Dadson Racing: 2010 Revival

[Whittie]

At the track now.

 

CAR IS FUCKING AMAZING

[lightmaster240z]

Good thing come to those who wait now you have your reward for all that hard work now enjoy boys

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

We've been away from the track far longer than we ever expected but we're back.

 

True to his word, Whittie let me have the first drive in anger which was fantastic, this car is sensational.

 

We do have some vid and tall stories so I'll try to get to it tomorrow.

 

Cheers

Dad

 

[420BRB]

Well done! This things looks beautiful.

 

years of hard work, and all the $$ has paid off! I could only dream of doing something like this!

 

cant wait for vids and more pics.   

[gav240z]

I like your track wheels and the dolphin tip exhaust. Very interested to hear how the car has changed in terms of it's characteristics from before and after and what you think is the biggest change that has improved the car for you?

[Whittie]

Thanks Gents.

 

Unfortunately I mounted the camera too low in the car and didn't realise until we got home, so the footage is pretty much cabin only. There are a few more photos (not many) and some hand held camera footage, but not much. I'm sure we'll both do what we can with what we have and get it up soon.

 

It was all a little rushed and we pretty much just wanted to drive the thing! I think a few people got some pics around the track, so will chase them down and see if I can get a copy to put up.

 

I'll be putting some new super sticky tyres on, cause the 10 year old tyres on the Rota's are JUNK and the 6.5" rims just don't cut it, the suspension is stiff and can really use the grip of the tyre, so it needs more tyre.

 

This thing is blisteringly fast and so well balanced. No over-steer or under-steer unless induced and just a pleasure to drive. I've never fealt so comfortable driving a car on the limit. never.

 

Now to enter a timed meeting

[Whittie]

I like your track wheels and the dolphin tip exhaust. Very interested to hear how the car has changed in terms of it's characteristics from before and after and what you think is the biggest change that has improved the car for you?

 

Well, where to begin?!

 

This is not going to be totally straight forward because we changed so much all at the same time. However, if I had to pick: Suspension.

 

The body is stiffer, the spring rates higher and the wheels wider. It was really obvious last night that there is MUCH less weight transfer, so the car really needs sticcky tyres to reach it's potential, but that's why I bought the 8" rims and will put sticky rubber on. The rates on the springs are great and the balance is perfect with no over or understeer tendancy. As I said above, I've never felt so comfortable in a race car. It's also VERY controllable. In the past, if the car got sideways it would let go quickly and violently. Now, it starts to go and you can ride the limit. If you go over the limit, due to less and FASTER weight transfer, it doesn't go widly wrong, it all just happens a lot more smoothly. Previously the tyres would grip up and the weight would get thrown around as the suspension took a while to 'set'. IE, wheels and grip working faster than the suspension can maintain the poise of the body and controll weight transfer - leading to sudden grip, violent body thows and loss of grip again.

 

The stiffer body is due to all new rails and floor and all new suspension pickup points (in 1/8th plate). The adjustable control arms allow for proper adjustment of the setup and the coil-over the correct ride height. The stiff springs and shocks really held to reduce body roll, but would be pointless if the body wasn't as stiff as it is. The whole package is well balanced.

 

The brakes are VERY hard to press. In the order of 100kg pedal pressure, but the feel is fantastic. A light change in pedal pressure is all that is required to right the limits on the brakes as well so it's easier to regulate the pedal pressure, despite it requiring more force.

 

In all, my driving is VERY rusty and I need some laps to get up to speed and get used to the car. I'll be doing as many events as I can get to in the near future to get my skills back 

[funzies]

Well done on the build guys. The car is looking amazing 

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

There's nothing quite like a deadline to apply pressure and it sure did for us, fortunately Whittie committed himself to two days working on the car and honestly without that it wouldn't have happened.

 

On the late night brake bleed we ran out of new fluid and had to recycle what we had in the car so after my hills run we completely flushed the system with new fluid and I was amazed at the further large gulps of air we expelled, anyway with that done we had a rock hard pedal and confidence that the brakes wouldn't let us down, so with oil and filter changed again we hit the track with about 325ks on the motor.

 

Here's some hand held vid it's a bit shaky but it shows how we went, as you know I had the first run.

 

The car felt great and I didn't want to stop but knowing Whittie was eager to get behind the wheel I didn't over do it and handed the car over with no need to advise of anything to be aware of, so out he went but sadly it didn't exactly go as expected.

