joshuaho96

Looks amazing underneath there. I'd love to see photos/details as well, I just missed this due to work in the past few days.

Shouldn't be anything legal, it's been popular in Japan for a while now to import stuff like 240Zs from desert states in the US or mostly dry areas like California back to Japan. The dry climates make rust less likely, even if UV aging is worse it's mostly just an issue of repainting the car.

I think California is a crazy place to live for reasons other than just grey market import laws. If you want a house near work here be prepared to pony up 1.2 million dollars for a 2 bedroom townhouse with a tandem garage, even more if you want to be within biking distance. Traffic is unbelievable but driving is often the only way to get work. I used to have a commute that was ~45 minutes without traffic but turned to 75-90 minutes with traffic from 7 AM to 9:30 AM and 4 PM to 7:30 PM, sometimes even longer if people were especially bad at driving that day. But people stay in this crazy place because many of the high paying jobs are here.

R33 GTS25ts in Australia have a kind of similar reputation so...

There's some guy in Japan looking for a clean, mostly stock 1995 R33:

Those diffusers are cosmetic, that's for sure. If you want any effect you want both a front and rear diffuser, preferably covering the entire bottom of the car. For a rear diffuser consider sourcing the R34 VSpec diffuser, it is pretty close to bolt-on. Front diffuser is more difficult though.

The hard part will be swapping out the turbos + intake components. The HKS ECU to my knowledge does not require tearing up the harness, it's a plug and play ECU. It also mentions repair history. Even if you don't buy it, I think checking out that car + Garage Defend's car will help.

I have a series 1 waiting in Japan, I will be headed out there soon to make sure that I have a solid base to work with. If you find Garage Yoshida is willing to work with foreigners and their work is up to par for quality I may delay import to let them work on it instead of crossing my fingers and hoping a US body shop can do what I'm hoping for. As long as the cost is reasonable and not Omori Factory tier which is like 200k+ for a restoration. Frankly if you want an ITR I would just buy a US one, CARB compliance is a nightmare. They literally have told people point blank the whole point of the process is to discourage you from trying to import your own car. The EPA 21 year clause refers to engine swaps from what I've seen, not rebuilt engines. You need to import a basically stock car anyways to get past CARB so you shouldn't be worried about that part. Source: https://www.epa.gov/importing-vehicles-and-engines/learn-about-importing-vehicles-and-engines

R34 engine is not a problem, it looks like they actually modified it to fit the original R33 harness, you can see the power transistor/ignitor pack on the back of the spark plug cover. As far as BAR is concerned you just broke the original engine and put in replacement parts to fix it. As long as the engine has all the same parts as the original 1995 car it will pass for emissions purposes. They won't spend a ton of time hassling you because you put a different CAS sensor and repinned the CAS harness. Their primary concern is stuff like making sure you have a factory downpipe, the right cats, factory PCV, intake, turbos, ECU, etc. Sean Morris is the one that actually goes and discovers what happens when you try to register a car. If you read the CARB site page on direct import they mention a limited exemption for people that own their car a full year or more before moving back to California, but they actually quietly changed the regulations there to close that loophole back in 2017. Sean follows these regulatory changes closely. It is looking like even though CARB claims an equipment exemption for OBD compliance on direct import, the DMV will not register a 1996+ car that is missing OBD2. There is no procedure to smog a 1996+ car with no OBD2 connector so you can't pass the smog referee. The FTP-75 test is a drive cycle test, so it is about how much NOx, HC, and CO the car emits per mile over a ~23 minute temperature controlled dyno run. So the R34 engine is no problem as long as you don't have anything problematic like a low temperature thermostat or faulty evap canister. The 1995s spiking in price is entirely related to US demand, they're by far the most common and arguably the least desirable for those outside of CA. Series 3 has the HIDs, a better airbag setup, better ABS, trunk rigidity reinforcements, and a different front lip that looks better to most. Also a different front bumper with oil cooler cutout. If not for CA's inane emissions laws I would get a series 2 or 3 VSpec instead of faffing about with a series 1.

The R33 is supposed to be more refined in a number of ways. Less front heavy, less rotational inertia, more chassis rigidity, less front lift, lower drag coefficient, etc. ATTESA is less on-off in its behavior, it starts applying more FWD earlier on to help make the car more progressive. But it's a bigger car. It's pretty long, almost exactly the same dimensions as a BMW M4, just not as wide. The R32 and R34 are more compact, but also means that the two seats in the back are vestigial. The R33 is probably the most unstable under trailbraking from what I've heard though, especially the series 1/2 which have different ABS compared to series 3. The engine and transmission are basically identical to the R32, nothing to write home about there. Interior is pretty similar to the R32, just slightly modified. Seats are basically identical too. Only difference is driver side airbag is standard, passenger side optional in 1995 and standard 1996-1998. If you're after a raw experience the R32 is the most wild of the 3. If you find that you want more space and more refined tuning then R33 is a lot cheaper than the R34 while delivering most of the driving experience, if you can overlook the MFD and some aero bits.

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n362292896 Garage Yoshida posted up a new R33. This isn't very stock though, it would take some work to get it ready for CA emissions.

What do you feel is missing from the R32?

R33 is going to drive more like the R34, the chassis is better laid out, more rigid, better aero. The R32 is really its own thing. At low speeds it will be the most tail-happy of the three, at high speeds it will understeer a lot. Also, the R33 is American sized because the coupe and sedan are about the same length. Or if you're Japan-sized, 4 real adults will fit in the car.

