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

Morita-san asking me to inspect the car before driving home. Photo by Ale.  Thanks! 

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

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

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

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

Photo by Mr. Ale

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

So here it is. What do you all think? (ignore the boxes - containing new LMGT4s actually...lol... and the original side skirts wrapped in plastic... I need to hurry up and finish my garage project ASAP...)

Somehow the camera didn't quite catch accurate colors...although yes should probably replace the LED bulbs with something a bit more blue...

Finally! Both cars in the new garage. Along with Ale's Z parked out front in the driveway.

I noticed it too. The front end seems to be elevated a bit.

In taking these photos, you notice things -  I'm pretty sure my car never had so much lip clearance before. Which I think comes from the DFV coil-overs, which seem to have been adjusted a bit too high by NISMO...just for aesthetic purposes I'm going to have to lower the front a few centimeters. The gap between the front wheel and fender is huge!

Right? The gap seems much less here - back in 2015...

Actually in order to find the above photo, I found this blog entry where Ohlins recommends a distance of 350mm between wheel center and the fender (which results in a lowered stance like above). So something for me to do next weekend...although now that I think about it, lowering it too much resulted in rubbing the inside of the fenders. Will have to experiment.

And finally, check out the new GT shiftknob. No more scratched up BNR34 unit to remind me of you know who everytime I shifted.

Still cannot believe how beautiful that red stitching on the leather is...

Anyway, I know that I need new tires, but before that, what should I do? Detail it myself? Or try to begin fixing the interior? Hmm...and now with the new garage, there is so much more I can do! Stay tuned!

Carbon Fiber Bumper Exhaust Surround, Renewal

So if you've seen pictures of the rear bumper of my car, I've had this thin dry carbon fiber exhaust surround I found on Yahoo Auctions back in 2008!

With the newly installed Tomei ExPreme Exhaust

Obviously, the goal here is to protect the bumper from all the soot the RB26 engine spews out.

Long-time readers know that my car was used as the jig to develop the exhaust, and that this shot
  was used for their catalog

While it still looks great from a distance, I was becoming aware that the heat of the exhaust, as well as it's location on the rear edge of the bumper, was wreaking havoc on the carbon.

A close-up reveals these flaws.

But that's ok... it's much easier to remove and replace this piece, than to have the bumper touched up. In fact, I took the piece off before I had my car detailed, so that all the surrounding areas (and underneath) could be properly cleaned and protected.

 I then went back to find the vendor on Yahoo Auctions, 5000 yen and 3 days later:

Old one obviously the one not wrapped up.

Here you can compare directly. Camera angle shot makes old one on left look larger.

As you can see this carbon is really thin, but since it's not bolted on, replacement is an easy affair. Just take off the old one, clean the bumper (I had taken it off before the detail at RAPT), then simply slap back on using the double stick tape.

You can see the remnants of the tape on the old one on top.

Like this:

Truth be told the tape is old and I may need to readjust later

Make sure the area around the exhaust is clean:

A quick wipe with a microfiber towel, then

Peel off the backing of the double stick tape, then slap on making sure one edge slips between the bumper and the spat:

Easy!

Later, after a quick drive:

Can't even tell it's been replaced.

Oh, and I dropped into Nissan to order some minor bits so I will have another update on this blog soon!... stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Update - Protection for the Series 3 Front Lip Spoiler

One of the biggest problems, actually, with the Series 3 R33 GT-R (vs. Series 1 and Series 2) is the longer front lip spoiler.  Yes, it looks great, but it scrapes everywhere! (and it doesn't do much until you hit expressway speeds too...)

This OEM piece is made of ABS plastic (and came unpainted in its original black color), so it will not crack when the inevitable scrape happens - and by the way most of the time it's in those vertical parking lots (common in Japan) which require you to drive up, up, up to a parking spot... and then down, down, down to exit, at relatively steep angles, where your spoiler kisses the ground each time the ramp transitions from angled to flat, usually as you turn a 90 degree corner.

Series 3 kept by Nissan, showing the larger front lip spoiler, black ABS plastic
(Note this car also has the optional and now rare oil cooler kit with extra ducting in front bumper)

As a result, I absolutely hate driving my car to go to places like IKEA or Costco, where the parking lots are designed to pack as many cars into a small area as possible (I would even prefer mechanized parking over this, but I don't see those often, and sometimes my car is deemed too low to park in those pallets too...argh).

Anyway, once I got my front lip spoiler painted, I decided to get more creative to protect it.  Previously, I had tried to install a (Nismo) rubber strip that ran all the way across, and when that quickly peeled off (despite being bolted and glued on), I then tried thin aluminum strips which I bolted and glued on.  These also came off, and even got caught up under the car, causing a scratching noise that resulted in some pedestrians pointing and staring...

In any case, I had given up on this kind of extra protection, when I had a brainstorm.   My most recent effort involves rubber stoppers and some stainless screws which I found at my local hardware store:

To summarize, I simply used the same mounting points for the front diffuser using the pre-existing holes in the lip spoiler.   At each point, I lined up a rubber stopper and used an extra long screw to use the pre-existing holes.  When done, the underside of the front lip ended up looking like this:

But this was back in October of 2013!  Quite frankly (and yes I don't drive this car that much) I had forgotten about these, although the couple of times I recall scraping the front, I remember thinking "I wonder how those rubber stoppers are working? Oh well..."

Today however, I had a chance to look underneath when doing a minor project (to be posted soon), and found this:

The lip spoiler still looks good (ok it's dirty) but these rubber pieces worked as designed!  That is, they sacrificed themselves by being the lowest point on the front lip, hitting the ground/road first, and obviously lifting the lip out of danger's way!

