Sam's build thread

[HaydEn]

Car will be completely different to drive!

What exhaust manifold is that you have with the gt28?
Any fitment issues?

[sambb]

do you mean the manifold in the pics in post#79? If you mean that manifold that's for a Merc SLK 2.3. I'd just included those pics as eye candy cos I'd been talking in that post about the new Borg warner turbos that a mechanic mate of mine has been running instead of the Garretts he'd previously always gone with. Its not a VAG 1.8T 20V manifold - his custom job I believe.

The car does feel entirely different in tight stuff with the diff. I haven't gotten anywhere near really pushing it but I'd describe needing slightly less steering lock on than you'd have had with the single spinner. It feels like you have less tyre slip angle and the sensation that the inside wheel is pulling the inside front to the inside of the corner. I won't do it till I see how it goes at the track but I'm betting i'll be able to take the front bar up to the hard setting and i'll still have way better drive than before. Its seamless too. Nothing abrupt about it. It might be raining on sunday morning and I doubt above 10 degrees for the first runs at Ringwood so that'll be a good test on cold semi's for the diff. can't wait!

[HaydEn]

Aaaah. I was tired and unable to read the post!

They are a massive improvement in corners. I never tracked mine, but difference through roundabouts was unreal.

There's a Cars and Coffee thing on at a VW workshop on the Sunday too.

But probably unable to make it with Ringwood start times

[seangti]

You're a machine Sam, congrats on getting it built so quickly.

Yeah the wavetrac is a nice treat. Will probably be more impressive in hill climb/motorkhana than track events where 2nd gear is so widely used. I found my diff was more impressive with front sway bar disconnected as it allowed for wheel travel and perhaps better loading of the diff. I'd have thought that'd be the way to go for your preferred events.

I've got my first track day since last November tomorrow. Champing at the bit to get out. I've still got those A050 softs to wrapped up and yet to run, though am thinking of selling them and just getting a performance street tyre.

[sambb]

Oh yeah I forgot you live up that way HaydEn. Do you know where it is? Its north of the heatherbrae round about and then you turn down Italia rd. There's a motorcross track up that rd too. If you head up that rd though you'll hear the cars running. If you make it come and say Hi.

Yeah I'll basically start with my normal setup suspension wise and just take it from there. I'm guessing having the diff now is going to force a few changes though, but we'll see. Like you say I think a softer front should work best especially if its going to be wet in the morning like they say. I wonder if I'm still going to be able to really go for it - after all the hard work i'll probably be so scared of bining it that i'll be slower than normal! Whats the go with the Yoko's? are you worried they'll be too soft. I was told by a Toyo rep down here that the A050's are overall a very soft compound and that an A050 medium was nearly the same as an R888 soft. If you are going to sell them don't let them sit too long. You'll get top dollar while they are still virginal sticky marshmallows.
Agreed Its the best feeling isn't it, knowing you'll be on track the next day. I love the whole ritual of getting everything squared away, who'll take what and getting it all packed the night before. What I don't like is the early cold starts up the freeway after a sleepless night cos I can't sleep like a little kid.

Last night I swapped my longer gear stick back to standard. Sheez the forge quickshift set to its shortest on a standard gear knob is very clicky isn't it. Not used to it but I found it nearly undriveable. Will either have to lengthen the throw on the quickshift pivot or go back to the longer stick. One thing I haven't even looked at is proper logs. The engine hasn't come in for much attention with everything else happening. I noticed on the gauge the other day that it boosted up to 1.5 bar! My modded turbo never did that probably because the wastegate was getting rid of the excess more efficiently. So last night I checked the wastegate actuator preload and backed it off to 2.5-3mm preload. A few bursts on the way home last night and it was peaking at 1.35-1.4 bar which is probably better, so tonight i'll log it and see if anymore timing can go into it and then I should be good to go. Its going to be weird sitting on the line and not having to fiddle with SMIC fans and water sprays - hopefully the FMIC will keep things cool as a cucumber.

[seangti]

Re the tyres, At the moment I'm not so inclined to run for a lap time, but out to enjoy myself. With such sticky and soft tyres, I couldn't just go hard for 5 laps, would have to be more strategic in my approach. I'm curious as to what the car could do on these tyres tho...

I expect tomorrow will be my last outing on the Kumho V70's.

Re your logs, be sure to check EGT, intake temps, AFR/Lamba too.

[sambb]

yep will do. I'll basically just check the logs from a health point of view. I'll probably only find the time to add timing if its crying out for it. Can't do too many power runs around here. So many bloody fit people out walking dogs etc even in the industrial estates. Always too many civilians around.
Yeah those kumhos were pretty shagged. Whats the go then - medium compound R specs from the harder brands or a street semi like AD08R's. A few guys run Nitto NT01's. They are street legal but have massive tread blocks and are cheap for what they are.

