Beer Baron

don't get carried away mate. i'm not sure it extends that far......

fatz's is JDM as best I can remember. but it cheap cheap anyway.

BTW, Spa is an awesome track. I drove their last year just not long after you guys (I was there in september). you need to get into the brave pills though and keep up with those porsches! you can go way harder through eau rogue/radillion and same goes for blanchimont too. you were losing heaps of time just in those 2 spots. it's such a high speed circuit overall it takes some getting used to at first. I was waaay off the pace there in my first session probably more than I have been at any other new track I've been to as you need to recalibrate for corners that require little braking (even in high powered cars) and so many 4th/5th gear corners. probably my favourite track I've driven.

it's funny. I haven't been convinced by the whole RB30 is better argument for a long time and it seems there is more and more anecdotal evidence to support a well built and tuned RB26 being just as good if not better than a RB30 apart for lazy overtaking on the road as no amount of tuning will give a 26 as much torque under 4,000rpm as the 30. over 4,000rpm the benefit of the 30 becomes questionable. in track cars I've seen 26/27 or even 28 seems to be the way to go. the 30s just don't seem to perform as well. case in point the 30 berry switched to in the advan 34. it's as good a 30 as you will find but doesn't do anything that much better than his 26 did really (except fry tyres as it hits boost). the only positive side of the 30's is they can be a lot cheaper to build. purely on block price with a 30 block being $0 and an N1 block being a few thousand right up to mega $$ for a GT block. even stock 26 blocks cost more. for me, for a circuit car it will be RB26 or RB27 all the way. my 2 GTRs at the moment run 26 and a Jun 27 (with tomei rods and pistons) and they are both nice set-ups for what they are.

yeah 1psi drop across the rev range from 18 to 17psi is pretty good. yeah theoretically setting set gain to 0 means no pressure keeping the gates closed. didn't make much difference on my car as it has HKS actuators that hold closed a lot longer than stock anyway.

this got me thinking about a new harness for my car and just looking at the willans site they have more options for crutch strap. they have the T style, the V style, the also have one where the crutch strap goes through loops in the lap straps and then hook around the shoulder straps where they meet the rotary buckle (it's called 'loop and D type' and is what is used in all the single seater harnesses). it seems they only do the I type crutch srap with nascar harnesses as a 7th point, or as an option on the regular harnesses but it's not FIA approved. probably a good thing as it's not the most comfortable, maybe for the girls..... I think from experience the loop and d style is pretty comfy but a bit of a pain to do up in a hurry (as you have to guide the shoudler straps through the loops). the T type is ok, but the T buckle can dig in a bit especially if you have a bit of a front porch on your gut. V type is good too and easy to do up in a hurry as you can order them with the rotary quick release permanently attached to the V strap (or choice of left or right lap strap if you want). it's buckle can dig in a bit too like the T type but from memory the buckle is not as wide.

yeah the tomei buckets are thicker to compensate for small base circle cams but you still need shims to set the valve clearances. they don't come with any shims. reason is every car is different. hell every valve can be different. the ONLY way to do it is measure, compare to desired clearance, buy appropriate shims and install them in the buckets. you can buy the shims from nissan as needed (cost practically nothing), or with the right sized punch you can make your own out of sheet metal. plenty of people do it that way. you can just get off cuts of various thicknesses and punch out the little circles you need.

agreed, why cut the wires? leave it plugged in. I guess it's too late now...

I'm not surprised to be honest. much shorter runnes. usually when going shorter runners the diameter is increased to aid top end. but in the plazmaman set-up you retain half the standard runners so you now have shorter runners (less midrange) and no diameter increase (no top end benefit either). so it's kind of the worst of both worlds. the only advantage is the simple pipework and easy access etc but I thought your old set-up was money anyway. by all means try the cam gear tuning. there's no doubt the plenum has changed the power curve and tuning with the cam gears may have some benefit again.

wow, it is pretty severely fked. low comp in 5 cylinders and nothing in number 5. just one thing is the comp tester screw in or one of those god awful push in ones? even with a MLS head gasket and cams that figure is very low so I think your prognosis of strip and rebuild is probably correct. bummer.

exactly mate. the set gain is set so that the controller will keep the wastegates shut up till the set gain point is reached, then it will start bleeding air to smoothly reach your target boost. if set gain is too high there is not enough time for the controller to start bleeding off air and stop the boost curve climbing before it reaches (and goes past) your target boost level. try setting set gain to zero. do a full throttle run. adjust the gain setting until you still have a nice fast boost climb but no spiking. once you've got that sorted then re-introduce the set gain. if your target is say 1bar you generally can't have set gain any higher than about .7bar or so.

