Japan-Based, Long-Term Observer: Skyline ER34 / BMW E90
Discussion
Hi all,
I'm a Japan-based long-term reader from the UK. I've been lurking here for around 10-15 years, although I can't recall whether this is my original account or not. As far as memory serves me I've never posted.
I've been based in Japan for over four years now, after growing up playing Gran Turismo and watching, at least in my university years, videos of Japanese car culture in awe. So, in 2019 I left my finance job in London, packed up my then worthless currency and headed east. The start had me eager to get back in the driver's seat so I picked up a Fairlady Z (350Z) and started my driving career. Perhaps nine months later I binned-it at the track and that put me on the path to buying my current car, the Nissan Skyline ER34.
As many of you may know, older Japanese car prices are through the roof and are objectively not worth it in most cases. I purchased the Skyline in 2020 as prices were taking off, and paid less than half of what the current going rate is at the Japanese auction houses. That said, I've spent an easy £20-25K on it in parts. The chassis is good now with every supension component changed, I've been through two transmissions, performed a brake system overhaul and installed a 1.5 way diff. The engine is stock besides cooling, because, well, if I can't handle a stock-powered 350Z, why introduce more power to the Skyline.
Driving wise, I used to do a couple track days p/year in the UK at Combe/Brands Hatch. These days I'm doing 10-30 track days p/year as track driving is infinitely more accessible here. There are ten or more race tracks within an hour and a half of where I live and most you can just turn up and drive.
Last year, I made the decision to start planning a move back west, aiming for December 2023. And whilst preparing for a visit in August, I couldn't justify renting a car so picked up a 325I E90 with the N53 engine. Yes, that's right, N53 engine! Bold move. The truth is, most of the research I performed was generic or US-based, so pertained to the N52. I was largely unaware of the HPF system until it was too late. However, the car was dirt cheap at £2.8k including delivery. It has 83k miles, about 500 (7) previous owners and contains six items of service history, four of which are MOTs. Yeah, not great. after evaluating parts costs I considered selling it and getting an N52 model, however, that would have been a lot of hassle with me living on the other side of the world.
Better late than never, I upped my research on the drivetrain; luckily the N53 isn't all that bad, being a derivation of the N52 engine there's lots of crossover in design and parts. So I set off to fix the car up for use as a daily once I return. I'd usually prefer to do the work myself but since that was not possible, I went with my local mechanic whom my family have used for.. well 15-20 years. I am roughly £5.2k deep with this car (including tax and insurance, £6k) and have replaced all six injectors with index 12, fixed two oil leaks, valve cover, and replaced all fluids. Then performed a compression test along with an oil analysis - both of which were within spec. I'll do the NOX sensor (NOXEM), refresh the cooling and ignition system and then assess how terrible the suspension components are once I return. As for the plan for this car, long-term pipe dream is to make it into a VLN race car. For the next 2-3 years it will serve mostly as a daily.
I only have poor-quality pictures of the E90 as, well, it's just an E90.
Anyhow, I've wanted to detail my progression with these cars for a while but haven't been able to find a suitable platform. I will update the progression as it occurs but mainly I'm just preparing the R34 for shipping now, with only a few track days in the plan for the rest of the year.
I'm a Japan-based long-term reader from the UK. I've been lurking here for around 10-15 years, although I can't recall whether this is my original account or not. As far as memory serves me I've never posted.
I've been based in Japan for over four years now, after growing up playing Gran Turismo and watching, at least in my university years, videos of Japanese car culture in awe. So, in 2019 I left my finance job in London, packed up my then worthless currency and headed east. The start had me eager to get back in the driver's seat so I picked up a Fairlady Z (350Z) and started my driving career. Perhaps nine months later I binned-it at the track and that put me on the path to buying my current car, the Nissan Skyline ER34.
As many of you may know, older Japanese car prices are through the roof and are objectively not worth it in most cases. I purchased the Skyline in 2020 as prices were taking off, and paid less than half of what the current going rate is at the Japanese auction houses. That said, I've spent an easy £20-25K on it in parts. The chassis is good now with every supension component changed, I've been through two transmissions, performed a brake system overhaul and installed a 1.5 way diff. The engine is stock besides cooling, because, well, if I can't handle a stock-powered 350Z, why introduce more power to the Skyline.
Driving wise, I used to do a couple track days p/year in the UK at Combe/Brands Hatch. These days I'm doing 10-30 track days p/year as track driving is infinitely more accessible here. There are ten or more race tracks within an hour and a half of where I live and most you can just turn up and drive.
Last year, I made the decision to start planning a move back west, aiming for December 2023. And whilst preparing for a visit in August, I couldn't justify renting a car so picked up a 325I E90 with the N53 engine. Yes, that's right, N53 engine! Bold move. The truth is, most of the research I performed was generic or US-based, so pertained to the N52. I was largely unaware of the HPF system until it was too late. However, the car was dirt cheap at £2.8k including delivery. It has 83k miles, about 500 (7) previous owners and contains six items of service history, four of which are MOTs. Yeah, not great. after evaluating parts costs I considered selling it and getting an N52 model, however, that would have been a lot of hassle with me living on the other side of the world.
