Hello from the UK

[Colonel Mullet]

Hello from Norwich, England!

I found a link to this site on evolutionm.net and thought I'd register as I love Evos and really love Northern California! The wife and I have visited SF and the surrounding area a couple of times and we'll be coming back in April to do a proper tour, going from SF up the coast to Oregon and back down to Sacramento. So, any local tips on great roads where we can thrash a rental car to within an inch of its sorry life would be appreciated!

Anyway, this is just me saying hi as I continue to browse this site and gradually grow utterly, insanely jealous of you lucky, lucky people who get to drive your Evos on such fantastic roads around such beautiful scenery every day :D

Some pics to share, in return for looking at all yours:

My old Evo 6...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/mick1.jpg

...which was traded in for this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/3110nsr.jpg

And the wife's Evo 7 GT-A (now sadly sold :()
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/smalllake.jpg

[ZK]

Welcome!

One thing you have over us is that we do not get Skylines in the USA. :(

[CupertinoRedEvoVIII]

welcome and enjoy your stay at SF you will luv it. You will see whole bunch of us driving around in our favorite car

[wilson1]

Hello and welcome!

Nice skyline you have there. :D

[DnB_design]

Do you have any more pic's of the Evo 6 ???..... i love um...and the Skyline !

[L84AD8]

Welcome to NCE... Nice rides... :bow:

[gqpenguin]

man, I'll trade you my evo 9 for that skyline!

[Colonel Mullet]

Thanks for the welcome! We are really looking forward to coming over again and I'm sure we'll see a few Evos on our travels.

As for the GTR - well, it is a great car but in 9 out of 10 driving situations here in the UK the Evo is better.

Finally, a few more pics of the 6 for DnB_design...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/mick2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/mick4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/mick3.jpg

[L84AD8]

Got anymore pics of the GTR? 8)

[cooliodb]

Welcome to NCE.....very nice GTR :D

[Colonel Mullet]

OK, some more pics - didn't want to spam this forum with pics of some crappy Nissan but as they were requested... :D

Before fitting the Nismo skirts and Trust springs:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/04.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/02.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/03.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/01.jpg

At school where I work, with a colleague's supercharged S2000. The kids love us! :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/s22.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/s21.jpg

With full Nismo kit & Trust springs. No front splitter as my drive is too steep!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/3110nsf.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/3110osf.jpg

The joys of UK weather...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/rear1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/Colonel_Mullet/front.jpg

[DnB_design]

Thanks for the pic's ! i think i am in love ! :)

[dohcvtec]

Nice GTR! I want one. :)

[EvoVIII]

Nice GTR! I want one. :)
they are coming, give it a few more years :wink:

[redtydsf]

OMG :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: nice!

[L84AD8]

Nice pics of the GTR. What you got under the hood??? 8)

[Colonel Mullet]

Nice pics of the GTR. What you got under the hood??? 8)

Not much, really. At the moment it's got induction, downpipes, decat and exhaust plus Apexi Power FC and Greddy boost controller running just under 1.2bar (I think that's around 17psi). The standard turbos are still in place which are the main limiting factor as the ceramic wheels can't take higher boost, so current power is only around 400hp. I hope to change the turbos to something like HKS GT-SS and get the cams, injectors and intercooler uprated - with a remap that should see around 550hp which should be nice and driveable and not kill the transmission.

I have to say, though, that with the extra weight and long gearing a 400hp GTR does not really feel substantially quicker than a 300hp Evo, at least until you get above 100mph. Certainly for most normal driving situations the quick take-off in the Evo would give you the edge. In the past, this wasn't so much of an issue as it always used to be cheaper and easier to get power out of the RB26. However, given that many tuners are now getting bigger HP out of their Evo 9s for similar mods to mine, the RB26 engine has clearly been overtaken in the cheap power stakes. And with serious 4G63 power being pushed ever higher all round the world, the RB26's reputation for superior big-power tunability doesn't look set to last much longer either.

So, whilst the GTR looks fantastic, its reputation is probably somewhat overblown. It is funny when every kid you see automatically assumes you've got 1000hp though. Just have to make sure you don't race them at the lights and shatter their illusions. :D

[L84AD8]

Nice pics of the GTR. What you got under the hood??? 8)

So, whilst the GTR looks fantastic, its reputation is probably somewhat overblown. It is funny when every kid you see automatically assumes you've got 1000hp though. Just have to make sure you don't race them at the lights and shatter their illusions. :D

:lol: The weight to HP ratio is not good but I still love the GTR. Do they still have the lower models GTS and GTS-4 there where you are at? Do they use the RB26 in those? I know the GTS-4 were single turbo'd and GTS was NA Skyline. Do you guys get the 4-door versions over there? Both of my friends had a 91 Skylines GTS-4 and it was pretty quick. One had 4 dr and the other had a 2.

[jdmgraphiteMR]

wow i really like your Gt-R and your evo 6 and your 7 they are all nice! and Welcome to nce enjoy your stay in sf its a great place

[Colonel Mullet]

Do they still have the lower models GTS and GTS-4 there where you are at? Do they use the RB26 in those? I know the GTS-4 were single turbo'd and GTS was NA Skyline. Do you guys get the 4-door versions over there?

We have just about every kind of Skyline over here - even though only a tiny number were sold officially in the UK, it's been possible to import them straight from Japan. Recently, it's become more difficult to get later models (under 10 years old) into the country as they changed the rules, but there are apparently still ways to do it. I think one loophole is to register the vehicle as a motorhome (RV) - there was a very funny story doing the rounds about some guy who apparently fitted a cooking stove and folding bed into a GTR just to get it through! Fortunately, my car was already in the country before they changed the rules.

The post-1989 GTRs (R32, R33 and R34) were the only models to get the RB26 twin-turbo engine (from the factory, at least). The other models have had a variety of different engines, usually being various combinations of 2.0 or 2.5 capacity and N/A or single-turbo. We have quite a lot of R34 GTTs and R33 GTS-Ts over here which are both 2.5 single-turbo and RWD. 4-doors are pretty rare but there are a few around. Stageas (the estate version) are almost never seen - there's only a handful in the country.

Is it completely impossible to get GTRs in the US, or is it just CA? I seem to recall something about a company called Motorex importing them for a while but there was some question over the legitimacy of their business. I know the RB26 emissions are pretty 'bad' (even before my illegal de-cat :lol:) so I guess that may have something to do with it?

P.S. Thanks to everyone for the welcome and nice comments about the cars. :D :D

[L84AD8]

Yeah Motorex got some issues. Apparently alot of military folks stationed in Japan have been importing cars i.e. Skylines, Sylvias, etc. through them. There have been numerous complaints and pending claims/lawsuits filed against them currently for stealing parts off their cars/reported cars stolen. If I recall one member still has not received his car after a nearly year he left Japan and got stationed here. They kept giving him the run-around i.e. car not yet ready/never returns his calls.

I was planning on bringing one back when I lived there. You can get them at a pretty cheap price there used. My buddies got theirs for $5K. The thing is you gotta pay anywhere from $15-20K just to convert them to meet US regulations. :( I got lucky and found an R33 GTR for $20K. But if you add the conversions and stuff... thats a $35-40K car. At the time, I think they were selling these cars for like $60K and up so Moterex was making a profit off of these. If you didn't want to pay the conversion fees, you would have to register it as a show car so you can't register or even drive that bad boy. :evil: I decided to avoid the pain in the ass hassle and back then cash flow wasn't as good as it is now. :evil: