scathing

Hey Gary. I'm looking at replacing all my bushes in my 350Z. Do you have any suggestions on what I can replace with polyurethane without affecting NVH too much, and which ones I'd be better off sticking to rubber with?

And, what do you know, it's for sale. Dream Car: Pagani Zonda F Roadster Next Car: FPV F6 Typhoon or BMW 135i coupe

Thomas, are you getting a really good price on it? If not, I'd probably get the Nismo adjustable short shifter. If you're just pootling around town you can leave it at the factory length (or extend it if you have an aftermarket knob like mine, which lowers the overall height) so the leverage makes it easier to shift, but then you can drop it down when you want to go for a thrash.

Its quite funny. I've also got a B&M short shifter, which is absolute rubbish because it rattles like a bitch past around 3000RPM. When people get in my car and ask what that rattling is, I have to ask "which one? The low RPM one or the high RPM one?" All the stuff I've seen for the short shifters have the same part for the Z33 and V35.

You can't do powertrain mods (but its not heavily enforced since I know P platers with mods on their cars that haven't had cop hassles). You can still strip the guts out of the car to improve your power/weight by modifying the second half of that ratio. But, it depends on your definition of "performance". You can modify your suspension and brakes to get more cornering speed. However, since you're driving an auto NA R33, I'd suggest saving your money until you come off your restricted license and then buying a sports car. Learn to drive it to its limits, before increasing them.

Anything can be done, with the application of enough money. American muscle cars should be V8s though. If I wanted to "mix it up" (I dig old Knight Rider "F body" Trans Ams too) I'd drop in a Lexus or Infiniti V8, and then add boost.

Yep. My engine has sick LS1 internals that are custom laser cut to fit into my reinforced block, and I've cut up 2 sets of S2000 cams so my car has VTEC too. Don't even start me on the turbos that came off a Veyron.....

Or WOT-CAT

I'm not going FI so I don't need a high capacity clutch, and the lighter the flywheel the better off I am going to be. I'm doing my current times on a JUN flywheel (the same mass as your JWT, and lighter than the Nismo) and the stock clutch, and after 130,000km the clutch is still going strong. There's no slip in it and I've tested it by going full throttle at low RPM in 6th to put as much load on it as possible. Its my gearbox I munched. The only reason I'm replacing the clutch/flywheel at all is because, theoretically, it should be near end-of-life and the labour costs for doing it is high.

Pro Concept is shipping their spare 'box to a transmissions specialist for inspection. Upon their approval, its going into my car. I'm going to give them a call about the cost for the Nismo twin-plate kit today too. The Aussie distributor sold their last one recently so I'll have to wait, which is OK since I still need the box checked out. And the Nankangs are not very soft at all. I did half a day's tracking on them, before I blew the box, but you couldn't tell by looking at the tyres. I've got plenty of spaces free for my track day. Bobby, as a SAU mod are you OK with me creating a post for it? evil_weevil's already been signed up via a colleague of his, but I've got about 15 spaces free. We're limiting ourselves to 25 cars, which means there will be lots of track time for everyone.

Its not her fault VTAK kicked in while she was behind you. And its a CRV Sport. If it wasn't meant to go fast, they wouldn't have called it a Sport.

Have you used the RAYS Duraluminium nuts? Just wondering if the BC ones are superior to the ones I've got now.

My understanding is that every non-dual-mass flywheel "chatters" to a certain extent. My JUN one chatters, especially after I've given the car a thrash and it gets hot. I got it slightly used (under 10,000km) and the previous owner said it chattered too. As Bobby has said, everyone says these single mass lightweight items tend to make that noise.

I've put myself as a maybe. If I get my driveline issues resolved, I'm in. V35 vs Z33. Epic battles. Since you said you're not on semis, I'll come out on Nankangs again. I want to see if I can drop into the 1:12's. Otherwise, my girlfriend and I have started to run our own "no frills" track days (i.e. no timing, no "proper" driver trainers) so I'll put a shout out for our next one.

I ruled the R32 out because its age, and the R33 because of insurance and running costs. The R33 is also relatively big and heavy, which seemed outside the brief (mind you, so its the Forester but at least it has practicality on its side).

Inner city these days. The car's going to Pro Concept tomorrow so they can drain the gearbox fluid and see what lumpy bits fall out. I'll need to have ordered a clutch within a day or two of that, once I work out what I'm doing. My head says "Nismo twin plate Coppermix", my heart says "ATS twin plate carbon", but my wallet says "JWT single plate".

