Hi Guys,

I thought I might keep a diary of what goes into running an Improved Production race car for a year. I hope to run all the rounds of the WA state series this year including the Nationals later in the year.

First post might be a little long, but I nee to catch up.

January
We had a sponsors ride day on the 30th January, so the plan was to get the car out there on that day simply to turn some laps. Time with my bum in the seat is important to shake off the rust before our first round on February 20.

Jobs that were completed.
1. Upgrade injectors from Sard 550cc to Nismo 740cc. This is to enable the use of E85 in the car. The injector plugs also needed to be changed, luckily I discovered that the plugs seem to much the same across the Nissan range. I ended up with the plugs from a 1.6L N14 pulsar.... clipped straight on.

2. Add camber to diff housing - took housing to Verriers Engineering to have the housing "bent" to give some negative camber. Ended up with approx 0.3" of camber on each side. Better than previous, Passenger side had +0.2 degrees! This gave a good opportunity to inspect the diff centre also, as I had only run the centre once since the blow up in 2007. All looked good and has been put back together.

3. Restrictor (for turbo) needed some 'adjustments' to keep our eligibility officer happy. So I removed the airbox & restrictor and dropped it off to him to be modified. Net result was it is actually now flowing 1hp more on the flow bench, and about 4hp more than a genuine Ralliart restrictor - Cool! Restrictor still not re-installed on the car, as we decided to tune it without restrictor to see what it could do. The result was 400 rwhp.....yee haa!

4. Remove all old signage from the car. Car to be re-stickered for this years championship..... funds permitting.

5. Started work on the brake upgrade. Using Nissan R33 GTST calipers front and rear. Can't use the Skyline rotor as it fouls on the Ball Joint. Thanks to Steve, I have modified a Mitsubishi 300GT rotor and bolted that to the hub. The offset is perfect, just need to pull about 8mm off the diameter to make it all fit in the 15" wheels. Caliper mounting looks like it may cause some headaches however as the original mounitng points on the strut legs are in the way. May have to chop them off and weld new mounting 'ears' to the struts...... this project on hold until we get into racing. There is a break in the calendar after round 3, might revisit the idea then.

Got the car all back together in time for the Sponsors day and had a ball. Nice to be able to go out and drive the car without any pressure. Due to having the car running without the restrictor, there was no point timing etc, So I just had fun drifting out of Kolb and the last turn....leaving plenty of old Yokohama A048 on the track!

List of things to do before round 1 (February 20)

1. Order new brake pads for the front - Done
2. Check Rotors Front & Back - Done
3. Flush Brake Fluid - Front & Back
4. Check front brake calipers - Done
5. Bleed Brakes

6. Fit Restrictor & Airbox - Done
7. Replace Air Temp Sensor - Done
8. Re-tune with restrictor

9. Change front sway bar to full stiff position - Done

10. Purchase fuel (200l Drum of E85) - Done
11. Purchase new rear tyres - Done
12. Signage on car
13. Check trailer wheel bearings - Done
14. Grease Trailer Tow Hitch
15. Wash & Polish car - Done
16. Change rear springs - Done

More to come.......stay tuned.

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

OK....more news. My car will be part of a display at the CAMS Festival of Motorsport being held on 14th Feb at Kwinana Motorplex. I believe it is free to get in, so get down there, check it out and come and say hi

Work completed on the car so far.....

1. New brake pads ordered. Going with Hawk DTC60's. - (Cost $288)
2. All rotors machined & Refitted to car - (Cost $70)
3. E85 Powerplus race fuel ordered - 205L drum with pump - (Cost - $825)
4. Faulty Air Temp sensor removed - needed to remove starter motor also to get it out!
5. New rear springs installed - 150lb spring rate - (Cost - $330)
6. Sway bar setting changed to full Stiff
7. Castor adjusted as I noticed one of the adjuster nuts had come loose.

Running total on costs - $1,513

Pics to follow shortly....once photobucket stops being a bucket of .........

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

Some Pics.....

Front brakes re-fitted, just waiting on the new pads to arrive - Rotors have been machined.



Rear rotors re-fitted, as were new springs.



Front Sway Bar adjusted to stiffest position - 27mm custom made sway bar to clear winged sump.



New injector plugs were fitted prior to Dyno & Sponsors Day.



New airfilter fitted in place of airbox & restrictor. This can not be used when we race.... too much horsepower and the V8 boys get cranky!



Need new tyres...had too much fun on the old rubber at the sponsors day.

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

Sunday 7th Feb

Not much done today. Checked the wheel bearings on the new trailer and all of them were loose. Nipped them all up, so that's one less thing on the list.

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

i'll be sure to come out and watch you race... i had 3000GT discs on an old 1600 of mine a few years back.. hat height/etc was perfect for a datto strut, had brackets made by maximum motorsport to bolt up Z32 300zx calipers.

cool, so the sunny is back! 150 lb rears, is that really light? what fronts are you running? looks good mate

_________________
LAGWAGON gracefully retired... LAG 510 - the next generation

Keep us updated on the 3000GT disk conversion Mark. Glad I could help you out with it.

_________________
1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

Thanks guys.

