Damo's R32 Gts-r, On Going Project Fun Car. History And Use Full Info

[DJRIFT]

Hi all, Im Damo and this is my second R32 purchased late in 07 in hectic 4wd spec.

a few hours after arriving i fitted these.

the bilstines now belong to Sav Man GTR and the teins are in the rubbish.

I brought the car as a Race only import after having lost my license and not wanting to loose my job by tempting fate keeping on the road. It was also after having my first 32 stolen and burnt out. a lot of the parts salvaged from the wreckage made their way into this car and enabled me to get back out on the track.

The car is a 92? GTS skyline. FACT: its one of the factory rb25de fitted cars that came from nissan in the later years of the r32. the rb25 is based 100% on a RB20DET engine. it has nothing in common with a rb25det found in a r33 gtst or r34gtt besides being 2.5L . (somthing that is very hard to explain when rebuilding engines ect) and is more so a cross between an rb20 and rb26. The r32 RB25s only came in NA and the cars came with 4 stud and single sliding pot calipers. they also have the crappy nissan diff found in silvias. 3 lots of 2 bolts (r180?)

After researching the engine options i decided to turbo the NA motor as its pretty much as easy to do as it is to say. (i will add a tutorial on this later but there probably isnt many people with these cars floating about now)

NA Spec

Turbo Spec

the engine mods started with R33gtst turbo manifold. r34 neo turbo (best flowing nissan turbo) r33 split dump pipe. R32 GTR injectors. R32 GTR front mount. custom cooler piping and r32GTR power FC. the engine added with a few GTR body kit bits was starting to form a new creation.

The -Gts-R- , the car being a Gts and adding a lot of oem GTR parts i come to the conclusion that this would confuse people that see the car.

[Duncan]

Hi all, Im Damo and I'm a build-a-holic

fixed!

[DJRIFT]

Wow it worked.

i spent an hour last night trying to get the topic to start. ill add the rest of the story. haha.

[DJRIFT]

Its first outing out of the shed untuned

its first event

At the first stage of tuning (road) it was making around 160rwkw on 10psi. after a dyno it made 196 still on 10psi.

by the end of 2008 it had seen a few different front bars and skirts ect ect as i had done the 5 round Tassie Drift Series plus practice days ect. it was pretty tired!!

so the sunday after the last race i de-stickered and de-kitted it.

should have left it there >( but what that pic doesnt show is how bad the body work was on the other side.

so it got a 2008 Xmas strip down

that resulted in this

GTR guards GTR front bar Veilside front lip GTR grill. D-Max duck tail wing. Pedders coil overs (sponsor deal) sweid dash for good measure. the Gts-R getting some more R. It was also retuned and was making 220rwkw on 13psi. not bad for a neo turbo and stock engine.

It still didnt look any good next to this

so i added some more.... skirts and a roof spoiler

then came a few more events and BANG! goes the engine.

so this

turns to

5 months later turns to

Individual throttle bodies and GTR intake. basically GTR from the hot side of the inter cooler. some more R for good measure.

So thats up to speed mainly of its motor sport life. there is a stack more stuff done to this car but that will come in time. i just wanted some background for you all first.

[Let Me Drive]

awesome mate these thread are great

[DJRIFT]

fixed!

well between this, Bens car and the Circuit 32 we had over at Phillip Island im kept busy

awesome mate these thread are great

thanks mate.

id like to add that while this car may look like its had plenty of money spent on it most of the parts are brought second hand or labour is used to pay for them. Up until i put a cage in it it didnt owe me much at all.

[emtea]

Love the suede dash - did you do this yourself? I've been considering doing a suede or flocked dash myself, is it made out of 1 piece of material and just glued down? (I can't see any stitching or seams?)

[XRATED]

Hey Damo, where'd you scource the z-tune style bonnet from?

Cheers

J.

[DJRIFT]

Love the suede dash - did you do this yourself? I've been considering doing a suede or flocked dash myself, is it made out of 1 piece of material and just glued down? (I can't see any stitching or seams?)

hi emtea, i made the dash myself out of suede. its one pice glued down. that was my second attempt at that dash. im happy with it but it is wrinkled on either side of the dash cluster part.

i have however just done Bens (check his build thread) and i used a patching technique so there was no wrinkles.

you need 1m by the with of the material (1.4m?) to do the dash only. or 2m by the with to cover glove box. centre console and other usual dash trims.

Hey Damo, where'd you scource the z-tune style bonnet from?

Cheers

J.

hey we made it. i got the vent off a bloke in hobart and cut and shut a gtst bonnet. i also got a N1 bonnet lip to finish off the front of the bonnet. i looked for another one of these vents recently myself to go on a GTR bonnet (trying to save weight) but couldnt find one for a realistic price. so i cant help with a source.

[DJRIFT]

QUOTE (Duncan @ 4 Jan 2009, 08:33 PM)

no secrets from us, this thread is all about sharing our dodgy ideas with the world.

But there are 3 main changes to the rear subframe

1/ lower the front mounting for the lower control arm. this is the same change nissan made between r32 and r33.

