Project Ugly Duckling. SR86. 'Haters gunna hate, Tyres gunna bake'

[ae8zn6]

Hahaha,

sry bro, ya to l8 for da sweg shoes... got em rollin' on da VL turbs eh

on a more serious note, I need a front bar, but don't really want to pay for shipping from the East coast

[ae8zn6]

Got my first battle event for this car coming up this weekend (hell, first battle for me in about 6 years ).

It will be up at Barbagallo Raceway on the same track layout they used for round 1 of ADGP. Video below shows a lap from Levi Clarke from qualifying to show the layout:




Should be good as its mostly the tighter back section of Barbs, which means the guys with 400hp+ won't actually see all that much benefit from their investment.

Still given my lack of seat time and that I haven't battled for so long (and was pretty rubbish at it then too) I am not under any delusion that I will place anywhere memorable.

Should still be good fun, more track time and my first battle in a car that is properly capable


Managed to pick up a front bar at a reasonable price too, so I painted it up, whacked together a support bar and fit it so that it will be on for the battle (well the start anyway...)

I also got around to painting the skirts that came with the car, so if I get time I might bag those back on as well. (gotta get all that important aero stuff on for more downforce....yup, sure need more downforce, lol)

[maxhag]

Gonna be looking ace!

[ae8zn6]

Had a good time out at round 1 over the weekend.

Had a bit of a comedy of errors in the practice and qualifying though...

So I have never driven this layout at Barbagallo before as I think this was the third even they had ever run it and one of those events was an invitational (ADGP). There was a full field of cars, so they split us up into four groups and each group was given about 30 minutes to practice/learn the course. I get into my 3rd warm up lap and suddenly huge boost leak... limp back to the pits and the silicon hose between the turbo and the intercooler has come off. No biggie, but I had to just about burn my fingers off to fix it. I rush back out and got another 5 laps in before our group was done.

So after having driven the course for a total of 8 laps (including one where I had to dive off to the side to avoid the car ahead's rear bar flying off at me) I line up for qualifying lap 1. Somehow I jag a good line from the first corner into the blind second corner, go to shift down to second... shift knob stays in my hand, car is out of gear managed to grab hold of the shifter itself and select second and get on with it, but not before a straighten. Second qualifying I manage to loop it, so I qualified very poorly.

To be honest I wasn't that worried about qualifying poorly, I know I have had next to no experience chasing and the experience I have was from several years ago. More than happy to be in the 'Street class' (bottom 16).

From there I got through the first battle ok, so made top 8 of street class.

Got matched up against one of the guys I know quite well for top 8 battle, he drives an RB20DET R31 and I knew he would be consistant which meant I was confident he would lead ok. I led first and did an OK lap, turns out that despite the Formula Drift style chicane at the start gate I up and left him behind in the first straight. Having said that, he was choosing to start drifting before the judged section, which didn't help him catch up.

When I chased I figured I would go for a close chase run, after watching my video once I got back home I am deeply disappointed with my efforts at chasing in this run. I got nice and close through the first corner, but panicked a bit when I was gaining fast as he transitioned and slowed into the hairpin. I got on the brakes and handbrake too much in an attempt to slow the closure rate and when I got out of them and got back on the power I had dropped out of the powerband. So I had a massive straighten right in front of the judges panel I then booted the clutch to get the thing sideways again and ended up trying to run a crappy line in an attempt to get sideways again as quickly as possible. This led to another straighten and this is a short course we are talking about.

So I clearly need a bunch more practice at chasing before I try to run close again or I am just going to make lots of mistakes again.

Having said that, it would have been a simple call for the judges and I spent the rest of the day in expression sessions. One good thing was that my friend in the R31 went on to get third in street class.

Anyway, not all that many photos have popped up from the event yet, hopefully some more get posted over the next week or so, but here is what I have:

This is one of the better runs I had in one of the later expression sessions, I happened to be at the front of a drift train, not that you can tell from the footage:



This was the video from the R31 taken during our battle. This is the first footage I have ever seen of the car drifting



And here are the photos I have come across so far:










So yeah, good fun for the weekend on a really interesting layout. You can't really pick it up in the video, but one really cool thing was that you couldn't actually see the apex for the second corner until after you have already swung through the transition to aim for it. So that made the first few practice laps super interesting. I hope we run it again sometime. The only problem with it from a driver's perspective was that it was all the way up the other side of the track, so even when you weren't driving you couldn't really go and watch


As for other happenings, the car is back on a trailer tonight, I organised an outing to the drags for some people at work that are into cars and/or bikes that are leaving at the end of the year. So, all things going well (including the scrutineers passing a race car in a street car event ) then I will get an idea of what kind of time it does a quarter mile in. It should also be an opportunity to actually take someone else for a ride even if it is only in a straight line...