Better late than never, I upped my research on the drivetrain; luckily the N53 isn't all that bad, being a derivation of the N52 engine there's lots of crossover in design and parts. So I set off to fix the car up for use as a daily once I return. I'd usually prefer to do the work myself but since that was not possible, I went with my local mechanic whom my family have used for.. well 15-20 years. I am roughly £5.2k deep with this car (including tax and insurance, £6k) and have replaced all six injectors with index 12, fixed two oil leaks, valve cover, and replaced all fluids. Then performed a compression test along with an oil analysis - both of which were within spec. I'll do the NOX sensor (NOXEM), refresh the cooling and ignition system and then assess how terrible the suspension components are once I return. As for the plan for this car, long-term pipe dream is to make it into a VLN race car. For the next 2-3 years it will serve mostly as a daily.
I only have poor-quality pictures of the E90 as, well, it's just an E90.
Anyhow, I've wanted to detail my progression with these cars for a while but haven't been able to find a suitable platform. I will update the progression as it occurs but mainly I'm just preparing the R34 for shipping now, with only a few track days in the plan for the rest of the year.
Beethree said:
Nice thread!
The Skyline looks lovely!
Any particular reason for moving back? Japan often seems like heaven, especially for us car people!
Thank you. I love it but it’s more of a pain these days with the pricing and attention. Had one attempted theft last year.The Skyline looks lovely!
Any particular reason for moving back? Japan often seems like heaven, especially for us car people!
Oh yes, absolutely, I would argue it is the best place in the world for car culture. Ultimate reason is: girlfriend couldn’t hack it out here (she’s European) so moved back to London. I negotiated an extra year in Japan for the car life. Japan is beautiful but an incredibly difficult place to live culturally.
I love the non GT-R Skyline's, it really is quite funny how they've slipped under the radar a bit until recently. Like you said it really is a shame that the price of old Jap stuff is surpassing their worth as an actual car nowadays. I've got an EK Civic with a B16 in it and there's not a single chance I'd build the same car again with how prices are now! I suppose similar to the Skyline and other old Jap metal they have a bit of a cult status now which means scalpers (I think they like to call them selves "Breakers" lol) can run a bit of a monopoly with them.
Hugo Stiglitz said:
Definitely coming back?
How good is your Japanese?
My regret is post Uni not going to Japan for a few years.
Yeah well, not exactly back. I will be transferring internally with my company to their Netherlands office - so close. This assumes the visa goes through, which I'm guessing shouldn't be a problem.How good is your Japanese?
My regret is post Uni not going to Japan for a few years.
My Japanese is pretty bad. I studied a lot for the first two years, made it to N4 (N1 is highest) and then gave up as it became apparent I would be heading back to Europe.
It's a good experience. One of my colleagues moved here from the UK at 39. Although, yes, there's a lot of risk job-wise for non-Japanese with below N2 language ability.
Jelfy said:
I love the non GT-R Skyline's, it really is quite funny how they've slipped under the radar a bit until recently. Like you said it really is a shame that the price of old Jap stuff is surpassing their worth as an actual car nowadays. I've got an EK Civic with a B16 in it and there's not a single chance I'd build the same car again with how prices are now! I suppose similar to the Skyline and other old Jap metal they have a bit of a cult status now which means scalpers (I think they like to call them selves "Breakers" lol) can run a bit of a monopoly with them.
I always just preferred RWD which made the non-GTRs more appealing. Well, that, the additonal simplicity and lower cost. Yeah, agree. I always wanted an AE86 but there is no way I could justify paying current prices for one and then stomach the idea of crashing it on a circuit. I would never buy the Skyline again, which in some ways has made me a bit paranoid about the car and subsequently made it less enjoyable on the track. Edited by LactoseJoe on Thursday 29th June 08:04
LactoseJoe said:
Thank you. I love it but it’s more of a pain these days with the pricing and attention. Had one attempted theft last year.
Oh yes, absolutely, I would argue it is the best place in the world for car culture. Ultimate reason is: girlfriend couldn’t hack it out here (she’s European) so moved back to London. I negotiated an extra year in Japan for the car life. Japan is beautiful but an incredibly difficult place to live culturally.
Is theft a problem in Japan for these desirable JDM icons?Oh yes, absolutely, I would argue it is the best place in the world for car culture. Ultimate reason is: girlfriend couldn’t hack it out here (she’s European) so moved back to London. I negotiated an extra year in Japan for the car life. Japan is beautiful but an incredibly difficult place to live culturally.
Beethree said:
Is theft a problem in Japan for these desirable JDM icons?
