Sydneykid

I did the reverse, R32GTR S1 to R32GTST S1 to R34GTT then to R33GTST S1 (although I still have the R32GTST). Personally, compared to the R33, I found the R34GTT much better, newer, more nibble, more power (before and after mods), nicer gearbox/clutch action, better brakes, faster ABS, better interior, more responsive engine, nicer dash.... all the sorts of advantages you would expect a 5 year more modern car to have. cheers

Time to reteach her, you might be saving her life, but tread carefully. Or buy her a course for her birthday, anniversary, Xmas, Easter etc cheers

Yes, just ask, plenty of guys have. The reason for the S13/14/15 coil overs is to allow height adjustment. Which the Skylines don't need, as the additional cirlcip grooves on the Bilstein shocks provide that facility. cheers

It varies, from $300 to around $500, but that one had some other issues that needed fixing at the same time. cheers

Good post, unfortunately Adelaide traffic + 3 L/100k = Sydney traffic. If the air filter oil is contaminating the AFM, then you are over oiling the airfilter. cheers

So, how did/do I approach teaching KoSK (kids of SK) to stay alive when driving? From the day they were born they learnt about safety in cars, wearing seat belts, not drinking and driving, keeping the noise (distractions) to a manageable level etc etc. For example,.Mrs SK and I made sure we openly discussed (in front of KoSK) who was driving and who was drinking whenever we went out. I then took SOSK Karts racing from 10 to 16 years old. He learnt all sorts of important stuff like; 1. Idiots will run into you 2. If you break it, you fix it 3. If you break it real bad, you miss the next race/meeting 4. It costs money and time to fix stuff after you break it 5. When another driver/kart hits you, it hurts 6. Safety gear (helmet, suite, gloves etc) save your ass 7. Car (Kart) Control 8. Braking and traction 9. Steering and traction 10. Acceleration and traction 11. How to get you and the kart out of the shit when you stupidly got yourself into it 12, How not to get in the shit next time And heaps more “life” lessons. Then I taught him how to drive a car, how to stay alive, what to look out for, how to change gears, look the other driver in the eye etc etc. Then I sent him to a Driving School so he could learn how to pass the test (that’s what they are good at). Then I shipped him off to a Peter Finlay course so he could take all of that kart learning and translate it into car stuff. Now I watch and make comment, I do plenty of coaching, I think its part and parcel of being a parent. Just as important as helping with homework, teaching them to talk, to read and write and all the other things parents teach kids. So as harsh as it may sound, when I see some grieving parent on TV I am always tempted to ask, what did you personally do to improve your children’s chances? Did you just send them along to a driving school and then hope for the best? What have you done since they got their licence? As a parent I don’t think I can abdicate responsibility to the government or the police or the RTA. The fact is the buck starts and stops with me. Enough rant on my slant on bringing up kids. cheers

The fact is we boys think that we are immortal, that’s why the Army,.Navy, AirForce etc uses us to fight wars and has done so for centuries. We think that we are never going to die and that translates into how we drive cars. Risks are fun, speed is good, nothing wrong with a bit of opposite lock, danger is food for the soul etc etc. This is built in, it’s in our genes. No matter what regulations you write, no matter how you try and enforce it, no matter what car you try and make us drive, the fact is we are programmed to take risks. Even enjoy them, seek out more and greater thrills, test our skills against others, exercise that testosterone. Passing laws will NEVER EVER change that, in fact there is a strong argument that says the more laws you pass the less effect it will have. An example, on my weekly trip to the workshop I pass through 42 (yes 42) speed zones in just under 50 minutes. What chance do I have of remembering what speed I am supposed to be doing, when it changes every 70 seconds. I would have accidents all over the place if I concentrated THAT hard on looking for every single speed sign. So what do I do? I drive at whatever speed I feel comfortable at, whatever speed the cars around me are travelling at. I only pay attention to the speed zones when there are police cars and cameras. Oh, I am bad boy aren’t I? Well not if you count accidents as a the test, I haven’t had one in 22 years, that’s not just accidents that were my fault, that includes other peoples accidents that I avoided. Accidents that I wouldn’t have avoided if I had been concentrating on the speed zones and not watching what was going on around me. What they have forgotten in this media fueled frenzy is the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid. They are looking for more and more complex answers to what are basically simple questions. cheers

VP Motorsport C100 isn't oxygenated and (IMHO) it's MON of 96 is a bit low for good knock control in a high rpm engine. VP Motorsport 109 is oxygenated and the best of the VP unleaded fuels for drag racing, be aware that it needs good igntion systems. It's MON of 101 is more like what I would want in big power/high rpm RB. Keep in mind that it's SG is low (0.722) so you will need more fuel than the common 0.75 to 0.80 fuels to achieve the same A/F ratios. cheers PS; keep in mind that both of the above are nasty on humans, so don't inhale it or spill on yourself.

