Sam's build thread

[sambb]

Thanks mate. Are you going to do a wild card entry and see if you can run at the Ringwood state round?

[metalhead]

Hmmm, I hadn't realised it was open to other entries, but now I look and see that it is. Tempting, makes it more worthwhile with the cheap practice on Sat too. Question is, am I/the car/my wife/my tyres up for 3 events in 4 weekends...?

[sambb]

Yeah they usually have a set number of entrants. If all those alotments aren't filled by state registered entries then outside entries fill them up. But state competitors get priority though so even at the last minute if it looks like you're in one of the last spots you could get bumped if a late state entry comes in. But being an MGCCN member and being their track, you would get a bit of priority even over non state people from outside clubs. They look after their own a bit I think. Yeah Saturday practice is good fun and very good value for like the extra 20 bucks or whatever it is. I once got about 10 laps there and pretty much just cycled around. and It can be a tyre killer though - that and the fact that I was there pretty recently means I won't do practice, along with the grumpy wife issue too of course.

[metalhead]

Well I chucked in an entry. See what happens I guess.

[sambb]

good stuff. they'll refund you if you get bumped. Come to think of it I better enter too.

[sambb]

here's the report from last weekend: http://hillclimbnsw.com/report-2017-...rth-hillclimb/

>2.5L roadreg 1st place and me 2nd place



<2.5L road reg 1st place <2.5L 2nd place - my mates Clio

and some other faves - V tec mini, radical style of thing and a Dallara OMS with a Kawasaki 2.4L V8!

I like the look of my car in that pic. It looks like 2 degrees neg camber is about right for that corner at least because the wheel is nice and upright. It looks like the outside rear has eaten through all of its -1.5 degrees camber and is starting to go positive which definitely suggests the car needs to go stiffer. The 195's are sitting quite square too which is good to see. With starting pressures as low as 25psi sometimes they certainly sound like they are about to leave the rim but that doesn't look too bad.

edit: results are up on the tracking thread.

[seangti]

What sorts of spring rates are you thinking to run front and rear? I've not done anything with mine, though am getting itchy to do so.

I'm at ~3.5 degrees camber on mine, which probably helps given the soft-ish spring rates on a semi-slick tyre.

I'm yet to fit the A050 softs, they'll go on the rims this weekend, hopefully for first outing end of August.

[sambb]

Josh wants me to run 9kg/mm (500lb/in) fronts and 8kg/mm (450lb/in) rears. Thats stiffer than the bilstein B14's and the H&R's you have by a good margin eg 100lb at the front and 150lb at the rear. Initially I thought that overall its too stiff and 8:7 would be a bit better but thinking about it my mates Clio is on 450:350 and is a much lighter overall, less front heavy and lower COG car than ours, so they don't look too nuts. I was going to go down to 205/50/15 or 195/55/15 on the street which should keep the ride tolerable. He's pretty adamant that I need to ditch the whiteline front bar and go back to the stock bar. We'll probably have another conversation about that cos maybe we could come back to 8kg fronts and keep the bar, so a bit undecided on that. The X series run red series damper valving so hopefully the more advanced valving will help with ride quality compared to if Id run those spring rates on blues.
Take care of those softs. Make sure you scrub them in enough to heat cycle/cure them a week before you hit the track so you don't toast them. And they heat up FAST so really keep an eye on your pressures and don't go too hard for too long.

[seangti]

Makes me think I should just drop the car off to my suspension guy and give him a budget to do his thing...

[sambb]