If practicality is also a concern, Subaru Forester GT. Otherwise, if fun and smallness are the main concerns, I saw some RenaultSport Clios advertised for $13K and they are heaps better than an N14 SSS. More power, less weight, more luxury items, a lot newer than the Pulsar. I'm hearing a lot of wanting to retain money so I'll assume mods are out. I've owned an N15 SSS and driven an N14 a few times, as well as test driven a Clio in the hills, and the Clio is by far the most enjoyable. Aside from the French build quality, you can't lose. Holden Astra SRi Turbos are starting at $15K advertised. With the turbo torque it'll be a bit more easy to drive fast than the Clio, but from the test drive I had it feels slow as the torque curve is so flat and its more remote in the steering. Still, like the Clio, its a Motor Magazine BFYB winner so it can't be that bad. Pretty sure you can find an SR20DET powered S13 for that price, but its age may put him off. If he's looking at Starlet GTs he's got no problem with early-to-mid 90's cars, though.

Thinking about sourcing this clutch/flywheel combo as well. I'm looking for a new clutch, since I broke my gearbox, and I was considering a Nismo twin plate Coppermix. Unfortunately the cost is extremely high, as you can imagine, and as I have no goals (or funding) to go forced induction I doubt I need it. My JUN flywheel rattles like a bitch so I'm not fussed about the noise. How do you find the pedal feel and action? I need to decide on a clutch/flywheel combo soon, so I look forward to hearing about yours.

Diesel engine with LPG + nitrous = win

That comment is so stupid it wouldn't even have been made on ns.com. A race is meant to be a competition, and its not really competitive if you have a level playing field. If they ran a stock Civic against a GT-R I wouldn't consider it a race either. Parking a family hatch against a supercar isn't fair either. If they were running 2 cars (1 modified drag car, 1 standard street car) side by side then yeah, whatever. If its not a race (or they're racing against a time set for each car rather than for position against each other) then yeah, who cares. I'm more of a "who cares at all"? Maybe I should post footage of me running a red light on a bicycle in front of a Veyron, and then say how my two wheeler is faster than the world's quickest car because I "beat" it.

The game has moved on, that's all. As you'd expect, with progress. If you compare them all back to back, of course the cars are better and quicker the longer you go. I had my first drive of a GT-R two weeks ago (a light tune R33) and, to be quite honest, I was disappointed. I get the feeling most of my issues with the car, which was the handling, was a setup rather than platform issue. However, after all the GT-R hype it was a letdown. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't good. Mind you, I've come out of cars that are only 3-4 years old, and so they're several generations more developed. I'm sure if I drove that R33 against a VS HSV or something of is era, I'd probably understand a lot better.

Sporty Beetles FTW!

And there's where you're wrong. Read my first post again. "If the displacement is equal, you will never get a NA car to match a FI car once you start modifying both." I've added part of it in bold since you're too blind to work it out yourself. Try and actually read what I'm saying before going off half cocked. It'll make you look like less of one. And I know that NA can make more power than FI. A stock S2000 makes more power than a stock S15, even with the same displacement. Once you wind the wick up on both, as I once again said in that first post you'll either get outstripped in cost/gains against FI and you'll have a car nowhere near as drivable, which means anywhere aside from a dyno or the Internet you're still going to lose.

If you want to stay NA, there's only so many engines you can choose from. If you're looking at staying in the family, bolt in a V8. If I remember correctly, a VH45DE can be tuned to make mad power while still being NA. I'm pretty sure they'll go out to 6.0L. Nismo's 380RS track car makes 400ps from its 3.8L engine, and the bits required to build it are available if you've got the coin. There's a company in the US that offers 4.2L crate VQs, but they're set up for FI. You could use their sleeve kit and get custom, NA-oriented, bits to obtain the same displacement but with a high compression ratio and low reciprocating mass. Bang-for-buck for the engine itself (so ignoring the costs install said engine into the car) its hard to go past a Chev small block.

Righto. So neither the powerplant nor the drivetrain from the GT500 GT-R is shared with the R35. So I'm wondering if Yo-Yo can tell us which series the R35 GT-R is homologated for. I'm actually curious, because I'd love to see how the car goes and what its racing against. The only motorsport I've heard the R35 do is Targa Tas, so far.