scathing

You can make up for weight with power coming out of a corner and onto the straight. Once you get to the end of the straight and need to brake, or mid-corner, nothing makes up for a lack of weight.

I'd suggest against it. Lightweight flywheels are relatively cheap for our cars, and there's no way you can get it light enough on a lathe to be "perfect". I've got a JUN flywheel in my Z33, and its about half the weight of the stock unit at 14lbs. Everyone was telling me the car was going to be a pig to drive, but after I installed it all I could think was "it could be lighter". When my clutch dies, I'm probably going to get a Tilton unit, coupled with their 7lbs flywheel. The car the JUN flywheel came out of had the engine rebuilt to beyond Nismo S1 spec (lightweight forged internals to rev the VQ to 8000RPM, big cams, head work, etc) and in his car it was an issue. Unless you're going to build the engine to sacrifice all that low end, even halving the weight of the stock flywheel isn't enough. What's the likelihood that you can shave off 60-75% of the flywheel without putting your legs in danger? This information doesn't apply directly to MissR34 since her car won't have the surfeit of low-end torque our cars do. But I'd say a lightweight flywheel is definitely worth doing if you've got everything in pieces anyway. If you don't drive the car in anger where that instant revvability is desired over the loss of low-end pulling power and inevitable rattle, just get a mildly lighter flywheel.

OK, you need to decide if this car is going to be for track days only, or if you're going to race it competitively. The latter has a whole bunch of rules and restrictions which will determine the car you select (most turbos get the shit restricted out of them). The former would probably be restricted only by your budget. Next thing, is it going to be a track-only car trailered to events or is it something you need to be able to drive around on the road? The R34, or almost any 2WD Skyline for that matter, is a boat. The car's set up too soft from the factory because its engineered to be a GT, not a racer. You can throw money at it to "fix" it, but you might be better off just buying a car that's better suited. Lastly, what is your budget? Cars I'd consider, in your situation: S13 Silvia Mazda MX5 Honda Integra Type-R (DC2) Honda Civic VTiR All are relatively light and chuckable, with a reasonable chassis, and most aren't stupidly powerful. Having a car that's not too powerful means you need to learn how to corner if you want to run a good time, since you can't make it up on the straights. Arguably, if you really want to use it for "learning" only you should buy something that doesn't handle as well as the above. If you can drive a bad handling car with no power quick, you can drive a good handling car with no power very quick. And a good handling car with power extremely quick.

Yeah, about that. The Stoptechs, AP Racing, Endless and Project Mu won't leave you much change from $8K plus fitting.

That's a function of the pad material, not the caliper itself. When I was using Ferodo DS2500s (both in the Z33 non-Brembo and now the Brembos) I found that they were consistently grippy from "cold" (a Sydney winter's morning) all the way until they (over)heated. An absolutely awesome pad for a daily driven car that will get hammered on the track, if you ignore the way they dust up if you even look at the brake pedal. The Endless CC-X pads I'm using now are a bit wooden and need a firmer jab when cold, but not dangerously so. Admittedly the pad cost was about $50-100 a pair higher for fronts going to the Brembos, but for the extra heat resistance its more than worth it if you do regular track work. If your driving is limited to street driving, and you're not some crazy Initial D touge monstering street racer who'll drive at ten tenths, then the non-Brembos are more than adequate. That said, I've now hit the limits of the OEM Brembos (I'm starting to hit fade at the end ofa 15 minute session) and so I've got to consider my options. If you do regular track work and can carry a reasonable pace, you might want to skip the Brembos completely and go straight to a BBK.

I went to DBA LongLife slotted when I had the OEM non-Brembos on my Z33, and I found them to be an OK upgrade. I did find the brakes were a little more confidence-inspiring on the track after. I'd already upgraded to RBF600 and DS2500s before the rotors wore out. That said, I didn't really push them to their limits as I was always afraid of them fading and lacked the confidence to really brake late on the track (old road driving habits die hard). That didn't stop them from cracking on my third track day, which would have been under 15,000km of life. I was less than impressed with that.

If you're looking for a set of Z33 Brembos, I know someone who's just upgraded to AP Racing and got a set for sale. F&R. The rotors are goneskis (they're probably still "usable" but quite warped) and I can't vouch that the pads are any good, but you can at least obtain the calipers and probably the lines (although I'd source braided ones if I were you). Drop me a PM if you're interested, and I'll pass on the guy's contact details.

I'll buy whatever works. I won't buy a Japanese part because its Japanese, but because its the best for my budget. Which is why my car has a mix of everything. My exhaust is a mixture of Australian, American and Chinese. It all works, it all fits, makes the same power gain as JDM stuff, but costs about half the price. Pod filter is American. My coilovers are Japanese, but only because I wanted EDFC. If I didn't have to drill through trim and metal to access my rear struts, I would have bought European suspension which tends to be far superior when it comes to streetable sports suspension. Swaybars are Australian, but then its really hard to get them wrong. My bodykit is made in Taiwan and a copy of the JDM parts, and having compared it to the genuine article the fitment is only marginally worse. Neither would have fitted without modification, however, but at half the price and CF instead of fibreglass I'll live with it. Rims are Japanese, but no-one makes lightweight forged aluminium wheels at a price to beat the Japanese.

