Stagea track day aftermath.

Finally had time to get the wheels off the stagea and have a look at  the wear and tear from Phillip Island a couple of wells ago. On the day I noticed overheating and a judder in the rear. The overheating turned into the blown radiator. And the knock was put down to rear subframe bushes. Driving home I occasionally noticed tyre rubbing on the rear guards and today Taking the rear wheels off I noticed they had been running on the shock absorber body. Static had 20 mm of clearance betweent the wheel in the shock

All associated bushes look and feel OK, so at this point I think it is the subframe walking around.
I found the front left tension rod has let go off all its oil as well.






Aluminium bushes were quickley purchased and the fun of installing them got underway.

A few hours later a reinforcement kit and bushes had been fit and now the car is feeling rock solid. All bumbs and scraps from rear suspension are gone.

GKTECH subframe reinforcement and conversion bushes fittment

The standard toe arm S14 rear sub frame offers some geometry advantages over the R32 HICAS sub frame, and as such, one has been acquired for the build. To allow bolt in fit-meant some GKTECH offset bushes where slipped in. And to top it off the matching reinforcement kit was weld in to minimise geometry changes under load.

TA V1: INXILE BLACK FR GTR

PIARC 7FEB2015

After entering both cars for a full weekend of motor-sport it was time to make sure they were both up to the task. Saturday was going to be the Stagea's first outing. In the check over it was decided that the tyres were no going to be up to the task (bald). Luckily we had some TE37's with old but ok RE55's in stock as it wasn't planned to  spend any money on this outing. Unfortunately with the standard suspension these rubbed on the rear guards in extreme roll over. +William came in with his guard roller and presto, they fit. Only other mod was to fit a fire extinguisher.

 Seeing as no money was spent on the car that freed some cash to get a new race suit. While I was there i picked up a tyre temp pyro.

Having a look over the last post says I was hoping for a 2.10, but on the day prior to the first run sub 2.20 was the only target.  It was time, my first session of the day went green. Out lap was a bit of a feeler to see how it would go, yep, wasn't great, but didn't feel to bad, lets see what happens. Everything held together on the first flyer, temp was above normal but looked OK. 

Finishing of the flyer, time looked OK, OK lets have a hot one. Temperature continued to rise but I was too busy to notice, late in the lap and I had noticed temp gauge firmly on the H. 

And "across the line".  2.12. Yeah I'm happy with that time for a cool down lap. By turn 4 the gauge still hadn't come off hot, so I decided to head into the pits and let it cool down. Some time goes by, pop the lid have a look around, find the radiator empty, no surprise there it had been hot and the radiator cap looked as though it had seen better days, so we top it up with water, and had a quick discussion as to weather I head back out. I was leaning toward packing it up for the day, as 2.12 was well under 2.20.

On the other side of the fence was, "I bet sub 2.10 is in reach". Before I knew it the second session had been greened and I was in the car heading out for another try. The plan was a nice slow out lap, then a screamer. Well the out lap went to plan, hot lap quickley saw tempreature rise and 1.10 into the lap it had made its was to H. I thought there is only a minute to go and she'll be right mate. In the short gap before turn twelve a quick look at the logger told a story of 3-4 seconds up. I massive smile hit my face and I gave turn 12 my all. Whilst riding the ripple strip on the way out of 12 my ears were meet with a boom. My mind raced, was that a tire? doesn't feel like it, suspension? can't feel any vibration, Engine? Oil light is off, tachometer is still working, oh well, get back in the power, uh oh, no power, temp check, temperature is coming down. That can mean only one thing, it's loosing water. 

Not only did it blow the top radiator end tank off, it took the top hose with it. Just a little hot you might say. A quick trip back to the garage to fetch a radiator, only had an R32 one it stock. Its much the same and will get the car home.

Tomorrow brings another day, looking for sub 2 in +INXILE GTR 

PIARC 8FEB15 SUB 2 Minutes goal achieved

Stagea 2015 track time

I had planned to put a manual gearbox in the stagea and start doing some track days. Time has got away from me and track day season has started. 

No big deal, just entered the auto stagea into the first test day at Phillip Island. Lets see if it can do a 2.10

1169 still to heavy?

1169KG has only spurred the weight loss program. Time to rid the dash and all behind it. End result? A smooth 1126KG. It has become an addiction and..

Well that isn't light enough either so let the hunting begin.