Sydneykid

It's easy I didn't think there was a restriction on how it's done, just that it is. The apprentice puts on the wheels, but we have one driver who still checks the wheel nuts himself That's the thing I already have enough stuff, I just need time to fit it, tune it and then (the big one) develop it. Without buying one extra go faster bit I reckon there is many seconds in the cars, all we need is time to develop them. That's a set up problem, if you have power down problems on 11" wide slicks then the set up needs work. It's too easy to reach for the crutch of softer tyres, that's why most Sports Sedans never achieve the speed that their specifications suggest that they they should. "Don't worry about fixing the handling, just whack some sticky tyres on it". Until the tyres turn to mush. Cheers Gary

The first one was an actual, 2007 the day after the Konicas and it was 0.75 ses faster. The second one was I thought a reasonable calculation. I sure as hell don't I did'nt say they were terrible either. I was simply demonstrating the untapped potential. So if I said I could improve your lap times by 2 seconds for $2.5K by adding 100bhp from a better turbo, would you buy it? Now what if I said I could improve your lap times by 2 seconds for $2.5K by using a data logger? Would that be as attractive? Most guys would jump at the turbo and not look twice at the data, but 2 seconds is 2 seconds no matter how you get it. But what if you paid someone to do the hack work for you? I had an apprentice mechanic help out for a year, he learnt lots about race cars and I had more fun not changing wheels, bleeding brakes, filling the tank and all the other non technical crap that you have to do when you go racing. I know the feeling, I can't decide whether money or time is my worst enemy. The problem I have is with slicks, they can easily mask a whole pile of other problems with their high initial grip levels. A apparently quick lap is possible even with a lousy set up, but when you get the set up right the lap times drop very fast. To areas that previously seemed impossible to achieve. There is no magic bullet, working constantly on the set up pays off, even if it is little by little. Cheers Gary

Please tell me when you find one, I have used lots of brands and styles since 1999 and haven't found one yet that does all of that. I am currently using a cheap China GReddy copy on the basis that If I have to make mods to get it to work properly I might as wll start off with a cheap one. But that still requires washer bottle relocation, cutting a 75 mm hole in the inner guard and making a throttle cable adaptor the same as the original GReddy. So it's hardly "bolt on". If you have no intention of upgrading the internals, then the best manifold is the standard one. Everything else that I have tried loses power and response and has issues with distribution. Cheers Gary

The free height of the spring won't be of much help without also knowing the spring rate. In simple terms, a higher spring rate compresses less. Cheers Gary

The boost limit removed, weight limit ignored Gibson #2 car with Seton driving at Oran Park. The M Speed GTR based on its 5 second advantage over Mark on R tyres, as it must be faster on slicks That or an F3 driver, our one of those is lighter. At the last V8SuperCar practise day I attended, there were 4 guys with Mechanical Engineering Degrees, 2 guys with Electronics Engineering degrees, 1 guy with both, 8 qualified mechanics, 1 Doctor of Electronics, 2 apprentices, 2 guys with Degrees in Management and 3 drivers. That's over 250 hours of development on ONE CAR in ONE DAY, I don't know about you but it would take me over 3 years to get anywhere near close to that. I think you really be surprised at how much time can be gained with a plan of attack and the time to execute it. A simple example, I spent the usual 1 full day with the Production Car team at Oran Park at the start of the season, something we do every year. The idea is to make the car faster this year than it was last year. In a production car there is very limited scope for development, but we still managed to find 0.8 second with a progression of set up changes. Do you have a data logger in the car? If not then you are doing development in the dark, by feel rather than cold hard data. That's both car and driver develoment. I'm not preaching from a very high place here, if I divide Oran Park up into 6 sectors and add my fastest times from each sector I should be ~ 2 seconds a lap faster. That's not doing anything to the car, just the rusty and old driver getting in one lap where I get it all right. Cheers Gary

