Roy

At the end of the day, if its a show car then go for it as it will look pretty out of this world. If you want to actually stop, then sell it all/parts off. If you want to actually stop a car quickly then brakes are only about 30% of the equation. You need sticky tyres and you need good quality suspension to control pitch of car and keep the tyre in contact with the road when stopping. As others have said, depending on what you have planned for the car. I think 380mm brake setup is well and truly up there for people who want to be circulating for 30mins + at speed on the track with a heavy, powerful car. I think I read that you bought that kit which was meant for a Range Rover or something so I would be checking the piston sizes ASAP and making sure you understand whether they can be made to work on a Skyline. I personally think pedal boxes etc are a waste of time for 90% of people. Ditto bias valves etc. If you know your way around them then great. If not then most people charging you money to set them up wont really know what they are doing either. If you are running different levels of downforce for different tracks, have an 80L+ fuel cell which changes the weight bias of your car as it goes from full tank to empty and need to change the brake bias so that the braking is optimal for the duration of the session etc etc Also, some things to consider. Rotor width aids cooling, and there is a reason why rear brakes are typeically 22mm or 28mm. You need your front brakes to be running at their operating temps just like you do your rear. Brakes convert kinteic enrgy into heat and noise and with the rear brakes not doing as much work as the fronts then they need to dissipate less energy then the fronts. This is important to remember as with a massive diameter and thick rotor your rear pads will never get up to temperature. This means poor performance and possibly excessive rotor wear, AND also the bias issues others have spelt out. Be interesting to see which route you end up taking and your results, but personally I would be only running as big a brake as you need to run and keeping it basic unless you are doing all the worl yourself. Otherwise 8k later a car with std brakes that are sorted with good tyres and suspension will be outbraking you

Pads by Performance Friction ... Performance Friction 06 Race pads have high average torque output, similar to PFC01, rising over its operating temperature range, and a MOT of 2000 degrees F. Excellent bite, exceptionally low rotor wear, and better than average pad wear. May be used for endurance racing, like PFC97, but with significantly higher bite. Yeh, think I am quitting my job on Wednesday so will have plenty of time to play with the car in June

The Trust manifold with 8cm TD06-20G was not too bad on the street. If you want a quick street car then something smaller like a GT-SS would make for a nicer car....or an RB25. But if you can live with a powerband from 4,500rpm to 8,000rpm then the lil 20 is an ok thing. Its tough and reliable and cheap. As for updates...I have replaced the 100mm ARC cooler with an OE R34 GTR cooler. The Stoptechs are on with 343mm x 32mm rotor with PFC06 pads and about the only thing left to do is clean up the cooler piping with the Plazmaman plenum then start enjoying it again. The E85 tune and 10cm housing and Tomei cams may be back on the cards. They are sitting here ready to be used. But for now just want to have some fun punting it

Are they genuine Recaros? Are you able to get some pocs of the lever/recliner mechanism etc?

I dont think I will be at Superlap. I will be in Europe (catch is i need to stick out work for another 6 weeks and having serious doubts whether I could be bothered with work anymore) My car is basically isnt really lightened. Air con got removed because of the fire, rear wiper is gone and alloy GTR bonnet. Thats it really for my car. Has all the sound deadening, stereo, most of the interior etc. Keen to see how the 25 goes for you....i have cheater motor on a pallet if i need a hand

I miss my R31....keep the updates coming

You see... this is whay sh1ts me but at the sme time love about sportas where you have fans rooting for a certain team or driver. Every driver has had brain dead moments in their career. Lets think of the most recent WDCs. Lewis pulled off a real bold move on th exit of the pits in Canada when he binned it into Kimi. What speed was tht 60-100km/h? Or what about Vettel last year when at Spa, darted and tried to stop the car and did a tank slapper into the side of Button. Or Alonso who binned it on his woen accord at Monaco. (much like Webber did in Japan) Or Kimi for binning it under brakes into Sutil at Monaco. All the top drivers have had moments, the only thing with Webber is that his happened at +250km/h when Heiki was silly enough to try and make a race of it and had to brake soooo early its not a big surprise it caught the following car out. Webber had a poor quali but a great race. I use the work great because it was. He struggled early but thankfully didnt bin it by being impatient, used the pace of the car and was consistant and fast on the better tyres to try and make progress. To say that he got the beter pit strategy is a half truth. Two stopping was technically quicker but nobody saw the moment passing on the pit wall and Vettel paid the price. That is a reflection on Vettels race. Has nothing to do with the great performance of Webber.

Was only thinking last night when I lifted your bonnet that this is still one of the nicest engine bays getting around!

