Speed Cut Not!

I've said this many times in forums and I'll say it again. The N16 be it 1.6/1.8, Pre-FL, FL1 or FL2 does not come with a 160km/h (could be 170km/h depending on which joker you choose to believe) speed cut. There is a rev cut to prevent overenthuasiastic raging hormone youngsters from revving the poor engine to death due to high rpm valve float and the eventual piston to valve contact but no Speed Cut! I have reviewed the N16's service manual and the very detailed 702 paged Engine Control System (EC) section does not mention any speed cut. I have also to-date twice personally taken the Slowtra to speeds in excess on 180km/h and have spoken of my findings yet people still choose to believe in urband legends. Maybe they think they're driving some pseudo Sylvia or God forbid Skyline supercar wannabee with an engine just waiting to be unlocked and unleashed with just a simple speed cut device or wiring tapping. And NO that device behind your glovebox is not the damn speed cut. That device is only responsible for activating your door locks at a certain speed.

Obviously there is a trick to doing a top speed run. The trick here is to max out 4th gear as much as possible before you hit 5th. If you're driving a slushbox too bad :P For those with manual gearboxes don't expect to hit top speed real soon if you shift to 5th gear around 90-100km/h and mash the throttle pedal to the metal. I don't call my car the Slowtra for nothing...

Round 5: Major Build Part 2: Tru Technology Billet Series B2110 Amplifier

I was ready to drive home after my latest round of ICE upgrades when my bro Eric Lim turned up at Golden to let me audition his Tru Technology Billet amps. After a short audition I was left relatively speechless. Per my short ICE experience these amps come closest to equalling the sound quality of a decent home amp setup. The speed, control and dynamic range is simply breathtaking. Unbelievably the treble was clear and precise while being grain and harshness free. The soundstaging was also improved. All this from an amp! Funny one guy actually wrote a thesis that all amps sounds the same...

The Tru Technology Billet series amplifiers are the latest midrange amps in Tru's range. The highest being the mega expensive Copper range while the lowest range is the Steel series. The Billet series amp is also upgradable with removable "Plug n Play" preamp cards. There is also a preamp bypass feature. My recommendation is to immediately go for the preamp bypass switch and have the preamp turned off. The sound quality really went up a notch especially in terms of clarity and separation. Make sure your HU's pre-out is at least 5V though. I've heard of good review on the preamps upgrades (especially the Burr Brown pre-amp upgrade) but have not audition so cannot comment if these are better than with the preamp turned off. The upgrades are not cheap mind you! The upgrade cost bout 1K. There is a long list of features for the Billet series amps in Tru's web page. Needless to say these amps are designed to keep you happy for a long long time unless you're crazy or poisoned enough aspire towards megabuck 5 figure dollar amps.

I decided to go for the Billet B2110 2-channel amp for simplicity sake. Although the quoted power output is 110W RMS at 4ohms impedance, the real measure output is closer to 150W RMS. These amps also feature a 1000W power supply. This means that nothing will faze them unless you're an SPL junkie. You can get these amps from Audio Creations (look for Mike or Victor) in the Klang Valley or Unker Yeoh at my favourite ICE shop - Golden in Penang. Pix of amp below. Someone went and set the ISO setting on my Olympus camera to max hence the noisy lousy picture quality.

Love the look of these amps. The industrial styling and blue led lighting reminds me of Krell amps without the excessiveness. The size is a bit different from the Steg QmosII 105.4X amp I was now junking so the amp rack had to be modified. This means I now couldn't drive home so had to leave my car at Unker's again. Uncle David took about a week plus to fab everything. Pix of revised amp rack and lower board. The 2 big round holes on the centre of the board are for the cooling fans as the Billet amp feature 2 such fans at the bottom of the amp casing. Make sure you have sufficient ventilation as this amp can really run hot especially with the pre-amp turned off. Having said that I have not had any thermal issues despite blasting at relatively loud levels for hours.

Pix of Billet B2110 amp installed. Looks very contemporary with the more Beng looking Steg K Competition amp.

Closeup of the Billet amp installed.

