Blipman

A few additional notes: - those figures don't include container shipped vehicles, which for some countries makes up a large proprtion of their imported vehicles - those figures don't include cars that cost under 200,000 yen FOB, so for some countries which bring in very cheap cars the numbers are actually higher Therefore in fact Australia is even slightly lower on that list since container shipping to Aus is unusual, and the vast majority of cars into Aus are over 200k FOB. If you think some of those countries are doing amazing numbers, keep in mind that per capita Australia is still relatively high, especially given how restctive our import laws are. Also for some other countries it's a whole different ball game... for some coutnries for example the average profit (in Japan) on say a $5,000 car might be only $100 so they are hugely volume driven and don't bother wasting their time with finding out about the condition of the car... they just play the numbers. I sometimes speak to people who buy cars for the South American markets at auction here in Tokyo and a typical order for them from a customer will be "I need 5 Toyota Echoes, 3 white, 1 red, 1 black, all manual, all under 80,000km. Here's xxx yen, whatever's left over is yours". That's it! They then go and plug away on however many cars they need to until they get lucky and fill their order. The cars can be beat up, in poor condition, whatever, that's the amount of care given considering the profits involved, they rarely actually go and look at the cars and to get extra photos of a vehicle for a customer after purchase would be considered way too much effort. A very different market indeed. And don't even get me started on some of the garbage the Russians buy.....

Ugh that is way too small to read! Can you get a bigger version? What I can make out: Factory aero, aluminium wheels Recaro seat Momo steering wheel Dual airbags ABS brakes Steering wheel has wear Seat has cigarette burn? Big scratch on bonnet and paint fade? Cig burns and scratches elsewhere... it's seriously hard to read Maybe paint fade on rear spoiler Scratches and dents to the body (they often make that general statement just to cover their ass) There's other stuff but it's just a smudge! Kris can you make out any more than I could? Ben

There are actually two Momo steering wheel options for V35's, neither has steering wheel controls. Both are rare, but there is this style (excuse my legs): And this style which is only with the optional wood grain trim (not common) I've only seen them in coupes so not sure about sedans and what they may have come with.

Hi Chris, you've kind of thrown me there quoting a landed price in yen so maybe I misunderstand, but if you mean 2.3 million yen in Japan then these days that's a little on the high side (though it depends on the car of course), if you mean around $23,000 landed then yeah that's pretty decent (again depending on the car).

When we (J-Spec) say 'no major accident history' what this means is there has been no structural accident history that would make the car a problem for compliance. We used to simply say 'no accident history' and then people would come on forums saying 'J-Spec are full of crap they say no accident history but the car has a scrape on the rear bumper'... you can't win! Blanket statements made by people on forums who don't know the full story is the bane of our industry! Second, V35 prices are amazing at the moment and the exchange rate is awesome, the prices have definitely dropped considerably in the last few months. Prestige's email claiming you can get V35's as cheap as they claim has done a lot of harm because as people say for the really cheap stuff you will be getting a poorer condition car. However that said there ARE good bargains out there and for example people talking about spending $30k, it's actually HARD to spend that much on a series 1 these days so if you import yourself you can get just about any series 1 for well under this price.

Wow there's a lot of confusion about this Premium issue. I sit in a few dozen V35's each week at the auctions and I can say that I have definitely seen Premiums without leather. As in the Nissan books in the glove box say it's a Premium and there is no leather so people who are saying that a Premium must have leather for a series 1 coupe anyway I don't think so. I have not noticed if the dual aircon display is only on Premium vs non Premium models so I'll keep an eye open for that. In my experience the ONLY difinitive thing that I can see is the difference between the two is the BOSE sound system. That's it. Regardless of Premium or not the leather and TV/satnav are all options. ONLY 70th anniversary models got full leather. So, don't use leather as a way of telling if a car is Premium or not on a series 1, it tells you nothing.

