scathing

Not from what I've heard. I've seen some non-BB T28 S15s make 210rwkW+ with other upgrades.

Well yes, if you look at them you can tell the difference. But if you're in the market for buying one you won't be able to tell from the build date or VIN number. From the people I've spoken to on SilNSW and NSCC the part numbers for Au S15 BB and non BB T28s are identical (hence why a VIN number search is fruitless).

No, they're not. I believe the consensus is that the JDM S15s are all BB, but its pot luck as to whether the Australian ones are or not. Silvia owners have compared build dates, VIN numbers, part numbers for the turbo, and there's nothing they can see that differentiates between them.

I'd put it in the 180rwkW region with those mods, at around 1bar. The injectors and pump won't be maxed out, but they'll be close. For safety's sake you'd get a new pump and injectors before trying to screw out any more power. The T28 will clear 200rwkW with cams.

I'm looking for wheels with a bit of a lip too. I'm giving some serious thought to buying a set of wheels from Show Wheels. The Wide wheels on this page might look quite tasty on my car, and they come in a range of sizes. I might drop them an email to see how much they cost and what offsets they offer.

Head to the north western corner of Sydney, and just follow the trail of police pursuit vehicles.

Reminds me of this quote from The Simpsons:

I'm not sure what the S6 RX-7's power delivery is like (hence why I said nothing) but I know that, with the tangled mess of pipes that it does use, when something breaks it's an adventure to try and figure out at which point you've had mechanical failure. Having a single turbo is simpler, so its usually easier to setup and maintain and more reliable. Even if you're talking engines with parallel turbos (RB26, 2JZ come to mind) at a certain "seriousness point" they get ditched in favour of the big single. While a part of this is increased flow, if you're going to cause major stress on a lot of components by pumping out a lot more power than the factory intended, its a lot easier to do it and keep it all together if there's only 1 of everything.

True, but if you do a B4 engine swap then you'll have a nice low-end and a free top end, but with a crap mid-range. Unless you're willing to spend the time and money setting up and tuning your twin turbo setup properly, you're going to hit a nasty flatspot at the point the two turbos change over. Even if you do, you add a lot of complexity to your setup. If something goes wrong, you're going to have a hell of a job trying to figure out what's failed. In the end, I'd much rather a EJ20 with a 2.2 stroker kit and a well-matched single turbo. Not as inherently weak as the EJ25 that everyone else has mentioned, but still more torque and better flow characteristics than the stock setup.

That's where I'm getting a fair bit of my info from. Or even taking it for a spirited drive out in the country.

I was just wondering out loud where you got the idea I was asserting that you had only ever owned the cars originally listed. If you had specifically said that they were all you owned, I wouldn't have needed to ask the question you evidently did notice. So I didn't miss that, but I was wondering if I was missing something else..... There's no need to apologise. I'm all for interesting debate.....as long as we're not using the obsolete definition of it. I have never told anyone that they shouldn't voice their opinion.....but I apply that freedom to myself in telling other people what I think of their opinions too.

Oh, right. The way the body acts in a launch. The thing is, an a GTS-t you want it to drop on its ass more. It shifts the weight over your only drive wheels, and provides more traction. With a WRX, and its symmetric AWD (even though Subaru's now realised that symmetric AWD isn't necessarily the best thing in the world. I wonder what they'll do with their old marketing?) should try and squat over all the tyres to maximise its traction. I'm not sure what you mean about "front slippage" in the R33, since there's no drive up there in a GTS-t. If you're talking about a GT-R, its not a major issue. The ATTESSA feeds in the power gradually and apportions torque split accordingly. If I remember correctly (and people should feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), at rest the GT-R is RWD. If you launch it softly it stays RWD, but if its launched hard ATTESSA detects the initial wheel slip and starts feeding the power in to the front. Regardless of what state the driveline is in when you first drop the clutch, on a hard launch it will go 4WD in a split secton. Now you've got a situation where your ATTESSA system might feed too much power to the fronts and it starts to slip. At this point it'll start diverting more power to the rear (which should have more traction due to this "ass dropping" weight shift you mentioned). When it puts too much power to the rears and it starts slipping, it stabilises or pushes it back to the front until it finds equilibrium. Should the ATTESSA system work the way it was intended to, the front and rear tyres should get the right percentage of drive to launch perfectly (which isn't 50:50). If your car's making so much power it'll light up all four, I don't know what it'll do but I am curious to know.

