JCMarshall_Law

Yeah, that was along the lines I was thinking, I'll sit down with a pen and paper and convince myself now. thanks for your patience. Had the track day today in the pooring rain so I gave up with any serious playing with the suspension anyway - just had fun sliding around.

Yeah I had a good day just drifting around, bummer about the rain - I was keen to try and post some good times. Had fun anyway. Thanks again Paul and Tim. My very patient girlfriend took heaps of photos so I'll post up a couple of good ones when I get them.

Damm rain, I only missed my goal of 1:09:00 by 12 seconds or so Never had a real intrest in getting a good time, just happy to drift - as those behind me may have noted as I spun out for the 4 time at the end of the main straight (thats my excuse anyway!). Glad I did not take off the 2 week old front bar when I ended up in the kitty litter! Had a great day though, thanks again Tim and paul.

Yeah, I know that is pretty much the accepted situation, but I have still have not convinced myself why, so my post should have been worded more as a "why" than a statement. I was trying to do the maths, but work is not paying me to think about my car so I presented the quick and simple model above. I did model the swaybar as a two arms linked by the torsion bar (I just drew a simple end on view of the bar). and the forces F1 and F2 are the forces acting on the suspension through the bar due to vertical deflection of the suspension. I am certian I at least know the general principal of the torsion bar and how they work, I was in the 2002-03 UQ Formula SAE team and I was involved in a limited capacity in the development of the suspension (spent more time building engine parts). I have not really spent the time with a drawing pad in front of me so maybe I should keep my mouth shut till then, but if you can help me understand why it doesent matter if the torque arms are different on either side of the torsion bar, it would be appreciated. Can't answer my question in the first post? I'm pretty sure I just turn around the link assembly to reach the other holes although I though someone would have come across this issue. I'll take a pic when I get a chance.

Front, there are four holes on each arm of the sway bars. I don't think you can use the 1-2 hole configuration to give an intermediate stiffness setting. If you use the 1-2 setup each side of the sway bar will have a different torque arm, so it will handle differently depending which way you are turning. See pic attached For arguments sake, say one torque arm is half the length of the other, a force F1 on the shorter arm would translate to a force F2, only half that on applied to the other side. Obviously the lengths are no where near 50% of each other of each other, so the effect would not be as great but I'm sure it would have a negative effect on the handling of the car.

Sorry I know there was a thread about this some time ago but I can't find it. Do the whiteline adjustable swarbars for the R33 have 4 different stiffness settings? There are four holes but the link only reaches two of the holes in the stock position - Does the link have to be turned around to reach the other holes? Help would be appreciated.

GTRs are well built cars, most of the reliability issues come from the treatment they recieve. If you drove the GTR like you would a magna, then reliability will not be a problem, If you drive it like a GTR can be driven then things breaking can become a problem.

Selling the GTR!?! Bummer we are not going to see the car at cruises any more. Free bump.

Don't know, fogot to ask. Is there a way to tell? I'm pretty sure they bake their resprays because a mate got a new grill painted and fitted in one day, so I guess it was 2-pac.

I attached a few pics of the new front end, it looks sweet, IMO. Although, I'm a bit pissed off with a couple of things. I'm not just randomly going off to give DMD a bad name, that is definately not my intention, I still think DMD did a great job on the bar and the bonnet. I have talked to Doan and he said he would make sure he talked to the employee who did the work so it does not happen again. I will not chase the issue further and I have already fixed the problems myself. Basically the the problem is the indicators and how they were installed. For a start they are cheap trailer indicators and look like it (see pics). The real problem started when my indicators stopped working completly about 4 days after I got the car back. I found that the fuse had blown, so I got to work pullng apart the front indicator wiring - this is what I found: The indicators were screwed onto the mesh with backing made of old fiberglass pieces obviously cut up with side cutters. The rubber seals were installed incorrectly so the indicators would have filled with water in the next rain. All of the wiring was twisted together!!! Including the connection to the indicators. On one side they had obviously cut the wiring in the wrong place so they just twisted the wires back together in one big bundle and taped up with 1000 mile a hour tape, they could not even use electrical tape - I can't believe it did not short out sooner. In fact everything was done with 1000 mile a hour tape. So I spent a bit of time pulling it all apart, soildering it together, making proper mounting, and properly insulating everything. Now it works. I did not expect to have to fix the work of a professional workshop. Anyway, I'm over it, just make sure you drill them on the wiring if you get work done there. PS: someone had also got a bit excited with the gas ax when they cut the reo and cut through a support they should not have, but I'll stop bitching now, it still works fine.

Hows that for service! thanks a lot Christian, that three letter thing was driving me crazy as well.

Thanks again sydneykid, I know 6 x 5-6 laps seems like a lot to you But what I was saying when I said "limited track time", was the 6 x 5-6 laps might as well be 6 x 1 lap sets as it is not really possible to do two laps, come in, change the sway bar setting and go back out for two more laps before the session is over and all the cars are back in the pits. It is a private track day and the sessions run continuously with about 5 groups, so your group ends up with about 6 sets. So I really only get 6 sets at different settings on the car no matter how many laps I do in a set. Still heaps compared to what your used to? Thanks for your replies, I have a much better plan on how I'm going to go about things. cheers Anyone else had experience setting up a car in this situation? With this gear?

Not a direct help, but go look at the latest HPI mag, got a list of wreckers in the back.

