Sydneykid

Most of our drivers are trained to trail brake, so we use HT10's front and rear. You won't find any problem getting them up to temperature in a lap dash/super sprint environment. In half a lap warm up we see well over 300 degrees at the rotor (we have infrared temp measurement). For hillclimbs I use the brakes agressively down the return road and while queing. Even on a cold day I can 200+ degrees, which is more than enough for the 1 or 2 uphill brake applications I make. cheers Ps; you are hardly "going out on a limb" using Hawk pads, pop out to a NSW State level race meeting and I will introduce you to 100 or so guys using them.

Standard RB30 conrods and bolts = not a good idea They are about as good as the standard pistons cheers

Did anyone go racing at WSID last night? How did you get on? cheers

Get them cleaned and flow checked before you use them. cheers

I wouldn't worry about too low oil temperature in Australia, the weather doesn't get cold enough to be a concern. cheers

There is a reason why high flowed side feed injectors are not all that common. It's cost comparison, they simply aren’t that good a value for money. Cleaning, high flowing and testing side feed injectors costs around $80 each, say $500 for a set of 6 including freight. You can buy a new set for ~$700, so it’s only a $200 saving. Which you can quickly recoup when you sell the car with the standard injectors in it and sell the aftermarket injectors for almost what you paid for them. Brand name aftermarket side feed injectors hold their value very well. cheers PS; be careful with the SARD side feed injectors, they are actually designed for 1JZ/2JZ and therefore need adaptor collars to fit Nissans

Most of the “retail” camber kits are designed to REMOVE the negative camber that occurs when Skylines are lowered. This is because the “road car market” is far larger than the “race car market” and they are looking at excessive inside tyre wear as the major problem that they need to overcome by adjusting the camber. Keeping that in mind, the standard R32 style upper control arm is around 190 mm long, centre of the outer bolt to the centre of the inner bolt. Using the off the shelf adjustable, offset, outer bush (Whiteline etc) reduces that to 184 mm. This gives around 2 to 2.5 degrees of negative camber on an R32 with a ride height around 355 mm centre of wheel to guard with around 6.5 degrees of caster on a 2wd and 4.5 degrees on a 4wd. That is usually enough camber/caster, provided sufficient anti roll is used (larger stabiliser bars), for most circuits. High speed circuits with long sweeping radius curves (eg; Philip Island) need slightly more camber. So we use the off the shelf adjustable, offset bush (Whiteline etc) in the inner of the upper control arm. That reduces the length to around 180 mm. This gives around 3.0 to 3.5 degrees of negative camber on an R32 with a ride height around 355 mm centre of wheel to guard with around 6.5 degrees of caster on a 2wd and 4.5 degrees on a 4wd. This 180 mm length seems to have been the minimum that ALL of the R32 camber adjusters have been made to. All of the brands of upper control arms that I have measured (Midori, Noltec, Nismo, Ikeya etc) all stop at 180 mm or longer. So choosing one brand over another to get more negative camber is pretty much a waste of time. Enough of the theory, let’s get onto the practical stuff………………. I do a lot of suspension set up clinics and when I hear guys say that they need/run more than 3.5 degrees of negative camber and 6.5 degrees of caster, 99% of the time they have insufficient anti roll. If you don’t have a 30 mm adjustable, solid, front stabiliser bar for 2wd or a 24 mm adjustable, solid, front stabiliser bar for 4wd then the front anti roll is insufficient. If you don’t have a 24 mm adjustable, solid, rear stabiliser bar for both 2wd and 4wd then the rear anti roll is also insufficient. That’s where I always start, rather than trying for more negative camber which is simply a band aid for the real problem of too much roll. cheers

Let’s tart off with, 2 mm is not enough to affect tyre wear significantly. So don’t stress over that aspect. Handling wise, toe out is considered an “unstable” setting and toe in is considered a “stabilising” setting. That’s why rear wheel steering cars go to toe in, it settles the rear down, makes it less sensitive to inputs (steering, bumps, accelerator application etc). This shift to toe in is deliberately designed to make the car more benign, less likely to spear off backwards, more inclined to understeer. Better for the “Wallys” if you like. Toe out, on the other hand, makes the rear more lively, reactive to inputs. So when the turn the steering wheel you get response from the rear (as well as the front). This means the car turns into the corner better than it would with tow zero or toe in. Since there are no “Wallys” on SAU, the 2 mm toe out is the recommended setting I suggest. cheers

We use Proflex double adjustable shocks from Murray Coote and Eibach springs in the race GTR's, around $2K per corner. With a few sets of springs with different rates. Plus Whiteline adj stabiliser bars and bushes. For a bit less you could try DMS from Jamie Drummond. But don't fiddle around with the 40 mm, single adjustable shock, go straight to the 50 mm double adjustable. As Roy said, weight is your enemy in a GTR, stuff like a full titanium exhaust is a must for serious circuit work. And make sure you get the lightest wheels your budget can afford, they are 4 big flywheels. Take ~150 kgs out of it and brakes aren't such a big issue anymore. cheers PS; like 75% of the Production Car field, we use Hawk pads.

