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Thread: BenFenner's 2000 Black M-Coupe

  1. #151
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    Let's get to a new page, so long as I'm already here...

  2. #152
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    Thanks for the new page Fu-man. I'll have the next big update posted tomorrow.

  3. #153
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    Preimtive bump to help take up space.

    Does the hood handle make that big of a difference? I've never felt too much resistance in mine...?

  4. #154
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    Quote Originally Posted by robb1887 View Post
    Does the hood handle make that big of a difference? I've never felt too much resistance in mine...?
    I've read that if your hood bumpers are adjusted properly and the cable isn't corroded then everything is smooth as butter. For those of us with aging cables and/or tight hood latch adjustments it gives us piece of mind. Before the aluminum handle, I was concerned that the plastic handle would bend or snap every time I pulled it. I was careful with it, but I shouldn't have to worry about a thing like that. So I bought the replacement, and for me it was well worth it.

    It's funny though, behind it is plastic, and a short plastic arm ultimately pulls on the cable. It's a much shorter arm though, so hopefully it doesn't suffer the same leverage issue the handle does.

    You could certainly try adjusting your hood height and maintain a good cable and be fine forever. I'm a bit lazy when it comes to replacing hood latch cables, so I'm shining things on with the stronger handle.

  5. #155
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    2013 National SR20 Convention

    Facebook album permalinks 1 and 2.

    Every year the US contingent of SR20-powered cars holds a convention at a different road coarse (this year it is Atlanta Motorsports Park). Since the only cars officially released in the US with SR20 engines were front-wheel-drive the majority of community members drive either Nissan Sentra/NX chassis or Infiniti G20s. There are a fair number of FWD and AWD Pulsars along with the swapped RWD S-chassis folks, but in this tight community they are in the minority.

    The community is fiercely performance oriented, which should be obvious based on venue choices. Each year community members and like-minded friends rent out a road course for a day of fun. Drivers pay, spectating and ride-alongs are free. The following day traditionally being a "free" day to experience the city of choice for that year, and the final day is a free picnic and unorthodox car show with awards. The sort of car show where stripped/caged ITA cars win over garage queens.

    The last 3 years have seen a drag racing day added to the line-up to satisfy that growing sector of the community which has turned out to be hilarious fun for all as mock grudges get played out and the locals (usually domestic drivers) get to see something new.

    This is my 3rd year attending and even though I took heaps and heaps of flak for bringing the Coupe this year instead of the SE-R, I did just that. I'm not alone. A lot of community members have moved on to other cars and bring them instead. It stopped being about the cars and became about the people a long time ago. As I'm sure anyone who's been to the Z3 events can attest.
    I had lots of fun, and the pictures should start speaking for themselves. I typically take anywhere from 300-750 pictures each year and while I won't be posting nearly all of them, there will be a good bit. Suffice it to say I will spread them out over a handful of posts, so watch for that.















    Torry's Celica Alltrac (AWD turbo)

































    Every year there are interesting rentals. This year there was a Mustang, and years prior a Versa, Juke, PT Cruiser, C5 Corvette, etc.









    Those were some of the pics I took at the road course. I'll have the pictures others took of the M Coupe at AMP in the next post.

    *continued on post #158*
    Last edited by BenFenner; 05-14-2014 at 09:41 AM.

  6. #156
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    Spacer post -- more please!

  7. #157
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fumanchu282 View Post
    Spacer post -- more please!
    +1

  8. #158
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    *continued from post #155*

    As promised, here are the track day images others took with the shoe in them. Next up will be images from the drag day.










































































    *continued on next post*
    Last edited by BenFenner; 05-15-2014 at 05:57 PM.

  9. #159
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    *continued from previous post*

    I know I promised drag day pics, but I actually have videos from the road course to post. Not mine (I got a camera setup later) but some videos from others. I'll let you know what's worth watching to save you some time.


    Short video from the stands of the 400+ WHP 1ZJ swapped SC300 running in the advanced group with us:





    On-board of same SC300 where you can see me point him by on the front straight at 1:15 which is honestly the only real interesting thing in this whole post so skip the rest if you want:






    Couple more on-board videos of the SC300 but honestly nothing super interesting:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJVMylgmBvY

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V6akgN207w




    On-board video of Mark doing some laps in his race car:






    Multiple camera setup featuring Louis and his rally-x car. GoPro falls off at 5:00:



    *continued on post #167*
    Last edited by BenFenner; 05-29-2014 at 03:09 PM.

  10. #160
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    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    The community is fiercely performance oriented, which should be obvious based on venue choices.
    No doubt about that. I was gone before it was a web-based forum,but was on the mailing list for years. I can only imagine what the reaction was to the first person who asked about bagging their suspension. It surely wasn't pretty.

    Red NX2000 (Copy).jpg

    Reminds me of my old NX2000.

    The ugly Bro's (Copy).jpg

    Every family has an ugly ducking.

