Over christmas and new years went down to melbourne. Found a good price ($400) on a manual RB20DET gearbox down there, so used the opportunity to bring it back in the R31.

I've decided to convert the car to manual, before doing the RB25 conversion. I decided that once all the pedals, clutch manual parts such as clutch master cylinder, etc are installed - it should be fairly easy to take out just the gearbox once its time to swap over the motor.

Speaking to a couple of people, the RB20DET box should hold up ok behind the RB25, as long as I don't do flatshifts and don't rev it too much in and out of each gear. It will do as a cheap alternative for hopefully 12 months or so until I get an RB25det gearbox

Main goal over the coming month is to do all the compliance items that I can, and take it to a compliance place to get the intrusion bars and final signoff done. Then I can get it registered, and finally drive it around.

Today, after a few dramas, finished off my brake conversion. Converted the front stock "non type-m" single pot crappers (which the car came with) to the "type-m" 4 pot brakes, which will give much better stopping power.

Seeing as the old brakes were stuffed, figured now was a good opportunity to upgrade to something a little better, and to get it roadworthy for registration. I picked up a good set of the calipers and DBA discs for about $400.

For those unfamiliar - slotted rotors have grooves machined into them, which help reduce the overall heat on the disc during heavy work, and ultimately prevent brake fade caused by heated components. So this will be great once the car gets on the track.

You can see the "before" and "after" shots to the right. Big difference!