scathing

Ahem.

Never had that issue at a JDMST meet, and I've been to the majority of them. When we used to hang out at other places, the cops would show up some times but we'd have a quick word and they generally moved on. The Rhodes Shopping Centre management also weren't too happy at first, but they've gotten used to us and they're cool about it these days. They've never called the cops on us, and we've had some pretty big meets. Check their Appearance / Gallery thread for photos of previous meets.

Where people just hang around and talk about cars. Not necessarily bullshitting on, but just talk rather than action. Since there's no sitting its technically not a "bench" race.

I'm still keen, even though I don't own a V35. Also, anyone in Sydney interested in going to the JDM Style Tuning meet? Should be pretty big (its just a meet and greet, no actual driving) but since I don't think there's ever been a V35 at a meet for a forum for all types of JDM cars I can only imagine how much attention your cars will get.

Yeah, I should be there. And yeah, its just a meet up and bench racing session. No actual cruise or anything.

The power delivery with the TT is also amazingly smooth. To drive, it feels like a stock S15 or RB25DET. There's a small swell from under 3000RPM and the power comes on gradually. It just feels like you're driving a big NA engine. The light-switch ramp of a boosted car does feel pretty cool, but the APS kit feels like it could be OEM (aside from the flutter). Depending on your desires, you may prefer that.

I insulted Peter Luxon (well, not Peter directly but one of his employes and his company) once on another forum, does that count? But, in seriousness, Peter isn't all that bad in person. The biggest problem is that he's got a low tolerance to bullshit coupled with a strong belief in his own product (neither thing being inherently wrong, in my opinion) so he comes across as arrogant, especially when it comes to the retail side of things. If it wasn't for the American market, there wouldn't be an APS twin turbo kit available for our cars. When he developed the kit, the car was new. Australia's market for the 350Z wasn't that big, certainly not enough to justify the R&D costs involved in making a product as polished as the APS TT. Not even the Japanese market would have been enough to cover the costs and make it profitable, since those guys tend to have the same Not Made Here mentality for their domestic product that the US have for theirs. Being that two cars (the Z33 and V35) could run practically the same kit also made it viable to develop for the US market. Also, quite a few people buying a AUD$65K car in this country don't really want to sink another $15K into mods. Its gotten better now, and with the price of Z33s and V35s dropping there might be a market for it. People buying a car that expensive also tend to want it done right; sell the kit to let any grease monkey install it and f**k it up still reflects badly on the kit, even though its an installer problem. In the US the Z33 starts at USD$20K and tops out at $35K (+ options), so its a lot more "affordable" over there and the owners tend to be younger and more willing to do those kinds of mods. Given how expensive labour is (a dude got charged USD$100 to swap out a set of brake pads, and thought that was cheap!) the DIY culture is also a lot bigger in the US than Australia, which is also why they'll sell the product in kit form rather than through an agent like they do down here. However, because of the aforementioned "bullshit tolerance" APS has pretty much dropped out of retail work. I heard, from Peter, about his last retail customer that just frustrated him enough to give up on dealing direct to the public and it made me glad I don't do retail work anymore. Its a sad state of affairs, but if we're going to act like pricks then expect some people to take their bat and ball and just not want to deal with the great unwashed. You can still get their kits fitted by their agents, but since they don't cover the entire country it means some Australians have to ship their cars to Sydney or Melbourne to get the job done. However, it is the only kit that will easily pass an engineer's cert, and the cost on the quote is all you have to pay as the kit is "complete". If you have your own mechanic that you trust to do an install as major as the TT kit, and you don't want to go through APS' agent, its actually cheaper to buy the kit from the US and just ship it back down here. The only thing you need to do is get custom exhaust manifolds, or try securing a set of APS RHD manifolds somehow. I don't work for APS either but I've had a couple of long chats with Peter Luxon, back when he was a lot more interested in the 350Z market (he's gone off it now, pretty much, so I haven't spoken to him in the last year or two), and heard his side of the story.

10rwhp sounds a bit optimistic. I've got a copy of one of the US spacers, and I think I pulled 5rwkW. My own experiences (5rwkw) aren't exactly indicative as I also run a Unichip and that gain includes a retune (I had the car tuned before the spacer install, and retuned after the spacer install and the next dyno run). What I did notice is that the engine was more willing to breathe up top. I remember that, after the install and even before the tune, the car felt a bit more willing to rev. If you can dyno it without an ECU tune and see if your mixtures are still safe then that's fine. It probably does lean the mixture out a little bit, but as OEMs run the cars a little rich from the factory for safety its not necessarily a bad thing. The gain on the spacer is so subtle that you'll probably only notice after you get used to it, then take it back out, and wonder why the engine feels a little flat up top.

Driving the BMW engine reminds him of the BMW engine...? Ah, Drive's editors showing their mettle again......