[ae8zn6]

Found another cool photo:

by , on Flickr

I also went out to the drags last Wednesday night. It was an event put on for a bunch of guys that had never been before and were leaving my work at the end of the year.

So first off I got told that my helmet is 'out of date' by the scrutineers

Apparently if your helmet says AS1698 instead of AS/NZS1698 the motorplex at Kwinana thinks your unsafe to drive in a straight line... Even though CAMS scrutineers 5 days before thought it was perfectly safe for me to have the car sideways in proximity to concrete barriers Go figure.

Anyway, the car is running mega rich and has been since the initial tune. I think I must have been leaking air somewhere when it was tuned and have since fixed the leak or vice versa because yeah... Rich as F^$*...

Im in the line for the first run, sitting there at idle where the mixture seems to be at its worst for some reason and the car is becoming more and more of a pig Eventually make it to the burnout grid and the car stalls out and won't re-start So I get a push from the crew and friends and go back to the car park. I had a set of spare plugs with me because I figured this would happen sooner or later. Plugs were as fowled as I have ever seen plugs D:

Swapped them out for freshies and headed out for a second attempt. I twas a pretty busy night so it took around an hour for the second run. I did an average run with an average launch and below average shifts just to get a ballpark number for the car: 13.267 @ 180.35km/hr with a 2.2 second 60' time.

Long story short the rest of the night continued my earlier comedy of errors. Next run missed second completely, run after popped an intercooler pipe off in the burnout and limped down the strip (~20sec pass, winner!) then they were about to call it quits so I rushed back to try and reattach the silicon joiner, got it on but popped it off again in the burnout... lame.

So yeah, 5 attempts and 1 average run to show for it. I reckon that if I had had a good launch and good shifts I would have probably been able to just break into the 12s. Which I think is pretty reasonable for what is essentially a stock motor (250rwhp). Having said that I will likely never find out because I don't know that I can be bothered going all the way back down by myself to just get a time sheet.

Here is a photo of me popping a cooler pipe dropping 3rd






So yeah, I guess the current layout of the cooler piping has now cost me two problems, the issues with the tune and the ongoing issue of coming loose whilst I'm at the track. I have tightened the Bejesus out of it for now as I have two events within two weeks, but I will re-design how the pipe work runs early next year and then get the tune looked at again. Given it is so close to stock it really should be capable of running smoothly and not causing these issues...

[ae8zn6]

uh oh....



Apparently they aren't designed for use as a sand plough

We can rebuild him!



More Frankenstien's monster than 6 million dollar man... Not quite finished yet but yeah you can get the idea.

Pretty sure its actually the first bit of aero I have ever smashed on the track... would be only a couple weeks after I fit the thing wouldn't it. Oh well

Having said that, Friday night practice was definitely worth going to. I have temporarily fixed my intercooler hose issues and I managed to link up the whole of Barbs for the first time. TBH the car still doesn't have quite enough power for the track. I was only able to hold a slide through the second part of the esses because my tyres were down to the belts.

Still it was good because there was a bloke in an R33 with an LS1 in it that I was talking to in the pits just before I went out. He was a nice enough guy and everything, but we were talking while we were waiting for someone to get pulled out of the beach at CAT corner. Anyway, I tell him that the two things I want to get done on that night were to nail a couple of entries into CAT by popping one rear wheel over the ripple strip for the exit of pit lane and to get at least one link of the whole track. He politely told me I would need at least 3-400 RWHP to pull off either of those things, he wasn't trying to tell me I couldn't do it as a driver or anything, just that the car would fizzle out and straighten. Anyway, he was chasing me later on and I did about 3 entries where I rode the ripple strip but I think he might have pitted in before I did the esses... still, pretty happy with that.

Round 2 of the comp is on Sunday, so not long until I head back out

[lappy]

Lol! Typical Perth Nissan posers! I did those things n/a and have vids doing it keeping up with a 400+hp r32

It's all about the driver man and from what I've seen you've been running awesome! Keep up the good work! Go the rollas

[Matt]

looks like you are having a blast.

