djr81

There are a huge number of factors affecting your suspension set up. It is never a case of throwing a set of springs/shocks at the car & thinking it job done. If you are even half serious about it you will be spending a bundle of time getting it right & doubtless a bundle of money aswell. Pick whicever one the spring rates suit you. You will end up changing stuff anyway.

They will have a second rate car as it will come out of the Kelly brothers workshop. Not really worried about that. I just generally wish that the Nismo brand (dont give a fk for the Nissan brand) didnt have to be boganised in order for Nissan to sell some more shtbox Navaras.

This from an interview in this weeks Auto Fiction of Dan Thompson who is the CEO if Nissan Oz: So, essentially, you're selling the spectacle, not the specification? Well, we're selling the Nissan brand. So there you have it - it is just an branding exercise. Basically there to sell more Nismo jackets or Tiidas because there is no way a Jack Daniels swilling bogan is going to go buy a new GTR off the back of Rick Kelly getting all emotional or Murph punching on with everyone. Keets is right. Whereas before you may see someone with a Nismo shirt/jacket & think here is someone who knows/cares about motorsport. Now you will just be looking at another cashed up bogan with no clue.

Snowie, according to one who was there (allegedly) the Track Battle time attack at Wanneroo sucked and blew at the same time (allegedly). The best, competitive series is probably the speed event series, as mentioned. You can, as long as it is safe, run what you brung in the SES. Targa SW is the next yocal tarmac rally. In the interim there is the Alistair McRae Rally sprint series for those who want to have a try. On tomorrow actually. The classes for door to door stuff are on the WASCC website. For my 10 cents worth - the bloke should just start doing something. You cant start at the top anyway and even if you could it is a bad idea given the size of the jarrah trees next to the roads around these parts.

If I remember correctly the 2 litre championship was a pretty good thing by 1994. BMW tipped a heap on money into it over a number of years to beat Audi. They were the E36 3 series whereas the 93 cars in the SATCC were the E30 M3's. The argument at the time was very much a case of do you run 2 litre cars as per the hugely successful BTCC or our own 5 litre championship. The 2 litre cars didnt really suit most of the established teams at the time. Basically Glenn Seton racing (Ford Sierras) Dick Johnson racing - Sierras. Gibson motorsport - GTR's HRT - Commodores Perkins/Brock (Take them as the same/seperate depending on timing) - Commodores. Frank Gardners mob BMW Colin Bond - Sierras. That was pretty much it from memory - the rest were privateers. So you can see which side of the fence most of the established teams were on. Only BMW & I guess judging from Fred Gibsons comments at the time Freddo himself were pushing for 2 litre cars. Brad Jones - who did good things in the Audi wasnt properly established. Neither was Garry Rodgers. Volvo did enter - not to much effect until too late. Anyway the point is there was a viable, well supported 2 litre championship which withered and died. They had their own sprint series, their own Bathurst race and endless opportunities for manufacturer involvement. Plus a source of cheap(ish) second hand cars and good drivers. As for Toyota & Mitsubishi their involvement in Group A was pretty minimal, class cars aside for Toyota.

Why the hell not? This whole thread has been arguing about nothing so we may aswell keep it going. The 5 litre V8's first ran at Bathurst in 92. Oh and the 2 litres had their own championship series after they split from the V8's. It died in the arse when the BTCC did much the same. Was a good thing for a while, however. Was good to see so many random makes/models out there having a go.

Not 100% sure - the M3's were not the same as the destroked 3 series running in the 2 litre championship. When did Longhurst run in Larry's VP - 93 or 94?

Was that Steve Ellery? An ex Seton Sierra? I think I can almost remember the last round for 93 - Sandown perhaps with the 2 & 5 litre cars all on the same grid. mAybe they did some separate heat & grouped others. Too long ago.

Did they? My dodgy memory has Colin Bond in a Caltex sponsored 2 litre car up against Cotter/Doulman in a BMW in 93?

Well that is sorted then. Now we can go back to trolling and not apologising. Actually I just noticed that people have. Sweet.

Can we go back to talking about how the GTR's were banned and how an R35 would wipe the floor with the V8's?

Johnson only briefly had tobacco money in 1982 and at that it was only a small amount. In the early 90's Shell was the tile sponsor with support from Palmers Tubemills, Ford & Dunlop. He was one of the very few of that era to go through a top line career will almost no reliance on tobacco money. As for the V8 mob they are a business - so as much as I cant stand Cochrane & his methods you cant blame Archer capital for their ways. On the upside some circuits have/will benefit from the lobbying, Wanneroo will for example. The big winner, however, has been the team owners. Holders of the rights to enter their cars own something worth millions, whereas back in the day it wasnt worth squat. Anyway you cant blame high level motor sport for the state of club competition. The two exist in different worlds. Although I am prepared to blame Micheal Schumacher in particular and Ferrari in general for my R32 R not being competitive anymore.

Dude its the interweb. Dont worry about getting stuff wrong just shout louder. As for the other bloke - I did some research. Turns out the 91 & 92 SATCC was run in the middle of a recession with some of the smallest fields on record. Still Freddo's mob had the advantage of being backed by people selling lung cancer and a car company losing money hand over fist. Still the PR gains of calling all the other teams idiots, of suing the governing body, of calling the fans arseholes and of pouring a bucket of scorn over Holdens product whilst at the same time taking their money was brilliant. Actually that wasnt research, that is just what I can remember from watching the thing unfold at the time.

I was actually talking about the Kelly families current results, not Nissans. The only time the Kelly's were om the ball last year was when it has been wet. For what it is worth I watched the group A touring car races back in the day. They werent a patch on the rpesent day races for depth of field, quality of racing and professionalism.