I'm kinda shocked if so, if you go onto any UK importer website they have hundreds of Skylines ready to be imported. This isn't including the thousands that attend tracks, car shows and meets. I was under the impression that these cars aren't exactly rare in Japan.Beethree said:
Is theft a problem in Japan for these desirable JDM icons?
Absolutely. Very frequently do I see notifications on social media about stolen cars. The thing is, the Japanese are just such easy targets as theft is/has been rare in Japan. But since the price increases on these cars there are many people seizing the opportunity. Typically they take the car, park in a public lot for a few days to determine whether the car has a tracker, then strip it down/ship it overseas. A fair few seem to end up in Dubai.
On two occassions some people have been snooping around the car at the house. Both times I've been working from home and gone out with the breaker bar and pepper spray.
Sport220 said:
This is by far the coolest thread I've seen on here in a while. Great stuff! That Skyline looks stunning in red. il6 E90s one of my favourite cars too.
I too am fascinated by Japanese car culture and hoping to visit next year.
Cheers, I'll make the effort to document what's left of building the R34 in Japan, along with the trips and track days I have coming up. Once I get back west I'll move on to the BMW, which I want to take a more restoration approach to - see M539 restorations -before mollesting it into a track car. I too am fascinated by Japanese car culture and hoping to visit next year.
You'll have a blast in Japan. Rent a car and hit the mountain roads and take a big suitcase for car parts, you'll be surprised at how abundant parts are - Euro cars included.
Living the dream chap. Don't think I could bring myself to return but everyone's different and I'm sure it'll work out for the best for you!
The 34 looks nice, I always wanted a red one, so painted my old 4 door drift car. I should have picked Active Red though, rather than settling on Palatial Ruby.
What have you done suspension-wise on yours, have you retained HICAS and are you using any adjustable arms? If so, how do you rate them?
I had extended OEM lower arms on my 4 door given it's use case, however my latest 2 door build I'm looking at different options better suited to a fast road/occasional track car.
I’d like some adjustment but don’t fancy spending for the likes of Ikeya Formula etc. I'd also like to stick to rubber bushings rather than rod-ends.
Hope it's ok, some pics of my 4 door before & after, and the current status of my 2 door:
The 34 looks nice, I always wanted a red one, so painted my old 4 door drift car. I should have picked Active Red though, rather than settling on Palatial Ruby.
What have you done suspension-wise on yours, have you retained HICAS and are you using any adjustable arms? If so, how do you rate them?
I had extended OEM lower arms on my 4 door given it's use case, however my latest 2 door build I'm looking at different options better suited to a fast road/occasional track car.
I’d like some adjustment but don’t fancy spending for the likes of Ikeya Formula etc. I'd also like to stick to rubber bushings rather than rod-ends.
Hope it's ok, some pics of my 4 door before & after, and the current status of my 2 door:
SBF said:
Living the dream chap. Don't think I could bring myself to return but everyone's different and I'm sure it'll work out for the best for you!
The 34 looks nice, I always wanted a red one...
Much appreciated. From my experience it takes a special type of person to be able to live in Japanese society; I'm not that person. I'm just here for a good time and to quell my younger demon. TBH, the best way to do Japan is to get a car and spend 3 months p/yr doing the car stuff, then store it the rest of the time. I'll be aiming to do this in the future but obviously the cost is a big factor. The 34 looks nice, I always wanted a red one...
Hicas was about one of the first things to go. I'm just running a lock bar with the OEM tie rods at the rear.
As far as the suspension goes:
Suspension: Blitz ZZR, with Largus 9k front and 7k rear springs (original: 8k and 6k)
Anti-roll bars: Nismo - highly recommend this. It was too boat-like with the OEM ones.
Front
Tension rods: ZSS adjustable with rose joints.
Upper (camber) arms: Cusco
Lower arms: Nismo (so basically OEM)
Tie rods: These were GP Sports reinforced with the spacer for about an extra 2 degrees angle. But when I installed a new rack, it came with OEM tie rods and therefore no spacers. I forgot about the spacers, installed the new rack, and sent the old rack to the manufacturer, although, I really liked that little extra angle.
Rear
Upper (camber) arms: Skid Racing adjustable with rose joints.
Everything else: Nismo.
I really like how it's set up now. It's more or less perfect but I could do with adding the rack spacers again. I have 3 degrees camber up front and 2.3 in the rear. I find I can easily switch between grip and drift sessions depending on my mood. Front tyre wear is bad, I get about 3-4k miles.
That's a pretty impressive build on the four door - looks better than a lot of the drift cars here. Is that the URAS kit? My mate is running one here with about 500hp but the lag is significant; It was a Europe build he brought with him when he moved to JP. He also has extended lower arms that he claims to regret; he ended up with Ikeya Formula for the upper arms.
What's the situation with the two door?
Great pics.
Where in Japan were are based? Assuming from the plates you’re around Nagoya? I’m 12 months into Osaka life (a Brit myself), fully understand your thoughts on the complexities of living here.
