warps

I'm sorry but the only open top car that looks manly is the 427 Cobra. Anything else is for hairdressers

Yeh, but he's been watching his Michael Jackson tribute DVD's again. What he means is that he's doing a 360 spin (complete with crotch grab) and moon walking away from the Xbox. capiche?

Hoo BABY!!! Nascars around the ring is a hoot!! I have only managed 7th outright so far (soft tyres but no tweaks to settings). I can't do a full lap at race pace without sliding off somewhere. Haven't done too many laps around the ring in GT series - I'm relying on my GPL experience, but the track is quite diffierent to what it was in 1967. Still, I had my first go last night and my eyes were the size of dinner plates as I muscled the car around. Finally set up the surround sound and had the volume cranked up - I must say it's the most fun I've had driving a TV in a LONG time. Oh - the rally seems a bit better than previous GT series, but still retarded. Night driving - how the f... do you turn on high beams / spotties? Not nice having a 5m visibility cone in front of the car!!

that's just it - NSW's rally rego scheme has been dead for several years now, and I'm pretty sure that the ACT scheme is dead too. There has been much talk about a new scheme, but that is still on the drawing board (after many years). QLD has a scheme where imports can be registered as rally cars, and I think this will continue (C-plate rego). However, for locally delivered cars there really isn't a scheme, and QLD won't let you use UVP's. I don't think that any state currently has a rally rego scheme which will allow you to have a 6 point cage fitted once these new regs come into play (not certain about Tassie) As far as bolting in the front half of the cage for events goes, again this would be a problem where the events actually take part on public roads where rego is required. Not to mention liaison stages.

My impression is pretty much what Harry said This document is not new, it's just that there have been ways around it in the past. When it is fully implemented next year, there is no way around it unless the individual state governments bring in a special rally rego scheme that allows deviation from the code. This has been a long time coming, but as far as I know, there are no real rally gego schemes happening in the near future. Apparently, QLD's existing "special interest" rego (the S-plates that you see on older cars) won't allow cages anymore. Technically, they don't allow cages now, but people have been able to get away with it.

Highest G's in straight line aceleration you'll ever experience will be when that 22 wheeler kenworth rear ends you at a set of lights. Regardless of what car you're driving.

Just read some interesting discussion about proposed changes to roll gace legislation over at the gravel boys (BMSC) http://www.bmsc.com.au/forums/rallying-technical/25329-six-point-cages-illegal.html Even though roll cages have always been a bit of a grey area, it seems that they are planning on preventing any new cars to be registered with cages after June 2011. From what I've read, existing cars will be OK, but anyone wanting to register a caged car after this time will not be able to do so, unless there is in place a rally rego scheme which specifically allows it. This means that rally guys and anyone who has a street driven track car will no longer be able to legally register the cars (apart from C rego in QLD for rally imports, not sure about other states). There are ongoing discussions between clubs and the relevant governing bodies, to try and get this changed to something more workable. I'm not too concerned about banning daily drivers with 6 point cages - most of those are for show anyway. However, the legitimate guys who only drive their caged cars as part of their motorsport activities should not be penalised, and there needs to be a mechanism to allow it. Put simply, cars which compete in rallies (tarmac and gravel) need to have some form of rego to legally drive on public roads. (In QLD they won't let you use a UVP, so normal rego is really the only option for most). The motorsport governing bodies insist on roll cages in most cases, so it leaves us in a catch 22 situation. I also wonder about how this affects mining companies who insist that all vehicles enterring their mining areas must be fitted with roll cages. I haven't read any of their lignt vehicle policies for a while, so am ot sure what style of cage is mandated, but this could have a big impact on them as well.

This is not true. Plenty of rose joints in Datsuns in non sports sedan CAMS classes. Just need to broaden your horizons.

Higher pressure = smaller contact patch on the road = better at dissipating the water between the tyre and the road. This is a bit like the concept of skinny tyres dissipating water better, hence less likely to aquaplane, or if you think of letting tyres down in the sand to allow the tyres to "float" better on the sand. You can all but forget about building heat up in the tyres in the wet, so higher tyre pressure will at least get some rubber to touch the road.

