Rhyscar

This is the best way to learn - apply knowledge to a different setup and compare results. Must be validating to know you aren't crazy, and sometimes its a lot easier.

I wasn't really paying attention, but on a few of my laps I put together I was just going into 5th at the end of the straight (while braking extremely early!). So around 185-190kph I'm picking. With a 4age 170 was max velocity. It's so much faster in a straight line than what it was when 4age powered! Biggest learning was that I needed to leave it in 3rd on Higgins/Esses and use the torque to pull it through. I found having 5000-8800rpm of usable power very useful, and it never dropped out of vtec.

Here's small amount of incar vid. Def not good laps and audio sucks a bit.. but it's proof it made it around the track! Sweet baby jesus 2zzge noises

And then we went racing.. going to leave it here with this tease as I don't have time to process incar etc yet, but it was bloody enjoyable and an serene experience to finally drive it on track. Filters wanted to fall out on track. Added some tape, but need to make some brackets to hold them in place. Probably be 3D printed? Shifter caused some issues. Some operator-related, some equipment. Had to make some fancy bearing retainers for one of the levers. I'd encountered this before with another lever, so I think it's time to look for the next solution to make the shifter more reliable under race conditions. Bedding in new pads was a bit of a mission. Offset of new disc meant no real clearance and had to wait for pad to wear down/stop dragging. This in turn created lots of heat and boiled the 2nd hand fluid (cause thats all you've got at 10:30pm the night before raceday - it was filtered through a rag at least). So rest of the day was dictated by bodgy fluid and pedal going soft which meant I just cruised and took it easy. Also continuously cleaning brake dust off white wheels is hard work. haha The good news is it's way better than it used to be. Ran a 1:23 laptime without really trying on 15yr old pads, and its got heaps more grip, handles better and doesn't get upset over ripple strips. It's a smooth ride with the MCA's thats for sure.

Nice wee backtrack photoshoot with Aaron Mai. Pretty proud to see it finished* for now anyway. Came up good - def going straight to the pool room! I absolutely love the side profile shot of this car!

Been so busy lately, haven't managed to update with all the finishing details. It has been a lot, and I've reached the absolute limit of what I can push my body to achieve. Currently paying the price for this with mountains of work that needs attention and sickness to boot. Oil leak from adapter plate finally fixed! used an adapter from HEL which is a really nice piece. Fits perfectly with 2-3mm clearance and thermostat works great with so much air going through the cooler. If anything, it could do with a 95deg thermostat rather than 84deg. -12AN lines all fitted up. Still a decent amount of pressure loss, might be the cooler? in preperation for getting on track, ordered some Winmax W5 for the front and decided the old rotors wouldn't be very good. So had to go on a hunt to find a replacement rotor (old part no. discontinued). Found one from a N/A Skyline rear that was similar (1.5mm different offset) and got @Geophy to redrill. RDA don't make the best quality stuff, so will see how long they last. In future I'll need to work towards a tophat/floating disc solution with a larger disc (17" wheels will fit up to 350mm disc!). But thats a problem for another year. I spent an unreasonable amount of time getting into the fuel tank to fish out the nut that had fallen off the bottom of the rollover breather fitting. My experience with the Jaaz plastic tanks is once it gets filled a few times, the shape changes quite a lot an every fitting becomes loose. I forgot to tighten this one last time unfortunately. However, if I ever need to get into the tank again, I promised myself I'm going to redesign the whole bloody thing as its such a difficult job how it is currerntly.. Added this real nice kevlar Lava mat to bottom of fuel tank from HeatSheild products. Went on nice and looks ace. I don't have any pics, but lots of other race prep stuff was done alignments, fire extinguisher install completion etc and creating more tyre/guard clearance in the rear. I cut the jammed adjusters off the shocks and got new ones on and modified the tophat so I can lean the shock/tyre over a little more. Seems to have worked a treat. Next step was load the car up with wife, kids, tools and everything needed for a trackday!

That colour looks bloody amazing. Awesome progress.

Looking so good man! Funny about the rear diff - I guess 1.5way LSD would be not very road-friendly for people buying from showroom floor. How was the road trip experience? Cruise control etc all work?

Found it. Not avialable from Cardwells anymore by the looks. It looks like a good option for sticking and molding around corner of fuel tank. Would be ideal for under my airbox too. https://www.formula.co.nz/search/results/68dc471d81947 Also found this product which looks like a good option for the exhaust. Makes mounting real easy.

Interesting, is the BMW material a single layer or is there some other gypsy magic going on? On first glance, it looks to be a better-formed version of the aeroflow stuff I've previously used?

This may have been covered elsewhere, but looking for ideas/experience with different heat protective materials. On my Levin, I've used the embossed aluminium reflective sheet around the headers/PS rack and it's OK, but I don't expect earth-shattering heat protection from it. Underneath the car, I've got a few hot parts closer than 50mm to other stuff. So for cert (and prob general safety too) I need to fashion a few pieces to manage heat - see pic below. Plastic fuel tank (thinking of folding up a corner heat shield & securing) Exhaust tunnel (3" exhaust in 4" wide tunnel). Ideally, I'm looking for something that comes as a flexible material or sheet that can be folded (No, I don't want to deal with exhaust wrap!!). Is what I've done to date OK, or is there a better solution? What have people used? Funk Motorsport stuff looks amazing, but it's pretty pricey. Anything available locally that's similar? https://funkmotorsport.com/product/dual-layer-aluminium-heat-barrier-sheeting/ https://aeroflowperformance.com/catalog/product/view/id/17106/s/24-x-24-aluminium-embossed/category/1241/ Other option is a polished piece of thin stainless? Thanks in advance!

Awesome thanks for sharing! You did a bit of track work in it by the looks?

Good god that triumph is ugly. I need to wash my eyes out. It's like an AI bastard-child of an AE86 and MX5...

Everything. Great work, nice busy lap. Diff didn't seem as bad as the one we had in the rally car (it still makes noise too). So I don't think it will explode itself before you find a new one. Although, it has Beams power, not a pissy 4k. Great to see Paddy is still racing! I'm sure his cars still somehow work pretty well, while being held together by tape...

This is actually a valid concern for doing sprints/targa etc. Starting a bushfire would not be a fun experience! Thanks for all the experience offered, I'll have a chat to PRS and get some for the wilwoods and Lexus. I've heard good things, just haven't used Winmax yet.