scathing

They've already stated that they're aiming for 147kW (200ps) NA. The original AE86 made a big deal about being NA and quick, if they're trying to build a spiritual successor I don't think that'll change. I wouldn't hold my breath for a turbo one. As for why its rocking the boxer 4, I suspect it's because this might have started as a Subaru project. When I first heard about this car it was a Subaru concept first, and then we later found out its a Toyota/Subaru partnership. With a boxer 4 having such a different shape / layout to an I4, it wouldn't be easy to engineer a platform that can package both engine types and keep the same overall balance.

It will. Different materials will have different tones. I'm not sure how much volume itself will be affected. Mild steel tends to have a deeper tone than stainless. Titanium exhausts tend to be very thin-walled, which makes them a bit tinnier as well.

Axis Hiro: You won't get as much dish on a GTS-t, but they designed the Hiros to get deep dish so even with a relatively weak offset you should have some. Lenso D1R (aka Project-D):

Your full name is Terrence Einfeld?

The RB20DET's power delivery isn't as good as the SR20DET's. However, it is a stronger motor if you're going to use it for motorsport.

Things in the UK aren't as difficult to arrange, from an official standpoint, as they are in Australia. Down here you need an environmental impact statement if you want to pre-plan sneezing in public. I remember reading about "tunnel running" events. It was a properly organised event, where people just went around London, blocking off tunnels around the city, and accelerating hard. It wasn't a race or or time trial or anything, just an opportunity to hear your car's engine echoing off the walls. Something like that would never get off the ground down here.

Justin - coilover kits and swaybars are compatible. It's a popular mod on V35s to put Z33 suspension in them. It gives a 1" drop, with OEM ride quality. From an "under the car" perspective, the main appreciable difference is the length. The area around the wheel well is pretty much identical, so all the suspension and braking bits are interchangable. N.B. The front struts between LHD and RHD models are slightly different. I remember when I bought my Koni Yellows, I had to make sure I was ordering the front set of a RHD car. It's something to bear in mind if you source coilovers from the USA.

Fulcrum is the official importers of Tein, and they get their products revalved for Australia. I think they also use a softer spring. It'd be worth investigating, but ride comfort is so subjective I'd want to try it out first. Also, you can adjust your stillen sway bars for this (from memory, you got stillen sways and exhaust?). I'd try and find someone with coilovers first, and ride in the car. I know of one or two people on 350Z-Tech who've got PSS9s, but one of them has been custom sprung/valved for track use. I found swaybars only had a subtle effect on ride comfort. In a straight line there's no change, and only if I hit a bump while cornering hard did I notice that the car wanted to skip. Yeah, I think it was the 06 that copped the Euro-spec suspension. Softer spring/damper setup, and stiffer swaybars. The 03 is nasty. It's not just that its stiff, but the dampers don't seem matched to the springs and so its crashy. I believe that the Track also ran a harder setup than the Touring. I ran the OEM 18" wheels (with OEM tyres) for a while on my car. When a mate with an 03 Track and I swapped cars for a bit we both noticed that the Track was less comfortable over the bumps. However, I've never seen any documentation (official or Internet-sourced "spec sheets") confirming this. Also, what tyre pressure are you running? Higher pressures will give you less sidewall flex, and I have found that it can make a noticable difference to ride. Same with the inherent stiffness of the sidewall on your tyre. With the same air pressure, my RT615s are firmer than my old FK452s and there's only a quarter of a mm difference in sidewall height. You could try dropping the pressures first and seeing if it meets with the girlfriend's approval. If you've gone for a very aggressive sports tyre, try something with a softer sidewall. Toyo T1Rs have a reputation for soft sidewalls, but still provide a reasonable amount of grip.

They'll definitely fit if you have adjustable camber arms that permit more neg. I've seen 10.5" wide wheels with a +15 offset on a 350Z before. The bottom of the wheels did stick out a lot due to the size and extra camber, which made it seem a bit like a cop-spec track-only car. With the stock arms, you'll be pushing it. Maybe with a narrow tyre, but the front flange might touch the guard if you load it up enough.

