scathing

1:20 is not unachievable for your first time out. There's a big difference between winding road driving and track driving, and to be honest I always find its the touge heroes that are the relatively slowest. Its a different skillset, and so when they don't set the blistering times their street abilities lead them to believe they can achieve then they get frustrated and over drive the car....making their times worse. People have said "don't worry about the times, have fun". I'd somewhat agree. A time matters, as its your yardstick. Without one, you have no idea if you're getting better or not. My advice regarding a target is to go with no preconceptions. Go out there and run your first session as hard as you can, and use that time as your baseline. Then set yourself a time a few seconds below. Ideally, go with someone with track experience. Wakefield has some corners where the line isn't obvious. That, more than anything, will see your times tumble. Do the first session by yourself to get a feel for the surface grip and layout, and then grab someone or follow someone who knows what they're doing. That way when they're describing a corner you can visualise. BHDave's tips are good, but without seeing the track its probably not as helpful as it is for someone who's been out once or twice. Print it out, and maybe have a read of it after you've done 2-3 sessions so what he's saying will make more sense. My advice on the line is that, of the two lines between the Kink and Turn 2 that he describes, take the "straight" line. The wide line requires better brake and steering modulation. Given your justifiable fear of the corner, its not something to experiment with until you're very comfortable with the two bends. The other thing to remember is that the smoother you are, the faster and more consistent you are even though it looks and feels slower. When I first took my car down there I drove the doors off the thing, squealing the tyres and fighting the wheel...and I ran 1:23. These days I'll do that time on my cool-down lap. In that regard, Sir Jackie Stewart's trackwork tips to James May is a good watch.

Hektik flutterz is nothing without a dose pipe.

Leaking BOV (it doesn't necessarily need to be aftermarket) or a dirty AFM are the two most common causes for the issues you're experiencing. Since everyone's covered the BOV, have you changed your air filter recently? A lot of people describe similar issues (along with the car running really sluggishly off the line) after they've cleaned a reusable filter, because they've over oiled it or haven't let it dry and some excess has ended up on the AFM sensor. As an aside, you let the engine drop to 500RPM when changing down?

One of the benefits of the Americans getting hold of a car is that we can get some English-speaking people with big budgets to do big build-ups, which is inevitably good for us. A good case in point is this piece I found on the SCCW site, who are building up a NA VQ35DE for the Castrol Syntec Top Shop Challenge. Its a pretty interesting read. They've basically tapped Cosworth Engineering to give them a hand by using their off-the-shelf parts, and as a NA fan I'd love to see how this thing pans out.

I'm not familiar with ANDRA's rules, but could you stick a cage in it and run it as a drag car?

I will bear it in mind. Given that I should be able to scrape 10 RWD cars together, for the same price I was thinking about arranging a drift course for half a day instead.

Nissan said the car would be cheaper than a 911. That's probably what's holding the price the car is worth, to meet that "requirement". Considering all the dealers are marking them up like a bitch already, and people are paying it, clearly the car could be sold for more. I hope that they do build a PM platform sedan, to help recoup the costs....and build something to smash the Panamera.

The car's too girly for a girl? I was going to suggest a Toyota Sera as well. It doesn't get that much girlier than that, but then girls look good in girly cars. A Z32 is OK, but I think its a bit too big and the visibility out the back isn't exactly great either.

You did read the part in the original post where the car is for the girlfriend, right?

If you just want quarter mile runs, the G-Tac is cheaper.

Aim for silence. Most dead stock turbo cars have a near-inaudible turbo. Knowing that you have to run a quiet and stock looking exhaust with a sidemount means you know you're not going to be making big numbers, so work around the idea that you're just going for more power than NA rather than lots of power. The turbocharger muffles exhaust noise to a certain extent, so if you got two proper mufflers in your exhaust then it'll be quieter than NA. A small bb turbo sucking through a factory airbox with low boost should be inaudible unless you happen to be right next to a cop with their window down at speeds low enough for wind noise not to muffle it. With the factory plastic piping and plumb-back BOV, its not likely to make a noise when you lift off the throttle either. Its going to have to be a sleeper. That's the whole point to avoid the cops. Going for low boost and all these NA restrictions, which choke the top end and outright power, also means that the power delivery should be reasonably smooth and predictable...which means your car also obeys the spirit of the P plater restrictions that is trying to get cars that are difficult to drive out of the hands of novices. It won't stand up as a defence, of course, but if you do get sentenced you could ask for consideration based on that sensibility. On the other hand bear in mind that, if you've got a stealth turbo and you're not allowed to drive it, you've basically got no insurance. Even if you don't have comprehensive if you collect someone, there's a possibility that your CTP won't pay out. Getting stuck with someone's medical bills will practically f**k you for life. As such, I wouldn't do it. Learn to drive what you've got and be patient.

