Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi I'm about to buy a new car and I'm having trouble deciding. I have a few questions about specific models that hopefully someone can answer. The car is mainly to be used as a everyday car that can tow 1-2 motorbikes and can survive the odd track day. i plan on eventually buying a good bike so i probably wouldnt do track days in the car after I get the bike.

So the cars I'm considering are the ford ba mk2 xr6t, r32 gtr and r34 25gtt. I was hoping to only spend about 15k on the car (before mods) and wanted about 250-300 kw atw in the skylines and 300-350 in the xr6t, my question about the skylines is how reliable is the r32 GTR? I've heard they are very expensive to run and that they brake down a'lot being old cars. the other questions I have is how much would it cost to obtain this kind of power from either of the skylines, and what kind of fuel efficiency do they run ( this doesn't matter to much just out of curiosity). I know the xr6t should be able to get 300 rwk for less than 5k so I was wondering how the others compared.

there is one other option I'm not sure if anybody will be able to help me out with but I could buy a bike and use my current car to tow it. I don't have my bike license so I was wondering if anyone who has a bike can tell me if they get more enjoyment out of the occasional track day than having a nice car everyday

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/373424-what-vehicle-should-i-buy/
Share on other sites

skylines don't "break down a lot", but like all cars they will have the occasional issue, and once pushed harder they will have more issues if not down right. the ford is no exception to this rule either. if you up the power one and don't do the appropriate mods to go with it then you will end up with some issues as well.

as for the r32 GTR, they are generally reliable but they are getting a bit long in the tooth these days and if you go for a cheaper example then you are more likely to end up having issues with it.

i'd be more inclined to go the falcon or the r34 GT-t over the GTR for the simple fact that a r32 GTR for 15k isn't going to be in the best condition, so you could expect to have issues. for your budget you could get a r34 GT-t and then rather easily get it up to 250kw with a new turbo, ecu, AFM and injectors.

if your looking to use it as a tow car.. the r32 gtr and r34 gtt doesnt have a tow ball. and to get 300awkw is gonna cost more then 5k probally 10-15k if you want it to last and 15k on a r32 gtr isnt going to get you anything special..

the xr6t will be the best for what your looking for.

Thanks for the quick reply! I was planning to get an after market tow bar for the skylines (if that even exists).

skylines don't "break down a lot", but like all cars they will have the occasional issue, and once pushed harder they will have more issues if not down right. the ford is no exception to this rule either. if you up the power one and don't do the appropriate mods to go with it then you will end up with some issues as well.

as for the r32 GTR, they are generally reliable but they are getting a bit long in the tooth these days and if you go for a cheaper example then you are more likely to end up having issues with it.

i'd be more inclined to go the falcon or the r34 GT-t over the GTR for the simple fact that a r32 GTR for 15k isn't going to be in the best condition, so you could expect to have issues. for your budget you could get a r34 GT-t and then rather easily get it up to 250kw with a new turbo, ecu, AFM and injectors.

how much would i roughly be looking at to get 250kw in the r34 gT-t?

Go the moped! 49Cc of goodness, lol. So you haven't got a bike license - best to not bite more than you can chew, ie you'll need a few years to upgrade from learner-type motorcycles to a balls out 1litre superbike. A huge learning curve in front of you.

A 10-15k gtr would be looking for new suspension, turbos, rebuilt engine, fuel supply, cooling, etc. There's 15grand right there. R34 should be ok in terms of engine lifespan so you'd only need say an 8g budget for suspension, injectors, front brakes, nistune ecu, garret turbo & associated intake/exhaust for your 250kw goal.

For your towing aim the ford would be first choice, r34 close second, with gtr last. If you go for the r32 gtr after doing it up I feel you'd get almost as much enjoyment driving it as you would riding... Is that what you want though? To choose your car over your bike? That's what you'd get with a built gtr. Whereas you'd appreciate a fast bike over a run of the mill ford...

Decide what it is you're after.....

Go the moped! 49Cc of goodness, lol. So you haven't got a bike license - best to not bite more than you can chew, ie you'll need a few years to upgrade from learner-type motorcycles to a balls out 1litre superbike. A huge learning curve in front of you.

A 10-15k gtr would be looking for new suspension, turbos, rebuilt engine, fuel supply, cooling, etc. There's 15grand right there. R34 should be ok in terms of engine lifespan so you'd only need say an 8g budget for suspension, injectors, front brakes, nistune ecu, garret turbo & associated intake/exhaust for your 250kw goal.

For your towing aim the ford would be first choice, r34 close second, with gtr last. If you go for the r32 gtr after doing it up I feel you'd get almost as much enjoyment driving it as you would riding... Is that what you want though? To choose your car over your bike? That's what you'd get with a built gtr. Whereas you'd appreciate a fast bike over a run of the mill ford...

Decide what it is you're after.....

Thanks for the advice, when I said I havnt got my licence I meant full licence I still have 1 year to go in my green p's, ill definitely be buying a good bike once I've got my full license, but I will eventually want a decent car as well it sounds like if I wanted to go with a car the ford is the cheapest option.

Get the XR6T.