The car culture is amazing however I’m often gutted I missed out on being here 5-10 years ago when 200,000 yen got you a Spec-R S15… the prices here are now crazy.
So I settled on an ND Roadster and loving it, suits life here perfectly.
(Sorry for the thread hijack!)
Where in Japan were are based? Assuming from the plates you’re around Nagoya? I’m 12 months into Osaka life (a Brit myself), fully understand your thoughts on the complexities of living here.
The car culture is amazing however I’m often gutted I missed out on being here 5-10 years ago when 200,000 yen got you a Spec-R S15… the prices here are now crazy.
So I settled on an ND Roadster and loving it, suits life here perfectly.
(Sorry for the thread hijack!)
Edited by em177 on Friday 30th June 04:21
Edited by em177 on Friday 30th June 04:22
LactoseJoe said:
Much appreciated. From my experience it takes a special type of person to be able to live in Japanese society; I'm not that person. I'm just here for a good time and to quell my younger demon. TBH, the best way to do Japan is to get a car and spend 3 months p/yr doing the car stuff, then store it the rest of the time. I'll be aiming to do this in the future but obviously the cost is a big factor.
Hicas was about one of the first things to go. I'm just running a lock bar with the OEM tie rods at the rear.
As far as the suspension goes:
Suspension: Blitz ZZR, with Largus 9k front and 7k rear springs (original: 8k and 6k)
Anti-roll bars: Nismo - highly recommend this. It was too boat-like with the OEM ones.
Front
Tension rods: ZSS adjustable with rose joints.
Upper (camber) arms: Cusco
Lower arms: Nismo (so basically OEM)
Tie rods: These were GP Sports reinforced with the spacer for about an extra 2 degrees angle. But when I installed a new rack, it came with OEM tie rods and therefore no spacers. I forgot about the spacers, installed the new rack, and sent the old rack to the manufacturer, although, I really liked that little extra angle.
Rear
Upper (camber) arms: Skid Racing adjustable with rose joints.
Everything else: Nismo.
I really like how it's set up now. It's more or less perfect but I could do with adding the rack spacers again. I have 3 degrees camber up front and 2.3 in the rear. I find I can easily switch between grip and drift sessions depending on my mood. Front tyre wear is bad, I get about 3-4k miles.
Thank you for all the info! I was thinking to replace everything with Nismo equivalents and just for the freshness and then throw some camber adjustable upper arms in. Hicas was about one of the first things to go. I'm just running a lock bar with the OEM tie rods at the rear.
As far as the suspension goes:
Suspension: Blitz ZZR, with Largus 9k front and 7k rear springs (original: 8k and 6k)
Anti-roll bars: Nismo - highly recommend this. It was too boat-like with the OEM ones.
Front
Tension rods: ZSS adjustable with rose joints.
Upper (camber) arms: Cusco
Lower arms: Nismo (so basically OEM)
Tie rods: These were GP Sports reinforced with the spacer for about an extra 2 degrees angle. But when I installed a new rack, it came with OEM tie rods and therefore no spacers. I forgot about the spacers, installed the new rack, and sent the old rack to the manufacturer, although, I really liked that little extra angle.
Rear
Upper (camber) arms: Skid Racing adjustable with rose joints.
Everything else: Nismo.
I really like how it's set up now. It's more or less perfect but I could do with adding the rack spacers again. I have 3 degrees camber up front and 2.3 in the rear. I find I can easily switch between grip and drift sessions depending on my mood. Front tyre wear is bad, I get about 3-4k miles.
My old car was (I think, I can't remember!) +30mm extended lower arms, stock front uppers, longer tie rods from another model (I can't remember which, was from a 4x4 parts supplier so maybe a Patrol?) and then camber adjustable rear uppers.
It was transformed when I threw stiffer ARBs on, was a peach to initiate with just a flick.
LactoseJoe said:
That's a pretty impressive build on the four door - looks better than a lot of the drift cars here. Is that the URAS kit? My mate is running one here with about 500hp but the lag is significant; It was a Europe build he brought with him when he moved to JP. He also has extended lower arms that he claims to regret; he ended up with Ikeya Formula for the upper arms.
What's the situation with the two door?
Thanks! She was a good old girl. Bought when they were £4k landed for a Manual Turbo so I didn't mind slinging it up walls - sold it in 2019ish for bugger all money and then instantly regretted it. What's the situation with the two door?
Was a genuine URAS kit, GTR style rear overfenders, Z tune copy fronts, about 5 different sets of wheels over the years. I went everywhere in it, Scotland, Wales, France, Belgium. Was only hybrid turbo on a stock Neo so about 400hp ish, plenty for how I used it.
The 2 door is a last hurrah really - originally a RB25DE, I'll go RB28, OEM GTR rear quarters, bare shell strip and refresh. I'm about to coat the underside and start to build it back up, low drag Wangan style street car styling, full interior, I'm aiming for as nice a street car as I can build but with plenty of capability for trackdays and so on.
