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Steve's R33 LM Limited Upkeep

Hi all,

I've been stalking these pages for a quite a long time now. Thought i should throw my car up for everyone to look at.

Some of you will be familiar with this car already as I purchased it from Gav in Perth. Gav had this car built by Glavsport and it has been a no expense spared build.

With that in mind I too have decided to buy things once and any changes that go onto the car will be the highest quality I can reasonably manage. You may be aware that my start with this car was somewhat turbulent as someone tried to steal it from me on the first day I drove it. (See link: Steve's Intro ).

Since then I have hidden the car away under lock and key (and other security measures). The car has just returned to me now from Racepace in Bayswater. 

We (well, not really we, more the guys at Racepace) made some changes to my car, repaired the damage from the break in and installed a new immobiliser and tracker. It's nice to have the car back in one piece and using a key to start it, rather than any flat item jammed into what was left of the ignition.

One of the biggest issues I was having was fumes coming into the cabin from under the bonnet/car. It turned out to be a twofold issue. 

1. The exhaust was pinched and suffering from E85 damage (it was a 3" mild steel exhaust) 

2. The oil catch can breather may have been letting fumes into the air vents for inside the car. 

The guys at Racepace have fabricated and installed a brand new 3.5" exhaust with V-Bands and tuned length headers to solve the exhaust problems and they also rerouted the catch can fumes into the rear turbo so they are expelled through the exhaust. 

With the new exhaust it was necessary to re-tune the car on the dyno so this was also completed. As someone who doesn't get to drive fast cars much, millions of kWs were deemed unnecessary. I asked the guys specifically if they could turn the engine down to a level it will be happy to perform at for a long, long time. 

In tuning the car the guys turned the engine up to what they deemed a reasonable level, then turned it back down as I requested. 

The net result of the tuning was: 

Full power: 505.4kW (atw) at 27psi

Final Tune: 410kW (atw) at 22psi

I've also got some pictures of the exhaust going in and a dyno run video coming soon.

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  • Like 7
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I can do one better for you:

Made this up when I was feeling enthused one night. It's a one take on my iPhone...

I'll get some more pictures up shortly.

Edit:*** In fact you can still see the fingerprint powder if you look closely.

 

Edited by Steve85
  • Like 2

I had taken the car to a trackday at Sandown in January. 

It turned out to be a 38 degree day, my car managed to turn a full 3 consecutive laps before it began to complain. The car was not revving cleanly in morning and by afternoon was in full misfire mode (even being babied down the straights). I pulled the pin around 2pm and went home. 

I had not gotten anywhere near the limit of the tires nor the engine the whole day, which was slightly disappointing.

Racepace have diagnosed that the igniter was not coping with the heat and replaced it for me. Now I have the car back i'll be hoping to go to another day at Sandown to have a real go. So when i was driving it on the road (when is was cool) the car would be fine, but on the track in that heat it just wasn't coping.

I took a friend for a drive the other night, the thing pulls like a monster. I will add that I am convinced the diff gearing is too short. You barely have a chance to think before you need to pull the next gear (yes even 3rd to 4th) Once your in fourth and fifth you have some time, but still not as much as you might think. It also meant gear changes where longer gears would have held down short straights.

Still diff gearing can wait for a while i think.

11 minutes ago, Robzilla32 said:

I saw this beauty when I was picking my car up from RacePace. Very nice indeed.

Thanks! I use every excuse under the sun to visit Racepace instead of calling them on the phone.

So many wonderful cars in such a small place. Gareth always talks me through the work they're doing on each one. I'm like a kid in a giant toy factory...

Steve just to clarify in your original post. The catch can return hose is being re-routed to the rear turbo INTAKE pipe. The idea behind that is that the catch can catches all the oil vapour, but returns the air back to the intake and into your engine (creating a sealed legal system). This also allows the catch can system to be more efficient as well. 

Good write up though! You should definitely fill people in on the custom turbo setup and what other goodies you have hidden away!

- Matt from RPM.

  • Like 1
15 hours ago, Borci88 said:

clarify in your original post. The catch can return hose is being re-routed to the rear turbo INTAKE pipe.

Ahhh... yep. ^This. In my excitement I have gotten this description wrong. I plan to get some more details of the car written in here, just so you all know what hides in the car. And of course, i'll be updating this to reflect any work that is completed on the car to keep it in good condition.

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