hrd-hr30

bent lower arm (triangle shape bit). possibly damage to other components such as HICAS rack, tie rod ends (bad news is the ball joint part of that appears to be part of the upright!), possible cracks to upright and damage to upper arms/bolts/bushes (they look OK in the pic, but they should be checked anyway), and cradle bushes. you should have at least a good visual inspection of all those components. don't be too scared, they're probably OK. the part in the first pic to want to disconnect is the balljoint. You either need a seperator or a ball pein hammer to drop the ball joint. the shaft from the ball joint that goes up through the upright is tapered, as is the hole in the upright. they form an interference fit when tightened up which is why its hard to remove. A seperator is a large wedge shaped 2-pronged fork that goes around the balljoint shaft between the arm and the upright - you hammer it in to "break the taper" by forcing the components apart. The other way is to hit the part of the upright around the balljoint shaft with a good quality ball pein hammer to "break the taper". You will need a good quality ballpein hammer - a cheap rubbish one may shatter with the result being possible eye injury. and you will need to be able to get a good swing and be prepared to hit it hard! with either option put the castle-ated (sp?) nut back on a few turns first to catch it when it lets go. If you don't know how to do it, probably best to find a manual or just put the bolts back in and take it to someone - either someone very close and very slowly, or tow it. its not a load bearing balljoint, but it still won't be much fun if it fails while you are driving it! you might end up having another crash if that happens. Labour to replace the lower arm itself should be somewhere around an hour (it would cost about that much to buy a big seperator to do it yourelf anyway), and up to two if you fit a new ball joint to the secondhand arm as well. plus parts obviously. HTH.

I think that's a fair idea too, but it is never as easy to implement as it seems. SPARC (my old car club) used to do it like that with their events many years ago and there were quite often people unhappy with being classed as race cars, or complaining about who was in street cars with them. And more recently I've seen it at MtCotton with their "road registered" class as well. It's designed for newbies and less modified cars that wouldn't be competitive in the Improved Production class where street cars used to end up when I started. Seemed like a good idea, until it started getting abused. One recent example was a log booked, full caged car that regularly races in Historic Touring cars (think it was Nb), running "not for highway use" tyres! just because they still had a number plate on it, he entered in the "road registered" class. So there needs to be some definition of what is a race car and what isn't, because there are a few things that will cloud the issue from my experience: 1) people who get put in race class, might argue that their unregistered, full caged, race-use-only car on slicks is "less modified" than some of the street cars there. 2) on the other hand you also see some street registered cars completely stripped of all uneccesary items/interior/weight with full cages. At what point does a street car become a race car? 3) rally cars - either tarmac or gravel rally. all rally cars are legally road registered, but at the same time fully prepped race cars in their own right?? 4) a trailered, unregistered car on DOT tyres with stripped interior etc but no cage???

come on, F1 is a multi-billion! dollar industry. what's sportsmanship got to do with it? big bisiness is about maximising every opportunity for your shareholders. shumey always delivered!

tsukuba super lap IRL is for (JDM) tuned road cars on sports tyres. I can't remember a twin engined Suzuki Escudo (Vitara 4WD) Pikes Peak (Dirt Trial) car being sold for road use either... just to make it clear, because my earlier post about that car seems to have been mis-interpreted. That is not a tuned road car. Pikes Peak specials are some of the most highly developed and specialised race cars around. If the game calls it a race car, rally car, or dirt trial car, its fairly obvious it's not a normal road car, isn't it?

If you are going to have sub classes to denote tyre type, may as well include C. Street (non competition tyre) My vote is to leave the Top 10 times for DOT tyres only. I'd like to see that remain as a fair fight, not just elevating cars up there on tyre selection. Slicks are worth at least 2 seconds over a DOT competition tyre, and up to 4 seconds in experienced hands. Its apples and oranges. If you want the "Best of the Best" in the top 10, then you don't want a relatively standard GT-R ahead of some of those 4-500bhp GT-Rs (and EVOs SUpras etc) just because he turned up with a set of slicks...

sounds good to me! Good idea on the classes - pretty much what you have been doing on this site with the GTR and GTST breakdown. I don't think any of the Top10 have used slicks. All the Group1 cars seemed to be on DOT race rubber last time and were running at or very near their best times. I know a couple of the other GTR's in the Top10 that were not there last time also use DOT semi slicks.