I would be craping myself out on a full sized track. Even on the clubman track at QR, with the right gearing, 200km/h should not be a prob at the end of the straight (just guessing based on our 1/4 mile run with the restrictor in place and low gearing). Your ass is only 50mm off the ground in this thing. I might have to think about designing some wings if it gets approved for track use. This has got me thinking - what about those supercarts that run at QR, they are hitting 200km/h and they dont have any sort of chassis or roll bars around the driver, no suspension and the feet are definatly in front of the front wheels. IMO, this thing would be a lot safer.

does it come with the hand controller?

I've played around a bit on the street with the shock settings, but it is pretty hard to tell in the trafic. The car seems to corner better with soft front shocks and stiff bars but it seems to feel better with everything hard as it goes, like I said hard to tell on the street (driving sensibly and at the speed limit). I'll have more of a play at the track day. I guess you know I'll be at the QLD raceway track day on the 30th so I'll have a talk to you about the shock settings then. Anyone else have any input? Can anyone else answer the question in my last post?

I'm not aware of any speed regulations (it has been some time since I have read any rules), but I sure you know that mtorkana and hillclimbs are not high speed tracks. From memory, thoes tracks are bound by some design rules that limit top speeds anyway.

Thanks heaps for the reply Sydneykid, I was hoping you'd reply. Sounds like a good plan, I've only got 6 or so sets of 5-6 laps at the track day so I might have to comprimise a bit (I want a bit of time just to play around out there) I might try: 1) hard front shocks, hard front bars, soft rear bars 2) soft front shocks, hard front bars, soft rear bars 3) soft front shocks, soft front bars, hard rear bars That should give a bit better idea where I'm going, then I can make smaller setup adjustments after that. Just wondering if there is a general rule: - stiffining the rear bar promotes oversteer - stiffining the front bar promotes understeer. Is that correct or is it the other way around, or is there no general rule?. I see what your saying with the testing at all the setup extreems so I can find out for myself what does what, but I'm asking just because of the limited track time I have. If I have that rule right in my mind I may be able to speed things up a little.

Hey all, I'm hoping someone can give me a few pointers, I have a R33 GTST with bilstien struts at the rear (stock springs), damping adjustable Nizmo shocks up front (stock springs), whiteline adjustable swaybars front and rear and polyurethane bushes all round. I've never really done any development, I just installed the bars and set everything to be maximum stiffness. Now I'm wondering how I should go about optimising the setup for (at) an upcomming track day. The things I have to adjust are the sway bars and the damping adjustable front shocks. Should I keep everything stiff as possible, go out on the track, soften the front if it understeers or soften the rear if it oversteers. Is that the right way around? Is that the right way to go about things? Should I start the bars soft and get harder depending on over / understeer? When should I start playing with the damping rates on the shocks? As a side note: does anybody know which way to turn the little adjuster on top of the strust to make damping harder / softer, i.e. is position 5 the softest, or is position 1 the softest? (there is five positions on the little adjuster). The struts came with the car and I cant find a manual or anything. Any help or discussion whould be greatly appreciated.

I'm going for at least 1:10.00 for the clubman track at the Aug 30 track day now that I've got a few minor suspension mods. I'm hoping for 1:09 but I still got a really old crap set of 245 ziex falken tyres to run on. Anyone else planning on beating their best time? If so what are you aiming for?

Catch cans "catch" the oil as it is sucked out of the cam cover and before it is sucked into the induction system Not having an oil catch can results in a few problems (none of them are life threatining) 1) The oil coats the inside of the induction system including the intercooler which reduces its cooling eficiency. 2) Oil burns in the engine and fowls plugs, and screws up the fuel mixture, although I can't really see how this will lean out the ratio as f1williams suggested - please explain. If oil is being sucked into the engine the A/F ratio will go down and the octain rating will go up. From the factory the scavaging system is closed loop, so no more air will get to the engine.

Looks like a nice job. Are there flutes on the intake runners (inside the plenum)? Just thought flutes would be a worthwile addition, prolly help smooth the flow into the runners and may help with top end power.

Interesting you mention the resalability - because it was an issue when I was aquiring the car. The official line is: I gave the team a $1600 donation and I happend to know when they were throwing out an old car. The uni did not want any law suits if I get hurt. Your right about the wheel base, it is 1540mm which is the smallest the comp in Australia allows. The pedal box is about 100 - 200 mm in front of the front wheels so it limits the events we can run in. It is CAMS approved for motorkana and hill climbs, I know because we used to run it regularly in SE QLD events. I heard recently that the US comp now requires the wheels to be in front any part of the driver. If that is true, it's a bit of a bummer because the US cars will be at a big disadvantage to the Australian cars, so it will be unlikely any will compete in the Australian comp. It also means the Australian cars will not be able to compete in the US comp. GTRman1992, do you know what design / safety rules apply at QR private track days?

Finding an engine is not really a problem just paying for it. For some reason wreckers can charge $2000 for an engine when the same bike in working order would have gone for less than $4000. The old engine the uni owns is missing the inlet manifold and exhaust, so I am barganing with them as it's worth dick all to a wrecker without the manifolds. I could make my own manifolds - as I did when I was in the team but I'm trying to get away as cheaply as possible. I'm in no rush at all. I anticipate that this is a very long term project unless I find a genuine financial team member.

Pics re-attached Project is still going along slowly, got shocks and springs sorted, Driveline is all in CAD ready to machine. Still negotiating with the current UQ SAE team to sell me the old engine - they dont need it now as they are using the CBR600 F4 which has different engine mounts. Stll looking for someone to join the team.