fungoolie

Is that the "best driving road" that the top gear guys found in switzerland some episodes back? Looks like they could have made it a lot straighter than they did but someone in the roads dept wanted a reeeally nice road to have a fang on! Makes our Mt Alma hillclimb look a bit lame!

Well considering the old GT3 was only a half second slower than the GTR around Winton its not at all implausible that the new model could be 0.7 second faster than a GT-R on a different circuit. However its hard to explain those acceleration numbers. Winton Times by Motor 1-Jun-2009 Porsche Porsche 911 GT2 92.10 Warren Luff Dry 1-Dec-2008 Ford Ford Falcon V8 Supercar 92.69 MacLean Dry 1-Jan-2008 Lamborghini Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera 92.80 Warren Luff Dry 1-Jun-2009 Nissan Nissan GT-R Premium 93.70 Warren Luff Dry 1-Jan-2008 Porsche Porsche 911 GT3 94.20 Warren Luff Dry 1-Jan-2008 Audi Audi R8 95.20 Dry Wakefield Times by Motor 1-Jun-2008 Porsche Porsche 911 GT2 65.05 John Boston Dry 1-Jul-2007 Lamborghini Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 66.70 Warren Luff Drying 1-Jul-2007 Porsche Porsche 911 GT3 67.40 Warren Luff Drying 1-Aug-2005 Porsche Porsche 911 Turbo S 67.60 Warren Luff Dry 1-Sep-2009 Audi Audi RS6 67.70 Warren Luff Dry So you would think the GT-R would have slotted in somewhere around the 67 second mark in this table. Whats hard to explain is why a clearly underperforming GT-R is lapping wakefield park in the WET in 1:05.8 and the GT3 in 1:05.1 which puts it as fast as the GT2 in the DRY! That would put them both in 2nd and 3rd place in the Wakefield Park table in the wet! Lots of unexplainable stuff happening here.. Have they resurfaced the place or moved kerbs or realigned any corners? Considering Ive done 18,000 kms in mine already and spent approx $300 servicing it so far, I'll let you know when Ive spent $120K more servicing the R-35 than my brother does on his 911T

Was informed by Main North Nissan today that they have three owners with the clicking problem at the moment and are narrowing down the cause on a test mule. So they told me to hold off bringing in mine till they sort it out. I told them about the info available on the US forums regarding missing top anti rattle springs and loose tie rod ends and it appeared to be news to them! We'll see if they can come up with a permanent fix soon.

Yes we know those pesky japanese are so dumb when it comes to car design. Why is the GT-R a well designed car? Centre of mass height/wheelbase equal to the best out there. Note the Porsche is not even close: http://www.nagtroc.org/w/images/2/22/Press...-mech-1a_07.jpg http://www.nagtroc.org/w/images/5/51/Press...-mech-1a_05.jpg Downforce as a function of Cd better than anything else out there. http://www.nagtroc.org/w/images/b/b0/Press...-mech-1a_12.jpg And finally scroll down to the dashboard picture and see that the instrument layout was intentionally laid out as it was. http://www.nagtroc.org/wiki/Nissan_GT-R_Press_Kit_-_Package While you're there take a look at the weight distribution graphic. Why have a mid engine and lose the back seat if you can achieve the optimum weight distribution from alternative means? Your "qualitative" assessment of the engineering principles the car was designed around is truly laughable. And I just love your exaggerations, comparing it to corollas and suzukis..... Yes Nissan could have made it lower. But everything is comprimise and lets face it, if you can achieve your design objectives without making it as awkward as an Exige to climb in and out of then more power to you! In my humble opinion Nissan has minimised the comprimise in manufacturing a supercar. Since when is being low an end in itself? Show me another supercar that can fit drivers from 144cm-190cmin height and has 4 seats. You really miss the point of this car. All that being excessively low does is result in a car that can't get up my driveway and scrapes on every spoon drain. Gets tedious after a while. Finally sorry to burst your italo-centric bubble. But your beloved Ferrari's will no longer be available in a manual version. The 458 is only going to be available in flappy paddle. Apparently less than 5% of customers wanted it in manual. Maybe that says more about the drivers of the Fazzas than the manufacturer but based on your perspective that statistic would be casting serious aspersions on the driving ability of the average Ferrari owner. And please will people please stop attributing the Nissan's supernatural performance on electronics and gizmos!! IT IS FASTER AROUND A TRACK WITH VDC OFF as many guys on here who track them will attest to. It's just like the F430/911T/GT2 is and every other german/italian supercar out there. You dont think germans understand electronics? Just because it has a playstation dashboard people seem to think that it has some breakthrough technology built in to it to make it go faster.... They did a GOOD job???? FFS, considering they made a car that goes faster than any of your hero cars for a fraction of the cost and also way more practical, (read not as low and uncomfortable) they did a freakin fantastic job!

But that's my point. You are free to do that if you choose so that when you're in the relative safety of the racetrack you can set all your assistance off and enjoy driving in it's purest sense but then when you revert back to the real world such as residential streets, slippery narrow hills roads, icy regions etc etc you can go back to having whatever assistance you deem necessary. A locked brake results in you running wide in a corner on a racetrack. A locked brake on a winding public road will put you directly into the path of an oncoming car. The "best" cars are ones that allow you the freedom to choose what levels of assistance you would like depending on your circumstances.

Well my R35 doesnt have any of that except the flappy paddles because I can turn off the VDC, change gears manually, pull the abs fuse and leave my dampers in one setting! Why would I do all that? Dunno, prob the same reason I turn my colour on my new LCD flat screen right off and watch in black and white..... But seriously, you can dumb most modern cars right down to an "unassisted" level as most manufacturers, (short of mercedes benz and a couple others), allow you to using in-car controls. I see it as the best of all worlds....

The future is now! Or more precisely a couple months ago http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/SE...re-t295745.html

Totally agree. Having owned Subarus for the past 11 years it wasnt until the 2nd generation WRX/STi was sent to the states that we really started seeing affordable upgrades appear for the soobies. For this you can thank companies like Cobb. Never saw anything from japan that would allow reflashing of ECUs etc and the only other alternative was ECUTek from the UK. The size of the yankee market will only lead to good things for us GT-R owners now it's being sent stateside.

Thats a relief. Safety Nazis going mad IMO. If you need to fit a feature like this that could trigger in a gentle parking accident at least make the result of the activation "reversible" so that rams can be recompressed and re-locked minimising the cost. And what's with replacing the ECU? That just ridiculous. Why would they need to generate a non resettable flag? At least airbags only trigger when you have an impact over a certain speed, not just a gentle tap that must've been at no more than 5KPH. Same principle should apply with a pedestrian safety feature. In fact Im sure you could use some intelligence in the sensing so that if the front receives an impact associated with a higher deccelation that would occur as a result of hitting a pedestrian then don't bother with the bonnet rams, you're clearly hitting something heavier than a person. After all I wouldn't want an unhinged bonnet slicing through my windscreen at head height if I hit another car.

Yes I can see how you would think that, that was my first suspicion as well but the Nissan Tech had a listen and said it definitely didn't sound like CVs. Plus a fiddle with the brakes and it gets better immediately, albeit temporarily in my case. In fact last night by just playing with the pins and moving them back and forth stopped the problem for about the first 20 mins of this morning's drive before they must've shifted again to their favourite rattling position! The sound from the pin when manually rattled does sound a lot like the click you hear whilst driving and the US guys seem to be convinced that the anti rattle spring omission seems to be the problem..

No top pin anti rattle spring found and that upper pin clicks loudly with a similar sound when I push it side to side. To me it seems the obvious fault/problem. See what Nissan thinks...

I'll add another one to this. I had the problem appear at around 9000 kms and took it in to Nissan. They said they spoke to Japan and diagnosed it as the fully floating rotor making noise because some anti-seize grease they use between it and the hub had washed out. Anyway they replaced it with a non genuine compound as they didn't have the proper stuff in stock and it lasted a week before the noise reappeared. I'm now on 17,000 kms and about to take it back in as I want that looked at as well as my MFD backlight dying on hot days as well as my interior mirror developing a droop on 40+ days after a day in the sun. I'll see if I have that retaining clip installed tonight and suggest that to them as well the tie rod end when I drop it off this week.

Faster? Perhaps. Better? I'd say definitely not.

The warranty is not "useless". If you choose to modify components or fit aftermarket then Nissan only have the right to deny a warranty claim on the modified component or a related component damaged as a result of the modification. If you modify the brakes you will still have a warranty on the rest of the car such as all electronics, drivetrain, body, trim etc etc. Do not underestimate how much of the vehicle does NOT consist of just the transmission or brakes. What would a new MFD, headlight unit, seat motor or worse still, engine component cost? If your brakes wear out after a year or two and nissan wants to change all pads and rotors for $12,000 in order for you to maintain the warranty on the brakes you would be stupid to do so simply because you could probably just re-pad for around $1,000 or change to aftermarket rotors and pads for between $3K and $4K. You do not pay $9K extra to "insure" you against a failure that at worst would only cost several hundred bucks to repair using aftermarket parts. Same thing with the transmission. Agreed if the transmission was truly "unserviceable" as nissan would lead us to believe then too right, you'd spend a couple hundred extra in trans fluid to maintain your "insurance" on the $26K that a new transmission would cost. After all you'll happily spend $2K to insure your $150K investment against an accident which is always on the cards as is a trans failure. However, given that Martin can probably repair most failures for perhaps the low thousands mark, then you would have to seriously consider and weigh up how much premium you're paying to maintain this insurance. And yes, if you track the car and don't follow the strict servicing regime that Nissan specifies then you may lose warranty on the trans assuming you dont change the fluids etc as they specify but you WILL maintain warranty on all other items the car consists of which is still worth something. And on a final note, I would take this line that Nissan peddles about change one, change all with a grain of salt. I recall reading in their disclaimers or owners manual that run flats are unrepairable and because of this if you get a puncture the tyre needs to be replaced. And elsewhere it stated that you MAY have to change all tyres if you replace one. So a puncture could potentially cost you $4000. When they stuffed up my wheel alignment and caused a set of fronts to chew out in 4000 kms guess what? They changed just the fronts.... Oh and run flats ARE repairable. Dunlop permits it..

