Rising from the Ashes. The Rally 240SX rebuild thread.

General discussion forum about the 240sx, and a great place to introduce yourself to the board!
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RallyB13
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Well, failing all else, Chris and I certainly would have towed you in had one of the previous competitors not done so.

Ahh, Nissans and alternators. I had put on all new belts with my water pump replacement just before the event, and they weren't adjusted perfectly. Every time we'd hit a big water splash, I'd lose charging and start panicking (having had way too many alternators fail in my SR20 powered cars). I'm not even running an SR20 alternator anymore, but I'm still paranoid about them. Then 30 seconds later it'd come back.


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I've been slacking with my online commitments, and just re-found you.
FlatBlackIan wrote:
DeXteR wrote:Of course I'm in.

I like the Chuki front. I've never been a fan of the pig nose.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of this pans out as you and your crew have gained a lot of skill and experience since this first started.

Good and good.

The Chuki bumper is growing on me. I will reserve final judgment until I see it painted and with the light bar on. I also need to get the pig lip on there. Miraculously, it survived with just a small scuff, and a tiny crack out of view when installed How does that even happen lol?

And on that note, lets watch Chris and I make funny faces as I pinball the car off trees.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuXtLmII ... ture=g-upl[/youtube]
I saw the crash, and then you drove off.... I was thinking that was just a bump, and the real crash was still to come, then I realized that was it :gapteeth:

All-around gangster.

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Hey Ian, any updates? SnoDrift and 100AW are just around the corner...

Buddy of mine just asked for me to pit for him at SnoDrift so that'll be a cool experience, might see ya there.

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Stumbled across this smiley and thought of your rally team! Image

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float_6969
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lol, nice! Ian will like that.

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nismofly
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Ian/anybody else who regularly attends RA events...

By any chance anybody get any good info on the Summit Rally silvias that came from australia? I found a video where they say its high horsepower SR, standalone ECU, and 6 spd sequential for drivetrain, which is pretty much irrelevant for group 2, and then suspension wise not much more than what Ian's car has, but its not a complete spec sheet so some things may be left off.

Wondering if anything on those cars could be useful for group 2 but within reasonable budget. In another video I noticed they run Z32/R chassis 4 pot brakes, but thats all Ive been able to dig up.

BTW heres the first video I was referring to, which I can't seem to stop watching for some reason, can't imagine why. :chuckle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JSAg52msWU

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nismofly wrote:Ian/anybody else who regularly attends RA events...

By any chance anybody get any good info on the Summit Rally silvias that came from australia? I found a video where they say its high horsepower SR, standalone ECU, and 6 spd sequential for drivetrain, which is pretty much irrelevant for group 2, and then suspension wise not much more than what Ian's car has, but its not a complete spec sheet so some things may be left off.

Wondering if anything on those cars could be useful for group 2 but within reasonable budget. In another video I noticed they run Z32/R chassis 4 pot brakes, but thats all Ive been able to dig up.

BTW heres the first video I was referring to, which I can't seem to stop watching for some reason, can't imagine why. :chuckle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JSAg52msWU
I don't have a full spec sheet, but I did talk to the owner a bit about it. Wills car is for sale actually, I asked how much and he told me $40,000 with spares.

Its a G5 car, very well built and very well shaken out. I gathered that the car was built much like a track car. The only thing thats different really is the suspension.

Things like the brakes would be nice, but my budget doesn't allow it, and my speed doesn't require it. I really should to a Q45 swap.

As for suspension, the dampers are different, but close to equal. I would bet they are running full custom arms all the way around like I plan to do. The rest is all custom fab. Its a good car, but by no means outstanding compared to its competition. Will is a great driver.

You can get on the Summit inovations facebook page and ask the guys directly. They are super friendly

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Hey Ian! Are you all set for SnoDrift?

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Nearly 7 years without an update, and 10 years since the project began.


Whatever happened to the Rally 240SX? Where did it go, what did it hit, who did it try to kill? Maybe it's time to bring some closure to this thread, and to a big part of my life.

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Yes please!

