scathing

If your only concern is how much power it makes and how fast it goes down the econobox interval, then you really have no idea what the GT-R is about.

I can notice an extra 50-60kg in my car (i.e. carrying a passenger) when I take it for a spirited drive on a country road, let alone when I'm carrying one on the track. I'm not exactly an uber track master, but even in my 1.5 ton car its noticable.

If you're going to modify a car up, you always start from the model that has all the bits you're not planning on replacing. For Skylines, that's the GT-R since nothing else comes with the hydraulic ATTESSA and its way too expensive to retrofit it on a lower model. You don't necessarily need to look for a V-Spec or N1 if you're planning on replacing the brakes / turbo etc, but that stuff's bolt on compared to the drivetrain. You might be able to keep up with a stock R32 / R33 GT-R (I'm assuming in a straight line, around the bends its still going to disappear on you), but good luck finding a stock GT-R on the roads.

Perfect Run sells these kits. Almost $4000 (+ shipping, customs and duty, GST, etc) for a pair of front calipers and rotors though.

That f**king cracks me up. Import drivers have more cash, education, and come from better families? Give me a f**king break. Your average import driver isn't any classier than your average bogan. Why the f**k would someone with the cash to afford a new car with a full 2-3 year, several tens of thousands of kilometre warranty, buy some shitty used car that's around a decade old? Sure, it'll cost you more to get a new, Aus-delivered car to match an older Jap import in performance but hey, if you've got money....... Where's the demonstration of "education" on buying a second or third hand turbo of that age, that's probably been thrashed to the shithouse by a couple of people since people in Japan don't hang on to their cars for that long? How "smart" is it to buy a 10-15 year old car of unknown history with an induction system that's known to cause more strain on the powertrain than a NA car? For every rich guy who brings in a low kilometre, immaculate R34 GT-R (which does take a fair amount of cash) you've had hundreds of plebs buying landfill-worthy R32 GTS-t's and CA18DET S13's under the old 15 year rule....and then selling them after 6 months when they got "bored" of them, having never really learnt to drive them. And how do you define a "better" family? If you mean the more "upper class" ones, most of them drive Euro because its all about the badge and Jap just doesn't cut it. If you're talking about well-adjusted, sensible kids...most of them aren't that into cars and end up driving econobox cars because they're cheap to run and easy to drive. However, when I drive through the CBD on a Saturday night, who do I see driving Supras, Soarers, Skylines and Silvias? Why, its white-cap-wearing, collar-popping, hair-tinting, drug-taking, people of a variety of ethnicities, but share the common traits of saying how "sik" and "hektic" their neon and dodgy bodykitted, excessively loud, cars are. The kind of guys that'll go out in packs and get into fights (great breeding there), and the elocution and literacy skills of a primary schooler. Sure, its not a mullet and a tank top with a tinny of VB in hand, but you're just talking about a different in uniform rather than a difference in mentality. How are "Inner City kids" any better bred than people elsewhere? Inner City living is still cheaper and "coarser", to use a borderline non-PC term, than people living in the Eastern Suburbs and the North Shore of Sydney. Suburbs where Euro cars and private imports rule, and cheap commercial grey imports are snubbed. But, where would I go if I wanted to not be able to turn around without seeing an import? Inner city, inner west, west. Why, the newer development areas that don't tend to have the middle-class "old money" of the North Shore, or the high flying heads of industry like the Eastern Suburbs.

Of course they would. Because P plater in high powered car money is free money. They'll take your premium, even if they knew full well you'll never be covered. They'd prefer not to know so "ethically", and I us the term loosely when it comes to insurance companies, they can get off scott free. If you take them to court saying that they offered to insure you knowing full well you're not allowed to drive that car, if they don't "know" its illegal they've got plausible deniability and can refuse your claim.

Hopefully the car will stay together long enough to actually do a timed lap this time.

So what you're saying is that its not Commodore drivers that are dickheads, but drivers from Ipswich. Dickheadism is everywhere, it doesn't just come from a badge. For every Falcodore that's done a loser flyby on me, I've had Silvias, Skylines, Supras, Soarers, Corollas, RX-7s, 318i, 206GTis, Golf GTis, etc all try and drag me or have something to prove.

You could always reset the ECU, which should help it learn faster.

Will you be driving on an ACT license or a NSW one? Because that's what matters, not the location of registration. The car isn't illegal in NSW, the driver is. Of course, if the cops catch you not living in the ACT for more than x months (I don't know how long it is, but 3-6 months I'd say) then you'll get busted anyway, as you're required to re-register and re-license yourself if you live in that state or territory for that long. It might not happen that often, but if the cops want to bust you they will call up. A friend from another forum had a WA license and plates on his car, and the cops in Qld did him for not re-registering. They made a shitload of calls, and waited half an hour, to find out the guy had been living in Qld for longer than the period permitted.

