BNR34 Seats and Interior Trims

Pic 1: BNR34 Seats

The interior trim of the ER34 is kinda dull and uninspiring. I've not really liked it since I got the car. All I've done so far is just to add on a single piece of Recaro RS-G and changed some of the panel trims to the BNR34 version.

Many people would be eager to slap on the stock BNR34 seats into their ER34 for it looked really good and does the job of holding the driver very well. This is especially true of the newer BNR34 seats where it has the black trim. The older grey trimmed seats are just as dull in my opinion. The trouble is that these sort of parts doesn't come easy nor does it come cheap. There have been a couple of grey trimmed BNR34 seats that popped into the market place and those were sold for top dollars! The black trimmed version? Suffice to say it's as rare as spotting an elephant in downtown Kuala Lumpur! Hehehe

Pic 2: BNR34 complete interior seats with front door panel

But lucky me I just got hold of some very rare bits of interior trims off the BNR34. I've got:-
1) Pair of front seats with railings
2) Set of rear seats
3) Set of front door panels

The best part is all of the above are finished in the black trim which originates from the newer of the BNR34s. I've chucked these in the corner of my house and been staring at it whenever I pass by the area. Sat on it numerous times to get a feel and jolly well, it's damn good! Plus it looked really nice with the black trim. I'm positive, with this set in my ER34, the whole interior would look simply awesome. Another plus point is that the front door panels comes with the lighted red lens where in the ER34, it's just a reflector with no lights inside.

I'm actually at a cross road now. Not sure to install it onto my ER34 or to sell it off. If I'm still on stock seats, it's a no brainer to put it into my car. But I have a Recaro on the drivers side already. I love the Recaro RS-G and am a bit apprehensive about taking that out of the car.

Decisions ...... decisions ..... What do you think? Hmmm .....

Pic 3: Nice trimmings


Pic 4: BNR34 Rear Seats


Pic 5: BNR34 Front Door Panels

Recaro Side Protector

Pic 1: Recaro Side Protector

It is common for bucket seats to have worn side bolsters. The high sides of the bucket seats means that the driver will often rub against it when entering and exiting the vehicle. Friction, over time will wear off the cloth trim of the seats and expose the insides. Not a pretty sight and not something that I hope to happen to my Recaro RS-G.

To prevent that from happening, I got myself a Recaro side protector. Basically, it's just a piece of leatherly material to wrap around the sides of the seat. With it on, the fabric underneath is protected from wear and tear.

A simple thing but works a treat!

Pic 2: Before fitment


Pic 1: After fitment

DILYSI #17: Frasiers Hill, the recce

Pic 1: The ER34 at its fave playing ground

Unbelievable but my last trip to Frasiers Hill was exactly two years ago! And the last Drive It Like You Stole It (DILYSI) was one year ago! Oh man, looks like I have been in hibernation for way too long. I still love driving on touge (mountain roads) but it's just that family commitment (and age!) kind of somewhat deters that from happening for quite a bit. Or maybe I'm just plain lazy!

I've been telling myself to do a recce trip early this year. Somehow, I never get to do that until last weekend when my touge buddy Alvin pesters me that it's about time we revisit our old favourite playing ground. Plus he has just converted to manual transmission on his ER34 so I guess it's also a shakedown run for him. We were joined by Bhagwan who decided to have a cruise most of the way. He came with a leaky radiator and a huge unsecured boom box in the trunk. Hahaha

It's mostly a recce trip to check on the road condition and also if there's any changes to the routes. I'm pretty happy to report that things were almost just like before except some parts of the roads now are better BUT it's still the good old road surface mixture that we love. Smooth roads dotted with some that have ruts on 'em. Some damp stretches, wet leaves and sand on some parts, dips and undulations and not to mention, low overhanging tree branches that scrapped Alvin's car. LOL

What changed a lot was up in Frasiers Hill. Old buildings were refurbished and gone were the mamak stall that we used to hang out a long time ago. The tiny little coffee shop that we used to have breakfast was also gone and supposedly moved up the road. We went to this new food court sort of building where we had breakfast. Yummy burgers were available and so were great Nasi Lemak. Got to try that next time.

Pic 2: Alvin and Bhagwan

With my stage II upgrades, I find that my driving pattern had to change too. I had to keep the engine on higher rpm to so that I have sufficient boost coming out of corners. I tend to row between 2nd and 3rd gears lesser too compared to my previous setup when going towards The Gap.

The best part of this drive besides the great company was that the roads were practically deserted. All the way to The Gap and up to Frasiers, we practically have the whole road to ourselves. I'm driving as if it's a one way street utilizing all the roads on front of me. It was a blast and most definitely won't be too long till we come up here again. :)

Till the next DILYSI.......