[ae8zn6]

Cheers Brenton and Matt,

I'm definitely having a blast and trying to keep the high HP cars honest Having said that, the best I had ever qualified in an NA 86 was 15th and then

This weekend was a bit of a different story though

I entered in round 2 of the WA Drift series at Barbs, which was held on Sunday. It promised to be a good day, with awesome weather and a full field of about 36 cars. The judges had done their best to re-imagine a section of the course, which I thought worked really well. They wanted us all to actually push past the edges of the track and get the rear right out onto the concrete and bitumen track extensions that were installed to stop us ruining the track edges They said that their main point of interest was that we go right up to the edge where they had the cone on the concrete and then flicked the next transition hard and brought the car right up to the edge of the bitumen extension, nearly landing the car in the sand. If we had done it right then our line through the hairpin would be about a meter or two wide of the inner clip and as long as we didn't spin out they weren't hugely fussed about our lines from that point.

From the way I figured then, something like this:



Now, I know that there are around 16-20 really serious competitors that have 500+hp cars and I am happy to leave them to battle it out for series points in the 'Pro Class' (Top 16). So my mates and I don't take qualifying too seriously, because as long as we don't have one of the bottom 4 scores then we are good to go in 'street class' (bottom 16). Anyway, so for my first qualifying run I actually went out on the last little bit of tyre I had left (gotta get good value ). I didn't fully realise until I started, but I was actually on belts

The way they have been doing qualifying here lately, you go out for 1 qualifying lap, and then they take the top 8 scores and give those drivers the top 8 qualifying positions. Its designed to make people not go for a safe first lap, as the points for top qualifier are only up for grabs in the first attempt. I think they also see it as helping the top guys minimise costs on tyres etc as they are then not sent out for a second qualifying lap. Anyway, the gap where they pick the top 8 gave me a chance to throw some new tyres on before heading down for me second attempt. I did much better with some actual grip and was hoping I would place somewhere around 17th spot.





When the results came out I was stunned as I was listed as the 9th qualifier (which I was a bit pissed about because it meant I would be up against all of the mental machines). I have since been told that my qualifying score was actually the highest score given out on the day I mean, having said that, the guys with the top 8 scores in the first run didn't go out again, so they may well have beaten me if given the chance, but still... crazy shit!

So qualifying 9th meant that I was up against a 500hp rb25det r32 four door, and this thing was freshly built and looked mint.





So I was I a bit down and acting like a bit of a pussy, thinking I would just get spanked and so figured my day was already pretty much over and then Alex (another AE86 driver) came over, whacked me across the back of the head and told me to get out there and win... At some point during the warm up lap I said fuck it, I'll give it a go. Then came the battle, The higher qualifier gets to run first, which was perfect for me, because I wanted to chase first to see if it was completely out of my league or not.




For those who can't watch the video, I did way better than I expected. In my first chase lap I got a bit thrown when the lead car initiates with the handbrake on a long sweeping corner and so ran a little wider than I wanted, but I didn't get left miles behind or anything. Then my first lead lap was probably the best line I had cut all day and I was actually leaving him a little behind (from the looks of the video) at least until the hairpin. When we pulled into the pits to find out the results they sent us out for a re-run! To me, this actually felt like an outright win already, because before I headed out I was fairly convinced I was going to just get belted and pushed out of the way. So I decided to push even harder to try and seal the deal. My second chase was an improvement on the first, I didn't carry quite as much angle, but I was closing the gap into the first corner Then in the second lead I didn't get quite out to the first outer clip, which meant I had a bit too much momentum into the second clip, I ran wide and hit the sand. It was all over at that point, so I just straitened up in case he had taken the inside line to get around me.

So yeah, I didn't make a Takumi style push to win in the lowest HP car of the day, but I still ended the day super happy with how I had driven. I think if I had put my first lead run together with my second chase run there is a chance that I may have progressed. I guess we'll never know.

It actually may well have been a good thing that I went out when I did though. I went out for an expression session later and within a couple of laps my turbo failed
You can actually hear it making strange noises in the video of the battle. So if I had progressed there is a good chance the poor little stock turbo would have given out mid run.

At the moment I am deciding whether to replace it with another S15 ball bearing jobbie or bite the bullet and get a 2871r. There is a 2871r available at the moment for a decent price, but it has the .86 rear housing. I only want to make a max of 300hp because I don't enjoy swapping out gearboxes. So I don't need the larger housing and would prefer the response of the .64 rear... decisions decisions hey

I am also happy to report that the car has lived up to the title now. From what I have been hearing it was properly baking the tyres in the afternoon once I had figured out my line.

Here is my favorite photo so far:

[ae8zn6]

OK, update time...

