Nice End of Year Present! Thank You Very Much!

 So I was pleasantly surprised to receive this today. Fairly light but it WAS from Trust Kikaku...

Wow! Somethiing from HKS! Wait, it says Door Mat?

And it came with instructions! Says that HKS are not responsible for any mods made to this product!

As you can see here, it is much thicker than the cheapo Ikea carpets I have been using. And a non-slip backing too!

Looks fantastic!

And yes, the electric heater is so my legs stay warm while I tinker...

So to my friends who sent this to me - thank you very much! A very nice way to finish off 2022, let us hope that 2023 is a better year, I am sure it will likely be!

More Mine's Parts! (Mine's Visit, Part 2)

So as I mentioned in the first of these Mine's visit posts, the Silence-VX Pro Titan III was not the only Mine's part I decided my car needed.

But before I show you what I got installed, how about I show you what was removed? The guys at Mine's were nice enough to pack up all my old parts into boxes for me.

Damn when did I get so hairy?

You can already tell that it contains "SBC" and "ESC" so:

And yes, not surprisingly, they made sure to wrap up the important pieces in plastic. So they don't get scratched up. Why? Because Japan...

So yes, they removed my old Blitz Dual-SBC boost controller for a newer unit by HKS, their EVC7:

Frankly, I'm not sure how this improves control of the turbos, except the interface seems to be much more user friendly.  Maybe more precise control? Although when I picked up the car I vaguely remember Nakayama-san saying something about setting up different boost settings and that he decided that at the maximum boost setting the car felt too fast and so he dialed it down one notch.(!) Actually I found this comparison chart but maybe one of you guys can sum it up for me.

Ok onto more removed parts.

Blitz E-ESC, electronic exhaust sound controller. This was the electric valve I referred to in my previous post.  

Note how even the controller is wrapped in plastic. Not good for the environment, Japan!

Looks like this unwrapped, according to the Blitz website:

Remember this? Here is my write-up when I got it installed back in late 2014/early 2015!

And here is a video of the effect it had on the sound of the Tomei.

Obviously, with the new Mine's exhaust, this is something I don't need anymore. Removal of this valve -quite heavy actually - saves me XXX grams - and maybe makes up for the difference of the slightly heavier Mine's exhaust vs the Tomei? Not sure what I will do with the E-ESC now - maybe save for the Lexus if I ever get an aftermarket exhaust for it? I see Blitz discontinued it, so it could be handy in the future.

Also, they gave me back all of the Tomei Expreme Titanium - in pieces (it is not a one piece design, like the Mine's is), all nicely wrapped up!

Not sure what to do with this - keep for future track days?

Ok so the exhaust and exhaust value were obvious, given my previous blog post. How about this - the engine bay, how it used to look:

To now, this:

I changed out the OEM plenum, complete with the Mine's crinkle coating, for a non-crinkle coated Nismo plenum. I've always thought this part looked great just the way it is, and by limiting the crinkle coating to the engine, I think it actually further emphasizes the engine itself although strangely maybe it makes the engine bay look a bit busy?

Of course, if the plenum is replaced, other stuff is going on too.

That's right, I decided to replace the old Nismo 600cc single hole injectors with modern OEM R35 12 hole injectors!  This necessitated a new fuel rail:

If you look at the Mine's website, you will see that they advertise this bit of kit showing all the fuel lines on the topside - Nakayama-san told me some owners like to be able to show off, when the hood/bonnet is opened, that they have this new set up installed and so opt to have the fuel lines routed as follows:

From Mine's website photo

Hmm. Just noticed the red O is different...argh!!!

Not me, I like the more subtle look of the fuel lines all tucked away.

Of course, with new injectors you should run new Air Flow Meters (some people may disagree, I am just letting Mine's and Nakayama-san install what they have perfected over the years) so these old Mine's units came off:

To be replaced by the modern and thus much more accurate R35 ones. OEM parts FTW, I say!

The black crinkle finish is a bonus!

