Another Infiniti G20 Racecar on a Budget

Do you still need the headlights? I boxed them up to ship.

In reply to pimpm3:

Yes I do! Im so sorry I will respond to your email tonight. Ive been crazy busy getting ready for a huger funeral Im officiating on Wednesday. Thanks again!

I'll tell yah. I wouldn't have picked them right off the bat but they will work. They are actually better looking than i thought they would be and built really well. And for just over $200 bucks I have no complaints.

<img src="" />

Still working on getting that parts car down from NY. The car literally has almost everything I need to finish this build to where I'd like it to be for the 2017 challenge. The owner is in CDL school until July 31st. Once that happens ill get a plan set up to get it down here and start selling stuff off of it asap and get the suspension on the car and get it dialed in. I dont forsee the turbo being on the car in time for the 2017 challenge.

B13Birk wrote: I dont forsee the turbo being on the car in time for the 2017 challenge.

I have no firsthand experience with turboing a SR20, so maybe dont listen to me. However, from what I understand, you can add 5-7lbs of boost to a showroom stock SR20, without adding anything but fuel pressure (a la cheap FPR from fleabay), and it will soldier on with nary a complaint. Forged internals and a beefy valvetrain = boost ready out of the box. I do think some timing retard may be needed, but thats not hard to do. Anything more than a handful of lbs of boost though, and (aside from other issues that can come from overboosting an NA mill), your MAF will pop open and all the turbos will get out.

...Since its basically just a bolt on affair, im just sayin, theres really no excuse NOT to boost that thing for the challenge

Also, I like those wheels!

Also also, I cant find it ATM, but on G20.net, there was a guy building box flares from a spare set of fenders. If you're gonna have extra body panels laying around...Im just sayin...

In reply to 4cylndrfury:

My buddy here has done it many times he is down to help. I really do want to boost it by this years challenge. But yeah i know all about the turbo potential i can't wait!!! I have a N62 maf so that will help. I've got a lead on a W11 Avenir ball bearing t25 turbo and manifold just need to sell some of the other stuff first.

Thanks for the input on the fenders Id love to find that link. I think the wheels will work well just hoping they hold up.

You should come down for the challenge. Idk how it works but if its aloud you can take the G out on the AutoX or Drag if you wanted to.

You can get a nismotronic chipped ecu with a tune for whatever you desire for $150.

Nismotronic

If I remember my sr20det days I think q45 injectors will work for a turbo sr20 on a budget.

In reply to pimpm3:

Oh yeah they are the best. I'm running a nismotronic on my VVL sr20 Sentra. I didn't know about the q45 injector deal. That's awesome. The parts car I'm buying has tons of great stuff including STI injectors.

In reply to

Hey man! I got the headlights today in the mail! Thanks a ton!

The deal is done! The NY g20 is being picked up on Tuesday! $650 in shipping fees. But will all the stuff I'm selling off of both cars I know that purchase price for both will be ZERO impact on the budget and I'll basically have $650 in the build plus the wheels and seat and I'm done!

B13Birk wrote: In reply to Hey man! I got the headlights today in the mail! Thanks a ton!

Great glad they can be put to good use

What way did you play the shipping? How quickly was the trip accepted?

As for "how it works" the autox is a limited number of runs for the car but you can assign or allow any drivers including the pros who are on hand. Said another way, multiple drivers are allowed but each run counts towards the limited number that the car gets. In the past that number has been 6 runs but it varies.

The drags are nearly unlimited runs within the 3 hours of drag time. You can have multiple drivers.

In reply to John Welsh :

John just to continue the off topic shipping discussion, what's the recommended rates for enclosed?

I have no experience with enclosed but have heard as much as twice the price.

The shipping Saga Post:

I was thinking I may try to drive there get the car and come back to FL but that was dumb and not worth my time. So I began to look into shipping.

First place I looked was Advanced car shipping. They had a sneaky google ad that made me think I could ship my car for $299... Not the case they wanted $700. I then posted to GRM page here about it and John Welsh told me about Uship. I have heard of them before and a friend of mine has used them on many occasions.

When i first posted it appeared based on Uships quote that i could ship the car for 550. This seemed like a good deal. However as I researched I found out that Uship has some hefty broker fees and between when i first posted the shipping images to yesterday the shipping quotes increased for some reason. Additionally Uship upped my shipping price by $100 bucks since the car wont move under it's own power. It was beginning to appear that Uship wasn't the answer so I began to go deeper into a search.

I found this website and i immediately got a stream of quotes. American Auto Shipping There were no fees associated with this service and I made contact with a provider who didn't care that car didn't run and the offered $650 for shipping. Not too bad for NY to Middle of FL!

Securing a Carrier has been a complete debacle. But at least I finally got confirmation that i was matched with a carrie for the price I wanted and they are supposed to pick it up tonight and have it to my be the weekend. Im supposed to be doing a Rally Event and Driving instruction on Saturday so fingers crossed they will arrive in the evening so i don't have to cancel. Ill upload pictures once it arrives and more detail on the shipping process in the hopes that it helps others in the future.

Sorry to hear of the shipping challenges. My experiences were not the same.
Yeah, it will cost more if it does not run. Many shippers will not want to deal with the hassle. One of my ran but poorly; that was okay. The other ran but had weak brakes; it too was okay. Actually, more than weak brakes. All it had was an emergency brake. I watched the guy offload it from the top of a full car carrier with only a foot operated parking brake.

hey, glad to hear you have a N62 on hand. Those can definitely handle a bit more boost. Ive also heard Cobra MAFs are up to the task as well, but I have no idea from what year. That T25 could really wake it up!

I had been working on a cast aluminum MAF project, where you use any MAF as an electronics donor, epoxy them into the cast housing, and bingo, boost-proof MAF. Sadly, I got a decent start on the pattern in wood, and then, never made any more progress. I still have the bits tho, kinda wanna rekindle that project.

If there were any vacation left in my balances that wasnt already accounted for, Id really be down to hustle that P10 across some asphalt, but its not meant to be. Luckily, the mag does a decent job of getting us some real-time video, and then the print coverage.

This thing will be a hoot, and with some decent tuning and luck, this may be a real contender. Thats a really capable chassis with a potent mill, even when balling on a budget. let us know what happens with shipping.

Parts car got loaded up last night in New York and is headed to the sunshine state. I'm pretty sure our shipping company is the Russian Mafia. But hey as long as it gets here!

In details shipping update coming after this weekend! Life is crazy busy at the moment.

<img src="" />

The shipping post you have all been waiting for:

Before I tell this incredible tail I must remind you of a few things. First, I was trying to do this a cheap as possible. Second I have never shipped a car in my life. Third, IF I HAD HAD MORE TIME TO WAIT AND $$ I WOULD HAVE GONE WITH USHIP....

Short Story: I had to handle it all brokers are pointless and annoying to deal with and the transporter drifted someone else's Maserati around the target parking lot. I paid $650 and my car arrived in one piece.

Long Story:

This cautionary tale is one of great hilarity and heaps of stress for me. When i first started my search for a shipping company I went to Uship the original price (on the low side) available was $580 dollars. I waited a few days for the seller to get the car ready to ship and then went over to USHIP to confirm my shipment process. With all the same data entered the price to ship was now $780 dollars when you work in the broker fees over $800 dollars and that just wasn't going to work. So my search for a new option began.

I stumbled onto another broker site (remember that you can't communicate with the trucking companies directly you must use a broker) and found a website called transportmyautomobile.com. It was easy to use and I very quickly began to receive quotes for shipping. I got connected to AAA transporters (a shipping broker) and agreed to their quoted price of $650 all inclusive. This was a great price and it appeared that the car would be picked up in the time frame that I had asked for. I gave them my CC info and waited to be connected to a shipping company. NOTHING. No one contacted me at any point I was constantly having to follow up and check on the process. The seller was getting annoyed after a few days because the time frame i was given from the broker to find a transporter was not the time frame that we actually experienced.

