GoHashiriya

Absolute f*cking nightmare. I had to take breaks constantly, and I was always pissed off when I got home. The line split in Italy on day 2 (we drove from the Netherlands), lol. Driving any narrow European town was... well, sh*t. Appreciate it man. Here, I'll just drop a favourite from the load I took on Saturday. I'll update here when things happen with the car, the thing is, with stock power and almost everything chassis-wise taken care of, there really are no problems. 268,000kms now and counting.

Cheers. Skyline is back on the menu, can’t get rid of it. It’s like a child you don’t want, or herpes

I got back to Japan in January and was keen to get back on track as quickly as possible. Europe is god-awful for track accessibility (by comparison), so I picked up a first-gen GT86 in December just to have something I could jump into right away. The Skyline came over in a container this time and landed in early January. It was a bit battered after Europe, though—I refused to do anything beyond essential upkeep while it was over there. The clutch master cylinder gave out, and so did the power steering. I didn’t even bother changing the oil; it was the same stuff that went in just before I left Japan the first time. Naughty. Power steering parts would’ve cost double with shipping and taxes, so knowing I’d be heading back to Japan, I just postponed it and powered through the arm workout. It took a solid three months to get the car back on the road. Registration was a nightmare this time around. There were a bunch of BS fees to navigate, and sourcing parts was a headache. I needed stock seats for shaken, mistakenly blew 34k JPY on some ENR34 seats—which, of course, didn’t fit—then ended up having the car’s technical sheet amended to register it as a two-seater with the Brides. Then there’s the GT86. Amazing car. Does everything I want it to do. Parts are cheap, easy to find, and I don’t care what anyone says—it’s super rewarding to drive. I’ve done a few basic mods: diff ratio, coilovers, discs, pads, seat, etc. It already had a new exhaust manifold and the 180kph limiter removed, so I assume it’s running some kind of map. I’ve just been thrashing it at the track non-stop—mostly Fuji Speedway now, since I need something with higher speed after all that autobahn time. The wheels on the R34 always pissed me off—too big, and it was a nightmare getting tires to fit properly under the arches. So I threw in the towel and bought something that fits better. Looks way cleaner too (at least to me)—less hotboy, less attention-seeking. Still an R34, though. Now for future plans. There are a few things still outstanding with the car. First up, the rear subframe needs an overhaul—that’s priority one. Next, I need to figure out an engine rebuild plan. No timeline yet, but I want to keep it economical—not cutting corners, just not throwing tens of thousands at a mechanic I can barely communicate with. And finally, paint. Plus a bit of tidying up here and there.

It's been a while since I've updated this thread. The last year (and some) has been very hectic. In the second-half of 2024 I took the R34 on a trip through Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland - it was f*cking great. I got a little annoyed with the attention the car was getting around Europe and really didn't drive it that much. I could barely work on the car since I was living in an inner-city apartment (with underground parking). During the trip, the car lost power steering in France - split hose - and I ended up driving around 4,000kms with no power steering. There were a few Nurburgring trips here and there, but in total the R34 amassed just shy of 7,000kms on European roads. Long story short, I broke up with the reason I was transferred to Europe for and requested to be moved back to Japan. The E90, loved it. It was a sunk cost of around EUR 10,000 and I sold it to a friend for EUR 1,500 just to get rid of it quickly. Trust me, moving countries f*cking sucks and I could not be bothered to be as methodical as I was the first time around.

And one more

Uploading pics on behalf of Sid

Yeah, I get that. I try to be as cost-efficient as possible with cars, and typically prefer to buy them at the bottom of their depreciation curve. I was looking at those Bilsteins too as they're roughly in the same price bracket as the BC's - lack of adjustability and being soft put me off, not that I want anything too hard. That's my issue with the Skyline, it's too expensive and it's reflected in my driving. I don't mind going full pelt as long as there's a gravel trap to catch me. Really, proper safety equipment is needed for total confidence. Well this just turned up for the BMW. I'll try and get the front together tomorrow and take some pics of the absolutely horrid rear end; perhaps I'll have a crack at the rear on Wednesday. I need to make the car drivable before the weekend as I'll be driving it over to London.

This is the part I was unprepared for. I mean, thinking about it now, the first day I collected my car from the importer someone posted a photo of it on the highway to an online JDM page which my friend then sent me. I drove straight to the office to pick up some things and was immediately swarmed by about ten college kids - "how much power" "why no wing" etc. The next couple times I went out I didn't really notice anything, there was a "why no wing" at a service area at some point. Then during the fourth time out driving at the Nurburgring I got the "do a drift" - the bastard cut it out in this clip. The title in itself is a red flag. As you may have guessed, I am not a fan of the attention. This leads me to wondering what to do with the car in the future; I'll see how this year goes and it may be garaged, which it mostly is already, or maybe even sent back to Japan to also be garaged and driven occasionally on visits. Fortunately my daily is as interesting as drying paint.

