warps

Looking for a DBA954 rotor to take measurements off, or to borrow for trial fitment for a brake upgrade on a track car (not Nissan). Doesn't matter to me if the rotor is new, old, warped, cracked, rusty etc as long as it's intact and roughly the same shape as originally intended. The DBA website doesn't give all the measurements I need, and I'd like to confirm actual dimensions before buying a set and finding they don't suit my needs (already have a pair of rotors that were perfect on paper, but don't quite suit what I want). The rotor in question is fitted to the front on the following vehicles: V35 Skyline 350GT: 2002 - 2007 M35 Stagea: 2001 - 2007 350Z Touring model: 2003 - 2005 J31 Maxima / Cefiro: 10/03 onwards If you have one of these rotors you'd be prepared to loan out or take some measurements for me, then I would be forever in debt (well, until I forget about it, anyway). TIA

My cars are only cheapies - one's insured for $12k and the other for $20k. Just checking the policy, I'm paying $343 for the cheaper car, and $384 for the dearer one. I can almost guarantee that insuring a single car for $32k would be a lot less than the price of my 2 insurances combined. I would guess you could insure a $50k race car for under the $730 combined I'm paying. Just having 2 policies means 2 lots of administrative fees etc. Give them a call and get a quote - costs nothing and is easy.

Shannons do a laid up cover for just your purpose. Basically it covers insurance against fire, theft, damage etc while ever the car is not under its own power. This includes while it's being trailered to an event. I have 2 race cars insured under this scheme for about $700 per annum total. It doesn't matter how modified they are, and you basically set the value of the car.

Bring it on. Like always, if you aren't doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about.

According to the technical bulletin T.434 from Nissan, The Aussie delivered GTR's were fitted with the side indicator and the high stop light as part of the compliance process to sell them here. My GTSt was also fitted with side markers (can't recall the rear stop lights though) as part of compliance when I imported it in 2001. I'm not 100% sure whether you can get away without these items on GTR's, but I thought that would be a requirement of the compliance process. You won't be able to use the Aussie delivered GTR's as an argument, because they were all fitted with these items,

that's right - a lot of coupes and even hatches are registered as a sedan. All of the VTI-r Honda hatch rego papers I've ever seen (EG and EK) have shown them as a sedan.

Where'd you see that one, niZmO? I was looking at some portable 4 posters (I presume all the portable ones would have to be 4 post) and they were around $5k. Sorely tempted to get one for the workshop (trying to juggle 3 cars and a trailer in the workshop is starting to get a bit lame, specially when I need access to all of them.

I did not say not to use certain types of stands. Read what I said. The ratchet types have been known to fail, which is why I said to inspect them and ensure they're properly engaged before lowering the weight of the car onto them. I mostly use ratchet stands because they're easier to work with, so I'd hardly be saying not to use them, would I? Always inspect your equipment before using it - that's one of the first basic safety rules in any workshop. Blocks of wood. Again, read what I said. I've seen people stack varying sizes / shapes of wood to get the right height. This is about as stable as house of cards and very dangerous. If you have properly sized / shaped blocks of wood (and the correct grade) then this is fine as I said. In 30 years of working on cars, I've never personally had a hydraulic jack fail, so by your reckoning, it's OK to work under a hydraulic jack, right? As you're suggesting, just because you have stands doesn't guarantee they will be safe. If used correctly, positioned correctly (and the stands are suitable for the task) then they will be safe, and you won't have a problem. If you want to start improvising with other objects around the house, then make sure they have the right load bearing capacity, and are stable enough to use. Yes, common sense goes a long way.

Nice gear there, Terry. I picked up an alloy 1600kg jack from Hare and Forbes over Xmas - think it was under $200 but not sure. Those ratchet stands are easy to use, but make sure you inspect the ratchet mechanism an ensure the tab engages well with the teeth in every position. These (cheaper ones) have been known to collapse when not properly engaged. I think these pin / screw ones being advertised these days are a good idea. They let you adjust the height perfectly, so that you can ensure the weight is more evenly spread across both (all four??) stands. Only use proper axle stands to support the car. Don't use bricks / wheels / blocks of wood etc (unless the blocks of wood are purpose built, and stable). Lower the vehicle onto the stands - don't rely on the jack. If the jack gives way and drops even 1/2", it can be enough to topple a poorly set up temporary stand. Of course you can leave the jack there as additional support (although take the weight off the jack so the stands are doing their thing. Jacks very rarely fail, but like anything, when they do, they won't give you a lot of warning. Do you think you can crawl out from under a car before it crushes your skull? Don't take the chance. Use the proper gear.

Lots of his mates told him so

Stock, auto VL needing a respray. Has to be worth at least a six-pack of VB cans

Can anyone confirm this? Paul Stokell is still advertising driver training days there for this year.

Hey fellow QLDers Does anyone know whether you can run private track days at the Norwell track? (Just north of the Gold Coast, for those who don't know of it) I'm looking to get into some more tarmac events this year and since this track is only 15 min from my place, I'd love to get some track time there (even practice days to help sort the car out without the heat of competition). does anyone know what's involved in running events there? I see that a few clubs have done it in the past (MGCC, Hard Tuned). Would others be keen to do an event if something were organised?