The topic's a bit of a shit-stir, so that's what we've been doing.

Right, Nissan built a bunch of street cars to hide some vast conspiracy about....a race car or something? Dude, I think the warmer weather is causing your tinfoil hat to bake your brain. You're making less sense than your average "coverup" crackpot. No, but Porsche was the first company to try running an asymmetric AWD system...at least in a production car. The Quattro, VR-4, etc ran the same torque split front to rear using mechanical limited slip differentials. The Porsche 959 was the first sports car to try using electronic control of those differentials to actively control that torque split, with an 80% rear bias under "normal" conditions. ATTESSA went one step further and did a 100% rear bias, but clearly its an evolution of the asymmetric AWD concept pioneered by Porsche rather than the revolution away from the same amount of power going to both ends of the vehicle that had been the norm for AWD vehicle prior. Right, some bloke now working at a TAFE used to be a committee member of the FIA? What, he finds dealing with pimply-faced youths more rewarding than an operational role in the world's premier motorsport organisation?

I'm expecting a whole bunch of lolcat replies now.

Yes, the Skyline is indeed a trend-setter that they copied technology from other companies 20 years before some of its competitors did.

The Evo and WRX are newer than the GT-R, but both of them are arguably more aligned as road-homologated rally cars...which makes them more of a copy of the Audi Quattro than the GT-R. The Evo's engine is a descendent of the Galant VR-4's engine, which was a production car back in the mid 80's and therefore predates the R32. The BMW 2002 Turbo was out before the FI GT-R was. Its not like Nissan invented turbocharging or was the first to come out with it on a road car, so just because the Evos and WRXs are turbocharged doesn't mean they copied the GT-R. The original GT-R, the KPGC10, wasn't even forced induction. Or are you going to say that high strung NA engines (like Honda or BMW) are now copies of the Skyline too? Incorrect. A 5 second search of Google would have made you look less ignorant. Its a well-known fact (and something a slightly deeper search online would have told you) that ATTESSA is Nissan's copy of the 959's drivetrain. Its not "Skyline technology" at all. Its "We want to be Porsche" technology. I'm going to assume we're talking stock for stock. Once you start modding, the only limit is the budget. One of the Audi Quattro variants, for starters. And that car was released in 1980, so its 2 generations behind the R32 and so its performance should be considered accordingly. The Audi RS2 was released soon after the R32 finished its production run, and was a vehicle Audi commissioned Porsche Engineering to "tune" where the donor vehicle had been around for ages. Mitsubishi rallied the Galant VR-4 back in the late 80's before switching to the lighter and smaller Lancer platform. Probably not quite as quick, but not that slow and 1 generation older than the R32 (and also designed to rally, not circuit race). And certainly more the Lancer GSR's / Evo's forefather than the Nissan GT-R. The Porsche 959 - nuff said. The Bugatti EB110 was released in 1991, which is during the production period of the R32 but being a niche manufacturer building a supercar would have a far longer lead time. Performance-wise would defecate all over a R32. If you want to go esoteric on the performance AWD (rather than offroad AWD), the Jensen FF was an AWD V8 NA coupe. The GT-R isn't the be-all and end-all of the AWD turbo universe. Its not the alpha nor omega, since the 959 preceded it and the AYC / ACD setup of the current Evolution Lancers is technically superior to ATTESSA. Try taking off your blinders and take an unbiased look at the world.

Uh, yeah....because Nissan invented twin turbocharging? Like no other car was twin turbocharged before the GT-R? Or do you mean twin turbocharging an inline 6, because its not like Toyota's 2JZ-GTE did that right? I can't think of any other twin turbo I6s off the top of my head, but I'd be quite surprised if the RB was the first. And what have the Evo and WRX copied from the GT-R? The AWD drive train? The one Audi made famous with the Quattro almost a decade before an AWD GT-R was released? Or do you mean an active AWD system known as ATTESSA, that Nissan copied from the 959? Its not like they have the same engine or chassis configuration. I'm not exactly sure what technology BMW, Mitsubishi and Subaru "copied" from the GT-R that Nissan didn't copy from someone else....so its hardly "Skyline technology". So you're saying that no other race cars, by other manufacturers, have ever used exotic materials to lighten the roof and lower the centre of gravity? No dispute there, since its certainly not fact.

There's a Shell near me that sells V-Power Racing, so I'll normally try and empty my tank by the night before a track day, and then fill up (and fill some jerry cans) before I head down. I'll normally need about 2 tanks of fuel for a regular Wakefield track day (from home back to home), so usually I'll just fill up with 98RON at lunch time.

There's no check like that, but in NSW the NRMA (like the Automotive Association in the UK, and funkymonkey's RACV in Victoria) do provide car inspections for a fee. They won't be able to pull data off any official database to tell you its full history, but they'll be able to sight the car with a visual inspection and tell you what's wrong with it (they go on-site), what could be wrong with it, and what else stands out mechanically. Aside from that, I know some buyers who will take prospective cars to a performance-oriented garage for a more accurate check by people used to dealing with such vehicles. Inspection up on a hoist, a few full throttle runs on a rolling road dyno, etc. In my opinion, a far better option.

