Yet Another R33 Series 2 Track Build!

[Yeedogga]

Hi all!

I have been lurking on SAU for a while now and regrettably, I have never made a build thread.

Given my car is about to come off the road in preparation for 2015 motorsport events, I figured that I might as well start one!

Background:

I bought the car in early 2009 as a stocker. I wanted a car that had a strong driveline, good brakes, and most of all, was reliable.

My previous car was a 1985 Volvo 240 Sedan which was my first project. It was the recipeint of a turbo motor/ manual box conversion, suspension work and heaps of other crap. It was a fun, fun car. But it was always broken and I was always too poor to do things properly. I was a uni brat working retail and it was always hampered by my beer consumption and my propensity to chase attractive women.

So I sold the old girl and started looking for an R33!

When I bought the car it had a full 3" exhaust and made 169rwkw on a DynoDynamics dyno. I bought it as a daily but figured, like most things, it would eventually get out of hand! At the time I was living in Sydney and going to uni in the city. It was the perfect commuter!

I added a JustJap return flow intercooler, a K&N Panel filter ran 10psi. It was good for a 13.8 second 1/4 mile back in Oct 2009.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6-YQW7oxsw

In 2010 i started working and was being paid an absolute pittance. Despite this, I always 'found' money for the car :-)

In March 2011 I threw in a set of BC BR coilovers and a set of Whiteline Swaybars. They are still on the car to this day.

My first night 'out' with the new coilovers in resulted in some 'interesting' tyre wear!!

After fitting the coilovers, it needed some tougher rims. On went a set of Rota GRID R in 17x9 +25. I threw on some Kumho Ecsta KU31 rubber.

I also decided to get some custom plates. Being a lawyer by day, I thought they would be good for a chuckle :-)

In August 2011 I had my first track outing. It was an SAU day at Marulan Driver Training Centre. I had never driven on a track before and I had an absolute ball. The track was wet, I had some nice street tyres on there and I was hooked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PI7fb0hxE0

You can hear my mate Tom providing commentary- his 180SX had no grip that day - hence his surprise!

I also managed a Wakefield Park day later that year. The car was underpowered and ran 1:16's or thereabouts. I remember leaving the track with a grin on my face and a lust for more horses.

In around March 2012 I decided the car needed some more grunt. It was still 100% a street car and I wanted everything to look at 'stock' as possible whilst still making decent hp.

So, where else does one go but Hypergear! I hit up Stao for a PU Highflow turbo, which was a direct bolt on affair. I piss farted around for a few weekends and got it all put together.

In April 2012 I had the car tuned by Toshi with the following goodies:

- Hypergear 21U PU Highflow

- Blitz return Flow FMIC

- S15 480cc injectors

- Z32 AFM

- Xtreme Cushion Button Clutch

The car made 287rwkw at 19psi. IT WAS UNREAL!!!

I continued driving the car as a street car/daily for a long time. The power came on like a freight train and was so much fun. I had a few outings to Wakefield Park and Marulan. Setting a 1:14 at Wakefield on street tyres.

This continued for some time until I moved to Dubbo NSW for work in March 2013. Thankfully, the move allowed me some more disposable income. The track became my focus and the money started flowing a little more generously!

Stay tuned for Chapter Two!

Hope this is of some interest to people. If not, at least it is somewhere for me to keep track of my dates!

Anyway, I should go and do some work now.

[timmy_89]

When does "Chapter 2: CWC" start?

[Yeedogga]

Chapter two!

In March 2013 I moved to Dubbo, NSW. For those of you who don't know where that is- it is a regional centre about 400km west of Sydney. Population about 35,000. It's a nice town, but hours from the closest race track!

At the time of the move, the car was still a proper street car. It still had the same hypergear turbo and supporting mods and was still rolling on street rubber.

I had fitted a nice big 2L catch can and fabbed up a radiator air guide out of aluminium sheet. The aim was to make it all look stock- I think I did a pretty good job!