I'm out. Recent outings to QR and the QLD Challenge Rally destroyed my brakes, and I need a few suspension bits too. I won't be back on the track until next year unfortunately. I'm actually thinking about making the HR30 coupe into a track bitch instead of using the GTR, but that's another story. Very dissapointed to be missing out on this trip, should be an awesome week down there. There better be plenty of pics!

go for it see if you can beat 51.86 set by the koingseggC8XS (whatever that is) in Forza. I can't believe I felt guilty for trying the Honda NSX LM Road Car here!

I didn't mean to sound like you shouldn't run on slicks. I don't care if there are cars running on slicks, but I don't think its fair to put times set on slicks in the Top 10 up against everyone else who has set their times on DOT race tyres. what lap times does your car do at the Top Gear race meetings, Michael?

the game specifies if it is a race car in the car's title - eg "Gillet Vertigo Race Car". Its in the same class as the other race cars in the game. You won't find "race car" in the title of any of the other cars we've used.

not really sure if that car fits into the Tsukuba Super Lap thing; a) its not Japanese b) its a race car, not a tuned street car nice time though!

From my experience, the fast guys who have invested a bit of time and money into their cars tend to have a bit of a competitive streak. The kind of things that really annoy people at events is having a full-on race car in their class, or cars on slicks in their class. There's two ways around that - seperate the race cars/slick-shod cars into a Race Only/Sport Sedan category, or don't include their times in the same top 10 as everyone else who's running DOT race rubber. But at what point does a car become a race car? Having those demarkations can lead to some niggle about who should be in what category, which really isn't alot of fun... So probably the better way to go is to not include slick times in the top10 list on the Time Attack page. The problem you will face if you do allow slick shod cars into the top 10 results with everyone else on DOT tyres is that all the serious cars, and there are alot of people at your events with some serious hardware who obviously have some money to spend on their cars, will go out and buy slicks for the extra 2-4 seconds they are worth to lap times, irrespective of wether that other car is in their class or not. Its the cheapest 2seconds they'll ever get! You have the top10 on the front page of the TimeAttack site and that's where the fast guys will want to stay, or get to. It will only take one or two slick shod cars to push out people who currently have a top10 spot to start that tyre war. You need to decide if that's the direction you want your event to go. Personally I think it should retain its 'Super Lap' feel, with DOT rubber and not too many other restrictions. But if you want to, there are various ways to go about breaking cars into classes: QLD Hillclimbs and Supersprints basically use the CAMS classes, where the main categories are Improved Production for modified road cars running DOT tyres (including semi slicks), and anything on slicks is automatically in Sport Sedans. Those categories are broken up into capacity classes 0<1600cc, 1601-2000cc, 2001-3000cc, 3001 and over. They can be simplified to Under 2L and Over 2L. Turbo cars have a multiplication factor of 1.7, so a GTR with 2568cc*1.7=4365cc and in the over 3L class. Alot of places now also have a seperate class for AWD turbos. Problem with IPRA rules is they are too restrictive for modern vehicles. So places like QR simplify it and get rid of eligibility concerns by making it Street class (modified or not) and Race class. Slicks are not allowed in street class. NSW do it slightly differently. They have Type 1 to Type 4, and Type SV for kit cars and AWD turbos. Type 1 is for standard vehicles, Type 2 is for lightly modified vehicles, Type 3 is for more modified street cars, Improved Production and Production Rally Cars, Type 4 is basically Sport Sedans and anything else on slicks. These are broken into capacity classes as well. They do have some guidelines on what level of mods fit into type 2 and when it becomes Type 3, but it is basically at the organiser's discretion. Basically, I think that all becomes a bit too complicated for the organisers and for compiling results. And having been to the last event, I don't really think different classes are needed. Everyone was very happy and having alot of fun. Making different classes might only make it more daunting or complicated for competitors too? Particularly if the classes start specifying what mods you can and can't do, or this kind of mod puts you up in that class and so on. that kind of thing that goes on at CAMS events really detracts from the fun factor. A class for AWD turbos, and classes for Under 2L and Over 2L should be enough. Or maybe break it down into RWD and FWD - there are so many options! You'd need a seperate class for race cars and/or slicks, because of the massive performance advantage they have. Or maybe break it up in a similar way to HPI magazine keeps the drag records in the back of their mag? But I don't think they don't have any turbo multiplication factor, so a NA 2L is up against a turbo 2L, which isn't exactly fair. It all gets kinda complicated real quick when you start making classes! I think its great the way it is - everyone out there having fun and tying to improve their own lap times. I think I may have just compicated matters rather than helping. sorry Paul! Harry

