Beer Baron

what's the price these days at united on victoria road? thinking of converting the silvia. hell even thinking of converting the bike...

yeah you are right, and it is good to share this type of stuff. hopefully it will save at least one person from getting scammed by these clowns. very sad when people trust someone only to get shafted.

um yeah. don't buy a $15,000 GTR and expect it to be a 'cheap' car. I'd go as far to say don't buy a $15K GTR full stop. unless you really know GTRs or plan to build a race car etc. and it won't be any torquier under 2,000rpm than your S14. in fact standard GTR is quite laggy. even stock the fun is not on till 4,500rpm or so.

yes it sounds to me that it's quite possible the culprit here is mashamoto. not saying the aussie broker is entirely blameless but it's possible he's found out about mashamoto's problems and is now hiding under a rock. the sad part is, as best I can tell their part in this is absolutely un-necessary. there is nothing to stop this broker from having bought the car on your behalf direct from the japanese exporter. it would have almost certainly saved some money too. BTW, having looked at the car I would advise pushing for money back and NOT pushing ahead with the purchase if possible.

I'll second that notion. if you wanted a nice 34 GTR with some serious gear Dave's car would be hard to go past. why on earth does he want to sell?!?!

yeah it could be as simple as he didn't account for a currency exchange fluctuation that meant he was short a measly $100 or so on making a wire transfer and with no money of his own to cover the difference was too dumb to own up and explain the problem instead just hid in a corner hoping it would all go away. or he spent a few hundred of your money on beer and pokies and didn't want to own up and didn't have any money to put it back. who knows. people do stupid shit sometimes and are often scared of just owning up and dealing with it.

yeah man, if you can get E85 easily enough where you are then I say go for it. there is sure to be some gain to be had in conjunction with more boost (25psi or so should be fine).

well the fact that you have bought a car through him before successfully gives me some hope. it's quite possible that he is not an out and out scammer but a bloke who has fked up and is too stupid to just own up and start dealing with the mess. in this case it's very easy to see why you went with him even more so considering he has successfully imported a car for you before.

yeah there are definitely places in europe where you can drive an F1 car. from (vauge) memory it's about 5,000 euro for a 1 day 'experience'. personally I think the price is pretty reasonable...

yeah the base NUR engine when available was about $16,000 but you cannot buy them any more. check the link above (no longer available and no longer listed for sale). this was a $16,000 base engine, then about $3,500-$4,000 in head work and other labour (all the disassembly, re-assembly, blue printing, porting etc). then add the cost of parts: tomei cams ($1,000?) tomei valve springs ($400) tomei full gasket kit (450) trust sump extension and welding (around $1,700) nismo timing belt ($200) tomei cam gears (bought as a set with cams) Nur cam valley cover/rocker cover and garnish ($380) Mines cam cover baffles ($200 or so) then add freight, customs etc to that to get it to aus. As I said, I have not added it all up to the dollar but I have all the receipts for the new owner and cost is easily past the $20,000 mark. ASKING PRICE IS STILL $16,500 and is still pretty firm. Anyone seriously interested contact me by pm and we can arrange an inspection/purchase. now that the Nur engines are no longer available it would be very hard to build one again like it with all new components.

sorry bad timing on my part. moved house, vacated house and went on 6 week holiday with zero time in between. back in sydney now and just getting settled into new place. internet FINALLY connected today and phone only just connected yesterday. all poor excuses but I just literally didn't have time to get over to where the brakes are and get some basic photos before I went away. every day and night was flat out. now i'm back I will update as soon as possible.

