scathing

Hollow bars aren't as strong as solid ones. Unless these bars are a physically a lot stronger or larger, they'll be less effective than a solid bar. Ignoring the weight benefits and talking purely about strength, is the ARC bar more rigid than a solid steel one of the same size, or a larger diameter? Since most OEM bars are hollow, the fact that upgrading to a chrome moly hollow bar from what shipped with the car will still provide improvement is not in dispute.

Can you please explain to me how a trio of FWD 4 bangers compare to a 4WD V6? They're approximately half the cost (the Barina even less) of the VW. I'd run the Clio and Focus against a Golf GTi, but not the R32. I wouldn't even compare the Barina to the Focus and Clio, since it doesn't have the interior appointments, handling, nor power of its competitors. Those things will give an Astra SRi Turbo a run for its money; the Barina's got buckleys. The only "hot hatch" in the R32's category is the Alfa Romeo 147 GTA, since there's no STi wagon available on the Australian market. But, if you compare on cost (as most people do), its other competitors are the RX-8, 350Z, and STi.

From the pictures of the suspension that they have posted (which admittedly is only from the "outside" shot) its identical to a Z33's. Which means there should be clearance to run those front driveshafts. The Stagea has always traditionally been a "Skyline wagon", so them sharing the same platform isn't unsurprising. Of course, there's the small matter of if there's enough room for the driveshafts and turbochargers, since I'd hazard to guess that they'd be attempting to occupy the same space. The APS TT kit on a RWD Z33 puts out 300rwkW, which is about what a 996 Turbo makes at the flywheel. Unless the Nissan ET-S system and twin turbo kit weighs a lot more than the 50kg difference between the Z33 and 996, the Nissan would still have a power advantage. It'd probably cost 996 Turbo money to get it all sorted and reliable, though, but it would wipe the smirk off a lot of Euro car owner's faces. *sigh* If only my dreams were as attainable as your dream of upgrading your HICAS.

Depends on how many laws you're willing to break in your stop light drag race. If you're willing to do a 7000RPM dump in your GT-R on the street, the S15's got no chance.

But they don't run the same kind of "4 part series, featuring interviews with the shadow police minister who's an ex-cop, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at what cops are doing to crack down on this kind of hooniganism" when it comes to "Aussie battlers battling the bureaucracy"

Because you like kickin' it old school, pushrod style. One of the most common modifications to LS1s, after an exhaust, is to remove the MAF (which is apparently a bottleneck, not sure if its because its "only" 90mm or for some other reason) and reflash the ECU to run on the MAP sensor. The way I see it, removing your AFM and swapping to a MAP sensor makes you a "V8 loving bogan"

Good luck with the conversion. Considering your intended purpose and the rest, people would be foolish in wanting to knock you for installing a better HICAS system onto your car. If you're primarily street driving, the extra handling response and stability would be great. Not to mention a smaller turning circle for parking After watching your Stagea link, though, I was once again reminded of the nice AWD driveline in the 35's. Just wondering how much it'd cost to fit the AWD and HICAS system out of the Stagea / Skyline into a Z33. Couple that with a TT kit and I'll go hunting Porsches.

Happiness is just a mindset. You get the idle rich just as much as the contented poor. Reminds me of that story about the two kids. One is positive and one is negative. They're put in to a room full of horse shit, and given a shovel. The negative kid throws down the shovel, and starts whinging about the smell, how cheap the plastic shovel is, and just sitting in the corner having a sulk. The positive one is having a ball, going nuts with the shovel attacking the pile of dung with a big grin on his face. When they ask him why he's so happy, he replies back with, "With all this poo around, there has to be a horse around here somewhere!" I doubt I'd be ultra happy in that life, since I'd always want more, but I can tell you now that I'd be happier than living the life I have now, without the pair of houses and my limited edition, factory 500hp, Skyline GT-R.

I'm all for it, even though I think that ACA's program is gutter checkbook journalism at its most despicable. If the ACA realises that public opinion goes the other way and they can make ratings from showing the flipside, then they'll bring their infinitely biased and sensationalistic skills to shaming the RTA and government instead of young drivers.

You reckon that people laugh in Jamie Packer or Lachlan Murdoch, whose daddies pretty much set them up with everything? They even work for daddy's business in some cushy management job (wonder if they ever started "at the bottom" making coffee, doing the filing, or whatever). And in Jamie's case, his first attempt at doing his own thing was heavily funded by the old man and when it crashed and burned his old man bailed him out, leaving others out to dry. I'm glad that my olds couldn't afford to buy me some shit hot car when I was young (I probably would have killed myself, and never learnt to drive properly) but if my parents could afford to pay for my house (without leaving themselves destitute) I'd grab that opportunity with both hands. People can feel free to laugh.....while they're blowing away their income on rent while struggling to come up with a deposit. They can keep laughing when they finally get their first home and I'm on my first or second investment property, or maybe a diversified stock portfolio, and they can keep laughing in their lovely job when I've retired young and live off the income from the various investments. Or maybe I decide to spend more of it while I'm young on things I'll enjoy. The independence high ground doesn't put food on the table, nor does it get you in to the R34 Z-Tune I'd be driving to the 5 star resorts I'm staying at during my holidays up to Far North Queensland or the NSW / Victorian snow fields.

