djr81

Slow news week, then

Hmm, maybe I can add my 10 cents worth. Firstly, funny how no one seems to care what outcomes the bloke may want to achieve from his suspension upgrade. Secondly, upgraded sway bars are great except: 1. If you want to go drag racing. 2. When the shocks on the car are stuffed. In which case they are basically a waste of money. I put new sway bars on my tired stock suspension (They turned up first, ok) & basically they didn't make sod all difference to the handling other than exacerbating wheelspin by hiking the inside rear. As for the bloke who reckons driving a car with stuffed suspension is a better learning experience than driving a car with sorted suspension. Well I hate to burst your bubble but driving a car with stuffed suspension only teaches you how to drive a car with stuffed suspension. You end up making feeble, timid inputs (brakes, steering etc) because of too much weight transferance. Now that is fine up to a point, but getting the best out of a sorted car is a very different proposition. Now Cusco sway bars may be good (in that they are, atleast hollow) but they aren't worth a pinch of shit if they don't match the spring rates fitted to the car. The rates for the Cusco gear is very different to the rates for the Whiteline stuff. So as a direct replacement for those running Whiteline spring/shock packages they aren't much chop. Why? Because the front Cusco is softer than the Front Whiteline & the rear harder than the rear Whiteline. So you would need to have fully utilised the adjustment on the Whiteline gear before going anywhere near the Cusco stuff. In anycase I really don't believe that running less front roll stiffness than the Whiteline setup would in any way help a GT-R to corner better. Running yet more rear roll stiffness will simply remove even more load from the inside rear when turning. So the damn thing ends up looking like a WRX. Funny how no one mentions such things as roll centres, cog, ride height etc etc etc... Must go, tired now.

Well a number of work shops will do just that. The reasons are varied, but I for one don't buy any of them

Actually now that I think about you could try to impress her by turning up in a pair of lederhosen. Best thing about that is there is nowhere that is not appropriate for such attire.

Um, Dave. Can you provide any more info on the calipers (maybe in the other brake thread) ie model #'s, piton sizes, stuff like that?

Yeah it is disappointing, isn't it. How about a Kraftwork concert?

Because we are friendly. And because we like to help. And because not much happens in WA.

Don't just hope. Ring them up & ask them.

Well lets think: Tyres, springs, dampers, bushes, suspension geometry, unsprung weight, differential type/setting all have an effect. Further ride height, rake angle, toe settings, camber settings, caster settings, tyre pressures have an effect. So maybe you need to start by having a think about what you want to achieve. Do you want, for instance a nice compliant ride to take your Nanna to church on Sunday or something more tuned to lapping your local circuit? Or something in between? What you would change depends on what you want & also on what type of car you have....

Well I have some good news. You can stop being a wanker. There are new & improved reasons for despising what the HRT/HSVDT mob are doing to the sport. The Holden Racing Team have started this year by being in contravention of the Team's Licensing Agreement. Rumour has it the "agreement" (Apparently not to be called a fine) has cost them of the order of $250,000. Further, Skaife has been thrown off the TEGA & V8 supercar boards & had his two level 1 licenses taken away pending him signing a "deed of agreement." All a bit gutless if you ask me, not that anyone did. I prefer the arrangement that the HVSDT & HST cars be grouped for testing purposes on the Friday of a race weekend. Fining that lot will only slightly reduce the vast amounts of money sloshing about the place. They should have taken it out of the expenditure cap aswell.

Yes they are You can adjust them as many times as you want. Instructions are in the kit. You just need some ring spanners. Whiteline stuff is easily adjustable.

Not sure whether you mean the crap from the sand traps, or the genral dirt etc from the track surrounds. Any track offline will be marked by dirt and marbles, so I am not sure I understand the distinction. Well I was looking through the clubs financial statement for the year the other night (Probabaly need to get out more). Without the income generated by the V8's there would be precious little in the kitty for circuit upgrades. At Wanneroo the crowd for the V8's totals well over 100,000 for the three days (50,000+ for Sunday). By contrast the next best attended even for the year will probably be the Drift Australia round held last month. They got 5000 people (if that) on the Sunday. Ticket prices for the V8's average much more than any other event (nudging $100 for Sunday with a pit pass compared to, I think $20 for the DA round). That is before you factor in the corporate gravey train. So really the V8's, whilst they are expensive to run & have ongoing requirements in terms of circuit upgrades they do basically allow the circuits to maintain their venues at a good standard.

Personally I like my women much the same. Oh, sorry, off topic. Dunno who Ford expects to get near the HCT this year. The Stone Brothers are still in struggle town, the 888 cars have lost the edge they had last year, the DJR cars are on the improve, but. FPV didn't exactly set the world on fire (How much are they paying the bloodnut compared to Frosty?). Best not to talk about the Jones boys at the moment. I imagine Kim Jones will be going completely ballistic - him & his brother don't mind a stoush. The Team Kiwi boys did well (particularly the Rat). But over all it is looking like a bad year for the blue oval brigade. I have a question. Who are all the black shirted bogans going to support until Perkins & Price get their shit together?