Last time I asked this question (almost 20 years ago) I was told that if the car has been deregistered for more than 6 months, then you will need a letter from the manufacturer stating that the car complies with the ADR's that were in place when the car was built (this was for a Datto 1600). If the car is totally stock, then this should be possible (which I found surprising). If the car has been modified, then you have big problems. If the car has been out of rego for less than 6 months, then there should be no problem. However, this was about 1995 or 1996, so things may have changed substantially in that time.

I had a similar problem with a rear LCA pivot bolt (on a Honda). Wasn't till I finally got the nut off (with the biggest fkoff breaker bar that I could find) that I realised the nut is supposed to be welded to the subframe. Fkn noob!!! I know this doesn't relate to your issue, but still makes me laugh. Maybe I should have posted into the "Oops"thread

Pffft - amateur skiers. He needs to stick to girly motorsports and leave snow sports to the real men says Warps who can almost complete a blue run without dying

It still has the same model number - search Smootharc Advance MIG 200C (for some reason SAU won't let me paste links, or even copy / paste into my posts ). Not sure whether they've changed the internals - for that kind of price rise, I'd hope so. Mine was on special when I bought it. I paid $750, and it's currently advertised at $1160-ish. I've seen them advertised for over $1200. Top unit though (for a MIG). It turns ordinary welders like me into freakin geniuses.

BOC gear seems to have gone up. I bought a BOC 200A MIG machine a couple of years ago, and the RRP is now about $400-500 more than what I paid for it.

boiracer - don't get me wrong. As I have stated before, I've enjoyed playing the GT games (GT3, 4 and 5) for what they are. I know they have always marketed the series as the definitive driving simulator (or something like that). No problem - I'm not gullible enough to swallow the marketing blurb. However, when forum members start claiming that the physics are "realistic" I take notice. The stuff that Harry mentioned is exactly why I don't consider GT a proper sim. Those issues in themselves are probably not enough to stop me wanting to play the game. However, it's all of the little things that add up, like the FWD and gravel physics (previously mentioned), unrealistic tyres overheating (GT5 sucked for that!!), slicks being faster in the rain than rain tyres, the way you could man-handle the car with massive amounts of steering lock and throttle application and not pay the price, cutting across grass and not losing grip, bumping other cars out of the way to gain position, the stupid AI and much more. Any one of those things in isolation wouldn't be a problem, but when you add them all together it just detracts too much to keep me captivated. Have had lots of fun playing GT3,4 and 5, but they all seem to be slight iterations of the previous releases without enough new content to make it worth buying. Maybe Gt7 on PS4 might be enough of a leap forward to make me want to spend. Shall wait and see (my son is harassing us to buy a PS4 - I keep telling him to get a job and buy it himself) Oh, and they need to fix the clutch glitch in GT5. It misses gear shifts if there's even the slightest amount of wheelspin. How well do you think that works on gravel?

Thanks for the feedback, Harry. Won't be wasting any money on this one then.

Yeh that's the go. Problem is, I can buy a good CR box for the race car for that money. Or a lathe. Or a full race K20. Or a year's worth of race rubber for both cars.

No it's all about the physics. You're right - newer Sim's like I-race are like that - you have to buy everything. That's not what I mean by Sim racing (although I-Race is a fantastic simulator). The idea is to get as close to real feeling as possible in a driving game. While most of today's driving games do a reasonably good job, and I'm the first to admit that the GT series is fun, they lack the feeling of immersion you can only get when the car behaves exactly as you experience in real life. In fact, with a proper sim, the only thing missing is the feeling of G forces. GT still has a fair way to go before the cars behave realistically. Their FWD modelling is atrocious (I've yet to see a FWD that can power oversteer, and understeers under brakes). I know that 99% of people here wont care about that, but it is relevant to me as I race a FWD on gravel, and the GT physics are way off the mark. Real sims are the ones that most gamers try, and throw in the bin after 2 hours because they can't do a single lap without crashing on every second corner. These days most of them dumb it down so that the 12yo kids driving in chase view can still manage to drive, so they keep buying the game. One of the most realistic driving sims ever made (Grand Prix Legends - released in 1998) was a commercial flop. You only had 7 cars and 11 tracks, and it was infuriatingly difficult to drive. Most people who tried it returned the game within a week. However, there's still a strong community providing updates (tracks, skins, different eras etc) and running online race series all over the world. In the last 15 years, the physics remain largely untouched. I've just started driving it again with a clutch and shifter (like they did back in 1967) and still have an absolute ball. It punishes you harshly for poor throttle control, and excessive control input - just like a race car in real life would, when driven on the edge.

You mean the petrol only, light weight SUV aimed at the facebook and latte brigade? Burn it Burn it with fire!!

Perhaps by dictionary definition the GT series can be called simulators. By the definition established by the simracing community, no way. It's a simracing thing, and most would not understand unless they've immersed themselves into a proper sim for a decent amount of time. Not sure what that video of NFS was meant to prove, but that was pure arcade. lots of fun for the masses and good for drunken gaming nights, but no real appeal to the purists.

Was the Grid / NFS comment intended as a comment on the quality of PC gaming? (You're right - have not played either of those - last NFS I played many years ago was pure arcade - not sure if that's changed) Don't get me wrong - I don't pretend that just because something is a PC game makes it a good sim. However, the only proper-ish sims I've played have been PC based (RBR, GPL, Rfactor 1&2, IRace). I have to admit that the GT stuff can be fun, but the lack of realism very soon has me getting bored and looking for something more engaging.