R33 GT-R Update: TEIN Mono Flex Suspension with EDFC

What can I say about the Tein Mono Flexes and the Electronic Damping Force Controller (EDFC)? Since that was quite a mouthful, to sum them up in one simple word - just plain AWESOME!

They've totally changed the whole feel of the car, and having the EDFC controller at your finger tips is just such a joy. They have once again made me fall in love with the R33 and I can't help but look forward to the next time that I'm behind the steering wheel. The feeling that you get is actually is quite similar to Audi's Drive Select in terms of damping and traction (Comfort / Sport / Dynamic). This very positive experience came as a pleasant surprise, as prior to purchasing the TEINs, I've never sat in a car that was equipped with TEIN Mono Flex and EDFC.

PIMPIN, a fellow Skyliner who owns a BNR34, is an ardent supporter of these two TEIN products... so much so that he has installed the Mono Flex / EDFC combo in all of his previous rides (including the R34 GT-R)! Even with that sort of endorsement by a close friend, I was still a bit sceptical. I was worried that the TEINs would be stiffer than my old HKS Hiper-Ds - even at it's softest EDFC setting. As for the HKS suspension, I've never been happy with them because the Hiper-Ds are VERY bouncy on less than perfect roads (poor damping) and they don't inspire confidence when taking sharp bends or corners (very floaty to say the least).

Now my main concern was that at first glance, the spring rate on the MonoFlexes are EXTREMELY high. So one would immediatly assume that the ride would be harsher (case in point, the side by side pic found above). Before I go any further, lets have TEIN explain a little bit more about their Mono Flex and EDFC:

The MONO FLEX coilover kit has been developed for entry-level competition motorsports and advanced street driving. Features include 16-way damping force adjustability (combined compression and rebound), a mono-tube internal design, pillowball upper mounts, and EDFC compatibility. There are independent adjustments for ride-height and spring pre-load settings for increased suspension tuning. The new Mono Flex also includes TEIN's latest technological innovation, Micro Speed Valving (MSV) system, which allows the driver to feel a greater difference in damping force adjustments. Designed and developed for consumers seeking aggressive handling on the street and at the track.

The EDFC (Electronic Damping Force Controller) makes it possible for the driver to control the damping force at the touch of a button while in the driver's seat. This is accomplished by controlling stepping motors installed on each shock absorber. Because the damping force can be controlled with such ease, the driver can adjust the suspension to suit all road/track conditions. Thus allowing the driver to fully enjoy the driving experience.

By inputing your preferences into the controller, the new setting will be transmitted instantaneously to those little small boxes that you see on top of all four of the TEIN suspension mounts.

I found out very quickly that setting the EDFC to 0 Front, and 0 Rear resulted in you feeling EVERYTHING on the road surface. Sort of like dragging yourself naked across the street. This prompted me to increase the settings to 12/14. Immediately, the harshness subsided. TEIN did an unbelievable job with their spring and damper design, which resulted in the production of the MonoFlex. With the settings at their softest (16/16) I was able to experience a near stock like ride quality at low speeds. Of course, the same is not true when I bumped the EDFC up to 0/0 once again. You felt everything, and it hurt. Definitely not the sort of setting that one would want when cruising down inner city roads. On smooth highway asphalt though, the 0 / 0 literally blew me away. I could easily carve corners at significantly higher speeds than I ever did with the HKS Hiper-Ds. The TEINS seem to make the car that bit more predictable and gave me the confidence to push the car slightly closer to the limits. They also help in the traction department especially when launching the GT-R, as the rear is squats easily due to the softer damper.  I reckon 0 / 0 would be superb on a track like Sepang, where you really get to test the TEINs to the maximum of their ability.

HIGHLY recommended.

Rainbow tyre well thanks to the yellow of Whiteline and Goodridge, blue of Cusco and green of TEIN. Soon to be joined the matt silver of Nismo (strengthened lower rear A-Arm).

R33 GT-R Upgrade: Cusco Adjustable Rear Upper Arms

Suspension upgrades are like a bowl of delicious french fries. Once you start, you can't stop consuming / installing them. Seriously addictive. 

This isn't an act of superflous spending on my part, for as I have said in my previous entry, the rubber bushing on most of the GT-R's factory mounts are in a poor state and therefore need to be replaced. They have after all been on the car for the past 15 years! Hence, this is more of an exercise in necessity instead of greed.

Once I had swapped in the Sun Line Racing Front Pillow Camber Arms and felt an instant improvement in the GT-R's handling, I decided to plunk down some more moola on a used set of Cusco Adjustable Rear Upper Arms. Thanks to Eu Jin from JDM Auto Link for supplying the said item which looked near brand new.

So whats so great about the Cusco unit? Well, the overall benefits are very similar to the Sun Line Racing arms but I'll let RHD Japan explain further:

"The CUSCO Adjustable Rear Upper Arm Links Nissan will provide proper camber angle and improve you cars movement in hard turns on the track. Prevents irregular tire wear and holds tire to the asphalt, improving traction. The good alignment will enable better traction as well". 

 The Cusco rear upper arm and the factory Nissan unit - the bushing too was pretty worn out

The Cusco unit installed on the driver side rear wheel well

Remember what I said about suspension upgrades and how its hard to stop oneself from installing more? Well, I've ordered the following items and they'll be arriving some time soon from Japan :).

NISMO Strengthened Rear Lower A-Arm Set

"The NISMO Rear Lower A-Arm Set - Strengthened R33 is part of the NISMO Suspension Link Series and were created by NISMO to provide true suspension performance for Nissan drivers. Included are the strengthened bushings to provide better feedback through cornering to make the vehicle more predictable. These are for true suspension performance, and are recommended to anyone using sport suspension and tires. The Nismo Strengthened Rear Lower A-Arms are a great way to refresh your vehicle`s suspension components by removing the aged arms that came stock from the factory. All units come in the Nismo silver color. These are stronger than the standard Nismo units because of an added plate on the underside to provide more strength against pressure and stress". - RHD Japan

CUSCO Adjustable Pillow Ball Tension Rods

"The CUSCO Adjustable Pillow Ball Tension Rods Nissan stop the movement and flex that change the geometry on the front suspension under hard braking and cornering and drifting. These Cusco Adjustable Pillow Ball Tension Rods help with stability and predictability when drifting or racing the car hard. They also improving initial turn-in response. They are designed to work with stock suspension or nearly every aftermarket system available". - RHD Japan

R33 GT-R Update: Sun Line Racing Front Pillow Camber Arms

In preparation for a drive up Fraser's Hill, a former colonial-era hill station in the state of Pahang (more info here via Wikipedia Travel), I sent the GT-R in for a suspension realignment.

I had noticed that the car would slowly veer off to the left when running in a straightline, in the absence of any steering wheel input. It turns out that my front upper camber arms were out of whack. The realignment guy said that the bushings on the factory arms were probably worn out and I believed him, seeing as they've been on the car since it left the factory in 1996! Thats some 15 years ago!

So the task for that day was to look for a replacement front upper camber arms, preferably adjustable ones. Why adjustable you might ask? Well for one, it allows you to set the car up for more negative camber and this is always good for track days. It makes it easier for the car to go around corners and it promotes better tyre wear. Some of you might recall that I changed all of my old factory suspension bushings to Whiteline ones, when I first got the GT-R. I should have looked at replacing the arms too, both front and rear. Chalk it up to inexperience!

Now I live in Malaysia, so GT-R parts are not that easy to come by. According to my tuner, the golden age of GT-R ownership in our fair country was some 5 years or so back, when parts were readily available. The R35 GT-R had not arrived yet and vendors heavily stocked up on BNR34 parts, which mostly are plug and play for BCNR33s. So without some effort, I managed to source a pair of used Sun Line Racing Front Pillow Camber Arms. Least I think they are Sun Line Racing units... After inspecting the arms, my tuner said that they were clearly of Japanese make and hence, were worth buying. Anyway, one can't be choosy when supply is short and time is of the essence. What was important was that the arms were adjustable, the rubbers bushing looked pristine and the pair were clearly of superior make.

Now whats so great about the Sun Line unit?