 

This isn't a good look and definitely not part of the script.

 

When Whittie got out of the car I asked what happened and he said that half way round the sweeper he lost ignition (you can hear it is his vid), ah ha I know what that is, the power input to our Mitsubish distributor sits close the the top radiator hose and with the engine moving on it's mounts, the hose lifts the plug off but a cable tie fixes it.

 

10 minutes later Whittie was back into it.

 

I'm feeling an immense amount of satisfaction in the way the car has gone back together and now after nearly four years off the road, with every last nut and bolt removed the only glitch in an otherwise faultless first outing was a noisy fan belt and a disi wire that fell off, I recon that's a pretty good result but the best part is Whitties motor sport Mojo is back.

 

In November I was lucky enough to drive the Sprintex supercharged Toyota ft86 on the track and was seriously impressed with the cars handling, it effortlessly changed direction at speed with no fuss what so ever, I rate it as the best handling tin top I've driven, until now, the Zed's right up there with it.

 

John Fowler called this morning to hear how we faired last night and when I told him  he said "wow that's a far better starting point than I was expecting, now let's get some more caster into it and some sticky tyres onto it"

 

The re-build is not complete yet there is some cosmetic stuff still to be done and we have a Schweppes oil catch can that needs to be replaced.

 

Cheers

Dad

[WA240Z]

Fantastic guys. I have really enjoyed this build thread. Looking forward to coming and having a look at the car at one of the speed events this year.

 

Billy.

[Whittie]

Turn up the volume!

 

The datsun was the only car on the track, listen to that sound!

 

 

I'm working on the in-car, but I had the wrong case on the go pro and it was mounted too low, so it's a bit rubbish

[Whittie]

The incar video is live from Tom's first run:

 

 

Sorry Dad, still working on the videos!

[Lukas]

Absolutely awesome. The blue is stunning and it sounds great. It's impressive that it handles as well as the much more modern Sprintex 86?

 

Pretty jealous you took the "Dadson" moniker too .

[Grandad]

Fantastic guys. I have really enjoyed this build thread. Looking forward to coming and having a look at the car at one of the speed events this year.

Billy.

 

Hi Billy,

 

It's looking like Whitties work will take him out of the country some time this year so before that happens we will be entering every local event we can, when you see us please come and say hi and yes you're most welcome to thoroughly inspect the Zed.

 

It was Whitties dream to re-build the Zed and while I didn't discourage him I did warn him that it would run over budget which of course with our "while we're at it" attitude it has, given that it has been four years since the car was stripped, Whitties enthusiasm for the project has ebbed and flowed, when we got the car back from Will Whittie was into it as though he would have it on the track within a week but after a couple of days the other pressures in his life took precedence and he was nowhere to be seen.

 

Knowing that it's Whittie's project, I let it sit for a while but soon realized that if I didn't put it back together it would end up as yet another unfinished project up for sale, so I started and I also started posting the progress here, the interesting thing is that the interest in the re-build thread actually motivated me to keep the momentum up so I could post more.

 

Oh no! Surely I'm not a Hamster?

 

No I'm not and when the test day came watching Whittie lap quicker the ever before, I had smiles and tears in equal measure.

 

Cheers

Dad

[luvemfast]

So the moral of the story is.......

Park your unfinished projects in TT Aero's garage!

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Oh no! just realized I haven't posted for four days, better go do some work on the Zed 

 

We're really happy with the Zed's first hit out but the rebuild's not complete yet, those with eagle eyes will have noticed the head light protectors fitted in recent pics were absent on the track day, that is because they had been removed for final detailing but didn't get back on in time so I fitted them today but first polished the area they enclose.

 

Then polished the covers while wearing latex gloves so not to leave tell tale finger prints.

 

Then curse and swear and make thing go where they really don't want to.

 

I then decided it might be a good idea to fit the front mud flaps before we do too much damage to the bottom of the front guards but a trial fit showed them touching top and bottom with a massive gap in the middle, they are a far worse fit than the rear which probably has something to do with the amount of work Will put into modifying the guards, anyway what ever the reason I decided it was a job best left for another day.

