Dropping My Car Off at Nismo Omori Factory!

Remember how I described in my last post how I had to get the paperwork fixed? Well, I figured I might as well for a reason that will be clear in an upcoming post, which has almost nothing to do with my car.  So I took the car to my go to guy, Ninomiya-san at BeAmbitious a few weeks after meeting with Takasu-san, and then 2 weeks later Ninomiya-san called me to tell me it was all done.

So, I called back Takasu-san about our previous conversation and he offered that his guys could take a close look at my car - do a complete shakedown by first replacing all the fluids, then test driving, after which Nismo technicians would come up with a list of things that could be improved, repaired or perfected.

HOW COULD I SAY NO?!

So, I took a morning off and picked up my car from BeAmbitious...

Damn this car looks good!

 And then drove over to Nismo. Found a spot open next to a classic:

 And then went inside where I met up with Takasu-san again - apparently Omori Factory is currently FULL with customer cars - they were doing me a favor to accommodate me.  After some pleasantries he had Ochiai-san, the guy who would probably actually work on my car, take me outside to inspect my car.

Here is Ochiai-san explaining my car's body rigidity to my friend Takashi who picked me up from Nismo

Ochiai-san had some interesting things to say about the choice of injectors on the Mine's engine - he immediately saw that the injector sizes were 600cc, and not the 555cc (pink color) ones he would have recommended.  Said that larger injectors might cause excessive gas to be injected - which yes I knew - and that too much could result in fouled exhaust gases leading to premature failure of the catalytic converter. Which is spot on - or at least the fact that the HKS cat didn't seem to last long, on both occasions I've installed one since the Mine's engine.

He also didn't like the Garage Defend panel, saying that it prevented the snorkel from getting enough air into the engine.  I explained this one was for looks only and that I had in fact, developed my own panel with ram-air. And that my friend Tom had also made a nicer version and actually recorded a difference in air temperature!

Along with this mod and the other things he saw I had done, he was impressed - it sounds like most R owners in Japan that bring their cars to Nismo don't work on them too much....

In any case, I am on pins and needles as I wait to get the phone call... and then hopefully some very good news and not much bad news... we shall see. I told them I was in no rush.

Which means people visiting Nismo Omori Factory over the next few weeks might see something like this:

Thanks to my friend Matt B who's visiting from the UK and dropped into Nismo! Will have to catch up in person next time!!

(Temporarily) Back on the S-Tunes! My Impressions...

So as I mentioned in my last post, I had my old NISMO S-Tunes shock absorbers temporarily re-installed by Ninomiya-san at BeAmbitious onto my car while the Ohlins DFVs usually on the car are being re-built at Labo Carrozzeria, the Ohlins distributor/service factory here in Japan.

The Ohlins Japan service factory. From: http://ohlins.czj.jp/service/

When I went to pick up the car after Ninomiya-san had gotten the GT-R successfully registered for another 2 years, the first thing I noticed was that the front of the car seemed lower than before. But, as he had told me that the car did not pass shaken until he put the S-Tunes on, I assumed that the ground clearance was better with the NISMOs than with the Ohlins.

Anyway, on my short drive home, I immediately could tell the difference - after driving around for a while on the stiffer sprung Ohlins (which were probably more stiff than usual because it was long overdue for a rebuild), the S-Tunes felt amazingly smooth and supple. Still very sporty, and in fact, they responded very well to the dips and bumps in the road.  In short, the car feels very close to OEM, in that most people might be satisfied with level of firmness combined with good ride comfort.

Although these S-Tunes are sporty enough that I went to several track days such as at Fuji Speedway, as you can see in the photo below (sorry for the low-def), hard braking meant that the car would literally scrape the front lip. So, one impetus for switching to the DFVs was a higher (stiffer) spring rate. Although, as I mentioned in my previous post, the DFV technology also results in a very smooth ride.

As you can see from this old photo, at full braking my front lip was scraping the ground!
http://www.r33gt-r.com/2008/07/photos-from-sunako-juku-last-lesson-at.html

Then, pulling into the garage, the front lip scraped... meaning that in fact, the car WAS lower than before.  So I don't quite understand how the car could pass the shaken rules with the S-Tunes when it was lower than the Ohlins, but oh well.  When I called Ninomiya-san about it, he thinks it might be due to the Do-Luck Roll Center Adjusters, and while that makes sense about the height, I'm still a bit confused about how it could pass Shaken...

You can see how close to the fender the tire/wheel is.

In any case, the car needs a proper alignment so I'm not driving it until I get the Ohlins re-installed and the alignment done.  Of course meanwhile I will simply have to have other projects to keep me busy, although I expect the Ohlins to be rebuilt and ready to go fairly soon. I'm really looking forward to experiencing the DFVs when as good as new!

First Post for 2015: Sound Clip of the Blitz E-ESC

First, Happy New Year Everyone! 2015 will be a good year for mods, I have lots planned so whether I have the time to do stuff will be the main problem! 

Second, I had gotten some requests for a video/sound clip of the Blitz E-ESC electronic exhaust valve in action.  Unfortunately it may be a bit hard to tell the difference due to the limited sound recording capabilities of my iPhone, but I think you can somewhat tell the difference. Incidentally, it seems MUCH more quiet from INSIDE the car, but that's probably because one gets used to the drone of the Tomei exhaust at engine speeds above 1200 (so basically all the time) and then all of a sudden when the car is at a light and the revs drop to 1000... silence (ok so it's relative but heck the wife was surprised...)

You will see from the video that what Ninomiya-san (who installed the E-ESC) told me is correct - basically there is no difference in sound from about 20% open all the way to 100%. There is a drastic difference however once the valve closes to 15% or less... here in the video you can hear, when the valve is open at only 5%, the engine sounds that remain at idle, and additionally you can also see that the exhaust smoke (it was really cold outside when I shot the video) diminishes as well.

Enjoy!

CUSCO Tension Rod Bar Installed/Impressions

So the other day, I realized I was over due for "shaken" - the biannual road inspection regime in Japan that is supposedly designed to get dangerous cars off the road, but in reality is a way to incentivize people to buy new cars due to the sometimes crazy costs associated with "repairing" cars to bring them up to standards (yes there is some price gouging). So in other words, the typical person goes to the dealership and either comes out with a few thousand dollar repair bill, or a new car.

In my case, as is common with people who are not interested in playing such a game, one can go to your local trusted mechanic who knows the rules and how to get around them... cheaply.  I took my car to BeAmbitious (same shop which did the installation of the R35 Brembos, rear BNR34 diffuser, S15 trunk brace, Nagisa brace, Tomei ExPreme titanium muffler, etc.) and had Ninomiya-san there take care of getting my car properly "shakened" (he told me: had to raise the ride height of the car, special bung for the Tomei muffler, etc.).

While the car was with him, I decided to have him install the final external body stiffening part I could find: the CUSCO Tension Rod Bar.  I had meant to do this myself, along with an oil change, but laziness dictated otherwise.

Here are some photos from the CUSCO website, to show you what they look like:

Courtesy of CUSCO

The Bar looked like this when it arrived:

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the bar installed, because I didn't do the work. I did find this  photo on Minkara, you can see how the blue bar bolts onto the inside each of the tension rod mounting points (so in effect, connects the two sides together).

Courtesy:　http://minkara.carview.co.jp/en/userid/178485/car/68462/4485982/parts.aspx

The description from the CUSCO website states: "The Tension Rod Bar is made from 22mm steel pipe that enhances chassis stiffness, rigidity and stabilizes alignment."  Ok sure, whatever.   I was not expecting much, if anything, after all of my body stiffening projects.  Further, the Minkara poster also stated he could not feel a difference (although he admits he added these when he changed his tension rods).

So, what are my impressions?  To be honest, I think there is a very slight improvement in how the car's steering feels upon turning, as well as the car's response.  That is, on center feel is still somewhat numb (compared to my recent drive in an NSX - and this is the Holy Grail for me), but moving the steering wheel to begin a turn, feels more direct, and the response feels more immediate (so is this an "enhancement of chassis stiffness, rigidity and stabilizes alignment"??).  As a result, the car feels a touch more nimble, which is a good thing in my book.  But I still want more feedback on-center, I was hoping this Tension Bar would help, but all it did was to further highlight it!

 But for the price, a worthwhile mod. Your results may vary, indeed I may be suffering from a placebo effect! I am now beginning to wonder if it might be worth getting my car spot welded in a few strategic places, but I have to research whether the pros outweigh the cons for that. I realize that spot welding probably won't make the car feel like an NSX, but at the same time am curious as to what would happen in terms of how the car feels.

Trunk Bar: Another Noticeable Improvement in Body Rigidity

As I wait for a part I need to finish my extra mod for the BNR34 diffuser to arrive (so I can do my true last post on the diffuser install), let me also showcase something ELSE I had done at BeAmbitious, and the real reason it took over a week to get the car back to me.

So during my research into the mechanical differences between the R33 and R34 GT-Rs, other than aerodynamics, the other area where the R34 improved upon the R33 was in body rigidity.

This makes sense, I believe my car is a much better handling car since the addition of various NISMO underbody brace bars, and especially the Nagisa Auto fender brace.

Now the Series 3 has additional bracing in the trunk, but that is in the front of the trunk area - between the struts towers and the rear wall framing where the battery is located.

And this is a result most likely because the BNR34 was being developed during the run of the R33 and in fact the BNR34 test beds were modified R33s. So likely, these braces were an improvement that was discovered during the BNR34 development, and incorporated into the later R33s.

