scathing

They should be factory. Tokico made the dampers for the Z33, so one can only assume they'd do it for the V35 too. They do make aftermarket dampers for the 350Z too, of course, but they're probably like Bilstein in offering an OEM as well as aftermarket option for the car. I was lead to believe, originally, that Tokico only made the dampers for the US models. I didn't look that hard at mine when I pulled them out, to be honest. Where did you get them from?

As for the douchefag with the "twin turbo MX5", most four-stroke 4 bangers don't have enough exhaust pulses to spool up a pair-in-a-series turbos, unless you use tiny turbos, or want to have a really narrow powerband. At which point, you'd be better off with a big single. Aside from the 2JZ-GTE I can't see anyone bothering to put two same-sized turbos in a series configuration. If he was running twin sequential turbos of differing sizes (like on the old Liberty B4 and FD RX-7s) it'd be different.

If you like corner carving, you're missing out. MX5s are absolutely amazing to drive as long as you don't want to go stupendously fast in a straight line (or up a hill).

I'm quite curious to see, in a thread about different models of GT-R, how you're going to compare one of the cars or one of the people here to Adolf Hitler.

Welcome to the world we've created. The thing about sexual harrassment is that, as others have said, its really hard to disprove and the penalties are really high. As employers, they need to err on the side of caution before some loser with sand in their vaginas calls the cops. When I worked for an ISP and went through the "sexual harrassment training", they said that aside from having no swimsuit model posters etc on the wall (fair enough, I could see how some girls might find it derogatory), if your partner worked with you then she couldn't sit in your lap. Just in case someone takes offense, or some shit. That, I thought, was just retarded....but them's the rules.

Have they been doing it as well as this BMW engine, with the same torque delivery as well as fuel economy / emissions frugality? Just because you build a road car engine doesn't mean you built a good one.

If you have a look at the posts I quoted, you can see Chris_R31's strengths don't involve being able to put two and two together. That's a bit harsh. His family doesn't deserve to pay for his mistakes. I'll settle for him getting busted and having his car crushed. If you have a look at the person who started this thread (i.e. me) you'll see that I have no love for the types of cars they're banning P platers. However, after reading some of the stupidity posted both here and on various Aussie car news sites, I'm starting to see why the government is doing it and why the cops come down so hard on them.

Now this is a video game contest. Only open to Europeans, I'm afraid. Source: The Motor Report

Another comment about the quality of this award is the fact that they awarded a displacement class to the Subaru 2.5L boxer turbo....you know, the one that's not currently available globally due to problems? Didn't Wheels also award the Holden Camira and Leyland P76 COTY awards?

The International Engine of the Year 2008 awards have been announced, and its great news if you like BMWs. They took out Best New Engine, and 2nd and 3rd place for Best Performance Engine. Unfortunately the VR38DETT didn't do that well. 5th outright. 5th best performance engine. Third best in its displacement class. Not bad, but certainly not as good as you'd expect for something powering a car people are calling a "Mini Veyron" at AUD$150K. The only thing of note is the judges. The Australian judges are John Carey and Bill McKinnon, who both write for Wheels. Anyone who's read that magazine would also know that the journalists who write for it seem to have regular disconnects with reality.....and most journos seem to have such a hard-on for BMWs that they'd make convention-attending, cosplaying, Trekkies look well-adjusted. If the rest of the panel is in the same calibre, a lot more of this makes sense. Source: UKIP Media & Events Automotive Magazines The list doesn't go up to 10, but I noticed that the VQ engine isn't listed either. If it didn't make the Top 10 in the 3.0L - 4.0L category, this'll be the first time ever that the engine hasn't made it.

I can assure you that STS is for real. Here's their 350Z dyno: Here is a US 350Z owner's experience with it.

Why is it a joke? If you aim for something considered unachievable, then "fair enough" is never "good enough". You keep doing your best to get closer and closer to that goal. If you just say, "Oh, lets aim for 200 fatalities nationally a year, because people are sure to die)" then what's the incentive to save those other 199 lives if you manage to drop below that target? Its accepting that half-arsed attitude that's half the problem with society these days. If you aim for perfection and just miss, there's no dishonour in what you've achieved.