I also decided to replace the thin perspex amp rack "window" panels with much thicker machined items. Pix of the new acryllic panels below. Blardy lovely but also blardy expensive. Heavy too unfortunately. What price aesthetics and IASCA competition winning build quality? Home audio setup behind is my Bro's megabuck Proceed range.
Pix below of the acryllic cover panels installed. The panels are fastened to the amp rack front cover panel via countersunk stainless steel bolts. I love blue lights!

Cover for Rockford Fosgate fused distribution box. I know this is an old school fuse distribution box but I could not find a better looking fuse distribution box.
The whole assembly! Sub looks a bit small! :)

Trunk floorboard looks stock eh?

Lift the centre panel out and walah! Full access to spare tyre, jack and toolkit. Which reminds me I need to pump air into the spare tyre. Unker's build quality is top notch.

6 months down the road and I'm still very happy with this amp as I have not been susceptible to upgrade poisoning (yet). If you buy the Tru Billet amp be prepared for a long long run in time. These amps only really start to sound their best after 3-4 months of running-in. Also be careful with the gain settings. Settings that are too high will result in brightness. Get the settings right and the treble and midrange is silky smooth without losing clarity. Very European sounding amp from a US manufacturer.

Even More Pissed!

The rear number plate fell out the other day. Yes, the expensive carbon number plate. Cost saving and too much cheapo CSM was used during manufacturing thus causing shrinkage and the number plate to become slightly curved after exposure to heat from the sun. This caused the double sided tape on the centre part of the number plate to fail first and then ultimately both sides and the number plate fell off. Luckily the car was parked when this happened. This means that I had to drive to work without a rear number plate. Luckily there were no cops. Went to Unker's and had a normal rear number plate dome up and installed after work. Rather than feeling down and whine more I've contacted several of my UK based carbon composite manufacturing contacts to do me 100% carbon wet lay-up number plates. Awaiting the quote..

Pissed and Disappointed

Some of you might be wondering why there's no post on my finished carbon rear spoiler. Well I've been too busy with work and my new home to follow up on the progress and it actually took a couple of weeks before the spoiler got installed. When I came home from work to view the installed article I nearly got a heart attack. Pix below.

Can't believe this is the same Bro and family friend responsible for all the trick cf parts on the SP. Excuse apparently was no compressor. As you can see the clearcoating is too thick and there are major blotches once the sun heats it up. Looks more like the surface of the moon! Also looks like the person that did this was trying to take shortcuts in fixing the pinholes. There was also too much black paint on the affected area. Sure signs of a cover up if you asked me. Another pix below.

I have requested the Bro to either fix this or make me another spoiler but it looks like he's now giving me the round the mulberry bush excuses. You know who you are! The spoiler has since been removed from my car and leaving two drilled holes which I have to cover with tape. Dammit! Even my painter refused to fix this for me asking me to go get a new one made. Was work on-call last week and spend some of my "house arrest" time sanding the spoiler with 240 grit sand paper. Sanded till my forearms ache and things looked a bit better. Will continue sanding but honestly I'm so pissed and ashamed that I've given up hope on this spoiler. This will be the last time I'm getting any carbon parts from the "Bro".

Sorrow and frustration led me to research a proper aftermarket carbon spoiler/wing for the Slowtra and the Mine's Multi Select Carbon Rear Wing caught my eye. Pix (courtesy of Turbo magazine) below of said spoiler fitted to Mine's 350Z project car.

Another pix

It's still wet lay-up carbon though. This spoiler also looks suspiciously like a rip-off from a AC Schnitzer E46 Beemer wing. Not that I care so long as it looks good on the Slowtra. I've been in communication with Mine's Japan and also my Jap contact. Only thing preventing me from getting the spoiler so far is the massive cost. All RM3K+ of it. Will see how things develop before I make a decision...

