Sam's build thread

[sambb]

Each seat mount ended up with an 8mm plate underneath it. The centre console one is through bolted direct to the floor. The sill side on is bolted to the plate with 10mm bolts and then the stock bolts go separately into the floor. I cut away the carpet that covers most of the seat mounting base on the floor of the car so these plates are a flush fit. All 12.9 tensile cap heads.
The 4.7 ohm 1 watt resistor soldered to the tails of a spare seats airbag plug. Now when I remove the stock seat, necessitating its to be unplugged from the cars loom, I just plug this dummy plug in and the airbag alarm is over ridden.
Previously I'd mentioned that the seat belt alarm plug just needed to be unplugged to stop it sounding. This was important because I wasn't going to endure the chime the whole time I had the race seat in that doesnt use the seat belt latch. The seat belt latch needed to be removed from the OEM seat as it is still needed when commuting to events with the race seat in. I cut off the seat belt alarm loom, cut off the dog leg in the steel strap and used a small hole in the strap as a pilot hole to redrill at 11.5mm for the new seat bolt. The strap was then fed through a slit in the carpet to line up with the eyebolt I'd put in and bolted underneath that. It took quite a bit of fettling to get the strap when bolted on in that spot to line up flush with the console where the OE seat could still be slid forward and back etc and for its angle to work with both the race seat and the OE seat but I got there in the end.
Finished product. It took a bit of fiddling on the seat to get the driving position I wanted. Highest at the front and second lowest at the back to get it so that I fit in there like a glove with everything falling to hand nicely. I have a lot more gap to the roof now which is nice I guess for extra rollover clearance and the door sill is up around my ears so I have a lot more protection around me. The shoulder straps will sit far lower now so should be well within the 45 degrees of fall limit, whereas even at its owest setting the stock seat was going to semi illegal on that reg. I'll fit up the 4 point that Andrew (Metalhead) is a legend for lending to me tomorrow so its all plug and play on Saturday. The car feels like a different animal now. The jiggly ride is gone as most of it turned out to be the undamped sprung seat base jiggling me after every bump. Now it just feels rock solid. The ability to corner hard and being able to work at the wheel and pedals with not a thought for what your body is doing is a mile away from having to brace your body etc through corners. You feel everything through your bum too - so much feedback and I agree Hayden, its got to be worth a bit more time just the seat alone.
Anyway all done now. I was warned fitting a seat is a decent sized job and its true but SOooo worth it. Super anticipation happening now for Mt Panorama this weekend. Fingers crossed for dry running and hopefully I wont need all the extra safety i'll have on board now.

[metalhead]

Good to hear.

I haven't wanted to speak too loudly about how much difference it made... But yes, the difference in feel and control is huge! I was blown away when I did it. I'd driven plenty of cars with seats and harness, but had never swapped in a seat and harness on a car that I already knew well until I did it on the Vette. Enjoy, keep us updated how things go on the weekend.

[Sydneykid]

A few tips;
Washers under the cap heads?
I'd stick another fastener (bolt/nut) in the middle of the RHS seat bracket, just to be sure.

Once you have driven with a proper race seat and harness you won't ever want to go back to an OEM seat and lap sash. Definitely faster as you won't have to hold yourself upright, plus you will be far better able to feel what the car is doing under you. The bonus is you won''t feel so worn out at the end of the day as driving will only involve arms and legs, not using the body core.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

Yep all the cap heads (through the seat mounts into the seat, through the seat mounts into the thick base plate on both sides and also the fixings into the floor) have washers. Yeah I will bung a third 10mm into the bigger bracket. Whatever I put through was possibly going to foul on a central rib on the floor pan because I didnt know if I was maybe going to move everything back or forward. I'll run it this weekend to be sure it'll stay put and then do the third bolt. I still need to do the two points for a 6 pointer crotch strap too. Just hope I don't get defected on the way up.

