warps

Precisely

No it's not. The R33 will have even more issues than a spot light that is esigned to throw light out equally (clear lens, parabolic reflector) so while they aren't directly compatible, the HID in stock headlight will cause even more trouble. I have also tried the HID Light Forces and was equally unimpressed.

I love it when wankers with dodgy HID conversions blind me coming the other way. I just flick the Light Force 240's on for a couple of seconds and they soon get the picture. I've tried retrofitting HID's to the 170's I had on my rally car, and the light was plain crap, regardless of how I adjusted / focussed the beam. The halogens in the other pair of 170's outshone the HID's easily. I still have all 4 spotties sitting on the shelf so am happy to demonstrate to anyone who doesn't believe me. The only thing I can think of is that I got the 6000K kits, and the 4300K is meant to put out much more light so will give that a go before refitting the halogens into the 170's. Where I'm working at the moment (out west of Mackay) I have a 45km trip to / from work in the dark each way. A lot of the guys out here have fitted HID's to their 4X4's and you can tell when they come up behind you, or coming the other way (mostly they're properly aimed, and don't cause a problem). there's bugger all difference in their lights and the halogens on the front of my car - in fact I'd say that mine light up the road (usefully) much better than a lot of theirs. I can see comfortably 500-600m ahead which is plenty at 100km/h (by usefully I don't mean lighting up a reflective street sign at 1500m). That little white dot you get at 1000m just doesn't cut it for me, I'm afraid. Remember, your car's standard lights are a compromise between looking good (most impotrant to the designer), minimal glare on low beam and finally decent high beam (long way behind the other criterea unfortunately), In most cases, the only way to get decent long range lighting is to fit spotties. good if you're going for the rally / 4WD look but not so great on a maccas cruiser. If you HAVE to get a HID kit then at least try get one that puts the light source in the similar position to the original filament, so that the scatter of light will be somewhat minimised. Having said all that, my current rally car has JDM HID lights fitted (see avatar). I haven't driven it in the gravel at night yet, so can't comment on their effectiveness. If they happen to be ZOMG eleventy++ bright, then I'll happily retract my previous statements. I'm feeling fairly confident though.

Valid points. I guess I should have clarified that these relationships tend to take time to build. some suppliers are happy to help strangers, others won't want to know you till you've you've spent your first $100k with them. There are still some excellent people out there willing to help however they can (eg Murray Coote, Jim Berry) and you don't have to be a top team to earn their time either. In fact, when I get off the phone with Murray I feel guilty I haven't actually bought anything off him. Remembe, they don't have to be high profile to know what they're doing. My machinist / fabricator has building race cars (from Bathurst to F1) since the late 60's. These days he works in the back of a shed on the gold Coast. He's a bit of a nutty professor, but comes up with lots of great ideas that are a bit left field. some of the ideas have worked, others have needed tweaking, but together we often iron out the bugs and come up with workable solutions. Occasionally I'll look at something he's designed for the rally car and worry about its strength for gravel applications (he's mainly tarmac) but nothing has broken through lack of strength yet. like anything, if you expect instant results, you will most likely be disappointed unless you put in the hard yards yourself. If you expect to get all the answers to life just by posting a few questions on an internet forum - well then I believe you get what you deserve.

Frankly if I want proper advice I don't go to a forum. The most experienced motorsport people I know don't even hang around at forums. I just call or see them direct. As far as general info, or bouncing ideas around, then the forums are fine. You soon get a feel for who has a clue, and who's just regurgitating what they read off the side of their cornflakes packet. Not worth getting excited over though. for the record, I have absolutely no idea on tarmac tyres. my experience is limited to one track day on a set of 048's. Ask me about gravel rally tyres, and that's a different story (still a long way from being an expert, but at least I can comment on competing on several different tyres)

