ian

The whole reason my wife likes the stagea is the AWD - while everyone above keeps taking about 'in the dry' - it is in the wet they are sooooo much better...

exactly the right approach :-) Have fun with it - I bought the rs4s for the wife and she likes it a lot (which surprised me a bit) I still slightly prefer (unless it is raining) the r34 - as a result we don't have to argue about who takes which car.. :-) Ian

I've brought this up in many threads before - while it probably had 50k on the clock, it probably had somewhere between 90k and 120k at the wheels.. 50k is a common wind back point - it is a very rare car that has actually done only 5k per year! That doesn't mean you haven't got a good deal though, these cars are fine at many more km's that 50k! People focus too much on km's, and not enough on the ACTUAL condition of the car.. :-) With a few minor things along the way, I reckon the stagea's will be OK for 300K kms at least (I know one R31 skyline that has done 500K kms so far, with nothing but regular services and injectors & shock absorbers changed...) Ian

use the search button, this has been covered IN DETAIL before (many of us have heavy tow bars (mine is rate at 2000kgs..))..

I hate the stalk ones - the rostra ones I have use a rf linked control (so no wires) and clip onto the steering wheel. You can even unclip it and hand it to the wife in the passenger seat and she can make the car go faster or slower until she is happy.. :-)

Though I know I've got an "rs4s" ie manual, I find the stagea as is to be very very good on dirt - so I suspect you don't need that button even then... Exactly how I drive my r34 skyline - the tiptronic box is much much much better than most people realize at getting the gear right most of the time (it does it as a function of the pedal position and current speed, I've got the graph if anyone wants to see it). It is MUCH better than the auto box that is in a r33/ stagea S1

yep, see the extensive post from about a year ago (I use the Rostra global cruise). It (the rostra) doesn't have a minimum speed (I think you can set that in the dip switches) and there is no upper limit (I've had it on at 200km/h..) Ian

I bought the rs4s for the missus, she has been very happy with it! So get one for yours :-)

As most of you know, I have a r34 GTX-t (RWD) and a series 2 rs4s stagea (AWD). Same engine in both, same turbo, same intercooler. The both have rear LSD. My wife MUCH prefers the stagea. Why? The AWD! The problem with the RWD is that the back simply does not grip in the wet - even if you aren't interested in hooning (you simply can't get the power to the road in RWD in the wet anyway) - simple things like going around round abouts will have the back sliding if you have the foot down too much etc. Not so with the stagea - as my wife says, "it's like it is on rails". Even Im who don't mind the car going sideways at the back, much prefer driving the stagea in the rain. Yes, when it is dry, the the skyline is lighter, faster and more fun to drive. But even the RWD stagea (I suspect) would be somewhere between the two (in the dry). My advice - want a wagon? Get the AWD one. Want a RWD sports car? get a R34 skyline GTT/X. Got lots of money and want a better sports car? get a R34 AWD skyline.. Edit: and there is a reason the AWD stages don't have traction control - they don't need it!!! Ian

yep - do the airport express bus to "southern cross" railway station (ie spencer st), then catch a train to the right station. You might even be able to get an express train! The bus costs about $15 and the train ticket will be something like $6 - much better than a cab charge!

by the way (a bit too late now) the easy way to get a tv screen working in any car while it is going, ie handbrake off - is to simply pull out the surround, get to the handbrake switch, and wire it up so that the car thinks it is always on.. And no, I haven't done it to our cars, as neither has a tv display.. Ian

If you do it in an hour from the airport you'll be lucky! I'd offer to give you a lift, but am out of Melbourne at the moment. It will probably be $100+ for the cab fare.. What is the address in bayswater? You might be better (ie much cheaper) catching the bus from the airport to town, then they train out to bayswater (if it is anywhere near the station). It won't be too much slower, and will be a lot lot cheaper!!

I agree, start with the obvious. Fuel is the first one, as they often get sent around close to empty - what does it say on the gauge? It probably won't be an immobilizer as if it was the starter probably wouldn't be going around.. The next thing to check is the fuses - though again, if the starter motor is going around they should be OK. Can you hear the fuel pump going? Ian

yep - go find the thread as we talked about it a bit and it has pictures of mine in it. Mine is a rostra global one (from memory) - the important things are 1) it is electric (NOT VACUUM!) and 2) the controller talks to the unit via RF, so you don't need to run wires up the steering wheel etc, or use one of those stupid stalk ones. Also means I can theoretically unclip it and hand it to the wife in the passenger seat and she can press the up/down speed buttons till she is happy with how fast we are going.. :-) Got the same units in the r34 and Stagea, never had a problem. And I sometimes do over a 1000km's in a day, so it gets used! Ian

nope, as the post above this states - I meant a RS4S (which is what I said)! Follow the link for details. newbie101, not sure. What does the gtr one do as it probably is the same. (As said, I just haven't had my stagea sliding at all - it doesn't do it on wet roads, wet tram tracks, or even the odd dirt road). Mind you, I'm not trying to slide it in the first place... Ian

the rs4s has a lsd - in fact it has the same gtr diff as the 260rs. see http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...563&hl=rs4s Drive it it is hard to tell what the impact is, as we haven't really got it ever sliding! Car behaves like it's on rails... Ian

According to the public info (just do a whois!), christian owns it ie Registrant: CB Web Design & Development PO Box 1015 Mona Vale Sydney, New South Wales 2103 Australia Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com) Domain Name: STAGEASAUSTRALIA.COM Created on: 11-Aug-06 Expires on: 11-Aug-08 Last Updated on: 11-Aug-06 Administrative Contact: Biggins, Christian [email protected] CB Web Design & Development PO Box 1015 Mona Vale Sydney, New South Wales 2103 Australia 99793809 Technical Contact: Biggins, Christian [email protected] CB Web Design & Development PO Box 1015 Mona Vale Sydney, New South Wales 2103 Australia 99793809 - and no, it's not inappropriate to post that as anyone in the world can look that up on whois!!!!

I still don't know why nobody wants this car, maybe people just want the 'excitement' of importing their own car - and that's in quotes 'cause I've done it a few times and you never know exactly what will arrive... Always worth doing if you can get it a lot cheaper/better/exactly what you want by importing, but I would of thought this car WAS what quite a few people wanted, and S's aren't that easy to get even in Japan, and by the time you paid for everything it wouldn't be much cheaper..

The odd thing about it is the rust - not something you would expect on a 1998 japanese car that had been even reasonably looked after. Possible kept outdoors by the sea? Who know. It's also a very low price - sign of a really good bargin, or something to stay away from - hard to tell...

I've had the opposite experience - the once I used an installer (years ago) it took me more time to get it going properly afterwards than if I'd just done it from scratch myself. It really is an easy job to do yourself, then you know exactly how it is setup, and exactly what to do if you want to change anything... Ian

It's easy enough to do yourself (see the post on it) so most people won't need an installer.. Ian

I suspect that one of the problems some of you are having is something you can't do much about (well not very quickly) ie age! ie my stagea is insured with Just (and it is a 2001 series 2 fours s) and costs us about $1k per year. But nobody under 40 is driving the car... And we have used Just when we have had to make a claim too - a few years ago with a different car (hit a kangaroo out the back of NSW) - and they were quite good. Ian

I don't like getting my skyline near anyone who isn't used to doing skylines... :-) Ian

I just went through every released model from the original one in 1990 - every manual was not a turbo. So if you are seeing manual turbo ones, they have either been converted from auto, or have had the turbo added... Ian

Yep - that helps as it means there is no way I'm going to try and do it myself! Do you know anyone in Melb who might be able to do this competently??