There was one improvement that isn't that well advertised or known, and that is the brace bar in the trunk of the R34.  Not sure why this didn't make it into later R33s, as it is an easy piece to add, however this brace bar concept DID make it into certain models of the S15 Silvia.

So when I began my search for a used piece, I was able to find one in decent shape off of an S15. I had also read on Minkara of another R33 GT-R owner (and also a few ECR33 and even ER34 owners) who had installed an S15 trunk brace bar without issue, so rather than searching for a BNR34 one, I picked up one of the more easily available S15 ones.

When it arrived, it was in good shape, with some scratches, presumably caused by items in the trunk!

But as I had some leftover KR4 silver paint from my fluidic nozzle project, I used that and sprayed the entire bar to get it as nice looking as possible. Turned out ok, I think:

I let Ninomiya-san of Be Ambitious take care of the install while I left the car with him in order to install the R34 V-spec rear diffuser. It turns out that there are already holes pre-drilled in the trunk in the right place (under some rubber caps), however what needs to be taken care of is to have something fill the gap between the floor and the bumper reinforcement, which also has holes pre-drilled. (Apologies but since I did not do the install I don't know what size bolts...). For my car, Ninomiya-san had some billet anodized aluminum spacers custom made (not cheap), but it is obviously more solid than what people usually do, which is to stack washers one on top of each other to fill the gap. And getting these spacers made took over a week and hence the delay in getting my car back to me (I thought the diffuser and trunk bar install would take a day or two, but it ended up taking a week).

EDIT - Mook on the UK GTROC forum did this mod - here is a link to some GOOD installation photos and information on the bolt and spacer sizes.  Thanks to both Mook for the photos and K66 Sky for the information.

Anyway here is how it looks now, installed.

And here is close-up of one side, bolted in:

Now what about the result? Did it change the car? In a word, "yes!" Definitely!  On my way home after picking up the car, it's only a few kilometers, but immediately the car felt "shorter" - I know that sounds odd but that is the best way to describe it.

Later, I took a 2 hour drive into Tokyo, and discovered that, in addition to the car feeling shorter, the suspension seems much stiffer now. What was before a firm but pleasant ride is now on the verge of being a bit too harsh!  So unless this is a placebo effect, I guess my senses are telling me that, before the trunk flexed and allowed the dampers to feel softer - now as the trunk area is more solid, the dampers don't have as much "give"... at least that's my theory.

Any thoughts, my friends? Am I imagining things? I think I am going to continue making the body as rigid as possible without the use of a roll cage, until the car feels like it's carved out of one solid block of steel. I will look into spot welding, but have heard that rusting can be an issue, so I may just have to see what else is out there that is bolt-on.

BNR34 Rear Diffuser Project, Part 4: Putting it All Together!

So when I went to pick up my car from BeAmbitious, I was happy with  the seamless job Ninomiya-san had done.

Taken at 7pm in the evening, hence a bit unclear... sorry!

First, instead of a four sided rear center bracket, Ninomiya-san simply used two hangar type brackets. 

Simplicity at work here - only time will tell if this is enough.

Second, the carbon was cut in order for the Tomei muffler to peacefully coexist. I couldn't tell how it was cut, it was only apparently after I took the diffuser off for another upcoming project! (Stay tuned!)

Some smooth cutting there, no rough edges.

Third, the entire diffuser was dropped a few millimeters in order for the exhaust pipe to have a bit more leeway on the front side of the diffuser.

For those of you with R34s, you should be aware that Tomei has apparently been sending out a retrofit kit similar to these spacers, in order to prevent the leading edge of the diffuser from pressing into the ExPreme titanium exhaust.

Fourth, the metal jack-up point was moved a few cm forward, and an alumite "gap filler" attached, in order to ensure the jack up point is not only flush with the diff, but also far in front of the Greddy extra capacity diff cover (wouldn't want to jack it up on that)!

But the piece de resistance was the way he used the RB Motorsport side brackets:

Note how, instead of attaching them to the car directly, he chose to attach them by way of hard rubber bushings, in order to prevent any metallurgical issues to the body of the car, as well as considering the vibration the diffuser will generate, and tucked the side brackets up under the rear bumper. This means however that I cannot remove the diffuser with the brackets still attached to the diffuser, as one might do normally.

Rather, I have to undo the bolts for the two outer most fins, plus two additional bolts on the side protectors,  which then separates the diffuser from the side brackets, which remain attached to the car.

And this is why the side brackets and the diffuser's side protectors are not riveted together :

Pointing to where normally there would be a rivet holding the diffuser's plastic side piece to the side bracket 

So neither rivet is there now.

