Sydneykid

A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to fitting the exhaust to the Stagea. It is a Nismo 3.25” off the R32GTST with a large off set muffler in the middle and a straight though muffler at the rear. I used it because it was spare (the R32GTST has an Apexi 90mm titanium exhaust on it now) and because it was quiet, but at the same time not too restrictive. The old RB20DET made 225 rwkw with it on, so the 200 rwkw target from the Stagea seems reasonable. Plus I am going to use the Performance Metalcraft split dump off the R32GTST, so it is basically the whole exhaust, except the Stagea will run a cat. I already have a new Catco high flow cat ready to go on to replace that crappy compliance one. On the Stagea, the Nismo exhaust works exactly as I hoped it would, very quiet up to 4,500 rpm, with absolutely zero drone. It has the RB signature howl at 5,000 rpm upwards though. To get it to fit the Stagea we had to do a few mods. I will post up some pictures, in the interim; 1. We (mostly Liverpool Exhausts) had to add around 4” just before the rear subframe 2. Plus around 3” between the rear muffler and the tail pipe. 3. Cut off the R32 hangers at the sub frame and the rear muffler and weld on a couple of new ones in the Stagea positions. 4. Cost was $190 for the mods, fitting, new bolts, nuts and gaskets. So it was a pretty cheap upgrade and it certainly makes a difference to the power and useable rpm range. Thinking about it, the Stagea is the first Sklyline/Stagea I have had with a standard exhaust, all the others have had modified exhausts when I got them. So this is the first time I get to experience what a difference an exhaust makes, so I am enjoying doing it in stages, to feel the difference each upgrade makes. cheers PS; for Alex, thanks for buying that FMIC, I found a Blitz 600 x 300 x 100 instead .

Try the Group Buy; http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...showtopic=85467 If you are thinking about using lowered springs with standard shocks, have a read of this thread; http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...=103158&hl= cheers

Only 5 sets left in stock. Still no production scheduled at Bilstein Germany. cheers

There is currently zero stock of R33GTST front Bilsteins at Bilstein Australia. Production is scheduled in Germany early in the new year. I don't know how many shocks will be in the shipment, so I strongly suggest that you get in now. Jamex have agreed to take a $400 deposit to secure your shocks. cheers

Shipping will be more than the shocks cost, try the SA Bilstein agent. cheers

The officials can't have it both ways. They black flagged Tander for blocking with 4 laps to go, because Bond said the rules say 3 laps. Crompton asked the drivers and they ALL said 5 laps were the intructions at the drivers briefing. Ooooops Tander was in contention for 3rd in the Championship with Winterbottom. The Officials basically said that they don't care about 3rd, the only thing of interest is 1st. Tander was also trying for the most race wins in the season (8), by black gflagging him the Officials denied him that chance in the 3rd race. After starting 22nd he came up short by 1/10th of second. Regarding the incident on lap 1 of race 3, Lowndes stuffed up the previous corner and knew Kelly was going to pass, so he blocked on lap 1 of a 31 lap race. Moving over to the inside (off the racing line) left no room for Kelly to brake. Lowndes' move to block caused the contact, no block, no contact, Kelly makes a clean pass and Lowndes lives to fight back the next lap. Or the next 30 laps. Basically it was the same as Murphy did to Ambrose at Bathurst 2005, Murphy made a mistake the previous corner and refused to pay the price for that mistake. cheers PS; I will declare the following interests. Mark Winterbottom (Ford) raced Karts with us and his dad is a friend. I occasionally work for Tandersport (Holden) in the F3 and Improved Production programs. I also spent Bathurst with a Ford team.

Assuming 7,500 rpm orange line, Jun 272 with 10.5 mm lift cheers

Darren and I have had this communication several times. But let me clarify for other readers. I haven't driven Daren's car, next time I am were he is, I will (if he lets me of course). I have no doubt that Darren thinks his car drives perfectly OK, that's his opinion and he may well be right. But (there is always a but) I have driven 5 other Skylines whose owners made exactly the same claim and the cars all drove terribly IMHO. The upshifts were harsh at full throttle and annoyingly jerky at partial throttle. The shift from reverse to first while moving was a head bouncer. Driving slowly around car parks or in traffic was a lesson in preparatory neck bracing, brace yourself there’s a gear change coming. The common kick down from 3rd to 2nd was particularly annoying. The way I look at is, if I have to drive an auto, at least it should be smooth. When I last checked 2 of those 5 Skylines had had gearbox rebuilds and 1 of the remaining 3 has reverted back to the standard ECU. I honestly don’t think Nissan would have gone to the considerable trouble (and expense) to write all that programming code if they thought that ignition cut and/or retard on gearshifts wasn’t necessary. Since all other vehicle manufacturers do something similar (not always via the ECU) Nissan are obviously not alone in that thought process. I have no doubt that Mike’s upgrades would make the gearbox last longer, the mods are logical, well thought out and executed. None of the upgrades would be considered unusual in terms of any automatic, including the drag racing specialists like Race Glides etc. What Mike brings to the table is the expertise in import autos and then he applies the well proven techniques to get them to live. The $300 or so valve body upgrade is particularly good value for money. After that it starts to get less so, band and clutch upgrades for a 4 speed auto are not inexpensive. But, each and every one of those upgrades adds a level of harshness to the gear changes. That’s how they function, by shortening the amount of time taken for the change and making that change itself a more solid engagement. When you add that to the harshness caused by the lack of ECU shift programming, you end up with a compromise on shift quality that I personally find very unappealing. Horses for courses, some people may like it like that, I just happen not to. Cheers