That's right, the dates stamped onto harnesses give you 5 years from date of manufacture (just check that any harness you buy hasn't been sitting on a shelf for 12 months). The reasoning was always that after 5 years, the material can deteriorate (to the point where the harness becomes unsafe). CAMS rounded up a heap of old out of date harnesses a couple of years ago, and did a lot of testing on them to see how badly the harnesses had deteriorated over time. They weren't able to find any significant change in webbing strength on the older harnesses, and even if they had deteriorated, they confirmed that the braeking strain is so high that you would die from crush injuries before the harness broke. Hence they have added another 5 years to the expiry dates of all FIA harnesses. Having said that, if the harness isn't properly mounted, or is poorly looked after, it can deteriorate in less than 5 years (frayes edges, rubbing on structures in the car, getting wet, sitting in the sun etc).

Given that CAMS did extensive testing on a heap of old (out of date) harnesses, and as a result have extended the useful life for another 5 years past the expiry date, I don't think that "out of date" harnesses are as dangerous as everyone would have you believe. I'd rather use an out of date harness I've owned since new, knowing its history (my car only ever comes out of the shed for events) than a 12 month old harness that's been in a big rollover. Don't buy a second hand harness for a competition vehicle, regardless of its age - you never know its history.

I bought a Ghepardo off Ebay (about $140 delivered IIRC, complete with adjustable runners) and they are pretty ordinary quality. they look good (very similar to the Velos in the rally car) but they don't have the same level of finish. eg the "captive" nuts are just held in with a bit of glue, and will come loose the first time you try to unbolt the seat. the brackets are thin (16-18Ga by the looks of it) folded metal, and had to be massaged to make the seat sit straight. I bought the seat for a go-kart I'm building with my son, and for that it works perfectly. Would I put one into a car? No. I'm not convinced that it wouldn't fall apart. Not that anything is glaringly obvious, but I don't trust it for street or race use - that's just me. Also they have no ADR / AS / ISO / CAMS / FIA or any other approval / certification whatsoever. Personally I think they should be sold with a big disclaimer stating this. Would you put a non certified harness in your car?

Correct. You can transfer your rego into someone else's name in the same state as you, or transfer your rego into your own name interstate, but you can't do both. As said, you will need to de-register the car and the new owner will need to go through the whole registration process from scratch. also, just because you may be swapping cars (with no cash changing hands) you will both still need to pay stamp duty on the value of the car. Can't have the government missing out on its well earned revenue, now can we?

Learning to drive without ABS teaches you the wrong technique for an ABS equipped car in an emergency. If she's likely to be driving a lot of non ABS cars, then it's a handy skill to have. However, if she's only going to drive ABS cars (just about anything made in the last 15-20 years) then knowing how to drive a non ABS car is more likely to cause her to have an accident than knowing what ABS does in an emergency. When ABS first came out, there wer quite a lot of accidents from people trying to drive them "normally" or even worse panicking when the ABS cuts in and lifting off the brake (because it starts vibrating under the foot) At the very least, all drivers should get a feel for what ABS does in an emergency, but that's another argument entirely

Dudes - he's in the WRC now. That's what the dust eaters do. Not like they pretend to be sports men or anything. Just turn up, drive like hell and then drink for the rest of the weekend. It goes right back to the club level grass roots, and ain't gonna change in a hurry. That's why I love rally so much Not too many primadonnas in the rally scene (apart from that f###ing Loeb, but that's another story)

I'd tend to agree with the above. Whilst I believe tha tthe german cars tend to be very well put together, hence they should be reliable, they can cost big $$ when something goes wrong. My dad's bought several second hand Benzes over the eyars, and all have been good solid cars. The base model stuff just doesn't do it for me. I recently had a CLK200 kompressor for a day (HErtz now do prestige rentals) and I must say I was very underwhelmed by the car. Performance was awful, sounded like a mighty boy and wasn't much to write home about (although my kids loved it because it was a sporty 2 door with a sunroof). The C63 AMG on the other hand is uber desirable and worth every cent of the $150k asking price IMO. I've spent enough time in one to know that these are just fantastic cars - if for no oother reason than that crackly V8 exhaust (the same noise in a Commodore would guarantee to get you defected)

