scathing

http://www.mazda.com.au/mazda6mps/ I hope you appreicate me posting the link for you. Do you have any idea how hard it was to visit the Mazda Australia web site, click the link for their current models, and then choose the Mazda6 MPS?!?!?!?!? I may need a lie down.

The thing is, for your average Joe that's great advice. The last thing you need is some moron arse about unplugging shit, and then breaking the car. It heads off potential warranty claims. Still, its better than those Audi A1's where you can't even pop the bonnet without a key that only the service centres have. So no checking your own fluids, no roadside assistance...... But yes, most sales guys are f**king idiots. They wouldn't know their asshole from their earhole, and they'd sell you both of them if there was a fat commission in it.

Depending on what condition I'm in on Saturday (I have a birthday party / pub crawl on Friday night) I will come and watch. I doubt I'll put the car up though.

........and have acquired the skills to through experience

You're going to need to explain to me why you "need" a turbo, and how your "love of the woosh noise" (as opposed to its performance and economy benefits) doesn't count as an excuse to look cool....... As for the meat of your post, I'm a little dubious (as if that's surprising given how hare-brained everything else you've posted on this topic is). Unless you're driving to and from Canberra every day, technically your place of residence (i.e. the place you're living most of the time) is in NSW. You'd only be living, at most, 2 days a week in the ACT. If you get caught, you'll get busted for not transferring your license to your home state. So registering a car in another state while living up here is no less illegal than having a NSW Provisional license and driving a turbo car. You're less likely to get caught, but that's not the impression you're giving from your first post. If you rego your car with ACT plates it'll be even more obvious. If you rego it under someone else's name with NSW plates and whack your P's on then you'll still attract attention from the cops who will see a NSW registered "woosh" car with P plates, and pull you over to investigate. If they see you around a bit then they'll book you. I know someone from another forum who moved over from WA and didn't transfer his rego. When the cops pulled him over they called WA, ran through the databases, and found out that he hadn't lived there for over 3 months and booked him.

That's usually because a bunch of people buy cheap knock-off wheels from a Chinese manufacturer and then resell them under their own brand. Hence why you can find the same rim (bar the logo on the centre cap) being sold under a variety of brands around the world.

It provides marginal (at best) performance or reliability benefits, which you acknowledged by crediting SK's points, while providing a security weakness. However, it does give you another flashing light in the cabin. How is it not rice?

Except for pretty much any OEM that makes a turbo diesel. Few modern turbodiesels don't use it - I know one of my mates was considering putting a variable vane turbo off a diesel Patrol onto his petrol motor....not sure how far he got before he got rid of the car the engine was meant to go into. An article on the 997 Turbo's new snails can be found here.

Should we also drive around in it without our seatbelts on, so when someone else crashes into us we can put our heads into the windshield? Because that would be an awesome way of promoting SAU as a place for responsible Japanese Import enthusiasts....the kind of reputation that NS.com has earnt. Members of NS.com thinking something is a great idea is one of the best arguments against actualy doing it.

If I were to build a "toy" car that I'd own and slowly work on (assuming I have access to a daily driver) that I wasn't going to build into a track weapon, I'd probably build a Volvo P1800 with an RB25DE or RB30DE in it, or perhaps even an old M3 engine. I want the engine to have the howl of a nice NA inline 6. I don't want flutter or BOV, and I'm not after the power. Even with all the chassis bracing I'm going to have to do the vehicle will be relatively light, and its not a racer. Its a good looking cruiser with a nice sounding motor. Interior wise I'd leave stockish. If I replace stuff, I'd get stuff that looks like it belongs in a car of that period. Under the skin, I'd try getting the suspension to handle as well as possible but there's only so much you can do on a budget with such an old car.

Blitz Technospeed. (They're not mine, but I recognise them) EDIT: Blitz Technospeed Z1 (Warning - stupidly large PDF link from the Blitz Japan web site)

You might be the first person to ever say that their DS2500s don't squeal. Although some people have had good results using Wurth anti-squeal paste. I reckon the DS2500s are a great sports pad. They don't need any heat to work well, and they'll cop a fair amount of punishment. Aside from the squealing, they will also dust up like you wouldn't believe.

You may get useful responses quicker if you posted a link that worked.

So you're saying that the guy's brains were in his ass (he's aspires to a Commodore so that doesn't require a suspension of disbelief), and the paralysis that affected his legs also reached a half a foot higher? I'd concur with that.

Truer words have never been spoken. Your average person just doesn't know what to do with a shitload of money, and so they just waste it. Quite a few lottery winners have ended up broke because they just threw all the money away on f**k knows what, or ended up miserable. If I was a paraplegic, I would blow a whole wad of cash on one of those motorised wheelchairs that can drive up stairs. It uses 3 wheels (similar to some trolleys) and a similar gyro setup to a Segway to traverse stairs. And then build a home that was wheelchair friendly, for the times that I need to recharge / refuel the "cool" wheelchair. At least then it would be directly benefit the circumstances that lead to the payout. Maybe they should set up some state equivalent of a trust fund, and pay the claimant in installments or something. Like work out from the average lifespan of an Australian, and then divide the payments weekly or fortnightly so you pretty much get paid when you die. Should the person pass away before it all gets paid, then it goes into their estate and the person can pass on the stipend in their will. If they outlive the payments, there's always social security and the like. You could make the entity that has to pay give a lump sump to the trust fund, who can then invest it and try to earn interest so the money lasts longer as well.

