Saturday, October 7, 2017

Exe Crew Track Day - Winton Motor Raceway

Weather:
Low of 3 degrees Celcius overnight and a high of 23 degrees Celcius.

Hot tyre pressures:31 PSI front and rear

Difference in car setup:
Roll center adjustment kit installed in the front.

Lap times:
S1: 6:46.6710 1:50.3250 1:41.5760 1:40.9400 1:38.6660 1:41.3360
S2: 1:52.0660 1:38.6620 1:36.9120 1:37.3890 1:37.3620 1:57.0130 1:37.6820
S3: Skipped session
S4: 1:50.9240 1:37.8800 1:37.4430 1:46.6800 1:38.9540 1:47.0320 1:36.8580
S5: 1:47.5310 1:37.4470 1:37.2480 1:37.6380 1:44.3360 1:37.9020

Comparison with previous PB:


High and low speeds:

1:37.31 

1:36.85

Video of second best lap of the day (because I forgot to turn the camera on in the session with the best lap).


Sunday, September 17, 2017

On a roll

Looking back through my blog, the last time I made any suspension related changes to the Z was all the way back in 2010. So I started thinking about how I can make the car go faster around corners. After reading a post by my friend Tom at Honed Developments, I started thinking that I should fix the roll center on the Z and attempt to return it to factory specifications. As Honed doesn't make roll center adjustment kits for Nissans, I jumped on to the interwebs and found a company called Moon Face in Japan. After a few emails to Jesse Streeter, these arrived a few weeks later.


The roll center adjustment kit for the Z33 consists of three parts.


1) The ball joint kit (SAB14). Seems like I bought the last one as they announced that it is no longer in production.


2) The low angle adapter for the front upper arm (SLD11).


The ball joints and tapered collars fit at the points indicated below.


These images from Moon Face show the difference in angle of the upper arm (when using lowered suspension) with the factory tapered collar (left) and Moon Face tapered collar (right).


The difference between the Moon Face ball joint (left) and factory ball joint (right) can also be seen. It will reduce the distance between upper and lower arms to match the shorter strut.


3) The low angle adapter for the rear upper arm (SLD12).


The tapered collars fit at the point indicated below.


Below is the difference in angle of the upper arm (when using lowered suspension) with the factory tapered collar (left) and Moon Face tapered collar (right).

  
For someone like me who's not so mechanically skilled, I reached out to my friends Jim and Tom (from Honed) for help. Firstly, Jim helped me dismantle my suspension to remove the front knuckles.


The front suspension in pieces.


Then Tom pressed the factory ball joints out of the knuckles and pressed in the Moon Face items.





Pressings completed.



I had to use a ball joint puller, WD-40 and Loctite Freeze & Release to get the factory tapered collars unstuck. This is the ball joint for the front upper arms.


With the Moon Face ball joints fitted into the knuckles, Jim came over to help assemble everything again in the front. As a track day was looming, we ran out of time and didn't fit the rear new tapered collars as that would probably require an entire afternoon in itself. Now all that was left to do before track day was to get a wheel alignment.

A massive thanks to Jim and Tom for their help.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Nugget Nationals - Winton Motor Raceway

Photo by Steur Imagery

Weather:
Low of 6 degrees Celcius overnight and a high of 16 degrees Celcius.

Hot tyre pressures:
First session - 38 PSI front and rear
Second and third session - 37 PSI front, 36 PSI rear
Fourth and fifth session - 32 PSI front and rear
Front tyres had done 5 track days prior and rear tyres had done 6 track days.

Differences in driving:
Brake jab before second hairpin (turn 5)

Lap times:
S1: 2:00.6590 1:44.3650 1:40.0490 1:38.6860 1:37.7180
S2: 1:54.9180 1:46.1500 1:38.6120 1:40.9030 1:38.5320 1:38.5830
S4: 1:56.1880 1:41.2720 1:39.9770 1:39.5340 1:38.3630
S5: 1:50.3940 1:39.0650 1:39.0430 1:37.9650 1:37.3190
S6: 1:51.6430 1:38.0340 1:38.8410 1:38.1740 1:37.6930 1:38.3260 1:38.3640

Didn't drive the Z in session 3 because Kam let me drive his awesome GT3!


Comparison with previous PB:

Hitting higher top speeds on straight bits and through turn 3.

High and low speeds:

Video of my new PB lap:

Sunday, April 23, 2017

WRX Club Sprints - Sandown


Weather:
Low of 13 degrees Celcius overnight and high of 21 degrees Celcius.

Lap times:
S1: 1:55.6669 1:32.9475 1:29.8159 1:28.8392 1:27.5932 1:34.2842 1:44.6094
S2: 1:29.3652 1:28.4596 1:27.2821 1:30.1213 1:27.1722
S3: 1:39.0041 1:30.6676 1:29.6469 1:32.9147 1:31.2102 1:29.0927
S4: 1:40.8814 1:30.4952 1:33.3158 1:36.8703 1:29.0361 1:29.2417
S5: 1:42.1064 1:29.7570 1:29.2776 1:28.5907 1:31.1239

Too much traffic (and drivers that don't heed blue flags) in sessions 3 to 5.

Comparison with previous PB:

High and low speeds:

Video of my new PB lap:

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Nugget Nationals - Winton Motor Raceway

26th March 2017

Ambient temperature: ~30° C

Tyres
265/35R18 Z221 soft compound front (used on 3 track days prior).
295/30R18 Z221 soft compound rear (used on 4 track days prior).

Brakes
Trying Project Mu RC09 front brake pads.
Project Mu HC+ rear brake pads.
Dixcel DAV slotted front discs.
DBA4000 slotted rear discs.

Track
New surface showing signs of wear with a couple of corners having large patches of new asphalt.

Lap times
Session 1 - 2:04.5120 1:42.0910 1:42.2800 1:41.3400 1:41.4600 1:40.8840
Session 2 - 4:06.9050 1:59.6550 1:41.0660 1:39.4780 1:39.5750
Session 3 - 1:55.9490 1:42.1710 1:41.2490 1:43.7240 1:40.4950 1:42.2600 1:39.9900
Session 4 - 2:03.3790 1:43.2130 1:42.6440 1:39.9400 1:40.7600
Session 5 - 1:52.0040 1:39.9450 1:39.0690 1:43.1740 1:39.6530
Session 6 - 1:52.7020 1:40.5110 1:41.0020 1:41.0260