Sam's build thread

[metalhead]

Softs, cheapies from time attack guys... Aim is to finish off the Nankangs at Wakefield this week and then fit the AO50s. I probably would have preferred mediums, as I don't think the softs will stand up to much more than hillclimbs on my car, but time will tell. I also hope they're not much/any quicker than the Nankangs, because I don't want to pay full price for them! But having had a few different sets of street tyres on my other wheels now, I'm starting to think that the Nankangs might be kind of crap...

[metalhead]

So Sam, I had mechanical dramas at Wakefield (why does the car cover thousands of km without issue and then chuck a fit when I've traveled hundreds of km for an event?), but I at least managed a few laps (~10 hot laps). Unfortunately I didn't get any laps without interference from slower cars, but had two laps with only minimal interference, both in the 1:10.6 bracket. Amazing how similar our cars are in performance on different tracks for such completely different machines!

[sambb]

Oh man that sucks. Nothing that'll put you out of the hillclimb is it? Yeah I got killed by slower cars when I was there too. 1:10.6 is a great time considering the weight you have to keep under control. Considering the limited running you'd have to be happy with that but I bet like me you came away pretty sure you could go much quicker with some continuity.

[metalhead]

I don't think it should be a major issue, I need to do some troubleshooting, but I think I have an issue with the low pressure fuel supply to my surge tank. Hopefully shouldn't be too difficult to solve. But before that, I started the day with a screw working loose inside the distributor and chewing things up before disappearing when I removed the dizzy cap. That was on my first lap (after out lap) of the day and could have ended my day... It took me until after midday and a trip into Goulburn to get the car up and running again, and I had to rough set the timing by ear as I couldn't source a light. Then I had the fuel supply issue which rapidly got worse to the point that I couldn't get a complete lap in before having to pit due to the engine cutting out starving for fuel... I was thankful that it was an open pit lane day so that I could go out on the track whenever I was ready, as if it had been sessions it would have been a disaster - though on the other hand I guess I might have had less delays due to slower vehicles.

Yes, I was happy with the time, though I was keen to run sub 1:10 if I could... But considering how things went, yes I was happy.

Video of the two 1:10 laps. Pretty messy... I'm certain I can do a lot better with some more track time. YouTube

[metalhead]

Just realised I hadn't updated you about Tamworth on the weekend either. I didn't make it up there Sat for practice, and was probably a bit slower after Ringwood as a result, but in the end it was Wayne first, me second, and Riley third, with just 0.2s covering the 3 of us. Was good to have such close competition!

[sambb]

Good results. Yeah I imagine wayne is pretty strong up there being his home track and he does tend to go Kamikaze on his final runs too. Good to beat Riley. His driving has come on big time since he did that Glenn Seton driver search thing, so good to keep him in his place.. ha ha.

edit: just watched the vids - jeez it boogies down the straight doesn't it. Love it, makes me want to go back there now that mines properly tuned and see whats the best I can get on the stock turbo before it comes out.

[metalhead]

Yep, Wayne's home track helps him. He was fastest all day, much faster than us for the first couple of runs, Riley started the day ahead of me too, I reeled in Riley as the day went on and we both reeled in Wayne, super close by the end of the day. We all did our fastest runs on the 4th run, and then all overcooked our 5th (and final) runs trying to beat the others... Was a good day with the usual great comradery.

Yeh, it goes alright, not bad given I just quickly timed it by ear following some dizzy issues at the start of the day...

Now the thing is, I really didn't put much additional wear on those Nankangs... I'm really torn as to whether I can justify replacing them with the AO50s yet or not!

[sambb]

hey if you want that trohpy at Ringwood I'd be putting the yoko softs on any day! delpends what other events you have lined up after that though and whether you want to be atking them on and off. Me i'll be on 215 yoko medium fronts and 195 yoko soft rear.

[sambb]

Sick as a dog today at home so decided to do a little job that ended up taking forever. Since I removed the air con inc condenser, there has been a gaping gap between the radiator core and the IC. I was at the dealership the other day and had a good look at an i30N and was impressed by its factory ducting for the IC and radiator so decided to sort mine out.
The gap between cores was over an inch in places. I basically lined the IC core with adhesive foam strip positioned it in against the radiator core and then redrilled the SEAT IC supports for the position further in. While I was at it I sealed up all the gaps between the radiator support shroud and the radiator.
So now with the cores stacked the IC/radiator cores should flow together nicely and any air that hits the radiator will go through it now rather than spilling off to the sides and bottom. I'll run a cable tomorrow that'll give me manual radiator fan control. Once up to temp I was able to confirm that the radiator fans pull air hard through the IC core now which coupled with my water spray should keep IC core temps down on hillclimb start lines. All that's left to do is make up some simple ducting from the grills to the radiator surrounds and I don't think I'll have any dramas with water temps in future after that and the IC whilst flawed will be as efficient as possible.

[simon k]

lol, too sick to work but not too sick to play cars...