Yeh, I remember I had to record the Lakeside rounds and watch them later as I was not allowed to stay up that late to watch the 10.30pm race telecast, ditto F1 The Mike Raymond/Moffat thing wasnt too bad and I really like Mark Oastler, they use to give coverage to the Sports Sedans and FFs in the later years of GrpA. But Channel 7 didnt do a great job of telecasting it and so many rounds where you would struggle to get ten credible cars. And i hear what Nee-San says about overtakes etc, i used to love AJ and Larry, as from memory they were the only ones that turned on good racing (Longhurst had plenty of memorable drives too) but the Bathurst quali shootouts were always something special to watch. And I agree they are more fun to watch years later then I think they were at the time. V9s have spoiled us, but agree a little more variety in cars would help, but look at all the other series that have come and gone globally since Grp A! The V8s have done pretty well compared to all the other series that have imploded

The people posting about how great Grp A racing was...did you actually watch the races or seen footage? The racing was generally terrible. Cool cars for sure. I still remember the first V8 race at Amaroo and it was a revelation. Winton and Amaroo sometimes gave us good racing with the M3 in the hunt with Nissans, Sierras etc and the V8s did ok in the wet when Larry was up for it. But generally there was little racing

You realise you have started an arms race? You have less weight, more tyre and talent so fark knows when and how I am going to be able to keep up

Yeh, will be interesting to see how many in teh back 4-5 of the Top 10 who use softs to get into Q3 just punt the things on the hards and save 2-3 sets of softs and try to start from 11-15 positions?????

Funniest thing today was the interview. Webber having a slip of the tongue and telling the world how happy he was that the team didnt win

Nice vids...seems E85 is the way to go Cant have everything in this world, and you dont make 260+rwkws from an RB20 unless you move the power band up over 4,5000rpm!

Agree..(dont encourage me to pull out my vids in a Caterham ) but they are waaaaay tooo expensive for what they are. 25k then ok. But they want 3-3 times that which makes them a joke

Pains me to say ... R33 GTS25t. They are so cheap these days, they have reasonable brakes srd. Good suspension, strong gearbox and make easy power if tuned right. They are not that much heavier then an R32, most of the weight is from the gearbod, bigger brakes etc. Grab a cheap one, strip it and just give it good shocks and tyres and it will be quick.

Can you confirm that Bride rails currently being used for East Bear R34 seats will work with the Evo seats?

What size tyre is on them? They also look to have spacers so any idea of the width and off?

Not yet....been crazy busy with work. The brackets are machined up, lines, pads everything sitting at mechanics ready to go on. I just have not had time to get out there and fit them. One day once the fog of working 7d/wk passes

Well...the Near Life Experience 2011 Tour IS ON!!!! This year will be bigger then the past two. I have been doing 60+ hr weeks since NYE (right now I am writing this from work) and enough is enough. This one will be bigger as I am taking more time off and will have about 4-6 weeks of driving around and having a blast. Most of my homo mates are up to their ears in debt, have no time or have Mrs that wont let them go blow cash so looks like this may be a solo mission this time round. Still have three friends interested, but not overly sure how that will work out. July - August looks the go. Will be deciding in the next two weeks whether the R32 goes in a container or I buy something in UK and drive through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and into Hungary. The calender is looking good....there is Zandvoort, Spa, Ring and will be doing Donnington park to shake down the R32 or the new car before heading off to mainland Europe. Doesnt look like there is anything going at Zolder so looking at the logistics of getting from Zandvoort over to Hockenheim for a test and tune day there 48 hours later. There is the German GP, Hugarian GP and my Hungarian mate in Budapest to keep me entertained after the long trip east. Currently having a good look at an S14...will have to wait and see. After 6 months of ball busting, un-loved work this is going to get a good shake. The best thing is I am off the piss so hopefully I'll medically get the all clear by July and can get back on the drink. Should be a real Cadbury by then so will make things cheap and messy. I am not sure about the GAY SEX licence plate... That will have to change to Ranga to pull the Eastern European ladies

Well, looks like I am out for the 3rd year in a row. Been trying to convince myself to do this...but bugger it. But deciding will do Zandvoort on the 4th August instead Means I can sneak in the Hungarian GP as well rather then spend 4k on entering Superlap. One year!

Which TD05? I have often wondered what a TD05-18G on a 6boost manifold with external gate wold do on an RB20. I am expecting you woudl get 240-250rwkws with response about the same as a 2530. I keep my out for one as it will be a bolt on to my current TD06-20G setup...would be interesting to trade 30rwkws for response...the question is what sort of response would i gain. So, cant help with actual results but I think it would be a pretty good setup if you can justify the expense of the $1200 manifold and $500 gate on top of turbo price

Well, whilst I am a Webber fan, I am still a motorsport fan and I think/hope I understand the difference between my favourite driver and the best driver. That said, I do not believe Vettel is that better then Webber and the things I am reading with regards to car problems, in particular its a damaged front wing which was not identified until after the race....well, it goes a long way to explaining his lack of pace on the weekend. I am still a believer that he manages his car better then Vettel over a race...so if I am wrong on that count then he will be nowhere for the rest of the year

So news is that Marko is reporting that Mark had a chassis problem and the car is in for a full strip and rebuild before Malaysia. It seems analysis of the data has revealed a fault. Not sure it means Mark will march out and beat Vettel in Malaysia....but it helps explain why Mark struggled with the car on the weekend

Oh well...my hatred for McLaren and love for Webber means I am not off to a good start