PN-Mad

Tried to look for that last night but couldn't see it in my vid of you.

Just have a look at the rest of the vids on youtubes. Might find some action. Unfortunately last two trips have had really bright overexposed gopro footage. So I haven't uploaded it. Will have to sort it out before smsp.

V8 powahhhh!

Enjoying the Micra build as well, mate! From graveyard to awesome little rocket!

Council clear up special that carpet. Washed and rinsed it up. Much nicer to lay on that than the cold concrete floor!

Freshened up, ready to install

So, basically caught up to speed now. This is what I've been doing over the last couple of months. After returning from the Wakefield day, I put the car up on stands to go over it and found that there was streaks of black goopy shite down the underside of the car. Quickly found the source as the gearbox bellhousing. I know things were getting a little nasty in there, so it wasn't a surprise really. Decided to take out the gearbox... the morning before PM shift at work A little damp.... So I took the box off to Award Gearbox and Diff for the once over. Got a call back a few days later that reverse was rooted (lol), a couple of synchros were on the way out, and some of the bearings were worn/collapsed. Obviously the front seal was pissing oil out too. Apparently its a bit of a knock on effect, when the spigot bearing wears, allows play on the input shaft bearing, which in turn flogs out the front seal. I had a throw out bearing sitting round, so got them to press the new one of those on while they were at it. No Point not doing it while the box was out. So, got the gearbox back, and installed a new spigot bush (soak them in motor oil for a while before hand, they are porous ), getting the old one out was a heap of fun....lol. Took the clutch off, and cleaned it all up, and chucked the box back it. Bit of a challenge by myself, but after dropping the front subframe a little bit, it slid on in. Filled it with ATF (as per awards recommendation). Hopefully it lasts a few more trackdays of punishment

Forgot to mention, before the last trackday, I switched over to Brembo calipers on the front, and went to a BM57 master cylinder. Still running A1RM pads, but think I might upgrade to something gold coloured for the future...

Top work gents. Good on you for putting the time effort and, let's face it, money, in to come out on top in round two!

I think it's a bit of a grey area. It is making changes to the structural rigidity of the car. Have to look up the exact mod laws I think and see what it says. Defiantly the 2 seater thing. The most important thing is to make sure your head can't hit the bloody thing when you crash. That's why CAMS have introduced all these new padding regs. You really don't want to hit it without a helmet on...

True. Maybe they smashed them all in the barrier replacement time, or maybe they just fell asleep.

Well, there are a few things to know. Now don't take this as gospel, as it just things I've picked up over time. First thing is first, it's going to depend on the officer on the day, and how they are feeling. As much as it shouldn't, it will. Two. It's illegal. No two ways about it. Unless engineered and emmisions tested. Three, I believe it is very difficult for an interstate car to be defected. As it would have to be cleared in the stage that has issued the rego. Four, I think you have 6 months to officially register and transfer your licence if you have moved state. Five, cage is illegal, and dangerous in certain circumstances. Make sure your head cannot come in contact with it in an accident or remove it. Most of it comes down to not doing anything stupid, and not getting yourself into the wrong place at the wrong time. Good luck

Too much work going on there boys. Better break for a cuppa. Don't worry, nobody is watching anymore....

What meet was that? I was following a big group of supras, and a few old and ends down the commenara pky home last night. Spotted you again, across the road

Nismo 370z? Aren't they the ones Cam got?