No. I said price doesn't always dictate quality. Most of the time you get what you pay for - I agree, but just because something is expensive doesn't mean it is necessarily good. How much better is a $500 t-shirt than a $30 one? We've all come across products that are way overpriced, yet muppets continue to shell out for them. The fashion industry is rife with it, and some "name brand" car parts fall under that category as well but that's harder to pick these without experience. Some of the cheapo tools I've bought from your typical dollar warehouses have lasted me over 15 years of abuse. I desperately needed some allen keys on a Sunday when nothing else was open apart from a rejects shop type place (Was Mackay 15 years ago - no such thing as 24 hour trading back in those days) so I bought a set for $2. As none of them have broken, despite me doing horrible things to them, I still use that same set today. Granted, that's probably the exception rather than the rule

Meh. I've got a WRX and a Honda Civic and a beautiful wife He aint got nothin'

I'm not talking about products that aren't up to the same high standards as the expensive items (generally speaking here - price doesn't always dictate quality). One should expect that if they buy new stuff for a fraction of its retail cost, then it will be substandard, but still should be fit for purpose (and in fact, a business can not legally sell anyting not fit for purpose, regardless of the cost). What I'm talking about is the cheap stuff that people buy, which does not do its job at all, or arrives broken, or would clearly never have worked, ie is not fit for purpose. This is where people need to take the seller to task (specially a business as I stated earlier, as they are obliged to offer statutory warranty). There will always be people selling cheap stuff, and people buying cheap stuff. Nothing wrong with that, and you'll never stop it. I've bought cheap tools from time to time for various reasons, and have never been under any illusion that they would be to the same standard as the name brand stuff I normally buy. I've broken plenty of these cheap tools too, but always when I abuse them (even though I know that the name brand stuff tolerates the abuse fine). I fully accept this as I have paid a fraction of the price for the cheap tools, and they have done everything I have expected. Only when I use them outside the normal operating parameters have they failed - so I can only blame myself. However, if I ever bring a cheap tool home only to find it is broken or will not work, then I will immediately take it back for a refund and let the seller know that the merchandise is unacceptable. There's a big difference.

I thought that R30's still had the old recirculating ball steering??

To the OP - no need to get upset or abusive. You're right though. Just because something is cheap doesn't mean it's OK if it doesn't work. Unfortunately too many people take the attitude of "oh well, I only paid $xx for it - not worth fighting for it. I'll just cop the loss and learn from it". That's why the world is rife with this sort of crap. If you buy something, no matter how cheap (unless it is clearly stated as being sub standard, non working etc) then you MUST do something about it. It's the only way we will be able to get rid of these dodgy kents. But then again, that would require action and possible conflict, and that's just too hard for most people. If you're unhappy with the product, and genuinely feel that you've been misled, then take it up with the seller until you are satisfied. Whinging about it here will clearly not win you a lot of sympathy. Remember, some of us are proud of being uncaring wankers and arseholes. It makes life interesting.

Not that at all. He just couldn't bear another round of mereciless shellacking from Roy and HG after the sh!t they gave him last time.

I just ripped out Rfactor the other day for a little bit of fun, and it shows what a difference there is between sims and games. Not saying Rfactor is perfect, but some of the things talkes about here are in a 4 year old PC game. The physics are a lot more realistic than GT4 (haven't driven GT5 yet, so I'll reserve judgement and not comment) Crashing does NOT sound like hitting a wheelie bin lol. You can almost feel the pain when you hit a solid object If you mod your car too much it puts you up into the next class Start modding the car and it can quickly become an undriveable POS if you stuff up too many settings. I was setting faster times with a stock car with sports tyres than with a whole heap of mods. Tyre and damage models can be adjusted to be time dependant and rates accelerated Interior view looks pretty good, and you can turn off all the HUD stuff so you only have a speedo and tach to give you vital stats. The AI isn't too bad, and if you bump them they are just as likely to crash as you are (hehe not that I'd ever do that). They actually try to avoid running into you, and you can adjust their aggression Not suggesting it's perfect, or better than GT5 (again I haven't played it, so not in a position to comment). What I really like about it is how everything is adjustable, so you can dial in as much or little realism as you like. Apart from night driving- that blows. Have these people never heard of spotties? I used to love the night stages in rallying, but I've yet to see a computer game that simulates night rallying or racing very well.

Rattle gun will whip these nuts off. Some shocks have a D shaped shaft where it passes through the spring perch, which gives you something to stop it rotating. Others have an internal hex which lets you use an allen key (with a ring spanner). Best method tho is a rattle gun. Even if you don't own one, take it to your favourite suspension place and they'll ususally undo the nuts for you for a small fee (probably zero if you ask them nicely, or actuaually ever buy stuff from them). They will also have the spring compression stuff to do it all safely. Another way to compress the springs is to undo the nut while the struts are still in the car. Then jack it up and remove the whole lot (there are several ways of compressing / jaciking off a stub axle etc to make it easier depending on how hard it is to get the strut out, but that's too much to type coz I'm a lazy bastard)

