The New Toy!!!!

[PZG302]

Well today was a good day, I now have the start of the new race car.

I commenced and completed the negotiations on my new toy. This will be picked up on Saturday and the body prep finished prior to waiting to get the cage fabricated and then get a front cut in from Japan for the drivetrain, motor and other odds and sods I will need to complete the build.

Before purchase, I had a great discussion with the guys at Option 1. They gave me some great ideas and I now know that my budget is realistic. They also gave me the maximum figure to pay with what was included in the deal.

I made the deal and got all the xtra bits thrown in that were lying in the garage. The car is now off Ebay and once the folding is handed over will be home in the garage to take up more room. Another game of car Tetris will be in order.

Basically i get the shell, all hanging panels including new fibreglass guards worth about $700, dash and suspension, which is out of the car. It is rolling around on castors and just needs some of the floor to be cleaned and painted, paint supplied, to be ready for the cage to be fabricated.

All going well, I should have great Christmas present for this year

Photos will be uploaded on the weekend and this will form the journal of the build, which should be useful for anyone else looking at building a circuit racer.

It's not a Zed, but has the Nissan badge and i am aiming for a taget of 55-56 sec laps at Lakeside which should put me at the front of the field with change out of $20k

[Zedman240]

Good news and hanging for the pics. Should be very interesting!

[benny]

im betting for S13/14

[Lurch]

Im veeeeeeeeeeeery interested in how you go, getting this on the track for sub 20k Matt.

Bring on the progress photo's

[620Z]

I say add $10,000- to your budget. But I hope not for your sake.
Good luck with it.   

[dat2kman]

Oh, I don't know!
When you can go and buy low priced, due to mass production due to demand/popularity, some very good straight bolt on performance gear, for these modern whoosh bang pop Nissans, a budget of sub $20 k is very do-able!

The most expensive item will be a tower to tower tagged cage! The rest is peanuts!
The shop Matt is dealing with, is run by a very knowledgeable old school dirt rally guy, he reckons these modern Nissan Sylvia's, are equivalent to what we old fellers considered the original Datsun 1600 as.

Back then, a 1600 sedan was cheap, easily obtainable and simple. We never considered a Z, they were too expensive, and only for the top line operators in club motorsport!

Try nowadays, finding a good condition 1600? Rocking horse doo doo!
I've got one here, it is literally, a grandma car, original wheel trims, interior is schmick, L18 engine, best of all body is straight and no rust! It is owned by a lurked on here, it's being set up as a club track car, it will be done on a budget, using donor parts from other Nissans.

[PZG302]

Well for the doubters of the $20k race car, here's the budget for all the build I plan, to get sub $20k I can leave a couple of things out.....

Shell - $1500
cage and seam welding - $5000
front cut with rear sub frame - $4500
Suspension - $2500
Brakes - $1000
Glass/perspex -$500
Wheels tyres (3sets) - $5000
Aftermarket computer and dash - $5000
Engine rebuild - $8000

Total budget - $33000 to have a winning car

To get on the track and be running faster than the Zed did at low 62's with the quickest being a high 61 at Lakeside, the follwing isn't required:
Engine rebuild - $8000
aftermarket computer and dash $5000
Wheels and tyres 2 sets $3500

A total saving of $16500

Giving a total budget to hit the track of $16500.

The basic order of build will be
1. finish shell prep for cage
2. get cage and seam welding complete
3. order half cut with rear subframe
4. get suspension and brakes and fit
5. fit motor gearbox and other ancilleries - wipers etc, from half cut
6. get wheels and 2nd hand slicks
7. have fun on the track

I am planning on building the car over the next 12 months, so I should be able to get everything I need inculding the nerd box and dash with the data logging I want, including GPS for timing, and the nice delta timing on the dash that is possible these days and seen in F1 and supertaxis. As well as procure a full set of spares for mechanicals and body, plus run 3 sets of wheels - 2 sets of slick being rotated through the car using a set per race meeting and a set of wets ready to go at any time, and maybe look at some slave wheels, ie very skinny space savers to push the car around on.

Whilst I don't have the fabrication skills for the cage and any major body work needed, I am a dab hand at wiring and can throw paint at a metal surface with a spray gun and get a resonable shine. Also a lot of the build is direct bolt on off the shelf bits, why reinvent the wheel when someone else has already done it.

