Dadson Racing: 2010 Revival

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

This is the last of three events while Whittie is briefly back in town and this time I'm on shaky camera duty.

 

Full of nervous anticipation we got to the track early so after scrutiny we were ready to go with the other early birds.

 

 

The car didn't go unnoticed for long.

 

 

Then it was time for action.

 

 

 

I love this one, 150kmh third gear tyre warming.

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Dad

Edited January 3, 2016 by TT Aero

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Whittie's usually the one who posts vid but he's currently a bit busy doing the friend/family catch ups so has left it to me, it's taken me a while to get my head around editing and uploading but I think I'm there so here's what I took of his 13.989 pass including my little involuntary yippie at the end, from memory the cars previous best time is 14.7, we were hoping for something in the 13s and we're there so now Whittie can go back to the land of milk and honey next Wednesday pleased with his efforts.

 

The two stage rev limiter was set at 7.5k for the warm up then switched to 4k for the launch and run allowing flat changing.

 

I think the resident camera man has a tail pipe fetish.

 

 

Cheers

 

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Well the four weeks that Whittie was home with us passed in the blink of an eye it was as if there was no time between pick up and drop off at the air port but of course there was and we did get some good stuff done including giving the Zed a few good workouts.

 

At the drags Whittie was returning to the staging area when along with another car was stopped by the organizers at the burn out pad, now the way I'm wired being pulled over can only mean trouble so I started to make my way from my photo point to go and find out what the problem was when I realized they were pulled over for an interview which was shown on a big screen at the start line so I filmed it, unfortunately because I was at the start line and racing was continuing you can't hear everything being said but I recon it's worth a look.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/Tommo560/Whoopass%20Wednesday%20Dec%202015/th_Drags%202015%20Interview_zpshcie5psv.mp4

 

 

Cheers

 

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Well it didn't take long for Whittie to get right back into Houston style motorsport in his Datto/Infinity 370 2+2 with his gopro activated and a mike right by the exhaust for effect, gopro's new tech tricks give a digital readout of pretty much every thing that's going on.

                

 

Cheers

 

Dad

[Whittie]

And this one from last weekend too 

 

 

This car is just a DREAM to drive. It's so smooth and easy to control. That was my fastest run on a day I was just having fun with a co-driver, but I managed 2nd in class, taken out by a 450hp v8 Camaro. This car classes in stock with Camaro's, mustang's, 235i and M3's (of which I beat 2!) so to say I'm not surprised with the outright pace of the car would be a lie!

 

I have also entered in to a 2-day event at none other than the Circuit of The Americas in August. The national "Ultimate Street Car Challenge" will be running the weekend and it's a road rally, autocross and go-to-whoa on Saturday, a function evening and followed up by open lapping on Sunday. This one is most definitely on the bucket list and being only 2 hours away I couldn't not do it. A normal 2 day track event here would usually set you back in the order of US$1,000 so it's a long way from cheap fun, hence going along with the street car challenge event. Less track time, but also substantially less cost.

 

It turns out these things (and 370z's) cook engine oil REALLY badly, like 140C in 1-2 hot laps which will engage limp mode, so it needs an oil cooler up front before I do more than autocross. I will also need a few track days to get settled with the car. The video posted above also confirmed that i have to do something about the front camber that is not adjustable from -0.5 degrees, so I'll be purchasing an adjustable upper control arm to help with the HIDEOUS outside shoulder tyre wear. Other than that I'm just going to drive the pants off it

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

It's been a while since my last post because nothing has happened on the Zed, it's currently in care and maintenance as my focus is on another project.

 

I know this is off topic but there was (for Dad and Mum) an alarming article on the TV news tonight about record flooding in Houston invoking a state of emergency so unsurprisingly we were immediately concerned for the Whittie's safety and well being.

 

Thanks to modern communication in almost no time we were in contact and Whittie assured us that the peak had passed and although a close call with water close to entering the house, all is well and getting back to normal.

 

Before the rain here's Whittie's 2+2 Datto 370 Zed in the drive

 

 

12 inches of rain in 24 hours later with drains overwhelmed.

 

Not sure Whittie will find this funny right now but I do.

 

In times of flood it's natural for wildlife look for refuge on high ground and wouldn't you know it, a skunk sought refuge under Whitties car and the Whitties Aussie Doberman dog who doesn't know a skunk from a black cat identified it as prey and went for it so the skunk used it's only defense and  sprayed all over the dog and the underside of the car, the dog has been scrubbed thoroughly and vaccinated but I doubt the car will be such a simple fix.

 

Here's my latest text from Whittie.