I have a build thread on here that needs updating, I'll get that done this weekend. Just taken delivery of some brand new Nismo 300kmh clocks to go in, and some other developments.
Drop me a PM some time I could talk about these crap old cars all day!
SBF said:
Drop me a PM some time I could talk about these crap old cars all day!
Found your build thread, love what you're doing. OEM GTR fenders is the way I would want to do it. Sadly, at current prices it's not in the budget. There's a few references from shops in my neighbourhood about doing the transplant though, search Okubo Factory and Freedom design Japan if you need to. The latter does it in FRP which I do not approve of, but they've shared some good images of the transplant. As far as DM'ing you goes, I'm no CTO so can't figure out how or if that's even possible. Will check again over the W/E seeing as we're in full typhoon season here.
em177 said:
Great pics.
Where in Japan were are based? Assuming from the plates you’re around Nagoya? I’m 12 months into Osaka life (a Brit myself), fully understand your thoughts on the complexities of living here...
You're right, I'm based in Nagoya. Between you and I there are some awesome roads. I frequent the ones in Mie, down to the Ise-Shima national park. I've made the drive to Wakayama/Kumano a couple of times. Where in Japan were are based? Assuming from the plates you’re around Nagoya? I’m 12 months into Osaka life (a Brit myself), fully understand your thoughts on the complexities of living here...
From when I arrived in 2019 and buying the Skyline at the end of 2020, the prices had doubled, they have since risen another 100-150%. I think you're a smarter man than me, buying an ND over a golden era car.
It’s a pretty shocking day here in Nagoya and for what seems like the first time in a long time, I have sweet F-all to do. Posting here the other day has got me motivated to do a storyline of the last few years with this car in Japan.
It all starts with the Z33 (350Z) which I crashed in around August of 2020. In short, I hit the dirt on a bank at Mikawa Motorland. Spent one or two months fixing the front: bumper, core support, etc. Only to find that I had cooked the engine due to switching it off immediately during a track session. So, I had a choice: VQ35s were cheap, maybe a few hundred quid plus about five hundred to install it, or I could buy something else. Normally I would have fixed the Z, it was a good car, but it had a fatal flaw in that it was significantly rustier than I would have liked. It would have required a lot of time and money just to get the rust issues fixed and I really couldn’t be bothered. Let’s just get this straight by the way, Japan most definitely does salt its roads.
By September 2020 I had my eyes set on a Skyline, prices were rallying at this point and every one I missed was replaced by a more expensive – not necessarily better - example. I started with a budget of around £10k, ended with a budget of around £17k – you get the idea. I was so fed up with going to dealerships to find that the car had either been sold or was actually a harbourer of issues I decided to go straight to the papa of Skylines: Trust Kikaku. I’m not going to drone on about them too much but they’re pretty famous in the world of sh*tbox Nissans.
On their site they had this red little beauty, 230k kms, no rust, every problem was listed, and a whole host of transparent pictures of the car’s condition. The car was a manual swap car but the loser that did the swap installed an RP71C transmission from the lower power models which is highly prone to breaking, just ask SBF; the transmission is something I’ll revisit later. I saved all the images they had on their listing at the time, here’s a few:
After speaking with them and negotiating for them to take the Z off my hands for a price I would rather not go into. I got in the car and limped the Z six hours and two hundred and fifty miles to their shop in Chiba, a bit north of Tokyo and next to Tsukuba Circuit – I was ecstatic.
It took about two months to get the car registered as they were having issues with the damn transmission. I was eager to collect my girlfriend from the airport on December 20th so they gave me a loaner ER34 which was incredibly kind of them.
We drove back to Nagoya, I locked her up in quarantine and four days later the car was delivered to me. Amazing. We were especially lucky this winter as it really wasn’t cold enough for them to grit the highways outside of the mountains.
On the last day of her quarantine, some friends invited us to a car meet in Hamamatsu.
We then went on to the Fuji area for a short thank-f*ck-she-got-into-Japan-during-covid celebration. The car was great, actually drove really well considering it was ancient and no doubt had completely original suspension. The oil was, and still to this day, remains a clear yellow colour for the first 4-5k kms after a change.
Of course I took the wheels and seats from the Z before its departure. These were quickly transplanted to the Skyline along with some new coilovers. I was grateful I opted to go with a more conservative 18x10R and 18x9.5F on the Z, as this was already a struggle to fit on the new car. A 9.5 in the rear would be a lot more suitable, however, it was around this time RAYS and the used parts market whacked around a 100% premium on the TE37s, so the 10J stayed. To begin with I was experimenting with tyre sizes, a 255/40 rear and 235/45 front which really wasn’t good at all; too narrow for the rim and the rear was too high a profile for the body, therefore kept catching on the bumper tabs.
For the next few months we went exploring, took the car to Kyoto, Nagano and around central Japan.
