scathing

In terms of finish quality, its chalk and cheese. I'm pretty sure mxfly's Fuji catback is still relatively shiny, and its been on the car for longer than I've had mine. The build quality is also nicer, with nicer welds. Noise-wise, to be honest I prefer the sound of the HiTech...but that is a very personal choice. The HiTech (by itself) has a much lower-pitched rumble that suits the "muscle car" feel of the Z33 / V35. The Fuji gives the car a more breathier, higher pitched, shriek that sounds more racecar-ish. That said, now that I've put on the extractors and high-flow cats my engine's gotten a lot raspier and with a higher-toned note. I really miss my old rumble when I'm driving through the midrange, but I really like how the car screams in the top end now. Power-wise, there's stuff-all difference between any of the exhausts. I've seen quite a few Z33 dyno graphs with just catbacks, as well as manufacturer claims, and there's "dyno error" between them. When I had my HiTech and Unichip only car up on the dyno with a mate who had a APS True Dual & Unichip equipped Z33, there was about half a rwkW between us in his favour. I don't think mxfly has dyno'ed his car, but he's not running aftermarket management yet but does have more pipework.

Yeah, its not going to stay beautiful for long. It discolours pretty easily. My constant track work and skidpanning probably hasn't helped, since I don't do anything to clean them. When I wash the car I'll hose them down, but I don't suds them with a sponge or do anything special to the chrome. Mine looks pretty ratty, but it also makes it look stock. The rear muffler is also relatively small (its about 1/2 to 2/3 the volume of the stocker) so its really hard to see under the bar. It doesn't look shiny though. I don't have any shots of the lower part of the rear bar, so there's nothing I can post. This photo was taken back in 2004 (about 5 months after it was installed) and you can see that filthy strip running down the middle and on the pipework, that clearly wasn't there when I installed it. I can only assume that the entire rear tank is now that ugly shade, but my car's so low you can't see it anyway (it actually tucks into the bar, so its near impossible to see unless you're lying on the ground). Aside from that, the exhaust hasn't missed a beat. It still sounds good, and its only started to have issues since I've been banging it on ripple strips as I've fallen off race tracks. I've got an exhaust leak somewhere (can't tell if its the catback, or what) but that was after I banged the undercarriage as I've slid off a race track and the rear wheels have dropped onto the dirt, which of course isn't level with the sealed stuff.

I've got a HiTech on my 350Z, and I love it. The exhausts for NA cars shouldn't be true dual (most people notice a loss in midrange, and the peak power is almost equal). The HiTech looks almost stock (you'd have to know the car to pick the difference), and it sounds stock up until 3000RPM where it gets a slightly louder and more angry / metallic note, while still being noise legal. It gives the car the sound it should have had from the factory.

I think that Wheels, and I guess Autoblog, have no idea what they're on about. The "production car" record doesn't belong to the Carrera GT at 7:30 though. It belongs to the Radical SR8, at 6:55. Which means the GT-R is still over half a minute away from the record. The SR8 is produced as a turnkey product in production volumes, and is street legal, so "track day special" focus aside it still qualifies under the definition of "production road car". Somehow I doubt its going to find that half a minute before TAS. The GT-R doesn't have a hope of reclaiming the production car record at this rate.

Its like slapping God across the face?

If you can get the tinted lights passed a signatory that has tested them for ADR compliance then, theoretically, you should be fine.

Traitor! Nah, looks good mate. The S4 is a nice machine.

I'm nursing a semi.

Thread resurrection. I've posted an EOI, on 350Z-Tech, for the next cruise. Was thinking mid next month, to give people plenty of advanced warning. If you guys have any suggestions, I wouldn't mind seeing them either. The pace will not be overly frenetic, but it will be on driver's roads and not just from one carpark in suburbia though the metropolitan area to another carpark in another suburb.

Cara - lightened flywheel gets my vote too. I really like mine.

I like the car. If ever need a coupe with rear seats, and I can't afford an AMG Merc SL (or BMW 335Ci) then this would be the ticket.

Wasn't it always?

Exactly. And it doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile.....

But whether your RPM falls at all is a function of your throttle, not your flywheel. You could have a 1 gram flywheel, that practically bends space/time with how fast it drops once you lift off the throttle, but if you never lift off the throttle (say, go to part throttle when you hit the clutch) you can keep your RPM up in whatever band you want. That RPM rate of drop only matters for street use. On the track or strip you can drive around that rate with very little cost or difficulty, but reap the rewards of less drivetrain inertia.

Idiot was complaining about wheelspin in his turbo Pulsar, and wanted lowering springs (with a stiffened rear end) to fix it. A few pages in to the thread he finally mentions that when it breaks away, one wheel goes nuts and the other one stops turning. I told him, at that point, his problem isn't weight shift but an open diff. Apparently that wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, so he kept trucking with lowering springs. I then started telling him that if he wants to drop the car, just be honest about it and say he wants to lower it rather than curing his single peeler issues.

