One Man's Lonely Adventure In His R33 GT-R

Tokyo Auto Salon 2012

2012-01-16T00:49:00.000+09:00

Since this is a blog about Skyline R33 GT-Rs, to be honest there really wasn't much if anything I saw yesterday at the Tokyo Auto Salon 2012 that has to do with the R33. Actually come to think of it, I only saw 1 R32 (Garage Yahata) and the only R34 I saw was a sedan (apparently I wasn't really paying attention...). No R33 sadly. It appears the major tuners are focused on the R35, with HKS and their 4.1L R35 for example. Bodykits from BenSopra with the engine hood opening up clamshell style from the front, wide body kits, etc. And obviously everyone was excited about the new FT-86.

For a good overview and pictures of cars, check out Dino's write up at Speedhunters:
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2012/01/14/gallery-gt-gt-tas-2012-day-1.aspx

Oh, I guess he had time to make (leave?) his mark while he was at it...

So why did I bother going, if this was the reality? Well, on one hand the gang from the UK/EU GTROC club is here visiting for a week, and as their official Japan representative, it wouldn't be the same if I wasn't there to help them enjoy their day.
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/138263-japan-2012-a-28.html#post1562459
http://www.gtroc.org/guest-writers-blog/tokyo-tour-2012-day-2

But also, it was a chance to catch up with a few friends and finally put a face to other friends and names (I had never before met Luke Huxam of Maiham Media before...).

I also saw Drift King Tsuchiya-san at the Mugen stand giving a talk show, Hoshino-san of Impul signing autographs, and later, I had the distinct honor of being introduced to Hasegawa-san of HKS (He's the "H" and the CEO)!

I did find some Skyline related stuff at the little bookstore though. Check this out - a whole book dedicated to the R31!

And in the R32 dedicated book - can anyone guess who this guy with the mullet is (hint: Tomei)?

Ok, but seriously....

Yes, I just couldn't get THAT excited about the newer cars there and how they were tuned...so what I decided to focus on was to hunt for stuff I could apply to my car. Judging from these crowds, LED lighting for cars is the next big thing for DIY tuning.

I also saw some new wheels from Rays that would be compatible with my rotors, as well as samples from companies for aftermarket rotors....the more selection, the better!

But it was also a chance to make contact with Obayashi Factory who are considered the best aftermarket interior "tuners" in Japan. I spoke at length about having the interior of my car redone in leather, for example, as well as some other ideas I have... Regardless it looks like a trip there to get estimates will be necessary in the near future!

But I DO promise my car will not end up looking like this Hummer:

Sunako-Jukucho is Back! (or, how I got ready for the SSCT Track Day at Fuji)

2012-01-13T23:54:00.000+09:00

Those of you who have read this blog for awhile may remember this entry -

http://www.r33gt-r.com/2008/07/photos-from-sunako-juku-last-lesson-at.html

Sunako Jukucho (real name - Teruhiko Sunako) was, before his retirement in 2008, one of the top professional race drivers in Japan, well known in GT-R and Porsche circles. He also taught a select few students, running a high performance driving "juku" (prep school) hence his nickname "jukucho" (literally prep school master).
Here is his bio (in Japanese, sorry):
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/砂子塾長

Anyway, I was pleased to find out that his retirement from the car world was short-lived. At a recent social gathering, I found out he was back in Tokyo and now in charge of introducing the Base Performance Simulator (one of only 5 in the world) to Japan. Essentially, it is a high performance racing simulator, kind of like the PlayStation Gran Turismo game series...but on steroids.

Developed by double LeMans winner Darren Turner, the BPS system is recognized as being literally one step below the full on million dollar simulators F1 Teams use to train their drivers. Read more about how fantastic this simulator is here.
http://www.baseperformance.net/

Due to my status as a former juku-sei (prepschool student) of his, I was lucky to be invited to try this machine out before its unveiling to the paying public.

As I had been recently too busy to really think about my past driving both good and bad at Fuji, this was a perfect opportunity to remind myself of my weakpoints - ie sections of the track that I always seem to have trouble with - and work on improving my techniques not only by driving in the simulator, but getting advice directly from Sunako-san.

How fantastic is this? I can try different things before actually hitting the track and risking damage to my car (as well as any others that might happen to be there if I spin out)- Fuji is a high speed track after all, so a mistake can be expensive!

First time I hopped in, I was embarrassingly slow. Yes there was some initial disorientation - I mean the displayed images made me dizzy in the beginning, but then you get used to it. The wheel has force feedback, but this simulator doesn't move up, down or sideways like some others. But it was also the vehicle I was virtually driving, a GP2 formula car... The thing accelerates so quickly that if you're not careful, just like in real life, your car suffers oversteer and... yes, you spin. And braking - no power assist here! Just like a real formula car. And the force feedback is so strong sometimes I was glad I heeded Sunako-san's advice and brought my racing gloves. So getting used to the virtual car for me took some time.

But once I started getting used to the formula car steering wheel, and the DSG style shift paddles, and the acceleration and the braking - then it quickly became apparent that I had a whole list of weak points on how to drive the Fuji track itself - for example, how to take the Coca Cola corner properly without upsetting the balance of the car, the proper entry speed and clipping points for the 100R, braking and acceleration points for Netz Corner, and the proper line for Panasonic Corner - and those are just the obvious ones.

And the result - during the actual SSCT track day, I found myself flying through Coca Cola corner with no fear, my car behaved exactly as predicted and simulated. Other problem areas were not much of an issue too, although the number of cars on the track that day made taking the ideal lines more the exception than the rule...but anyway, the simulator did its job and got me prepared!

No photos from my first session, but after my actual track day at Fuji, I went again - this time with another juku-sei, Russ of RE-Xtreme. Here are some photos he took, plus some more on his blog entry: http://re-xtreme.blogspot.com/2011/12/base-performance-experience.html

So check this out - First Corner approach (Russ driving):

Then coming out of first corner, accelerating and mentally getting ready for Coca Cola Corner (me):

Getting ready to brake before Coca Cola (Russ):

Another tough corner for me, Panasonic Corner (and what's distracting is, that LCD billboard on the upper right, ACTUALLY plays Panasonic TV commercials...!!!)

Then down the straight:

Then the Motec software, which keeps a running tab on what you're doing, displays it all for Sunako-san to breakdown and analyze. Brutally.

But you know, I'm really glad I had this opportunity. It's so much better to spin out and wreck virtually than in your own pride and joy...

Anyway, for those who might be interested in preparing for their own track days, the simulator has, on file, in addition to the major tracks in Japan, dozens of tracks from around the world, ranging from Laguna Seca to Nurburgring.

Actually, the true benefit of this simulator is - my car is already very well prepped - I am the weak point. So instead of going to the track, which costs time and money, plus puts wear and tear on the car, polish my driving skills on this simulator first! So next time, I will hopefully be able to extract the maximum potential of the car...

For more information or to arrange your own session, Sunako-san can be contacted at: sunako@yukes.co.jp

Here is a link to his blog, where, in addition to more pictures and information on the simulator, if you read long enough, you may stumble upon a picture of me...
http://star.ap.teacup.com/sunakojyukuchou/

He does understand some English, so don't be shy... And tell him I sent you!

Mods for the Track Day, Part 2

2012-01-11T23:20:00.000+09:00

Ok so I think we can all agree that changing out the stock steering wheel for the Ital Volanti one was a good move. Whether I can justify it on a street car - I now have no driver's side airbag - remains to be seen (although I have read somewhere the airbags, especially those made in the 80s and 90s, tend to only have a shelf life of around 10 years...)

Another mod that I did - well to be honest it is harder to critique. Either I'm not sensitive enough of a driver (see my next blog post...) or the improvement it made to my car's performance is too subtle to be noticed unless the car is driven on a circuit which results in the rear stepping out more, and causing the front wheels to have power going to them, thanks to the ATTESSA operating.

That's right, despite harsh critiques on the GTROC forum,
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/158861-digital-g-sensor-improve-attesa.html

And the fact that apparently someone somewhere is actually developing a new programmable and faster ATTESSA ECU -
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/150416-upgraded-programable-faster-attessa-ecu.html

I chose to go ahead and buy this:

The digital G-sensor for the ATTESSA system from Do-Luck, that replaces the old analog (oil based) one. I mean, if I could get the Do-Luck product NOW but no one seems to know when this new ECU is going to come out - why not? And if it helped me on the track...

Click on this link to go to the Do-Luck website - they have some English describing the theory about how this device works.

Because I was curious about whether a digital g-sensor made such a difference versus an analog one, I actually picked up the phone and called Do-Luck directly. In summary, what I was told was, that in older cars with worn out sensors, this was the cheaper and more reliable replacement alternative, and for the newer R33 and R34 GT-Rs, there was still a difference to be felt.

Orito-san of Do-Luck explained that the units had been tested by several people, both on the street and on the track. Everyone said they could tell the difference, even on the street. Of course the biggest difference was felt in the R32s, as they are older and those initial G-sensors were more primitive.

When I asked about how much of a difference, Orito-san explained it to me this way - the G-sensor feeds a signal to the ECU, and then the ECU tells the ATTESSA pump what to do. So basically they can't do anything downstream of the ECU (that would have to be mechanical), but they are maximizing the speed between the G-sensor and the ECU.

Apparently, with the older analog sensors, people had to be careful not to apply the gas (when sliding) too early. Reports from the track are that, they can get on the gas much quicker now, response is much better in that way. I guess it's like our brain/feet directly activating the ATTESSA pump versus one second time lag that always seems to be there before the pumps activate. 
He also mentioned that, compared to the stock system, people said the front torque meter didn't react as wildly - I think this suggests that because the power is getting to the front quicker, the car doesn't need to apply the full 50% to the front wheels?

And the actual result? Well I'm not sure exactly if my full on braking was improved on the Fuji straight before the first corner, but I DID feel the car behave differently than before on two occasions - one at Dunlop corner - (this is when you are forced to slow down to negotiate a low speed hairpin but then immediately get on the gas as you head up towards the main straight) and second when I momentarily lost control, the car reacted immediately to pull me out.

Install is easy:

Remove the center console, the gold box is the analog G-sensor.

On the R32, apparently you can simply strap the digital sensor on top, but that did not work for me, so I was forced to remove the old G-sensor:

And then just plug in (remove the plugs from the analog sensor), and while they provide some double stick tape, I choose to use a ziptie for good measure. Note that the sensor must be flat, and the arrow pointing towards the front of the car.

I do hope to have further opportunity to test the G-sensor... maybe I'll do some drag launches next time on the street and see how the car reacts?

A Professional Film of the Dyno Run!

2012-01-09T18:12:00.002+09:00

Everyone check this out! You may have already seen this on my Facebook page but...

When I had my car dyno'd at Uchida Car Works... Dino Dalle Carbonare decided to try his hand at taking video with his Canon DSLR...his first time ever? Luckily Luke Huxham of Maiham Media agreed to do the post processing and editing, resulting in this beautiful short film:

Tomei Expreme Ti from Luke Huxham on Vimeo.

Posted here with the explicit permission of Luke Huxham and Maihem Media.

Those of you who know Luke and/or have seen his work know that he is a world famous young up-and-coming professional videographer/cinematographer, and with this kind of quality, I am sure you would agree that, it's only a matter of time before he's widely acknowledged as one of the top in the industry.

Thanks again Luke!

Mods for the Track Day, Part 1

2012-01-05T00:16:00.002+09:00

So I have previously hinted at some mods I managed to get done before the SSCT Track day at Fuji Speedway a few weeks ago. Well, here is one.

After being publicly chastised on Facebook for having a stock steering wheel (admittedly it was worn out and it had always bothered me as to why it was so thin and cheap feeling... and also common to other Nissans at the time):

I went ahead and installed this: a rare Ital Volanti Imola R steering wheel that I found on Yahoo Auction for cheap, and had retrimmed by Robson Leather (link to my visit).

By getting Robson to do the retrim, I was able to specify their "European stitch" in the brightest color red string they had.

Finding the proper boss initially appeared to be another problem - most of them out there had cheap looking plastic accordion looking covers but I found this one by Daikei which has a nice "crinkle finish" cover.

FYI, here are some photos to show how the steering wheel swap is done:

Step 1: On the bottom of the wheel and sides of the stock steering wheel, there are plastic covers. Remove with a flathead screwdriver. Turn the wheel to one side to access the bottom, and disconnect the airbag and horn leads.

Step 2: On the left and right sides, you will see two screws (hexhead) on each side, remove those and the middle airbag section comes off (don't forget to unplug the battery first for at least one hour before starting...).

Backside of airbag module looks like this:

Step 3: You now have this - the center bolt is what you need to remove, I THINK it was a 19mm socket I used. BUT, important tip here - use force to loosen, but not completely remove this bolt. This is because the wheel has to come off, and it takes some force, so having the bolt loose but not off prevents the wheel from ending up in your teeth.

Step 4: Once the wheel is removed, this is what you will see:

Note the two leads coming out, that is the airbag lead and the horn lead. On the steering boss kit I got, it provided for a plug in resistor for the airbag, and a plug in lead for the horn (both attached here).

Step 5 to end: After attaching those leads, making sure the wheels are straight forward (it helps to mark the spindle before completely removing the wheel - that's what the masking tape is for by the way - and you can also see the paint I applied), attach the boss following the instructions that come with the kit. The boss should slide onto the spindle, and there are some "guides" that stick out to ensure the boss is on straight. The wire leads are taped around the boss itself, and then the cover goes on. Then you choose which adaptor plate to use and attach your steering wheel with 6 small Allen head bolts, attach the horn button (I chose to use a Nismo one I found) and you are done!

So what do people think? Like or dislike? As someone told me once "everyone has a Momo" so I wanted something different. Not a big fan of Alcantara, so leather was the choice. If I had to critique, I'd say the color of the leather could be a bit blacker, but that's about it. The wheel is about 2cm smaller than the stock wheel, and much thicker which means it feels a lot more sporty.

Anyway, yet still a couple of other mods to talk about, will be posting about those soon so stay tuned!

Report - Fuji Speedway with SSCT

2011-12-29T23:49:00.007+09:00

Truth be told, I did want to first discuss those other mods I did to my car before the SSCT track day on the 23rd at Fuji Speedway as I had mentioned in my entry for December 12. But as it turned out, not only did my friend Dino accompany me and agree to take some video of me flying by on the long straight, but Adam from FEAST Auto Group was also at Fuji and took some photos and was kind enough to allow me to use them for this blog. Thanks guys - this stuff is too good NOT to publish first - so the post on the other mods will have to wait!

This time, both Thomas (purple R33 GT-R - his blog) and Terrance (white R33 GT-R who ran with me at Tsukuba in September) decided to run in this track day. So we convoyed to Fuji and arrived a bit past 0800, checked in and proceeded to get our cars ready for the run.

Here is how we looked, ready to go.

Oh, you may notice one "mod" here - I was one of the lucky few to be able to order, and purchase new, these limited edition Nismo LMGT4 rims. Of course, me being me, before I put them on I spent some time in my garage apply some glass coating.

The wheels:

The glass coating.

This worked great on my stock 17inch rims, which to this day I can blast with water and the dust just rinses off. But on black wheels, I have to say I am not sure about its effectiveness - first because black actually doesn't show the dust as badly as a silver wheel, and also because, in its application, I found that it's very easy to leave minute scratches in the gloss black.

But, in the end, it was worth it - and here is a close up of the front wheel and the R35 caliper and rotor.

On this day, SSCT had blocked off two full hours - one at 1100, and the other at 1300. However, I chose to run only 30 minutes at a time, for a total of one hour. In retrospect, I probably should have taken advantage and run the full 2 hours, but I was worried about putting too much stress on my car. In part, I was worried about how the new brakes would hold up - but that turned out to be NO PROBLEM at all, I ended up being able to easily slow down for the first corner with no fade, every single lap. Best mod ever?

Temperatures were cold that day, I believe the track surface was about 2 or 3 degrees C, and it took a while for the tires to warm up. But I was fiddling with a few new items - one the DigSpice GPS track data recorder, and also the new iPhone app called "Harry's LapTimer" which allows video recording (of every other lap) plus GPS data plotting. I also had on board my trusty old Panasonic video camera, as well as the LapShot laptimer device.

Needless to say, my first 30 minute stint I was more concerned about getting all of these working properly than setting my best time! In the end, I discovered I had gotten the DigSpice and LapShot to work, but not the iPhone app the first time out. And second time out, I got all three to work, but the iPhone holder failed, resulting in video taken at various weird angles.

Howver, I plan to have the data and video from the above items processed soon, and will post an entry with these materials soon.

Anyway - here are photos from Adam of me in action:

At speed:

Finally - here is video of me (third car) flying by on the Fuji straight. I was probably still accelerating on my way to about 260kph - not as much boost that day - about 1.2 I think - meant a lower top speed. Enjoy!

Tomei 's new Titanium Exhaust... the Results are In!

2011-12-22T00:25:00.000+09:00

Well today couldn't come fast enough. As of last Friday, Tomei Powered had shipped their new Expreme Ti full titanium exhaust to BeAmbitious to be fitted to my car - most likely the first in Japan! Now all I had to do was to find a place to dyno the car before and after the new exhaust was fitted - so we could see the difference in power, if any!

Ninomiya-san at BeAmbitious to the rescue - he was able to, at short notice find a shop that had both a Dynapack and was willing to swap the exhausts, and do two sets of dyno runs, for a reasonable price. So off I went today to this shop - called Uchida Car World near the Yokohama Lalaport shopping center, down the street from BeAmbitious.

First order of business. Get the sound of the Fujitsubo on video. Ok so as Dino (who came to take some photos and film as well) pointed out A BIT TOO LATE, when shooting video with an iPhone, hold it sideways...

So I apologize for the "thin" videos that follow.

Anyway, here we are trying to get the sound of the Fujitsubo...

After getting scolded for revving the car on the street - you see Uchida Car Works is on a busy pedestrian street! - we waited until they moved the car inside the garage to be set up for the dyno - a Dynapack which measures at the hubs.

This is in contrast to the rolling road type of dyno at SuperAutobacs where I had my car measured about 4 years ago.

http://www.r33gt-r.com/2007/12/dyno-run-at-superautobacs.html

Believing that the boost was set at 1.3, we began the first run... only to end up with some weird numbers - only 299.7ps? What's going on? Ninomiya-san quickly figured out that my boost controller was inoperative - no power going to it. (but actually, that means the boost was set to somewhere around 0.7, which given this uncorrected number - 300ps - means the engine is very healthy, no?)