Then April came and it was about time I took the car on track, we headed to Mihama circuit which is around 45mins from home and is essentially a karting track that lets cars on in the afternoon. The car was really, really badly set up: I hadn’t preloaded the suspension correctly so these were bottoming out, the rear tyres were again grinding against the bumper tabs and the viscous LSD was, well, an open diff. The steering felt off.
By May I had installed a 1.5 way Nismo GT LSD, this combined with the Nismo ARBs were some of the best additions I had made to the car. I also installed some more appropriate tyres, Accelera 651S in 255/35 and 265/35. The Acceleras are some sort of Nankang-NS2R-esque tyres people use out here. Honestly, I find them pretty good but the sidewall stiffness is lacking and I’ve had two sets turn up egg-shaped. Still, they’re roughly £160 a pair.
The suspension saga continued for a while and consisted of me replacing all of the arms – whilst suspecting a shot bush somewhere - and then lastly the rack bushes, which fixed the problem. I wasn’t so bothered about this except I ended up wasting time with about three alignments over the course of six months.
And only after all of this did it start to feel better than a stock 350Z with coilovers.
Next to address was that cursed transmission, I couldn’t confidently bang gears around knowing I was a shift away from stretching my broken Japanese ability to begging for a tow truck. This was a whole chronicle on its own: I decided, for the English support, to use Nengun to purchase a new 30A transmission. For those of you that don’t know, this is the box that came as standard in manual RB25DET-powered R34s - R33s too, although there were some slight differences. I coupled it with a Nismo clutch and lightweight flywheel, life was good. I was thrilled, I restarted drifting with my new “bulletproof” transmission; after, of course, adhering to the internet’s wisdom on transmission break-in periods: 1,000kms and an oil change, then it’ll be clutch-kick galore. No. The transmission developed a loud whine after 3,000kms.
We pulled the box out, drained the oil, it looked significantly metallic, however, who knew what the metallic content should look like on a 3,000km-old gearbox. Despite the noise, usage was fine. I complained to within an inch of my life to Nengun, asked my boss whether I could leverage the company’s legal team, he agreed. Just as I was about to give up, Nengun offered to refund my money for the transmission – win – so I bought another one which still to this day is in my spare bedroom.
2022 came along and I recalled Abe-chan at Trust Kikaku telling me the RR brake was binding; I had never noticed anything but figured the brake system could do with some attention. I tasked my mechanic with rebuilding the callipers whilst I installed some Dixcel Z type pads, Dixcel slotted rotors and Nismo braided lines. Braking performance was always okay, it was just that the old rotors had a lip and it was running stock pads. I toyed with the idea of getting 350Z Brembos but it didn’t seem necessary.
It was around this time that I decided my Japanese car was not sounding Japanese enough. Along comes the exhaust. What I will do with this when it comes back to Europe I do not know, I never thought it was that acceptable to be over 100db. Perhaps I’ll weld another resonator in.
Around March, I was working from home when a couple of fellas came to check out my car, see video below. Whether this was an attempted car theft or not, I don’t know. What I do know is, they shouldn’t have been skulking around on my driveway, particularly at a time when these cars are being stolen left right and centre. This prompted me to make some security upgrades: I bought a couple of wheel anchors, installed an alarm, bought pepper spray and now keep the breaker bar near the front door. Alarm installation is rare in Japan and on my hunt for a quote found that the price of installation for alarms was two to three times more than in the UK. I was looking at the best part of £1k for the most basic viper alarm. So, I decided to do it myself. Alarm price was around £200 and it took two weekends of my time.
It was 2022 that I really wanted to push my drifting ability. I’ve always been a grip driving kind of person but I figured that drifting was a necessary skill to have to really become faster, plus its fun. I bought a cheapo bumper, as the Altia ones were claiming £500-£1,000 on yahoo auction and kicked it off with a sort of drift-academy-type event held monthly at YZ circuit. I thought, being a noob event it would be safer. In some ways it was, as they lets us practice corners individually, but it was really busy in the open track sessions and filled with amateurs. I recall a guy in a GT86 who claimed to be part of the “fast group” at orientation, then go on to tailgate everyone during the open sessions only to stack it by mid-afternoon.
After several track events I started to feel the Recaro SR3s as quite limiting, this and the OEM hand brake shoes were too weak. So I bought a BRIDE Zeta 4 which, despite triggering arthritis every time I enter/exit the car, is much better for fast driving. I’ll be getting a matching one for the passenger side so they can also endure the plight of folding yourself up when entering the car. For the handbrake I installed Project MU D1 spec brake shoes which are fantastic.
By this point I had added parts here and there to help with the cooling: a large radiator from Blitz and a higher-flow fan set up. I haven’t gotten around to fitting an oil cooler yet. Additionally, I have replaced some parts as preventative maintenance such as the crank sensor, ignition coils/harness and the fuel pump.
Since late last year the car has been relatively good, I’ve fixed a plethora of oil leaks and now, since the car will be going back this year, I have been focusing on repairing parts that will be a pain to get back in Europe: AC compressor, steering rack, windscreen and several of the worn plastic interior trim pieces.