Carbon Number Plates Installed

Installing my carbon number plates which actually should have just taken a couple minutes ended up being a few days affair. The drama started with me specifiying the front number plate with less width compared to the stock chrome number plate carrier. I didn't want too wide a number plate as a narrower version looks better and doesn't cost as much in carbon materials. This means that I can save some money!! Haha.. I also decided to ditch the crappy looking chrome framed front and rear number plate carriers. Now this is where the problem starts. Upon removing the stock front number plate carrier I discovered that the stupid chrome framed metal plate had grown to like the front bumper so much that it left an indellible scar on the front bumper. The sharp edge of the number plate carrier had come into contact with the number plate and removed some paint from the bumper in the process. Love bite pix below. Damn!

The carbon number plate proved to be too narrow to cover up the scar. This now meant that I had 2 options. Option 1 was to make a larger front number plate. Option 2 was to send the said car and front bumper for painting to remove the love bite. Of course one could argue that there's a third option which is to do nothing and just install the carbon number plate and pretend the scar's not visible. But you know me..

Anyway I decided to go for Option 2 as that's cheaper and arguably faster. This means that I had to leave the Slowtra with my mech (again). In the meantime here's the crappy stock chromed framed front number plate carrier. The bolts that hold the number plate carrier to bumper had rusted to kingdom come and stained the numper plate carrier. How cheap can TCM get? Looks like the metal used to fashion the number plate carrier is so thin that double sided tape is used on both sides to secure the carrier to the bumper and prevent it from flapping around when subjected to air/wind pressure thus causing even more love bites.

Luckily I had no issues with the rear number plate so I installed that first. Pix below. IMHO carbon looks damn fab against a silver background!

The Slowtra came back 2 days later from painting and I installed the numper plate the next day. Pix below.

Both front and rear number plates are attached to the bumpers via 3M double sided tape only. Unless you stand less than 3 feet away the carbon number plate looks stock. What do you think of the end result? Worth all the hassle?

AC Delco Wiper Blades

After about a year or so of usage it was time to replace the stock NWB (Nippon Wiper Blade) wiper blades. Our lovely weather and long lasting wiper blades unfortunately don't mix. The N16 uses a pair of 22" and 16" sized wiper blades. Settled on the AC Delcos. These are made in Korea and set me back RM40 for a pair. Pix below.

Installation took me bout a minute and more time was spent opening the packaging :) Have been through several downpours with these wiper blades and so far so good. Noise is absent and the wiping action/results is optimal.

Got Lightweight?

Ordered some lightweight aluminium allen socket cap bolts and washers from Hyperbolt UK which dutifully arrived at my doorstep after 2 weeks or so of patient waiting. A full article of fastener material and technology can be found in my old SP Files article.

Picture below of said bolts and packaging against a background of the ASM S2000 Tsukuba Special Time Attack Racecar. Very suitable don't you think as the super lightweight carbon bodied ASM S2000 race car was able to lap Tsukuba at an unbelievable time (for an NA RWD car) of 57. 488 secs. Bolts ordered include potassium bichromate plating (cheaper) and silver anodized.

Closeup

Bolts sans packaging.

The potassium bichromate bolts have a greyish or goldish tinge whereas the silver anodize bolts looks like stainless steel cept weights 60% less. Cost per bolt was about RM3-4 per bolt not including shipping. Fasteners were about RM2+. Shipping for the whole hog was a massive RM40+. The whole shipment should set me back RM200+ including shipping. Still waiting for the credit card bill.

Hyperbolt also shipped me the wrong length for the silver anodized allen socket cap bolts. Ordered M6 X 15mm bolts and packaging even states the same size but when suspicion led me to measure the bolts with a vernier caliper the actual length was only 12mm. Arrrggh! To their credit Hyperbolt admitted their mistake and is in the process of shipping me the silver anodized bolts in the correct length FOC. I plan to eventually replace all if not most of the Slowtra's non-stressed/non-load bearing bolts with lightweight aluminium items and maybe some stressed bolts with Ti items. This should hopefully help to shed some weight. Not cheap though so this will take some time as I can only order the bolts when funds are available. Stay tuned for some pixs of bolts installed.

