EricB

Can I ask a detail question about your setups? What length springs are you using F&R? Thanks, -e

I heard back from them. Their offer is for me to send the pads back, and if I've say only used 5% of the pad so far they will refund 95% of the purchase price... Their thinking is that they can re-use the pad on one of their cars... pretty darn generous. I'm going to take them up on it. -e

Ben The thing with the Japantown bookstores (Kinokuniya and Asahiya) is that all the magazines/videos they bring in to sell to us here in the States they more than DOUBLE the price on... Kinda hurts after a while, especially when you see the japanese retail price printed on the cover... NH only costs 760yen (or about $5) in Japan... Kinda hurts to pay $12-15 after a while... you know? Especially when you can go to a place like MrCraft in Ebisu and find a ton of backissues for sale... I'll just stock up on the cool issues when I'm there. Thanks for the tip Alan... I'll inquire just the same... -e

check out this video i found on Google... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3578123379956356852&q=crash -e

mikey i just pm'ed you... hahaha -e

Khris... Lemoore, huh? Did you recently pick up your Skyline? I didn't know about yours... I know of the following ones already here in SoCal: A marine corps friend has a 4dr in 29 Palms, there's a dark blue 2dr in Torrance/Gardena, a silver 2dr with 18" wheels X( in SanDiego, there's Mikey on the website here that has a white Ken&Mary. Do you ever go out to some of the carshows? I'd love to meet up and see it in person one day if possible... -e

the brand new rotors are taking a beating - that's for sure... at around town speeds with the windows down you can HEAR the discs getting litterally ground down... some serious pad... I can tell it would be great for the track with stickier rubber... just not exactly ideal for the street... hahahaha still waiting on a reply from those guys, i'm curious to see what they will say. -e

I guess it's not meant to be... I am flying out 3 days before the Nagano swap meet. Oh well... Next time. I guess I'll stick to visiting my favorite shops and see what I can afford to bring back. Alan, weird about the overseas subscription service, the website I linked above is the publisher of NH, well one of the links off of that page is what I understood to be the subscription info sheet, here it is: http://www.geibunsha.co.jp/nenkan/nen_nh.htm and it specifically says in English even that they do not ship overseas... weird, their website must be out of date or something if you've been able to get a subscription going... Thanks anyways & all the best, -e

This is more of a comment for others to benefit from rather than anything else.. Several weeks ago I contacted the SpecMiata Superstore to get some Hawk HP Plus pads and a new set of front rotors. They were out of the HP Plus and instead the salesman suggested I try some Blacks instead. He confirmed they would not be overkill for the street... Yesterday I put them on, and went out to bed the pads in. Boy was he wrong. These things are SUPER noisy AND dusty. What's worse is that if you use anything else than a gentle brake pedal pressure, these things will come on so strong that they lock up the front tires. I've driven 50miles and the front rims are BLACK with brake dust... I do have decent sticky street tires (160treadwear) but with only a 185 section in contact with the road, these pads are way too much for these tires. We'll see if they will at least now sell me the HP Plus street pads that I wanted all along at a steep discount... It goes w/o saying that they won't take a broken in set of pads back. -e

FYI The current issue (#114) is all about Zs from the looks of it - good luck getting your hands on it... http://www.geibunsha.co.jp/teiki/mo_nh.html

Alan, Miles, & whomever else might now... Do you happen to know when the NostalgicHero car show/swap meet is scheduled for this spring? From years past I remember it being in Nagoya? I would like to attend if the dates work out in my favor. My local Japanese bookstore no longer carries the magazine so I don't know when it's scheduled for. I'll be in Japan the last week of April. Thanks for the tip, -e

crap... maybe this IS the car after all... Thanks Mikey.... hahaha... bummer... oh well, such is life right. I learned my lesson after that, went straight to a DSL connection... -e (sorry for the rant)

I got the details from the printer. I am going to have the t-shirts printed on black 100% cotton Hanes Beefy-T tagless t-shirts. I am going to sell them at $15each and am only hesitating wether to make a limited run of either 24 or 48. If I could get a show of hands either here or by PM that would be great. Turnaround time is roughly 1week at the printer from the minute I say go. Thanks all, -e

hmmmm...... i think i remember the red alaska Z had body-colored semi-works or works fender flares & the pics were kinda wahed out/grainy looking... the car looked like it had been well used, not a trailer queen or anything... probably ex-military personnel from the bases over there... ok so i don't think the wheels you won are the same ones i wanted... still though the coincidence is crazy.... i think i'll hold off on telling you what i want next... hahaha -e

wait a minute.... please do find the pics of the red Z... Ha! What if that was you that beat me to the wheels!!! Ack! You got the wheels I wanted for my car, and then 3yrs later or whatever you got the car I wanted too??? What's with that Mikey... That's it I'm not telling anyone what I want next, otherwise you might beat me to it for the third time... Seriously though find me the auction pics of the red gnose... There can't be too many of them out there in Alaska... It's a small small world. -e

