djr81

Like this you mean?

Illegal floor in Melbourne.

It used to be true of the car dealers under the old scheme - some of them atleast. A broker isn't making money from the purchase price of the vehicle so to a large extent he doesn't care how much the car itself costs. Good brokers will steer you towards good cars - their reputation depends on it. Also grade 3 for a early nineties model car is still a car in good condition. Very few of them will make grade 4 any more. Buying one locally or from Japan is only risky if you don't know what you are looking at or doing. A trusted broker can reduce/remove the risk of a fresh import & a knowledgeable person can do the same for a local car. What tyou have to be a bit carefull of when looking at japanese auctions is to factor in the difference between the auction price & the free on board price. The auction price will always be less.

Well Ferrari ran an illegal car and didn't get penalised at all. (Again) So there isn't really much point looking for consistant enforcement of rules (real or imagined) from the FIA. By the way, no one accused McLaren of running an illegal car.

It looks like the front of the castor arm. (radius rod in other peoples language) www.noltecsuspension.com $167.20 for the pair. NSB_77.pdf

If you are worried I would suggest the following: First up, check the timing. Insufficient ignition advance will make the car feel sluggish. If that is ok then take it to a dyno & get it run up. Check the AFR's while you are there. Then you will know for sure. What you need to remember is that you very quickly get used to how "fast" a car feels - particularly a turbo car as it lacks immediate torque. As often as not a car with a flat torque curve will feel slower than one with an uneven one. Despite the first of the two being quicker.

It doen't hurt, although the front backing plates are nowhere near as close fitting as the rear. I wouldn't get too worried about it. If you want to use Motul fluid use the RBF 600, not the dot 5.1. It is far superior. Check the boiling points, for example. Take something to drink aswell. You will ge gobsmacked by how hot you get in the car after only a few laps.

Yes, see the Defi range of guages. Um, you need the gauges you look at to be in the instrument cluster, not the console. If I had my choice I would flick the front torque gauge & the fuel gauge to the console & put the boost & oil temp gauges in the instrument cluster. But anyway they look roughly the same size, but the wiring would be a bitch to sort out. Not much room behind between the printed circuits & the gauges for messing about. Best bet is if you are worried about this stuff is to get a proper data logger & a warning led for when stuff goes outside the parameters eg too high oil temp or whatever.

The major problem with GT-R ownership is putting up with GTS-T owners telling you your motor is in imminent need of a rebuild. Don't believe the hype. Of the four (count 'em) R32 GT-R's I have owned not one of them needed rebuilding. The best thing to do is as follows: Be patient. Make sure you have sufficient money to buy a nice example, I would suggest $25k is enough. I wouldn't ever recommend anyone borrow money to buy a car. Any car. If you are buying it in Australia, check it over thoroughly. This includes things such as compression tests etc. A well looked after GT-R will look a million dollars. A manky one can be picked from a great distance. If you are buying ex Japan get a trusted broker who understands you want a choice example & who wont fob you off with second rate stock on hand. With regard to track use/abuse. Typically a track day will cause wear to the brakes & the tyres - neither of which you place much emphasis on when buying the car. Beyond that it gives the engine some work, but the time spent on the track during a typical day is fairly limited, so there isn't really much concern. I have found that most GT-R owners who can afford to run track days lavish care on their cars anyway. But most Gt-R owners rarely attend track days. The thing to keep in mind is that in this day & age you can't thrash a car like a GT-R on the road - you quickly find yourself in a pile of trouble if you do. Look for a fairly stock or a sensibly modified car. Most will have rims, exhaust, few will have an aftermarket I/C (you don't need one the GT-R OEM cooler is one of the best in the business) & possibly about half will have pod filters (Which you don't need) With regard to other stuff people have mentioned: Rust: Relatively uncommon. If it is rusting check for damage - this is most probably the indirect cause. Gauges - the stock ones are fine but the oil pressure sender unit frequently fails. Not a gauge problem. Kms - look at the car. Buy it on condition not on kms. Brakes - Unless the rotors have been replaced most will be down on thickness. Be prepared to replace them. Brembos only came on V-Spec edition R32's, so forget about them. Turbo's - stock units have problems when asked to regularly push out 1 bar or more. They are a reasonable unit, but not a high performance one. Have a think about what you want from you car. A good car will push out 300rwhp (or more) with stock turbos on 13lb boost. How much power do you want? Remember that when released this car was over $100,000 in Australia, less in Japan. So someone with a large amount of momey bought it originally. If it has been well looked after it may well be the best car you will ever own. As I said I am onto my fourth.