The PFC has, knock warning, injector duty cycle warning, AFM voltage warning etc all of which flash the dash warning light. So, take it back to whoever tuned the PFC and let them fix the tune (for free), before you have to fix the engine (for $lots). cheers

All an FCD does is clamp the AFM voltage at a maximum, so that ECU doesn’t go Rich & Retard mapping (do a search if you don’t know what that means). So the 30 rwkw is possible, all you have to do it set the boost (actually airflow) at a level which makes the ECU go R&R. That will knock 25 to 40 rwkw off the power straight away. Then use the FCD to “clamp” the AFM voltage to a level just below that which the ECU goes R&R. Bingo a 30 rwkw increase is possible. But (there is always a but) what if you set the boost (actually airflow) at a level just below just below that which the ECU goes R&R? It won’t loose that 25 to 40 rwkw, maybe the slightly lower boost would only cost 5 to 10 rwkw. So fitting the FCD would achieve NOTHING. So the ACTUAL (real world tuning) gain from fitting the FCD is more like 5 to 10 rwkw. In addition there are draw backs to using an FCD, they only have one voltage to clamp at, regardless of engine rpm. So you can’t tune the A/F ratios, you get whatever part of the map that the ECU uses at that (fiddled) AFM voltage. Hence why an AFM voltage “bender” like an SAFC or a DFA are far superior. They allow “tuning” of the AFM voltage ramp, so you can get reasonable A/F ratios across the rpm range. As usual with magazines, they only tell you 10% of the story. cheers

Improving fuel ecomomy (in the usual meaning) is related to very small throttle opening, whereas lowering maximum power happens at WOT. An inefficient (dirty in my example) air cleaner will have very little (in fact zero) effect on the airflow at small throttle openings, hence it will have no effect on fuel ecomomy. Because at such low airflows it would not prove to be a restriction, not unless it was unbelievably dirty. This may not be the case at WOT, where the (dirty) innefficient air filter may well be a rerstrcition and as such cause a power loss. If you were talking about efficient fuel usage at WOT (maximum power) then it could be argued that the restrictive air filter would cause the engine to use more fuel to make less power. But that's hardly "fuel ecomomy". cheers

The pipercross filters have 3 layers of different density foam. So the large lumps get caught in the more open density, then the next smaller in the middle density and the really fine stuff in the smallest density foam. This means they work better for longer than the single density K&N. A real world example, we had to clean the K&N filters after every race, otherwise the power dropped off. With the Pipercross filters we can run the whole weekend without cleaning the filters and not loose 1 single horsepower. Transfer that to a road car and it means not having to clean you K&N filter every 2,000k's or so. You can do the Pipercross one whenever you change the oil, safe in the knoweldge that you aren't loosing horsepower by doing that. Obviously the less frequent intervals means that the cost of cleaning kits is less than half as well. cheers

To get an accurate "driving along" rate you need to send me a picture of one each of the front and rear coils. Most progressive springs "drive along" on the high rate ie; the progression is simply there to make sure that the spring is trapped at full droop. cheers

Well........I doubt that the airfilter is going to do much straightening in a Stagea after the compressor has spun it around at 100,00 rpm or so, then the intercooler has carved it up in 2 mm slices etc etc. What actually happens.......the filter acts as a restriction and creates a partial vacuum in the inlet system, which results in the engine not running as efficiently as it should. Remove the restriction and you get freer flowing air into the engine. Simply put, an N/A engine (or a turbo engine off boost) doesn't have to suck as hard. But (there is always a but) this would only improve fuel economy on an engine with a MAP sensor driven ECU. An AFM driven ECU has the AFM after the airfilter, so the ECU knows the correct airflow (restricted or not) and so squirts the correct amount of fuel for that amount of air. There is another but (yes two buts), at cruise and idle (closed loop) the lambda sensor readings determine how much fuel is injected, just enough to meet A/F ratio aim. So changing air filters would have zero effect during closed loop running. The bottom line, I don't think changing air filters would make 1 poofteenth of a difference to fuel economy in a Stagea. cheers PS; I prefer Pipercross filters to K&N.

