Some video from last track day at Gingerman

[WhatsADSM]

I know sometimes the RB guys like videos so figured I would copy my post from a local car club forum:

So I had my first road racing experience and I'm hooked. It was a total blast.

I went out to Gingerman in Michigan for WMHM9. For the first day I was with an instructor the entire day who also owned a 240. It was great to have him there instructing me on the lines and helping me consistently get better and better.

As for the videos... Here is the first one. It is taken from my car (240sx) and YES I KNOW THE CAMERA MOUNT IS TOO LOW. You kind of get the idea. Mostly due to my car (and a little to my improving skills) I got bumped from Beginner to Intermediate II. What was very cool about that was I had a buddy that I went with that has an LS1 powered FC3S (Late 80s RX7) that was just kicking a** and taking names in the Intermediate II group. So finally I could jump in there and at least give him a run for his money.

I stayed in front of him for a few laps (the video cuts in mid-session so it looks like only 1 lap) with him chasing. My car is an animal on the straights, yet he is a better driver with a more balanced powerband. So it was interesting to say the least. There was no way he was going to get around me to pass on the straights, but I felt like I was holding him up on some turns where he was just a much better driver. So you will see me let him by (the white RX7).

I then chase him.... and well, I got a little tail happy on turn 2 and you will have to watch to see what happens. It's good I promise. :rolf What is even cooler is that I did this RIGHT in front of the grandstands with a bunch people watching. :rolf

http://s52.photobucket.com/alb...e.flv

I got black flagged for that one, and here is my next session out where I take it a little easier. Here you are have an awesome camera/telemetry setup on a STI. He grids behind me. The first lap we take it easy to warm everything up and then have at it. Again I had a considerable horsepower advantage on the chase car but he was a much better driver, so I figure like my buddy I would just let him by. In hindsight I was stuck behind other cars basically the whole time the STI was behind so I wasn't pushing it hard to keep up. Once things opened up I should have pushed it a little harder and not let him by right away... I was just a beginner and didn't want to get in anyone's way.

I was actually very happy because after I let the STI by I kept my distance until the end of the session and ended right behind him. All those cars he was passing, I also passed right after him. :thumbsup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXY-K7vMokc&fmt=22

Going road racing also made me find a few things on the car that I need to do before going back out:1) Rear diff. I was a one tire fire out there and it was a joke. Between that and the way-to-big-for-a-road-coarse turbo it was just too hard to drive competitively. Especially with a beginner driver.2) New power steering pump and cooler. Those 2 days killed my power steering pump... I kind of suspected I would need a PS cooler and already had one ordered and at my house just didn't have time to put it in.3) Oil cooler. My oil pressures were getting a lower than I expected by the end of the sessions. So my oil was probably cooking in there! Definitely should get a nice oil cooler before going back out.4) Swap transmissions with a spare I have here. My trans has been on its "last leg" for a LOONG time. I keep telling myself I will just drive it till it blows up, but honestly that's not really a good idea when you are talking about driving 2 states away, beating the s*** out of the car and then driving back.

[s14_sport]

This is awesome. The in-cabn footage could have been alittle bit better...but the footage from the STI was awesome! You shouldn't have let him pass!!!

[240z4u]

Aw man, I wanna go. You going to go to anything in the state? I would love to go but just have no idea how to get started.

Glad you had fun, awesome stuff.

[glitched]

cool.

if you ever go again next year, lemme know. I'm at Black hawk farms a couple times a year, but my plan for next year is to try and tour as many of the midwest tracks i can!

[WhatsADSM]

Yea I should let you two know when I head out next. A few friends of mine and myself may actually go back to gingerman this year for a test and tune (which is only $60 BTW!!).

Otherwise there is also an event at Road America here in WI, with an F-body group. I am thinking about making it out to that one. (Again if I can get all that stuff fixed in time). Here is the link to that one:http://roadamerica.fbody.us/

[Darius]

That thing sounds badass! How did you road race without power steering and an LSD? Especially PS! You must be superman.

Most guys I know of that regularly road race have external oil coolers and they swear by them. Gawdzilla hits the track too so maybe he'll chime in and give you some tips on other things you might want to add as well.

That course looked pretty fast too. What was your approximate top speed?

<edit> How did the STI video get the real-time gauges on the video?


Modified by Darius at 1:47 PM 7/29/2009

[WhatsADSM]

That thing sounds badass! How did you road race without power steering and an LSD? Especially PS! You must be superman.

Most guys I know of that regularly road race have external oil coolers and they swear by them. Gawdzilla hits the track too so maybe he'll chime in and give you some tips on other things you might want to add as well.

That course looked pretty fast too. What was your approximate top speed?

<edit> How did the STI video get the real-time gauges on the video?

