Paul SM

Thanks for the thoughts on oils for the track. Regarding Mobil 1, I should clarify that I found a story about a lab test of 18 brands of oil in the Street Commodores mag (March 2006) - it was a real eye-opener and showed huge differences in the capabilities of those oils. At the top were Royal Purple and Penrite. Near the bottom was Mobil 1. I broke the oil ring at Wakefield about the same time, when I happened to be using Mobil 1 so put 2 and 2 together and switched to Penrite. It's interesting that in the same test Mobil Synth S performed much better than Mobil 1, at half the price, so clearly you can't expect all products from a given company to be similar in performance.

I would like to hear what brand and spec oils are being used for track days by serious Stag racers. In the past I used Penrite Sin 5 in my R33 Skyline, having changed to that after breaking an oil ring with Mobil 1 in the sump. The Penrite website doesn't seem to make any meaningful distinction between applications for Sin 0, Sin 5 or Sin 10 and I wondered which might be best for a modified R34 Neo RB25. On another forum discussing Castrol Edge 10W-60 there was much argument as to whether that oil was too thick so I don't know what they'd say about Sin 10 which is 10W-70.

Thanks for your reply - what colour are they, just out interest? if they're in good shape how about $50 for the pair? If they're a different colour to mine maybe we could do a swap with your front ones as well so that I have a matching set. My fronts have a little wear on the driver's side but the passenger side is perfect. If you want I'll send you some photos. We could talk about it - my number is 44485881.

No problem with the shop - they're willing to pay for a replacement and have been trying to find some. I will check the suggestion of R33 mats though, as I've seen some for sale. Thanks for the thought, I've just sent an email to JJ asking if the mats are the same for both cars.

Man, when I saw your reply it got my hopes up...! But thanks anyway. There are 71 pages of floor mats for sale on e-bay but not one for a Stagea!

If anyone has any Stagea mats for sale, please let me know. If anyone knows where to get Stagea mats, ditto. My mats were OK but the workshop where the car gets done accidently spilled battery acid on a rear mat. They are trying to find a replacement, as am I.

I'm sure you're right but like I said - 5 years of supersprinting on Splitfires never produced a problem... One lap on YJ's killed a coil pack!

The first time the YJ coil pack failed, it just died - nothing on that cylinder at all, so it was easy to identify the problem coil pack. This time one or more of the coilpacks showed signs of breaking down at high revs on the dyno when the car was having its modified ecu tuned. At idle all was normal. This meant that coilpacks would have to be changed then tested at high revs on the dyno, by trial and error, before the faulty one (or more) could be identified. No joy for the workshop in committing all that labour at its own cost just so that faulty ones could be replaced under individual warranty claims. You may be prepared to accept replacement under warranty on more than one occasion from the same set of coilpacks but I certainly would have no faith in the product under such circumstances; who is to say another one wouldn't fail the next time on the track? I had five years of reliable supersprint performance from the Splitfires in my R33.

I don't blame you for speaking up in your own defense but you don't seem to realise that to isolate the faulty coil pack O2 would have to replace one coilpack at a time and then run the car on the dyno to see whether it was the faulty one. Can you imagine how time consuming that would be? Why would they want to spend all that time and labour cost in order to be able to tell you which one had to be replaced? It has already cost them money to replace the first faulty one, yet you expect them to do more. For my part I was disillusioned enough when the first coil pack failed and cost me a wasted supersprint event. When one or more of the remaining Yellow Jacket coilpacks started to give trouble I wanted no part of them. I put no pressure on O2 - they called me when the car was on the dyno and confirmed my suspicion that another coil pack was playing up. It was very easy to just say "replace them with Splitfires" and they were in total agreement, given the alternative trial and error testing. I always believed that if a customer is dissatisfied with a product because it misperforms he should be entitled to a refund, no matter what your terms of warranty might be.

Will be keen to buy the floor mats if they haven't gone yet...

You can "Go Yellow Jackets" if you want to but I won't ever again. I had a set put in my S2 Stagea back in May '10 and a couple of weeks later took it to a Supersprint at Wakefield. They didn't last one lap before the car was on 5 cylinders - about $250 worth of entry fee and fuel wasted! O2 Autosport quickly found the offending coilpack. The company that supplies them eventually sent out a replacement and, soon after, I posted a thread about this experience - but that wasn't to be the end of it. A month or so later I noticed a bit of a miss at high revs and while the car was having a Nistune modification it quickly became clear that another of the Yellow Jacket coil packs was failing. Enough is enough - out with the Yellow Jackets and in with a set of Splitfires. O2 Autosport was then able to successfully tune the ecu on the dyno. But will the supplier take the set of Yellow Jackets back and refund their cost? No way, at least he's refusing to do so at this stage. Says he hasn't the equipment to test which one is faulty and reckons that his warranty is only to replace the crook one. Fortunately for me, as O2 Autosport supplied and fitted the Yellow Jackets initially, they put in the set of Splitfires for just the difference in cost and are now the ones having the argument about the refund. I feel sorry for them. Like I said at the beginning I will never touch Yellow Jackets again and would not suggest anyone else does either.

Hi, My local workshop managed to spill battery acid on the right rear floor mat so I'm looking for a replacement. Do you have any floor mats?

Series 2 Stagea floor mats. Really only need one right hand rear mat but will buy a set if you have one available. Please call me on 02 44485881 so I don't have to keep checking for a response... Thanks

Well Paul, I'm a bit dirty on Yellow Jackets at the moment because I just had a set fitted to my modified, series 2 Stagea RSFour S and then went to Wakefield to do a supersprint last Sunday week. The car went like a dream on the way down but I didn't even complete one lap before one of the new coilpacks died and the car was on 5 cylinders. I limped home, having wasted $195 entry fee and the petrol to get there. The next day I went back to the workshop (O2 Autosport at South Nowra) who confirmed the coilpack problem and ordered a replacement under warranty. As of last Friday the replacement still hadn't arrived. So yes, I would test your new series of coil pack but how about compensating me for the loss I incurred because of your faulty one? At least getting a replacement to O2 Autosport would be nice... Hope I hear something back from you, Paul Merry

I couldn't wait so I bought a 2nd hand one from Just Jap. They specified it as one for an R34 Neo but it's an RB manifold which is probably the same for R33's as well.

Looking for a stock exhaust manifold for a series 2 Stagea (Neo engine)

These coil-overs found a home in Brisbane earlier this month. Thanks for your interest.

I re-advertised this item in September this year for only $400 but someone still wanted to knock the price down even further and then changed their mind. I won't give it away because I now realise I could fit it to my S2 Stagea if I decide to improve its track performance

Please note that this item has now been sold. Thanks for your interest.