350z GT to a Supra hopefully!

Hi everyone my name is Aiden and I am from the West Midlands, I'm 22 and a hopefully soon-to-be a fellow supra owner.

I have had a great interest for supras over the years but have tried to fight temptation whilst insurance was a factor, but now thanks to my age (and the fact a few of my friends have supras) I think it's time to make the move!. I am currently driving a Nissan 350z UK GT which I have just put up for sale so hopefully I will be able to acquire my childhood dream car depending on when it sells.

My friends were very helpful on deciding which variant of supra to first get either getting a N/A 5 speed of a N/A 6 speed (which I understand the N/A 6 speed's are very rare)

And that's it for now, hopefully I will get a supra and become a part of this awesome comunity!

Thanks, Aiden

Welcome mate, my misses also has a 350z, awesome cars! Na will be slower that your zed though bud haha

I'm the same age and this year was the first time the insurance was low enough to justify me buying a Supra. Good luck and welcome!

Hi Aiden

You are right in saying the 6 speed NA's are rare. That's an understatement. They are also MUCH more expensive than a 5 speed NA.

I fear that you aren't going to like the NA Supra if you're used to driving a 350z, it will feel slow.

Thanks everyone for the replys!

Yes the N/A 5 speed will be slower than my 350z but my hopes is that I will be able to convert it to a NA-T at some point in its life. Then after that I will be on the hunt for the notorious V160 Six speed gearbox (even though they are as rare as they are expensive) so being N/A wouldn't bother me that much knowing the goal I have in mind.

Thanks everyone for the replys!

 

Yes the N/A 5 speed will be slower than my 350z but my hopes is that I will be able to convert it to a NA-T at some point in its life. Then after that I will be on the hunt for the notorious V160 Six speed gearbox (even though they are as rare as they are expensive) so being N/A wouldn't bother me that much knowing the goal I have in mind.

I can honestly say, if I were to know back when I brought my supra, what I know now, I honestly wouldn't have bothered and I would have either brought a TT6 or another car.

NA-T is fantastic, but it's a huge outlay to still then be limited by the box. Even if I secure a 6speed, my car will not be worth what a genuine TT6 is.

Plus, finding a 6speed or an NA6 in the first place is proving to be a near on impossibility.

Harsh reality but true.

I agree with you 100% Josh that 6 speeds are scarce, I would like to think that I would be happy with a NA-T with power near the limits of the 5 speed box without it getting within danger of scrapping the box, I know how slippy the slope of power is so ill try to last as long as I can considering I would be using it as my daily to start with.

Or I might buy a little daily and save over winter and see if there are any TT6's available around March/April.

Any level of boost on a W58 is taking it near its limit to be honest mate. It's not really a case of "if it fails" it's more a case of when.

It's also not just the box, the NA-T kits are advertised as being bolt on - it's not that simple. all the supporting work required to make a reliable setup is what takes the effort.

TT6's are the model to buy, but unfortunately because of that they are ever increasing in value.

Earlier part of this year I paid Torque GT a deposit and gave them a budget of £13k to find me a white facelift TT6 with less than 70k miles.

They came back with 1 silver TT6 in 8 weeks of searching:(

If you decide to plough ahead with the NA-T of course I'll be happy to lend a hand and a spanner mate

Well everyone has said it, go for the 6speed TT in budget allows. In the long run it will be cheaper.

How ever the 5speed N/a is still supra and you can enjoy it while you save for the parts to go Turbo and 6speed, yes it wont be worth what a genuine one is but it will be worth the parts you put in and if its a great model then im sure you wont be losing or gaining money.

Good luck with your hunt, but have you got any pics of you Z i like pictures

NA-T at any safe level with the W58 manual will be barely quicker than your 350Z. An NA auto is a much better base for NA-T. A TT auto also has much more potential.

Thanks josh whichever route I go I'm greatfull for your advice and help

And of course Hitbox Junkie I'll upload some pics mate once I get to my computer

Uk supply has dried up in the last few years, I still think there will be the very odd car that comes up at a more reasonable price but you really really would have to be committed to be the first to secure it. By that I mean have ebay alerts setup, religiously check pistonheads, autotrader (still the best chance of a 'find'IMO) frequently and be prepared to strike the same/next day.

That said whilst no one can see into the future the prices have firmed up and TT's especially slightly increased, so in theory no matter what you spend on a TT6 you should get it back. So as Josh42 alludes to he has probably (guessing) spent close to a TT6 (especially if you go back to the time when he first got his NA) to get where he is and won't see that cash back on sale, you could perhaps get a TT6 for 11-13K and at the end of a couple of years still get that. What is making it even more difficult is that not all those now expensive TT6's are great cars, some will give you moderate to high running costs, crank pulleys, Radiators, brake refurb etc etc, all which could run into £'s.

Saying that an NA whilst a possible performance disappointment could be a easy/cheap way to see if the Supra lives up to your expectations. Dynamically its the same as a TT and so if you really didn't get on with it for non power related reasons then it'll have cost you a grand tops, because they are cheap and any NA bought sensibly will reach what you paid less a grand easily (could breakeven on a good day).

And I have been looking at TT Autos j_jza80 aswell, it probably depends on my budget and what the best option would be at the time. I'm open to all available options.

Ah well that helps, lots of younger drivers don't seem to want to consider auto's. They are more reasonable money and are 90% the car of a manual, it's just some people can't live without the 10% extra the manual gives (before everyone gets upset the 90% 10% is just my personal interpretation to express a point!).

Thanks for your advice Scooter, the reason I was looking at N/A manuals was precisely for that reason, there is a very nice TT6 on torque GT at the moment that is way out of my price range but wouldn't like the idea of jumping into the deep end financially (e.g finance, bank loans etc) if I did end up with a NA-T and wanted a TT6 I could live with the potential loss in money that I spend on the NA.

Or the same way with converting a TT auto to manual, or just leaving it auto.

Did you look at the R33's like we discussed Aid? They can be had for reasonable money and with being a factory turbo car, would also be kinder on the insurance front than an NA-T.

It was another one of the cars I considered when buying my sup:)

As requested Hitbox Junkie here are some photos of my 350z :

I have Josh I've looked at a few, there are a few with the daft body kits and scene stickers all over but some nice ones aswell. If I was going down the skyline route I would either get a clean r33 gtst or save a little and get a R34 GTT.

Lovely 350z

Just emailed my insurance about a R33 GTST and a TT Auto Supra and the price I would have to pay extra from my 350z are:

R33 GTST - £987 extra

TT Supra - £123 extra

So abit of a difference

Is that factoring in the supra being an import or a UK model?

Both imports, both standard and both with the same alarm system just to make it fair, I thought for sure that the supra would be more expensive.

Insurance on import supras seem reasonable compared to other imports especially skylines

I had my first supra when i was 20 and it was £50 less to insure than an ep3 type r

Even now at 26 my insurance quotes on an R33 GTR are nearly double what i pay for my TT supra

Don't forget business use is automatically added to the taxi's