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Should you’ve been maintaining with Venture Tough‘s progress over the previous few months, you’ll know I dialed within the suspension with the assistance of Frank at Tuner Idea and the crew at GKTech, discovered the right way to do a correct wheel alignment at dwelling, after which set about maximizing the potential of the Shibatire Revimax R23 efficiency tires I fitted.
I then took Venture Tough to Sports activities Land Yamanashi to place it by means of its paces, and the whole lot went higher than I may ever have imagined. Your boy was on cloud 9.
For a couple of days a minimum of…
Following my time on the observe, the excessive strain line on the facility steering pump determined to leak. A lot.
It wasn’t the kind of catastrophic failure the place you make a couple of turns and the pump jettisons your entire reservoir, however a considerably regular drip was sufficient for me to park my ER34 Nissan Skyline (but once more) and attempt to type issues out.
No worries although, as I used to be capable of finding a used alternative pretty fast on Yahoo! Auctions for a good value. ‘Skyline Energy Steering hose C34 ER34 C35 Laurel’ learn the itemizing. Cue foreshadowing…
Earlier than getting caught in, I made a decision to look over the alternative and ensure it was certainly a direct match, as I had an odd feeling that one thing was not proper. Positive sufficient, the alternative was for an RB20, not an RB25. Sh*t. I partially dodged a bullet by checking, however I nonetheless wanted a repair. I dropped by my native Nissan dealership they usually quoted somewhat below ¥50,000 (approx US$350) for simply the excessive strain line and ¥30,000 (roughly US$210) for the opposite one.
Within the midst of getting ready a sob story for my spouse on why I wanted to spend an entire lot of cash on ‘some hoses’ to repair Venture Tough, I remembered that whereas visiting R31 Home’s components yard a couple of years again, they’d a couple of R34s in inventory. Fingers crossed, I despatched Shibata-san a message asking if he nonetheless had the Skylines, and in that case whether or not they’d have the components I wanted.
Shibata-san’s reply was not the one I needed to listen to: “I don’t have any R34s, Ron.”
I didn’t should dwell on that dangerous information lengthy although, as a result of at least a few hours later, my cellphone rung. It was Shiba-san, this time with some nice information.
“I discovered them!” he exclaimed. “They [the R34s] ought to have the half you’re searching for. Should you’re OK with the half getting used, then you possibly can have it. In truth, you possibly can come and take any components that you simply like to your automobile!”
‘Are you positive?’ I requested, gobsmacked. “After all, simply come to the store and you’ll take no matter you want!”
It was at this level that the gears in my head began to show…
Seeing that it had been a couple of years since we final paid R31 Home a go to, I figured an replace story was due. I knew making an attempt to cram the whole lot into sooner or later was going to be not possible, so Shibata-san and I determined to put aside a complete weekend.
I didn’t count on Shibata-san to have the facility steering hoses eliminated for me, so I put collectively an inventory of instruments that I would wish to seize these and every other elimination/refit work I may presumably do within the R31 Home yard.
All of it match somewhat properly on this outsized picnic basket.
With Venture Tough loaded up, I hit the expressway with the navigation set to R31 Home in Gifu.
On a visit like this, I’d usually take the backroads and touges because the expressway could be a bit dreary (to not point out costly), however since Venture Tough was nonetheless leaking energy steering fluid I didn’t need to threat one thing occurring in the midst of nowhere. I simply needed to get to R31 Home as quickly as potential.
To my shock although, the route there was truly fairly gorgeous. With my coilovers set to ‘mushy’ and my air conditioner blowing ice chilly, it was fairly an satisfying cruise.
Should you ever have to take a break whereas driving on Japanese expressways, the various service areas alongside the best way are an absolute deal with. The smaller ones will a minimum of normally have a comfort retailer inside, however the bigger ones have meals courts and areas devoted to promoting omiyage – the act of shopping for a present (normally some type of snack) for pals, co-workers or relations.
Shockingly, I arrived at R31 Home with none drama. Digital camera in hand, I used to be able to hit the bottom working to maximise the weekend.
It was instantly clear that loads had modified since our final go to, however earlier than I may start, Shibata-san had yet one more shock for me.
“Do not forget that factor I promised you 5 years in the past at Tokyo Auto Salon, Ron?” Keep tuned for Half 2 of this story…
Ron Celestine
Instagram: celestinephotography
www.labcuriosity.com
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