Suspecting a short or ground issue, he began poking around... and then we began to literally disassemble the dash to figure out where the wiring went. After spotting some burnt wiring, luckily we found that it was a blown fuse, so we put the interior back together and we were in business.

But this time - in order to obtain the best results possible, we set the max boost at 1.5.

Doing the run again - twice - with the Fujitsubo on, we got the following numbers:
First run - 425.3 ps and 54.6 kg/m of torque. Ok, respectable numbers - but Uchida-san said he wanted to let the engine "warm up" a bit... so we waited a few minutes and then ran again.
Second run - 442.2 ps and 56.2 kg/m.

Not bad at all considering these are numbers at the hub, and uncorrected for "what the engine makes." Ninomiya-san had suggested we view only the raw data much as he did in his Nismo days, so that's what we did.

Dino commented that a "standard" correction number thrown around in the GTR world was 20%... Ninomiya said 10%... and later research on the web I found 15%. Anyway, a whole can of worms... but I'll take the 20% figure!!! LOL.

20% means that 442.2 ps at the hubs is "REALLY" 1.2 times that at the engine, or 530.64 ps!! Heck I'll take that! And furthermore, given that the boost as reported by Ninomiya went all the way to 1.38, VERY consistent with my results at SuperAutobacs 4 years ago (508ps at 1.3).

Anyway due to all this excitement I forgot to take video... but I think Dino may have some, I will have to ask...

THen it was time to remove the car from the Dyno, lift it up and replace the Fujitsubo with the Tomei exhaust.

Here it was as they began laying it out.

Finally, they began the run with the Tomei:

Unfortunately the sound did not come out as well as I thought it would. But I DID measure using an dB meter app - and there was a difference of 6dB between the two! The Tomei is LOUD! Will try to re-record something like the first video above.

Results:
So what kind of performance did the Tomei generate?

Again, two runs.
First run - 452.1 ps, and 58.3 kg/m of torque.
Second run - 466.2 ps, and 58.3 kg/m of torque.

Again using the "20%" conversion factor - 466.2 x 1.2 = 559.44 ps. So basically 560ps!!!

Well even if we conservatively multiply by 10% - ie 1.1, that is still 512.82 ps.

Anyway, looking at the raw data, can we say that the Tomei Expreme allowed the car to generate an extra 40.9 ps? (Last run minus first run).

Not quite - I think a more accurate comparison would be 466.2 minus 442.2 (both second runs), for a difference of 24 ps.

Calculated against 442.2ps, we have a gain of 5.42%

Not bad - but there is ONE MORE FACTOR to consider. On the Tomei run, its better breathing allowed the engine to spool up the turbos to 1.49 (vs 1.38 on the Fujitsubo). Clearly by comparing the graphs (which I'll scan in later) you can see that, up until about 4000 rpm, the power curve is almost identical - but then on the Tomei runs, is more vertical and ends up at higher numbers after. Also you will note that the second Tomei run, the power curve is jagged - we think the clutch was slipping!!!

So is this extra 0.1 of boost responsible for the difference?

Honestly, I'm not sure. All I know is that the Tomei pipe is gorgeous to look at, at least 6 dB louder (in fact so loud that when I got home, I had to fit the inner silencer), and a few kg lighter. And priced only about 10,000 yen more! (the price of the Fujitsubo has gone up since I bought it!).

Conclusion - Tomei it is!

So in a couple of days, I'll be tracking the car at Fuji Speedway, and hope to have flyby video so we can hear what it sounds like at speed! LOL. Stay tuned!

Tomei Expreme Ti Full Exhaust Making of Video

2011-12-17T22:45:00.000+09:00

It's not the video I promised that would demonstrate how it sounds - that's coming soon - but it DOES prominently feature my car in it.

Enjoy!

Some Bits and Pieces

2011-12-12T22:59:00.000+09:00

Between having new brakes put on and the present, things have not stood still with mods to my car.

First, I got these:

to match the black wheels. I had previously once a few years ago gotten the clear ones, but they just didn’t look right. These smoked ones are much better.

Problem however – if the sides are now smoked – well then what do I do up front? Yes, you can use the S15 Silvia clears from Nissan, but they look almost white, not smoked. Then my friend Russ (RE-xtreme) suggested these “crystal” ones I found on Yahoo Auctions. Said they would match the Xenons. I wonder if I should paint them "smoke"?

So here is the car in daylight, with these mods – what do people think?

I’ve also since washed the car twice, both times finishing with a coat of Zaino AIO. First time, I don’t know if it was the temperature (a bit cold) but it just didn’t look right. Second time, for whatever reason it worked out just fine. I then applied a coat of Zaino Z-5, just because.

Meanwhile – the stereo project/sound insulation project continues. I was able to find someone in Japan who makes MFD baffles for the front speakers, and so I painted them with some flat black paint to preserve the wood.

Here is what they look like BEFORE I painted them.

Meanwhile inside the car, I discovered upon popping open the rear quarter panel that it is HOLLOW!!!! Talk about an echo chamber. And this outside wall of this is literally the sheet metal to the rear arches. Looking down, you can see the wheel arches…

Anyway, will update later when I get everything done on the sound deadening project, will be an easier read I think. Although I have now as of this moment finished adding deadener, and the results are pretty good already - reduced noise from the rear, such that I can now better hear my engine, the clutch, and tire noise! And I have yet to do the doors!

Fuji Speedway run with SSCT coming up on December 23! Stay tuned…(will have a couple of interesting/fun mods before then…)

Pricing on the Tomei Powered EXPREME Ti All Titanium Exhausts for R32, R33 and R34 GT-Rs!

2011-11-29T23:56:00.001+09:00

Well as promised – here is the advert for the new Tomei Exhausts, to be in the December issue of GT-R Magazine.

You can see all three models lined up – but more importantly, pricing.

109,000 yen, which is 114,450 with sales tax included!!

Of course, this is local JDM pricing, so overseas, I don’t know what the pricing will be.

But just to compare other all titanium exhausts out there (at least in Japan):

1) Mine’s Silence VX-Pro Titan III (for R32, R34 only) – 270,900 Yen with tax.
Specs – 78-80mm pipe, outlet is 120mm.
http://www.mines-wave.com/
(click on Skyline)

2) Powerhouse Amuse: R1 Titan – for all three models, but 187,950 Yen with tax.
Specs -90mm pipe, outlet is 130mm
http://www.webamuse.co.jp/new/products/muffler/bnr34_r1_titan.html

3) HKS – uh, could not find a titanium muffler in their lineup.

4) Trial – Titan Bazooka Muffler series for all three models, but 197,400 Yen with tax.
Specs – 80mm pipe, outlet is 115mm.
http://www.trial.co.jp/osaka/original/bazooka/muffler.html

5) Ganador – for all three model cars. They have two exhaust models, Vertex Titan for 281,400 Yen with tax and the Racing Titan for 249,900 Yen, with tax.
Only specs listed are the outlet size, first one is 120mm and second is 110.
http://www.ganador.co.jp/carmodel/nissan/skyline/index.html

6) Midori Seibi
For all three models. Two models for R34, one with and one without a resonator (to quiet down?). R32 and R33 are normal model only.
278,250 yen without (ie normal) and 294,000 yen with.
Specs not listed.
http://www.midoriseibi.co.jp/tuning/r34/r34-gtr-silent-high-power-nr-titanium-muffler.html

Anyway – the point is, for the specs and the pricing, you can’t beat Tomei. The Tomei pricing, in fact, is LOWER than prices of some of the USED full titanium exhausts that I found on Yahoo Auctions!

Now, when will they be available? THAT my friends is what we all want to know and are eagerly waiting for. I suppose a bit of a ramp up time is inevitable, but it sure would be nice to be able to have one on my car before the next Fuji Speedway trackday with SSCT scheduled for the 23rd of December.

Stay tuned!

First R33 GT-R in Japan with R35 Brakes!

2011-11-28T00:58:00.002+09:00

So I've been hinting at a brake upgrade for awhile.

And finally - here it is, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Front:

Rear:

The big problem wasn't finding R35 rotors and calipers - I found those used for decent prices on Yahoo Auctions Japan. It was finding the brackets to make this all work. Actually the front brackets are available here in Japan at EndlessR, but they did not have the rears.

Then, Mine's offered to do the job, but then they backed out - claiming that the rears were too difficult. I found out what they meant by that was, that the inner diameter of the parking brake drum is larger on the R35 vs the R33. Hence some serious modification would be needed - in other words not just a bolt on affair.

I then found a tuner in the UK offering the bracket set, so I ordered from them. Thanks to the world's first R33 GT-R with R35 brakes - he is on the GTROC forum and had this tuner do the work - this tuner was able to offer the brackets for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, getting the parts to me took about 4 months... and yes required some welding. Specifically, they supplied some steel rings to fit into the rear hubs - to match the R33 parking brake. So the search was on for someone in Japan who was able and willing to do this work.

Enter BE AMBITIOUS and Ninomiya-san, the shop owner.
Here is a link to his shop - http://homepage2.nifty.com/beambitious/

My friend Alex introduced me to Ninomiya-san. Turns out the guy is a bona fide ex Nismo race team mechanic, as well as having been on a few other notable race teams in and outside of Japan, including a LeMans team. He's also well known in the GT-R world, having been featured in GT-R Magazine, as well as knowing and having worked with some people that I know (like Sunako-san).

Anyway, the UK tuner sent me this:

High quality aluminum I'm sure, but not exactly weatherproofed. So when I presented all to Ninomiya-san:

(his interior lighting produces this weird hue...)
First order of business was to get the brackets anodized (to protect against the elements!)

And then it was just a matter of bolting it all on, right?

Well, not quite. First, Ninomiya-san had to order some stainless steel brake lines, which he then had to modify to fit properly. OK, sounds reasonable.

What I found out today when I picked up the car though, however, was that the brackets were not as quality as they were made out to be. Solid, yes, but the dimensions were off a bit, so he had to do some work on the hubs in order to get everything to fit. He also had to insert some bolts the opposite way to clear, etc. What he couldn't fix was, he wanted an additional 1mm gap on the inward side between the rotor and the caliper, but the bracket dimensions couldn't be adjusted for that. (they could for the other side though).

Anyway, what's important is that thanks to Ninomiya-san and his ability to think outside the box, he somehow got it all working.

And working it DID! First I was surprised to learn that the pads that I bought with calipers, had barely been used. So I now have to break them in. Second, I was told that - and I need to check if this is true but no doubt - the R35 Brembo caliper pistons are Titanium? As well as vented - and so I was told no need to get those titanium inserts (I may do so anyway), as the design of these calipers has already taken into account methods to prevent heat transfer from braking.

Third - on the road - wow. The stability it incredible. Unfortunately Sunday traffic meant I really couldn't go too fast, but a blast up to 130kph, then down to about 40 to take an off ramp - I didn't even feel the car's nose tip down as it usually does. The pads themselves do not have the same level of initial "bite" that my PFCs did, so we will have to see how well they do during a track day. But with the larger rotor in the rear doing more work, meant that even with my relatively soft suspension the car was super stable during braking. I suppose I'll have to see if it ever reaches the level where I feel my race harness digging into me.

I asked Ninomiya-san why current thinking on brakes was more even size ratios, versus what I was told a few years ago by Tamura-san at Nissan (he was involved in the R34 GT-R development) - that 355mm/322mm was ideal. Apparently these Skylines have no problems running larger rotors in the back. Even Nissan knew this, which is why for later R34s the P-valve (proportion) in the brake master cylinders gave more bias to the rears (r33 was about 30% rear, later r34s are about 40% to rear). Also Nissan outfitted those later R34s with larger rear rotors as well. I am guessing that cost, and being conservative is why they didn't push the limits on the rears brakes.

Anyway - as I get used to these brakes and how they work out, will report back on how it all works out. For now, just being the only R33 GT-R in Japan with R35 GT-R brakes (I think) is cool enough!

Also - in case you are wondering - yes, these rims are the ones that were fitted to Dino's car during the Tomei photo shoot. These rims are actually his, I had them painted and we agreed I would use them for now as I need them to house the R35 brakes... unfortunately my 18 inch RE30s don't clear the R35 brakes, so will have to use these 18 inch TE37s for now...

Behind the Scenes at Tomei Powered - Expreme Ti Exhaust for the R33 GT-R

2011-11-26T23:57:00.001+09:00

Ok so due to some questions and requests that came my way, here are some additional photos and background that hopefully sheds some light as to this whole Titanium Exhaust project.

As Dino mentioned in his best Speedhunters post to date (showing both our cars)
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/11/21/car-life-gt-gt-creating-a-tomei-prototype.aspx
the project began last year when our friend Allen at Tomei proposed that (and I write this with as much modesty as I can muster) two world-famous Skyline GT-Rs (R33 and R34) be used to develop, and then showcase, their new exhaust line.

And that’s what my car was doing at Tomei earlier this year, when I posted this http://www.r33gt-r.com/2011/03/at-tomei-powered-again.html

As you can see, they had my car covered in blue clear wrap, because Allen apparently told everyone at Tomei how OCD (stress on OBSESSIVE) I was on keeping my car clean.

Here is a front shot

And here is a shot from the back, showing no exhaust pipe… I suppose this is when they were taking the initial measurements.

Allen also showed me some component parts of their exhausts – here is the vented inner silencer, along with some fiberglass like strands, I believe both are used in the muffler portion.

Fast forward an earthquake and nuclear disaster and a few months later, and again our cars were called to action – this time for final fitting of the prototypes. Oh, and some photography…

This time when I dropped the car off, I noticed that they had already borrowed a stock R33 exhaust from another tuner:

and then during the week Dino sent the following photos, taken presumably during the photoshoot.

Here is my car, you can see obviously the blue protective sheet.

And a shot of my car outside while Dino's is on the lift.

Once it got dark, they started taking photos. Here is a close up of the underside of my car.

And here is how they set up the lighting for the rear 3/4 view shot.

And here of course once again are the final shots - just beautiful!

Finally - for those of you curious about pricing - we've been telling everyone it's VERY competitive - check back again around Nov 30 when I will be allowed to release the GT-R Magazine print advertisement which contains pricing information, as well as one additional photo no one has seen yet.

Tomei Powered Photoshoot Featured on Speedhunters

2011-11-24T23:58:00.001+09:00

For those who haven't seen this already (although some may be arriving via that website), here is Dino's write up on Speedhunters.com with photos of our cars at Tomei, and a behind the scenes look at how the catalog/website photos (the ones I posted earlier) were shot.

Enjoy.

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/11/21/car-life-gt-gt-creating-a-tomei-prototype.aspx

Also, in the next few days I'll be posting my own photos as well as some from Allen and Dino regarding the muffler development and the photoshoot.

Sound Deadening

2011-11-19T00:12:00.002+09:00

Last weekend - as well as Monday and Tuesday nights after work - I found myself in the garage installing automotive grade sound deadening materials to the floor of my car. Impending middle age guy now seeking a quiet ride? Well, actually - this is the first step in another project of mine - improving the audio system in the car, as inspired by my friend Alex who has also been giving me guidance along the way. (note - and another outlet for my OCD... these car audio guys are INTENSE! See for example http://diymobileaudio.com/ )

Anyway, as any true car audiophile will tell you, the first step is to prepare the vehicle so that the music can be heard, and felt, as accurately as possible. Hence the need to lay deadening material - the RAAMmat BXTII (the silver stuff you see in the photos) and Ensolite (the closed cell foam). I chose these products from RAAMaudio (http://www.raamaudio.com/) because of its reputation on the car audio forums, the quality of the product, ease of installation, and the pricing. Oh, and when I first contacted the owner of RAAMaudio - he turned out to be an avid motorhead (Corvette owners) who did alot of racing, and he knew exactly what I was talking about when I said that I wanted material that would reduce heat, the vibrations and road noise, but NOT add too much weight. (Thanks Rick for all of your advice...so far!)

So the first step COULD have been to apply the material to the doors, but I'm still researching what kind and brand of speakers to install. One problem unique to R33s apparently is that the door mounted 6.5 inch speakers only allow for an installation depth of 57mm... which is NOT alot of space at all (the R32 uses a weird 4X6 speaker up front, the R34 uses the same 6.5 but without the mounting depth issue, apparently).

Hence I decided to lay out the RAAMmat and Ensolite on the floor of the car. The RAAMmat works by dampening vibration, while the Ensolite blocks out sounds (although some people will claim that the Ensolite layer is actually just a substrate on top of which you can apply a real sound blocker... whatever... maybe but again my goal was maximum results with least weight gain).

So, I first started by attempting to remove the carpet. The plastic "SKYLINE" Side scuff plates come off easily, and a few turns of the screwdriver released the dead pedal and the gas pedal stop on the driver's side. A few more turns and the center console and shift lever surround came off... and this is when I realized that if I wanted to remove the entire carpet, I was going to have to remove most of the dashboard too... OK so this is when I decided that I would simply fold the carpet over onto one side, lay the materials on the exposed floor, and the repeat for the other side.

Like so on the driver's side:

And:

That wasn't so bad...but then I realized how DIRTY it was underneath the carpet. You are supposed to apply this material to CLEAN surfaces only. So after vacuuming bits of dust and dirt, I broke out the Simple Green and brake cleaner, and used a rag to wipe down as best I could. Check out how FILTHY the floor was!!!

Where did this grime come from?

Anyway, once clean it was pretty simple. The RAAMmat has adhesive qualities on the butyl side (the non-aluminum side) so it's just a matter of cutting the pieces to fit the area they are covering, peeling away the sticker, and then applying.

Rick had advised me to use the "knock" test to find out which panels had the most vibration. You apply the panels to such vibrating areas and the panels would in theory reduce such vibrations. Unfortunately, I detected 3 different knocks - a very solid one on the front edge of where the rear seat goes, the floor itself had SOME "tinny" sound and the sidesills sounded almost hollow (actually I think they are)! So, although Rick had advised just applying the RAAMmat to places that sounded tinny - I ended up laying the mat over the entire floor - all except for half of the area in front of the passenger seat, which, perhaps due to the factory sound proofing, was extremely solid feeling and sounding.

The sills I have not figured out what to do yet, because there are too many access holes and wiring going through it, but I did manage to fit a few pieces of the mat on there as well. Not just completely, it would have been difficult with all of the access holes...

