djr81

Skylines oil pressure gauges are known for failing. There is a strong possibility of the fault being in the gauge alone. Take it to a mechanic & get him to check the oil pressure with a separate gauge. This will tell you whether the fault is in the engine or in the gauge. Do a search under oil pressure or similar & you should find what the readings are supposed to be.

Car is an R32 GT-R with standard calipers. I wasn't worried as it is easily removed by running a small screwdriver along the slot (Tapping it with a hammer). Build up looked to be a mixture of carbon & iron (it was magnetic). Rotors are in good shape. The surface irregularities are very shallow. Brake rotors did get rather hot to allow this to happen, however. All three different colours of thermographic paint had flashed off. Not sure how hot the rotors have to get to be glowing, but I have some photos of the car under brakes at the end of pit atraight at Wanneroo with the rotors shining brightly.... :aroused:

Well, here is my front LHS rotor after a track day. RB74 pads & DBA 4000 series rotors.

More sriously bloke, I had a good long hard think about buying the car you have imported. So I will be curious to know how it ends up.

Nice ride bloke. Now, about that GT40 replica in the background....

White/black/silver/dk grey/wine red are the most common colours. Very rarely you can get a dk blue, but even more rare was a steel blue/grey which is far and away the prettiest colour you will see on an R32. No red other than the wine red is available. Which is a shame. Perversely, alot of R32's in white are only that way because they have been repainted. The japanese love white cars. Dunno why.

In the absence of a cooler &/or fancy sump the best thing to do is to overfill the sump which helps keep the oil cool by not working it so often & also lessens the chance of oil surge. Also change the oil regularly when it has been subject to a high temp excursion. You will find that with any road car, however modified, keeping the temperatures of all your systems under control is a big part of your track day. For amusement take the temperature of your power steering fluid after a few laps...

I have noticed lately that the prevalence of import GT-R's purporting to feature Nismo and/or other aftermarket turbo chargers is on the increase. Unfortunately on arrival a number of the cars in question are somewhat less than modified. Only yesterday I was looking at a recently imported R32 that was advertised as having HKS 25-30's - but in reality had only dump pipes fitted. Leads to a couple of questions: Is there an easy check on arrival to identify stock turbo chargers? (Other than ripping lumps of exhaust and or induction piping off the car) What other supposed upgrades (Other than the obvious winding back/replacing the speedo) have a history of dodginess.

Thanks Ken, are you able to quote a typical figure? Also do I need any other bushes to adjust the castor further (as opposed to camber)?

Whilst my car was on the hoist the other day I had a good look underneath & discovered it was fitted with adjustable castor rods. My front tyres a looking a little sad after a day at Wanneroo, however I only have maxed out stock front camber & castor, ie approx 1 & 3 degrees respectively. Without making it too track biased I would like to use more castor at the front. The question is two fold: What other bushes etc do I need to take maximum advantage of the rods? How many degrees castor is recommended for an R 32 GT-R?

Let me preface this post by saying that all else being equal I, for one, would prefer the 15 year rule stays in being. Unfortunately, from all that I have seen lately it needs to be legislated out of existance. Contentious point perhaps, so why? Those with long memories will remember why the SEVS/RAWS/15 year rule was bought into existance in the first place. Put simply use of the previous scheme evolved in such a way as to mean that in a lot of cases the most profitable vehicles for importers/compliance shops were those that had been damaged and repaired. The general quality of vehicles was deteriorating - something which led, in part - to the severity of the SEVS/RAWS scheme. The rules on chassis rails for instance are there to stop accident damaged cars being imported. The 15 year rule was put in place in the belief that the volume of such vehicles would be relatively low. Clearly this has not happened. The popularity of this rule has caused three negative effects: The price of 15 year old cars has increased appreciably. Take a look at the auction prices for vehicles such as R32 GT-R's. The difference in pricing between an 89 model & a 94 model of the order of 250,000 yen. Clearly the regulations are having the effect of distorting the market in Japan. Guess who is paying top dollar for the oldest of the cars? The lack of regulation has allowed operators that are perhaps not as scrupulous as they could be. Other markets suuch as New Zealand require the odometer readings for imported cars be substantiated. Australia doesn't. Have a look at the auction listings and compare the km's on 15 year old vehicles with younger versions of the same cars... The high demand and low supply means that almost every example of some 89 models gets imported into Australia. How many 89 R32 GT-R's do you think are left in Japan? The consequence is that even accident damaged & the roughest of cars get imported. In summary: The 15 year rule was bought into existance to allow enthusiasts to import rare and or low volume exotica. Think more so the Group A homologation specials like the 1987 R31 Skyline GTS-R than any of the R32's. Unfortunately the lax rules have allowed every man and his dog to become an importer. This has led to high prices being paid for low quality cars. As an enthusiast I hate that this has happened, but the laxity of the laws has ruined it for eveyone. So the 15 year rule in its present form needs to die. Enough of my rant. Before I get flamed, please be aware of the following: I am not an importer. I am not a car dealer. I do own an 89 model (A GT-R) I do own a 94 version of the same car.