I have so far attended ten track days in 2023, I did five over the course of two weeks, after a trip to Spain and Dubai consumed the start of the year. I have three more drift days planned, one next week and then I’ll squeeze in some grip days after I retire the car from drifting in Japan, you know, to minimise the crash risk.
The pictures are there for those of you that can’t fathom reading that much text, besides a bit of colour is always nice. In the future, I’ll have to write something about a couple of the car-related people I’ve met in Japan that really made the situation a lot better. I'll also take some photos of the car in more detail.
It all starts with the Z33 (350Z) which I crashed in around August of 2020. In short, I hit the dirt on a bank at Mikawa Motorland. Spent one or two months fixing the front: bumper, core support, etc. Only to find that I had cooked the engine due to switching it off immediately during a track session. So, I had a choice: VQ35s were cheap, maybe a few hundred quid plus about five hundred to install it, or I could buy something else. Normally I would have fixed the Z, it was a good car, but it had a fatal flaw in that it was significantly rustier than I would have liked. It would have required a lot of time and money just to get the rust issues fixed and I really couldn’t be bothered. Let’s just get this straight by the way, Japan most definitely does salt its roads.
By September 2020 I had my eyes set on a Skyline, prices were rallying at this point and every one I missed was replaced by a more expensive – not necessarily better - example. I started with a budget of around £10k, ended with a budget of around £17k – you get the idea. I was so fed up with going to dealerships to find that the car had either been sold or was actually a harbourer of issues I decided to go straight to the papa of Skylines: Trust Kikaku. I’m not going to drone on about them too much but they’re pretty famous in the world of sh*tbox Nissans.
On their site they had this red little beauty, 230k kms, no rust, every problem was listed, and a whole host of transparent pictures of the car’s condition. The car was a manual swap car but the loser that did the swap installed an RP71C transmission from the lower power models which is highly prone to breaking, just ask SBF; the transmission is something I’ll revisit later. I saved all the images they had on their listing at the time, here’s a few:
After speaking with them and negotiating for them to take the Z off my hands for a price I would rather not go into. I got in the car and limped the Z six hours and two hundred and fifty miles to their shop in Chiba, a bit north of Tokyo and next to Tsukuba Circuit – I was ecstatic.
It took about two months to get the car registered as they were having issues with the damn transmission. I was eager to collect my girlfriend from the airport on December 20th so they gave me a loaner ER34 which was incredibly kind of them.
We drove back to Nagoya, I locked her up in quarantine and four days later the car was delivered to me. Amazing. We were especially lucky this winter as it really wasn’t cold enough for them to grit the highways outside of the mountains.
On the last day of her quarantine, some friends invited us to a car meet in Hamamatsu.
We then went on to the Fuji area for a short thank-f*ck-she-got-into-Japan-during-covid celebration. The car was great, actually drove really well considering it was ancient and no doubt had completely original suspension. The oil was, and still to this day, remains a clear yellow colour for the first 4-5k kms after a change.
Of course I took the wheels and seats from the Z before its departure. These were quickly transplanted to the Skyline along with some new coilovers. I was grateful I opted to go with a more conservative 18x10R and 18x9.5F on the Z, as this was already a struggle to fit on the new car. A 9.5 in the rear would be a lot more suitable, however, it was around this time RAYS and the used parts market whacked around a 100% premium on the TE37s, so the 10J stayed. To begin with I was experimenting with tyre sizes, a 255/40 rear and 235/45 front which really wasn’t good at all; too narrow for the rim and the rear was too high a profile for the body, therefore kept catching on the bumper tabs.
For the next few months we went exploring, took the car to Kyoto, Nagano and around central Japan.
Then April came and it was about time I took the car on track, we headed to Mihama circuit which is around 45mins from home and is essentially a karting track that lets cars on in the afternoon. The car was really, really badly set up: I hadn’t preloaded the suspension correctly so these were bottoming out, the rear tyres were again grinding against the bumper tabs and the viscous LSD was, well, an open diff. The steering felt off.
By May I had installed a 1.5 way Nismo GT LSD, this combined with the Nismo ARBs were some of the best additions I had made to the car. I also installed some more appropriate tyres, Accelera 651S in 255/35 and 265/35. The Acceleras are some sort of Nankang-NS2R-esque tyres people use out here. Honestly, I find them pretty good but the sidewall stiffness is lacking and I’ve had two sets turn up egg-shaped. Still, they’re roughly £160 a pair.
The suspension saga continued for a while and consisted of me replacing all of the arms – whilst suspecting a shot bush somewhere - and then lastly the rack bushes, which fixed the problem. I wasn’t so bothered about this except I ended up wasting time with about three alignments over the course of six months.
And only after all of this did it start to feel better than a stock 350Z with coilovers.
