20 years of membership this year!

[webber]

Been a really long time since I have logged in. I had so many great mates on here and this was where a large portion of my spare time was spent! 

I can't believe it has been 20 years since I joined. I feel like it's only fair to share a few stories from my love of Skylines.

I was originally a long time member of Calaisturbo.com as I know many members here were also and I was reluctant to switch over to SAU as much my VL and skyline days were overlapping. So I didn't join for a few years while I was playing with import RB's.

I feel like we really lived through the prime of the import scene in Australia and I am so grateful for that opportunity. 

I owned so many skylines I can barely remember them all. I would have owned 10+ R33's an R32 GTR, 5 or 6 R34 GTT's. Often owning multiples at a time.

I built and raced a dedicated track GTS-t at Winton in the sprints and 6 hour race. (Well I still have that car) And we also built an R32 GTR with an N1 engine into a Winfield replica track car. 

I had a mate with a genuine Tommy Kaira R32 GTR and a Gts-x built into a Gibson replica with a genuine GTS-R engine fitted to it.. So many mates owned imports and if you went to other town you were forever seeing and hearing them everywhere.

We built several early Rb30 twin cam engines when little to no information was available. Back when we were getting gates GT2 industrial belts cut down for timing belts and still exploring the ideas of using multiple tensioners and relocating idlers. Matching head gaskets and having water galleries tigged up and coming on here seeing what other people were doing for oil restrictors to stop the heads filling up with oil!

I remember buying an "R34 wreck" for an engine in 2003. The RB25det Neo in the wreck was a 2001 model series 2 engine with 7000km on it!. Back then no-one even distinguished R34 as S1 or S2. When I got to Ballarat to pick up the "car" it was 2 crashed half cuts rejoined together. One half white and half black.. I can only presume what become of the other two good halves... This was at the tail end of the wild west of imports with limited regulations before RAWS and SEVS. 

I remember buying an R34 GTT sedan for $2500 one afternoon from Bendigo that had a minor hit in the rear. Another time I was on Facebook one afternoon and brought an R33 GTS-t sedan with blown motor for $800 from Wagga, I actually drove it home 3 hours running of 5 cylinders and blowing smoke. or a straight as a dye ca18de S13 rolling shell I picked up for $400 or $450.

These were literally the best days. I remember going to Shepparton and picking up a manual turbo GTT with a blown motor, but it had a power fc and heaps of bolt ons for $4500. I had another motor back in it and it was registered in less than a week. They were still selling for $15k at the time. I actually brought another R34 wreck the same colour just to get panels and interior pieces just to neaten up the car.

Sometimes you got burnt, there were a few of us on here that got ripped off early years buying body kits from eBay that never existed and I remember going to buy an R33 rolling shell in the early days (early 2000's) and getting down to Melbourne to find it had the body number cut out. I had already paid the guy, hired a trailer to pick it up. But there was no way I was taking it. And he was nowhere to be seen.. 

Another time I brought a complete RB26 with covers intake everything for like $800 on ebay. Cost me $1000 delivered from Adelaide. Was one of those poorly listed once in a lifetime scores.. I didn't even think it would actually arrive but I had to take the risk.. lol.. 2 weeks later and engine on a skid arrives and guess what it was an RB26.. I open the lid up and it had one piston and Rod disconnected. But no damage to the bore and block. I think I parted that engine out and made 4x that back by the time I sold the hotside, intake, covers, head, external oil cooler etc. 

My first 33 was $16500 they had just came down from about $30k the year before as R34's began getting more common. A fresh import with 56,000km's. Loved that fresh import smell that they all seemed to have in the interior.. or the hours spent polishing the discolouration film from the headlights.

I later started a website called webbersrbguide.com which you can still see on the Wayback machine. I would compile technical articles showing pictures are part numbers of components and give aftermarket parts numbers for equivalent parts.

I had an engine number register for RB20/25 and 26 engines for people trying to date their engine block to their production year. 