New alignment and matching tires is great and f*ck me are the German roads fast. Took another trip to the Nurburgring yesterday with my buddy and the car feels great in the dry - a lot of mechanical grip. In corners at 140-160kph I felt like I could keep going.

Has anyone else been swarmed by morons with cell phones taking pictures of their car? A few of you may know, I recently moved from Japan to Europe and brought my R34 with me. Since arriving I've driven the car a handful of times and without fail have had people filming/taking photos of me with the car to a point where it's becoming annoying and a bit hazardous. Yesterday, whilst driving with my buddy (R32 GTR) on the highway, I spotted three cars pulling alongside with some twat hanging out the window recording with his phone. This one VW Golf came alongside in the passing lane and held position preventing me from being able to pull out and pass slower traffic in my lane so I gestured to him to F*ck off. It seems when people have approached me, in the car park, at work (drove there once - mistake), gas station etc. they ask the same questions: "why doesn't it have a wing?" and "how much power does it have?"; the latter has been met with pure disappointment when I told the kid it's stock. Of course, Japan was a totally different story, the people are a lot more subtle and have never bothered me about my car or have been polite in doing so. Has it always been like this in Western countries, and what are your experiences? I just don't recall this ever, or maybe I didn't have a nice enough car back when I was growing up in the UK. I've taken the R34 out a total of six times since it landed and besides going to the Nurburgring area it's becoming more of a pain than anything.

Of course sometimes you cannot go with the cheaper alternative but I try to weigh it up for the application - am I competing or am I going to the track ten times p/yr. As long as there’s enough information out there to back the cheaper alternative as a good option I’ll go for that. I’m a bit of a bastard though as it’s my job to reduce costs, particularly on non income generating assets. EUR 500 saved for the diff + EUR 1,000 saved on BC racing over Bilstein and then say EUR 300 versus EUR 600 on an off brand windscreen versus OEM (for example) soon accumulates. I mean, I’m probably gonna put the car in the ditch anyway. Absolutely do not take this as a justification for always buying cheap shitty parts, just a rationale for doing your research and considering what’s necessary for your application.

It’s amazing I could only find drips of information on it too. No one seemed to have it with the same low oil pressure warning I had - usually vanos codes. How long it had been like that for is anybody’s guess. Really dumb idea, especially considering how easily the cage detaches from the filter housing cap.

Vanos solenoid problems and basically all sensors die an early death

They absolutely are, but the thing is, if you're only exposed to these circuits for a while, what I normally think is good driving suddenly isn't so much. I was a pussy at the Nurburgring (GP) entering corners at 180kph - the difference in the balance of the car suddenly becomes so much more pronounced and I'm still a bit regarded at left-foot braking - something I now practice on my commute. So the (dream) plan with the E90 is to make it a 325i Cup car. Whether I get there or not is another matter. In my mind the simplicity of having the NA variant and cost made it a bit more appealing. Plus, like mentioned above, I'm actually too much of a pussy for big power. Of course I f**ked up by not researching enough on the N53 vs N52, the latter being more robust without the DI system. Suspension-wise on the BMW, and I've been reading the technical requirements for the 325i cup, basically everything except struts has to be standard - bushes are free. I figure you get about 5-10mm adjustment with the rear camber bolts which should translate to 0.5- 1.5 degrees of adjustment. So with coilovers, lowered at 30/40mm I expect I can dial out some of the camber from a drop and attain -1.5 to -2. If necessary, I could get the same effect as the M3 arms with some offset bushes. There is a limitation on ARB width to qualify, although I absolutely want to get either M3 ARBs (can't say sway incase I upset GTSBoy) or the H&R ones - both of these are the cheapest options. Like mentioned, M3 arms are on the way and I should have them fitted within the next week. How are the BC Racing coilovers btw? Reviews are mixed but I think for me they would be fine; a friend of mine uses them on his R34 for track driving and has nothing bad to say. I'm looking at these or the ST coilovers (German brand, new to me) as prescriped the in Cup spec sheet. They're both similarly priced and offer camber adjustment. It's fine but it really upsets my OCD. I've got a couple of options for dialing out the rear camber and keeping my ill-fitting wheels: raise the rear a little bit, say 5mm, that should permit -2.5 camber or drop the front to restore that slight bias of more negative camber up front (not optimal with the roads here). The next alignment won't be until at least next year and I really need to rebuild the rear subframe. For now, I'm not using it at all on the streets except occasional blasts through the German countryside. I was covering about 10k kms p/year in Japan, I expect this to now be about 3-4k. You could say buy better sized wheels, and yes, I should have. But the wheels came from the Z and price of good wheels is just insane now. Again, a couple of options: get a new set (I want 17" RPF1s) or buy two used 9.5J TEs, both are about the same price excluding shipping.

A big issue with these is, unlike the R200, diffs are super expensive. The Blacklines are about €800, Quaife is €1,300-1,500 and any clutch LSD is the best part of €2,000. Have a look on some of the BMW forums, the Blackline has really good reviews for track use - I’m sure not if you’re subjecting it to extreme high performance - but it’s enough for me to go for it.