Jump to content
SAU Community

8 Laps Of Driving A Semi Prepped V8 Race Car

Dean_HR31
 Share

Recommended Posts

Dean_HR31 Mentor

Dean_HR31

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hey guys,

As a 21st bday present my best mate paid for a package for me to drive a semi prepped V8 supercar around calder park on Saturday. I am abolutely rapt as i havnt had my skyline for 8 months and recently lost my license, this is hopefully going to release ALOT of energy!

Just wondering whether anyone has done this before?? Just wanting to know the modifications of the car exactly, what the instructor was like and how much your allowed to push the car...

Thanks!

Edited by Dean_HR31
VB- Veteran

VB-

Posted
Posted

dot know much about the course, but as for the car, pretty sure they mod suspension and brakes so grip levels etc are up there (but not quite) V8 supercar standard, but power is relatively stock.

yes i believe you get to go hard out for a bit, dunno how much of it though

fake400r Community Regular

fake400r

Posted
Posted

I did this a couple of years ago. I went with a company called V8 Race Experience. It was pretty good fun but 8 laps goes real fast.

The cars that i went in were just SS and XR8 road cars that had been race prepped. They had larger brakes, slicks, big clutch, exhaust, stripped out with cage, harness and seats. They arent scary fast but you would be surprised. You get up to about 200kph at AIR in Adelaide. I suppose it depends on the track as to how fast you go.

The grip was the thing that blew me away. I felt i was lapping fairly fast as we were catching alot of cars, however at no point did the car feel like it was at the edge of its grip levels like when you give a car on street tires a thrash. A lap with a pro would have been interesting.

Let us know what you thought after you have done it.

Cheers

FATGTS-R Experienced

FATGTS-R

Posted
Posted

I've also done the V8 race experience and as mentioned power levels are stock. But car is stripped,caged and wears slicks. It was wet the day I went and did it so had to run on wets lol.

The instructors are keen for you to have a great time and actually encourage you to get up the car. 8 laps goes way to fast like was said. First lap or two you are getting used to the car and start to get some speed up for the next two laps and then a slower car in front holds you up for two laps. Then you've got 2 laps left and as soon as you blink the bloke is pointing into the pits.

It was my first time on a racetrack and when I pulled in the front brakes were on fire haha and I had a grin on my face all day from the excitement. Have fun!!

Haysey Grand Master

Haysey

Posted
Posted

I went for a spin in the passenger seat of a Proper V8 Race Car (only slight differences between this and a V8 Supercar... Engine wasnt one of them)....

and holy shit it was the best track experience ive ever had, totally pushed back in the seat, the grip and g forces were amazing, the noise and smell.... hammering around oran park was tops...

Yeah i wasnt driving, but i could barely walk and my face was hurting from smiling so much..

To be honest, i didnt think a commodore could go around a corner so fast!!

Dean_HR31 Mentor

Dean_HR31

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Ok, I just got back from calder.. while it was fun obviously i am VERY dissapointed with the experience due to the following:

-Could only use 3rd & 4th gear which absolutely sucked cos the rear/drift sector of the calder track NEEDED 2nd! Instead i was stuck at 3-3,500 rpm going no where in 3rd.

-NO HEEL & TOE DOWN CHANGES ALLOWED!! Do you believe this???? That demolished 80 percent of the experience. The car was near compression lock up 90 percent of the time because of this and it just makes the sound of the car sound amature coming to corners!

-No lap times recorded!!

-Your not alone on the track so about 3 of your 8 laps are F*** because of slow coaches in front of you

-Had to be really smooth with the clutch on up changes, didnt fuss me too much but still a little annoying

-Powerwise.. could not have been more dissapointed.. i swear on my dogs tail that my drift pig manual 6 VN wagon would not have been far behind these nuggets. These motors must be on the verge of dying cos the car i was in had no more than 110kws at the rears, no exageration. They are all just sound! Waiting for 3rd and 4th gear to finish was like waiting for a turtle to walk up a hill missing 1 leg and having prior surgery on the other 3 remaining..

-Probably the most dissapointing part of it all was the video recordning. The 2 cameras in the car are positioned to only show your face, shoulders and arms & the other cam only shows the bonnet and track. No footage of foot work, gear changing NOTHING. I still paid the $50 for the tape cos its something ill only do once in one of those un-bread crumbed nuggets.

Edited by Dean_HR31
m3gtr Grand Master

m3gtr

Posted
Posted
Ok, I just got back from calder.. while it was fun obviously i am VERY dissapointed with the experience due to the following:

-Could only use 3rd & 4th gear which absolutely sucked cos the rear/drift sector of the calder track NEEDED 2nd! Instead i was stuck at 3-3,500 rpm going no where in 3rd.

-NO HEEL & TOE DOWN CHANGES ALLOWED!! Do you believe this???? That demolished 80 percent of the experience. The car was near compression lock up 90 percent of the time because of this and it just makes the sound of the car sound amature coming to corners!

-No lap times recorded!!

-Your not alone on the track so about 3 of your 8 laps are F*** because of slow coaches in front of you

-Had to be really smooth with the clutch on up changes, didnt fuss me too much but still a little annoying

-Powerwise.. could not have been more dissapointed.. i swear on my dogs tail that my drift pig manual 6 VN wagon would not have been far behind these nuggets. These motors must be on the verge of dying cos the car i was in had no more than 110kws at the rears, no exageration. They are all just sound! Waiting for 3rd and 4th gear to finish was like waiting for a turtle to walk up a hill missing 1 leg and having prior surgery on the other 3 remaining..

