scathing

I believe there have been a few people in Aus, but I don't know them myself. Its very popular in the US. I don't believe in nitrous as a powertrain mod for street cars. If I do something that makes more power, I want it to work all the time rather than with a specific limit. Especially when, unlike petrol, you can't refill that easily. Just get a stealth purge instead of some showy skirt-lifting FnF job. If you do get pulled over by the cops and its not looking good, just purge the entire tank. Hopefully inhaling it will make the cop more jovial, and less likely to bust you as a result.

Yep. I'm pretty sure the supercharged Merc engines have them as well. And that restriction causes pumping losses. Stick a restriction in your exhaust, and see what happens to your power output. It's irrelevant whether that power "loss" has come from something attached to the crank, or something stuck in the exhaust. A power drop caused by an induction charger is still a power drop. Its misleading to say superchargers "draw power to make power" as a pro against turbochargers, because the latter does the exact same thing. Turbochargers are more efficient because they draw less power to give the same gain, but its not the free lunch some people make it out to be.

HKS makes a single turbo option that comes with a cat. APS' Single Turbo is not available in Australia, and doesn't come with a cat. I think the other US single turbo kits are similarly cat-free. I've driven a HKS ST 350Z, and it was quite tasty. Pulled 235rwkW at 3-4psi and 266rwkW at 7-8psi through a GT3037. Unlike the twins, it ramps up more aggressively and so feels more fun. It'll make around 215-220kW in stock trim. Any more than that and you'll need to bring injectors, as it retains the stock items. It'll cost you around $8K (probably more now that the Aussie dollar has tanked) for the kit. Install-wise you could try it yourself, but the FM engine bay doesn't have much room. Bang for buck, your best option is a centrifugal supercharger. Most of them just sit in the factory airbox location, so require a minimum of under-bonnet modifications to make it fit. You might need to modify / remove your engine cover to clear the belts, but the guy who had the ST used to have a HKS supercharger setup and did it in his garage. It makes about the same power as the HKS ST, as it comes with bigger injectors. Dialling up more power after you do exhaust bolt-ons will involve changing pulleys, which isn't as flexible as using a boost controller on a turbo. The kit also costs the same if I remember correctly. I'm not sure if its still available, as I'd heard that Rotrex (the guys who designed the supercharger) were suing HKS over IP violations or something. The intercooler is only a half width front mount for both kits. Given the relative lack of airflow on a V35, that's not a bad thing as it means you can get air onto the radiator. It also means you could fit an oil cooler on the other side. CAPA offers a Vortech kit for the car, though, if you want to get something a bit more local. Since you're planning money for mods, support mods should also be considered. You should be able to get away with the stock clutch at 230rwkW, but I'd budget an upgrade anyway. The 280rwkW TTs normally make the stock clutches slip under hard use, and burn them up within 6 months. An oil cooler would also be suggested. If your car doesn't have a VLSD, I'd look into some kind of LSD as well. I don't mind the stock viscous - it doesn't really single peel that badly and its very streetable. I've had situations leaving driveways where one wheel sits in the air - it'll free-spin for a second or two before the diff hardens up and sends some drive to the other wheel.

Power Enterprise has a kit for the R35 that uses a pair of centrifugal superchargers along with two turbochargers.

Isn't it "kinda embarrassing" driving a non-turbo R33 anyway? Not quite as embarrassing as driving a Skyline with a slusho, but its still not something to go bragging about. That's a very slippery slope you're yelling down. The very same thing could be said about people tarting up entry model cars as show ponies and dyno queens, when the money spent could have been put into buying a good car to begin with. To the OP, when I find that traction is not high on my priority lists I tend to use a bit of this on the tread face. Unlike diesel or other lubricants, getting caught by the cops spraying this stuff onto your tyres isn't as plainly illegal....not that you'd be doing such a thing on a public road. It also scrubs off pretty quickly too, so after you engage in your drag strip warm-ups and go home it should return the tyre to normal.

Sure. There are a couple of aftermarket cars that have been twincharged, and Volkswagen has a production one. Benefits are no lag at low RPM while getting more power down low thanks to the supercharger, and at high RPM you can enjoy the better efficiencies of a turbocharger. The problem is getting it all to work together smoothly.

So do turbochargers.

Bobby's right. The "Touge Battle" will be the two "feature" cars only. However, the weekend is about letting people go practice their skills, with driver trainers available if wanted, on the circuit. If you go and pay the $120, you'll drive. Just not for any measured ranking, whether it be position or time.

