Roy

Oooh, drop your cocks and grab your socks. The next two weeks are going to be interesting with regards to driver market

Would be interesting to know. The GTR shoudl be better, simply because its AWD and the fact that it has better suspension design and it was designed as a sports car from the outset, then homologated to go racing. The Commodore obviously does not have that head start and so many parts/design aspects from the factory compromise them when they go racing. Though these days the shells are specifically built racing shells and lots of these short falls are addressed now that you no longer have to homologate the car. Also, today's V8s often get some highly rated drivers jockeying them and they walk away sayign how difficult the cars are to drive, so much power, so little tyre and dynamically not that great a race car. Courtney is no doubt a great driver but it has taken him some time to learn how to drive them. But i think the old banger 2L turbo cars would have been the hardest to get times out of over a race distance

Really, bugger Not my intention to convince anyone of anything. Just pointing out that HOLDEN + SHIT = SHIT HSV is kind of ignorant. If you really believe that. To me no car is really worth that sort of money, which doesnt matter as they obviously are not marketing any of these sorts of cars at me. Again thats the point, many on this board dont get the HSVs etc, we are all here because our respective Skylines/rides are our sorts of cars. Im just trying to highlight that there is a market for these cars and Holden like any smart business are serving it. As for me being on a Skylines forum i love Skylines, 240Zs etc. The new GTR whilst i respect and marvel at its awesome ability. Its not my style of car, and the rest of the Nissan range, again i am not a soccer mum

Piss of Abu If we end up with simialr gaurds then our cars are going to be too similar Actually thats not a bad thing

Yep all a complete waste, gizzmos and driver aids are for blokes that need viagra! To me the technology from race cars that should be included in road cars is cooling, aero and reduced drag, combustion chamber design and comptuign power for power and fuel economy. Composites and materials, do you knwo they glue cars together these days? Suspension design and shock or other suspension damping technogy etc. There is masses of things that have come from development, motorsport technology that has improved cars. Making a car with so many steering wheels butons/settings is just, to me, marketing hoopidee hoooo haaaa. Some want it because like the HSVs the cars have a market and there are tens of thousands of people buying them globally. Would HSV sell more cars if this new creation was more M5 with gadgets and features? I say no, in fact probably sell less because of their inclusion and price hike. So again i think for the intended market HSV's pencil is pretty sharp. Whether i/we agree with the market is not the issue. Good business is serving your market. And subtle difference, but to me you are not buying a badge, you are buying what the badge insiunates. M means more bang then any other BMW. HSV more bang then any other Holden. I dont care if its a BMW bage, Holden badge or a Nissan badge, as long as its does what i want from a car. Nissans are all steaming piles of boring poop these days with the GTR the only itneresting car which isnt my sort of car. I wait with interest for he Silvia replacement.

Well some people need a badge, others dont. It is cheaper, so what do you expect with regards to features? Well you would expect less, and to many (myself anway) you are not getting less. Its a matter of the BMW gives you SHIT that i dont want, care for; and sure as hell dont want to pay for. How many diff settings, shift settings does a car need. I want a 3 pedal manual, dont need silly seats that actuate based on cornering etc etc etc Again, some people say less, to me thats techno wank which i dont want. So compared that i dont care about badges, hell anyone paying big money on a Nissan obviously doesnt care about a badge, how is a Holden any different to a Nissan from a prestige maker stance. Hell they went broke a few years back and to this day do not make a single car that i would pay for off the showroom floor. So take away the badge and gadgets and you are left with a car that some people like. No better, no worse...just different. Styling is a matter of taste, i like the new HSV range and general consensus is they are good looking things, aggressive and sporting. M cars and the German cars in general have always been masters of understatement. Something the Japanese do not indulge and nor do out local manufacturers when they trick up the high spec cars. Anway...this is just debate for debates sake. I am a car person, i see the good in all cars. But also left disappointed by so many new cars

Here is the thing, why go Mines AP kit, why not just AP? Especially since they are running the older range of AP calipers and these days they are using RDD rotors in their R35 upgrade kits. The Mines badge would be cool, but would never pay more money for them, it would be like getting Mines Bridgestone RE55s for your car, at a premium of course

Plenty of Walkinshaws sell for good money, ditto the VN Grp A. A $35,000 walkinshaw is one that is being given away these days. I spend way too much time looking at used car prices and there are not many of these cars on the market so if you want one you often have to pay the asking price less a bit as most move around within car clubs from one owner to the other. And all those stil saying the car doesnt go, doesnt handle, doesnt stop, i will copy what someone else posted. Watch this ... http://youtube.com/watch?v=qn7Z-iLa8h0 and look at the time of the car directly above it (wet time) Clarkson doesnt pull punches and he thinks its a hoot to drive, does all the right things and for a large sedan is easy to throw around and control. And consider that locally a used V10 M5 is the same price as the new HSV. I think its expensive, sure, ludicrous money to spend on ANY car. But with what the car is trying to achieve. Plenty of performance and driving enjoyment, big sedan with plenty of space. A certain amount of exclusivity which new is the same price as a used 2 yr old M5. Peronally buy an RS4 over all of them