Honestly mate - at present I would not bother with an 89 in any of the popular models. Better bet is to try & source one already in oz. Reason being is that anything 89 or early 90 in Japan is being snaffled by the importers & prices are being pushed up. Second reason is that the standard of 15 old cars atm is pretty awful.

Steve, You don't have to enter Targa anything to get involved. There are lots of club days at circuits (ie practice only) and you will be pleasantly suprised how interested & helpful people are. All sorts of cars are around (Notable exceptions are Skylines & HSV's) some of them quite slow & quite ordinary - but that doesn't stop their owners from having a go & having some fun. At the end of the day it is a much safer environment than out on the roads.

There are two kinds of people in the world - those that think they have enough power & those who know what they are talking about. 4WD and a recent upgrade to RE55's requires alot of hp to upset the car. 300+rwhp is never enough to really upset a GT-R's handling. Have alook at the photos in my gallery & tell me if I am trying hard enough. More seriously - you see way more WR-X's, Silvias, even old school Escorts than Skylines out & about.

Good call. Alot of people would rather spend money on bling for their cars than get out & have a go. At the end of the day entry fees and licenses are cheaper than traffic fines & yellow stickers. But to go back to the original point - have a look at the lap times put up for the various eastern states circuits (in the motorsport section) and compare with those for Wanneroo. Last time I looked there was only one time posted for WA... Having entered a number of SES events I can only say that you have to do something very silly to have a large enough off to damage your car.

www.speedeventseries.com If you like you can send us a pm about the castor rods. My R32 R has some, but I am yet to take advantage. Would like to compare notes on castor/camber/toe in/tyres.

Is that confirmed Shaun - AKAIK Collie is currently being resurfaced. Also note: You don't have to enter every round of the SES!

Depends if you want competition or just laps. There are plenty of opportunities for test days to rack up as many km's as you desire. WASCC memberships are about $180, but much cheaper when you factor in free entry to the V8's & any other events on during the year. Test days are on all through the year. CAMS licenses (level 2S) are < $100. Between these two it is all you need to get out and amongst it. To use the twilight sprint round in early March at Wanneroo, you get twelve laps, plus a warmup and another run afterwards if you wanted it. Might not sound like much, but you will be fully occupied over the course of the event. Added to which you get full lap times, dinner & if you are good enough a trophy. People there are interested in what you are running, helpfull & friendly. Not everyone is hell bent on being the next Garth Tander. Chances of an off causing damage are almost nil. Beats hell out of sitting at home watching it on the tellie. Anyway, enough of my ranting.

BTW djr81 your Datsuns Icon so rocks - best band evar Thanks bloke - I was beginning to think no one had any taste in music. As for motorsport being too hard on your car, I have to disagree. Set up properly & looked after (ie let the thing cool properly between runs) the only noteable consumables will be brake pads (front ones) & tyres. Think about the tyre wear from motorsport next time you see some one doing a burn out. The reason I started this thread is simple - who wouldn't want to lap places such as Wanneroo in the Skyline? Most fun you can have with your trousers on.

Having had my Skyline for a while now, it has become very noticeable that there are very few people interested in driving their imports in any events (eg the speed event series). Other than the Eames R33, you rarely see another Skyline out and about. At the Wungong dam hill climb on Saturday there were only two GT-R's in a field of fifty to sixty cars. Where is everybody? I thought the point of having a performance car was to get to drive it flat out. :headspin:

A couple of things come to mind. Firstly, make sure the clutch is not dragging. Secondly, the viscosity of the oil in your box will make a big difference to the shift quality & to the synchro's. First stop is to make sure you have the right grade. The second step is to use the ubiquitous Redline oil. This often helps old/tired boxes, but I'm not sure about new ones. Beyond that it may require the gearbox out again.

I am looking for the bits (technical term) that make up the Nismo bodykit for the R32 GT-R, ie the front bumper cut ins, side skirts, bonnet lip & boot lip. I have found that second hand parts are inevitably warped (particularly the front & rear lips) & not much good because of that. So the question is: Where is the best place to get these from - either new or copies?

Mike, There is a post on this forum about the different RE55 compounds. Do a search under RE55. For Wanneroo I found the harder compound good, but they do need one to two laps to get them warm enough to grip well. Before that it is understeer city which kind of kills your speed coming onto pit straight. If hill climbs are your thing take a look at the softer compound. I have found most of those running in the local www.speedeventseries.com use RE55's. Guess that says something, not sure what. Added bonus of running proper R compound tyres is that your GT-R no longer feels like it is cornering on its door handles. Stiffer sidewalls make a huge difference.

Mike, I have recently done a not dissimilar thing, ie shopped around for R compound rubber. I have found that the Toyo R compounds in the smaller sizes are well priced & in larger sizes the Bridgestone RE55's are a $100 a corner cheaper than such brands as Dunlops, Yokohamas etc. Both brands grip well. My 255/40/17 RE55's cost me $380 each, whereas everything else was well into the high four hundred dollar mark.

Bump