Offset? cheers

R32 front upper control arms ("I" shaped) are different to R33/R34's front upper controla arms ("Y" shaped). Plus R33/34's have different sized bushes in the front and rear inner mounts of the "Y" and they are both different to the outer bush. R32''s have the same sized bushes in the inner and outer mounts. As posted above I am working on the R32, nearly finished testing in fact. But I haven't even started on the R33/34. It is next on the agenda and I will need an R34 victim, sorry tester (that's you). Obviously I will test it on our R33. cheers

Does it have a front strut brace? I iassume it does. What size stabiliser bars? You should have a 27mm front and a 24 mm rear What settings on the bars? Are you adjusting them for driver feel as well as tyre temperatures? What shocks? What settings on the shocks? You should have lots of low velocity bump wound in. What caster settings? Remember you are using opposite lock, hence introducing positive camber on counter steering to what is effectively the outside wheel. Too much caster means you are removing negative camber whenever you apply opposite lock. Are you still running the standard rubber inner bush on the front lower control arm? If so, you are loosing dynamic camber when the bush contracts away from the counter steered outside wheel. There is no "retail" Whiteline kit for R32's that comes with both inner and outer adjustable bushes. But lots of guys have been using 2 kits for several years, myself included. I am currently working on having Whiteline issue a 2 new "competition" kits for R32's. The first kit has 2 sets of adjustable bushes and no non adjustable bushes. The second kit is for guys who already have an adjustable kit and need more adjustment (ie; it deletes the non adjustable bushes from the current kit). Testing at the moment and I expect release early in the new year. As I said previously, throwing more and more static negative camber at it is a band aid, you need to work on increasing the anti roll and fixing the dynamic camber change. Then you won't have to use so much negative camber, which means it will respond better on turn in, hold it's line easier and be more effective under brakes due to the increase tyre contact patch. cheers

Hi Ric, I have measured the arms themselves (centee of bolt to centre of bolt), that is the ONLY real meaningful measurement. It is pretty useless comparing static camber from one car to another. Every car is different, plus ride height affects the static camber readings a lot on Skylines. Then you have the effect of caster on the static camber readings. I will emphasise, if you need that much negative camber then you don't have enough antiroll. You are sticking a bandaid over the problem, much better to fix the real problem. cheers

The problem with 1JZs’ (and 2JZ’s) has nothing to do with the engine itself, except that the turbo is on the wrong side for right hand drive. That’s why the (left hand drive) yanks like their JZ’s, the turbo is on the better side for them. The real problem is the bolt ons, $ for $ the RB25DET Neo wins easily every time. For example, one turbo is so much easier to upgrade than the dumb ass sequential turbos. Then you get to the Toyota manual gearbox issue, what are you going to use? They are either fragile, unobtainable or nose bleed expensive. That’s the reason why 1JZ’s (and 2JZ’s) are cheaper to buy than the equivalent RB’s, nothing to do with the engine itself. cheers

A 12 second pass in January, at Calder with KYB coilovers......good luck. I did a 12.8 at 111 mph in the R34GTT with these mods; 1. MT ET radials, 255/50/16, check out the Group Buy 2. Standard rear shocks and springs (if you still have them) 3. Power FC with Boost Control Kit 4. Heat shield and ambient air feed for the pod. 5. Standard turbo, boost up to 12 psi for the passes (10 psi all other times) 6. Split dump, check out the Group Buy 7. High flow cat, check out the Group Buy 8. Clutch, the standard clutch WILL die 9. Tuning, tuning, tuning 10. Practise for the driver Trying to do the same in the R33GTST, so far a 13.4 at 99 mph when the standard clutch died. Back to WSID shortly to finish the job. cheers

Yep, use an adjustable strut top with polyurethane bushing. cheers

So the Whiteline camber kit would give the same amount of negative camber as you achieved from the arms. As usual those arms don't give any more camber than any other arm (or bush). cheers Ps; if you truly need that much negative camber, then you don't have sufficient anti roll, time for some stabiliser bars.

There is only 1 (yes ONE) set of R32GTST rear Bilsteins left in stock at Bilstein. There are no shipments planned and there is no production schedule. So when this set is sold I will close the Group Buy. cheers

Do a search, a sample of what you would have found; Been using 100 ron in the R33GTST since January (almost 12 months). I put an adjustable FPR in recently to raise the fuel pressure and a GTR fuel pump. I checked the fuel lines at the same time and they are in perfect condition. cheers

As postred in the other thread where you asked the same questions Been using 100 ron in the R33GTST since January (almost 12 months). I put an adjustable FPR in recently to raise the fuel pressure and a GTR fuel pump. I checked the fuel lines at the same time and they are in perfect condition. cheers

Been using 100 ron in the R33GTST since January (almost 12 months). I put an adjustable FPR in recently to raise the fuel pressure and a GTR fuel pump. I checked the fuel lines at the same time and they are in perfect condition. cheers

And you think Adelaide is better cheers

Still need a couple of sets cheers

Anyone considering an R32GTST kit should move quickly as there is only 1 set of R32GTST rear shocks left in stock. No production is currently scheduled, so it may be many months before Bilstein do another production run. There is no alternative shock available, R33 and R34 rear shocks are too long and R32GTR rear shocks have the fork at the bottom not the bush. cheers