Sydneykid

PM sent, prices are in the R32GTR Group Buy thread cheers

What I found works with other Skylines, tell them to "drive a standard one first, then drive mine". With a Stagea the difference is immense. The real secret is not to over capitalise it, then you cop a big loss when you sell it. cheers

But I can speculate, recent events have proven that no one is immortal. Nothing like a touch of mortality to slow down a race driver. That's my excuse anyway. cheers

Why should I wait until the morning. Guess we don't agree on the GT black flag incident, I don't think it was deserved, plus it was outside the drivers briefing guildlines. Not going to lose much sleep over it though, move on to 2007. cheers PS; please say hello to Jim for me, tell him "the boy did good" and sorry I won't catch up with him at the Xmas party

You got it cheers

Both are actually fairly unsophisticated shock absorber valving and usualy come with stupid spring rates. You can do better. cheers

I have finished the engineering with Noltec on the S13 S14 and S15 strut tops. PM me for details. For Skylines, use the standard strut tops. Check around the For Sale forum, plenty of guys have bought coil over kits (poor buggars) and are selling their standard stuff. cheers

Hi Steve, contact me when you are ready to go, I have the guys searching for some more R32GTST rear shocks around the Bilstein worldwide network. There are a few sets of fronts in stock at Bilstein Australia, so it is only rears that we need to find. Plus Bilstein Germany haven't published their full production schedule for early next year. So you never know your luck. cheers

He wasn't a back marker, he wasn't being lapped, they were racing for position. With the progressive grid system that means where he finished in Race 2 he started from that grid positon in Race 3. So he wasn't about to move over and let someone past, that's less points in this race and a lower grid position in the next. Remember, at that time (Race 2), Tander was competing with Winterbottom for 3rd place in the Championship. I don't blame him for not wanting to give away points, I sure as hell wouldn't. cheers

When you say “wander”, do you mean high speed stability, as in you have to keep adding minor corrections to keep it straight? Or do you mean tram lining, where it follows the grooves worn in the road? I can’t see anything major wrong with the wheel alignment, minor fiddling really. May not fix the problem, but worth trying. Front Camber it has 0.04 degrees more negative on the left, not worth worrying about It has toe out 0.3 mm, I would aim for zero toe. It has 0.14 degrees more caster on the left front, that’s not usually enough to counteract the road camber (to the gutter), I would try for 0.25 more on the left than the right. Rear It has total toe out 0.3 mm, I would aim for 1 mm of toe in each side There is a very slight toe difference side to side, +0.05 RHS and -0.02 RHS. May be worthwhile trying. Camber looks OK, now that they have adjusted it. Some questions to ask while you are there; Did they zero the HICAS when they did the rear alignment? Have they checked the front and rear steering rack free play? What I have noticed with my Stagea is that it is sensitive to tyres and tyre pressure. It will tram line rather badly when the tyres are worn or the pressures too low. GTR’s are much the same. It is much more noticeable with the wider R33GTR wheels (17 x 9) and 245/40/17 tyres than it was with the standard wheels and 225/50/16 tyres. As usual tyres with square shoulders are noticeably worse then those with rounded shoulders. A little more camber usually works to alleviate tram lining due to square shoulders But that’s all tram lining stuff, mine doesn’t wander at speed, it tracks dead straight. It doesn’t drift to the left either. It has similar alignment specs to yours. Cheers

What I see is 1.38 on the lap Tander got black flagged for going too slow and then 2 laps at 1.38 and 1 lap at 1.39 AFTER his drive through. When it was in his best interests to go as fast as the car could to make up positions for race 3. The 1.38.2668 that he did on the lap he got black flagged was the fastest of the last 8 laps of the race. Judging by that evidence, they shouldn't have given him the black flag as he was going as fast as the car was cappable of, at that time, in that condition. cheers

On the Group Buy there are 22mm and 24mm rear adjustable stabiliser bars. Whiteline have indicated that due to lack of numbers, they won't be listing the Cefiro front bar. So I will be making both front and rear bars available on a Group Buy early in the new year. They will be part of a full kit same as Skylines R32/33/34 cheers

Nope, they have already announced a change in next year's points per race. So that it makes it worthwhile to actually RACE for a higher place, now there's a novel idea. V8 SuperCars is all about managing its image, and it doesn't look good when someone wins the championship after only winning one race. Especially after 2005's Accumulator result. cheers

Thin walled alloy pipe from the front to the rear, hardly any extra weight in that. Moving a handfull of kgs from the front to the rear, well every little bit helps. Especially when you start off with such terrible weight distribution. cheers

Plenty of high silicone content forged pistons available from the US, you don't have to go to Japan for them. cheers