Mikey The wheels aren't as expensive as you might think.... Big old 14"x10 or bigger pop up on Yahoo Auctions Japan pretty often now... The hardest thing is IMO not to get the wheel but to find tires that will fit... Maybe if you do track down the right set of wheels, you can find some slicks or something and mount those... It'll be your "show setup", after all I'm guessing once you're all done you'll be trailering this car all over the place and probably not driving it on the freeways of LA... or will you? Last time I checked you could still also order just about any size/width direct from Watanabe and I seem to recall the bigger 14" and 15" wheels were something like $500-600 a pop.... Check at their website, my info could be outdated as it's been a while since I tried to find out... I'll always regret the set of 15x10 front and 15x12 rears I missed out on eBay because at the time I was still on dial-up - like 6yrs ago and they were pictured on a red Z in Alaska of all places! Get this, the set SOLD for $750! aaaahhh I was sick to my stomache... hahahaha They had BFG drag tires on them as I recall... Was the only thing the guy could find... Had I gotten those, you can bet the Z would look somewhat different today... hahahaha -e

Well guess what... After one day of being online for voting at the www.threadless.com site, it's apparently been pulled?? I can't figure it out and so far I haven't been given any reason by email or otherwise. I sent an inquiring email to their customer service email address and am waiting for a reply... I wondered if maybe someone started flaming me or something in the comments section but that's not the case. I just can't figure it out. All the car guys/gals I've shown it to like it, so maybe I should just get it made myself? On another note, it's crazy how the plot is thickening surrounding this guy & his broken car... If I knew what the good ferrari online forums are & had a login/password I would've posted it there... Apparently a co-worker used to date one of the Ferrari F1 mechanics so she says she's fwd the link on to Maranello... Ha! Imagine that... Pretty funny. Well except for the reaction over at threadless.com - did you read the comments? geez.... hahaha lighten up people! It's not like a busload of orphans was killed in the accident, in fact except for the owner's cut lip no one was injured, no endangered tree frogs were run over... Just a broken ferrari, a broken telephone pole, and the most fantastic BS excuse ever... -e

Mike I hope a little bit of self-promotion is ok? If not then please delete and I apologize. Hi Last week I created a t-shirt design about the Enzo that crashed on PCH and submitted it to www.threadless.com for voting. Basically the way that site works is that the design will be up for a week and if it garners enough interest they will print up a batch for sale. If you like my work, please vote for it and tell a friend. Thanks, -e http://www.threadless.com/submission/68444/...Dietrich

Nice find indeed. -e

Nice! When am I going to get to see the car in person Mikey??? -e

Miles, I was being facetious... -e

This sentence kills me: "But what spread the white-knuckle word about these awesome four-wheeled beasts with four funny round lights on the back was not televised races, but a little box called the PlayStation" What is the Japan Times Online? Just a sub-section of the Weekly World News or some other sensationalist supermarket checkout rag? This is the kind of writing I'd expect from a high school student, no? Weak. -e

Dave If you were at Kadena in the 80s and working for the airforce you must have seen the Habus fly in and out regularly... I wonder what that was that like, I mean, in person... Sorry for the off-topic guys... -e

Dave Glad I could help... If you get yours before I get mine, can I drive it around the block if I make it to IA? -e

Here's the details from the company based near to the port of Kobe (Osaka Prefecture) that helped Brian get his Skyline stateside... Based on how quickly the owner of the business replied to my inquiry and how thorough he was in his reply I have to admit I have a warm fuzzy feeling from these guys and would certainly consider them as a prime candidate to organize the details when I'm ready to order mine. I quote the email I received: Dear Sir, Shipping cost(Includes the local handling fee) US$1,500/1unit SKyline, From Kobe port japan to Long Beach port L.A. CAL U.S.A. delivery date: booking takes usually a few weeks to a month or more, Vessel takes 2weeks from Kobe port to Long beach port, so total delivery schedule, a month to 2month or more. This is Roll on Roll off vessel shipping cost. Sales price: Depends on the each vehicle conditions, modifications, etc... It is a difficult for us to say the average market price, cause this kinds of car is accepted as "Collectible, vintage car "in japan. Example price: 1971 KGC10 Skyline GT-X (Looks GT-R) L20 with SOLEX 44 , race exahust headers, muflers, 2DR, Original interior, GT-R flare rear fender, front flare body work fender, RS watanabe special made alloy rims. Please see the attached pics. We sold this car on 2004, customer in San Diego, total , roughly US$15,000, almost 1&half year ago. Now the market price is more expensive than the price on 2004, If we would find the similar condition car, then supply, The total price will be around US$17,000-19,000-, includes the shipping cost, Long beach. We located in japan, Osaka prefecture... west part of japan. Yasuhiro Totoki MONKY'S INC 2-17-19,Mishimaoka,Ibaraki, OSAKA5670021,JAPAN TEL/FAX:+81-72-624-6153 E-mail: office@monkys.jp