Dr. Marus or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the RB26DETT

[MarusGTR]

Yup the apexi intakes were from me! I think i sold them dirt cheap lol glad you are putting them to use! great thread keep it going!!!

And it was really appreciated man! The old box filter was so dried up it actually snapped in two pieces when I took it out. Daryl did put the kit on sale really cheap back when he was running his shop, it was just bad timing for you, superb for me (and I still feel bad about it)

In my defense though, some bolts and one bracket was missing :P

...does this get super exciting from here on out!?! Ya!

More than 2011 that's for sure, I'll continue the story soon. Heads up though, with how things are going I don't think 2013 will beat it

[MarusGTR]

2012 - hdps

The second weekend coming up, I left a Bathurst friday morning (IIRC) with my parents so that they could drop me off at the warehouse to pick up the GTR.

I had brought my gear with me; tools, supplies (deionized water, extra oil, fluids etc) and my new helmet. I also brought a Jerry can with me that would be used in the pits. Turns out that stripping the interior did have it's perks.



Because the rear strut bar is exposed I can mount anything pretty solidly to the backplate. Got to admit, it was also nice that I'd have an emergency V-power fuel supply in case I got stuck in the middle of hicktown aka nowhere. I wasn't too keen on fueling with pisswater.

So I was off and I had to reach Halifax by 8PM for the high performance driving school (HDPS) class session. Moncton to Halifax was suprisingly comfy and fun, especially once you get to the outskirts of halifax where the highway just becomes breathtaking at sundown. It was a great bonding moment with the car.

I reached Halifax around 6 and met Bobbo at his place. At first glance he's the type of guy you don't want to **** with with all his armed forces (navy) badassery but I'm sure there's a hidden softspot under the shades and chrome dome. Awesome guy to hang with. We got to talk a bit before class and I told him how I just took the GTR out of storage and was a little worried about my rear diff clutch plates. Since I had brought some Motylgear oil, we lifted the car up and swaped the skunked diff oil for fresh stuff. There was enough left to do the front diff but I was running out of time so I decided to leave before they'd lock me out of the class.

Yes, turns out Motylgear wasn't the right type for viscous diffs, I'll get to that later.

So turns out I got there just in time as one of the organizers was holding the door looking for late arrivals. The course consisted of the friction circle, apexes, tips, flags, rules, etc. Informative refresher. All said and done it was around midnight and the track was opening next morning around 7am so I went directly to bed.

Well that morning was a sensory overload... can't remember much about it except smiling and trying to stay in speeding formation in three lanes with an AMG C63 Black, a C5 Z06 and.... Bobbo's Legacy (he was still kicking my ass though). I was pretty surprised when the convoy got on dirt roads. For it was 30 minutes of driving to the middle of nowhere. But after overtaking a few cows we finally got to AMP where we all parked at the paddock and registered.





This was going to be a trial by fire. When the techs came around to check the car I just kept my mouth shut since I knew that she had only been out of storage for half a day after 6 months of slumber. Suprisingly she passed, I was lucky they overlooked the brake fluid that looked like Aunt Jemima's.

The purpose here was to get a HDPS license, so I wasn't looking to go too fast... So after the checklist I went on a little stroll for pictures. The what, 8 hours of driving, really had taken its toll on the front bumper.











And then they called for a group meeting. We were going to get a tour of the track on the back of the service trucks. This part was really critical to knowing where to scrub speed and to memorize apex markers. One tip that stuck with me is that no matter how prepared you are, you will always get too early in the apex without the experience.

After the toor they started calling out the group rotations for lapping. My instructor, was the driver of the C5 Z06, a friend of Bobbo's. He took the wheel of the GTR and immediately showed me the ropes, lines etc. ...and he pointed out how she was fast, in fact too fast as she braked liked a brick. (see, I was getting somewhere with this)

So as we go back to the paddock and I cool off the GTR I see this fellow starting to hover around with his friends:





I come up and introduce myself. Turns out Shades McBuzzcut here was GTRC resident amnash who had taken a wrong turn in the rockies and had ended up on the east coast. Really that was the cherry on the cake that I made a lot of acquaintances that day. With amnash, Bobbo, two of the students that turned up to be Moncton residents and other acquaintances I had a great time hanging out and lapping. Since I had the technical side down to a tee, I was about to pass with flying (but slow) colors.



And that's when in turn no.2 as I heeled and toed a big pop came from under the hood. I started spewing black smoke and the engine kept jerking as boost crept up. My instructor thought I had gone totally mental screwing around with the throttle but after I assured him with my thick accent that I wasn't purposefully trying to kill him and we limped back to the pits.

First off, opened the hood. Idle was suprisingly fine until blipping the throttle where it would get a hard time leveling back.



Everything in the enginebay seemed fine, my first thought was a blown exhaust wheel. Another option was that my ignitor was acting up. As people started gathering around to help, amnash proposed to cool off the ignitor by taking off the coil overplate, which we did. After cooling off for a bit and a restart, the problem was still there.

After checking the mafs and etc I started to get impatient and remembered the pop; all the pipes seemed in place but I started prodding around and as shoved my hand behind the hot side rubber pipe I noticed with my magic fingers that the lip wasn't matching the shape on the side I could see. We took the pipe off and reset it, tied it back up snug.

Problem fixed.

Not too shabby blowing an OEM rubber pipe on the stock 8psi of boost (yes I still had my restrictor). But, since I hadn't been on enough laps, I wasn't able to get my license. Still, I wasn't going to give up; I was going find a way to get it at another time.

With a race event forcing us off the track and paddock, it was time to leave. I had been all day on a track and I was going to finish it with more than 6 hours on the road.

Coffee was in order.

[future_R34]

keep it coming!

[bobbo]

At first glance he's the type of guy you don't want to **** with with all his armed forces (navy) badassery but I'm sure there's a hidden softspot under the shades and chrome dome.

Guess I can't be all bad having invited you (a perfect stranger at the time) into my home and showing you some hospitality.
I don't have much of a "soft spot" for most people but I think we all want to help out another enthusiast.
Hopefully I'll be around enough this year enough so we can have some more Skyline action at the track.

[MarusGTR]

Guess I can't be all bad having invited you (a perfect stranger at the time) into my home and showing you some hospitality.
I don't have much of a "soft spot" for most people but I think we all want to help out another enthusiast.
Hopefully I'll be around enough this year enough so we can have some more Skyline action at the track.

I wasn't getting into those details so that people wouldn't take advantage of your generosity It was seriously appreciated man, I can't thank you enough.

[amnash]

"Shades McBuzzcut" LOL hey i was on a course on a army base, trying to fit in, what can i say lol

[bobbo]

Ha! No worries. You don't have to worry about people taking advantage of me. I'm only nice to people with dogs I like, good choices in cars (sometimes) and of course my friends. I don't know if you have a dog.
eesh. I WOULD NOT want to go on course on an army base. They tend to not like us Navy types... especially dirty submariners.

[MarusGTR]

My old girl Roxy, aka Pooch McGraw aka The Roxbox.

[R33-East]

I would love to get some track time with you guys. I will be away until July but hopefully I can make something happen once I get home.

Are you guys going to the Atlantic Nationals this year? I met up with cory and his GTR last year, would be nice to get a group together for an east coast meet.

[bobbo]

I'd like to go to the Nationals again. It's a blast. Depends on scheduling. I went a couple years a go and hung with the Z club. We'll put something on the Skytimers thread as the date approaches.
As far as track schedules go I post dates on the Skytimers thread aswell.

[frankiman]

nice track story man, we all have to start someday

[bobbo]

nice track story man, we all have to start someday

It's great when people do but regretfully most would rather park. We have a difficult time getting people out to the track. I don't understand it.

[drew6]

Marcus,

Awesome story and nice car. If you're ever around Moncton let me know... I could use a hand taking the engine/transmission out of my car LOL. I lost the throw out bearing last fall and have been too busy with other projects to get at it. It seems this car likes to have it's engine out at least once a year and it's a bitch to do by yourself.

Bobbo,

Are you planning any track days in the spring? I would love to try it out but wouldn't know the first place to get started.

[MarusGTR]

I'd love to but I'm not in Moncton too often these days. Maybe 240sxcollector would be up for it, you should PM him.

If you're not in a hurry I'll be picking up the GTR in May so I'll be in Moncton around that time and I'll need a jack somewhere for an oil change. You scratch my back I scratch yours lol.

[bobbo]

Bobbo,

Are you planning any track days in the spring? I would love to try it out but wouldn't know the first place to get started.

PM me and I'll gladly get ya started. We'd love to have more Skylines at the track.