djr81

Oh he is lurking. Hey Piggaz, what is the valve spring story?

Here is a story. Once upon a time..... There is a bloke in Victoria from Pacific Engine Parts who supplied the piston rings Fred Gibson used for the Group A GTR's. Knows a thing or two he does. If you want a good piston get good rings and built the motor properly. We do good engineering in Australia too, you know. Or atleast did before the Chinese, the mining boom and the wrong headed notion that if it is from overseas it must be better destroyed all our manufacturing industries.

Don't think Mercedes have spent any tokens this year yet? Their upgrades were reliability - in the sense that they allowed them to use more horsepower more often = increased reliability. Renault have done a pretty ordinary job this year with their upgrades. But the point is the way the rules are it would appear that a failure this year locks them in to more failure in the years to come. Which doesn't appear to be reasonable. Mercedes were seemingly open to atleast discussing the point but I fear that if Ferrari close the gap they will get in on the act and do their old tricks of saying screw everyone else and acting in their own short term self interest to the detriment of the sport. Maybe the new bloke has a bit more sense than they have shown previously, although I am not sure about him trying to pin stuff on MB. From Autosport. Marchionne feels the initial rules were "improperly drafted", and resulted in the situation that has now materialised, while the agendas of those previously in power has also played a part. "This sport, the rules and the way they've been constructed are the result of a variety of attempts by people who have either been in leading positions, or near leading positions in particular seasons, to try to protect their competitive positions," he said. "Ferrari is as guilty of that as Mercedes is now. I understand it because we would have done the same thing had we been in that position. "But is it the right thing for the sport? Probably not."

Yeah good but a bit phaaaaarken late. Good good that LeMans is on. May watch a bit of it then.

Thing that surprised me so much was all the drivers bleating about how a reduced engine performance meant reduced tyre temps and performance which mean their lap time sucked. Gives you some vague hope that a small improvement will give RB or McLaren a dsiproportionate gain but that is probably not going to happen. Watching the pre race/post race bollocks on Foxtel Bernie just sounded like a numpty. Atleast he is a numpty that appears to be taking the side of WIlliams/Force it India/Sauber instead of shovelling yet more money towards Ferrari etc so they can sell shit cars to those teams sent broke by the lopsided deals Ferrari have gouged out for themselves. The Ferrari manager (cant remember his name) sounded like he had some serious brain power to chuck about, which made a contrast if nothing else. Oh well there is atleast LeMans on this weekend. Is it on the tellie?

It would appear to have reverted to an engine formula again - bit like the mid to late eighties. Difference being the things are now so hideously expensive that the cost controls and development restrictions required have meant MB advantage is pretty much cast in stone. NFI how they are going to get out of this in the next few years. How do you fix it if there isnt any development worth the name allowed next year? Wait until Renault go home and then quit? Formula is now shit and that is before you get to the dumb restrictions and limitations on engines etc.

Just tried it again then and got the same. So yeah, every time. Work for you?

Bad gateway error on, for example, the formula 1 thread in the motorsport section. Happens on other random threads too.

Flawed because why? It provided a set of rules that lasted some ten years (not just here but overseas) which was pretty long lived for the time. It left us with a legacy of some brilliant cars the likes of which we wont see again. It generated good racing and rewarded innovation. Put it in the context of the Rovers that ran in 1984 and compare them to the BMW's and GTR's running in 1992. The changes in technology are huge and serve to demonstrate that the rules were pretty good. Have a look at the winners of the SATCC from 1985 to 1992. Volvos, BMW's 3 & 6 series, R31's, R32's, Sierras. Then you get to the round and endurance race winners - Jaguars, Commodores, Sierras. That the racing was not so great at the very end when the manufacturers had stopped homologating cars and moved on to other formulas shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Black springs way well be Eibach which are usually pretty sensible. When you are under there try and find some writing on the spring itself. Usually a part number. Also, if possible try and see how much clearance there is between the top of the shock absorber and the underside of the bump stop (You may not be able to as you will probably have dust boots on them). Lastly measure from the centre of the wheel to the wheel arch and let us know. The spring perches if they are the usual type just jack the car up and down and dont adjust the spring compression. My money is on too low a ride height.

