NZM.031

my a/c didnt work since i bought the car.. compressor died from a dud pressure switch.. demister and fan worked fine.. no dramas, took a little longer to heat up but all good... the silly automated temp control mixer motor thing had it stuck on hot anyway.. fark me it was hot inside that car so im used to no aircon.

and on that bombshell... i wont be doing a dutton within range of fatz driving. haha.

alot of the silvia guys are doing crazy things to get the ride heights that they do.. one guy is modifying his rear cradle and top hats so the geometry is the same at 60mm off the ground as it was when stock. there arew some very cluey guys on that forum. and you only have to look at the way their cars perform at their given duties to see that stretched tyres do work.. extemely low ride height can work, and r33 lca's do work.. there have been full arguments on here about all of those things yet the proof is in the pudding..

i just finished reading that thread... 43 pages!!.. and it starts off with alot of guys knowing very little, and learning lots along the way. from what i can understand.. -steering rack spacers increase lock by allowing the rack to move further before stopping.. -less offset = less inner wheel scrubbing... need guard rolling though. -modifed knuckles change ackerman so the wheels at full lock are close to the same direction as well as changing the leverage points for the steering, so turns lock to lock are reduced and steering is quicker and has more movement for the same lock to lock turns due to the smaller arc which the tie rod end moves in. can also change tie rod height so -tierod angle can remain parallel with the ground on a lowered car. -notching chassis, moving castor rod, removing stoppers and hammering up the chassis lip all help to reduce scrubbing. -longer lcas push wheel out further from scrub area... same effect as spacers, - offset wheels -at extreme lock, tie rods go over centre and want to go the other way rather than coming back, called binding.. rack needs to be moved forward or nigels spacers fitted to tie rods. -low profile, stretched tyres ftw! so start with the basics and work your way up.. lots of castor, steering rack spacers and low offset wheels with small tyres to start with. alot of guys have found Roll Centre Adjusters arent worth the money in a drift environment.. money better spent on modified knuckles. different for Grip though.. but the ackerman angle is different for Grip aswell. cheers Linton

i like rotors for rotors... i dont care how they work, or how efficient they are... i dont even care how much power they have. there is nothing like a rotary.. atmo, turbo, 12a, 13b, 20b, injected, carby, pp'd, stockers, wateva.. rotors are cool.

just chase up some 2nd hand coilovers.. i got some cusco ones from a half cut, and rear ones from the same car but a rear half cut. cost $500 for all 4 and they were like brand new.

does it not have alot to do with exhaust manifolds and pipe length?? like a wrx with stock manifolds sounds like a lumpy rex... but put some equal length extractors on it and it sounds close to a a normal inline 2L 4 cyl.... ahh forget it, im not getting involved.

can be due to alot of things... worn shocks, soft springs, worn cradle bushes, hicas mucking around, low tyre pressure.. high tyre pressure.. start at one end, work your way through and replace everything... your talking about a 20 year old performance car... doesnt matter how clean it is, or how low kms it has.. stuff wears over time and flogs out.

id say it was just a scare tactic.. to freak me out thinking that they were coming to get the car and to justify their coming to my house.

they most certainly are.. the problem is not with the wheel.. or its size or its offset.. the problem is with the ride height and the tyre scrubbing the wheel well over bumps..

thems the ones

it most certainly was pretty good. couple of good shots, 4 page spread.

but it cleared the caliper... why would i need a spacer?? and if i had a spacer, the tyres would be fouling the guard.

17x8.5 not sure on offset.. only just cleared the caliper but didnt have much dish.. 215/45/r17 tyres.. the tops of the tyres were already just outside the lip.. that was with stock arms... just coilovers. maybe with some more castor and some more camber it may clear it a bit better...

no worries... thats all i needed to know. i didnt think it would be ok... crumple zones and all.. ill just give some of the rubbing spots a good ol massage then.

hey guys.. looking at the idea of putting in some wheel tubs at the front of the 32.. at the ride height i had it scrubbed over bumps.. i liked the ride height, not the scrubbing so much.. so i was thinking about tubbing the front end. aka just wondering how the nice people at the rta and highway patrol peoples take to doing this.. i really cant see how they would even notice if its done cleanly.. and its not so i can excessively lower the car.. its just so that it doesnt scrub so much. thought i would post in here so the narks dont jump up and down about it being too low for good handling etc etc. it handled good at that height and i liked it.. just dont like the scrubbing over bumps. for interest sake, heres a pic of the ride height

also helped by slow reaction times for braking points and a small case alcohol induced invincibilty.

