frozenpod

For the same money there are much better pads available QFM HPX I haven't tried so I cant comment but I can highly recommend TRW Lucas pads and if you want to go one step further in terms of temperature range QFM A1RM's.

Yes I did read the add. My appologeis I missed the gearset which are as you say not cheap and accounts roughly for the difference in I saw when I did the basic math as to the cost to build. I also agree with parting out highly modified cars and as you say many people end up in front by a considerable amount.

This is a GTST are you thinking this is a GTR? I didn't see any mention of there being a non original gear box and the 2.5lt indicates it is a rebuilt RB25. Please correct me if I am wrong?

The price is about double what it will probably sell for. A good rough estimate for pricing is cost of a standard car plus 50% of the cost of mods (parts only no labour) with most likely having to drop down to 30% of the value of the mods in the current slow market to get a sale. After looking at the description, mods and pictures I believe I could build a R33 to similar spec including body work, high performance built engine, sound systems and suspension for considerably less than your asking price and you have pretty much said this yourself "i'm half/half about selling" AKA you are dreaming.

I don't agree with the remove the O2 sensor mentality. O2 sensor will insure optimal AFR, emisssions and fuel economy over a wide range of operating conditions, fuel variations ect. You can tune a car to run just as well under those conditions but drive the car on a different day cold morning hot humid afternoon use a poorer batch of fuel ect and it wont be perfect. The car will still run and drive ok but just not be quite as optimally well tuned. OEM o2 sensors are now often used well beyond just light load and cruise often working well into high load conditions. Examples that I am aware of is some of the new cars require the following two conditions before going out of closed loop greater than 85% throttle and greater than 4000rpm between switching between closed and open loop. (Required to meet tough new euro standars) For those not running a O2 sensor what do you gain by not having a O2. The only thing I can think of is not having the sensor in the exhaust potentially causing extra restriction which I would think is extremely minimal if not impossible to measure. And quite a few people in this thread have just disconnected there O2 sensor but still have it physically in the exhaust so where is the gain?

Not a great deal different to OEM systems opening up valves in the exhaust which are legal. But aftermarket items are not legal.

Something also to add about Federal 595SS there is two rubber compounds, one soft one hard designated by the ZR in the size ie 245/45R17 or 245/45ZR17. The softer compound has far better performance and if you want to buy them IMO they would be the only 595SS to buy. Re KU36's something else to mention they tend to go out of round once they have been sitting for some time. They come good quite quickly but are a real pain to drive on for the first few kms.

Interesting, I can only say I haven't had any issues with wear and both sets purchased about 6 months apart perform the same (as close as a comparision can be made with them on two different cars). One set came from option1 then other as I was in a rush and had to pay much more for them a local dealer.

Yes they offer great bang for buck and they are great dry weather tyres but I do not and cannot agree with you about there wet weather performance. They are close to dangerous in the wrong hands and I consider myself to be an above average driver I find them quite a handful in wet conditions, does this mean I went spining off the track or have crashed with them when it rained no it didn't but there are many other tyres I would much rather be driving with in wet conditions. If Kuhmo improve this area of the tyre for the next model they will have an all round fantastic tyre. Further to this I could and have driven on tyres with no tread slicks on a wet track it was dicy and difficult but I didn't crash it can be done, again this doesn't mean due to there much better dry performance that slicks are the best way to go for daily use. Again brilliant street tyre for the dry with what you pay for, there are other tyres with similar price which offer much better wet weather performance and feedback. It still sounds to me from your post as though you are not at the limit of cornering grip but at the limit of accellerational grip but I'm glad you are happy with them and didn't crash, ps perhaps take it a little easier next time on a public road and save that type of driving for the track. As per the tyre tests they are down 5-10% in all areas in wet conditions and 1 second per lap slower on a 30 second lap, with directly compariable tyres, might not seem like much but this is considerable as often the difference with brand new comparable tyres between average tyres and great tyres is less than 3%. "In the wet, however, the Kumhos were nothing short of diabolical, which kept them from victory. They had slightly more grip than the last-place Ling Longs but were, in fact, more difficult to drive because once they let go, there was a long, hairy slide before recovery, and the point at which they would give up was impossible to predict. Around the constant-radius turn, they kept us guessing, with a tendency to flip-flop between understeer and oversteer for no apparent reason. " I agree 100% with the above statement whilst the understeer is present I have no issues with feedback or controlling this the oversteer on the other hand is a totally different situation. As to how long you have had them I have found they have become considerably worse with age both when cold and in wet conditions and I would have considered them liveable just in wet conditions when they were brand new but not now. This is something I didn't think about and it is a very valid point, given the N16 pulsar my daily the rear just follows the front almost regardless of what you do I would think the N15 would do the same which would most likely mean you wouldn't suffer the same issues or to at least a much lesser extent with KU36's.