At first glance this thread appears worthless, but then when you start thinking about it.............. I made the choice 5 years ago to go with an R32GTST having had an R32GTR for a short time a few years earlier. The main reason for not going with another GTR was complexity (4wd system) and weight (180 kgs). Plus cost was another factor, an equivalent condition GTR was $15K more than the R32GTST. So for the same total cost (using that $15K) I reckon I made the GTST much faster than the GTR would have been. If you do a lap times versus cost factor then a $20K GTST will definitely be much faster than a $20K GTR and by my calculations a $30K GTST will be slightly faster than a $30K GTR. I reckon it's not until you start spending close to $40K that a GTR comes into its own. Once you spend over $50K there is very little chance of a GTST keeping up at that power level as the traction advantage of the 4wd gets to much for the lighter weight to compensate for. But (there is always a but) that's on R type tyres, what if we used full slicks? There is no reason that a properly sorted 650 bhp 1100 kgs GTST on 10" slicks couldn't run the same lap times as a V8 SuperCar. There aren't many GTR's that do faster lap times than a V8SuperCar. The GTR may arguably have an advantage in tyre use over aq longer race distance, but a single lap screamer I don't think so. Interesting isn't it? Cheers Gary

So you didn't use lower profile tyres on the 19 "rims? You must have some serious speedo error. There are 2 issues in regard to the legality of lowering. The first is the ground clearance minimum of 100 mm, at 350/340 (30 mm lower than standard) a 3" exhaust sits just above 100 mm from the ground as it goes under the rear subframe. I strongly suggest that you measure yours. The second legality issue is the requirement to maintain 2/3rds of the suspension travel. R32/33/34's have around 3.75" of compression travel standard, so if you lower it 5" it can't possibly have 2/3rds of 3.75". Hence it's illegal. Let's get to the ride comfort question. If you increase the spring rate then the car will ride harsher. The only time your example has merit is with larger impacts where all of the travel is used. Then the longer travel/higher spring rate MAY be better than the softer spring rate/shorter travel. But with the the more normal sized impacts, the longer travel does nothing for the ride comfort and the higher spring rate still increases the harshness. In simple terms, 10% of the time you MIGHT be better off (big bumps) but 90% of the time (normal bumps) you DEFINITELY won't. The length of stroke has absolutely nothing to do with cost, so the genralisation "some cheaper suspension setups" is very misleading. You can pay $20K for long travel suspension and you can pay $400 for short travel, the cost tells you nothing. It's about chosing the right style of system for your requirements, whilst understanding the limitations of the model of car you are dealing with. Cheers Gary

How recent is the Autronic? The earlier ones had big issues with the standard CAS and required a change in the internals to give clean trigger signals. Cheers Gary

Which means the entire weight of the car is being held on 4 skinny collars. And that's when the car is standing still. When it's moving, those 4 skinny alloy collars are expected to handle well over 6G (6 times the weight of the car) on many occasions just driving down a normal road. Not the collars themselves mind you, but the small number of threads inside the collars. Does that sound like a good idea in reliability and a lengthy life? Cheers Gary

But smaller tyres on the front just makes them understeer even worse. A 10% narrower tyre on the end of the car that weighs 50% more can't possibly be a good idea. Cheers Gary

Oh my, you have some serious understanding to learn. 1. R32/33/34's have double wishbone suspension so you can't change the camber with adjustable strut tops 2. They only have ~3.75" of travel standard, so lowering them 5" is not possible without major surgery 3. The term "coil over" means that the spring goes around the the shock, and yes they do have that standard 4. Because they are double wishbone, they don't have "struts", they have spring/shock units. 5. Obviously 5" lowering is illegal, on two counts actually, one being the lack of ground clearance and the other being retained travel, nowhere near 2/3rds of standard. 6. The more you lower a car the higher the spring rate has to be to aborb the impact in the shorter distance available. For 5" lowering I'd say 4 pieces of 4 x 2 instead of springs would be about right. Perhaps some more research is required. Cheers Gary

Around 140 to 150 rwkw is about right for a standard R34GTT based on my experience, ie; around 50 t0 60 kw in losses through the drive train and rollers. Happy dynos show 160 to 165 rwkw. The power loss after a new cam belt is fitted is not unusual. The new belt puts the exhaust camshaft timing to where it should be. The old (stretched) belt allowed slightly retarded exhaust timing which gives a slight mid range power increase. Hence why an adjustable exhaust camshft pulley is a popular upgrade. The exhaust should have added around 10 rwkw, so there may be an issue with it. Cheers Gary