[sambb]

So I survived another Mt Panorama weekend without hitting anything and nothing breaking so I'm a happy camper.
Day 1 proved to be an epic day for me. First up the timing seemed to be correct this year with guys checking their data loggers against the times seeming to confirm that everything was accurate. The car was just a sled through the corners, very taily initially. I was running 215 medium fronts and 195 softs rear and when the softs didn't seem to be gripping up eg sideways into/up Forests Elbow and sideways into the left kink before going up the Dipper I was getting close to backing off the rear bar, but luckily the they came into the pocket as the track warmed up and then it was just sweet.The Forests Elbow tailiness was ok cos I could just keep it pinned and drive out of it but having the arse wanting to come out to the right as I tried to straight line the wall on the left at the Dipper was hairy. The vid here is only of run 3 where I worked out that down changing to second early so that I was carrying throttle all the way through the dipper gave me a bit more control (no braking whatsoever). This run was 2/10ths under my previous best of 30.66 but then on run 4 I really went for it and cracked the 29's!!!!! I just made a mistake free run and went deeper, closer, riskier everywhere and finally cracked the 29's with a 29.65 which was nearly another 8/10ths drop from my previous run, to put me into what I always thought was the preserve of the top V8 guys only.
Thats a whole second under my PB over a 30 second run! I was done by a HSV GTS, an HSV ute with th2 3 litre Walkinshaw blower on it, a kid in a 300KW atw Commodore who nearly made the top 10 of the Glenn Seton young driver search, and the FPV V8 that hit the wall last year …….. so 5th in class. I actually didn't do the 5th run. The time I pulled off in the 4th run was to me unrepeatable and I've seen a lot of guys crash trying to top previous glory times. Maybe getting older or wiser but I just thought that run was the most I could get out of it so I parked it. I lost 4th spot (the FPV jumped me on the last run that I sat out) but I honestly didn't care - 29's did it for me. The car was just dancing through there, the best handling I've ever driven (the seat probably aided with that), it was just fautless. Some actual mumbo up the hill would be nice so that I don't have to try to kill myself through the dipper to stay in touch with the other guys would be nice, but I cant complain at all.

So anyway here's the vid. I didn't film the last quick run cos I'd laid the passenger seat flat getting all serious. So its a bit of a slowey but you'll get the gist: YouTube

[sambb]

ESSES RESULTS: my class is RRNLB over 2.5L:

https://bathurstlightcarclub.com.au/...sesResults.pdf

[simon k]

nice work - gotta be very happy with that

[sambb]

