scathing

Hmm..... Undoubtedly it could have had some effect on his capacity to stop the car. Alcohol and cannabis are known to affect people's reactions and co-ordination. But you know what else had an effect on Mr Holt's capacity to stop the car before the accident occurred? A massive hole in the f**king ground that didn't used to be there. If there was no hole, he would have stopped without falling into rushing water. Actually, he wouldn't have even needed to stop, and that would have removed the possibility of an accident altogether. Paul Menzies can go f**k himself.

If you're willing to swap pads out before a track day and pop your streeters back in afterwards, then do so. It'll cost you less in the long run if you do enough track days to justify it. Street pads tend to overheat and break down really quickly on the track, killing their life, and track pads are expensive to just commute on and tend to have bad feel and squeal when cold, require activation heat to start working, and cost more. If you're willing to go as far as working on the brakes, its also quite easy to replace your rotors at the same time so I'd suggest running track rotors too.

Firepower are a bunch of dodgy c**ts. SMH has quite a few articles on them, including links to arms manufacturers and dictators. Dan's been threatened with lawsuits a couple of times, mostly by homeopathy crackpots, and they never come through. Unfortunately, Firepower has financial and political clout so they might try and do something about it. Dan's got my full support. He's got a strong science mindset, and a good bullshit detector.

Yeah, apparently he was on pot and booze. But he didn't crash into a tree on the side of the road. He fell down a massive f**king hole in the middle of it. Trying to use his intoxication to defend the government's criminal negligence occasioning death is just wrong.

As long as its not branded as a GT-R and they tune it and set it up accordingly, I'm all for it. Its going to be an Infiniti, which is more luxury and less racing. Maybe call it an Infiniti R38 or something, and position it against the M5 / E55 / RS6 / XFR. Don't make it the last word in speed like the GT-R is, but set it up as a good tourer. With the GT-R's ability do do 300km/hr on the autobahn and allow the passengers to hold a conversation, add more sound deadening and let everyone in the car talk to each other. Tune it for more midrange and redo the diff ratios so it would be noticably slower than the halo car at full pelt but a more "relaxed" drive on a freeway. Soften the suspension out, but keep it adaptive to give it a good ride/handling compromise for its class. Make the interior less techno-race and more luxo, as befitting an Infiniti. The R35 GT-R already shits on the Audi R8 and the BMW M6 when it comes to being a sports coupe - its time for Nissan/Infiniti to release a luxury tourer to take a second dump on the Germans. The "touring" V35 is softer and more comfortable, but slower, than the "sports" Z33 it shares the FM platform with, and I think the R35 and whatever this four door PM platform car should have the same relative ethos'. Nissan being able to leverage the time and money its thrown into developing the GT-R into another model may bring the costs of both down. And, I think we can agree, a cheaper GT-R is a good thing for us mere mortals.

Source: SMH

According to this comparo by Option, rigidity is more important than weight. Not only did it punch out a better absolute lap time, but it was better on the tyres and deformed less so the suspension could do its work better, which means you could probably run more consistent fast laps. Since I doubt you're going to be doing one-lap dashes and pulling over to let the tyres cool before trying to set another hot lap, consistency might be relevant to your goals. Assuming the rims are the same type and the rigidity is constant, it boils down to whether the smaller sidewalled tyre on the bigger rim makes enough of a difference. The smaller rim will have cheaper tyres, of course, which means you can afford to get more laps in to try running a faster time.

If you don't track the car, I've heard that the Eibach progressive-rate springs are an excellent compromise spring for street use. I used to use Koni Sport dampers and I loved them. I know a guy in Melbourne that was similarly fond of his Tokico dampers / Tanabe springs so you probably can't go wrong with either setup.

You think that because it runs a better short spring straight line time, that its comparable on the track?

How's the tinfoil hat working out for you? If Top Gear was afraid of being sued, they wouldn't say the things they did about Rover (the guys at Rover even blamed Top Gear for their demise), or when they reviewed those Korean econoboxes and panned all of them, or what they say about Americans, or the French, or Australians. Top Gear's picked the Vauxhall (Holden) Monaro over a Jaguar S-Type R on Top Gear before. Clarkson hates Australians. He hates Americans. He hates Vauxhalls. Yet he still picked the American engined Aussie car from a povo manufacturer over one of the classic British gentleman's marque. The R32 GT-R also made Clarkson's Best Cars Ever Made list. I think it even came Top 10. Clarkson also has weird tastes in cars. He likes cars with "soul" and "passion" and is fun to drive, rather than the technically more superior one. If you watch Top Gear, he rarely ever takes the better value for money or faster car if he finds it "boring".

Funnily enough, yeah. But it was about 10 years ago. I once semi-accidentally (it start off as an accident, but I kept it going) pulled a big powerslide in front of an unmarked, and got let off with a warning. If I tried that now, I probably would have gotten "shot while resisting arrest" or something.

Yes, you can. The Z33 and V35's suspension is identical.

Maybe they're getting kickbacks from car thieves to turn a blind eye. Considering the amount they charge tenants, daylight robbery isn't foreign to them.

What's the recourse if you damage one of these cars?

I don't believe they deserved to die for carjacking someone, or driving dangerously afterwards. I also don't believe that their death was a tragedy for anyone bar the truck driver, who may have to go through life with the mistaken apprehension that he killed someone. For the owner of the stolen car, as people have put it the vehicle is "just a lump of metal" so its loss is no great thing.

The R35's Nordshleife time is fractionally faster than the Z06 / 997 Turbo. Considering the Z06 made it into 16th place and the GT3 RS is meant to be as quick on the track as a Turbo (the Turbo time was in the wet so it doesn't count) I think it'll struggle for anything above the low teens. And since there's the regular street tyre option (Bridgestone RE070) as well as the optional "sports" street tyre (Bridgestone RE-01R) it'll also depend on what setup the Top Gear guys eventually drive the car with.

If someone I paid to teach me to drive grabbed my steering wheel, there's a list of things I'd potentially do in reaction. Making my car go faster isn't on it.

Its not a V35, but its close enough. 2003 VQ35DE in a Z33 JWT Popcharger 5/16" Intake Manifold Spacer Motordyne MREV2 Reflashed factory ECU with higher redline Unichip Piggyback TopSpeed Extractors Crawford Catalytic Converters HiTech Exhaust I've got several exhaust leaks at the moment, and the car's feeling a bit off, so I'm probably making less right now.

If it makes you feel better, the APS TT VQ35DE (with the APS 2.5" exhaust) has the same mean burbling noise that an RB with a turbo-back does.

Me too kthx

Yeah, the engine is basically "free" (its a kit car so you build it yourself) so most people opt for big American V8s. I went through Kangaroo Valley yesterday. I did see some sick cars going down the Bulli Pass as I was going up after going through the Nasho, but I didn't go in to Wollongong itself.

Yeah, most of the Euro track day specials do so. However, your average HWP isn't likely to see those things cruising around, which lets them get away with a shitload. A guy I know with an Elise has a stupid loud exhaust, and its lowered, but he gets few cop hassles. There have been a few STi drivers that have had cops threaten to defect them for rolling on the stock Bridgestone RE070's as well, since one edge is semi slick. I've had some cops give me a hard time for my Falken RT215s, but at the same time I did get pulled over in the wet once on pretty worn Dunlop D02Gs and they didn't say anything after they gave my tyres a very hard look.

Depends on what "public" you're talking about. Your Average Joe in a Falcodore, who reads a bit too much Daily Telegraph and watches far too much ACA, wouldn't know SAU from a bar of soap. Having club signage just tells them you're in some illegal underground street racing gang, and you probably hijack trucks with a Honda Civic. Having a URL on your car just means, aside from driving a loud and obnoxious hoon mobile, that you're probably some internet hacker that's played so many computer games that you're a homicidal maniac. As for cops, some of them might be knowledgeable enough about this place to know that the majority of the guys here are enthusiasts but not idiots.....but quite a few cops think an R-Comp tyre isn't street legal so I wouldn't bank on it.

Gotta work man. I'm also booked in for Eastern Creek on Friday, and if I do too many track days in a row I'll end up broke again (like I was in November).