warps

EEEwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!! Lucky this is in the motorsport section, otherwise your comment could easily be taken out of context

Haha you've just described 50% of rally tragics. Nah, the guy I'm thinking of was fairly young - early 20's IIRC. I think he ditched the Golf and bought a GTI Pulsar (not the GTIR), but that's about when I lost touch with him. I stopped rallying down that way in about 2000.

Spring washers are still specified and used commonly on mining equipment, so they aren't as bad as that article says. Bolts that are close to their limit will be likely to loosen even with spring washers, specially if the joint is under massive shear forces. If that were the case, I'd argue the bolts aren't offering enough clamping force so you need more of them, or bigger bolts. There are a couple of errors on that website. Their assumption that bolts fatigue when they are subjected to bending from loosening is incorrect. It's the fluctuating tensile stress in the bolt (due to insufficient clampig ) that usually causes them to break. I've seen big structures located in fitted spigots (so there's absolutely no possibility of bending on the bolts) break due to fatigue loading. Longer bolts / correct bolt tensioning (not torquing) fixed the problem. If bolts were subject to enough bending to break them, you would most likely get fretting around the bolt hole and possibly in the mated surface. What this article failed to mention is that you don't need any movement between the bolted components to start breaking bolts in fatigue. Sorry - just a bit of bolt nerd talk, but yes, very few people understand the science of bolts.

Yeh this is the ex Denise Collins ARC Recce car. SiR Civic running the 1.6 Vtec (sik Uleh - feel the vtec PoWahhhhh!). Brakes are pretty stock and it has Bilstein coilovers. LSD and CR box so should be reasonably quick. In the right hands it will take it to a few of the AWD turbo boys, but in my hands I'll be happy to finish anywhere in the front half of the field. Wasn't a light blue golf your friend ran was it? I remember racing against a guy back when I lived down that way - his name escapes me now (this was in the late 90's)

Not a Nissan I know but I finally picked up my new toy this week. It's set up for gravel, and that will be its main duty but also came with a set of new 048's so will do some tarmac stuff too (LAkeside, Mt Cotton, Morgan Park, Willowbank). I just have to reverse everything I know about driving cars and learn the wrongness of front wheel drive

Well all I can say is that you must be doing it tough right now. I hope the effort pays off in the long run (whatever you are doing) Nah, the sponsors day is nowhere near as fancy as you think. It's a rally club, and you'll find that most rally clubs are about as down to earth as you can get. There's nothing"corporate" about them at all. In fact, you regularly get cars of the calibre shown below competing at some of these events, and the guys come away smiling as much as the blokes with $60k Evorexes. (This guy was at Hirstglen. Another guy turned up in a stock TP Magna with about 350,000 km on the clock. car would have to have been wiorth at least $300)

Absolutely agree with you. My rants are aimed at the idiots who claim that they street race because there are no venues for them to use, and I showed that a quick cursory glance at the QLD CAMS calendar shows 28 events I can enter between now and the end of the year. Of course for most of these people they are just excuses, and when you show them to be wrong, they find another excuse. I doubt we'll ever convince a lot of these people even if there was a 24 hour drag strip at the end of their street with free entry. There are probably a lot of people in the middle ground who think that there are no events for them to enter because this is what the "scene" tells them. If we can educate some of those people, then it will be a step in the right direction. I know we'll never convert all of the street racers, but if we can at least get them seriously thinking about legal alternatives, then the effort is worth it.

Pathetic excuses, the lot of them! Join NDSCC - surely you can afford $30 a year. They are based a lot closer to you than me, and all of their events are in your neck of the woods. They run gympie skidpan events and grass motorkhanas just down the road from you - lots of normal road registered cars enter these events, and the going entry fee is something under $50 for club members. The sponsors day - what the hell are you on about? All the "average person" has to do is become a member of NDSCC and they have the same right to enter the sponsors day as anyone else. Other clubs also run similar days (BSCC and IWMAC for example). They're designed for club members to take their sponsors out for a fang in a safe environment. If you don't have a sponsor (which I don't) they there are about 20-30 members of the public lining up to go for rides. If nobody wants to go for a ride with you, then just fly solo. As far as earning less than a dole bludger - well you're obviously in the wrong business. Not much I can do to help you there. Then again, you strike me as a walking advert for the old saying "you can lead a horse to water...". Quit making excuses, get off your arse and have a go. It's really not that difficult.