And with new injectors and AFMs, Mine's installed a new custom VX-ROM for me (I know because Nakayama-san told me about he himself setting it up out on the road). So how does it all work together? 

First, I don't know why, but the engine starts up much easier. Even Ochiai-san at Nismo commented on this (yes another Nismo post coming soon!).  Second, throttle response with the new R35 injectors, along with more volume in the Nismo plenum, results in very crisp, instant response.  To be honest, it was very good before, but I feel like it's even more precise. Surgical?

Strangely, the exhaust still stinks, although not chokingly bad as before.  Maybe it can't be helped with these engines but I was hoping for cleaner fuel burning due to better fuel atomization from the 12 holes.

I will post a sound clip of the Mine's exhaust soon, but it is fairly quiet. Still loud compared to the Lexus or the average car, but much more refined and therefore tolerable.  

Power-wise, because of the more accurate throttle play, I feel like the car is more lively, and even with the new exhaust, which may be slightly more restrictive, I never felt like the car was down on power.  So with better response and no perceptible change in power, (Nakayama-san grinned knowingly when I told him this), I am VERY satisfied at how this upgrade turned out!  Although come next year sometime, Nakayama-san is promising me another powertrain upgrade which he thinks will make the engine even more responsive!

There is however one more pre-arranged modification I had Mine's do.  I will publish that as soon as the Speedhunters article (working title - Return of Project 33) comes out, which now appears to be next month. If I do not see it get published by then, then I will go ahead and update the blog accordingly - you guys should not have to wait for that to find out what is really going on!

Happy New Year! Calendars, a Japanese Tradition!

Friends, I hope that 2021 is a much better year for all of us than 2020, both collectively and individually.

So at the moment I am working on something on my car, but not quite ready to post yet. But soon!

Meanwhile, I want to share a Japanese tradition... at the end of the year, companies send important customers and clients their next year corporate calendar.  These calendars are usually made to be as non-offensive as possible, with landscape sceneries and oil paintings as a common motif.  Hence, usually the ones I get from my insurance companies and banks are opened and then quietly put in a corner/trash... useful, but boring, I guess.

Some companies, however, choose to be a bit more interesting. It used to be Japan Airlines, for example, would pick 12 gorgeous flight attendants from among the ranks of their global staff, and have one (always female) pose in front of some nice scenery. Miss January, Miss June, etc.  It has likely been toned down a bit but I see that JAL still maintains some of that tradition. Although yes the ones with their different airplanes are cool too. I guess.

Anyway, as you can tell I have never been one for calendars, especially the ones from banks and insurance companies.  Until now, when I got a follow up package from Hannah at Trust Kikaku (on behalf of the mysterious M) which included TWO CAR-THEMED 2021 Calendars! 

Here is the first one - from Fujitsubo, the famed exhaust manufacturer. Blake Jones from Speedhunters did a nice write up a couple years ago of what these guys are all about.  Indeed, the first exhaust I had my car (before it served as the R33 jig for the Tomei Expreme Ti titanium exhaust) was a Fujitsubo Super Legalis R, upon recommendations from the guys at Nissan Prince Tokyo Motorsports when they were still located in Shinagawa.  It was steel and heavy, but it sure sounded mature compared to the race car loud Tomei!

The second calendar came in this cardboard tube.  This being Japan of course:

Yep, it has perforations in two places so you don't have to use a knife or scissors to open the tube. No accidents!

WOW, simply WOW! I heard that these are really hard to get, so I am super happy with this. Beats nature scenes and fine art, anytime! (Let's not talk about the flight attendants...:). Everyone knows HKS, but just in case, here is Dino's latest post on what HKS is up to.

The Fujitsubo calendar also came with a plastic clip on mount, so I immediately put that on the wall above the wall in my office:

Uh yeah, all Nissan Skyline stuff... on the other hand when taking Zoom/Teams calls for work, always good to have a Nissan background!

As for the HKS calendar, looking for a good home now. Maybe the garage, or maybe a bedroom. 

Again, thanks to M and Hannah for these very nice gifts! I feel very lucky and hope you both have a great 2021!!