Once the mat was laid out, then I applied the Ensolite - again a simple peel away revealed a sticky surface which meant just cutting and applying as needed. However the Ensolite needs to cover as much as possible, so unlike the mat, I tried to cover as much as possible, even squeezing material up along the transmission shaft.

After the Ensolite was laid across essentially the entire floor of the car, I replaced the carpet, and put the front seats back in so I could drive my car on Wednesday night to have the brake upgrade installed (coming up soon on this blog!). Hence, the rest of the sound deadening will have to wait until I get the car back.

So far though I've only used maybe half of the 20 lbs of the material I bought,sot much of a weight penalty I think?

On the drive over though - the car - while still noisy as the sound comes through the firewall and the doors - DID seem a bit more solid and less harsh vibration-wise... but maybe a placebo effect? Stay tuned...

And Here is What Was Going on at Tomei

2011-11-12T00:07:00.006+09:00

And here it is, what everyone has been waiting for:

Tomei Powered will be introducing their new line of EXPREME all Titanium exhausts for the R32, R33, and R34 GT-Rs, in early January (probably) for sale to the general public.

Here is what I know so far:
90mm diameter (what I consider minimum for a tuned GT-R)
High grade Titanium tubing – nothing but the best of course – and top grade craftsmanship to boot - all done in house by their master craftsmen, led by Hatanaka-san.
Pricing that will undercut all other major manufacturers. (Can't reveal it yet, but it will send a shock through the industry).
Weight less than half of stock

My car served as the benchmark by which Tomei measured, created, and then fitted the prototype. And maybe some exhaust flow testing too?

Here is a photo of how it looks from underneath – you can see the very gentle curves to ensure minimal power loss… and yet it fits better than my current Fujitsubo, which is almost straight out (and hence at a diagonal). Benefit to the curve ahead of the muffler portion is, I will be able to fit an R34 style diffuser if I want to…. (yes, still working on that actually…)

Sound – well as DCD told me “better make friends with the neighbors, and buy your wife more jewelry” but that is with the restrictor removed. Presumably, with the restrictor in, it will pass Japan’s stringent noise laws… I will post a video once I buy one from Tomei and have it installed!

In my next related post, I’ll post some close up photos of the exhaust from underneath, as taken by DCD during his visit.

Meanwhile, if any of you have questions about pricing and availability, contact Tomei at
http://www.tomeiusa.com/Tomei-web/contactus-usa.php

Here is a link to Tomei USA's Blog where my car is featured;
http://www.tomeipowered.com/BTE/index.php/2011/11/11/coming-soon-titanium-muffler-for-the-bcnr33-gtr/

Busy but Exciting Day!

2011-11-06T00:32:00.013+09:00

What a great CAR themed day....

First, an early morning blast on the streets of Tokyo in my car accompanied by DCD to Robson - yes, as in Robson Leather (and now to be known as Robson Maturity - as Masa, Robson's president explained - Robson is actually a mountain in Canada, and once you get to the top of a mountain, have to maintain...). Anyway I think you know Robson is known for the superior leather upholstery work they do... don't like your standard cloth seats? Go see Robson. How about gear shift and parking brake boots - the factory is some kind of cheap vinyl. Replace with real leather at Robson.

And of course, yes, they redo worn out steering wheels - and upon request change the shape of the steering wheel to (to give it those nice thumbgrips). Oh, and people who know Robson also know that they do, in addition to the world's finest aftermarket leather work, they also do the world's finest carbon fiber work as well!

http://www.robson-leather.co.jp/

So we drive up and despite Robson's world-wide fame, it's very much a no-nonsense workspace - the factory on the ground floor, and the offices and showroom above.

And yes, that is their demo car GT-R... a Spec-V to boot!

I was too busy discussing various options and plans for my car with Masa-san to take many pictures. I did however manage to grab some catalogs on the way out - here is an excerpt from their carbon fiber catalog

Check out how 3-D their carbon fiber is! Masa-san told me they have 17 (!) layers of gloss on top of the carbon...wow!

Anyway I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but the 3 gauge cluster in the middle of the R33's center console... is from the factory, a poorly imprinted carbon effect...but that's not what I was at Robson today for. I'll take care of my carbon needs later, but first, something else. In fact, the first step in something Robson has NEVER done before on an R33 (and they've done dozens...)

So it was with great reluctance that I was dragged out of there by Dino, but we had our next stop to make - to pick up this thing for Dino to do an article on:

But whatever - this is a blog about R33 GT-Rs. Suffice to say that looks aren't everything, right?

Ok, ok, the Gallardo Superleggerra is fantastic. And way more exciting to drive/be in than the new R35. The best of German engineering and Italian styling, not a bad combo. Still, would like to check out a Ferrari up close one day...

Anyway, I had an errand to run at Nissan Shinagawa, so we drove both cars there.

Here is the funniest scene of the day - I think we cost Nissan a few hundred dollars worth of work:

Finally they tore themselves away to get back to work.... nice to see these are all real car guys! Koyama-san was taking photos, I think this scene may make their blog, will provide a link if we do!

(edit - and here is the link [Japanese only]: http://ameblo.jp/nptms/entry-11070140026.html )

I had a few pieces I had ordered earlier that I was there to pick up - I finally got the Nismo B-pillar carbon pillar garnish (part number 99993-RN593), along with the Nismo carbon rear wing side caps (officially "Rear Spoiler Ornaments" - part number 99993-RN595 FYI). Lacking confidence of a smooth install, I had Sugimoto do the install there.

Not a good photo, but here is it how it looks now... will try to remember to take a picture during the day later.

Of course, while this is subtle and the quality seems pretty good - it's NOTHING like this:

Spoiled now... Kind of wish Mine's would bring back their carbon fiber mirrors for the R33... I asked but was given a vague response (ie Japanese for "no")... oh well. Maybe Robson? LOL.

Anyway, I also picked up a liner for the trunk for another project I have, and then drove home. And found a box with this waiting for me:

What is this? Why, they're brackets for brake calipers... so stay tuned to see what brakes I chose to install on my GT-R!

New Wheels... kinda

2011-10-29T23:50:00.002+09:00

So one thing my car really needs is a brake upgrade. Which means that the stock 17s are pretty much useless if I want to add a big brake kit with rotors 355mm or larger. I've done a lot of research on the ideal brake caliper and rotor set up - initially I thought that the 355mm front (Brembo F50) and 322mm rear (R34 N1 spec using the stock rear 2 pot Brembos) was the best set up, as that is what I had been told by Tamura-san from Nissan.

But then, Goto-san - who runs a very fast tuned BNR32 at the SSCT track days showed me his set up - and it was the 355mm up front, with the 350mm rear rotor from the V36 Skyline Coupe using the stock rear Brembos - and he swore the brake balance was perfect!

Anyway, either way it was clear to me that I had to get larger wheels. The RE30s have S-tire rubber on them, so I need something for the street.

To make a long story short - I struck a deal with a friend - he would lend me his unused 18 inch TE37s which were in dinged up shape, I would repaint at my cost, and then put on new tires - and then return the wheels when the tires get worn out. Not a bad deal at all...

So anyway - remember RAPT? The place that did my window tinting also did the wheels...

Talk about PERFECT (I asked him to aim for the matte black finish as found on the Advans alloys)

The tire of choice - Advan Neova AD08s...

And this is how it looks on my car. What do you think?

As for my brake upgrade - stay tuned, it will be interesting, I promise!

Sneak Peek of What's Going on at Tomei...

2011-10-27T23:46:00.002+09:00

Turns out DCD was in the neighborhood and so dropped by to check out what was going on with my car. He kindly sent over these photos he took - apparently not only is my car serving as an R&D testbed, but it will be featured in their catalog in the near future!

Love how these Tomei guys protect my car with this blue film

Not sure why the car is up on a lift...

Looks like they shoot photos at night?

I’ll be releasing the official photos on this blog, with a description of what product Tomei has developed, very soon!

Meanwhile, I am enjoying driving the Suzuki Swift Sport! Driving position (despite being Recaros!) doesn’t work for me and the plastics are cheap (but then heck so are the R33s) but really not bad for a small car!

Once Again at Tomei Powered...

2011-10-24T23:30:00.002+09:00

So I found myself at Tomei Powered again on Saturday morning. My buddy Allen wasn’t there, but his colleague Sakurai-san was there to greet me. He immediately set about inspecting my car for scratches, dings, etc. as Allen had apparently told everyone at Tomei that I was very OCD about my car. Anyway, once I had signed the very rental-car like pre-damage paperwork, they lent me one of their cars (a Suzuki Swift Sport) and I quickly drove home to attend to another event for my kid.

Here is a shot of my car in their garage:

I’m not allowed yet to get into full details yet, but this is related to an earlier link
http://akasakabcnr33.blogspot.com/2011/03/at-tomei-powered-again.html
whereby I had previously left my car in Tomei’s good hands, shortly before the big earthquake here. Anyway, they needed my car for a week, and I am always happy to oblige – after all, the Mine’s engine in my car would not have been possible without certain choice bits from the Tomei catalog!

Here is something I spotted in their storeroom by the way, which I do NOT have on my car! (yet?? lol)

A Random Photo from Tomei Powered?

2011-10-17T22:00:00.005+09:00

My friend Allen at Tomei Powered sent over a photo of something interesting they just received. Anyone care to guess what these are? I wonder what the plans are for these?

Nismo Air Inlet Piping

2011-10-15T23:46:00.012+09:00

In my last post I hinted that I had been working on some mods for my car (and hence the relative lack of posts lately). Well, here is one.

The overly expensive Nismo Air Inlet Piping Kit:

http://www.nismo.co.jp/en/products/competition/engine/rb26dett.html#aip

I scoured Rakuten and finally found one at a decent price (MSRP is ridiculous... compare with similar kits from HKS and Trust...)

What this part does, is to better manage the airflow coming out of the turbos. The theory is: hot exhaust air is coming out of both turbos on their way to the intercooler, but the air from the back runs into the air from the front turbo, on the way to the intercooler. So what this Nismo part does is to provide not only a smooth gradual merging of this air - as well as providing for wider diameter piping (ie more volume).

You don't have to buy this or the similar ones from HKS et al. You CAN modify the Twin Turbo pipe - in fact I bought one from Cockpit Wako as I'm not about to cut open, then weld a thin piece of aluminum between the top and bottom of the pipe, thus separating the front and rear turbo exhausts, and then weld it all back together. And the reason I did this was, I wanted to keep the car's engine as stock looking as possible. Plus, you don't really need these pipes, check out the Mine's demo car...

There is an explanation of this mod on the UK GTR Forum:

http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/84482-testing-modified-twin-turbo-pipe.html

But after riding in DCD's BNR34 several months ago and experiencing how responsive the turbos were (and no turbo shuffle) ... I decided maybe this was worth doing.

Anyway with life keeping me busy, the parts sat in my garage for a couple of months, until I finally decided to install the kit in late August (ie getting ready for the Tsukuba trackday).

Here is how it's done - the instructions are in Japanese, and even so are so poorly written (no detail and looks like a photocopy of a photocopy, etc. ) that perhaps this can serve as a guide to someone and save their knuckles (and some time):

Ok... so here is how it looks before you start, obviously.

First take off the strut bar, as well as the standard airbox snorkel (if you have one) to gain access to all the bolts and clamps holding the Twin Turbo pipe in.

As you unpack the box, begin drooling - here is the the main split pipe of the Nismo kit. Absolutely GORGEOUS :)

Once you've removed the clamps, and the Twin Turbo pipe, this is what you see. The silver pipe on the right is the outlet for the rear turbo. There is a shorter one for the front as well. Both of these will be coming off.

Here is how it looks once the rear one has been removed. AND, here is where the instructions are most inadequate. While the bolt on one side can be removed simply by unscrewing, the one on the OTHER side is actually held in place by a nut behind the flange of the outlet. So make sure you get a finger or something back there to ensure you don't lose this nut. Otherwise that nut will drop somewhere into the engine bay...(luckily I had a box of loose bolts and nuts and found something that replaced it perfectly).

The instructions also fail to inform you that, if you happen to have the Nismo Oil Collector installed like I have, then that needs to be unbolted and moved to the side in order to access this rear turbo area.

And here is the Nismo piping for the rear turbo...

This is the Nismo pipe for the front turbo. Note that it's much shorter.

After both of these have been installed:

And here it is complete. A word to the wise - make sure that the silicon bands are on, and the clamps tightened, properly! I took the car on a spin the next day and the lower one (between the intercooler and the split pipe) came loose. Not fun on a crowded road. Carry a standard screwdriver and heat proof gloves so you can do your own roadside repair like I did.

Nismo does caution on two items. One, the snorkel for the standard airbox will no longer fit, and needs to be melted slightly so that it does. Second, your ECU may need to be reprogrammed as the engine will boost a bit higher (mine was ok though).

Unfortunately my attempts at melting thick ABS were not successful, so I simply left the snorkel off until I managed to get to a dealer (which I did AFTER the track day, oh well...) Here is Sugimoto-san using a heat gun to melt the piece...I also asked him to double check the clamps and the silicon hoses.

And here it is, finally complete. Sharp eyed readers will note that the direction of the bolts on the clamps have been changed - they were on the left initially, but are now on the right - and looking much more aligned than before.

The reason I chose the Nismo kit over the others is simply the way it looks - how the larger pipe comes so close to the cam cover, the intense gloss/shine- and of course the Nismo name matches well with the oil cap, air filter reminder, radiator cap, etc.

Anyway, impressions are - yep, the engine DOES seem to spool up much faster, and come on quicker. I can still hear a bit of turbo shuffle, but not like before. So I'm happy. Now if I could only figure out a way to get more air into the airbox, now that part of the passage way has been melted narrower...

Stay tuned, I have some more VERY tasty mods coming up soon, as well as an ongoing "R33 GT-R Tool Kit" project (my inspiration was the 160,000 yen Snap On tool kit they offered as an option for the R35...)

SSCT Track Day At Tsukuba Circuit – with special guest world famous pro driver and racing team owner Masahiro Hasemi (“Mr.Skyline”)!!

2011-09-13T01:01:00.031+09:00

Another hot September day, this time on the unforgettable date of September 11. However, this was to turn out to be a happy September 11 for me. (and apologies for not posting for a while... I have some mods and some upgrades that I will post on soon).

As my friend Alex, who had signed up and was ready to go, had a last minute mechanical issue which prevented his car from running, he found Terrance (white 97 R33) to come along with us. As it was Terrance’s first time, we got there early, and walked around to check out the track.

The GT-Rs started arriving around 1130, about 2 and half hours before we were set to run. That gave us plenty of time to prepare the cars, however. I was most concerned about my brakes, as I had just finished changing out the front pads for new ones (PFC Race) and done a complete flush of the system (I used Endless RF650). On the drive up, I noticed that the brakes felt mushy, nothing like the “instant-on, get face thrown into windshield” that I was used to with the PFC rotor and pad combination.

So I had Yamada-san, the Nissan race mechanic check it out – he did and said he felt nothing wrong with the brake pedal, suspecting (as I now did) that the pads simply hadn’t been bedded in properly. I had tried to do this quickly the day before, but it was obvious that I had not generated enough heat. So he advised me to take it easy during the first of my two 25 minute runs. The first will be a “throw-away run,” as he put it.

Here I am checking to make sure my wheels (note I ran on the standard 17 inch rims and the very good Dunlop Star Specs!) don’t fall off.

The cars were split into two groups – the “A” group and the “B” group. As you can see, the “B” group I was in had some interesting cars…not just the March (aka as a “Micra” overseas – this one with a manual transmission, a rare car!) but also a classic Nissan Bluebird, and also an R34 GT-R M-Spec, which was right in front of me during the warm up lap.

A Group:

B Group:

A Datsun?

Warm-up Lap Photos (taken by Alex in the passenger seat)

Leaving the Pit Lane:

After the First Corner:

Taking the First Hairpin:

Approaching Dunlop Corner:

Me driving coming out of the Second Hairpin onto the back straight:

Back Straight:

Front Straight in front of the tower and grandstands:

After the “A” group finished their first 25 minute run, I went out with the rest of “B” group, followed closely behind by Terrance. Alex and I had given him a good briefing earlier, and we were able to watch the action of some highly tuned BMW M3s from the grandstands at the first hairpin. I had told Terrance I would be taking it easy, maybe 60% on my run, but, after leaving the pit area, I felt the car REALLY respond. And as for the brakes, the more I used them, the better they got. So, I picked up the pace… and soon had no one in my rear view mirror. To Terrace’s credit, he did a great job, I did not lap him once. There was a V36 Skyline sedan(!) on the track that I lapped 3 times, as well as a purple BCNR33 that I also lapped twice. Obviously first time on the track for both of them?

So the fastest lap of the day was 1’04”, set by Goto-san in his insane R32 – he was in the “A” group. Basic specs on that car are – 18 inch TE37s, 355mm rotors up front (F50 Brembo), stock rear Brembo caliper with V36 Skyline coupe 350mm rear rotor, HKS VCAM, and HKS 2530 turbos, producing around 600ps. Fastest time in the “B” group was 1’09”, I suspect by one of the white R34s that I was following and swapping positions with. Alas, my best was a 1’11” – still 3 fastest of 21 cars… but I’m blaming this on the still very sticky but not s-tire level Dunlop street tires and the slow traffic I constantly had to weave in and out of. Oh well, next time I’ll request to be put into the faster group… although Koyama-san (of Nissan Prince Shinagawa) DID comment that my driving had noticeably improved, that I was consistent and very smooth – which, to be honest, was all that I was going for, being that the heat was driving up the engine temps and I wasn’t about to push myself or the car too much.

But the highlight of the day was when Mr. Skyline drove my car. Here is me giving the thumbs up:

And here is the video:

http://youtu.be/0LPIixEnN4M

Ignoring my idiotic comments – Hasemi-san had nothing but good things to say about my car.　He liked the balance, and said the engine ran well.

In the debriefing after the run, he told the club that, despite having driven about a dozen GT-Rs, there were only 3 he truly thought were good cars. One was mine! As you can hear in the video, he says the balance of my car is very good, with absolutely no understeer, making the car very fun to drive, and fast too.

