Friday Night, Nissan Prince Tokyo Motorsports

I went right after work Friday to pick up my car. And check this out - although taken with an iPhone, I think the photos came out pretty well.



Car was at Nissan to replace the two boots that cover the steering rack - as one was leaking slightly.


Also, I got an alignment done, as the old tires had worn out a bit unevenly.

Maybe it just took some time, but the car looks pretty good with those wheels - at the very least, it shows off the front gold Brembos!

New Wheels, at last!

Well, so here is the story. My friend Miguel was at my place, and we were casually looking at some items on Yahoo Auctions. I had spotted a nice set of RE30s - not my color, being the plain silver, but the bidding was way too low. So, in an effort to cause a bidding frenzy, he convinced me to put a bid in, expecting to be quickly outbid...

We went off to dinner...and when we got back, I had won!

Long story short, Miguel had kept the wheels and the tires that came on them, at his place for a few months. I ordered the glass coating which I had used on my standard rims, and after spending a few hours cleaning the wheels (they were already very clean), we applied the coating today and then mounted the wheels.

Here's one being coated:


(this glass coating stuff is amazing! It actually forms a hard coating that ends up so slick most brake dust can simply be washed off!)


Pretty wheel - but look at that tire! Bridgestone RE55S (S-tires!)


Ok - so what EXACTLY is the difference between the standard rims (17x9.0J, ET30?) and tires (245/45/17), and 18 inch, 9.5J with offset of 12 - wearing 265/35/18 tires?

Front left, before:


Front left, after:


Rear left, before:


Rear left, after:


No good shots of the car yet from the side... I personally am a bit disappointed, not sure if it's the color, but just doesn't look as good as I thought it would - makes the car look smaller than it actually is!

Although - there is a DEFINITE improvement in how the car accelerates and brakes. The front end gets light! and braking is like running into a brick wall now...

A long overdue update... success... and a close call!

Well friends, I am happy to report that Team Gaijin Racing came through with no problems. 12 hours of endurance racing, and no problems other than consuming some oil. Good car, great teammates, and lots of fun. Looking forward to the October 24 6 hour endurance race at Ebisu East again. Again, the details can be found here: http://tgrdatalog.blogspot.com/

Ok - now back to R33 GT-R land. I've been avoiding driving my car, not only to save on gas, but because the weather has been terrible, and I'm trying to avoid putting unnecessary mileage on my car.

So last Saturday, I decide to drive down to Camp Zama to work on the Team Gaijin Prelude... the GT-R barely started (I really need to buy that Optima battery) and then I discovered that while driving down the expressway, the steering seemed to be a -bit- off, slightly to the left. There was a funny sound from the engine too, maybe a belt slipping a bit?

When I got back and parked - I looked down at where my car had been and discovered a reddish looking fluid. However, there were no leaks under the car, but when I checked, the power steering fluid level was low.

So the next day in between running errands I took the car to Nissan Shinagawa and explained the potential power steering fluid problem.

Well lo and behold, they found this:


Looks like the power steering fluid had accumalated in the boot, and was leaking out of a really small hole. Luckily not an expensive part, about 2000-3000 yen, so I ordered one for the other side as well, and will have them both installed by them when it comes in.

What was more of a problem, I think was this:



I believe that is part of the steel cord showing through! Uh, that's kinda dangerous - at the very least no more aggressive driving! But it lasted a good long time - almost 4 years - these RE01Rs were the first tires I bought for the car, replacing the crap Dunlops that were on the car when I bought it used. Well, I guess this means I'd better get some new tires quickly! I plan to do so this weekend. How? Stay tuned...

What I've been getting ready to do - go racing!

http://tgrdatalog.blogspot.com/
Check out our live updates on Saturday!!

Some Nice Professional Photos of My Car

Thanks to my friend Dino for taking pics of my car a few weeks ago at Daikoku and posting on Speedhunters:

http://www.speedhunters.com/2009/07/gallery_gt_gt_gt_r_meeting_daikoku/

Here's one:

Copyright Dino Dalle Carbonare. Used here with his permission. Duplication or any use prohibited.

Check out the link for other photos. And read the comments - kinda scary people know who I am!

Picked up my car today...

Right after I installed my hard pipes, on the WAY HOME, I discovered yet ANOTHER oil leak. I took it to the Nissan dealership the next day (Monday), only to discover that yet again, it was another oil leak from the rear turbo.

So - apparently the Mine's turbo elbow does not have the connecting bits to connect to the bracket that is on the standard parts. So, without any securing, the parts vibrate, eventually putting too much stress on the joint, which eventually cracks.

The guys at Prince Tokyo Shinagawa decided (after I asked them to look into it!) that braided steel lines would be the best way to go.

They got APP (Aviation Performance Parts, I think) to custom make two hoses, one for the front turbine, and one for the rear (different lengths and connectors). See attached.



Here is Yamada-san (my favorite mechanic!) showing the standard hard tubing front and rear oil lines to the turbos. You can see where there are brackets which ares supposed to mount to the turbo outlets.


By the way - after driving other cars, like Miguel's FD and the race team Prelude - wow the GT-R sure is a solid car. EVERYTHING about my car is heavy, solid and secure! And the power... although I have to admit the Honda engine revs more freely, the power, the brakes, the balance on my car (I'm biased) is so much better! Welcome home, GT-R! I missed you!

HKS Intercooler Hard Pipes

Well after that fiasco at Fuji Speedway on the 5th, I decided I needed to install intercooler hard pipes.

So here it is, installation of HKS hard pipes. I tried to shop around, and found that essentially, there were only three companies that made intercooler hard pipes - Nismo, HKS, and Greddy. Of these, the Nismo kit contained only 3 pipes, but cost more than the others (because the fourth piece from the turbines into the intercooler is a separately purchased one piece pipe). The Greddy and the HKS were comparable price-wise, but it looked to me that the HKS were slightly better made, AND I figured the purple silicon connectors would match with the Mine's engine cover.

So here is how it happened:

The box with the magic 3 letters:


close up:


wow, a bunch of shiny bits:


after removing the pipe on the left side:


Right side of engine bay:


Here is the inside left fender - mesh is for the oil cooler. This entire lining had to be removed to access the area to install the left front hard pipe (see next photo):


Here is the new hard pipe in place of the one that blew off:


Will post up pics of how it all looks in the engine bay very soon!