I've searched but couldn't see anyone else discussing this yet I can't believe I'm the first to post on it so sorry if this is a repost. I'm now living in Japan representing J-Spec Imports over here (plug!) and an at auction today I was walking to check out a car when out of the corner of my eye I see this red things and did a double take. I thought you'd get a kick out of this if you haven't seen it before http://www.j-spec.com.au/clients/Stagea-ute Now, the execution is a little shall we say, 'rough', but it actually looks like a *relatively* easy conversion to do, if someone had tried harder or had the involvement of someone with a bit more skill this could have been a really nice job. I was in a rush to check out a car for a customer so I didn't have time to get the key and have a poke around inside out of morbid curiosity, I just looked in through the window so can't comment on the interior much. Enjoy

I think he may be referring to the G50 which was sold in Japan as a Q45 as well as in North America... they ran from 1989 or so up until about 2003 (as the President), I believe they are the longest running car Nissan ever made, fact fans! A couple of G50 Q45's came in under the 15 year old rule (I used to own one) but that has now ended, although they are probably eligible under SEVS I can't see any compliance workshop ever getting the evidence for them, so you're going to have to find one that's here already if you want one. Nissan Australia actually sold them here in 1993 or 1994 and brought 100 over, they cost well into the six figure price mark and were an abysmal failure, most of them were given to Nissan execs as company cars as Nissan just couldn't sell the damn things. If you're ok with the styling I think they are very nice cars, the VH45 V8 is a SWEET engine, even hauling nearly 2 tons of metal at 100kph mine pulled REALLY hard.

Hi Aaron, Non turbo R32's and S13's already in Australia will have come in under old import laws, either under the CPA scheme or the 15 year old rule as they were eligible under those import laws, but they don't exist any more. The R32 and S13 non turbo does not meet the 105kW/ton power to weight ratio requirement which is why they can't come in. If I recall correctly the GTS25 (RB25DE R32) MAY meet the power to weight ratio requirement, however when the original application was made with DOTARS someone didn't bother to include it (thanks for nothing) and no compliance workshops have evidence for it in this variant, so testing would be around $6,000+ to pass it If you have to have a non turbo R32 you'll have to find one locally imported under older import rules.

The only reason you'd use an exporter specifically over an import broker is that you then don't pay the import broker their service fee, so you save a little bit of money. The reaons you'd use an import broker and pay that bit more are: - the import broker is probably more familiar with local import laws and can make sure you don't get into trouble there - an exporter will only have very limited access to a small number of cars from a small number of sources so that will limit your choices a lot - SOME exporters are not very good and don't care about burning bridges with a one off customer who you'd be as there's nothing to lose, whereas when exporters are dealing with import brokers they have long term relationships to worry about and so can't afford to screw them over - GOOD import agents will know which exporters to AVOID. Probably the biggest exporter who sells cars to members of the general public in Australia is actually sadly one of the dodgiest and we refuse to deal with them, for example. SO MANY people we've seen think they're saving money by going direct to this exporter, when in reality they get screwd on price, screwd on condition and end up paying a lot more for a poorer car than if they'd gone with an import broker whose first decision would be to avoid these guys. It annoys me so much.... - importers will know what to do when the car arrives, will help with customs clearance, finding a good compliance workshop who does good work at good prices, and a whole lot of other things. - import brokers have no vested interest in cars since they don't own them, so they can give honest opinions on condition and weather a car is worth buying or waiting for a better one to come along. And more reasons but that's the basics.... ultimately you need to decide if those points enough to justify paying an import broker, or if you'd rather forego those things and try to save a bit by going to an exporter directly. Note: I AM an import broker (J-Spec Imports) so assume whatever level of bias you think is appropriate here Ben

djr81: I'm not sure I quite follow what you're saying. This picture is showing the bolts that come with the kit. These go through the unthreaded hub and into the threaded caliper adaptor. These are the bolts which worked themselves loose. What I am doing now (which I don't have a picture of) is to have a long threaded bolt going through the adaptor first (so the opposite direction to those in the photo), they then go through the unthreaded holes in the hub and there is then a spring washer and nut put onto that bolt which would be where you see the old bolt heads in the pic above. Does that make sense? mrbenno: I think the high rear temps are just due to a different pad being used as i would imagine that plays a pretty big role. The car had the Nissan OEM pads on the rear which were left on the car after compliance, track work is probably a bit much for them. Michael: I don't know if it was a problem with the design of the kit or a one off problem, I'm apparently the first to experience with it. If you use the solution I've mentioned above then you shouldn't have it happen again.