This will be the fourth race car I have either built or been heavily involved with the build of, so I think I have a fair idea of what I'm doing and how to go about getting the best bang for my buck.

[RB30X]

Try nowadays, finding a good condition 1600? Rocking horse doo doo!

14 years ago I inherited my grandmas 1600. Interior was mint although the engine and exterior could have done with some TCL. I put it in the autotrader for $650 and some guy from Cairns (I was in Townsville) rang up and offered me $250 so I took it.

I needed the money to buy a Gemini

[peter mc]

just buy one for 20 with all the bits on it they are around .a good Sr20 engine 300kw atw will cost u 15k new turbo and injectors with standard manifolds

[PZG302]

Pete, I know there are plenty of cars around already done, but there is method in the madness. I have spent far too much time on MY105 and the IPRA forum as well as Boost losing ( I feel so dirty and ashamed), secret drift and so on looking for a good complete package. Having been around for a while I definately know it makes more sense to buy someone elses hard graft, and if I was looking at a hairdresser racer there are plenty of quick and very good cars for around $15k that would have me at the front of the 2F field, but I want to race something different to what everyone else runs in the category.

Basically all the track cars out there have been built for either drift or IPRA or lap attack, so all are built to different rules for what I'm allowed to do.

There are only a couple of cars I know of that have been built for Prod Sports, and they don't take advantage of the rules to the full extent thay can, they are still very standard.

The IPRA cars are much more restricted in what they can do in terms of mods so the car would have to be pulled apart and rebuilt with most bits replaced for what I can do anyway.

There aren't too many drift cars I would want to use as a base, seeing things held on with zip ties doesn't inspire confidence and with the mods most have done the motor is illegal under my rules anyway, so I have to source another engine.

Engine wise, I don't need much more than 250rwhp to be competitive, that means unstressed motor - cheap build. Plus already have a build spec and budget sorted with the engine builder. This has been on the cards for about 12 months now, just the Zed getting tipped into the wall forced my hand a year earlier than I wanted.

Where the car will be quick will be the shell with the suspension and brakes, plus 40" of wheels and slick tyres under the car will give a lot of grip.

I was always told when I first started racing the following, which I have yet to find disproved...... If you want to go seconds faster a lap spend your money on suspension and brakes, if you want tenths faster spend your money on the engine.

In starting with a clean shell I can build the car to suit the rules I have to live with and exploit those rules fully without having to compromise on what's already there. Plus I get the fun of building and then racing something that hasn't been done too many times before and I get plenty of support from the best workshops building and developing these cars as I am not competing against them.

Plus the biggest issue against buying a car already is I don't have the $20k on hand at the moment, but I am able to put the money aside over the next twelve months to build the car slowly and cheaply, well as cheap as building race cars can be.

I will be doing as much as I can in terms of wiring the car up, painting, assembly and so on. The only stuff done by others will be fabricating the cage and seam welding the body, building the engine and getting the nerd box and dash working and getting the wheels pointing in the correct directions before hitting the track.

I also know that in the scheme of things in Prod Sports I will be a big fish in a little pond, I will be at the pointy up here in Qld, but head down south and the german cars and some of the other rockets will blow my car away, but I'll be having plenty of reasonably cheap fun, which to me is the point of the exercise.

[peter mc]

yer fear call but i think 250hp Sr wont be as fast as u hope as i have more than that in my zeds and i push s13 14 15 with 350hp at the track and pass them with a smile, hope it works out and its a fast car mate

[PZG302]

Well, I got the new toy home this afternoon and it's now tucked away in the garage until the Charger is finished.

Then it will be a concerted effort to get it built in around 6 months.

Whilst I'm waiting for the charger, I'll be able to source the bits and pieces needed, including a half cut, a set of coil overs, set of brakes and some plastic windows plus a glass screen.

It came complete with all hanging panels including some fancy wide body type guards that are supposedly worth some dollars, Q spec hubs and suspension, dash and sits on castors to get it around. It did have a RB crossmember which was taken off as I need to run and SR20 to comply with the 2B rules.

[260DET]

There is your colour scheme, US police style black and white!!

This is going to be interesting, there are already a couple of modest S chassis sprint cars doing Lakeside well into the 50's

[PZG302]

Looking forward to the build.

Colour scheme will the reverse of the Zed, white with BRG Checks.

[Lurch]

Fly me up, provide me with BEER & I can build you the cage to CAMS specs and sign it off in one hit