New Car - New Life - New Challanges

[Ares Helix]

Our species, at least in more recent times, is obsessed with
the idea of time travel. It's a holy grail for science and a
cornerstone of science fiction writing.
Whether we need to know the future to predict the Weather or
the winning lottery numbers, to travelling back in time to
right wrongs, see past loved ones or MESS UP THE TIME STREAM,
as a race we're fascinated by it (causality be damned!)
What would you do given the chance?
Head back to the future to see what it's like?
Go ride a Dinosaur?
Flying deLorean?
Whilst time travel is out of reach for most of us, the team
at Nissan & more specifically, Nismo, have you covered in a
very specialized way.

Given the popularity of Nissan's RB engines - most notably the
Skyline GT-R's RB26-DETT - the aftermarket support has stayed
strong long after production of them finished in around 2002.
It's no secret that Japanese performance car enthusiasts put
the engine near the top of the food chain (if not at the top)
with Toyota's answer to it, the 2JZ-GTE, usually somewhere on
the same list!
"So if I want to time travel, i just use a Turbo straight six?"
"Well, kinda but not in the way you'd think"

If you went to a manufacturer of "things" and asked them to
make you a one off "thing" it will likely cost a lot.
If get together with a few people who also want that "thing"
and get a group buy going, it will likely cost less. Scale of
economy - the manufacturer can spread the costs of their work
across the units made, bringing the per unit cost down and
making the whole process more economical.

With this in mind, in 2017 Nissan announced the creation of the
Nismo Heritage Parts program - whereby Nissan would dust off the
original molds and get to making RB's again!
":O"
"IKR!!!"
The initial roll-out of the program just covered the original
Godzilla, the BNR32 (1989 - 1994) and in broad sweeps, covers
things like body panels, wiring looms and main engine components.
In short, they've had a look at what most people need but can't
get from aftermarket suppliers.
Following on from this, in 2018 they found some more of the old
dies and announced that they were expanding the lineup to the
R33 & 34.
Included in the list are two engine block options; Either the
standard block or the somewhat legendary N1 block (for significantly
more dinero!)
The N1, having been built specifically for race environments,
is significantly tougher than the standard block and is widely
regarded as the go to block for any really serious modification.
Surprisingly (especially to me) the pricing of these heritage parts
is in line with where other companies prices are for similar
parts. The difference? These are brand new and in terms of engines,
that's a massive bonus, as you never know the condition something
that's been sitting in the back of a storage room for years.

Whilst still too expensive for my meager earnings, it's heartening
to see large companies recognizing their own customers and a great
tip of the hat to the glories of the RB's illustrious history.

So if you're up for some time travel, check out the link below to
be transported back to the Mid-Nineties, non-translated webpage!
(yep, non-translated. Told you time travel was involved)

[Ares Helix]

Heh,
helps if i put the link in;
https://www.nismo.co.jp/heritage_parts/

[Ares Helix]

When I was a young Warthog,
(When HE was a young WartHOOOOOG)
I used to make things out of Lego. Lots of things.
Things I didn't even understand. Mainly out of spaceship Lego cos i'm a big
Sci-Fi geek. Giant space scorpion things, planetary bases, moon buggies
- i made a bunch of random crap.
When I look back on that i think that i had some amazing designs but
mechanically they didn't work well and would, in the instance of the ground
vehicles, lead to many trips to the chiropractor. I didn't understand that the
wheels were held on to the car through suspension, not just an axle. I couldn't
grasp things such as "engine bay" or interior layout. Looking back i guess they
were more drones or ai units and maybe i was ahead of my time (haha) or
more likely, i was a geeky little kid having fun with Lego.
Either way, my designs were cool (says me) but nowhere near perfect.

In the car world, engineers or designers will often come up with concept vehicles.
Flights of fancy brought to life by incredible, passionate people who often work
long hours outside of company time, on projects they WANT to see turned into
a reality. It's how some of the greats came into being; the Jaguar E-Type, Shelby
Cobra, various Ford GT's and more recently the Toyota FT1. It's even led to
Polyphony Digital's vision GT ideas in Gran Turismo games showing off some
seriously crazy ideas! This is where we get the term "Concept car" it's an idea,
a notion, an indication of not only what is possible but of things we can't even
conceive of, the cutting edge of motoring rendered into something tangible that
you can see, that you can touch, that you can experience.
In a world obsessed with SUV's and family motoring, i applaud any manufacturer
for daring to dream in this way.

The downside of this creative process is that, if the concept proof becomes a
manufacturing project at some point along the way physics will dictate the
shape will likely need changing to be more aerodynamic and potentially less
cool but it doesn't stop there.
Once physics has had its way, the accountants step in asking pesky things such
as: who will buy this? Does it really need all that? What about this stuff, could
we use this instead? It can be considered a bad thing BUT it's necessary to
make cars actually affordable in some sense. I point out the A90 Supra / BMW
Z4 fracas that's currently going on. Yes they're basically the same car but if
BMW and Toyota hadn't collaborated, we wouldn't have either of them which
to me is the bigger shame.

