scathing

Yes

One thing I've noticed about APS is, because of their target market (well heeled but not the "I'll fix whatever breaks" kinda people, who just want more power in a kit that they know is legal, rather than developing a unique project car), that they'll tune conservatively. They still make reasonable numbers, but not as much what other people offer for the money. I'm specifically thinking of the S15 kits they offered, which were pretty pricey for the mods (and power output) you got. The difference being all the mods were engineered to work cohesively, and you know after installation the car would breeze through scrutineering for an engineer's cert. I don't know about the LS1 kit specifically, but I do keep in contact with a guy who's got the 350Z APS TT kit. His has been a trouble-free life on an engine series that has a reputation internationally for breaking internals when too much boost is applied.

I know the only reason I get Harry's to order overnight parts from Japan for my piston engine is because Dom uses them on his rotary.

You're slightly missing his point, though. He's not saying the RB26 doesn't have potential. He's saying that, in the end, there's no replacement for displacement. Simple physics. Its not fair to compare an FI engine and a NA engine when you're talking about "potential", since its not a level playing field. And, in the end, if you keep the induction the same the bigger the displacement the more air and fuel you can cram in to a cylinder. Run an RB26DE against an LS2 and do NA tweaks, and in the end the LS2 is going to make more power. If you level the playing field the other way and run turbos on the LS2......APS is blowing 9psi into a stock internaled LS1 and making close to 400rwkW, while still having the car noise and emissions compliant. Give it another 300cc's of capacity and keep everything else the same, and cracking the 400rwkW mark should be a non-event. How many GT-Rs are getting around making 400kW at the treads and completely road legal? I don't know enough about RB26's to know if they'll make that kind of power with the stock internals, but assuming they can I don't doubt that a TT LS2's power delivery will be a lot smoother and more progressive (given the relatively low boost and big displacement), making it an easier car to drive. Another thing: boost does not necessarily equal power. The standard SR20DET in an S14 makes 147kW at the flywheel on 7-8psi. One of my mates used to have an SR20DET making 165rwkW at 6psi. And we all know that once you exceed a turbo's efficiency threshold, you can keep winding up the boost but you'll get paltry increases at best. How is it "clear" that an RB is lighter than the LS2? The RB is a cast iron inline 6 whereas the LS2 is an all alloy V8. Inlines also tend to be heavier than their V counterparts. Mercedes Benz dropped their cast iron inline 6 for a cast iron V6 for weight reasons, and dropped the V6 for an alloy V8 for the same reasons again. And considering the LS2 has only been in production for around a year, how is it surprising that people haven't unlocked its potential and strapped it in to cars to try and achieve whatever automotive records are out there with the same frequency a 15 year old engine has? As for the LS1, there are plenty of American tuners (Callaway, Lingenfelter, etc) making big power and doing impressive things with those engines. I will agree with you on the "pointless" part, though.

An R32 GT-R is an expensive car? Not these days...... The guys didn't suck (they were running consistent 1:12's in the dry, which isn't bad for a primarily street driver. They didn't time themselves in the wet) but he was just more experienced and probably a naturally better driver. Doing track work in the wet is a lot different to doing it in the dry. I'm sure that if my colleague was in a GT-R, everyone would spend their time watching the rear view mirrors for this guy's approach rather than out the front windshield watching him slowly pull away, but if we're talking about "drivers running down cars in an 'old shitbox' that are heaps slower than the competitors", that was a prime example.

VQ baby. Its the way of the future

I like it. I wish they'd bring the V35 sedan in to Australia. While I'm not looking for a sensible car now, should I ever retire the coupe I want something Nissan and RWD to carry the family around in. If possible, hook me up with the equivalent of the Infiniti G35x (ETS 4WD sedan) and I'll whack the Stillen Roots-type supercharger on it. Liberty GT, Clubsport, etc, eat me. :-)

Yeah, I have a "startup routine" in the morning. Get in the car and start it up. Then put the belt on, turn off the TCS, and adjust the stereo. Maybe clean out the centre console of the various bits of paper that gather in there. When I see the revs drop from its "cold idle" 1500RPM and the oil pressure drops from 6kPa, I'll drive it at low RPM and load for a while. Luckily there's downhills away from my street, so I'll just select whatever gear keeps it at the speed limit without using the pedals for as long as I can.