Yeah, sorry. I got sunburnt which always makes me a bit, um postal. The point is though, the few facilities we do have over here are due to the hard work & dedication of alot of good people. It is all very well to criticise the place on the grounds of it not being, I dunno, Spa Francochamps or something but it is all we have. People in Sydney whinge & bitch about not having enough circuits close by. For me Wanneroo is three hours drive from home. The next nearest circuit is in Adelaide. So best not to start me on people who can't be bothered driving half an hour or whatever...

The coverage would have been boring because the racing was boring. You often get that in tightly controlled parity based racing. On the other hand the historics provided some excellent, tight racing & even the saloon car support had their moments. The FFords was well worth watching. Don't know what channel 7 telecast of the support races, however. Do you say that just to get people fired up? If so it worked. "The track is very poor." The WASCC has spent a great deal (into the millions) of money resurfacing the track, improving the garages, improving the safety, improving such arcane things as the power supply & access to the circuit. Stuff that people don't see on the tellie & don't care about. It just so happens to make the circuit useable when 50,000 people turn up. The comparison between the current facilities & those available even just ten years ago is night & day. "It is surrounded by dirt & sand." Mate the whole of the area that Perth & all the other towns/cities in the coast of SW WA is comprised, unsuprisingly of, wait for it, SAND. Given the massive dry spell we have had in the last, oh 5 years, the wonder is that there is any grass at all let alone the brown crunchy stuff much in evidence. They didn't cart the sand in, the whole of the bloody region is made up of sand. "is atleast 30sec too short" Like the majority of circuits in Australia (Atleast those that have been around for more than 5 minutes) the cricuit is a mile & a half in length. Which was a stipulated minimum when it was constructed. "has no pit garages" The team garages are behind the pits. It means the punter who attends (As opposed to watching on tellie) can wander past the garages & see the cars being prepped for the following races. Unlike other circuits where you can't get within 100 metres of them because they are always in the pit garages... "the entry/exit roads are short and in the complete wrong sections of the track" What does that mean? There are road through the infield of the circuit & none on the outer. If you mean the pit entry/exit there is no other place for them. Are you suggesting they go over the blind crest in the main straight. That should provide some interesting viewing... "The track needs some serious money pumped into it" It has had some serious money pumped into it. The WASCC do stirling work year in, year out. It must be easy to criticise based on a hour or two of watching the tellie. The truth is that Wanneroo has provided some truly excellent touring car racing year in, year out. Given that it is the only track we have in WA that is sanctioned for car racing (& the only permanent hill climb circuit) it is bloody churlish to sit & criticise it because Grant Denyer (or whomever) reckons it is too sandy. I for one am grateful it is there as without it, well it doesn't bear thinking about...

Floyd Landis is a drugs cheat. Are we off topic yet?

The esiest was of getting rid of hydrocarbon stains (even rubber) is to give the thing a quick squirt with some WD40 & then wipe it off. After that hose it to get rid of the last of the WD40.

Hey savman, who is the local vendor for CSC? My google search turned up a bike team & a reference to LS1 forums....

Turn 7. Having just got back from the days outing I can confirm it was one of the most boring touring car races I have ever attended. There was practically no overtaking & very little racing to speak of. Theorganisation was up to the usual WASCC standard, ie excellent & Gary West lapping the circuit in record time was something to see. Just a pity we couldn't see the speed he was carrying throught turn 4 from where we were.

Not sure but they offer a 355 rotor as well. Damned if I could get that size rotor to fit anywhere near my 17" rims.

Well from my last few enquires: Stoptech 332*32 hatted rotors + ST40 calipers + braided lines + pads = $2280US approx $2850 Aust. Delivered. Note this is ex US, I haven't got a price from the local distributor as they need to email the States. Alcon 335*28 hatted rotor + 4 pot caliper + lines + pads+fluid + $3808+gst+freight ex PWR direct. AP Racing CP5200 + 330x32 hatted rotors + lines & pads = $3200 + freight. EX Racebrakes (pick one) The endless stuff (6 pot on R33 hatted 324 rotors) is listed as Y436,590 plus freight. Ex Greenline. So they appear to be reasonably priced to me. Oh, and Roy, I have delicate little feet. Like a ballerina.

You reckon Renault would put up with two years of crap results? I can see Piquet jnr replacing Kovalainen is he doesn't perform during the year.

I think it is because, despite the number of different brands of caliper on offer, none of them are particularly suited to running with 17" rims. Most of the 4 piston calipers are too small in piston area & the 6 pistons are mostly designed to run with 355mm or larger rotors.

Has anyone tried the Stoptech ST-40 caliper? From their blurb it is a 4 piston, 2 piece caliper. Piston sizes are 38 & 44mm (although other sizes are available) which is the same as the Brembo. Importantly the pad is larger at 131mm long. Apparently it is a FMSI D372 pad if that means anything to anyone. You can get a good range of compounds. Caliper weight is 3.6kg which is pretty close the the Brembo weight. The only thing that I cant see is the mounting holes/arrangement but they offer kits with the requisite brackets. Rotor ranges are 28 to 35 mm & 328-380 diameter. Can be bought with hatted rotors. Australian vendor is C-Red. It sounds like what I have been looking for, but has anyone tried them?

I was thinking of doing the opposite.