For those of you who don’t know who Mr. Hasemi is, he is truly one of THE LEGENDS in the Skyline world. He started as a factory Nissan driver, and perhaps the most famous car he drove was the R30 Skyline Silhouette, like this:

Credit for this photo from this very interesting article from Speedhunters.
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2008/11/27/retrospective-gt-gt-nissan-super-silhouette-racers.aspx

He also drove Group A R32 GT-Rs like these:

During the debrief he had some interesting stories – apparently the aerodynamics of the R32s were not good, resulting in an increase in understeer. The Group A rules though meant the car had to be pretty much as it left the factory – so no huge wings (which, he commented usually don’t work well anyway – in fact the R32 is fastest without the rear wing), and the racing teams tried various ways to minimize the drag the rear standard wing caused, like adjusting the trunk hinges so the front of the trunk lifted up a bit, etc.

He also drove the only Skyline to race in the 24 Hours of LeMans, the R33-based NISMO Skyline GT-R LM (#23 car):

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/392/Nissan-Skyline-R33-GT-R-LM.htmlhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
(Not to be confused with the commemorative limited edition R33 GT-R LeMans edition that came in a blue color and was sold only during 1996.)

Currently he is now owner of Hasemi Motorsports, a race team that is still active.
http://www.hasemi-ms.com/photos/index.php

So anyway, that was my brush with greatness - I guess it’s like having Mario Andretti or Richard Petty (for Americans) or Alain Prost or Nigel Mansell (for F1 fans) drive your car… and come away impressed with it!

Obligatory photo of me getting his autograph:

And me with Hasemi-san:

Arigato-gozaimashita!

LED Back Up Light

2011-07-31T22:24:00.003+09:00

In conjunction with having the rear windows tinted, my friend Russ suggested that I install one of those "super bright" LED bulbs for the back up lamp, so I could see what I was backing into.

Sounded like a great idea!

So I found this interesting looking bulb on Rakuten, the seller claiming it was one of the brightest out there!

And here are the before and after pictures. You'll note that the Series 3 R33 GT-R only has ONE back up lamp...(the other being used as a rear foglight)

Before (with regular but bright incandescent bulb) - note that my iPhone automatically used the flash.

After install of the LED - note that the iPhone did NOT use the flash.

And so I manually activated the flash so we could directly compare with the before shot.

One issue I noticed was, the plastic casing where the bulb is inserted, has no reflective cone that can be used to further direct the intensity of the bulb. So, I think a lot of light gets diffused to the sides. Since the bulb is easy to install, one continuing project will be to try to find a silver plastic cone or use alum foil or something in a cone shape, to see if I can't get the rear back up bulb even brighter. Stay tuned!

Window Tinting

2011-07-24T22:26:00.005+09:00

Amazingly, this is one mod that I wasn't too keen on. In actuality my wife wanted me to do this, as there was too much sun coming into the rear seats where my daughter rides in her baby seat.

So the search was on for a place in Japan that 1) does a good job, and 2) for reasonable money. I thought briefly about doing this myself, but given dad duties my weekends aren't as free as they used to be, so in this case, if the price was right...

A quick internet search showed that some places charge nearly 80,000 yen! This covers the rear three glass windows, and some UV cutting clear film for the front side windows. I then stumbled upon RAPT, a detailing shop about 10 minutes drive from where I live!

http://www.rapt.cc/rapt-main.html

And, their pricing was the best that I found, under 36,000 yen for what others were charging 80,000 yen. Still not as cheap as I remember window tinting in the US, (like $200?) but for location, speed, and quality, I wasn't going to complain. Plus, as they are mainly a detailer, I figured I could pick up a few tricks... maybe...

Anyway, here are photos of the finished result.

I chose the sides to be as dark as legally possible - so the side rear windows are 5% (ie they only let 5% of light through).

The rear window is 15% - can you tell the difference?

I have to say it turned out better than I thought. Although the detail obsessed in me will probably require the rears to be changed to 5% in the very near future...

PS check out the RAPT demo car, one of the most spectacular FDs I've ever seen...
http://www.rapt.cc/demo.html

New Front Diffuser!

2011-07-23T22:11:00.001+09:00

OK, let's get away from Guest Posts for awhile...thanks to Thomas and Sami for their contributions. Anyone else?

Readers of my blog might remember this post, way back.
http://akasakabcnr33.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-parts.html

I had somehow broken the HKS Kansai carbon front diffuser shortly before I repaired it in that post. My recollection is that it was either at Fuji Speedway, or on the way home. Regardless, I had patched it up with my rudimentary fiberglass skills, but never really felt good about the repair. I had also wondered how the Kansai piece worked. It has the scoop in the middle, which apparently forms turbulance and creates a sucking effect. I mean, I never felt like the car was floating, and it DID feel better than with just the standard piece... and who am I to say that HKS Kansai got it wrong?

But then a few months ago, my friend Russ (yes of RE-xtreme fame - http://re-xtreme.blogspot.com/ and http://rextremeiii.blogspot.com/) lent me a video which explained race car aerodynamics. Not one car they had featured there had the Kansai scoop. In fact, they all were seeking to have as flat a floor as possible. So I decided to see what other manufacturers had, and stumbled on a model by Silk Road. http://www.silkroad-jp.com/

Given the trouble I had with the large, single piece Kansai diffuser, I was not averse to the three piece setup. I also like the fact that the airflow looked very similar to what Nissan had designed for the R34 (figured that it can't be bad). I wanted to go with the least expensive FRP, but the only ones available were the "silver cloth" Carbon Fiber model...so this is what I got.

Here it is, you can see the color and the three piece construction.

Anyway, with the car up, and me getting ready to install these piece, me being OCD I decided to clean up as much as possible. Break out the Simple Green!

Then, while inspecting the bottom, I ran across this weird thing - anyone have any idea what this is? Does it serve to cool the power steering fluid?

Compared to installing the HKS Kansai product, which requires two brackets to be inserted INTO a cross member, and relies on bolts that can rattle loose, I found the installation of the SilkRoad product to be much more straightforward. Except for one problem. The Nismo Performance Dampers are secured between two brackets. But these brackets also block the installation of two hangars which are bolted into pre-existing holes. Hence, I had to go out and buy two pieces of aluminum, which I then bent to go AROUND the Damper brackets. You can see the standard hangar bolt on the left, and my contraption on the right (hope it holds...)

But once this makeshift bracket was on, it was simply a matter of installing both side pieces...

and then following with the center piece. The hangar bolts do the majority of the stress work, but the pieces also use the holes in the standard lip spoiler (Series 3 only) for further security. And here is how it looks when all done!

Another point - the access hole for oil changes is actually covered, unlike the HKS Kansai one which was 1) too small (car at wrong angle and oil ends up flowing INTO the diffuser), and 2) not covered. I haven't done a high speed test yet at Fuji, but on the expressways I have not noticed anything odd, or insecure feeling. Stay tuned for a further report!

Guest Post: Sami R. - Headlight Conversion, Part 9

2011-07-17T01:22:00.001+09:00

Hi, Aki.

Guess what?

I get them done today. When I´m going to put them on their place,I don´t know yet. Hopefully very soon, but first I have to get all wiring done. And today I get those other connectors for these lights.

Well, everything seem to go well so far and I get the housings back together easy too. Just have to put some new glue stuff, when I first get them in to their place, just for testing. But I have to take the bumper out for that.

I think that they look quite original, VW light is little smaller than Nissan one, but that´s just fine, it leave more adjustment space inside the light.

My original plan, was to use N16 pulsar/almera lights, but then I change the plan, because I hope that someone can do the same conversion. And I think that VW lights are available everywhere, but N16 Nissan lights with projectors, might be quite hard to find in US.

Here are the pics:

First are the lights and then there is pics of the connectors.
Las pic is my head light wires, lots of tape and some extra wires. I have to get rid of those and make them perfect (almost)

-Sami

Guest Post: Sami R. - Headlight Conversion, Part 8

2011-07-17T01:18:00.001+09:00

Editorial note - so after showing me how he ordered another Passat light for the other side, and making that installation, Sami wrote to tell me this:

Hi, Aki.

For the light project, i have solved the parking light problem and i decided to use some new connectors. I picked them up in car parts shop and they seems to work nicely. Finaly i put other projector on it´s place, the other has to wait until rest of the wires are on their place. Other side can be done with the light on it´s place, but other side has too little room.

-Sami

Guest Post: Sami R. - Headlight Conversion, Part 7

2011-07-17T01:09:00.002+09:00

Hi, Aki.

Okay, prototype is ready!!!

Next i have to make the real ones, and fix some flaws. Tomorrow i try to find some very small nuts and bolts. I dont have enough these ones that i´m using now.

That light pattern mechanism is working and the whole light seems to fit quite nice on it´s place.
I´m thinking that i´m going to start make the real ones on next weekend I have material, tools, time and mockup.

Well, if you have time and interest to write something about this to your blog, it´s very flattering.

And next are these pics, again... First is pics of the plate, with some new holes on it and then 4th and 5th pics show, how tiny boltsi´m going to need to find.
Last two, are only comparison photos. Upper one is yours (original) and bottom one is homemade.

-Sami

Guest Post: Sami R. - Headlight Conversion Part 6

2011-07-17T01:08:00.002+09:00

Hi, Aki.

Well, today i have done that big oval hole on the adaptor plate, i think that it´s good enough.
Luckily, aluminium is so easy to work. You only need basic wood tools for drilling and sanding.
And i decited to left that LHD to RHD mechanism still on that projector, so it´s going to be nice a detail.

And here is some pics, on my progress.

-Sami

Guest Post: Sami R - Headlight Conversion Part 5

2011-07-17T01:06:00.001+09:00

Hi, Aki.

Okay, now i have make some progress on my project. Today i have find some right thickness aluminium on scrap yard. Last week i buy some too thin sheet, so it doesn´t stay straight when you adjust the light. And hardware store doesn´t have any thicker pieces on stock. If i want that, i have to order whole full size sheet and that´s way too expencive for me.

Straight after work, i drive to the scrap yard and ask if they have some straight aluminium sheets. A lady who works there, just says that go there and look for your self, if you can find something that you can use, you can keep it. So, i have this little piece for free and this one is just perfect, the plastic clips stays on place just like on original piece.
So, today i have make prototype of this adaptor plate and adjustment works perfect, hopefully i get that hole for the projector tomorrow.
And most hardest part is to make some square holes for these plastic clips, but they turn out quite nicely (at least for prototype) I try to make some info for exact numbers of that piece, when it´s ready. Maybe someone wants to do same conversion.

And now for the pics, hope you like them.
-Sami

Guest Post: Sami R. - Headlight Conversion Part 4

2011-07-17T00:57:00.001+09:00

Editorial comment - there were a few emails between this one and the
last where meanwhile, Sami had emailed me to let me know he had
ordered some VW Passat headlights...

Hi, Aki.

Now I have taken the VW Passat (01-05) light apart. There seems to be
a height adjustment motor inside too. Maybe I can use that too. After
closer inspection, the Passat light is made by Hellas and it has a
build in light patterns change! So, you can use same unit for lhd and
rhd!
I have take pics for this function, so you can see how it works.

And yesterday i try to find some square drill, but can´t find any.
And it´s not a joke, i know that those do exist, i have one but it´s
too small.

Well, pics do tell more that words, so here they are. Last two pics
are the adjust motor and the third last is, how well the VW light fits
in the Nissan light.

-Sami

Guest Post: Sami R. - Headlight Conversion, Part 3

2011-07-07T21:53:00.001+09:00

Hi, again Aki. And here is pics how everybody usually changes their
light from rhd to lhd in R33 skyline. First you need some hella 4"x6"
lights (these are so called "chevy van" lights) and then you just cut
off the bottom of your original light and put the new light inside the
old. That way you have working height adjust and the lights still
looks the same as original. I also have few comparison photos, of
these two different type lights, i think that everyone doesn´t usually
have these at the same time. -Sami

Guest Post: Sami R. -Headlight Conversion, part 2

2011-07-06T22:19:00.001+09:00

Hi, Aki. Okay, today was national holiday, so no work and
weather was also nice (it has been raining nearly every day) I think
that it´s time to open that extra light housing that i have just for
practice. Here is few pics how it looks inside, i think that you
haven´t ever open the lense it self? But, anyway here is also pics
inside of that. And there is the piece that i need to change (it
might be possible, so i don´t have to change whole lens, just the
little piece inside of it) but if i don´t find these pieces anywhere,
then i change the whole lense unit. Hi beam is okay anyway, because it
should have straight light pattern, it doesn´t rise on left or right
side. I keep you updated if you like to see how it work out.

Guest Post: Sami R - How to Convert R33 Headlights from RHD to LHD

2011-07-06T22:13:00.003+09:00

As you may recall, I recently replaced my Xenon headlights with brand
new units. So what did I do with the old ones? I removed the burners and mailed both units to my friend Sami in Finland. He's got a gorgeous red R33, but had been wanting Xenons for his car for those dark Scandanavian nights. Unfortunately, the law does not allow use
of the stock RHD ones, forcing Sami to modify LHD ones to adhere to Finnish law. Sami has been sending me almost daily updates, with
photos - ie perfect blog material. Enjoy!

Hi, Aki. Lights are here. They were just as good as i remember, perfect. So, you have open one of them or have you? I think
that i read that on your blog or then i have read something else. If you have open one of them, is´t the driver side? I just like to know, because it should be easyer to open if it has been open before. And i do have one practice version too, i will open that one first. Here is pics of the lights. Thanks, -Sami

NEW Feature! Guest Post - R33 GTR Owner Thomas Mangum

2011-06-04T00:17:00.009+09:00

Well I think that as this blog is supposed to be about the R33 GT-R, it would be a disservice if I was always talking about my car only. Perfect as it is (just kidding), it would be nice to showcase some other nice R33s.

So, I've decided to solicit other R33 owners - if you've got something written up, and some nice photos, please send them my way!

What follows is my friend Thomas, in his own words:

**********************************************************************************
I bought the GTR because it’s “JUST PLAIN BADD” point Blank there is no other car that can match the potential of this ride. For the money that’s spent, or can be spent this is the best deal going, and it brings it, the GTR is an intimidating car, if you see one in Japan you ask yourself this question, factory stock or Street Monster. Literally, you won’t know until it’s too late and it just disappears!

My car is a 1995 Midnight Purple GTR; I’ve had for almost three years now and well the planned sequence of the modifications have extended farther from what I had envisioned because I learned more about the car. My friend Hiro owns a GTR shop and has helped me fix the car up, my wrench time his knowledge in his shop, on the lift.

My First track experience ended in a thrown power steering belt and a not so great performance from my stock car, I had a great time but I was not happy with the Purple Machine, a year and a half later we haven’t been back to a track, but this what has been done. I can’t wait to get back on the track, I am almost ready, just need some Good coil overs, oil cooler and its read to run, as my base mod to track it. There are several planned additions, ahead.

The general idea of my concept is to have a General all round, Street, Drag and Circuit car, but mainly Street, hence the Poly bushings. I’m looking to be around 600 to the ground, when I get where I want it.

The mods:
Transfer case rebuild and Diff Torque up: the transfer case rebuild is the most significant mod of the car, rebuilt and mated to a new series 3 transmission this changed the way the car responded. In the process the clutch pack was resequenced, the factory set up gave a little bite but with resequencing, the car came in harder up front.

Hiro set the pack as (plate disk, plate disk) etc. this made the pack more responsive than (plate plate disk plate plate disk plate plate disk plate plate) the pack has space for a total of 19 disks or plates or a combination of those 2. In conjunction with this mod a cheap and effective way to work the diff was to reshim and do a torque up on it, Hiro’s recommendation, Just as good as an LSD for a couple of years. So the power has no problem of getting were it needs to be.

Carbonetics: Bolted to the crank is a Type R Carbon Twin Plate with the Carbon Ceramic coating on the flywheel, the floater plate and on the pressure plate which bites at 1350 kg.

Fluidampr: this is one of those must mods, factory stuff is cheap works and is on a budget, does not compare to this aftermarket item don’t care who told you what about how. Being able to reduce vibration by absorbing energy and reducing the whip of the crank significantly increases the smoothness throughout RPM band, done with the next mod produced great results.

Okada Plasma Direct: These are pricey and people tend not to look past the price, and opt for a cheaper brand, However there is no other set up out there that can even compare. This spark penetrates in to the heart of the combustion mixture and detonates from within. The successive bolts continue coming, keeping the cylinder hot by ensuring a complete burn and there is no blow out of the spark, the force energy is there throughout the RPM range, the Okadas fire 10 times in the power stroke; all others only fire once even SplitFire.

Indexing the plugs in conjunction, allows me to target where I want the spark to detonate at in the cylinder, which is really important. Gap location can further smooth out the idle; detonation in the same place in all cylinders allows the engine to remain in time. Random placement of the plug gap results in offset detonations which causes a small stutter, orienting to the intake side allows for firing into the compression right at TDC, so the explosion takes place at the same time the piston changes direction from up to down, the significance of the primary detonation from the Okadas comes into play as the force created moves in the right direction like a Kinetic energy shape charge slamming the piston down, the blast is also on the inner part of the crank, energy travels down the inner side of the rod arm, resulting in added Torque as the rod turns the crank with a little more energy at its core. Not only from increased and sustained energy in the spark, but spark location allowed you to harvest and direct the force to a specific part of the crank creating more torque. And the engine is able to develop a rhythm resulting in a powerful pull throughout the REVS.

With the Fluidampr absorbing these changes and keeping the time the engine responds very very quickly.

Tomei Pon Cams: Type B shimmed up installed with Tomei Cam gears, Tomei Timing Belt, N1 water pump.

HKS Special hard pipe kit for intake and intercooler, Thrust 100mm Intercooler, NISMO OIL Separator.

NISMO engine, and Transmission mounts, Solid busing mount for Transmission bracket to the frame.

Super Pro Poly Bushings: front are negative camber offset bushings, the rear housing bushings, the control arms, steering rack, and diff mount, and sub frame collars.

Cusco: All Cusco Adjustable links, with negative offset roll adaptor plates up front, all ball joints front and rear to include roll adaptor Thrust Ball joints in the rear and the 2 HICAS ball joints. It has an ARC front Sway bar a bit thicker than stock.

Exhaust: RSR Stainless down Pipe equal length tubing so the Turbo pulses don’t collide in the collector, a Titanium Straight Pipe, into an Amuse Titanium R1 Cat Back. Which! With the hot ignition produces a very wicked note.

Always Ride on Direzzas, currently it has the Top Secret Bumper and the Series 3 Headlights, NISMO Gauges, Blue LED Dash back light including the Triple Gauge and A/C Panel. Currently it runs stock Turbo’s and a MINES VX ROM, and is by no means a slouch in its current set up, not Tuned since the MINES ECU manages it on a general base tune.