No, its only when you leave the car unattended (and I'm assuming you won't be driving in that instance). Its to stop people from leaving their cars unsecured and walking off, and then having a cry when someone opens the door and steals shit from it. In the past you could make an insurance claim on it (since its theft), but now since you've broken the law they don't have to pay out. Which is fair enough. Why should insurance companies pay out for your stupidity? If your car was locked and someone broke in, fair enough. But if you're too much of a **** to even lock your own pride and joy when you wander off to pay for petrol or whatever, you deserve what you get. I could have sworn this law was enacted a couple of years ago. I must have remembered wrong, but in that case they introduced a law a while ago making it illegal to leave your keys in the ignition (car running or not) while unattended. Same reason - people would walk off, and someone else would just hop in to the car and drive it off. Technically its theft so its insurance claimable (and it was costing them quite a bit), but not when you did something illegal to enable it to happen.

Can you unpack that for me, and come again? :confused:

Grip will always win over handling in the wet. And AWD's have bags of it on throttle, relative to a 2WD vehicle, so they flatter bad drivers in low-grip conditions. In the dry I'd be more than happy to try keeping up with any WRX or STi with a driver of equivalent skill to mine. I think it would be quite close. In the wet, I know I've got no chance. I'd try hanging on for as long as I can, just for the challenge, but unless the person behind the wheel is a complete muppet I know its a losing battle I have much respect for the WRX. For what it is, it does an excellent job. There's no doubt in my mind that, with my paltry skills, should I ever run a WRX with a similarly power to weighted 2WD car in a lot of situations I'd be faster in the WRX. But that just speaks volumes about my inability to drive a car that won't spear off the road if I'm not smooth on the throttle and steering inputs, rather than the inherent poise of the vehicle. I just don't mistake the car for what it is. A small family car that's been developed for rallying, and pressed in to tarmac service.

I never said you did. The more perceptive people out there would have noticed a question mark at the end of that sentence. And if the sum total an ED and XE Falcon (and I did say if here, I realise once again that you didn't say "only") are the only rear driving vehicles you've ever owned, once again I'm not surprised you think the WRX (in standard setup) is balanced and nimble.

I don't think many people have ever had anything nice to say about Unichips.... No PowerFC available for the VQ motor yet. So you're either stuck with a piggyback (Unichip, E-Manage, F-Con Pro) or a full replacement like a MoTeC.

Nissan tried bringing Infiniti down here during the "Japanese luxo" phase of the mid 90's. Of the big 3: Infiniti Eunos Lexus only one survived. But then they were backed by a far larger car company. The rest of them got burnt by the fact that Australians weren't going to spend Euro money on imitation Euro cars. I would buy an Infiniti G35 (i.e. a V35 Skyline) over any four door car available in Australia under $150,000 (or however much the old Audi RS4 went for). The Maxima, on the other hand...? I'd probably buy it if it was the absolute top of my budget and I needed a big sedan, but if I could stretch for a V8 Calais I'd pick the Holden.

Sure, if you've got $45K to spend on powertrain mods to the car......

I have 4 words and a mathematical symbol for you Steering column + exhaust manifold It might seem stupid, but the problem relates laws of physics regarding two different objects being unable to occupy the same point in space/time. I don't know if there is a GReddy / Trust kit for RHD Z33s or V35s, but I wouldn't buy a kit from the US if I were you, because of that potential risk. As for getting the GReddy kit itself: The GReddy kit is USD$6,000 (or around AUD$8,000) with intercooler. Add shipping and you're looking at a couple of hundred at least, since its not going to be light. If you get hit up for Customs and Duty you're probably looking at AUD$10,000 before you've paid for someone to install it. Plus you're probably going to want to get an aftermarket exhaust (the HiTech and APS stainless steel catbacks are just under $2000, Japanese ones are usually around $2500). I've also read some nasty things about the original GReddy kits being shoddy. Some of the required bolts were either too short or not supplied (not a major issue for a workshop, but it is if you buy in to GReddy's hype that you could fit it at home and you're not the kind of freak that has a shitload of spare bolts in varying sizes lying around) and various parts needing "encouragement" to fit together. This may have been resolved in the time since its initial release, but its something to be aware of. For $15,000 you can get an APS TT kit installed, which has been designed to comply with ADRs and comes with a nice, shiny, engineering certificate. And to go with the local support and warranty it offers, the APS kit makes another 100rwhp. I've never been in a GReddy TT equipped car, but I have been in an APS TT 350Z. The power delivery is smooth. It pulls like your standard 350Z up until 2300RPM (which means it pulls pretty damned well) and then the power just smoothly swells and doesn't let up when you near redline. Aside from flutter at medium load lift-off and the sneeze at high RPM, the thing is so civilised you wouldn't know it wasn't OEM. So even though the GReddy kid makes less boost (and so might be even more linear in terms of power delivery), the APS kit is smooth enough that you'd take the extra power even if you were after a GT-style car.

