My British Racing Green '99 NB

roket52 · Postby **roket52** » Thu May 01, 2014 3:10 pm

Hey buddy yeah that's it same shocks. . Depending on ur application (as I have stock sway bars) I would suggest running stock bars to start with or a 14mm rear if u can find one. Another alternative is to Swap out the front springs with the 10kg ones, which will induce a little more oversteer than where you are at right now. If u speak to josh I'm sure he would help u out with that.

roket52 · Postby **roket52** » Thu May 01, 2014 5:34 pm

out of interest trackphotos, what hieghts have you set your car up at mate? do you have rake? i.e. higher rear end? Having a higher rear will help turn in

Trackphotos · Postby **Trackphotos** » Thu May 01, 2014 7:35 pm

roket52 wrote:out of interest trackphotos, what hieghts have you set your car up at mate? do you have rake? i.e. higher rear end? Having a higher rear will help turn in

As far as I remember, it was 335mm from wheel hub to arch, didn't measure ground to pinch weld etc. Only dropped 1cm from stock, so whatever that makes it. No rake that I remember, although I could be wrong. Josh forgot to give me C spanners so I haven't touched it since they were fitted, they'll turn up in the post some time soon. Probably leave it as it is until I learn to drive well enough to feel where it's lacking.

Trackphotos · Postby **Trackphotos** » Sun May 04, 2014 9:56 pm

Ran general practice and street sprints at Lakeside today. Practice was a waste of time, ~30 cars in my group. No chance of a clean lap, especially when half the field don't realise they're not faster than the car behind them; they're just blocking them from making a safe overtake. You aren't winning, you're just slowing everybody else down

Sprints on the other hand, went well. 3 sessions with multiple good clear laps, knocked my PB down by a full 1.6 seconds to a 66.1 thanks to the new coilovers and the low air temperature. Very impressed, it's definitely got 65s in it if I knew what I was doing. Next time I run Lakeside I will have sway bars and a 4.3 LSD installed, so that'll be a new learning experience again.

Quickest lap of the day:

Failed at Karussel once, managed to catch it but it was a close one. Any more steering lock needed and I would've been on the grass, definitely wasn't ready to move my hands off the wheel if it became necessary. I pushed my braking point a little too far and ended up trail braking into the corner, too much brake and the rear lifted and started to come around. I was slow to react, should've caught it sooner, but at least it ended well.

Trackphotos · Postby **Trackphotos** » Tue May 06, 2014 2:59 pm

Started putting new sway bars and links in yesterday. Got the old ones out, put the new bars and links in loosely. Misread 28nm as 20nm on my torque wrench, and sheared one of the studs on the rear subframe that the sway bar d bracket mounts on.

Started trying to drill it out today, broke a drill bit in the centre of the thread and couldn't get it out. Drilled a hole to the side of centre, got it out to about 7mm wide now, but there 3-4mm of original stud still sticking out on one side. Need to grind it back flush with the subframe, then I should be able to put a nut and bolt through the new hole to get it all mounted properly and finish tightening things up. Less than ideal so far.

Trackphotos · Postby **Trackphotos** » Wed May 07, 2014 11:51 pm

Bought a grinder during work last night. Ground the stud flat this morning, drilled through and finished the job that should've been done on Monday. Replaced the stud, tightened the bars up, installed links, removed preload, took it for a test drive and called it good. Will find out on Saturday at a gymkhana how neutral the handling is or is not.

roket52 · Postby **roket52** » Mon May 12, 2014 9:40 am

dont ya just hate set backs like that! At least you got it sorted

Trackphotos · Postby **Trackphotos** » Mon May 12, 2014 11:12 am

Yep, all sorted in time for the weekend. Ran a gymkhana on Saturday at the driver training centre at Lakeside with the new bars in too, I guessed right. Very oversteery, tuned it out a bit with damper adjustment but it was still a little twitchy. Awesome fun day, it was run by the lotus club, so the best possible cars for the job. My open diff was destroying my exits, but to be fair I was just mashing the throttle everywhere for fun. I came 22nd of 42 cars. The quickest time of the day was a 45.3, insanely quick.

roket52 · Postby **roket52** » Tue May 13, 2014 2:48 pm

As others have suggested you could try the stock rear bar as the 16mm is quite large.. However, you are yet to install your lsd and that may inflict some understeer into the equation so it might just balance it out. I'd wait till you installed your lsd and see how the car feels then

Trackphotos · Postby **Trackphotos** » Tue May 13, 2014 6:45 pm

roket52 wrote:As others have suggested you could try the stock rear bar as the 16mm is quite large.. However, you are yet to install your lsd and that may inflict some understeer into the equation so it might just balance it out. I'd wait till you installed your lsd and see how the car feels then

In the process at this very moment. Well, kinda. I've drained the old diff, released the axles and propshaft, unbolted everything, it's just sitting on the jack ready to come out. New axle seals should be here tomorrow, so I'll do the rest then. I'm going to run the club day at QR on the 26th with the bars as they are and the new LSD, see how it feels and then change things if I need to. I've also been thinking about ways to change the sway bar position without binding the end link threads against the holes in the sway bars. Got a couple of ideas, might go further with them later.

Trackphotos · Postby **Trackphotos** » Wed May 14, 2014 6:09 pm

Put the new diff in today, unfortunately during replacement of the driveaxle seals I pushed one in coroked

Used the old seal on top of it to push it in without damaging it, when I hit it with the mallet the old seal buckled and only one side pushed in. Wasn't able to get it back out without damaging it, so I left it as it. Finished putting the diff in the car, tightened everything up and went for a quick drive. Feels very different with an LSD, and with the 4.3s in it feels a good bit torquier. There is a small leak from the crooked seal, so I've got another pair on the way (just in case) and I'll get it replaced next week sometime. Should be simple enough.

roket52 · Postby **roket52** » Thu May 15, 2014 2:43 pm

Pity about that seal mate. A small trick is to use small bit of oil around the mating surfaces of the new seal this will help you get it in there easier. I just used a large socket to slowly tap mine in. Will be interesting to hear how it goes at the track for you now that you got the new diff!

Trackphotos · Postby **Trackphotos** » Thu May 15, 2014 11:46 pm

roket52 wrote:Pity about that seal mate. A small trick is to use small bit of oil around the mating surfaces of the new seal this will help you get it in there easier. I just used a large socket to slowly tap mine in. Will be interesting to hear how it goes at the track for you now that you got the new diff!

Yeah it's no big deal, I drove up to Automotive Plus this morning and picked up 2 more seals, got the first in ok this morning. Just need to tighten the manual adjustment screw that i loosened on that corner caliper, and drain the excess fluid that I topped the diff up with, forgetting it was on a forward slope. Once that stuffs done, it should be good to drop tomorrow morning. Give it a test drive, make sure it doesn't leak anymore, and go have some fun. Definitely looking forward to QR to test it out properly

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Fri May 16, 2014 7:19 am

Trackphotos depending on grouping I will see if I can get in behind you so you can get some camera footage from another cars point of view.

Trackphotos · Postby **Trackphotos** » Fri May 16, 2014 10:33 am

Magpie wrote:Trackphotos depending on grouping I will see if I can get in behind you so you can get some camera footage from another cars point of view.

Cheers, I expect I'll be in group 2 this time around.

I drained the excess diff fluid and tightened up the manual adjustment screw on that corner caliper. Unfortunately I found out during a 3 minute test drive that I massively overtightened it without realising somehow, because I'm pretty sure the pads on that corner caught fire. I really need to stop breaking stuff.

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