29/5/2014 The 180 has seen some upgrades too. I got the Street rubber switched over to the Nismo LMGT2 rims. I love them. I couldn't care less about flush and stance and that shit, I love them cause they fit the car so well!! They are 17x8 +35, 17x9 +38, made 1996. After some discussion with another member at a track day, I decided to drop the car off to Road2Race Chassis tuning up at Gosford. I got a call back a little while later with a plan of attack. Old bushes were replaced with nice new stiff ones in the front LCAs, the steering rack bushes were disintegrating so they got uprated items. The swaybar link ends were all serviced, and washers/hardware renewed and assembled correctly... The car was the aligned with purely the track in mind -3.5 degrees camber on the front The car was Corner weighted for my weight- with a 1/2 tank of fuel, it came in at 1197kgs. I also got a hold of some Michelin S8D Slicks to give a go at the track (they can be seen above). I put them on the Gram Lights, as they are 24/64r17 all round. Then it was time for the track. I was determined to get into the 60s at Wakefield so I booked in for a Trackschool trackday on the 28th. My previous 3 or 4 trackdays at Wakefield hadn't seen me improve from a 1:10. Had a ball, learnt heaps from having Boz ride along for a couple of sessions. Even though the timing equipment wasn't working great, it popped into life for the last session of the day. And I got my goal - a 1:07.6. Pretty bloody stoked with that. I think the Car has the ability to get into the 6 second range how it is now, with better temps, and me doing a perfect lap to my skill level. Couldn't believe I smashed my PB by that much. Using my optimum sector times, it has a 1:06 in it. Anyway, here is a Pic of the car down there, thanks to Daleo

And here is session two, with Dave going off the outside of T1, and holding it (to give you an idea, its at about 160km/h), me having issues coming out of T2 after overtaking Fatz down the straight into T1. I have one more session to add, with a kamikaze BMW M5, and a Commodore driver that couldn't believe that he was getting overtaken by one of those little turbo cars In the mean time, the Stagea has turned into a true family car, with the birth of our first Child! He was born on Remembrance day, 11th November, and is doing well. Loves trips in the Stagea already. Here is the last session - featuring some pork chop in a BMW M5 that wouldn't know a racing line if it bit him on the asshole. Almost managed to drive it into the grass around T1. Also - the drivers brief was clear, if a car drives up the inside of you on the main straight (on the left) you roll off and let them pass. I guess he didn't like the fact that some late 80s Datsun was faster than his $250k dollar sports sedan. One thing, I'm impressed with the stability control in them!

14/12/2013 The track has been good to me lately, as I have got two track days, both at SMSP (Eastern Creek renamed). The First day was the SAU NSW Trackday, which was held on the "South" circuit. Its a tight technical little course, that doesn't really let powerful rwd cars wind up too much. It is part of the extension of the circuit, and the previous weekend they held the WTAC Drift comp on it. That meant shitloads of rubber down on the track leading to lots of rubber pick up issues. Anyway, I had a great time with mates out on the circuit, harassing the GTRs and Evos. Fastest time on the day was a 1:07.6, which was the second fastest rwd. Next up I did a Twilight trackday, with the Formula Company, on the GP circuit - the one most of you would be used for WTAC. There was a few of us from SAU there, 2 R33 GTRs, a R34 GT-T and a turbo'd BRZ who was a mates mate. I was pretty nervous about it tbh, because Turn one is a pretty daunting prospect. Anyway, on the track there was a big mix of cars, 911 gt3s, All kinds of V8 Commodores, Some guys from BYP were there with Turbo'd honda Civics, S2000s, BMW M5s, R35 GTR etc. For the money, it was a fantastic arvo/night. it really is a low cost way to get on the main track, and the track itself is just so much different to playing around on the tight twisty stuff like Wakefield and the south circuit. I really enjoyed it, there were a few hairy moments, but I was very satisfied with my driving and how the car performed. The third session I chucked a timer in the car, and pulled a 1:52.8, which I know doesn't sound like much with the WTAC cars, but for me it was pretty magic- defiantly moving. Top Speed on the GPS down the straight was 220km/h So here is my fastest lap:

I hear this thing went fasts the other day...?

FREE ENTRY

Anyone notice it was a Rex that got wound? Most unlikely to be an import. I wonder if their BS excuses that "it got done in japan, not under my control" make it hard for the prosecutors? Wasn't there someone trying the validity of de-reg certs in the courts?

Now quite a few things have been going on with the 180sex too. I had terrible understeer issues at wakefield the last time I went out, so I set about improving this, and adding in some extra bits, and improving reliability. On the track, I had a turn where the power cut out, and I got swamped coming out. The motor cut out all together, and then re-started. When I got back to the pits, we had a look in the bay and saw that part of the Loom travelling down the passenger side of the car had got rather toasty. After the track day, I re-wrapped the loom, and then wrapped it up in protective heat tape. Should be fine now. I bought a second hand Greddy Profec B Spec II boost controller. I wanted some adjust-ability to the power levels so I could learn to drive it better on the track. I wired/plumbed this in before we went on holidays and booked a Dyno date with Jez to get it setup. I hate electronics, but honestly it wasn't that hard, just crawling round under the bloody dash was a right PITA! So, back from holidays, and off to Jez. Since it was running a boost Tee, and I never touched it, I had no idea what gate pressure was. Turns out its 10psi... hahahah. Anyway, a morning on the dyno saw the unit set up, and the mapping reconfigured to run in the low end of the map too. So now I have 3 power levels - 230kw @10psi, 270kw@16psi, and 289kw@18psi. So good result. We tried to push a little more boost, but have pretty much reached the limit of a track tune 98 oct fuel. If I want more, then e85 is the way forward. Doesn't bother me too much, as it has plenty of power. I got home, and the rear end of the car was bugging me. There has been a knock somewhere in there for a while, and I just wanted to get everything checked over. So I dropped the rear subframe out the next day. Checking over the bushes, everything was fine, unis and shafts fine. So I popped the diff out and got Award Gearbox and Diff at Seven Hills to check it out. This gave me time to degrease and clean up the subframe. It was annoying me how dirty it was, so I pressure washed it clean! Turns out the Diff was in great condition, so they sealed it back up, and gave it back. Good insurance to know. Didn't get a picture of this unfortunately. Reinstalled the subframe, bled the brakes, and while the diff is still noisy (this is normal for the type of diff), whatever clonk was there before was gone ! Now, with the 4 point cage, the rear of the car was quite stiff, but the front was not as rigid as I'd hoped. This manifested itself in the front end being a bit hard to handle on the track. So some Stiff was in order! I couldn't fit the Tomei 3 way strut tower brace because it fouled the turbo, so I went looking for a CA18 unit - Found and bought a Cusco Steel unit on the eGhey. Fits up good, should do the job well. Then I got recommended the Nismo power brace, which is basically the equilviant of a strut brace for the power part of the suspension. This ties the quite flexible front arms together and boxes them. Thought it would be a good addition, and who can resist some Nismo part whoring! So I'm installing that today This came from RHDJapan... slower than expected, but I got a Nismo Sticker that's going on the M35 Last, I got some cheap Bridgestone RE55S semis to try out instead of the R888s on the front. They were quite hard, but still had some life left in them. Mounted them up on the track wheels, and put them on the rear of the 180 to ***ahem*** clean the up a little. After the surface layer was taken off I removed them, and treated them with Grip tyre softener. Pretty awesome stuff. Stinks to high heaven, but works well. They sucked up the mixture, and feel much better. They are now curing before the track day which is late October. Also ordered a new Radiator hose, as mine had cracked internally and was slowly leaking, and some adjustable upper rear camber arms, hopefully to take some of the neg camber out of the rear for a bigger contact patch.

Joely snapped this at Texi. Many skiiiidddsss were had. This one was 3rd gear Oh, yeah, and I spun a bearing at Texi... on the AC compressor Good enough excuse to rip all the AC shit outta the car Here is another Wakefield Track day- This time with new rear semis, and some rooted R888 fronts. Chronic understeer was had. Still can't steer... Still did a 1:10