I have been slowly making changes to prepare the car for the next round of the WA Drift comp. After blowing the turbo I was left in a bit of a pickle... People selling second hand S15 ball bearing turbos were after around $500 bucks and the ones I looked at were all in terrible condition. Other people were selling 2560r's as 2871r's and I think they honestly didn't even realise they had it wrong

Then I went to look at a 2871r that had been advertised on gumtree as low Km reluctant sale... usual story. I turn up at 2pm (the agreed time) to his place.... no one home... Send a text asking how long he would be "Oh shit mate, so sorry, completely forgot, I'll be there in 45 minutes"...... LAME.... anyway, the asking price wasn't bad so I went off and got a drink then came back 40 minutes later.... still not there.... at 3:20 he eventually turns up, not even sheepish and we go and look at the turbo.... The thing looks like it has been used as a cement mixer, with bent compressor blades and shaft play... I inform him that he turbo is rooted and I would pay no more than $100 and even then its really just to use for parts or in case I need a replacement housing. He sticks to his guns and tells me the amazing condition it is in... to my face... while we are both looking at the POS.

I decided I was all but done with buying a second handie at that point. Luckily I was later told about a really good deal being done on 2871r's by MTQ . Then the problem became management. I wasn't super happy with the Nistune from the get go as it had been running quite rich and was having problems returning to idle and being a bit of a PITA at partial throttle. So I also bit the bullet and decided that if I am going for a bigger turbo and as such more power I had better run it correctly or I would end up doing damage to the motor. So the solution in this case became a Link G4. I never again have to run a MAF, I get boost control off the ECU so that I can on sell my eboost to make some cash back and also do datalogging etc in case I have further issues down the line.

While I had the turbo off I decided I would address the problem I was having with popping boost pipes. So I have made up new pipework that runs off the turbo and then a straight line to the intercooler thanks to a new modified GKTech turbo outlet. The changes simplify how the pipes used to run and should help fix that problem, they are also smaller and as such have less volume to fill so should help reduce the inevitable increase in lag from the larger compressor.

I also figured that when everything was off I should do some maintenance, so I did a few little things, including putting on a new water pump. Which got me thinking that doing drifting on 40 degree days with even more power and just as much redline,it might be an idea to at least put a Silvia radiator on in. It was a little more involved than I was hoping, but I now have one in there and should benefit from the increased cooling capacity. Finally I also installed a GKtech clutch fan and removed the thermos. I never had a proper shroud for the thermos so they probably weren't doing as much as they could/should. On top of that, me being me, I had an in-line switch so that I could turn the fans on regardless of the water temp and I was running them pretty much all the time anyway, hence more or less defeating the point of thermos. As such I figured the low tech solution was probably the better option. I couldn't run one before because the top hose had to run from the 4age side back over to the sr20 side and that hose went through the arc of the fan, with the new radiator that was no longer a problem. Win.

OK, here are some pictures:

Before:



Most disassembled I've had the car since it first ran:



Radiator in (finally):



I would like to personally thank Holden for making the Camira... The Bottom hose off a Camira was exactly the size I needed for my new top hose!

New pipes (This is still temporary, and already looks a bit better then in this photo now that the AFM has been removed and the pod sits further away) I need to get 1 more piece welded on to the hotpipe from the turbo due to a measurement error on my part...



And before we get to the serious business of the results...

I got a pretty cool toy from my "sponsor" Infratherm . Its a legit Infrared camera, around the size of a GoPro, but with no on board power or recording functions. I have to play around with it and get something to record the image I am getting out of the output, but its pretty fun to mess around with. The aim is to get some footage of things heating up over runs and seeing if they could be worth having in performance garages etc or if they would just be faf, so watch this space. For now:



Ok, so form the reading I had done I expected that the car should be capable of around 300rwhp with the new turbo. I am also aware that I am approaching the limits of my gearbox and the last thing I want is to be swapping those out every time I hit the track. So my brief to the tuner was 16PSI, I also said if it was more than 310hp to just wind the boost down until we were between 300 and 310. Then a low boost setting to have the power around what I had with the old setup (~250hp). I wanted the low boost setting to be a flat graph, rather then a big curve through as the whole point was to be smooth and drivable. It would be fair to say that I am absolutely stoked with the results:



So 307rwhp at 16PSI (high boost) and 259rwhp at 13.7PSI (low boost). We overlayed my old graph over this one and the old turbo did have more power until around 3400ish, so there is some increase in lag, but I don't think it will be enough to worry about.

So far I have only had the chance to drive it up the ramps on the trailer, but this Sunday is the next round of the drift, so I will get to try it out within a couple of days time. The tyres in my garage are already scared. Now I just need to figure out how to stop breaking things and I should be good to go

but yes, exciting times!