Is it time to move on ...

A

AlpinaBoy

Member
Had the alpina a year now and fancy a change

Fancy a mild modded Nissan R32 GTR

Will I regret this move...

Any previous owners on here and how they are to live with

I am a low mileage user no more than 4k a year so fuel tax and economy not a concern got the family f11 for that..
 
Can't comment on if you'll regret it or not as it each to their own but trying to find a 'lightly' modded one might be a bit of a mission. They are great cars but things like the G Sensors and Hicas lock can punt you right into a ditch. A decent strut brace is a must. Clearly you want something clean but you'd ideally best looking on the GTR forum, skyline owners is alright but more for the GTST and GTT owners.

I enjoy driving ours, it gets lots of attention and yes at getting about 9 mpg around town on a good day is not bad when you don't do many miles. Oh and a decent sized car for a family. Guy we know ordered a R35 GTR and found it too small as it's quite cramped in the rear and had a brand new R32 GTR build from the ground up. Sourced a shell and all the parts from Nissan, however these are starting to run very low now.

However remember that these are imports and the insurance will reflect this. We currently pay £800 on the R32 and £340 on the 35is just to give a comparison. Both fully comp on less than 3k a year and social, pleasure and domestic.



 
That's my favourite colour the Grey with bronze Volk wheel
.I have driven a r33 with 600bhp with the hicas delete bar and that was fun
its as much about the looks and the noise which attract ed me to the alpina
 
AlpinaBoy said:
That's my favourite colour the Grey with bronze Volk wheel
.I have driven a r33 with 600bhp with the hicas delete bar and that was fun
its as much about the looks and the noise which attract ed me to the alpina
Click to expand...

We have a very tame sounding exhaust. We did think it was loud with the baffle in until the 35is turned up and only that's every woke him up! But with the baffle out its loud. Lots to do to then. Ours was doing 500bhp before it went for an engine rebuild which has somehow taken almost a year because somebody keeps buying lots of new bits for it and it's now cost 4 times the original cost for a standard rebuild and looks like it's about to get some BBS LM's in gold :thumbsup:

But for a 25 year old car it still looks great!
 
I've noticed quite a few having engine rebuilds

Is this down to the age of the cars or do they get tired easier

A lot of cars seem to hit the 500bhp figure faiely easy from a stage one mods

Any issues getting hold of parts
 
AlpinaBoy said:
I've noticed quite a few having engine rebuilds

Is this down to the age of the cars or do they get tired easier

A lot of cars seem to hit the 500bhp figure faiely easy from a stage one mods

Any issues getting hold of parts
Click to expand...

The engines should last but to ensure they are in tip top shape and especially when people have used them as DDs get near the 100,000 mile mark they like to have a engine 'refresh'/rebuild. It's not to do with the engine being tired nearly the age and milliage. 25 years they have been out for so for as many to have lasted this long in the condition they are is testament to the build and design.

What people get on and dyno and what they think they have is two different things. Mike always jokes that there is always someone who has a mate with a 1000 bhp version but actually it's no where near that but you would get a lot of bang for your buck.

The Yen did fall but is currently on its way back up which has an impact on values for imports, cars and parts. If you want aftermarket parts then no real issues getting these but most have to come from Japan and certain 'bits' are not in stock items and need to be made so you could be looking at 6 to 8 weeks. Original nissan parts like body panels, skirts etc are becoming very limited and most of the stock in Europe has gone.
 
@AlpinaBoy - did you manage to get to the bottom of the 700/800 rpm idle 'blip' that you were experiencing last year? Last I remember your dealer had ordered a new module saying that would fix the issue...

I only ask as I still have it, it hasn't got any worse and I've seen a number of other owners with B3S-engined cars reporting the same 'blip', no-one has ever mentioned that there's any impact on performance or economy so it may be a fairly 'normal' thing where some engines have it and some don't

Cheers
 
I had a issue with the handbrake light not coming on and some random issues with the Windows this was solved with a new body control panel which I believe is a fairly big circuit board which programmes everything on the car

They said no fault codes were stored and the blip was a feature of the engine in particular the cam profile when the engine was cold it hasn't got worse and its in for a mot next week let's hope it doesn't affect emmisions
 
AlpinaBoy said:
They said no fault codes were stored and the blip was a feature of the engine in particular the cam profile when the engine was cold it hasn't got worse and its in for a mot next week let's hope it doesn't affect emmisions
Click to expand...
So basically the same as everyone else has found, no fault codes, no effect on anything (including emissions). The engines were hand-built so it's not surprising if some of them have little idiosyncrasies. Ade Flint has driven quite a few RS' and he says that every RS engine is different and they all have their own personality 8)
 
I also forgot to mention that now the R32s can be shipped to the U.S. which is starting to push the prices up due to demand. Our friend who owns a garage that sells and breaks these has been to a few meets in the US, he has seen the prices being paid and said he breaks betters cars here. They are buying whatever they can including cars we wouldn't touch with a barge pole basically write offs for over £10k! Similar vehicle would sell for 3/4k here. It's mental!

A lot of US army lads based here are buying to ship back home when they return.
 
A colleague at work has just shipped a spec 2 R33 from Japan. He got it for an absolute bargain. Its got very minimal miles on it (28k I think) and is completely original, it even looks as it if still has its factory 15" (they look like 15's anyway) alloy wheels. He went to pick it up from Torque GT the other day and he hasn't come back to work yet! He said he's having too much fun.

His plans are to keep it completely original as an unmolested skyline is like rocking horse poop these days. I used to have a white R33 and it was very fun to drive but running costs were a bit ridiculous.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom