Popular Post Truenotch Posted October 28, 2014 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 28, 2014 The new season started on the weekend and it was a challenging race meeting. I'll put a more in depth post together later on. For now, here's my fastest lap of the weekend from qualifying: 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted November 5, 2014 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 5, 2014 So time for a recap of Round 1. It all kicked into action on Friday night as I was dropping my car off to the track. We rolled the car off the trailer and something felt strange - there was a tight spot as the car rolled backwards. I took it for a quick drive down the pits to diagnose it and heard a strange rattle from the rear. Turns out my crown wheel bolts were coming loose and one had wound out far enough to start catching. In hindsight I'm extremely lucky that they stayed tight (enough) during my last race at Manfeild in September! I was able to get it sorted thanks to the power of oldschool - Miniman76 took charge and basically did the whole job! Along with providing an oil pan and a few other tools that we needed to get the job done. Thanks a lot man! It would have been a horrible job to do on my own! Here's a pic of Hayden's mini to show my appreciation: So Saturday came around and I set out for qualifying. The car felt OK, but was slippery in the rear end as my tyres were nearly dead. I still managed to qualify with a 1:42.7 (a new PB, see previous post for video) and started 6th on the grid for race 1. Race 1 was going OK before I had a wee off into the grass at turn 2 and then things got worse. I got to turn 9 on the final lap (the fast right hand sweeper) and my panhard rod broke!! That was a wee bit dodgy and I decided it wasn't worth finishing the race, so pulled in for a DNF. Luckily Testament Tom had a length of chrome moly and Rookie Dave has the welding skills, so we spent the afternoon building a new panhard rod. Thanks guys! I'd be lost if you guys moved away from Taupo. Race two on Sunday morning was the first of the handicap races and I started from the middle of the pack. All was going well until Grant Shirley came through in his Integra and we had a bit of contact at the last corner - bumping tyres which flicked the rear of his car into the air and tweaked both of our alignments. It felt like I had a tyre going flat, so I coasted around for the remaining laps to the finish. That left race 3 on Sunday afternoon. Everything looked set to go after a quick wheel alignment and a few systems checks. This time the car was extremely loose in the rear end and I didn't manage to break out of the 1:44's. It turns out my RF sway bar linkage had snapped from the contact in race 2, so I was dealing with a very tail happy, rolly car. Not ideal, but I chugged through the race to finish 9th. Here's a video recap of the action: It was a tough weekend... And the car was in need of some serious TLC before the next round, so I sent it to Palmy for the boys at Mag and Turbo to prepare as I don't have as much time as I'd like to work on the car anymore. They've done: - Re-made both top arms on the 4-link (bent/crimped from broken panhard rod) - Fixed front swaybar link - Repaired tear in floor and re-made seat mount - Re-centred diff - Full setup and alignment - Brand new tyres It's been a long time since the car has had a proper alignment and the guys at Mag and Turbo have sorted a few other things, so it should be a vast improvement for Manfeild this weekend. The forecast is for sun all weekend, bring it on! 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 New quickest lap at Manfeild - 1:16.4 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 The Manfeild round went quite well. I had brand new tyres and am starting to get the hang of the car in this class. It's a big step up from the club racing I had been doing, so I've had to spend more time preparing the car and am pushing to find every small development I can. New rose joints and a decent suspension tweak by the boys at Mag and Turbo in Palmy mad a massive difference, along with the new Hankook Z214 soft compound tyres. This was the best my car has ever handled! So we're moving in the right direction. Video from the last race of the weekend - I stuffed up the hairpin on lap 1 and let Ivan get ahead of me. Damn! Pics: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted December 8, 2014 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 8, 2014 The next round was at Pukekohe on December 6/7th. I'd planned on doing a few aero mods, but ran out of time, so it stayed basically the same as it was at Manfeild. Puke is actually a really fun track, but is scary as hell! It makes you feel alive, but you're unsure how much longer you will be. I improved on last year's time by quite a bit - down from a 1.17.6 to a 1.15.7, so I'm fairly happy with how the car was going and I managed to hit turn 1 and the last corner over the mountain with more pace than last year. The mountain is 160kph and the lowest speed in turn one is 180kph - madness! All went well until the last race of the weekend where a slower car decided he didn't like that I'd just passed him and tried to get back past between me and another racer on the following corner... The result is one very bent simmons wheel: Here's how it happened: Fastest lap from the weekend: Race 2 full: This round reinforced that I need to get new rear shocks. The LR was bottoming out at the end of turn 1 and I think there is a good amount of time in my laps if I fit a set of new double adjustable QA1's... So those are now on the Christmas wish list! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 A few pics from Pukekohe - I love seeing it pop a wheel! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 Then it was off to Drag Day a week after. This was a great test to see if the crash has bent anything in the rear suspension. It ran nice and straight all day, so that's a clean bill of health in my books! And my fake wheels didn't even explode on the day . Best time of the day was a 13.82 @ 100.4mph which I'm happy with considering the old tyres and relatively low horsepower. Here's a vid from late in the day against Mark105 in his C110: And a few pics stolen from the drag day discussion thread. We towed it there with Rahn's Valiant wagon . Burnouts! This was quite a novelty for me as I've never done a proper smokey burnout in Robin before... Turns out it does great skids when you wind the brake bias all the way to the front, hook second and dump the clutch at 8000RPM! Would trade again. Thanks to Richy for putting the effort into organising the day, it ran without a hitch and everyone had fun. Also all the volunteers for making it happen and Greg / Midnight Upholstery for providing the sausages and helping us roll the Valiant guards with a jack handle at the end of the day! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted March 14, 2015 Author Share Posted March 14, 2015 Found this old sticker hiding away in the drivers footwell, it's probably over 20 years old! Pretty sweet. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 After drag day I left this thing in the shed and promptly got busy doing other things... A few months down the track and it hadn't been touched, moved or cleaned and oldschool trackday was coming up. Perfect. I left it in "drag trim" with very old semi slicks on the back with ~20psi, slicks on the front and my DYO time in chalk on the windscreen. The car was still fairly well balanced and felt OK throughout the day, but the brakes weren't inspiring confidence. The best time I managed for the day was a 1:16.0 which I'm fairly happy with considering the old rear tyres and poor brakes... I think it's got a 1:14 or better in it on race day though! It wasn't until after nationals that I remembered that the brake bias was wound all the way to the front from drag day (to assist with burnouts)... Whoops! That's probably why the brakes felt funny . Here's a vid of the fastest lap of the day (need to get an open mount for the action cam, the sound is terrible!). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Since nats I've had to start working on it as there's a race meeting coming up. There were a few things to get sorted - replacing the crownwheel bolts in the diff was one of those jobs. They had come loose and we rattled them up with a bit of loctite at round one and I decided it was time to get in there and replace them. We ended up pulling the diff completely to pieces as it's needing a bit more backlash, so a friend of mine is shimming it up at the moment. So for now this is how it sits: In the meantime I started fixing my bent rim with outer bands that Sheepers kindly sold me from his hoard of awesome parts. He even polished them before I got them, thanks sheepers! These are 13mm wider than my old outer bands, so that makes these wheels into 15x9's at -13ish. Not bad! I've fitted two for now and will do the others before the final round at Taupo. They're fairly chubby! I can't wait to get the tyres fitted. I also gave the brakes a good clean, service and flush along with returning the bias back to the normal place instead of being set an extra 30 clicks to the front! More to come this week... I've got to have it ready for Hampton Downs this weekend! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Tyres fitted - they're chubby wheels! I'm looking forward to finding a set of 225 wide slicks to match them. The extra 1/2" of poke is definitely noticeable in person. I also added a new start button as mine blew apart when I started it the other day due to being extremely old. Now all that's left to do is re-fit the diff when it comes back and give it a wash. . 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted March 20, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 20, 2015 Diff re-fitted, oils done, wheels on, washed and ready for a good weekend of racing! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 Qualified 4th with a 1.15.544 and finished 5th in the race after stuffing up the start. The gearbox is now making nunga noises and we'll be changing it in the morning. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 And a few shots: 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted March 22, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2015 More pics! I love seeing it pop a wheel. We changed the gearbox in the morning which went well until I ruined the rear gearbox seal on removal and couldn't find another one anywhere. Repco were completely useless and couldn't even look up the seal part number... Japawagons came to the rescue with a delivery of a similar seal that required some modification to fit. It wasn't ideal but only had to last one race so we jammed it in. Ended up getting down to a 1.15.2 on my worn out slicks and the end of the race was fairly busy. Now it's 2 weeks till the final round at Taupo. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 Fastest lap of the weekend - 1.15.2 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 Final race of the weekend: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted May 3, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 3, 2015 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted July 4, 2015 Author Share Posted July 4, 2015 Time to start working on this again after leaving it alone since the final round at Easter. So here's the situation: There's a bit to do in the rear end. I'd suspected that the left rear shock was on its way out after the Pukekohe round of SS2000... And it turns out I was right: So it's time to replace all these bits: While I'm in there it's time to clean up the diff and replace all the axle seals as the RR is dropping a lot of oil and the LR is starting to weep as well. I should have a set of these in the mix soon (double adjustable) which will make a massive difference! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 Spent some time hunting for oil leaks this afternoon. Both sides have an issue, but the RR is far worse than the LR. My theory was that there must be a crack or a porous weld on the RH side that was making the problem worse, but on closer inspection the seal appears to be pretty bung! Got floating hubs off: This is the right hand side: And the left: The seal on the right tapers out (which is shouldn't) and the outside edge looks quite worn. By comparison, the other seal has more of a U shaped curve - which creates a seal on both sides. There was also a lot of abrasive crud stuck to the oil on the bad side, which would have been wearing away at the rubber and making the problem even worse. Time for a couple of new seals and it can go back together. I would like to rule out the potential for a porous weld though, as this part has always seemed weepy: Does anyone know of an epoxy or similar that can be stuck to the metal to seal off any potential holes? I've tried CRC need-it before and it didn't stick that well... Obviously it'll need a vigorous clean beforehand, but I'd like to goo it up with something. Oh, and here's the new Toyo underseal I'm trying. It's expensive, but only takes a couple of minutes to apply and sticks quite well! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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