samstain

next thing they will be fitting timed 'turbo boost' buttons for the drivers to use to pass (jet hopper style)... ah hang on wait, they already have. How long until they start sticking in jumps and shortcuts you would think it was a 6 year making this crap up.

I guess you can expect it to change a bit when they moved it from Nurburg to Spa moving that much tarmac without it breaking up would have been a bit difficult.

Doh, double post

Tidy complete & registered ones can be picked up for much less than the build cost though... and the real savings is in the running costs. Skyline + Spares + Trailer = 2000kg - which generally means dedicated tow rig etc - or at best you have to put up with a truck for a daily driver. Clubman + Spares + Trailer = as little as 750kg - so you can tow it with pretty much anything - or drive it there - even in full race spec the cops just give me a nod and 'cool car, on your way fella' before running off to flag down a Jap import to defect. 13 - 15" race tyres for a clubman cost half as much per corners as what you would be chucking on a skyline etc and last way longer. Likewise brakes - a fraction of the price and last for seasons rather than days. Fuel - Goes twice as far in a car half the weight.

Be warned, a manual is not certified to tow that much weight... no doubt it is just a warranty thing for people that abuse their clutch/gearbox, and has nothing to do with what it can actually handle as far as stability and stopping goes. But if the worst happens, you don't want your insurance company going 'oh, sorry, your car is clearly only allowed to tow 1200 kg (or what ever it is), no payout for you' Insurance companies can be assholes, I know a guy that ended up with a huge bill when his old shit box got hit by another car - and it was deemed his fault cause his backyard paint job was deemed to be the issue - not as easy to see as the original glossy paint apparently. You don't want to give them any outs.

If you want a road registered track car, perhaps look at a clubman... with a full cage perhaps. Its too hard for a cop to work out what is stock and what is not, so they generally don't have any trouble on the road - apart from the odd loud exhaust. There are plenty of them out there running SR20DET's etc that are sub 700kg and will do 0-100 in well under 4 seconds in road trim (mine is one of them). Though in all honesty a mildly tuned modern 2L NA is probably a better choice. Also because they are so light, a day at the track will cost you about 1/4 as much in fuel/brakes/tyres etc, you also don't need a big tow car capable of towing 200kg+, If it ends up more than 900kg on the trailer your doing something wrong.

I like your thinking, but no I don't think so... it is all very stock - just dealer fitted times such as a canopy and bull bar of some description from memory.

Make sure you take it for a test drive - on a flat 100 - 110k road. A guy here at work has the Triton version (diesel + auto) and it has a massive surge problem where it refuses to sit on 110... on a dead flat road, without moving your foot (or in cruise) it will hunt between 105 and 115. It has been back to Mitsubishi dozens of times over the last 2 years where they have swapped everything imaginable, including re-flashing the ECU with a custom program from MMC Japan... and then replacing it when they bricked it on one attempt. I think he is basically now at the stage where he has given up on it and is just waiting till it is due to be replaced. Apparently there was something strange about his combo from memory though, he appeared to get the motor from one series coupled to the GBox from a different series or something along those lines - not that it is actually changing gears when it happens.

^ True, alloy can be MIG welded, but generally only suitable for thick industrial type stuff. Requires alloy wire, pure argon rather than the more common argoshield and preferably pre-heating. For a job like this one, you would want to use a very skilled operator if it was to be MIG'ed or you could easily end up with an un-usable mess.

There are a few people on a clubbie forum I'm on that have imported and are in the process of registering clubmans from the UK, however they are ones they built/owned over there before coming out here, and they are doing it because they are 'attached' to it, not to save money I you want to get one here and are worried about the price the cheapest way is to just buy a used local one that is already registered, if you really want to build one, as silly as it sounds the best way is again to buy a finished & complied one, pull it apart and then put it back together. Recently in NSW itt has been virtually impossible to get one registered, but apparently its all about to change, the other states aren't as bad. I very nearly bought a Ultra Car a couple years back, but we were about to start a family and didn't have the time or room to build it, so ended up with a registered SR20DET Puma. I just wish I had the time to drive it more. Although the power is crazy, and I'm yet to find a car that will beat it in a straight line... I sometimes wish it was a NA as the way it delivers its power doesn't always make it fun (or even possible) to drive to its limits.

Was that a kers battery pack going up in the lotus? looked very much like what happens when high energy battery packs goes thermo.

Doh - Delete......same vid as above

small trucks (under 4.5T from memory) can be driven on a standard car license - and that doesn't include the trailer... so you can actually drive a light truck with one car on the back, and other on a car trailer behind. The problem with hiring is you might find it hard to find one you can actually get your car on the back - generally they have to be customized with a beaver tail and ramps that go down to your trailer like this...

^^ An auto falcon will do it fine - and all legally as long as you fit the heavy duty tow bar. It helps if you have your own trailer, as you can keep it in much better condition than a hire one, get the balance consistent, and they can generally be built a few hundred kg lighter. Hire trailers are generally only rated at 1990kg, and often weight 700kg+ empty, so 1300kg is as much as you can actually carry on them. 50% of the time though you will see an 1800kg falcon/commodore/magna/SUV on them which is illegal. I have even seen some idiot try and tow his rodeo on one down the southern expressway behind his Magna - though at the time he was jack-knifed off the side of the road with the magna half way up the embankment of the underpass, so I guess he learnt his lesson..... If you get your own trailer you can generally aim for 550kg or so empty, a stripped out 180 is often more like 1100kg so you will be doing it easy, even with a spare wheel rack and a tool box you can keep the trailer under 2000kg all up - if you have a stock R32 you may have to loose the rack and or put spares in the boot of the tow car, but you should still be able to keep it under 2000kg - there are different braking requirements for the trailer once you go over 2000kg. As for the safety of it all.... get the balance point right, make sure the trailer its in good condition (brakes are working, tyres in good condition - preferably light truck ones not retreads, axles are straight) and it should happily tow at 100k's no problem. The only other thing is perhaps look at some better springs/shocks in the back of the tow car so that you can put a decent ball weight on it without it dragging its arse.

Exactly, the reason you see a lot of X-trails towing is they are about the cheapest new car you can get that is some what practical as a daily driver and tow car - not many people these days have room to store a daily driver (or 3 for the wife and kids) + tow car + race car + trailer, and the only other option in that price range is a poverty pack falcon/commodore which aren't as practicle in town if you have a few kids and the dog on board. Yes they are very underpowered (which is why I spent 10k more for a Grand Vitara) but if you are only towing your car 50k's to the nearest track 4 times a year it managable. And if you think they are underpowered, one of our old farm trucks is regstered to tow a 24T trailer (about 36T combo), and it would barely have as much power as the X-trail, though being diesel its happy to pump out all of its 120 odd kW 24/7 rather than for 10 seconds at a time. Towing capacities come down to chassis strength, braking capability, and the strength of the driveline. Even though a manual commodore/falcon only has 2/3rds the towing capacity of the auto verison, they should be just as safe towing. Its simply comes down to the fact they don't want a heap of warrantly claims from drivers that don't know how to tow with a manual car, so they de-rate their capacity. Interestingly my insurance says if you overload your car and are involved in an accident they will only not pay out if the overloading was a contributing factor - though im not keen to try this out so ill stick to towing legally with my 2000kg rated car.