haw001

Guilty as charged, and for the first time, rain-x didn't work well enough. Talk about wet, day 5 on Aerosmith was the worst.

I certainly hope so, but the rules don't say anything about using stuff from the Nismo catalogue... It's more confusing now than ever, and not a lot of time before the event.

If you read it to the letter, then this also applies to the clutch, which means the skylines would be back to the factory clutch plates which are organic and wear very quickly. Doubt they would even last the whole event. Under the old rules, as long as it was the same function, ie single plate, you could change for an aftermarket clutch plate, so at least something that would last. Gives no advantage in performance, but at least would last. Again, I think we need some confirmation here before I start ripping the car apart. If it is a case of having to be all factory original parts, then we are worse off than before, with the 400R having all sorts of parts advantages, and we go backwards on basic durability parts.

That's how I read it too, but from how I read the rules, Z tune and ATTKD and possible 400R are out, but according to Stuart are not, so I just don't know what to go by. I'm not arguing the rules, it's just better to get official clarification from Stuart. Even if gearboxes are factory, what is the ruling on OEM parts? Can I put a gear set with exactly the same ratios and format (keep them helical not straight), ie only cheaper and/or stronger, or do I have to use genuine Nissan parts? I think the new rules are great, but I'm not sure I understand the exclusions.

Stuart, thanks for clarifying. Could you also please clarify the rules on gearboxes. Specifically, I'd like to know what you a free to change and what is not. Can we change gear sets provided the same casing, shifting pattern, and number of gears is maintained? Can helical gears be swapped to straight cut, and do the ratios have to remain the same? Failing that, can the lower gear ratios be changed if the the final drive (ie toptop gear) remains the same. Specifically, I am interested in early modern skyline (LMS I think), and there is no mention of gearboxes until MS. My understanding from previous years was that there was some limited freedoms with respect to gear sets.

Can someone please clarify, is the 400R and ATTKD spec for early modern definitively eligible? I'm somewhat confused with Stu's post.

I don't think that they would knock back the Caterham R500, but I do think they might require additional roll cage amendments. There was a similar styled car there this year, but it had roll cage protrusions around the doors and over the top. The Skelta, of which there were 2 this year, is similarly spec'd. From my own experience, I'd want the roll cage additions as well, and still wouldn't run a car that wasn't fully enclosed. I don't care how good a driver you think you are, somewhere, sometime, you are going to come off.

This IS available aftermarket. The GTR one is different. This is the bearing they sent me for the GTR which is slightly too small and lacks the handbrake braked on top. You should expect to pay $150 or less. I think the manufacturer is CBC bearing, but I'm not sure. And parts place should be able to look it up for you and order it. You don't need to go through Nissan. What you will get is the cradle and bearing, so all you need to do is push out the hub centre and press it in to the new bearing. You need a press for this, don't even think about using a club hammer. Mark.

No rear option for bearings other than Nissan. I just purchased a set of aftermarket rears for a great price of $100 each, only to find out that the listing is incorrect, and is in fact only for the gt-st etc. Of course I found this out after pulling the old ones apart, so I had no option but to buy genuine nissan ones to replace them, at more than 3x the cost! Mark

I'll take the igniter and the bearing please.

That's what you call good quality safety gear! But that can't be me, because I notice he remembered to put on his safety goggles where as I would have conveniently left them on top of the car and forgotten them. But that's another emergency room story. The real problem is that now I'm in Melbourne it's damn cold (that's saying a lot as I work in shorts year round in Sydney) and I've had to start wearing pants when working my usual late night last minute jobs. So of course I'm welding and instead of dropping a little spot of weld on to my bare skin and causing a small little burn that's fixed with a lot of expletives, it instead gets logged in my coveralls, catches fire and before I notice it I've got a 2 inch round section of burnt polyester embedded in my skin! I really should be working for ACCC in their product safety section, defining common sense safety practices, but again that's a whole other story...

Hey, I resemble that comment. And just so you know, I only use FIA approved, fire retardant thongs for welding and driving.

Yep certainly is better in the 33 I'm going to try some high density grease, similar to the stuff you get with the urethane bush kits. I've got a dozen or so packets somewhere, so I'll start with that. Agreed, not ideal if changing often, but I'm not at that level of sophistication. I'll usually test a few different settings then not touch anything over a weekend for fear of screwing it up. Hun, what, who? No seriously, I know what they are, at least in theory, but not far enough along in testing to deal with them yet. Primary goal is to lower the car and increase the camber and castor without introducing a huge amount of bump steer. Once we've got the approximate location I'll think of making some parts that are more finely adjustable. Agreed, but I think we've fixed a lot of that with the adjustable mount point modifications to the rear cradle. There are some photo's in the other thread. Again I agree, and that was sort of the point I was making. Feel does not equate to times. Need to test and test and test.