I have KU36's fitted to two of my cars one with 100% stock suspension the other with aftermarket coilovers. Keep in mind using them on two cars shows how much I like them. Suspension setup on both cars are very good and this is not an issue. As to never being wrong I have been wrong plenty of times but on this topic I am as sure as I can be not wrong, KU36's offer terrible wet performance. As per the other posts and 300rwkw in the wet. KU36's had suitable aquaplanning resistance for a tyre of this design and this certainly isn't there problem. They offer lower grip in both straight line accelleration and braking less than ideal but they are livable in this area and noticing a spining tyre due to excessive accelleation is dam obvious even with KU36 offering poor feedback. They still put down 270rwkw at 120km/hr coming onto the main straight at PI without a problem in the pooring rain but then again so would any other tyre I have driven on... So the question remains with the above not being there problem, what is there problem? The problem with lack of grip and feedback is key to one area of there performance, rear end of the car whilst turning. The easiest way to see this is by on a constant radius corner whilst balancing the car maintaining speed with with no changes to driver input the back end will suddenly and unexpectedly let go. When they let go they are not progressive/controlable they let go in a big way. Note this is issue exactly what has been commented on in the tyre tests and it is what I have personally experienced, one of the few times I would actually agree with comments made in tyre tests. On track performance they were 3.5 seconds per lap faster around PI than RT615's and they didn't overheat anywhere near as quickly (in the dry) but they were 11 seconds per lap slower in the wet and very hard to drive with at the limit. (Same car no setup changes other than better (higher temp) brake pads installed when I was running the KU36's.) If you don't take my word for it a number of other people that I know which run KU36's one of which has won numerous race champinionships in his younger years (ie he is an exceptional driver with race resutls to prove it) also agrees that KU36's for dry conditions offer exceptional bang for buck but are very poor in the wet. Given you haven't experienced this I can only conclude that you are only about straight line driving and don't know how to balance and feel a car around corner. Very common of people that own turbo cars they putt around corners well below what speed you could be driving at then once in a straight line apply WOT. People like this often only concern themselves with how much HP they can put down in a straight line being the limit of how good there tyres are. Now I could be wrong on this point particularly given your comements of mountain runs so if this isn't the case please correct me; please expalin to me where I am wrong and if you think KU36's do offer good feedback whilst cornering and balancing a car please show me/give me an example so that I might be able to work out what I am doing wrong so I can change my driving or setup to get the best out of them.

Did you read my first post which is on the first page of this thread and I have copied below but incase you missed it I OWN A SET OF KU36's fitted to my weekend car. It also appears you haven't had a set of decent tyres before, if you did you would realise that KU36's are terrible wet weather tyres. Dispite my comments which you clearly will not accept as fact perhaps the test I quoted the first time which exactly matches how they perform in my experience and the test below might show you otherwise. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartD...ay.jsp?ttid=118 From personal experience I made comments regarding KU36's not made up bull shit and just to repeat it for the last time they are terrible wet weather tyres offering lower levels of grip than alternatives but most importantly very poor feedback.

When did I suggest that if you crash you should blame your tyres. Bad tyres don't cause you to crash but good tyres can help prevent one which might of otherwise with bad tyres be unavoidable. The difference in feedback and driver control is not marginal between compariable tyres and it can be quite considerable. Think about NS2, KU36 ect vs RE001's, F1's AD08's RE11R's ect. The KU36's and NS2's are both classic examples of tyres which perform poorly in the wet and offer terrible feedback. Where as the AD08's and RE11R's comparible to the KU36's offer good feedback in wet conditions and they are very easy to control with the KU36's lacking feedback and very hard to control. Further to my previous posts it isn't you that is the problem, I know for a fact that I can drive safetly regardless of the conditions even with tyres that are terrible in wet conditions ie KU36's and whilst they are harder to control due to the lack of feedback I can still drive on them safely but this requires extensive concentration on just the tyres feedback alone, this is something other lesser skilled drivers average joe cant. To further add to this there is very little margin for error even when traveling at slow speeds, something that on a daily basis in unpredictable traffic conditions I choose to avoid and opted for a better performing easy to control wet weather tyre keeping in mind I am not on a race track and there are many other things going on that require concentration such as intersections not to mention other drivers which are often unpredictable and do make mistakes. As per this post does the driver need to be driving like they are on a racetrack or an idiot to have feedback and know what is going on no they don't but they need to know what is going on at all times. Again good tyre feedback is paramount to driver control and driver control is paramount to safe driving.

When did I say you should be driving like you are on a racetrack on a public road or pushing in the wet, when I have suggested you should be doing so even in the dry??? "difference between a good wet tyre and an average one is irrelevant." Sorry I believe you are 100% wrong and I stand by my orignal statement. As I said before feedback is paramount to car control. Even my wife has commented on how much better and easier to drive her car is with Michelin's fitted in wet conditions compared with the previous tyres dunlops which were perfectly fine in the dry but provided very poor feedback in the wet. You don't have to be driving like a f**k stick for a momentary laps in concentration or an unexpected event to happen that wasn't your fault to land you in a sticky situation. It is in these situations even more so in wet conditions where often your average tyres don't cut it but great tyres do.

Not true at all. Whilst driver skill always has an effect the difference between good tyres and bad tyres and how well the tyre provides feedback to the driver is paramount to car control. Tyres are the point of contact between the car and the ground they are the most important factor in car handling, grip and performance for both wet and dry conditions not just holding your rims off the ground or how much throttle you can use on boost whilst going through a puddel. Tyres are often understated and in particular the value of what a great set of tyres are worth well after the purchase price is forgotten.

Whilst I agree with your perspective it depends on the how often you drive the car and how bad the wet weather performance is. For my daily driver I chose tyres which offered exceptional all round performance, drive brilliantly and cost a fortune (Michelins). I don't use these tyres on my weekend car which I tend to drive the car roughly 1-2 times per month were I use KU36's. Whilst the KU36's are ok and they are exactly what I expected (great dry grip, slightly stiffer side walls with a little higher NVH) in every way except wet performance. There wet performance is below what I would have expected with little to no feedback and being highly unpredictable. For someone who drives there car daily I would suggest not using KU36's. Here is a review which I agree with, particularly in terms of the vauge feedback and how the car suddenly and unexpectedly looses traction. http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/compar...omparison_tests