**********************************************************************************

And there we have it. My first ever guest blogger. Thanks Thomas! In this case, it was easy to convince Thomas as he's local to me, but hopefully anyone who reads this blog and wants me to post something won't be shy about asking.

BTW, this is us at the front gate of Camp Zama, Japan - about to head into the auto shop on base on one of our many sessions tinkering with our cars...

Project: BNR34 Rear Diffuser on BCNR33?

2011-05-29T00:11:00.005+09:00

So after getting my car fitted with Spoon Sport's Rigid Collars (see previous post), I drove over to Nissan Shinagawa to order some parts, and to ask a long standing question...will the BNR34 Rear Diffuser fit on the R33, and if so, how?

But, as usual, they were crowded when I got there, so I amused myself by reading this... I need to pick up a copy - for those who can't read the Japanese, it's a special edition GT-R Magazine dedicated to restoring the RB26 series GT-Rs. So plenty of advice on engine, suspension, body, interior, etc. rebuilding and freshening up.

But hey I was there to order some parts...well actually some small connectors that I broke when installing my headlights... but might as well see what else is tempting...

Finally - I got Koyama-san's attention. I had done some previous research, and we quickly determined that the brackets needed to install the diffuser, DID fit on the R33. But boy they are expensive... about 30,000 yen each per side! Then I had to get the center piece, which requires two bolt holes to be drilled from the spare tire well.

But the problem was, the side attachments. On the diffuser, there are two (left and right) Z-shaped brackets that are designed to bolt onto pre-drilled holes on the R34, right inside of the rear bumper. Obviously, the R33 is shaped differently... so off we went to find Yamada-san and Sugimoto-san, their top two mechanics to see what they though.

Another was whether the front leading edge of the diffuser, could be bolted to SOMETHING on the R33.

Amazingly, neither had ever installed an R34 diffuser on an R33 before...so they found an old broken R34 diffuser, put my car on a lift, and test fitted the diffuser.

Luckily - it turned out that the R33 had the same bracket for mounting the front of the diffuser, no problem. Unfortunately, the problem with MY CAR - was the Fujitsubo muffler.

First, it's a very large diameter - 90mm, so the diffuser was a snug fit. Second, it shoots out the back at an angle - designed to minimize the slow down of exhaust gases. The R34 diffuser, however, was designed for mufflers that point straight out the back.

Turns out, the side Z-brackets would require some ingenuity... I later found a post on the GTR forum which gave me an idea. These Z-brackets DO come off, so I'm not forced to bolt them in the same location. What I need to do is to find somewhere to bolt the sides, and find brackets or screws that work accordingly.

As for the muffler - well I guess I should either start looking for a straight one, or cut the diffuser. But cutting the diffuser cuts into its structural integrity, so not an ideal solution.

Conclusion - I think I'm going to have to figure this one out. Meanwhile, I'll take my time restoring and making the diffuser pretty, it's used and thus somewhat beat up...

Maybe later this year I'll get this done?

Spoon Sports (Honda Tuner) parts for my car? Rigid Collars

2011-05-28T23:24:00.006+09:00

That’s right… last weekend I took my car down to a world famous Honda tuner…the Spoon Sport’s tuning shop, TypeOne.

http://www.spoon.jp/eng/

For good reason – I was to become their first ever R33 GT-R customer for their revolutionary product, their Rigid Collars. This is a product that they make not only for Hondas, but other brands as well – and it’s been a hot seller in Japan, reviewed favorably in the Japanese motoring press – so much so that Spoon Sports set up a dedicated website just for this product.

http://www.rigidcollar.jp/

The concept is this – by necessity of the factory manufacturing process, the subframes and the body are attached by way of bolts. However, due to the need for speed (versus precision), there is considerable leeway in the space where the bolts go in. This means that the subframe is not always perfectly aligned with the body.

This video explains it better than me.

Yeah, right. Hard to believe it works, and the video is a bit hokey. Plus, it's a Prius they use to demonstrate, of course that car needs help in the handling department. So would it work with a GT-R?

Anyway, I got to the shop a bit before the appointment time, and found these interesting Hondas there.

That's a fully tuned Spoon S2000 with hardtop, as well as carbon hooded Euro Accord!

Spoon-tuned Fit... wonder if the wife would let me get one of these, seems very practical!

The process to install the Rigid Collars was simple, but it did take this lift and an engine support/lift thing (in order to allow for enough space between the subframe and the body… or you could get a strong friend to help??)

They did the front first.
Before:

After - you can see the silver ring, those are the collars.

Here is one of the rear places where the collar goes in. Huge gap huh.

I took a picture of the instruction manual they had (this is for the R32/R34 GT-Rs, the kit which they had developed the week before). You can see that up front, 8 collars are needed, and 4 in the rear.

Here are the collars – not all of them are round, some are the half-moon shape. Necessary, as some bolts are not designed to be completely removed.

After they finished, they took some photos for their blog

Here is the link:
http://blog.eirigidcollar.jp/?d=657507

And then it was off to get test driven, to make sure everything felt right.

My impressions – well, as it was raining when I got back in the car, I expected to not feel any difference – but I did immediately.

First, the ride of the car seemed more secure, more direct. I had not adjusted the coilovers, but somehow the ride seemed more firm.

Second, feedback from the steering wheel was much improved. I am not sure whether this is because the “numbness” that I had noticed on-center is gone, or whether the off-center feeling comes on quicker, but either way, feedback is much better.

Third, after the roads dried a bit (after a short trip to Nissan Shinagawa – see next post), I went for a drive on the expressway. Lane charges are much sharper, and accelerating on a curve is not as nerve-wracking – just point and shoot.

So the overall result is that the car feels much more agile. Not so much at low speeds, but it gets better the faster you go. In conjunction with the Nismo Performance Dampers and all of the body stiffening, I’ve probably done all I can to improve handling, short of replacing all of the bushings with steel and spot welding the body.

I then dutifully posted my impressions on the UK GTROC forum…
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/151834-rigid-collars-spoon-sports-r32-r33-r34-gt-rs.html

but was met with lots of skepticism. Which, I suppose is to be expected. My feeling is that anything new and unusual, will be met with doubt. And, yes I suppose for many people the price is expensive – as we know many people can barely afford to own, let alone properly maintain and tune, Skylines (including myself, LOL!).

But, in the end – I have them installed on my car, I felt results, and I’m happy with the results, so who cares about what others think, especially when they haven’t even installed them on their cars (armchair GT-R tuning? LOL)!!

Installing the New Headlights

2011-05-16T23:16:00.004+09:00

OK, so FINALLY - installing the new headlights - all nicely protected with 3M protection film. Sure, I did my research - everyone on the forums say that only 3 or 4 bolts hold it in... and these people say you don't have to remove the bumper. Wow, sounds easy. WRONG! (Well, wrong if you have an oil cooler installed...)

People generally say that the headlights on the R33 GTR are easy to replace. First, there are two bolts that are accessible from the top - begin by removing the center grill. Easy enough.

Then, to access the third bolt that screws in from the side, peel back the plastic inner fender lining (take off the front wheels to do this), and you'll be able to access that bolt from inside the fender. That much is true.

As they claimed, the driver's side headlight was pretty easy. Undo all the bolts, and pull to the front and side, and lift out - the burner unit is attached to the underside of the plastic housing.

In retrospect however, I would take off the bumper next time, as even on this side the plastic inner fender liners were NOT really pliable, meaning I had to pull and bend just enough for my hand and a wrench to get through. Not fun.

The problem, and reason why the bumper should have come off in the first place, is because if you have an oil cooler installed like I do - then it is physically impossible to access the third bolt that screws in from the side - because the oil cooler core blocks access from the rear.

So, what I ended up doing was taking off the front bumper (which necessitated undoing a bunch of bolts on the bottom of the bumper, where it attaches to the front lip spoiler and the brake cooling ducts, as well as unbolting two bolts that are immediately behind the plastic inner fender lining), after which I had enough space to access that last bolt.

Here is the left side. You will notice two things - the oil cooler hoses, as well as a bracket attached to the frame upon which is mounted the burner unit.

Here is a closer look at the bracket and burner unit, once I removed it from the frame.

Apparently, with the oil cooler hoses, the headlights would not fit as usual, as the burner unit mounted underneath the plastic headlight housing would interfere with the hoses. Hence, the custom bracket (I assume it came with the HKS Oil Cooler kit, Nissan Prince installed it for me so I don't know for sure) which relocates the burner unit safely out of the way.

Here is the new headlight unit on the right of the old one. I've yet to remove the standard bracket underneath the plastic housing and relocate the burner unit.

You can see here, how this side bracket (also came in the HKS kit) is also required, as the original bracket which had this side piece has been removed to relocate the burner unit. This is the side bolt where the most inaccessible bolt is screwed in from the side.

Anyway - once everything was hooked up, and bolted in, the lights were tested, and everything turned on no problem.

By the way, here is what the old light (plastic cracked inside) looked like:

And here is the new light - so clean! Still haven't driven the car at night since the install, looking forward to seeing the difference.

My only worry is that I haven't aimed the headlights... maybe I'll have Nissan Prince do that for me next time I swing by for a visit!

Project: New Headlights and 3M Headlight Protection Film!

2011-05-16T22:16:00.014+09:00

So... this was a project that was long in the making...It had long bothered me that my car's headlights were clouded over. Not on the outside plastic - this is me, Mr. OCD (Obsessive Car Detailer) - of course I had used the kits and Porter Cable on the headlights in order to remove the typical yellowing of plastic. But to no avail.

I had even taken one unit apart, in the hope that I could polish the INSIDE of the lens. What I found though was that, whether through age or heat or whatever, the plastic lens covering both the Xenon low beam and the Halogen high beam had formed small fissures in them. This is how it looked:

So I had always wanted to replace the headlights with new units. But, checking on Yahoo Auctions here in Japan, most "slightly used" units were expensive (about 120,00 yen per pair) and there was no guarantee that they would be any good. No returns, either. And inquiry at Nissan Prince - new units were available, but just the housings alone would cost 100,000 yen - EACH!

So I was resigned to putting this on the back burner until I found BRAND NEW UNITS on sale in the US - on Ebay, being sold by a Nissan dealership... for about half the price they are in Japan. A phone call and credit card transaction later, I was in business. Don't ask me why a US Nissan dealership would have them in stock, but heck for the price I paid, I'm not complaining.

Anyway, I had actually ordered new R33 Series 3 Xenon headlamp units last year... I think it was around Christmas? So I guess you can say this is one of the two boxes Santa dropped off on my front door! Nice huh?!

Of course I opened the box up to find this:

And then after digging through the cushioning:

These things are wrapped really really well!

Wow, the smell of new! NO scratches, no blemishes, clear plastic! Ahhhh..

Of course - how do I keep them looking new? Whether on the track or the expressway, cars ahead of me kick up debris - so I decided to apply some 3M headlight protection film. Unfortunately, no kits exist for the R33 GT-R (nor for the R32/R34 GT-Rs either) so I had to make my own. So, I ordered a batch of bulk film (their "Lightgard" product) from these guys:
http://www.clearmask.com

First step was to make a template. I got some tracing paper, taped two pieces together as these headlights are quite big:

I cut where I could, then taped along the sides to the headlight unit to try to get the shape correct...

...and ended up with this.

This I used to trace onto two clean pieces of paper that were taped together...

Which I then cut out, and laid over the film, traced the pattern on the film, and finally cut the film...

ending up with this film that fit perfectly on the headlight unit.

Now - time to apply the film onto the headlights. The film itself stretches slightly, so I actually trimmed the template to be slightly smaller - say about 5mm from the actual edge of the headlight housing, in anticipation of having to do some last minute adjustments.

First, apply the 50/50 soap/water solution to the headlight (after cleaning the headlight, of course... nothing like loose dirt getting caught under the film to ruin your day):

Peel back the film to expose the sticky side, and similarly spray with soap solution:

Apply the film to the headlight unit. I've already applied some water/alcohol solution by spray in order to start the bonding process - otherwise the film would be sliding all over...

And here it is, almost done. All of the solution between the film and the headlight is the water/alcohol solution.

Using a plastic squeegee (the end of which I covered in cloth to avoid scratching), I carefully pushed the water solution out from between the film and plastic...

To get this. No bubbles! Any slight fogging, I learned, disappears over time.

Next post - headlight replacement and installation!

A Retroactive Post... Stop Gap Measure Brake Pads!

2011-04-24T21:53:00.000+09:00

I apologize for the backdating of this post (I'm writing this on May 16) but wanted to ensure I did not post things out of order.

Anyway, my front brakes had been making the worst squealing noise... time for new pads! OR a new brake system project! Well, I do have something in mind, but meanwhile, thought it would be best and most economical if I could "borrow" some pads until I get that project launched.

So, at our last Daikoku meet, I had asked my friend Thomas, another R33 owner, to see if he had any spares he could bring. And boy did he deliver!

That following weekend - April 16, I found myself loosening the brake fluid cap, jacking the car up, taking the front wheel off:

Removed the retaining pins and the spring, and voila! Removed the front brake pads. Easy enough task, but something I hadn't attempted at home. I was horrified to see how badly worn the old pads (PFC Race) were compared to the used replacement pads I got from Thomas. Check out the difference!

These stop gap measure used pads are pretty good, too - Ferodo DS2500 pads.

Driving impression - clearly not as sharp as the PFCs, but they feel progressive enough. Of course, I probably won't be driving with these on the circuit, although I understand they are not bad there either. But no more SQUEALING!!

Being me, of course, I used this opportunity to scrub down my front wheels for a quick clean (thank you glass coating for making my life easy)

And here is Thomas' car. I was going to do a short thank you highlight of his car, but when I asked him for a short spec list, he sent me an Excel sheet about 4000 pages long! (just kidding, but longer than I expected). So I'll have to do a post on his Midnight Purple Asphalt Jet in the near future - but it'll have to be more than just a summary.

Thanks again Thomas!

As Things Have Calmed Down...

2011-04-23T18:19:00.010+09:00

First, thank you to all of you out there who contacted me after the big earthquake and the resulting nuclear power plant mess. Suffice to say it was crazy, but of course the suffering of me, my family and others around me was nothing compared to what those poor folk up in Fukushima have gone through, and continue to do so today.

But anyway - yes, I'm ok. My family and friends are ok. And yes, my car is OK. Thanks.

Obviously after March 11, not much was happening but as things have gradually returned to normal... what better way to "normalize" than to have a get together at Daikoku PA the usual second Wednesday night of the month (April 13)?

So we did...Thanks to Dino, who took these photos and posted on the Speedhunters.com Facebook page:

Dino and Russ (RE-xtreme) perhaps the two most famous gaijin car guys in Japan? At least in my circle, LOL.

Kaz decided to ditch the R35 and come in a nostalgic blast from the past!

My dream car, still, especially this spec:

Our friend Rich brought along his meticulously restored Bluebird (but it has an SR20 engine onboard...)

And of course:

Besides me is James Pearson's white R33, with recently rebuilt engine. What spec, he won't tell me! (but it's for sale right now so if anyone wants a white R33, post a comment...)

Oh - and to those who were wondering, given my last blog post - my car was only at Tomei for a week. And I posted a week after my visit.

At Tomei Powered... Again!

2011-03-10T00:24:00.008+09:00

But this time to lend my car to Allen and his crew for some "testing"... not allowed to talk about it, but he was kind enough to "pimp" me on their website!

Check it out - my car all wrapped up in protective blue film (yes, they loved how clean it was!)

Here's the link so you can read Allen's write up:
http://www.tomeipowered.com/BTE/index.php/2011/03/08/ongoing-developments-for-the-gtr/

Update to Engine Cover Painting Episode of August 23 last year

2011-03-09T00:36:00.006+09:00

Some of you may recall my little project last year - my friend Miguel encouraged me to paint some RB engine covers. Not for myself actually - I'm quite happy with the Mine's dark blue engine covers on my car. (click title to go to that post).

Well I remembered I had a picture of the completed project, after Miguel installed them in our friend Alex's R32 GT-R.

With the addition of the nice center plate, sure looks nice! I wish I had a before picture to show you, it looked so horrible before...

It's Been a While... UPDATE Time

2011-03-06T00:08:00.015+09:00

Wow how time flies.

It turns out the last time I posted here was back in November! Well, I DO have a good excuse - my wife and I had our first child, and so for those of you who have kids, you know how it is...

There was also an issue with my PC - this thing I am typing on is now is 8 years old, and lately it wasn't physically possible to even type or surf the internet, it was operating so slowly... so I spent a few hours today deleting programs, and switched browsers. Working much better now, thankfully I didn't have to do a full re-format job.

Anyway, I thought I'd share what's been happening with the GT-R despite my limited time and the current COLD Yokohama weather which really makes it hard to do anything with the car.

Oh, first, here is the newest option that I've installed in my car:

Yes, baby seat!! This was tough - the scooped out rear seat means that there are not many models that work in the rear seat of the R33. But, I did my research, and Takata (yes, the same company that makes the racing harnesses and mass market airbags and seatbelts) also makes child safety seats - and the crash data shows this is one of the best seats out there... Good thing is this seat is designed in such a way that it will fit most cars, so I can take it out and put into other cars (e.g. second car) as well.

Anyway, my lack of time means I can only do some minor projects.

Here is one - it always bothered me how dirty the radiator brackets were:

So I bought some carbon ones on Yahoo Auction. Unfortunately, I will have to get out the Dremel and reshape to fit properly. Can't really tell from this angle, but needs to be a bit more narrow in order to fit into the depression. I'll be doing this soon.

I also decided, what the heck I will try to "Titanium-ize" my engine bay. So I did some research, and found a company that sells various bolts and nuts.

For example, here is one (poor) example - a bracket with the standard steel bolts:

And here it is after switching to titanium bolts:

Wasn't just titanium either. Decided to bling out the transistor pack by replacing the ugly screws (black, and differing lengths) with some shiny aluminum ones (titanium is not as good as a ground as aluminum is...as I run some grounding wires on these bolts).

Ok, not great examples. But I still have some other bits to swap out (for example on the Nismo titanium tower bar), so will try to get a better picture next time.

Oh yes, also did wash my car, almost froze my fingers off:

I also managed to take the car into Nissan Prince Shinagawa for an experiment - some friends had insisted I try the Redline Heavy Shockproof Transmission Oil, as my gearbox had started to make some bad sounds when occasionally shifting into 4th.

Well I'm happy to report that this stuff WORKS! Can't believe it!

