Sam's build thread

[sambb]

No mate. Got kids nippers, cricket and tonnes of jobs around the house to tackle I’m afraid. Good luck. Keen to hear how the new engine goes.

[metalhead]

Fair enough. Yeh fingers crossed I get it sorted, should do. New lifters should arrive tomorrow, so hopefully I can get it all back together tomorrow night after work and have a couple of days to make sure it's happy before a shakedown at Ringwood. Just looking at the weather for Bathurst, they're predicting some rain on the Friday night at this stage, not ideal for camping.

[sambb]

Yeah who knows what the weather will bring. Its a strange place. We've had years where we nearly turned around in Lithgow because it was so bad we couldn't even see where we going, yet when we got that first glimpse of the mountain coming into Bathurst it had that gods torchlight thing happening directly on the mountain through the clouds. For the whole weekend not a drop fell on the mountain yet there were showers all around us - bizarre. You just cant predict it. If they are saying for sure that it'll rain I might buy a little throw in the air single man tent to put all the tools in.
I've never driven it wet and I always start to stress about the weather around now. Not a lot of grooves left in what is left of my semis so I wont be chasing results if its bucketing. Your 'Vette has traction control doesn't it? What are you worried about..... ha ha
Good thing is Pete will be up there before us.

Pete is pretty OCD and he'll have a site staked out for us that'll be a good'n.

He takes his whole house with him wherever he goes - awnings, marquee's, ground sheets, etc. So worst case if it is raining friday evening we'll have some initial cover on arrival which'll make setting up easy as. That's worst case scenario so even for that we'll be ok. If I cant find anyone to look after the kids on Friday I might not be leaving till 6pm! ouch I don't think anyone appreciates rattle guns at 10pm so it'll be a busy Saturday morning if that's how my Sydney getaway pans out.

[sambb]

Found this vid about British touring car suspension. Ive linked the vid to start when he's showing the front struts (RWD on this car).
Gary whats the go with the spring coupling. Looks to be heights adjustable but also allow them to run more or less active coils for an adjustable spring rate? is that how you see it?

https://youtu.be/SwZB6avlZ28?t=161

[Sydneykid]

Found this vid about British touring car suspension. Ive linked the vid to start when he's showing the front struts (RWD on this car).
Gary whats the go with the spring coupling. Looks to be heights adjustable but also allow them to run more or less active coils for an adjustable spring rate? is that how you see it?

https://youtu.be/SwZB6avlZ28?t=161

Yep, it enables them to change the spring rate faster. Removing the mac struts takes time plus after they are reinstalled it needs to be wheel aligned. The springs they use are specifically designed to allow for a reduction in the active coils ie; they are over spec'd when all coils are active by using larger diameter wire than would otherwise be the case. When the minimum coils are active then the spec is more appropriate.

A simple example, if I want, say, a 350 lbs/inch spring I can use 10 turns of 12 mm wire or 12 turns of 13 mm wire. In the 12 x 13 spring I can make, say, 2 turns inactive then the spring rate is, say, 400 lbs. Engineering wise that won't over stress the wire. If I did that with the 10 x 12 spring (ie; only 8 coils active) that would cause it to sag, collapse or possibly fail completely.

The downside is the increase in unsprung weight, obviously a 10 x 12 spring weighs a lot less than a 12 x 13 spring, plus there is the weight of the adjuster. It's trade off for the ability to adjust the spring rates quickly which is important in the BTCC because they have a rapid turn around in races. It's also useful for the smaller teams with a shortage of crew. Then there is dealing with the constantly changing weather in the UK.

The trick is engineering the spring design and then having someone good make them for you plus, being a one off, there is a cost. They have a flat end (closed and ground) to sit on the spring seat at the top and then an open wind (no flat end) at the bottom to suit the lock off seat. As such they aren't an off the shelf item last time I checked. If they were it would be good for someone like you with a combo road/track car to run it a bit softer for the street and then lock of some coils for a higher spring rate at the track. It's easy enough with my spring design program to work out how many coils = what spring rate and then just mark the coils appropriately.

They did something similar in the 90's for the BTCC using alloy wedges between the coils to make then inactive, Supercars do the same today.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

Thanks Gary. Good to know it was what I was looking at. A pretty cool solution to a problem but yeah does look heavier than say pulling spring blockers in or out or winding them up/down like in super cars.

In other news Special Piston services have my pistons ready. They had a good look at the Audi S3 sample piston I sent them. Despite being the worst one for evidence of ring flutter they still thought that it was minimal and said that overall the pistons were in tip top condition and they'd have no hesitation re using them. I guess the engine builder I'd showed them to operates on a whole different level of quality control/budget expectation than where I'm at. They agreed that the oil control ring design looked a bit under done but unfortunately said that there was bugger all room to up size those grooves. At the end of the day they said that OE's don't build anything without longevity in mind and that functionally they'll be fine however oil quality and shortening the oil service intervals will play a big part in keeping them healthy. They'll be coming back to me with skirt and crown coating, wrist pins cleaned up and a set of rings.
Problem is now I'm cleaned out again. I was getting close on the TFSI turbo front with only a few little bits of hardware to sort and had honestly forgotten that I'd even sent the pistons down to these guys. So I'll have to park that for a bit and see whats what after Bathurst and start moving on some Parts or something.

