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Hi everyone....A few of us from Vic are driving up on Friday the 8th to come see Top Gear. We have organised a meet n greet and possibly a cruise(weather permitting) on the Saturday night(9th).... Location is Hungry Jacks, Cabramatta at approx 9-9:30pm Hope to see you all there as we would like to meet you guys and check out your cars and vise versa. Cheers

Hey I am Rhys I just bought a R33 that had been defected (surprise) with the intention of fixing it up. Realised it is going to cost way to much to get roadworthy so looking at buying another one and having it as a parts car. Goal is to get involved in the community and enjoy some meets, cruises etc with other Skyline enthusiasts. Easy question to get started, how often do simple cruises happen?

So I just got back from Japan where I did my lifetime pilgrimage to Nismo, Nissan, and all things GTR. I’m a self-confessed GTR nut and have been for the last 15 or so years so it was only right that on my first trip to Japan, I visited all the workshops, car parks, and car shows that I’d been reading and watching VHS videos about since I was a young pup. I went there with big ideas in my head and thought it would all be as I’d seen it in the mags and videos, but it wasn’t, it was very, very, far from it. During my first week in Japan I was in Tokyo, and it just so happened that the HKS private day was on in that week so I made the trip to Fuji speedway to have a perve at some fine cars and HKS brilliance, a fit way to start my automotive sightseeing trip. I was not let down in any way and saw some mind boggling modifications and heard some earth-shattering sounds – I’ll leave it at that. Too much to say for the purpose of this thread. In that first week, I like many other people, was expecting to see the streets of Japan filled with JDM auto erotica. GTRs, Supras, RX7s, Evos, Silvias, NSXs etc etc. WRONG!!.... During that first week I saw the likes of no GTRs, 1 non-turbo Supra, 1 RX7, and nothing of anything else. I was utterly shattered. If there was a cruise/modified car scene in japan as I’d thought, it had definitely died out. On my third day I managed to visit the new Nismo Omori factory in Yokohama (a real pain in the ass to get to from Tokyo – Find your way to Namamuggi station then a 25 minute walk). The new factory has a small museum at the front (officially opening to the public on the 1st of March) which I was lucky enough to be given a sneak peak of. The rest of the factory comprises of a workshop for customer’s cars and another workshop on the other side out of public view, for their own race cars. The customer’s workshop is closed off to the public, though I was lucky enough to be given a tour of it as my brother-in-law is acquainted with a few people there after venturing to Japan in 2006/2007 to bring back a z-tune to Australia. While there another customer struck up conversation with me and directed me to the famed Dykuko Futo parking lot which we were asking about. The advice I was given was to “go tonight (being a Friday night) at around 9.30, don’t bother on Saturday cos the cops usually bust up the party.” So I did just that - We hired a car and drove to the carpark (which incidentally is just 5 minutes down the road from the new Nismo factory). If you are a ‘gyjin’ (foreigner) like me, you will most probably have Buckley’s chance of finding your way in. The carpark as you all know is enclosed by many winding freeways above the ground. We naively tried to access it from street level where it is located, though you can only get in via freeway access (the freeway has a dedicated exit to this carpark – only 1 way in and 1 way out). Needless to say, we eventually found our way in at which time it was 11.15 pm and there were hardly any cars there. A few botchy drift cars, sedans on chrome rims and a few 370s. Disappointed, we left and decided to come back the next night, as supposedly Saturday night was supposed to be the big night there with only the possibility of police. Sure enough, we rocked up earlier on Saturday though this time as half-expected, the police had come and completely blocked off the freeway exit so that no cars could get in. That second night we went, an employee of Top Secret drove us out there, all the way from Chiba (not close to Tokyo at all in case you were thinking of going). Also in case you were going, the maps for both Top Secret and the Nismo Omori factory are laughable. All the maps contain is a bunch of streets with no names, maybe a train station somewhere on the edge of the map and a 7/11 or other known point somewhere. And they’re all in Japanese!! It took us 3 hours to get to Top Secret, and the address they have on their website is for Top Secret II (their body shop), not Top Secret I (Smokey’s hideout). They are very far from each other so if you get stuck like we did you will be facing a $150 AUD cab ride there from Top Secret II. In-between visiting Tokyo and Osaka I went to Chiba, Nagano, Kyoto and Hiroshima. In Kyoto I saw 1 NSX and 1 evo. Nothing anywhere else. Once in Osaka however, I managed to get along to the Osaka Auto Messe, basically the west coast version of the Tokyo Auto Salon. Here I guess I was most surprised. Even up until recently I had seen pictures of such events where myriads of worked RB GTRs were on display. The Auto Messe was held in a venue which was for people in Melbourne, basically 6 times the size of the exhibition building. It was HUGE. It seemed that each room had a particular theme. The first 2 rooms solely contained phat VIP cars and vans (think ridiculous negative ‘oni’ camber and DEEEEEEEP dish rims under massively stretched guards). We thought that that’s all there was to it. The next room however was an entire room dedicated just to the new Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ. While there were some nice cars here from respectable tuners such as HKS, Amuse, and Trial, if you weren’t a fan of the 86 then this room wasn’t for you. The next room was dedicated to worked European cars, Ferraris, Lambos, Minis, Benzs, BMs etc, and the final room (Exhibition room 5 was all eateries and paraphernalia shops) was the only room where you could get a glimpse of thoroughbred Japanese sportscars. In it however, I saw only 2 R34 GTRs, 1 R33 GTR, 1 R32 GTR, NO SUPRAS, 1 FD Rx7, 1 FC RX7, no s2000s, 1 s15, no NSXs, no EVOs, maybe 10-12 R35 GTRs, a few more Toyota 86s and a few 370zs. I did see 2 R33 GTRs on the streets outside the event, but that’s it. This room still contained VIP cars and a bunch of weird over the top chop-and-change projects. On my 2nd last day in Osaka, I made my way down to Global Auto for some business, where I was very kindly driven around/picked up by Matsumoto San. As he filled me in on the current tuner-car scene (or lack of) in Japan, it became painfully obvious to me that it was a very dead car cult. He told me that there were no big meets in Osaka as there sometimes was in Tokyo, but that even Dykuko Futo as I’d already seen, had seriously died down. The street drifting he also told me was virtually non-existent, except somewhat in the small southern islands of Japan. While with Matsumoto, he was also kind enough to take me on a tour of the local workshops (he knows all of them well), where I got firsthand access to their garages which are off limits to the public. This included Auto Select!!) So that’s how it is, in case anyone was planning a trip to Japan where they hoped they’d get to see a bit of petrol-head fantasy, keep dreaming, because that’s where it’s all at!! A bit of a disappointment but the Japanese are so friendly, courteous, polite, respectful and helpful, and there’s so many other things to see and do, that even for an obsessed JDM car nut, it is still a country very worth visiting!

I have been tossing up for a while whether or not I should do a thread on my build as I feel like I am doing the exact same thing that everyone else has done, in saying that Maybe people can share some ideas with me to help point me in the right direction or maybe someone might find what I am doing interesting, Also a way for me to keep track of time and mods etc. Who knows what I am getting myself into but here goes. The story of where and how this began. I had a new guy come work with me who owned a R33, I always loved Skylines but never owned one and had not been around them a whole bunch. Even though this 33 was a pretty rough and was in need of some love and care I still remember loving every second in it. After a few weeks sure enough my now good mate unfortunately lost his license and had the car defected pretty badly. I still decided to buy it off him with the intention of fixing it up….. Was not to be as the list was massive, so I stripped what I could, GT3076, FFP, Jasma Exhaust system. It was great fun stripping it down. I got to learn a whole bunch about the RB25 and 33's alike. Shot of what she looked like As you can see we did not have huge amounts of garage space to work with but like most people with these cars, you make do. Once everything was taken that was worth while I went on the hunt for another 33 that would be clean and limited mods (cheap so the mrs would approve). certainly took a little while but when I compare to how long some people take to find the "perfect" one I realise I bought mine really quick!! So that’s when I found her. The car and the owner, it was 94 s1 silver 33, Had tein adjustable coilovers, Nismo cluster, EBC and a few other goodies, limited mods exactly what I wanted. Female owner who had a passion for cars and was awesome to deal with. Not to mention her brother in law having an incredible AE86 out the back that we got to look at and talk about while we signed everything! First photo I took: Wing was removed at some point, had 350z wheels and was a generally clean car, 20 year old car never going to be immaculate I now owned two skylines with the intention of flogging the old s2. (our last photo together) Managed to do just that, it was gone two days after buying my new one. While buying the new car I was fortunate enough to meet someone who would be able to help me through the adventures ahead, Luckily enough a Exec for SAU NSW so now I wont feel awkward going to events! Or trying to rip something apart because he can come fix it