Yeah, everybody I talk to who's tried to get anywhere by train in Japan has said the same thing: takes hours to get anywhere!

Well, yesterday was the day. I woke up at a WAY too early for a Saturday 5:45am and started making my way to the Trust Street Drags in Ryugasaki. It took me 2.5 hours to get to Ryugasaki by train, then it turned out being 10 kilometers further out in the country. The stupid map was NOT to scale in the least bit, so I had to walk/run it in the afternoon heat which I'd guess was around 90 F. When I finally arrived I was glad I didn't give up like I was wanting to earlier, I met up with the Matsuoka crew and video'd all the Sunny's and other cool cars there in the pits. I also video taped a few runs as well. The Matsuoka Ute is so tricked out...anyway, they ran a 13.44 in the quarter!!! Not bad for an A series! They won their class too. There were a lot of other cool cars too, my favorites were a 72 Skyline w/L28 that sounded beautiful and ran mid 13's, and a 240Z with about 4" exhaust w/NA L28 that sounded like a V-8 at idle...he ran low-mid 12's! The fastest car was an R34 GTR that ran 9's...and these cars drove in with the exception of like 2 cars. They also all had street tires too. It looked pretty tame when he pulled up, but when he revved and took off...damn it was fast. I missed it with the video camera because it just looked like another Skyline, boy was I wrong! Anyways, I'm going to see if I can find someone with a computer that can convert the video into digital so I can share it with everyone. When it was over they let me drive their Sunny truck back to the trailer too! That was so cool...that truck has a lot of power...even at low revs it's really torquey too, and still revs over 9,000 rpm! Well, I gotta go, I'm still trying to recover from the sunburn, 10k hike, and the rest of the day on the train, so I gotta go.....LATER!

-Andy

i have u12 pintara vented discs with hi-lux 4-spot calipers on stanza struts, these fit under 14" rims

can explain setup if desired

Well, describe the setup you're talking about...what size rotors? what about calipers, are they 2 piston, 4 piston, 6? Are all the parts available in the US as well? This swap that Matsuoka has clued me in on seems to me like the easiest and best strut/brake swap available for our 1200's. I'm pretty sure brake pads for an older Toyota 4 Runner aren't too much...definitely not as much as my 1200 cost me!

Next time you guys are in AUS, I'll show you what our locally built (non-nissan..I know) brakes will do for your 1200. They'll fit under some 14 inch wheels, and all 15inch ones.

What you guys propose will cost the value of your 1200 in new brake pads..everytime you need to replace them..that's just not smart. But a passion like a 1200 can sometimes validate the cost.

Chris

Okay, brake upgrade on the 280ZX struts---so you need vented rotors from a 84-89 300ZX, and 4 piston calipers from an 86-94 Toyota 4 Runner 4x4, and an aluminum spacer from JSK on ebay. This is an upgrade from the 280ZX brake setup that already is gonna stop the 1200 super fast. Not sure what size calipers they are, but they're huge...and 4 piston calipers....wow. Will definitely need big wheels to fit these suckers!

-Andy

Sorry it took so long to find out this stuff...the people at Matsuoka know everything there is to know pretty much about these cars...it's just the language barrier is too hard for me to just ask anything. Anyway, I have to see it to believe it if it actually works or not. Yeah, if this conversion works, now there's no excuse for crappy braking on a 1200! Not only do you get vented huge disks with this swap, but there are upgrades for those brakes too!! Anyway, sorry, but I just found out last night, and I'm sure some people in the club already knew this and didn't share.....that's what bugs me the most. Anyway....later!

-Andy

Quote:AAGH! Andy it was darn inconvenient of you to wait until now to find out this info. I did it the hard way by making billet spacers to fit the larger strut bottom to the smaller k-nuckle. Oh well, at least now guys who want a cheap big brake conversion on their 1200's have no excuse. Let's get out there and start outbraking those 510's.

Oh yeah I almost forgot. Apparently, if you've swapped the front suspension from a Sunny B310, or (1979-82) 210 in the US into your 1200, you can swap in the front struts and brakes from a 79-83 280ZX. According to Matsuoka, the steering knuckle/ball joint has the same bolt spacing and will allow the 280Z strut to bolt on at the bottom....however you will have to do some mods to the spring perch to fit some adjustable coils or whatever you want. Basically you'd just cut off the spring perch, buy a threaded collar and weld it to the strut so you can adjust the ride height. Now I have to somehow hunt down some 280ZX struts/brakes to see if this all works!!! Good info to know!

-Andy

Hey everyone, I just got back from Matsuoka again. They told me about some drag racing going on at a Speedway near Narita Airport on Saturday Sept. 27 starting at 0700. They are taking their Sunny race truck/Ute and asked me to go too. They gave me the advertisements for it, but I can't read most of it. Anyway I know how to get there and plan on going and video taping and taking pictures. There's supposed to be Skylines, Fairlady's, Silvias, and possibly other Sunny's racing. They said their Sunny Truck runs 13's....not bad for an A series! I can't wait to see and hear this thing run! I guess Matsuoka also used to do TS racing like 20 years ago with Sunny Coupes, they gave me a little matchbox car that was made after their famous Matsuoka Sunny Coupe! Talk about a collector's item! Anyway, once I video tape the drag races I have to figure out a way to get it digital so I can share with everyone. Anyway, it's bed time and I gotta fly tomorrow, see ya'll later!

-Andy