Evo_Lee

Justin, the car looks like it's coming along great. Alot of work but certainly paying off. As Ikerii has said, I maybe here longer than expected. However I'll be back this weekend for a week, I guess we could all hook up in about another month's time, that's when I hope to take a short break. What's your mobile? Email it to me. We'll talk then.

You are allowed to be away from the country of residence for a maximum of 8 weeks. Just because you want to bring a car back, DOTARS can't rob you of sanity...12 months in any country can be fun or painful at the same time!

Correct... 1.) Buy car: xxxxxxx Yen 2.) Tuned in Japan xxxps and full of goodies: xxxxxx Yen 3.) Shipping, Port Clearance and Customs: $xxxx 4.) Compliance (Engineered): $85....under RAWS it would cost others at least $5K, stripped and return to stock without (with + hassles/more cost) goodies on car for compliance 5.) Compliance Plates $35 6.) RWC: $50 7.) Rego: $11xx 8.) Insurance $xxxx 9.) Profit!!!

Very smart boy...if I could do it all again with much much more money. RS-01...without a doubt and since none were ever built.

Razorsharp, I wasn't intentionally having a direct stab at you. You just happened to make the comment first what most people percieve. I'd actually highly doubt anyone in Aust can still tune the F-CON V, as I said most shop in Japan wouldn't bother...where did I put that dam F-CON V software again! You will find to tune a F-CON V over here is not that cheap, compared to a buddled package for the F-CON SZ including tuning. This is the move by HKS and the shop to upgrade customers over to the newer units. Bit of marketting also as the Navigator and the new products will only interface on the SZ and V Pro.

Before you do, ask yourself what power levels your after? Talk to the tuners in Aust who can tune the F-CON, see their work with cars tuned running the F-CON. I'm not say they are no good just do your homework on tuning shops. A quick comparison of the mods on their car to a similar car tuned in Japan to see how experienced they are. I had a F-CON V then upgraded to a F-CON SA, you may ask why not a V Pro. Because I wasn't after hugh HP and the SA was sufficent. Remember the F-CON V only had a 8x8 map when released back in 1995. The SA is already a hugh upgrade and I wanted to keep the factory ECU in there. Think how difficult or good they were to get 600ps on the old unit. But if you want to be different and start early with the HKS unit by all means go for it. By the time it becames common in Aust you'll have the experience, which is why I went for it. I made the most of my hands on experience with the years I had in Japan. Also helps when I know 3 of the 10 HKS licensed tuners in Kansai. Explained earlier the difference is one is piggyback and the other is a standalone, different resolution. V PRO can run D-Jetro and has some additional functions for hardcore tuning. F-CON SA requires an additional sensor to run D-Jetro. F-CON SA and F-CON SZ are the same, SA stands for Super Autobacs version. There are no difference that I know of. I got a good deal, well because my business partner works and drives for Super Autobacs (see the R32 in my avatar). Edit: Can someone also tell me what's this ease of tuning you all talk about with the PFC? Laptop or handheld? Again me think this comes down to the shallow reply that most have not tuned with a F-CON before. Though I will make one point of the F-CON Naviagtor, the screen while nice and compact is a little too small to show the full map. HKS has noted this and is addressing this problem on the next version. All my tuning is done with the laptop, but if you don't mind paying for the handheld it's nice to have for the quick odd settings and status feedback on the road.

Your welcome...too much mis-information on the internet these days. Especially when I hear people talk about different Japanese ECU. I'll bet they've never even play around with any of them, just hearing what his mate's sister's uncle's dog said...or have substantial experience with each of them.

Do a search on all the top powered tuning shops cars and you will find I would say 80-90% is all runing a F-Con, the (Motec of Japan) and the rest PFC and in house ECU...the F-CON wins hands down as the prefered ECU!!! Also if the shop has a HKS bit writer license they will always perfer tuning F-CON over any ECU. You also know what HKS stands for don't you? Hasegawa, Kawasaki and Suzuki, the 3 owners but now just owned by Hasegawa. You also know how Apex and Trust came about don't you? Kawasaki and Suzuki split and created Apex and Trust, thought I forget who owns which now. The PFC is a spin off from the F-CON but not quite as good as the F-CON, but sure can still do the job. The Greddy e-manage was released to compete in the same sub-com market as the the F-CON SA/SZ but you'll know how good they are...when what you pay is what you get. You also already answered your own question, as said Aust lacks the tuners for F-CON thus people most go for PFC. Again as said the PFC is fine for most people so I would suggest a PFC with all the available knowledge in Aust. Edit: also F-CON has been around longer since 1989, back then known as the PFC F-CON. Note the name of the Apex PFC!

I don't know about Buddy Clubs involvement outside Japan, but none of the wheel outlets in Japan can get any more stock then what they already have still remaining. PS, I know Jeff Ash well , put him in contact with a couple of his suppliers in Japan.