Anyway... not my usual level of tuning. BUT, I do have a few projects in the works as you read this. Hopefully will be able to work on some of it this weekend/month, and will report back then.

In the meanwhile - as you know I'm thinking I need some new wheels - the RE30s I have are fine but I THINK could be better darker on a silver car. I wonder how dark silver or matte black would look?

My friend Russ (photoshop guru) decided to give me some other ideas - enjoy!

Hmm. Flat black looks good actually (not necessarily this wheel though).

Silver, blah.

Bronze, nope.

Chrome? No, no, no...

Dark silver/black. Hmmm...

R32 Group A Replicas at SSCT Trackday

2010-11-27T02:21:00.009+09:00

So at the SSCT trackday at Fuji Speedway on Tuesday - more on that on my next post - some of the SSCT members brought along their R32 Group A replicas. Me not knowing anything about these cars, took this as an opportunity to practice my camera skills, as my pro photographer friend Dino had suggested.

Now I had brought my Nikon D90, but I thought it would be better to have a zoom lens, so I brought only the standard kit 18mm-105mm zoom.

I quickly found out of course that this was not wide enough, so I had to take three shots to get all the cars from this angle!

This Taisan replica was interesting...check out that dual side exhaust!

From the top, first a close up of a few cars:

Then tried to get all of the cars.

Then a shot from the rear - the photo is darker as I was playing with the exposure.

The best shot of the day - I sent to Dino for his "analysis" - but he liked it so much he published it on Speedhunters!

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/11/25/random-snap-gt-gt-gr-a-skyline-gt-rs-fuji-speedway.aspx

Thanks Dino! But judging from the quality of my photos, I think I'll stick with my day job, thanks very much!

Finally - as this is a blog about the R33 GT-R:

While the R32s were getting all the attention, SSCT member and fellow R33 owner HIRAGA-san managed to line up 3 R33 GT-R LM editions - his, Honda-san's (from Nissan Prince), and a new guy (didn't get the name).

Sunday before Trackday at Fuji on Tuesday

2010-11-22T01:18:00.003+09:00

So this Tuesday is a national holiday - and luckily for me, the next SSCT trackday at Fuji Speedway.

I like to use these trackdays as excuses to find and install new performance parts for my car, and this time was no exception. Lately as you may have noticed I've been doing much more to my car myself - but due to some time issues, I decided to pop into Nissan Shinagawa Motorsports and let them do the hard work.

So here is my car at the dealer. At DCD's suggestion, I am experimenting with my Nikon, hence the slightly underexposed hue - but I think it looks pretty good? Not DCD quality, but heck...

Speaking of DCD, I had sent him via iPhone a photo of the new Nissan Fuga Hybrid that was parked there and I spotted while I was waiting - and it turned out he was in the area with this thing - and he kindly dropped by for a chat and quick drive:

Meanwhile, they had begun working on my car - taking off the standard tower bar:

And replacing it with this!

Yes folks, a Nismo Titanium towerbar! My friend in Europe found it - it had some paint flaking off from the label, but nothing a quick spray job couldn't fix (it's not perfect, but will do for now until I figure out how to fix it properly...) And suffice to say I didn't have to pay a ridiculous price for it. Speaking of which, there was an R34 GTR with the new Oomori Factory Titanium Brace... nice, but too expensive. Plus, it is so wide that components such as the Nismo oil separator have to be moved around so the thing can fit. NO thanks, I'll stick with this one, and personally, I think it looks better too! (DCD agreed).

Meanwhile - the other part I had installed were the front and rear Nismo Performance Dampers (developed by Yamaha).

The front one attaches here at the tow hook:

Which mean removal of the HKS Kansai tow hook extender, unfortunately. So now, I have to figure out what kind of tow hook to get...

In another post, I will show the installation in the back (forgot to take a photo today). Meanwhile, here is how it looks in the front:

Problem of course is the HKS Kansai carbon undertray - which has a hump up towards the oil pan right where the Performance Damper lies...which meant some cutting was needed. Here is Motorsport Division's Sugimoto-san using an air saw and cutting into the diffuser (note the poor quality fiberglass patch I did...). The banged up nature of the diffuser meant, I really didn't care if they went ahead and made modifications to the diffuser. In fact, if I ever get another one, I'll get one with a flat bottom, that will avoid having to make any cuts.

After several tries, finally got enough removed, ending up with this on the left side:

And this on the right side;

Now, I had heard how these dampers worked, in theory. And Koyama-san at Nissan told me to expect the car to feel somewhere "between an R34 and R35" in terms of rigidity and steering response. Yeah right! Whatever...

But when I got in the car and begain driving home - guess what, he was right! Absolutely transformed the car, I could not believe how solid and smooth the car felt. Made the car much easier to drive fast...incredible.

Here is Nismo's explanation as to how they work:
http://www.nismo.co.jp/en/products/competition/lb/performance.html
"Even if the car body is reinforced and made more rigid, road surface input through the tires and load shifts during cornering make the entire body act like a spring, causing the occurrence of micro vibrations. The performance damper acts to control the transmission of micro vibrations to the body. During circuit driving, micro vibrations from the car body are transmitted through the steering system to the driver, resulting too often in unnecessary steering corrections. With the performance damper installed, however these micro vibrations are eliminated and excessive steering wheel handling is no longer needed, resulting in more stable handling. Also, in normal driving, the micro vibrations are eliminated, as well providing a much more enjoyable and comfortable ride."

So I think body rigidity-wise, the only thing left for me to do would be spot weld -which I'm not really interested in doing - and maybe finding other brace pieces that actually work. (i.e. Nagisa auto brace...)
http://www.nagisa-auto.com/products/gacchiri/index.html

After dinner, I went out to the garage and changed out the radials for S-tires. I am hoping there is no rain on Tuesday. While I was at it, I also used some 3M Din-oc carbon-look material and some duct tape and sealed off the holes in the diffuser - I just don't think wind getting in there at 270kph is a good thing!

I also took off the carbon fiber Garage Defend panel and replaced it with my ram-air modified aluminum Greddy one. Also took out the spare tire, etc. I think I am pretty much ready to go...

Speaking of which, adding ram-air to the Garage Defend panel is going to be a project for me this winter, as well as some other minor tweaks I have planned. Stay tuned!

A Sunny Three Day Weekend means...

2010-10-12T01:00:00.010+09:00

Being able to detail and tinker with my car to my heart's content.

As many of you know, for detailing I use the Zaino line of products. http://www.zainostore.com/

The weekend before, as I mentioned in my previous post, there was one sunny day, so I took my time and washed and claybarred the car. Then followed up with the Zaino AIO (Z-AIO) product, applied and removed by Porter Cable.

This past weekend, I used the Zaino instant detailer spray (Z-6) and cleaned the car (there was only some dust on the car anyway, as I had not driven it). I then followed with another coat of the Z-AIO (applied by PC again) and then some hand application as below:

Here, I'm using a toothbrush to remove some old built up polish on the "Skyline" lettering on the rear valance:

And of course - the details - here I am attacking the license plate too - both the front and rear were dirty.

Don't have any action pictures of me removing the Z-AIO (again by PC), which was followed by a coat of the Z-5 product , followed after removing it by PC by a gloss enhancer/instant detail spray, Z-8 , then followed by another coat of Z-5, again on and off by PC. So that's 2 coats of Z-5 - each coat enhances the shine, and the effect is additive! (someday, I will have 4-5 coats on... someday!)

I then sealed this all with their new one step sealant - Z-CS

Hard to tell from these photos, but the car looks amazingly better - so good in fact that the defects - stone chips, etc. are even MORE noticeable...

I also took a couple of hours to remove the dry carbon exhaust surround, which not only was dirty but was applied somewhat off by the bodyshop (when they fixed my rear bumper). I then cleaned it the best I could, and put it back on, this time straight.

I like this photo the best - really brings out the shine and the definition of the car!

But that wasn't all - I then decided to put on some carbon bling that I had taken off before - the side panels to the rear wing - when the clips fell off.

Here is the wet carbon blade compared to the stock plastic insert:

And here is the solution - those metal clips designed to route wire, with the adhesive tape on the backside (I think the carbon items had something similar originally, except the tape was much weaker):

But that wasn't all! I kept going - and this time installed the Optima yellow top that I had lying around as well.

But getting to the battery wasn't easy - not only did I have to remove the trunk wall (black steel), but also the standard tower bar!

And check out the size of this thing!
From the top:

Here it is, I finally got it sitting in snugly in the bay (note - not for the weak of arm, hoisting it up into the bay requires some muscle!)

Apologies for the bad picture - but here it is, done!

The result - I can't believe how easily the engine starts now! There is not only no loss of power, but the starter seems to be a bit more eager in how it cranks! Nice!

Next project - start figuring out ways to reduce the car's weight it gained from the Optima! Seriously, thinking of some titanium bolts, maybe some anodized washers (yes, BLING) for the engine bay... stay tuned!

A Little Trip Down to Nissan Prince Shinagawa Today

2010-10-04T00:11:00.005+09:00

Ever since my track day at Tsukuba with SSCT on the 5th, had not had a chance to properly wash the car, or have the OS Giken gear oil replaced. In fact, as of today I had not only done the track day with the brand new LSD, but had also driven another 300kms or so.

Consider the LSD broken in! (and yes, it was making more noise at low speed than before).

So, as we had some nice day today, parked the car outside, got out my claybar and PorterCable, and proceeded to do a quick detail on my car.

A couple of hours later, I found myself driving down to Nissan Shinagawa. It had been awhile, and something I saw when I did my oil change at Zama had given me cause for concern.

What is this? Why, it's a stripped bolt - the filler bolt for the rear LSD in fact. I was planning on doing my own diff oil swap at Zama last week, but decided against it when I saw this. And, given that Hiro had installed the LSD and the cover, but did not mention this, I am a bit upset as to why he did not. Anyway, it was worth paying a bit extra to have my car checked once over by people I trust.

Here is my car being worked on by the best mechanics at Nissan Shinagawa, Yamada-san and Sugimoto-san (check out this month's GT-R Magazine - November issue - if you don't believe me)

An interesting Z-Tune look R34 was being worked on before they kicked it off to work on mine (sorry, whoever it was).

I also spotted this interesting specimen in the back:

As well as this:

Don't know much about R34 coupes (this was an auto), but I did like the way they spelled out "SKYLINE" on the lip spoiler! (ok, a bit cheesy, but heck it was something I had not noticed before).

And when I arrived, the SSCT had just finished a director meeting - with one of them (Tobe-san) driving this!

I guess his UNISIA JECS replica R32 is just a bit too noticeable as a daily driver, so he drives this toned down "Lexus" iQ.

I also had Yamada-san and Sugimoto-san check out the rest of the car for any problems, as well as raise the front by 1 cm - car has been scraping a bit too much lately. They also installed a new diff filler bolt at no charge - throwing away the mangled one above. (they remarked that it looked like someone didn't have the proper tool and had tried to remove it using pliers...I'm not pointing fingers though. I'm just happy we fixed the problem!)

Driving back home - no noise coming from the rear, and the car livelier. Whatever it is, it's a relief to know everything is working perfectly.

PS - SSCT tells me that on the next track day on November 23rd, they will be arranging to have ALL of the Group A R32 racecar replicas there... should be interesting.

Tsukuba Circuit Track Day with SSCT

2010-09-05T21:21:00.011+09:00

What a scorcher! It must have been one of the hottest days of the year! Although my friend Alex (who kindly volunteered to accompany me, and be photographer for the day - although he WAS researching the track for his eventual run in the future), arrived at the circuit at 0715 - a bit early - it was already hot. By the time I drove and finished, I had changed my shirt three times!

Ran with SSCT, did two 25 minute runs.

Anyway - I think I will let the photos that Alex took, tell the story. Enjoy!

Welcome to Tsukuba Circuit - 40 years old! (SSCT is also celebrating their 25th anniversary)

The famous Dunlop curve

Some other cars were running before we got there:

Here I am getting my car ready:

Meanwhile, Alex had spotted this other 97 GT-R, sporting Advan RS in the dark metallic black

View of the pits

The Other Machines

Taped Up and Ready To Go!

View of the chicane leading to the first hairpin

View of chicane, first hairpin, and Dunlop corner

Coming down the chicane

Attacking the first hairpin

Here I am followed by the 2 replica R32s

Powering up after the first hairpin

Getting lined up for the second stint!

On the back straight

Going through the Dunlop corner

I guess I could have been more aggressive...

Oops, too much roll, gotta get the suspension a bit tighter.

Alex - thanks for taking these awesome photos!!!

OS Giken LSD!!! a near flat tire... and getting ready for Tsukuba

2010-09-02T23:16:00.010+09:00

So it's been a while since I last did a track day at Tsukuba. A short, curvy track. Last time I did a short track - Fuji Speedway short course - my friend Miguel who was behind me noticed my inside rear wheel slipping. A clear sign my standard differential was past its prime and needed to be upgraded.

As I don't have a V-Spec model R33 with the active differential, I had several options. One was the new Nismo carbon LSD - but it was expensive, and frankly, not tried and tested enough for me. Then I heard about OS Giken - quiet operation, 100% lock-up... and a reasonable price! So why not? Why not indeed?

So, after ordering it, went off to Three H to have Hirose-san install it for me. I also had him do a brake fluid change, as my efforts to do so myself were going nowhere. (for another time, when I have time, I guess. I had even bought the Motive pressurized fluid changer...)

So here it is:

and here it is hidden behind the new Greddy large capacity diff cover

Driving impressions: well, it certainly makes absolutely no noise! Ok, the only time it makes noise is at low speed when I have the front wheels turned all the way. Otherwise, can't hear a thing. Second, the car's throttle response is immediate - that is, as soon as I step on the throttle, the car is moving. It was fast before, but not THIS immediate... Third - I think at high speeds, there is some vibration - but I could not tell for sure, the was on S-tires. Will have to confirm at Tsukuba. Why was the car on S-tires?

Well - I had cleaned the wheels the weekend before, and was going to NOT swap them out until the day before the track day (this upcoming Sunday), when I noticed what appeared to be a screw in the rear left tire. Out of an abundance of caution, I changed all 4 wheels to the RE30s, and took the punctured tire for Hirose-san to look at. Here is that tire:

Luckily - we found that while it had pierced the rubber, it had not gone all the way through. So he recommended, after pulling it out and confirming, to just run the tire as is. Hopefully he is right and the tire holds up to a normal life. It's a relatively new tire, so I certainly don't want to buy a new tire at this point.

So, tasks still left for this Saturday - day before
1) take out the rear seat.
2) oil and filter change
3) Hirose-san had found that some clips that attach to the rear Brembos were missing. So I'll have to put those on (he's sending me the parts).
4) install brake cooling hose on left side (this is the side that gets worn out, due to the right hand curves at Fuji...)

Stay tuned!

Preparing, Cleaning, Painting, Cleaning...

2010-08-23T21:38:00.006+09:00

Ok people - I have to say I am sorry for not posting as much lately. In between trips to Hong Kong (to eat, mainly) and Hawaii (to eat, and sunburn) I haven't had time to do anything with the car.

I did manage to order THIS between my trips:

This being Japan, came with an (optional) GT-R fitting kit...

Of course - Murphy's law. Once I ordered it, had NO MORE PROBLEMS with the standard battery. Recently it had begun to not be able to hold a charge, so after a week or two I'd be nervous starting the car. Maybe it's the summer heat, but lately no such problems?

So the Optima remains uninstalled. Will do a post when I do put it in, though. Supposedly just having a better battery does wonders for the electrical system. So we shall see.

I DO have an SSCT Track Day, this time at Tsukuba Circuit, coming up September 5. So, as I had been pretty lazy about cleaning my track wheels, and figuring out why the "glass coating" I applied wasn't working as well as it had in the past, these past 2 weekends, I've spent some free time cleaning the RE30s.

As you can see from this first picture, the wheels never got properly cleaned after my last track day at Fuji.

I think what happened is, I applied the "glass coating" too thick - you can see the excess dried up in a line (looks almost like a crack). The consistency is like sap - slightly sticky, I can remove it with my fingernail, no problem. So I have been finding droplets of these all over, and tediously inspecting each wheel, in an effort to get the wheels as clean as possible.

The plan is, if the glass coating is still on the wheel, to improve its protection and slickness by applying a thin coat of Zaino, which I use on my car's body and also happens to be pretty tough against brake dust (apparently, from what I have seen on the internet forums). So I have 2 more weekends to finish the wheels and put them to the test!

The end result of course should look like this!

Meanwhile of course, I decided to detail my car again - went over with a fresh claybar on the flat surfaces, found some dirt, then used Zaino again to do a final cleaning and protect. Then applied a final protective coat. Took me all day, but I think the end result was worth it!

If I have time, will apply at least one more coat of Zaino before the track day!

Meanwhile, an experiment of sorts - my friend Miguel challenged me to paint some RB26 engine covers, claiming it was "easy" - and even sent me some instructions from the GT-R forum to show me how!
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/94090-cackle-finish-paint-step-step-cam-covers-2.html

Well, it wasn't easy. The items first had to be stripped of the existing paint, and the previous owner of the panels had used, I swear, Navy aircraft quality paint that DID NOT want to come off!

Then several sprays later, I got some beautifully painted covers - but no or uneven wrinkling. Despite sticking them into a plastic oven I created, and ruining my wife's hair dryer!

Eventually, my friend Russ came to the rescue - just spray it on thicker than you might imagine, he said - and he was right! And I did NOT require an oven! So I just waited for a really hot sunny day, left the items out in the hot sun, as well as the spray can of VHT wrinkle paint, then sprayed a faily thick layer as Russ suggested instead of the usual thin coats one normally does to paint with a spray can. Let it dry for a few hours - and the result is as below!

Anyway, I screwed up on the inlet plenum, so last weekend I stripped the paint off that (again) and if this next weekend is hot and sunny (should be), will spray this, and I will be done! Will post pictures then!

Oh, and as for the upcoming track day - yeah, got a few things left. Oil change, brake fluid change, installation of a new OS Giken LSD (!!!) and re-installation of a cooling hose for one of the front rotors!

Don't know if I have time, but will certainly try to get it all done! Stay tuned!

Driving the Skyline on the Izu Skyline Road!

2010-08-04T00:18:00.000+09:00

This past Sunday, got together with some friends to enjoy the pristine roads of Izu.

Amongst us, we had an R34 GT-R, a new BMW M3, R35 GT-R, a crazy FC (Mazda), and an interesting S13.

