Finally got a Stagea

[Oz]

ah I am with gary on that one the stagea looks good as is it just looks like a R34 wagon with the 34 front on it & it looks a little cleaner with the stagea front on it

[Oz]

congrats gary nice car mate keep the pic's coming as you do the mods

[Gary1]

Cheers to all those who like her. I like them too. I hope to have a few of the mods done by the launch day on the 8th August.. ie manual and exhaust and suspension and brakes. That should keep me busy..

[Sydneykid]

Nice work SK, even the tow car has to be fast!

Ohh yeh, we have a Commondoor 5.7L manual ute that usually tows the RX7. So I want to drag it off with the Stagea and the GTST on the trailer. :wassup:

Gary1, Would love to see pickies of your car when you get it.

No problems, it was a little rough in the auction pictures, but nothing a few hours in the panel shop won't fix. I think I will be keeping the standard springs, just lower it a little with the adj bottom seats on the Konis. If it rolls too much, I will whack on some Whiteline stabiliser bars, that will tune it up.

Since its primary purpose is towing and carrying stuff around town, the auto will be great. Like you, I was also thinking of the brake upgrade, a set of GTR 4 spots for the front and 2 spots for the rear may be on the cards. I will wait and see how it is with the standard sliding callipers and some decent pads, it may be OK.

First job will be the tow bar though, then drive it around for a week or so to see what it needs. Then I will give it a quick power run on the dyno, just to establish a base line for the later power up's.

I will watch your posts with considerable interest.

[Gary1]

I'm throwing mine on the dyno to get a 'before mods' hp figure will let you know what it churns out. that is on the 18th of july only thing it will probably be manual then...

[Sydneykid]

I'm throwing mine on the dyno to get a 'before mods' hp figure will let you know what it churns out.  that is on the 18th of july only thing it will probably be manual then...

That'll be good anyway, as long as you haven't done any power up mods we can look at the auto trans losses compared to manual.

[jake32]

Hi Gary, good to see another Stagea on the go.  Mine arrived 5 weeks ago and is still getting complied.  Typical Nissan problem with rolling updates, where they use some new model parts at the end of the run of old models.  In my Stagea's case that was a rear left hand door, it has the later model intrusion bars and all the other 3 doors have the early model intrusion bars.  So it is stuck in no man's land with the beaurocrats at DOTARS.  Hopefully it will be sorted out next week.  We have a race meeting to go to next weekend and I need the Stagea tow car.

I have some plans for our Stagea as I have some good bits coming off the RB20DET in the R32 GTST, as it is getting a new RB31DET;    

GCG ball bearing hi flow RB25DET turbo

Performance Metalcraft split dump, engine pipe and hi flow cat

3" exhaust

FMIC and alloy pipework

Jamex panel filter and CAI

Autospeed (2 valve style) boost controller

Since it's an auto, I will have to make do with an SAFC for fuel tuning and no doubt it will need a set of Koni adj shocks, some adj to the caster, decent brake pads and a set of Hollow Type R's in 17 X 8.  Not to mention a HR towbar and a big transmission cooler.

I am looking forward to seeing what others have in mind for their Stagea's.

seems to be a few things happening with this series 1 / 2 /facelift thing...the intrusion bar problem scared me away from using my autech260 as sample car for RAWS...to hard....

now car arrives 17/7 .... still no emmission test available for rb26dett and fark nose

when it will be .. i better get some patience me thinks.. some peoplehave been waiting months already

still look forward to driving it .....maybe even complied

[Gary1]

this my friend is why i went the way i did. I too wanted the RS260 but got sick of waiting for it all to happen.... So i thought it easier to get the RS4 and do the engine, brakes and everything else swap. I know it won't be a genuine RS260 but for the most part everyting will be off one...

Cheers

Gary

[Gary1]

this was one tuff RS260 this wagon is the shit

[Revhead]

Looks mighty familiar

[jake32]

this my friend is why i went the way i did.  I too wanted the RS260 but got sick of waiting for it all to happen....  So i thought it easier to get the RS4 and do the engine, brakes and everything else swap.  I know it won't be a genuine RS260 but for the most part everyting will be off one...

Cheers

Gary

i`m pretty sure emmision test will be completed ..in less time than a complete driveline change...and the cars a genuine autech which will always be worth the extra wait and money i think

i guess that engine ,gearbox ,brake swaps on a car i just bought don`t appeal to me

[Gary1]

Jake32, don't get me wrong I would have loved to buy the real deal but i have been waiting for nearly 2 years for these things to start getting complied, I just got impatient when my wife got the news we were having twins. I will probably get the RS260 in a little while but i think i will just play with this for a little while. My wife likes it so this may end up being her car and I will get the 260 (hopefully). Yeah as for the swap thing not my ideal situation but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do....it's all in the name of fun.

Cheers

Gary

[jake32]

twins coming ...sorry your not going to have time for driveline swaps start looking for your own 260 now ..another 3 or 4 months it may even be compliable...

thank god for the trade plate

[Jay95R33]

Gary - What's insurance like on the Stagea ??

J

[michaeljquinn]

Gary - What's insurance like on the Stagea ??

J

Had my stagea since Feb

Bought it fully complied, I was wondering about the NEO version, but went

for the 1997 RS4. Looks great, dual sunroofs/blue.

Just cars gave me a $990 per annum deal, but I have got

a good record (rating, no accident claims for years and years etc, and over 40)

[michaeljquinn]

On friday just gone I finally got a C34 Stagea.will be lowered 1 1/4 inches.  Next to be done is to replace the stock exhaust, just to give it that RB note that we all love...

Gary

Cool, really interested in your Stagea progress.

Had my auto since Feb and love it. No sideways glances from cops etc, like

the sleeper concept.

Would like to know where you got your springs from, as i am looking at

doing the lowering as well, will make a real diff (appearance wise). Apparently

there are bilsteins available for stagea as well.

My other question is how interchangable are the GTS-4 parts ?. Especially, shocks

springs etc... Apparently the longer wheelbase of the stagea can cause some

probs ??

[Revhead]

Well, apparently R33 stuff fits straight in. IT DOESN'T. The springs in the rear are wider on the R33, so won't fit back over the stock struts and under the strut cap. I'm unsure whether you can change to the R33 struts as well, which of course would fix this problem, but the rear springs from an R33 are not the same as those in the C34 Stagea. Fronts are not a problem though

Gary bought Kings Springs, straight from Kings I believe.

[Jay95R33]

Had my stagea since Feb

Bought it fully complied, I was wondering about the NEO version, but went

for the 1997 RS4. Looks great, dual sunroofs/blue.

Just cars gave me a $990 per annum deal, but I have got

a good record (rating, no accident claims for years and years etc, and over 40)

Cool - thanks.

I did a quick ring around today and it looks like the price of insuring a 1997 Stagea RS four is about the same or a little bit less than insuring an R33 GTS-t.

I was worried that it may be higher as they are rarer, but not so

J

[mad wagon]

i soooo luv that 34 kit, can anyone let me know where to get one in se qld.

[Sydneykid]

Stagea insured for $20K with NRMA was $2.4K, for me. I have 4 cars insured with them, all on 65% NCB, house and contents policies, 4 geenslip policies etc. Guess who is not going to get my Stagea insurance? :wassup:

Thanks for the tips guys, I emailed off a quote request to Shannons yesterday. Just Cars will get a call today.