Matt's AE101 Trueno trackcar

[_Matt]

Hey everyone!

 

I've been hanging around this forum since the Oldschool Nats were held in the Manawatu a couple of years ago.

 

I haven't been very active posting, but attended a few events and posted some of my pics up on here.

 

I thought I would post up my project I've been working on since mid June 2014.

 

I acquired it from a friend who had gotten it green stickered for bald tires (pretty much full on slicks)

and then snapped a couple of bolts on the half shaft mount (from my guess was trying to do skids or launches lol).

 

He thought he had snapped an axle haha, since it wasn't drivable.

 

We towed it back to my place and I got straight into it and ripped off all the "jdm" stickers, started to strip the interior

and give it a general tidy up.

 

 

Came with a 4AGE 20v silvertop which was near the end of it's days.

 

The piston rings were pretty buggered from all the thrashing.

 

Good side was that it had a full FGK (Fujitsubo) exhaust.

I was pretty stocked when I noticed that since I scored the whole car for so cheap.

 

I had previously bought some Tein adjustable coilovers for another car but decided against installing them,

luckily they fitted this car as well.

 

Installed the coilovers and realised it had lowering springs as well. Sold them for some money back haha.

 

It looks so much nicer after a good tidy up!

[_Matt]

I then decided the 17" advanti's definitely needed to go, they had a shit ton of curbing and since 15's are just far superior.

 

Swapped them for some honda alloys with some semi-slicks on the front that should last a race meeting.

 

 

 

 

[_Matt]

I took it to a test day at Manfeild.

 

It only lasted for about ~10mins of thrashing before it lost power and then started to knock as I was rolling into the pits haha.

 

I wasn't really surprised that it only lasted that long tbh. Oh well.

 

 

It was a good excuse to swap in a blacktop for more dooortz!

 

 

 

Started to sand it back for a full respray since the colour is pretty yuck.

 

 

Scored some fixed back bucket seats

 

 

 and a Nardi steering wheel off my brother.

 

[_Matt]

Next up was the rollcage.

 

I got my Dad's cousin, Vern - Motion Engineering to build it for me.

 

We just decided to go on a 6 point cage with the crossed side extrusion bars, since I thought the body was quite weak through there.

 

 

 

 

More sanding and bogging.

 

Picked up a GTZ Trueno bonnet for some airflow to the open trumpets.

 

As well as some factory side skirts and spoiler.

 

 

[_Matt]

Paint!

 

I decided to go a neutral colour on the interior, as I had yet to decide what colour to paint the exterior.

 

I spent ~8 hours hand brushing the rollcage black, trying to get every visible location - never again! haha

 

 

[_Matt]

Passed the first part of homologation! Just need to get it scrutineered now.

 

 

 

Finally decided on a colour!

 

Sprayed it all in primer and then sanded some more

 

 

[_Matt]

Colour!

 

I decided two-tone would look sweet.

 

Went with the colours from Nissan S13's. Cream and champagne glow.

Although instead of cream I went with a more white since it was cheaper.

 

 

Also decided to chuck in some lush metalflake.

 

 

It came out pretty sweet for a garage job

 

[_Matt]

All painted and put back together.

 

I was going to paint the champagne slightly up past the door trim,

but it was too much effort to mask up the whole car again haha.

And it looked all good with just the sideskirts done.

 

 

Scored some sweet new wheels, they're super lightweight and just complete the car.

 

 

Installed some other springs in the front, lowered it about 20mm, which evened out the height.

 

 

I was talking to my Dad about oil coolers and how I should probably run one.

Next thing he goes and grabs one from the back of the shed.

Free, score!

 

Just need to sort out the lines and a sandwich plate.

 

 

Biggest thing to do now is to save up and buy a pair of racing harnesses, sort the oil cooler and clamp down the battery cable.

 

Then certification and get it road legal! Exciting!

 

That's all for now, thanks for reading!!

[Rhyscar]

This is of my interest. Awesome job of doing everything properly also it looks great.

Lucky to find some enkei tarmac ES's in 4x100 also there aren't many of them around!

My only advice around oil cooler is the bigger the better. We ran one of those small mocal coolers to start with on the ae82 and it didn't really do much to the cooling. Oil temps were still up over 150deg. We went to a 15 row greddy cooler and can now hold the temps below 120deg which makes the oil last a lot longer.

Standard blacktops on the track can see at least 140-150deg oil temps which means it's essentially doing nothing at that temp!

My only other questions are;

- plans with the brakes?

- please tell me no Super strut??

- once your through your cert seriously look into changing spring rates to something more suitable

- plans with swaybar in rear?

This will be a well set up car once your done I like that your keeping it road legal too!

[_Matt]

This is of my interest. Awesome job of doing everything properly also it looks great.

Lucky to find some enkei tarmac ES's in 4x100 also there aren't many of them around!

My only advice around oil cooler is the bigger the better. We ran one of those small mocal coolers to start with on the ae82 and it didn't really do much to the cooling. Oil temps were still up over 150deg. We went to a 15 row greddy cooler and can now hold the temps below 120deg which makes the oil last a lot longer.

Standard blacktops on the track can see at least 140-150deg oil temps which means it's essentially doing nothing at that temp!

My only other questions are;

- plans with the brakes?

- please tell me no Super strut??

- once your through your cert seriously look into changing spring rates to something more suitable

- plans with swaybar in rear?

This will be a well set up car once your done I like that your keeping it road legal too!

 

Thanks man!

I'm pretty sure the wheels are actually WedsSports TC-05's.

 

Sweet as, I did have a feeling that the oil cooler may be a bit small. Is about 70x250mm. So i'll have a look into some larger ones.

Any suggestions on some cheapish kits?

