Sam's build thread

[sambb]

Yeah I like the seat too. The side bolsters are unreal. I was assumed because its OE that its inherently crap until I went in a few other cars and couldn't believe how rubbish they are or made for someone who must be 150kg in size. The whole unit weighs like 24kg though which does make an 8kg 1 piece look very attractive.

Have you test fit those bolts. To my eye they are metric fine.. Hopefully yours are cos I was a bit concerned that they might be something that are hard to find.

And yep i'll head down to the race supplies shop today to find out if those straps are long enough. Hope so because that harness has everything I need. Even if it only just reaches the rear seatbelt points that wouldn't be good enough as eventually I do want it coming off a proper harness bar a bit further back and higher at the 'strut' towers. Otherwise it will be this Takata:

Race Harness Takata Drift III 4pt ASM Harness. 3" Shoulder, 2" Lap

edit: race shop had all the bits with M10 fine 8.8 grade in plentiful supply. $50 bucks. No Scroth 4 pointer in stock so waiting on the supplier to give shoulder strap measurements.

[sambb]

Sounds good to me.

I've had some dramas over the weekend with the car. I might be pushing it to make Bathurst now, though you can bet I'll do all I can.

No - what happened mate? We have exactly one month so hopefully you'll make it.

[sambb]

[simon k]

looks alright - hopefully you'll never find out if they work

[sambb]

Ok so the middle back seat anchors is the long bolt and the short ones come from the sliding rail by the door and the rear drivers side. I bought eye bolts that matched those lengths maybe a tad longer. The rear drivers side eye bolt can stay there as its well out of the way. Same goes for the middle rear. The seat base clicks into place aok with them fitted. I race with my seats out though and the middle belt has to be undone anyway to achieve that so I'll just screw that eyebolt in at that time. At the angle the shoulder straps will fall off the back of the seat, although it looks tight and provided you orient the eye bolts correctly, the clip on's wont foul on anything.
The slider rail thing is dead easy too. Its possible I could have just clipped onto the rail with the harness but I think the latch would have fouled on the trim and not sat right and given you a false sense of seat belt tightness and would have been capable of a bit of twist in an impact and loosing a bit of waist tension in the process. The eye bolt will position the harness clip out of the way and further back to give a really good position for the belt. I only had to knick a little sliver off the edge of the carpet to get it sitting flush around the bolt. Last thing tonight is to drill and mount the other waist belt eye bolt into the side of the centre console/exhaust tunnel directly across from the other one. Unfortunately the OE latch mech which is attached to the seat itself is on a rigid strap that is bent at all kinds of angle to clear the adjuster mechanism and putting another strap onto that bolt point wouldn't have worked. However on the passenger side there is enough clearance to do the same.
Last thing I did was meter the seat belt electrics. I measured incorrectly the other day and gave a bum steer I think regarding its resistance. I think I accidentally measured up towards the ECU. Its pretty simple really. Closed circuit for if the belt isn't latched and open circuit if it is plugged in/latched. So it couldn't be more simple - you just unplug the red plug making it O/C and the car thinks you are wearing the belt = can wear a harness without the OE belt and wont be subjected to the seat belt alarm and in case the car needs to see the belt plugged in to fettle airbag deployment pressures (some cars do this but no idea if ours does) then that is taken care of at the same time too.

[teamshaw]

I just bought a second set of standard rims. Was intending to put on Federal RSRs for hillclimb, but it seems that the AO50s are much better, so thinking of them in 205/50/16.

How do you find them for durability in the medium compound?


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[sambb]

