The Bogan

I wouldn't touch a Holden with a 10 foot barge pole. My suggestion is to take a LEVORG GT-S for a spin, yes it has CVT, but the CVT is nothing like alot of people claim, a guy at work has one, it's a really sorted car. Plus, when you add up what you get for your money, there really isn't anything out there to match the safety and features, plus the resale value won't drop like a brick, re:Holden, and you don't have to put up with the non existant after sales service if something goes wrong, which, being a Holden, is highly probable. Both the LEVORG and the V6 holden calais wagon cost near on the same. Don't forget to use a broker if your buying new, I've saved thousands using one.

T51R (800 or 1000hp variant)? Have you been in a 3.0l with a T51 on it, IMO, for a street car, there are alot of other turbo's that would suit a street car better, not saying it won't be fun, but you won't win any races off the lights. What drivetrain you looking at? I had a 25/30 built a few years ago, just on 500hpatw, as long as you have a big budget for all the bits that the torque eats you should be right, plus a brake upgrade, OEM brakes are rubbish, OEM gearbox won't last long, at least a R33 GTR diff bolts straight in. I would Google some engine building shops and go check out their stuff in person, when I just googled there was 14 in the Brisbane area alone. I would lay at least 10-15k minimum for them to build the bare long motor. Here's some food for thought http://www.lewisengines.com.au/rb-nissan/ If you use a tuning shop to do it, they will just send it to one of these joints most likely, and add their 20% or whatever on top, hopefully they don't send it to a mate in his garage to build. In the end you can get out of it much much cheaper by buying a car that is already built and just give the motor a refresh if needed, either that or your gonna drop a shit tin of money on a car that may have cost you 50 to 60k to buy and build, that is in the end is worth 20k at most, if your lucky, and I mean really lucky. ???

I use JAX at Liverpool, usually $60 for full alignment to my specs. Only issue I ever had was the steering wheel was off center once, they fixed it straight away. With the laser gear it makes doing an alignment (EDIT: should be) idiot proof. Hell, I've watched the guys do it so many times I reckon I could give it a crack, it ain't rocket science.

If I was gonna, but I'm not, this would float my boat.

So, front camber... From the googles I have found that I can also get lower adjustable camber bolts for $50. I'm going to grab some next week and see what that gives me. The top adjustable bolts gave me -0.5° from the 2mm change, I'm wondering how much 2mm will give me in the lower bolt position. I'm praying to the geometry gods that the lower position will give me more than the -0.5° that the top gave me. Realistically though, the difference between top and bottom bolts is around 100mm, geometry wise I have no clue if that will make any difference ? I'm hoping the worst case senario is -1.0° with the top and bottom bolts, any more than that is a bonus. BUT.... From the googles it's looking hopefull, one person claimed that they got -2.5° on stock suspension with both upper and lower adjustable bolts, I'm taking that claim with a grain of salt though. My goal is to get -1.75°, I guess I'll find out soon enough how close to that I can get. Fingers crossed. In other news, in track mode with the nanny's turned way down, the ease of getting the bum out is amazeballs, you can fell the nanny's trying to correct the oversteer, but not enough to actually straighten the car out. The nanny's do start working harder when your near full lock, I does straighten the car up, but not aggressively, which, for my driving skills, I see that as a positive thing. Having the car swap ends is tedious.

LOL, I resemble that

Seems like you have a good hold on your temps. You got a big sump??

How was your oil temps before?

I may be in for pies, I like pies, and milkshakes, family and work dependent.