The points system was designed to make sure that the Championship winner was decided at the last race meeting of the year. No anticlimactic race meetings run after the championship had been won. Cochrane's comment, "isn't it fantastic that the last race on the calendar will decide the Champion". The points spread made sure that was the case. If I remember rightly, if they had used the MotoGP points for each race, Tander would have won the championship before Bahrain. Cochrane wouldn't like that, less people might turn up to the last race meeting, so he would get less money. V8Supercars don't run on petrol, they run on money and lots of it. cheers

That's a late apex corner, he is on the correct (fastest) racing line. How can you "hang someone out to dry" when you are wider than him and he is hugging the white line on the inside? What, with 4 wheels on the grass, because that's what he would have had to do That picture is too late in the incident, Lowndes has already lost it. That's what happens when you block on lap 1 by choosing the diry (inside line). The Accumulator drove for points to win the championship last year, not his fault, blaim the stupid points system. Sure the cars are crap, but that's where the money is going. So if you want to get paid, it's the only form of racing to be in at the moment. That's where the technology is, because it follows the money trail. cheers

I love AFM's, nothing else makes tuning so accurate. cheers

The most effective way to lower it and achieve superior handling is by changing the shocks. The Bilsteins in the Group Buy come with additional circlip grooves which enable you to lower it using the standard springs. Around 24 mm works very well. New set of bumps tops and dust covers included, all up $1,001 delivered. PM me for details. cheers

There is no centre diff, ATTESSA works by using clutch packs. Have you checked the tranmission fluid lately? cheers

I thought it was fantastic, team tactics, drivers whinging, political correctness, team managers on stress relief, cars actually passing other cars out on the track (not in the pits), Officials arguing amongst them selves, near lap record pace in every race, drama, threats of rain, big changes in wind direction etc etc. It was captivating. The Officials have access to the radio communications between drivers and teams, plus they have full access to the data logs from every car. So who is going to be stupid enough to lie about a fuel pressure problem when you can see it on the datalog? You can't fake it by getting off the throttle, its logged as well. Rear tyres going off, you can see it in the lateral g-force trace. Drivers can't fake a thing these days, the truth is in the data. cheers

Yes, I do know better. Blocking to protect your position is 100% legal, the Officials said so at the Drivers Briefing. It's not like Tander was being lapped, it was a genuine fight for position after all. So the question is not about whether blocking is legal or not. The real question is why did the Officials say 5 laps from the end of the race was OK at the Drivers Briefing and then apply the no blocking rule with 4 laps to go? Personally I hate blocking, if the guys is genuinely faster, let him go, he might pull you along with him. But that's why I am an amateur racer, the professional drivers don’t think like that. cheers

That's exactly the point, Lowndes made a mistake in the previous corner and didn't want to pay for it. He was slow out of that corner and knew that he was going to be passed, at the end of the short straight or on the corner entry. That's why he was 2 car widths inside the racing line on the corner entry. That's blocking and "according to the Officials" you are only allowed to block in the last 3 laps (or is it 5 laps). If Lowndes doesn't go for the block (forget about the D pillar) Kelly would have been up to the A pillar. Do you really think that Kelly would deliberately take out Lowndes knowing full well that every second they were going to be on slow motion replay? In car cameras, 20+ track side cameras etc. Plus the Officials have access to the data from the Motec logger in every car, they can see the braking effort, the impact force and the steering angles. His team had already been penalised in the previous race, big brother was watching. cheers

Piston to bore clearance is relevant to piston metalurgy. But, as usual, you get nothing for nothing. More silicone in the alloy means tigher clearances can be used. But piston strength suffers. So a forged piston that will run at 2 thou won’t be strong as a piston that runs at 4 thou. cheers

So Tander was supposed to move over and give up his 3rd place in championship because Lowndes wasn't fast enough to get past? ALL the drivers were told at the Drivers Briefing on Friday that blocking on the last 5 laps was OK. So how come Tander gets black flagged with 4 laps to go for blocking? As usual this incident started the corner before, where Lowndes made a mistake. Go back and look, you will see Lowndes move over early on the short straight. He wasn't trying a move on the car in 1st, he was blocking because he lost corner exit speed and knew that Kelly was going to beat him to the next corner. If you really think that Kelly tried the "drive through your opponents rear quarter" then you had better have a look at the damage on Lowndes car. WHAT DAMAGE? It was the slightest rub, that's all it takes when you are on the limit of traction. Plastic bumper probably popped right back out. The real damage occured when Lowndes ploughed into the innocent guy in 1st place. Next time there is a drive day at Philip Island, pop out and I will show you the propper racing line for those 2 corners, Lowndes was at least 2 car widths inside that line. Blocking for all its worth. cheers