When the accountants got to the RB26 they really had a rough day. For all the
RB engines vaunted reliability, potential and the aftermarket support for them,
the engines have noticeable deficits when compared to other options.
I've previously mentioned the lack of variable timing that can be corrected by
aftermarket options only, there's also the oil pump's drive collar being a bit short
on first series R32's that had a nasty habit of stopping the oil pump, usually with
catastrophic results.
Less obvious is the CAS or Crank Angle Sensor which is responsible for providing
crankshaft position to the ECU to control ignition timing (making sure the spark
plugs fire when they're supposed to)
Nissan decided to base this information off a sensor mounted to the Exhaust
Camshaft which works well in theory, however as the Camshafts are run off belts
this can lead to issues.
Not only do belts stretch and deform over time but just in their operation they are
prone to movement both forward and back due to the belts being jerked suddenly
upon starting and shut down that can throw out their timing by a long way!
The long and the short - they aren't all that accurate.
Ross performance have the solution here, a new sensor setup that uses a timing
wheel installed on the crankshaft itself to more accurately control things.
It's one of those little things that improves efficiency and baseline accuracy, allowing
further improvements to be more effective.

So yeah, this is on the steadily lengthening modification list!
I can't wait to actually get things moving on these upgrades but first, a word from
our financial department!
"Oh, right, ahem, YOU BROKE"
Back to saving for me!

[Ares Helix]

I have an apology to make, one i've already made on social media recently but one i feel
should be echoed in as many places as i have access to.

If you have suffered or are suffering from toothache, I am truly sorry.
If i know you, i may have not fully understood the situation previous to recent events.
Hopefully i didn't come across as dismissive of your plight.
If i don't know you personally, i am still just as sorry and hope you can find relief and a
long term solution soon.

In case the above was a bit obscure, i've recently been struggling with near debilitating
pain from a tooth with a hole in it, thanks to a neighboring wisdom tooth growing into it.
It's now been extracted but i'm struggling to eat harder foods and still living off pain killers.
YAY!
With more dental work looming all plans for this year's upgrades and modifications are
very much on hold, which is enough to give me a whole other type of headache.
"Life is what happens when you're making other plans" and all that.

The real kicker (and believe me, i'm kicking my own arse hard about this) is that if i had
been more on to keeping my chompers clean and on top of dental appointments, i could
have potentially saved my toof and a lot of physical and financial pain.
The same can be said about the ridiculous paint on the silly purple car in the garage.
I've mentioned the Midnight Purple 3 paint previously. It gets quite a few comments (some
of them positive!) yet people don't realize that the paint itself can not be touched up or
blended. A scratch or stone chip means a whole panel will need to be repainted and, at
175,000km, my Skyline has many paint chips and scratches.
MANY.
Most were present before it was mine but a good number have popped up in the last six
years. I do wish the previous owner had taken care of things the way i should have taken
care of my teeth but i get it, life quite often takes us in different directions than we had
planned.

The money no object option would be to get the whole thing resprayed and ceramic coated,
with skirts, rear pods and a new set of non-UV-cracked headlight lenses to finish things off.
The money i have option is to try to keep things from getting worse.
As such, i've driven the car three times this year (This makes me a bit sad to be honest)
and have recently given the thing a full wash with a polymer coat kindly given to me by one
of my work's suppliers.
The stuff, Rejex from CorrosionX went on like wax and buffed up well, so so far, so good but
this really is a stop gap until i find money to get things sorted properly.
Or until the thing rusts.
Whichever happens first!

[Ares Helix]

In light of the above, have a pic post washy.
(though you'll likely need to log in to see it)

[Ares Helix]

So 2020 huh?
Wow.
This year has been brutal.
Iran v US.
China v bats.
Global lockdowns and mayhem.
Information given about little green people with fancy vehicles.

I've heard tell that later in the year we can expect the discovery of a lost
continent teeming with plesiosaurs.
Regardless 2020 isn't taking any prisoners and all bets are off as to what's up next.

For me this year has seen the passing of my best lil buddy, shortly before lockdown.
Skittles got very very sick and we ended up having to say goodbye which was devastating
to our little family. Our two young lads miss their big sister and spend good amounts of
the day looking for her, truth be told, so do we.

Things with the R have not really progressed much though there's one small update for
you.
A while ago i began looking at options for a cooling plate for the front of the engine bay,
as a way to improve airflow through the intercooler, radiator and into the front of the block.
Cooling panels come in a fair few forms but most being aluminium or carbon fibre.
They're a simple beast to get your head around:
By blocking off the gap at the front of the engine bay, above and spanning across the IC
and rad, the panel creates a physical barrier to channel air more effectively through them,
improving cooling efficiency when moving.
The down side is that if sitting in traffic temps may rise a little as the heat radiating upwards
is trapped by the panel, which adds to the heat soak most forced induction vehicles are
naturally prone to.
A few months back i made contact with the team at J-Tune who actually had some old stock
of seibon CF cooling panels, including an option for the silly purple car.
It didn't take me long to pop down and grab it, along with an HKS circle Earth system to
strengthen the old lad's electrical systems.
I added a couple of new billet radiator mounts from Franklin engineering, for good measure
(with new bushes too!) so as not to detract from the CF beauty, the old ones were quite flogged!

I'll get some images up later - i took before and after pics for once! but for now, sit tight,
keep your bubble secure and look out for each other as best you can.
Hang in there guys, stay safe!

[Ares Helix]

(let's try again)

Before:

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During:

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After!