-Enter the Russian Mafia-

I get a call two days after my ideal shipping date letting me know that I had been matched to a transporter and that they would pick up the car in NY that evening and that the transporting company would be in touch. That was 11am Wednesday Morning. 3pm Rolls around and I still haven't heard anything from the truck driver. I call the shipping company 4 different times and each time i would get hung up on or transferred to a disconnected number. NOT GOOD. At this point Im thinking I got scammed or something. I call for a 5th time and this time insist on speaking to someone in charge and to not be transferred anymore. Im placed on hold and then a gentleman with a very think Russian accent picks up the phone. " this George" I explained to him how my expierence had been this far with the company and that i had been hung up on. He angrily told me that he would fire them and that he was wanting to get rid of them anyway. I told him that that wasn't necessary but he insisted. I got connected to the driver I call him, a another man with a thick eastern European accent. He tells me he is getting the car at 9:30pm. Thats not going to work! They told me that he would be there between 7 and 8pm. My Seller was leaving his house at 8:30 on the dot no questions asked.

Me: Please man, is there anyway you can be there when I was told you would? 7pm is ideal. Truck Driver: No Me: Ill buy you beer and pizza when you get to Gainesville if you do this for me. TD: No, you buy me shrimps. Me: Shrimp? TD: Florida has good shrimps. You buy me shrimps I don't like pizza.

True story^

We later settled on a pick up time of 11:30pm and I got out of buying the man "shrimps". The company new that the car was not operational. The truck driver insisted that my seller push the car to the top of the trailer! There was no way. Luckily the seller was smart enough to suggest that he could use his car to push my car onto the top of the trailer. The truck diver called me to let me know that he would arrive late Sunday night. PERFECT. Friday at 3pm I text the driver to confirm the Sunday Evening deliver. He responds "No, Tonight" Who knows how much notice he would have given me. For all I know he would have called me with one hour notice to let me know he was arriving. 11:30pm The truck pulls into the target parking lot where I told him to meet me. He jumps and began rambling about how crappy the car is ( its rusted out bad) and that he hoped I didn't pay anything for it. He then began unloading the cars off the trailer to get mine off. He hops in a brand new Maserati and revs it to the moon, he drives it off the trailer and begins to do his version of the Tokyo Drift Movie in the Target parking lot. I couldn't believe it. When I say he beat on this car.... He beat on it. He then unloaded my car at a high rate of speed and ripped off my exhaust. (luckily I didn't need it). I paid the man his money and he went on his way.

I was blown away by three things: 1. Total lack of professionalism and honesty from the brokers and shipping Co. 2. Inconsistency in what was promised and what happened in regards to timing 3. I can't get over the way the driver spoke to me and the way he treated someone's car.

Moral of the story. Go with U-ship....

But my parts car is here and I already have over $2300 worth of parts that I don't need from the car up for sale at the moment with tons more to sell of as well. That will for sure help with the build costs! And with the parts I have already sold from the other car the only money currently counting against the build is the $650 for shipping and the $220 for the wheels. There will be minor things needed to finish the build but its looking like we are going to In real world budget not GRM budget be at almost a ZERO dollar investment in this build. Which to me is super cool.

I used Uship once, and paid $1200ish to get a non-running car from Seattle to Philly. In my experience, they just added another level of brokers- the car took weeks to be picked up, arrived more or less unannounced at 9:30pm one night, and was similarly handled by a bunch of dudes who sounded like Niko Bellic and treated every car like it was scrap. Luckily, mine was basically scrap, so I was perfectly happy with the whole deal, but I wouldn't do it with a car I really cared about. When they unloaded my car on the street in front of my house, they literally shoved it off the trailer and took off before I had finished rolling it down the driveway

By your description, it may have been exactly the same people!

In reply to B13Birk:

Did you ask if you could take the Maserati for a spin? Might have been worth throwing some shrimps in.

In reply to B13Birk:

Just noticed the wheels on the parts car. 4 x 114.3? For sale?

In reply to Stampie:

I know right!!! How dumb of me not to ask to drive the Maserati! With my luck it was used in some type of Mafia Hit and my finger prints are all over it before the shipped it to Cuba. haha

Yes they are 16in and 4x114.3 They are old school and rare WORK Ewing RS-Z's Im asking 800 at the moment. They are dirt but in great shape just need to be cleaned up.

Wow. Such a tail of shipping. Did you ever try the Name your own price option on Uship?