Duncan's V37.......race car?

[Duncan]

On 28/09/2024 at 9:08 AM, r32-25t said:

It’s over 25 years old, there’s probably a loophole to be able to be able to register it now 

Pretty sure I could do but it would need to be exported and reimported as the current import approval is race only. But in practice there are plenty of other practical reasons it can't be a road car despite their potential value these days like stripped interior looms, cage to cut out etc

On 28/09/2024 at 10:32 AM, MBS206 said:

Does this mean now that it doesn't need to meet Targa spec you can ditch the twins, and crank up the power?

Nah, no mods to it other than updating the roll age to current regs. It makes about 350 (laggy) kilowatts on the N1s at 18psi which is enough to push it around the place

[Duncan]

Did a little bit on the V37 today.

I bought this LED kit out of the US https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/125953603618. Best I could find online but didn't look great, in the end the quality was pretty much right and it did come with locations for each light including rear number plate and a few spares. The factory owners' manual was also useful with information on where to pop each light out without damage.

I prefer the LED look as I use it daily including at night and the LEDs are both brighter and the white light is easier to read with.

Vanity mirror comparison, LEDs just look more modern

The glove box was the only difficult one (and the only one that was previously blown.....), steps were

Open glovebox 50% but not fully open
Push up on bottom of the box to unclip it on both side, not screws or pins to remove
Remove the top stays at an angle, right side then left, because....
Before dropping the glovebox totally, remove soft close clip on left
Then, remove 7 screws to release the glovebox surround
Twist the globe holder anti clock to release it from the surround
In this case, the LED globe supplied was wider than factory and did not fit, so I ground down each side about 1mm then inserted it
Last trick, start engine to check the LED polarity is correct, the globe only operates when the engine is running (whether the box is open or closed)

I also moved the 4G booster and wifi across from the Fuga, a little frustrating as I could not find a good Accessories ACC source anywhere in the boot so I'll run a wire from the cabin next time I get a chance. Also, unlike the Fuga the external antenna wire does not quite fit between the rear windscreen and the body so I think I'll have to drill a hole in the roof to mount it. Probably not that interesting for most people so I'll just post once complete

[MBS206]

On 9/28/2024 at 7:04 AM, Duncan said:

 

@Duncan for the antennas for the 4G booster, send me a photo of the connection type it uses, and what sort of bands it picks up on, and a photo of the existing antenna itself.

I have some interesting ones coming into work soon that may suit your needs really really well AND stop you drilling holes in the roof.

[Duncan]

This is the current antenna, 4g bands are the ones I'm after, particularly the Telstra long range one which I think is 850Mhz? It has an SMA connector to a 3 way splitter, one runs to the Cel Fi and 2 to a USB 4g wifi stick

The problem is not the antenna, the problem is that the V37 has a slightly smaller gap between the rear windshield and the body which prevents the line from being tucked away under it as it was in the Fuga. Therefore, I have about a meter of cable that I can't adequately secure running down the outside of the car to enter the boot....I figure I need to use a roof mount antenna instead and run the cable inside the car

The other option I'll look at is removing the factory shark fin (which I assume is factory GPS, which is crap, I use TomTom app on my phone) and I'll bet there is already a hole in the roof under that I could use.

Any alternative approach is very much welcome!

[MBS206]

11 hours ago, Duncan said:

This is the current antenna, 4g bands are the ones I'm after, particularly the Telstra long range one which I think is 850Mhz? It has an SMA connector to a 3 way splitter, one runs to the Cel Fi and 2 to a USB 4g wifi stick

The problem is not the antenna, the problem is that the V37 has a slightly smaller gap between the rear windshield and the body which prevents the line from being tucked away under it as it was in the Fuga. Therefore, I have about a meter of cable that I can't adequately secure running down the outside of the car to enter the boot....I figure I need to use a roof mount antenna instead and run the cable inside the car

The other option I'll look at is removing the factory shark fin (which I assume is factory GPS, which is crap, I use TomTom app on my phone) and I'll bet there is already a hole in the roof under that I could use.

Any alternative approach is very much welcome!

Interesting that it has 2 to the USB stick. Are the ones to the USB stick different? Or labelled anything at all?

Telstra 4G is Band 28 is the long range one you want, it's 700mHz.

I'm trying to do some reading on the Cel-Fi stuff, but I can't find any decent info online that makes me feel comfortable being able to work out the sort of antennas we could get away to swapping it over to.

The antennas I'm starting to do some stuff with at work, are a transparent antenna. They're designed to stick onto the window. Which means you wouldn't even have the antenna outside the car. Volkswagen have just started using the exact same types of antennas on some of their new cars (And from the same antenna manufacturer). But, RF stuff is a bit of a dark art some days, and getting it wrong in your car could make for a terrible waste of money trying to swap antennas :S

[Duncan]

That will be a very good thing if they provide decent improvements, obviously lots of OEM use in screen antennas and even the Stagea's digital TV back in the day had that sort of thing. For now my plan is to replace the existing shark fin with a through roof 4g stubby antenna, will find out if the shark fin held anything important 🤣

In the meantime, proving I have the same sickness as Mark (modifyitis) but a much less severe case, I've sourced a pedal controller for the car, it was about $250 landed with quick shipping

https://roarpedal.com/products/roar-pedal-controller?variant=43907318448371

Obviously the red sport has eco, normal, sport, sport+ modes and the main difference is the throttle curve. Even so it was clearly early days of calibrating such things and even in the higher modes (which you need to set each time you start the car) it still has a dead spot off idle that really annoys me. Plus the factory sport/sport+ have the the rev hang and fake engine noises that are pretty annoying for road use (would be fine for racing)

The throttle controller is a simple pass through with 2 plugs, 2 minute install then bluetooth configuration from an app.

Unlike the factory stuff the setting is retained across drives. It basically has a bazillion options (2 types, 5 modes and 9 settings per mode so about 100 settings), I'm currently using p mode, sport+, level 6 which is nice and responsive but doesn't spin the wheels on dirt every time you touch the pedal.

Obviously this car is getting a full tune one day which will include proper throttle mapping, but in the meantime this has transformed how the car feels driving around.....

[soviet_merlin]

I always thought those throttle controller kits were essentially snake oil. Good to see that it can actually make a difference!

It really bugs me how modern cars tend to revert all the settings for each startup. At least Honda got it somewhat right with the Type R where the default is sport mode. And have to switch to go to comfort...

[Duncan]

Yeah the difference is massive, but I'm sure it varies per base car and what you want as a driver.  

The Fuga (2014) and Titan (2015) also had horrible factory throttle mapping but in both cases I had done an uprev tune which fixed the response without needing a throttle controller.  Whoever was in charge of Nissan e-throttle mapping in that period has a lot to answer for