BTW this actually marks my 50th post in this blog in eleven months. The SP Files is only at 49 posts. Booh Hoo! I would like to thank all my friends and also the significant other for all the support and encouragement. You know who you are! :)

Kics Project Magnetic Drain Bolt Installed

Installed the Kics Project magnetic drain bolt today when I went for my third service. Pix of bolt installed. The red anodizing on black background sure looks Beng! Kinda reminds me of tits to fondle and play with :P

Used the supplied metal washer but not the organic washer. Will monitor for leaks in the next few days just in case. Pix below of stock steel bolt. The stock bolt incorporates a crushed copper washer.

I'm using Castrol SLX 0W-30 synthetic btw. What engine oil are you using?

Ouch!

Know this is to be expected with frequent highway driving but boy does it hurt when it happens. Got this love bite while on the N/S Highway yesterday running up and down doing errands for my new place. Bite was bad enough that the paint came off. What a downer on an otherwise excellent day with Man Utd coming from behind to go 5 points clear at the top of the Premiership..

Will get this fixed soon along with a few other not as bad chips on the bumper and front lower skirting. Also got a few chips on the windscreen but I don't know of any windscreen repairer in Penang. Bummer!

Carbon Nismo FL2 Rear Spoiler - Update & More Carbon Fetish

Despite hugging the spoiler to sleep I couldn't get over the slight flaws. Not really visible to the untrained eye but the close up pix with flash below shows the flaws. Tell me where.

Bro D coming to collect the spoiler tomorrow for refinishing. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh, and here are my carbon number plates. The stock chromed framed item got too iritating to look at after nearly a year. I just can't understand the Jap's infatuation with chrome. My wifey's Chevie Optra has about 20% the amount of chrome an N16 has.

Now this is what I call a flawless finish. Sorry I can't show more. Installing said number plates and spoiler in due time. Patience is virtue!

Carbon Nismo FL2 Rear Spoiler - Preview Part 3

Took delivery of the finished spoiler just a while ago. Was supposed to install yesterday but it rained Garfields and Odies just when I was ready to go install. Planned to install after work today but guess what? It rained giraffes and hippos again. Big Bummer! Anyway here's the finished item. Don't need any weighing scale to tell me the carbon spoiler weighs less than half the stock polyurethane item. Hold the stock spoiler in your hands and you'll be surprised at how heavy it is. No kidding!
Closeup. Finished quality is only second best per my own personal standards. Quite a lot of pin holes present and the clearcoat is rather thin. Plan is to install and then leave for a couple weeks before sending to my professional painter for refinishing. More $$ here. Sigh!
Bottom surface
Hope to install in the next couple of days. Dear God, pls give me some decent sunshine between 6pm and 7pm.

Carbon Nismo FL2 Rear Spoiler - Preview Part 2

Test fitted the spoiler today. Pix below.

How does it look? Beng or fierce? Overall still not too impressed with surface finish quality. Still lotsa work to be done especially sanding and clearcoating. Close up.

Even closer up

Tell me what you think..

Carbon Nismo FL2 Rear Spoiler - Preview

The spoiler's off the mould. Now doing some light finishing. Early pixs from my Bro below. Have been too busy to follow up on the status or to help in the moulding work like in my SP days. Sigh..

Tomorrow will test fit. If all goes well then the spoiler will be sent for finishing to my standards else it'll be to make another one..

Nismo S-Tune Decal Kit

Finally took some time to apply the "Nismo S-Tune" decal kit today. Process took me bout half an hour and I also screwed up one "S-Tune" decal during the positioning process. The decals stick way too easily. Dang! Pixs below
The decal set only comes with three "S-Tune" decals so having screwed one means I don't have any left for the rear of the car. This means I'll have to purchase another set. Expensive mistake! Bummer me! Having said that I'm still undecided whether the decals look good on the Slowtra or just plain ricey? At the rate mods are happening I might need a "R-Tune" decal set soon. Haha! Also worried bout inviting unwarranted drag challenges on the roads by young cikus with too much imagination. Comments pls...

