scathing

I suppose, but Clarkson's got some strange sensibilities. He repeatedly pans the 350Z over its competitors (like the Misfire and the TT of all things), but likes the way a Monaro goes around the bends. Tiff Needel seemed quite impressed with the McLaren F1, and his opinion holds a lot more weight (even when Tiff was driving with Top Gear, Clarkson deferred to him). Of course, the McLaren F1 is almost eligible for the 15 year rule so the fact that people will compare a car with 10+ years of development and an insane budget to it still speaks volumes about its abilities.

I know of a couple of Silvias that have broken into sub 10's around Wakefield (with proper timing equipment). But they're more serious than your usual "light tune" mods, and at least one of them was on full slicks, and the drivers know what they're doing.

On the plus side, it keeps pre-literate idiots out of overpowered and undersuspended cars. From a government "oh won't somebody think of the children" perspective, that's a good thing. From a Darwinian perspective, its not so good. The NSW laws say you can't do engine performance mods. Suspension, brakes, etc are still "free". So for those people that want to actually learn how to operate a vehicle in anything aside from accelerating in a forward direction only.

Yeah, check for leaks on the intake side. Your wastegate won't open until you hit a certain level of boost, but your turbo would still get spooled. You should take it easy, since it therefore means your turbine speed isn't being regulated anymore. Any leaks in the intake would cause rough idle, and stalling issues. Just ask any n00b who sticks a venting BOV, with the spring set loose, on their car.

Surprised that there's only been one nomination for CRD, given the number of GT-Rs you see in their parking lot (and the number of "big" cars they've put together). For installing stuff I've been quite happy with Joshua from Pro Concept in West Ryde. He knows his mechanical stuff, especially for Nissans, and he's got an attention for detail that I don't see that often.

Is your mate's 350Z stock? Because 1:12's is what the pro drivers are pulling around Wakefield in the comparos, so he's either tweaked it a bit, or a gun driver.

It might be slower, but I'd still prefer a McLaren F1. Its still more of a driver's car than this rocket sled. The Veyron might win on a point and shoot track because of its insane acceleration, but the Mac One will still be a more rewarding drive and faster through the flowing stuff.

A catback is better bang for your buck (costs about the same as a set of extractors, but is easier to install). In an ideal world you'd do the entire exhaust system (extractors, cats, midpipes, rear muffler) for your gains. The extractors on my car are nasty, but the catback still made a noticable increase in power. When I can, I'll probably replace the extractors and cats as well.

I could gruesomely torture you, mutilate your body, have you sexually assaulted by a pack of half-wild dogs before decapitating you. Yes, it is illegal, but ONLY if I'm found out.

I'm not the only one. The front corner especially (from side on, forward of the front wheel arch) is especially Magna-like. They're just boring looking cars.

Unless the idiot is going to sell this thing to the gullible, it just seems like a monumental waste of money to me. Sure, buying a resistor is cheaper than buying a SAFC...but all the extra dyno time, and effort, required to sit there fiddling around with it to get it right is surely going to outweigh the money saved. Its like people who do RB20DET conversions into Silvias over SR20's - yeah the motor's cheaper.....but the total cost of install to get it running properly ends up blowing out for an inferior motor, that ruins the weight distribution, and is more likely to overheat and have other problems since the engine bay doesn't have the room for it.

They're both ugly. EDIT: Well, not so much "ugly" as "bland". I frequently mistake the R33 for a Magna, and everything but the nose of the S14 is so ho-hum that you could use it to cure insomnia.

eBay has a lot to answer for.

One of my colleagues has a HSV GTO. He's up for a new gearbox, uni joints, and diff. The car's not that old, either. 3 years at most. Like I said, if Holden could get build quality like a decent manufacturer...with the way a Monaro goes (and its got Kazama's thumbs-up), and how horn they sound with a 3" mandrel bent, they'd definitely be a car worth owning.