    Laps (Copy).JPG

    Enjoyed mine. The only thing that was really bad was the A/C. Absolutely useless over 80°F.

  11. #161
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    I dont even think I've seen one around here... (And thats not necissarily a bad thing)

  12. #162
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    looks like an excellent track event.
    less serious, more fun.

  13. #163
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    Quote Originally Posted by spacecowboy View Post
    Red NX2000 (Copy).jpg

    Reminds me of my old NX2000.
    I'm pretty sure that Red NX has just ~16,000 miles on it.

    So true about the ugly duckling comment.

    Quote Originally Posted by spacecowboy View Post
    I can only imagine what the reaction was to the first person who asked about bagging their suspension.
    I actually think we've avoided that question so far. Maybe our reputation precedes us.
    Last edited by BenFenner; 05-18-2014 at 07:30 PM.

  14. #164
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    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    I'm pretty sure that Red NX has just ~16,000 miles on it.

    So true about the ugly duckling comment.

    I actually think we've avoided that question so far. Maybe our reputation precedes us.
    That would be an amazing accomplishment considering the age of the cars, mileage, & price. It seems like the group that puts a "z" after words are always the ones stirring up the most shit. I don't visit the original R32 forum much any more because of those meatheads. Good luck to them in life. LOL

    It always was an innovative mailing list. There were some great discussions. One of the most useful group buys I've ever seen was the Hyperco spring sets that were made up. I lost the NX while the beta testing was being done on them. That would be a sweet idea for the coupe & roadster. High rate factory style springs, with no drop, to eliminate the geometry issues.

    Have you noticed an excess amount of tire squeal with the Sumitomo's? I had them mounted, then let the R sit 9 months while I drove the roady. Now have been putting some miles on the R again. They definitely make more noise, much easier, than the Conti SportContact 3's they replaced.

  15. #165
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    Quote Originally Posted by spacecowboy View Post
    Have you noticed an excess amount of tire squeal with the Sumitomo's?
    Yep. That was my only real major complaint and I think I mentioned it earlier. I'm used to higher quality and higher grip tires, which tend to make no or almost no noise near, at, and over the limit from my experience. When pushed, these Sumitomos are embarrassingly vocal. =/
    Last edited by BenFenner; 05-19-2014 at 10:52 AM.

  16. #166
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    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    Yep. That was my only real major complaint and I think I mentioned it earlier. I'm used to higher quality and higher grip tires, which tend to make no or almost no noise near, at, and over the limit from my experience. When pushed, these Sumitomos are embarrassingly vocal. =/
    I don't remember having this issue with the original version of this tire back about 10 years ago. It was on par with the Bridgestone RE-7. I had to make a quick reverse K-turn in to traffic on A1A yesterday leaving a deli, & as soon as backward motion stopped it was in first gear & moving forward with a squeal. This is with AWD. I wonder how version 3 is?

  17. #167
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    *continued from post #159*

    Facebook album permalinks 1 and 2.



    I know I promised drag racing pics, but I forgot the drag day was rained out. That means we did the picnic/car show first and moved the drag day to the next day. So here are the picnic images where the clown shoe made an appearance.












    *continued on post #171*
    Last edited by BenFenner; 05-31-2014 at 06:24 PM.

  18. #168
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    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post



    Looks exactly like the platinum gold 1999 Sentra SE-Limited I bought in high school and sold last year. I still miss it. And if I was that attached to my Sentra; you can only imagine my feelings about my coupe.

    2002 Steel Gray over Imola Red M Coupe

  19. #169
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    I used to drive a Sentra SE-R pretty regularly, was a friend's car I drove before I had my license... lol

    Maybe all Coupe owners are connected through Sentras first, rather than Coupes Maybe whould we be warning current Sentra owners to buy their Coupes now, before prices go up?

    Going into my TENTH YEAR of providing high quality reproduction BMW fabrics!

    PRICE CUT on ALL FABRICS
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  20. #170
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    Jon, I remember when you were putting the car up for sale. That's a long stretch of ownership for sure.

    SE-R owners seem to end up with one of three things these days. They either leave to a Subaru (Imprezza WRX/STI, Forester XT wagon, or Legacy GT [wagon]), a Mazda[speed] 3 hatch or Miata, or an S52/S54 powered BMW. Those are by far the most popular options.

  21. #171
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    *continued from post #167*

    Facebook album permalinks 1 and 2.


    Okay, the drag day pics as promised. There's also a bit of a story to go along with each run, because I get nervous participating in organized drag racing and by all measures I suck at it.


























    Having the drag day rained out meant we rented the track on an off day, which had us all there by ourselves. I like to see local talent intermixed, but such is life. When you have the track to yourself, you get a bazillion runs in. I think one year someone got 32 runs in. I try to get my one or two runs in early for the photo opportunities while the sun is out and get the time slips, and get back to Katie so she's not bored out of her mind. I mention all of this because I always seem to get dragged into more runs than I'd planned. Last year I got called out over the intercom to race someone of similar times for a trophy (which was hilarious) and this year I lined up against someone who was running similar times and kept losing so I kept asking for another shot at it. All said and done I did six runs. I am car #42.





