Soarer-Dom

I’ve been into cars for most of my life, and I understand that dragsters do it to melt their tyres for grip when taking off, but why do people do burnouts on the road with road tyres? I’ve done them before and they did nothing for me - no adrenaline rush, nothing - and I’ve been to the skid meets - where teens stand around in a circle and watch someone do a burnout until the cops show up. Woo… you’ve floored a car with the brakes on. Well done..

Did you know that most Bayside Blue Skylines came off the production line with a black chassis? The exterior panels were painted blue while most engine bays are black with a bit of overspray around the edges.

Despite being one of the most reliable cars out there, interior parts in Skylines do wear out - the three worst examples are: The air conditioning vents The seat bolsters The handbrake leather The steering wheel What generally happens with the steering wheel is the top of the rim gets sun damaged and worn out from contact and eventually splits open. This happened in my R33, while in my R34 the outer layer is starting to disintegrate - every time I go for a long drive I get little black specs in the palms of my hands.

With summer approaching in the Southern Hemisphere, now is the time to be looking at convertibles and targa-tops. Very 90’s and like my Del Sol it has an electric targa top, but I’m not sure how rare it is or if it’s a Japan-only option. This is the sort of car you just want to take to the beach everyday.

Keiichi Tsuchiya drives an Autech K’s MF-T Silvia (250hp) when a Nissan Silvia K’s shows up to challenge him (220HP). Of course he has to give the weaker car a head-start. Intense race between a Zenki and Kouki S14 and an S15.

If you read my last post about the 12 cars I’d most likely own, then you might have seen the tail light and a mention of this. This is a Nissan Skyline R32 Autech Version - it is a 4-door R32 GTS-4 with the engine swapped for an RB26DE making 220HP. It is specially tuned to run without a turbo, with ITB’s and extractors to aid with throttle response.

You may have seen photos of them in brochures on articles where they often only give you photos of a perfect-looking car, renders, partial or small images of the car which often make it look better than real life. After a quick search, I found a Style-A for sale at Garage-R in Japan. I’m not in Japan so these images are from the dealer - but they give you a raw look at the Style-A.

The common areas that Skylines and Stageas tend to rust are: Door Mirrors Strut Towers Under Front Windscreen near the Doors A-Pillar near the Door Hinges Around Rear Windscreen Around the Boot Seal Where the Spoiler meets the Bootlid Around the High Stop Lamp Around the Rear Wheel Arches The bottom of the Rear Quarter Roof Trim Strips on Sedans

On most Skylines the lights are indented, but they are less so in at the top. Above are my tail lights and they sit about 2-3mm inwards at the top and 20mm in at the bottom. The R33 tail lights have a cone-shape inside while the glass bulges out like a bubble. R33 coupes have the indicator below the light housing and the GT-R only has one reverse light.

If you are a fan of the Nissan Silvia, you would know that the one to get is the K’s Edition for the S13/14 or the Spec-R for the S15. Let’s ignore the 240SX because that’s like the hillbilly cousin of the Silvia. Anyone who knows everything about Silvias would have heard of the legendary SR20VET engine - while the SR20DET makes up to 250PS from factory, the additional Variable Valve Lift version came with 280PS and 309nm out of the box - that’s as much as an RB25DET in an R33/R34.

Mercedes-Benz has AMG, Fiat has Abarth, Ford has FPV and Dodge has Mopar. These are the marques that turn ordinary vehicles off the production line into blistering fast performance vehicles. Nissan on the other hand has a lesser-known marque called AuTech (Automobile Technology). One could try to argue that NisMo (Nissan Motorsports) is Nissan’s performance vehicle brand, however Nismo is a sector of the Nissan brand much like Audi’s RS class.

Like a younger sibling, these engines are from the same family as their famous counterparts, but are just as capable, and are usually the second choice. This list will show you what the alternative engines you should consider are. Toyota 1JZ-GTE The 1JZ-GTE is the smaller version of the JZ engine. It was slightly smaller than the 2JZ, being only a 2491cc however on paper it made the same output of 280HP.

Below is British Leyland of the same year.

I didn’t know until now that The Chevy Suburban was made in RHD, badged as a Holden and sold in NZ new. The article goes on to say that it is so massive it is almost classed as a semi.

It’s been a while since I last posted one of my dream cars, but that doesn’t mean the drooling has stopped. A week ago I was just roaming through the classifieds when I spotted this.

Hi. There are a few cars that many people love, but I just can’t see what people like about them. To start off, the best-looking car ever designed, according to many magazines:

To begin, yes I did previously mention that I would sell and import a Nissan Laurel Club S Type X Turbo. But this is different - let me explain. The above car is a Club S Type X Laurel non-turbo . That’s right - a car without a turbo. But why? The car below is also a non-turbo. This one is a Laurel 25 Medalist Four - the cheapest one on the Goo.

When someone mentions a Mitsubishi Evolution, there are two images that appear in one’s head: A stanced Mitsubishi A rally car When someone mentions it to me, what I think of are the show-offs who drive them, the high Mitsubishi mileage, and the time a bunch of bogans chased my Subaru down the highway to throw bottles at my car from their Evo. And then I think of my friends who own them - a fvckboy and a criminal - and then I think of a video game I played 15 years ago called V-Rally.

Previously on my dream car: I worried about the compression on the R34 and started looking at other cars to replace it. Today I have what some of you will see as an anti-climax. This is the Nissan Leopard, better known as the Infiniti M30 (if anyone even knows what that is).

A work colleague of mine had been looking at getting a sports car across the ditch. Since no-one can actually check the vehicle for him, he sent the seller on a wild goose chase to get as much information about it. Despite having a rebuilt engine, that 25-year-old Nissan had low compression on one cylinder. Hearing this, it made me wonder what would I do if my R34 had low compression. I immediately jumped onto a few websites to consider my options - Pulsar GTiR, Leopard, Gloria, R31.

Almost every car-person can tell you what an R34 is. JDM fans will tell you that an RPS13 is a 180SX and a PS13 is a Silvia. The Autech 260RS is a WGNC34, and an R33 GTR is a BCNR33… wait just one minute… the Autech Stagea is a Skyline - so why isn’t it a BCNC34? In this highly technical post, I will inform you of what these prefixes from the 90’s and beyond mean. Unfortunately the codes prior to the 80’s were a bit of a dog’s breakfast with the merger of many brands, and amalgamation of different models.

Active Aero is a system seen in many new supercars and sports cars that are desperately trying to claw their way into the supercar segment (Ahem Porsche). The way it works is that when the car reaches a certain speed, the wing at the rear will rise and/or change angle to aid in downforce and change the aerodynamics of the vehicle for stability. In some cases a front spoiler or splitter comes out from hiding to see the world fly past at 100miles an hour - this is how it works in Skylines.

Yesterday I mentioned that I would have traded in my Skyline for an RB20DET R32 that had been tuned by Tommy Kaira. This time around I found an RB25DET Laurel on the local auction website.