ras1983

I test drove one with a good mate a few weeks ago. I think it was the GT model. I'd buy one as a daily if I had the money. Yes they're a bit down on power but in real world terms they're as quick as hot hatches, which is plenty fast for a daily driver. And they use little fuel, have small (read: cheap) tyres, Toyota quality, and excellent handling. The reality is a car like the 86 can be driven hard and with a lot of fun on the road while staying within speed limits. Compare that to the average Skyline, where you floor the throttle for three seconds only to find you're in lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key territory.

On a different note, that is one hi-res photo! Damn good quality for such low light.

Any chance of starting up a google doc of some sort or a table in the first post of this thread to keep track of the restuarants mentioned? As interesting as the discussion is, it makes it harder to go through and find places in the 9 pages (and counting) of this thread.

There's also a chicken place in Strathfield square (opposite Strathfield train station, right next to Gloria Jeans) that has amazing chicken burgers with three bastings/sauces: chilli, lemon garlic, and pesto. It's about $12 for a meal (burger, chips and drink). I can't remember the name of the place though. They are closed on Sundays.

Yeah sorry johnnilicte's posted a link to the place.

Nonna Maria's in Parramatta has excellent home-made-style pasta for $12 eat in or $10 take away. The menu is limited and an old Italian man does all the cooking. Well worth a visit.

Since we've moved onto the topic of crappy tyres... I've never understood why people buy sports cars and then buy cheap, crap and potentially lethal tyres. What's the point of doing that when tyres basically make or break a car? There are plenty of decent mid-spec tyres available that won't break the bank and that will at least give decent levels of handling.

Exactly. I honestly think winning such a large sum could potentially ruin lives because the winners didn't work for it and it's not an ongoing stream of income, so it would be way to easy to blow it all away and end up with nothing (although that's probably harder to do with $100m, lol). Then you've got the problem of having friends and family finding out and wanting some of your winnings and having relationships destroyed because of money. It would be difficult.

I reckon I'd keep $10m myself, with which I'd buy a McLaren F1 as a collectable and a couple of nice daily drivers, along with some acreage in the NSW south coast (I love the Kangaroo Valley/Kiama area) and couple of nice houses/apartments in and around Kirriilli, Watson's Bay and Manly. Then I'd pay off my parents' mortgage, give some money to some friends who need it, and set up a trust fund for my little sister so that she can pursue an arts career without having to worry about basic living expenses. The rest, which would be somewhere in the vicinity of $70-80m at the very least, will be somehow split up between: - giving a few mil to the stats/maths department at my old uni, and quite a bit more to the stats/maths society of Australia - they are severely underfunded and we're not going to advance as a country unless we have strong maths and stats skills going forward. the bulk the funds will probably be go towards providing future funding for R&D places and university places to do with math, stats, and physics (and maybe comp science). After all, it is not a coincidence the world's leading economies are technological powerhouses. - term deposit, for which the interest will be used to provide university, tafe and training scholarships for young adults and kids who are talented and want to succeed but don't have the family support/income to do it. As we become increasingly like the United States, we are becoming a country where education and training is increasingly inaccessible unless you are a genius or have relatively rich parents. That's an embarrassment as a nation. Somewhere in there would be some funding for the crappier schools that can't provide top notch facilities for their students, let alone talented students.

Pics of engine bay?

Lol I should update the profile pic - the car was stolen and written off in 2009. But that's good to know re: steering wheel.

Is that the original steering wheel? If not, why was it replaced?

One key thing, that has been mentioned in passing, is that most major lenders will NOT enter into a secured loan for cars that are older than 5-7 years (depending on the lender). So, after you bring the car to Australia via unsecured loan, you might either need to engage the services of a broker or try and negotiate something with your bank.

I've only seen a couple and to be honest they weren't the best quality. Maybe I'd change my mind if I happened to see an immaculate one. One of the ones on Carsales that has me thinking hard is the yellow one in Perth. I'd like to see that one in the metal.

What he's saying is a car like a GTS-t/GT-t or GTR is a waste of a car if it's owned by people who's primary concern is looking good. Let's be honest, it cheapens the brand's image and allows Skyline owners to be stereotyped as fully sick uleh. Kind of like what's happened to Supras.

Mate, I'm not saying clean cars shouldn't get more money. What I'm saying is I wouldn't pay more than $45K for the cleanest 'regular' Vspec I on the market (basically I think most series 1 - and some series 2 - GTRs are overpriced). 'Regular ' Vspec II maximum of $55K, maybe even $50K. The only exceptions to this rule for me are either models with limited colours or special editions (i.e. collectable cars).

Great thread revival considering the currenct economic climate. I think sellers asking $45-$60K for a R34 V-spec I are kidding themselves. I wouldn't pay more than $45K for the cleanest of these cars. In my mind, V Spec II are the last of the line and are rarer, which might make them worth $50-$60K. The only really valuable cars in the long run will be the limited editions (e.g. MP coloured cars, NUR-specs, N1, etc). Although, if I had the funds, I would happily pay $50-$55K for a Bayside Blue Vspec II Another thing to keep in mind is the complete and utter failure of the second hand import market in Aus. We're starting to see R34 V-spec Is sell for low 40s, and a lot of them are taking a really long time to sell. It's been that way for some time and the R34s have done better than other cars so far, but won't be completely immune in the long run unless we're talking about a limited edition model. Also I agree Terry that R33 GTRs are probably still the best bang for buck out of the skyline family. Another great bang for buck car is the Supra RZ. Problem is there aren't many late model manual RZs for sale in Aus

One thing to remember is that these sorts of cars would be bought by collectors precisely because they are so rare and collectible. Collectors like the Sultan of Brunei or Jay Leno. And seeing as all Juke Rs have been sold, Nissan must have done something right Car companies should do this sort of stuff more often.

How stiff would the suspension settings have to be to stop the tryes from being sliced by the wheel arches??? And how much must the handling be compromised with such aggressive camber???

An interesting article by Chris Harris that I hadn't come across before: http://www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=52&i=25390

I think with the right rims and ride height, the R33 GTR can look as good as the R32 and R34. Have a look at the wheels magazine website. They used to have a section on GTRs, where they reproduced all the GTR they'd done over the years. There was one review in particular that pitted a R33 GTR Vspec vs HSV GTS-R vs E36 M3. You'll be unpleasantly surprised by the result ;-)

I can't tell if that's a race or the parking lot of a Nissan production line, lol. Gotta hand it to the japs, when they have a meet they have a meet.

You're forgetting about the 'regular' R34 that you'd also own and would use for driving around

We can pretty much end the thread right here: Midnight Purple Z-Tune (see http://gt-rr.com/product.html?m=nismo_japan&n=bnr34_gt-r_nismo_z-tune_midnight_purple_1_of_1&id=949)

The problem is stocker R34s have a laughable ride height but a very low front lip/diffuser. So it's a choice of dropping the ride height so that it doesn't look like a 4WD or protecting the front diffuser.