djr81

Some random points & corrections: The 1990 race was the first Bathurst the GT-R entered. In terms of its suspension development and tune it was horrible. The 1988 race that the DJR Sierra attended was in England, Silverstone from memory. DJ qualified on pole & led the race for a short while until mechanical failure intervened (A waterpump failure). I don't believe he lapped anyone. It was not an all Sierra race, but a "British Tourist Trophy" race. "Sierra's didn't pull away from the Nissan up Mountain straight." There is a memorable scene of Jim Richard's giving one of Allan Moffat's Sierra drivers an up yours (old school style with the thumb) as he blew his doors off up Mountain straight. The GT-R's NEVER made their homologation weight. It is all well and good to complain about the restriction CAMS placed on them, but there were also weight, rev & other restrictions placed on the Sierras, M3's & Commodores in the last years of the Group A category. Why? Well anyone who sat through the 91 season would understand why it had to be done. The other important point was that in 1992 Group A was a dying category. All the major car companies had stopped developing and homologating cars for it - which meant the GT-R was not going to be bettered. However, anyone who ever saw the 4WD Cosworth Escorts, the 2 litre BMW 3 series or the AWD Audi A4 2 litre cars would have cause to doubt the engineering prowess of the rival car companies. The GT-R got called Godzilla because that is what Phil Scott from Wheels magazine called it - the name stuck. Gibson motorsport installed a switch in the car that meant the GT-R's launched in 2WD mode & run like that for a couple of seconds - till the 4WD was engaged again. So technically the didn't have a 4WD advantage off the line. Holden didn't "work out all the had to do was keep up with em till the poor old turbo's exploded." They (Holden) went as fast as they could all day. They only narrowly beat the second DJR Sierra & Larry Perkins privateer VL. Yes a GT-R is now pretty old technology. Hardly surprising given the first of them are rapidly closing in on 20 years old. A good Porsche will kick a GT-R's backside around most circuits. Which you would expect given how much the damn things cost & the fact that they are quicker than the V8 supercars at some circuits.

Gary, You are more than welcome to the photos. If I use the spare pair of offset crush tubes & machine myself up a new inner bush to match the profile of the existing outer crush tube (on the inner arm), will that replicate what you have in your kit?

HRT used to front at Bathurst (Well, Tom Walkinshaw mostly) and basically protest the living crap out of every competitive car there was. Mostly this involved lodging protests against the vital bits of the opposition cars - in the case of the Sierras the turbos were a favourite because they were so damn critical to the set up & on a knife edge to get maximum horsepower. It used to put the teams to alot of work & disrupt their preparation - which was mostly the point of the protests. I can only recall one instance of a protest on thsose grounds ever being upheld & even then I think it was over turned on appeal (Colin Bond's Sierra, if memory serves) The ironic thing was that the HRT cars were rubbed out when the Ford teams got sick of the carry on & lodged counter protests for illegal steering racks in the VL's. Just another reason to hate those from the dark side. Oh, yeah & according to Allan Moffat his RX-7 actually came second in 84. So no 1 - 2 for the HDT.

Bit hard to tell, but is it a bar & plate?

Why only $100 Baron? Make it really worthwhile.

If you have ever seen the telemetry out of the DJR Sierra from 92 - the amount of boost going through those motors was bloody scary.

These are the bushes that came off my car. Both of the rear outers failed. My best guess is that they are insufficiently stiff & when you load the suspension up the longitudinal load (shear as seen at the bush) is too much for them. The middle photo of the three shows how the bush should look. Question: What hardness are the current bushes?

Hmm, a few points, questions. The OUTER bushes failed on my GT-R - three in total (of 4 possible). The inner ones are fine. The kit shown is different to those I have previously had. Most noticeably the red (nolathane?) inner bushes in place of the normal yellow stuff Whiteline supply. Lastly, Gary can you send me a PM about the development kit. I assume it is to be the same as the one I paid for back in about June/July.

I understand the stress extra caster puts on this upper joint - which is why I got rid of it. The bush still failed.

Hamilton has big raps on him, but how do you rate Nelson's young-un?