He's probably referring to this thread, where some cheapskate Pulsar driver managed to push me to the limits of my tolerance.

JDMST link was wrong, for some reason (no idea how I can copy/paste a link that's exactly 1 digit off). Fixed

Posted on 350Z-Tech and JDM Style Tuning. The latter has a lot of ties with the Honda community, so hopefully it'll get the word out pretty quick. EDIT: JDMST Link fixed.

I might come watch.

Dude, that is very f**ked. Some people are just f**king cocks. This kind of shit makes it worthwhile to get raped by the dealer on a trade-in. At least then its a metaphorical violation, rather than a physical one. Hope he heals quick, and a bunch of us run into these knobs down a dark alley.....

235/45 R17 is a common control tyre size for R-Comps. I think the Commodore Cup cars run it. I think there are some control tyred series' on 15" rims too, but the details are kind of foggy. But, on an R33 GTS-t, you'd rather go 17" than 15". I don't think that there are too many control tyres for 16" aside from the shitty Kumhos that the Lotus Cup cars use, and the guys I see rolling on them always complain about traction issues. They'd make good dori tyres, but if time is an issue I'd stay off them. They're just glorified street tyres from what I can see - they're not even at the Falken RT615's level, let alone a true R-Comp. I personally prefer running the same sized rims and rubber all round on the track (for rotation and less understeer) but then my car isn't overly endowed with power. Rim-wise, I'd suggest buying a second hand set of forged wheels if you can afford it. Used TE37s in 17" are floating around the $1500 mark these days; less if you don't care about their appearance. That said, $1500 could still be more than you're willing to spend on rims you only use once a month (and then only for a day). But I'd rather use stockers, which have a reasonable quality level, over some shitty rims you got from Tempe or whatever. Do stock R33 GT-R rims fit on a GTS-t? If you're planning on running full slicks then carrying them becomes an issue. Otherwise, run R-Comps, fit them at home, and drive to your venue on them. Where you get tyres from is going to depend on your location. In Sydney, I get my Bridgestone RE55S from Gordon Leven. I'd either get Toyo R888s from TyrePower or JDMYard, if I were to use them.

"Old" and "outdated" are two different things. Internal combustion's no spring chicken either, but its not like an electric motor going to replace it in a production capacity in the near future. With crude oil "running out", most of the effort to resolve this issue is still going into changing what goes into an internal combustion engine, not the method it converts stored energy into kinetic energy. The only thing people don't like about the PowerFC, as an entry level "plug & play" ECU, against more modern offerings is an inability to store/load multiple maps within the ECU itself. However, if A'PEXi were to release a new version it wouldn't be a massive step to integrate such functionality. Some memory and a switch / menu for the hand controller would be all that's required. I hope A'PEXi (or someone else) does replace the discontinued PowerFC, with that extra functionality (and a ECU for the VQ series engines).

Not being a drag racer, I can't say for sure, but is that actually correct? A lighter flywheel gives you more in-gearacceleration, which is the ultimate goal in drag racing. If you want to keep your revs up during a gear change, you just keep your foot on the throttle. Its not like your right leg is busy doing anything else. The revs falling away faster also makes it easier to pick up the next gear, as you're not sitting there waiting for the revs to drop to mate to the next gear. On the way back down, a lighter flywheel makes the engine more responsive to a blip of the throttle on a heel-toe. I found it harder to change gears slowly with my lightened flywheel since the revs fall away too rapidly, but easier to change gears fast. The only place where its a con is on launches, where the car is a little more finicky, but if you're doing a drag launch you're not as likely to bunny hop or stall the car. It takes a little while to get used to, and I still launch roughly at a set of lights, but if I'm giving it a hit out of pit lane or on a drag strip I don't have any issues getting the car away. Unless you've got so much grip you can do a full-bore clutch dump and not wheelspin, you can always cure your launch slowness with more RPM.

So very, very tempting......

For me, it depends. Most workshops tend to be in the middle of nowhere, so what can you do but wait? I had my car tuned at CRD when I first got my ECU, and I was told it'd take a while since it was a tune from scratch. They just drove me down to the cinemas at Auburn and I caught two movies. When I get my car serviced at Pro Concept I walk down to Maccas and get some food, and bring a book or laptop with me. However, at some workshops that's not even an option. Officially they have OH&S rules that say you can't be in the workshop, but most ignore that. I've walked straight past a "only authorised staff permitted beyond this point" sign at some shop without any bad word being said, and pored over other customers' cars. That said, I've generally been known to the guys so its not like I'm some complete stranger. Some customers are (to put it bluntly) a pain in the arse. Asking inane questions, trying to tell them how to do their job, etc. And of course there's "performance anxiety" when the customer is there hovering. So rather than making the mechanics nervous and increasing the possibility of something going wrong, they might just ask people to not be there. Personally, I think if you can be somewhere else then be somewhere else. You either trust the workshop, or you don't. If its the latter, don't go there at all.