Buddy Club has in fact closed up, the news was a month ago...the P1's are gone forevar! Similar thing happened to SSR...the Type C's are gone forevar! Influx of cheap China made rims, like the copies of TSR Type C's I saw here in Taiwan is the main reason. They look identical except for the logo, even the font and colours scene for the logo is identical just the brand name. Such a pity...both SSR and Buddy Club poured heaps of money into redesigning the wheels with cheaper materials and process but failed to succeed. Hard to imagine but this is the story I was told when I spoke to my supplier in Japan last month. Even my mate at SA told me the same story, they have no more stock. This will only makes these wheels even more sort after as both these wheels models Type C and P1 QF are the lightest and 2nd lightest racing wheels in Japan...lighter than Volks TE37.

F-CON V is old, don't know many tuners even in Japan who will touch the F-CON V. Not to say it's a bad ECU just that every shop has already upgraded to the new software. Hell I've even tried to sell my old unit on Yahoo for 1000yen and no one wants it. The best way I can only sell it is like a Mines ECU including the mods list. F-CON SA/SZ and the F-CON V PRO are the current versions. You obviously know little about the F-CON units, the PFC has gone through revision as well. I'll admit about the limited number of tuners in Aust for the HKS unit, but very different in Japan.

Supercat is a range of Radar detectors...thus it is one.

jazza08, yeah which is why I said I only have information on the STi V6 and with the accompany data of the BNR34, it supports the siksII post of a stock R33 can't be knocking into the 12s or low 13s. Furthermore in my earlier post last month lol, a stock JDM WRX being lighter and more powerful will no doubt run a quicker 1/4 than a R33 25GTt. Running against an Aust delievered WRX, I say it be close...in favour of maybe the R33 give he/she can launch against a 4WD. Aussnick, what are we comparing, we know they are weak but let's be fair how many times are you gonna be launching and the gearbox failing would only be valid on a modified WRX.

thread alive from the dead...obviously a Skyline Forum...teh GT-R (Skyline) can nevar lose!?!? I can only comment on STi V6...once again I will only comment on real goods from the land of the rising sun. I have on good ground seen a STi V6 run a best of 12.69s, compared to a R34 GT-R's best of 12.55s on the same day...both stock. You make your guess on a R33 25GTt. Here is some pretty interesting data, Speed Ring data test conducted by Driver Magazine Japan back in 1999, all cars stock. The top speed recorded is of course depended on the conditions of that day, all cars were tested on the same day and conditions by the same drivers with the best top speed recorded. Remove the speed limiter and the R33 25GTt reaches a top speed of 250km/h along with a Legacy B4 RSK, while a STi V6 will top out at 240km/h. A R32 GT-R surprisingly only reached a top speed of 248km/h, slightly slower than a R33. And the following cars will all slowly edge away from the R33 25GTt...Aristo V300 (255), GTO MR (255), Z32 (256), RX-7 Type R (256) and Evo 6 (260). The R33 GT-R reached a top speed of 262km/h (would be embrassing if it lost to an E6) but was edged out by the NSX (266km/h) and Supra RZ (279km/h). FYI: Straying away a bit...as you can see the Evo certainly keeps up with the big boys if anyone thought they were not fast (speed wise), else it wouldn't be the Tsukaba Circuit King in both modified and stock form. The Evo VIII RS holds the record for the quickest manufacturer factory built car with a time of 1.03.633 secs. The 2nd quickest is the STi Spec C with 1.03.920 secs and the quickest GT-R is the BCNR33 V-Spec with 1.04.02 secs. The best lap time the BNR32 ever did was a 1.06.18 sec back in 1993 and the BNR34's best lap time was 1.04.121 secs. Can't really call a 400R manufacturer built, but it recorded a 1.02.65 sec. This whole thread comparison is meaningless, as you can see all the cars are pretty evenly matched and dependent on the driver's ability. Tell me again a R33 will smash any the above cars and you'd really have to be next to perfect shifting or taking a line on the circuit against a good driver!!!

Errrr...Kirin is not really a horse or a unicorn unless interpretted by the West. Kirin is the name of the type of lion (Chinese) [or dragon like (Japanese)] you see during the Chinese New Year festival, paintings usually show no horns. Kirin is said to be the king of all animals or feared under Chinese beliefs as it terrorises them with it's demon look. The Japanese Kirin is perceived to be a dragon like creature. Definitely not horse like if you see old Chinese and Japanese paintings of Kirins in museums. Read into the Chinese and Japanese Kirin not the interpretted Western definition! Course all this is open to interpretation, similarly it is said the European dragon flys with wings but the Asian dragon flys with no wings. To me the Stagea badge doesn't look anything like a Kirin. I used to think it was just a horse or a unicorn as you mentioned . I'm sure the Japanese know the difference between a unicorn and a Kirin! FYI: The "Kirin brewery company" is very famous and old company dating back to 1907...and is owned by the Mitsubishi family, so perhaps they didn't want to be seen as copying or sharing the same logo.