Prior to the move I had fitted an OBX Daytona fixed back seat, which I bought off the forum. It was fitted on some rails that I made up #ghetto style :-) I also threw in an RPM 4 point harness for good measure

Here is my dad (aka David Suzuki- haha) testing out the new seat!

My dad has had alot of input throughout the build- you will see alot more of him throughout the story!!

As a present to myself for moving to a new town I bought myself a new suede steering wheel, Works Bell boss kit and a JJR removable boss adapter. I also pulled out the stereo ;-)

I didnt have a garage at my new place, so everything was being done in a carport- which, plainly, sucked!!

Within a few months of moving to Dubbo I met a bunch of guys at a drag meet which was held at a local airstrip. One bloke is a complete knobend who owns the R34 in this pic. :-P

Tim, otherwise known as Timmy_89 on SAU, has been a big supporter of the build. Since then have drunk shitloads of SuperDry, competed in a few motorsport events together and continued to egg each other on to go faster and spend more money. He, I anticipate will also feature heavily in the build thread to come!!

Around the time of this drag meet I did something that would change the entire trajectory of the R33 story....

Yep. There were so many reasons to buy a tow/daily car, I just couldn't resist. I bought a used 2007 D40 Navara diesel!!

I wanted to do more track days, and it is a long way from Dubbo to Goulburn- not to mention the cost of a tow truck when things go wrong!!

I set my sights then on getting the car ready for my first track outing - the Circuit Club meet on 27 July 2013.

In preparation I spent a few coins and bought my first ever set of R-Comp tyres. I grabbed set of used Dunlop Direzza 02G in 245/45 17 from Just Jap in Sydney and had them sent to Dub-Vegas. The girls in the office were going to have to get used to taking delivery of my car parts!!

They were old, used and pretty hard, but hey, they were R Comps!!

I had the tyres fitted and the suspension set up by the local Bob Jane T Mart (a mistake!) and threw on the obligatory (wanky) TOW and Battery stickers :-D

I also borrowed a trailer from a friend, which turned out to be an enormous headache as the car only just fit (cleared the sides by an inch each side) and the ramp angle was so steep that it got stuck halfway.

In any event! Dad and I swore alot, piss farted about and eventually got the car on backwards!!!

And off we went to Wakefield!!

The day was a great success- I managed a best time of 1:13 and I was IN LOVE with R-Comp tyres. The grip, even on those shitty old tyres, was something I had never experienced before. Never again would I track on street tyres!!

I did notice the car was down on power; the cause- a blown turbo/manifold gasket!

Once I pulled it all apart it became obvious that in reversing the car onto the trailer I must have caught an exhaust flange on the trailer and bashed the downpipe out of shape!!

So, a great start with more work to be done!!

I was pumped, motivated and hooked on this track shit!!

The car had some really obvious issues with the suspension setup and the diff... Issues that would need to be rectified!!

Stay tuned!

[AMR33]

MORE.....MOOOOORE. Cool story bro. Kepp the updates coming. I am planning to head in the same dirction as you with power mods (highflow turbo, injectors etc etc). Which ECU did you opt for?

[Yeedogga]

Cheers!

Well, without ruining the next chapter - I am selling some of the bits on the car very soon;

Hypergear PU highflow

Alloy intake pipe

480cc (s15) injectors in rail

3" Bellmouth dump pipe

Bosch 040 fuel pump

If you are keen on any of that stuff shoot me a PM and we can talk :-)

[AMR33]

PM sent good sir.

[Yeedogga]

So after replacing the turbo gasket and putting a new dump pipe in, the car was ready to hit the track again!

With no other changes to the car, we once again borrowed a trailer, packed up the car and went to Wakefield Park!

On 7 September 2013 we attended another Circuit Club track day.

Just as a side note, the Circuit Club track days are really well organised, attract great cars and really good people. They sessions alternate between timed and passenger runs, and there is always plenty of track time. If you haven't been to a Circuit Club meet, you definitely should!!

