scathing

This is my favourite part of the article: Yeah, like Summernats is going to ban utes from entering. I can see them doing that right after they make it a no alcohol event.

Now, why would Nissan specifically put answers in their FAQ about ethanol blended fuels? Its not like they profit from people not buying certain fuels over others. 98 Optimax is apparently ethanol-free, so its not like you have to go to a different brand to avoid it. Nor is anyone else selling 100RON at the moment to compete. What's the angle for telling you that you can't run certain pump fuel? And, with your "research" (which is more scouring of anecdotal evidence) do you think its not possible that Nissan, with its slightly larger resources, may have done some research themselves? And, if they were erring on the safe side, why only limit the "banned" list to cars built before a certain date, instead of all of them? I don't know if ethanol blended fuels (of any concentration) will cause permanent damage to some Nissans. I never said it was. My response to you was purely about your assertion that Nissan has not warned against it. But, then again, you don't know either. You believe you do, but you've got no concrete evidence from proper scientific testing. Just anecdotal stories from people who've tested it, and its not like ethanol blended fuels have been on the Australian market long enough to highlight long-term damage. But if the guys who have to pay for the repairs on your car under warranty say that some of their vehicles shouldn't run it, and you want to err on the side of caution, then as I said you take your chances. You were told not to - so if your fuel system gets f**ked you've got no-one to blame but yourself.

It appears your reading writing skills are about as good as your reading skills. I hope no-one ever takes your word for any life-or-death actions, because they're probably going to come out of it in a bodybag. The first line of your original comment, which I quoted in my response to refresh your memory, said (and let me quote it again since you're too daft to remember your own words), "Nissan has not discouraged the use of e5." Now, I linked to the Nissan Australia FAQ, where they say they do not recommend running ethanol-blended fuels. Now, AFAIK very little by way of facts penetrates your brain. The difference is, I can provide proof. There's no mention of what percentage of ethanol blended fuels they do not recommend, but they do mention a percentage in the first paragraph of the ethanol FAQ. And its quite reasonable to assume that this percentage is carried on throughout the rest of the response. It says: Now, if you live in shyster-land, "up to 10% ethanol" apparently doesn't include 5%. Unfortunately for him, in the land of people that passed 1st grade math before they got a license, it does. You're the kind of guy that goes to an "up to 70% off sale" and then chucks a fit at the counter when the pink shirt you want to buy is only 40% off because you're apparently getting "ripped off". Anyway, on a lighter note, its nice to see that your nick suits you so well.

Really? I'd say it speaks volumes about the breadth and depth of your "research". I realise this could apply only to Australian delivered models since Nissan Australia couldn't give a rat's ass about grey imports, and its not like Skylines have warranties to risk by using it. But, you take your chances. Shell Australia (who would otherwise profit from people who apparently drive sports cars buying their marked up, top-of-the-line fuel) are telling all pre-2004 Nissan owners not to use it. I've run a tank of Optimax Extreme through my Australian delivered, pre-2004 built Nissan. But I'll err on the safe side and not do it on a regular basis.

omg dat is liek so hektik i wanna orda 4 of dem fo mai phat carz, yo.

I have never chopped the springs on any of my cars. But, then again, I'm not a complete retard that deserves to die in a single vehicle car accident. Are these two things related? Maybe....

If I didn't do the more-than-occasional track day, I probably wouldn't have gotten the DS2500s either. Then again, if I was only doing street stuff I probably would stick to the stock pads. I don't ever go hard enough to fade out factory pads on any street cruises, and at least you know they're quiet and relatively gentle on dust.

I run DS2500s on the street, as do quite a few Silvia owners I know. In terms of stopping, they work fine in the middle of winter, even in the middle of nowhere. They might work a bit better with some heat in them, but they'll pull you up when cold. With Motul RBF600 fluid I have yet to fade them out with my relatively small brakes. They are very dusty though, and will squeal when cold. If that bothers you then I wouldn't get them, but if you're about performance then they're fine cold or hot.

I might pop around for a visit. Unsure if I'll drive out to the Northern Beaches, since I have to work that night.

Not in the dry if you're running half decent tyres, and all else is approximately equal. Then all that extra weight, and its location (some of it being unsprung, and it bringing your CoG forward) means that your 4WD car will be slower to turn in, more ponderous on changes of direction, and provide less steering feel. 4WD is only better under power in low grip conditions. Something that symmetric AWD owners seem to forget when they attempt to barrel their cars into a corner at a heroic pace, and end up running off the road.

What Duncan said. Unless one of the two cars runs dramatically shorter gearing, there's going to be nothing in it from an ET perspective. Once you rule out 2WD's weight and drivetrain loss benefits against the 4WDs grip advantage, you're going to have to start splitting hairs elsewhere...or the cars may as well be identical. I would have hoped that this was so obvious that it went without saying, but evidently its not.......

