Earlier this month, SilviaWA had another day out at the AHG Driver Training Centre near Perth International Airport. I wasn't originally going to enter as my clutch was beginning to slip (more on this later), but a spot came up on the Friday for the event on Sunday so I jumped at the chance and said "to hell with the clutch!".
My Dad came down to watch so I handed over the camera to him to take some pics and a video too.
A few things on the video:
you can hear the clutch slipping from the outset as I head off through the centre
that was my first ever handbrake turn in an event, pretty proud of the results
car has had suspension tweaked since last event and was so much easier to place wherever I wanted on the track
So, I have no idea why my clutch is slipping. A quick recall on the clutch - it's an OS Giken STR2CD twin-plate. It's been in and driven almost daily for about 12mths, for all intents and purposes, it shouldn't be slipping. First noticed under max load - ie. all passengers, on the freeway in 4th hit boost and there it went slipping (and shuddering). It's progressively gotten worse, so when the head gets done in a couple of weeks we'll look into the clutch and rebuild with new plates if necessary (more than likely from the sounds/feel of it).
Another thing to note were the brakes. Basically they're phenomenal...once they're up to temperature. The combo of R33 GT-R Brembo's, Nismo pads, DBA4000 slotted rotors, braided lines and the correctly matched R32 GT-R N1 (non-abs) brake master cylinder are just brilliant. If there was something to pick, it would be there's a smidge much rear bias, but really can't complain. The new suspension tweaks also allowed me to hit the picks harder too without the previous lockups.
Back at the end of August, SilviaWA had a 'Driver Training' afternoon at the AHG Driver Training Centre out near Perth International Airport. Although they have a short circuit, this event takes place on one of their large skid pans with the addition of a set of cones laid out in a pre-defined course. There were about 15 people taking part in the afternoon and I took along a video camera to capture some of the event. The tricky part of this type of driving is remembering the course you need to take, and thinking ahead a couple of corners so that you set the car up on the right part of the track to make the best time. Check out the video below:
This being the first time the car has been really pushed hard, it showed up a few problems in both engine tune and suspension. With regard to the engine tune, whenever I took it close to or up to redline (which was very often), then next gear change or off throttle would cause a dropped cylinder and time is lost from having to wait for it to clear up again. This also caused problems on the end corners as the engine wanted to stall leading to compression lock-ups and the back end coming around a little more than expected. This will be looked at soon though by doing some additional tuning off the dyno and on the road.
For the suspension, I was still really running the settings I put in to get the car on the road, so it was expected that it would need some tweaking. The rear especially was wanting to come around too quickly considering the amount of rubber. I put this down to the +0 camber that was setup originally leading to the rear tyres rolling a bit too much up onto the side walls. Since the event, I've taken it to John Fowler and his colleague Bob at Wheels World in Osborne Park for a proper dial in. With the instructions of intent being most daily driving with occasional track sessions, the results were pretty good. With daily driving feeling a lot more confident and refined, and when pushed where I could, the rear staying in check really nicely.
The brakes on the car performed really really well, with the only problems being me being a little overzealous when heading into some of the corners causing slight lockups. Braking into the garage though, I could really step on them hard and the car pulled up perfectly. The Nismo pads that are running really work best once warmed up.
Next track outing will be an unofficial one at Powercruise coming up in October. Really looking forward to that followed by a full track attack and possibly some drag strip time if I can get the tune sorted.
Well it's been a couple of weeks since the Perth Autosalon 2008 event and I've finally found a space to get this update done. Oh, and I do apologise to those following this blog for the tardiness of the updates recently.
Anyways, the event. I must say first off that being able to drive the car to, into and out of the venue this year was a great feeling. Last year we didn't manage to get the car completed before the event (even with the massive two week push before hand). And even though I won the 'Best Overall Engineering' award, it didn't seem right.
Again Jeff Ash, Director of C-Red, asked to have Sillbeer back on the C-Red stand this year (thanks mate), and with the other cars that C-Red had I was in hallowed company. This included another C-Red customer's car '200SXY' (Nissan S15 Silvia/200SX) which took out 'Best Engineered Brakes' and 'Best Vinyl Graphics' this year. C-Red's vehicles included their 'EFO' Mitsubishi Evo VII GTA, a recently started Lexus GS300 with complete Junction Produce makeover and the new legendary 'General Lee Sideways' Nissan Laurel which has copped a 5.7L Holden LS1 twin-turbo conversion. The Laurel took out a number of awards including 'Top-Judged Innovation', 'V8 Highest Power Output' and 'Power Champion (Highest Power Output)' with a top of 502kw ATW!
I had spent the Thursday and Friday before the event cleaning and polishing the car inside, outside and underneath only to have to drive from the workshop to the venue in torrential rain! But as the polish had only just been done and it was rain water a quick chamois off and buff and all was good again.
Now as part of the event, and the fact that the car was a driver, I did take part in both the Dyno and dB Drag Racing components. I have no pics of the db Drag Racing, which is logical considering it's not really exciting and managed to crank the stereo up to a respectable 126.7db taking out 1st place in the 'Street Stock A' class. Not bad for a single 10" Sub-doofer in the boot.
As for the Dyno, well according to most who had run their cars on dyno's the week leading up to the event, it was reading low. But then again, dyno's are there as a tuning tool as opposed to a full on correct measuring system. The dyno used was a Mainline one and is trucked around to all the Autosalon events around Australia. As this was the case, I was estimating around the mid 200hp's for my run. After loading it on and having an initial go, this is the video of the second run.
The end results of 200.3kw (268.6hp) at the wheels was a pleasant surprise. Previously the car has made 251kw (337.4hp) at the hubs on a Dynapack Hub Dyno so it's anyones guess what it really makes. Whatever it is, for a daily driver and occasional track hack it's plenty.
At the end of the show, I did manage to pick up an award for 'Best Wheel Innovation'. Probably not as highly regarded as 'Best Overall Engineering' from the year before, but fitting 18x9.5+10 on the front and 18x10.5+12 on the rear of an S13 Silvia is no mean feat - and an award is an award after all.
All in all I had a cracker of a time and thank my wife and kiddies for letting me do it. Jeff, Marc, Josh, Boney and Armond from C-Red for their help in preparation and on the day and Sequoia (owner of 200SXY) for her support over the weekend too.