And the effect? Well, that will have to wait, at normal expressway speeds I haven't noticed much of a difference to be honest. Oh and when backing up, now have to be careful not to scratch the fins.
But next track day, let's see what speeds north of 200kph will do!

Finally - I realize I have yet to provide a nice photo that clearly shows the diffuser, in daylight. Patience my friends, I have ONE MORE diffuser related mod before I show the final, final result! 

BNR34 Rear Diffuser Project, Part 3: How to Get the Diffuser to the Shop

Or more accurately, how to get a BNR34 rear diffuser to the shop when you don’t have the proper brackets in place?

I’m not especially proud of this, but basically what I did was to attach the front of the diffuser using the RB Motorsport supplied bolts, which surprisingly alone was able to keep the diffuser off the ground.  However, the diffuser did not neatly fit around the Tomei muffler (so there will have to be some cutting), resulting in a diffuser unbalanced left and right. 

Just to be on the safe side, of course, I decided to do what I can to control movement in the unattached back, so I ended up passing twine through the two bracket hole, and then running the string around the license plate frame. Meanwhile, I also used some packing tape between the diffuser and the bumper, to lessen the load on the twine.

The end result was ugly (some would say "ghetto"), and looked like this:

But I WAS able to get to BeAmbitious safely, and so I left my car with Ninomiya-san with great anticipation.

Next:  How it all turned out!

BNR34 Rear Diffuser Project, Part 2: Fitment (Attempt)

So after the diffuser was cleaned up and to some extent restored, the next step was to fit it to the car.  As I alluded in my intro post, the easiest way to do this, is to have the BNR34 V-spec triple cross bar installed (some people chose to have the bolts welded on the R33 triple cross bar instead).

Truth be told, this I had done by Ninomiya-san way back after I first got these pieces, right about the time Igot my personalized number plate. 

But obviously, I have been too busy to work on this diffuser project since then.

Anyway, the triple cross bar takes care of the front half of the diffuser. In the picture below, the front of the diffuser would be facing left, and the rear to the right.

Again thanks to http://minkara.carview.co.jp/en/userid/301215/car/194604/415795/note.aspx

The front of the diffuser attaches to the left most double hole bracket by way of two metal brackets (like the one on the left in the photo below).  The holes in the middle, take a single bolt, the corresponding hole which is in the diffuser itself.

The rear of the diffuser is attached to the body by way of the side brackets (on the center and right), as well as a center bracket.  The side brackets attach permanently to the diffuser, while the center bracket is normally permanently attached to the car. The diffuser side is the left side with the cutout, the side that connects to the body are the two "fingers" with one hole each.

http://minkara.carview.co.jp/en/userid/301215/car/194604/415795/note.aspx

Unfortunately, the side brackets do not fit directly on the R33 – and that is because the R34 bumper is a bit wider in this area, allowing clearance to the body, which in turn has pre-welded stays for the diffuser to bolt onto. On the R33, the attachment point to the body is where the bumper is (the bumper covers it). Hence, the side brackets either end up attached to the body underneath the bumper – like this (with access holes cut out to access the bolts attaching the bracket to the body):

http://www.wind.sannet.ne.jp/quess/diy/ex-9.htm

Or, get tucked in underneath, like this, with cutouts in the rear bumper or spats to allow bolt access.

http://minkara.carview.co.jp/en/userid/301215/car/194604/415795/note.aspx

Then, there is the rear center bracket. It normally looks like this.

http://www.wind.sannet.ne.jp/quess/diy/ex-9.htm

While the RB kit DID come with a replacement piece in stainless, unfortunately its dimensions were off:

Look closely, and you can see that the left side bent piece extends from the 0mm mark to the 125mm mark.  The right side extends from the 300mm mark to the 415mm mark - thus a difference of 10mm! So the left and right sides are not perfectly mirrored, and the angle of the bent pieces are also different. I can't use this!!

Finally, there was the question of re-installing the fins. As seen in my previous post, the stock ones were essentially destroyed, and so of course I sought improvement. I looked at the Nismo ones made of carbon fiber, but not only are they made to order and cost 42,000 yen for the set, their tallness compared to stock is an invitation to getting damaged or snapping off in a parking maneuver. So I settled on these carbon ones from Wisteria Sports, in the same dimensions as the stock ones and for half the price of the Nismo.

From: http://minkara.carview.co.jp/en/userid/705558/car/601264/1470770/note.aspx

So the fact that I did not want to arbitrarily/sloppily drill holes in my car for the rear center bracket, which was off to begin with, as well as coming up with a solution for the side brackets, meant that I would be taking my car to BeAmbitious for the final fitting.

And because of that, I chose not to install the carbon fins myself, but to have Ninomiya-san do it when the car was at his shop.

Stay tuned as I next show you how I got the diffuser to his shop!

First R33 GT-R in Japan with R35 Brakes!

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 claimed 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...