I was thinking of getting an MRP thermostat sandwich plate, since it would be driven on the road occasionally.

 

As for brakes, I've been suggested to get some hawk blue brake pads.

Was thinking i could eventually swap in some twin pot callipers and bigger rotors from a superstrut model.

 

It's MacPherson strut. Although I do have a Ae111 Levin with Superstrut as my daily.

 

Suggestions on spring rates? Since I noticed you have heavier springs in the rear. I always thought the heavier ones would be in the front.

Whats the reasoning behind that?

 

I haven't really thought about the swaybars yet. But will defiantly in the future.

[Rhyscar]

I got a cheapie of trademe years ago which has always worked well for me was just a greddy rip off blue one. Haven't had any problems.

Don't bother with the oil cooler thermo imo i never ran one and oil heated up just fine. All it takes is a bit of a thrash and the oil temps will come back up. Although mark (corolla_GT on here I think) put one in and it seemed to work ok and make a difference.

Hawk brakepads are a good place to start but the smaller calipers on these chew pads really quick. The hawkes normally last well but they will chew rotors.

After my experiences with the twinpot calipers I'd say don't even bother with them. They aren't that great and chew any pad really quickly and don't give you a lot of brake feel/modulation. Go straight for a wilwood setup (barry at MRP sells a kit that is about $1300 from memory) makes a massive difference and is worth doing if your planning on giving the brakes a hiding.

What i found with the harder rear springs is you can get the rear of the car moving around a lot more which helps with turn in and lowers the amount of front wheel grip you need to use to turn the car in.

I always had a bit too soft front end but for track I'd suggest 500lb fronts and 650lb rears with the 'big' 18mm swaybar.

Only word of caution would be these will prob be top stiff to pass a cert for the road. They weren't too stiff or uncomfortable but I found my cert guys perception of too stiff quite different to reality on the road.

Sometimes really stiff front springs work really well like on the ae82 we run 800lb front springs 500lb rears and a solid 25mm chromoly adjustable swaybar. Although this relies on brand new slicks on the front each meeting to get the benefit of having those spring rates. Also a better quality shock is needed to control the springs better at those rates too.

[CorollaGT]

Nice Matt, quite digging the gold on white.. those Weds Sport rims really set it off.

As Rhys said, Willwoods on these are the shit. Wouldn't bother trying to get the twin pots to work. I tried TRD Black pads - nice feel/bite but couldn't handle the heat. TRW pads (about $70) were sweet for heat but didn't really have the same bite. Finally tried a set of Hawk HP+'s which handled the heat and had better bite than the TRW's but still wasn't happy with the bite (TRD blacks were the best there).

Ended up getting a set of Willwoods off MRP (coupled with TRD blacks in the rear) and brakes are awesome. Pit straight at Taupo I'm braking at the 50 marker and you have plenty of time to get off the brakes and ready yourself for turning in.

You can get Chamberlains in Christchurch to make up a bigger rear swaybar for about 280+GST to suit. Planning on doing this myself sometime this year if I can't get my hands on a Whiteline 20mm blade adjustable bar

[_Matt]

Thanks for all the info Rhys and Mark! I will definitely take all this into consideration in the near future.

 

As for racing harnesses I was thinking of these http://www.sabelt.co.nz/collections/race-harnesses/products/steel-ccb633nu-basic-4pt

I realise they're only 4 point and either 5 or 6 point would be more ideal, but the seats I currently have can only use 4 point.

Plus the seats I sit quite deep in, so I can't see myself slipping forward very easily.

They work out to be about $550 delivered for a pair. Is that all good? Since they are a decent/recognised brand worldwide.

 

I have never really been a fan of Jamex, NZKW, Monza etc. They just look yuck and cheap, I probably shouldn't be going off looks too much haha.

And Takata, Sparco, Racetech etc are a little out of my budget/what I want to pay for harnesses.

 

Any other suggestions that are around/under $500?

[japawagons]

$550 for a pair seems like good value. Sabelt is a really good brand. On par with Sparco and OMP.

I wouldn't touch things like Jamex. Fuck there products are so terrible. The seat bases on the Fibrglass FIA seats aren't even square. Belt material looks like it's made out of old coke bottles.

[CorollaGT]

Do Sabelt sell 5 (or 6) point harnesses that can easily be converted to 4 point and back again?

After all the race cars I've been in, I cringe each time I jump in one where they only have a 4 point harness. Find they're uncomfortable and struggle to get them to sit right - usually the buckle lifts up too high when tightening the shoulder straps.

[Rhyscar]

Yeah I'd shy away from 4 point harnesses as you always end up slipping down in the seat as you race and that added bonus of your nuts holding you in always gives extra security of you have a big one.

I'm a real fan of racetech harnesses they are so good and still relatively cost effective. A good trick is to ring up racetech and see if they have any of last year's harnesses they can do at a reduced rate (as for rallying or national competition etc they need to be in the 5yr fia period) which doesn't matter for what you'll use it for.

My theory is to never skimp on safety. You buy good stuff and it will last for a long time.

[_Matt]

This is Sabelt's 6 point which is only $30 extra than the 4 point.  $613 a pair delivered.

 

Can't really tell in the photo if they're removable though.

 

So It doesn't matter if the harnesses have expired for the races I'll be doing?

Does damage, fading etc fail them?

I always thought they had to be within the expire date.

[_Matt]

So this finally arrived from Japan!

 

 

 

[japawagons]

FIA belts have a 5 year extension for non championship Motorsport e.g clubsport etc. For only 30 I'd go for 6 points. But you need to check they are homologated for 4 and 6 point. If you intend on using as 4s in the interim...

Any webbing damage, Fading or stretching will void the belts and cannot be used...

[CorollaGT]

Oh man, so jelly of that windscreen strip! Are they universal?