Import Advice - Series 3 R33 Gtr

[Beer Baron]

fairly neat looking car, but it's missing the series 3 front bar/front lip which is one of the nice features of the S3. having the front bar replaced is odd, especially replacing it with a less desirable and cheaper one. steering wheel looks pretty worn for a car showing 50kms but it's possible owner wore a ring or something. did you end up having mark hocking source a car for you or did you buy on from someones stock? if it was an auction car what grade was it? other than those things it seems ok in the pics, but as with all cars you can only tell a good one from a bad one in the flesh.

[Beer Baron]

Why does it have a fuel rail in there? Given it's unmolested?

it's genreally a sign of a car that was quite heavily modified in jaopan at some point and the owner returned it to standard to recoup more money before selling the car at auction. they remove stuff like aftermarket wheels, turbos, intercooler, ecu etc. stuff that is fairly easy to remove and/or valuable. stuff like fuel rail they often leave as it's too much hassle to plumb back in the standard one and fuel rail is not worth much to sell second hand so they leave it. another hint is the oil cooler, not many 'standard' cars would have had an oil cooler fitted.

[KR4-GTR]

it's genreally a sign of a car that was quite heavily modified in jaopan at some point and the owner returned it to standard to recoup more money before selling the car at auction. they remove stuff like aftermarket wheels, turbos, intercooler, ecu etc. stuff that is fairly easy to remove and/or valuable. stuff like fuel rail they often leave as it's too much hassle to plumb back in the standard one and fuel rail is not worth much to sell second hand so they leave it. another hint is the oil cooler, not many 'standard' cars would have had an oil cooler fitted.

With my car, I got the fuel rail put in myself here in aus! Still got receipts for it and still got the standard one is still sitting around in the shed somewhere. Got a mad price on a tomei one and I wanted it mainly for aesthetics haha - a purple HKS one would have been my second choice!

Oil cooler is the factory option series 3 one hence the extra front vents! Same as the one in the nissan gallery in japan (see pic).

But your right, who knows what some cars are treated like in Japan before they come here. Its part of the import fun i guess

Edited August 5, 2009 by KR4-GTR

[Beer Baron]

lol, well that is different! I had never seen anyone fit a fuel rail on an otherwise standard car, but I have trawled through lots of cars at auction that have cleary had lots of good parts on them that the owner removed but left a few bits behind that were either too much hassle of just not worth much $.

I know the oil cooler is a nismo option. it's just not many people would order the car with it unless they had some mods or trackwork in mind. it's a nice piece to have though, and every car should be looked at on it's merits. stuff like that is only a guide, some cars have bits and are amazingly well looked after and mint condition, some others are completely factory standard and thrashed to death. so there are no hard and fast rules.