Victory

Hey Fatz Are you competing in this months Tarmac Rallysprint on 19/02/2015 at Eastern Creek? This looks like a lot of fun and were looking at coming along and checking it out. Do you have and space for some extra members of your pit crew?

Maybe it is some larger sway bars to stop her lying over so far.

In hindsight one improvement to the alloy spacers would have been to use helicoil insets for the threads as the alloy is soft and you have to be careful not to damage the threads. For ease of change over we came by a complete GTR cradle which we then refurbished with all new bushes etc. and then just did a straight swap. The benefit was a good diff, stronger axles, more bracing in the cradle, alloy hubs and the capacity to run GTR shocks. I had a new set of GTR sub frame bushes in the parts box so we installed them at the same time. As you can see from the above picture GTR bushes are longer and have the effect of spacing the entire cradle 20 mm lower than GTS-T bushes. The impact of this is something that we did not realise at the time. We are not using pineapples and I am still getting my head around calculating roll centre and the impact of ride height on roll centre. We run standard arms on all of our cars and obtain adjustment with adjustable bushes. We started off with a ride height of 330 mm and had a range of power down issues with that set up. We run our other GTS-Ts at 350 mm and they seem to work well and our GTR sits at 370 mm. The other issue we had was a lot of squat in power down to the point that at WSID the outside 5 cm of tyre was not even being used. With this information we raised the rear ride height to 370 mm and reduced the rear camber to -1.00 degree. We also softened up the rear end by going down to a 5 kg springs. The result of these changes has been much better power down, mid corner stability and the ability to keep wheels on the ground when the surface is not perfectly smooth. What we probably should do is have the car corner weighted by Heismans in Sydney who can also work out where we are regarding roll centres. Any advice that you could provide would also be very appreciated.

We also converted to R33 GTR shocks in our R33 GTS-T because of the greater range of shocks available for GTR's. We settled for Bilstein PSS9's as they can be serviced and re-valved locally. In the front end we had similar problems with overall the shock length being too short as GTR shocks are 50 mm shorter than GTS-Ts, so we copied what the 4WD guys do and fabricated spacers to go between the top of the shock and the mounting point. This was a simple way to extend the overall shock length. In the rear end we installed a complete R33 GTR rear cradle.

Sounds like the new front splitter is really doing something and improving front end stability. Having the boost come on earlier changes the handling characteristics of a car a far bit especially out of slower corners. Turn two and the fish hook are slower corners at Wakefield and I would question if they are fast enough for a bigger rear wing to be able to provide a lot of assistance. Increased rear mechanical grip is something that you should think about. On our car we reduced the amount of negative camber on the rear and the action of standing the tyres up improved power down out of slower corners and kept the car straighter.

The first thing to do is trace the source of the leak. Where is the fuel coming from? R34's come with a plastic tank that normally does not cause any problems. Is the fuel system stock or has it been modified? There are rubber hoses with clamps on the joins around the fuel tank and any of these could be cracked or loose as could the filler hose from the tank to the filler inlet. The fuel tank is accessed through the boot on the drivers side of the car. The seal on the top of the tack could have a problem but you would have to have the tank very full for fuel to be level with this seal. Some pictures of where the fuel is coming from would help to diagnose your problem.

We have now done two complete rear cradles and two front ends and what looks easy is simply not fun when you come to attempt it. Some of the factory bushes are such a pain to remove (even with a good press) that it was easier to pay Pedders to remove them. Installing new aftermarket bushes or replacing old aftermarket bushes with new ones is a piece of cake by comparison. Good luck with this job.

Cracking on Skyline fans is a common problem (I have more cracked ones than good ones on my cars) and if they let go a high revs they can do some serious damage. I have seen factory bonnets with major damage from fans letting go - by comparison an aluminium or fibre glass bonnet would just be mince meat with the same impact. GKTech make an aftermarket fan that moves quite a bit more air volume but it does have its drawbacks. Moving more air generates more noise so it depends on your application. For a normal street car the noise can be a problem but if you have a modified car where engine temps are an issue then they could be the answer to your situation.