On the R34GTT we ran a GCG ball bearing high flow and it make 270 rwkw with very good response. In fact, as I have posted many times, it made more power everywhwere, from idle to redline, than it did when it was standard. It was so good for what we do, I have just fitted another one (R34GTT high flow) to the rebuilt RB25.5DET in the R33GTST. Cheers Gary

I would add a few things to the list; Do a leak down test, that will confirm the basic engine condition Check the spark plug colour directly after a power run, that will tell you if one or more cylinders are the source of the pining. Maybe isolate a lazy injector, if there is one Drop the exhaust at the entry to the cat and do one quick power run, that will eliminate an exhaust restriction as the cause Measure the boost before and after the FMIC, more than a couple of PSI difference indicates that there is a restriction there Cheers Gary

No problem from an ATTESA perspective. Cheers Gary

GTR stock BOV's are better in every way than almost every aftermarket BOV I have ever tried. It's a 99.9% guarantee that it won't matter what BOV you use, you will still have the same problem. Cheers Gary

Try a search on "Sydneykid" and "spring+rates" ~3kg/mm R32/33/34's come standard with coil overs Then why change the springs at all? The most effective way to lower it and retain the standazd ride comfort 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 16 to 24 mm works very well. Tell me what height you want and I can tell you which circlip grooves to use. Depending on how much you lower it you may have to make some camber correction otherwise it will wear out tyres. This is what is usually needed for each height increment, note that all measurements are centre of wheel to guard; Standard (new) height is 380 mm front and 370 mm rear 360/350 mm needs only the standard rear camber adjusters 350/340 mm needs 1 front camber kit and 1 rear camber kit 340/330 mm needs I front camber kit and 2 rear camber kits You don't have to Since 3 is standard what do you think more than double that is goingh to be like? Not necessarily, it depends on the choice and dimensions of the bump stops and how low you want to go. Regardless of the shock/spring construction, the suspension geometry turns to crap if you go below 350/340. Standard seems like it should suite your purposes. Cheers Gary

I get my jollies from suspension, more power is OK because it gets me to the next corner faster where all the fun is Cheers Gary

I use Gates belts on RB30's and genuine Nissan on everything else. Cheers Gary

New shocks and springs, not bad for a first up guess I have a new rear swaybar underway for him as well. Plenty of fun still to be had. Cheers Gary

A properly designed front undertray helps hold the front lip up off the ground. The idea of a front splitter/spoiler is to make the air go either over or around and NOT under. The problem with underbody aero is that it depends on proximaty to the ground (that's why it's called "ground effect"). On a production style car (in comparison to a formula car) that's very difficult to achieve. A simple example, when you brake the rear goes up and loses the ground effect, hence you get trailing brake oversteer. Conversely when you accelerate the nose lifts, you lose front end ground effect and corner exit understeer can result. Don't think that you can fix this with exagerated spring rates either, a production chassis simply isn't rigid enough, production tyres have flex in the sidewalls and you lose so much mechanical grip (from the high spring rates) that the aero doesn't compensate. That's why race cars have wings, sure they have some underbody tidying up, but the front spoiler and rear wing do more than 80% of the work from an aerodynamic viewpoint. If they are available, carbon fibre is the go, whereas custom undertrays are often made out of aluminium sheet, 2 mm, 2.5 mm and 3 mm are common thicknesses depending on the size and load. Cheers Gary

Why do you think it has too much roll? Cheers Gaery

Both Duncan (R32GTR) an I (R32GTST) have been towing race cars behind Stagea for years, over 3 years in my case. Cheers Gary

That wouldn't give a good comparison because you are still carrying the extra weight. Cheers Gary

You can't spare 20 minutes for 2 weeks? Height is a very simple adjustment and it would be unusual if you need to do more than 1 corner. The process is easy; Measure all 4 corners Work out which corner is the lowest and by how much, centre of wheel to guard as usual Jack up the corner that is lower and take off the wheel Then wind up the lower spring seat on that corner by how much it is lower Put the wheel back on and measure the result An example, RHF = 355 mm LHF = 360 mm RHR = 335 mm LHR = 345 mm Wind up the RHR by 10 mm, that will lift it to match the LHR plus lower the LHF to match the RHF. Simple and if it takes you more than 20 minutes you need to buy a better jack and wheel brace. Cheers Gary