Beer Baron

yes I wonder how many times skaife will let himself get screwed by "honest" tom walkinshaw before he shows him the exit... it's pretty sad really. anyone that needs as many bloody shell companies and entities as tom surely has something he feels he needs to protect himself from. dodgey fker. anyway, GO SKAIFE! take a win at oran mate, that will cheer you up.

very nice mate. love it. the dry sump kit is a good investment. a bit hard to swallow at first I imagine but the guys that are running them don't seem to be blowing up any motors...

I reckon I'll head out to oran park this weekend to see the boy run his last race. might even slip him a sly $20 to help out.

farking hell. 2008 will be one to forget for poor old mark. no wonder his driving has been all over the shop. all that shit hanging over your head would tend to take the 'edge' off your focus...

you are tempting me big buddy. i do want to get some kind of crash rating for a 34 with side airbags... but i'm not that broke just yet. and good work kel. I went soft and piked early. plus it's not the same now that they shut level 4 so bloody early. surely we give 'em enough business to keep 1 lousy bar bitch up there till 10 oclock or so.

yep, sounds like you'll be happier with someone to share the trip with. and I'm glad I went with friends my first few trips for sure. it's quite easy to do most basic things in japan as lots of stuff is in english. but learning at least a little japanese will make a big difference. so I'd definitely look at doing some japanse lessons first if you can. friends I met with car related stuff was mainly through importing parts and cars. I have been buying and importing parts and cars for a number of years and I guess just met people through that who also shared a passion for japanese cars. and speaking a little japanese helps, and I guess I'm just a fairly friendly guy. I have been shown some amazing hospitality by people I just met. the first time I met Tomonori Akai, driver of the purple ae86 in this thread, and recently took 3rd place in an MSC pro class event (MSC is the rival series to D1GP), he invited me to come out for dinner with him in a few days, when I went there he took me to an amazing yakiniku place and paid for the whole thing (would have been hundreds of AUD). I had intended to take him out as he had kindly taken me out in his AE86, and some friends of mine too, and kept going until he busted an axle, but he paid for everything, then he took me back to meet his dad and show me their factory, and his dad's 'play room' and tuned 34 GTR etc. and we've been good friends ever since. so it is easy to make good friends in japan. and yes, I'm one of 'those guys' lol. there's no problem discussing whatever in this thread. it's all on topic anyway, and may encourage others to head on over.

love the pics mate. they look great.

so do I! in the meantime all I can do is look longingly at the keys for it dangling off my key hook.

what a f**king anti climax. can't believe I even came in here. bye!

I have to say, they do lift the look of the 350Z up a notch! nice. I hope your wallet is bulging though as they wont be cheap no matter where/who you get them from.

yeah, it was shannons. steve-o it started out as a base but we added a few of the premium options. there is little difference between. mainly just stereo, alarm and wheels/tyres. and I reckon if you sold all your 26s and 30s and parts and cars you could afford it! I'll even knock a few K off for you if you let me have a steer every now and then! here it is just before going into the container.

LOL, well I don't know for sure yet, will have to do the sums once it's all here and complied, but I would estimate around the $170K mark ON THE ROAD drive-away. and that is for a: 2008 R35 GTR, brand new direct from nissan JP, Dark metal grey, side air-bags, premium dark chrome wheels with the bridgestone tyres, 5 year paint protection coating, genuine floor mats (costs $2500 alone!), top of the line tracking alarm system, compliance, NSW rego, GST, Duty, LCT inclusive. basically just drive it away and pay rego transfer. I think that is about the cheapest anyone will get an R35 of that spec on the road, registered either imported or through nissan aus. there is certainly no fat in the pricing anywhere. and it was shipped via 20ft sealed container to ensure no damage or wharf joy riding which adds to the cost too. and we had it covered in the nissan body protection wrap too before it left JP.

cool, that makes sense, thanks for clearing that up. and yes I have heard some obscene costs quoted for dealer delivery and other dealer charges/options. but to be fair they surely will only be a small volume seller and do require an outlay for training, tools, parts inventory etc so I can see why they will want to tack on as much profit as they can onto the small number they'll sell.

with the LCT, the GST exclusive part of 154K is 140K minus the 57K threshold leaves 85K then apply the 25% LCT (or is it 33 now? I'm sure it was 25% on the last 2) gives $20K at 25% or $27K. and yep with the insurance for me with max NCB, under 30 but over 25, garaged, alarmed, low yearly kms, the price was very reasonable. I never deal with AAMI, NRMA etc, but never had a problem with shanons.

it cost me the same to insure the second R35 I imported for $150K as it did to insure my R34 GTR and my R32 GTR for that matter. so not such a problem.