First thing to check is the power stering fluid level. Plenty of people remove the HICAS because it fails. So it is not always a "track" only mod. cheers

If it's front bias, then you have the "endurance race" rear master cylinder in it to allow for the fuel load. Change to the "sprint race" rear master cylinder and you won't have that problem. cheers

The rear camber adjusters are standard on R32/33/34, they adjust 0.25 degrees. D Cheers

A couple of reasons; 1. Rim clearance, I knew that 336 mm would clear the 17 x 8's (we have 16 wheels), I wasn't sure about 340 mm or 343 mm. 2. I had pads, in our usual compound, with a radius suitable for 336 mm 3. (the real reason) I already had calliper brackets for 336 mm There is that availability answer again, it was there, so I used it. Machining the rotors to 336 mm was easier than designing and making new calliper brackets from scratch. cheers

I hear you, availability and total cost beats everything. Why we went in this direction is so that we could test the 336 mm x 32 mm rotor. There simply wasn't enough room for a calliper spacer with the Brembo calliper being for 324 mm rotors. The 12 mm incease in diameter (6mm radius) wasn't enough to fit the spacer retaining bolts in. So I came up with the concept of using the Sumitomo callipers for testing the rotors. It has just gone on from there. cheers

RB30E and RB30ET oil pumps also fit. cheers

In the circuit race off season, we have back to back tested 324 mm x 30 mm DBA5000 Series two piece rotors with the same pad compounds using Sumitomo and Brembo callipers and the difference is not discernable. Not by me, anyway, that’s driving and reading the data logs (same longitudinal G forces). Right now the 336 mm x 32 mm rotors with the same pad compounds using Sumitomo callipers are out performing the 324 mm x 30 mm rotors using Brembo callipers. The rotors and pads are lasting longer and running at lower temperatures (according to the temperature paint). I honestly believe that the difference between the GTR Brembo brakes and the GTR Sumitomo brakes is ALL rotor diameter and pad compound. People replace their rooted 296 mm rotors, water contaminate brake fluid, spongy rubber hoses and worn out, crappy pad compounds with new Brembo stuff. Is it any wonder that the brakes are better? It’s not a fair comparison. cheers

Yep, that's why I am looking for a slightly larger pad. The R32GTR N1 Brembo calliper has a pad that is only slightly bigger than the pad in the standard R32GTR Sumitomo calliper. Mostly inwards, towards the rotor centre. If I get a chance tonight I will post up the Bendix pad profiles, you can easily see the small difference. cheers

That's the theory, but the real world is that I personally can't feel any difference. With the same compound pads in both applications, I can lock up the 245/40/17 "R" spec tyres anytime I like in a 20 minute session. The pedal feel is the same, logically the power booster is masking whatever small differences there are. I bought some calliper adaptors that didn't fit and then modified them slightly, 10 minutes in the mill was all it took. I used the DBA 5000 series GTR hats with 343 mm rotors, machined down (in the lathe) to 336 mm. The pads have to be ground down (on the linisher) 0.75mm from new to give clearance for the 32 mm thick rotors. Next I am going to try some slightly larger pads, it will spread the load accross more surface area and therefore reduce the spot rotor temperatures slightly. Plus I am looking for a little more feel, which the increased pad to rotor contact area will give me. I am checking the Bendix master catalogue for a pad that is slightly larger, which I will trim to shape on the band saw. The medium term aim is to have a standard Skyline calliper with adaptor, two piece rotor, brake line, brake fluid and pad combination that will give better performance than the current grossly overpriced brand name setups that we use on the race cars. One that is both cheaper to buy and cheaper to maintain, because the race team budget is finite and I think I can get better value for money interms of faster lap times using the (saved) money elsewhere. cheers

Thanks for that, a few follow ups; #1 How? #3 Why does it need the standard ECU at all? cheers

Yep, tell him the rpm and load where the problem occurs and he should be able to fix it in a few minutes. The Commander map tracer function is good for performing that diagnosis. cheers