mjfawke

Having had a car repaired from roo-strike previously, it will never be as good as factory... and that was an insurance job.

When I was having the engineering tests out at the dragway for my engine conversion, there was a guy there from EVO with an RX7 S5. He was doing the brake test when I arrived, and his method of turning the car around at each end of the strip was to smoke the rears and flick it around. Very spectacular.... and then he told me that it was a customers car being engineered and having a new clutch fitted pre sale. It's O.K. if you try and break your own car doing stupid stuff , but I'm wondering how the life of the universal/CV joints in the driveline was affected by the abuse. And people wonder why I do all of my own servicing work...

For those who didn't show - big night last night, lots more cars and people than 'normal'

" ACT Policing continued its high-priority patrols for street racers on Friday night, dispersing a large group of drivers gathered in Hume. Frequent checks were made on the Federal Highway and around the streets of Braddon and Mitchell, other well-known hotspots for hoon behaviour. Traffic Operations manager Sergeant Jeff Knight said police were acting on information received on Thursday, which warned of possible street racing on the Federal Highway, between the roundabout at the top of Antill Street, Watson, and Eagle Hawk. Along with marked and unmarked cars, Operation Halite detectives were patrolling these areas gathering intelligence, including video surveillance. No-one was booked for street racing offences on Friday night or yesterday morning, an ACT Policing spokesman said. However, the lack of cooperation from certain people in Hume at about 10.30pm, when asked to move on, almost saw the defect team called out. Sergeant Knight said burnouts and street racing went hand in hand, but the former was a bigger problem in Canberra. "I'm putting together a strategy at the moment, which will include a lot of things including technology, and we're really going to hit 'em hard." Part of that strategy involved 19 of his traffic squad members, who were each assigned a sector of Canberra that they must take ownership of, and patrol at least once a shift. There would be covert surveillance and a dedicated team to concentrate on burnouts, while he also called on residents to phone through information about offenders, such as vehicle registration details. Police have powers to seize a vehicle involved in burnouts or street racing for up to three months for a first offence, while a repeat offender could forfeit his or her car altogether."

Around $550 - $650 for the turbo box. The NA box, which has different ratios and a different top cover, is usually around $450.

Or you could just check the error codes on the computer...

Actually, the area at the base of the windscreen is a high pressure zone, which is why the air intake for interior ventilation is placed there. Raising the rear of the bonnet causes air to be pushed into the engine bay at the rear, which *can* reduce airflow through the radiator if too much air enters the engine bay. Same goes for bonnet vents placed too close to the rear of the bonnet, and the only ones that will work are ones which have a lip at the front to create a low pressure zone over the vent.

Nah - we bailed from the museum at around 11.... I headed home, but I assume everyone else went out to Hume.

Still doesn't answer the question.... what's the conversion?

Here are the event details Link.

And you really think that the average rad shops knows/cares about the insulation qualities of the paint they use?

For ACT (according to NRMA), +1 width alloy to alloy, +2 width on steel to alloy, +2 on rolling diameter. Track increases are limited. But - if you get an engineers certificate, you can (within reason) pretty much do whatever you like. Check the NSW RTA Light Vehicle Modifications guidelines, because this is what the ACT Rego people generally follow. It's available off the RTA web site.

I'f you've got a steering wheel wobble, then you've most likely lost a weight. It could also be that it was previously balanced on the car to deal with a hub/rotor/tyre balance issue, and removing/refitting the wheel has put it out of balance.

Most paints are thermal barriers. And intercoolers are heat exchangers (convection), not radiators. Therefore - it's a bad idea, unless you can find a paint which is not a thermal barrier.

I checked with the guy at work who almost had a close encounter with the Falcon, and who saw a victim being booked the following day. The car is a red/brown, badged as an XT, but the car was quicker than the BA XT he was driving, so he was thinking XR6/XR6T.

Policeman - the defendant took off from the lights, smoked his tyres and exceeded the speed limit. Defendant - he wanted me to drag him! This is entrapment. Magistrate - and why should the court believe the defendant? Scumbag street racer - that's 6 years for you!

You might need new discs - not much wear material in modern discs. And forget cross-drilled - just a place for cracks to propogate. But slotted is not a bad idea.

I don't think that is a valid legal excuse in Australia...

I ended up with a set of Comp9's (QFM) for Wakefield. Too hard for street, but they actually worked better cold than my old regular street pads (QFM "SuperX" compond). I just looked up the specs of the Ultimates on the Bendix site - they never had anything like that when I was still going to the track! (pre children). 550C temp range! race_snooze - I changed my mind - try the Ultimates!

Have you run at Wakefield on the Ultimates? It's particularly hard on brakes... I've done Oran on street pads without any trouble.

Having tried this, there isn't really such a thing as a good street/track pad... not at a decent price anyway. Street compounds are not meant to handle continuous high temps (500C+), so are O.K. for supersprint events (2-3 laps), but at an open practise day they start to fall apart if you are running 5-10 lap sessions. I've had Bendix, Ferodo and Pagid street pads start to break up around the edges, and when they cool down the ends of the pads pull away from the backing plate. Pads which will survive multiple laps are usually very hard on the discs at low temperatures - as in destroy the discs in a couple of days of street driving. The only exception to this that I know of are the ceramic based pads which are not hard on the discs, but have a good temperature range. I priced a set of Pagid Motorsport pads in '99, but it was going to cost me around $430 (fronts only). You might be able to get some suitable pads in a carbon metallic - not something I looked into. Try ringing Race Brakes in Melbourne. They might have some suggestions on a good dual-purpose pad which won't eat the disc.

Yep - saw that thread, but the claim was that the stock valve didn't leak until around 18psi, but it appears it leaks at 13psi without the restrictor plate. And still no answer as to why there is a plate with a small hole in it anyway... I finally got a test drive in with modded BOV and no restrictor plate. Pretty much the same sounds & throttle transition, but the performance is back again... So - don't remove the restrictor unless you mod the BOV at the same time!

Just so everyone is aware - according to the guys at work, there is a BA falcon 'sleeper' around in the mornings, who has been trying to get people to have a race from the lights. Looks like a businessman, complete down to jacket hanging in the back of the car. Unfortunately, the car also has some optional accessories in the form of red and blue flashing lights... as soon as I find out the colour of the car, I'll edit this message.

O.K. - it does have an impact on performance. Without the plate, the valve seems to leak, 'cause the car has been waaaay down on power (I thought it was dodgy fuel). I'm not sure what it did to the boost - the car is a bit of a sleeper, so no boost gauge, but it runs around .9bar normally. Today I put the plate back in and the power came back - wheelspin in 1'st, spinning over bumps in 2'nd/3'rd just like it used to. So - I've just finished the 'Talon BOV' mod. I've blocked the pressure port into the bottom of the diaphram from the IC piping with a 6mm grub screw, and drilled a 3mm vent hole to atmosphere instead. Can't take it on a test drive until later, but when I do, I'll post back with comments.

Your airflow meter But seriously, cleaning with brake cleaner etc. as documented on the forums seems to work quite well.