Modified by Darius at 1:47 PM 7/29/2009

As for the LSD... It was kind of my ignorance in terms of how they work. I always knew that the LSD was pretty weak/dead in my car, but I was hoping a fluid change would work. What I didn't realize until later searching was that the unit is sealed and the diff oil is just for the gears.. So yea the diff was still busted.

As for power steering.. actually it worked all weekend. Then when I got back home and was pulling it into the driveway I realized it was whining like crazy anytime I touched the wheel. Only good news is, all it takes is another KA pump and I should be good to go.

In terms of external oil coolers, if anyone knows of good setups please let me know! Otherwise I was planning on just doing something custom off of the Greddy sandwitch adapter.

In terms of top speed I was actually being really conservative. I have the boost turned down as low as it will go (~18psi) and had it a little rich and a few degrees of timing out just for safety. Even with all that, I would coast through the end of many of the straights because I was a little scared to go faster and/or I was already flying up on the back of someone. I think on the front straight once or twice when I really pushed it I was going about 120, then full on brakes

The STI had a crazy cool setup. As for the telemetry he was using a setup from racechrono.com. He had a nokia WM phone with a 5Hz bluetooh GPS adapter. He also had some interface on the phone to OBD-II which is how the speed and rpm were logged. After everything was logged he exports the raw data and then has a program which takes the raw data, and once you sync it with the camera data it will overlay the GPS track data, the RPM and the speed on top of the video! I believe he was using the $$ ChaseCAM software, however he said that racechrono also has some software (free) which can do the overlay just not quite as pretty.

[glitched]

Yea I should let you two know when I head out next. A few friends of mine and myself may actually go back to gingerman this year for a test and tune (which is only $60 BTW!!).

Otherwise there is also an event at Road America here in WI, with an F-body group. I am thinking about making it out to that one. (Again if I can get all that stuff fixed in time). Here is the link to that one:http://roadamerica.fbody.us/

.

Check out midwest council. Thats who i usually hit track days with.http://www.mcscc.org/They have events at blackhawk farms near beloit, Autobahn in IL. and will be back at the milwaukee mile road course for the labor day weekend this year.

[gawdzilla]

hahah, i can hear the 1 wheel burnout sounds in the video. definitely couldn't be doing that with a diff i did something very similar to your pendulum recovery before but the car didn't come all the way around. i learned that you need to trust that the car will come back once you countersteer and not hold it for too long. otherwise you'll just get that back-and-forth pendulum. whether it can be done under pressure is a whole different story though, haha. the video from the sti is awesome. looked like a fun event.

did Casey with a black s13 coupe instruct you? oh, and what kind of tires are you running?
Modified by gawdzilla at 1:56 PM 7/29/2009

[WhatsADSM]

hahah, i can hear the 1 wheel burnout sounds in the video. definitely couldn't be doing that with a diff i did something very similar to your pendulum recovery before but the car didn't come all the way around. i learned that you need to trust that the car will come back once you countersteer and not hold it for too long. otherwise you'll just get that back-and-forth pendulum. whether it can be done under pressure is a whole different story though, haha. the video from the sti is awesome. looked like a fun event.

did Casey with a black s13 coupe instruct you? oh, and what kind of tires are you running?

Nope wasn't Casey... It was my first time meeting him, really cool guy and down to earth. He was running in Advanced 2 all day, and I watched him a bunch. Good driver too boot.

My instructor was Ryan, he has a grey (hint of purple in there?) Zenki S14. SR20 with a S15 T28 and bunch of suspension. Also a really nice guy that I learned a TON from.

I was running nitto 555s up front with 555rs out back. Surprisingly enough they were sticking and although they weren't the ideal choice that was not the limiting factor at all.

Next year I want to come out with the diff fixed, a "maximum grip street tire" like a Star spec/Kumho XS/NT-05/etc, and a smaller turbo. Likely I will use something in the 35r size, the new billet PTE stuff is catching my eye. Maybe 6262? Also will change the front spring rate on my coilovers. And most of all keep working on the driver mod, as that is BY FAR the biggest limiter right now

[gawdzilla]

Casey is a nice guy from my area. I met him last year when I started tracking the car. i'm running the kumhos this season and i like them a lot. your story is pretty similar to mine. RB with gt40 turbo to start, only to get into track driving and deciding on stepping down to a 35r (i went with the 35r 1.06). i don't regret the decision

still made 525 on pump through the 35r with a cracked manifold. but what's important is the response is a lot better, but i can still turn it up if i want. i think a gt30 is ideal for response, but it may leave a little to be desired up top (probably not on a road course though. drag/top end, yes)

as far as a diff goes, a lot of guys like the torsen/helical, aka s15 diff. i'm running a tomei 2-way and it's a bit too "drifty". if i could do it again i'd probably lean towards the helical.
Modified by gawdzilla at 2:44 PM 7/29/2009

[Yellow4g63]

Nice looks like a lot of fun!.