Yeah when I got a PPI I had to pay 800 dollars to make it worth someone's time. Also helped that a friend of his was willing to make an introduction.

If you want an R32 that might be ok, there are a ton more options out there for R32s if you want one. If you want an R33 that Garage Defend one might be ok if you revert the critical parts back to stock. Do a detailed inspection though. I'm still a little skeptical. The VIN plate looks like someone blasted it badly with something, that's pretty questionable. Get a proper auction sheet and vehicle history to make sure it hasn't been in an accident, check the car out properly, etc...

Why the AC controls are in the center armrest is a real mystery... I honestly would not be afraid of 200,000 km+ cars, the one I ended up buying was at 280,000 km on the odometer, verified mileage as well. But the condition was decent and a good starting point for what I have planned. https://www.goo-net.com/usedcar/spread/goo/13/700056070630190222001.html Have you looked at this one? Seems mostly stock. Even if there is a bit of rust starting on the strut towers, as long as it isn't visible from the bottom in the wheel well or on top in the engine bay you can save them by pulling the engine, cutting open the strut towers along the welds, cleaning it off, coating everything, and rewelding. No new metal is needed. But if you let it get too far the strut tower strength is compromised. It's going to happen to pretty much every R33, just a question of when. I checked GTNet and they had better photos on their site, the strut towers are 100% rusting. If you want, one approach is to get that car and drive it immediately to a place like Garage Yoshida to start the restoration process. https://www.goo-net.com/usedcar/spread/goo/19/700110075030170328002.html This one is basically flawless. https://www.goo-net.com/usedcar/spread/goo/18/700130031930190716001.html This one seems like it might be ok? Mostly stock, sounds like they have service records. The center console surround piece has clearly been shoddily repainted, the texture is totally off as is color. I'm guessing it was peeling/melting like half of these cars I see.

I think you linked this one before. Just factor in the cost of repairing the pinch weld or maybe just clean up the rust, treat with primer and pretend it never happened. It's not really that the pinch weld itself matters outside of the factory scissor jack, just that bending it causes the corrosion to start there. Generally speaking you need to engage the flats next to the pinch weld with jack stands/etc, just dropping the car on jack stands without an adapter is going to end poorly. I think if you really want a flawless car you're just going to have to bide your time and be prepared to drop quite a bit of money on it. I also found this in Australia, has anyone checked this one out? Could be a good candidate: https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/fawkner/cars-vans-utes/1995-nissan-skyline-s1-r33-gtr-lp2/1215952275

For R33s at least there's nothing out there I think that really meets what you're looking for so the answer is to just wait and see if you want one of those. Auctions are closed right now but they'll start up again soon, there are a number of brokers like garage defend that inspect auction cars. Toprank is another option, I think they're probably hoping to get rid of that QM1 R33 but with known accident damage that price is kind of hard to justify. I think if you press harder they will be willing to look at auction cars as well.

Use the VIN listed from the site and use CarVX to get your own info. They will pull auction sheets + photos and you get a much better idea of the life the car lived. Also, for some reason the blue VIN plate is removed. I wonder why. Driver side door is not matching color of the fenders either. Passenger side near the bottom of the door card you can see the frame exposed for some reason, not sure if that's normal, the latch is also missing the surround piece on the door card. Pinch welds are not crushed super badly near the jacking points but visible rust. If your heart is not set on the R33, Toprank has R32s already landed in CA and they can do CA compliance as well: https://www.importavehicle.com/vehicles/311/1992-nissan-skyline-gt-r

If you're still interested in the R33 this might be worth checking out: http://jdm-expo.com/vehicle-inventory/659-skyline-gtr-sale.html

You likely have a problem with a driveshaft out of balance. Generally speaking these kinds of speed-dependent vibrations are a balance issue.

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/nissan/skyline-r33/r33-gtr-v-spec---tasteful-extras-lovely-example/9899804 Could be good, just in the UK. Get a PPI, that price is low and not a lot of photos.

The trouble is he needs to get a stock 1995 for registration purposes. Only allowable changes are air/oil separators/catch cans which do not vent to atmosphere, catback exhaust. Anything from the air filter to the last catalytic converter/O2 sensor cannot be modified. ECUs cannot be modified except for emissions compliance purposes. Also, big cams will certainly fail emissions, they do the full FTP-75 drive cycle test and you have to stay within CARB 1995 emissions limits. FTP-75 drive cycle: https://www.dieselnet.com/standards/cycles/ftp75.php CARB emissions standards: https://www.dieselnet.com/standards/us/ld_ca.php#lev The current CA compliance package is a set of precats welded to the downpipe/front pipe, new main cats that are all CARB certified, and a number of other mystery changes that are a trade secret. Ignition timing changes are definitely a part of it. You also need to have the car completely stock before you bring it in and in good condition. They inspect the car for modified vacuum lines, stock ECU, etc. After registration modification gets easier, especially if you know someone that will pass anything. Just don't get pulled over for street racing and you'll never have to revert back to stock.

What is your chassis code? Should be basically identical across all R34s.

ID1050x is nothing to write home about if you aren't running some crazy low voltage from a weak alternator/battery on the injectors or super high fuel pressure. The spray pattern is a narrow 5 degree cone, right into the intake valve divider in the head. I would get the Bosch 040 ~980cc injectors. Run ~3.5-4 bar of fuel pressure and you should be fine. 30 degree cone works better than the 5 degree cone, most of it will go towards the intake valves instead. Make sure to get them properly matched or tuning will be a pain.