Did you get it in writing? Or the name and contact details of the person you spoke to? One thing I've learnt is that there's a world of difference between what is officially enforced, and what some public servant pleb tells you on the phone when they know there's no way you can trace it back to them and hold them liable in court.

If you're talking about excemptions, rather than having a car that's just legal, then technically he could probably get a turbo car passed for himself as well.

I only double clutch from 3rd into 2nd. I'm not sure why that is; I think its just force of habit. There's no mechanical reason for me to do so. I think even if I go from 4th to 2nd I'll still do a single clutch; definitely from 4th to 3rd is a single clutch manouvre. I know that if I want to grab 1st from 2nd while on the move I need to double clutch; a simple heel-toe still locks me out of 1st. Heel-toeing helps your rev match, which is good for avoiding compression locking when decellerating while not having to faff about with easing the clutch in. When you're driving close to the limits, doing stuff that stops the car from upsetting its balance is a good thing.

Modifying the engine is an illegal mod, rendering your entire premise irrelevant.

J-Style, I'd assume, would basically be mirroring a Japanese tuning sub-culture. Just like there's no US-style tuning (even though you'd recognise an American hot rod or chopper if you saw one), nor is there a an Aus-Style tuning (although if you saw a Street Machine type vehicle you'd pick it as Australian) there is no single "J-Style". As you said, there are plenty of blingy JDM cars (considering the Altezza is a Japanese car, its ironic that people think Altezza lights aren't JDM), as well as the infamous bosozuku / yankee styled cars, with the stupidly massive bodykits and exhausts, and insane offset wheels. People who think J-Style, J-Spec, or JDM-style cars are purely stripped out race machines are having a toss.

My favourite road in Australia at the moment still has to be the Black Spur in Victoria. I used to love the Great Ocean Road but the surface isn't quite as good as Black Spur and there's also a lot more traffic (including a lot of arseholes that call the cops on you because you want to drive at your pace and they can't be f**ked using the thoughtfully-placed turn-out bays). I haven't done the Alpine roads in NSW yet, but by all accounts they're an awesome drive. The NSCC used to do annual multi-day cruises through there before the snow season, and they adore the roads.

That last bit is why, in context, I was wrong. But that's a really good, succinct, graph for what I was thinking of.

Wider tyres give you a wider contact patch. So when you're cornering and the tyre flexes, you don't get as much shrinking in the contact patch. For drag racers, since they run their tyres super deflated, it means you can have more surface area because the tyre doesn't even have to be remotely close to resembling a circle anymore.

The concept of "double jeopardy" says you can't be convicted of the same offense more than once. In this instance, there are three separate incidents so it wouldn't apply. I've been thinking about the idea of double jeopardy. Lets say you drive through a section of road with multiple cameras but no change in speed limit (like, say, a tunnel). If you get pinged speeding by more than one camera, I'd assert that you could only be fined once. If you don't slow down, you've only committed that offence once. The cameras are just witnesses, after all, and multiple witnesses doesn't make for multiple offences.

Sorry I missed it guys. I actually did Nasho / Macquarie Pass last night, and just as I got to Waterfall it started to rain. It was quite interesting to drive the rest of the route in the rain and fog, especially on R-Comp semi slicks... Anyway, didn't get home until 6AM and then slept through my alarm.

I had another read of the post, and in the context it was posted I'm probably wrong. With an ultra-stretched sidewall, that doesn't flex as much as one with a "proper" fitment, the contact patch will be smaller. Which is probably why didn't reply to his post the first time...... But if you run two tyres of different sizes on rims that they're "suited" for (like say a 215 width tyre vs a 245 width tyre on a 7.5" wide rim) then the difference in contact patch between them is minimal.

You think so? I find it the opposite. I haven't driven a super high powered FWD yet and had to deal with major torque steer in a straight line, but then a high powered RWD will start stepping the tail out if you put too much power down and it starts to spin. A FWD car is generally predictable. It will almost always understeer. And that's always easier to drive around, because all you have to do is modify your pedal inputs instead of having to steering and throttle modulation....and if you exceed the grip limits (no matter for what reason) the car will do the same thing.

Not exactly true. The tyre width does not determine the size of the contact patch. All else being equal, a 225 tyre will have the same surface area touching the ground as a 245 width tyre.

Was it a fixed camera or a mobile one? I'm guessing its fixed if you got pinged twice on the same day, as the mobile cameras tend to get rotated every few hours to other locations.

Another possibility is your immobiliser is still on, and its still cutting the fuel pump out. I've had that issue on my PoS Brant, where the thing's gone on the fritz and enabled the battery (so my starter motor would tick over) but not removed the fuel pump cutout. As people have said, you might need to get it roll started. I think (can someone confirm?) if you roll start the car you can do it without an alternator. The battery is new and so has charge; if it won't roll start then it could be the immobiliser.

One of the dudes from JDM Style Tuning betrayed us all by selling his Nissan and buying a Ralliart Colt. I think this Ralliart Colt forum is his.