    First run as the pictures show was against Vadim's grey B15. The timing equipment didn't record his results but I'm pretty sure I had the W.





    Second run was against Mike's G20 with nitrous. His car sounds insane. The timing equipment didn't pick up him either, but he's deep into the 12s at least so I'm sure he won.





    Third run was with Vadim again. You'll notice my 60' times are dropping as I'm learning the track (and subsequently the ETs are dropping). I'd recently read that Car & Driver got their best 1/4-mile times with a good bit of wheel spin during the launch so I kept launching at higher and higher revs trying to get the rears to spin some. The FWD guys were complaining about how poorly prepped the track was and it got worse as the night went on. I had absolutely zero issues and felt the track was too sticky if anything. This run I'd worked myself all the way up to redline for the launch. I wasn't dropping the clutch before, but I did this time in an effort to try to get any spin at all. Well, I didn't spin, and I didn't bog, which if you're paying attention means the clutch slipped a good bit for a good while. It however resulted in the best 60' time of the day.
    Too many runs back-to-back without enough time to cool things. I was out running before most were ready so I was going back-to-back out there and things got hot. After the clutch slipping incident I backed off the aggressiveness for the launch a good bit and my next 60' times will reflect that.






    For the fourth run I lined up with Chris in his white SE-R. Someone said I should find him and race him since we were both running in the mid-to-low 14s and it would be a good race. I pride myself on being good with a shifter and I've complained about the Z3 shifter before. Seems it reared it's ugly head today (blaming the car like a true racer). At the top of 3rd near the end of the track I money-shifted to 2nd gear, chirping the rear tires, sending me into the steering wheel, and seeing the tach peg to over 8k RPM. I stomped on the clutch and maybe put the car into 4th (I don't remember if I coasted out the run or not, but according to the MPH I probably coasted) and on the return road was listening to the engine with dreadful emotions.



    I gave the engine a few tentative free revs and it sounded okay. I drove back to the paddock and quickly took stock of the day and the entire weekend and thought about how I would need the car to make it 10 hours home from Ohio to South Carolina. I'd limped home from one of these events before with melted spark plugs and bent intake valves before (detonation damage) and I certainly didn't want to go through that again.

    What's that? I lost to Chris by only 0.15 seconds?! Oh, it's on!





    We line up again for my 5th run.
    This time I miss-shift at the top of 2nd into 5th gear. Today is just not my day. I recover and Chris beats me by a huge margin.
    Chris has had enough of me and goes off to find bigger fish to fry.






    Jay and his N/A SR20VE powered NX2000 had also been running similar times so we lined up. I'm in the right lane for the first time today and I don't like it. I snap off my best reaction time of the day and even though I get the better ET, Jay's perfect reaction time (best of the day) is good enough to give him the win. This was probably a good place to call it quits. Jay went on to go a best of 14.1s that day.





    So, best ET of the day was 14.273s and best trap speed was 96.51 MPH. That's a (for all intents and purposes) stock S52 M Coupe. I like to use my SE-R as a yard stick, so for those keeping track, the SE-R has run a best of 13.864s at 107.15 MPH running progressive boost (4→9 psi) and ~260WHP.
    Last edited by BenFenner; 05-31-2014 at 06:32 PM.

  22. #172
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    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    Jon, I remember when you were putting the car up for sale. That's a long stretch of ownership for sure.

    SE-R owners seem to end up with one of three things these days. They either leave to a Subaru (Imprezza WRX/STI, Forester XT wagon, or Legacy GT [wagon]), a Mazda[speed] 3 hatch or Miata, or an S52/S54 powered BMW. Those are by far the most popular options.
    I moved on to a '96 VW VR6 GTI. Never looked back or missed the NX2000.

  23. #173
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    Would you move to an R32 if you could?

  24. #174
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    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    Would you move to an R32 if you could?
    I did in 2005 & still have it. As my automotive evolution went over the last 20 years, 16v GTI (1.8L), to NX (2.0L), to GTI (2.8L), to R32 (3.2L), each one was better than the previous one by quite a bit. But, I'd say that after driving a RWD sports car, & then going to a FWD biased AWD GT, I don't think you'd be happy, unless you use it for rain & snow duty. It handles surprisingly well in the rain for a nose-heavy pig. Oh, & the prices for parts is astronomical compared to the E36 platform. For example a front rotor, though huge for a VW, is something like $320.

  25. #175
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    It was so long ago, I forgot Katie took a bunch of pictures with her own camera at the 2013 National SR20 Convention. I knew I wouldn't have come away with so few pictures of the car at the track or stip.
    Let me get those images sorted and I'll post them soon while also trying not to put too many pictures on a single page.

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