 

"My car smells so bad and I have no idea what to do now, I can't stop when driving without literally choking on the stench!  At least I won't loose it in the car park, you can smell it across half the lot."

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

The Zed hasn't moved since Whittie's return to Houston in January it's just been sitting under cover with the maintenance battery charger connected, I've decided that it needs to have at least some use but first there are a couple of little issues that need to be resolved, the headlights failed again at the drags so it appears the issue is likely to be a failed HID ballast and the other one is the collapsed rear gear box cross member.

 

Remember the temporary fix?

 

 

It's time to fix it properly, I've given this quite a lot of thought and have considered having urethane bushes made but following discussion with Tuss have concluded that the rubber bushes at the ends of the cross member are there to remove vibration in order to increase cabin comfort which of course is not an issue in a race car so have decided to go with a solid mounting.

 

Here's what I found when I removed it.

 

This did a surprisingly good job.

 

This has been is service long enough so will be replaced.

 

 

Cheers,

Dad

 

 

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

The cross member is currently with Tuss I I'll try to get some progress pics next week.

 

Meanwhile in the land of milk and honey Whittie has decided to upgrade the 370 2+2 in preparation of his upcoming Circuit Of The Americas event.

 

"I've purchased: Race pads, oil cooler, front sway bar, new rotors and brake cooling ducts which I hope to get installed over the next couple days. With any luck, a set of tyres and the car is done! I need to change the transmission fluid and diff fluid. For a 'sports car' these things have a lot of weak points, which is a real shame. With Mrs Whittie and I car-pooling to work now the car hardly gets any k's on it, starts to make me think I should have bought a truck, trailer and cheap race car, driving this thing on the track makes me more nervous than the zed, which is crazy, but I think that's because it's an only car so I can't afford to break it. Oh well, that's what the zed is for and I just need to get enough driving in to keep from going insane and then worry about real racing when I get back to AUS."

 

 

 

With that done it was time for a shake down at the local circuit and just as well it wasn't COTA because after little more than familiarization laps his day was over with potentially dangerous rotor failure.

 

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Fortunately no damage done but a good test day lost, hope it's fixed soon but it will be hard to have any confidence in those rotors.

 

Cheers

Dad

 

 

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

The cross member is still with Tuss and while it is progressing sadly I don't have any pics but I'll post them when I do.

 

Meanwhile over in the land of milk and honey, Whittie had the failed rotor bolts replaced and went to another track day with sadly the same result, this time it's gone back to the bolt supplier with product recalled as it should but that doesn't help Whittie with his next event at CoTA, so stock rotors it is, not ideal but at least they're one piece.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

The cross member's done and although it's not perfect, I'm happy with it for now, I suspect that when Whittie returns he will have the chassis mounts relocated so he can revert to a stock cross member.

 

Just to jog your memory here's the sad old failed cross member.

 

 

Having decided to go with a solid mount I went with cross member in hand to the local steel supplier to see if I could find some matching tube, not only did he have some with a matching OD, he cut four pieces to size and refused to take payment, I think I'll go back there.

 

I delivered it all to Tuss for fabrication which he did but as expected the heat generated from welding and powder coating turned the rubber bush into a tacky goo with the consistency of moist marshmallow, so that had to go. 

 

At my now favorite steel supplier I found some tube to accommodate the mounting bolt, back at the workshop we considered a range of options and decided that as the mount is now solid the internal tube is merely a sleeve for locating the securing bolt so as it is not stressed as it was previously some form of silicon should be sufficient to hold it in place, eventually a Sika product was used and after being allowed to cure for about ten days appears to be working as intended so now I'll fit it and road test.

 

 

 

Since the rebuild it's fair to say that we're not as happy with the car's performance as we had hoped, previously the engine was the strong point and the chassis was letting us down, now it's reversed and the chassis can handle more than the engine can deliver so as the car is not currently being actively campaigned and likely won't be before Whittie's return, I've decided to embark on a couple of little performance upgrades with the first being the P90 head which has been beautifully ported but the porting has followed the contour required for the original fuel injection that is not being used which means that the smooth air flow from the ram tubes through the carbies and inlet manifold becomes disturbed by unexpectedly needing to fill a larger space before entering the combustion chamber, although relatively minor it will be rectified.

 

 

 

The next one is possibly a little more meaningful because we currently run flat top pistons so will explore the possibility of going to raised top ones with valve relief.

 

Cheers

Dad

 

[PZG302]

It is interesting to note that a lot of people froth over the P90 head for performance when in a lot of cases it takes a lot of work to make it worth while, which can be achieved cheaper using other heads like the N42..

 

On my old green beast with standard injectors and built purely for circuit, I had one motor with a well worked P90 head, but we found the N42 head was better suited for what we wanted, and much easier to find one in good condition. The same bottom end combination with the N42 head swapped on from the P90 made a bit more power, but more importantly, more torque with the injection set up used. The amount of porting was similar, though different due to the inherent differences between the heads. We also didn't have to take as much off the face of the head to bump compression to where we wanted on the N42.

 

It should also be noted that my motors were built by rally guys, so were chasing a big lazy torque delivery with great drive-ability and not a top end screamer. Made it very easy to drive on the track with gobs of torque from around 3000 and useable up to around 6800 and throwing rockers at 7200 

 

Will be interesting to see what your guys come up with in matching the fuel delivery to the work done on the intake side of the head. It is possible to go too big in the ports.

[Grandad]

The P90 head came on the car and was sold to us as being a significant upgrade, since then we've fitted the largest valves possible and extra porting has been done, with the exception of relief for injectors both inlet and exhaust are port matched to their respective manifolds so we're not expecting a huge increase in power but as always, every little bit helps.  I'm comfortable that we have porting about right, the headers are tuned length Datrally spec flowing into 2.5in mandrel bend stainless exhaust.

 

Interestingly last week I caught up with the guy who tuned my Supra, he has moved into new premises which just happens to include a rolling road dyno which he is happy for us to use foc to get the Zed Weber jetting spot on.

 

I'm feeling both excited and intimidated at the prospect of operating a dyno to tune the Zed but one thing for sure, when it's done I'll know a lot more about tuning Webers than I do now.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

It's looking like Whittie's on top of the rotor bolt problem in his 2+2 370Z and is off to Austin next weekend to sprint the CoTA.

 

He already has put some miles on the latest bolt set up without a problem and will be driving several hours from Houston to Austin and CoTA, I expect he will have the stock rotors on board as a back up.

 

Hopefully we'll get some good pics and vid next week.

 

You know where I want to be next weekend.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Received this from Whittie this morning.

 

This track is just unbelievable, shame you aren't here to flog the Infiniti too!

Car is doing really well, brakes are working but I still boiled the power steering fluid. Can do a warm-up, 2 flyers and everything is cooked. I backed way off for a cool down lap and next flyer was way on edge but 5s slower as there was nothing left in the tyres. 

Track videos in the next couple days, driving home tonight and the net is too slow.

 

It was a two day event with autocross the first day and sprint the next.

 

Here's what I have so far.

 

 

https://youtu.be/e3Bbweq0_SU

 

https://youtu.be/m8vy1XMQ4x8

 

Great to hear he's safe and the car stood up fairly well.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

370Z 2+2 at CoTA

 

https://youtu.be/Pnm7rWDdD-k

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Well the cross member has been sitting on my desk since late July so I figured it should be well and truly cured by now also it's about time to fit it and give the Zed a run not only because it hasn't turned a wheel since January but I have a few fillings I need to check are secure.

 

Following my experience killing the last battery with kindness by unwittingly using a maintenance charger that didn't turn off I connected a new charger but when I recently checked it I found it's been set to charge 6 volts instead of 12 and the battery was down to 1.5, as expected the charger reset to 12 volts wouldn't look at it so I removed it and connected it up to my deep cycle caravan solar batteries that are on a separate charger and 24 hours later it was up to 13.5 volts, I have left it standing for over a week and it is still reading 13 volts so I think it's going to be ok, I'll be sure to check that the charger is set to 12 volts in future.

 

 

 

The local Zed group are having their annual get together this weekend so that's a perfectly good reason to get it mobile again.

 

Cheers

Dad

Edited October 11, 2016 by TT Aero

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

In preparation for Sunday's event I decided to blow the cobwebs out of the Zed today, it's something that over a lifetime I've done lots of times to a range of vehicles with outstanding results however this is the first time I've done it with a banister brush and air compressor.

 

 

 

The Zed hasn't turned a wheel since last December so it's current cozy storage position out of the weather has attracted plenty of spiders, now while I'm not arachnophobic I'm not particularly fond of the black and red ones that frequent this place so as I had work to do under the Zed, I decided they all had to go.

 

I attempted to fit the rear cross member today and soon realized that if I'd been concentrating on the job I would have test fitted it before it went to the powder coater but as I'm currently distracted with another project it didn't happen so today I had to trim it to fit which was easy enough with an angle grinder and a can of black paint then it lined up perfectly.

 

 

 

It's sitting in position nicely with plenty of clearance so tomorrow I'll fit the battery, fire it up and go for a blast.