Or this link from Greenline Motorsports on the types of PFC. On topic, I'd say get the PowerFC. I'm not a big fan of piggybacks unless you're sticking to a light tune application, and there are a lot more PFC tuners than EManage tuners.

http://skylinesaustralia.com/forums/showth...ead.php?t=25494 - for some of the different PFC models.

Yes it does. There are a couple of PowerFCs. The entry model one, which is the most common, must operate with an AFM (on cars that had AFMs). They do sell Pro versions (can't remember exactly what they're called) that let you remove the AFM and run it off a MAP sensor or something, but those are harder to come by.

If you're strapped for cash I'd buy swaybars and drive on them before looking at a coilover kit. I put dampers in my car (on stock springs) and I only found a marginal improvement in handling after playing around with the settings, but with the swaybars were instantly noticable.

Best Motoring might not be the ultimate proof, considering you can tell that some of the results are staged. There are a few videos where you can tell one driver has backed off or not running at max attack. Then there's that "tuned motor" BMI race, with the hard tuned JZA80 RZ, FD3S, S15 and R34 GT-R. The S15 managed to get ahead and was leading into the final lap, when the R34 went in to the corner too hot and knocked the S15 and himself out of the race. Maybe, on that proof, R34 GT-Rs are too understeery and their drivers are obnoxious idiots who crash in to other people.... There's another BMI video of 2 modified (but still NA) AE86's completely blowing away an R34 GT-R as well.

So what you're saying is that you care not because of the principle of stealing people's names, but only because it goes against your prejudices in this instance. At least you're honest about your inconsistency.

If you don't do that then you're getting ripped off. A mate of mine recently bought a Navman iCN 510. He walked in to a Dick Smith and started haggling with them. Got $50 off the unit. He then went to a Harvey Norman, told them about the price from DSE, who beat that price by $30. He went back to the first DSE and told them about Harveys, offering them a last bit on it, and they lopped off another $10. I wouldn't have thought that DSE or Harvey Norman would bargain (but with their bullshit markup why not, I suppose), but since the satnav units aren't moving the retail sales guys are getting more freedom to manouvre in order to get rid of stock. You just need to know how to shop, and I'd be quite happy to give some guy a little shit, if he's getting paid to take it, so I can save $90. On that note, who ever pays retail on their car gear? I can't remember the last time anyone paid sticker price on their tyres, or mods, etc. Last time I checked, this was a community and the guys on here look out for each other. If someone's selling second hand goods for well above retail, you'd hope that members of your community would let you know.

Not me, but saying that a Silvia beats a GT-R on a Skyline forum is like some Honda fan saying an Integra Type-R will smoke a Skyline GTS-t; you're just asking to get flamed. Stock for stock, I'd take a JDM S15 against an R33 GTS-t. Power output's the same but the S15 is a good 150kg lighter, which should help offset the lower torque the 2.0L engine makes compared to the 2.5. Less weight, a tighter suspension setup than the GTS-t, and a nicer diff should get the Silvia through a course quicker than the Skyline. Stock for stock, or the same number of mods (rather than the same budget, since GT-R stuff costs more than Silvia stuff) I'd never bet against an R34 GT-R, unless I knew the driver of the GT-R was a complete muppet and the guy in the S15 was born holding a steering wheel.

And TCS enabled cars with a cable throttle arrangement just cut fuel and spark instead. Net effect is you lose power in both cases, so how is the Golf's fly-by-wire system any worse at it than any other TCS-fitted car?

And Ferrari has been using the "GT" prefix well before Nissan. And pairs of round tail lights. Maybe Nissan should have chosen something else instead of naming the GT-R, GT-X, GTS, etc and making the two "stove top" rear lights a signature part of the vehicle......

No-one said he wasn't allowed to sell it for $1,000,000,000,000. We're just giving him some helpful advice on how likely he is to sell it when people can get it brand new, with receipts and fewer warranty hassles, from a shop.

That's something my friend in his Silvia noticed when we go for drives. In the tight, twisty coutry back-ro...ermm....racetracks he has to brake early and baby it around corners to avoid running into the back of me, but on the open flowing stuff he has to make constant minor corrections to keep his car on-line while I'm enjoying the stability from the longer wheelbase and just powering away. For track work I'd probably take the Silvia. Less weight means the car's easier on tyres, brakes and the rest and you spend most of your time enjoying the steering response rather than rueing the high speed instability.

Saying that a Silvia is faster than a GT-R on this forum? I hope you're wearing your flame-proof underwear!

I've seen these phones on sale in independent stores that aren't rip-offs for mid-$500's outright. Buying a phone from a Telstra store is like buying computer gear from Harvey Norman or Dick Smith.

The S14s had VVT on their SR20DETs too. VVTi is a Toyota thing, so no Silvia has ever shipped with it. The JDM and Au S15s are the same motor physically. The only differences are the turbo (and that's a maybe, some Au S15s had T28BB's) and the ECU tune.