I don't have any problem with banning P platers from high performance cars. if parents these days are too stupid to do it, maybe it needs to be legislated. besides, if they aren't going to make it harder to get a licence, at least make it harder for the idiots to kill themselves, and others. Its much easier to loose control in a high power car than a low power car. Idiots will still be idiots, but at least they will be going a bit slower when they crash. the real problem (well one of them!) is that people consider getting a licence as a right rather than a privilege. most people can't drive for shit, and worse, they don't even know half the rules. They don't care about learning how to drive or what the rules actually are because they see driving - to be set loose in a 1000+kg projectile at up to 30m/s with minimal training - as their god-given right! not unlike the young people here who see owning a high powered car as a god given right. if you are a responsible driver who isn't going to speed or carry on like a yahoo on the road, what does it matter if you can't have that turbo car until you have an open licence? hopefully they'll introduce a law that you must complete defensive and advanced driver training courses before you are permitted to own them too. They have a similar concept for motorbikes. the other real root problem is that we don't teach people to drive. we teach them to manouver a vehicle at low speed (park, 3pt turn, etc) and operate the controls. You get your licence and THEN you learn to drive - out on the open road without any instruction/supervision. At least keeping these new drivers who are still learning how to drive out of high performance cars MIGHT go some way to keeping a couple of them alive a bit longer. When I was 18 I thought I could drive too. It was only when I went to my first track day which was a damp day at Lakeside raceway that I found out I still had lots to learn. I was 24 at that time. Then I got into events and started to really learn how to control a car. And I can tell you that there's alot of experienced competitors (and friends) who really don't have good car control skills. You see people losing it on the track in situations that really should have been easily recoverable, or even avoidable. Car control is a skill - it's not something that everyone can master, and it's certainly not something that a one-off advanced driver training course can teach you. Its a skill that needs practice and refining like any other skill. That isn't practicable for the majority of the driving population, so avoidance is the best solution. Teaching and encouraging people to drive slow enough to avoid those situations where they need those kind of skills is the best bet. Putting young people in lower powered cars is a measure towards that goal.

a stripped out race only vehicle running full slicks, vs two road going cars on semis. Doesn't sound very even at all! I think the results and records should note what type of tyre the time was done on - eg slick, semi, or street.

PRSC Media Release - Queensland Raceway wins Lakeside Tender

the local paper said it was announced earlier in the week that the management rights to Lakeside Raceway has been given to QR. So while I don't think that's the best result for club motorsport in the reigon - QR have basically priced their track out of the reach of Sporting Car Clubs to run events on Weekends so they can run Sprints themselves and pocket the profits - it will at least mean we'll get access to the circuit again, and state level racing should be back on the calendar for Lakeside. I can't believe it after all the years its been closed! Best news I've heard in a long time! But the track and the facilities are only protected until 2010 under the deal done by PRSC and the QLD Heritage Council, so we may not have all that long to enjoy it - once May 2010 comes around, council can move in with the bulldozers if they want to. I shouldn't have sold my IPRA Datsun... may have to build another car to get out there and race while the opportunity is there. and there is a HR30 coupe in the carport doing nothing...

been trying other GTR's and found a winner- R34 GTR 53.007! A 52 should be possible but it will have to be a pretty damn good lap. not an easy car to drive though - it needs the throttle fed in progressively out of corners and how well you do that makes or breaks the lap time.

best thing you can do for the longevity of your oil pump and the drive collar is to stay off the harsh factory rev limiter. franky, it will be fine with an extra litre of oil in the sump. No need for sump baffles for the occassional track day - especially if its on street tyres. Even on semi slicks it will be fine. that's how I've been running my car.