The website is: http://www.circuitclub.com.au/page/home-page

So, where was I?

On 7 September I managed to shave off another 2 seconds or so and got the car down to a 1:11.3. I was starting to become more familiar with the track and getting used to braking a little later and hitting corners with some more speed. The fishhook eluded me (as it still does) but I was becoming alot more confident in the car.

I was really happy with the time reduction, however, the car had basically no grip coming out of corners. The 2nd gear corner exits at turn 2, the fishhook, and the last turn onto the straight would have the rear end wagging like an excited dog's tail. By the end of the day, it was spinning the inside wheel on almost every corner.

All in all, a very successful day!

The next step was to resolve the traction issue. I started looking around for a 'proper' LSD to replace the worn out viscous factory diff.

After some searching I picked up a Kaaz 2-Way diff from the forum which was already in an R33 housing!! How convenient!

In a matter of hours, the old diff was out and the new 2 way was in!

I had heard all of the negative press about 2-way diffs on the street and how noisy and cantankerous they are. Well, the press isn't too far wrong!! It certainly was noiser than the stocker- and I admit I did (and still do) get some fairly disapproving looks from middle aged women in carparks... Though that could be for a multitude of other reasons....

I also picked up a carbon bonnet which I had seen on Gumtree for a bargain price. Weight reduction come at me!!

The first test of the car with the new diff would be at the Marulan Driver Training Centre.

The MDTC is a small track in Marulan NSW (unsurprisingly) which caters for driver education and track days. I went on a weekday 'street car' day, and there were only 2 other cars there!

Gary and the staff at the MDTC are great people, and for $100 or thereabouts you can go on a weekday and almost have the track to yourself.

I saw it as a great opportunity to test out the car before returning to Wakefield. I was also hoping to get my Dad to have a drive and get used to the car.

Well.... It didn't quite go to plan!

On 25 November 2013 Dad came up to Dubbo, we borrowed a (different!) trailer and went down to Marulan.

On the FIRST session out, after giving the car a few warmup laps I got stuck right into it and started pushing it a bit more. The car felt VERY different, it was understeering more (which I expected) and was alot more sensitive to brake liftoff (which I was a little slow to react to!) There was some light moisture on the track and the old Dunlops had perhaps passed their use-by-date.

Ultimately, I got it very crossed up threw it off the track. Up and over an embankment we flew!! What made matters worse was that I didn't have my GoPro on!!

It felt like I had pulled the entire subframe out of the car, such was the impact and the noise.

Luckily, by some miracle, this was the only damage:

The lower intercooler pipe (return flow) was completely destroyed. I also put a deep gouge in the intercooler end tank where it impacted with the frame rail.

I took a fair amount of paint off the front bar, smashed a few brackets, bent the inner guard where the cooler pipes went and knocked a few weights off my rims. Apart from that, it was fine!!

I trailered her home and contemplated how I'd best fix it all.

The solution came from Gumtree again!

I had always wanted an AC/DC TIG. Years ago I had played around with one and taught myself how to weld alloy to make intercooler pipes. This unit came up at a good price and it seemed to me to be the perfect time to get one.

Unfortunately I was still a few weeks from moving to a new place with a garage, so laundry welding was a go!!

With some alloy pipe and bends and some time at the machine, she was all fixed!!

Over the next few months I tidied up the car some more, and moved the OBX bucket seat from the drivers side to the passenger side. I bought a seat rail which I didnt like too much, so I fabricated my own out of 5mm steel bar.

Anyone who has ever made a seat rail for an R33 will know what a farking nightmare this is! All of the mounting holes are at a different height and angle!!!

I also made a catch can/ washer bottle setup out of alloy sheet. This was a time consuming project! I have since made some more, and re-vamped this one to better suit my needs!

The car did not see the track again in 2013.

I decided to cut my losses and come back in 2014 with a reliable car that would do alot of motorsport. I wanted to get under 1:10 around Wakefield and try out some other forms of motorsport too.

The saga continues!...