djr81

I would have liked DJR to have campaigned the 4WD Sierra Sapphire.

Yep, I just rang Repco (listed as the vendor on the Noltec website). Got the usual answer: Nup, never heard of them.

There are a couple of points universal to most workshops: They almost always slag their competitors. They are universally sick & tired of tyre kickers & wannabees wasting there time with no hope of affording what they are enquiring after (Not you, just in general). Best bet is to find a good workshop & develop a relationship with them. At the end of the day you should be paying them for their expertise, not to learn on the job at $70+ an hour.

The missing bolt will be the same as on the other side of the car. From memory (depending on which of the two it is) it is a 12mm dia machine bolt with an additional lock nut. Pull the good one from the other side & go and find the same at your local fastener store. As long as there isn't any major damage you will be fine, but I would replace both bolts in the upper, outer position as a minimum as the remaining one will have been well stressed.

I thought you need to include a "turbo equivalency factor" or similar. eg a 2L motor with a turbo got its capacity multiplied by 1.4 (? - from memory). So it ended up as a larger motor.

Bout half the retail for the Whiteline kit $166. I was going to mod them (bore them out) to fit the whiteline inner pins, otherwise, yeah you don't get adjustment.

Some random points: The VN Group A car was not homologated with 500 cars. Holden couldn't sell the things & so ended upmaking only 300. The remainder of the good bits such as the motors went into HSV VP's. The Sierra in its non evolution form ran in the ATCC in 1987. By the time Bathurst rolled around the 500 specials had been built & homologated. They had larger turbos & an extra rear wing, amongst other things. All of the cars had to have a base of 5000 & then the manufacturers could offer an evolution of 500 for homologation. Best example if the VK Commode which ran in with a 308 motor in 1985 until the blue SS was built in sufficient numbers for 86. So 5000 GT-R's had to be built before the 500 (56) - Nismo versions were built. That Nissan didn't make particularly good use of this was odd, to say the least. Maserati also homologated their Biturbo model, or tried to. Mitsubishi did the Starion, Toyota the Supra. Rover the 3500, Jaguar the XJS, Volvo the 240T, Ford the Mustang. You could homologate parts seperate to the cars, eg the 6 speed Hollinger gearbox used in the GT-R's, or the 9" diff DJR used. DJR's success did not rest solely with the Stone Brothers. Neil Lowe had them winning ATCC's before Ross & Jimmy came along. Also at the other end (After they left) the Dunlop tyre thing made life really hard for the EL's - then came the AU. There was a complicated formula where engine capacity meant you had to run at a certain minimum weight & also then were allowed to run certain size tyres (2" larger in rim size than the homologated car, so GT-R's got to run 18" rims, Sierra 17's) The attached photo is of the "world class" ATCC field in Tassie in 92. All 12 of them.

Mmm, think I will get myself some Noltec bushes & bore out the outer one to fit the camber adjustment pin. They look to be better than the whiteline kit because they have collars on them...

No more full of sh!t than the rest of us. I suppose the indicator of how the Gt-r's would have gone in another team is to see how Bob Forbes got on with that car & then with the VP Commode in the years that followed (Morphing into WGR in later years) I don't hink that given the way DJR ran their Sierra's anyone could say it was all the Gibson teams brilliance. Look at how they got on before & after the GT-R... For me the closest thing to a fully blown Group A special is perhaps the M3. It owed practically nothing to the povvo 3 series by the end.

Actually I think it was something like eight of em... The car was for Moffat & Harvey, bought from Brock after the both of them left his employ. Problem was, because Moffat didn't enter the WTCC he didn't score any prize money. Thinking about it if I had the money I would have something like a second evolution of the 2.3 -16V 190E Merc. Didn't go, but it made the Walkinshaw VL Commode look sedate. Here is the short version of the factory Jaguar XJS in Australia. Entered for the 1985 Bathurst 1000. Finished 1st & 3rd. Retired. The results speak for themselves.

For my 10 cents worth, a mu figure in the in 0.3 to 0.4 range sucks dog's balls. I would be looking for something with mu of atleast 0.45.

Fair to say it was the ultimate Group A car because it was pretty much the last of them to be homologated. Mind you an M3 in its last iteration was a pretty awesome thing. Just a completely different philosophy. Not sure why you are bagging the Sierra's so much, Roy. They were for a few years the shit in the group A racing. That they lasted as long as they did as a competitive proposition should tell you something. Remember that Sierra raced against the DR30's, the R31's & also the R32's. From 87 to 92 is a long, long time in touring cars. At the end of the day, Group A was a technically interesting formula. Unfortunately like most formulas that aren't control specs they are far too expensive & don't produce close racing. I want a Group A car other than my GT-R. Say a Volvo 240T? Holden did try to win internationally. Tried, but failed. Have a look at the current issue of Australian Muscle Car. Grice kicked some arse for a while there.

You can adjust them how ever many times your like. Procedure is simple. Jack the car up. Loosen off the lock nut. Loosen off the bolt at the rear (RHS), or the front (LHS). Turn the other bolt to adjust camber. If/when it tightens up you have to back the other bolt off again. Fun for the whole family.

