From Japan and back to Europe, my sh*tbox R34 GTT

[GoHashiriya]

I've been a lurker here for a while now, and whilst I wrap up four and a half years in Japan, I may as well share this with those of you that drive this financial curse of a car.

It all starts with the Z33 (350Z) which I crashed in around August of 2020. In short, I hit the dirt on a bank at Mikawa Motorland. Spent one or two months fixing the front - bumper, core support, etc. - only to find that I had cooked the engine due to switching it off immediately during a track session. So, I had a choice: VQ35s were cheap, maybe a few hundred quid plus about five hundred to install it, or I could buy something else. Normally I would have fixed the Z, it was a good car, but it had a fatal flaw in that it was significantly rustier than I would have liked. It would have required a lot of time and money just to get the rust issues fixed and I really couldn’t be bothered. Let’s just get this straight by the way, Japan most definitely does salt its roads.

[GoHashiriya]

By September 2020 I had my eyes set on a Skyline, prices were rallying at this point and every one I missed was replaced by a more expensive – not necessarily better - example. I started with a budget of around £10k, ended with a budget of around £17k – you get the idea. I was so fed up with going to dealerships to find that the car had either been sold or was actually a harbourer of issues I decided to go straight to the papa of Skylines: Trust Kikaku. I’m not going to drone on about them too much but they’re pretty famous in the world of sh*tbox Nissans.

On their site they had this red little beauty, 230k kms, no rust, every problem was listed, and a whole host of transparent pictures of the car’s condition. The car was a manual swap car but the loser that did the swap installed an RP71C transmission from the lower power models which is highly prone to breaking; the transmission is something I’ll revisit later. I saved all the images they had on their listing at the time, here’s a few:

[GoHashiriya]

After speaking with them and negotiating for them to take the Z off my hands for a price I would rather not go into. I got in the car and limped the Z six hours and two hundred and fifty miles to their shop in Chiba, a bit north of Tokyo and next to Tsukuba Circuit – I was ecstatic.

It took about two months to get the car registered as they were having issues with the damn transmission. I was eager to collect my girlfriend from the airport on December 20th so they gave me a loaner ER34 which was incredibly kind of them.

[GoHashiriya]

We drove back to Nagoya, I locked her up in quarantine and four days later the car was delivered to me. Amazing. We were especially lucky this winter as it really wasn’t cold enough for them to grit the highways outside of the mountains.

[GoHashiriya]

On the last day of her quarantine, some friends invited us to a car meet in Hamamatsu.

Edited December 10, 2023 by GoHashiriya

[GoHashiriya]

We then went on to the Fuji area for a short thank-f*ck-she-got-into-Japan-during-covid celebration. The car was great, actually drove really well considering it was ancient and no doubt had completely original suspension. The oil was, and still to this day, remains a clear yellow colour for the first 4-5k kms after a change (without track use ofc).

 

[GoHashiriya]

Of course I took the wheels and seats from the Z before its departure. These were quickly transplanted to the Skyline along with some new coilovers. I was grateful I opted to go with a more conservative 18x10R and 18x9.5F on the Z, as this was already a struggle to fit on the new car. A 9.5 in the rear would be a lot more suitable, however, it was around this time RAYS and the used parts market whacked around a 100% premium on the TE37s, so the 10J stayed. To begin with I was experimenting with tyre sizes, a 255/40 rear and 235/45 front which really wasn’t good at all; too narrow for the rim and the rear was too high a profile for the body, therefore kept catching on the bumper tabs.

[GoHashiriya]

For the next few months we went exploring, took the car to Kyoto, Nagano and around central Japan.

[GoHashiriya]

Then April came and it was about time I took the car on track, we headed to Mihama circuit which is around 45mins from home and is essentially a karting track that lets cars on in the afternoon. The car was really, really badly set up: I hadn’t preloaded the suspension correctly so these were bottoming out, the rear tyres were again grinding against the bumper tabs and the viscous LSD was, well, an open diff. The steering felt off.

[GoHashiriya]

By May I had installed a 1.5 way Nismo GT LSD, this combined with the Nismo ARBs were some of the best additions I had made to the car. I also installed some more appropriate tyres, Accelera 651S in 255/35 and 265/35. The Acceleras are some sort of Nankang-NS2R-esque tyres people use out here. Honestly, I find them pretty good but the sidewall stiffness is lacking and I’ve had two sets turn up egg-shaped. Still, they’re roughly £160 a pair.

 

[GoHashiriya]

The suspension saga continued for a while and consisted of me replacing all of the arms – whilst suspecting a shot bush somewhere - and then lastly the rack bushes, which fixed the problem. I wasn’t so bothered about this except I ended up wasting time with about three alignments over the course of six months.

And only after all of this did it start to feel better than a stock 350Z with coilovers.

[GoHashiriya]

Next to address was that cursed transmission, I couldn’t confidently bang gears around knowing I was a shift away from stretching my broken Japanese ability to begging for a tow truck. This was a whole chronicle on its own: I decided, for the English support, to use *undisclosed company* to purchase a new 30A transmission. I coupled it with a Nismo clutch and lightweight flywheel, life was good. I was thrilled, I restarted drifting with my new “bulletproof” transmission; after, of course, adhering to the internet’s wisdom on transmission break-in periods: 1,000kms and an oil change, then it’ll be clutch-kick galore. No. The transmission developed a loud whine after 3,000kms.