For the track the A050 are hands down the better tyre but they are a track only tyre whereas the federal RSR/Yokohama AD08R/Hankook RS3 street high performance tyres can do street and sprint.
A050's aren't cheap new so if you really want them to last you might be better off buying mediums. If you were to buy softs theyd be undoubtedly quicker for hillclimbs and may last pretty well too but as soon as you use them in a sprint eg a tarmac rallysprint they will get chopped up pretty quick. I used mediums exclusively in my first 1/1/2 years of hillclimbing and they still grip pretty damn well, way better than my AD08R's had (which are very very good tyres in there own right). I then started using some softs at different tracks as well. The advantage of mediums is that at least you can hit the track too whereas you'll torch softs. When I went to Wakefield I was on 205 medium A050's that were 3/1/2 years old and ripped to bits. It was the first time I had ever been on a circuit in my life and I managed a mid 1:10 so they really are a pretty confidence inspiring tyre and worth it. I'm moving away from softs on the front and will be running 215/50/15 medium fronts this year for everything (circuit/hillclimb/rallysprint) - once I cycle whats left of my softs and 205 mediums through the rear then I'll go to 215 mediums at the back too. Cant afford two compounds even though hillclimbs are my favoured thing. Those old tyres that I set that time on in jan 2018 I've been using everywhere since the start of 2016 doing 12 events a year and they were thoroughly second hand when I got them. They are shagged yes but will still outgrip an RSR I'd say and still hang in there provided you are careful with your pressures
Hopefully your rims are 7in wide and then I'd be looking at 225/45/16 which is a pretty commonly used size for A050 and you then run the risk of actually picking up a decent second hand set for a fraction of the price of new. From what I've been told the Dunlop Direzza DZ03G is a beast of a thing too but may not come up to temp quite as fast as an A050 will which is what you want if you are going to double duty a medium for hillclimbs as well as track.

[teamshaw]

Great, thanks for the info. Definitely looking at hillclimb and track so will go with the mediums. I’ll be changing rims at the track so no worries with them being track only.

Pretty sure the stock rims are 6.5 so will have to go 205 50 16 rather than 225s I think.


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[sambb]

Me and another guy off here will be at the SDMA round of the State Hillclimb Championships this year in the road registered over 2.5L class. There's nothing to stop you entering even if you're not doing the whole series (happens a lot) so have a think about it. I'll be at Mt Panorama March 2 and 3 rd if you are happening past - if its after about 3pm when each days running is over I could probably take you for a little lap while its got its fast shoes on so you get an idea of the rubber.

http://hillclimbnsw.com/cal.pdf

[sambb]

Yeah 205's would be the go on a 6.5in. Hankook do a Z221 R spec in that size you mentioned maybe?

[teamshaw]

Cool, I’ll definitely be running the state round an SDMA so will see you there. Was planning on heading to Bathurst but it’s my daughters first birthday so might save the brownie points it would cost me for later in the year [emoji12]


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[sambb]

VW Transporter T4 2.5L TDI clutch and PP. I managed to break one of the little clips on the release bearing unit that hold it into the release fork so have another one of them on the way …..dumbass.


got the inside waist strap eye bolt in last night. You have to remove all the under body trays, the exhaust tunnel cross brace and bend the exhaust resonator heat shield out of the way. worth doing because there are some ribs in the tunnel which is good for strength but can interfere with the plate sitting flush. last two pics are of the plate on the side of the tunnel and how it looks with the heatshield for the exhaust back in place - lots of clearance. So I'm good for a 4 pointer now but I just got word that Scroth wont be doing 4 pointers in Australia anymore and I might struggle to find the harness I wanted. That leaves only the Takata. If that end s up being a struggle I may just have to mutilate the seat and go 6 point afterall. thinking thinking...

[teamshaw]

Sam's build thread

What about Toyo R888Rs? They are pretty decently priced at the stock size TOYO 205/45R16 PROXES R888R TYRES SEMI SLICK TRACK 2054516 205-45-16


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[sambb]

I havent driven them but I've spoken to many who have changed from them to A050's including my best mate who tried them back to back against worn A050's on an identical set of rims (back to back seesions) and the consensus seems to be that R888 aren't in the same league compared to A050. My mate video'd himself driving on the R888 and you could hear the tyre squeal and see the understeer almost everywhere around south circuit and he was like a full second quicker. They weren't any quicker than brand new AR1 Nankangs. He reckoned he could have gone as quick on his AD08R 'street semis' as the Toyo's. Again that just his word and the word of other people at the hillclimbs etc but I must say that I have noticed just about everyone is on either Hankook or Yoko R specs. Toyos, Nittos just don't seem to be on many cars any more.

[sambb]

and people definitely say that the Toyos are slow to come up to temp compared to A050's which is a definite factor if you're on Yoko mediums in a hillclimb.