In the mid to late 2000’s owning a Japanese performance car came with it a lot of fear when driving on the road. It was evident that police, particularly highway patrol were looking for these cars to pull over and issue defect notices. Hell, this was how my GT-R got defected. Although my car was parked on the side of the road.
As a result of police blitzes hundreds of cars were taken off the road and thousands of infringement notices were issued. It was tough being an owner of a Japanese performance car. Eventually due to the hassle of owning Japanese cars the street performance car scene was killed. At least the Japanese street performance car scene.
How my R32 GT-R got defected
It was labour day holiday in 2008 and boy was it a hot one and a few of my friends and I decided to go to Chelsea beach. In 2008 Chelsea beach was free of the hero’s, at that time Edithvale beach was the one filled with muzza’s. It was a conscious decision I made to go to Chelsea beach as I was going to be driving and didn’t want unwanted attention.
The day was fantastic and my friends and I had loads of fun at the beach. After all it had been months since I had spoken to them let alone hung out. When we were walking back to our cars I noticed a highway patrol police car darting around. I instantly got worried and I told my friend to hurry and get in the car as we needed to leave straight away.
Now, before you think that I am a criminal and was looking to exit a scene of the crime. I need to tell you that this is the way all people with modified Japanese cars behave when they see a highway patrol car.
GT-R inspected and defected
When the patrol car started coming down the street I was in. I locked my car and started walking away, because the last thing I want him doing was inspecting my car. My friends and I walked over to the Safeway car park and chilled around my friends car.
About 30 minutes passed and from the top of the street I see the the police officer spot my car. Which was parked on the side of the road. Get his height measuring wheel and checked the ride height of the car. I knew that I was going to be done for ride height as I was running a full length 4 inch exhaust from the back of my T04Z turbo. I was ok getting picked up for ride height as that can easily be fixed.
After the officer drove off I started walking towards my car. I have no idea how he recognised me but he pulled up next to me in his car and said, “Is that is that red car yours?” Pointing at my GT-R that was a few hundred of meters down the road. The thought did cross my mind to lie but chose to take the honest path in case he did recognise me. I reluctantly answered “Yes”. He then asked me to come back to my car.
When we both got to my car he spoke to me about my ride height. Saying that it was too low. I agreed as I wanted him to give me the notice for ride height and be on his way. I really didn’t want him to see the other mods I had. If you don’t know too much about my R32 GT-R and the mods I have been running then check out my article Manoj’s single turbo R32 GT-R and A big single T04Z on a forged RB26.
Polished T04Z in my 32 GT-R
The police officer then checked my tyres bringing to my attention the inside of the tyres were worn to the belt. I didn’t notice this initially as my car was cambered and the tread on the outside of the tyre was legal. It was very hard to see that the tyre was worn unless you ran your hand over the back of the tyre and felt the belt come through.
I was super polite to the officer and I played the card that I didn’t know anything about cars. He was going to issue me with a 30 day notice to have the ride height and tyres fixed. I was so relieved and was ready to go on my way.
Checking my roll cage
Then he brought up that the roll cage might be an issue. I promptly answered “I’ll get rid of the roll cage” but because the police officer was nice and helpful he wanted to check if I really needed to remove the cage. He wanted to check the mounting points and if they were secure.
This is where things turned to shit! He asked me to pop my boot. When I did he saw my fuel system – surge tank and fuel pumps. The police officer took one look at this and looked at me and said. “You are running NOS” I answered immediately “NO! That’s for fuel”. This sparked him to do a full inspection on my car. Starting with a look under my bonnet. When he saw my engine he turned to me and said. “Nothing is standard here, I need to EPA the car”. Game, set, match! I knew that moment that I would never be able to get the car back on the road.
The fuel system that got the attention from the police
Car gets pulled off the road
A week after the getting defected I cancelled the rego and notified EPA that my car will be used for club racing. For awhile I was actually tossing up whether or not to get my brother to register the car in Brisbane. At the time he was working there and he found a mechanic that could have mod platted my modifications. It was going to cost me a bit of money but in hindsight I really should have done it.
Ever since the defect I haven’t been able to get the car on the road. My new year’s resolution for 3 years has been to get my R32 GT-R back in action. I haven’t made much headway due to the lack of time. I am finally going to bite the bullet and give the car to a performance company to do the work. It is better that I pay and have the work done than wait until I or my brother has time to work on it. This is My new year’s resolution for 2017.
To all my readers, I want to ask you a favour. I want you all to hold me responsible for getting my GT-R back on the road in 2017. It’s been far too long that it has been off the road and it is criminal for an R32 GT-R to spend its time in parts.