2/ make the rear roll centre adjustable - we did this by adding additional bolt holes on the subframe so you can bolt the arms on higher than standard

3/ remove hicas rack and replace it with fixed toe arms like S13 non hicas runs.

lots of pics of all of them above.

we are tackling the (much harder) front now. we are making custom lower and upper control arms for the front - lower are pretty simple with rose joints and brackets to suit which will let it sit lower, upper arm is trickier so we are going fixed length (we will cut and reweld if they are too long) which much smaller inner and outer end mounts. this should let us go up to 50mm lower at the front with the adjustment inner and outer.

anyway...we will put up pics when we are done with the front

thanks for that. i wasn't sure if the workshop that did it wanted it to be a known fact.

i have run with a hicas lock bar for over a year but i will change it to the no hicas arms. how did you get the hub end to mount up properly? as they have a stud in them for the tie rod end to mount to? was it just a matter of pressing that stud out?

i run my car low as buggery now and have always liked it that way but am only just finding ways to improve it at that height. is it easy to solid mount the sub frame? i see you can gain around 25mm height but does that affect the diff at all?

i have a slightly different set up in the front in my GTST but i have had issues with suspension travel with the car so low. the upper control arm (which is now replaced with an adjustable dog bone type) is nearly folded up against the upright. after playing with the car tonight i have decided to weld in a box section and mount the upper arm higher to return it more standard like settings. because its a GTST i have plenty of room behind the strut towers to do this. i am also getting some adjustable rose jointed tie rod ends to eliminate bump steer and some press in roll centre adjusters for the lower control arms as they differ to the GTR ones.

thanks for the help.

that was taken out of Mark and Duncan's super lap car build thread from over a year ago and ive finally started. Of course one or two things has popped up between now and then.

i started stripping down a spare r32 sub frame that was sold to me as a r33 one (r33-34 having better geometry) by cutting loads of crap off it and pressing out the stock bushes.

then tonight we removed the sub frame from my car. partly because i wanted to do this mod and because the diff had to be removed due to changing gearing.

but first i took some picks of why the sway bar links will be being upgraded..... that is a massive air gap when the suspension is being lifted on one side ie: road conditions.

i also measured what roll centre gains i mite make. according to my measurements (the pic is for general idea) its around 13mm. my rear end currently has Cusco type C bushes squashed in there. i fitted the same type to a r33 drift car and noticed the difference straight off the bat. This mod gets 2 thumbs up. previously i had BeeR type pineapples in my car but the alloy type were defiantly better as the compress make the subframe sit solid to the chassis.

whole package removed.

the rear has adjustable upper arms and a GTR sway bar (another top mod for a gtst as they fit right up. are light as buggery and are stiffer than the stock item. ive fitted a few to road going r32s and have liked the difference. i have used mine in conjunction to a whiteline front.) the new rear end will have solid chassis mounts. (undecided between alloy push in or custom weld in) new bushes where available. UAS has most of what i need. some pick up point changes and no hicas lock bar, going to non hicas style toe rods. also whiteline rear bar going back in and rose jointed sway bar links as per some recent research. (rose joint links will probably be white line as they are good value for money)

and a New second hand turbo is on the way as i broke my old one being a tool. Stock ones do the job for what i need for now.

[NZM.031]

great to see your own build thread damo.. top stuff.

[sav man]

There was much talking about suspention giomitory last night, and all i think we managed to do was hurt out heads.

[DJRIFT]

great to see your own build thread damo.. top stuff.

thanks. yea ive wanted to start one of these for years but never go to it.

There was much talking about suspention giomitory last night, and all i think we managed to do was hurt out heads.

some time will be taken to align dynamic settings this time around.

i will have no idea if it does anything or not but i hope it at least has a placebo affect and i win regardless

[NZM.031]

ive read through the knuckle thread on ns.com, and got a kick ass headache.. reading the roll centre thread on ns.com is just mind blowing.. literally..

ive thought about it all.. but think i will just work with what ive got.. it handled good enough before with my desired ride height.. and its all as is from nissan, so id probs just make it worse anyway.

[XRATED]

Check out:

http://www.gtfactory.jp/cms/

They do some awsome low ride height, susp gear & modified knuckle kits.

J.

[mmm_goose]

Awesome build, man! Good to see suede make it into the equation.

[Duncan]

lol poor old nugget has been sitting in a container for a year. It's not dead, but is on hold and probably will be for another 12 months until our house is finished.

[BOZ22N]

Very nice Damo, i love the dash and i am very keen to see how the rear cradle turns out.

[DJRIFT]

lol poor old nugget has been sitting in a container for a year. It's not dead, but is on hold and probably will be for another 12 months until our house is finished.

it was part of my agreement with the other half that my car doesnt go for the sake of our first house. i dont mind mine sitting safe and sound while i work on the house (or bens car) once you move forward in life you realise that cars are important but they can wait.

didnt think we would have to wait that long to see the nugget gracing the ash felt thoe. haha.

Very nice Damo, i love the dash and i am very keen to see how the rear cradle turns out.

thanks mate. the dash looks better in pics than in the flesh. lol. thats the general trend of my car.haha.

the sub frame may be being done in a 2 step process at this stage as A) funds and time dont allow for going the whole way on this one, and B) id like to try and test back to back the second half of the mods.

the start of the sub frame mods. Whiteline spherical sway bar links. these are just universal items and grate value for money. i will be fabricating custom pickups for these.

Thanks J. for the link. the sub frame bushes are cheap and just what im after but after having a chat with a machinist mate he is going to nock some of these up cheap as chips.

the only other major mod for stage 1 will be anti squat geometry change.

Old pics of the car.

carbon panel and integrated door trim.

interior dash and carbon panels. the gauge in the centre console is an old greddy oil gauge i have moded with the stock fuel gauge mechanism to work as a fuel gauge.

[DJRIFT]

stage 2 of the sub frame modding.

cut off all unnecessary bits. the front LCA pick up point and some bits that are going to get in the way with the new toe rod setup. .

hoping to have the bushes pressed out in the next day or so the i can measure up and have the new bushes made.

also need to grab the right material for remaking the LCA pickup.

my fun comes from making this stuff work.