MANWHOR3

Kinks and mad082. Spot on the money. When it comes to lighting, it is one of my interests. Very well explained. I will just add a couple things. White gives the illusion that it's brighter. E.g. if you get a globe and give it 6 watts, it'll have a yellow dull glow, then whiter, whiter whiter as you add more power. That's why peopel put the white bulbs in and think the're brighter (disregarding that people think white looks nicer). Secondly, a very good way to increase lighting is to relay the stock headlights. Mine measured 11.1 volts before relaying them. at this voltage, they only emit about 60% of the potential lighting. After relay, they get 13.8 volts. noticeably brighter.

I believe this sold a long time ago

Yep, I can. haahah, any lighting questions, I am the sau guru. Fuses are in the boot. in the battery compartment. pop off the cover. It just takes normal 20cent blade fuses. Check them. Have a look at the actual bulb itself. If you're not sure, take a good quality pic of both bulbs and post it up, i'll tell you if it's blown. Chris

I can see how you mgiht classify it as a show car, but what makes it a race car?

what is your guard to centre of wheel measurement? It looks slightly too low.

It's most likely those rice bulbs that you have. Those whit bulbs look nice, but I have never found some that last. When I first got my car, I went through about 3 packets (6 bulbs) in about 12 months. But check it before you replace it. What I found when they blew was it happened when i turned it on. It'd go on, then turn off striaght away and it's like shit, there goes the bulb.

Well, people say 4-500 rpm later. The rb20 with stock turbo isn't exactly a response machine as it is. Sydneykid says that the rb25 turbo flows about 50% more than the rb20 unit. So yeah, of course it will be a bit more laggy. But that's the price you pay for more power.

i'll keep that in mind next time I change tyres.

This is for anything on the car that you want to optimise the performance of. People even relay the fuel pump, so it gets more flow, compared to the voltage dropped amount. But in answer to your question, yes. When I did it on my subaru station wagon, I noticed a nice improvement. It's not gonna be like whoa, the lights turned into the sun sorta improvement. But you will notice it if you do one side at a time.

motul pa90 is also good. but it is mineral oil. fflsd is synthetic, so it's better, but it costs abour 2-3 times as much. e.g. I can buy the pa90 for $20 for a 2L can.

As I said above, relay the lights. You may need to get someone to do it for you if you don't know how. But basically, use the original wire to switch the relay. This will supply power to the light fused from the battery. The globes are designed to take 14+ volts. Except, as everything is done at a budget, the car does not relay the light from factory to save cost. The stock headlight switch has a high resistance + the stock wiring is really thin, which equals more resistance. By relaying my lights, I am able to get 13.8 v. Stock, only had 11.1 volts. Refer to daniel stern. At 11 v, the globes are only giving 60% of the maximum output. PS, if you want want someone to do it for you, I have a friend who can do it.

yes you can. search.

AGREED!

2rismo, I understand that you have extensive experience, and i've been following your progress. Every car is different. I understand that some cars like benm's was only getting 14s with around 200rwkw. There are others like that. I can only offer the experience I have from my car. Refer to above. With a catback, pod filter. stock boost. hardwalled circuit semis, I did a 14.01. I have a timeslip at wsid to prove it. Then with the mods I mentioned above, I did a 13.2. My car is totally not setup at all for drag with the rock hard suspensions, lowered, way too much neg camber. But that's just what my car did. Maybe it's a freak? I can tell it's definitely the stock turbo, because when I changed the dump, I verified that.

PS: I run 12-13 psi all day everyday, and I don't drive it easily. It is still strong after 2 years, and god knows how long or what boost the jap owner ran it on. I don't see any problem in blowing the stock turbo. They're cheap as chips (around the 3-400 mark for an r33 turbo). I'm happy to blow it and change it myself.

I did a 13.2 running my car the way how it is: hardwalled circuit semis. Rock hard coilovers. lowered quite a bit, so too much negative camber affecting traction (-2.5d). 12psi. full exhaust. stainless steel magic cat. No aftermarket ecu. twin plate clutch with lightened flywheel. I must admit though, I am really crap at drag racing. If it wasn't for the twin plate, I woulda probably killed the stock clutch in one outing.

It will almost do it out of the box with a set of drag radials.

Horny heights is just around the corner from me. I live in st ives. Unfortunately, I missed your skidpan day. I'm really unhappy about missing out. I had to work that day. I read the review and looked at the pics and I was like damn, that wouda been fun. Let us know if you decide to run another one, but i'll be there for sure.

Definitely. I've driven many skylines with a range of suspensions. I really liked Sydneykid's bilstein/whiteline setup especially for road driving. Sydneykid often refers to the use of swaybars to reduce bodyroll instead of high spring rates. In my car, i've got a set of ohlin coilovers from japan. I personally like the ones i've got. They're pretty hard. I'm not sure whether sydneykid would say it's too hard or not, but they are quite a bit harder than the bilstein ones. But hey, they didn't cost me anything. but definitely, fitting them back on after compliance definitely made the car feel very different, and in my opinion, handle a lot better than the old 50000km+ stock suspensions.