But, don't expect to be able to thrash it too hard at the track and expect to drive it home evry time. You cannot expect that of any car.

You may need a brake upgrade, or if you find one with premium brakes, at least a pad upgrade.

though i am not a ford person, nor much of a bike person, in my honest opinion, the cheaper option here is simple, either buy a really nice bike for track days and enjoy yourself, or buy a really good track car, then from there, get a good towing vehicle, say a Triton, hilux or navara.

i personally wouldn't get a car like either a skyline or XR6T pure money into doing it up, and then use it to tow a bike around, it just doesn't seem practical to me, but hey, this is my opinion only.

so if you are going this way, i to would suggest the XR6T, as they are a car that is more designed for towing then what a skyline is (plus would be a hell of a lot cheaper to fit a tow bar if it didn't have one already).

my two cents worth

I wouldnt go for a skyline if your gonna get a bike for track and fun dry day thrashes as you will just get the mod bug and keep going and going until you spend $XXXXX.

Id be keen on the xr6t from a dealer as they will give you a warranty, extended if you wish. Big car too so very practical.

lol ask skyline fourm about getting a skyline, overwhelmingly people tell you not to get a skyline, rofl

anyway, my experience in driving is R33 gt25t, holden barina, and some late model falcons, and i can tell you for sure that the 4L straight 6 is much much more daily drive friendly, don't need to rev it and torque is early. For a road car that you spend 95% putting around in you cannot beat an xr6t for functionality with some decent sporty grunt.

+1 xr6t, every mechanic knows it, lots of local parts, easy to get more power out of it. isn't super targeted by cops, 4door with room, suspension suited to aus roads that come stock.

isn't as sporty as a skyline or as fun to drive but you'll get over it.

karma im thinking of getting a larger car that will be a bit of fun on track days and stuff, budget will be about 2-3k for the intial purchase of the car. dont need to get the most power out of it, but cheap parts and good results for the money i put in would be nice, as well as a generally reliable car which wont cause me alot of troubles.

(this car will be replacing my 91 Excel as the daily driver - i wanted something bigger and automatic since i spend alot of time on the roads)

R31 Skyline - will do a RB30ET conversion (some good learning to be had there!)

or whatever model XR6T Falcon I can afford (probably gonna be something old)

i should probs have started a new thread but since you were talking about the positives of the xr6t and its related to what im after ...

karma im thinking of getting a larger car that will be a bit of fun on track days and stuff, budget will be about 2-3k for the intial purchase of the car. dont need to get the most power out of it, but cheap parts and good results for the money i put in would be nice, as well as a generally reliable car which wont cause me alot of troubles.

(this car will be replacing my 91 Excel as the daily driver - i wanted something bigger and automatic since i spend alot of time on the roads)

or whatever model XR6T Falcon I can afford (probably gonna be something old)

i should probs have started a new thread but since you were talking about the positives of the xr6t and its related to what im after ...

Pretty sure they didn't make XR6T falcons until the BA series, so you won't get one for anywhere near 3k.

The XR6 or else perhaps a Stagea?

I've just bought a Stag (after r33 ownership) and friggin' love it. Doesn't punch quite as hard (yet) as the r33, but it still hauls and I LOVE having all that room! Now I just gotta get a towball so i too can tow bikes around.

The XR6 or else perhaps a Stagea?

I've just bought a Stag (after r33 ownership) and friggin' love it. Doesn't punch quite as hard (yet) as the r33, but it still hauls and I LOVE having all that room! Now I just gotta get a towball so i too can tow bikes around.

The XR6 or else perhaps a Stagea?