My friend DCD did a write up at Speedhunters (with better pictures, of course):

speedhunters.com/archive/2010/08/03/car-life-izu-touring.aspx

Here are some pics my friend Jun took.

Steam Cleaning

2010-06-01T01:01:00.007+09:00

As many of you know, my obsession for clean cars knows no bounds. Nothing is as satisfying to me as having a functional car that is cleaner than average – and that’s saying something in this country where EVERY car seems to be relatively clean (except for those drift cars…).

Anyway, a while ago I had purchased a steam cleaner for home use (Google "Vapamore" - that's it!). It was good for the initial clean up of our new (rental) house, but afterwards, I found myself not using it all. Then of course, the lightbulb – use it for my car!

Where would I use it? Certainly would not be the places I polish, but probably areas like the wheelwells, and the under chassis area, maybe the engine. But I had to buy jack stands first.

My first experience with jackstands, I ended up buying super stable ones – but they were too tall for frequent use. As readers to this blog will recall, with such a low car, I have to drive up on ramps first, THEN jack up the car. So the ideal height is high enough that I can work on the car (ie take the wheels off, etc.) but not so high that the jack is at its limit.

Anyway, once I bought these low jackstands, I was in business.

When I decided a few weeks ago to switch back to the StarSpecs from the track tires, during the switchover I used the steam cleaner to clean the wheel wells.

The dirtiest, for some reason, was the right rear. Here are some pictures.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

The difference is huge!

The technique is not simply to apply the steam. Often, I have to get things going by spraying on some Simple Green before steaming, but in any case, the steam loosens the dirt, and I can simply wipe off.

Next, I plan to steam clean the underside...stay tuned...

Behind the Scenes: A Day with Motor Photojournalist Dino Dalle Carbonare

2010-05-18T23:46:00.018+09:00

In a departure (well not fully) from my usual posts about me and my car, this post is about a full day I recently spent with a good friend of mine, Japan-based automotive photo journalist Dino Dalle Carbonare (also known by his initials “DCD”), as he covered the last day (May 2) of the Spring Drift Matsuri at Ebisu Circuit in Fukushima Prefecture in northern Japan.

He does a lot of work for Speedhunters.com, but some of you may know that Dino used to have a blog - coincidentally his last post was on July 7, 2007 - which turns out to be the first day of THIS blog...
http://blog.gtroc.com/dino/

As a motor photographer and journalist, Dino has what to many might seem to be one of the best jobs in the world – driving, reporting on, and photographing some of the most interesting, beautiful, and noteworthy cars in the world. Both here in Japan as well as around the world, on some of the best driving roads!

Check out this beauty, one of his masterpieces both in photography and vehicle selection!!! LOL!

(photo used with permission of Dino Dalle Carbonare)

The job description, as well as his increasing fame, has probably led many people to want to emulate him, and embark on a career as an automotive photojournalist. (Men want to be like him, women want to be with him??... maybe not the latter, but the former certainly…)

Unfortunately I neither have the drive nor the talent to do what he does, but in spending the day with him, I realized that his job, while certainly glamorous, is not as easy as it seems. There are other necessary and required skills, including physical stamina, a critical yet appreciative eye for anything with an engine, extreme amounts of patience, an ability to meet crazy deadlines, and the creativity needed to “set up” what later becomes a memorable, “desktop” worthy photo.
All of this takes years to develop to the level Dino has taken it to, and in the process, he’s made friends and contacts in the industry, giving him an unquantifiable and insurmountable edge that solidly cements him as one of the premier non-Japanese auto journalists in Japan.

Anyway, enough buttering up. His ego needs no (additional) inflating. Here’s how the day began for me at 0600 Sunday morning, Tokyo station - an amazing ride, yes, but nothing close to what I would later experience that day!

3 hours later, Dino was waiting for me beside his workhorse Subaru Legacy wagon at Nihonmatsu station, the closest station to Ebisu Circuit.

Once at the circuit, Dino proceeded to immediately hunt out the best possible shots. This is much harder than it sounds.

It isn’t about walking around looking for interesting/interesting looking cars – although he does that too. In order to get interesting shots, he has to be creative, even risking injury to himself for that perfect shot:

Note: I was right behind him, and when the cars passed by us, we both swung around, backs to the track, to protect ourselves from the gust of wind generated by the passing car and the brake and tire dust that comes flying at you! It was THAT close...

Getting the best angle is very important – sometimes it’s interesting what cars look like from above I guess. And as the photos later show, it’s not just about the angles – he’s simultaneously playing with different lenses, ISO speed, aperture, etc. and all those other technical camera settings.

Here he is inviting me to check out the view:

Behind him, I can see that not only is this position safer, but...

...it also allows a rapid series of photos to be taken as the cars come flying down and then take the corner at full speed.

He also has to risk getting his clothes dirty – here he is in the “sniper” position, focusing on a very interesting (to him) wheel on a red Nissan.

Note how he strategically parked his Subaru in front of this red car to make sure it didn't drive away!!

This allowed him to produce the shot found here:
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/05/05/event-gt-gt-spring-drift-matsuri-pt3.aspx">

(photo used with permission of Dino Dalle Carbonare)

Getting the “right shot” often also requires him to place himself into awkward positions, or even worse, potentially embarrassing situations:

But, most of the time it’s about patience – standing for minutes, or hours in one location, waiting for the right moment. Believe it or not, these photos were taken about several minutes apart. Notice it's the same car he's trying to get in a perfect shot:

Minutes later, the guy next to him is getting bored and I am getting tired... yet Dino keeps trying to get The Shot.

In the end, while he continued his work, I lost interest in taking photos of him and watching him work. (I suppose he has to take hundreds of photos just to get a few publishable ones...)

So I decided to enjoy the Drift Matsuri – here I am with Allen from Tomei Powered, getting ready to experience the thrill of a lifetime in Allen's very special AE86!

I then was offered a ride with Andy Gray of Powervehicles – I took the following in-car video.

Words can’t adequately describe how this all felt, and the video does not do it justice either. Simply awesome! Thanks again Andy.

Meanwhile, Dino continued to do his job, taking photos all day long, until well after the event ended (I was off taking to people, taking naps, etc.).

We drove back to Tokyo together, getting back into the city about 1100pm. After which, Dino rushed to make his deadlines. The results can be seen here:
http://speedhunters.com/archive/tags/Spring+Drift+Festival+10/default.aspx
and
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/05/10/event-gt-g1-gp-round1-pt1.aspx
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/05/12/event-g1-gp-round1-pt2.aspx

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/05/11/car-spotlight-gt-gt-motorfix-corollas.aspx
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/05/11/car-feature-gt-gt-goto-san-s-ae86-levin.aspx

That's a LOT of HARD WORK!

I for one could not do this kind of work. While we do share a passion for cars, Dino certainly has a way of staying focused and energetic while working. I think the conclusion is, like any profession, the guys who have invested time, energy and resources are the ones who make it look easy, and rise to the top. Shortcuts don’t work here, either.

Final word – thanks Dino for the invite to tag along at Ebisu, and for letting me write this up. My hope is that with this post, readers can have a better understanding and appreciation of your work!

PS - Dino, you really need to change your taste in music...

Front Spoiler Modification

2010-05-09T22:53:00.000+09:00

So I recently had a close call with scraping my newly protected front lip spoiler, and my friend Miguel had suggested using some aluminum sheets to protect the spoiler - his idea was to rivet aluminum sheet(s) onto the bottom side of the spoiler, making the aluminum piece sacrificial. Compared to the rubber add-on lip spoiler I had on before, it was bound to be sturdier, and further, the noise it would make on bottoming out would give me early warning, more so than the rubber piece.

Anyway - so today I had some time, so I jacked up the front of the car, and using a 0.8mm aluminum 200cm long "L" shaped piece, decided to give the idea a try.

First, I used some red tape and centered the aluminum piece.

I then used my Dremel and proceeded to make cuts every 10cm so I could bend the aluminum to fit the curve of the spoiler.

After test fitting, I sprayed with heat resistant flat black primer paint:

Then carefully riveted the aluminum piece to the plastic lip spoiler, so that the alum was about 5mm back from the edge of the lip spoiler:

Removing the red tape and cutting off the rivet leads, got me a clean look - you can barely even tell!

Spring Cleaning - and Some Painting!

2010-05-06T01:40:00.004+09:00

Ok as this week was "Golden Week" here in Japan - a bunch of single day national holidays conveniently strung out over a week, thus making for, in conjunction with the weekend, a 5 day holiday, so of course I was able to do some cleaning of the car.

Yes, I washed and then used my porter cable to apply some zaino... but also took the opportunity to try to figure out where a squeak was coming from in the rear parcel shelf - I took off the shelf and hunted down each item that might possibly be loose, and either glued, foamed or tie wrapped it down. At the same time, I noticed that the stock paper speakers had met their demise, and so went ahead and purchased some mid grade universal fit Pioneers (16cm) as my friend Alex has promised to upgrade my entire system with me - these speakers are only to tide me over until then. (and then, will be used for "rear fill"). I will go into depth in another post soon.

Meanwhile, a while ago I had also noticed that the washer tank had gotten old, and was possibly leaking. I noticed some rust below the plastic.

(PS not sure why this photo and some others below are showing sideways - will try to fiddle with them over the weekend).

Anyway, I had a while ago ordered a new piece, that looks like this.

So I proceeded to remove the old tank, and this is what I found:

So, inspired by an idea from my friend Dino (DCD), I took out the bracket, removed the rust, and then resprayed in anti-rust black paint.

I used my Dremel and some elbow grease and sandpaper to get this:

After this, it was pretty easy to simply paint with a spray can.

While I was waiting for it to dry, turned my attention to the base, which was rusted. I used sandpaper and the Dremel again, and got rid of the rust (down to the bare metal!). Found some automotive primer at the local hardware store, and began to paint:

As you can see I had no newspaper, so used towels and this wrapping paper to mask off the rest of the engine bay. End result is:

Nice and clean. Then it was only a matter of bolting up the bracket (this time using stainless steel bolts)

And then it was simply a matter of installing the new washer tank and adding some washer fluid.

Done!

Track Day at Fuji Speedway with SSCT/ Ohlins DFV Report, Part 2

2010-04-27T23:56:00.009+09:00

This past Sunday, was joined by my friends Miguel and Alex at the Skyline Sports Club Tokyo (“SSCT”) trackday at Fuji Speedway, on the Racing Course. Miguel in his RX-7, and Alex in his R32 GT-R.

Weather was absolutely gorgeous! Quite a welcome reprieve from the usual rainy weather we’ve been having lately. There were about 50 cars (mostly RB26 GT-Rs!) in total, making for a very crowded track at times!

We checked in at 0830, then began to get our cars ready for the one hour run beginning at 1100. For Alex, we decided to try something different – so we fitted some BF Goodrich slicks on 17 inch black rims (remember my project wheels – that’s who I sold them too…) to see if it would make a difference. Although last time, Alex drove the racing course in an amazing 2’13, not bad at all for a first timer!

During the prep, I got a call from my friend Sumi-san, who offered to stop by and “study” – what exactly, I had no idea.

Here is his blog – he’s a Nissan fan and S15 driver who really knows his stuff!
(http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/242248/blog/)

He surprised us by bringing along a datalogger (which he put in Miguel’s FD – fair to compare after all as it’s FR just like his Silvia). He also agreed to take photos with my Nikon (thank you again, Sumi-san! Arigato!) So all photos here are his work!

Once we got the prep work finished (just barely in time), we lined up and entered the pit lane.

Miguel

Alex

Here we are, lined up ready to go!

And we're off!!

I decided to run the DFVs on the medium (10 of 20 clicks – the “windy road”) setting, hoping that this would work well with the 18 inch S-tires on the RE30s. On the drive to Fuji Speedway on the same S-tires, the ride had been fairly stiff, so given Fuji’s high speeds, I though the setting might work.

Once we started the run, the car was much better controlled than before on the S-tunes, but I could tell that the springs were a bit soft and the compression needed to be upped. However, the change in the car’s general behavior was dramatic. For one, I could no longer do the “left foot brake tap” at Netz corner (causing the car’s nose to dive to the front, shifting the weight of the car on the front steering wheels very quickly), forcing me to try a quick trail-braking and downshifting in midcorner instead. But, on the long smooth sweepers, the car was amazingly stable, and I could feel what the car was doing so much better than before. It’s not as direct/hard as a race car, of course, but this time around I could really sense how the S-tires were heating up and getting loose, progressively, lap after lap. With the S-tunes, I’d really only notice the tires getting too heated up and inflated only when I started losing the back end in sharper corners. In retrospect, that’s how vague the feedback was I guess.

In terms of setting my best time ever at Fuji, unfortunately there was probably too much traffic, (50 cars) and I don't think I ever had one lap where I could go full out. Same with Miguel and Alex. So, I pitted twice – once because I had told the guys I would do so, the second time to adjust the DFVs and reduce air pressure in the tires. I reset the DFVs for a much harder setting, 2 clicks from max up front, and 3 clicks from max in the rear. In retrospect, maybe no clicks or 1 click back might have been ideal.

Back on the track, the car immediately felt even more stable and more communicative. However, now I was dealing with another problem – the brakes. The PFCs rotors are very good, and the pads too, but for some reason felt like they had begun to fade halfway through the session - usually they last me until the last 5 minutes. I later discovered that the air cooling hose had been torn in two…again! So it wasn't the rotors, it was most likely the fluid! I need to figure something out here. So my driving for the rest of the session was tempered, in that I was not about to exceed the remaining capacity of the brakes. Credit to PFC, the brakes FELT mushy, not as immediate as before, but still worked to haul me down from 260kph plus!

No way I am passing the Jun car - he's pitting.

It can be lonely on the straight...

In the end, Miguel had a 2'03, I did a 2'04, and Alex came in with a best of 2'07. Amazing for Alex, as he's only been on Fuji twice! Miguel was the only FD, but Alex was the 4th fastest R32 (out of dozen or so), and I was the second fastest R33 (out of 5 - the 700hp Jun Lemon thing was faster than me by 3 seconds...)

Afterwards – Miguel reported something wrong with his LSD, and Alex claimed he needed new brakes. Apparently he cooked his brakes and ran off course a few times. Can’t wait for THAT video to make the YouTube rounds!

On the way home – I had forgotten to set the DFVs on their “windy” setting – which made for a really punishing ride, even on Japan’s super smooth expressways. Amazing what 8 clicks does!

So in summary – on the race track, the Ohlins DFVs performed without issue, the suspension was stable at all times, even though I now think the springs are slightly soft after all. Well, that will be taken care of at the first rebuild. Amazing when the engine and suspension are working well, really highlights the weaknesses of my car - lack of a proper LSD (both front and rear) and bigger brakes. or perhaps a brake cooling issue. Water temp did not get beyond the halfway point, and on the cool down lap came down to 1/3! Oil never exceeded 100C, so the oil cooler is working well too...

It amazes me time and time again – no matter how well you think you have your car set up, at the track there is ALWAYS something that happens and becomes a take home lesson…

Some fun photos:
Check out Tobe-san in his UNISIA JECS replica R32 DRIFTING in this corner!

The 1000HP JUN tuned R33

We started the session like this:

But I found myself easily passed by Miguel right after the above photo was taken. Took a while, but eventually caught up to him, here I am attacking the first corner, with Miguel right in front of me:

It's not a race, but slower traffic DID slow him down:

Coming out of the 100R, into the left turn:

Passing Montage:

Whoever said that R32s were faster on the track?? It's all driver skill, baby!!! :)

Ohlins DFV Report, Part 1

2010-04-24T08:04:00.005+09:00

There seems to be some interest building on the forums (GTROC UK in particular) with respect to the DFVs for use on second generation GT-Rs. Now, I’m no suspension expert, and with the GT-R I’ve only had the stock, the Nismo S-Tunes, and now the DFVs, so obviously have very little experience in making comparisons, but at least here are my impressions.

Here's how they appeared on Yahoo Auction:

Installation, I had the DFVs put on last weekend (Sunday), and the car’s alignment done, at KTS Heiwajima – a fairly well known shop, close to Nissan Shinagawa! http://www.kts-web.com/tenpo/index.html

Here is picture at night (sorry for this, I was going to pick up my car after the work was done...)

And here is how it looks, installed:

Anyway, my impressions:
Simply put, these are amazing! Could immediately tell the difference in ride quality. It's very firm - more so than the S-tunes - but at the same time, the ride is really, really smooth! The dual valve setup really does a great job - it's unbelievable how the tires can now soak up all the minor imperfections in the road, but at the same time, I feel even more planted on the road than before.

The initial setting was in the middle (I think 12 of 20), and was just about perfect for me. Just to see what would happen - I turned down the setting to the softest setting (1 of 20) - it got soft, but not too soft. I'd say it would be really comfortable on the freeway, so would be good for long distances I think. Middle would be satisfying on a mountain road - I suspect the hardest setting would be very good during the trackday.

With the S-tunes - they had 5 clicks of adjustability - the difference upon adjusting was noticeable, but not to this extent.

Even my passenger (guy visiting from Finland) could tell the difference immediately.

Interestingly, the steering now has more feedback than before. Remember how I complained that it felt somewhat numb on center? With these fitted, I FEEL a lot more of the road, the steering is much more communicative.

I wonder if that is due to the lightweight aluminum body of the shock - when I handled the Ohlins, vs. the S-tunes - the steel bodied S-tunes felt to me to be at least 10 pounds heavier, if not more! In fact, I found a Japanese blog where a guy actually weighed the differences – http://www006.upp.so-net.ne.jp/gfbnr34/BNR34/OHLINS.html

A difference of 4kgs up front, and 7kgs in the rear!

So I am wondering if the lightweight construction of the Ohlins result in better handling and feel.

It's going to be interesting to see how a lightweight wheel (the RE30s) interact with these DFVs, at their hardest setting.

Stay tuned for my report from the trackday at Fuji Speedway, as I'll recount my on track impressions with the DFV/RE30/S-tire combo!

Carbon Fiber Film (3M Di-noc product)

2010-04-23T01:03:00.000+09:00

So for the biannual shaken inspection, my friends Dino and Alex, as they had helped me prep the car, had removed the rubber strip on the bottom of the front spoiler. This had left some ugly glue residue, and further exposed some scratches that the rubber strip had hid along the bottom edge.

What to do? I was tempted to go back and put a new rubber strip on the bottom, but then came across this - which I decided to try out.

http://www.carbonfiberfilm.com/

Turns out this while the material is made by 3M, it's actually made here in Japan by 3M Sumitomo...for the quality and detail, I am not surprised!