 

 

 

Cheers

Dad

Edited October 12, 2016 by TT Aero

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Battery's in and it's going once again and I'm happy to report that there's no extra noticeable vibration with the solid mount.

 

The local Zed register day was today and the standard of the cars on display is the highest I've seen in twelve years of attending, it appears people are finally taking Zed cars seriously and doing quality rebuilds anyway it was Whittie's day today which is sure to give him a huge smile and a well deserved feeling of achievement and pride.

 

 

 

Cheers

Dad

Edited October 16, 2016 by TT Aero

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Dad Racing doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Dadson Racing so other than when Whittie was home last December I haven't done any motorsport in the Zed since he left for the US and the car spent most of this year on jack stands with no rear cross member in it but with a two day historic event at Wanneroo this weekend featuring F5000s, that's all changing.

 

https://www.wascc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Perth-Classic-Poster.jpg

 

I know from last time I had the rotors machined that the rears are getting a bit thin and Whittie cooked them at one event with a bit too much rear bias.

 

 

 

There have been small cracks appearing for some time so in fear of them exploding I decided to replace them and once removed I measured them, minimum recommended width is 9.4 and the worst rotor measured 8.4, clearly not up to a two day event.

 

 

 

Good to go.

 

 

 

Off to the track tomorrow for set up and scrutiny then two great days of competition and F5000s I haven't seen for years, I can't wait.

 

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

The event was great I had intended to get some incar vid but on the first day I forgot the tripod and on the second I forgot the mounting plate, clearly I'm out of practice so I've been waiting on pics from the track side photographer which have just arrived.

 

Although way off its best through a combination of out of practice driver Dad and sad old tyres I had a great event including some spirited side by side no touch action with an e-type that has to go down as the most fun I've ever had on a race track, I cant remember ever getting out of a car trembling the way I was at the end of that event, it was that good, we were parked next to one another in the car port and after the event we both had the biggest stupid grins on our faces like little boys who had just been naughty, the other driver said "I don't care if we're called to the stewards and sent home, that was worth it", even Whittie's mum was excited and thought it was fantastic, we weren't called up.

 

The e-type is a father/son team like us although in there case they are a little older, the father sadly can no longer get down into the car but goes to all the events and attends to the maintenance issues that son causes, father was interested in what improvements we've done to the Zed and went on to say that when the Zeds were new they called them e-type beaters, I suspect that in the day what they called them was something much stronger than that.

 

 

 

The run with the e-type was my first of two runs on Sunday and with the tyres on their last legs the Zed was getting plenty of over steer so I was feeling more than a little apprehensive about a second run with the e-type but there was no way I wasn't going back out so I went out on the warm up lap and knew I had to get some heat into the sad old tyres to soften them up and get some grip, I could feel them coming to life but the left rear was unresponsive and not remotely close to where I needed it to be given that Wanneroo is a clockwise circuit that's the side that really takes a punishing, feeling disappointed and battling a bit of red mist I peeled off into the pits before the start.

 

As hard as it was to do I'm pleased I listened to my senses and pealed off because a deflating left rear tyre wouldn't have got me through the right hander at the end of the front straight and while that would have kept Will busy for a while, none of us would have been happy.

 

 

 

A sad way to end the event but isn't it great to see how visible the stealth indicator is behind the grill.

 

 

Cheers

Dad

Edited November 22, 2016 by TT Aero

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

I spent today in the starters box at the annual Vintage Stampede at Wanneroo and said to one of the Zed guys on leaving that I had the second best position at the track today and what a great second it is to driving.

 

On the other side of the world, Whittie is having fun playing with his 370Z 2+2, he recently sent me a pic of a diy wheel alignment system that I thought was a bit too simple to actually work but it appears it does.

 

It's universal, works on all cars, portable for taking to the track. Will be used to setup the zed too when I'm back.

 

 

This came in last week.

 

I went out on Sunday with the BMW club for a few runs.

 

 

15/64 starters - beat every single BMW, including all of the M3's and only 0.2s behind a guy in a corvette, but he was whining about hitting cones all day long. His raw best time was only 1s faster than mine either way.

http://www.houston-bmwcca.com/wp-content/uploads/attachments/autocross/results/2016/2016-11-20-autocross-event_raw.htm

The car is going great, it's amazing how much of a difference a wheel alignment can make. I pointed the front wheels out by 1.5mm per side (front of rim 1.5mm further out than rear of the rim) and the car went from an under steering mess to completely hooked up. I was destroying tires with the old setup and now they are wearing evenly again. It's just nuts. I changed the rear wheels by 1mm per side and it was equally huge change. I am going to try 0.5mm per side in the back to try and get the rear end to step out some more, it's a little too hooked up at the moment.

