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Mark And Duncans R32 Build


Duncan

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All comments are welcome, between the two of us we've built a few of these, but are by no means definitive experts and always welcome ideas.

Turbos are under debate at the moment. We've got a set of 2530's, but I'm seriously thinking about a set of similar low mounts with an external wastegate.

I'm a big believer in punch over power for most tracks and hill climbs, but there's no question that ultimately, you need herbs to really get the times down. Hopefully this will give us the best of both worlds with the low down punch, with the external helping the top end when internals start to show their weaknesses.

Time and testing will tell.

I'll measure up the cage piping and post it up. Won't be able to do it for a little while. It's tarped up in this rain.

Rob is a master with the welder and building cages. No joint has been done without serious thought. He's been making them for 20 years and it's amazing how much thought goes into them. It's not just a case of putting bars and crosses everywhere, but really covering everywhere the cage has a bend and making sure that all the different stresses are reduced wherever possible.

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We should start a pool on the end weight.

No carbon fiber in this thing, not in the budget, but it's amazing the weight that comes out of the things you wouldn't normaly consider.

For those thinking on going the weight route, a couple of surprising things.

  • There's not a lot of weight in the front and rear windscreens, but there is huge weight in the door windows because the winding mechanism and pillar less doors windows are really heavy.
  • The boot with spoiler is huge dead weight. Probably about 25kgs in the 2. Not easy to find or make a replacement, but a huge savings, and the mounding point for the spoiler is pretty poor from factory.
  • You've heard about taking the spare out to save weight, we'll try the spare tub! Weighs more than the wheel.

I'd love to see 1250kgs, but realistically, getting below 1300 is going to be tricky and expensive. The cradles and running gear are heavy and there's not a lot of alternative on a budget. You can only take so much out before you have nothing left to mount and engine to. Not much we can do with engine and gearbox either.

My guess is about 1325.

Comments welcome

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3 - gone and never coming back. we are keeping the brake booster though - i have driven a gtr on the track without the booster and it was a disaster.

Harden up! lol, get rid of the booster. If you're left foot braking between corners and on/off the power you'll want a consistant pedal, and you can't get that with a booster.

As for the rest of it, you have me salivating, wishing I had the room to do my own project...

Thanks guys :thumbsup:

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great work guys i love these buildup threads they make me want to get into a similiar project myself, im suprised about the tyre well being so heavy thats a good find, i had a mate do a similiar project to a ma70 supra (strip it excessively for trackwork) and he managed to get it from the factory weight of 1600kg (something like that), down to an amazing 1180kg, its pretty much got only the essential parts and no excess wiring etc, this weight was without the cage though so that would add in abit of weight. Just goes to show how much excess weight can be removed from a car when u go the whole way starting from scratch and just using the parts needed.

Im guessing 1350kg because that cage looks pretty substantial :thumbsup:

how much would a cage like the one in your car weigh?

do u guys have any idea what the complete engine and box weigh roughly?

how much did all the sound deadening weigh up to or didnt u bother weighing it?

how come u guys never consider a smaller single turbo and ext gate? response as good as twins and the ease of working on it cant be ignored imo, simplifes things a hell of a lot. only need 1 dump pipe as well :(

good luck and look forward to the updates

Edited by unique1
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got ours down to 1360kg.... as shown recently in HPI car retains all front trims including carpet,headlining and even sunvisors. Both doors are as per factory items including mega weight in door intrusion bars. Only really deleted heater box, air con system, hicas system and ABS. Only body deadner inside from b pillar rearward removed and none under car has been stripped (yet).

so sub 1300kg may be achieveable.

Also...that cage looks very close to what Gibson Motorsport ran in their cars.

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looks great mark and dundan. you guys will have a ball on this one without that nasty rule book holding you down.

depending on how much it costs for the perspex and how hard it is to get a nice result it may be worth buying some pre-made japanese lexan or perspex windows as they are not really all that expensive in japan. I have bought some before for a mate and I was surprised how cheap they were.

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how much did all the sound deadening weigh up to or didnt u bother weighing it?

I recently strip all the sound deadner out of my GTS-t ( i assume that the GTR would be the same) and it weighed a total of 26kg :thumbsup:

That was a fun job (hint always use the dry ice method, much easyer!!!)

Cheers

Ross

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Holly crap I didnt reslise it was this serious of a build!!

*subcribes to thread* :D

How often do you guys work on the car Duncan?

I wouldnt mind popping over sometime and learning some stuff :)

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Are you guys going to remove the underbody tar?

I assume you're not going to acid dip the shell, since the roll cage is already in...

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Awesome build fellas. I want to do something like this with some mates eventually with an s13 or 180 or similar. The only thing stopping us is the money and most of the know how lol. I look forward to seeing the finished results.

Edited by Cooper
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forgot to say it before, but I love the cage. should protect both your noggins nicely. though I'm not 100% convinced yours is worth protecting dundan! :D

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