Alutec Lightweight Crank Pulley - Preview

As mentioned in the Alutec strut bar article here are the first pictures of my crank pulley. Pix below of box. Sticker price on the box is in Sing dollars and not Malaysian Ringgit. Sorry. I got a pretty decent discount having also bought the strut bar.
Top surface. Despite all the CNC and material trickery Alutec can't center the wording properly on the crank pulley. Bummer! The Alutec crank pulley is the same diameter as stock crank pulley so no underdriving s**t! If you're running any semblance of a half decent ICE system stay far far away from underdrive crank pulleys. Alutec uses 7075 aluminium alloy material which is stronger than 6061 alloy used by the likes of Unorthodox Racing and majority of performance pulley manufacturers. Even the adjustable cam pulleys on the SP were 6061 material only. This along with the hard anodizing will greatly reduce wear on the pulley's surface in the long run.

Bottom surface. Crank pulley measured 853 grammes on my Bro's digital weighing scale. Have not weighted the stock crank pulley but would expect it to weigh 2-3 times more.

Like the stock crank pulley the Alutec version has nicely machined grooves for the stock belting.
Bro Uncle Fooyc got so excited he promptly got himself one. SMS from him late last night "Cb! Dem nice. I'm going to hug it to sleep!" Wahahahaha! Acceleration in the lower gears should improve with the crank pulley fitted. Hopefully max power output too! Uncle Foo will be installing first and also doing a dyno. I'll install when I can find some time off work and renovating my house. Stay tuned for a follow up.

Pro-Bolt

Was surfing around trying to get the best deal on titanium fasteners for the new Alutec strut bar when I decided to email Pro-Bolt to send me their 2006-2007 catalogue. Said catalogue dutifully arrived about a week later. Feast your eyes.
For a detailed rundown of the various available types of lightweight performance fasteners for automotive use pls visit The SP Files. Will be ordering some fasteners from Pro-Bolt when funds become available. This should hopefully help to reduce the Slowtra's porky weight. NO, I'm not ditching my subwoofer :P

Round ?: Cabling

Despite what some ICE enthusiast will tell you, I'm a firm believer that cables play a very important role in how decent your system will sound. This believe goes back to when I was still a student in the UK. Back then the local hi-fi shop in Conventry where I bought my first proper 2-channel hi-fi system from loaned me a complete set of Audioquest cables from the low to the highest end. Me and my cousin tried blind auditioning and both of us after a while could detect the differences with the different cables used. No joke!

With the major build going on I wasn't going to stinge on my cables. First I had to decide on a decent power cable to replace the caplang 4 AWG I was using. Adding an additional amp means that I had to step up a gauge as the 4 AWG would barely suffice. Mind you max power from both my amps at this point would be more than 1 kilowatt! The BCAE web page has a fab tool to calculate your power cable requirements. Just key in the max power from your amps and the length of power cabling to be used and the tool will inform you if the gauge you are planning to use is suffice. Just look for No.16 "Wire" in the Directory section. I settled for 2 AWG sizing. Now unfortunately getting big gauge (2 to 0 AWG) branded power cable is very difficult and expensive proposition in our dear country. Luckily I had assistance from Bro Fooyc. Soon some decent Phoenix Gold 2 AWG power cables were delivered to my doorstep. Pix below of the Phoenix Gold power cable. I ordered about 16 feet. Damage was more than 500 smackers!

The Phoenix Gold power cable nicely laid out and ready to be connected to fuse holder in engine bay.
Also ordered a Phoenix Gold ZWF500 fuse holder and 150amp ANL type fuse. Again fuses with big power ratings are unbelievably expensive. Damage was about the same as the power cable. 1K and I haven't even started on my audio cables. Pix of the fuse can be found in my "The Carbon Dream Continues" article.