i had this happen.. cops came to my house.. knocked on my door bout 8pm. apparantly old mate was following me and i lit it up through a set of traffic lights.. he couldnt do anything at the time he was following me as he was off duty, but came around later when he was on duty.. they wanted to inspect the car.. which was in the garage with the head off.. said they were coming to take it but couldnt because they had planned to drive it away and that they may come back with a tow truck... pfft. yeh right.. they left after about an hour after my mum and old boy gave them an absolute reaming for disturbing us why couldnt they just leave me alone just because i owned a skyline... so did i do it?? no i did not.. there was a maroon VN SS in front of my mate's 180, and then there was me.. 3rd car back.. the VN lit it up off the lights and carried on down the street, my mate and i drove through the smoke and thats how he tried to pin it on us.. the guy in the VN was well known to them, but because he played footy they would let him do what he wanted pretty much.. cops are tops!

haha its there terry.. dont worry.. i forgot to send in my pic of you doing the big foot impersonation.. maybe next issue. that kanac article was brilliant... i gave it to my mother in law to read so she will stop hassling me. its PI now... i dont know why... seems a bit weird to me... HPI or High Performance Imports just rolled off the tongue better. this is one of the best issues ever. Hakosuka is best old school hero Nigel Petrie's S13 is best silvia... it gets my vote, that thing is a work of art. and there is a really good article about the 3x initial drift silvias.. which has a great line in one article that says something about "having 300kw and realising it was just too much, and rebuilt it to have 266kw which was much more controllable.." thats proper speak right therr...

this is the only pic i have at the moment of my steering knuckle... you can see where its busted near where it mounts to the upright.. it has a nut under that top cover and it looks bloody similar to the r33 ones.. even though the top arm is different. ive found a pair of modified ones like the ones in that picture and for the same price as 1 x r32 knuckle from a wrecker. and im having trouble finding one on here as a) everyone wants to keep their wrecks rolling and b) noone wants to post them as they are reasonably heavy with the hubs in them. cheers for the help Linton

sorry to get back on topic... but for interest sake i thought id just post this up.. i removed my a/c in the engine bay last night.. compressor, bracket, bolts, condensor, piping, reciever dryer - 15kgs hicas valve in engine bay - 5kgs battery - 10kgs by moving the battery to the back.. thats 30kg in front of the front wheels.... gone!!.. i picked up my 2 15kg weight plates to feel how heavy 30kg is being able to be held in two hands and its heavy.. next thing im going to try and do is locate the charcoal cannister, power steering resovior and coolant bleeder tank behind the front axle somehow. back on the new topic at hand.. i find i have difficulty breathing with the a/c on and i harldy ever use it.. its never worked in the 32 and weve survived a summer and a winter without it.. now that its not a daily driver or even weekend warrior, im sure it wont be needed.. i need fresh air.. even if its warm..

who cares what they look like?? well their sponsers for one.. if you have are advertising on a less than attractive car.. then you mayswell be advertising on the under carridge of a bus.. this is the top level of drift in this country.. the factory teams with sponsorship should atleast be able to tie together a car that is nice on the eye.. theres nice looking cars that are beat up.. cable ties and duct tape.. then there is just weird looking. everyone knows the knight sports cars because they had the really nice bodykits, big wheels, and chrome stickers on black paint. everyone knows the supermade cars because of their candy red paint and black roofs, and their big wheels.. and if a young fitter and turner can produce some of the most rocking cars that from both a cosmetic and engineering level are absolute masterpieces that amplify the cars factory lines and really look and perform awesome.. lots of drift cars look awesome.. and the ugliness makes them sometimes.. just gives that little bit extra to show its being properly driven. drift is all about style, flair and showing off.. to go to such an effort with the above 300zx and to not have it turn out so cleanly as some of the other cars in the comp has turned me away from it which is unfortunate for its sponsers, of whom im not sure are because i havent really taken interest in it. im not bagging on the workmanship of the car, or it ability to drift.. or the drivers ability to control it.. im just saying from my viewpoint, as a drifter from long time ago, that this car is not a stand out for the right reasons and is not encouraging me to buy its sponsers products. id rather go watch GTS4WD have a ball of fun and watch him improve over the day and watch his car develop over time. which is what drifting is all about.

the only problem i have with mig welding is the feed speed.. i like stick/tig because the pace is set by hand.. not by the wire feeder.. and my welds always look birdshitty because i start with the speed to high or not hot enough.. smart thing to do would be to find the same type of steel and practice first, but its always different. hate the old school helmets, i like the ones you just hold in your hand and cover your face when needed... for me its easier as i have a small head (i have to wear boys hats) and the helmets are always too big.. and with the hand held, i rarely, if ever forget to hold it up... like the flip down lenses, its easy to forget they are up and start welding.

sorry to hear that mate.. i have a garage ornament with busted suspension and cant move.. swap ya?? just did head gasket too!

japanese import spares has some Nismo upper control arms for $150.