[WhatsADSM]

Casey is a nice guy from my area. I met him last year when I started tracking the car. i'm running the kumhos this season and i like them a lot. your story is pretty similar to mine. RB with gt40 turbo to start, only to get into track driving and deciding on stepping down to a 35r (i went with the 35r 1.06). i don't regret the decision

still made 525 on pump through the 35r with a cracked manifold. but what's important is the response is a lot better, but i can still turn it up if i want. i think a gt30 is ideal for response, but it may leave a little to be desired up top (probably not on a road course though. drag/top end, yes)

as far as a diff goes, a lot of guys like the torsen/helical, aka s15 diff. i'm running a tomei 2-way and it's a bit too "drifty". if i could do it again i'd probably lean towards the helical.

Modified by gawdzilla at 2:44 PM 7/29/2009

Yea we must think very similarly. As much as I know the 30r is what is perfect on the road coarse... honestly I don't think it will give me enough of what I want for drag days and just general street cruising. I think I want to stick with a .68 T4, and I'm gonna call PTE directly to get their thoughts on the correct turbo sizing. I can't really see myself ever needing more than 600-650whp so I will get something that tops out there and gives me the best response.

IIRC you used to run the exact same turbo as me (4067r). Its not a bad turbo for the money and it does really well for top end power, but I don't really have full spool until somewhere around 5200 or so. That sound like your old setup? How much did you gain in spool RPM, and transient when you went with the Full Race 35r?

As for the diff. I have to get it out of the car, because I honestly don't know what it is. I was told R34 GT-T, but it doesn't seem right. Although it does have 5-bolt axles and I believe they are the stronger (30 spline?) version so I would like to keep that. If possible I would like to basically just swap out the VLSD in there for a Helical Quaife ATB.

[gawdzilla]

yea, i used to run the gt067r. it was very laggy compared to the gt35r. even with my cracked manifold, the 35r is still noticeably better. when i first put the 35r on though, the car felt completely different. the first night i drove it around i remember getting decent boost at 3000 rpm. compared to the 40, probably about 1000 rpm sooner. it's smoother and not as binary, which makes the car that much less scary to drive. so much more streetable, even just accelerating from stop lights you don't have to string out the rpms to get the car to move. i hated that with the gt40.

but now that my manifold is cracked, it started to feel laggy. i blamed it on the tune for a few months (car is hardly driven, so months is only like a few hundred miles). but i started paying more attention to the underhood sounds and there was definitely ticking. the car is now apart and there are 2 big cracks in the manifold collector area. here's my 35r dyno chart from what i estimate to be after the cracking/leaking started. the response and spool time is suffering here as you can probably see. i won't bench race it though and say how many rpm, cuz i really don't know

[lucky7]

i just skimmed, but you mentioned you're gonna use a KA PS pump?? could you email me more info of how you're going to do this? as far as i know, its not a direct fit. thanks!

[email protected]

[silviasgp06]

heres what i did for the KA PS on RB25 conversion zerothread/269541

enjoy!
Modified by silviasgp06 at 7:13 AM 8/4/2009

[WhatsADSM]

I have a 26... but I did eventually get it to work.

It requires swapping out the pulleys and then modifying the stock bracket by grinding/machining the bracket a little and then placing spacers (washers) in the bracket to move the pulley closer to the front of the car. I figured how much to move it by using a straight edge and a MIC. I then grinded that much off and MIC'd washers to get it to move it the correct amount.

That was the process for my R33 RB26, it might be a little different for the other motors (RB25, R32 26, etc).

[gawdzilla]

IIRC you used to run the exact same turbo as me (4067r). Its not a bad turbo for the money and it does really well for top end power, but I don't really have full spool until somewhere around 5200 or so. That sound like your old setup? How much did you gain in spool RPM, and transient when you went with the Full Race 35r?

wanted to followup on this. manifold is repaired now without leaks. did a quick spot check to see where full boost is after the fix. it breaks 20 psi (max 22) by ~3600 rpm.

[WhatsADSM]

wanted to followup on this. manifold is repaired now without leaks. did a quick spot check to see where full boost is after the fix. it breaks 20 psi (max 22) by ~3600 rpm.

Thanks for keeping me updated!As for the 3600... DAMN! I am really jealous of that, and it definately gives me some hope. Truthfully I just want (in 3rd gear) good power (maybe 10-15 psi) at 4000 and full spool at 4500, so full spool at 3600 sounds amazing!

So the 3600 is on an off the shelf 3582 in a 1.06 a/r housing? TS Housing I assume, and on what manifold?

[gawdzilla]

yea, 3582r 1.06 TS off the shelf. full-race sells it and so does atpturbo now i think. greddy divided manifold, but not true TS cuz it is only single wastegate. my wastegate is really far away though. below the steering rack/column