scathing

Dumhedz used to have an S13 that was powered by an S14 SR20DE. With all the bolt-ons and a set of cams, he was making around 120rwkW (which is stock S15 DET power). That wouldn't be too shabby. Mind you, the car was loud as f**k so you'd still get reamed as a P plater if the car was tuned that way. You could probably pop a stock-looking heat shield onto a set of extractors and connect it into the OEM cat and exhaust. Good extractors make the biggest difference to performance on a NA car. Apparently the Autech S15 runs the same ratios as the turbo gearboxes, so if you replace the final drive with something a bit shorter you might find it quick enough. Personally if I were in your position and had the cash, I'd keep the DET and leave it in storage. Once I got off my P's, I'd stick the stock motor back in. NA is nice and all, but turbo Silvias are still cooler.

Feel free to make suggestions as to where then. :-) I am pretty much stumped.

Hey gents. The Sydney-based guys on 350Z-Tech have expressed an interest in having another meet. So far the tentative date is the 20th or 27th of February. As always, it'd be nice to see fellow FM platformers show up so Vs are always welcome. Nothing concrete planned yet. People seem to want to meet up and hang out to talk and take photos. There doesn't seem to be much of a desire to go out for a long drive anywhere, but I'm sure they could be swayed. I wouldn't mind gauging some interest on here, along with what people want to do.

Which 318? Anything newer than an E36 is definitely out. Too many electronic gizmos that can go wrong but take effort to remove without causing faults with other electronic systems, too much weight, not enough power. I wouldn't bother with any 3 Series that doesn't have an I6, with the exception of an E30 M3.

What's it like in the midrange, compared to a car with a 2.25-2.5" exhaust? On a street car having the car generating good power from 2000-4000RPM is better than making a bit of extra peak power at 5500-6000RPM.

The right answer won't necessarily be the one you're looking for, but unfortunately its still the right answer. Are you related to this guy by any chance? I seems the pair of you have the same mentality, with him just being a bit further along. If you're willing to drop $3-4K onto your conversion I don't understand why you're so opposed to selling your motor and dropping an Autech motor in. It's age will be about the same as your S15 engine, and unless you find one that's been babied from a previous owner chances are your FI engine will have had a much harder life than a NA one. If you're cracking the motor to do internals, unless you're putting in very special hardware (over and above the ones in the Autech S15, let alone OEM S14 bits) or doing the work yourself, it's going to cost you a fortune to get sweet FA power out of it. And if you're so concerned about complying with P plate laws, why wouldn't you just buy a NA car in the first place? I say just leave it turbo. Also, as for asking the Dept of Transport, I know this issue is a different state but bureacracies are the same everywhere. Clueless.

So you're proud that your Skyline is slower than your girlfriend's Barina? Because that's what you "did". Your standards must be pretty low if making your car that slow is worthy of pride.

I know that it's not a wise idea to split the nucleus of atom in an uncontrolled environment. I wasn't born with that knowledge. The transition between that ignorance and knowledge is called learning, and I didn't have to cause a massive explosion and generate some deadly fallout in the classroom I was sitting in during the process (which most of us would agree would have been a mistake).

Couldn't you drive past that by pointing the nose in a bit further than the apex as you approach it? Aim the car so that, if it had perfect traction, it'd clip the inside of the corner before the apex. As you come off the brakes and you understeer, the nose runs wide and clips the apex. The understeer also lets you get on the gas a little earlier/harder as the rear of the car will spend some of its time returning to neutral before oversteering. Hopefully in that period ATTESSA has reacted, and by the time your car chassis hits neutral balance the torque's been sent to the front wheels and you come out with good traction on all tyres.

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Ti...ts-t252545.html Bingo I'll probably end up doing it on the Z, since I've gone for a "black contrast" theme on my car.

Someone posted up on another subforum on here about a film that makes the light enclosure darker during the day, but doesn't obscure the colour too much at night. It can either tint, or change the colour. It might be worth checking out.

Yeah, you can get waterproof LED strips from lots of places. I believe some are automotive oriented, so they're bright enough. An acquaintance as a Civic with them, and he works for Strathfield Car Radio. It looks really good.