Current generation Civic Type-R, that they only sell in Europe funnily enough (I think its made in Britain). The current mini-van shape with a detuned 2.0L Integra Type-R engine. Its not a slow car, but as I said it looks near stock.

http://www.350z-tech.com/ has a strong Australian subsection. Unsure if there are any others.

I've run 1 tank through it. I noticed the car did feel stronger through the rev range, so if I know I'm going to do some quick driving I might use the fuel. However, with the various unknowns when it comes to pre 2004 Australian delivered Nissans and ethanol-blended fuels (reservations I've previously expressed and won't get into again) I won't be doing it as a regular thing.

Or all over the place. The last time I got tyres put on, the shop had 2 tyres (in opposing corners) at 30psi, 1 tyre at 45psi and the last one at 40psi.

I'd cut him some slack if he deserved it. But when you title your video "The Art of Kickin Ass" and start it off with the text: then I'd be really hard pressed to say that, in this case, the owner isn't letting the possession of a GT-R tax disc give him the expectation that he's shit hot. Honestly, you deserve all the scorn you get when you talk yourself up, and then show a video of you getting cleaned up by a stockish Civic Type-R who blows past you on corner exit.

As other people have said, it'll only damage the engine if you're so low in the rev range that you make the engine lug. But, as a learner, you shouldn't be screaming around corners so second gear should be the "right" one for a novice. With a bit of experience, for street use its not dangerous to change gear mid corner. If you're at the limit its not exactly smart to go changing gears (since it really messes with the balance of the car), and for a novice it might be asking you to do a few too many things at once. Don't forget, the driving instructor is there to each people who have little to no driving experience what is the "best practice". Once you start driving, you'll find out which best practices aren't mandatory for commuting (stuff like push/pull steering, which is good to learn but almost useless in a modern passenger car).

Yeah. I've lost 2 lock nuts, and the tyre guys have just hammered a socket onto it and then twisted it off.

Why? It would cost you a lot less to buy a RZ than to get an SZ and buy a turbo kit on it, and then have to uprate everything else to cope with the extra power. And I'm no 2JZ expert, but 600hp out of a stock NA bottom end sounds a bit like wishful thinking.

Nothing's stopping you from having it. I just think its disingenuous to take more credit than is due. I probably couldn't change the engine oil in my car on the first attempt, let alone the various modifications to it. So no, I wouldn't do that work either. But, when I look at the finished product, I own it and I helped pick the parts but I won't say I "built" it. Its final output isn't a result of my genius, but other people's. When I got an exhaust, I didn't go out and test all the different ones on the market before settling on the one I got. Other people told me their experiences, and based on that I bought one. Same with my intake, and suspension, etc. None of it was "my" idea. It was my choice, but while the car is mine the performance is not. Even if you're not getting your hands dirty, how many people here can say that they're breaking new ground? Gone for a completely different part that no-one's ever used before, and didn't ask people for their opinions? Or sat there from first principles and examined the data logs from exhaust flow to design their own turbo with the perfect A/R, wheel size, etc for their intended application and then went through several custom cam grinds to find the ideal profile to suit said turbo? As opposed to asking a bunch of other people, for example, "Hey what's the best turbo for 300rwkW on an RB25DET out of an R33 GTS-t?" At which point not even the knowledge or engineering was theirs. I'm going to guess that, percentage-wise, the amount of people here who "built" their own cars without basically just copying previously achieved results or asking actual experts could be written off as a rounding error. However, when I pull whatever time it is I do down the quarter or around a track.....I'm the one behind the wheel and making it do its thing. I used my (in)ability to get it to the finish line. Those are my times and that's what I take pride, or shame, in. But I'm the one doing the work. And just like the race engineer for Renault can't say that he'd beat Schumacher around a race track, Alonso can't say that he built the car that got him a world championship, even though undoubtedly he had a lot of input into its setup.

Exactly. My mate's ex-Pursuit VT SS was getting a similar range out of a tank (maybe a touch more). Mind you, it had a secondary fuel tank which brought total capacity up to 100L. I could fill up, pay, and check my tyre pressures by the time he filled up his tank.

Yeah. Too bad in his list of things to do (buy a good car, spend money to set it up, etc) he didn't include "take driving lessons so I can recognise an apex and maybe clip one".

One of the best things about a GT-R is its adaptive drivetrain. You get power where you need it, when you need it. Making it permanent 4WD would kill a lot of the benefits in terms of handling.

It works off a variety sensors. And, just like plugging in an SAFC to do light tuning on your ECU, if you modify the signal the ATTESSA controller gets from those sensors you can control the way it behaves.

Bloody Volvo

I gave you your f**king answer right before I suggested you pull your finger out and try doing something for yourself. How much more helpful did you want me to be than that? Now why don't you go start a "vs" thread?