Shock does different things to different people. Some people just phase out. P.S. A half hour response by Sydney Rail is pretty quick in my books.

Details on the Touge Battle are finally released.

If you're only interested in a straight line (I've got no idea what "0.5" means, aside from lowering your ET) then sway bars will do pretty much nothing. Of course, if you're only interested in a straight line you bought the wrong car. Simplest mod is tyres. Pop a set of cheater slicks on the car and you'll be able to dump it from a much higher RPM.

The guys on 350Z-Tech say that the motor might be "cleanable", which could restore functionality. Walk-through (for Z's, anyway) here.

It'd be a pain in the arse. All the electronics are specific to the trans (since the ECU controls so much of it). For the amount of effort it'd cost to get it running almost properly, you may as well have bought a car with the right transmission.

Some of my mates have random soft toys tied to their tow hooks on their cars. Mine are stuck to my windshield.

"Everyone" must be ignorant. NA cars are louder than turbo cars, since the turbo acts as another exhaust restriction (i.e. muffler). Didn't your girlfriend every tell you that size doesn't matter? As gimp said, if yours is that quiet it probably has proper baffled mufflers instead of just a straight-through one.

When I get details, I'll post them up. If this touge battle concept ends up being a good idea, it might be worth going down to watch.

Yeah, didn't think so. My current plan is to drop a 10" sub into the 350Z's factory location (behind the driver's seat). In the spare tyre well I'll put the amp for the sub, 2 cans of tyre weld, an electric tyre pump, a tow rope and jumper leads, and probably a 2kg extinguisher. I'll probably leave the scissor jack in there just in case.

Circuit Club is looking at running a Touge Battle type event there as well. There aren't too many details available yet.

Yep. The road itself is smooth, but its on the side of a hill so there's a lot of gradient change. There'll be no timing on the day (the MDTC guys don't permit it, anyway) and the instructor:driver ratio will be higher. It's about learning, not going flat out.

As an opening special, Circuit Club has decided to book out a WHOLE weekend at the new MDTC, to get as many people as possible out there to try out the new revelation of a circuit! Date: 7th and 8th March Where: Marulan Driver Training Centre Cost: $120 per person per day Includes: Driver Training Maximum of 30 drivers per day For all bookings, please email [email protected]! You can also check out the incar laps here - http://wp.circuitclub.com.au/?p=488

For all the haters: Source So instead of getting a sports sedan that Nissan enthusiasts apparently don't want, we're going to get hybrids. Far more popular....

Those "long ram" cold air intakes are really popular on NA cars. The AFM stays in the OEM location, and the pipe design puts the filter in the airflow and routes around the car's bits pieces to get to the AFM. You do run a higher risk of picking up water, since they're inevitably low mounted into the grille.

How long have you been tracking the V35 for? If its not long, you could probably drive / setup around it. I had the Z for a good 3 years before I took the spare out on track days (I only ever removed it on my first track day prior to the mentioned incidents). I found the Z quite understeery stock, and I doubt the V is much better. Maybe shifting the weight forward would be a good thing. My sway bars and coilovers are configured accordingly. Dropping a shedload of weight from the rear and chasing a new PB on a damp track after expecting a certain balance is probably what caused the majority of my issues. All my spinouts were during trail braking, usually when clipping a ripple strip (most notably trying to hit the higher level of the 2 step ripple strip at the left-hand Turn 3 on the old Wakefield surface), and a failed attempt to powerslide out of it. It wasn't a case of having traction on the way in and stepping out the tail under power. I found similar issues when doing the same thing with the spare in, but only on 1/3 of a tank of fuel. Putting the ballast back in fixed it for me in both cases, but it could be my lack of skill. Sounds like a perfect time to go do some skids and test out the balance of the car. On a private road, of course.

I've got a 10" shallow sub sitting behind the driver's seat. When I replace the sub, I'll install a proper sized one into the factory location. Its power amp will go in the boot somewhere, though. That said, if I get a custom enclosure for a sub to go into the spare tyre well I could convert the existing sub box into a second glove box. My car doesn't have much storage space, so that could be a good idea. I'm just not sure how well the rear mounted sub will work for my application. I carry stuff in my boot all the time and I want to retain the OEM "floor board" (that sits over the spare) and keep the same amount of space. How muffled is the sub going to be with all my shit on it?