People said the same about power steering, synchromesh gears, central locking, cruise control, remote controls etc.etc. Personally I find the auto darkening helmet 100% easier to weld with than the old flip style helmet. The flip helmet worked fine when welding in a normal position (so that gravity easily drops the helmet down as you're about to strike the arc) but in awkward positions I struggled with it. Of course I'm just a rank amateur welder, and what I've seen some of the boom welders achieve I reckon they'd weld better than me with their eyes shut and both hands tied behind their backs. Now I'm having the same discussion at work with all the young engineers and tradies about my non-digital vernier calipers. They can't understand why I persst with old skool technology while they all have the fancy digital stuff - until they stuff up a reading because they forgot to zero the verniers. But I digress

Now there's a shed I can relate to. I see you even have the laptop in there so you san surf SAU while in the company of your toys Mine gets a big clean up after an event - leading up to the events the shed tends to look a lot like yours, with bits and tools everywhere.

No it won't. Not even close. $4-5k will get you out there with all the important stuff covered. $7-8k will get you a competitive rally car with DMS and a good cage. Some of the track day guys run without cages, but I'd never try that.

If it's for a road only car, I tend to agree. If you want some competition, then the Excel series is big enough to keep you very happy. I n fact, the Excel drivers wear smiles just as big as anyone else at the end of a track day / rally, and on average I know that they have spent far less than just about anyone else to be competing on the day.

Don't listen to the haters. If you want to have fun in your excel, go and visit these guys http://www.excelrally.com.au/forum/forum.php They have made performance suspensions and roll cages available cheap to registered competitors (although drivelines must remain fairly stock) More than a few Excels have spanked much faster cars in the forest, including Silvias (no skylines doing it in the forest yet, so no results to compare). Excels are much faster on a race track or in the forest than they have any right to be. They are incredibly cheap, fairly tough and surprisingly quick when driven well. The lakeside sprint day I attended a few weeks ago had stock[1] Excels beating a porsche 997 911, a Skelta G-force, Ford F6, a pack of Westfield / PRB clubmans, 300ZXTT, and a few V8 commodores. Not everyone had the same level of skill, and not everyone was trying equally hard, but even for a well driven excel to beat a poorly driven Porsche shows some of the potential these little buzzboxes have got. Don't get me wrong - the Excel will never be a supercar, no matter how many $$ you throw at it, but well driven excels have thoroughly embarrassed many an exotic on race tracks and in the forest, so they certainly have potential. If it's just noise and looks you're after, then I Agree with the otehr sentiments., Don't waste your time. [1] AFAIK, mods are limited to springs and shocks (no coilovers) and safety gear. Engine, gearbox and diff mods are verboten, and although R spec tyres aren't allowed, I know that the fastest Excel was running A048's (was in the garage next to me)

Yes, I can see that. Get your act together, man Love your work

Yep - the 3.2 are sweet. They go like stink too (320hp IIRC). If you're going to get a SMG one, make sure it's been recently rebuilt (not just serviced). Most of them will need a rebuild at this point in their life, and that is mega expensive. that's the reason I'd buy a manual if I ever were to get one. They sell for as little as $21k for a 97 model, too, even with relatively few km (under 200k) Interestingly, when a friend was considering a car to replace his R32 GTR about 5 years ago, he looked at an E36 M3 and commented at how fragile it felt compared to the GTR. He later went on to buy an M5 (E34). Oh, I think that the 3.2 came out late 96. Certainly all the 97 models have it, and I'm pretty sure I've seen several 96 models with the 3.2 as well.