[sambb]

Well I ran at the Ringwood motorsport complex at club hillclimb on Sunday. It was a track I hadn't done before where you head up the hill and go across the top but instead of coming straight down do a second loop of the top again. We got 5 runs despite 3 nasty incidents so due to the extra length managed to get some good seat time to re learn the car.
It was dry but very cold. It was about 10 degrees for a good chunk of the day and when it did warm up the sun went behind the trees which froze the track off again. My day went from just wanting an outing in my own headspace, to a really close competition with a Renault Megane RS275 trophy -R lightweight (yep the one with the stripped out interior, factory cage, torsen diff, ohlins, akropovic exhaust, brembos + it had a dump and a tune on top of that) and a new ford focus RS (the drift mode one). The Renault was the only other car in my class as I'd been bumped up into the next type 2 category of over 2 litre due to my mods.
I used to get 5.30s first splits which is the equivalent of our up hill round a bend 20 ft time but I managed a 4.40s on the day so the car was 7/10th quicker in the first 20 feet. In the last state round at this spot I was beaten to first position in my class by 4/100th last year so to gain 7/10th or so with the LSD just on the line is massive. And there's more in it on the launch too eg Normally I load the car up on the handbrake with the clutch on the friction point to get the turbo primed but I wasn't doing that as the clutch had only just gone in. I was just side stepping the clutch at 2500 and more often than not getting too much wheelspin.
The limi was a revelation. Previously because I could never get the power down on exit I used to have to trail brake right deep to the apex before feeding the power in. Now I was getting on the loud pedal early and I couldn't believe how if I got my timing right I could bury the throttle and still steer through the remainder of the corner at full noise. Even on my 1st run where due to the track configuration I could get two looks at the same corner I was able to get on the power way earlier than the first time through, it just gave me that much confidence. Unbelievably at the end of the 1st run I was sitting in 4th overall!
On my next couple of runs I concentrated on trying to find the limits of just how early I could get on the throttle (and did) and made a couple of mistakes including clipping a cone and getting a 5 second penalty but that was ok for this kind of event because I just wanted to learn the car for when we come back here for the state event in August. I hadn't really noticed though until someone told me that I was locked equal tenth with the Megane both of us on the exact same time of 60.66 and the RS focus was behind us.
That was when it became like Ok I could get a top ten here and have a shot at beating the Megane that I took it a bit more seriously. But in the afternoon the track started to go away. The Focus RS started to get quicker as the grip diminished and eventually topped both of us. On the last run the Megane got me by 6/100ths! ouch. He admitted to me that he'd dropped a lot of tyre pressure, softened off his ohlins and went and parked his car in the sun to keep his tyres warm (local tricks eh!). I'd taken my spacers off the rear to try to get the rear a bit more slidey and dropped air off the front tyres and although I went as fast as I think I could have gone it wasn't enough.
All up it was a really fun day. The car was bloody quick with the diff. Considering that I was down slightly on power since the standard K03s is still in the car I'm very happy. Its pretty cool when every time you walk back to the car there's someone sniffing around it and looking a bit disbelieving when you say that it wouldn't have more than 230hp and only has strut suspension. There's always more improvement in me that's for sure but for the first time in a long time there's now lots of time in the car. Awesome under rated little cars these are.

Things to do before the next rounds:

- I have to make a decision on which way to go with the turbo. At minimum I need to get my ported exhaust and ported K03s back in the car but that will necessitate a new turbo core $650. That has me seriously considering not much more outlay for a turbo upgrade but I'm still not sure there's much more time around the bulk of the hillclimb circuits on the calender in a bigger turbo other than say at Huntley or Panorama. By the same token I can always rebuild my K03s and sell it later with the other standard K03s to finance that upgrade.

- I'm now wondering if the remainder of my kitty is better spent on coilovers. Strut suspension more or less tops out at 200lb/in which I can't go beyond unless I go to coilovers. And while I can get a lot of roll stiffness from bars etc it still doesn't stop the car nose diving under brakes and lifting under power. So MCA's or something with at least some rebound adjustment might be on the cards.

- because of my driveshaft mishap I ran out of time to get a proper alignment before the event. I could only manage a toe n' go. My camber was -1/1/2 degrees on the left and -2/1/4 on the right and slightly more castor on the left. So I'll address that. Hopefully my modded rear beam will be ready too so I can chuck that in and do the brake fluid and some remsa front pads at the same time.

all up I'm very happy though.

sam

Ive been sent the pdf provisional results but can't work out how to post that up here. I took some pics of the active timing screens and results so I'll get them up tonight. When the results go online I'll put them up here and in the tracking thread

[sambb]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRybgxzXO4s

here's the only vid anyone has posted of the event which shows the track config we ran. Its shot from an US legends car that's been converted to Aussie legends spec. He was 1.5 secs quicker than me so really moving but it gives you an idea of how tight and technical this track is.

[seangti]

That's awesome to hear you went so well. That's a hairy little circuit, not much room between track and tree. Is it mostly 2nd and 3rd gear I'm guessing?