pixel8r

If you're referring to the xanavi unit, I'd give it a miss. The tv unit doesn't work without plugging in a portable PAL tuner that can output to NTSC (possibly cheaper to just buy a portable tv). The satnav doesn't work in aus either. Also cheaper to just buy an aftermarket satnav unit than to try get the stock one working here. As far as I know no one has done it yet. It also doesn't play dvd's so its basically a fancy cd player and climate control setup. For that it does work well - I have this unit in my stagea - and I believe the r34's had the same one as an option. It looks good etc. but if I had to replace it I'd get the single climate control unit and an aftermarket head unit and use the spare slot for some mounted guages. Just my preference

been with just car for a few years now. I've found their premiums to be the lowest around but the downside is they often have a larger excess. Suits me fine tho - its saved me a lot of money anyway. Good luck with shannons - i'm not happy with their service at all. Haven't even gotten a quote from them since they never wanted to insure me from the moment they answered the phone. First you have to prove you are an "enthusiast" - good luck with that. I mean i've been on cruises, to photoshoots, I wash the car like every week, its modified, tuned etc. but apparently I'm not an enthusiast - and yet they are happy to insure ford falcons -??! anyway, and then because I called my garage a carport that instantly meant they go no further and nothing I could say would change that. I asked them if it would be that difficult if I wanted to make a claim....its not what I want to go through if I've just had an accident. Others seem to have had better results with them so best of luck if you do - they do have great policies and are apparently a very good insurer - I just happen to always get some knob on the phone every time I ring No "hello how are you" or anything...just wanted to make excuses for why he couldn't insure me... Am happy with Just Car Insurance though. They wont reject you for any mods (although they wont cover you if the mods are illegal) and they dont tell you how or where or when to drive your car. They understand its YOUR car and they are a great insurer from that point of view. And that is why I will be staying with them. $1050 for a 1999 stagea turbo (i'm just 25 and my wife, 22, is also on the policy, we're both rating 1). And thats including the rating 1 protection. No one else can match that quote (in my experience)... I owned a n/a 1991 silvia when i was 19. Paid $1700 a year full comp on rating 3. That was with a broker (not thru just car). Then later I bought a turbo silvia and Just Car insured it for $1100 on rating 2. Cant say enough good things about them, although I've never had to make a claim (touch wood!)

seen a black one (r34 gtr) driving along O.G. Rd in the mornings a couple times on my way to work. Interesting its number plate is GTR 34 (two lines, 'GTR' on top with '34' underneath). Congrats on the lucky numberplate. I want personalised plates on my stag but dont want to pay every year - still trying to think up a good "name" lol

Some people on here mentioned about getting a resonator. I've heard both sides of the story but mainly people have told me that resonators can actually create drone, rather than remove it. I had a resonator put on my stagea when I got the exhaust done - its what the exhaust shop normally uses for skylines and they also used one on my s13 silvia a couple years ago. With the silvia it was fine, not overly loud and sounded ok. But with the stagea, it was so droney that it was very loud inside the car at around 2000rpm - next time you drive have a look at your tacho and notice how much it sits around 2000rpm when just driving normally in traffic. Its quite a LOT. The next business day I took the car back and got them to swap the resonator for a 3" straight thru muffler, so no more restriction - and it made a HUGE difference. The exhaust is quieter (was a bit loud beforehand) and has a very nice deep note with no drone. Its actually fairly quiet cruising at 60km/h. I think that resonators work best on smaller cars where there isn't much cabin space. With a wagon you get a lot of drone since the resonator/muffler is sitting beneath the wagon part of the car. So thats where I think two mufflers is really what is necessary to eliminate drone in a car like the stagea. Just my 2c. Hope it helps and I'm sure you'll get it sorted

I'd like to reiterate the above - DO NOT GET A CANNON I had a cannon muffler on a s13 silvia which sounded kind of "ok" but nothing special. Cannon mufflers are pretty much all droney as are resonators. I got a custom exhaust from AAA exhausts. $1400 for full stainless steel from the turbo back with 2 3" magnaflow oval shaped mufflers. Oval mufflers give a much deeper and nicer (imo) note. From my experience cannon mufflers give a sharper more high pitched note - think riced up hondas - it can sound really bad. When i got my exhaust they originally put in a mid resonator and just a single muffler at the rear - but the drone was way too much at around 2000rpm due to the wagon. I then took it back and got them to replace the mid resonator with a 3" muffler and that fixed it up completely!! (both mufflers were straight thru - with a slight bend in the middle but certainly not S shaped) So yeah make sure you have 2 mufflers - I'd strongly recommend oval shaped ones and I can vouch for magnaflow mufflers being good quality and good sounding. My stag isn't loud - there's no drone, and yet it does have a note that says its more than just a wagon

i *may* be going. If it turns out to be just all kids doing burnouts etc. then I'll be exiting early but hopefully it'll be a good cruise. Good mix of import and other cars so should make it nice and interesting

