So as we saw in my last post, I took the opportunity while my car was at NISMO Omori Factory to have them remove all the worn out, rusted and otherwise ugly suspension links and related parts off my car and replace with new. Of particular interest to me was the rear suspension member - usually the bushes there harden or deteriorate with age and then the traditional easy solution is to add solid collars between the body and the member - I have not had that done yet so can't opine on whether that is the right solution, but certainly for most owners who don't want to bother removing everything to get to that rear member in order to replace the bushes, the solid mount solution is probably adequate, eliminating any weird flex.
One of my first upgrades to the car, before installing the Mine's engine, was to begin upgrading the suspension and chassis with the full Nismo suspension link set. I remember how the car immediately felt much more controllable and stable when I had the work done back in 2006 and 2007. That means that for the past 13 years - longer than the time when the car ran on its OEM links and bushes from 1997 to 2006 (9 years) the car has been on the Nismo link set. I don't know what the common wisdom is for when suspension link rubber bushes need to be replaced, but new ones should definitely give the car a "new car feel." I am looking forward to experiencing the brand new car feel!
Incidentally, I also have a full set of the SuperPro poly bushes, but never got around to installing them. Of course, now that I have a spare (used) set of the Nismo links...
Anyway, let's take a look underneath.
I get excited every time...
Left rear - silver is new, black is repainted
Right rear wheel - check out that beautiful "new" driveshaft!
This may be easier to see the extent of new goodness..
Of course the front is also looking great! Nice and clean...
Left front wheel
Left front wheel, different angle - looks like I need to steam clean the oil pan!
So a few things. One, they removed the plastic brake air guides - they were broken as the upper fin parts had snapped off. These original Nismo ones, no longer available, cost about 19,000 yen per pair but the new dry carbon ones Nismo offers cost about ten times more! Not sure if I want to pay for parts my car probably doesn't need, given the oversize R35 brakes I now have. I guess I COULD go aftermarket here...
Two, you may have noticed Omori Factory removed the Do-Luck floor support bars. The mechanics didn't really care for them not because they don't work, but because they interfere with their car lifts. I will have to think about how to get them back on. More importantly, I wonder how the car drives without them on. Maybe not go for them any more but look into spot welding around the door frames...They also removed, I think, the Spoon Rigid Collars (at least in the rear) - these will be an easy fix.
Three, yeah my tires are old. Will have to replace them soon. And yes they look huge, very meaty. NISMO is pushing me to replace with the Michelin Pilot Sport 4s, but I don't know. Doesn't feel right to put on French tires on a Japanese car...And what is the current best Japanese tire out there?
Four, yes there are still many parts that need to be refreshed. Financially speaking, this is all I could afford at this time. Plus, most parts can be cleaned up or replaced at home, so I intend to do that as much as possible. To me that's part of the fun of ownership.
Fifth, I did mention in a previous post that Omori Factory did a few special extras - that's for the next post!
(Or, what I was actually doing at Do-Luck on my day off this past Monday)
So as I continue to bring my car up to more modern standards, one area where I have spent time, money, and effort recently, as readers have noticed, is in the area of improving body rigidity.
So far, I've attempted to add body rigidity to the following areas:
While I thought that my body rigidity
work was finished after I got thetrunk bar installed, in the back of my mind, I had my doubts - was I doing the right thing? Were these reinforcement parts working in the additive sense - was having more rigidity everywhere, better? Or was I risking unbalancing the car? After all, during my research into the differences between the R33 and R34 GT-R, there was some extra welding done in the C-pilllar, and the trunk bar, but nothing about fender and underfloor bracing...
And as you recall from my results after the trunk bar installation, the ride quality got much stiffer, in fact on the verge of being too harsh! So did I really want to further stiffen the car?
A while back I had called Ito-san at Do-Luck and asked him this question. He believed that it would only benefit my car to tighten up the floorpan, that what I had done so far wasn't excessive. So, it was only a matter of time before, when I had a day off, I drove over to
Do-Luck to get their Floor Bars installed.
They were waiting for me, so I had them pull my car into the workshop because...
As you can see it was pretty crowded in there that day.
No way I'm taking responsibility if I accidentally run into something!
I spent most of my time while there talking to Ito-san about his latest product, the DTMII ETS Controller, (I volunteered to translate the manual, so he gave me some inside info as to how it work! I hope to share it here soon...) so did not watch as his staff installed these:
However the concept is ridiculously simple - using lightweight aluminum, oval shaped (in order to prevent excessive underhang) bars that bolt on to the underbody in 3-4 places. Here is an interesting tidbit - he found that some 33s had 4 mounting holes available (like my car) but others only had 3. Hence he ended up standardizing his bars to have 3 mounting holes, as can be seen in the photo above. However, ALL R34s have 4 holes on the chassis, so the R34 bars all have 4 mounting holes... not sure if it makes a difference but it would have been nice just in case...
Close-up of rear of bar (looking towards front) showing how the NISMO brace fits OVER the Do-Luck one, no problem
Ito-san remarked that as he had developed these bars BEFORE even NISMO released their series of underfloor reinforcing bars - he had never seen the above scene before in person! I couldn't believe it myself, but it was the first time he himself had seen that these two pieces fit without issue. Turns out that not many of his customers get their pieces installed at his shop, and I guess I was the first R33 with the NISMO pieces to do so...
Here is the front of the bar. You can see how there is a hook that ties it securely to the frame
(prepped with anti-rust later, of course)
sorry for the blurred shot, but you can see how the bar runs along the chassis
Anyway, based on my research I don't think there are any more aftermarket add-on parts available to improve body rigidity. So I think I am done with this type of body rigidity improvement.
When I have the time, I’d like to follow up on methods to stiffen the shell by
way of either spot welding, or hardening foam (for example in the C-pillars,
like the BNR34).
But more importantly during the drive over, I could DEFINITELY feel that the Floor Support Bars had made a big difference, more than what I had expected.
First, the harsh ride was gone! I asked Ito-san about this, and he explained that the trunk bar had solidified the rear body and allowed the rear coilovers to work off of one solid base - so the left and right sides were unified, both front and rear. However, with the longitudinal Do-Luck bars now installed, all 4 wheels were tied together, allowing the suspension to work off of one large, solid base. Indeed the car feels more solid, more carved out of one piece.
Second, the car felt shorter, and more nimble. It might be my imagination, but it seemed that there was a bit less "lag time" when making high speed lane changes, for example. Obviously I can't quantify it by saying it took 0.00000005 seconds less (or whatever) to respond, but there is definitely a difference in how the car feels. I recall this is the same feeling I had when I first had the Nagisa fender braces installed. So perhaps front/rear rigidity improvements can be had with longitudinal bracing?
Sadly I got used to this improvement in feel after about 10 minutes of driving...and now I'm wondering if it makes sense to get the car spot welded where I can! In any case I'm actually looking forward to going for a spin soon...
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.
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
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.
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)!!