I gave wiring diagrams for AFM upgrades and injector latency and voltage settings for most injectors on the market so you could start to setup your own tune for those of us who didn't live close by a dyno.

Probably the most popular page would be where I measured up and gave all of the generic bearing numbers for the GTS-t boxes and compared the part numbers of the R33, MX7 and Z32 boxes. I took measurements of input shafts etc and compared them.

I loved my Skylines, I loved my parts and I loved the strength of the community. There was always someone that could answer a question you might be stuck on. 

As Skylines were becoming available to import and register in the US, I would have a look at many of the cars forsale in the US were Australian complianced vehicles and I still see people selling and exporting them to the US now. With all of the damaged and written off vehicles we had out here.. and those vehicles exported. We will never see the Australian scene like it was in its prime.. 

I sometimes wonder how many of our clapped out and thrashed cars made it to the US with lower KM's to live out another lifetime. I always knew price would turn around as the US came online for cars.. but wow.. look at the prices now! 

Just curious if any other early members wanted to share any stories of the wild west of imports in Australia.

I haven't even touched on the stories I could tell. We had a mate who was importing and complying cars down in Melbourne and the bargain parts we'd score would melt your minds.. I often think back to some of the missed opportunities I let go.

[PranK]

Welcome back! 

The site is seeing a strong improvement in visitors lately and several old(er) members have returned. I think the poor historical content on social media means that all the info on SAU is still valuable and so users are returning.

A lot of what you said resonates with me. While I wasn't mechanically minded to do what you were doing I was definitely in the thick of it with other people on here. Had 3 x R33's myself and still can't believe I sold any of them. My Stagea was awesome and my 180 was a hoot (even if I did over steer it into a no parking sign post as I left work one night ).

 

[R33GAS]

Congrats on the 20 years membership. Great stories. Love to hear them.

I'm a latecomer to this site, however I started out with an R33 GTST (profile pic) in 2004. At that stage of my life, 25 year old private in the Australian Army, I could only dream of a GTR variant.

I enjoyed that car for about 2.5 years before moving it on. I never got involved in the scene back then (I was living in Adelaide), but looking back wish I did. I drove it hard and often in the Adelaide hills, which I think are some of Australia's best driving roads.

Fast forward to early 2021, and I got the itch to get into an R33 GTR, so I bought one. I guess you could call it a mid-life crisis car for me. I've built that car up nicely through RacePace. Love being part of the scene in Melbourne at the moment, whether it's for cars and coffee meets, evening meets/cruises or mountain runs on a weekend up to Lake Mountain.

[webber]

7 hours ago, PranK said:

Welcome back! 

The site is seeing a strong improvement in visitors lately and several old(er) members have returned. I think the poor historical content on social media means that all the info on SAU is still valuable and so users are returning.

A lot of what you said resonates with me. While I wasn't mechanically minded to do what you were doing I was definitely in the thick of it with other people on here. Had 3 x R33's myself and still can't believe I sold any of them. My Stagea was awesome and my 180 was a hoot (even if I did over steer it into a no parking sign post as I left work one night ).

 

Always wanted a stag. They are currently better value than an R33 gts-4 and turbo. 

R33GAS - I am getting that itch too. R33 GTR are good value, but I've always wanted a maroon R32 GTR ever since Gran Turismo 2.. lol

I am not sure what I want to buy..

[webber]

Just some pics I found, have some old HDD's full of pics somewhere.. lol..

[webber]

Another GTT

And the $400 Silvia shell.. lol

[niZmO_Man]

On 08/04/2024 at 7:54 PM, webber said:

Another GTT

And the $400 Silvia shell.. lol

[PranK]

On 08/04/2024 at 7:23 PM, webber said:

 

Period correct wheels. 👌🏻

[PranK]

Some super cool cars in those pics. I love the 90s spec white R33.

What became of the $400 s13 shell?

[webber]

Yeah I sold it to a mate for $1000, I had no where to store it.. lol I believe it became a drift car.

[niZmO_Man]

the good old days