Couple photos of the installed rears - just for the sake of completing the thread a little. You may want to mount the thread a little lower than shown. The shot with three dampers shows a stocker next to the one fitted with a sleeve. Other shot is the bushes for the strut tops & the plates I had made that fit above the bump stop - I didnt use the ones ISC sent.

Going off their current stats they will struggle to win anything unless it is raining. Then have a cry about it. Then take their drivers to court. Then cry some more. The thing that shits me about it (other than the "we was banned" fan boys) are people who choose to beleive that the engineers who work on the current cars are anything but world class. Just because the rules are limited doesnt mean the work they do is not excellent. But anyway - good on Nissan for having a go. Hope they alienate fewer people than last time - because last time was a PR disaster.

Installed some new springs on the weekend. See photos for sleeve info on the rear shocks. Pretty self explanatory really - the stock Bilstein with the two grooves is next to the sleeved version. Obviously the sleeve sits alot further down the shock than the two grooves would normally allow. Spring rate is 5kg/mm and they are just trapped. The underside of the spring collars is 35mm from the bottom of the thread. So if you want to run a higher rate spring or a lower ride height the it wouldnt hurt to run a lower threaded section. The extra clearance makes it easier to install the shocker as it takes a bit of fiddling/levering to get it in place. For what it was worth there is 50mm of clearance at the front between the underside of the spring seats and the bottom of the thread - and that is with the thread mounted on the top of the two grooves. Bottom line is you will need a groove for a rear 10" spring but not at the front for a 8".

The last thing that hasnt been mentioned is the bump stops. You need to work out how long they need to be and obviously they can be different from stock. The way to do it is to get the car at the ride height you need. Work out how much spring & shock travel you have left. Point being that lowering the car reduces your shock travel but not your spring travel - hence the bump stop length can/should change. You need the shock to hit the bump stop before the spring runs out of travel, but not too far before otherwise your car turns in to a pogo stick. Unfortunately it requires fitting, measuring then cutting and refitting. There is a blog/blurb (Not on SAU - out there on the inerweb) somewhere on a bloke going through the process for some teins. Be worth finding. Anyway if you can post up how you get on, did you end up needing helper springs, how much spare length etc you had on the coils & shocks, shock dyno sheets, or anything general to help people it would be good. Attached photo of chromed bushes and plates.

Well a few things will change for 2013 anyway. All teams will be getting new cars - this time with IRS & a transaxle even. So go buy a cheap Hollinger gearbox for your GTR. The point is like Roy said it is good racing and despite the noise the bogans make alot of people just accept the formula for that. Much better than the olden days when you have maybe 20 cars make up a Group A touring car race - only 10 of which were any good. I tend to support any of the drivers who had a famous motorsport type father. So Moffat, Johnson, Lowndes (yes he did), Davidson (well, one of them anyway), not so much Mr Luff and so on. Which gives me an idea - maybe the way to get on in that business is to have a famous old man?

I will email ISC for a quote on a set of front and rear non pillowball strut tops for 65mm ID springs. Im guessing you guys have already done your research and found ISC to be the easiest/cheapest place to get them? I couldnt find anyone else selling them without spherical bearings to be honest. I can get some bushes made up at work to the specs you have given on in the other thread. You may also want to replace the washer ISC provide - the one that fits under the bottom conical rubber. The Nissan item wont fit inside a 65mm spring. I got some plate & had it drilled 10mm on the ID & cut 60mm OD. Then plated for extra bling. Gives the shock bump rubber something solid to smack against. Where abouts did you guys buy your Eibach springs from? Anywhere - you can get them anywhere. Anyone know what the difference is in length of the front shock absorbers GTR vs GTst? Fully extended my GTR ones measured 517mm top to bottom.

I will have to check if the strut tops are going to be changed in the process, I haven't specifically asked for them to be replaced. Any real benefit? Yes. Definately so. The available travel without them is hopeless with 65mm springs. There is a whole thread on this somewhere. See photo showing the difference for the two tops. Obviously the bottom of the shock will be at the same point. So the remaining travel is shorter. Do you remember the spring rates you used at this length? Even if they are in kg The next size down from 8" (203mm) is 180mm. I'm not sure if the higher spring rate will compensate the 20mm free length. My rates are variously 5, 5.5kg/mm front & 4, 4.5 and 5 rear. Work out your unsprung weight per corner. Divide it by the spring rate. Then add this number to the fully compressed spring height. The difference between the result and the unloaded spring length is how much spring travel you have available. It will be a small number of the order of 50mm for the front. Note that shock travel and spring travel are two different things. Do you think I will have to run helper springs to keep them captive with that high a spring rate? No. Maybe at the front but I doubt it. Even if you do it is no big deal. Bit of a case of suck it and see. I will get hard copies and post up a scan of the cards when I get it all sorted. Cheers

On the assumption you have an aftermarket top and are not recycling the old Nissan ones. Front 8" should be fine in the front. Rear 10" should also be ok. That is what I am using on my R32 R but as you can see the spring rates are lower than yours. Typically you use a shorter spring for a higher rate. If you are worried about it get the shop to machine an extra groove into the shock body below the two you have. Do you happen to have dyno graphs for the shocks? Be very interested to see these if they are available.

See attached photo. Tyre on the left is a 255 R comp. Tyre on the right is a 235 road tyre. Reckon there is 20mm difference???? For what it is worth the 235 looks underdone on a 9" tyre.

Well said.

You do realise that model Pintara/Corsair was the biggest steaming turd of a motor car since the Morris Marina, dont you? Plus it was front wheel drive if you didnt notice. Bit hard to fit an RB at 90 degrees to the way Nissan intended it.