pixel8r

you see this kind of thing every day in adelaide. Mostly commodore drivers - I dont know what it is holden do to their customers or maybe its just that they attract a certain type of person? They all think they have the fastest car on the road (except that 999999999999 million other people drive exactly the same car as them). oh and the big HOLDEN sticker across the back window really helps to identify the car that little bit better... tis annoying - a bit like mozzies or flies - and about just as common.

not to mention the whirr/whine noise that seems to accompany a lot of them (diff/gearbox noise i believe?).

i was talking about having both a v8 and a turbo (or 2) in the same car. interesting idea though...

oh, and anyone who wants to argue over v8 vs turbos - why not have both? win-win

haha what a thread... if you have to ask that question, then go with the ford. Simple as that. What do you want to know, the ford is faster - thats pretty obvious. actually, its a LOT faster... The thing is, its still a ford. And thats why I say "if you have to ask" - because comparing a ford family car (that goes a bit faster and has better suspension than the base model) with a nissan turbo sports coupe is just silly. They are for completely different purposes. The GTT will be more fun, but the F6 may well be more practical. Its unlikely you'll get both in the one car. A better option could be a 32 or 33 GTR. That way you'll be able to spend whatever on power and be guaranteed the power will find its way to the ground. Dont bother going for more power in the ford, the wheels will just spin more. If you're just after an all-round "nice" car that has a bit (ie. a lot) of go when you want it, get the ford. The skyline is a very different car for a very different type of person. I'll put it another way: your passengers will get a better ride in the ford, but you'll have a better (ie. more involving/fun) drive in the skyline just my opinion. i've only been driven IN an F6 so take it with a pinch of salt. They are a very nice car as far as features go. very comfortable too. But they're not a sports car.

Unless you have a high-mount turbo I doubt the difference would be obvious. you probably lose your turbo/exhaust shield when you upgrade the exhaust anyway...but if you make up another one that'll hide the turbo a bit. All of the things listed above rely on police knowing the difference between stock vs aftermarket (which is entirely possible depending on who you get). Boost controllers are illegal anywhere in australia, as is anything that changes your emissions. Somehow exhausts are a special case and provided your noise levels are low enough you wont have any trouble for putting an exhaust on. Turbo timers should be ok provided you dont leave the vehicle while its running...i could be wrong though. Either way they're a waste of money for that reason (if you're gonna wait in your car you can just as easily turn it off yourself when you leave).

If you wanna know what turbo whine really sounds like, drive an M35

Thats the reason I said it. I was referring to this from the original post:

The ARX is the jacked up "crossover"? version which has more road clearance. If you dont need this clearance, consider a RS/RX model, or if you have the coin, the AXIS model (by Autech). The ARX does have features that none of the other models have though, so there are reasons to buy one and then lower it (one member on here has done exactly that). Stick a pod filter on and you will definitely hear the intake sound...its loud enough just with the stock airbox...

1658kg. Not much difference there. For tuning I only had an apexi safc2. It was tuned as good as an safc2 could be. I think a better ecu would've given much better results. The boost controller was a turbotech manual one so that shouldn't have been a limiting factor (wastegate would've remained fully closed until 12psi). So yeah I guess tuning and the auto box would be the limiting factors...

Maybe its different on a skyline - mine was also from ATS but on a stagea (200kg extra weight). Shouldn't affect the revs where boost comes in though...only how long it takes to get there. But like I said, it wasn't undriveable. Most of the time it was quite good, but off the line the lag was noticeable. Cruising around it would sit near 2000rpm so on a stock turbo it means you're on boost as soon as you touch the accelerator, but with the GT30 it took just a fraction longer. It would've improved with better tuning, but I had already spent upwards of $5K (including exhaust, boost controller, piggyback ecu, shift kit) at this point and didn't have the money to continue...hence the car was sold...