The other thing, of course, is that you can get Tein Super Streets for a couple of hundred bucks more and have a "brand name". The V35/Z33s are still at a price where the people buying them are willing to spend a bit extra for quality. Not being driven by P platers is also a factor in current owners having the money to spend up.

There's not much out there with a swoopy coupe body for that price. You could try convincing her to get a Celica or a Paseo, or an Integra or a Prelude. How about a NX coupe or an Exa?

I've got mates who use Race Chrono as a lap timer. They're happy with it, and with the data output you can plot graphs and stuff.

Couldn't get enough people, so the day has been cancelled.

If you were to run a low mount with a heat shield, the turbo would be near impossible to spot. NA cars have heat shields on their exhast manifolds too. You could run a reasonable flowing dump, high flow cat and good mid muffler. Just leave something stock-looking on the rear, and make sure its quiet. Just make sure you stock-looking intake piping, which is all hard plastic rather than shiny metal, and with a standard plumb-back BOV. Paint the sidemount matte black and, if they ask, tell them its an auto tranny cooler because you like to tow stuff (getting a tow bar would help with that).

Yeah, but they don't look the same. I'm guessing that's her prime motivation for getting a 180SX.

V-Spec details Sweet.

R&T has done a comparo of some of the best sports cars available in the US. Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Nissan GT-R Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR Aston Martin DBS Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 BMW M3 Coupe Lotus Exige S 240 Porsche 911 GT2 Audi R8 And put them to work on an Autocross (pretty much a big motorkhana course), "road course", a track, and a high speed oval. The only cars that beat the GT-R were on R-Comps (the Gallardo and the GT2), and the Viper ACR is actually a proper track day special...and came with its own engineer to set the thing up for each course. http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?se...article_id=6944

Yep. Only 6 episodes this season.

I've seen people fit rims of this size on S15s, which means they might should on R33s / R34s. You might get some more takers if you put it in the general For Sale thread.

Nissan Japan has to honour the warranty it sold you the car with. Nissan Australia, which is a completely separate entity, does not. Its like buying any other item that doesn't have an international warranty - if you want to make a warranty claim you must send it back to the country of purchase to do it. That's not a hassle with a laptop, but its a bit of a pain if you're talking about a car. Nissan Japan has limited sway over what Australia does, due to their legal independence. Its already been said that Nissan Japan would love to sell a couple of vehicles down under, but Nissan Australia won't play ball. I talked to one of the guys who ran a 350Z in the Australia GT Production race series a few years back. He was in contact with Nissan and Nismo Japan, who wanted to provide technical support since no-one had campaigned a 350Z in a proper race series yet and they wanted the data and to test certain aftermarket products (Pilkington imported an '02 Z33 before they were sold in Aus). However, the rules stated that the racers had to purchase their goods from the local company, and Nissan Australia refused to sell the parts. Pilkington didn't want sponsorship / backing from Nissan Australia. He even offered to pay a retail price + shipping so it wouldn't cost Nissan Aus a cent. It'd just be a standard business transaction. They refused anyway. There's plenty of reasons why I've shaved all the Nissan badges off the exterior of my car, and its this anti-motorsport and anti-enthusiast attitude coupled with the two-faced uselessness of their dealer network that's the major ones. Nissan Australia won't get my support, and if people keep mistaking my car for an Audi TT or a Porsche 911 I won't bother correcting them.

If you're looking for track wheels, you can't go wrong at the price. Near TE37 strength and weight, but not the cost. If I had the money, I'd buy them. (free bump)

Yeah, he could also have argued that the LIDAR reading was affected by the mini gravity field generated by the weight of a Z32.

Clarkson loves the car, but he'll still say its uncool. It has the "wrong" badge for the price, and its too technical and anemic at around-town speeds, and not about "soul" or some other crap. There's plenty of cars he likes and respects and wants, but aren't cool.