Winter 08 build: The track package

[eds13]

hey, you got an esssarrr in that???

haha but really tho, it looks great dude. i am jealous. 'cept for the fact that your still sky jackin hehe

[Bumnah]

Ed. Sky jackin' perhaps. But she handles really well, and that's all that matters!

So I got it to the track. Car ran perfectly! I was really impressed to be honest. It went much more smoothly than I expected it to. I was afraid something would ruin my fun, but nothing did.

I ran at VIR for 2 days. 4.20 course. They used both Patriot and Full courses.

Here is a picture of the track lay out:

I lost it once through the "spiral". I nearly lost it a second time, but I kept it under control. Both times it was my driving that caused the car to lose it.

The feel of the car is exactly what I wanted. VERY neutral. Not too much of anything. I was actually so comfortable with the setup. I started driving hard much sooner than I expected to. There isn't any bumper steer, there isn't any binding in the suspension pieces. I'm retaining a lot of suspension movement. It's EXACTLY what I wanted from the car. It feel stock, minus the slop that used to be there. It's certainly stiffer.

My power steering fluid is boiling over, but I think it has to do more with the reservoir than anything else.

This was an HPDE event, and my instructor told me the car felt "well balanced". After the last session he stated it was "good handling car". I kept the boost at stock levels, and the boost controller holds it there. No weird spikes or anything. The brakes worked flawlessly, but the fluid definitely needs to be changed after this event.

Pictures of the event can be found here:http://www.bumnah.com/vir

Pages 3 and 4 have some videos, but the resolution is too low. I'll make them larger, later.

My favorite picture is this:

My favorite video is this:http://www.facebook.com/home.p...ef=mf

[mattblancarte]

You are the MAN! Congrats on your successful build and great weekend at the track. I bet you learned a TON and improved your driving skills immensely.

+10000 cool points for you, sir.

p.s. That course looks amazing. I need to tour that region sometime!

[kenno470]

Great pics and videos! Looks like it was allot of fun!

[nissan_star]

that racetrack looks freaking beautiful. Congrats on removing the monkey from your back, it must feel great.

You have inspired me to read your whole thread from front to back, again.

[Bumnah]

Yeah, it was a real learning experience at the track this weekend. I learned a lot about trail braking and car rotation. My instructor told me I did very well for my first time out.

I've already signed up for an August event.

Here is a picture I really like. My friend is into photography so he took a few pictures. Here is my favorite out of the bunch:

[the converted]

I've never been that way through the spiral, but I could imagine it being a b****. I love that track and can't wait to get back there.

[SR2OM0NSTER]

Siccckkk!! reminds me of my car, minus the coilovers. I also need to re-do my rear subframe and make those aluminum subframe bushings.

[supreamS14]

What's the price on a track day at that track?

[Bumnah]

I believe the price varies from club to club. Most of events I've seen have also been multi day events. Several hundred per event. Really depends, if it's and HPDE with good instructors several hundred. If you're looking at just lapping events, maybe only a couple hundred.

VIR is a gorgeous track, and VERY fun to drive. It's worth every penny. I'm contemplating doing Road Atlanta in September. I've been told I HAVE to do Mid Ohio. I'm planning Mid-Ohio for 2010.

[Bumnah]

I'll pass on the cooler for now. I freakin' hate taking that damn front bumper off. What a huge pain it is.

Thanks for the offer though.

Update wise, uh. I put my lights in. I finally got around to changing the plugs around, and mounted up the lights. I also adjusted how my hatch popped open and closed (I never set it properly before).

The lights look great. Kind of pointless to install hard to replace pieces on a car I hope to track frequently. Oh well, I've wanted them for years.

Old lights out. New lock cylinder installed. (I had it keyed to use my original keys)

New lights mounted up.

Look, the lights work!

RPS13 fake carbon fiber panel installed.

So, this pretty much wraps it up. I doubt I'll update this thread any more. I'm hoping to get the car on jack stands on Saturday and check the torque on the suspension before my autox on Sunday.

Full picture gallery is here.

[mattblancarte]

It's over? Noooooooooooooooo

[Bumnah]

Winter 09 build?

[mattblancarte]

Perhaps!

[SolaraOnBronze]

Looks great with the tails man!

[Bumnah]

Thanks for buying the carbon fiber so I could buy my lights.

[supreamS14]

[Bumnah]

So I decided to just keep this thread going instead of starting up a new thread.

Not much planned for the car except for track events. I am doing some small things.

First up is maintenance stuff.

My Ichiba hub on the front passenger side had some play in it. Looks to be the wheel bearing. I'm going to press in an OEM wheel bearing, and hopefully it works just fine.

Hub off:

Replacement bearing:

How the suspension looks right now:

I'm also working on the suspension since that is my real interest. New bearings for the z32 uprights. These bearings will replace the toe bushings. No one offers these. A group buy was started on Nissan Road Racing, and someone had these manufactured. The price was extremely reasonable, and the quality looks to be good. I'm going to try and replace the upper arm bushing and traction arm bushing on the uprights as well. If money allows for it.

Bearing 01:

New hardware as well:

I also picked up this cooling panel, used. It's Yoshio factory. The pink is ugly but I got it for the same price as a DME panel. We'll see if it actually helps with cooling.

I also ordered up some aluminum steering rack bushings from SPL. They should be here next week. Hopefully it makes the steering feedback even better; it's great already.

Enjoy!

[White Comet]

looking really good. i'm surprised you didnt press oem bearings into the hubs before installing em. lots of people that get em do that since the ichiba bearings are known not to last too long. the z32 upright toe bearing is really nice as well.

[nissan_star]

You might want to put some kind of protection over the hiem joint on you outer tie rod. Those are notorious for early failure due to dirt.

Just throwing that out there

You are the man btw!!!

[Bumnah]

I mean I guess I heard of people having issues with Ichiba hubs. Oh well. New bearing hopefully solves my problem.

As for the bearings, I'm not sure what you can do to protect them. From what I've heard the large ones are actually less prone to issues because they're large enough that they kind of clean themselves off when rotating.

While the car is in the air I'm going to blast some air on all the bearing to get rid of any dirt or dust that may be there. I've put maybe 2000 miles on this setup in the last 3 months. Also, I'm going to start rolling the fenders to clear the RPF1s.

[nissan_star]

I am only talking about the tie rod endlink setup you have shown there, I know nothing of the hubs. Someone told me that the teins are really good because they used a stock end with a boot. You will probably be fine though, seeing how you pay attention to detail.

I dont know how to protect it. maybe ziptie a ziplock bag around it, lol

[Bumnah]

So after weeks of it sitting around. I installed my Yoshio factory cooling panel. It is quite easily the ugliest thing I have ever seen.

Luckily I have plenty of stickers to make it slightly less ugly.


Modified by Bumnah at 10:57 PM 9/16/2009

[mRodiek]

I thought you said you were gonna add stickers to make it LESS ugly?

[Bumnah]

It's pink. I could draw a schiong on it, and it'd look better.

[StylesCD]

It's pink. I could draw a schiong on it, and it'd look better.

don't front on pink, its a great color. Best thing to do would have been to trace a playboy bunny outline in black sharpie on it.

[mRodiek]

Its not bad, Im not a fan of the pink though-maybe something that matches something else on the car?

[Bumnah]

I'm too old to put playboy bunnies on anything. I was actually going to scruff it up and spray paint it flat black. I went with the sticker option because my friend pointed out, leaving it pink would maintain a high resale value if I ever sold it.

Stickers were a good middle ground.

[hbpignosePA]

but the pink is JDM tyte

[2legit2quit]

way sic