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SlyOne

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  1. Haven't been here for awhile but here's a couple of pics of the finished rebuilt Datto. It had it's first run in three years at the MG classic in November. Rebuild consisted of a new Lawton 13BPP engine and complete exhaust system. A series 1 RX7 LSD replaced the open diff. New double adjustable QA1 rear shocks and springs. All new Autometer gauges and a complete rewire. Paint job courtesy of my mate Craig Berquist and then Wrapped by sign fusion in a design that i worked on with Pit Crew Designs Brett Gunnel. We are just waiting on the rear wing to be finished aswell. We are having the expected teething problems and a few little redesigns but should have it back up and humming in the next month or so and hope to be competing in the Manawatu car clubs winter series and aswell as running GT3/4 later in the year and of course the MG classic. Will add some pics later this week. Was nice to catch up with some of the Oldschool clan at the MG classic!
  2. I've got a couple of pics here of whats been going on with the Datto. Stripped it back and it's getting a fresh coat and a different look for next year. A massive amount of work getting the body back into shape by Berky, it really was a bit of a mess once it was stripped back. We wont paint it until it's all back together. It will also have a new rear wing and front splitter. Also expanded the G/Box tunnel while it's apart thanks to Ryan Baker, gives us unlimited options to slot a better box in further down the track. Some pics of new bits to help us get around a bit quicker. LSD, Wilwoods, Griffin radiator and PWR oil cooler(no pic). Car completely rewired by Feilding Auto Electrical. All new Autometer gauges to monitor the new 13BPP power plant built by Stu Lawton who will also do a complete new exhaust system for it...cant wait to fire this thing up. All things going well we should complete the car during my January holidays, ready to race at the Manfeild IRC meeting in Feb.
  3. Long time since I've posted here. It's been over a year since the little Datto raced but we are getting close to making a return. To help fund the rebuild I had to sell my fun RX8 above
  4. Havent done much racing this year but we did make it to the MG classic last wknd and this is a quick report. Previous meeting we managed to smash the diff (not lsd). So we pulled it out while searching for another, at this time we decided to mount some disc brakes on rear as opposed to the rx3 drums the car has run since 1990. Berky got to work while i sorted a diff. Tried desperately to find a lsd center to no avail. So i called Monty (Alan Montgomery RX3 racing legend) who kindly helped out with some bits to repair our diff. Gave them to Geartech and they put them together aswell as replacing rear wheelbearings while axels out. Got home from Aus thurs arvo (day before testing) and Berky (Datto engineer) was having some dramas with new calipers, actually old calipers from wreckers off Starlet Turbo. Anyway turns out one side had taken a knock and wasnt going to work. A little panic set in and fri morn(test day) we went in search of a replacement. A quick trip to levin solved problem and 2.30pm fri arvo we made the track. One lap and back to pits, rear end foating around. Turns out when we broke two of the link arms for diff previously we actually ended up splitting the axel housing....not good. Back on trailer and around to Huw n kath @ Feilding Auto Electrical....great people! Kath yelled out "whats wrong with it" replied with a "it's f.....d" was enough for kath to clear the hoist and we were in there. Once we realised our predicament Huw made a quick call to Ryan (a member here) and he shot around and welded up the axel housing. I kid you not that was some impressive job Ryan did...best ive seen. Ryan also helped with the brake caliper mount which suffered some bending when axel rotated on split. A few beers late that day in the wkshp and i thanked them all for their help, fantastic. I'll just add that when we put it on the trailer Friday we smashed the front splitter off yet Berky stayed up till 11pm fri night fibreglassing it back up....legend! Sat morn and Quali was now testing for us hoping all was good with brakes etc. To add to the fun it decided to bucket down...on with new wets. First lap fairly cautious as never really driven it in full wet conditions let alone with untested brake replacement. All seemed great so pressed on and somehow managed poll position by 2sec! Started doing a raindance after that but the wind came, rain stopped and by racetime track was dry, i think we were 5th. Next up we were entered in a Toyota challenge,7 toyos vs 7 others. Was looking fwd to my first chance to race against Ian Williamsons quick RX2 but he snapped an axel in the race previous so no go. We won that by 40 seconds due to a failed handicap which had us starting from pitlane but released too early? More dramas were to come with a smashed windscreen first lap of next race then snapped 2 link arms again on diff when dropping the clutch in final race.Might have to nana off the line from now on. Still had some fun racing. Want to thank those who got us there, Berky for his massive amount of work, Huw n Kath always helpful Dan (my son) who i drag out there and he puts in a great effort at the track and Ryan who saved the day aswell. http://m.youtube.com/results?q=2014%20mg%20classic&sm=12
  5. I Haven't posted for awhile so here's a couple of pics and a quick update. Finally found some new wheels which we are pretty happy with. 6kgs lighter overall and look pretty good i reckon. First run with these on was the IRC round at Manfeild on a very hot wknd that took a lot out've the car. Blistered The left right tyre in practice, then the new tyre same wheel in race 1. Decided this was maybe due to the slightly wider spacing required to make the wheels fit, creating more camber. Stood the left front up a bit straighter and had no more problems, although a bit gutted to have ruined two decent slicks. Numbers weren't good enough to run a clubmans class so we ended up in NZGT class. A DNF in race one due to the blistered tyre then a win in race 2 and a 6th in race 3. Was a lot of fun. A week later we had the Rotary Revival meeting. Good bunch of people. Unfortunately we smashed 3rd gear in race 1 so that was that. Sticky tyres and maybe a bit too much horsepower for the MX5 box may have been the culprit. A series 3 turbo box inserted 2 weeks later on Friday morn, Manfeild for quick test in arvo and loaded up and straight to Taupo that night for another run with the Rotary boys. Race 1 tore the panhard rod mount out've the floor...weekend over. The series 3 gbox ratios are not as good as the MX5 and thanks to the Rotary Racing Enthusiasts we have acquired a series 5 gbox for a future upgrade We keep smiling, fixing and having another go.....Hampton Downs for the first time on the 3rd May
  6. https://imageshack.com/i/3o8vrqj I cant seem to just post a pic up on here anymore so here's a link to a pic I took tonight. A bit blurry as phone has no flash. Thanks to Berky who has spent 2 full days on the Datto replacing and tweaking brakes, making the new wheels fit(big mission)and adding a new breather. The wheels are probably at least 6kg in total lighter than my widened steel wheels, add that to my slow moving diet and we will test tomorrow at least 16kg lighter than we were at the last outing(MG Classic). Looking forward to seeing how much difference that makes. IRC meet at Manfeild this weekend and we've just entered in a clubmans class for Sunday but may see if we can join NZGT class aswell. For the Rotary fans out there the week after is a Rotary revival meeting at Manfeild which is for anything Rotary powered, road or race cars...all can have a go in what sounds like will be a relaxed fun event.
  7. Thought I'd throw this up on youtube, not terribly exciting but we had a lot of fun at the MG classic Manfeild November last year. This vid starts after the safety car period during a reverse grid handicap race....unfortunately brought all the fast cars up to us.The whole weekend was brilliant weather wise and a fantastic 40 years of Manfeild anniversary dinner on the Saturday night was awesome with the likes of Ken Smith, Chris Amon and Graeme Lawrence speaking. Also a bloke I watched win the first two ever World Superbike championships finishing at Manfeild(yes Manfeild!) Fred Merkel. And of course the man who made Manfeild happen Rob Lester. Was awesome. Our weekend went pretty smooth with no real issues except a new oil cooler failing. Had the old one so put that back in. We ran in the Sports n GT class because we don't really fit anywhere else. Very quick cars in this class and a big variety with Radicals and Juno sportscars(very hard to see coming!), space framed V8 RX7s etc etc. Outclassed but a lot of fun. Car did start smoking when backing off the throttle towards the end of the weekend which is a worry. We did go a little heavier on the oil in the fuel late in the weekend but I suspect it may be more than that. May have to freshen the engine. Hoping to maybe have a run in the IRC round at Manfeild in NZGT class in a few weeks. If I can get leave from work, the week after is the Rotary Racing enthusiasts meeting at Manfeild at the end of Feb which also includes the 2k cup and Honda cup I think? Be some pretty crazy Rotary powered cars there by the sound of it. We haven't touched the car(apart from another new oil cooler) since November so we will have to compression test the engine to make sure it's holding together.
  8. Finally got the car back together after replacing the oil cooler and a split brake caliper and gave up on the externally regulated alternator and brought a factory RX7 one. So the new cooler was relocated in front of the radiator so we could mount the new front splitter. With the new summer series kicking off at Manfeild Sunday just gone I was hoping to have a trouble free run for once, Weather was great! Went out for quali and the replacement caliper wasn't working as it should so the car was pulling left under brakes. Happily it freed up and was good after 2 laps. Qualified 2nd in class. Quick bleed again of the brakes and into it. Ended the day with 2 wins from 3 races and my quickest lap of 1.18.1. It definitely has 1.17s in it now. Good battle with a S6 Turbo 7. Really happy with the car and the difference the splitter makes to the front end handling. With the MG classic on this weekend for once we have very little to do to the car to get it ready! Going to be a huge wknd, Hope the weather behaves. http://www.flickr.com/photos/71670482@N08/10662129475/
  9. The great news is the F5000s are back for this one! Plus central Muscle cars 10th year anniversary...awesome. http://www.manfeild.co.nz/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=uslmGfdOzzU%3d&tabid=38
  10. Ok so another disaster for us. Spent Saturday morning bedding in new rotors then a final bleed ended our weekend as a bleed nipple was stripped. I guess there's always a chance of that with 40yr old calipers. Spent the rest of the day attempting to find a replacement bleed valve then trying to make it work. In the end we plugged the hole and sealed it up and left it overnight to see If it would do the job as we could still bleed them with the second bleed nipple. A early start Sunday saw us rock up and bleed the brakes and all seemed good, no leaks. Out for Qualifying and all was not good as car was pulling to the left under braking. Pressed on and set 3rd quickest time, off with the wheel and problem was bigger than first thought as caliper was cracked causing the good nipple to bleed out under heavy braking. End of weekend. After a bit of swearing & bleating on that I'm over it and car has to go, I got home and straight on net and have found some Wilwoods that will bolt straight on....when I can afford to buy them. So this is where we spent our weekend, in the shed and idling in pit lane lol...very expensive weekend again. Idling in the pits http://www.flickr.com/photos/71670482@N08/9659534587/
  11. Ok so a failed effort at Taupo hasn't dampened our spirits too much. Car was suffering big time with a lack of grip everywhere mainly due to no LSD and the anti-clockwise layout at Taupo. Throw in some toasted slicks and it wasn't really driveable at all. Electrical dramas meant she almost went up in smoke on the Sunday. To top it off we cracked a brake rotor.... Dusted ourselves of from that diversion and now focused back on the final round of the Feilding Auto Electrical Winter series at Manfeild this wknd which should prove to be huge going by reported entries so far and the forecast looks good. A truckshow incorporated should mean bring a few people in aswell. Replacement brake rotors arrived, car spent sometime at auto sparkies prior to testing last Friday but still had some small electrical issues which should be resolved by Tomorrow. Have a replacement set of slicks ready to go on for the wknd too as in testing we were sliding around everywhere. Prior to Taupo we finally decided to Dyno the car as we were suffering heating issues which we thought might be associated with fuelling at high RPMs. As it turns out we were on the money as it was leaning out up top which is not good for a rotor. Also found the Tacho to be reading 1000rpm low. Re-jetted and gained some more horsepower(approx. 250 at the wheels now) so looking forward to having some rubber under us to test it out. Next project is definitely an LSD which will make a massive difference along with disc rear. That is if I keep it as I have my eyes on a RX3 coupe in aus. Hoping for a good fun wknd!
  12. This was a bit of a mess for our first trip north. Beaut weather but winter chills meant a slippery track. Dan had the driving duties on Saturday and struggled for grip badly. We knew the tyres were getting close to the end of their life but with the flat corners at Taupo as opposed to the banked ones at Manfeild really showed the cars weakness. The corner we struggle the most for grip with at Manfeild is the left hand hairpin after the esses and with Taupo running the opposite direction the majority of corners are left handers. I would say an LSD will be a must for us to run there again as it just kept unloading and spinning up in the lefties. Dan did well considering we could easily have run half the horsepower and gone as quick.. I jumped in for the clubmans on Sunday having not run the track at all and scooted out for quali. I wish I hadn't. Felt like a skidpan. Came in halfway through quali as i'd had enough. A few guys offered up advice so the tyre pressures were drastically altered but that was even worse. Started on the front row of our group but lucky not to loop it in second off the line and just nana'd it around staying out've everyones way until I looped it out've the back straight. Then next lap the power cut and cab filled with smoke...some electrical issue which put me out've my misery lol. On trailer and headed home nice n early. Lots of work to do before we run again. We put the Datto on the dyno on Thursday and managed to put another 40kw into it and maybe that didn't help too much but should be good at Manfeild when we run the last round of the winter series On a brighter note we had a mean night out in Taupo Saturday which was definitely the highlight of our weekend
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