Good point, I had thought of that and I have some high tensile washers with the same ID which I will weld to the outside of the brackets on both ends. This should insure that the tube wears before the brackets which are mild steel I think and would otherwise wear first. It's hard to guess how much they will wear anyway. Unless the car is used in an enduro (something I doubt as we built it and I don't think all parts will stand the test of time!) the actual running time will be rather short and the amount of travel fairly limited. With a lowered car on firm suspension the movement around either end couldn't be more than 20 or 25 degrees. Any more and the car will be bottoming out. I have flogged a set of Nismo bushes on my other car, but I think the wear is due to lateral stress and not rotational stress. A basically solid mount will still have the same forces on it, but *should not* wear but either be strong enough or simply crack the welds, cause a catastrophic accident, with great big balls of flaming death. But Duncan will be driving when that happens, so

Can I ask why everyone is persisting with bushes on either end of the control arm? Seems to me to be a waste on a pure track car. There are crush tubes inside the bushes and they are greased, so even from factory on a road car doing 100's of 1000's of kms there seems to be no need for even a bearing. Eliminating the bushes reduces the necessary size of the end of the control arm giving you a mountain of extra options for relocation. That was my plan for the nugget anyway, so I'm interested in hearing arguments. Given the simplicity of construction, I was not even going to bother with adjustability, and instead build several different sets with different characteristics to try. Simple construction of the correct inner diameter tube (thick walled) for the ends and some rectangular tube notched to the tube diameter at both ends for the arm. I can't remember the exact measurements, but with the smaller diameter I think you can raise the mounting points on stock chassis mounts by about 25-30 mm and drop the mounting points on the other side (can't remember the name right now) by about 20-25mm. This would allow a car like ours which will be lowered by 40mm or so (hopefully) to keep a square geometry without adding a lot of bump steer and other problems associated with a lowered road car. The back, as has been discussed in another thread, is not so limited as we modified the cradle and dropped the whole thing a good 25mm without changing the geometry at all. Be nice to be able to do this in the front, but that would mean cutting the chassis rails and still not fix the top. Brad, I'm glad to hear that building a new setup from scratch turned out not to be worth it, not because I wanted it to fail, but because I was seriously thinking that this would be such a big improvement that we would have no choice but to do it as well! As much as suspension setup is a science, it's still very much a trial and error black art. You try something and it feels good but times are slower and sometimes you hate it but the times are better. My best times are often when I have no idea what I've done different and thought that the setup and tyres are terrible. But that could just be the driver

What epigram says is dead right about the timing and I don't know of any lpg ecus that do anything about changing timing. There are a couple of options however with an rb series engine. You can tune for lpg only if you run with LPG dedicated and then run the petrol only for startup and engine warming. Or run it as automatic duel fuel so that it runs petrol for startup and warming and cuts over from lpg to petrol at a certain rpm. Engine maps are a cross of Throttle position and rpm, so you can adjust timing accordinglyfor when it will be on LPG and when on petrol. The best option though would be to use the RB knock map and tie in a switch to the knock sensor to have it flip to the knock map. This way you can have 2 timing maps, one for fuel and one for lpg. The only downside is that I don't know of any way to switch it back to the default map without resetting the ecu by turning the car on and off. Chances are there is a way.

A few pics of tank and filler. I went with a small tank which fits between the wheel arches so as not to lose and usable boot space. You can see from the pic that it's not obtrusive. It's a small tank, but suits for the moment. Later on I'll change the fuel tank to a smaller one and pony up a second bottle underneath.

Yep I did Just wasn't interested in arguing how much it costs, how it's not going to work, and how everyone who's never done it before seems to know how to do it the right way On a side note though, for everyone chasing 120 hp per cylinder etc, I have a big question? Why? Not why is everyone chasing big horsepower, that's a given, but why does this high horsepower have to be on lpg. 99% of driving where fuel economy is concerned is going to be done sub 250hp (probably sub 200hp) and any system these days can be easily switched been fuel and lpg and good systems like mine can switch at a given rpm (I cut over to normal fuel at 6000) under normal conditions, so why not keep the big fuel system for the 6000 rpm launches with 30psi of boost, and just run the lpg the other 99% of the time?

Sitting in Adelaide airport lounge with flight about to be called any moment, so if this post get's interrupted, I'll continue later. Procedure is to locate main hoop with base plates or triangles, a pillar bars and the bar crossing the top of the windscreen (I strongly recommend you bend this bar at both ends to put it up to the room and out of the way as much as possible. Tack weld it in a few places, then when you are happy with it, cut the tacks for the main hoop and drop the bar so that you can get to the top seams. Weld everything that will be hard to get to and then put the main hoop back in place and weld it all in place. From here on in, tack everything. Don't weld it all up unless you wont be able to get to it again because of another bar. You will find that there are a lot of places, particularly in the rear where multiple bars meet. Only weld it once everything is in place or you will have welds on top of welds which will weaken it and make it harder to cut the bars. Make sure all your bars fit without bashing them into place and if you are using Chromoly, make sure to tig weld as much as possible as mig makes the bars brittle. As for the front bars, no way around it, it's a pain in the ass. I used a plasma to cut little holes then ran a string line to center it, cutting little bits away as necessary until the string did not foul on anything. Then using the string as a center I cut a hole just about the right size. Lots of trial and error and plates to cover the holse back up. Welding was hard and mostly done with the mig. Hope it helps. mark

I'm here, though not often enough for my liking. Damn work gets in the way. As to welding the A pillar bars to the floor, I ran with 2 plates perpendicular on the floor and sides, like a bit of v channel, but wider and then welded as much as I could with the mig. There's probably a patch about a cm wide which can't be welded on the base if you run the bars right up against the side, but in my case, I ran a thick weld up the bar attaching the bar to the side which more than compensated. With the main hoop, you should be able to weld all the way around. If you can't, move it or bend it in a bit so that you can. With all the other bars, I was able to weld all the way around with the exception of one little spot on the rear strut towers. But here again, it's attached to a plate and the plate is welded all arond and the bar is welded so strongly to the plate that it's not a problem. Rule of thumb is weld as much as humanly possible, but having a spot unweleded is not the end of the world. Before I get harrassed by everyone for saying it, my last cage built by Bond roll bars didn't have the top of the main hoop to rear strut towers welded at the main hoop and it worked fine. I only discovered it after smashing the car and removing the roof. Last bit of advice, from your picture you've got a bar clamp holding the A pillar bar in place. Make sure that the bar clamp is not forcing the bar in place. It should sit naturally in place. If not, bend it a little until it does. It should not be under strain beforehand. Not absolutlely sure of the mechanics, but the cage builder I was working with was adament that it should not be under strain.

But the real question is, are we human or are we dancers?

Well that shouldn't really change anything, we were never listening when you were talking anyway As soon as I get the car finished, I'll spend more time on the road and catch up with you guys in Sydney one the track. It's a billion degrees here and the new house doesn't have air con. The family moved into the warehouse last night so that we could get a night of sleep with the air con on!

Is it push or pull type?

Sorry for the lack of posts int he last while, been a bit busy and the computers have been packed away. Few more picks to show the crazyness brought on by 40 degree heat. A very special thanks to Duncan, Neil and Kel for going beyond the call of duty and helping me get the car together and the crap cleaned out of the garage and into the container. it was a hell of a job in blistering heat and I hope not to repeat it for another 10 years. The trip was eventful as per raceworx usual. Morning went fine but as the temperature rose to 37 degrees in the afternoon the smurf overheated going up a long hill. Merin didn't notice it until it boiled and poped out the resevoir, so we ended up with a dry radiator. I found some farm on the side of the road and borrowed a hose and brush to clean the dust out the radiator fins and fill it up. After that, we were relegated to about 80km/hr with the heat on full blast to stop it from getting too hot, so we took 30 min stints switching between the gtr with aircon and the smurf towing the race car with a cabin temperature of about 45 degrees. In the end we made it in a record 17 hours. Not a lot of fun, but we're here. I don't think there is any permanent damage to the smurf, but I'll check it out to make sure as they are prone to head warping under a decent temperature. Hopefully a radiator flush and aircon regas and we'll be back in business. A white GTST with an SAU sticker drove past us on the tullamarine fwy on the way in, so we've had a bit of a welcome. Once we get settled in I'll finish the car off and bring it back for a few laps. Thinking about taking a bit of time off towards the middle of the year and finishing off the RWB car. Probably take a hard week to get it all done if everything is organised properly.

Very busy day today, but nothing on the nugget. All me, me, me today. Had to get the combined touring/tarmac car ready to go down to Melbourne with me. Best laid plans, and no major disasters and still it got away from us and we didn't get finished. Rear cradle in, and the engine and gearbox are sitting ready to have a car dropped on them, but just couldn't finish up. Hopefully Wednesday and she'll be at least movable.