scathing

I'd be happy with the NA engine. The K20A is a nice enough motor in stock form, but from what I've heard its still got quite a bit of headroom for modification. I'd rather just run a big set of cams and a free-flowing exhaust and get the thing to scream, than have all that torque and have powerdown issues. The car's only 500kg, after all.

Like any other mod, it depends on how much effort you put in to it and what your aim is. If you just stick the turbo on and wind the boost up, something's going to break sooner rather than later. I know people who have turbocharged NA engines to good effect. The throttle response is a lot crisper than a stock FI engine, and it makes more power and torque than a NA engine. Of course, there's a limit to the amount of boost that he could run with a NA bottom end but since they weren't chasing big power numbers the thing worked just fine. When he pulled the engine apart again a few months later, the bottom end showed little wear and tear. So, what do you want to do? Do you want to make the big numbers that modified RB25DET-from-the-factory people are making? Or do you just want more power than NA without losing your bottom end tractability, but also not sacrificing response?

Even if my car wasn't on a lease and didn't come with a BP fuel card, I'd still be filling it with Ultimate.

Yeah, if I was building a garage I'd want a hoist. Alternatively, I did see this on New Inventors recently: Cartar 125 mobile automotive hoist Apparently its not safe enough to spend a lot of time under the car (its more a panel beater's tool) but you could always use it as a full-body jack to put all four corners on wheel stands simultaneously.

Depending on how much it costs (and if I can afford a daily driver to go with it), I might be.

Before any of the other circuit racers reply, I'll start off by saying that they're not a semi slick. They're just a very aggressive street tyre. You don't have to take my word for it, even Falken's marketing drones advertise them in the "Passenger radial" section rather than "motorsport" section. They're probably one of the best street tyres for track work around. Great mechanical grip, reinforced sidewalls for less flex, and because of the big tread blocks they don't overheat as easily. Guys who've driven on them and Dunlop S03s on the track say that the mechanical grip is about the same, but the RT215s will last longer before overheating and going greasy on you. They're a usable tyre in the wet. While they're newish, they have the same grip as a set of worn "regular" street tyres. They're something you have to be aware of if you're going to heavy brake, but not something you need to treat with kid gloves. They do work better with a little bit of heat in them, but that's the same for any sports tyre. It doesn't take much to get them up to temp either. However, they do wear very quickly. I had a set on my otherwise stock N15 SSS, and they lasted 11,000kms. Of course, I was doing the Old Pac 3 times a week and I didn't really need to brake with these tyres.

NA engines are a little different in that respect. They get affected more by resonance in the intake system. The stock airboxes will tend to have some kind of resonator pipe / chamber which stop it from doing that. The resonator chamber smooths the airflow out during the entire rev range, which means the power delivery is also a lot more even. I've read that by altering that chamber, you can actually get more top-end power at the expense of low-end. But its the kind of hydrodynamic black art that you'd need a big R&D budget to develop, and that's easy to get wrong and hard to get right. FI motors, because they tend to forcibly suck air through the induction, are less likely to get that so running a pod filter doesn't affect them as much. As for heat soak, I'd concur with what everyone else has said. As long as your engine is light tune, its safe but not ideal. I'd recommend obtaining some kind of heat shield and maybe a CAI setup, but its not something that is going to force you to not drive the car until fixed.

Jeremy Clarkson would. He sold his Ford GT, describing it as the most miserable automotive experience he's ever had.

Sorry, duplicate(s)

Sorry, duplicate(s)

I'd agree with that. I've seen a dead stock XR6T ute pull a consistent 220rwkW on the CRD dyno, on two separate occasions.

I didn't get to the meetup point until 1:30 (bloody daylight savings), and by then there was only a single R33. Hope it was fun.

What RHETT said. Modifications are only better than "stock" for your intended application. The stock exhaust does a much better job of muffling than any aftermarket one I've heard. Of course, most people don't replace the exhaust to make their cars quieter...but it depends on your aim. You could probably build an exhaust that flowed just as well as the factory one but was quieter, but no-one wants it. As another exampled, if all you were running was a cat-back in your powertrain, it'd be a waste of time and money to drop a triple plate, high clamping force, clutch into the car. Sure, its "better" in the sense that its less likely to wear out or break, but your car doesn't need it for your application and now your clutch is a lot heavier and harder to launch smoothly. The factory BOV does a better job than an aftermarket one in terms of idle quality and suitability in a light tune application. Only when you've cranked the boost beyond the ability for the factory BOV to cope (or you just want some fooli sik sounds to emanate from your induction system) do you need to replace it.

