R33 Gts+T Build

[zoidbergmerc]

Hey Guys,

I thought I'd post in there about my R33 Skyline build.

I've always wanted to race cars, ever since an early age. But I was never allowed to, always told it was too expensive and had to race bikes instead, offroad, never on the tarmac. Which was a mildly successful career, ending when I went to uni.

Driving has always been a lot more fun for me, rallying the farm ute around the paddoks and through fire trails from an early age. Later buying a 98 Subaru WRX for a daily driver which was fun too, taking it for a spirited drive most weekend, usually involving a lot of gravel roads too.

After taking my WRX on the track I thought to my self, I need more of this in my life. The after finishing the track day, looking at my destroyed tyres, disintegrated brake pads and the need for an oil change both before and after the track day; I knew it was going to be just as expensive as my father told me it would me.

Two track days later I decided the WRX's track career was over, it would be retired to daily driving duties only. I needed something I could dedicate to the track. I had a spare $10k just lying around that I'd saved up for a rainy day so that was my budget.

I was thinking my car needed to be RWD, two door and have a modicum of sporting pedigree. After lurking around carsales, my105, boostcruising, nissan silvia and all the other usual suspects I found a large amount of worthy cars, Silvias, Sprinters, Surpas, Skylines, RX-7s, MX-5s all those guys. Until one day I found it, the car I wanted; 1996 Nissan Skyline R33 GTS-t for $3,500. How bad can it be I thought to my self... I got some photos off the guy selling it and it all looked pretty good, bit of body damage but pffft, I don't care about that! Plus it's a skyline! I've always loved those Hotplate taillights and they were always my favourite in Gran Turismo Thats right, I bought a car just because I liked it in a video game! I've never even driven one IRL before!

Photo of the car from the seller

Unfortunately the car was in Sydney and I was in Hobart, how the hell am I supposed to get it here! Fly over, drive back? That was going to be mightly expensive and because I'd just started a new job I didn't have any leave saved up. A bit a research later I found a mob that'd ship it from Sydney to Hobart for $800. Bam! Needless to say the seller was a little skeptical, I mean wouldn't you, some guy from Tassie wants to buy your car unsighted. hmmmmmm. A couple of phone calls later and it was all sorted and the car was on it's way down.

1 week later it arrived. One dirty, unloved, poorly maintained, badly modified skyline. Awesome Mods already on the car included: Stupid unfathomable headunit, PowerFC with hand controller, 3" Exhaust, Front mount intercooler, Greddy Boost Controller, 17" mags, Strut brace.

Car in my drive way. Woot!

Picking up the car from the wharf I think the taxi driver that dropped me off was more excited than I was. He was a very funny man, turns out he's a big fan of imports and has a soarer. Hopping in the car I was over whelmed by a very powerful smell, it was a mix of curry, cigarettes and the 10,000 air fresheners the previous owner had deployed, my god.

Walking over to the car I had a sinking feeling, blue GT badge... 4 stud hubs... oh no, it's a NA skyline that's been turboed. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. How did I not notice this before!

Firing the car up I instantly knew something was wrong, not being overly mechanically minded I suspected a bearing and I'd be correct after taking it to my mechanic who was very confused but quite happy with my purchase. I'd been talking to him before buying the car about getting into drifting and time attack.

The original plan was to just track the car the way I got it but there was no way this car could do anything like that. Old mate previous owner hadn't even connected water lines to the turbo when he installed it. Turbo was stuffed, Mains bearings were stuffed, suspension was so clapped out you almost lost control changing lanes. Sigh... This is going to be expensive...

It was bullet biting time, do I just slowly fix it up and track it or do I get it all done properly? What do I want from this car? I knew that if I built it my self I'd just f**k it up like I did with my old VL commo. f**k biting the bullet, I'm going to swallow it whole! Go all the way, no turning back.

The shopping list.

Engine

Nissan N1 Oil & water Pumps

Nitto Crank collar to suit N1 oil pump

New Low temp Thermostat

Nitto 1.2mm head gasket

ACL Race bearings (Mains and Big end)

Nitto Forged Pistons

Nitto forged H-beam rods

ARP Head studs

ARP Main Studs

Machine Head & Block

Linish crank

Bore and Hone

Nismo 740cc injectors

Tomei Poncams

Plazmaman plenum

Plazmaman Throttle body

Trust GREX Oil cooler

Management

Haltech Plug in Pro ECU

Turbo

Garret 3076R

Powertune high mount manifold

44m Tial Wastegate

3" dump pipe

2" screamer pipe

Suspension

BC Adjustable Coilovers

Tune agent Adjustable Castor Rods

Whiteline blade adjustable Swaybars

Steering rack spacers

Drivetrain

Stock RB25DET gearbox

Nismo 2way LSD

Jim Berry Full Monty Clutch

G-max Drift Wheels 17"

Stock R33 Turbo 5 stud hubs

Chassis\interior

Full weld in cage built by Az Custom

Sparco Evo3 Carbon Fiber Seat

Brakes

Stock R33 Turbo brakes.

EBC Green pads.

Fuel

Custom Surge tank built by Az Custom

Walbro fuel pumps

I'm sure we'll all agree, it's one arrowing shopping list. Everything done properly by proper people.

Picture time!

Roll cage going in.

Cage Painted, Satin Black

Oil and Water Pumps on, pistons in.

Head going on, apart from Cams it's stock.

Engine finished. Plain RB Pr0n. Love it.

Interior Before

Interior After

Now that the epic build was finished it was time to get out on the track, private track day with a few friends? Nah, I'll just jump in the deepend. How deep you ask? 2011 Tasmania Drift Festival deep enough? Ok.

But how do I get my car to the track? The NSW rego has expired, no problem I'll just get it registered in Tassie. Oh, you can't register a car will a full weld in cage? Maybe I should have done that before...

No worries this time though, Dad said he'd come down with the ute and we'd rent a trailer.

So, Saturday morning, getting the old girl all loaded up and we head out to baskerville. Unload the car and it's already getting some attention. Everyone already knew me and knew my car which was nice. But looking around everyone is unloading their cars, there are some seriously serious cars here and some very well known drivers. The same drivers I spend all day at work looking at on Youtube, admiring their skills and their cars, I'm going head to head with them! "What the hell am I doing here" I thought, this competition is way bigger than me. Oh well, what's the worst thing that can happen...

Lining up for the first time. Got a new front end too.

Lining up for my first run I hear the commentator for the event talking about me and my car, telling everyone that it's a weapon and to keep their eyes on me. I look over at the hill where all the spectators sit, it's packed, everyone is watching, over 2000 people. I swallow the biggest lump in my throat I've ever swallowed, I've been nervous before, but nothing like this. I kept thinking to my self "What the hell am I doing here, this is the dumbest idea ever, I've never even driven this car before, I've never driven any skyline before, I've never driven a RWD car on the track before, I've never driven a car with this much power before, I've never drifted before, this is a bad idea." Starting Marshall tells me to get going so I promptly wind her up and drop the clutch giving it around 30% to keep the wheel spin in check, shift into second and give it a little more, feels good man. Third gear time and I give to 100%, bad idea, it comes onto full boost, wastegate opens, screamer pipe unleashes a noise like I've never heard before, my trousers turn brown and I'm at the first corner already. After that the rest of the day goes like, try to drift, bash rev limiter because I don't know any form of throttle control, spin out, but by the end of the day I'm starting to get the hang of it and can link up the Esses and get turn 1 consistently. Needless to say I didn't qualify but I didn't come last, which was great

Getting the hang of it

At the end of the day I'm so spent, I can't lift my arms above shoulder height from throwing the wheel around and my neck hurts from the massive G's from the corners\spinning out. An epic day full of skids, power, tyre smoke, learning and skids.

Reflecting back on my choices regarding the build I don't think I would have done it differently. Maybe get the car registered first, oh well.

I'm just waiting for the next Track day so I can try my hand at time attack, I just hope I can beat my old time I set in the WRX or there will a lot of egg on my face.

The plan now is to do this season and next with the car setup the way it is, no more mods, just learn how to drive\drift. Then I'll decide if I want to focus more on Time attack or drift and steer the car in one of those directions.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my project, if you've got any questions I'm happy to answer them

Cheers,

z

end post engine pr0n

[zoidbergmerc]

Got the old girl re-tuned

[mungy]

i cant get the video to work mate, really keen on hearing the car tho. wats the video called on youtube?

[lincellusion]

This is a great post, thanks alot for an awesome read. Cant seem to get the vid working either

[zoidbergmerc]

Hey Guys,

Sorry the video doesn't work.

Here is the link to look at it on youtube

Track:

Dyno:

First time Drifting:

Edited June 18, 2011 by zoidbergmerc

[zoidbergmerc]

Woooo! New personal best lap time around baskerville 60 seconds flat! win.

