Snowman

Geez - we were told not to worry about "running it in". I mean the damn things are run in on an engine dyno and then track tested before they are shipped so where's the logic in putting around for 2,000kms before giving it some (I've never been a fan of doing that even with rebuilt RB engines either. I think the logic is flawed myself). My car hasn't done many km's yet (only 500odd as well) but a number of those I have done have been angry! It's booked in for the 1st service for next Thursday (as I'm off to Tassie in it next Friday) so I better get some km's on it between now and then (although they didn't seem too worried if I hadn't done 2,000kms by then).

I remember Piquet struggled to be much further than mid-field in the A1 GP days when he was playing in there so I really could never see him doing well unless he had a perfect car to make him look good. Speaking of A1 - anyone watch the Portugese round on the weekend? How awesome was that track and how awesome would it be to see F1's around there! I reckon it'd be tops F1 track. Can't beleive I'd never heard of the place before.

I'm keen for a meet-up. I'm guessing the Sat or Sun night before the event will be the best for most right? Otherwise - I know nothing about the place so can't recommend a where or anything.

I'm back from Perth which means it's officially time to start getting organised. This next week is going to fly I'm sure simply because it feels like I'm running out of time.

We use the Blue Ant Bluetooth head-sets and I reckon they work brilliantly. We just keep a 12V charger in the car as well incase someone does forget to charge them overnight (they re-charge in no-time as well) but they have like an 8hr charge so they last a day ok even should you forget to turn them off. But we've had some great fun with them car-car rather than just driver/nav since they have a good 100m range. Can be good fun having a laugh with another driver as you punch out some laps or play on a skidpan.

I'm over in Perth currently and have been informed that Steve Jones is over in Tassie (has been for a week or so) and will be there until Targa starts so he's obviously planning on a pretty serious crack at this event in his first go. Should be fun to watch. It really does feel this year that there are so many possible contenders for modern. Cracking the top 10 even will be a challenge. It should be quite exciting!

We'll be testing it out with an Oz Spec car shortly. The Jap ROM may work with the Aussie cars but we still aren't 100% sure. If not we'll take a copy of the ROM and send it to Cobb and get it sorted for the Aussie cars ASAP. Just give us a couple of weeks to get some answers (we are testing an Aussie spec car on April 24th). I can get you a Cobb though if you are interetsed (and even for interstate guys we may be able to offer them with an Aussie base tune rather than the Jap 96RON one - will keep you posted).

Nice work Gibbo. Those above points are very true. It's a very hard car to drive at the legal limit (I mean 100km/hr means depressing thing pedal I reckon 3mm at most - seriously!) And yes I'm now on a lot of camera phones. I'm happy as mine as my daily though - its the best start and end to a day I could hope for. But for the purists out there I learnt another very nice fact about the GT-R last night. The thing I love about this car the most is it still drives like a GT-R. The VDC for all of it's negative publicity is a really impressive bit of kit. Something the US guys know nothing about is what an old GT-R is like to drive. These new ones with the VDC set to R Mode will mean if you drive smooth into a corner and power out the back end will kick like the old ones, and if you keep your foot planted the ATTESSA will drive the fronts and will bring the back end in and off you'll shoot. It was always the method of maximising the performance in the old cars and that is all still there in these new ones. The VDC will not interfere in this action. However - if you go into a corner too hot and the front starts to push - thats when the VDC comes in. It will actually modualte each wheel (you can actually feel it) and get you back around the corner and allow you to power out. So the VDC is really protecting massive under-steer more than over-steer and I have to say its BRILLIANT. God I love this car!

The Supercar Club guys came around with their new Gunmetal JDM GT-R tonight care of Beer Baron and we did a quick Cobb treatment on it to get rid of the speed limitter before it goes to Phillip Island tomorrow. Good little toy those Cobbs. We also had a Willall Midpipe which we put on tonight and as a free pulg to Martin here it was a beautiful fit, made a HUGE improvement to external noise but internally (at least with the windows up) there was bugger all marked difference in noise and had no noticable drone on either the freeway or around the normal streets. The only real time you could hear the difference from behind the wheel was on the big down-shifts as then you could really hear the bark. Although driving with the windows down you can definitely hear it. But thumbs up for a great mod to get. Easy to install (took 15mins on my gargage floor) and for the $$$ I can see no reason why you'd get a more expensive Jap one. And its definitely a major improvent over the stock system.

