more humble in winning than we were gracious in defeat. Here are some quotes from their thread: http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=294682 "Here are some standout cars from the show (don't worry, plenty of Z pics in a min )" [the next 6 photos are ALL from the SAU display] "The winner of the Jap Import Category... This 180sx was fantastic..." "I think the fact that we had a theme, combined with our layout, and the fact that all cars essentially were the same gave us a boost in winning the club display award. However, we did cop a "tsk tsk" for leaving the grounds early, when apparently people were still being charged to come in the gates. That's a big SORRY from us, next time we will stay till stumps!" "There was another Nissan club there - the SA chapter of Skylines Australia I believe. As can be seen from the background above, they were quite close to our group. This 180SX cleaned up at least 3 trophies including best Jap Import, and his wife owns the kitted 350Z below. PUREZED and PURESX, with a GT-R in the garage as well, ya reckon it's plate is PUREGTR?" "A nice 350Z.." [PUREZED] "The 180sx that won 1st place in the Jap Import Category, was very outstanding!" "2nd place in the Jap Import (I believe?)" [Cara's RUNVS2 - I know she wasn't part of the SAU display] "and a few random skylines..." "coming back to this photo.. [HOSTILE with DOHMAR] cant remember who took it, but anyone that knows vietnamese, unfortunately i dont but my girlfriend is vietnamese born in australia, so half asian but speaks it fluently, so i know a little bit that she taught me. so can you make out the plates in the background? i showed my girlfriend as i know what they mean from the few lessons i had. naturally you learn swearwords first... so we havent stopped laughing all night. how that got though printing is beyond me.. : it means : f@@k your mother in viet. i want it."

+1 for more photos. C'mon guys. George what to your R34? I heard someone say it had a blocked radiator hose and that you had to pull over near the school just down the road from the track. Did you get back to Adelaide alright?

It's a 205 GTI. Never confuse it with the 206! I went to my mechanic today to drop off the helmet he lent me and he gave the car a quick once over. Apart from a clutch cable that came loose the little Pug was gold. He laughed about all my spins and asked if it was instant with no warning as he has had similar experiences with his rally car. I did do most of mine in the first 3 sessions (1st:3, 2nd:1, 3rd:4). For the rest of the day I actually stayed on the track for the most part considering I had nearly 2.5 hours of track time. But I'm proud of my spins and surely there are some photos!? Taken from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/205_Gti "205 GTI: The GTI version came in 1.6-litre and 1.9-litre, in-line four cylinder configurations, and is considered one of the very best hot hatches of all time. Compared to modern cars they can be tricky to handle, due to their tendency towards rather sudden lift-off oversteer during hard cornering, and a complete absence of electronic driver aids. However once mastered, or in the hands of a skilled driver, these cars are still known to offer a very rewarding driving experience. The 205 GTI was certainly one of the first front wheel drive cars said by many motoring experts to be as rewarding to drive hard as an equivalent rear-wheel drive car." I was still so excited when talking to my mechanic that he started listing the mods needed to turn it into a proper track car (sump baffle plate, another set of rims with track rubber, EBC Redstuff pads etc) and before I knew it I was nodding and agreeing until I realised what I was doing. I had to interrupt him saying that I can't afford to build another track car. I had planned on selling the 205 next year for a more modern car with better safety features - because people keep hitting me. Now I may just hang onto the 205 for special occasions and the odd trackday. I never managed to get it to cock one of its rear wheels but not sure if that can be done on a standard car with only ~55fwkW. This is the dyno sheet of my current engine but when it was in another 205 GTI. Funnily enough I did a dyno run at Turbo Tune in 2002 on my original engine and did 62fwkW.