Track day number 2: Last week I went to Sandown which is a little harder on brakes. 5 sessions of 3 hot laps all up, brakes felt good again, towards the end of some sessions I found the pedal getting a bit spongy but the car still pulled up fine.... had I been doing longer sessions they might have started to drop in performance. High speed stops (from 200ish) as you'd expect were a lot better than the standard brakes. A friend had a laser thermometer there, for comparison here are the brake disk temps with similar weight, power and lap time cars (another R33 and an R34). This is after a cooldown lap and dawdling into the garage so they will have cooled a bit. My R33 G4 brakes (356mm disk, G4 'street' pads): 130 degrees Standard rear brakes (Nissan OEM pad) 280 degrees Another R33 F40 Brembo brakes (340mm disk, Ferrodo 2500 or 3000 pads): 300 degrees Standard rear brakes (pad unknown): 150 degrees R34 GT-T CSC brakes (343mm disk, Ferrodo 2500 or 3000 pads): 150 degrees Standard rear brakes (pad unknown) 80 degrees

This is intended to be a reasonably diffinitive review of the G4 Racing 8 piston front brake kit as to date I'm yet to find one, so that people in future can make an educated decision when buying these. Preamble I've seen quite a few people who are interested in these brakes for track use but given the very cheap price and no name brand status everyone seems to be tentative about buying them. Like others I tried to do a bit of research online and hear people's opinions, but was only able to find one instance of someone using them on the track and although there wasn't a lot of detail, their feedback was positive. With so many people wanting to know what these brake kits are like I thought I'd take the leap, be the guinea pig and let people know what I think, I suspect there are a few people out there ready to go with these brakes if they just had a bit more info on how they perform. Prior to purchase I was pretty skeptical as I have bought parts manufactured in China (these brakes are made in Taiwan, to be precise) that were pretty disappointing and made to meet a certain cost rather than quality, but at the same time brakes are in reality pretty simple (I'd guess it's the quality of casting and metals that make the biggest difference for the hardware) so it's not impossible for a no name brand set to be good. Being 8 piston also concerned me that they were more show than go (well, stop), but with 2 piece disks, bigger diameter and slightly bigger pad the physics at least says there should be some sort of improvement. The car For people to compare, the car these are going onto is a 1993 Skyline GTS25t, weight is around 1400kg or so and at 250rwkW it's no slouch. On the track I will be running R-comp semi slicks, I would rank my abilities pretty much at novice so I'm probably someone who brakes earlier than absolutely necessary, and from lower speeds.... in theory I won't be hurting them quite as much as a better skilled driver. I'm also not running any ducting at the moment, though this may change in future. Those who know me will know that I work for J-Spec Imports but I'm just writing this in my capacity as a car enthusiast, I have no vested interest here nor do I have any bias one way or another with Just Jap... just trying to help out the community. The brakes The G4 brakes are sold under a few different brand names, as well as G4 (in blue) they are sold as D2 (in purple/pink) and possibly other brands. From what I understand the only difference between these is the colour and therefore the info in here on the G4 kit should be applicable to say a D2 kit. I chose to go with the G4's from Just Jap as they were helpful on the phone and were able to give me a bit of info about others who have used these brakes, and I've had good expreriences with them in the past. While I woulnd't hold them to it, I told Just Jap I wanted these in a hurry and they arrived the next day... not too shabby. The only real variation in kits for the front is that you can go for either a 330mm or 356mm kit. For around $300 difference in price I'd say the 356mm kit is well worth it, however this does need 18" wheels to fit, wihle the 330mm kit only requires 17's. The kit I don't know what I was expecting but I was fairly impressed with everything the kit came with. Although I didn't use them there were some brackets to mount the brake lines and some other extra parts which in reality they didn't have to include but do give you more options for mounting. It came with everything right down to washers and the like, so I didn't have to dig around for extra parts to get it all to work. The instructions are in dubious English to say the least and a lot of it is the usual legals and warnings that have little relevance to real life, I read through it all but didn't really need it. I was happy to see that it did have torque values for various bolts. Installation I found installation pretty straight forward (brakes aren't really rocket science) and the whole job was done on a hoist in around 3 and a half hours, you could do it on the ground without too much hassle. However, the only complaint I have (and this at least doubled how long the install took) was that the brake lines were too long. Although they come with brackets to help you locate them, being too long meant it was quite difficult to avoid them interfering with the wheels at full lock. After a lot of stuffing around I eventually came to a solution which I'm only partially happy with, had the lines been a little shorter this would have been much easier. I've heard others also make this complaint. Comparison This is comparison with a 1993 Nissan Skyline R33 GTS25t: Standard disk diameter: 297mm G4 disk diameter: 356mm Standard max disk width: 32mm G4 max disk width: 30mm Standard min disk width: 28mm G4 min disk width: 30.5mm G4 pads have a 12% bigger surface area than standard R33 pads. I didn't weigh things, but being aluminium calipers the G4 units were lighter than standard. The bigger disks will weigh more but this is offset by being 2 piece, so overall I don't know the difference but I don't think it's significant one way or the other. Here are some photos showing comparisons. Yes I know one of the parts is missing from this photo Impression - street Right, down to the actual important bit. Note that this is in comparison to standard R33 GTS25t brakes which in fact are pretty decent to start off with (and I had Endless pads as well), on a car with poorer brakes to start off with the difference might be greater. On the street the difference isn't that great for normal driving. The pedal is slightly harder and under moderate braking you feel slightly more confident, however the difference isn't massive. You could have put these onto my car without me knowing and I wouldn't have picked it immediately, I think for regular driving you could get just as good a result from a good standard size disk and pad combo. Under hard driving on the street you feel a bit more confident but in reality you are traction limited long before the brakes run into problems even with a quality standard sized setup, so it's not really possible to experience anything extra the G4 kit might give you. I've found that the pads which came with the kit are a bit on the dusty side also, in about 3 days of driving I've got more dust than I did from my old Endless pads in 3 months of driving, on the track they are very dusty (I have white wheels!) I occassionally get a slight squeal at low speeds but overall I wouldn't say that the are particularly noisy. Replacement parts The pads seem to be a fairly common