So Monday the public holiday SAU NSW is holding on of their Texikhana days. I've been volunteering at them for a while now, but now its time to compete! I have been doing a few little things to the 180sexytimes to get it ready. After the wakefield track day, I noticed that my oil was toast. The SR20det doesn't have any oil cooling. Not even one of those stock coolant to oil transfers. While the motor has a Greddy winged sump pan to hold some more oil, it was clear that it had gotten way hot and was toast; all within 400kms! So I went about installing the oil cooler! It was a bit of a pain to get to the block attachment, having to remove the rad, fan, and alternator, but nothing overly difficult. I installed one of these GKTech things instead of the typical Greddy plate, because the lines are much easier to route. I got it brand new in that kit I bought a while ago. http://www.gktech.co...wich-plate.html Put the core in the front drivers side guard. I later added some stainless Mesh to the rear side to protect it from rocks slung from the wheel, and covered all the rubby parts of the braided line with plastic conduit stuff. The kit came with a remote oil filter mount, which I placed on the Strut tower. Now, what good is it if you don't know what the temps are doing??? So I bought a oil temp gauge! Its a shadow something or other, a stepper gauge with sensors and looms for $99 from Just Jap. Pretty easy to install, even I managed it, being hopeless at electronics! It has all the effective stuff, like peak recall, adjustable dimming, and some other features I won't ever use. I was easy to wire in partially because I just ripped out the stereo, and the cables on the back of that were still labelled! Winnah! I didn't want to mount it on the dash, don't know why, but anyway. Next up for some treatment was the 4 point cage. It was always in bare metal, which made it look a little untidy and scruffy. So I hit it with some Matte Black. Turned out really good IMO, It was a pain to mask - I'm not the smallest bloke, and crawling round trying to get paper behind things was a right PITA. I gave up, and took the seat out so I didn't need to spend 2 weeks going to physio. Now for Texi, unfortunately because it is close to residential areas, we cannot GAAAAATTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEE so I needed the plumb back. Thankfully the old owner was clearing out the garage and found it. So I installed it with some new bolts. by PNM35, on Flickr Lastly, as I suspected the tune was off since cleaning up the AFM, and wanted to check that the coolant dramas had been fixed, I called up my trusty tuna - DVS Jez. He was flat out, but being the awesome bloke he is, we sorted out a morning to run it up and check it. Good thing we did. Turns out idle was 11.2AFR.... lol. It was fouling plugs!So Jez sorted out the low load stuff, and then we ran it up to temp. We tried and tried to get it hot, but it ended up heating the intercooler before we could make it bubble. That means headgasket is fine! YAY! We ran it up with the plumb back- these are the results. Nothing changed - same boost / tune, and I used the same wheels and tyres. For some reason, it comes on slightly earlier, but then doesn't like producing as much power up top. Still enough power do do a skid at texi After getting paid out by Jez and Jetwreck was to paint the plenum black. the chrome china finish was starting to corrode, so I dremmeled the corroded stuff off, gave it a bit of primer, and then the same matte black. I also did the A-pillars and tops of the doors. Had to make my own throttle body gasket, and took the opportunity to give everything a thorough de-greasing and clean. I also took the time to re-route the turbo oil and water lines away from hot stuff, and re-insulate some of the close lines. One piece really needs a 45 degree bend fitting, but it can wait. Finally, I installed some GKTech locking subframe collars. The pineapple thingos in there looked a bit suspect, so I thought I might just get a set of these in there. Worked well - easy to install, and tightened up the rear end nicely. http://www.gktech.co...in-collars.html Hopefully I'll be able to update Tuesday with some successful skid pics/stories. Should be fun times.

So the new radiator neck is on, and its night a day difference for the cooling system. It pressurises nicely (not gas) and actually stays cooler- sif it had a overheating prob anyway, but now hot at idle it sits at 68-69 degrees. Hoping that was the issue and its not the gasket, but we'll find out.AND it draws back in!!!!! With much thanks to Pezhead, I now have my GoPro vids and Data overlay. We couldn't match up every many things, as the sessions were interupted with the roll and that clutch, but we match two. Just so happens the two are the two "offs" I had, so you can all see how much of a hack driver I am! I'm not sure what happened in the second video, but in transferring it seems to have moved the Beacon of the start finish line to the 3 sector marker, but data is there anyway (there is a bit of difference swapping between programs for some reason). Looking back on the data, on my 1:11 laps I lost about 3 seconds through T2. So If I can get that right and put all the sectors together it's good for a 1.08 which is pleasing. Example.... Comparing best laps (overall time- sector 1 split, sect 2, sect 3) Lap5(best) 01:10.453 00:22.064 00:25.399 00:22.990 (+00.490) Lap3 01:11.589 (+00:00.278) 00:26.151 (+00.975) 00:24.545 00:20.893 Anyway- Enjoy. (These are pretty shitty vids. Only putting it up for a lol. My driving is terrible; first ever trackday. Foward to 6:40 for ploughing lolz.)