[sambb]

Dropbox - BLENDLINE_HILLCLIMB_TVC_V4.mp4 - Simplify your life

Next weekend rounds 1 and 2 of the NSW Hillclimb Championship will be on at Mt Panorama. If anyone feels like a drive you can get up to the top of the mountain via the access roads and view hillclimbing over both days. As a bonus, Autofest is also on down on Pit straight (separate event).

[Sydneykid]

No joy on the A050's, sorry.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

No worries Gary. Thanks for trying and for getting back to me.

[sambb]

Bathurst NSW Hillclimbs 2020 report:

Day 1 Esses:

So this day ended up being a shambles. This is the day when I'm most competitive in my class and I did a decent time last year so I don't know if I put a bit of pressure on myself or if I was just chasing last years time which is a dopey thing to do because the track is different every year, but I kind of threw it away this year.
Run 1 surprised me with how little grip there was with the car going sideways on turn in at Forests Elbow which then had me a bit gun shy at the entry to the dipper. Everyone was saying afterwards how slippery/dusty the track but my brain which was fixated on getting into the 29's like last year didn't seem to register that, so I kept on expecting to nail it. Run 2 was tidier and I got all the lines right. It felt really quick but I was still at 30.33 which was 0.7 sec off last years time which had me scratching my head a bit.
So run 3 I knew I needed to get into the throttle earlier at the elbow and to really throw it up the dipper if I wanted to go quicker. Step 1 I achieved but step 2 I over did. I went into the dipper at a good speed but turned in too early which basically made me do a jump out towards the outside wall. I stayed right into it even though I'd now made the exit of the next corner impossible to make. That little moment of indecision on the next corners exit - do I try to get inside of the curb or do I abort, and it stepped right out on me which I had to catch and then it was just rallycross over the mud and then wait and see which way and how badly it was going to snap when I re-joined the circuit. Close to a biggn' for sure but at the time there was no adrenalin, I was just filthy that I'd thrown away a quick run. Watching it back now it could have been much worse. Earlier in the day at the spot where the car jumped out towards the wall, a Mazda MX5 with a 2.5L in it had snapped sideways. By the time he caught it he basically went head on into the outside wall and killed the car, cut/bruised his thumbs, hurt his shoulders and was attempting to trailer it home when I last saw him with a blown back - so yeah I was lucky it went wrong further along where I had room to do something about it.
Here's the footage: https://youtu.be/i6onG6E74Dc?t=38
In the end I finished up third in class. Bettered by an HSV GTS and a VY SS both with more or less the same level of mods as me. 2nd place was 7/10ths ahead of me which I wasnt going to get and as it turned out no one went quicker on their last runs and overall the times were all down on last years times, so lesson learned - dont chase reference PB's and just do what todays track is allowing.

Day 2 Mountain Straight:

The day opened with the normal jitters that increased to nearly feeling a bit ill down on the line with nerves. Again Run 1 was very tailey at Griffins bend and really floaty through the kink before the Cutting. I'd lowered the rear about 8mm compared to Esses day and had expected a bit more rear grip, but was pretty sure the track and tyre temps would bring it to me so I didnt change anything. Run 2 was better as hoped so for run 3 I just went up a click front and back on the dampers and started on 28psi all round off the line and it felt really good. I filmed run 3. Run 4 was a cracker but I didnt film it (passenger seat folded flat). I'm sure it was the quickest but I never saw my time on the their non-updating antiquated timing board and missed out on a printed copy because I was packing up the car so I'm hanging out for the official results to come out. Pretty sure I managed 4th in class (I was 4/10ths ahead of an Audi S5 after run 3) but yet to find out. I was again a ways off my PB but definitley had the car hooked up so I'm happy with whatever time I get because I couldnt have gone much quicker on the day/at the time. That last run was the most exhilerating run I 've ever made in the car anywhere. As soon as I dropped down off the Suliman Park crest towards the grate I knew I was going to hit all the marks and carrying that speed through those walls was just insane. Sooo fun! love it.
I'll get a vid up of run 3 which frankly looks like driving miss daisy but I can assure you it didnt feel it. A friend of ours might even have some drone footage (until he got in trouble) which will be cool.
anyway thats the wrap. I love driving out of there down Conrod at the end of the weekend when you and the car are in one piece and you did a decent job and the walls didnt claim you. keeps you awake for the rest of the drive back to Sydney replaying it all in your head thats for sure !