Anyone know if the V35 ships with a VH45 in it? Not that there's too much wrong with the VQ35, but in a big family sedan I'd just like a nice V8 to show up the bogans.

2.5L in a car that big without forced induction? No way. Hmm.....low 40's huh? Its definitely an idea when I retire the coupe.

Have you ever owned a RWD car? Because if that's the total list of vehicles you own, I'm not surprised you think a standard WRX isn't all that understeery. I'm sure compared to an RS Liberty and Forester GT the WRX turns in a lot better, but that's not saying much. You might as well say that your 4WD cars turn in better than a RWD bus. A lot of cars snap oversteer when you pop off the throttle, or trail the brakes. ****, I've gotten an entry model 4-pot Camry to oversteer doing that; lets see you try and convince everyone that a Camry isn't a lead-tipped arrow. Its just basic physics. Whether a car's understeery, neutral or oversteery is how it behaves at the limit on minor adjustments to throttle and brake, not when you suddenly make major weight shift changes to the car, unloading the rear. Question is, why did you lift off so suddenly? Is it perhaps because you've gone in too hot into a corner and the nose is pushing, and you're trying to tuck it back on line? Hmm............. As for your intentionally sliding it through a corner example...you don't need an oversteery car to do that. Most drifters run tight 2 way or locked diffs, which make the car quite understeery. The difference is they don't ever intend to drive the cars on the limit of adhesion. They just make it go sideways with a variety of ham-fisted methods (handbraking, compression locking, etc), but because the nose wants to push the car's less likely to spin when they keep giving it lots of throttle. Slight understeer works better for the novice drifter who needs to work on throttle control. If you want to actually compare cars' attitudes, try this. Head up to a nice twisty road with long sweeping corners that you're familiar with. Get the car's cornering speed up to the point where the tyres are starting to squeal, and then gently modulate the throttle. Aside from a WRX, I'd recommend trying it in these cars: Nissan Silvia RenaultSport Clio or Honda Integra Type-R Just so you can get an idea of the different drivetrains. The Silvia's a lot lighter and shorter than the Skyline so it'll be more responsive, and the Clio and Teggy are amazingly neutral cars at the limit (the former will lift off oversteer savagely, the latter is a bit more progressive), especially considering they're bum draggers.

As NFAA32 said, its "handling improvements" come from reducing sidewall flex to provide better steering feel. In a drift situation, response is more important than outright grip. Of course, if its more likely to slip the bead then all the improved cornering in the world isn't going to do you much good if using it is likely to rip the tyre off the rim. And unless you're running drift-levels of negative camber and suspension stiffness, you're also more likely to pull the edge of the tyre and the sidewall under the car under cornering loads, and then you're more likely to be driving on the straights on the edge of oyur tyre. Since the sidewalls aren't really designed to be driven on, you'll increase your likelihood of a blowout. As for the edges, one of my friends had a set of D01J's on his street car. Since he wasn't running enough neg camber (and he runs a fair amount already, for a street car) it was heavily leaning on the corners during a track session, and delaminated the edge. Luckily it didn't throw him off the track but it rendered the tyres undrivable. For performance and safety, you'd be much better off just buying decent sports tyres with a reinforced sidewall. But then you're not after go, you're just after show. Your tyre shop should be able to do it (with a little more effort than a properly fitting tyre, but then you're not paying them to take it easy), but if they have any professionalism they'll advise you against doing it on your street car first.

Automatic gearboxes tend to weigh a little more than manual ones, but the difference is marginal. You're talking about 10-20 kilos over a 1300kg+ car.