no, 2530s and -5s are basically the same. few small differences in the HKS ones but nothing major. 350kw @20-22psi is more like the norm for a good set-up so 380rwkw on a 3.0L is about right. it's a good result.

yeah it's not as simple as 'yes it'll fit with adapter'. what offset, bore and PCD are the rotors? if they are not the same as your hub and caliper offset then you're screwed (though you can offset the caliper to some extent). Also, is the caliper radial mount or lug mount? if it's lug mount it might not be possible to mount it. radial mount will be better and easier but again you need to work with the rotor offset and get the caliper mounted properly. it's not something you can just guess or do 'by eye'. if it's not perfect things will go wrong. There are literally dozens of brake upgrade options made just for GTRs. why not buy one? of the top of my head I can think of 5 companies that do F40 and F50 brembo upgrades with 324mm, 330mmm, 355mm or 370mm rotors. There are 2 or 3 options from stoptech. There are big brembo 6 and 8 pot kits again from 355mm up to 380mm rotors, there are K-sport, bok-choy, D2, JJR and whatever other name they are stamping this week onto cheap chinese/taiwanese brake kits again with anything from 324mm up to 355mm+. Then there are Trust kits both with trust branded calipers and alcon calipers, there are endless kits of about 4 different types with various caliper and rotor choices, there are project Mu kits again in many types, there are half a dozen different AP racing kits (at least) and a number of options from Alcon too. All of which come with the right offset rotors, the right size and length lines, the right caliper mounts, pads and are sized correctly for your car. why buy a kit for another model car? it's a false economy.

for rear lower arms the nismo's are not that great as they are not adjustable. if you do get them and the strengthened ones are much more $$ you can easily get the standard ones and get a plate of 3mm steel welded yourself. if there is not much in cost between them then just buy the stronger ones. for the cusco gear the upper control arms are the L part number. as best i can tell the G part number is for the traction rods and to do it properly you need both bits as the traction rods need to be adjusted once your car is lowered and you've adjusted camber. the L part number is this: and the G part is this: the cusco gear is very nice and good value. From memory they don't do rear lower control arms though so if you need those I'd look at the ikeya ones. they are excellent.

it can be arranged.

it's already happened. woo has been pestering me to do a dirty swap with him for my emo VI. as far as bris goes his talent doesn't stretch to a 3 legged billy goat but his enthusiasm carries him a looong way.

yeah willans are great. I mean all they make is safety belts so you can be sure they do it well to have remained in business so long. most of the other companies safety belts are just a small part of their business.

something missing in that pic..... I know gloves! looks pretty cool.

yeah I have used AD07s and AD08s as street tyres and for outright grip they are not great. good streeties but not so good on track. the BEST street tyres i've used for track use are dunlop Z1 star spec. I ran them the other day at wakefield and ran a 1:12 in my little emo with just 200kw and pezzy non-brembo brakes (and my limited driving skill). I was shocked how much grip they had, very predictable too. they do like more pressure in them than semis which can throw people off a bit at first. if your car is 90% street with the odd track day then I'd probably use the Z1. if you are more focussed on getting good times and rarely drive on the street then for sure semis are the go. even the Z1s wouldn't be as fast as a used semi in reasonable shape (but not miles off either). anyway for your budget really your only option is used tyres. so just hang out for some cheap thrashed semis and enjoy.

whatever it is it looks pretty sexual. more pics!!

one other thing I like about the willans stuff is in 6 point form you can have a single strap (5 point) a T strap (6 point) or a V strap (6 point) as the different shapes squash your nuts in different ways so you can chose which ever one accommodates your frank and beans best.

yeah I've been enjoying watching chump car lately too. shame they are now heading to ovals for the next little while. all the recent road courses and street circuits have been good to watch. thank jeebus for foxtel.

all on my HD/media server at home and I just stream to any of my TVs (all networked). they take shitloads of space though, I have quite a few full seasons but we are talking 100s of GB.

if you can get a set of new KU36s for $700 get them. way better than half fked RE55 for $500. you'll get way more like out of brand new KU36 vs shagged used tyres. seriously buying cheap used ones is a bit of a false economy if you can get new so cheap. it's only worth buying used if you can get anything new under $2K or so.

yeah I had a feeling they didn't. they make adjustables for some models but not for GTR. never have.