How bad is it for her? Is it just a bit too harsh, or way too harsh? If its only a little too harsh, if you're on a budget consider getting Koni Yellow dampers. I ran a set with stock 03 Z33 springs. When they're at the softest setting the setup is softer than stock. The car's a bit floatier as a result, but its not a major issue on the streets. Firming them up when she's not around will involve jacking the rear of the car up, unfortunately, but unlike some brands its not a "strut out" job (assuming you can't get to the top of the struts in a V35 sedan, which is the case in a 350Z if you don't want to drill into the trim). If you can reach the rear strut tops easily, consider another brand of adjustable dampers. I think Bilstein sell dampers separately, but I don't know of anyone who's bought them before. The spring rate is the amount of mass required to compress the spring by a unit distance. Australia and Japan uses kg/mm, so a "7kg" spring requires 7kg to be put on top of the spring to compress it by 1mm. 14kg compresses it 2mm, etc. The higher the number, the more load required to compress it. Which means the harder it will feel. Springs can come in linear rate and progressive rate. The former spring is simple. Lets say a spring can compress a total of 30mm. The extra weight required to compress it from 29 to 30mm is the same as compressing it from 15-16mm, which is the same from 0-1mm. The feel of the suspension is linear as a result. A progressive rate spring requires less mass at the beginning of its range than the end. As a hypothetical example, it might only take the addition of 5kg to move it from 0-1mm but it you might need to add an extra 7kg when its compressed to 10mm in order to get it to 11mm. This means it'll feel softer over small movements (like bumps) but as you load it up harder, it'll stop letting the body lean as easily. It also means the car will feel a bit less responsive initially, as small lateral G-forces get absorbed by the spring rather than being converted into a change in direction. Dampers (aka shock absorbers) control the movement of the spring. Dampers can control the movement both during compression (or bound) and expansion (rebound). Increasing the bound damping increases the hardness of the ride as the entire setup is less willing to compress. Increasing the rebound damping means the spring is slower to decompress, and softens the ride. For your aims (and, by yours, I mean your girlfriend's) I wouldn't bother with a Tein setup. I've never been in a car with Tein Comfort Sports but they do run the same spring rates as Super Streets the last time I checked. The SS' are noticably harsher than stock. Even with a softer damper, the higher spring rate will still not make it comfortable. FYI Teins (and most Japanese dampers) only adjust the rebound damping. Initial compression of the spring is unaffected, which means at low speed (i.e. over speed humps) playing with the dampers doesn't have a particularly noticable affect on ride comfort. Adjusting the Koni Yellows affects bound and rebound (not independently) so the change in ride/comfort can be felt at mundane speeds. In terms of adjustability, I much prefer my old Konis to my current Teins. A mate of mine who used to own a Z33, who was after ride rather than handling, didn't like the Tein SS' because they were too harsh. He ended up running Tokico D-Spec adjustable dampers with Tanabe NF210 springs (which he felt was a spot on setup for his aims, even with his 19" Volk Racing wheels). The problem is that it'll lower your car even more, and there's no height adjustability in that setup. Personally if the further ride height drop is acceptable I'd consider Eibach Pro Kit springs instead. They're progressive rate, and from what I can see the Tanabes are linear rate. I never rode in his car so I'm not sure how the Tokicos felt, but I can highly recommend the Koni Yellows from personal experience. The 19s might also be killing the ride. Both in terms of the lack of sidewall, and the weight. The heavier the wheel the less control the suspension has over its movement, which will make the car feel crashier. Getting a smaller, or at least lighter, wheel might dial out some roughness.

You should have just converted a Parkway into a motor home.

To lighten the mood:

*cough*Roadpacer*cough*

Ford USA has repeatedly stated that they're not interested in an export program for the Falcon. The thing would sell gangbusters in the USA (just like the Monaro/Commodore, which shits all over most of their domestics in the handling stakes while still having the same powertrains), and even in the UK I know plenty of Ford fans who need a four door sedan, but don't want a bum-dragging Mondeo, and look wistfully at the XR6T and XR8. If superceding an engine that's been around for several decades is a sign that its a piece of shit dinosaur, wouldn't that make the RB equally as bad? It's not like they're present in any modern Nissan either. Why don't you try opening the other eye, and actually seeing the world how it is?