Another good idea for garages with limited space is to have a hinged work bench. In my last house I only had a single garage. I attached an old bench top to the wall with 3 4" hinges, with 3 hinged legs. when I wanted to do some work, I backed the car out and folded the workbench out. Once done, pack everything away and fold the bench back down. It's also a good way to make sure your bench top doesn't end up as a storage space for piles of crap (which I tend to do all too often) Edit: the heated floor is a good idea in cold climates. I was doing some work at one of the coal mines in gunnedah years ago, and had to lie down on the shop floor to inspect something. This was middle of winter where it was almost below freezing, and I noticed a nice warmth emanating from the floor. didn't want to leave the workshop and head back out into the pit.

cost me about $45/m2. that was 2.5 years ago. It seems to be getting more popular these days, so prices may have come down. The guy across the road from me does it now, too, and he's very particular about the quality of the work he does (just resealed my driveway 2 weeks ago, and did a top job). Anyone on the gold COast wouldn't go wrong with either the guy who did mine (who basically developed the process many years ago) or my neighbour (who does charge more than some others, but won't skimp out on quality for anything). Hey, l_uk3y - what type of floor do you have in the gym area? I use part of my garage for the punching bag / MA training, and am trying to get some decent floor mats to put down. The floor is too slippery to be jumping around on, and those black hard rubber gym mats look ridiculously expensive.

The epoxy floors are great - I used a mob called designer flake. These guys developed the flake epoxy floor process and are the best around my area. One thing I find is that it is extremely slippery when wet. They do a rough non-slip surface too, but this is very rough, and hard to sweep. Maintenance is a case of sweep or vacuum, and if it gets grotty, mop it (my neighbours thought it was funny when I was mopping my garage floor). the surface is easy to scratch if you drag a gearbox or other heavy metal object with sharp edges across it, and if you're grinding / welding it can mark it as well. Floor jacks, axle stands etc don't seem to mark it. If you do chip or mark the surface, you can touch it up just the same way you'd touch up paint. If you damage a big area, just throw a handful of flakes down onto the wet base coat, then re-seal as normal. just get them to leave you a plastic bag of spare flakes when they do your floor (in case they discontinue the colours) The tyre racks are a great way to store and manage your tyres. Mine's accessible from both sides, so I'm not restricted in garage configuration. I sometimes temporarily store stuff on one side or the other, so can still access the tyres easily. It currently only has 10 tyres and another 6 rims on it, so part of the rack is used for storage of other gear (can double up as shelving if need be)

did someone say tyre rack? It's free standing, and bolts together so I can flat pack it when (if) I move house or get out of cars and sell all of my car related crap depending on tyre size, it will hold up to 30 tyres (24 in the case of most sizes I use)

Yup Not necessarily a wankel thing (although they are a weird mob for various other reasons) I had a Needham box for my RX2 which had the same pattern. Basically any RWD where you're chasing a 1:1 5th gear, you change the positions around so that 5th is where 4th used to be. Why? Because 4th is commonly 1:1 on RWD 5 speeds, and is actually direct drive (ie shafts are coupled together without any gear mesh) so very hard to change to any other ratio. This is the simplest way to do it, and the next logical progression is to keep the rest of the gears in a standard H pattern as much as possible. Since 1st is the least commonly usd gear, and it's not in the normal upshift sequence, it's easiest to put 1st where 5th used to be, and leave the rest in a standard H pattern. Make sense? Simple

Yeh I don't know how different these are to the road going Cooper S's, but last week I had a Cooper S hire car (picked it up with 10km on the clock - they were late getting it to me as they were still pulling the plastic off the seats ). I drove it from Sydney airport to Mudgee via Bells Line of Road, and back the next day. All I can say it they are one hell of a fun car to throw around!! Torque steer was the biggest issue, and under power on rough roads they tend to jump around a bit (steering is very light) but apart from that, I don't think I've had more fun in a road car for years. I loved it! I even like the funky retro controls / switch gear, and the way they've tried to revive the old mini feel - with modern comforts and BMW reliability. Back on topic - I read in the local rag that several "experts" are slamming QR for being such a dangerous track. For fark's sake people - it's motor racing. I couldn't imagine these "experts" take on Lakeside.