My R32 has a KCA 336 kit fitted to the front suspension. For the SECOND time the rear of the two yellow bushes on the upper, outer pivot point has failed (on both sides this time). On this occasion it was after only about 600kms of travel plus maybe 16 or so laps of the local track. During that time I don't believe the suspension hit the bump stops once & I certainly stayed well away from the kerbs at the track. I have wound out most of the caster, leaving it near stock. Has any one else encountered the same issue? Can anyone offer a solution other than 1. Buying a whole new kit (Whiteline won't sell components) 2. Machining up a bush from harder materials. As an aside I would recommend to anyone who has the kit fitted that they check the state of their bushes....

What you need to understand was that for the 1990 race the GT-R was completely unsorted. It had only just been finished and was, by all accounts, a horrible thing to drive on the Thursday/Friday/Saturday before the race. Only one car was entered, & from memory it broke a drive shaft - hence the reason for the missing 15 or so laps. Skaife got told to go out & drive it as fast as it would go in the hope of learning a bit more. The lap record was the result of that instruction.

Yes. One of the reasons the RAWS/SEVS scheme mandates ride height is to avoid this very problem.

How much thickness do the rotors have left on them?

At the risk of getting off topic (Which seems to about lube oil & adult themes which I don't want to think about) how do I get more performance out of my stock GT-R calipers? The R compounds will grip up to 1.2-1.3 gees, but the brakes will only ever kick out one gee (Above 100km/h), no matter how hard I push. Pads are good Ferodo DS2500's all round.

No I didn't. Have a look at the attached photo from a hillclimb last year. The car in question broke a suspension component in the front end. He was driving in a straight line shortly before it snapped. Point is you can't go get a second hand head from anywhere - so it pays to look after the one you have, even if it is as ugly as mine.

As springs get older they sag. Happens to all of them. Easiest fix is to either get some new/secondhand springs or coilovers with height adjustment.

I reckon it should have been the BMW M3 he drove in 1988.

Hmm, interesting assertion. What people should keep in mind are the following: The heavier the helmet the harder the impact. So it is worthwhile paying more money to get a lighter helmet. A proper helmet eg a full face Arai or Bell or similar will still cost under $1000. They are the very best you can buy & will last for many years to come. Many people start with an interest in the drags on a Wednesday night & that often leads to them wanting to do hillclimbs & track days at Wanneroo etc. Personally I have seen cars turn turtle infront of me & seen more than one spear off into the scenery. The $100 dollars you may have saved buying a stinking second hand helmet won't feel like much at that point. Looking after your head is not stupid...

This from grandprix.com The truth will out? Nine years after the World Championship showdown at Jerez in 1997, the then Sauber driver Norberto Fontana has decided to tell the story of what happened to him during that highly-charged weekend. In an interview with the Argentine magazine Ol?, Fontana claims that three or four hours before the race Jean Todt visited the Sauber motorhome and told the Swiss team, which used Ferrari engines at the time, that the Saubers must block Jacques Villeneuve if they were in a position to do so in order to help Michael Schumacher win the World Championship. Fontana said that he blocked Villeneuve for only three or four corners but that it cost the French-Canadian around three seconds. In the end Villeneuve challenged Schumacher for the lead and the two cars collided. Schumacher went off into a gravel trap and was unable to rejoin. Villeneuve won the World Championship and Michael Schumacher was later punished for deliberately driving Villeneuve off the track. Fontana said that the action had hurt his career but that Todt and Schumacher never thanked him for what he had done. To view what happened you can go to: Video and make up your own mind. While this is all ancient history now, there is a certain irony in that after the same race there were claims that Williams and McLaren colluded to rig the result of the race. That claim was rejected by the FIA World Council although it was never clear why the allegations ever got as far as the World Council.

Peter Brock NEVER drove a Skyline of any description, let alone an R32 GT-R. That may well explain why you cant find any pictures of it.

Does the 92 on the Jasma badge on the exhaust relate to 92dBA? I ask because I will need a new exhaust shortly & this one is very quiet. Most of those I see advertised are either 95 dB or 100dB.

Yes

Nice work.

Official how?