had a meeting with voltex the other day in japan. they are nice guys so I am a bit biased but they certainly test all their gear as best they can and do target the time attack/circuit market more than the auto-salon/street car market which says something about what their wings should do. there is no doubt their own cars do have functional aero as their corner speed cannot be got just through chassis/tyre grip and big balls. but their own cars have a lot more than just a wing, they have a whole package of bits designed to work together. how a wing will work on a car that has any number of other parts on it (body wise) is anyone's guess. even ride height can affect aero balance once we are talking about splitters and under-trays etc. let alone how much different front bars or different under body stuff (or lack of) will affect it. so throwing ANY brand of wing at a car is a bit of a shot in the dark but as far as those guesses go then the voltex one is probably less of a gamble than most. I am also sure of the benefit of this c-west wing. http://www.c-west.co.jp/gtwing/gtwing2.html it's been proven many times on circuit cars all over the world. but if you want one with some decent down force be sure to buy the optional gurney flap too. it's key to it's usefulness on track. they also now have the neo which is dual plane. http://www.c-west.co.jp/gtwing/gtwingneo.asp the benefit (as my small brain understands it) should be more downforce without a significant increase in drag.

fcking cnts. so pissed off. was finally letting myself get just a tiny bit excited that this game is coming out in a couple of weeks time. come on here and what do I find? another fking delay and this one just weeks from the supposedly final release date. absolute knts.

fair enough if you ask me. it make the most sense from their perspective. it would be nice though if they'd at least quote a fixed 'margin' above car cost etc so you can figure out what kind of car you can buy FOB to end up at a landed and complied cost but I guess they like a bit of mystery.

yeah mate, feel free to pm me with any details you may have. if there is any advice I can give you I will do so and perhaps someone I know may have heard of this bloke and may be able to help you. I've been importing cars and parts for just over 10 years now and have a lot of friends in aus and japan in this industry and it's a pretty small industry... stuff like how did you find this broker? was it through a recommendation? from whom? from a website? ever meet him in person? any contact details? it sounds like you are in a bad spot at the moment but it may be salvageable. I would think it's likely the $5K is gone but hopefully the $12,500 you paid for the car can be recovered. it doesn't make you a sucker. you read all the time about people buying cars from overseas and it makes it seem very safe and easy. the reality is that it's very high risk. at any point a link in the chain can disappear with your money. the only thing that stops it happening is that most people are honest. I have had plenty of transactions with friends and business partners involving big, big sums that were based on nothing more than a verbal agreement and a handshake. I'm pleased to say none have ever gone bad but the risk factor on those is through the roof. the only real protection you have is chose someone who is established in this business. in that case generally their reputation is worth much more than scamming you out of a brokers fee. also when using a broker you should never have to pay them anything other than their brokers fee or at most some other small costs (maybe towing etc if they oversee it for you). stuff like compliance should be paid direct to the workshop, car cost direct to japanese agent, freight and customs costs direct to customs agent etc. anyway, don't slit your wrists just yet. send me whatever info you can give me (I will treat it in strict confidence of course) and I will do whatever I can to help.

much rather have one that can't steer thus leaving all the car fun to me...

bummer. it should never be removed. just mask it up and paint around it. it's a vital part of a cars identification. there is zero chance of getting a new one from nissan and you would still have the problem of getting it affixed with the tamper proof fasteners. just riveting it back on is your best option now.

honestly, how long is a piece of string? I've seen it done as fast as a few days and as slow as 18 months. my guess is yours will be somewhere in between. one piece of advice. don't call them everyday asking how it's going. they will call you as soon as it's done. trust me. they want to get paid. at most call them once a week if you absolutely must. any more than that will just give them the shits and possibly mean they take a few extra days just to annoy you.