Exactly. Its amazing how when people jump up to defend the person who starts the thread for doing something completely stupid, that they miss the point of why everyone else is ripping into them. Was it a matter of life or death that you go? Were you heading to some place that magically lets Skylines in but not taxis? And, regardless, unless it was a matter of life and death at that specific point in time you've still go no excuse for speeding. My original comment, that if you can't tell that you're doing 40km/hr over the speed limit by watching the scenery go by then you shouldn't have a license because you're too stupid to operate a motor vehicle, is still valid. And it is constructive feedback: "Do everyone a favour, and get your idiot ass off the road." "Take a lesson in maturity, and cop your punishment for blatantly breaking the law." Take your pick, or take both on board.

You can get RB74s. I'm not impressed with their performance (compared to other "sports" pads) but they're cheap as.

What about Advan A032R / A048, Dunlop D01J / D02G's, to name a few? These are all available in Australia. Falken Azenis RS-V04s are not officially available, since they're not street legal in this country. I've run Azenis RS-V04s on my car (I thought they were legal) and they're an ultra-soft R compound. They're practically supersprint / hillclimb tyres since they overheat on a 15 minute session. The dry weather grip was amazing, but they were so skatey in the wet. I've got a set of Advan A032Rs on the car at the moment, and I am very impressed with them. They were used, and even so their wet weather grip is as good (for commuting) as my "street" tyres. Where the RS-V04s would bring me to at least 1 oversteer moment each time I drove it in the wet, the A032Rs have been stable and grippy in the rain. They also hum less.

Its not a matter of opinion. If your concern over owning a GT-R is because its over the power to weight limit, then your issue is whether its legal. And that's not a matter of opinion. The law is pretty f**king black or white. You're fishing for an answer you'll like, rather than one that's accurate, if someone tells you where you stand legally and you start asking for other opinions. You might get an answer more to your liking, but it will be wrong. It sounds like you're not mature enough to drive any sports car. Another opinion, since you asked, is that you should trade your car in and buy a Corolla.

You're handicapped and can't land a job that requires you to have mobility anymore. So I'll just throw a whole bunch of cash at a depreciating asset with the money the courts gave me to nominally support myself. If I was throwing money around, I would have found a way tpo strengthen it. Convert the car to a tube frame by running a full titanium cage all the way through the vehicle or something....it wouldn't be street legal but as if that's stopped most of us.

Ironically Australia is just as, if not more, litigous than the US in terms of volume per capita.

If the engine is running, what doesn't work in his car exactly?

The thing is, at that price range you will have major problems trying to sell a spartan car. People in that range expect all the mod cons. Lets say the car is $200K. (That's not unreasonable considering that's the price of an entry level 911. Does anyone know how much a Porsche 911 was back in 1989?) Few people who can afford $200K cars will want something with basic air con, and non-powered seats, and no cruise control etc. The "base" GT-R isn't being aimed as a niche vehicle to compete against Noble M12 GTO's and other low volume hand-built cars. Its still a production vehicle, lining up to decimate M3s and kill 911's. You won't entice people away from those 2 cars if you can't match them for comfort as well as performance. That attitude killed the original E36 M3R. They built a street legal track day special with no stereo, no air con, etc.....and BMW couldn't sell them all. In the end they had to retrofit all the fruit to get rid of them. Hence why the E46 CSL came out here with air con and a stereo standard, even though in Europe they were optional. Nissan could build an N1 variant to be harder edged, and there has been talk that they're trying to push the NISMO brand internationally to rival STi and RalliArt which could then offer a sportier version.

Warming up, I usually start the engine as soon as I get to the car. Then if I have anything to load into it, I'll put it in. Get in the car, put the belt on and make sure everything's right (checking mirrors, gauges, etc) before slowly driving off. Usually around 30-60 seconds. As blind_elk says, your engine will warm up faster if its got load. So I'll drive it around gently until the water temp gauge increases. Don't forget, your water temp gauge doesn't tell you everything. You still have no indication of how hot the engine oil is, not to mention transmission and diff fluid, tyre temps, and the rest. Half of them won't even get heat until you start moving. As for cooling down, I don't drive a turbo but like all modern engines mine runs hot. I prefer to cool down on the move. In the last few minutes I'll drive it at low load; luckily its downhill to my place so I tend to just coast in a high gear. Leaving your engine idling when you pull over is great for passing oil through your turbo to help cool it down, but with no air flow over your heat exchangers....where does that heat end up? Its not going to dissipate itself.

Chemistry, huh? Carbonated drinks + mentos = fun!