At Oran Park. Alex Davison did a 1.08.3360 against Jason Brights 1.08.8608. They came close at Hidden Valley Alex Davision 1.09.5227 against Skaife's 1.09.2209. Hard to say at some other places becasue the Porkers didn't front at Wanneroo or Queensland. Bathurst 92: DJR 2.12.898 Gibsons GT-R 2.14.546 The other two GT-R's were out in 16's. Truth be told the Sierra's were a little thin that year, with Longhurst having gone back to BMW, Brock to Holden, Glenn Seton running a Falcon (+ 1 Sierra) & only really Colin Bond with a top line car. Allan Moffats effort wasn't what it was previously.

Some random points & corrections: The 1990 race was the first Bathurst the GT-R entered. In terms of its suspension development and tune it was horrible. The 1988 race that the DJR Sierra attended was in England, Silverstone from memory. DJ qualified on pole & led the race for a short while until mechanical failure intervened (A waterpump failure). I don't believe he lapped anyone. It was not an all Sierra race, but a "British Tourist Trophy" race. "Sierra's didn't pull away from the Nissan up Mountain straight." There is a memorable scene of Jim Richard's giving one of Allan Moffat's Sierra drivers an up yours (old school style with the thumb) as he blew his doors off up Mountain straight. The GT-R's NEVER made their homologation weight. It is all well and good to complain about the restriction CAMS placed on them, but there were also weight, rev & other restrictions placed on the Sierras, M3's & Commodores in the last years of the Group A category. Why? Well anyone who sat through the 91 season would understand why it had to be done. The other important point was that in 1992 Group A was a dying category. All the major car companies had stopped developing and homologating cars for it - which meant the GT-R was not going to be bettered. However, anyone who ever saw the 4WD Cosworth Escorts, the 2 litre BMW 3 series or the AWD Audi A4 2 litre cars would have cause to doubt the engineering prowess of the rival car companies. The GT-R got called Godzilla because that is what Phil Scott from Wheels magazine called it - the name stuck. Gibson motorsport installed a switch in the car that meant the GT-R's launched in 2WD mode & run like that for a couple of seconds - till the 4WD was engaged again. So technically the didn't have a 4WD advantage off the line. Holden didn't "work out all the had to do was keep up with em till the poor old turbo's exploded." They (Holden) went as fast as they could all day. They only narrowly beat the second DJR Sierra & Larry Perkins privateer VL. Yes a GT-R is now pretty old technology. Hardly surprising given the first of them are rapidly closing in on 20 years old. A good Porsche will kick a GT-R's backside around most circuits. Which you would expect given how much the damn things cost & the fact that they are quicker than the V8 supercars at some circuits.

Gary, You are more than welcome to the photos. If I use the spare pair of offset crush tubes & machine myself up a new inner bush to match the profile of the existing outer crush tube (on the inner arm), will that replicate what you have in your kit?

HRT used to front at Bathurst (Well, Tom Walkinshaw mostly) and basically protest the living crap out of every competitive car there was. Mostly this involved lodging protests against the vital bits of the opposition cars - in the case of the Sierras the turbos were a favourite because they were so damn critical to the set up & on a knife edge to get maximum horsepower. It used to put the teams to alot of work & disrupt their preparation - which was mostly the point of the protests. I can only recall one instance of a protest on thsose grounds ever being upheld & even then I think it was over turned on appeal (Colin Bond's Sierra, if memory serves) The ironic thing was that the HRT cars were rubbed out when the Ford teams got sick of the carry on & lodged counter protests for illegal steering racks in the VL's. Just another reason to hate those from the dark side. Oh, yeah & according to Allan Moffat his RX-7 actually came second in 84. So no 1 - 2 for the HDT.

Bit hard to tell, but is it a bar & plate?

Why only $100 Baron? Make it really worthwhile.

If you have ever seen the telemetry out of the DJR Sierra from 92 - the amount of boost going through those motors was bloody scary.

These are the bushes that came off my car. Both of the rear outers failed. My best guess is that they are insufficiently stiff & when you load the suspension up the longitudinal load (shear as seen at the bush) is too much for them. The middle photo of the three shows how the bush should look. Question: What hardness are the current bushes?

Hmm, a few points, questions. The OUTER bushes failed on my GT-R - three in total (of 4 possible). The inner ones are fine. The kit shown is different to those I have previously had. Most noticeably the red (nolathane?) inner bushes in place of the normal yellow stuff Whiteline supply. Lastly, Gary can you send me a PM about the development kit. I assume it is to be the same as the one I paid for back in about June/July.

I understand the stress extra caster puts on this upper joint - which is why I got rid of it. The bush still failed.

Hamilton has big raps on him, but how do you rate Nelson's young-un?

My R32 has a KCA 336 kit fitted to the front suspension. For the SECOND time the rear of the two yellow bushes on the upper, outer pivot point has failed (on both sides this time). On this occasion it was after only about 600kms of travel plus maybe 16 or so laps of the local track. During that time I don't believe the suspension hit the bump stops once & I certainly stayed well away from the kerbs at the track. I have wound out most of the caster, leaving it near stock. Has any one else encountered the same issue? Can anyone offer a solution other than 1. Buying a whole new kit (Whiteline won't sell components) 2. Machining up a bush from harder materials. As an aside I would recommend to anyone who has the kit fitted that they check the state of their bushes....