I'm rolling on Falken FK452s at the moment on my Z33, and I'm loving them. Relatively cheap but with good performance. Not much noise, but since I've only been driving on RT215s and R-Comps for the last 6 months I may have gone partially deaf when it comes to road noise. The number is the load rating, which tells you how much mass the tyre supports. The letter is the speed rating, which gives you a maximum sustained high speed. By law your tyres must be rated to do a sustained speed equal to your car's top speed, regardless of whether that speed is legal or not. I'd get that stuff right, as cops check that data when considering whether to defect your tyres as roadworthy or not.

Mac Centre has been shit for years. I've had mates who've had to go there for various reasons, and had their car keyed / dinged multiple times. Then there's some of the deadshits that think its cool to hang around the mall. I went in to Chatswood today, and I made sure I parked between two pillars to give maximum room to the slope-brows that can't park in the middle of a spot and are too fat to open their doors a little. In future I might just park sideways across two spots, but that would just invite some c**t to key my car. And most neighbourhoods have gone to shit. Someone else posted up that they got stitches after some guys tried to jack him in Killara and he fought them off. Killara's right in the middle of the most middle-class area of Sydney. People are also getting jacked in the Eastern Suburbs since the crims know that the guys over there tend to drive fancy cars. So its not just "povo" neighbourhoods where you have to watch your back. Nowhere's safe.

Buy some jerry cans and run them. You're only going to get 98RON in Goulburn. I find it funny / stupid that Shell won't supply 100RON so close to the track. The Shell out front of Eastern Creek doesn't stock V-Power Racing either....and being on a main transport hub (M7 / M4 intersection), and so close to the track, you'd think they would. Just not ha-ha funny.

But if you change your suspension components your handling characteristics change. Putting in aftermarket suspension won't necessarily make your car handle better. Putting in heavily lowered springs by themselves can, and frequently does, make the car handle worse.

Yes. I made the mistake of just buying dampers, thinking I could get springs later. In the end, I ended up getting coilovers as it was hard to find springs at the exact rate and height I wanted, to match the dampers and my desired ride height.

They should physically fit. The R33 GTS-t uses the same wheels as the S14, and I've seen S14 and S15 wheels interchanged on both cars.

He's not the only one that appears to be humour impaired, especially when it comes to satire. They'd probably find the Chaser's War on Wanker License plates to be offensive, rather than amusing.

I've seen it done on some cars. If you can tint them lightly, your tail lights still show up. Apparently Nightshades (by VHT) is only that black when you have the lights turned off; somehow its not meant to tint your tail lights too noticably when the lights are on. You'll still get defected though, regardless. 350Z-Tech has a great HowTo (with video) on the process. Do it properly, I've seen some people do it on their cars and its come out matte. The 350Z-Tech guys manage to get it to a glossy finish.

Modern cars seem to have stupendously large pillars, which might be good for rigidity but absolutely crap for visibility. Looking out the back of the Z33 is like looking through a letterbox, which makes reverse parking quite.....exciting. I've heard other modern cars are also getting quite bad. I also don't like the fact that companies don't set up the stalks for the export region. People expect the indicators to be on the "door" side of the steering column. Considering switchgear these days is all electronic and not a mechanical connection, it should be a piece of piss to swap them around. Next is handling. I don't expect a car to be razor sharp, but I do expect it to go approximately where its pointed, approximately when its pointed. The only cars I've driven in the last 5 years have been sports cars or BMWs, and after a while you assume all cars handle at least as well. So hopping into an entry-model Camry a few years ago was an eye opener. I can't believe anyone would ever buy a car that rolled that much and was so slow to react. The BMW's ride isn't harsh by any means, so its possible to set up a car that your average Joe will enjoy without making a car where the steering wheel seems to only suggest changes to the angle of the tyres rather than a direct mechanical connection. Handling that bad should be illegal. On sports cars, driver aids that can't be completely switched off. If you bought an RX8 or 350Z presumably you wanted a driver's car, so why can't you turn stability control all the way off? Flat seats. Once again, it doesn't need to be a race-spec one piece shell, but driving some cars around a corner at a moderate pace can have you end up sitting in your passenger's lap. Fingerprint-operated car security systems. Can't think of a better motivation for a carjacker to cut your hand off. The "Tall boy" designs of hatchbacks in recent years. Yes it improves legroom because you're so upright, but it feels like you're sitting on a milk crate and it catches crosswinds like you wouldn't believe. Not particularly fun when you're in a light car. It also looks like a mini-MPV. Top mount intercoolers. Why would you put a heat exchanger on top of your car's biggest heat source unless you wanted to increase the temperature of the stuff inside? Did a whole bunch of automotive engineers fail Thermodynamics 101? Electric windows that aren't auto on every switch. Most drivers windows are auto - it can't cost that much to make every other one the same. I can keep going all day If you want to experience the worst car I've ever driven for ergonomics, try the RenaultSport Clio. Its a fun package, but absolutely crap to live with.