Dont stock gtr34's run pretty low boost (like gtt's etc) standard? something like only 5-6psi? Do they have a boost solenoid like the r33gtst/r34gtt's to bump up the boost to 7-8psi at high rpm? sorry dont know much about gtr's boost specs except that they run fairly low boost standard, and ceramic turbos similar to (or the same as?) r34 gtt's. Either way a few basic mods will see you matching the commo kw for kw and yours being at all 4. Its pretty tough to beat a good awd launch so even if your car is slower (which i doubt), you'll still get plenty of lead from the launch

SA Stagea cruise - YES PLEASE!! have been quite jealous with all the other states organising cruises etc. so if there's ever a sa stagea cruise i'll be there Nice power figure there also! And some big plans for it too - hope it all goes to plan

yeah true but who reviews a car like the gtr and complains because you cant park it easily? So you may have to do a 3 point turn instead of a u-turn - they made such a big deal over it... I'm not always good at parking in my stagea and sometimes I take more than 2 goes (lol) but its the kind of thing you get used to and you just park, get out the car and not think twice about the fact you took 2/3 goes to park it right... Anyway, there are a lot of things about that review that made me think it was biased. Obviously no mention of the gtr gearboxes since that would spoil the wrx comparo lol anyways....moving along...

has autospeed ever written a positive comment about skylines? clearly they favor wrx's and clearly they're not big fans of the gtr. the reason i say that is because most other reports of the gtr are quite different and much more positive. autospeed mention things like the gtr being hard to park and being too wide to drive on city roads?? what were they driving in, the bike lane? i guess its all about perspective. i drive a wagon and dont find it hard to park or do u-turns in... anyway this is about the 3rd article i've seen from autospeed effectively bagging all gtr's and yet I've seen a couple of topgear episodes where they praise it. I dont believe the article is a fair review of the gtr's. not to worry...

yeah thats correct - ATTESSA kind of "anticipates" traction loss if that makes sense. Some other awd systems only engage the fronts after the rears start slipping, but ATTESSA is a step ahead of that. And then you have the always on 50-50 split awd systems which I look at and think its not exactly genius...and it uses more fuel all the time (more wear and more stress on the whole drivetrain all the time) just for that rare chance that you might accelerate too hard on a wet road.... Thats why I love nissan's AWD so much - its suited to almost all driving situations.

i think you'll find thats still the minority. but i thought of that after i'd posted...oh well. and in any case hoons will be hoons - its hardly the fault of the car. There are a more hoons in aussie cars in my opinion - eg. beat up holden commodores...seems nearly everyone that drives a vp/vn thinks they have a rocket...

Is this the one on dec 10? A cruise thru lobethal would be good fun...cant confirm if I can make it tho...

of course.....not but we are giving nissan some great positive exposure with the cars we drive now... I could be wrong on this but most car manufacturers seem to use their powerplant top-model cars to help sell their daily-driver/family cars. I dont know how much difference it makes but a lot of manufacturers use it in their advertising. It seems from the 350z that nissan still want a "sports car" in their mix of cars so I'd say _that_ trend will continue. But I personally doubt we'll see another silvia or skyline true to the ones we drive. Maybe nissan will make another performance coupe (possibly the ugly foria concept?) and re-use the silvia name? who knows?

pretty sure this has been covered before. I reckon the price difference could be more than $4k easily. $4k worth of mods on a s1 will give you a better car than a stock s2 - so you have to weigh it up as a complete package. That takes the performance issue out of the equation. The s2 engine will be slightly more economical with the same mods, but for the money the s1 is the better value IMO. I bought a s2 because I prefered the look (actually i like s1 too, but just prefer s2), and I wanted: - newest I could get (and low km's) - tiptronic auto - later engine (with infinitely variable valve timing) - newer technology - just cos I like that side of things. I just like to have the best of everything Even if the engines were the same I probably still would've gone with the s2 just on the looks and the tiptronic. I dont even use tiptronic much but I love gadgets and gimmicks. Good luck with your decision/purchase.

very very very very very very very very NIIICE!! Your car's looking real neat, rob! as far as the numberplate goes...I reckon a slim one would fit onto the front bar in the centre so it hangs over the cooler a bit...(not sure if thats legal tho)...] not the most creative idea i know...but here's a quick edit for ya...

the difference in turning circle between rwd stageas and awd stageas is less than 1m. something like 70-80cm difference if i remember correctly - so not too bad for awd. by "handling" do you mean cornering - ie. through the hills etc or just turning as in parking etc. I would've thought a GTR would handle better than a GTT/GTST in stock form? something to do with awd allowing better acceleration out of corners and less understeer as the front wheels kick in (although i believe oversteer can be an issue - particularly with r32's?). EDIT: What I love most about Nissan's ATTESSA E-TS AWD system is that its not just a plain old "drive all wheels at once" system like most other awd systems. It varies the torque split depending on the situation therefore giving better fuel economy for daily driving and more power/traction where its needed during more spirited driving.