Haha you couldn't handle my job Dunno about anyone else, but I'd rather spend $1000 on motorsport than lose my car becasue of street racing. Besides, I didn't say that it costs that much. I said that it's cheaper than losing your car. Thing is, when you compete in proper motorsport, you're going to be less interested in hooning on the street. This won't work 100% for all people, but it certainly does have an effect on most. I did a sponsors day at Willowbank last year that cost me $50 entry fee. I did about 30 laps of the autocross track, and went through 40 or so litres of fuel. Took a whole hour to drive there from home. The whole day cost me under $200 (including travel there and back) and that was a thirsty, unreliable rotary Mazda. I know that there will always be those who can't be stuffed doing things properly, and will come up with all the excuses in the world. All I can say is sucked in when they get caught.

Sorry I haven't been on this thread for a few days. The calendar I was using is this one which I got from the rally club I belong to (NDSCC in QLD, so relates to QLD events) The CAMS website also has a calendar of events throughout the country in all disciplines. There are also "come and try" type days held by several of the clubs, which often don't get added to the CAMS calendar. As far as organising "legal" street racing - well it may be a good idea, and should be thought through. After all, it's not that different to what you need to for for a rally, and we have to close off a couple of hundred km of roads to run a big event. Closing off a couple of KM of straight road (that won't impact on residents, businesses, etc.) shouldn't be too hard to achieve. Instead of comlaining about the lack of venues, perhaps someone should put their energy into making it happen. The club motorkhanas our club holds are normally around $50 or less entry fee, and you'd be lucky to use more than a few litres of fuel, and put any more wear onto your tyres than a typical "cruise". Personally I find them boring, but it's not a bad starting point to get a feel for competing. My son turns 12 this year, and I'll be entering him into some club motorkhanas ans khanacrosses whether he likes it or not. When you think of the cost of getting caught and fined for street racing, even $1000 for a day of legal motorsport isn't that bad, is it? How many of us can afford to lose our licence / car due to stupidity? Note I am not saying I totally agree with all of the hoon laws, but they are there, and we have to abide by them. If you don't, and you get caught, then "suck it up princess" is all I can say.

That's cool - will be keen to see the finished product. I've seen other 240K's with v8's so obviously it's doable. Thinking back it may have been the huge winged sump that made life difficult and not so much the steering box location.

You might struggle to fit any decent extractors in the engine bay with the steering box in there. A R&P conversion might make life easier. I had a C110 with a P76 donk fitted, and it had some funky 3 piece header on the RH side to clear the steering box and extended sump (sump was heavily modded to clear the Xmember). It was a total pain to try and remove the exhaust. I started going down a twin turbo conversion for it, but sold the car before I actually did any fabrication.

Waaah waaah waah there's always an excuse with you lot isn't there? How about instead of whinging about how the government isn't doing anythng for you, you go and check out some proper events (not all events are held at dedicated race tracks either). PLenty of holes in your arguments - won't get into a big pi$$ing match on the internet. If you want to discuss with me, PM and arrange to meet me at one of the motorsports events to show you're serious about this and not just a whinger who expects everything handed to them on a silver platter, hell I might even let you enter my car and have a go. I'm up for converting street racers to proper motorsport.

Yep - lack of events all right. I looked at the CAMS calendar on the weekend, and there are 28 CAMS motorsport events that I can enter between now and the end of the year in my corner of the world (that's gravel only, so probably won't appeal to the straight line brigade. I wasn't interested in anything tarmac, but that would probably take care of the rest of the weekends for me). Then there's weekday sprints and off street drag, drift, as well as AASA events. Btw - many of these gravel events are suitable for road cars, and in fact some of them attract nothing but road cars. But I guess the street racers are right - there just aren't enough motorsport venues or events out there.

How is beating someone near death for trying to steal some inanimate posessions justifiable? It isn't. That's why you go to jail for it, and rightly so. If someone is threatening my family, then I will protect them however I can. If they're trying to steal my car / stereo / playstation - so what? I'd rather claim in on insurance and live to buy another one. Yes it's annoying (I've been robbed in the middle of the night) and you want to harm those involved, but that's no justification for taking the law (and somebody's life) into your own hands. Some of you guys need to take a long hard look at the priorities in your life.

I know that the Z extractors don't fit a K because they foul on the idler arm (Z uses R&P steering). I don't know whether the different design for the K extractor makes them unsuitable for the Z though.

