Duncan

Thanks to everyone for heading up to support the club team today. It was a great event, shame it finished a bit early due to the big storm. Lots of quick cars although some of the fancy time attack did not end up at the pointy end of the field. 1st was heafy's evo, 2nd fernance evo, 3rd mckinnon. Our guys came home: Nick 8th 41.24 Brian 11th 42.32 Matt 30th 46.63 Me 32nd 46.75 Maurice 41st 51.38 Well done for everyone giving it a go in tricky conditions, and from me particular thanks to Neil for handing over Cheryl's keys when I couldn't get ready in time. And most of all, good on Nulon for putting this event together, looking forward to the next round at wake on 4 July

Hey mate, once you get into the super secret member's section, there is a club club motorsport thread to check out. This particular event is a little different, but generally hillclimbs are regular, accessible, and excellent fun

yep, and I'll bet ICI (and the compliancer) both want this finished ASAP too, because they make a fixed price on their service, so the longer it takes the less money they make. And you can bet they don't enjoy having to make and take calls chasing it up all the time. I was just thinking back; in the last 15 years I've imported via a broker 3 times (gtr, stagea, cima) and bought an import locally twice (gtst, cube). I paid way more on the local buys and had smooth imports for the GTR and Stagea, but the Cima was frustratingly slow through compliance. SOmetimes (mostly?) you are lucky, sometimes not. I think the real issue are DOTARS, they are not commercial enterprises and have no interest/care for how long their process takes or the impact on people trying to import. The people working there might be OK too, but clearly the department is understaffed and has no SLAs overall.

FAQ #1 from the Iron Chef website. http://www.ironchefimports.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=31 Do I just pay you the whole lot up front? This is one of the first things most people ask me, and the answer to this is no, because I am a broker, not a car salesman! My role is to provide a service – that of helping you bring the car in yourself.

Hang on, the thing is that that is totally incorrect. When you buy a car through an import broker you are not buying a car FROM an import broker. It's the exact opposite. You are buying a car, and you are paying someone to complete a range of services that make it easier for YOU to do that (shipping, customs clearance, car inspection, compliance etc). The alternative, which is totally different, is that you can choose to buy a car from someone who has already taken all that risk themselves, and therefore will charge you more (or you will get a worse quality car for the same money). This is no different to any other broker like life insurance or mortgage, the broker is working on your behalf to obtain something from a 3rd party (eg a bank or life insurance company). You pay them for the service of helping smooth the process, you are not buying the final good or service from them

At the risk of taking my own thread off track..... I'm a huge supporter of china shit tools. Basically having the right tool for the job is always better than having a top quality wrong tool and using it in the wrong way. For me a good example is that I could afford a H&F press, drill press etc that I would never to be able to afford in a quality brand. And frankly if I use it once a month it really doesn't matter if it fails on me quicker than a good quality one. I wouldn't look at it the same way if I used it every day for business That rule doesn't always hold for me of course; in particular common things like spanners, ratchets etc that I use more regularly I buy mid quality to save my knuckles....

mate I'm sorry to hear that you are the unlucky one, and it is hard not to wonder if DOTARS monitor forums and decided to go after you.... And I understand the pain because my Cima was held up for ages in compliance too....every week I had to get into the wrong car to drive down here was a PITA. BUT.....in the end you decided to import a car yourself instead of buying something locally. You almost certainly paid far less and got a much better car than you if you bought locally. The risk of course is that you are taking on any delays and unexpected costs, and in this case you have been unlucky. It really is neither your broker nor your compliancer's fault that there has been a delay; you've just been unlucky this time. In the end, you did have a choice to go to Parramatta Rd and buy some R grade car with a wound back odometer at top dollar, but you could have taken it home the same day.

Moved to correct forum, and off topic posts removed. Please post a price as per forum rules.

sadly my car isn't ready (just too much to get done in the last few days), but Neil is a champ and threw me Cheryl's keys. So this is my pic for the weekend See you guys up there, should be an interesting event

BTW threads merged. No need to start 2 on the same issue....

might also be called inner and outer tie rod ends. they are the first thing to bend in a side on impact so they are a common replacement

Howaitonaito it sounds like you would be more constructive to bring your concerns to the AGM and try and do something about them, than in trying to drag down a new and innovative event that the Exec are trialing. If you read the club constitution you will see it clearly states we are a "Skyline" enthusiast club which covers everything that has ever had that nameplate since 1955. And whenever there has been an older or newer model than the more common 32-34 series it has always led to compliments and interest. It is up to the membership, you included, to make this club what you want it to be.

My experience with Shannons was excellent at all times when I was paying them, but things went sharply downhill when I needed to claim (on 2 occasions), including a case I needed to take to the industry ombudsman after their admin error cost me a lot of money. Keep in mind that despite all the bullshit about being enthusiasts that they are just a brand of Suncorp these days and they act accordingly. I am now with Lumleys who were about 20% cheaper for the same insurance. Haven't had to claim yet so who knows if they will be just as difficult.

sorry was that for 18x10+20? ie fronts and rears needed a roll. If so, I don't get why people go 18x10+15 which are even worse??

yeah DIY is very do-able, cleaning it out is the pain as said above. Also check for rust in the channel that holds the window, and also rust or damage to the "waist mould" that goes along the top of the door. the only other issue can be adjusting the window afterwards (we had heaps of trouble in the 350z) but I think a 33 should be old enough to just do a straight replacement without any annoying adjustments.