 Heres an excerpt from Nengun:

• R33/R34 model includes four stage camber adjustment, ranging from standard to about -2 degrees
• Camber adjustable highly accurate specific pillow ball

The alignment guy was spot on. These are my old, non-adjustable front upper camber arms. Note the very poor state of the rubber bushing:

Side by side comparison between the new and the old:

The GT-R was sent back in for another round of suspension realigment after the Sun Line arms were installed. Upon taking delivery of the vehicle, I immediately noticed that the car would no longer slowly veer off to the left. Turn in and cornering had also improved - not really surprised, as the dilapidated factory ones were probably slipping, due to the very poor state of the rubber bushings. 

So I was very happy with how things turned out. So happy in fact, that I decided to get Cusco Adjustable Rear Upper Arms and Tein Tension Rods after the Fraser's Hill drive. Will write about these two mods in my next R33 GT-R update.

I've been officially bitten by the aftermarket suspension mod bug!

Amazing R35 GT-R High Speed Crash Video!

Repost courtesy of a fellow R33 Skyliner, King Rat from Adventures in Motoring:

It looked like the black / dark grey R35 was embroiled in a street race with another car, which appears to be a seventh gen Honda Accord Euro R (CL7) or a Volkswagen Jetta Mark 5. This appears to be somewhere in Europe (and I was right - its Moscow).

The R35 was on outside lane during the race and must have ran out of space, as it tried to pass on the inside. Unfortunately, the R35 clipped a stationary vehicle at start of the video and it's right wheel came off (this wheel then rolls away and hits a Chevrolet Cruze on the opposite side of the road).

Upon clipping the car, the R35 swerves into the fast lane and barely misses hitting the Accord. Missing its front right wheel now, the R35 is out of control and smashes into a yellow car and subsequently after that, barrels into a row of stationary vehicles.

Surprisingly, a large part of the R35 survived intact (the left side anyway), as we can see it trundling out of the camera's view, intertia pulling it forward.

Well, what can you say? Clearly racing on public inner-city streets is a big no no, boys and girls.

Update: You can read all about it + pictures at http://www.performancecar.co.nz/news-5900/moscow-street-racing-claims-r35-nissan-gt-r-video 

"The latest addition to our ‘street racing isn’t cool’ file comes from Moscow, Russia where a late model Nissan GT-R exceeded its high limits at the wrong moment and stacked into three parked cars.

While most of us would give our left nut to own a R35 GT-R the driver of this one has no worries tearing through a city street at reckless high speeds. Onlookers claimed he was street racing and failed to flick the car left after passing another car from the right. The result is four damaged vehicles of which three are most likely written off, the worst being an innocent parked SUV that was flung into the air.

Unfortunately for the loose GT-R driver, CCTV cameras caught the antics from two different viewpoints meaning this street racer is fully nicked.

Check out the video of the GT-R crash below, and remember street racing isn’t cool".

R33 GT-R Update: Nismo 320km/h Speedometer Installed

 

Being an old car, the factory R33 GT-R speedometer needed replacing. There were certain tell-tale signs - some of the gauges weren't really all that accurate (the water temp needle for example) and the backlight wasn't as bright as it used to be or should be.

 Nismo to the rescue

Seeing as the car is now capable of reaching higher levels of speed (thanks to the newly rebuilt forged engine), it was time to install Nismo's version of the GT-R speedometer. The reasons being that the max speed limit on the Nismo unit is not stuck at a boring Japanese 180km/h and the rev counter goes all the way up to a whopping 11,000 rpms. Now I'm not sure if I'll abuse the car and push it to those limits, but at least the speed needle won't be bouncing off the 180km/h marker anymore.

And last but not least... When the sun goes down and your sitting in the dark - you turn the ignition key and flick on the headlight switch - at that very moment, you just can't help but feel a sense of satisfaction and pride. It's almost like driving a brand new car, which is true to a certain extent.

Big shoutout to Miguel from NeweraParts.com for helping me with this upgrade.

Spare Engine Rebuild Update: Haltech Platinum Pro

Yesss!!! My Haltech Platinum Pro Plug & Play R33 Engine Management System (including a 3 bar map sensor) has arrived from Australia!!!