Is there a chance this could work in reverse? ie. if not enough people sign it and nissan happen to find out - would they assume that there are not enough buyers to warrant building more turbo performance cars?? I signed it anyways all the best... IMO its not all about the customers, its about continuing Nissan's heritage - they have been a leader in their class for some time and the GTR is a world famous car. But it comes down to the company's focus and direction I guess.

the 3 main differences between awd and rwd are AWD has better traction (pretty much no traction loss) AWD weighs more AWD has more loss through the drivetrain. So if we compare like with like (same kw at flywheel on similar cars, eg. if both were skylines), pretty much the RWD would win in situations where traction is not an issue and vice versa... The power lost through the drivetrain with ATTESSA AWD systems (as used in skyline GTRs and stageas) is apparently only around 15-20kw so not that much really. Its easily outweighed by the better traction and hence no slippage at all on take off. Also note that with ATTESSA, in normal cruising around, its basically RWD only so fuel consumption would be similar to a RWD car of the same specs. Its only when pushed hard (where slippage is likely to occur) that the AWD/extra drivetrain loss will be in effect. The extra weight of the AWD however is quite a large difference. I think its about 150-200kg from memory so this would probably have the most impact in the comparison. Personally I'd rather AWD any day and my reason is purely because that way you never have traction issues so all your performance mods give great results all the way. With RWD sooner or later you will need to sort out traction issues and the more power you get the more you need to worry about traction (assuming street tires). Obviously drag cars (mostly rwd as mentioned previously) are a completely different ball game. I presume the original post was talking more generally though, as am I. not to mention the added safety and confidence AWD gives particularly in the wet.

pretty sure s2's (and s1's) dont have traction control. With ATTESSA its not that easy to lose traction anyway - or at least not bad enough to lose control.

Sounds good. I'm starting to think there's more to the issue than a/c. It appears to only be sluggish in hot weather (which would be the only time I normally use a/c, hence my reason for thinking its that). I realise hot air is less dense and therefore there will be less power than if the air was cold, but what if my car is struggling to operate efficiently due to too much heat? The aircon makes the engine run hotter than normal, and if the air outside is hot as well this would just mean that maybe there is more "load" on the engine just in trying to keep things cool. Is this at all possible? The reason I mention this is because if I use a/c on a ~25deg (or less) day its actually not too bad. Can anyone explain what the ~30cm at the very front of the car is for? (sits in front of the radiator towards the left side) I'm guessing its for additional cooling? any chance that this fan could place additional load on the engine?

it makes the gearchanges much quicker and snappier. and when just cruising around I can slightly feel the 1st to 2nd gearchange but the later gearchanges are smooth enough to be unnoticeable.

I've also got the MV automatics shift kit installed in my s2 stagea so it also has tiptronic, which is greatly improved. Being in SA I actually got it installed AT MV automatics. Cost me $440 and that includes a transmission service - which normally costs around $150 for a quality service. So for the money it is very good value. It still drives very very smooth if you want to, or will slam into gear if you push it hard. The difference from stock is pretty easy to imagine. When you go to kick back a gear you put your foot down to the floor. Then there is a short delay while the gearbox ecu works out what gear you want, and then bang, you're instantly in the gear. I'd guess that the delay is about 1/2 a second or less. Its not the same as a manual by any means but sure is a lot better than the stock auto. The main thing is that its not at all rough and you basically only feel a clunk if you change gears at high revs... As far as how long the box will last, I was told that this upgrade actually strengthens the gearbox... no chirpies for me though...

Thanks - I'll check it out - or rather get someone more knowledgeable to check it out sometime Also I noticed the ~30cm fan that sits in front of the radiator was ON today - even with the a/c off. I presume this fan is for extra cooling if the car is running too hot? It was 38degrees today so that would make sense. I also presume that this is normal operation...my temp guage was no different to normal so I hope I have no cause for concern. I did a coolant flush only a month ago.

I got 170rwkw (awd stagea on 2wd dyno) at 9psi (cheap manual boost controller jumps up to 11psi and slowly works back to 9psi at the top end). Mods: - 3" turbo-back exhaust (incl 3" hi-flow cat and 2 straight thru magnaflow mufflers) - gt30 turbo - safc - manual boost controller - apexi panel air filter There was no dip in power at all on mine, and the revs do build very fast right from the get-go...just gets faster and faster as the turbo comes into its "sweet spot" above 4000rpm... Definitely needs more boost and the turbo will handle it fine, I just need to save for a sitc and upgraded fuel system bits and a good tune, and probably a good EBC while I'm at it. I reckon I could squeeze a bit more out of it in its current state (not sure if my manual boost controller is set up correctly) but not worth the money for another tune. Sounds like you're enjoying your new turbo Brendan? Let us know the results when you get it tuned next