I agree with what you're saying, but not sure how your customer got one for $170K under the current exchange rates. At the momeny 1 AUD buys 62 yen, and over the last few weeks it's even been down in the 50s. so 8.9mil at 62JPY/dollar = $143,000 GST 10% = $14,300 ($157,300) Duty 10% $15,730 ($173,030) so that gets us to over $170K and we still haven't calculated LCT, or shipping, or any japanese costs. LCT will be around $30K. (actually can't remember if they did the LCT on the tax inclusive cost of car, or just the FOB value like they do with the duty and GST. if it is on the FOB LCT will "only" be $20K). at current rates if I were to buy another R35 today I'd be estimating around $220K on road. The one I have coming at the moment will almost certainly be the last one. luckily it was paid for when the AUD was still mighty strong, so I'll only be asking the old rate for it. The thing with nissan is though they would have almost certainly hedged against their first 6 or 12 months allocation when they announced the pricing, so they probably hedged when the dollar was buying high 90s JPY. So at least for their first few batches they should be right. after that who knows what will happen.

well the R35 that I have coming was paid for earlier this year, so even though it's only being imported now, it will be sold at effectively the old rate, so some lucky person will get to capitalise on the fact that we bought the yen to pay for it months ago. if it was being paid for now I'd say it would cost over $220K. I think most importers will do the same as me if they can and do the right thnig and sell them at the 'old rate' as it won't be viable any other way.

yes, yes you are. where were all the other SAU people? lamers. but still 7 or 8 people is not a bad turnout these days. it gets a bit uncomfortable when it's just me and fatz and he spends the whole night trying to "low ball" me... whatever that is...

-I dont understand.. forging the RB25 would be miles cheaper wouldnt it? yes it would. - And for less money you'd get more power. yes you will. - As in the end, dropping in an RB26, for the cost is going to be FAR less powerful than the current setup! yes, if left stock the 26 wont be making 270kw out of the box, though it can get there with only ebc, ecu, cam gears, exhaust. so about the same as current power, and you can flog all the current gear. - Spending the rough 10K for the transplant, you end up with a stock RB26. VS a highly modded, reliable RB25 for less yes, but some people just want a 26. not much about modding a car is logical. if it were we'd all drive prius. there is something a little bit special about an RB26. look, it doesn't make sense at all. you'd be better off spending some money on your 25. but with your $12K budget, and the money from your 25 gear you can do it. I sold my complete 26 set-up (engine, afms, turbos, injectors, intake, piping, cooler, the whole shebang) for under $5,000. then it's just a matter of a few mods, the install work and bob's your uncle.

my god. that would be exciting....... not. bunch of furry tooth geeks those CT boys. tell them I said so. duncan really is sliding downhill. you need to sit him down for a serious talk kel.

well i've spent a small fking fortune on my grey GTR and it's probably the least nice car i've owned. I honestly have no bloody idea why I like it so much. I literally have enough parts to be given a complete empty shell and turn it into a fully running 600hp GTR. it's bloody stupid. but hey, almost finished now thank god.

that doesn't matter. the only thing that matters is what import approval it had when it was imported. that's what you need to find out. they were compliable under the old scheme, but the fact that we have had SEVS for a few years now and your car has still not been complied would mean it's very unlikely even if it had a valid import approval under the old scheme that they will allow it to be complied now all these years later. if it was imported as a race/rally car then yes you should be able to get conditional registration in your state, that is not a fedral/dotars thing though, you need to talk to vicroads about that one. RB25, R32 GTS does not meet the power to weight criteria for SEVS approval and has no other features to get it in. hence it's not on the sevs list.

you already have a good tuner (trent). ask him what he thinks. but honestly it's not a realistic goal. the best you can do is go to a 2530 or GTRS, to get you to the 250kw you want, but you will loose some response. if budget is not such an issue then the way to do it is: RB30 bottom end RB26 head with ITB set-up etc. ported head but squish zones left well alone ported exhaust mani GT-SS turbos mild cams or even better, V-cam. (these really do help spool up) good EBC more than 9:1 comp ratio this would be super responsive. I'd say you could hit 18psi under 3,000rpm.

to do it nicely, in a workshop, drive in drive out either option is $10K+. to be honest you would probably get more fun spending $8K on your RB25 and $2K on partying. but if you must do it, I reckon go the RB26 into GTST option. it's a pretty cool conversion. something about a GTR motor in a RWD GTST appeals to me. or, sell your car and buy one already done. there are a few RB26 powered R33 and R34s around.

PS: Kel, what is wrong with duncan. he too good to drink with us, or perhaps just a bit intimidated being in a room with so many good lookin blokes?