Sam's build thread

[sambb]

ha ha this could get messy.

[metalhead]

Nah, no need for that. Run what ya brung and hope you brung enough!

[metalhead]

Have you signed up to the championship for next year yet? I picked up some cheap AO50s thanks to some cashed up time attackers on the weekend. Got them cheaper than the Nankangs!



I'm very curious to see how they compare. James Pearson bought some AO50s for the Australian championships, came back and ran on them at Ringwood for the first time last weekend and went 2.5s quicker, in similar but slightly worse conditions than on Nittos two months before (on the same layout). Given he rated the Nittos significantly quicker than the Nankangs, that's a crazy improvement!

[sambb]

2.5s quicker around Ringwood - that's mental;. I haven't used anything but them, but Pete has tried R888, R888R, and Nankang and said they were all properly ****e compared to these. You'll love them. And two of them are sticker new!

Yeah I just saw that the comp entry is up. So Mt Panorama is on the 2nd March this year. I'm off work that weekend so I'll be there rain hail or shine.

I'm silly. I'll probably be buying a clutch/plate LSD tomorrow. I told myself that if I managed to raise over 500 bucks that it would finally go towards a set of rods for my other engine. But then I saw the diff and summised that rods wont actually make me quicker but the diff will so got that instead. It'll be a bit of an extra fiddle to get it to work with my box. I'll have to rebuild the diff, likely there'll be some crown wheel machining, box rebuild/fit up, and an upgrade to a stg 2 clutch/PP to cope with the extra bite and wider front rubber and I'll be good to go.

[metalhead]

4 of them are stickered new actually! The other 2 have a done a single WTAC session. About 18 months old by the manufacture code, they were actually bought for WTAC last year.

It was the A4 layout at Ringwood, which I do in around 70s (i ran a 70.00 last weekend) - James dropped from a mid 68 at Mattara to a flat 66!

Awesome, I'll be there for sure. Can't wait!

Ah, diffs... Mine has developed a bunch of lash. Given it was freshly rebuilt 2.5 years (and admittedly about 45,000km) ago I'm not too happy - though I do know that my power level is pushing the capabilities of the stock diff, and hillclimbs and khanacrosses on sticky rubber can't help. But upgrading to something else looks like big $$$, and is unlikely to offer a performance benefit to help justify it, so I'm not really sure what way to go. I could just refresh it again, but I really don't want to have to do that every couple of years.

[metalhead]

Oh, and James words when he did his first run on the AO50s?: "I now know that I've never had good tyres on the car before." And he's run a lot of different semis.

[sambb]

Thats what I'm most worried about with this diff. Its still street driven and I hope that if I drive sedately on the street it'll stay fresh for a long time. If a diff rebuild can be eeked out to the same cycle as a clutch, that would be good, because pulling out the whole gearbox to refresh the plates at half clutch intervals (or worse) will get very old very quickly. The wavetrac/torsen will last forever (although I'm starting to hear of quaife ATB's not doing that) but even if it does last, the clutch limi is going to cost a hell of a lot more just with regular oil changes alone, to keep it in goofd health. Think i'll take my time and build up the spare box. Then when my current clutch cries enough or if it dies on the line at a hillclimb or something, i'll have a plug and play box ready to go, and do the swap then.

[simon k]

did you buy the diff then?

[sambb]

tomorrow all going well.

[Sydneykid]

Once you have run it with a decent diff you'll wonder why you didn't do it earlier. At Wakefield there's a 1.2 second gain from an average 1 way LSD to a good 1.5 way in a FWD car. It's not just the diff action itself it's what it allows you to do with the suspension when you don't have to compromise due to wheelspin. From an open diff it's a revelation.

Cheers
Gary