Im putting a heat exchanger (oil to water) in a car that doesn't have one. Just be wary of your oil temps, my old RB25/30 with only a oil to air cooler only ever got to 90°c after being up it for a while, that was without a thermostat, during daily driving my oil was never really at optimal temp, unless it was on the track. I ended up making a blanking plate for the front of the oil to air cooler for daily duties. My STI had a oil to water and an oil to air cooler with a thermostat (although even with the thermostat closed it still flows some oil), it took at least twice as long for the oil to get to temp, during cold weather the oil could take up to 15 minutes to get to temp. Have you worked out what size oil to air cooler you need to have the oil in it's Goldilocks zone? Disclaimer: you may be all over this, my point is I've spent a few years of finding out how not to have my oil temps running in a safe place, or, having to drive like a nanna for 15 minutes because my oil temp takes that long to warm up, from my experience the minimum oil temp of 90°c should be seen before the loud pedal gets a work out, unless you like replacing bearings that is, ......apparently... ,,?????

I would just jack up the car, spin and wobble the wheel. All 4 shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. As for "techs" picking up a issue during a alignment, that's not something I would lay a bet on. I have lost wheel weights when cleaning the rims, usually because the "techs" just stick it on without any cleaning or prepping the surface.

Wheel bearings?

Sounds fair to me, even with the extra weight from the window tint negatively affecting my power to weight ratio. Now I wish I went for the "lighter" tint, the weight of the 35% tint has increased my 0-100 to 8.5 seconds.

Are there lots of corners involved, do I have a head start, will you be towing a trailer? If not then no....?EDIT: From googling the Tiguan 2.0 TDI has a 8.6 0-100, so all I need is a head start, and some tight corners, no trailer required, soooo, up the pass to the pie shop? Loser buys the pies......? ?

Got the windows tinted on Friday, I realise now how much I like driving with the windows down, waiting for the tint to cure, 3 to 5 days, is a pain in the arse, all the initial little water bubbles are gone already though. The tint shop also said to give it a week before cleaning the windows, this is also a pain, I am a big fan of having spotless windows. I have been doing some Ebay shopping as well, I have a OEM oil to water cooler from a Forester coming my way, benifits are it brings up my oil temps quicker while also stabilizing my oil and water temps a bit, it knocks down oil temp by a few degrees while not affecting the coolant temp, another benefit of the oil to water is during really cold weather my oil temps won't be lower than the optimum 90°c, I had issues with the oil temps being much to low previously using oil to air during daily duties. Why a oil cooler you ask, from talking to a few people the OEM cooling system works quite well when staying NA, oil temps on the other hand can be a issue when the car is pushed hard (I have noticed this on a few occasions) or when stuck in traffic (you can watch the oil temps rise to 120° sitting in the M5 tunnel, coolant sits steady at 90°), the OEM Forester thingie has proved a successful upgrade for oil control on NA track cars, so it should work a treat on a daily. My daughter had a good laugh today, I took off from the lights on Foreshore Drive, she said "punch it dad", I said "I am punching it" and "my foot is to the firewall", she stated that "this isn't like the Skyline or the STI, is it dad" I just laughed, which set her off, I did manage to get infront of the Camary that I wanted to pass, only just though. I can confirm the stated 0-100 is about 8 seconds, LOL.....?

Do a skid mate

Yeah, it's wise not to spend alot of money on your date rape drugs, the inevitable legal fees tend to add up.

Isn't that a bit WH&S for a stance build.... It looks like it coming together quite well. Need more random pics of unrelated stuff, with cool stuff in the background of course And more dick stickers, everyone loves the dick

From looking at the 86 race series the max lowering is 140mm front and 280mm rear, with my car as it sits now, 300mm rear and 160mm front, I should be able to lower it 20mm all round. I base this off an assumption that CAMS wouldn't recommend this if it adversely affected handling. But thats just based on assumptions ? 86_racing_series_Recognition_Form (1).pdf I am also still basing all these changes, um, as tweeks, not modifications, this line of thought helps me sleep at night.

I had a look at them, I cannot find solid info on the stack height though, some says it raises, some say it lowers, some say it's the same as OEM. Plus converting USD to AUD, and then adding postage, I'm close enough cash wise to be looking at some MCA blue coils, from my understanding they would stack up very well against the OEM suspension, they have adjustable strut tops, and are height adjustable. As for ride height, a 15mm drop all round is good to go, once you go lower thats when you negatively affecting handling, "apparently"......?