Holden Australia is still profitable (one of the few GM divisions that is). If push came to shove, they could sell Holden off and they'd find buyers. The brand has cachet down here, and is getting traction overseas. I could see Volkswagen snapping it up. Which, in my mind, would be a great thing since it would then also mean Holdens would have to get built to VW-like quality. If I could get a big sedan with great build quality that's still RWD, and a V8 that wasn't a lucky dip when it came to engineering tolerances, I wouldn't mind it. Until Lutzy took an interest in the fact that Holden was making good profits from a modest budget (by GM terms), Holden was little more than some frontier office in a backwater. As such, its been run relatively autonomously to GM Global (so it hadn't had to comply with a lot of GM processes and standards)...which ironically has been the best thing for it, if you look at how most of GM's "watched" divisions are doing.

But, they're legally required to have 3 warning signs before any fixed speed camera. How much attention do you pay when you're driving if you can miss 3 big, f**k off, signs warning you that there's a speed camera ahead and reminding you of the speed limit?

I'm assuming "1st, 2nd and 3rd" are gears? If so, then it was hardly an accident that he broke traction, especially the multiple times they did it. I don't think getting an ABS or TCS equipped car will help much, since they're clearly not in the mindset to drive carefully. Reminds me of that NZ WRX driver who was driving like an idiot and ended up putting it into the telegraph pole. Hopefully when this guy does it, it gets caught on camera and posted on Google video, so the cops can come down on the f**kwit like a ton of bricks.

Your crack doesn't look roadworthy. The actual crack can't be bigger than a 20c piece, if I remember correctly. And its not repairable at that size. Bear in mind that your windscreen is a load-bearing component, so the cops will frown on having big cracks.

HiTech will probably have a bolt-on system for Skylines. And, relatively speaking, they're not that pricey.

Clearly your motivations for owning a car are a little different to mine. Here's an idea: Why not buy something because its "good" for what you apparently want it for? If you want a sports car, a Ford Laser is crap. So, actually, buying a Ford Laser and attempting to turn that into a sports car would be "different" too. If you're going to buy a GT-R as a commuter vehicle for daily driving, its going to be "different" to all those Corollas, Lasers etc that everyone else buys....and its not going to do as good a job either. In terms of the Z32, if its so expensive to work on for a marginal performance improvement over a Skyline....its just not value for money. Yes, you can be "different"....and feel quite secure in your differences from behind a Skyline because you're worried about overheating or braking something, or because the GTSt can afford more mods to screw out more power and handling than you.

They have their disclaimer on their web site telling people what cars should and shouldn't run the fuel. So if you take your stock R3x Skyline in there and run it, they're not liable should you die in a horrible explosion because your fuel lines corroded and sprayed fuel all over your engine bay. And if multibillion dollar companies are so intelligent as opposed to your average "keyboard warrior", why do sporty GMH sedans owners have to install aftermarket coolers to stop boiling their power steering fluid, even though GMH insists it's not necessary? Or the original STi coupe that was brought in, that kept munching pistons when it was driven in the manner it was advertised at excelling at? Subaru didn't feel it necessary to retune the ECU for Australian conditions. I can keep going, if you like. If you think that companies are driven by anything other than profit and plausible deniability, I've got a private import Ford Pinto that you might be interested in as a daily driver.

Anything you like. I did an Aaron McGill day a while ago. I did some power oversteer, and some grip driving. He gave me tips on doing both. Does anyone know if he's renting the figure 8? Doing that was fun.

Impressive. I would have thought a badly-done downshift would have compression locked the front, causing that to wash out instead.

Dude, forget loud BOVs, neons and chromies. Stalling your car at the lights is next season's "fully sick".

Remember, boost isn't the be-all and end-all of power. A bigger turbo will make the same power with a lower reading on a boost gauge, because its still flowing more air. Its only useful to compare boost when comparing engines with the same turbo. And don't forget your bolt-ons can free up power without increasing boost pressure. Imagine running a GTSt at 15psi with the exhaust and intercooler as restrictive as what the OEMs use, and then tuning the ECU to not detonate under those conditions. Or, for a comparison to the Nissan 2.0L turbo, imagine running an S15 with the stock side-mount intercooler (maybe a slightly bigger core) and exhaust, with the only mods being a boost controller to get your 15psi + (stock is 7-8psi) and an ECU tune to stop it from detonating. It might make the same "206kW" that the 4WD cars do, but it'd probably be just as annoyingly laggy as the Impreza's power delivery.