Iron Chef

Not just dugong leather, dugong FORESKIN leather.

Some 32s came in via the old 15 year rule, so don't have compliance plates. As soon as you let registration lapse or try to register them interstate, expect to have your arse handed to you. We deal with it on a regular basis in SA, where they refuse to look at them until they've been engineered, THEN been for a full pit inspection.

35,000km....lol

Correct! There's a good reason you're hearing this from me first - we were the ones who got the S17 series on SEVS in the first place, and have been working hard on it with the workshops for the 18 months from then till now. Two workshops, one in Melbourne, one in Sydney, now have compliance plates for: JZS171 - Crown Estate sedan and wagon (1JZ-GTE) UZS171 - Crown Majesta sedan (1UZ) UZS173 - Crown Majesta (1UZ and AWD) Landed and complied, you'll be looking at prices from $13-20K depending on kms and condition, the wagons are the most expensive. No doubt our rivals will email you about it once they read it on the Iron Chef Facebook page

Ok, we're looking at dates in September - let me know what dates we need to avoid....

Hi guys, The AJD crew is considering holding a Japanese-only swap meet later on in the year, once spring hits. The venue WON'T be Wigley Reserve, as having individual stall holders makes for a nightmare with public liability insurance. I've been in negotiations with my kids' school (at Golden Grove) where we would have access to two full-sized football ovals (possibly a third) as well as two tennis courts' worth of bitumen (some requested areas for RC demos). The reason for this is that if the event is supported by the school, ALL stall holders would be covered under the school's PL insurance policy, which saves a heap of dramas. I, for one, have a heap of stuff in my shed that I need to get rid of, and my son is sitting on a stack of old car magazines that he desperately wants to sell lol What say ye? Is it worth while pursuing the idea?

One bloke who wasn't entered got defected (a fairly obvious defect evidently), but no entrants did.

In the current climate, you should get something fairly decent for that money all up, thank the exchange rate for doing the right thing for you!

Like I said before, it's a fake number. Two digits are missing from the chassis number...replaced by zeroes in the middle.

The VIN listed on the ad is wrong...

It is common for processing times to blow out in Canberra, but it's equally common for workshops to use that as an excuse for other delays Given that they don't get paid until the car is complied, there are few benefits to holding on to cars any longer than they need to be.

The first part can be explained - that new VIN would be correct if it was complied under the old system. The 6U9XXX deal only started with SEVS in 2005. Secondly, that plate doesn't look legit to me. You mentioned the chassis number having an extra digit which is a fair giveaway, but also, have a look at the condition of the plate compared to the condition of the firewall around it. Double-checking my R34 encyclopaedia, I reckon someone has scored themselves a blank plate and stamped that themselves. It's a very good stamping job, but it's not a factory one. I'd be curious to see what the chassis number on the firewall is (if it's there). To answer your question, yes it can be registered anywhere fine, but I wouldn't trust its history as far as I could throw it based on that plate.

Didn't I already say that before?

Yes it is, if you want to claim it as a work vehicle.

Sent this out on Wed night (has actually changed slightly, because we've now hit 400 entries lol - gonna be v tight...)

^^^Correct, and closer to 6 mil if it was a Nur.

Sold for 4,004,000 yen car cost.

Don't bother, stock ones are shit - upgrade to Evo Brembos.

He's a 65 year old grandfather...how do YOU reckon? lol

80% of the trans problems are because the cars have travelled 100,000km more than what they say on the odometer reading, combined with a complete lack of servicing from the owner in Japan. Buy a car with legit low kms and change the fluid regularly and they're no less reliable than any other auto trans. If you want to tow with it, add the cooler. Having owned a variety of Legnums and other cars, I can tell you they're less thirsty than virtually all other turbo cars I've owned. My old man had his down around 8.5l/100km and that was town driving too. No problems at all with detonation ever, and I owned my Galant back when 95RON was the only option. Chris Rogers has forgotten how much fuel turbo cars use, presumably because his R32 is still stuck in the shed and he's driving a Hyundai shitbox or similar

Some agents have carried geiger counters in the past at auction, but, speaking from my own experience, I haven't had a single car fail an export radiation check in at least 12 months (and neither has anyone else, presuming I would have heard about it), and even the ones that did straight after the accident were fixed with a wash. It hasn't happened to me, but where cars have been knocked back, the agents have taken the losses rather than the customer. The story of the van you mentioned was the most extreme example, but either way, cars like that don't leave Japan.

The short answer is no, you have nothing to worry about. The longer answer is a copy of my HPI column, which will give you an idea into what was going on at the time, and is still occurring. I'm not saying nuclear fallout shouldn't be taken seriously, of course it should, but when you read more about how the "internationally accepted levels" are set, it helps you to understand why hysteria is whipped up in the press - it's an (admittedly understandable) misunderstanding of the numbers involved.

It's no real surprise - in Japan, cars over 10 years old start moving into the 'classic' category or get scrapped/exported out of existence. As far as RB-era GT-Rs go, a few die-hards still use them as dailies, but the vast majority are tucked inside sheds, only to come out for servicing/repairs/mods or for the local Skyline club meets. I was there for three weeks last year and only saw one BCNR33 (and no R32s or R34s) the whole time (outside of auctions). As for the scene, well it has moved into vanning and VIP for the time being, but as the 86 has proven, the scene isn't dead by a long shot. You can bet your left nut the other Japanese manufacturers are busily preparing cheap RWD sports cars, probably sharing the chassis with a larger RWD sedan. I for one would love to see Mazda lop some serious money off the MX-5 and add a proper roof to it, then turn the Mazda6 into a RWD...then add a rotary-engined option....ok stop Chef, you're getting silly...

No what's REALLY sad is you're given a $30K budget to buy an R34 GTR with any mileage on it for a track car, finding ones with more than 200,000km and knowing damn well you're going to be outbid by someone who's going to knock the 2 off the front of the odometer...

FWIW mine also runs fine on 98