I think you are all missing the fact that this is a limited edition car. Will they sell them? Probably. If there were a mass produced vehcile would they sell thousands of them? No! At the end of the day they build cars that the public want and are buying. I see about 20 SS Commodores to one supercharged Toyota Aurion. I see everybody driving Falcons and Commodores more then the Toyotas and Mistubishi 380s etc. In my game there are smart ppl designing and building amazing technologies, most of the time they do it because they can, not as a solution to a problem. So there is no market and many go broke. So claim as much as you want about Holdens etc being inferior to Toyota etc, or for being out of touch with the public. Reality is they are doing a better job of providing Australians cars they want and are willing to buy. So technically inferior, sure/perhaps. Are there cars still relevant to the motoring public? Yep, thats why they as well as they do. This reflects more on the Australian public and the need to change/wait for attitudes to change. So if you take that course what place does any 1700kg TT 3.8L Skyline have on the roads, power is power is power and takes a certain amount of fuel and air to make that much bang/hp. And i for one giggle and am kind of proud that OS when the likes of Top Gear get their hands on our cars they immediately identify them as being Australian, very well priced and some of the most entertaining cars to drive. To me the enjoyment from driving a car, one with character is more important to ownign some technically brilliant car that may be quicker, buts character is doing for the driver what he cant do for himself. LOL, i think my steak is done....see you

Nope. I have a spreadsheet looking at tyre diam and gearing to calculate rpm from my km/h dyno plot....but can't correlate that to the graphs by Bass Junky and Abo Bob.

Well, partly because its a GTSt and i want it to saty looking that way. Partly because the change to indicators, side skits, front bar etc etc is a ball ache, and the rear qtrs need to have the innter guards and fuel filler neck etc done as well which is a more costly job. So, lol yeh, mostly money and complexity for a car that is a track car and likely to eat armco again sooner or later

LOL. you wucken LEGEND!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been watching that for ages wondering when it was going to sell. I kept looking at it thinking cheap motorsport and a car that allows you to run in so many forms of motorsport with cheap parts and consumables Again, congrats. Now i wonder how long until you crack it at the lil RB20

That year, what 2002?

LOL, shoosh. Ignorance is bliss. If the rings/pistons dont flood the catch can then the engine is 100% ok. Dont mind the knock it has on deceleration or the knock value it gets when starting If it doesnt breathe under boost then she is good for next years Bathurst 12hr.

Who tuned it? The eboost looks like it needs lots of work! Hits 11psi at a reasonable rev then creeps up to 14psi. All things considered it looks more like a boost control problem, but if you drop the exhaust inc the cat it will be a good cheap test of whether the std cat is killing power like you would expect. But yeh, boost control needs work, dump the exhaust and then ask the tuner why is it only making the power it is ...that is of course after you have replaced the AFM

Well hopefully they come up with a cross between and People say that the hand controllers are wank etc, but they are good things for live readouts of engine parameters that you can check on the fly, water temp, peak knock,...pretty basic but i value all the info i can get when wringing an engines neck at the track. The fact that this already communicates to lots of locally available ECUs, to the point that Haltec actually sell them with their logo on them... Then it may be a quick and easy means of getting a good live readout and logging ability for the ECU. Also, looking at their website it is the spitting image of the old Autronic website, with the old Autronic website now down, with autronic.com (no au) referring you to the new ViPEC website. So what does this mean for Autronic from here on in? It seems that this new ECU range is barging Autronic aside, is this a result of split of staff/owners?

The weather and off line damp line would not have been helping racing. Sandown has plenty of passing opportunities. I remember old Thomas Mezera used to pull moves at any corner he was close enough Sandown does spread out the field though, and you end up with pockets of racing more so then at other tracks

Stock cat! Bin it. I had a 2yr old 3" Catco and it was hurting my power to the tune of 15-20rwkws. So the std cat will be killing you. Have a graph? Curious to know how the P25 exhaust housing goes

LOL, this is so cool. I know Period Pain (Will go back to being Big Red when it stops locking brakes, throwing PS Belts, shearing oil pumps ie head aches etc etc) has been in the build a long time. But it is great to see a whole lot of quick development going into the car and things actually happening and changing.

In road speed to rpm there may not be a massive difference. But the diff multiplies torque. So considering he was borderline with the std RB25 then its only going to be worse with the higher torque figure of the engine. The only benefit may be that the new motor has a nicer torque curve (expected) so doesnt have the big torque hit that the chassis/suspensio/tyres has to cope with. But the diff still multiplies torque and will only make traction more difficult. I would be backing off the diff ratio personally. Will certainly help on corner exits where you will be able to grab more throttle and ride the torque and get out of the corners, which helps corner speed and boost on corner exit. 9 times out of 10 you will go through a corner quicker if you carry more throttle in say 3rd then you would in 2nd at higher revs having to be more delicate with the throttle application. 9 times out of 10

Even with the RB25 in there i would have been seriously considering dropping the diff ratio, now that you are going to have Ben's Special Sauce under the bonnet, i would 100% be dropping the diff ratio. Mind you it may just mean you now take corners in 3rd rather then 2nd depending onb how the turbo and engine combo responds. But would still think a diff change is warranted (Remember i said "think" )

More RB20s out there the better. Though i read Gts30t is going to the darkside, if nothing else the user name change hints at something fishy. So think you shoudl stick with the RB20, your car will be much quicker with the money spent elsewhere on the car! I post this a lot, but is pretty good indicator of how the RB20 can do the job better then anyone credits: Comparison is both against RB25 NEO engines, both with GCG Hi-Flows, Bass Junky with same tuner and dyno and Poncams. Now tell me that the RB20 with the right diff ratio and turbo cant match bigger displacement RBs to the point where they are a huge hindrance. LOL, stick with the RB20! Sooner or later you will ditch it, but shouldnt be on the must do list unitl lots of other things have been done

Hey Russ, has the R32 been run on the qtr mile since the last round of mods for Japan in December? I wonder how much you could shave off the 10.2 with the lighter weight, more power and some more appropriate rubber?

Hmm so looks like i cant just grab an off the sheld carbon tailshaft and just option it with the R33 front yolk, as the shaft itself will still be the wrong length?

Also allows you to run RB20 crank and rods with custom piston. Imagine the revs from a big bore short stroke RB Seriously though, are you going to be looking at changinf your gearing? Are you still running std RB20 diff ratio?