size and there are many brands out there that you can get if you don't like those with the kit or want to buy replacements elsewhere.... a friend showed my some spare EBC pads for his AP 6 piston kit and they looked identical, for example. Likewise for the disk, this is probably also a common size and a race brake specialist may be able to find the same size disk in other brands, but you'd need to do some research first as that's just my guess. On the track The debut for the brakes (and speed event debut for the car) was Phillip Island, overall I was happy. The brakes stood up to everything I threw at them with no fade (I'm using the 'street' pads) and they stopped hard fairly consistently. The only complaint I have is that when both cold or hot I don't find the initial bite of the pads to be that good (I think this is also why they aren't that impressive on the street), and a different pad would probably improve this. I did 4 sessions with 3 hot laps and was doing sub 2 minute laps which is respectable, however ultimately I wouldn't say the brakes were given that much of a hard time as 3 hot laps is not a lot per go, and Phillip Island is probably the easiest track on brakes of all in Victoria, there's only really one hard stop from high speed to low speed. Problems! After the brakes performed well at the track I was pretty happy. On the way home from the track the next day things turned for the worse. While cruising at 100kph there was a sudden knock and then very loud grinding combined with quite serious banging. I pulled over and stopped the car gently and looked at the front right where the problem obviously was. With the wheel off on the side of the road it was obvious what the issue was, one of the bolts which holds the caliper and bracket to the car was gone! My first suspicion was that the bolt sheared off however there was nothing there in the thread, it was completely missing. This is highly dangerous to say the least, there are only 2 bolts in total which hold the caliper on. The initial obvious conclusion is that I had failed to tighten the bolt correctly, however I do recall tightening this upon installation, and because I know that brakes are your life on the race track, I also tightened all 8 bolts that hold the brakes on AGAIN before putting the wheels back on. So I was stuck on the highway between Philip Island and Melbourne on Easter weekend (you can imagine how busy it was) with the sun going down and over 2 hours from home. A very good friend came and had a look at what the bolt size is, went and got the right bolts from home (no place would be open for 2 more days given the long weekend) and drove back, you certainly know who your friends are at times like these. When we went to put the bolts back on to attach the caliper and bracket again we found we couldn't get the second bolt to line up through the hub and into the bracket threads no matter how hard we tried and in our efforts damaged the thread in the bracket pretty badly. It ultimately turned out (it's now night time on the side of a busy highway so visibility with a torch is poor) that the holes in the bracket didn't properly line up with the hub holes... they were out by about 1 - 2mm, and these clearly ligned up previously when I installed the brakes. From here I have a *theory* as to what the problem was. I think the bracket material is not quite right and was warped or expanded due to heat, and this is why the bracket no longer fits properly when before it did. This expansion also made the threaded bolt hole bigger (I know it sounds counter intuitive, but bolt holes get BIGGER when metal expands) which caused them to loosen and the bolts over time work themselves out which caused my problem. After repairing the brakes I checked the other side to be safe and indeed one of those bolts was also loose, I think this also backs up the theory that it wasn't installation error... to miss tightening BOTH sides is really unlikely. The holes in the hub also had gouges in them from the thread of the bolts which must have been exerting a lot of force on them. After elongating the holes in the hub with a file (really strong metal as you can imagine) we were finally able to get the bolt to go in. Although tight, one of the threads is ruined in the bracket and while it was good to get me home once I pull it off I won't be able to use that bracket again, and adding to the frustration with the elongated holes if I ever want to fit standard brakes again or a new bracket I may have to replace the hub The caliper has been pretty scraped up and deep scratches have been gouged into the inside of the wheel, and this event also knocked off the wheel weights so I had to drive home on an unbalanced wheel with a bit of vibration, so I hope my brand new expensive semi slick isn't ruined. All in all, not much fun. Had this happened at high speed I don't think you'd consider it to be too good either. Justjap says I'm the first person to experience this problem. Just great.... With the exception of the brackets being warped/expanded and possibly not being possible to put them on again once removed, I think this problem can be avoided in future by using a nut and bolt rather than just a bolt going into the threaded bracket. On my car with the 356mm disks at least there is the room for this, and with the right bolt, a spring washer and lock tighted nut on the other end there is no way it could come undone with expansion or warping of the bracket. This is how AP and other non OEM brake kits with an adaptor attach the bracket to the hub. I also found that the washer for these bolts was very bent and think that it was probably pretty useless, this washer provided with the kit really should be a much stronger grade. Conclusion from all this: I think when installing the kit you should lose the standard bolts that attach the adaptor to the hub and use a nut and bolt combination combined with a spring washer, and obviously some locktite as well. If the adaptor is expanding at different rates to other components this should not come loose, and if the nut somehow still did manage to come off, the caliper could move from side to side slightly but could not come off as happened to me as the long nuts are not through the hub holes, so there's an extra failsafe there. I'd also recommend using thicker washers than those provided with the kit. Non G4 brake pads Justjap have informed me of another issue they found with their Targa Tasmania car. Apparently the G4 pad size is very slightly different from the other brand pads that will fit with this kit. The G4 pad is a few mm smaller at the part which clamps to the outside of the disk, so when using non G4 pads they found that a small lip was forming on the pad where it went past the disk, this in turn got hot on the outside edge of the disk and the heat cracked the disk. They suggested using either the G4 brand pad only, or taking a mm or so out of the top edge of the pads you install (or bevelling the edge at least). I'll keep people posted on how things go as I do some more track days, so far (issues aside) I am reasonably happy with the kit, it still remains to be seen how they go if you REALLY give them a hard time, so far this is a moderately light, moderately powerful car which hasn't seen a hard braking track yet or very long sessions... 3 hot laps is very little. I hope this rather long read helps people make a decision, I know a few people were waiting for a bit of feedback before going ahead with these, if this assists with that I'm glad I could help.... I wish someone had done so before I decided to take the leap