Some things I have found along the way; 1. Power FC's run big injectors better than any of the mid range ECU's. You have to get to the Motec or Autronic level to get anywhere near the injector control of a Power FC. 2. I tune the cruise and idle fuel economy with the standard lambda sensor (closed loop running) turned off. 3. I tune for 15 to 1 A/F ratios for cruise and idling. Much over that and the idle gets fragile and there is some hunting at constant cruise. I guess this is why Nissan chose around 15 to 1 for the closed loop A/F ratio aim on RB’s. 4. The closed loop running doesn’t cut in very quickly and is easily opened by a tiny touch of the accelerator. So by having the open loop A/F ratios close to the closed loop aim target, I can get as good a fuel economy as possible. 5. I have tried many different injector styles on the engine dyno, and I have NEVER EVER seen even a handful of horsepower increase from using different spray pattern injectors on a turbo engine. Personally I think injector spray patterns on turbo engines are an urban myth. 6. I run as much ignition advance as the engine will take, it makes a larger difference to engine efficiency than almost anything else you can do. cheers

Tricky one………….. I haven’t seen any mention of oil flow problems elsewhere in the engine. 1. How much oil is there in the cam covers, say at idle? 2. Say, when you hold it at 2,000 rpm for 10 seconds? 3. Does the oil filter get hot as the oil heats up? 4. Do you have an oil temp gauge? 5. What temps does it say? 6. Is there oil flow at the turbo oil feed? 7. Does it blow oil out of the cam cover breathers? 8. Any bearing noises from the engine? The confusing issue here is the 92 psi at idle. The reality is an N1 oil pump doesn’t pump enough oil to make 92 psi at 750 rpm. They have sufficient flow to make around 35 psi at idle when the oil is warm. That’s it, there simply isn’t enough flow to make more pressure. cheers

Nope, same settings work on both. Cheers

As someone who races on his own budget and manages a race team that has a much larger budget, let me impart some wisdom as I see it. 1. Braking distance is mostly about tyres, standard R32GTR brakes (in good condition) will easily out brake any road tyre (ie; activate the ABS, if fitted, or lock up the wheels, if no ABS). Even “R” type tyres can be outbraked by standard R32GTR components. It is not until you get to full slick racing tyre that you will find more grip in the tyre than the brakes can provide. 2. Suspension set up is the next largest contributor, excessive negative camber, to high spring and stabiliser bar rates, too much anti dive, unsophisticated shock valving etc. The suspension set up will have a great effect on the effectiveness of the brakes. 3. Note the use of the words “brakes in good condition”, that means service the callipers, slotted rotors, braided lines, high CoF pads, suitable brake fluid and don’t forget the wheel bearings. So many guys spend $thousands on upgrading the brakes, when all they really needed was a decent service. Now it’s time to think about what “racing” really means. If you are talking true “circuit racing” as per CAMS then you need to know what category/class you are going to race in. Simplistically you have three choices; A. Production Cars, the R32GTR N1 won the NSW Combined Touring championship last year. Other than brake pads, shocks and springs it is 100% “standard” as per the N1 homologation papers. Control tyre is the Yokohama A048R on the standard 17 X 8” rim. B. Improved Production, the R32GTR finished second in the NSW Combined Touring championship last year. Forget 700 bhp, the mandatory turbo restrictor/restrictors means 400 bhp is about it. Control tyre nationally is also the Yokohama A048R on an 8” wide rim (max). C. Sport Sedans, full bespoke chassis cars, carbon fibre bodies, less than half the weight of an R32GTR with 700 bhp 6 litre V8’s. Much faster than a V8Supercar. Using full slick racing tyres. Not a good class to run in with a “modified road car” if you want to be competitive. Take a look around the motorsport scene, look at what GTR’s are successfully competing in, Targa’s, Tas, Duttons, East Coast etc and Production Car racing. At the moment there is only 1 X GTR running in Improved Production, the SSS built one and it is nowhere near competitive yet. Then you have a whole bunch of guys running super sprints, lap dashes, hillclimbs very effectively in GTR’s competing in the classes for “Imported Cars”, limited editions etc. Hillclimbs are 1 or 2 stops per run, so monster brakes (for heat rejection) are simply not required, going up hill means keep the weight down, monster brakes (and the wheels to fit hem) are heavy. Lap Dashes are 3 laps, so monster brakes (for heat rejection) are simply not required. There are number of guys that do what I term “drive days”, where they do 20 to 30 minute “sessions”. These are the guys that run the monster brakes. But I don’t call that “racing”, there are no classes, no categories, no rules about what you can and can’t do. So it is really just a money spending test, “my wallet is bigger than yours, so I win”. The bottom line, I reckon an R32GTR would do faster lap times if you spent $6K on suspension and $1K on brakes than if you spent $2K on suspension and $5K on brakes. Which is basically what Roy said above. cheers