We pulled the box out, drained the oil, it looked significantly metallic, however, who knew what the metallic content should look like on a 3,000km-old gearbox. Despite the noise, usage was fine. I complained to within an inch of my life to *undisclosed company*, asked my boss whether I could leverage the company’s legal team, he agreed. Just as I was about to give up, *undisclosed company* offered to refund my money for the transmission – win – so I bought another one.

 

[GoHashiriya]

2022 came along and I recalled Abe-chan at Trust Kikaku telling me the RR brake was binding; I had never noticed anything but figured the brake system could do with some attention. I tasked my mechanic with rebuilding the callipers whilst I installed some Dixcel Z type pads, Dixcel slotted rotors and Nismo braided lines. Braking performance was always okay, it was just that the old rotors had a lip and it was running stock pads. I toyed with the idea of getting 350Z Brembos but it didn’t seem necessary.

It was around this time that I decided my Japanese car was not sounding Japanese enough. Along comes the exhaust. What I will do with this when it comes back to Europe I do not know, I never thought it was that acceptable to be over 100db. Perhaps I’ll weld another resonator in.

Around March, I was working from home when a couple of fellas came to check out my car, see video below. Whether this was an attempted car theft or not, I don’t know. What I do know is, they shouldn’t have been skulking around on my driveway, particularly at a time when these cars are being stolen left right and centre. This prompted me to make some security upgrades: I bought a couple of wheel anchors, installed an alarm, bought pepper spray and now keep the breaker bar near the front door. Alarm installation is rare in Japan and on my hunt for a quote found that the price of installation for alarms was two to three times more than in the UK. I was looking at the best part of £1k for the most basic viper alarm. So, I decided to do it myself. Alarm price was around £200 and it took two weekends of my time.

 

 

[GoHashiriya]

It was 2022 that I really wanted to push my drifting ability. I’ve always been a grip driving kind of person but I figured that drifting was a necessary skill to have to really become faster, plus its fun. I bought a cheapo bumper, as the Altia ones were claiming £500-£1,000 on yahoo auction and kicked it off with a sort of drift-academy-type event held monthly at YZ circuit. I thought, being a noob event it would be safer. In some ways it was, as they lets us practice corners individually, but it was really busy in the open track sessions and filled with amateurs. I recall a guy in a GT86 who claimed to be part of the “fast group” at orientation, then go on to tailgate everyone during the open sessions only to stack it by mid-afternoon.

After several track events I started to feel the Recaro SR3s as quite limiting, this and the OEM hand brake shoes were too weak. So I bought a BRIDE Zeta 4 which, despite triggering arthritis every time I enter/exit the car, is much better for fast driving. For the handbrake I installed Project MU D1 spec brake shoes which are fantastic.

[GoHashiriya]

By this point I had added parts here and there to help with the cooling: a large radiator from Blitz and a higher-flow fan set up. I haven’t gotten around to fitting an oil cooler yet. Additionally, I have replaced some parts as preventative maintenance such as the crank sensor, ignition coils/harness and the fuel pump.

Since late last year the car has been relatively good, I’ve fixed a plethora of oil leaks and now, since the car was to be heading back to Europe, I have replaced parts that will be a pain to get back in Europe: AC compressor, steering rack, windscreen and several of the worn plastic interior trim pieces.

I attended 15-20 track days in 2023, I did five over the course of two weeks and I'm still sh*t, better, but still not as good as I would have liked to have gotten. I blame having a car that's now as valuable as a downpayment on a house, but here we are. 

I shipped the car back a few weeks ago - piece of piss. It's right now somewhere between Singapore and the Suez Canal, ready to be attacked by some houthis - might save me more trauma if it goes out this way. 

Japan was a f*ckin' blast but can I continue to live here permanently, no, I don't think so. I have dreams to return for holidays, build another car here and keep at it but that requires some big bucks, so we'll see.

  

Edited December 10, 2023 by GoHashiriya

[foxjp]

Nice sanyon bro

funny wrecking the yard fellas. I saw those business cards several times when I was living in Chiba.

miss Japan a lot

thanks for sharing 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Follow you on IG, wild journey!

Truly embraced Japanese culture and the 90s shit boxes.

 

[GoHashiriya]

20 minutes ago, foxjp said:

Nice sanyon bro

funny wrecking the yard fellas. I saw those business cards several times when I was living in Chiba.

miss Japan a lot

thanks for sharing 

Cheers, yeah, ended up with pepper spray and a breaker bar at the front door. Japan is beaut but makes me bipolar.

1 minute ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Follow you on IG, wild journey!

Truly embraced Japanese culture and the 90s shit boxes.

 

Dare I say, kinda want an M3 now.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

At the development rate these 90s shitboxes are going, I wouldn't be surprised to see a B58, S55, S58 swapped into a Skyline because it's cheaper than buying a RB motor.

[GoHashiriya]

2 hours ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

At the development rate these 90s shitboxes are going, I wouldn't be surprised to see a B58, S55, S58 swapped into a Skyline because it's cheaper than buying a RB motor.

It makes a lot more sense if you're in Europe (or US) too, given the abundance of BMW motos. M52 was always pretty well regarded, if I recall. It's been a while since I paid attention to the BMW scene, S65 (E9X) was the last one to make me moist. But what to do with RB; my bet is it stays in its current (stock) form for the next couple years, Nistune has been on the cards for well over a year now