A bit of advice Angus, and let me start by saying I work for J-Spec Imports so assume I'm as biased as you like Finding a GOOD AE86 is REALLY hard, don't let the ridiculous prices fool you, most of them will be in quite poor condition, I would say 90% of AE86's in Japan have rust bad enough that cars will be unregisterable here in Australia. For AE86 customers in the past for a good car I've recommended they have budgets of at least $15,000, and that they expect it to take a long time to find a good one. It often takes around 6 months and for the last AE86 customer we looked seriously at about 20 cars, and looked into at least 100 overall. We had 2 inspected before we found a good one. People can tell you what you want to hear in terms of prices and time frames but I'd urge a bit of caution, and there is NO way I'd recommend buying a car without someone looking at it in person and providing a lot of photos. The cars CarOnTrack has are not their own, they are just listing cars on Yahoo auctions and from dealers so they won't have first hand information on them. Relying on the seller is not at all wise as they will tell you the condition based on your average AE86 (which is a piece of junk) so when they say it has no or light rust, it may well be pretty severe by our standards. That's why I'd recommend getting someone indepedent to look at the car with their own eyes. To give you an idea, here are 2 cars we had inspected, this first one we chose not to buy but it is still better than most of them, frankly: http://www.j-spec.com.au/clients/White_AE86/ And here is an actual good condition one, this was not cheap and took forever to find! http://www.j-spec.com.au/clients/Marcos_AE86/ I know the price for a good AE86 will seem pretty outrageous, you can get them cheaper but you will pay for it dearly and are not cars we would ever want to by buying for people. It's a sad reality with these cars, Japanese demand has made them really unique in the quite incredible prices they fetch for what they are. Regards, Ben Lippa J-Spec Imports www.j-spec.com.au