I should have made it clearer up above. Basically, when I said I tightened it up, what I meant was I tightened the joints (there's a bolt in each knuckle to tighten when fitting it. The adjustment is in the length. There is probably about 1-2" worth of adjustment. The adjustment is only for making it fit in your car. E.g. even though 2 cars might be an r33 gtst, the towers might be slightly different distances apart. One might have been in an accident. gtstcoupe - check post 5 up above. Kennedy - I saw the Unique auto sport one at www.nismo.com.au My one doesn't have the master cylinder stopper, but the one I bought was significantly under $165!!!!!. Check out post 5 up above though. Once tightened up, I jumped on it, and it hardly moved at all. I could pull it as hard as I could and the whole car would shake, but the brace didn't flex much.

When I first got my car, it was very notchy and clunky. I got the oil changed to vmx80. The old oil was so dirty it wasn't funny. It was completely black and was chocked to the max with metal filings. The shifting was about the same after. I thjoguht that the vmx was crap, so I got it changed to some motul gear 300. when the vmx80 was dumped, it was still quite dirty. There must have been quite a bit of crap in the housing. The shifting was still about the same. That's just the way my box is. Maybe my synchros are slightly worn. Regardless, by doing it twice, it was certainly cleaner. Besides, vmx80 is cheap. It's like 40$ for 4L, so why not? Cheers

How did he get that brembo stencil

I don't understand what you did wrong cubes? Was it just that sparking when you connected the negative terminal onto the negative? whenever I disconnect the battery and reconnect it on any car it always seems to spark. Or am I missing something and did you actually connect it the wrong way? Is there anyway to avoid the sparking?

Yes, I understand that merlin. There is no problem with it being adjustible though. Stock r33 gtr front and rear ones are adjustible. The reason for this is actually quite a good idea. The thing is with cars, no two cars are ever the same. A car might have been in an accident and one side might be out by a couple mm. It may not have been in an accident, but might just be different. Afterall, everything has tolerances, and the nissan robot might have been a bit drunk one day. hehehe. A 'fixed' one wouldn't fit. igotta - The strut brace doesn't reduce body roll as such. harder springs/swaybars will reduce body roll. That doesn't mean the strut brace isn't important though. It reduces chassis flexing. When the chassis flexes, the suspension geometry changes. cornering was considerably faster and more stable with the strut brace. As I wrote above, it is such a good addition to any car. If I had known, I woulda got it even when the car had stock suspensions. The one I bought was just a generic one. I have a friend with a cusco one and another friend with a GAB one. Funnily enough, the braces are identical in design. It is just the colours of the ends that is different. I actually have a picture of my one and my friend's engine bays. It's funny. It's like pay hundreds for this, or <100 for this. Honestly, if you stuck a cusco/gab sticker on mine, you woulkdn't be able to tell the difference.

Hey guys, I thought i'd tell you the results of a little experiment I did today.I had a little bit of spare cash, so I thought i'd go for a strut brace. Initial Thoughts: After having fitted coilovers about a year ago, the body roll was reduced quite a bit. At this stage, I couldn't really feel the chassis flexing because I had nothign to compare it to. I thought that it felt good overall and although the ride is hard, I like it that way. Anyways, now to the important part. My initial feelings was that i would not feel any difference at all after installing the strut brace, and that it was just rice. I thought that a skyline is naturally fairly stiff. Well, I suppose it is stiff compared to somethign like a lancer or a civic. Just to make sure that I could carefully test whether I could feel the difference or not, I took the car out for a drive. I tried driving sideways on some inclines and the chassis creaked. I also tried goign fast around some corners and quickly around roundabouts a few times. I know how it feels now. Fitting the brace: Installing the brace took me 15 minutes. I am an ultra careful person. I even made little gaskets so that the brace wouldn't scratch the paint underneath it. I also cleaned the bolt threads on the suspensions and greased them. If you're really rushed, I reckon it's possible to fit the brace in < 5 minutes. The product: The strut brace is an adjustible one. Initially I thought that being adjustible, it wouldn't be as stiff. This isn't really the case. Once you put it on and tighten the bolts up, boy is it stiff. You can pull it with all your might and it won't budge a single bit. My bonnet is off atm, so I got up on top of it and stood on it and bounced on it and it still didn't move. Excellent. Now for some real testing. Testing the new setup: I was a bit cautious at first, because I wasn't sure if it would foul on the bonnet heatpad. What I noticed firstly is that it no longer creaked going out of my driveway. Just to make sure that this was the case, I drove up the driveway again and back down. yep, no creak. I tried next doors driveway too. Excellent. And then I did some real driving. I went quickly around the same roundabouts again and tried cornering quickly. Whoa, the difference was actually noticeable. Thinking back, I now realise that the chassis used to flex quite a bit. It's difficult to describe how it felt, but it just felt a lot stiffer! BTW, it's not just a placebo effect. I'm normally quite doubting of things. I actually had in my mind the whole time that it would not work. My mind was totally closed to the idea that it would actually do something. Therefore, all in all, it was a very worthwhile upgrade. PS: my car has a rear brace stock. I believe that if a front and rear brace were fitted together, the difference would be even more noticeable Next review when I get some money will be whiteline camber & castor bushes. When I get more money after that, I will try the whiteline adjustible swaybars.