Anyway - I went ahead and ordered a large roll - they only come in one maximum width - but which was not long enough to wrap the front splitter - so I ended up measuring the splitter end to end, and ordered more material than I needed, just in case. I also ordered the recommended primer, to ensure a solid bond to the underlying surface.

Of course, I first wanted to practice, so I decided to use a side sill - easily removeable and fairly small.

Here is a picture of the 3M material before the glue surface is exposed.

In creating this practice piece, I cut a sheet about the same size as the sidesill, plus a little extra on all sides. The most difficult part of this was the "SKYLINE" lettering, which required lots of patience and liberal amounts of heat from the wife's hairdryer. (and this in turn burned my fingers)...

3M also has this primer, used to prepare surfaces for maximum (and permanent) adhesion. As you probably know the Di-noc material is used in construction to simulate stone and other textures, so I guess use of the primer is needed there. I ordered it because, with the splitter in the very front, I wanted to make sure the Di-noc stuck.

Here's how the splitter looked after the primer had dried to a tacky consistency.

Ok, now onto wrapping the splitter itself. You can see I cut out a large sheet, a bit longer on both sides of the splitter itself, and began wrapping. Hard to tell, but I had focused on making the material stick in the center middle area first.

Turned out the sides were difficult. I ended up stretching the material best I could over the air ducts, then focused on getting the material applied to the sides (with no holes) as smoothly as possible.

Resulting in this. Note the intake holes are still covered up.

Finally, with some CAREFUL (but not careful enough!) cutting, I managed to poke through to the intake holes. I purposely cut horizontally quite near the top of the splitter, in order to end up with as much material on the bottom (so people looking down would see the material). What is not visible is that the vertical strake is not covered - I had to cut small pieces and wrap around those to complete the effect.

Unfortunately, stretching the material has its limits. A close inspection of both of the intake vents on both sides will either show some careful patching, or on the right side, some quite poor patching. I plan to fix this later...

But, from a distance, it looks ok.

I wrote up some comments on this material on the GTROC UK forum as well:
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/135555-carbon-centre-blade-vinyl.html

Surprise and some Re-Wiring

2010-04-06T23:21:00.005+09:00

Recently I've begun to think that my car's dampers - Nismo S-Tunes, while perfectly adequate for the road, would eventually require replacement with something more track worthy. At least, higher spec and adjustable - some higher grade coilovers.

Imagine my surpise when this weekend, just after I had spoken with Honda-san and Prince Nissan Shinagawa about an eventual upgrade, I logged onto Yahoo Auctions and found a set of Ohlins DFVs for an unbelievable low price - the first used ones I had ever seen.

The selling owner said he used to have an R33 GTR, and had outfitted the DFVs, only to find the ride harder than he thought. He swapped out, only to discover that the DFVs were better all around, and was about to swap them back when his car got stolen! So, with only about 5000kms, these units were in pretty good shape. After conferring with my friend and suspension expert Sumi-san, I decided to take a chance - after all the price was less than half of buying them new. If they turned out to be duds, then I could always have them rebuilt for about 20,000 yen each. And still pay less than a new set!

So when I got home today, this is what I found waiting for me!

Ohlins does not produce a model for the BCNR33 specifically - however the BNR34 units can be used without issue (I think there is an adapter, I have to check).

After verifying all the pieces appeared to have arrived, I set upon continuing my other project - rewiring the tweeter wiring. When I got the stereo/navi installed when I first bought the car, they had installed the tweeters on double stick tape, on the dashboard. After deciding that the tweeters would look better if I mounted them on the door, I took the door apart, only to discover that the wiring for the tweeters ran on a separate line to the center of the dash.

So doing some research on the Pioneer car stereo website, I found that there SHOULD be a crossover amp somewhere. So today, I decided to delve into the mess of wires behind the stereo, to find them. Appears they didn't bother shortening the wiring, just stuck it all there behind the stereo. What a mess.

After some careful digging, I did find the crossovers - here in clear plastic, with the red capacitors.

Once I figured out the wiring that led out from the head unit and connected to the crossover's "amp" input, I disconnected these and connected them to the speaker wires leading to the right door. I then opened up the door, removed the speaker, and connected the crossover to the existing wire harness. Like so:

Tomorrow, I will work on the left side, and then figure out how to securely mount the crossovers inside the doors. Then reassemble the stereo and the wiring (one day I will remove the excess, but not this time around...to keep the larger RCA type cables clean, will have to purchase shorter cables), and put the center stack back together.

Last, I will affix the tweeters to their new location. But this will probably be during the week next week, as this weekend I am determined to do a few things to get ready for the upcoming SSCT track day on the 25th!

Nismo Steering Bushes and Rear Member Brace!

2010-03-27T23:10:00.004+09:00

Third event for the day, installation of Nismo reinforced steering bushes, and the Nismo rear member brace.

Here is a comparison of the steering rack bushes, new (Nismo reinforced on top) and the old ones, removed. With firmer bushings, the steering is supposed to be more precise in feel, as the firmer rubber provides more direct feedback.

Hirose-san had a full shop, so had to work on my car on jackstands on the ground - being early evening did not help, but he got it done!

Then it was on to the rear member brace - this is a piece that had interested me for a long time. Two tubular steel braces on each side, which are supposed to increase the rigidity of the rear suspension links - developed for and used on the R34 Z-tune, but as the R33 shares the same rear suspension (or should we say, the R34 GTR shares the same set up as the R33??) they work on the R33 too. Benefits of these pieces is it is supposed to keep the rear links aligned better, for all around better performance of the rear suspension.

Here is the right side rear axle, and you can see the new piece being added (it's cleaner than the other pieces!)

Ok, here I am pointing at it, just in case.

Impressions:
Steering bushings - well I have to say I have mixed feelings. The steering feels LIGHTER than before, and yes, quicker to respond. On the other hand, the steering feels somewhat "numb" on center. Maybe it's the tires, I will have to see what happens at the upcoming track day with SSCT on April 25 when I put on S-tires.

As for the rear member brace - this DEFINITELY is an improvement. When I accelerate the car, I can feel the rear end more "planted" than before. This is probably working in conjunction with the underfloor bracing which gives the car more rigidity, but the power seems to be getting to the rear wheels better. Again, we will see what happens at the track day, whether my times improve...

Private Tour of Tomei Powered!

2010-03-27T22:55:00.005+09:00

So how do I get so lucky? Clean living I guess...

Anyway, a good friend who works at Tomei invited me for a tour - yep these guys are working hard even on Saturday! Not being one to turn down such an offer, I made haste and drove to the Tomei Powered headquarters building, and parked my car outside... and had to of course take the obligatory photograph to share!

Walking inside the lobby, my friend Allen greeted me, and immediately gave me a history lesson of the company. And then showed me some of the products they make - this was somewhat of a review for me, because any one into cars in Japan knows about Tomei.

Here is a cutaway of their new design turbo for the Evo. Apparently they no longer use ball bearings, for increased reliability. The ones for the GT-R are being developed as we speak!

Speaking of development work - here is a Subaru engine in the dyno room - the blue covers give it away as a custom built Tomei Genesis engine...

According to Allen - "this is the actual race engine for the Tomei Cusco Time Attack Impreza that will be shipped to the World Time Attack event in Sydney Australia.

Expect it see it in action with the worlds best on May 21st and 22nd!"

When the Tomei engineers assemble the engines, they ensure first that all the parts to be put together are at the exact same temperature, in order to avoid expansion/contraction problems. Here, Allen demonstrates by showing me with the infra-red thermometer pointing at some cylinder heads - all 21 degrees Celsius!

Or, as Allen better put it - "here you can see how the parts are left to sit in the room to all become the same temperature before final measurements and assembly. Here you can see these pistons are at 21 degrees celsius. When all the pistons, rods, bearings, crank etc. are all the same temperature then the magic begins."

Outside, we found a Nismo Z33 with a Tomei engine. Apparently a demo car, but beautifully put together - it had a roll cage, but the seams were seamless, and the cage itself was so carefully worked into the interior, you could barely tell it was there!

Here is an old lathing machine - apparently older than me, on which one of the founding brothers still custom makes camshafts.

Here is an old Nissan 6 cylinder engine head, showing rust(!) as well as 4 valves per cylinder. Originally built in 1968, it was delivered to Tomei to get some refreshing work!

Here is an example of what happens with too much boost! Not even a forged Tomei piston head can withstand excessive abuse!
Additional info from Allen - "that was an SR20 with the exhaust valve sticking out of the top of the piston!"

Did you know that Tomei makes some of the best exhausts? Their chief exhaust engineer (ex-Yoshimura) handcrafts prototypes (some of the most beautiful welding I've ever seen), then constructs his own jigs to ensure perfection. To the uneducated, a Titanium exhaust is a Titanium exhaust, but Tomei ones have NO seam... which means that all of their tubes are punched out, rather than welded. Take a good look at one if you get a chance!

Finally, downstairs, lo and behold, we found the car Tarzan Yamada will be driving soon to attempt another speed record. Amazing the lightening techniques being used.

Alarm Shop, and previews of the rest of the day... (full reports next 2 posts)

2010-03-27T22:50:00.003+09:00

So today (Saturday March 27) turned out to be a pretty busy day.

First, the door opening solenoid linked to the alarm had died some time ago, and so I had been manually opening the doors - call me a lazy, but when you get used to a convenience, it becomes hard to go back to the "old" way. I had taken the driver's door apart, and figured out that no current was reaching the solenoid - and suspected something in the main alarm brain unit, but there was no way I was going to fix that on my own. Plus, how do these Japanese do it? Impossible to find the brain unit. So I had made an appointment with the shop where I had the alarm installed, almost 5 years ago! And it turns out that they are much closer to where I live now, than before.

Mirage Tokyo is the Tokyo branch of a well known Kansai-based auto alarm shop. They advertise in GT-R Magazine, which is where I found them. Here is the outside:

Here's my car being worked on. When they installed my alarm, they blocked off the license plates from view from outside, just in case, I guess (didn't see if they did it this time...). Turns out that GT-Rs are no longer on the top 10 list of cars that get stolen in Japan, however! It also turns out that I was smart to purchase the top of the line model when I did - although there have been some tweaks, it still is one of the best models out there!

The alarm guys ended up replacing the internal relay. So not a big deal, although it did take about 2 hours. But nice to have everything functioning smoothly again! Thank you guys!

Then, at the invitation of a friend who works there, I was offered a private tour of Tomei Powered! Yes, the very famous engine/engine parts maker. See my next post for full details.

After that, as I was closer to Hirose-san's shop - I went over and had a few more parts that I had ordered installed. See the dedicated post for details.

Mine's front pipe, Nismo underfloor brace

2010-03-20T22:07:00.002+09:00

So...after having successfully passed the bi-annual shaken, first order of business - have the Mine's front pipe put back on!

As I had wanted to also get the front Nismo underfloor brace - and Hirose-san of Three H Tuning - http://www.three-h.jp/tune.html
- had gotten one for a good price, I decided to try out his shop - and have the Mine's pipe put back on at the same time. So good timing!

Three H is a one man show - Hirose-san's own shop. He's a former Nissan mechanic, and his shop specializes in Silvias and RB series Skylines and GT-Rs. My friend Alex had somehow heard of him, and found his shop. What's great is that, despite it being a one lift shop, it has plenty of the right equipment - as you can see from these pictures. As he is located in Sagamihara (near the Zama and Atsugi military bases) - for those of you who live near the area - definitely worth checking him out!!

Including, of course, a spare RB26DETT engine!

So here is the standard front pipe:

After removing it, looking up towards the exhaust outlets...

On the left - the Nismo front underfloor brace. On the right - the standard front pipe!

Here is Hirose-san spot fitting the Nismo brace under the Mine's front pipe - as the pipe had been deemed too large - thereby being too low to the ground (min is 9cm, apparently - and with this pipe I am only 7cm off the ground - you can see where I've been scraping!), we were worried that the underfloor brace would not fit.

But guess what - it fits! Just barely, with only about 1 cm to spare! Whew!

The standard underfloor brace only ties the left and right sides together. This Nismo piece - just like the rear Nismo one - not only ties the front back together, but it also attaches to the steering rack! Here is a close-up.

Another shot:

A shot showing the two places where the brace attaches to the steering rack.

Anyway - got back in the car - and wow - the Mine's front pipe sure makes a difference. Engine seems to respond "just" that much better. Sounds deeper, too. For some reason, with the stock pipe on, the engine felt a bit jittery... too much back pressure? Anyway, I'm happy that the Mine's pipe is back on. Definitely breathing better.

As for the Nismo front underbrace - yes, there sure is a difference. The car has good rigidity to begin with, but with this brace, you can FEEL the body a bit better, and the steering feels a bit more direct. At least to me, the car seems to respond a bit better...

Anyway - future mods will include the Nismo/Yamaha Performance Dampers
http://www.nismo.co.jp/en/products/competition/lb/performance.html
- more body rigidity improvements - along with, possibly - the Nismo Rear Member Brace - which are additional bracing that go with the Nismo Circuit Links which I have on my car.
http://www.nismo.co.jp/en/products/competition/lb/brace.html

What's cool about the Rear Member Brace is that it was developed for the Z-Tune R34, but made available for all R33 and R34s with the Nismo link upgrade.

However, at least one person in the know has said his lap times got worse when this piece was fitted, giving me something to think about.

Getting ready for Shaken (last belated post) and changing out my wheels

2010-03-17T22:12:00.008+09:00

Anyone who's owned a car in Japan knows about the bi-annual (every two years) Shaken （車検）(mandatory safety inspection)process. What a farce, and a pain.

At its core, you have to pay various taxes, based on the size of the car and its engine size. Then, mandatory insurance in case you hit someone. Then, the car has to be in "safe operating condition" - which really is a chance for dealerships and repairshops to get rich doing minor work that normally would not cause a car to blow up on the road. Like mis-aimed headlights or old wiper blades. Or wheels and tires that stick out past the fenderwells (this is illegal in Japan).

So I found myself at the Camp Zama auto shop on Saturday, with my good friend DCD. Apparently he's somewhat known in the rice rocket world for his work taking photos of certain flashy J-cars. Whatever. Talk about exploiting a niche! Lucky bastard!

Anyway DCD had offered to come with me to change out the wheels and tires of my car, back to the standard 17in alloys, with new tires (the superb Dunlop Star Specs). As Alex had already taken the tires off for his son to use (my donation), all we had to do was to install the new tires and balance the wheels!

Here is my car in the shop, right before we changed the wheels.

Once we had the car up, I started cleaning the underside (phone call to Nissan and they told me that they do this for the Shaken!). Meanwhile, DCD and Alex decreed that, the rubber strip I had added to the front spoiler was a hazard as it was hanging off a bit, so they proceeded to remove it.

I next decided to wash the car - what the heck. After I pulled the car back inside and started to towel dry it off, it hit me - why not use compressed air to PROPERLY dry the car?

Then DCD discovered the air hose was good for cleaning interiors, too! Here he is, hard at work...

On Saturday, took my car to a local shaken specialist. Unfortunately, they decreed that my front pipe was too big - the ground clearance was LESS than the required 9cm... so on Sunday, went to Yokota base to borrow a standard front pipe from my friend James, and drove back to the shop in the Toyota Cresta they lent to me so they could install the standard pipe. Talk about a real hassle. The shop also said the left front CV boot was torn, necessitating replacement (which they did).

Picked up the car last night - all in all, a relatively good experience, as I'm pretty sure I saved lots of $$$$ in the process! But this weekend, I'll have to put the Mine's front pipe back on...

Belated post #3 - March 10 Daikoku PA gathering

2010-03-17T22:02:00.004+09:00

Just some random photos. Got there late, and had to talk to everyone, so unfortunately didn't have time for decent photography. But it was good to see everyone, Nick, Dan, Dave, Dino, James, Thomas, and some new faces - and my new Japanese friend Narita-san was there too!

Here's my car (again, see how perfect the paint is now) next to Thomas's flashy purple machine!

Oh yeah, the 310 club was there... some very, very cool cars...

Much belated post #2 - Fuji Speedway Short Course - in the pouring rain!

2010-03-17T21:42:00.004+09:00

Date: Thursday, February 11, 2010.

So the SSCT had its track day at the FISCO short course. What a crazy day!

I was running S-tires - which made for a handful, as I drove onto the track, I was clearly not the fastest, as my car was overpowered and the car slid everywhere! Nevertheless, based on my last lap time here, I was placed in the "most advanced" group...

Several cars slid off the track. Here's an Evo that got lucky and came to a slow stop next to the (soft) tire wall.

Here is a friend of mine (Hiraga-san) in his very unique and beautiful LeMans edition R33, getting ready to go onto the track!

On a day like this, the clear advantage went to the fully computerized cars - ie the R35 GTRs. They didn't seem to be having too much trouble.

alas, my driving skill is lacking... right before lunchtime, I was on the track, and came out of the last left turn onto the straight...and applied power a bit too soon. Later pro racer Tominaga-san told me I should have been a bit more patient! Because I applied the throttle a bit too aggressively, and the rear end swung out. I corrected but the car did not respond, the rear end HIT the guard rail with a CLANG!!!

I was too shell shocked to take any photos, but I ended up with a fist sized dent in the rear quarter panel, but luckily the rear bumper took most of the impact - it had to be replaced. Not so lucky were the 2 guardrails I hit - the FISCO staff declared them a loss - and had I not had my FISCO license, they would have charged me the full amount for them! These small guardrails are 40,000 yen each!! Luckily, I ended up paying only 5000 yen each for them.

So the lesson here is, get a FISCO license!!

So I immediately took the car (curtailing the rest of the day's run) to my favorite body shop in Yokohama.

10 days later, I went to pick the car up.
PERFECT!!! Look at this, can't even tell.

As a bonus - I had two severe door dings removed too, while the car was in the shop. One was a dent on the driver's door that I think had always been there. The other was clearly done by a tall SUV door, sometime when I lived in Tokyo, located on the C pillar.

And now, PERFECT!!

At this rate, the only parts left are some scuffing on the side skirts (next time I will apply clear 3M material), the hood/bonnet - some idiot apparently sat on the hood, giving it a slight crease...and of course the various chips from actual driving... and a slightly off color front fender (I was told by the body shop that they think the previous owner did a repair there).

Not that I'm looking for an excuse to have my car in the bodyshop again, but wow, the work is spectacular!!