Duncan's Race Car - The Most Overdue Build Thread On Sau

[DJBarnstar]

Thanks for the read! Love it!

[Neil]

Jeez the updates are far and few between. Is this beautiful old girl forgotten and just sitting on a hoist somewhere in Sydney all alone and rusting away.

So sad that her owner has better things to do than give her some tender loving care.

I beleive this bloke is still the owner and by the look of it he is very confused,,,

[Aggroman]

I hear he has been busy breaking other peoples GTR's..

[Neil]

So it's not just a rumour,,,he actually broke another GTR.

[Aggroman]

Twice

[JAS-25T]

So, why go to so much trouble with prepping the car, painting etc? I was getting ready for a major step, giving a tarmac rally a go at Targa Tasmania.

Mark had done Targa twice before, and is here demonstrating the difference between "Right 3 after crest" (what the driver heard) and "Right 3 on crest" (what the notes said). Terrible quality vid but remember this was pre HD videos!

http://www.hgeconsulting.com.au/targa04.wmv

So we got the car ready as best we could, bought all the safety gear, Kel got ready to try and read notes for the first time (getting lots of tips from Scott and some other helpful people), and off we went.

Day 1

was OK, made it through without much excitement

Day 2

the crew took 4 wheels off, bled all the brakes, replaced 4 wheels, did up the wheel nuts on 3. The first Kel and I knew about the issue was when the front left wheel overtook us on a transport stage which I thought was strange. From there we learned some of the pratical logistical issues of trying to fix stuff on the side of the road in a rally, for example, what f**king use is a jack when the damn subframe is jammed hard on the ground? And what use is a spare wheel if you can't find where the wheel nuts went?

Had an awesome hoon around the street stage, all the while wondering while the rear had been so loose and slidey all rally

Day 3.

We were miles behind due to penalty time but ready to give it a more serious crack. Made good pace through the first 3 stages and were hooning through Weldborough Pass in 4th, at about 150 I'd guess. When the castor rod broke and threw us off the road without warning. Thankfully the trail of destruction ended up on the inside on a bank instead of outside way down in the fields. We took the sad bus back to Hobart, paid the $2k towing bill and the good blokes at Source Automotive stayed open all night to let us repair everything and get back out there.

Day 4.

A bit bleary eyed and with a 20min penalty for not finishing yesterday, so we may as well go out and have some fun. Which we certainly did until Cygnet where the fuel pump (which had come loose the day before and was only swinging on it's wires) gave out. A nice lady gave us home cooked biscuits while we watched the field drive past.

Day 5.

40 min behind now for not finishing 2 days. But hey, this is Targa, and you need to take a never give up attitude right? Well until the huge clunk and no gears were available. At which stage Kel and I gave up and got shit faced.

Day 6

But Mark was still running, right? Actually he and Scott had been going really well and were running top 3. All they had to do was finish the last day and enjoy the glory and chicks, right? Well, no.

If you can spot the person in this pic...this is where they ended after the little slip off the edge.

And the car looked like this. They both walked away fine, and since Mark was an experienced crasher he even had the presence of mind to turn off the motor before it ran dry while rolling down the hill. Autech-san seems to think it was a pretty good effort too.

More drinking...that was my last full rally until this year, while Kel went on to fame, fortune, podiums and ambulances in about 50 more rallies in between.

This post is missing a few photos...

[Duncan]

soo...yeah, haven't got far on the car lately, I've been clearing/sorting/cleaning a bunch of spares I unpacked from the container so I have space to do the real jobs. And cleaning is totally uninteresting so it's not going too quick.

I've pretty much finished all the spares today, including today on the sandblaster....does a damn good job compared to scrubbing

became

Its also funny how many of some things I have, some need to go up for sale, some to scrap.....like this manifold collection, 4 are warped, only 4 are good....

[Duncan]

lots of things getting ready to head out....

spare driveshafts for reco-ing

off to Award gearbox and diff once I get hold of a 32 GTR diff (the missing link)

+32 GTR diff = spare short ratio 2 way mechanical diff

They can also put these 2 together....

+

And reco this

More pressing before these + rear subframe can go off to Craved for powder coating

This is ready to head off to TCH to measuring and machining for assembly as a spare

[Duncan]

oh yeah, a Neil got a clean new ashtray

[Duncan]

so, a little more progress. most of the crappy undoing jobs are done now, probably only 1 more day taking stuff off the car.

Neil missed all end of the fun today while sleeping off his Olivia's Benefit night hangover, the last of the de-pressing is done and everything is ready to head up to craved for powdercoating

even with the right tools, removing 25 year old factory bushes is a pain in the arse....definitely pay a shop to do it if you get the chance!

also dropped off the spare motor for machining, a gearbox and xfr case to award for rebuilding, and ordered new front and rear pads and rotors from Matthew at Racebrakes.

Still need to take the dash and the interior out to lightening the wiring loom at last, I guess that is for the next few weeks.

[MBS206]

Spare parts? Woah! You going back racing in NSW Production Cars?

[Duncan]

yeah mate, I never left....just put it on hold. for too damn long!

brake parts courtesy of Matthew at Racebrakes Sydney

The car runs standard size discs front and rear as per Production Car specs (DBA5928 on the front and DBA4929 on the rear).

For calipers we can upgrade from standard as long as it fits the standard disc and has the same number of pistons as stock, so I run 996 Porsche calipers on the front with adapters, and gtr brembos on the rear

For pads I've taken Matthew's advice and am giving Winmax a go, W7 compound on the front (WMP780-W7) and W3 compound on the rear (WMP330-W3). The last pads I had were Pagid Rs14 and while they worked well, they fell about after about 50% wear.

[MBS206]

Woo! Production car races!!!

Wait, does this mean Neil might have to do some all nighters replacing parts if you break them on a Saturday?

[Neil]

Woo! Production car races!!!

Wait, does this mean Neil might have to do some all nighters replacing parts if you break them on a Saturday?

OH MR NEGATIVE,,,I don't beleive I've ever done an "all nighter",,, but better I do one than let you anywhere near spanners.

Cheers

Neil.

[Duncan]

lol I know it wasn't literally all night...but remember going to bed at 1 and back up at 5 at a certain rally last year.....

[MBS206]

OH MR NEGATIVE,,,I don't beleive I've ever done an "all nighter",,, but better I do one than let you anywhere near spanners.

Cheers

Neil.

I'd happily help, but you can't change a transfer case with just a hammer

And I did say you might have to, not that you have

[Neil]

lol I know it wasn't literally all night...but remember going to bed at 1 and back up at 5 at a certain rally last year.....

True True but that was easy work,,,not like I was on my back in the freezing cold changing a clutch or something.

[Neil]

I'd happily help, but you can't change a transfer case with just a hammer

The frightening thing is you might use said hammer.

Message to the world,,,don't let Matty near a race car with a hammer he might just use it to fix a fuel problem.

[Duncan]

hmm what is it about hammers, you just demanded I buy a bigger one because the current one was too small....

[MBS206]

The frightening thing is you might use said hammer.

Message to the world,,,don't let Matty near a race car with a hammer he might just use it to fix a fuel problem.

Hey, I had a hammer, and the fuel problem was magically fixed, do you REALLY see a problem?