Haha this thread is getting funny. Holden vs Ford in a Skylines forum Let's just throw in some WRX's, rotaries and Hondas to really make it interesting

Risking, I've just been going from my memory from when CAMS changed the roll cage regs back in 2000-ish (can't recall exact date). At the time, I'm pretty sure that the welded pipe was only 250MPa, so "not up to the task" accordig to CAMS. As a result, CDS was the go. I wasn't sure whether they didn't like the lower yield strength, or the seam in the welded pipe being a weak point / stress raiser, hence CDS becoming the tube of choice. I don't actually have any proof that welded pipe is unacceptable, and as you say it may be perfectly fine. In fact, "mild steel" sections these days generally refer to 350MPa steel, so based on that, the standard tubing is probably OK. Funnily enough I have a bit to do with steel tubing through work (mainly 4" - 16" diameter on dragline booms) but have never given the cages much of a thought. The specs we deal with on dragline booms prohibit the use of welded pipe, yet when the OEM sent us some replacement welded lacings, they quickly back tracked and said they'd be OK to use in our particular application, but not anywhere else. Yeah yeah. Edit: Do you go for a root gap when you join the pipes, or do you butt the pieces up against each other? I guess that the thin wall means that shrinkage of joints isn't much of a problem, so no gap needed.

In theory, yes, but if you know what you're doing, you can achieve lots of things. I wouldn't recommend any back yard modificationns, unless you have a sound understanding of metallurgy and engineering. There are plenty of modified brake / suspension parts (heated, welded, machined, ground etc.) that are perfectly safe on road cars, and have been used safely in competition cars, including rally.

Looking good. Good to see someone else using the drop saw mitre technique for prepping ends. No need for expensive notchers (I don't know why everyone always goes on and on about them). Are you using CDS tubing? (looks like it in the photos) How does the pipe bender handle it? Reason I ask that my cage fabricator stopped making cages when they brought in the compulsory use of CDS tubing, becasue his pipe bender couldn't handle it anymore. Then again, he ran an exhaust shop, so probably only used light bending gear designed for exhaust pipe. Annoyed me big time, becasue he used to make a great quality cage very cheap. Mind you; the market is different now, and there are literally dozens of options for getting cages made, so prices have come down a lot from 10 - 15 years ago.

Well, that's a positive. Hopefully you can steer with the throttle a bit more delicately than needing full throttle in first gear to get any sort of oversteer happening (RWD). Also, I hope that LFB works with the FWD's, as this is a very regularly used and effective technique - in gravel anyway. As far as the whole graphics debate goes, as long as I can see the track well enough to judge corners, brake markers, turn in points etc. (GT4 was crap for that) then I'm happy. I don't give a flying f*** about shadows / shiny paint / spectators / smoke int he mirrors etc. If the interior of the cars looks realistic, then that's a bonus, but something I would happily trade for good physics and track visibility. I don't even have a PS3 - may get one for Xmas along with GT5. Until then I'll be interested to see the developments here. Oh, and for those saying it's a simulator - it isn't. Try a real simulator (GTR / IRacer, GPL etc) first then you'll see that the GT series are games - nothing more. Not that there's anything wrong with that. For all the criticisms I've had about GT4, I still have a ball driving it, and I'm certain GT5 will be the same

Fuel economy isn't one of Subaru's strong suits. Never has been. My brother in law manages a Nissan dealership, and brought a Dualis up from NSW once on holidays. He was very unimpressed with its highway capabilities, and said it was very underpowered for the type of car it is. Hope the new ones are better. Oh, 21" wheels?

Hell No!! I'd owned and sold my import well before I ever set eyes on a GT game. You can thank Bathurst in the early 90's and wanting something interesting for motorsport for my buying an import. And I wanted something newer to replace my GTS2 10 years ago.

Yeh that';s a worry. I usually turn of the wheel if possible for that very reason. Still, I remember the hype when GT4 was released, and the game didn't live up to much of it. Nontheless, it's still a fun game. In the same way, I don't think GT5 will ive up to the hype, but will still be fun. As I've said before, If you want a hardcore driving sim, you wouldn't be looking to PS3 / Xbox / Wii for your gaming needs, and certainly not the GT series of games. Still, it's great light entertainment so I think it will still be enjoyable. Come to think of it, the reviews are pretty much exactly what I always expected of the game. I may have hoped for a lot more realism, but not being a proper simulator, I doubted that it would deliver. No great loss, and I'm sure it will sell well if for no other reason than people get to drive lots of cool cars and pretend to be [insert your favourite motorsports hero]