Its Been 105 Days Since My Last Fix....

[Ant97GTR]

Before I begin, a huge thanks goes out to RacePace Motorsport and Micolour - Without the advice and dedication you guys put in, I would not have the result thats now sitting in my garage. Also a big thanks goes out to CityWide towing for taking the upmost care in carting my GTR around the traps.

Some of you already know what happened but for those that don't...It was a fateful day on the 5th March, when I departed the pits at Calder to continue the 4th year of tracking my GTR. Those that are too scared to punt their R's take note here - I tracked my GTR for 4 years with only steel wheeled turbos running 280kw at the wheels, a PFC and an oil cooler with no hint of mechanical dramas. You don't need mega built engines, sump baffles etc etc to get out there and have some fun, so drop the excuses and GET OUT THERE Anyway I digress....

...So there I was in the practice session watching an evo in front of me making good on it's rally pedigree before making my way past and getting onto the main straight. As I shifted into 4th at full noise at about 4000rpm, the engine let go and the power died off...no bang, no smoke, no pistons or rods making a bid for freedom through my bonnet. Any engine suffers wear and tear during track use and after 4 years my std Rb26 had had enough. There was massive knock and I figured what had happened so turned it off as quick as I could. After the tow back to the pits, Chris from RacePace asked me to turn it over and as soon as we got it started gave me the ol' slice of the neck gesture to turn it off. I already knew where the car would go, so a quick call to Jack (Citywide Towing) saw him go out of his way to get the car picked up and on it's way....

In my opinion, there are two ways to build a motor....the right way, and the wrong way. I am sure there are plenty of workshops out there that can build a strong motor but few come with RacePace's experience with an Rb26 (shameless plug lol!). The other issue was cost - like most car nuts I had high hopes and dreams for what I wanted out of my car, so it was a case of honing those dreams against my saved pennies. Big kudos to Chris (RPM) for taking the time to help me sort out what could fit into my limited budget. My hopes and dreams had consisted of an engine swap with a Mclaren F1, but after my discussion with Chris we whittled it down to a Stage 1 RPM Rb26 with forged Eagle rods, a race sump, custom exhaust, triple pass radiator and turbos. Here we come to the eternal debate, -7's for response or -5's for power. Considering the track use my car gets, each turbo choice suits half of the tracks my car sees...yay for me! This is where RPM's experience came into its own and Chris was able to supply me with a choice that perfectly suited my needs. The pull down revealed that bearings 2 and 3 were shot and a banana'd crank which in turn stretched the rods in cylinders 2 and 3. Interesting to note here that the stretched rods meant that pistons 2 and 3 starting hitting the head removing the coating from the edges. Good news came from the machinists a bit later on to report that the block was all good - had this been different it would've put a rather large sized hole in my budget!

Good piston... ...and piston with the coating removed

looks clean enough to eat off!

Naturally, a shiney new motor deserves a set of refurbished cam covers. Of course, the smart thing to do would've been to crinkle paint them or give them a coat of a plain color considering the use the car is going to get. However, the 'Autosalon' in me had other ideas! I always had this idea in my mind but kept delaying it as there were plenty of other things to be seen to. Now I was looking at a rebuild and I would end up with something a little more special than a std Rb26 under the hood, it was time to make this a reality. So I measured up the cam covers, draw up the shapes in CAD, and laid out my design in 2D. Once I was happy with it my next step was to call Mick from Micolour as he's done work on my car before and his work is always top notch. After going to great length to try and talk some sense into me, as well as detailing how much this was going to cost compared to a simple crinkle paint/plain paint cam cover job, he agreed to take on the job. Next step was to fire up my design in CAD and print out a 1:1 template to give to a vinyl sticker place. Vinyl template in hand I dropped into Micolour to give Mick some help in applying the template to my cam covers. It soon became apparent how hard to would be to apply a 2D design to objects that have various 3D curves on them. Mick realized that although the vinyl template would be applicable in many areas, in others he would have to mask up in order for the lines to come out correctly over the curves. Once done it was into the spray booth for the final colour and in no time I was given a call to come down and have a look. To say that I was impressed would be an understatment - full credit goes to Mick for the awesome result. Without his knowledge and experience, it would not have turned out the same and it was very satisfying to see my design turn into reality - I'm proud to say that I'm pretty sure my Rb26 is now different to any other in Oz

And the finished result

[Russman]

lol at autosalon...

Good to see it's track ready again

[ssxRicho]

Bloody good to see the car is running once again!

You neglected mention the power?!?!?!

[Count Grantleyish]

What turbos did you ended up getting?

Cam covers look great by the way.

[JAGR33]

Well done Ant, good to see the car all done and ready for some track action.

Saw the cam covers at Racepace last week and the pics here don't do them justice.

Look forward to seeing what the beast can do now at the track...

So u in for Sandown on July 10?

[emts]

^ what he said sandown????

[Ant97GTR]

Thanks for the comments.

You neglected mention the power?!?!?!

Car made just under 360rwkw before detuning it to under 340rwkw with great response.

What turbos did you ended up getting?

The short answer is between -7's and -5's. Custom RPM Garrett items...response of the -7's with a little more power

So u in for Sandown on July 10?

Now the cars ready to go so am I. Just need to sort some family stuff first as its near school holidays but I'm aiming to be there As for what the car can do on the track, it'll be more of a case of the driver learning the ropes all over again I will be limited by my brakes though!

[Downforce]

Congrats champ. You always told me you 'only' had 250kw, liar!!

Will be good to see you back out on the track.

[Ant97GTR]

Congrats champ. You always told me you 'only' had 250kw, liar?

Lol no I didn't...I started with 250 at the wheels when I bought the car thanks to a exxon valdez tune from CRD but after Ben tuned it has 280 and that is what I always told people. Then Chris tuned it mid last year-ish took out some boost and it dropped to closer to 270....I think he was scared I would start beating his times with similar power LOL

[htial]

Those cam covers are awesomesauce...

[paulR32gtr]

Good to meet you yesterday Ant.

Now you have to get that matching Kamikaze helmet paint job!

Re: brakes - buy my Alcons!!

[saff_cossie]

Great write up mate, interesting read. Look forward to seeing it in person soon.

[Downforce]

Dancing with fences!! wow haven't seen you post on the forum in ages

[Ant97GTR]

Good to meet you yesterday Ant.

Now you have to get that matching Kamikaze helmet paint job!

Re: brakes - buy my Alcons!!

Was good to put a face to your SAU nickname as well.

Credit where credit is due, that was a top idea by you and snowie so will look into that when I replace my helmet

I don't think there is any doubt that the brakes are going to be an issue. The question will be how well I can manage them on track and whether it will be enough. I am interested in an upgrade but I think my bank acct has taken enough of a hit for now!

[Bec]

Awesome stuff Ant - saw the car down at the shop the other day. Looks great.

Catch up with you soon no doubt

[phunky_monkey]

Good stuff Ant. The cam covers look great, and the car should be a bit of fun to drive now especially around HH!

[NickR33]

nice work Ant, looks great

damn that's a fair whack of power to get out of those hybrid turbos... when you seeing full boost? 20psi?

[GTS-t VSPEC]

Good to see your car all done and ready for another 4+years of track time

[Ant97GTR]

damn that's a fair whack of power to get out of those hybrid turbos... when you seeing full boost? 20psi?

Bit hard to say as the dyno sheet I have only plots against speed and most of the seat time I've had so far I've been too busy looking ar other things to notice I'd guess-timate that full boost (about 20psi) is reached at around the 3000-3500rpm mark.

[Downforce]

fark 340kw by 3500rpm.. that's an animal. GTR powahh