If he's talking about USD$25K in his own market, that's not unreasonable. A top-of-the-line 350Z went for around $33K over there. If Nissan could get a new Silvia to sell in Australia for under AUD$50K, it would do pretty well I reckon. Being $10-15K cheaper than a 370Z should give it a nice clean market separation. There's not much out there in the affordable coupe market right now, and as much as I like hot hatches I don't see them as a viable replacement for a sports coupe. With Toyota/Subaru releasing the FT86, and Honda working on a CRX replacement, hopefully things pick up in the lower end of the sports car market.

You'd take it over a KPGC10 GT-R?!?!?!? A friend of mine owns this: While its not a genuine GT-R, I'd still take that over any other NA Skyline bar a V35 (just for its modern mod cons).

In that case, this car is doomed: Not really. That F6 has SFA mods on it, which is how normal people refer to its "tune level". The actual power figure is irrelevant, since the F6's engine is noticably bigger. Otherwise, would a R33 GT-R with just a catback that's making, saying 200awkW, not be considered "light tune" if we were to ever compare its output to a Suzuki Cuppucino with a full exhaust, intake, ECU, EBC, cams, etc that would still struggle to make 100rwkW? Bear in mind that the car in question would also be noise legal, and possibly emissions legal, which is more than what I can say for your average Skyline doing similar times out there. They're running the same time on R-Comps as he was on S-Comps. "A couple of seconds", on the track, is an eternity. I know they grow them bigger in Queensland, but how big are your gnats if you reckon being 1-2s/lap slower is still anywhere near close? And if you want to try and deprecate the Skyline by saying that its "underpowered", if you had any interest in actually providing a fair comparison and therefore trying to prove your point on merit rather than prejudice you should also give credit to the F6 for managing those times while being "overweight"...or not bother mentioning the power difference since the weight differences cancel it out. You're quite happy to point out how lardy the car is otherwise, but conveniently forget it when it manages to do so well despite it. Yeah, but its also a decade older. Of course its going to be cheaper. We're talking about a street car that does track work, not the other way around. Having decent sound deadening, a comfortable ride, modern safety features and mod cons, etc still factor into the "value" of the car. Yes the Ford is more expensive, but it also comes with more stuff you'd want in a street car. Otherwise, if you were to gut all that fruit out of an F6 and make it a track-focused car it would shed a noticable amount of that weight you're so disapproving of. If you read threads like this on here, if being biased to the point of ignoring reality "lets a car down" then wouldn't you find your Skyline a disappointment too? As a 350Z owner who's driven a XR6T with a ZF that's stock aside from an exhaust, unless your car is FI they weren't trying or too retarded to work out how to operate the right pedal correctly. There is no way a bolt-on only 350Z is keeping up with one of those cars in a straight line if the Falcon driver has 2 working brain cells, and the intention of racing you.

You said that you wanted to build a 4 door GT-R. Genuine, factory built, GT-R sedans are almost impossible to find. My point is that doing it yourself by getting a 4 door chassis and transplanting the engine/driveline from a GT-R coupe into it is going to be a massive job with lots of custom work from whichever workshop you eventually get to help you with it. The end result is more prone to failure than a 4 door car that left the factory with an AWD drivetrain, and OEM levels of engineering and testing behind it. If you're talking about just dropping an RB26DETT into a sedan chassis then it should be relatively simple, and reliability will come down more to how you treat the car than anything else. But, to be quite blunt, the GT-R is defined more by its advanced drivetrain than its engine so that car wouldn't be a "4 door GT-R" any more than some ricer who sticks badges on their GTS-t. If you intend on having the GT-R's ATTESSA (which is different to the GTS4's ATTESSA) fitted as well as the engine into a sedan, which would make it more worthy of the title, then you're going to need deep pockets and people who really know what they're doing. Even then, I'd still be worried that things had to be kludged to fit/work, which means it's more likely to break than a car that was designed to be that way in the first place.

