Category Archives: Cars

Specific to BNR32.

The unit.

I’ve left the old G-Sensor unit in there for now, it’s the big gold box.

Next up – got to get to those leaky seals.

My G-Sensor died a while back. The last few times I drove the car it’s been in rear wheel drive only mode (spinning the wheels hard in 2nd = shit my pants moments).

I did some research and found a few people have had their g-sensors die on them. Nissan wants over $1,000 for a replacement unit so many have found ways to fix their existing units but after a tip-off from Xiao, a mate of mine, I ordered a Do-Luck Digital G-Sensor unit from JDMyard which took ages to get here as it’s made to order.

Apparently the increase in sensitivity and reaction rate for this Digital G-Sensor vs. the stock analog unit is 30 times greater than stock. It’s designed to work with sudden acceleration and braking too. IE: once traction breaks this gadget should respond quicker = better handling.

Real muscle. This beast was so loud you couldn’t hear the guy next to you no matter how loud he spoke.

Rare 2-door WRX, so much love.

Yonas’/JDMyard’s supercharge K-swapped EG Civic was perhaps the fastest car on the day.

Dave’s super clean EG Civic, she’s lovely.

For the win indeed.

My DC2R still blows my mind. 177,000kms and still hitting redline like there’s no tomorrow. She did break down though, wouldn’t start from the pits. It turned out to be a loose alternator cable! Phew!

More than a second quicker than my last outing. I’m happy with that.

Yessss I fucking love Private Track Days. All the track time you could possibly want… you could even track from 9AM-5PM and not ever pit if you wanted to! 20 or so cars, at times there’s some battle fun out there with mates, other times it’s just you, out there alone which makes for a perfect opportunity to crack out a fast lap time.

Today we booked Wakefield Park, more affectionately called “wakies” by track whores. The track was slippery for most of the morning as it rained last night. A shame as the EVO Nats were on the weekend just passed (they would have laid some serious rubber on the circuit). There was a great mix of cars, as expected, no accidents (phew) and plenty of fun.

More pics: http://zengarage.com.au/2012/06/private-track-day-2/

Photo by Seb.

Since getting a few bits and pieces done on the DC2R I’m all of a sudden finding myself dedicating a few hours a day googling around for images of other DC2Rs, prowling eBay and classifieds sections of forums for parts and generally speaking; doing my head in.

I haven’t modified anything since the Golf GTI, the DC2R’s been a great daily driver and I’ve done well to avoid going down the (expensive) route of turning it into a track inspired car but yesterday day I committed to installing an intake, headers, high flow cat and cat-back exhaust from JDMyard. Cha-ching, do I really want to be spending all this money on this car?! I thought that if I thought about it too much I wouldn’t end up spending it, so I just made the call.

Later that afternoon on the way home from work I was pulled over by the police for a random breath test. Man, the feeling of being pulled over in a stock car absolutely rocks as I had nothing to fear in regards to defects. I didn’t even need to take my sunnies off, or brown nose Mr. Officer. He checked out my license, I counted to 10 then he wished me a nice day.

When I got home I called Zi to cancel the order I put in for parts. It’s amazing how doing a few little things has given me the mod bug again… must hold it at bay, at least until my Toyota 86 gets here on the 10th of next month!

Lucky cats @ JDMyard.

Couldn’t get my eyes off these amazing 15inch TE37Vs, love the step lip design, so aggressive!

JDMyard HID kit.

JDMyard HID.

HID ballast, expertly tucked out of sight by the crew at JDMyard.

All done. Not too blue, just a tinge, more a bright white.

The boys were way too quick installing a Buddy Club short shifter. Pictured here the OEM shifter in the Buddy Club shifter box (for me to take away).

A Hardrace camber kit was installed too in case I want to dial in more negative camber in the rear.

I couldn’t resist buying this Honda Access Aroma Moment air freshener. What an awesome little gizmo. It plugs into your cigarette lighter and emits a fresh fragrance (there’s a switch to turn it off, on, and there’s a super strong mode too). I got the ‘pure herb’ scent, it’s awesome.

In situ.

I’m thinking I want to take Mondays off now that I work Saturdays @ Zen Garage. I don’t mind Mondays, people tend to be a little less furious on the roads which seem quieter, maybe because a lot of people take the day off or leave work earlier.