dude, the emails he sent are so obviously fake. in the one supposedly from ebay it says: "next step to be taken: read the invoice carefully and make payment to the ebay" since when do emails from ebay sound like they are written by a nigerian ESL student? the one from carsales is also very obviously bullshit. for starters he repeatedly abbreviates advertisement to "add" which is wrong. the abbreviation of advertisement is "ad". The other thing that marks it as bullshit is no way would any organisation like car sales or ebay for anyone for that matter would ever 'verify' a person as being legitimate. they would never risk that kind of liability exposure. It's so bad it's almost funny. "our staff verified both the seller and the vehicle". lol. "it's a genuine sale". double lol. and if anyone was stupid enough to get through all of that, surely they would not be dumb enough to send money to an 'ebay account' with the account name benjiman ester in spain? I mean it went from "you send the money to ebay" to now "you send the money to an ebay verified agent". again you can see the bloke is obsessed with the word verified. with his limited vocabulary 'verified' is probably the most official sounding word he knows. I honestly don't know how you even got that far. as soon as the bloke said, car is in TAS but I'm in spain, that's what you just delete his mails and walk away. there was no chance it was ever going to be legitimate. I don't understand how they successfully scam anyone as it's so half arsed and clearly bullshit. actually I do know how. greed. people really want to get that awesome deal so they push on in blind hope when even the slowest individual should be able to see it's a scam. sad. i guess it's like natural selection for your wallet.

also I'd suggest tracking down a stock front swaybar and try that. leave the rear bar in but set it to soft or medium. also get a more 'agressive' wheel alignment done. bit of toe out on the front, and if camber is adjustable get some neg on the front. i'm not sure how competent a driver you are but you could consider winding off a bit of the rear toe in as well but it will make the rear end a fair whack more 'lively' so if your not prepared for that it could put you in the wall. so whatever changes you make, make them small incremental ones. that way you will feel and understand the difference the alignment changes are making without them too drastically changing the way the car behaves.

245 all round will be fine. no point putting big 275s on the back with the standard 200kw. all it will do is make the car understeer even more, and as you pointed out it means you can't rotate front to back. on top of that the 275s cost more too. 245 semi's all round will be perfect.

I just recently imported and complied a Tommy Kaira RL spec R33 GTR and have now sold it. yes it still had the original nissan build plate with chassis number. your car won't of course have a VIN as they are only assigned once the car has import approval. what it's missing is the chassis number. if what iron chef said is correct about your car previously having been stolen and then recovered it may still be possible to import it. you need to talk to the compliance workshop. you must know the chassis number (even if it's not stamped on the vehicle) as they need it to apply for that vehicle import approval they claim to be waiting on. if you know the chassis number, and you get the import approval through ok, then it "may" be possible to have someone in japan simply stamp the chassis number into the car or on a plate that is then riveted to the firewall or strut tower. please don't take that vague advice as gospel though. I wouldn't want to advise you to do something that is not 100% legal. I'm still not sure how you ended up with a uk broker. that is a shame as someone local would have been good. it's a bit poor that the bloke didn't mention up front that he is not based in aus. I would think in the circumstances he should at the least be refunding you his fee. that $1,000 will help offset the cost of either having the chassis number stamped or the loss you will take in re-selling the car in japan. unfortunately I can't imagine any RAW would want to get involved at this late stage. there is nothing to gain in it for them, only potential for hassles. so with that in mind you need to patch things up with the RAW you have and try and work with them to get this car LEGALLY imported and complied.

dude?!?! why on earth did you take it off?? it's the build plate for the car from nissan and holds important information about your cars model, chassis number, drive line configuration even your paint code. my advice is rivet it back on if you can but as you know have no doubt found it was originally attached with tamper proof fixings.

no idea. no experience with it. the only thing that strikes me straight away is that 5hz is ok, 10hz would be much better though as at the moment it's sampling only 5 times per second. sorry "up to" 5 times per second...

Also, how is it that as time goes on facilities for motor sport in NSW actually get fewer in number? Not so long ago we had Oran Park, Amaroo Park, Eastern Creek and Wakefield Park to chose from. Now 2 of those have made way for 'affordable' housing the third is located closer to Canberra than Sydney and Eastern Creek is now left as the only "Sydney" circuit. This means clubs and organisations have to compete fiercely just to get a booking at all. And it means no variety for us drivers or spectators. PS, there are many other tracks I'm sure that have gone by the wayside (Catalina, Warwick Farm for starters) but Amaroo and Oran Park were two that I spectated and drove at many times and felt their loss acutely.