Pic 3: Lovely roads ...


Pic 4: ... with lovely bends


Pic 5: Parked at the 'entrance' to Frasier Hill


Pic 6: Alvin's ER34


Pic 7: Waiting for Bhagwan


Pic 8: The three chaps that got nuttin' to do on a Sunday am

AC Delco NS40ZL Maintenance Free Battery

For the past week, the ER34 have been kinda hard to crank up especially during cold morning starts. It gets much worst if it's left un-driven for 2 days or more. It takes a LOT of cranks to get her started. Not very impressive if there is any passer-by around. Kind of embarrassing actually. The battery voltage reading as indicated by the Blitz Fatt DCIV confirms that it's running a tad low on juice.

Skyline absolutely hates low voltage battery and it really does show. After checking through my records, my last battery change was exactly 2 years ago. Guess it's about time to replace it. Got my usual AC Delco NS40ZL Maintenance Free Battery from my regular parts shop and it's all good now. With just a crank or two, the ER34 roars to life beautifully! Pleased! :)

Largest Supercar / Performance Car Gathering at Super GT 2011

Pic 1: Preparing to enter into SIC

During the Super GT 2011, JPM Motorsports organized the Largest Supercar / Performance Car Gathering. Their aim is to gather the most number of supercar / performance car in Sepang International Circuit at the same time. They managed to create a new record in the Malaysia Book of Record at 405 units of cars. That is all great and mighty fine but I had an unfortunate incident during the event.

Pic 2: At the holding area

As we were waiting in the holding area next to the back straight of turn 14, I noticed that my front tyre had a flat. Oh man, that really sucks. Running my hand around the rubber reveals there's no nails/screw that have penetrate the tyre. Really weird. It must have leaked slowly too as just an hour ago, I was barreling down the highway at speeds which is best not to be revealed publicly. LOL :D

Anyway, as the rest of the cars are making their way into the track, I had to ditch the ER34 behind and hop into one of the cars there (Thanks Colin for the ride!). Why leave the car behind? Well I don't have a 19mm wrench with me to remove the Rays Engineering lug nuts. And the best place to loan one was where the rest of the cars are going to be parked, the main straight of Sepang International Circuit. Amongst the hundreds of cars there, I'm sure there must be at least one chap with the tools.

Pic 3: At the holding area

Pic 4: All 405 cars on the main straight of SIC

My plan to narrow down the search was to ask owners of cars that spots the same lug nuts as me. Smart move BUT funnily enough, most of the owners that I've asked either do not have the wrench or do not carry tools at all. Oh man!!!

Thankfully, Dennis had one in his beautifully kitted Reckless MR-S (Thanks a bunch bro!). Now, with the tool in hand, I had to get back to the parking area. This is where Jason (sakakida) came to the rescue with a loan motocycle from Alex. The ride back to the back straight is a journey in itself as we potter along outside the track proper to get to the area.

Jason helped with the tyre change and it was done in a jiffy. Thankfully too as there is a grandstand facing directly where we were changing the tyre. Not exactly a sight to be proud of. Hahaha

This is where the problem starts, the threads on the Rays Engineering lug nuts got worn while tightening; and as such, only 3 of the lug nuts can be somewhat tightened. Somewhat tightened? Yeap! Just realized that the smaller dimension of the Rays Engineering lug nuts means that it ain't gonna be sitting flush and tight with the space saver wheel.

Pic 5: My old worn and well-used Rays lug nuts

Lucky thing is that the ER34 managed to be nursed back home all the way from Sepang International Circuit. We were only doing 60km/h all the way! Man that really sucks!

Couple of days later, I got replacement Rays Engineering lightweight Duraluminum lug nuts for the ER34 and she's now all fine and dandy. Oh btw, beware of fake Rays lug nuts which is flooding the market. Those are selling at a small fraction of the price compared to the originals. Don't be stingy on safety!

Pic 6: Brand new Rays lug nuts


Pic 7: Brand new Rays lug nuts


Pic 8: Brand new Rays lug nuts installed

Weider HSV-010 wins the Round 3 of the 2011 Autobacs Super GT in Sepang International Circuit

The SUPER GT International Series MALAYSIA race, Round 3 of the 2011 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on June 19. In the GT500 class, the winner was the No. 1 Weider HSV-010 (Takashi Kogure/Loic Duval). In the GT300 class race, the No. 4 HATSUNEMIKU GOODSMILE BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Taku Bamba) took the win.

Race day was the hottest yet in this race weekend at Sepang. By the time the formation lap started at 16:00, the heat had passed its peak and the skies were increasingly cloudy but it was still a hot 34 degrees C. with a 43-degree track surface temperature. When the official start was signaled after the formation lap, it was the pole-sitting No.1 Weider HSV-010 (Loic Duval) that got the lead. Following Duval into the first corner were the 2nd-place qualifier, the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) and the 3rd-place No. 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Toshihiro Kaneishi). Behind them, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira) and No. 39 DENSO SARD SC430 (Takuto Iguchi) collided while running side-by-side. Both machines ran off the track as a result and dropped far back in the pack. Moving up into 4th position in their place was the No. 8 ARTA HSV-010 (Hideki Mutoh). In 5th position came the No. 24 ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Bjorn Wirdheim) and behind it a cluster of cars would begin a cramped battle for position.

Meanwhile, the top two machines managed to slip away from the pack and open up a considerable margin. These two cars continued to run laps in the 1'59 to 2' range. Some distance behind the two leaders there was a hot battle for 3rd raging from the early stages of the race. Locked in the close-quarters battle were Kaneishi in car No. 17 and Mutoh in No. 8. Farther back, in the group running behind Wirdheim in car No. 24, Takuya Izawa in car No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 emerged to try to pass No. 24 on the last turn of lap six. Unfortunately the attempt failed as Izawa (No. 100) ran off the track and into the gravel bed. This dropped him back to last position in the GT500 class.

In the battle for sixth position, the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Andre Lotterer) overtook the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Kohei Hirate) on lap nine. After that, Lotterer in car No. 36 chased Wirdheim (No. 24) but the superior speed of the GT-R on the straights prevented him from making a decisive move. Meanwhile, Lotterer had to worry about cars No. 38 (Hirate) and the No. 35 D'STATION KeePer SC430 (Andre Couto) chasing his just a few tenths of a second behind him.

The No.1 car of Weider HSV-010 ran on to its first win of the season, having maintained a fast and consistent pace from the start of the race. Finishing 2nd in the first GT podium finish for the team and the driver pair was the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R. In 3rd place came the No. 17 KEIHIN HSV-010, which had held on stubbornly despite struggling with its machine set-up.

The GT300 class got off to an uneventful start. It was the pole-sitting No. 4 HATSUNEMIKU GOODSMILE BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi) that got the best start, followed by the No. 88 JLOC LAMBORGHINI RG-3 (Yuhi Sekiguchi), the No. 27 PACIFIC NAC IKAMUSUME FERRARI (Hideki Yamauchi) and the No. 11 JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP 458 (Tetsuya Tanaka). Gradually, the lead BMW (No. 4) began to increase its margin over the pack.

The battle for 2nd place developed between the two Ferrari cars, No. 27 and No. 11. As they battled, No. 4 continued to increase its lead. Farther back in the field, the No. 2 EVANGELION RT TEST-01 IM·JIHAN Shiden (Hiroki Katoh), which had been unable to compete in the qualifying due to machine trouble and had to start from 14th position at the very back of the grid (for the third year in a row!), was once again putting on a show of passing prowess while climbing to 5th position in just the first 10 laps.

Never faltering in the lead, Taniguchi in the No. 4 BMW managed to build a 14-second lead over the rest of the field before he finally made his pit stop and turned over the wheel to teammate Bamba. In contrast, the No. 11 Ferrari (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) had made an early pit stop and was closing to within 10 seconds of the fleeing leader, No. 4. Initially, both cars had been running laps in the 2'11 or 2'12 range, but with six laps remaining, Bamba's lap times in car No. 4 dropped by 2 or 3 seconds. Caught up in the battles of the GT500 cars mid-pack, Bamba's pace had been interrupted badly.

Seeing this, Hiranaka (No. 11) charged hard to try to catch him. With about six laps remain the gap was down to less than two seconds and with two laps remaining it had developed into a nose-to-tail battle between the lead BMW and the Ferrari. But Bamba in the BMW (No. 4) was not going to give up. Using his speed advantage on the straights, Bamba blocked the Ferrari in the turns and moved ahead on the straights to defend his lead for the final two laps to take the win.

It was the first GT win for the team and for the BMW Z4. No. 11 finished 2nd for the third race in a row. Finishing 3rd came car No. 27 (driven by Yutaka Yamagishi in the second half). For the third consecutive race this season the podium was swept by the European GT machines. Showing a magnificent rush to the front from the back of the grid was the No. 2 Shiden (driven by Kazuho Takahashi in the second half), and by holding off on its pit stop it had even taken the lead momentarily. However, a problem with the right-side door coming open in the final stages of the race, it finished in 10th place.
Source: supergt.net

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