-Probably the most dissapointing part of it all was the video recordning. The 2 cameras in the car are positioned to only show your face, shoulders and arms & the other cam only shows the bonnet and track. No footage of foot work, gear changing NOTHING. I still paid the $50 for the tape cos its something ill only do once in one of those un-bread crumbed nuggets.

Hmm...

Better hope your mate doesnt read this...

Dean_HR31 Mentor

Dean_HR31

Posted
  • Author
Posted

nah its a DVD decent picture quality... sound is average... its pretty funny watching my face expressions waiting for 3rd and 4th gear to go by... lol i still cant get over how slow the cars were...

FC3S 13BT Enthusiast

FC3S 13BT

Posted
Posted

Glad I read this thread! I was wanting to do this at the end of the year.. so yeah that idea is in the bin haha

I did the U-drive down at calder 2 years ago that was ok.. didnt blow my socks off or anything, sort of like a bigger version of go-karting haha

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • GTSBoy
      Mistakes were made, my R34 Story

      By GTSBoy · Posted

      This. As for your options - I suggest remote mounting the Nissan sensor further away on a length of steel tube. That tube to have a loop in it to handle vibration, etc etc. You will need to either put a tee and a bleed fitting near the sensor, or crack the fitting at the sensor to bleed it full of oil when you first set it up, otherwise you won't get the line filled. But this is a small problem. Just needs enough access to get it done.
    • suko
      J50 clock date suddenly reset to January 1

      By suko · Posted

      The time is always correct. Only the date is wrong. It currently thinks it is January 19. Tomorrow it will say it is January 20. The date and time are ( should be ! ) retrieved from the GPS navigation system.
    • MBS206
      Mistakes were made, my R34 Story

      By MBS206 · Posted

      Buy yourself a set of easy outs. See if they will get a good bite in and unthread it.   Very very lucky the whole sender didn't let go while on the track and cost you a motor!
    • Kinkstaah
      Mistakes were made, my R34 Story

      By Kinkstaah · Posted

      Well GTSBoy, prepare yourself further. I did a track day with 1/2 a day prep on Friday, inpromptu. The good news is that I got home, and didn't drive the car into a wall. Everything seemed mostly okay. The car was even a little faster than it was last time. I also got to get some good datalog data too. I also noticed a tiny bit of knock which was (luckily?) recorded. All I know is the knock sensors got recalibrated.... and are notorious for false knock. So I don't know if they are too sensitive, not sensitive enough... or some other third option. But I reduced timing anyway. It wasn't every pull through the session either. Think along the lines of -1 degree of timing for say, three instances while at the top of 4th in a 20 minute all-hot-lap session. Unfortunately at the end of session 2... I noticed a little oil. I borrowed some jack stands and a jack and took a look under there, but as is often the case, messing around with it kinda half cleaned it up, it was not conclusive where it was coming from. I decided to give it another go and see how it was. The amount of oil was maybe one/two small drops. I did another 20 minute session and car went well, and I was just starting to get into it and not be terrified of driving on track. I pulled over and checked in the pits and saw this: This is where I called it, packed up and went home as I live ~20 min from the track with a VERY VERY CLOSE EYE on Oil Pressure on the way home. The volume wasn't much but you never know. I checked it today when I had my own space/tools/time to find out what was going on, wanted to clean it up, run the car and see if any of the fittings from around the oil filter were causing it. I have like.. 5 fittings there, so I suspected one was (hopefully?) the culprit. It became immediately apparent as soon as I looked around more closely. 795d266d-a034-4b8c-89c9-d83860f5d00a.mp4       This is the R34 GTT oil sender connected via an adapter to an oil cooler block I have installed which runs AN lines to my cooler (and back). There's also an oil temp sensor on top.  Just after that video, I attempted to unthread the sensor to see if it's loose/worn and it disintegrated in my hand. So yes. I am glad I noticed that oil because it would appear that complete and utter catastrophic engine failure was about 1 second of engine runtime away. I did try to drill the fitting out, and only succeeded in drilling the middle hole much larger and now there's a... smooth hole in there with what looks like a damn sleeve still incredibly tight in there. Not really sure how to proceed from here. My options: 1) Find someone who can remove the stuck fitting, and use a steel adapter so it won't fatigue? (Female BSPT for the R34 sender to 1/8NPT male - HARD to find). IF it isn't possible to remove - Buy a new block ($320) and have someone tap a new 1/8NPT in the top of it ($????) and hope the steel adapter works better. 2) Buy a new block and give up on the OEM pressure sender for the dash entirely, and use the supplied 1/8 NPT for the oil temp sender. Having the oil pressure read 0 in the dash with the warning lamp will give me a lot of anxiety driving around. I do have the actual GM sensor/sender working, but it needs OBD2 as a gauge. If I'm datalogging I don't actually have a readout of what the gauge is currently displaying. 3) Other? Find a new location for the OEM sender? Though I don't know of anywhere that will work. I also don't know if a steel adapter is actually functionally smart here. It's clearly leveraged itself through vibration of the motor and snapped in half. This doesn't seem like a setup a smart person would replicate given the weight of the OEM sender. Still pretty happy being lucky for once and seeing this at the absolute last moment before bye bye motor in a big way, even if an adapter is apparently 6 weeks+ delivery and I have no way to free the current stuck/potentially destroyed threads in the current oil block.
    • Kinkstaah
      Jacks that fit under GTR lips that can reach the subframe?

      By Kinkstaah · Posted

      Whoops!
×
×
  • Create New...