It depends on the track. On a windy, flowing track the car will do a better job than a bike, because of its ability to carry a higher cornering speed and changes in direction. Once you hit a straight, though, the bike will monster the car. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=29...998925&q=suzuki (Suzuki GSXR 1000 vs Westfield XTR4) http://www.dumpalink.com/media/1132741608/...Porsche_Carrera (not sure if this link works; can't view it at work) If Motor and Australian Motorcycle News put that Gemballa against the R1 on Wakefield instead of Queensland Raceway, I think it would have been far closer. Otherwise, if you could find a targa course that has a lot of blind and / or decreasing radius corners, or a lot of switchbacks, I'd bet on a car over a bike......unless your rider is as skilled as they are batshit insane.

Here's a response I prepared earlier

My car doesn't have an SR20 in it - I dunno if those mods will work on my car.

Yesterday my godfather and I met up, and he was going on about Korean crap against Euro cars. So I challenged him to a race. My Excel against his 360 Challenge Stradale. We're going to do it on the foreshore. How should I drive to beat him? I have 3 days to get my Excel ready b4 the race. Whoever loses has to give my godmother a foot rub. kthx

Possibly, but they won't be particularly good ones from a performance standpoint. I've asked my mechanic to install one on mine, and he's hesitant to do it because it means he has to drill into the bodywork and it'll ruin the look. If I can get a nice-looking one made up, I'll tell him to do it anyway and just leave it in the car when I sell it. But it won't affect your ABS or anything. What it does is stops your brake master cylinder from moving around, either from the force of the brake fluid being pushed through it, or G forces acting upon it and its mounting points. That kind of movement can affect braking feel and performance.

Offsets in themselves cause shudder. It might cause tramlining and change the steering response because you're changing the track and the net suspension geometry, but if the wheels are in good condition to my knowledge it shouldn't shudder. And the rim widths offsets you've given aren't completely different to other GT-R owners, or otherwise we'd all know about it. In what conditions are you getting the shudder? If its only under brakes, it could be warped discs and a light machining should fix it. If its all the time, then have the wheel condition, balance and alignment checked. But don't buy cheap wheels. They're heavy, which ruins the performance, and they're generally softer so they're more likely to buckle on you...which means you'll get the shudder again.

A CAI isn't much good if your pod isn't heat shielded. While a CAI might help drop inlet temperatures once you've picked up speed, it won't do much in stop-start traffic and you'll still get some heat soak. I've used one of those laser spot temp things, and after a fair weather session at Wakefield there's been a 15-20 degree differential between the engine side of my heat shield, and the metal ring on my pod. This is what my setup looks like: (The other side of the flex pipe is in the front air dam, so its directly in the airflow) However, around town there's not much in it. While I haven't measured it properly, touching the heat shield and the pod's ring doesn't bring up a noticable difference when I get home after going to the shops.

Since when is an industrial park a "private road"? Unless the boss owns the industrial park, and has it zoned so its not open to regular traffic. I don't mind giving it a bit of a squirt occasionally, but flat throttle for almost a kilometre on a public road? No offense, but shit like that is how sports car drivers score a bad rap from the general public.

When it comes to flow rates and particle trapping through a filter, how does the country of origin make a difference? Its not like you can "tune" a filter for certain engine characteristics, and even if you do its not like A'PEXi releases different filters for different engines. The only difference in the kits for specific engines will be the adaptor bits, not the filter itself.

He probably left the video in his other pants. Not to say his story doesn't stink like week-dead fish (a near stock R32 GT-R against a newish E55 AMG over 800m?), but it is the holidays.........

What irritates me most about that page is not the 450Z thing, but the image of what might be the replacement 200SX. Its ugly. And the Silvia is not a V6 car.

You're right. Because Volkswagen wanted to commemorate their rich F1 history, by building a car that weighs over 2 tons (which says "F1 technology" to me).

A fair few pro off-street race cars will run anti-lag. Most involve dumping excess fuel on throttle-off (normally by running it rich and taking timing out), and will either use a spark plug in the turbo's exhaust housing or rely on the hot turbine itself to ignite the fuel. Normally they'll use an aftermarket ECU, so you can program and choose what conditions you want the anti-lag to kick in. Aside from being very street illegal, you have to be a pro racer to run such a setup since your turbocharger then becomes a consumable. There's few faster ways of f**king your turbo's wheel than causing explosions on them.

Back pressure is not something you want in a turbo setup. That will increase lag, not decrease it. So, logically speaking, if the V8 Supercars were igniting fuel in the exhausts to generate back pressure...it would be counter productive on a turbocharged car. It wouldn't "pull air" through the exhaust - it would just block it. Of course, as people have said above its not the case. You can blow flames just as easily in your car by pulling out your cat and running non-baffled mufflers. Just rev the car hard and pop off the gas.