I've just bought a Stag (after r33 ownership) and friggin' love it. Doesn't punch quite as hard (yet) as the r33, but it still hauls and I LOVE having all that room! Now I just gotta get a towball so i too can tow bikes around.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Well, that's kinda the point. The calipers might interfere with the inside of the barrels 16" rims are only about 14" inside the barrels, which is ~350mm, and 334mm rotors only leave about 8mm outboard for the caliper before you get to 350, And.... that;s not gunna be enough. If the rims have a larger ID than that, you might sneak it in. I'd be putting a measuring stick inside the wheel and eyeballing the extra required for the caliper outboard of the rotor before committing to bolting it all on.
    • OK, so again it has been a bit of a break but it was around researching what had been done since I didn't have access to Neil's records and not everything is obvious without pulling stuff apart. Happily the guy who assembled the engine had kept reasonable records, so we now know the final spec is: Bottom end: Standard block and crank Ross 86.5mm forgies, 9:1 compression Spool forged rods Standard main bolts Oil pump Spool billet gears in standard housing Aeroflow extended and baffled sump Head Freshly rebuilt standard head with new 80lb valve springs Mild porting/port match Head oil feed restrictor VCT disabled Tighe 805C reground cams (255 duration, 8.93 lift)  Adjustable cam gears on inlet/exhaust Standard head bolts, gasket not confirmed but assumed MLS External 555cc Nismo injectors Z32 AFM Bosch 023 Intank fuel pump Garret 2871 (factory housings and manifold) Hypertune FFP plenum with standard throttle   Time to book in a trip to Unigroup
    • I forgot about my shiny new plates!
    • Well, apparently they do fit, however this wont be a problem if not because the car will be stationary while i do the suspension work. I was just going to use the 16's to roll the old girl around if I needed to. I just need to get the E90 back on the road first. Yes! I'm a believer! 🙌 So, I contacted them because the site kinda sucks and I was really confused about what I'd need. They put together a package for me and because I was spraying all the seat surfaces and not doing spot fixes I decided not to send them a headrest to colour match, I just used their colour on file (and it was spot on).  I got some heavy duty cleaner, 1L of colour, a small bottle of dye hardener and a small bottle of the dye top coat. I also got a spray gun as I needed a larger nozzle than the gun I had and it was only $40 extra. From memory the total was ~$450 ish. Its not cheap but the result is awesome. They did add repair bits and pieces to the quote originally and the cost came down significantly when I said I didn't need any repair products. I did it over a weekend. The only issues I had were my own; I forgot to mix the hardener into the dye two coats but I had enough dye for 2 more coats with the hardener. I also just used up all the dye because why not and i rushed the last coat which gave me some runs. Thankfully the runs are under the headrests. The gun pattern wasn't great, very round and would have been better if it was a line. It made it a little tricky to get consistent coverage and I think having done the extra coats probably helped conceal any coverage issues. I contacted them again a few months later so I could get our X5 done (who the f**k thought white leather was a good idea for a family car?!) and they said they had some training to do in Sydney and I could get a reduced rate on the leather fix in the X5 if I let them demo their product on our car. So I agreed. When I took Bec in the E39 to pick it up, I showed them the job I'd done in my car and they were all (students included) really impressed. Note that they said the runs I created could be fixed easily at the time with a brush or an air compressor gun. So, now with the two cars done I can absolutely recommend Colourlock.  I'll take pics of both interiors and create a new thread.
    • Power is fed to the ECU when the ignition switch is switched to IGN, at terminal 58. That same wire also connects to the ECCS relay to provide both the coil power and the contact side. When the ECU sees power at 58 it switches 16 to earth, which pulls the ECCS relay on, which feeds main power into the ECU and also to a bunch of other things. None of this is directly involved in the fuel pump - it just has to happen first. The ECU will pull terminal 18 to earth when it wants the fuel pump to run. This allows the fuel pump relay to pull in, which switches power on into the rest of the fuel pump control equipment. The fuel pump control regulator is controlled from terminal 104 on the ECU and is switched high or low depending on whether the ECU thinks the pump needs to run high or low. (I don't know which way around that is, and it really doesn't matter right now). The fuel pump control reg is really just a resistor that controls how the power through the pump goes to earth. Either straight to earth, or via the resistor. This part doesn't matter much to us today. The power to the fuel pump relay comes from one of the switched wires from the IGN switch and fusebox that is not shown off to the left of this page. That power runs the fuel pump relay coil and a number of other engine peripherals. Those peripherals don't really matter. All that matters is that there should be power available at the relay when the key is in the right position. At least - I think it's switched. If it's not switched, then power will be there all the time. Either way, if you don't have power there when you need it (ie, key on) then it won't work. The input-output switching side of the relay gains its power from a line similar (but not the same as) the one that feeds the ECU. SO I presume that is switched. Again, if there is not power there when you need it, then you have to look upstream. And... the upshot of all that? There is no "ground" at the fuel pump relay. Where you say: and say that pin 1 Black/Pink is ground, that is not true. The ECU trigger is AF73, is black/pink, and is the "ground". When the ECU says it is. The Blue/White wire is the "constant" 12V to power the relay's coil. And when I say "constant", I mean it may well only be on when the key is on. As I said above. So, when the ECU says not to be running the pump (which is any time after about 3s of switching on, with no crank signal or engine speed yet), then you should see 12V at both 1 and 2. Because the 12V will be all the way up to the ECU terminal 18, waiting to be switched to ground. When the ECU switches the fuel pump on, then AF73 should go to ~0V, having been switched to ground and the voltage drop now occurring over the relay coil. 3 & 5 are easy. 5 is the other "constant" 12V, that may or may not be constant but will very much want to be there when the key is on. Same as above. 3 goes to the pump. There should never be 12V visible at 3 unless the relay is pulled in. As to where the immobiliser might have been spliced into all this.... It will either have to be on wire AF70 or AF71, whichever is most accessible near the alarm. Given that all those wires run from the engine bay fusebox or the ECU, via the driver's area to the rear of the car, it could really be either. AF70 will be the same colour from the appropriate fuse all the way to the pump. If it has been cut and is dangling, you should be able to see that  in that area somewhere. Same with AF71.   You really should be able to force the pump to run. Just jump 12V onto AF72 and it should go. That will prove that the pump itself is willing to go along with you when you sort out the upstream. You really should be able to force the fuel pump relay on. Just short AF73 to earth when the key is on. If the pump runs, then the relay is fine, and all the power up to both inputs on the relay is fine. If it doesn't run (and given that you checked the relay itself actually works) then one or both of AF70 and AF71 are not bringing power to the game.
×
×
  • Create New...