Plus stamp duty and rego adding another $6-$8K depending on which state. This makes it less than $20K less than the Aus delivered driveaway car plus its a 2007/8 model with 253kW and the 4500 rpm launch control compared with the 257 kW with 3000 rpm launch ADM car, plus or minus? You decide. Then you have to consider depreciation and interest/opportunity cost of the money. $20K extra at approx 8% lease interest rates means that interest alone accounts for another $1600 per annum lost on interest on the more expensive ADM car. However if the JDM depreciates just 1% more than the ADM this will compensate and your total cost of ownership will break even. I can't imagine the JDM won't depreciate more than 1% more than the ADM per annum personally. Then you have warranty to consider... My gut feeling would be to go for ADM simply because $165K is a good price for an almost new one now...I paid $167K for a brand spanker but not premium model and before the price rise for non "ordered before release" cars.

Ahhhh so what you're saying is that if I rip the disk to itunes and then burn another one from that with the CD text added then the Music Box will use the names added by Itunes. Still not optimum but better than nothing. Thanks!i

There is no way I'm manually typing in every song name!! US cars just download the current database and update it via the card slot.... When Nissan deleted the card slot they must have considered some other means of maintaining the database.

Hope this isn't a dumb question but I'm sick of all my new CD's coming up with only track numbers and dates ripped to my hard disk. How do we update the Gracenote database on ADM cars which have no USB or SD slot? I was hoping it could be done via the CD but nothing on the Gracenote website seems to indicate that we can do this. Calling Nissan is like pulling teeth so hopefully someone on here has the answer.

I've had a new set of front tyres for free because Nissan screwed up the free wheel alignment at 2000 kms. They've disassembled my front rotors and re- "greased" them due to a rattle I suspect caused by water washing out the anti seize used between the hats and the rotors. I will be returning the car to have this done again because it's started happening again and they told me they didn't use the genuine stuff last time as they didn't have it in stock. I also need to have a couple other things looked at, my backlight on my MFD apppears to die on really hot days and when I wash the car, as soon as I start it immediately afterwards, my oil level display seems to think I have no oil in the engine. This rectifies itself after the motor has run for a minute. Mind you, saying a car without a warranty should be had for $100K!!!!! That's crazy talk.... I'd gladly forsake my warranty for $50K. I mean what could possibly go wrong for that amount of money? I could get a new trans and motor for that amount!

did I say buyers??? God I'm having a blonde day....

So who cares if it's $20 to $25 less than advertised. Are you embarrassed offering something way lower than what is asked? Maybe they should be embarassed asking so much. Something is only worth what someone else will pay for it, not what the owner "believes" it's worth.... Clearly if they reject reasonable offers then they are not genuinely selling and are just seeing if there is someone stupid enough who hasn't done any research willing to pay ridiculous money for it. If I wanted to speculate on making some money by buying and then selling something immediately afterwards, I wouldn't be doing it with a GT-R!! Perhaps something limited edition or with a waiting list but not something in good supply through its dealer network. I know people who offer on things such as real estate on the basis of the asking price less X%. On this basis all someone has to do is ask for more and they'll get more.... Since when has what someone asks have anything to do with what it's worth? Do your research. See what equivalent stuff sells for and what you could alternatively buy for the money and make your offer on that basis. Simple as that.... You may be surprised what they go down to if they are genuinely motivated buyers...

Have you tried making an offer on any of these? Surely these are just ambit amounts given that they're just as much as a new one! I know munro bought a 2nd hand one with 7K on the clock for a lot less than this amount. Genuine sellers will consider a genuine offer.

My wife was driving mine the other day (You said behind the wheel, not own one!)

Why would they? The Aust govt is part of the problem!!! Look at luxury car tax and protection for importers against cheap grey imports. Why would they want to be seen helping "fat cats" get cheaper luxury cars?

I once had a brand new MY04 Subaru STi spin a bearing at 1600 kms and Subaru replaced my car after inspecting the motor. All I paid was a nominal pro rata "depreciation" of about $300 as the car was a month old. I was very happy with the treatment they gave me. Mind you Subaru do not have crate motors and the only alternative would have been to repair it rather than replace the whole motor. If they could give me a whole new motor I also would have been happy with that. New trans shouldn't really warrant a new car. Sometimes infant mortality happens....