OK, if your stock rim is 7" wide then you can run an extra inch without getting an engineer's cert. On an 8" wide rim you can go anywhere from 215-255 width. I'd probably opt for a 225 or 235, just because those widths are easy to find rubber in. You could run a 245/35 R17 tyre, and its rolling diameter would only be 0.5% off. On a 235 width you'd have to run 235/45 R17 and you'd be 1% off. Go up to 18" and you'd be looking at a 215/35 tyre and you'd be 0.1% from factory. (Recommended widths for an 8" rim thanks to Falken Tires. Calculations courtesy of Miata.net's tyre calculator. Doing the numbers, if you want to keep it over a 45 profile without having to do a speedo /diff recalibration you're going to have to stick with 16" rims. That's assuming you want the tyres as wide as possible. You could stick with 7" wide rims, run narrower rubber (for example a 195/45 R17 tyre will have the same rolling diameter as your stockers) and get your profile back. Mind you, the actual sidewall height difference between a 245/35 R17 tyre and a 195/45 R17 rim is only 2mm, so in terms of how much sidewall you've got to absorb bumps there's nothing in it. I haven't tested it myself to see if an 88mm high sidewall on a 195mm wide tyre will absorb bumps significantly better than an 86mm high sidewall on a 245mm wide tyre, but I can't see there being much in it. Nor do I know if having a 55mm wider tyre (and so a 55mm wider track) gives you better handling either, but it seems likely that it will be noticable. What I do know is that the lower profile tyre will cost a lot more, so that's something else you should consider. If you're serious about replacing your wheel / tyre combination for performance then you're not going to scrimp on tyres, so you need to work out what you can afford and buy rims to suit. There's no point having LM GT4 Magnesium wheels if you can only afford to put retreads on them.

I'm assuming his car's running an AFM. Since an AFM expects the induction to be closed, it will pump the amount of fuel equal to the air that passes through the AFM. If you're venting air out it'll run rich since you're actually getting less air into your engine than what its measured. On a car with a nicely sprung BOV it'll only run rich on throttle-off, so the exhaust will crackle and pop (and maybe puff some black smoke). If the BOV is loose and leaking, then it'll run rich on throttle too. Since the thing's not making as much power (if you compare it at the various RPM points) you have to work the engine harder to go as quick.

I'm not sure what the activation energy of water is, but are you sure that there's enough heat in the tyres to do that kind of thing? The last time I hit the track my tyres only reached around 50 degrees on the surface of the rubber. And what do you do afterwards? Anyone who's studied the history of airships knows how safe hydrogen and oxygen are when mixed together and heat is applied. Also, since gases occupy more volume per molar count than liquids, that would leave your tyres with a higher "at rest" air pressure afterwards. Of course, depending on the humidity in the tyre in the first place it may or may not be detectable with a commercially available gauge. If that was enough to break down hydrogen and oxygen, boiling water in a semi-sealed environment (like a kettle) where the boiling water vapour is kept at 100 degrees+ before being vented to the atmosphere would probably get you killed if you smoked anywhere near it. Once again this is pure speculation on my part (I wouldn't even call it a hypothesis since I'm not that up on chemistry), but it just seems like if there was enough heat in tyres to break water down to its base elements there would be a lot more cases of tyre blowouts during enduro races.

Why would you want to? Even if it fit in the confines of the car's engine area, it would take a shitload of effort to adapt a driveline to suit. Of course the engine would also weigh a lot more than the all-alloy 4 pot that's currently installed in it, detracting from the handling. Considering the supercharged version already makes 600hp/ton on a relatively mild tune (I would have preferred to leave it NA and run a big set of cams and new internals instead, and settled for 500hp/ton) it doesn't exactly have a dearth of power.

I'm with Duncan that the new GT-R will be in that price range. The way I see it, especially when they released the M-Spec, Nissan thinks this is a Porsche competitor. It's definitely an M3 killer, so they can afford to price it above the $150K BMW asks. At the same time, anyone who can afford the $300K 996 Turbo isn't going to buy a Japanese car that performs approximately the same, so the car will have to sit well below that price. Performance-wise its better than the $200K 997 Carrera, but the Porsche has brand cachet that Nissan can only dream about. Which is about the same as the 350Z and RX-8 against its European counterparts, such as BMW 323Ci / Alfa Romeo GT. The Japanese cars will run rings around the Euros in its price range, but some people will take Euro style over Japanese (performance) substance.

Yep, that info's still not posted even though its a rule of the forum.

One of the Big 2 Aussie car mags power over'ed the Maybach Exelero. Probably Motor - they're more likely to brag about stuff like that. I like the exterior of the 300C. I reckon it looks pimpin' too. Get it black, rollin' on dubs, and it'd be an awesome car to go cruising in.

Have you got any references for that? Air is just under 80% nitrogen, and 20% ozygen. You've got 1% Argon, and everything else is just a rounding error. Oxygen and argon are heavier than nitrogen, so assuming you're scientifically rigorous enough to be comparing the weight at the same temperature and pressure there's no way pure nitrogen could weigh more than air. To the best of my knowledge you don't have to run higher pressures with pure nitrogen than air but I could be wrong. If so, then I guess nitrogen-filled tyres will weigh more...but you'd have to be a bloody good driver to notice.

Unless you're going to use it for track work, or you've got your own nitrogen pump, I don't think its worth it. The pros given by Damo are correct. You don't get the changes in tyre pressure that you do with air as the tyre heats up, which makes them more consistent and less likely to overheat. But its hard to find a pump, and so if you get a slow leak or want to tune your tyre pressures you'll be out of luck. When I get a second set of rims I'll probably use nitrogen in my track tyres, and use regular air in the street tyres. As an aside, which tyre dude has been the only one to say they'll do it?

It just sounds like the BOV is too loose. Can you tighten the Blitz unit? But yes, I'm not a big fan of atmo BOVs either. If my induction is going to make noise on throttle-off, I'd rather it flutter than sneeze.

I like the look of the R32, but I prefer the engine from an R33. If I was to buy a 2WD Skyline (which is unlikely) I'd probably buy an R32 and put an RB25 in it.

OK. Are the 15x7's the stock size? What size tyres have you got on it?