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Here is a picture of the outside of the pipe showing that it is 80 mm OD which would mean at least 75 mm ID. This is the only picture that I have of the exhaust diameter but I can take a picture of the exact ID tomorrow if required.

For sale is a 3 Inch Stainless Steel Exhaust with a 4.5 inch exhaust tip for R33 GTS-T or R33 GTR for $300. It is in very good condition and I will include a new flange gasket for the join between the muffler and the pipe. This would suite someone who is after a new exhaust because it's condition is that good The only problem is some very minor scratches on the underside of the middle hot dog muffler. I am located in Wollongong but I am in Sydney at some time most weeks so I could assist with delivery. Please contact me by PM if you are interested

My daughter recently purchased a Mazda RX8 and it came with these tyres. They were not the right size for the car (speedo error) and have since been replaced with tyres of the correct size. There are a pair of Altenzo Sports Comforter Plus in 235/40ZR18 97W XL with July 2013 build dates. They have 7.23 mm of tread as measured with a depth gauge with no camber wear. The second pair are Ovation VI-388 Performance DSRT in 235/40R18 95W XL with August 2012 build dates. They have 5.93 mm tread depth as measured with a depth gauge and again have no camber wear. I am after $200 for the lot or $100 for each pair. I live in Wollongong but I am in Sydney on a regular basis so we could work something out with delivery to Sydney. Please contact me by PM if you are interested or for further details.

Thanks to all involved in organising such a good cruise - it was good to catch up with everyone before Christmas. We made the decision to go home by the Putty Road and managed to get caught in the middle of the storm - much excitement ! ! ! There was that much water over the road that anything above 2 grand and the car just broke into wheel spin and at the worst of it we were doing 40 km and could not see enough to do any more. The water was that deep that the mags on my car have flow marks that reflect where the water was going through the spokes - we were thinking that we should have brought the Hilux instead of a Skyline. We were very pleased to see the relative safety of Windsor compared to where we had been. Thanks to everyone who brought their cameras and took some great pictures.

That looks seriously good Neil - what material is it made from?

Please add Clinton and my names to the list - I always enjoy a run up the Putty Road.

I am sure that if we all brought our own chairs, food and beer we could make some meaningful contribution to servicing and preparing the R32 when the on track action got a bit boring. Any work would have to be done in the morning before Fatz and Neil reached a state of intoxication.

The semi's must have been generating some grip to break a high tensile bolt like that. You were so lucky that the other bolt did not fail resulting in the front wheel collapsing under the car.

Hi Neil that fuel cooler looks to be exactly what we all need to keep fuel temps under control. Time for a group buy.......

Double post.

In NSW it is now OK to left foot brake when you are attempting a driving test in an auto. For someone who is coming from a manual car background left foot braking is a hard skill to learn because the left foot normally just goes to the floor to engage the clutch and all of the feel is required when the clutch is released. When you start to drive go karts it takes some time to become a competent left foot breaker while your brain is being reprogrammed. I can drive an auto and left foot brake and not even have to think about it from my experience with karts. This skill is also helpful in a manual because it is easy to tap the brakes with the left foot to bring the pads up to the disk without having to lift off so that when the right foot comes off the gas and hits the brakes there is more pedal. Also if you have a laggy turbo you can get on the gas earlier in a corner and still use a bit of left foot breaking to keep the car stable until you get to the apex. The only thing you have to be sure of is that you never ride the brake pedal.

It can be done but it is not easy. You support the motor and gearbox by an engine brace that that takes the weight on the strut towers and the top of the inner lip of the front guards. You then support the car on stands and drop down the front cross member to give you access under the engine to remove the sump. It is such a pain to do that I think that an engine out is easier.

Please add Clinton and my name to the list.

We have all had some amazing eBay finds over the years that in my case have filled a few garages with parts. One of my best pick ups was a Ganador stainless steel exhaust for a R34 GTR for $20. This was a top shelf exhaust as can be seen in the attached pictures with an unbelievable note that now lives on our track car.