Actually there was already a review of Import laws underway prior to the election and the 3 manufacturers pulling out which received a bunch of submissions from manufacturer/official importers, aftermarket importers and personal users. The initial findings are here: http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/132981/automotive-position.pdf?utm_source=Prestige+Motorsport+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=9fa3cbbeff-Cars+of+the+Day+--+13+June+2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56b53b869f-9fa3cbbeff-23360817 This was Geoff from Prestige's summary; This report is encouraging in terms of Australia moving towards accepting international safety standards rather than having our own set of ADR's and for import restrictions such as SEVS to be lessened or removed. At the same time, the Paper recommends ceasing assistance for car manufacturers to produce cars in Australia. It is certainly a step in the right direction to opening up choice and reducing the price of vehicles in Australia closer to those in the UK, US and NZ, allowing us overall to drive newer, safer and more efficient vehicles for the same money. It will be interesting to see what develops over coming years, and what the result is of the information requests below, the last one in particular. DRAFT FINDING 3.2 The policy rationale for prohibiting the large-scale importation of second-hand vehicles into Australia is weak. However, appropriate regulatory measures are required to ensure that consumer protection, community safety, and environmental performance standards are maintained before the restrictions are removed. These concerns are best dealt with directly, through regulatory standards applicable to all vehicles sold in Australia. INFORMATION REQUEST 3.2 The Commission is seeking further information on the benefits and costs of removing restrictions on the large-scale importation of second-hand vehicles. In particular: • what are the potential costs of removing these restrictions and who bears these costs? • how could compliance with Australian safety and environmental standards be most efficiently ensured? • if the benefits are expected to exceed the costs, how should restrictions be removed and over what timeframe? ------------------------- Frankly I think the initial findings were positive too, and since the manufacturers pulled out it looks even better for getting better cars, cheaper. A lot of people may have forgotten how much freer the system was until RAWS were introduced and the 15yo rule was killed about 2004, which was in response to big lobbying from Toyota etc who did not want to have to compete with their own products...

1, 1.5 or 2 way is not really the issue in daily driving as said above, the issue is how "tight" or aggressively the diff locks. a standard gtr diff is 2 way but not tight and you will never notice it as an issue in daily driving.

I was going to say.....no wonder guard rolling was required But can anyone confirm 18x10 +20 does fit the front of a 32 without rolling? For OP, if the wheel sits too far in you can always fix it with spacers...if it is too far out there is not much you can do without compromising your wheel alignment.

hmm that is strange....I agree it seems likely it either hit something inside or maybe the lower seal is rusted/loose? anyway, if you find a window in Sydney I can bring it down next week.

Lots of good advice from experienced track-ers here, great to see. Personally I run 4.5o caster, 2.5o camber and 1mm toe out front, and 1.5o camber and 0mm toe rear. It gives a little oversteer on turn in under braking in tight corners but that is my preference. A little rear toe in eg 1mm should stop that too. I would definitely get bigger sway bars both ends too, it makes a big difference (keep the car flat, keeps more tyre on the road to a point) If you have that much go you definitely need to put proper semis on it. You may find the original understeer wasn't so bad with better front grip (yes tyres won't change the balance of the car but you may find it was OK already). I would also get an attessa controller on board, the Ruzic ones from Paul(mountainrunner) up there are the best, but the basic ebay ones will also make a difference. Also depending on the age of the car and xfer case condition, consider getting it rebuilt instead as a controller can only make the most of what the xfer case can manage.

I'd be cautious about wheel nuts for a race car, I've seen lots of nasty ends due to simple problems. In particular I'd never again run alloy ones, steel only for me - I ran alloy for about 2 meets before deciding I didn't like the look of the wear as they came on and off, and got hot. Is the problem that you can't fit the wheel nut into the hole (ie nut too large diameter), or that you can't get the nut onto the thread adequately (studs too short). I recently had trouble getting standard (21mm socket) nuts onto the Leaf's new wheels so I bought these and they have enough space: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181334793255. Also you can get thin wall sockets for putting wheel nuts on eg http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Kincrome-Wheel-Nut-Socket-19mm-Yellow-K2183-/271418431242?pt=AU_Hand_Tools&hash=item3f31cc970a Also just check with the wheel nuts if the wheels are for tapered or flat wheel nuts, eg R34 gtr wheels are for flat wheel nuts, most are tapered like the link above. If you need longer studs you can get hold of them too.

I guess you would smell slipping clutch, but it is reasonably easy to stuff a clutch totally by getting grease on either the clutch or flywheel while it was apart...

also I would go less camber at the rear too, I only run 1.5 and that is on semis not street tyres. A little toe in at the rear (1mm) is will also reduce oversteer When you say extreme oversteer, when does it happen? turning into a corner, mid corner or on throttle application on the way out. How much power do you have, and do you have any diff or transfer case/attessa controller mods?

OP's purpose is "Hillclimbs mainly and the occasional time attack ", OP. I'd also leave the box until you need to change it, and when you do get a dog box in there for the quicker shifts Jimmy anyone can modify the transfer case, it involves adding the correct number of additional clutch plates to preload it. Award did mine.

/slaps me on back of head kind of spewing I didn't think about picking it up down there, but I am in Syd and need to do the measuring today before I put the engine in tomorrow.