Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Picked Up the Car Today from NISMO! (Part 2)

Morita-san asking me to inspect the car before driving home. Photo by Ale.  Thanks! 
So driving impressions on the work that was done - as mentioned in the last post, I guess you can say it's very "OEM."  The car now feels like it was designed to drive the way it does from the ground up, with everything (power, response, ride, handling, braking) in perfect balance.

Before the Nismo Omori Factory Chassis Refresh, the car would at first literally take about 5 minutes to warm up "its legs" - like an aging athlete, and even then the car felt somewhat twitchy. Powerful and fun, but somehow not polished? Which I attributed to the 10 year old tires the car is (still) on...  I now think the rubber bushes had degraded more than I realized.  And I bet the new rear suspension member bushings make a difference too. Various guest drivers had previously commented on how well the car was balanced, but I think it's now at a higher level altogether - as if purposely designed by Nissan this way, and not simply happened to be put together well by chance (by me).

Today, the moment I got in my car, everything felt a bit smoother, lighter and yet still super communicative, and it seemed very balanced with the smooth power of the Mine's engine.  So the car basically rides smoother, and is likely a bit less tiring to drive.  Remember the car is running on smallish turbos, so the boost comes on low, and then builds and builds and builds... meanwhile shifting the 6 speed Getrag with the shorter gears, so the engine remains on boost... and then we end up going too fast, so use those massive R35 Brembos which calmly scrub off speed.

So I'm wondering - can this be improved? Remember NISMO removed the Do-Luck Floor Support Bars, and with the new rear suspension member I'm sure the Spoon Sports Rigid Collars are gone too.  Also the last time I had the Ohlins DFVs rebuilt was about 4 years ago.  So I wonder if the coilovers are operating at 100%? And yes, still on those old tires, which means I'm sliding in some aggressive corners... that reminds me, I didn't even notice the ATTESA kick in when I did so, which means it did so progressively and smoothly... like it's supposed to!

Photo by Mr. Ale
Anyway, I was having so much fun driving home, I wanted to keep going except of course, I needed to get the car into its new garage space.

So here it is. What do you all think? (ignore the boxes - containing new LMGT4s actually...lol... and the original side skirts wrapped in plastic... I need to hurry up and finish my garage project ASAP...)
Somehow the camera didn't quite catch accurate colors...although yes should probably replace the LED bulbs with something a bit more blue...



Finally! Both cars in the new garage. Along with Ale's Z parked out front in the driveway.
I noticed it too. The front end seems to be elevated a bit.
In taking these photos, you notice things -  I'm pretty sure my car never had so much lip clearance before. Which I think comes from the DFV coil-overs, which seem to have been adjusted a bit too high by NISMO...just for aesthetic purposes I'm going to have to lower the front a few centimeters. The gap between the front wheel and fender is huge!
Right? The gap seems much less here - back in 2015...
Actually in order to find the above photo, I found this blog entry where Ohlins recommends a distance of 350mm between wheel center and the fender (which results in a lowered stance like above). So something for me to do next weekend...although now that I think about it, lowering it too much resulted in rubbing the inside of the fenders. Will have to experiment.

And finally, check out the new GT shiftknob. No more scratched up BNR34 unit to remind me of you know who everytime I shifted.
Still cannot believe how beautiful that red stitching on the leather is...
Anyway, I know that I need new tires, but before that, what should I do? Detail it myself? Or try to begin fixing the interior? Hmm...and now with the new garage, there is so much more I can do! Stay tuned!

11 comments:

Skodajocky said...

Nice to see that your car is back :) .
Like your garage, the car is so clean (mine will never be so clean unfortunatly).
I'm not suprised that you feel some change in the driving.
Even with my close to no "driving sensitivity" I felt something just after replacing the old nismo suspension rear set by new Nismo ones a few weeks ago(a pity that due to confinment in Belgium, I have to wait to enjoy it ...).
I hope that replacing the bushes on the rear subframe and finally placing the rigid collar at the end of the year will add some more new feelings to it :).

Enjoy your car and garage :)

Anonymous said...

Interior fixes are usually a little tougher to pull off but not super labor intensive. Usually they make for good projects when you have a bit more downtime.

Aki said...

Thanks guys!

Skoda, I'm not expert either, but maybe it's because I hadn't driven the car in a while that my sensitivity was heightened? But yes I think replacing the rear subframe bushes will be big! Please write back /post on your blog and let us know!

Anon, correct, not super labor intensive, and luckily I've done many in the past. I think first step will be to find all the parts I need...with the goal of restoring some normality and functionality to the interior...

Links said...

Aki,

Car is looking awesome - would be great if you get a chance to get some video footage of it.

Well done and thanks for keeping on sharing.

Links (Aus)

マット said...

Wow, look at all the blog posts!
A big congratulations on getting your car back from Nismo.
It looks great~

Tad said...

RE71Rs last surprisingly long! Had mine for 3yrs now? Driven over 50km per week

Kunal said...

Wow looks awesome Aki!

I'm curious to know if Morita-san / Nismo suggested upgrading to 3.916 final gear like the BNR34 CSR for your car to help with it constantly throwing you into boost between gear changes. With the Getrag + 4.111 + stock turbos I find myself shifting very often to bring the RPM's down and so that gear set seems like it would make the build up just right. They should just loan one of the CSR's to you for a thorough review for the club. That's some great international promo! :)


Aki said...

Ha ha Kunal - thanks, and good question. Well, I WILL be going back in a couple of months (once my wallet has recovered) for some additional bits and pieces (trust me, this will be good), and will ask him then. Yeah, that's one aspect of the car that might need some improvement, as I feel like the car is always on or nearly on boost (will this lead to increased stress and wear on the engine, for example).

Anything else? I need to fix the interior of course, but getting everything OCD perfect is irresistible!

Anonymous said...

Depends on your ECU tune and how conservative it is. The RB26 should be able to wait until ~3 psi boost to start enriching the mixture. If you're constantly getting deep into boost you may be running rich too often.

3.916 ratio should be like the original 5 speed with 4.11 final drive, 3000 RPM for 120 kph. Main difference is spacing adjustment in 1st through 3rd gears, you get a shorter 1st gear, then a shorter 2nd gear, then something between 3rd and 4th on the 5 speed. Then 4th, 5th, and 6th are comparable to the 5 speed.

I personally have debated whether to try and do the Getrag conversion but ever since the Nismo getrag conversion was discontinued I think it's just not practical to even try anymore.

Aki said...

Anon- thanks for that info! Yeah this will be a topic I discuss with Mine's next time I visit (on the ECU). Maybe some engine tweaks later this year...

So the NISMO gearing only affects the first 3 gears? I guess that's why it wasn't on my mind when I left the car at Nismo for so long...

Anonymous said...

To be clear, the 3.916 final drive will make every gear taller, so relative to now you will experience lower RPMs at the same speed in every gear.

But relative to your stock 5 speed with 4.11 final drive, the 3.916 final drive with Getrag will basically just make the top 3 gears the same as what they were on the 5 speed with 4.11 FD. The main difference will be the low-end gearing, 1st is shorter and you will have tighter ratios before you get into 4th gear on the Getrag (which is equivalent to 3rd on the 5 speed).

I suspect the 3.545 final drive on the R34 OEM is a little too long. If you found the stock 5 speed to be geared a little too short then the 3.692 Tomei final drive is an option as well.