So yay! Finally something that works.  Oh, and as for what I was doing working on my car, check back in a few days...

Mini Aero Project - OK So That Didn't Work... What Was I Thinking?

So in my quest to modernize the car, in addition to mechanical and electrical items, I stumbled upon this:

Courtesy: http://parisworkingforart.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/lexus-lfa/

This is the driver side rear view mirror from the Lexus LFA - note it has the horizontal strakes built in, presumably to better manage airflow going around the car.  So I began to wonder if there might not be an easy to way to replicate this on one's existing mirror?

I found this:

From the manufacturer's description, this appears to be just what I was looking for!

Apparently, with the strategic application of these double stick tape rubber pieces, you can straighten out the flow of air around your car, and in the process, reduce wind noise!

For less than US$8.50 (JPY 830), this was too good not to try.

So while June is rainy season in Japan, on a sunny day I broke out the can of KR4 spray paint (which I still have left over from the fluidic nozzle mod) and spray painted the two pieces for the mirror in the hopes that they would blend in fairly decently.

Then on a trip to Chiba prefecture just today (to implement Step 1 of my long awaited audio upgrade... stay tuned, pun intended) I had the opportunity to try these pieces out.  Mounting was as simple of finding a place to put them, peeling off the double stick tape, and sticking them on:

On the B Pillar

This was the only place this piece would stick on the door sail

You can see the knob sticking out off the bottom of the mirror

And then it was a matter of driving to see what the difference was.

The verdict?

Uh... well... I could NOT tell the difference - not because these don't work - maybe they do - but because the road noise and engine noise coming in from the firewall area, plus the sound of the exhaust, basically made it too loud for me to hear any wind noise. For my audio upgrade, while I did lay down sound deadening as well as undercoating looks like I will have to do the firewall...

I even drove (a bit ?? lol) over the speed limit, in the hopes that at really fast speed wind noise would be more apparent - but no difference.  The only thing I DID notice, however, was that my BNR34 rear diffuser was working quite nicely - sending up a rooster tail of water at speed (it was raining quite hard by the time I was driving back home today).

Thankfully, again this aero mod cost me less than 850 yen to try.... maybe I can find a Prius to try it out on...

BNR34 Rear Diffuser Project, Part 5: Done!

While taking photos of the various pieces that had to be fitted to make the diffuser fit, I realized from the following photo, the rust on the leading metal edge of the diffuser really bothered me.

That, and I also realized that I was simply ignoring another problem, the rust on the inside fin mounts:

So off to the hardware store I went, searching for the Japanese equivalent of Rust-Oleum StopsRust, the paint that you spray on and which slows down the progression of rust (it was too much work to actually strip down all the rust and then respray). I couldn’t find a spray product, but did find something in a can that’s used for black iron fences, etc.

So, I took off the diffuser, and painted all rusted surfaces with this anti-rust paint in the hope that this would at least slow down the spread of the rust that’s already there. If of course it’s too late, well at least I have the stainless brackets and other parts from the RB Motorsports kit that can probably be used in their place.

Looks much better, right?

And, since I had the diffuser off, I decided to see if I could do one more mod.  I remember reading in GTR Magazine about a shop that installed a red F1 style rear LED in the center bracket, and found two examples on Minkara.  (Here's the other).

But, I’m not about to spend 34,000 yen (plus that was a limited edition run of 10 plus units) on this! So I searched on Rakuten and first found this:

Not bad at 900 yen, but the reviews were mostly all bad....

But given that the dimensions I could work with were:  about 6cm for the space between the body of the car and the diffuser, and about 3cm between the leading edge of the diffuser and the bumper, I found instead a rectangular one with better dimensions: 

Once ordered it quickly arrived - and though I'm sure it probably costs less than $5 in the US (and even less than that in China), unfortunately it was a bit more than that here...

So as you can see it had this clip attached to it. Initially I was not going to use this clip, but then decided that, instead of making my own brackets, it might be better to figure out a way to attach it using this clip – either to the car body or to the diffuser itself.

After some thought, I realized that to attach this LED to the car body would require new holes to be drilled, or the diffuser stays would have to be modifed.  It would probably be easier to attach to the LED light to the diffuser itself, so that's what I decided to do.

I found a stainless steel (so it wouldn't rust) bracket with holes, which bolted on nicely to the end bolts of the rear-most bolts of the two inside fins (which are spaced apart exactly 46 cm!) on the inside top surface of the diffuser (you can also see the formerly rusted inside fin mounts now painted black here too):

Then, using the clip that came with the LED light, I was able to test fit it by slipping it (temporarily) on like this:

I was envisioning I would be able to attach it all so it would be like this:

But I then realized that I had to do something to prevent the LED lamp and its clip from slipping off the stainless bracket - so I decided to use a "V" shaped rubber piece with adhesive on both inside surfaces between which I sandwiched the stainless bracket.  The two bolts shown here were then used to center the LED clip on the stainless bracket:  

So it ended up looking like this:

And then to prevent the whole contraption from slipping around and thus possibly falling off, used some silicon adhesive on the side that would contact the diffuser:

After I bolted this whole contraption onto the diffuser (again using the two rear-most bolts of the inside fins), I temporarily re-attached the diffuser to see how it would fit.

Looks pretty good, huh!

Now all that was left was to wire it up to the lights. This I'll cover in a future post, because it took some time to get right.   In any case - finally - here is the finished result, in day light! Comments, critiques, and questions most welcomed!

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!