Get a GTI instead. The R32 just isn't worth the money, in my opinion. It's barely quicker than a GTI unless it's wet, and you're paying a crapload of money for what amounts to a nice-sounding Audi A3 with a downmarket badge. The GTI is also easier to tune up. Reflashing the ECU will net you around 30% more power without even touching any physical component of the car. Like all turbo cars, bang for buck you'll get more performance from modifying it. Being only 2WD, if you get the DSG you'll still have less load through the driveline, which should also give you some peace of mind. Apparently they're not that expensive though. I was talking to a mate last week, and he said his mate paid around $700 to service the DSG in his VW when the clutch-plates needed replacing. It's not cheap, but its not massively expensive either compared to overhauling a technologically inferior slusho. Hell, if you're planning on only using it as a daily with a bit of squirt, consider finding a 2.0L diesel Golf and flash its ECU. Great fuel economy, f**kloads of bottom end torque, and with the reflash it should pull a bit more smoothly in the upper ranges of its revband. With a DSG, keeping the engine on the boil shouldn't be as big of a pain either.

OEM NA 180SXs are pretty rare in Australia. Most of them are turbocharged. If you wanted to learn to drift and it has to be NA I'd get a SR powered Silvia over a Skyline. The Silvia is lighter and shorter, so it's going to be more nimble. You're going to be lacking power no matter which option you go for anyway. The longer wheelbase of a Skyline will make it more stable at higher speeds, but when you're learning you'll be doing low-speed stuff on tighter courses so the Silvia would be easier to slide.

What kind of volunteer work is needed?

1300kg is not "low weight".

Where from? Most of the prices I've seen for 17" RE55S have been at least $400 each (RRP is over $538). If I could get them for $330 each I'd be pretty stoked.

Found out the V35s need to have the rear damper out if they want to be adjusted, unless you intend on cutting up the boot. Koni dampers, or something with an electronic controller, would be the way to go unless you don't intend on ever adjusting it.

If you're trail braking into a corner you can apply an amount of braking that would otherwise have you understeering, but is counteracted by the tail stepping out. It would theoretically let you brake deeper and carry a higher entry speed. Especially with an AWD car, you could rely on the front wheels to pull the car out of the bend if the weight shift didn't regain rear traction when you came off the brakes. Being able to pull a move like that off consistently and accurately is another question. And, at any rate, using trail braking to slide the car around every corner would only ever be useful in a situation where tyre life wasn't important. Also, if you saw Jenson Button's second visit to Top Gear they showed footage of the race where he clinched the season. He made a move where he dived up the inside of another car going into an S-bend, and kicked the tail out before the direction change. He said he did it to make his car wider on the track and intimidate the other driver, stopping the guy from re-passing him and allowing Button to get to the next curve first. Theoretically, as a tactic to maintain position (rather than improve time) it was better than not doing it.

Is there any difference mechanically between the coupes with the different engines?

Have you had a look at Toyo R888s? They're usually a bit cheaper than RE55S, and I'd still rate them over any S-Comp.

There would still be some gains. Even if the length is different, with the engine, suspension engineering etc being the same it will cut down on a fair amount of R&D. If you have a look at Nissan's FM platform, a lot of the costs are shared across the range but the lengths of the cars (Z33, V35, M35) are all different. They run the same engines and brakes, and the suspension varies only on height and rate (but not overall geometry). A lot of the stuff under the body (like subfames and other bits) are common too. Even the R35's PM platform is based on the FM. Or, better yet, look at the VAG empire. There are a billion different cars built on the Golf platform, that come in a variety of sizes. The Toybaru won't be the badge engineered "sharing" that failed in the old days (Commodore/Lexcen, Corolla/Nova style), and platform sharing principles are flexible enough these days to give each manufacturer the ability to build a car that's uniquely their own.

And what miles are on it are when the engine was tagging the limiter.

It appears I have some hat-eating to do. http://www.themotorreport.com.au/48679/toy...kyo-auto-salon/