SLOW IN, FAST OUT

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Round 2 Video

Video of Round 2. Gotta fix that slight tilt on the front camera.

2012 MC Motorsport Sprint Round 2

Last Sunday was the Round 2 of the MC Motorsport Sprint. Like Round 1 I entered the morning session, which started off with cool track and slightly damp grass. By the 4th run in the mid-day the air temp was up and the track was warm.

I've managed to dial out the understeer problem I had in round 1 with some tyre pressure adjustment. I went for 4psi as oppose to 2psi difference from front to back. 35psi front and 31psi rear hot pressures. Also I was rolling the front sidewalls in round 1 with only 33psi hot in the fronts, so 2psi up on the front seems to have alleviated that problem also.

I have to remember this RAC track is very different to Barbagallo and a lot of 90 degree corners demand alot from the tyres while they are still cold!! had to learn that the hard way with some lawn mowing lesson in the 2nd run.

Anyway, 14th overall and 5th in 4WD Open category. A lot of fast guys out there, love to join the pace of top 10's one day.

Stripped Bleeder on Brembo

On last Friday evening, while doing the usual brake fluid bleed before a Sunday sprint event, I noticed front right outside bleeder was not quite sealing and a small amount of fluid was sipping out. I thought some debris got stuck between the mating surface of the bleeder screw and the caliper inside. So proceeded to undo the bleeder screw out and soon I was cursing at what I was seeing before me. The bleeder screw was pulling out the threads as I unwound it out. It completey removed the thread off the Brembo!!! My Brembo was Fk'ed.

At the time, I pretty much had wrote off the Sunday sprint event... Anyhow, I called for help on Perth Evo forum and a member (AWOL) offered to lend me his spare calipers which was a real life saver. BIG THANKS!!

Anyhow, on Monday I dropped off the damaged caliper at Perth Brake Parts hoping they could do something about the thread. The guy at the counter said there's enough meat on it to get it re-tapped and put on a repair kit. So they did and below is what the repair kit looks like.

Bleeder repair kit

I had the seals and dust boot done at the same time as the repair work for $166. Not bad considering I could have rendered it useless.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Shifter and wiring cleanup

Finished the raised shifter cage project and at the same time did a bit of wiring cleanup.

Centre console and footwell vents were removed to make room for the raised shifter cage and cable.

Shifter cage was painted and re-greased with a new shift knob.

Battery isolator switch that was on the centre console had to be relocated to the dash console.

A lot of cabling cleanup happened under the dash that's not visible. It was a back breaking exercise with the fixed seats, roll cage and steering in the way. For any more future work under there, I'm gonna have to remove the seats and the steering. Also, I'm thinking more and more about how handy a quick release steering hub will be when working under there.

Friday, March 30, 2012

GoPro

Received some free GoPro stickers from GoPro after sending them an online support enquiry about getting some stickers to put on my car, too easy!

Speed Bleeder

Another thing I had installed during off season is Speed Bleeder for brakes. My old bleeder screws were mangled and rusted and now I have shiny new ones with check-valves for easier bleeding. I sourced them online from Rallysportdirect.com and the part number is SB1010S for the Evo's.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Video from State Sprint Championship Round 1

Lots of understeer with the new tyres. Need to work on a setup to dial out the understeer.

Raising the shifter cage

Something I'm working on at the moment. I want to raise the whole shifter cage assembly by about 100mm bringing the shift knob closer to the steering without affecting the throw distance. I've found some aluminium tubes off a supercharger pulley assembly in my scrap pile and by chance they were perfect for the job. Never throw away this kinda stuff no matter how old they are!! Now I just have to source some long bolts and devise a way to keep the whole assembly fixed solid.

Rally shifter!

2012 Season begins

Started the new season of sprints with MC Motorsport State Sprint championship Round 1. Had the car prepped couple of weeks prior with new Yokohama A050 medium tyres, engine, gearbox and transfer case oil change.