LOL - there's a 33 page sticky thread in the FI section on it http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Gu...85-t239271.html

Well anyone interested in getting a Cobb should know we can now do a custom tune for them The base tunes with the units are only designed for 96RON fuel so they'll work ok but could be improved. But we got the full Cobb Pro tuning software during the week. Like others have said I reckon a Cobb + Midpipe is about where you'd want to be at if you are keen on modding your R35 as the most sensible place to start. Oh - and rotors/pads. That way you can put your stock ones back on before you go back to Nissan in "new" condition and not be flogged with a $10K replacement.

Well I got my Cobb Pro dongle today so if any of the R35 guys are running a Cobb in their car and want a custom tune rather than one of the pre-set base ones I can now help them out. It's a cool little bit of kit and will have a play with my one before I come to Tassie.

No - if Oz ever does implement the Traffic Alert systems then the GT-R is ready for it and the button will actually do something. My Mrs has the same thing in her VW as well. Its just that they don't do anything now because Oz isn't set-up currently to support it.

The funny thing is the ADM cars get the button as well - only it's labled TA and does nothing. LOL

I'd heard the clock in the JDM cars was set to a satelite time and couldn't be changed consequently but I found that hard to believe. Be interesting to see what you come up with. PS - looking forwards to tomorrow night

Hey Richard - have you worked out how to change the clock on the JDM ones or is that one impossible?

Just 98 mate.

It's not easy - its just smooth There's a difference. Sometimes backing off a bit and being smooth is actually faster. You should try it one day Bris

Had a nice play with my car over the weekend. They are so awesome

I have some video footage of me cruising around the island - http://www.viddler.com/explore/Snowmann/videos/2/ If your speakers can go loud enough you can hear the massive vibration in the car at speed. The funny thing is despite how easy I was doing that and given I also had the boost turned down to 0.98 Bar, was short shifting at 7,500rpm and was backing off at the big speeds - the best lap time in that session (1.50.1) is still over 0.5s faster than last years Rookie Winner (Stephen Bradford) best ever lap around there.

Bris - I had a good day! I was just doing a shake-down and it turned out to be a litteral one as my square tyres meant the car wanted to shake to peices over 200km/hr. lol But as a consequence I was seriously just cruising around (the track was either damp or covered in oil so pushing it was just asking for trouble I thought), I had the boost turned down to 0.98Bar and I was short shifting at 7,500rpm and despite that I was still running flat 1.50's. Just to annoy you Bris - here's the footage on how easy it is to run a 1.50.1 in a GT-R http://www.viddler.com/explore/Snowmann/videos/2/ As for Scotsman he was fine. Practise session he had green tyres so were a bit slippery. He also got busted for noise so the following session he was shifting at 5,000rpm (hence the times). The final session we did we seriously drove hard but the oil everywhere meant we were waaayyyyy off the pace. Was funny to try and drive around the oil though as you could easily see it but it was impossible to avoid and you'd just slide a mile when you hit it.

Yeah I think its a real good thing personally! I remember the electronics on mine failed at Phillip Island once and this was the result. Having said that I deactivate my ABS for things like motokhana's / skidpans where I think it is a hinderence but on the track it's a god send.

Well I'm back from my Phillip Island shake-down and whilst the over-all lap times themselves were nothing special - given that I know I was backing off after 200km/hr due to badly square old tyres shaking the car apart the times were actually very good and the car felt great.\ The new radiator is crazy too - 25km session and my max water temps were only 68dges. It may acually be too cold now! LOL But the up-shot is I'm feeling much more confident and consequently much more excited about Targa now. Tassie in 3 weeks and counting.

51kms

Na but it is the new small mini version. I tested it out last night and it worked perfectly!