MOUNTAIN STRAIGHT RESULTS: https://bathurstlightcarclub.com.au/...ghtResults.pdf

PB 55.75 sec

The opening of Day 2 was as nerve racking as its always been. I knew from Day 1 that the car was quite slidey which is fine for the Esses but not what you want for going across the top. The car was already as low in the back as it would go so I couldn't drop it more for more rear end stability. I also didn't want to soften the rear bar because I thought that may be too much of a step change. I'd also gone back to a stock front anti roll bar pre event and hadn't run it like that on a circuit so was a bit mindful that dropping down one on the rear bar might cause the car to push, so at the end of all those mind gymnastics I decided to just run it and try to do a true sighter and get a feel for what the car was doing before pre empting anything.
Trouble was the car was brilliant through Griffins so I thought "ill stay into this" but then going over the crest before the drop into the grate at Suliman Park the car got very light in the rear and squirmed around right down to the grate before it settled. I had the hand shakes after that when I got back to the pits. The rears didnt feel anywhere near gripping so I went two clicks out on the rear dampers and thought that by the time the second run comes around the track will be a lot hotter and if I really concentrated on working the tyres and brakes up to temp on the way down I should be ok.
To add to the pre second run jitters there was a big crash while we were waiting at the top in the dummy grid. A spider/tube framed Beetle (basically an open wheeler with a fibreglass faux Beetle shell over it) dropped oil from the grate onwards, slipped on his own oil , looped it over the line and clouted the inside wall at Macphillamy twice. It was trucks, ambo's, the full oil/shrapnel cleanup crew and then his wreckage being brought right past us before we headed down. Gulp! Luckily one of the guys had his parents on the hill at the top and they said that the other cars that came up after the incident in that group who was on it were fine through the oil dust so we knew it wasn't too treacherous. I'll put up a vid of me running that run. The only one I filmed was this run when things were a bit hairy so it was kind of another sighter.
Run 3 was my quickest. I was able to brake momentarily just after the driveway before Griffins, got the lines right across the top and carried more throttle than I ever have through there. The car was juuussst understeering a tad towards the end wall at Macphillamy but I knew I was through - definitely the quickest I've ever gone and I definitely knew I was alive when I completed that one!
Run 4 I buggered up. I decided I was going to go through the kink before the cutting without braking at all and only a lift. I was confident I could do it and pretty certain thats where I was loosing most of my time. Well it was a sphincter clencher but I got through ok (excellent to know for next time) but then my braking distance into the cutting funnily enough seemed to be insufficient. I managed to pull it up and basically backed it into the cutting about 3 feet wide of the apex on the inside wall. To not loose it I was carrying throttle the whole time once I got it turned in and then started to run out of road on the exit of the cutting and ran the closest to the wall there that I ever have. I stayed into it for the rest of that run because I never really lifted off when I had the slide and thought the run might be salvageable but it ruined the lines after that and I was only a tad slower than run 3. I didn't record that run cos again I didnt want anyone looking over my shoulder and didnt want a sandbag weight sitting upright next to me so had the seat laid flat. Arggh if I could have made the cutting it would have been a cracker but thats the way it goes. Now I know that when I get through the kink before the Cutting without braking and only a lift, that I need to be on the anchors immediately.
The timing had been a bit suss again like last year and had a few people scratching their heads. I had a couple of missing first splits and had an identical first split to another guy too (who is in a much slower car than me) which is how it started to unravel last year too. I honestly thought my times were coming up as slower but it wasnt till today I realsised that id PB'd by a fair chunk and on a day when the timing seemed to be making people look slower than usual, so i'll take it,. But to be honest I just dont have the horsepower to compete with the V8 brigade on day 2 and its all about maximising what I can do, so unreliable times aside it FELT really quick so I'm happy.
So there you go. Standard front bar, whiteline rear bar on full hard, 2mm of rear toe out, 2mm front toe out, front MCA's 2 clicks shy of full hard both days, and all I did for day two was soften the rears by 2 clicks and it felt great on 215/50/15 medium fronts: 195/55/15 soft rears. On Day 2 I was starting front and rear a needle width over 28psi and had 30psi all round in the pits, so unless I'm interpreting that wrong it looks to me that the mixed compound was bang on for a hillclimb and working the tyres as equitably as is possible.

[metalhead]

Great run up through the Esses! Looks very clean tidy and fast. Great effort both days, wish I was there. I saw a vid of Waynes accident, looked like quite the ride, it's obvious he got something on his tyres. Frustrating to hear of more timing troubles...

[sambb]

Thanks Fellas. If you have a link to Waynes crash do you think you could email it Andrew? Phil Heafy is now the president. He was copping it all day long re the new regs, protests, general whinging etc. He was camped next to us. This was the years first event and he couldn't seem to get a second to himself at times which is why I left him alone re our reg changes. Last year I remember he cross checked his logs with the timing and was certain it was out be over 2 seconds on day 1. This year despite some hints he didn't want to be drawn on timing. You'll notice his youtube vid up Mt Straight says in the comments that he cant seem to access his data logs despite people asking for them (he normally puts them on his vids) ........ I think I know why people are asking for them and why they aren't up!
The Australian titles are there in Sep? - it'd be nice to trust the times you get then!