With the power cabling requirements taken care of I set about looking for a decent subwoofer interconnect. The Bremen HU's sub-out features only one RCA connector and likewise the Steg K2.02 when connected up in bridged-mono mode. This save some money as I only need to buy one subwoofer interconnect instead of a pair. Being an Audioquest audiophile cable user and fan I settled on the Audioquest Sub-1 subwoofer interconnect. The Sub-1 is second from the top in Audioquest's range of subwoofer interconnects the highest end being the Sub-3 which incorporates a DBS battery pack! You don't wanna know how much the Sub-3 costs. Details of the Sub-1 interconnect can be found in Audioquest's web page. Pix below of the Audioquest Sub-1. RCA connectors are silver. Damage came up to 580 bucks for a 4.5m cable. Wallet getting lighter by the minute! For some apparent reason the braided sleeve reminds me of the rice cooker's power cable.
For subwoofer speaker cable I decided to try something different. Wanted something thicker gauge due to the big power being pushed out from the K2.02 amp. Settled on Van den Hul's THE WIND Mk II HYBRID speaker cable. Talk bout a long name. Try saying the name real fast 10 times :P The WIND Mk II HYBRID consists of a total of 173 single non insulated strands in 5 different layers with a total cross-section area of 4.67 mm² equalling AWG 10.5. AWG 10 is about the max diameter that will fit in the K2.02's speaker cable terminals. More details in VDH's web page. Three metres of a single cable run (I'll be using a 1.5m pair) cost me 357 smackers. No joke. I decided to use a Neutrik Speakon NL4FC cable connector at the sub-box end for easy removal and reinstallation of the speaker cable. Looks trick too but shame everything is hidden up after installation. Pix below of the Neutrik Speakon connector's associated parts before assembly and termination.
Pix below of the VDH THE WIND Mk II HYBRID speaker cable connected to the subwoofer box via Neutrik Speakon cable connector.
View from the side. The Audioquest Sub-1 subwoofer interconnect can also be seen snaking into the amp rack.
The VDH WIND Mk II HYBRID speaker cable looks really cheap being grey in colour till you touch it. Somehow the Hulliflex sleeve feels different from ordinary plastic or PVC sleeving. Difficult to put in words. Touch it and you'll know what I mean.

Was going to upgrade the Supra Dual interconnects I was using but then my Bro Anthony Lim set me up on a deal I couldn't refuse. Manage to get a 4.5m set of Audioquest Sidewinder interconnects at cheaper than dealer price. Per SMS from Anthony "price is so silly, you can buy me lunch and dinner when we next meet". Will do Bro! Price is too cheap and sensitive for me to mention in this blog. Sorry... Pix below of the Sidewinder.
Sidewinders connected to the Steg Qmos II amp. The Steg K2.02 has not been installed at this point hence the cables meant for it are hanging about.

Anthony also set me up on some Audioquest SR (Shielded Round Series)-15/4 speaker cables. This is 2 step up the range compared with the FLX (Flexible Series) -15/2 speaker cables I was using. Pix below of the SR-15/4 nicely terminated by Uncle.
The SR-15/4 is bi-wire ready and features 4 separate 15AWG cables within it's blue coloured outer sleeve. Since I won't be bi-wiring two each of the four 15AWG cables are soldered together to make a pair of 12AWG cable. Neat eh? The Audioquest SR-15/4 speaker cables ready to be connected to the Focal K2P's crossover. The FLX-15/2 cable (in white sleeve) will remain on the crossover to speaker connection as the SR-15/4 is too big and bulky for efficient routing through tight confined spaces. The SR-15/4 will be used only from the amp to the crossover.
Pix below of megabucks cabling running beneath the rear seat. Guess the term "sitting on a pot of gold" applies to the rear passengers :) Everything is neatly routed and secured in place via zip ties.
Another pix.
So how does it all sound? I'll have to admit there were too many upgrades to my system at this point to give a decent comparison with the previous cabling setup. I did not notice any quirky sound quality traits with these cables so this is a decent start. Highs are highs without being grainy. The lows are deep and punchy. Having said this I would recommend any home audio or ICE enthusiasts to not spend too much on your cables. No point spending 5K on cables if your entire system only cost 10K. A good reference would be to spend bout 10% of the total cost of your ICE/Home Audio setup on cables. Having said that I have some Audioquest Diamondback interconnect on order to complement my TRU Technology Billet amp. Poison runs deep!