Next to address was that cursed transmission, I couldn’t confidently bang gears around knowing I was a shift away from stretching my broken Japanese ability to begging for a tow truck. This was a whole chronicle on its own: I decided, for the English support, to use Nengun to purchase a new 30A transmission. For those of you that don’t know, this is the box that came as standard in manual RB25DET-powered R34s - R33s too, although there were some slight differences. I coupled it with a Nismo clutch and lightweight flywheel, life was good. I was thrilled, I restarted drifting with my new “bulletproof” transmission; after, of course, adhering to the internet’s wisdom on transmission break-in periods: 1,000kms and an oil change, then it’ll be clutch-kick galore. No. The transmission developed a loud whine after 3,000kms.
We pulled the box out, drained the oil, it looked significantly metallic, however, who knew what the metallic content should look like on a 3,000km-old gearbox. Despite the noise, usage was fine. I complained to within an inch of my life to Nengun, asked my boss whether I could leverage the company’s legal team, he agreed. Just as I was about to give up, Nengun offered to refund my money for the transmission – win – so I bought another one which still to this day is in my spare bedroom.
2022 came along and I recalled Abe-chan at Trust Kikaku telling me the RR brake was binding; I had never noticed anything but figured the brake system could do with some attention. I tasked my mechanic with rebuilding the callipers whilst I installed some Dixcel Z type pads, Dixcel slotted rotors and Nismo braided lines. Braking performance was always okay, it was just that the old rotors had a lip and it was running stock pads. I toyed with the idea of getting 350Z Brembos but it didn’t seem necessary.
It was around this time that I decided my Japanese car was not sounding Japanese enough. Along comes the exhaust. What I will do with this when it comes back to Europe I do not know, I never thought it was that acceptable to be over 100db. Perhaps I’ll weld another resonator in.
Around March, I was working from home when a couple of fellas came to check out my car, see video below. Whether this was an attempted car theft or not, I don’t know. What I do know is, they shouldn’t have been skulking around on my driveway, particularly at a time when these cars are being stolen left right and centre. This prompted me to make some security upgrades: I bought a couple of wheel anchors, installed an alarm, bought pepper spray and now keep the breaker bar near the front door. Alarm installation is rare in Japan and on my hunt for a quote found that the price of installation for alarms was two to three times more than in the UK. I was looking at the best part of £1k for the most basic viper alarm. So, I decided to do it myself. Alarm price was around £200 and it took two weekends of my time.
It was 2022 that I really wanted to push my drifting ability. I’ve always been a grip driving kind of person but I figured that drifting was a necessary skill to have to really become faster, plus its fun. I bought a cheapo bumper, as the Altia ones were claiming £500-£1,000 on yahoo auction and kicked it off with a sort of drift-academy-type event held monthly at YZ circuit. I thought, being a noob event it would be safer. In some ways it was, as they lets us practice corners individually, but it was really busy in the open track sessions and filled with amateurs. I recall a guy in a GT86 who claimed to be part of the “fast group” at orientation, then go on to tailgate everyone during the open sessions only to stack it by mid-afternoon.
After several track events I started to feel the Recaro SR3s as quite limiting, this and the OEM hand brake shoes were too weak. So I bought a BRIDE Zeta 4 which, despite triggering arthritis every time I enter/exit the car, is much better for fast driving. I’ll be getting a matching one for the passenger side so they can also endure the plight of folding yourself up when entering the car. For the handbrake I installed Project MU D1 spec brake shoes which are fantastic.
By this point I had added parts here and there to help with the cooling: a large radiator from Blitz and a higher-flow fan set up. I haven’t gotten around to fitting an oil cooler yet. Additionally, I have replaced some parts as preventative maintenance such as the crank sensor, ignition coils/harness and the fuel pump.
Since late last year the car has been relatively good, I’ve fixed a plethora of oil leaks and now, since the car will be going back this year, I have been focusing on repairing parts that will be a pain to get back in Europe: AC compressor, steering rack, windscreen and several of the worn plastic interior trim pieces.
I have so far attended ten track days in 2023, I did five over the course of two weeks, after a trip to Spain and Dubai consumed the start of the year. I have three more drift days planned, one next week and then I’ll squeeze in some grip days after I retire the car from drifting in Japan, you know, to minimise the crash risk.
The pictures are there for those of you that can’t fathom reading that much text, besides a bit of colour is always nice. In the future, I’ll have to write something about a couple of the car-related people I’ve met in Japan that really made the situation a lot better. I'll also take some photos of the car in more detail.
Edited by LactoseJoe on Sunday 2nd July 12:37
Enjoyed the back story!
Lol’d at the gearbox comment
That weeny little box nearly burned my car to the ground 
You’re probably already aware but keep an eye on your oil if you’re doing any more track work - the RBs love to send oil to the head and just leave it there, letting your bottom end run dry.
Lol’d at the gearbox comment
That weeny little box nearly burned my car to the ground You’re probably already aware but keep an eye on your oil if you’re doing any more track work - the RBs love to send oil to the head and just leave it there, letting your bottom end run dry.
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