The clincher for me is always getting done by really small margins 4/100th, 6/100th's, 0.14 sec last weekend. That really stars to **** you when you go to so much effort travelling around the State for these events. I'm up against guys that all have coilovers and usually way more power than (The GTS has an equivalent capacity of 9.0L's!) me so when you look at it on the tracks where I'm competitive, I'm carrying a lot more speed in the corners than them which on these tracks is risky cos the car is always on the limit. The other thing that I'm starting to see is that when conditions are wet, patchy, really cold or dirty track I can lay down quick times but then I always come back to the pack - and I think its because as grip increases as it always does as the day wears on, it really shows up how much roll the car has. I've done all I can with the strut setup but its just hit its limit really. If money had dried up I'd leave it but I'm still selling off bits from when I stripped the wreck so it is doable.
I'd spoken to a few guys in the paddock about not wanting to ditch the front anti roll bar. My main worry there is that I don't want to give up the adjustability of having a front bar that I can tweak. But from what they were saying your damping (compression and rebound done simultaneously in the x series) adjustment becomes how you adjust the suspension instead, so that will be a new thing to learn for the different circuits. I'll still also be able to play with rear track width which to be honest was becoming my goto tuning move at the hillclimbs. So I'm starting to feel better about Josh's 9kg:8kg spring rates and I will ditch the whiteline front bar and go back to stock. Time has pretty much run out for me to get that done before the next state event which is at my home track, so I'll have to put up with the existing suspension one more time.
So whats your plan then - maybe a full overhaul or just get the stiffer rears in that you were considering.

[metalhead]

I think you're doing very well, especially considering what you're up against! Watched the video you put up at Tamworth, the car and your driving look good. I should've realised that for the Hillclimb championship it would need to be arranges as an actual hillclimb rather than a flying lap... That'll explain the time differences.

[sambb]

Do you mean you did the 3 lap sprint format at Tamworth. Graham was telling us about that, that looks a good little event. So you head out of the gate straight onto the circuit, do 3 laps and your quickest lap time gets posted. That would be fun. How many times do you head out for the 3 laps at the event? I must admit at the end of my run it was very tempting to take that last corner! ha ha Yeah who knows what it would do to lap time comparisons cos I have no idea where the start/finish is for that event, mine was timed one corner short of a full lap and I do a standing start versus a flying lap.

[metalhead]

Yeh, did the 3 lap sprint, had 4 runs (plus another 4 practice on the Saturday). Two cars on track at any time. Start/finish where the overhead building is on the main straight. Head out of the pits straight ahead onto the main straight, 3 laps, then exit the track in the same spot you were entering and exiting, after most of a lap of cool down. I enjoyed it! I prefer that to a hillclimb arrangement to be honest, gives you a chance to push the limits and try different approaches on different corners. All positions/results based on your single fastest lap of 12.

[sambb]

Yeah we may go back up for that event next year some time. I'm absolutely addicted to hilclimbs at the moment. I love the whole challenge of needing a perfect run with so many things you have to get right under really tough conditions (cold tyres - cold brakes - a bit of pressure and the start line launch) and its just so competitive with the times just so close its ridiculous. You just can't do a cheaper form of competitive motorsport I don't think. I'm not that attracted to track day type stuff cos to be honest I can't afford the brakes and tyres and I'd rather do the competitive stuff, but doing 3 lap timed sprints definitely sounds good and within the realms of what I'd be able to afford in terms of car abuse - Tamworth looks like a reasonably safe track too in case you come unstuck.
You should check out the Whiteline tarmac rally sprint series that takes place over summer. There's lots of vids on youtube. That a good'n and not too much of a drive down from Newcastle. 5 X 3.5km tarmac course runs through the carparks and grounds and access road of the eastern ck dragway with a co driver under rally regs. Come to think of it cos you have your L2S license you'd be eligible to run and could co-drive which is free to do.

[sambb]

So now that I'll be blowing all my kitty on coilovers, I've revisted the K03s mods and parked the turbo upgrade I was toying with. So I will get a new CHRA into it soon (or maybe use Seans if it has no play and isn't haemoraging oil) and chuck it back in with the ported manifold and turbosmart wastegate actuator.
So the pics above show the end result of removing the turbo muffler. It basically resembles a K04 compressor housing now. There's absolutely no step change as it moves into the straight pipe (which there was with the canister) and should flow better. Who knows what it'll sound like with no muffler but the main thing is it may improve flow a little. Looking up the muffler in the direction of air travel the air would come round the bend and shoot directly into those baffles in the canister. To my eyes that would have mangled flow so hopefully there's some sort of improvement. My mate who welded it for me rolled a nice bead into the top of the pipe too and said it welded beautifully so should be strong as. Should look a hell of a lot neater, the canister won't press/wear into the TIP as it did before and maybe just maybe i'll have created a new spot in the engine bay where a hand can actually fit into somewhere useful.