The stiffness of the ride is not a function of those shock absorbers - it is down to one of two things: 1. You are running a stiff spring - which begs the question what springs do you have. 2. The car is low and you have run out of travel on the shock absorber or springs. Before you do anything else stick your head under the car and have a look what springs there are. Take some pictures if you cant figure it out.

So much anger. All well and good not worrying about the teams budgets but outside the four big teams they are all struggling and losing money. Dumping yet more cost on them for fuel rigs and transport just makes it harder. Given refuelling makes the racing worse why would you go with it? Not sure they are driving (Outside the Honda drivers) to a fuel number so much as a tyre number. Canada uses heaps of fuel by the way. Alonso's problem was Honda, not the regulations.

How did that go?

Alonso story on newscorp after his blow up on the weekend: Speaking with emotion during the Canadian Grand Prix, the two-time world champion disobeyed team orders to save fuel and said he wanted to race against other drivers first and economise later. “When you are in the middle of a battle, fuel is a low priority and you will find time later on,” Alonso explained after being forced to retire from the race. “After three or four reminders of fuel, I just said let me race and let me have some fun. “We are like a different category. When everyone passes you so easy like that, you look like an amateur driver and that is not good. We are not super competitive now... “We have many things to do in our case, but hopefully this weekend has given us some lessons.” Asked to save fuel, during the race, Alonso retorted on team radio: “I don’t want, I don’t want. I have really big problems now, driving with these and looking like amateurs... So I race and then I concentrate on the fuel.” Better clean all that up then.... Told later that the outburst had been widely interpreted as a demonstration of frustration against the team, Alonso said: “You need to understand I believe in this project — all the program of developing the car is quite positive. “I know it is difficult for the fans, but they need to be patient and they need to believe because something good is coming. “We had to save a lot of fuel at this track and right from the first lap I was told to save fuel, but I was in the middle of a few battles. “We are 35km/h behind Ferrari on the straights, we had to save fuel, we had to save tyres because we were stopping once, and I was fighting with them. “After two or three message I told them to let me fight now and have some fun and then I’ll save fuel at the end of the race when were are alone.” Alonso had to retire for the third race in succession and fourth in six races. On a bad day for McLaren his teammate Jenson button also failed to finish. “It is what it is,” Alonso said. “I know from the outside, they all want to crush us. We are going through a bad streak and we can’t do anything else, but continue working.”

Costs shedloads to build and then transport the refuelling units. Then you start hurting people when drivers drive off with hoses attached. Plus it ruins the racing. Apart from that its great. And dead. Thankfully.

Yeah sorry should have been clearer. Meant an R32 rather than a boat. Anyway thanks for the info. Will chase up at some point.

Looks good. Is there a GTR example? Also can it be done without stitching?

http://www.defi-shop.com/category/products/

Well if the car is however many years old enough to require a new timing belt isn't it a sign it has been looked after rather than it has been clocked?

Are timing belts not done on kms or age - so done because it is x years old?

What options are there for refurbishing tired GTR steering wheels? I see someone has flocked one. Not sure if I like it or not. May just look like a huge furry thing? Also there appeared to have been some half decent attempts at redoing them but I haven't seen anything to this standard locally. http://www.autostation.jp/r32steering/ Unfortunately the webpage wont translate worth a damn. https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.autostation.jp/r32steering/&usg=ALkJrhivhppfPOsIxwhjapaivt5oHKnuWg

So much potential for awesomeness. But to take it seriously before it reaches its inevitable train wreck of a conclusion.... Nah. Carillo rods cause a bloke called Fred someone once used them in a race car which crashed into a wall and won a race. Must be awesome then. Pistons. Well actually who cares. The most important thing about the piston in an rb26 is the rings and gettting a good seal. The rest of it doesnt matter. So best piston is a stock Nissan one. Take the Nissan out and you get oil puke unless you are really picky with your selection and run in. CSB.

http://www.crcindustries.com.au/anti-corrosion-heavy-wax-film

Yes. There never were any R33s nor R34s sold by Nissan in Australia. So no R33 or R34 ADM. They don't exist.

The book any good Bob?