Front bar to soft, rear to hard. Try & find some more -ve camber at the front. (Note than caster is +ve, not -ve). Lower the rear to 345 or thereabouts.

Relative to the Whiteline springs I have to say I prefer them. There is noticeably less spring travel over bumps but to be honest you tend to notice this less than you notice the lessening of the damping rate relative to the spring rate. All up the cars a more comfortable although you notice the larger bumps more as you would expect. I have yet to try it on the track, but that is the weekend (4th November) after next so I guess I will find out soon enough. There is a query left over from one of Scooby's posts about the amount of travel remaining between the damper & the bump stop - particularly at the front (Bump stops trimmed). Do you know how much that is?

Ride height was about 350 to 355 (can't remember when the photo was taken.) I don't remember what the travel remaining on the damper was, sorry although you definately do need to trim the bump stop otherwise it is completely inadequate. The Eibach were installed yesterday. The front did not need any extra grooves, but the rear did.

Interesting. I asked because the conditions you have over there are probably pretty similar to what we have in WA come summer. Both temperatures & the amount of sand.

fffffffaaaarrrrr........................k

What are the odds the site crashes?

The ones for the rear (as opposed to the front) don't have any knurling on them.

As far as I know (ok, I don't) you cannot adjust the front camber with the Cusco arms - there is no mechanism. If you have Bridgestone blokes there then please pummell them with the questions of the day: Hot set pressures for the RE55's on the Gt-R's & optimal operating temp for the tread face.

If Roy doesn't take them I will. The rears that is.

No they are the same, merely fitted together.

The spring shouldn't affect the position of the shock. My front looks a bit like this:

I work in manufacturing & whilst the Chinese are a threat fortunately they haven't figured out how to do things efficiently & with good quality in large refinery/production facilities. Yet. So we are still in business. Yes the federal governments use bucket loads of advertising - same as the state governments. Oppositions always claim it will be different when they get in - never is. All of them waste shed loads of money. The thing people tend to forget is the dot com bubble & also the collapse of the Asian markets (Thanks LTCM!) was weathered well by the Australian economy. Yes black Monday in 87 was worse, but corrections happen periodically. It hasn't all been beer & skittles.

Either raise the nose of the car or buy some of these: http://www.moonface.co.jp/shopping/goodspr...gi?gno=MFP-SCA1 Also you probably could usefully invest some dollars in one or other of the car suspension books.

So how about you take a look at the two other economies that were previously our principal trading partners, ie Japan & the US. Both of their economies had struggled badly in the last 10 years. China is our #1 trading partner in part because of the failure of the US & Japan to maintain good economic growth. So that may be worth thinking about. Yep, just like the ten years before that & the ten years before that and the..... This is not a new phenomenon. I am not happy about Rudd copying the Liberals on tax policy, the pulp mill, refugee policy & a hundred other things. Nor him blaming his staff and/or running & hiding whenever he coughs something up. He claims it is new leadership - doesn't that imply some kind of leadership? - presumably different to slavishly copying your opposite number. Weak as piss is what it is. Peter Garrett must wonder what the hell he is doing. By the way I have tried having no job because the economy was fkd (Thanks Paul ) Much rather have a job & an income....

Yeah, Massa did well to follow Ferrari's team orders.

Nice edit!