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So, I typed up a whole first stage update...

And, all the images are 210 pixels too wide to be embeded. GRRRRR What gives?

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PapaSmurf2k3
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Bummer

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float_6969
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That's annoying, get to resizing!!! The NICOland needs to know!!

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float_6969 wrote:
Tue Nov 12, 2019 9:13 am
That's annoying, get to resizing!!! The NICOland needs to know!!
Well. I cherry picked the best pictures to upload since this is going to sort of be a cliff notes update anyway, so I only ended up with like 74 pictures, so I'm sure it'll just take a minute.

There's also a limit of only 10 pictures per post, so I'll be doling out updates over a few days. You know, "to build suspense".

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All I can say is I'm glad the car didn't Christine anyone.

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Hijacker wrote:
Tue Nov 12, 2019 6:11 pm
All I can say is I'm glad the car didn't Christine anyone.
Same.

It did try though.

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IanS
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Its been so long I actually had to go back and read my own thread to see where things left off.

After my last posting, Dexter and I raced the car 2 more times by my count. Once at Nemadji, and again at LSPR in 2013. We completed the event, but the car suffered from a handful of issues. Worn bores meant the engine ran terribly at WOT, it was consuming a large amount of oil, and a broken shift fork meant that the transmission would switch between being stuck in second gear, and not having a second gear. Money was tight, and time was tighter. I pushed the car into the corner, stacked the spares on/around it, and focused on other projects.

Fast forward 2 and a half years, and many layers of dust, and the itch got too strong not to scratch.

A local endurance team was looking for some extra drivers for a race at Brainerd International Raceway in the Fall of 2016. An old friend (Jaret) and I decided to jump in. I was a bit rusty, but it turned out my skills translated well to road racing, and after 4 hours in the seat between 2 days, I was quite hooked. So was Jaret....

After a bit of discussing, and some planning, we decided to convert my old car to endurance racing specs.

After moving lots of boxes, I pulled the car out of the corner. First order of business was to remove the rally suspension and tires.

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We cleaned most of the stickers off the car, and set about updating the safety equipment and driveline.

Sometimes "the help" doesn't understand the concept of staying out of the way for pictures.

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Over the winter we replaced the engine with a stock KA. Replaced the trans. Replaced all the safety gear, and installed a full fire suppression system. We also ditched the dash and added some more lightness.

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Then I painted the wheels orange because all the gravel had done a real number on them

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Took the car to work, and performed the longest alignment of my life.

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One thing I never needed (they wouldn't have survived anyway) when I was rallying were brake cooling ducts. Well I had a feeling we would need them now. So I made some out of duct tape and dryer vent tubing because my cheapness knows no bounds.

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And again, "the help" was quite helpful.

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We spent most of the winter going through things, and as soon as the snow melted, the car went on the trailer, and we packed up all the tools, and headed for Elkhart Lake WI.

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We enlisted Jarets brother Evan, and another Niconaught who shall remain unnamed to drive, with each driver getting 2 hours of each 8 hour race, for a total of 4 hours.

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Things started out pretty good, but after about a half hour, the leading edge of the hood peeled up due to all of our weight reduction.

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So we just lopped it off with the grinder, and sent the car back out hahahaha.

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At some point someone got a love tap and bent the RF headlight cover.

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3 relatively uneventful fuel stops and driver changes and we finished the day in a respectable position.

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Sunday's race started out cold and clear, but more of the same. Car was running well, and we were doing quite well until a certain unnamed driver spotted what he thought looked to be some usable spares in a tire wall outside the carousel. The investigation turned out to be unfounded, but we got to spend some time bending the fenders away from the tire so we could send the car back out.

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Despite the excitement, we finished respectably, especially considering it was our first race with an untested car.

Cosmetically, the car was a little worse for the wear, but mechanically it seemed solid.

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We learned a ton during our first race, and having Jaret's wife, and Evans future Wife with us at the race proved invaluable, and I cant thank them enough for all their help. I think thats enough update for today, maybe Ill continue the saga on another evening.

