BigAl

The fact is, you can almost always buy a cheaper car and spend the difference in price and end up with a really quick car. ie. get a Commo or Falcon V8 for <$60k and spend $100,000 on them and sure, they'll be quicker than a Ferrari 360 . But they still wont BE a Ferrari. Same with the Rex- you can get it to be quicker than a stock GT-R but it will never BE the car a GT-R is. Regarding warranty - as soon as you do any performance mods that goes straight out the window.

Two fairly funny/stupid ones : Sitting in an office lobby and one guy says to his mate "Thats a nice Skyline out there" his mate says " Ahh theyre more common than Holdens these days" I was thinking if that was true you wouldnt even be having the conversation- my car was parked behind a Commodore and it didnt rate a mention. Another guy told me he could buy an R34 for $11,000 so I said "buy it then thats really cheap - it woud be a 1998 model at the oldest" he said "they are cheap cos there's so many of them around , more than Holdens " I said " how many Holdens do you see in that carpark? The only Skyline there is mine"

GTS-40Rced ,you,re nearly right, Ford GT40, but an origional Gulf le mans car- $5,000,000 US at least, but they won Le mans 24 hr race 4 years running. Next would be a Porsche 917k .

Duncan, it's illegal to advertise a price ex GST without stating "plus GST" . It is tax evasion to offer a cash price which doesn't include GST. So if they say "we didn't include GST since we thought you'd paty cash" they are guilty of BOTH tax evasion and false advertising. If they piss you off dob them in to ACCC AND ATO!

Manual or auto?

That is correct, int21h, and has been since GST was introduced.

Looks like a series 1 to me, unless someone changed the seats, steering wheel, dashboard, bonnet, headlights, and the trim between the tail lights......If it looks, tastes, smells, feels, and sounds like a series one,it probably is.

Rockers n' rollers would all be in retirement homes by now

Yoda, a 12 cylinder fires 6 times per revolution unless it's a two stroke

You have pm

I follow all that, they have a different firing order etc., but they still fire one cylinder per 180 degrees (four cyl four stroke) of crankshaft revolution, just like an inline four, but they sound distinctly different. I cant figure out why, and I haven't heard a satisfactory explanation. For instance, if you changed the camshafts on an inline four to give a different firing order the car (or bike) would sound the same. In fact I believe early Kawasakis had different firing order (1,4,2,3) from Honda (1,4,3,2) but sounded pretty much the same. If it's doing 1000 rpm then it's firing 1000 times a minute at 1/1000 minute intervals regardless of its firing order or configuration. So why does it sound different?

Goddamn, what happened there?

Drift is slower into the corner, through the corner, out of the corner, down the straight, under brakes, into the corner, through the corner, out of the corner, down the straight........................................................................ ................................................................................ ................................................................................ ...................................................................

OK, so they fire one bank then the other bank, but if it's a 4 into 1 exhaust I wouldn't expect that to make any difference. BTW, if you dont think Subarus sound like VWs you haven't heard a VW with a 4 into 1 exhaust on it. " VW has a metal chain on it" where?

I know that VWs (old Beetles, Kombis ) and Subarus have the same engine layout ie flat four, but I don't understand why they sound different to an inline four. Surely they fire once every 180 degrees just like an inline, but they sound completely different. Any ideas?

Advantages of a turbo over a super charger are that it is very light + compact,and it uses energy from the exhaust to spin it, which is virtually free. Disadvantage is mostly the lag- when you put your foot down it takes a while for the turbo to spool up and start pumping air. The bigger the turbo the longer the lag, which is why we see twin turbo set ups. ie two small turbos rather than 1 big one. Superchargers have the advantage of being driven directly off the crank- if the engine's running the supercharger is pumping, so no lag. The disadvantages with superchargers are thet they use horsepower to turn them,and they are usually bigger, heavier, and more expensive than turbo installations.

We've got a few Sulzer reciprocating compressors at my work, but they're not that big! Two of them have 575 kW electric motors and double acting pistons with a stroke of about 60cm. Those cranks look like they're out of a ship's engine.

I would have thought the bonnet line on a '90 + model 300 zx would be too low/short to fit an inline six.(vee six is a little lower+ fair bit shorter)

VAGINA!

Pasey, saw your thread on negotiating with dealers. $25000 might get you a decent series 2 from a dealer, but you'll have to sort through a lot of rough / resprayed cars. Privately you will probably have better success.P.S. I like white ones

Pasey, dealers have a few thousand dollars built into their prices which they call "loading". This is over and above their profit margin (about 10%).The loading covers things like transport, handling costs etc. and warranty.There is also an amount built in which is to allow them to offer a trade in valuation above the actual wholesale value of your trade -in.So it stands to reason that if you don't trade anything in you will get a couple of grand off straight away. You should by haggling be able to get maybe another $1000 to $1500 off on top of that. Never be afraid to walk away from a salesman, and dont think that this car is the only one around. If a dealer won't drop his price by enough then keep looking. Also , play one against the other, sometimes they will cut their own throat to stop you buying elsewhere. Treat it as a game and haggling with dealers can be a bit of fun!

Why not do what the Arabs do- leave the car running till next time you need it. Keeps it warm in winter and cool in summer

A guy I work with put a $2500 alarm in a celica. Theives used a truck to steal the car. He got it back 2 days later, only thing missing was the alarm- only thing of value in the car! Don't spend all your money on an alarm!

Some car alarms automatically shut electric windows when armed.If you have one of these it could be out of calibration, trying to shut windows when they are already shut.

TRY IT. 1 Get in your car 2 Put it in first 3 Start the engine -DONT TOUCH THE PEDALS. Your car will start and idle while moving forward in first.So dont do this in your garage! (OR parked right behind another car etc. etc......) This is how I got home without a clutch a couple of times.