EDIT: oops, didn't read the previous few posts. Sorry to hear about the job mate. Hope it works out. The below is for later on then... -- Sorry if this is misleading info, but I do know the standard R33 S2 turbo will not handle 14psi or more for very long before the ceramic shatters. Is the turbo on a R33 s1 (ie. pre 1995/6) ceramic as well? I wouldn't be putting a GT30 on a RB25 unless top end power is all you're interested in. I've had one on a RB25DET NEO (R34/stagea s2) and it was pretty laggy. Didn't even start boosting until 2500rpm and max boost (only 11psi due to standard injectors & AFM) was around 4000rpm. You'll still get ~3000 rpm of boost but it'll be a bit frustrating and laggy in traffic - especially in summer. (hotter air + air/con means it takes even longer to get onto boost). If you want more instant response, use a slightly smaller turbo (eg. GT28) with steel wheels and just turn up the boost limit for the top end. GCG highflows are a popular unit...they basically highflow the stock turbo and replace the internal wheels with steel ones. How much boost depends on what your mods can handle. A good turbo with steel wheels will be ok for 18-20psi no worries, but in order to handle this you need some way of tuning Air/Fuel Ratios (AFR's) and also your fuel pump & injectors need to be able to supply the required amount of fuel for the increased airflow. The engine internals should be good for a lot more power than stock. These engines have been over-engineered to handle almost double the power they come with. There's no rocket science - its basically just a matter of using the turbo to pump more air in and making sure it can match it with fuel. A good ecu will make sure its doing this efficiently so you dont spend more than is necessary at the bowser. With what you've got already, I'd be looking at ecu, then turbo & injectors (+ AFM?) and up the boost to 14-16psi. Enjoy it

Spotted a silver M35 stagea RX on grand junction rd this morning - with a "www.synergymotorsports.com.au" sticker on the back windscreen. I've seen it around quite a bit while driving to/from work. Never get a wave though... I suspect the owner is not on here...

After reading your initial post, I just wanted to say that having a family doesn't mean you have to give up on your own interests. Certainly your money will be divided more and you will prioritise on other things, but you shouldn't need to give up on your own interests completely. Well, pretty soon your family will probably be your main interest anyway (if it isn't already)...but I still think its important not to give up on the things that make life fun now...

This is more correct than what you may have intended. No one watches Today Tonight expecting the facts.

Nicely showing off the new intake piping there too Sound = 10/10 Performance = a bit subjective. Definitely dont think I've lost any performance. It does certainly feel like there is less restriction - particularly at low revs. More kw? I dont know. Even if there was, it would be very slight. I just love the sound

Yes I know exactly what you're saying. My wife often gets better fuel economy than me. Pretty sure she never uses boost. Anyway, just want to note that I've gotten my best highway fuel economy when the outside temp is around 18-22 degrees. If its really cold, it uses more fuel (best I've seen when its below 16deg is about 10.5-11L/100km). Obviously when its hot it uses more fuel (plus i'd have a/c on if its hot). My best ever is around 9.8L/100km on the highway. This is with the M35 though. Best I did in the s2 was about 10.7L/100km. iamhe77 - do you know how many litres that amounts to? Does the "distance to empty" mean really empty (~80L) or just when the empty light comes on (~65L). Those are some pretty impressive numbers.