Strangely though, Monday’s are one of the busiest days for me. Heaps of emails to go through and lots of weekend online orders to pack and send so this morning I ended up getting to work just to pack and send orders made over the weekend. After that was done I dropped in to JDMyard again to do a few more things to the Type R.

In keeping with the ‘freshen it up’ theme I installed a JDMyard HID kit, a Buddy Club short shifter kit, Hardrace rear camber kit and I bought an air freshener too.

JDMyard HID kit:
The OEM lights are crazy weak, especially at night with all this rain we’re getting. I went for the JDMyard HID kit. It’s cheap, and comes with a massive 2 year replacement warranty (major deciding factor for me as I’ve had an aftermarket HID kit die on me before) and damn it’s bright!!!

Buddy Club short shifter:
A guy with a DC2 came in to Zen last Saturday, he had a Buddy Club short shifter installed. I had a go and loved it instantly. Super notchy, reminds me a lot of the S2K shift feel so I had to have it.

Hardrace camber kit:
Rears are pretty upright at stock height. I got these installed in case I want to adjust rear camber down the line.

Honda Access air freshener:
Old car, not quite old smells, but I couldn’t resist this gadget!

My DC2R @ JDMyard.

Exedy lightened flywheel and sports organic clutch kit.

Hardrace goods.

More Hardrace goods!

Fresh new Honda OEM clutch master cylinder.

Flywheel installed.

Old vs new control arms, you can see the old stuff was off centre already.

Old vs New sway bar bushings.

The car has been my trusty daily driver since I bought it, and whilst I was initially upset with the lack of torque (given that I came from owning a Golf GTI) I’m finding myself liking the car more and more.

Last week the car had it’s 175,000KM service at TOP ONE AUTO. Dedy found that there was water in the boot due to leaking seals, he’s got these on order from Honda. I’ll fit them as soon as they get in. He also found a broken rear engine mount. That got me thinking about replacing all the engine mounts, and basically started the whole – should I mod it, or should I just freshen it up state of thinking all over again.

After doing my head in (as I do!) I’ve decided to just to freshen up the car and keep it stock. I’ve always felt that the steering isn’t as sharp as a DC2R should be so bushings had to be replaced, the clutch pedal is so wussy you could put it down with your pinky, it takes up a bit late too which I gate so I wanted to change that too. I also felt the shifter wasn’t as notchy and tight as it should be. I did think it could be because of the broken rear engine mount, but I was up for a shifter bushing replacement too.

I dropped in to visit Zi, Yonas and David at the new JDMyard. Damn it’s massive! I love it! They’ve got a workshop now too, so I just left the car with them overnight.

This is what I ended up buying:
Exedy sports organic clutch kit
Exedy lightened flywheel
Honda OEM clutch master cylinder
Hardrace engine mounts
Hardrace shifter bushing
Hardrace front lower control arms
Hardrace front compliance bushing set
Hardrace front sway bar bushing set
Hardrace front upper arm bushing set
Hardrace rear lower control arms
Hardrace rear sway bar bushing set
Hardrace rear sway bar end links
Hardrace rear sway bar collar bushing set
Motul Gearbox oil

I’ve not yet had a wheel alignment done, but of-course there were some major differences instantly apparent.

Engine mounts: First thing I noticed when turning the key was the extra vibration from the engine mounts. Unlike a DC5R, there’s definitely no doubt at all that your car is on! The steering wheel visually shakes! I can understand how some people would absolutely hate this (shakes even more when A/C is on), but I’ve always upgraded engine mounts for more feel, especially the feeling of more response when accelerating. One thing I didn’t count on was a lot of extra engine noise. The sound literally fills the cabin now and I love it!

Clutch/Flywheel: The clutch was the next thing I noticed, it’s meaty and punchy now (where it was crazy soft and sticky before), what’s best is that it takes up very early making the car much easier to drive both smoothly, and more aggressively. The lightened flywheel is instantly apparent as well when clutching in from high revs.

Hardrace bushings: Strangely the first thing I noticed with the upgraded bushings was more braking power. The brake pedal is a lot grabbier now. I put this down to less movement in the suspension. The vague “play” in the steering wheel is gone, where before I could move the steering wheel a little left and right and have the car not move at all, it’s now connected. The shifter bushing kit has given me back that nice notchy feel when slotting into gear, still doesn’t feel as tight as a really fresh DC2R though, perhaps my gearbox is just a little tired.

So as I write this I’d much rather be out there driving what feels like my brand new DC2R. I’ll book in for a wheel alignment and report back ASAP.