Awesome, awesome video footage, thanks emts, really appreciate the time you've taken to capture and upload those. Ben

Hi Aaron, you aren't allowed to post negative comments on this forum about businesses so I don't know that you'll get the sort of info you're after here, if you'd like to know my opinion on them shoot me a PM. Ben

My name's Ben Lippa, no S! Look forward to seeing you there guys, for the J-Spec info I'll be covering a bit of everything but if anyone has specific info they'd like to be covered in more detail let me know and I can prepare the right details beforehand and bring some suitable photos. Ben

Looks great Chris, I told you they were unflattering pics in Japan Love the plate, and no that's not standard ride height, I thought we knew that? Ben

More pics if you haven't reached saturation point yet. So many R33's there, I was pretty surprised. Thanks to the organizers, don't know how you managed to plan the weather like that but nice work Neato plenum The usual J-Spec bring-whatever's-lying-around-at-the-moment effort, with the hydro Maxima, Michael's R32, my Sky80 and Craig's VIP Celsior Nothing maintains fluidic pressure like chocolate milk? Tidy... I like. Differences in roofline between R32 and S13 Made funky's day. Trophy winners Regards, Ben Lippa J-Spec Imports

The paint code is AR1 ("Super Clear Red 2"), same red on the late model R33 series 2's and sometimes referred to as "Nismo red", looks a little something like this: Don't base to much judgement on the photos, colours often look pretty way out in pics, for example there it looks pink, in the auction pics it looks burgundy, only in person can you really know. It did have some paint fade on the roof but this colour actually stands up fairly well change wise for a red, unlike the Nissan reds of the early 90's... any car in those has every panel a different colour by now! Glad you're happy Chris, I think the 260RS kit will look evil on that thing. I think it's a better buy than an FTO Regards, Ben (J-Spec Imports)

Hey Rylan, I think you misunderstood, the car needs to be complied according to the regulations of each particular state, so for all intents and purposes it needs to be complied in the same state it will eventually be registered. A car can't be registered unless it is complied first, not the other way round Regards, Ben Lippa J-Spec Imports www.j-spec.com.au

Had a great time, thanks to the organizers. So funky, who won that inter-office battle then? You have a bigger engine so clearly the advantage Was also fun to go against the dude in the Sil80... pretty close cars. Would certainly be interested if another day is planned. Ben (in the J-Spec Sky80.... it's kind of a Skyline!)