Unfortunately I don't have any footage of it though because I misplaced the SD card out of my go pro, but I'll get another one and do it again

Here is a video of some looseness and flames though

And some pics from the CMI Regularity event

[lincellusion]

Great work mate, waiting for another vid too

[turael]

Just realised I've seen this on Reddit - haha. Well done, great read.

[soturi]

you sir are a fu^king legend...this is what its all about hahaha

[zoidbergmerc]

Thanks guys! I've got a new SD Card for my go pro so I'll be sure to take lots of video for you, hopefully I can repeat my PB on camera this time! Make sure you subscribe to my youtube channel or this thread to keep up to date.

I'm starting to plan stage 2 now. Planning to kick that off early 2012 before the new season starts assuming finances allow, my housing situation is getting a little rough atm and I might have to rent another house or take a new job closer to my current house which might include a pay cut. le sigh.

I'm thinking I need to save some weight to increase my agility around the Esses and reduce the tank slapperness when I'm drifting.

So new improvements will include

- Carbon doors with plastic windows.

- Carbon Bonnet

- carbon boot

- carbon drift wing

- fibreglass front guards to help accommodate bigger wheels

- 18x10 +22 wheels (maybe, not completely sold on this idea yet. I like my 17s)

- Some ducting to cool my brakes

- Better brake pads, maybe even some GTR Brembos, see how I go, I'm not dissatisfied with my stock Turbo brakes at all so I'm finding it hard to justify an upgrade atm.

- Heated windshield

- Remove heater

- Remove metal from behind rear seat so you can get into the cabin from the boot (are you allowed to do this?) Battery in a new plastic box.

- Bigger sump.

- battery isolate switch

- net thing that goes over the window.

Can anyone think of anything else?

I'm loving the power my car is making at the moment and it's got the perfect bit of lag, it's like traction control hehehe. I can just stomp it just before the apex at the moment and not get any wheel spin and by the time its on song I'm usually pretty straight or I can wrestle it into shape.

The depressing part is that all that shit is going to save a few kilos but I can save more weight by me not being such a porker So I'm going on a diet first and stage 2 weight saving will not commence until I get down to 90 kilos, currently 110. You might see that one in the fitness thread So no more booze on weekdays, no more junk food, no more insanely awesome epicmeal time inspired meals with friends, no more candy bacon, no more binge drinking. Lots more being active and not playing video games. Hopefully the Mrs can help out with being active

Tas Hillclimb series is kicking off next weekend so I'm looking forward to that Looking at the times from last year I think I'll be pretty competitive and hopefully I can get up on the podium. I'll make sure I get videos for you guys.

[sav man]

you will need to keep the rear firewall sealed if the battery isn't in a sealed box (which you're doing), or you have a surgetank and pump in the boot area. Most just remove the factoy one, and put a sheet of alloy over it

[zoidbergmerc]

you will need to keep the rear firewall sealed if the battery isn't in a sealed box (which you're doing), or you have a surgetank and pump in the boot area. Most just remove the factoy one, and put a sheet of alloy over it

I don't have a surge tank as yet but I think I might need it, I'm pretty sure my car hated 310rwkw with just a walbro feeding it. So I've just been running gate pressure for 260kw.

Az Custom has a surge tank waiting for me, just need to pay him.

Sheet of alloy sounds like a prime idea though.

[zoidbergmerc]

Man I've been neglecting this thread,

Here is an update.

I've been in a couple of events.

CMI Hillclimb, lots of water, made for an interesting day.

Then I went to the Drags

; Pretty OK day, only got two runs before my tailshaft failed which was a little disappointing But now i've got a big ol one piece to put in it!!

I've also got my new dash in! IQ3 Racepak GPS Logger job.

I've also got my front LCAs modded so they're adjustable now so I can has more camber Got it on -4.5 at the moment, the difference was amazing, it actually turns now!!!! Might need to think about a rear wing too now because I can turn enough to easily make the back end loose, I might try putting a gurney flap on my current wing first and see how that goes.

Also I've installed oil restrictors in the block to keep the oil in the head under control. Just followed the sydney kid reccomendations in the oil control thread.

So yeah, that's about it.

Taking it out drifting this Saturday so hopefully I'll have some more videos and pics for you I told my friend I need a nice photo of me popping a carrot Does it almost every time between turn 1 and 2 now.