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Woot!!! Thanks for the update Ian!

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float_6969 wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 9:25 am
Woot!!! Thanks for the update Ian!
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May 2017

So, when we left off our little story, a certain Nico member coughTorrycough had wounded our poor old 240SX. Once the post race hangover had cleared up, we set about taking our lemon, and making a bit of lemonade.

First, we chopped up the ruined bumper cover, and strapped the top piece back on the nose of the car.

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Then we set about de-wrinkling the fender a bit. Seeing as it was a bit of a lost cause, we decided to see if we could make the best of it. The front wheel areas are a known problem aerodynamically speaking, so we decided to see if we could help that a bit.

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By cutting the fender, then folding the lower half in, it helps vent the high pressure in the wheel well, eliminating some front lift and helping the front brake cooling ducts work better.

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So what would you do if your front bumper was destroyed, and you didn't have a replacement but you did have a menards card? Get thrifty.

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After a little trimming, it fits pretty good.

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Houston we're going to need more rivets.

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And I suppose we'll have to cut some holes in it, you know, for cooling.

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Last edited by IanS on Thu Nov 14, 2019 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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June 2017

So, we had a big chunk of HDPE left from the air dam. I wonder where we could put that....

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Time attach mode ACTIVATE!!

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We were in a pretty tight time crunch to get the car back on track to do some testing to see if any of our changes were working or not. So I got very few pictures of the car with the trimmed splitter.

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We also added a small wing that I found in a parts car I bought. To offset the new front downforce.

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Then, back on the trailer she went.

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We spent a day testing the car, and a potential new driver at Brainerd Internatiol Raceway.

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We tried a few different wing, tire, and brake settings before packing it up and heading home with lots of additional data.

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July 2017

We added a bit of driver cooling to help keep drivers cool and happy.

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We made a handful of other changes before loading the car back up, and heading back to BIR for a pair of 8 hour races with ChumpCar. Jaret, Evan, and I were back driving, and we rented a seat to a local racer named Eric, who normally drove for another team.

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We had a few small issue with the exhaust, and some contact on saturday that resulted in enough time in the paddock to keep us off the podium, but the car performed well, and we all had a great time. Nearing the end of the a race a BMW misjudged the braking area going into turn 12, and plowed into the side of the 240. It was deemed a racing incident, but it cost us a few positions.

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Sunday the engine was consuming more and more oil, and we switched track layouts to one that favored high powered cars. By the end, the car was using more than a quart of oil every 2 hours, and we literally drove the tires and brakes off the car. We ended the day on parts store brake pads, and mostly worn out spare tires.

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Fall 2017

When we left off our little story, car #240 had been the unfortunate recipient of quite a door ding.

We hauled her home, and set our sights on the 2017 ChumpCar National Championship race at Road America.
We had learned quite a lot at our previous 2 races, so we set about making the needed modifications to help us compete on a national stage.

The first order of business was increasing the cars mechanical grip. Until now, we'd been running stock width wheels, and 205 width tires. Time for an upgrade. Thanks to the 240s popularity among drifters, I was quickly able to track down a set of 17x9 wheels, and we picked up a set of Falcon Azenis in 255/40. They say bigger is better after all....

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Initial test fitting showed that some minor "adjustments" would be required to fit the larger rolling stock.

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Its a hard to judge how large the wheels are in pictures, so here's a small child for reference.

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They only poke out "a little".

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While the boys set about rolling the rear fenders, pulling the fronts, and trimming the air damn/splitter, I began to work on the next project. The IATs had gotten pretty high during the previous race, so I decided to build a ram/cold air box.

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I also repainted the other headlight cover so it wasn't red.

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With that done, I moved on to another issue. The factory hoses on our VP fuel jugs were just too small, and they limited how quickly we could fill the tank, which made our pit stops longer than they needed to be. I hogged out the hole in the cap, and retapped them to a larger size and fitted new 1.25 ID hoses, with 1" ID tips to match regulation. Then I opened up the vent and fitted a hose that would prevent fuel from spilling even if the jug is upended when totally full. These changes cut time from full to empty by more than half.