-check your brake pads before you go. QR will use a bit of your pads up. -new brake fluid is a good idea as Bunta said. and it probably wouldn't hurt to use a good 600deg fluid in whatever brand you like. -if you have time, it certainly won't hurt to run some ducting to the front brakes - QR is hard on brakes. if you are pushing hard on normal street pads you will more than likely get brake fade before the end of your 5 hot laps. if that happens, don't panic, there is stil a surprising amount of retardation available even if the pedal is on the floor, but a few pumps would help too. back off, but stay out on the track to help cool the brakes with some airflow over them. just make sure to keep an eye on your mirrors and wave people past on the straights. -make sure your coolant system (incl hoses and belt) is in good condition before you go. it will be HOT out there on the track in November. Might not hurt to take some coolant with you just in case the car gets a bit hot on the track. -change your oil if its anywhere near being due for it, or if its a very 'thin' oil. Due to the heat out there you will probably want to go to an oil with a slightly higher hot viscosity than you need for the street. Do R34 GT-R's suffer from oil surge like the R32 GT-R does? I always run an extra litre in my car for this purpose, but you might need to ask someone who knows the 34's better. -oil cooler is a very good idea, but not essential for 5 laps. -oil catch can could be a very good idea, but normally is only a problem with high revs and high cornering G's, which isn't really an issue if you're on street tyres. other than that, on the day make sure you start with plenty of fuel and have checked your oil, water, and tyre pressures before you start. On most road tyres I'd be running something like 35-38psi on the track. And you can expect the front left to cop a hiding! remove your spare and jack from the boot, and the babyseat could probably come out too When you park in the pits after a run, do not pull the handbrake on - it can cause rotors to cool unevenly and warp/crack through conduction with the contact of the pads, wether they are drum inside the rotors or use the calipers. It's also a good idea for the same reason to roll the car back or forward a couple of feet every few minutes until the brakes have cooled off a bit. Also pop the bonnet when you stop in the pits - it will let alot of heat out of the engine bay. On your cool down lap (which is nothing like enough to cool everything down), keep your speed up enough to encourage airflow through the rad & engine bay, and over the brakes. Use the brakes on your cool down lap, but only very gently - this will help dissipate some heat out of them better than staying off the brakes entirely. you'll have a ball! Paul runs a very well organised day, and its good fun being there with all the other Skylines and other imports.

I don't think that's actually the case. The GTR is just a variant of the R32 model Skyline. I don't think you can say the Skyline was designed purely with racing in mind. It really was just another example of taking something off the showroom floor and improving it. Other manufacturers were building their versions of evolution cars in exactly the same way for Group A, its just that either AWD simply did not occur to them or, like alot of others at the time, they thought AWD would just not work, or was at least unnecesary, in a circuit racing application. The AWD GTR was a groundbreaking development in circuit racing. AWD had only been used on gravel competiton before this car. I bet you if Group A had continued, other manufacturers would have gone AWD too in their Evolution models. I think we're both arguing the same point though - Nissan raised the bar in Group A racing with the GTR. Its just that you make it sound like that's a bad thing, or not in the "spirit" of the rules. bah!

d'oh. yeah you're right. I think it was 1.7 towards the end of GrpA.

gearbox wasn't an homologated item. There were freedoms in the rules to modify/replace internal components. The GTR used a Hollinger developed box. the 2600cc engine size didn't really come with any advantages. same max wheel width applied for 2001-2500cc as 2501-3000cc. the minumum weight was higher, but the GTR was never going to get down to that anyway, even before the ballast they had to carry. The only reason I can see that they went over 2500cc was to get into the outright category. The capacity classes were were 0-1600 cc, 1600-2500 cc and over 2500cc I'm not sure what you're getting at with the difference between a homolation version from other manufacturers and the GTR? You can't bemoan them for building a better car - that was the name of the game! Ford did it with their RS500 - exploiting the rules they ran their homologated items on the discontinued 3dr hatch variant instead of the 4dr it was homologated on. Everyone was trying to take full advantage of the rule book, as always... Its not like Nissan only built 500 AWD big engine versions of the Skyline and called it the GTR, there was something like 40,000 of the R32 GTRs built! It was a normal Nissan model with a large scale production run, not some limited edition built 'just for racing' special model. And remember that at the time it was released most people though the AWD system wouldn't work on the track and that it would be too heavy (on brakes and tyres) to be competitive, especially in endurance events. It wasn't a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination at the time. It was a breakthrough idea for circuit racing.

everyone was homologating group A "evolution" models. Ford Cosworth Sierra RS500 - the 500 came from the FISA requirement to build 500 Evolution models to qualify for homologation. Volvo were involved in a bit of a scandal after FISA could not purchase one of their homologation specials in 1985, because Mercedes stripped all but 23 of the Evolution models they built and turned them back into standard 240 turbos for sale. The Brock/HDT and later Walkinshaw Commodores were homologation specials. BMW definitely had homologation specials. Group A homologation was the main reason for the first M3. Even Toyota had Group A homologation specials. In fact, the GTR was not a homologation version of the normal Skyline, it was just a normal Nissan model. The homologation variant was the 560 unit Nismo version released in 1990, which was basically just an aero body kit for homologation purposes. bonnet lip, bumper vents, side pods in front of rear wheels, and boot lip.

here's the short version of GTR race history in Aus: it debuted in the last 2 races of 1990. In its first race it set a new lap record on the 2nd lap! It only competed in the ATCC for 2 full seasons (91 & 92), both of which it won, and it won Bathurst both those years too. you can squabble over details all you want. the results speak for themselves.

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