Your nuts are still attached?! I thought she took them years ago. And the best bit.... it's a week before Danny's back and he can retort Ben

Hi guys, wow 7 pages worth of discussion so far. I'm Ben from J-Spec, I've seen my name mentioned in this thread a few times now (people who knew me before I was famous, I haven't changed ) so I thought I'd just fill anyone who's reading this thread in on what's going on in the industry. As an overview, as I think this thread illustrates, shipping in the last few months has not been a fun process, it hasn't been subject to any particular import broker or their knowledge/contacts, everyone has suffered. This has not been the norm by any stretch of the imagination and if you combine all the indicators and subtle clues we are seeing at the moment it looks like it should return to being a little more normal and predictable soon. As for the wild discrepancies in timing (some people experiencing long delays, others not) of course I don't know the situation for each person who's posted here but I would imagine it comes down largely to where in Japan their car is. Some ports are relatively trouble free, for example in Nagoya we have had practically no issues with at all, while some (in particular Kyushu) have been really bad. Cars in Kyushu (or more specifically the port of Kanda) have been experiencing very long delays, I wake up at night in a cold sweat with a map of Kyushu in my head I've come to loathe it so. Most of the really long term stories people have been telling are most likely those with cars in Kyushu, the reasons for this are largely that no dedicated second hand roll on/roll off ships service this port (ie not Kiwi Car Carriers), those lines which do have had little or no space for second hand cars (see the very first post by deorbit in this thread which is quoting my email for more info on this). If yours is a car in Kyushu I would personally recommend moving it to Osaka where the chances of getting it on a ship are far greater. Unfortunately this will cost around 30,000 yen or so to move it, however those who have experienced some of the really long delays may find this a better alternative (J-Spec guys we're working on cheaper transportation rates and I'll be emailing you in the next few days about this option so don't bombard me with emails just yet ). Another option is container shipping, there are a number of options with this (20ft, 40ft, stacking of cars, NOR) and it's probably too complex to go into here, but again it's something you can maybe take up with your import broker as a possibility. It also is a more expensive option but there are many, many ships going back and forth between Australia and Japan with containers, so it is far more predictable and the wait should be less or non existant. Finally, although very unusual, there are also some non roll on/roll off ships which (if setup for the task) can take cars as well, the Hachinohe Bay as mentioned in this thread being a perfect example, but these are rare and I mention it mostly for information's sake. The other group of people who may be experiencing longer than normal delays are people in WA, again there are only a limited number of roll on/roll off ships which go to Fremantle with limited space, so this is causing long waits. The current situation at the moment is looking up. With the exception of cars in Kyushu or those going to Fremantle most of the backlog is now through, and if some of the recently announced schedules are anything to go by it looks like things are returning to normal with shipping frequency as well. To give people an idea, in J-Spec's case from most of the common ports we now have every car that was waiting moving, or will be in the next few weeks. With trepidation by some about the 15 year old rule and 1990 vehicles I would think purchasing of cars to come to Australia is down at the moment so this can only help as well. To chase up just a few things people have said in this thread: - DRIFTT: GTO's actually started in April 1990, although for the first few months they were produced in pretty low numbers and only really got going later on in the year. - cowie164: spot on, for anyone with a bit of patience (and guts.... maybe ), later model 1990 GTR's are a lot cheaper.... prices are hugely inflated by Australian and Canadian 15 year old demand. An 89 GTR that sells for say 900,000 yen could be found in similar condition as a late 1990 for around 550,000 yen (!). - Mr. R32 M-Spec: The Prince arrives tonight at 10:00pm, it was all over the place for a while I know An "Executive Decision" was made (Kiwi-Car-Carriers-Speak for whenever changes to shipping are made) that it would go to NZ first, then Brisbane. The ship then got held up while there were some issues at the NZ docks, and then bad weather also held the ship up, but it's mighty close now. Please note that any prices or info I've mentioned here are estimates or simplifications only... there are always provisos, special cases or exceptions and we normally overestimate, it's frustrating for us when people (competitors) try and win brownie points by quoting something J-Spec has said and then discrediting it, saying that we're overcharging or whatever.... I'm simply trying to keep it accurate here for 99% of cases. Likewise, non J-Spec people reading this, don't go off at your import broker telling them I said something in this thread and expecting them to be able to do the same for you, your case might be some sort of exception or more complex. Be nice to your import brokers, I know what they go through Ben Lippa J-Spec Imports www.j-spec.com.au

Actually I figured it out, I was a bit of a dolt, I made the post without thinking that I'm perfectly capable of finding the anwer myself :Oops: Ceffo, it's a completely stock automatic, not exactly a D1 weapon I've tried to drift it, the open diff scares the hell out of you and then it kicks down a gear which doesn't help. You do it once and then you don't try it again Ben