150lb springs does sound light, but the Yokohama A048's seem to like the sifter springs. Have been running 175lb until now, so not a huge drop, just looking for some more rear end grip. We will see how it goes.

The 3000gt brake conversion will be good if I finish it. The car is officially going up for sale, and will have "for sale" signs on it atthe first race meeting next weekend.

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

Saturday 13th Feb

Work continued through the week, just no time for updates.

1. Fuel has arrived and ready to be decantered into 20L drums.
2. Brake Pads have arrived and have beem fitted. Also checked all pistons in the calipers - everything ok.
3. Re-set ride height in the rear of the car. Now it's even
4. Collected restrictor from workshop and refitted along with the airbox.
5. Re-fitted old air temp sensor - waiting for new one to arrive early in the week. Need to start the car though, so had to refit old one for now. (mongrel of a job as the starter motor has to come out to get the sensor out)
6. Re-fit exhaust System - rear section. Exhaust has to come off to get enough droop in the rear end to change springs and adjust ride height.
7. Cleaned wheels - inside & out.
8. Washed & polished car - Outside, inside, engine bay & boot.
9. New door trims - thanks to my lovely partner Nadine! (You rock babe)

Car is now ready for tomorrow's Festival of Motorsport Show at Kwinana, but still some work to be done next week to get ready for next weekends race meeting (and practise on Friday)

Things still to do:

1. Swap air temp sensor with new one
2. Dyno (hopefully Tuesday) for re-tune with restrictor
3. New tyres being fitted on Wednesday (rear only)
4. Wheel alignment Thursday morning.
5. Flush Brake fluid
6. Bleed brakes
7. Decanter Race fuel.

Going to be a busy week!

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

................... and a few photos.


Door trims before......



New Door trims look the business



Rear end shot.... Exhaust & Sprimgs are in plus ride height reset



Quality control officer is having a rest



Ready to get wet.

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

Feb 15th

Picked up new air temp sensor and fitted that tonight. Also pulled the rear wheels off, will take them for new tyres tomorrow...... that's going to hurt!

Cost - $38 (Bloody $16 for overnight airbag!)

Running Total - $1,551

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

Feb 16

Picked up the new rear tyres today ($618).

Wheel alignment booked for Thursday morning, then Dyno Friday morning before heading straight to the track to bed in the brakes and tyres on Friday afternoon. Nothing like leaving it until the last minute.

Also still need to bleed the brakes, will do that tomorrow night.

Running Total - $2,169

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

Feb 18
Wheel alignment completed.
6.5" Castor
4.5" Neg Camber
1mm toe in
Diff has .06" neg Camber on left & 0.3" Neg Camber on right.

Cost $95
Running total - $2,264

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

Feb 19

Off to the Dyno first thing in the morning for a re-tune with restrictor & E85 fuel. Good results - made 343rwhp with the restrictor back in place.

Cost $250

Straight after Dyno, I went to the track to bed in some brakes. New pads seem very good, they don't bite as hard initially as the Hawke Blue's which I used to run. This has allowed me to put more brake bias on the front end and the car is stopping really well.

The diff still needs more camber on the left hand side, very unstable still when turning into right hand corners, brilliant on left handers.

Other than the diff set-up, the car ran faultlessly in the three runs I had, looking forward to racing tomorrow.

A photographer managed to catch a good pic of the car drifting out of turn one......

http://www.pbase.com/barnsie01/image/122090346

Running total $2,514

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!

Feb 20 - Race Day

What an eventful day.

Starting with Practise, I only completed 5 laps to check everything was ok, which it was and then parked the car. For qualifying I replaced the old rubber on the back of the car with fresh tyres, and what a difference it made! The best time I had managed up until the was a low 59sec lap. With the new tyres I qualified 11th with a 57.7, and that was in some traffic. Everything looked good at the end of qualifying and the car felt strong.

Race 1
Off to a good start but got boxed in at the first turn. Once things settled down I managed to pick up a few extra places and had a great race battling with a Monaro. He almost got me a couple of times, but I managed to hold him out for the remainder of the race. I did cop a small bump from behind during the race, slightly deformed the bumper - but very fixable. The car was quick too - set my new best lap time ot 57.19 seconds and finishing in 7th position.

Race 2 - Reverse Grid night race
What an eventful race! Starting from Position 13, a Ford Fiesta in front of me had a clutch fail off the start. To avoid him i took to the grass and got around him, but lost some spots from the start. Started working my way through the field before copping a knock in turn 1. I followed another car through a gap, but the other driver did not see me coming and apexed the corner late. We rubbed panels, but no major damage and we kept going. Still making up ground, and pushing through the field, I managed to get back to 7th place, before heavy contact with a Corolla. This pushed my front guard onto the tyre. With just one lap left, I decided to push on. I could see tyre smoke behind me, but it was difficult to tell how much in the dark. I finished the race in 9th place, and on the warm up lap the tyre caught fire and exploded on the pit entry! Very exciting stuff! Unfortunately, I could not source another tyre in time for the last race, so tha car has been parked and there is quite a bit of work to be done before the next race meeting in March. Possibly too much work to get down with business & family comittments also...... but we will see.

Photos to come....

_________________
www.full-throttle.com.au
www.boostcooler.com.au

When the Flag drops........... the Bullshit stops
Go hard or go home!