Aside from seeing your car flaming on overrun, they'll smell it. The exhaust will smell a lot different to one that's filtering noxious chemicals like its meant to. If you've been doing it for a while, there's a good chance bits of your bumper have melted (maybe not as bad as that NS.com photo, but I have seen the bumpers of some cars with "damaged" cats that have had small spot fires around the tip after a track session. As for the "how could I get caught" thing, the mobile EPA guys have emissions gear and will pick you up in an instant. If its just some random patrol car, they'll see the flame / damaged bumper and smell something weird. They might not be able to tell if you've got a punched-out cat by looking at it, but with the bizarre smell (and the sight of flames) they've got reasonable grounds to red-sticker you because your car is dangerously unroadworthy. They'll tow your car to the RTA and/or EPA, where you'll get bent over.

Most of the "V8 lovers" (i.e. one-make lovers) I've talked to have always said the RB motors were shit, even moreso than the other V6s in Commodores (which they weren't particularly fond of either).

Pretty much everyone abuses whatever power they have. Whether you're a burger flipper at Burger King, and you're dropping an extra couple of slices of cheese on your Whopper, or one of the I.T. nerds whose hard drives don't get audited for MP3s like everyone else in the company, we're all human and we're all looking for a "bargain". I'm not saying its acceptable, especially from those who are meant to uphold the rules. All I'm saying is that its understandable.

But its still Nissan so it only aggravates Nissan enthusiasts. I figured, slotting a pushrod V8 into a GT-R would insult Skyline and Commodore fans. I still remember how much grief I copped when I posted my "ultimate car with no budget" on another forum, and I said I wanted an RX-8 with an SR20DET. The rotorheads started whinging about why I'd drop their beloved engine, and all the Nissan die-hards were wondering why I'd sully their favourite 4-pot by dropping it in a Mazda.

Reminds me of some bench racing I did with some mates a while ago, and we talked about the most offensive things we could try and make. I think I eventually won by saying I'd get an R34 GT-R, drop an LS1 (this was a pre LS2 conversation) in it, with a Supra 5 speed and a Ford 9 inch diff in a live rear axle. Top the exterior off with a set of front foggies like an Evo and a bonnet shovel...I mean scoop... like an STi, deck it on 20" chrome spinners and there are few people I couldn't offend with it.

Its not that I *can" corner harder than them. I *do* corner harder. I'm not sure if these guys are checking their mirrors at the same rate they should be on the street (every 5-8 seconds) and you go from nothing in the rear view mirror, to a vehicle on the horizon, to being able to read their license plate...its not a "might have cornered harder", since we're not playing a computer game and "catch up assistance" isn't turned on. If someone catches me I'll wave them past at the next straight section. There's not much point holding other people up (or forcing them to do something rash to pass me) and putting pressure on myself to overdrive, and so ruin it for everyone. The guy in front knows the guy behind is breathing on them, so they start trying to push harder, and for most "open day" drivers (me included) they just get sloppier and end up going slower. Its one reason why I prefer doing CAMS practice days to a regular "open day". The people on there are a bit more experienced and courteous.

Nah, I'm not that quick. I'm about average, at best. One of the guys I work with should be delivering tofu, though. We went down to Wakefield on Saturday, and there were 2 R32 GT-Rs down there. The drivers were reasonable (quick enough to catch me, anyway) but he ran down the pair of them, and manage to overtake one. The two guys came up to us after the session and rated him, saying that they could not shake him loose throughout the entire back section and could only put a decent gap on him down the main straight. The look on the faces of the guys when they found out his car was stock (aside from rims and a set of second hand tyres that were discarded from a Lotus Cup race team) was priceless. They had a hard enough time believing they got caught in the first place. I don't think its every day that a pair of light-mod GT-Rs get chased down, in the wet, by a dead stock Hyundai Elantra that's carrying a driver and his girlfriend.....

I'm not accusing her of having an offensive personality, so its quite possible she's a lovely lass, but if you're going to do modelling and put your physical attributes out there for perusal, you've got to expect negative feedback as well as positive.

Personally, I'd get a 180SX. Lighter car so it should go a bit quicker in the twisty stuff. I also really like the way it looks. But that's just me. If you want something a bit more comfortable while still being quickish, get the Skyline.