 
Decided to switch from my Apexi Power FC with Commander to the Haltech Platinum Pro, due to the following reasons:

• User definable X- & Y-axis for fuel, ignition and boost
• 32x32 high res mapping
• VE Tuning (Volumetric Efficiency)
• MAF (no longer have to balance air fuel mixtures correctly)
• Advanced intelligent knock control
• CAN communication (really works as promised!)
• Closed loop idle control
• Speed density (more power)
• Launch control 
• N-VCT (Nissan Variable CAM Timing Control)

Thats just a few of the Haltech's features. Full details: http://www.haltech.com/store/index.php/plugin-ecu-kits/platinum-pro-kits/platinum-pro-plug-in-nissan-r32-33-skyline-kit.html

The Power FC is no longer in production and is technically a 10 year old technology, reliant on AFM readings (which is a pain to balance for twin turbos) plus it only has 20x20 resolution, does not have a ignition cut feature (fuel cut only) = limited tuning features when it comes to modified higher horsepower engines.

Just got a GoPro HD Motorsports Edition camera!

In a much older entry, I blogged about the pros and cons of the GoPro and Countour HD ultra compact portable cameras.

So I was pretty stoked to find out that I got a GoPro HD Motorsport Hero Edition + GoPro LCD BacPac set (detachable viewfinder screen) as a birthday present! All thanks to my girlfriend! :)

Can't wait to use it on a drive!

Project Time Attack: Nissan S13 Coupe

 

In my previous blog post, I spoke of finding the right car to be turned into a time attack machine. After much deliberation and looking at several makes and models, I've narrowed the field down to one car and thats a 1990 Nissan S13 Silvia Coupe. 

My decision to go with a S-Chassis is primarily down to six factors, some of which were mentioned in the previous posting but will be further extrapolated here: 

• Good, affordable rear-wheel drive base to build up from

Front-engine, rear-wheel drive (FR) cars have a natural tendency to oversteer. Controlled oversteers can technically help you set faster track times but can be very difficult to control.This naturally happens as the rear wheels are used for acceleration, while the front wheels steer the car. Rear wheel drive (RWD) cars tend to balance towards 'oversteer' which sees the front of the car pulling to the inside of the corner (whilst the rear comes out). As some of you might well know from seeing drifters work their magic, some opposite lock, combined with acceleration, can help nip this problem in the butt. Therefore, if given sufficient grip, RWD is near perfect for track  - proof of this being that every major motorsport event in the world uses the FR layout. Even current most popular all-wheel drive (AWD) car in the world today, the Nissan R35 GT-R, has dropped its AWD system in favour of a FR setup, as Nissan seeks to dominate proceedings in the Super GT series. 

• Easy to get power out of the Nissan SR20DET engine

The SR20DET is a highly tuneable engine and its popularity is based on the motor's ability to produce power on the cheap. Also, the SR20's all alloy block, alloy heads, twincams, 16 valves and an intercooled T28 turbo, indicates that the engine possessed technology that was ahead of its time. This makes it a good engine to use in amateur motorsports.

• Option to retro-fit parts from other Nissan models

Something I've learned and come to appreciate after months of GT-R ownership is that, Nissan parts are highly interchangeable. Not only does this feature exist between cars that belong to the same family tree but also with other Nissan cars that were made on a different production line. This is also inter-generational feature - S13 can for example, make use of newer parts that were a standard feature on later model Silvias like the S14 and S15. 

• Massive amount of aftermarket parts

Testament to the popularity and longevity of the SR20DET, the engine enjoys tremendous aftermarket support and is fully backed by all major Japanese tuning houses. Even till present day, its easy to procure new aftermarket parts for an S13, as these items are still in production.

• Huge supply of halfcuts and spare parts that are already in Malaysia

This has to do with the fact that the SR20 was used to power many of Nissan's cars since the early 1990s. Hence, a large supply of halfcuts and parts have made their way onto Malaysian shores. Production numbers of the S13 alone, is staggering - some 251,410 units were built from 1989 to 1998.