Fun times. I'm looking forward to mucking around with the Zed a whole lot when I get back.

 

 

Me too! Cheers

Dad

Edited November 30, 2016 by TT Aero

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

With Whittie away in the land of milk and honey for the foreseeable future and with no looming competition events for the Zed I decided to remove the head and have the inlet port injector relief filled and he port professionally matched to the manifold, it's a relatively minor improvement which should have been done by the previous owner when the P90 head was initially fitted but I won't bother going there it's a long time ago.

 

The head's with Headtorque in Osborne Park, they've been around for a long time and really know what they're doing so the first thing they did was grit blast the head the second was to call me to advise that there are two holes, one in No1 exhaust port and the other in No6 exhaust port.

 

I inspected it and one was the size of the nail on my pointer finger and the other the size of the one on my little finger so both nasty, they said they could be repaired but there would be no guarantee, given the work that's already been done I decided to go ahead with the repair, the valve guide inserts are being replaced at the same time.

 

As I didn't have my camera with me I returned the next day to get some pics but the welding had already been done so here's what I saw.

 

 

While looking at the head the guy asked me what coolant I'm using and I said I don't know it's the green one, he said they're all green or red, is it Tectaloy premix because if it is then that's what's caused your problem it promotes electrolysis, Tectaloy concentrate is ok but we recommend you only use a manufacturer approved coolant.  He went on to say that he's been threatened with legal action because of his comments but sighted a Mazda head that came to him, on inspection there was absolutely nothing wrong with it so it was surfaced and returned to the customer, three months later it was back for repair this time with corrosion holes, no prizes for guessing what coolant was used.

 

Guess this is heading for the bin.

 

 

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

I called Headtorque today to get an update on the head and they confirmed that it passed the pressure test which means it has been saved so now the port matching can go ahead, should be ready to refit mid Jan.

 

Well it's official DADSON Racing has gone international, I guess that means I'll just have to get myself back to the land of milk and honey so we can double enter the 370 2+2 at an event, CoTA would be nice as we've already done a track walk.

 

 

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Whittie has decided that with another 2.5 years ahead of him in the US he might as well improve the 370 2+2 so has bolted on some improvements that can be easily removed before selling the car, with engine mods not simply reversed he has decided to leave that as is and concentrate on handling and braking so along come brake ducts, finned diff cover, fully adjustable coil overs and alignment adjustment mods.

 

 

So with the mods in place and a quick wheel alignment it was off to the autocross track to gauge the improvement.

 

At the end of the day Whittie was second in class to a M3 an 18th outright in a field of 180...That's my boy!!

 

We bought the Zed for Whittie when he was fifteen and still at school and his first driving lesson in the Zed was with an instructor on Wanneroo race track, one of the instructors primary rules is that your hands must always be on the steering wheel and only come off to change gear, with that in mind watch whitties hands as he guides the open diff 370 2+2 round the autocross course.

 

https://youtu.be/ahIJiJwhOj0

 

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

The P90 head is finally good to go, as part of the repair two water galleys have been filled but Headtorque assure me it won't adversely effect cooling, I guess time will tell on that one, they mentioned previously that the guides were showing signs of wear so they and the valves have been replaced.

 

 

 

There has been a bit of miss communication regarding what was to be done to the head I requested port matching which I assumed (yes I know assume makes an ASS out of you and me) meant the injector relief would be filled but that's not the way it was taken so the manifold has been professionally matched to the head but the injector relief remains, when I asked about it they said it was not something they normally do as the increase in flow and hence performance will be negligible and not justify the cost, they said that if I insist they will happily do it but suggested flow testing with and without putty in the relief first, so that's what was done.

 

As part of my research into L28 heads I found a flow chart on here that I think is worth re posting.

 

 

 

That graph has ported P90 reading a touch above 210cfm so that's the target.

 

Four tests were done as follows, test 1 bare head, test 2 bare head with putty, test 3 manifold fitted, test 4 manifold fitted with putty.

 

The test print out shows the head with putty achieved the best flow, the next best had the manifold fitted with putty in place and the worst flow had the manifold fitted with relief open so clearly there is a gain to be had by filling the relief but with the high being 211cfm and the low 209cfm a potential gain of 2cfm or 1% increase in flow is not worth chasing.

 

 

 

While they had the head they also measured the combustion chambers and advise that on the right motor the head is capable of 310hp, that news got my pulse moving I can't wait to get on to the track now and see what gain we've achieved.

 

 

Cheers

Dad