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With the Fenders rolled, the door fixed, new wheels and tires fitted and all our other changes, it was time to head back to Road America.

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Last edited by IanS on Fri Nov 15, 2019 6:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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October 2017 The Chumpionship.

Back on the trailer, we set off for Elkhart Lake for a 16 hour race run over 2 days with a Parc Ferme in between. Jaret, Evan and I would be driving. One of my fathers Coworkers who races in PCA Porsche Series signed on to rent out 4th seat. Evans Wife would be serving as Crew Chief, a job which it turns out she absolutely excels at, and one of Jarets coworkers would be helping with pit duties.

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With nearly 80 of the fastest ChumpCars in the country, we knew competition would be stiff, but we thought we were ready.

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Saturdays race started out cool and dry. We had a very uneventful race as I recall. The competition was extremely stiff, and many of the cars were fast on and off the track, putting down consistently fast time, and completing perfect pit stops. We ended the day in respectable position, comfortably in second place in class, within striking distance of first.

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Sundays race started with a totally different feeling. The track was damp, and soon the skies opened up, and it rained for the majority of the day. Jaret, Evan, and Matt, all struggle with the ever changing grip, and difficult visibility. All three exited the car after their time looking tired, annoyed, or downright scared. I on the other hand felt right at home after just a few laps. After years of racing in mud, snow, gravel, and even grass, the wet track was like being home after vacation. I enjoyed my time in the car in the wet more than any stint up till that point. We all did our best, but the poor traction which suited FWD, and poor wet performance from the Falcons meant we just barely held on to our second place spot, and we ended the weekend in 12th overall. It was our best finish yet, and we had even more data for next season. We loaded up, and took the car home for a wash.

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The Chumpionship race was also our first time recording video and saving telemetry so here are each drivers stints from the weekend.

Evan in the car for the start.



Matt



Jaret



Me



First half of Evans second Stint Saturday evening.



Sunday mornings race start with Evan back in the Car.



Matts Second stint. Including a mishap that saw him beached in the kitty litter which required a tug from the safety truck.



And I seem to be missing the footage from the last two stints, with me having a blast, and Jaret bringing it home. I had a lot of sliding antics, and got to watch first hand as a green driver exited the pits, struggled for half a lap before stuffing the car hard into the tire wall back end first.

I'll have to do some digging to see if the footage was corrupt, or if I just never uploaded them.

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Winter 2017/2018. "The Offseason"

Fresh off the trailer from Road America we set to work. With limits on any parts that increase engine power, we needed to find a way to make the car faster without more power.

Sometimes less is more. Out with all the unneeded wiring I should have pulled years ago.

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After 20 hours of pruning wires, depinning connectors, I was left with a fresh stripped harness.

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All said and done, more than 25 pounds came out of the car in just wiring alone.

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With the wiring done. We moved onto trying to ditch even more weight. Off with the factory hatch latch, to be replaced with some spring over race latches.

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Next up, the passenger door got trimmed to within an inch of its life, and had its door bars removed.

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In an attempt to tighten up the rear end a bit. We replaced the poly subframe bushes with an aluminum bush.

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To go with our racing hatch latches, the hatch itself got gutted as well.

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After Jaret's incident at BIR, we decided to make some changes to the driver door bar. The original door bar was designed to work with a fully paneled door with a window fitted. With our door now gutted, there was a large gap between the door and the door bar that could allow an arm to get crushed between the two.

Out with the old.

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Make some space.

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Jaret doing his best "fat guy elbows" impression to demonstrate all the room for activities the new bar allows.

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Much safer than V1

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We hemmed and hawed about putting a floppy drivers door back on, but decided that hinges are heavy, so we welded the door skin on Dukes Of Hazard style.

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All done with a support for the top of the door skin, and painted.

Then we re-fitted the net.

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Awesome updates. I love everything you guys did with the car.
Also, that footage looks and sounds way faster than I guess it actually is. Did it remain a stock KA, or did you ever put any cams or other power-adders on it?


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