Yeah, I've seen a couple of reviews of this STS turbo kit, and they reckon its not that laggy. It defies all thermodynamic principles, and makes your turbo piss-easy to steal, so its a "grain of salt" kind of deal. Its something I'd certainly want to test ride in before I put down my own cash.

Aye, it was certainly more even-handed and far less sensational than most subjects. They even poke at the media for creating a "folk demon" for your average ignoramus to focus their hate on.

I'm noticing that the Skylines featured are either winning drag races, or drifting around bends. All the cars are doing doing donuts or skids, or losing. Just goes to show that Skylines attract a better type of hoon.

Erm.... How can you have no traffic and "leave someone in a cloud of smoke", unless its some random pedestrian who happens to be standing in a non-built up area? If you're giving yourself a lesson, then you'd be the teacher too. If you know it well enough to teach, then why would you need to learn? If you don't know it well enough to teach, then how do you know you're not teaching yourself bad habits or incorrect methodology? Your evident inability to demonstrate an understanding of logic and causality, once again, demonstrates why you shouldn't be driving a high performance car.

Thanks for demonstrating why young drivers shouldn't have high performance cars. I couldn't have said it better myself. A lot of words, but not too many times. Try and back your bluster with data. Got Natsoft times for us?

In summary: Licensing and road governance is done at a state, rather than federal, level. In Australia, novice drivers have Learner and Provisional licenses, which have special restrictions. These drivers have to display special plates denoting their license. Several states have enacted legislation restricting what cars a P plater may drive. This includes engines with 8 or more cylinders, forced induction, and engine performance modifications (with some exceptions). The question that started the thread is how likely a P plater is to be caught driving a vehicle they're not legally allowed to drive and what will happen to them. Tangentally, people are debating how effective these restrictions are.

This thread might help: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Ty...ate-t72923.html

Not really, no. I really like the APS kit from a technical and turnkey standpoint, but I can't afford it either. If I were to go FI, I'd get the HKS Single Turbo. That said, another part likes beating turbo cars with NA. If I was sittting on 10K to spend on my car I'd probably throw it at a rebuild and 8000RPM redline rather than fitting a FI kit. I wouldn't get the outright power, but I'd get the snobbery that comes with outlapping someone in a less powerful car.

If everyone else is in an Excel, then it boils down to driver skill to see who wins. There's your motivation for a race right there. People will race anything and everything. The question is how fast they're going when they f**k up.

I don't think I've ever been accused of having a right mind. I punt my car in the rain. I just don't punt it as hard as in the dry. I've done a few wet-weather track days and I've loved them. Lowering the environmental grip levels teaches you to drive better, as you don't have as much margin of error. Lets say that the premise is that you want a fast car. You're presented with 2 options. In the dry they're almost identical in pace. In the wet, one is significantly quicker. Given the premise, its not a difficult choice. By that logic, there's no point buying any road going sports car. Any vehicle is as quick as you need it to be if you comply with all the road rules. There's nothing that makes any vehicle physically incapable of going onto a track, but who in their right mind puts that much wear and tear on a vehicle (and burns up that much petrol) to achieve a net velocity of zero?

I've been caught out! I love being treated like a 3 year old, lied to, and stolen from. And if I had $150K to spend on a car I'm the kind of down-to-earth guy that would prefer to be treated like the bint that thought buying a Micra was a good idea.

Manufacturers are doing it OEM these days, so there's nothing inherently wrong with it. As long as your tyre circumference on the rear is correct, for the speedo, and the circumference ratio between front and rear is unchanged (for ABS and traction control, assuming you have them) then the electronics shouldn't know any different either.

Is there any other kind? And they can do plenty. Pretty much every policy I've read says that your road car must be street legal. If your car isn't street legal, they reserve the right to void your policy. It doesn't need to be "related" to the accident. This isn't a warranty claim. This is a contract, and your non-ADR brakes just broke it. Most of the time its not enforced but if you crashed into someone they could claim it was your failure to brake....and if your brakes aren't legal, you're f#%ked.