PM sent. cheers

We use I beams in engines that we intend to rebuild often, they tolerate more handling and light hits. You can stuff a H beam rod with just the slightest nick. Otherwise no difference in the real world. cheers

Standard Stagea S1 rims won't fit on the front of R33GTST's, the spokes hit on the callipers. They fit on the rear OK though. I tried it last week for the drags, as we have the MT ET Street radials for the rear mounted on the Stagea rims. cheers

As you are no doubt aware, a GTR is not a good choice for a drifter, they simply have FAR too much weight over the front wheels. This large lump of weight tends to push the front wide just when you want the nose to hold the inside line while the tail continues the slide. It is really a lesson in frustration as no amount of driver technique or suspension set up will overcome that amount of weight imbalance. I strongly suggest that you have a big long think about exactly what it is you want to achieve. cheers

This is not really the thread to be discussing rebuild options, I will send you a PM tonight with my thoughts. cheers

Hi Gary, with a road tyre you should be easily able to exceed the slip angle that the tyre will tolerate using the adjustable stabiliser bars. If it has some understeer, firm up the rear stabiliser bar setting until it starts to loose grip at that end. If it still understeers, then soften up the front bar. If the front bar is already on full soft and it still understeers at mid corner or corner exit, then try some toe out, around 2 mm each side is a good place to start. Mid corner understeer can also be alleviated with more negative camber, the tyre temperatures will tell you if that the case. If it understeers on turn in, then some toe out on the rear will help with that. You have all the adjustment tools you should need to balance the handling, once it is balanced (front and rear) the tyres are the weak link. cheers

36-38 psi (above boost, below vacuum) cheers

You really need to work on increasing your corner speed, you are obviously slowing down too much. cheers

R32GTR (Z32) pump is 190 litres per hour at 12 volts and supports 420 bhp at standard pressure (ie; 36-38 psi). R33GTR pump is 210 litres per hour at 12 volts and supports 460 bhp at standard pressure (ie; 36-38 psi). If you run a relay and direct feed from the battery to the pump (ie; 13.8 volts) then add around 10% to the above. cheers PS, GTR pumps are only noisy if you don't install them correctly, use the rubber mounts and keep the pick off the floor of the tank.

Hi George, until Prank fixes the Gallery bugs, the best I can do is email them to you. Just PM me your email address. cheers

This is an interesting thread, I don't believe that is it out of place to compare the plain bearing turbo in this discussion with alternative ball bearing turbos. If I was buying a turbo I would most certainly like to know what I am missing out on, not simply what I am getting. Garrett make both ball bearing and plain bearing turbos and there is a considerable price difference. In many cases they sell the same compressor and turbine specs with plain bearing or ball bearing cores. So Garrett are constantly being asked to justify the extra cost of buying a ball bearing turbo for its superior performance. Some time ago, in answer to these value for money questions, Garrrett carried out controlled testing of the same compressor and turbine specs with plain bearing and ball bearing cores. This was done on a 2 litre engine and the test was of response to throttle imputs. The idea was to open the throttle at 2,000 rpm and measure how long it took for various shaft rpm increases. This is the published result; As you can see from the graph, it takes the plain bearing turbo 2 seconds to catch up to the shaft speed. Now, 2 seconds is a life time when you want/need/expect good throttle response. At many places on the curve you are looking at ~30% longer for the plain bearing turbo to gain speed. You make up your own mind as to whether or not this is important to you. cheers PS; I have no turbos to sell, our cars have a variety of turbos on them, I use whatever will do the job and at the same time give value for money.