Why is the DR30 BJ non replaceable? Is it because it's press in, or some other reason? All the early RX Mazdas had press in ball joints, and these are readily available. I would think that if you can press the old joint out of the arm, then you would be able to fit a new joint. Daewoo - yeh I've been struggling with what sort of rally car to get. I don't want an AWD, as then I'd have no excuse for being slow. I sold the RX2 through frustration at trying to keep a nearly 40 year old car reliable, although I actually had it running very well by the time I sold it. That's why I was toying with building a GTSt. I had thought of a Silvia, but they are becoming more common, and within a few years I think they'll be like 1600's. Thing is, to build a GTST will cost me near on $30k (by the time I use good quality stuff) and for that money, I can buy a very competitive EvoRex. At the moment, a tarmac car appeals, and I'm giving serious consideration to an FD RX7. These are a great starting point, and for minimal mods are almost unbeatable on a race track. The guy I bought the RX2 from built an FD rally car (which now resides in Cairns) and that thing is a weapon on dirt too. Decisions, decisions.

More info on the pulsar please FWD or GTiR? Trying to find a new rally car is proving very difficult. Am even considering going to the "dark side" (FWD) as good RWD cars are very thin on the ground, and generally overpriced (seems all the cashed up midle aged rally nuts are reliving their glory days and paying top dollar for all the old classic RWD rally cars )

I thought that logbooking the car was the process of getting the cage approved (that's the main thing they look at with logbooks). Didn't know there was a separate "cage approval" process. Mind you, it's many years since I've logbooked a car, and I know that some things have changed. I would get it logbooked as soon as possible, as CAMS have a habit of changing regs, and what complies with their regs this year may not comply ext year. Once it's logbooked, it only needs to comply with the regs that were relevant at the time of logbooking.

And that's a bad thing? Imagine an average muppet driving a VE S-pack with the handling, chassis balance and braking capacity of a HQ Holden. For the average motorist, these features are a life saver. Simple as that. Not everyone is a highly skiller driver with reflexes faster than a computer. Even the best drivers make mistakes, have lapses in judgement, etc from time to time. At those times, it's nice to know there's something going on to save you from yourself. Of course these electronic aids aren't infallible, but to suggest that they are contributing to the road toll more than they are preventing it is just stupid. I remember when people used to have the same arguments against seat belts. Just about every old codger in town has a story about the night his mates rolled the car, and it burst into flames. If they had been wearing seat belts, they wouldnt have been thrown clear of the car and they would have burnt to death. Instead, they only received 2 broken legs and a mild concussion

Due to the high risk of injury from the steering column assembly, the aim is to have cars joystick controlled in the future. You just push forward to accelerate, back to slkow down, left and right to turn etc. The car will calculate the safest rates of acceleration and do the driving for you - you just tell it which direction to go. That's a scary place to be in. I don't mind most of the driving aids these days. I still maintain that I get as much feel from a well set up modern car as I used to get from my 60's and 70's race / rally cars 20 years ago. Remember, the ride doesn't have to be bone jarring, noisy and smelly to be considered a "proper" driving experience. The feedback from the Rex is superb. It still tells you exactly what it's doing, just doesn't bash you over the head with a lump of 4x2 (100 x 50 for the young'uns) IMHO, one of the most important features of a successful race car (in the hands of a human) is how easy it is to drive. If course all the hard arses out there will scoff at that concept and claim that their oversteering, fire belching, cantankerous overpowered brute is a real car, and anything that doesn't scare you at least a dozen times in a session is just a hairdressers car.

Correct - no adjustment needed after you set it up to your liking. However, unless you jag it, or know from previous experience, how will you know when it's right? It took me about 3 changes to finally get the front end of the RX2 the way I liked it. After that it was set and forget tho, and I totally agree with you there. Sounds like a moot point anyway - doesn't sound like a big budget track weapon you're building there. Do you mean the rubber boot that goes over the ball joint? You can buy them in assorted sizes from any parts store, or a suspension specialist for more precise fitting sizes.

And lengthen them each time he wants to replace the ball joints? Hey, Daewoo. Are you going to rose joint the inner end too? In that case, you don't need to graft the inner end off the R30 arm onto the R31 arm. That will give you fine adjustability in the length (to the tune of about +/- 5mm to be safe). Just put a big fkoff motorsport bearing in there (3/4" works well - wouldn't go too much smaller). Might need a sleeve for the inner pivot though.

Absolutely!! It's wrong on so many levels it's just right. R spec rubber for the midweek track attack sprints, then rally tyres for the weekend rallysprints. Ooh yeah <insert Duff Man Gyration>

Are those Skyline wheels on it? Wonder what running gear it has in it (dunnydoors are different stud pattern to Skylines, arent they?) Hmmm - even a cammed LS3 would be nice. 600 reliable HP with a fat torque curve (and no stupid turbo restrictors) I wonder if I could squeeze 15's over those brakes and fit some rally tyres. Now THAT would be a fun "allcomers" car to breathe some life back into the forest