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Charles' R34 Gtt - C89

Charles89
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Charles89 Grand Master

Charles89

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Mountain run? What's that?

When I owned my boaty NA R33, I never really went to any mountainy or hilly cruises with lots of twisties, since I know the stocky whale won't be able to handle it (no offence to anyone driving a R33!). So I didn't really have any experience in hilly driving.

One day after TAFE, I jumped on SAU just to see that SAU VIC was running a Mt Buller 2 day cruise (for those who don't know Mt Buller is, Mt Buller is a town located in the Shire of Mansfield in the Alpine region of Victoria. The town is located approximately 200 kilometres east of Melbourne on the slopes of Mt Buller. In short, it's where people go to ski in the winter months). Without having any second thoughts, I put my name down and paid for the accommodation and dinner that was provided ($100 all up - which was a bargain!).

(After looking back at that thread, the noob me asked "Do we need chains to drive up buller?", just shows how much I knew back then haha...)

Anyway, the cruise comprised a lot of driving from Melbourne to Mt Buller, some fun driving going up and down the mountain and then back to Melbourne the next day. Have to say... It was such an amazing experience with some quality bonding time with the car, since I only owned it for 3 months. And I must say, as it was, the R34 handled so much better than the R33, even with just Tein Mono Flex and front Cusco camber arms. It drove like a dream (compared to what I had), carried me through the corners and straights, never realised mountain roads were so much fun!

From that point on, I knew the R34 was worth modding.

This is what Mt Buller looks like in the winter.
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Having a blast with the R34!
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After a couple of runs, the R34 was just as exhausted as I was, and in fact, it was the first time I had the sensation of "brake fade". By the time I got to the bottom of the mountain, smoke was pouring out from the brakes and I was adviced to roll the car onto a flatter surface so I can let the brakes cool down without the need of the handbrake.
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  • 4 weeks later...
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Charles89 Grand Master

Charles89

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Not having a lot of luck...

After having such an awesome weekend at Mt Buller, only to come home to find out there was a massive crack on my windscreen, most likely happened on the way home on the freeway. I was fairly shuttered at the time (pun intended), having something damaged on the R34 for the first time... But rest assured, it wasn't going to be the last time...

On the plus side, I did get a brand new windscreen that has a little strip of tint at the top, which I think it looks better than the OEM windscreen.

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Unfortunately... The run of bad luck didn't just stop there...

One Sunday morning in December 2009, I was just about to head to work, it was pouring down that morning, visibility was close to being zero. There were cars parked on each side of my drive way, and as I was pulling out slowly, thinking there was no car coming. A girl in her Ford Fiesta just flew around the corner and did not bother to try swerving to avoid me. Ended up clipping my front bar and bonnet.

I was devastated, having an accident in the R34 only 4 months after owning it. Worst part was, at the time, I only had 3rd party fire and theft, as I couldn't really afford full comp with JustCar for $3,000, considering I didn't work full time and was still a uni student. So I basically had to fork out $1950 for excess and just live with the scars on the 34 from the accident.

I decided not to get the 34 fixed, not yet. As it was only cosmetic damage. But my plans to make the car looking nice and pretty, has taken a step backwards...

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Charles89 Grand Master

Charles89

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Gotta wrap it all!

April 2010, it's been 4 depressing months since the accident happened. Although the car is still relatively new in my possession, it just doesn't feel that new anymore, perhaps the accident has really demotivated me. As I felt, no matter what I do to the rest of the car, the front bar and bonnet is still wrecked...

BUT, I still tried to motivate myself, realising I can't just leave the car like this for the rest of my life.

By taking a baby step, I wanted to rectify the problem of the black paint chipping off from my intercooler piping, as it was slowly becoming more and more noticeable. Knowing that if I spray it again, it will just get chipped again, so I thought... Why not just wrap it in CF vinyl?!

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Charles89 Grand Master

Charles89

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To brighten things up!

September 2010, 9 months since the accident and 5 months since I last did anything to the car. I can slowly feel the passion coming back, hands getting shaky, kind of itching for the next mod.

Back in those days, HIDs were not as common as they are now. Even though my 34 came out of the factory with Xenon headlights, they were unfortunately ripped out during compliance, as it was one of the earlier 34's to get into the country, so they had to do it right. And sadly, they did it too well...

They didn't just disconnect the Xenons and put a H1 bulb in, they chopped every single loom from the ballast while fabricated a plate to suit a H1 bulb... So there was no way I could just rewire the ballast to get the D2R Xenons working again... Decided to take the cheapest and quickest option, drop in a H1 HID kit. In which, in hindsight, was pretty inconsiderate and silly, because the reflectors in the housing were designed to reflect light from a D2R bulb, and not H1, so it would have glared and blinded on coming cars. Lesson #2 kids, don't install random headlights into your car, if it's not meant for it.

Having said that, it did look pretty cool at the time and definitely lit up the road better.

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While I was at it, I also polished up the headlights with a bit of toothpaste, yes toothpaste, and it works!

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