Firstly, I was referring to the R34. You know, the car mentioned in the title? 2.5L in a 1400kg is small. Secondly, in the context of what you quoted I was just making an observation to the person who wrote off the F6 as a taxi that your cooking model Skyline isn't exactly a Radical with rear seats and rego either. I can't think of too many 2WD turbo Skylines that will do 1:11 around Wakefield Park with a short list of bolt-ons that doesn't even include a cat-back exhaust, and S-Comp tyres? I had a quick flick through the last few pages of the Circuit Times thread: R33 GT-R doing 1:11 on slicks R33 GTS-t doing 1:10 on R-Comps R33 GTS-t doing 1:13 on R-Comps The latter 2 are similarly "light tune" in the powertrain and suspension, but both were also running R-Comp semi slicks compared to the S-Comps on the F6 I linked to earlier. I'm not sure how the F6's 1:11 is "coming up short", especially given that Wakefield is a handling track rather than a power track.

What do you want the car to do, Shane? If you want something with a tough coupe shape with a reasonable amount of poke that'll do a pretty good job on sweeping corners, get the GTT. If you want something that'll let your rear passengers alight without you having to get out, have the power to pin you and 3 of your mates to the backs of your seats when you're burying the boot but not feel like you've dropped a cylinder when you're part throttle at a sensible RPM, get the F6. Personally, for a daily driven car that's the only one I own, I reckon a slusho F6 with an APS Phase II kind of ADR and EPA compliant powertrain upgrade, and coilovers/swaybars to go with a decent set of wheels, would fit the bill pretty damned well. Something basically like this. His 1:11 at the handling-loving Wakefield Park (which is comparable to Winton, for the Victorians) on S-Comp tyres is impressive for any road car with light tune bolt-ons and a cop-deflecting stock exhaust, let alone a 1700kg sedan that apparently "can't corner".

The thing is, the other Nation's Cup car competitors weren't allowed to be modified to the same extent as the Monaro, under the guise of "parity". The Monaro was running the V8 out of a C6R, which is a purpose-built endurance racing engine, with a sequential box whereas the other vehicles were basically running light/medium tune versions of street engines with the stock gearboxes. When I saw them at Eastern Creek I remember seeing the Euro supercars doing a reasonable job around the corners keeping up with the Monaro, but then getting smashed down the main straight.

Maybe after you sink a couple of grand into the suspension. Otherwise, its still more a grand tourer than a touge weapon. It depends on what the OP is after. If its just a street cruiser with a lot of poke, an XR6T with the same suspension mods you'd inevitably do to the Skyline would corner well enough...but pull a lot harder and be more practical. How "professional" do you need to be to sidestep the clutch while banging the engine off the cutout? If its anything like most of the bosses I've had over the years, it's because it makes a shitload of noise but doesn't do any meaningful work. A non-GT-R Skyline isn't exactly some kind of ultra-fast halo model that'll make millionaires turn their heads and melt the panties off the ladies. The only people it attracts are pimply-faced youths who don't realise its missing front driveshafts, and the cops. It's just the a car that isn't even good enough to be a taxi in its native soil, with a hairdryer on its small motor and the rear doors welded shut.

Absolutely. I'd actually put the V35 350GT as the second best, after the Hako.

Autech did make some R33 sedans with full GT-R running gear. It's not just the GTS4 with an engine swap - it actually runs the GT-R's ATTESSA with an RB26DETT. They are rarer than hen's teeth, and it took a OEM-supported "aftermarket" tuner to actually do it. It's not impossible to do privately, but it will be a big job. Or you could get a Stagea 260RS if you wanted something that goes like a GT-R, but will easily be mistaken for a Volvo. I know you're a Skyline fan, but if I were you I'd look at finding a car that came AWD turbo 4 door from the factory. It'd be far more reliable, and much cheaper to get. Aside from the cop magnet Evos and WRXs, those 2 manufacturers' prior rally homologation specials are pretty nice cars too. A Subaru Liberty RS Turbo is pretty old but not a bad car, and the newer Liberty GTs are beautiful machines when you want to upgrade later. I've got a soft spot for stanced Forester GTs at the moment as well. I've seen Mitsubishi Galant VR4s for not a great deal, and with a 2.5L V6 and twin turbos it should have a wider torque band than the 2.0L boxer 4, single turbo, Subarus.