• Proven track platform

Furthermore, the track capabilities of the S13 Coupe have been amply showcased at Sepang by Yoong (Ee Yoong Chern) and his HKS Garage R Hiper S13. The car lapped a best time of 2.26:5 at last year's Time to Attack Sepang and was ranked 4th overall. I got to know of Yoong through the Malaysian Skyline fraternity as he owns a R33 GT-R as well. You should see him drive it up Ulu Yam.

These following pics were taken prior to delivery of the car. I purchased the vehicle for a song and it came equipped with some goodies (widebody kit / S15 five lug conversion / R32 GT-R brakes / half cage though). The body is also very straight.

The S13 is currently undergoing a major make over - all of its consumables have been a changed, a JIC adjustable suspension installed, a new S14 gearbox bolted in, a Nismo GT LSD for the rear and lastly, 17" Work +5 offset rims with new tyres to help it steer better. I'm hoping it'll be ready for this weekend, so I could join a jaunt up Gohtong Jaya with the Italia Auto boys.

Ignore the drift, ricey bits. Those will be rectified in due time and a 2.2 stroker kit + Haltech ECU + cams + disco potato will be going into that SR20DET:

New Project: Time Attack Car

With the R33 GT-R rebuild nearing completion, its time to to start a new project. It has always been my intention to purchase, rebuild and track a car. Basically, I'm looking for a road legal track car to carry out time attack runs in Sepang International Circuit (SIC). Now the next question is, what car to get?

Unlike in Australia, the UK or the States, we Malaysians are shafted when it comes to used cars. In Australia for example, you could purchase a decent road legal Nissan S13 or S14 for as little as RM10,000 - RM15,000 ringgit. Due to the high Malaysian import tax on cars (300% import duties on all foreign cars), used car prices are similarly affected. What this means is that a used S13 or S14 will probably cost three times as much in Malaysia a compared to a similar car in Australia. This makes it a challenge for the average person to pursue his or her motoring dream, to build a drift machine or to own a dedicated track car.

We now move on to the question of what make and model would be suitable for a time attack car. I've narrowed it down to a few budget (and not so budget) vehicles, seeing as this should be cost saving exercise. After all, a time attack car would require a further outlay of money in order to make it track ready.

And here are the contenders with their pros and cons:

 

  Nissan S13 Silvia Coupe

Pros

• Good RWD base to build up from
• Easy to get power out of the Nissan SR20 engine
• Option to retro-fit parts from other Nissan models
• Massive amount of aftermarket parts
• Huge supply of halfcuts and spare parts that are already in Malaysia

Cons

• Can be expensive to purchase
• Difficult to find one in good condition and tastefully modified
 

Honda Integra DC2

Pros

• Light weight
• Rigid chassis
• Loads of aftermarket parts available
• Plenty of halfcuts and spare parts that already in Malaysia

Cons

• Its a FWD, meaning the front wheels have to not only steer the car but also slow it down
• A bit expensive to produce big power being an N/A car
• Parts can be expensive

 Mazda MX-5 (First Gen / NA)

Pros

• Extremely capable chassis
• Engine responds well to mods, especially when turbocharged

Cons

• Manual units are rare in Malaysia
• Turbo kit has to be sourced from abroad (costly)
• Not as many halfcuts and spare parts compared to the other cars on this list
• Cars in good condition still command high prices
• Standard 1.6 N/A engine is gutless and seriously lacking in torque

Subaru WRX GC8

Pros

• Great AWD race car platform
• Capable car even in stock form
• Option to retro-fit parts from STI models

Cons

• Expensive to purchase
• Finding one in good condition is difficult
• Parts aren't cheap
• Stock GC8 WRX gearbox is crap
• Full STI conversion costs a lot of money
• Can be expensive to get big power out of the Subaru EJ engine

 Mitsubishi Evo II to VIII

Pros

• Amazing AWD race car platform
• Very capable even in stock form
• Some models are 'race ready' (i.e. Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition)

Cons

• Very expensive to purchase
• Difficult to find genuine Evos in good condition
• Will be expensive to produce big power after a certain point

So which car to get? Find out in the next blog posting!