EDIT: oops, fixed title... hey guys, Some of this has come up before a few times already but I just thought I'd give my thoughts on it. I decided to remove the panel off the front of the M35 airbox to see what the difference would be. I'm too stingy to buy a powerduct (like on the V35 and PM35 stagea) so I just left it as is, my rationale being that the airbox is right up against the front anyway, and when you're in motion it'll be getting nice fresh air. Anyway, so obviously the first thing I noticed was the sound. It is awesome. I just didn't expect it to be anything like what it is. Makes the car sound soooooo much better under boost/heavy throttle. My fuel usage did suffer over the following 300km though because I just had to hear it over and over again...which meant a heavier-than-normal right foot...but this should sort itself out as I get more used to it. The other thing I did last week was grab a bottle of Caltex Techron 5000 and pour it in the fuel tank. Its available from most caltex servo's for about $13. With both of these things its hard to say conclusively whether there is a benefit or whether I've just had a good run, but the car seems to breathe better (ie. less restriction when you press the accelerator) and overall has better performance all-round. In any case the engine sound is definitely conclusive - and its worth doing just for that! I highly recommend the techron, but obviously do your own research if you're not sure about it... Thing is, I always use bp ultimate but still, I know my intake is covered in black soot so I figured the engine internals could be as well... The cleaning agent in any 98RON fuel is probably pretty good but none of them are anywhere near as concentrated as a bottle of techron 5000. I've read many good reviews about it online which is why I thought of giving it a go. it gets 2 thumbs up from me

Sorry to keep hammering this thread but I just wanted to mention that I raised our concerns about the validity of the tests by "Test Driven Australia" and they have given their response - in the comments below the article. In summary, the M35 pictured is not the one tested, and the one that was tested has been confirmed as being completely stock - including stock boost and exhaust. Whilst I still feel the numbers are too low, TDA stand by their results. zei20l - I dont have an iphone but I do have an android phone (HTC magic) - which is very similar. I've just looked and found an app which should do what you say. Its called aDyno. There's another one called Speedometer but the free version doesn't do 0-100 times etc and I'm not into paying for apps that I'll rarely use. Will let u know how this works when I get a chance.

I managed just below 8 seconds 0-100 in my s2 when driving it home from the gold coast (back to adelaide). The car had minimal luggage in it, and 2 adults. Temperature would've been mid 20's. Plenty of room for improvement too - only revved to 2500rpm before lifting the brake and taking off...(I'd only just bought the car so didn't want to go too overboard). The M35 is quite a bit faster than the s2 (at least it feels that way) so it has everything going for it. Just a matter of getting it all right in one go. Btw rather than use the GPS for timing, it would be easier to use the GPS to work out where the speedo needle sits when the GPS says 100km/h. Then use the speedo to time it from 0 until it reaches that same point. Timing with a stopwatch will always be a tiny bit out due to reflexes etc. but there's not much else you can do.

I've heard a lot of people say A/C uses about 10% of your power, but it gets worse for a turbo car with a relatively small engine. More drag on the engine means it will take longer to spool the turbo (ie it will rev slower up to 2000rpm or whenever the turbo starts hitting building boost) - this would have a huge effect. Not only that, turbo cars tend to perform really badly in hot weather and really well in cold weather, compared to n/a cars.

How accurate is the gps when you're accelerating rapidly? I know they're pretty accurate when you're sitting on constant speed but I dont know if I'd trust my satnav speed readout when I'm accelerating... Am interested to see the results though.

Sorry mate, that confusion may be my fault for not labelling this thread correctly. The article mentioned in the first post does indeed speak of the SS version. Note the SS is the v8 (270kw), whereas the base model sportwagon is a v6 (now with direct injection as of the MY10 model = 210kw). You are correct the v8 is a lot faster than the v6. I would expect the M35 to sit somewhere between the v6 and v8 sportwagons, although leaning much more towards the v6...

Mine fluctuates the whole time, not just below the 1/4 mark. It can be below the 3/4 mark and then 5 minutes later its showing just above it... I've learnt not to pay that much attention to it - since its usually just a "rough indication" rather than an accurate measurement. Lately I filled up when the needle was just above empty (as in very very close to the empty line), but only got 54L in. Other times its been on the empty mark and I've managed to get around 62+L in. From 1/4 to empty I normally get around 50-80km maximum.

isn't the 260 capable of doing a 13.x second 1/4 mile? Thats gotta be quicker than the SS sportwagon. The sportwagon weighs a good 100+ kg MORE than the stagea...