So did you get her phone number? I'd have dropped her onto the bonnet of a worked R32 GT-R and, as I was doing her doggy style with my mate blipping the throttle and giving her a BOV-job while I'm rogering her, just kept yelling "GT-R can nevar lose!".

Speaking of which, the NSCC vs WRX motorkhana is on this Sunday at Eastern Creek. It will be on the skidpan with the sprinklers turned on, so don't expect the Skylines to prove you right there. You wouldn't want slicks on a khana anyway (we'll talk dry). They take too long to heat up, and since most motorkhana courses only last half a minute they'd only be up to temperature by the time you were braking for the garage.

Try cruising around town in 4th gear at 60km/hr next to an Excel doing the same thing. You should be off-boost at that speed and engine load, and I'm guessing that a lot of people would be commuting in Sydney with this gear / speed combo. Leave both cars in gear, and mash the throttle. Don't pop the cars into 2nd, since if you read my post clearly (which I'm kind of suspecting you didn't, so let me bold all the salient points for you) I'm talking about in-gear acceleration in the middle gears, or standard "around town" kind of driving. I'd hazard to say, from my experiences driving the WRX, that the Excel will get away from the WRX until it can climb up until the 3500RPM (at which point you've probably run out of distance in metropolitan Sydney). In the same situation, it will not get away from a turbo Silvia. I know that most people would drop it into 2nd rather than being lazy about it, but I was using it to illustrate my point about the WRX's power delivery. And I leave my car in 4th or 5th and overtake people all the time, but that's only because I can.

No shit. I know the Liberty is relatively light, and a fair amount lighter than its predecessor. Unlike some people I actually do a little research before talking about stuff. I wasn't going to bring power / weight in since I know they're comparable, which I guess casts light on a lot of the things you think you "know". I wasn't comparing the car, I was comparing the engine. The Liberty will have very different gearing to suit its GT design, and that's going to blunt acceleration. It also only has 5 gears, so even if the top speeds were the same (if I remember correctly the Liberty has a higher V-Max) it'd still be slower through the gears. I wasn't referring to any of these things, though. I was referring to the way the engine feels as you throttle it through the rev range. How much more torque it makes in the low to mid range (even with its less accelerative gearing) and how smoothly the power swells from the low end, rather than having to wait for something to happen like with the WRX's motor. If they were to drop a Liberty GT's EJ20T into a WRX and keep pretty much everything else the same, chances are I'd be driving a Subaru now.

Here here. I've seen it too many times at the various track days I've been at. There will be plenty of people talking themselves up beforehand, but only a percentage of them show up. And those that do are only good at bench racing too. Get them into a bucket seat, and they're useless. Its always the same. These guys have really nicely turned out cars (performance and appearance-wise), with their drivers strutting around before their first session. Once they get on the track, though, they get demolished by people in lower powered cars in the corners, but when they hit the straights they'll stomp it and won't let anyone past, because their egos won't let them get overtaken. The amount of times I've gotten caught behind a Skyline or WRX around the back section of Wakefield or Eastern Creek and ridden their arses from 3-4 turns into the lap until we reach the main straight, where they step on it and put a couple of carlengths on me....its beyond counting. I end up having to do stuff I don't want to do on an open day, like outbraking them into turns and diving up the inside. Most of these guys who make a surfeit of power are also the guys who jump on the brakes 10-20% earlier than they have to, which means if I don't make the braking manouvre I'm all over them by the exit to Turn 1-2 again.

What ever happened to a nice pair of pumps or FM boots?

How can you say that a WRX "handles" better than a GTS-t when you comment on the WRX's tendency to plough understeer in the next paragraph? Stock WRXs handle like shit, but grip really well. For people who can't drive and can't tell the difference between handling and traction, the WRX is a much more enjoyable car to drive since it raises the limits before it goes completely pear shape, rather than improves chassis response at and above a lower limit. But please, enlighten me. What exactly is your experience with both vehicles in a handling context? You asserting that a WRX has good handling, and then talking about drag racing for the rest of the paragraph, brought a smile to my face though. You then accusing other people of ignorance got me laughing.

So basically, if your induction note is anything but whisper quiet, then there's reasonable grounds to assume you've got an filter or BOV which might not be ADR compliant, and you have to pop the hood. If you have a visible FMIC and you can't produce an engineer's certificate, there's another modification that could breach ADRs. In a nutshell, most of us pretty much have got no grounds to refuse.