Magazine articles are written to sell magazines. Wheels is specifically targeted to 'Aussie' enthusiasts and will therefore have an article on a Holden or Ford in every magazine. Bang for buck the HSV & FPV vehicles are pretty good and are the top of the tree for Australian built performance cars, thus they are compared to other performance cars from around the world. Motor magazine is aimed at the slightly wealthier enthusiasts and contains more articles about European vehicles. HPI & Zoom magazine articles seem to list the mods a person has done to the car and the build process. They rarely seem to actually be a review of the car or a driving story. Like others have commented it was a pity that SPEED only lasted for about 8 issues as it was a good blend of articles. When sorting out which cars to compare sometimes they do it on price point, performance numbers (kW, engine types, capacity, 0-100 times etc), sometimes they do it because they were the only cars the magazine was able to borrow from dealerships and private owners, sometimes they do it purely because it hasn't been done before. At least both Wheels and Motor have finally realised in the last few years that kW at the flywheel and kW at the wheels are different numbers and that a cheaper car with some well planned mods can be better than more expensive standard cars. But ultimately the articles are written to sell magazines - so in Australian publications they will invariably contain an Australian car. If you don't like it buy Car or EVO magazines from the UK, or just look up their websites and read the smaller articles for free. I read magazines from the USA, UK and various Australia publications. However I go to my local library and borrow them so they cost me nothing and I only read the bits that I am interested in.

Cheers again Scott & Damo. I was struggling with what should've been a simple task. There were only 2 and they were about 15cm long. That's why I said I'm keeping them Easy. I can return your hammer when I drop your helmet off. I had a look in both sheds as I was the last to leave and I didn't see them. However it's possible that I missed them as the RH shed was pretty empty and clean but I did glance at the ledges. Thanks for bringing your cars out Munro. The R33 is a beast and brilliant to watch and listen to. The R35 was great to see in action - damn quick but surprisingly quiet, even with the Willall midpipe.

Nice. If I had footage of all my spins I could have cut & pasted them together and added some Benny Hill music in the background.

Awesome Day!!! Had a brilliant time. Thanks to Adrian (Rad32) for organising it. Thanks to Kim (V35-2005), Lance (Moodles2) & Luke (Heslo) for lending me your tools etc during the day. Thanks to the two guys that helped me change my wheels over (I can't think of your names right now & I know that I've met one of you a couple of times - sorry). Thanks to the Peugeot designers & mechanics from the 1980s for finally giving me something nice to say about the French. Pity about every car since... I ended up going out for 7 sessions and reckon that I had about 30mins in total where I had the track to myself. Especially right at the end. Brilliant! I'm pretty confident that I won the 'Most Spins' category with a grand total of 10 - although technically I didn't actually spin every time but the car did end up where it wasn't meant to. How I hear you ask: 3 times because I was (am) an idiot and didn't warm up my tyres first hence I usually spun at the back hairpin on the first lap. It took me 3 sessions to work this out *face palm* 4 times I was pushing it about 15-20kmph faster through corners than I had done previously. I accept that. That's part of the fun. And 3 times I just f**ked up. Wrong line, wrong speed, wrong pedal whatever. I'm sure that I provided some entertainment to the spectators. Maybe I should change my user name from 'writeoff' to 'spinoff'. Brendan (Tangles) - I have your helmet and will probably drop it off on Thursday if that's cool? Someone left a hammer against the southern wall of the 1st group of sheds closest to the track. Dave's (scandyflick) car was there most of the day. Someone else left a black funnel at the opposite end of the same shed. Above where Lance's (Moodles2) tools were. There were also some cables ties but I'm keeping those. I look forward to the driver training on November 23. Clearly I need it. Hopefully I'll have the GTR back by then. PS - pity all the Jap crap out there couldn't keep going until the end of the day. How many casualties were there? I don't think my GTR would have survived 7 sessions & 10 spins.

Morning all. Hopefully we get a nice day with a bit of sunshine and no rain - BOM says 21 degrees: fine & sunny. Looking forward to it. Go the little Pug!

If you had given me more notice I could've grabbed a R33 GTR drivers seat for you Dave. I have a Series 3 in my driveway doing nothing but gathering dust. CBF doing it now or tomorrow morning though. So what time are you guys leaving Villies? And is it a counter meal for lunch then - so I don't have to make sandwiches.