 

There's an event coming up at Wannas on Australia Day that we'd like to do but we need tyres for the new rims, we have traditionally bought Toyos from the parallel importer, Taleb Tyres in Sydney http://www.talebtyres.com.au/toyo-tyres.asp but they don't currently have our size in stock and their next delivery won't arrive for two months which is no good to us and leaves us with no alternative but to pay full retail price which really hurts, the upside to this is that with Toyos price advantage removed we will now review all the tyres available in our size.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Riceburner]

Looking great as expected gents, oh the noise!

 

I have heard of people having to shave the mudflaps slightly to get a perfect fit. Nice work on the headlight covers, that will help with aero.

 

I've run the R888's and found bridgestone's to be strangely cheaper in Melbourne and much better in the dry.

 

The Toyo R888's are epic in the wet! Unforunately I didn't find them nearly as good in the dry. Everyone is raving about the new Yokohama AO50's, they are very sticky but as usual for Yoki's don't live quite as long. It's the trade off I guess.

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Thanks for your comments Gareth, interesting you mention the noise because I think it sounds quite different and much better than it used to but the only change is a bit more compression, anyway I'm with you, I love it.

 

A050's are certainly the talk of the town but with R888's available from Taleb at ~half the price of A050's it really is a no brainer for what we do but as I mentioned earlier, our size is not currently available so I'm thinking the A050's are top of the list but Whittie and I were talking to a friend at the track day and he told us he recently entered an auto test event held on a skid pan with a particularly abrasive surface, he was attempting to set a record time on 50% worn A050's but had to sit out his final round because he'd shredded them, we double enter the car so I'm not sure we can afford that tyre life but we do want to try and set some good times before Whittie leaves so we will examine all currently available options and make our decision.

 

Cheers

Dad

[PZG302]

What size toyos?

 

St George tyres in Sydney also sell over ebay at comparable prices to Taleb tyres. I bought my last lot of 888's for the hairdresser car from them and no problems.

 

Just search R888 in ebay and they should pop up first, goto their store and you should find the size your after if chasing 15's.

[Whittie]

We'll check them out!

 

225/45/16 is what we're after with the new rims

[PZG302]

16" tyres can be difficult to find.

 

You could also try Option 1 here in Brisbane for Achilles semi slicks, not as quick as Yoki's but good reports for them generally.

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

I've bought tyres from both St George and Telb in the past, I get the feeling St George are a reseller for Taleb because their price is a bit higher and they are both currently out of stock of the size we need, they are available from Tire Rack in the US but with the A$ where it is currently there's no advantage over buying from the local distributor who does have them.

 

I might have stumbled onto some used A050's in our size which will at least give us the opportunity to evaluate them before parting with lots of hard earned, I'll know more tomorrow.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Whittie]

Well I had some time today so I got around to cutting up the video and posting it to Youtube. Because the Lib's have butchered the NBN, it'll be a few hours until the second link is up, but here they are:

 

Dad in car (live now)

 

Tom night laps (live AM 21/1/14)

 

 

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

I have scored four ~50% worn A050's which should last us a couple of events and will at least allow us to thoroughly evaluate them.

 

We have over time had issues with wheel studs becoming cross threaded and I recently replaced two but the problem is still there and one nut in particular is problematic so before having the tyres fitted today I bought a few new 12mm 1.25 nuts so I could replace any damaged ones.  Once the wheels were off the damaged stud was clearly visible, fortunately the tyre fitter had a die the correct size and repaired the stud, while he was fitting the tyres I went over a few other studs so that now the nuts spin up all the way by finger as they should.

 

Here's a trap for the unwary, when Whittie bought the Rota wheels they came with a complete set of nuts as expected but that was where the trouble started because one of these things is not like the others.

 

Wow I love driving this little car, when I was on my break-in drive I had a few admiring glances and one guy tooted as I passed, today I took the car all of ten minutes from home, I had one guy get his phone out to photograph it and on the way home a Honda in front of me slowed so I could catch up, he stuck his hand out the window and gave a big thumbs up them moved over so I could pass.

 

After all the time I've put into the re-build it really is a nice feeling to get this reaction from random strangers, think I'll go for another drive.

 

Cheers

Dad 

[Zedman240®]

Your nut thread pitch was out by .25mm enough to ruin the threads!

 

Might b e a good idea to put that clear stick on stone guard stuff on the panels behind the tyres...with the semi's flicking up tons of debris, you'll reach the undercoat in weeks...I can take a pic of my car to illustrate