LOL, idiots have been trying to race me since I got it, I'm lucky to beat a Yaris off the lights, but once it's got a head of steam up, after about 8 seconds, it's just waiting for some corners...?

Yeah cheers, there will be no big rims or slamming this little girl. Camber adjustable strut tops are proving a problem. Whiteline items appear to be having bearing failures, lots of talk about it, from their inception, I think they gave up at version 4, they have been removed from the website, you can still purchase them from MRT and some other "joints", but from all the bad reviews I would be a idiot to use them. Other brands are out there and they not having reliability issues, BUT, they are pillow ball, and most raise the front by at least 10mm, so they are not an option. I found 1 brand, HVT that doesn't raise the front, none in stock though, and at $435 US + delivery, which is usually a ridiculous amount, it is really breaking my balls trying to chase another -1.25 degrees. The only other real option looks like aftermarket coilovers with adjustable top hats, BUT, getting anything that resembles quality, and would be compliant for street duties, are gonna cost a fair quid, so no cheap and easy way out. Arrrrrggggg, I really like the OEM SACH stuff, they are really compliant on the street but still feel really good when I'm throwing it around. Stupid cars

I've decided the track mode light should be off when track mode is engaged and when it is off a warning light telling you to "turn track mode on you idiot". Currently looking for alignment solutions for the front, rear is easy with the adjustable lower control arm from whiteline, the front is more tricky, I don't want pillow ball, and the whiteline option only adds +/-0.75. Researching car stuff at work is much more fun than actually working.

GdayI picked up a 17 LE to get back into a light(ish) RWD platform.Im keeping it stock......soooSo far I have replaced the Michelins with some Hankook RS4's, 215/45 17, I'm keeping the OEM rims, from my experience at picking the brains of some of the guys at local tracks, any bigger and the extra weight is a big down side, hell the car would need alot more balls to overpower the little 215's RS4's anyways.I put on a X Force cat back so I can at least hear the engine, that added a massive 0% increase in performance, as expected, and only a very slight increase in noise, nothing like what expected from the sound clips on the X Force site, I believe what they advertise as a cat back is in fact a header back, or, headers and full exhaust. So, I added the header back front pipe, it's still pretty quite, the stock cat in the header and the high flow cat in the front pipe keeps alot of the noise down, still sounds nothing like the cat back sound clip. So, I may get catless headers...Also got some camber bolts, maxed them out to get a disappointing -0.5, so much for the advertised +/- 0.75.As for the future, it's staying NA, I've had my share of breaking modified cars with turbo's.I'm getting a tune, mainly for cleaning up the OEM tune, and the Racerom features that are available with ECUTEK, I am a massive fan of the rev match feature, I'm rubbish at heel toe.I will most likely get the header prior to the tune, that should at least get me the sound I want, hell, isn't that what tax returns are for.Apart from that it's now looking like alot more parts to get the alignment settings I want, everything I require is in the whiteline catalog, the OEM adjustability is rubbish.I'm liking the OEM shocks and dampers on the LE, and the Brembo's are excellent, sadly as I've stated the OEM adjustability is the only real let down.As for the elephant in the room, power wise it wouldn't pull the skin off custard, but that's not the point of it for me.I'm more interested in making it handle, it's the twisties where the real fun is.It is always fun when you grab a new platform, looking at all the things that make them go, corner and stop.Oh, and all the stupid things people do, and their outrageous claims, are also a interesting read.Anyways, I babbled on enoughEnjoy

Camber bolts only gave me -0.5 with them maxed out, rears are -1.3 L and 0.97 R (not adjustable). I'll try some 14mm lower camber bolts for the front and see where that puts it, if all else fails I will grab some strut tops as well, I will grab some adjustable arms for the rear.