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Posted

Calder Park

Show on Saturday...... Race on Sunday!

Had an absolute blast in the MSCA sprint yesterday. I entered the black car, dad the red one. Shame no one else here entered. :'(  Was a great day with 70 cars entered, but 6 groups.  :-\ Could have had 4 groups so you had more track time and still only 18 cars to a group. It also seems that the Janes care little about grass root motorsport as they were horribly disorganised and the experience of the MSCA crew were the only thing from the day turning into a disaster.

 

Edit- Continued.....

The first session, you always approach with the intention of taking it easy. Yeah right! This is the first time I've had the speedo off the clock. Bear in mind, its a JDM car with a speedo that only goes to 190kph. But I still had another 500rpm. Which approx another 15kph. I was thinking that I maybe needed a taller diff ratio, but talking with Peter Mac, came to the conclusion that my 4.365 LSD will do just fine. Even at Phillip Island, where I have a theoretical 235kph @7,500rpm. Which is plenty fast for me, to be honest.

While out on my second session. I had a little bright yellow Ford Anglia catch up to me. "Gee, he's fast I thought. I'll let him pass me on the straight." But, halfway up the straight, I realised that wasn't possible since I'd left him for dead and he was now over a hundred meters behind me. He caught up through the corners and I let him past and sacrificed a lap. Which is what everyone should do when a car lapping quicker than you should do! We're not racing for sheep stations. there were multiple cars just in my group that didn't leave room, even while having a blue flag waved at them!  >:( Anyway, I was trying to keep up with the Anglia through the corners, learning better lines and braking later. He'd pull away throught the twisties and I'd catch him again on the straight. This did wonders for my lap times and I was now over a second clear in my class.

For my third run. I switched my rear tyres to another set I'd brought along (255/50/16's). I thought the extra width and larger rolling diameter will help me knock some time off the clock. Boy was I wrong! These tyres, even treated with Octopus grip, were quit slippery that even the photographer asked me "Was the drifting was for his benefit?" As if I'd sacrifice lap times for drifting! I also managed to have 2 seperate spins on turn 1. Which I must say, after you safely stop, is a lot of fun  ;D I managed to lap 2 seconds slower in this session, not through lack of trying  :'(

On the fourth session, I swapped cars with dad in his red 280ZX stroker that I'd been lapping all day. Boy, what a difference. If ever I felt dissapointed in the Black cars performance. Those concerns were out the window! the suspension was comparable to the Titanic..... after it had hit the iceberg! The standard brakes need upgrading and I felt like I was going to fall out of the seat. But the biggest disapointment was the power, or lack there of. On the road, you can't really get a true feel for how a car will be on the track. This car was struggling to get 145kph up the straight. It didn't want to go over 4,500rpm. There is much work to do here. But the base is sound!

This Sprint meet definantly showed me the next area of work that needs attention. Adjustability to the suspension!

It's time to do that S13 coilover conversion, with adjustable LCA's and castor rods.

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Posted

Jane's disorganised, could'nt give a rats about grass roots motorsport!

Nnnnnnnnnnoooooooo !!!!!!

Never !!!!

 

Gee nothing has changed in over 30 years! I used to run in the QuinSprint series at old Calder and old Winton, in 1980 to 1984, and Jane's attitude was exactly the same, give em no facilities, little infrastucture, charge the earth, at the time, it may have seemed lo-cost compared to now, but on comparo, its the same .

 

Simon, the Black Biatch looks very nice, Ronnie's just needs a bit of a lower, some stiffer springs and a bit of rim n rubber lovin !!!

Posted

Pic says a thousand words.................

 

Congrats mate - it'll be 4 females to order you about!

Posted

Well done Simon!

 

Lurch is correct....and the wife will kill you when she sees the picture you've posted. Good luck with that.

Posted

Well done Simon!

 

Lurch is correct....and the wife will kill you when she sees the picture you've posted. Good luck with that.

 

I think Sher knows, Dave... ;)

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I've finally bitten the bullet and am upgrading my suspension.

What I have now, is great for the road. Just not quite up to the standard I'd like for track use.

So S13 coilover mod it is. The key is to use base height adjustable units. Looking forwards to getting stuck into these  ;D

Coupled with some adjustable lower control arms and caster rods............. Watch the seconds fall!

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Posted

Look the goods ;) Have fun fitting these! If you want to keep the same hight make sure you measure up before you strip it all out, will save you a lot of time.

You can get the adjustable camber plates from Techno toy or RHD-Japan under Kameari think they do front an rear. Techno toy do the tension control arms/caster or Datsun-parts LLC do a full kit includes both sides with caster and control arms!

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Well while I was away on holidays, I received my coilovers in the mail  :)

Now the work begins to fit them. I'm going to start with the rears.

I need to modify the strut tops, then they should go in quite easily........ Heard that before!

I've measured and modelled up what I need to do, hopefully can get time this afternoon and get them in tonight.

 

The spring rates are-

front- 8kg (447lb)

rear- 7kg (391lb)

 

They have 24 way adjustable dampers.

 

Given that Google tells me that an S13 weighs 1,224kg and an S130 2 seater weighs 1,216kg. The spring rating should work pretty well.

(I've removed a heap of weight purely from removing front and rear bars, A/C, massive cruise control unit and driver seat swap to name a few mods)

 

I'm also going to take my time with setting up the front height. Think its going to take me longer to play around/thinking about what to do, rather than do the physical work!

So hopefully, all goes well.

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Posted

Oh things are getting serious now. They look perdy and 24 way adjustable  :o

 

Stiffer fronts, nice to see... i dont get why people run Harder rears springs than fronts. How'd you calculate what spring rate was needed?

 

I agree with Benny. Golow but nothing too stupid, it's a track pig not a show pony  :D

Posted

As Gareth said, not stoopid low. It's a track car, but also road use. Doubt it would be much different from the height now. I already have to take my driveway on an angle, so it doesn't bottom out.

 

Spring rates are what they come with. As I said, weights are similar of the 2 cars. So a good place to start.

 

Here are some pics of the rear top mounts ready to fit.

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Posted

So I fitted the rears last night, hit a few road bumps. But all went pretty smoothly.

The rear springs have 79.5 220 7kg written on them. My understanding is that they are 79.5mm diameter x 220mm long @7kg (391lb)

Now is that a spring free length of 220mm? What length should they be compressed then? Will the spring rate be any different when it's compressed?

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