Diggerman Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 (edited) Well to start this is the first time ive created a "build" so please go easy on me I bought the car roughly 18 months ago and coming from two rx8s it was nice to feel torque again. I still love the everything about rotaries but the v6 got the better of me. This was the late rx8 that went on to another home So tested a few local to me which were DE's and to be honest they didnt have me smiling enough, which, was partly after realising that were a little worse for wear on driveline and suspension components but the interior wasnt quite what i thought it would be. So..... HRs were next, i thought to hell with it if im going to spend out on something nice why not try and get something that grips me. I saw a couple again but mainly had issues that wernt advertised so wasted journeys I then saw one down past Birmingham and after a couple phone calls i received nearly 30 pictures before making the decision to drive down and test drive it. Got there early with the intention that if i was going to buy it then, i would have time to sort out tax insurance ect. After nearly an hour driving and getting the garage to begrudgingly fill her up again haha i knew it was the one. The interior was immaculate, the power was lovely and everything felt alot more responsive than previous cars. Managed to force a fresh service out of them and a few other bits (as you do) and then set off back home to Newcastle. And here it is compared to the 8 Once it was back home thats how stayed for about 6 months. I changed some of the basics out such as pads, discs fluids ect for uprated parts and then got the warning from the missus to not spend for a while haha Edited March 9, 2019 by Diggerman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 (edited) So, its a build thread and i know i was warned by the missus but the bug for modifying has always been too strong. I had decided at this point though what it be? drift? time attack? sprint? race series The first mod was to get the exhaust done and hear what that lovely engine can sound like properly. I went for HKS rep but went for one from america to try and get away from the cheap Chinese stainless that rusts more than iron. Then i thought well why not go to the track and see how it feels almost completely stock. Although i had changed the pads and discs ect they wernt top end race spec i just went with genuine brembo all round. Only picture of it on track that i managed to get due to losing most of the data from my old phone I only did one session on while at Japfest Donny as i didnt want to pay for a full day and only get a few laps in before any failures. Luckily i did, i cooked the brakes after 5/6laps and then spent the last 8/10mins of the session trying to get a pedal back. Parked up with my mates epic ep3 which was unreal on track, wayyyy faster than i thought it would be. The other noticeable thing was the roll and twitchy rear end which tried to spin me out 2 or 3 times. Finished the show and when i got home started on making a list of what needs done and decided to go for a full track build and see where it goes. I think by doing so i could then tailor it easier to other types of driving as opposed to drift build then trying to adapt it for a sprint, or at least thats my thinking haha. Edited February 17, 2019 by Diggerman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 (edited) next up was the decision as to go either shocks and springs or coilovers, then if i go coilovers do i go oem style or true coilover at the rear? well after looking at quite a few builds across the pond and then here i decide to go with a true rear setup so that i could get rid of the huge bucket arms and go for a normal adjustable one. I went with BCs as they offer such a range of options and there reviews seemed to stand a bit higher than the rest in the same price range. so suspension started on the rear i knew i was going to be heading for more track days, after seeing a lad local to me have his is200 with a 1jz go up in flames i thought id invest in a fire extinguisher just in case ive also started to remove the whole interior starting with all the rear as id need to get underneath the plastics to feed to coilover dampner extenders through then it was off to get a professional machine polish to tidy up all the swirls and holograms Edited February 17, 2019 by Diggerman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 (edited) Next came the wheels, after speaking with Chris at Tarmac sportz i decided to go with the JR3s in the most aggressive offsets in 18" im now looking at new ones after having these for almost a year but ive never had any issues with them and the finish when they arrived was way better than i thought as they came with almost an anodised type finish to change the sides a little more i bought some carbon gt mirrors from a friend and set about customising the oem base plates to fit these to Edited February 17, 2019 by Diggerman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 (edited) Next up was a crazy idea, lets do a livery on the car. I tried a few different ideas and bounced them off a few people along with the lad would be designing it and we came up with the rising sun bonnet and samurai theme on the sides along with the shopping lists for that authentic" race car look haha and we ended up with this along with the completed side mirrors as well taken at another track day Edited February 17, 2019 by Diggerman 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 (edited) Stickers done some suspension work done, wheels done, next needed was a combination of somewhere to jack the rear of the car up in one go and also some rear aero. Enter drift scene ideas and so i decided to make a rear bash bar and thought i might as well go for a chassis mounted wing then painted yellow cause thats all i had at the time then..........BGW time Edited February 17, 2019 by Diggerman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 (edited) so another little change i wanted to make was the steering wheel, i still need to relocate the cruise control switches for the uprev map but heres a little before and after i was surprised at how easy it was to be honest as id read that the wires can be tricky if going for the slimline type boss, but i think when i go to relocate the cruise buttons ill cut the airbag plugs off and solder the resistors in and take some more out the boss and hopefully less to potentially go wrong Edited February 20, 2019 by Diggerman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 reserved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 reserved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bry Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Looked better standard, but as it’s a track I guess looks are not top priority. What tyres are you using ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Why mount the extinguisher behind you? It would be better placed on the pax side floor so you can get at it quickly, as trying to reach behind you in a panic whilst trying to get belts off as you see flames licking up the windscreen isn’t going to end well Plus on a safety side, how is it secured? It looks well strapped down to me (which is good, as it won’t come loose in an accident and smash you in the head) but then how easy is it to take it out quickly? Good thread though, keep it coming Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMANALEX Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 I think that the extinguisher positioning is functional providing the boot does not jam shut. The quick release clamp on the extinguisher will provide a quick release. I have my extinguisher on the passenger side floor, however, as being a Roadster I have no option unless I fix to the floor of the boot. In case of fire, the first priority is to get the belts off and out the car, so retrieving the extinguisher from the rear strut brace should not prove difficult. Regarding the look of the car, absolutely fine for track use, but ott for road use. All you need is some extra power to match the looks. Keep up the good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 No way you’d have time or really want to grab that from the boot side, surely?! I actually hadn’t clocked it was attached to the rear strut brace though, if I’m honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMANALEX Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 22 minutes ago, Ekona said: No way you’d have time or really want to grab that from the boot side, surely?! 1 Of course you would. You would exit the car first before grabbing the extinguisher, so in my book probably safer and easier to run to the back of the car instead of round the car to the passenger side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobPhoboS Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 I like track car builds (I'm not keen on the bonnet graphic but the slashes look pretty cool !) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 5 hours ago, ZMANALEX said: Of course you would. You would exit the car first before grabbing the extinguisher, so in my book probably safer and easier to run to the back of the car instead of round the car to the passenger side. I wouldn’t run round the passenger side either I’d reach over and grab it from the footwell, assuming you have it mounted up near the seat like you should do. That said, I used to have an extinguisher in my cars before I realised that if the car was on fire I simply didn’t want to be anywhere near it, and that’s why I have insurance. These days I tend to view it that if you’re that worried about a fire, then you either install a properly plumbed in system or you do nothing at all. Safety before all else, and most extinguishers are too small to deal with anything other than the weediest of cigarette smouldering carpet fires, and definitely wouldn’t be any good in a proper fire. Each to their own though, I’m sure I’ll regret saying that when my car is burning down... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMANALEX Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 On track it really should not be a problem as common sense tells you that if you have a fire then you should drive as fast as you can to the next marshall post, jump out and run like fook and leave them to deal with it. If I wanted to fight fires then I would have joined the Fire Brigade. However, a proper extinguisher does come in handy if you have a small fire in the paddock or fuel igniting during a refill. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davey_83 Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Real nice car pal and don't worry about those two above. I really like the exterior styling and at a glance looks like an Advan sponsored car!!! Any exhaust sound clips or track time vids? Donington is the best track I've had the 350z on, loved it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted February 19, 2019 Author Share Posted February 19, 2019 So the extinguisher was placed there as I need to do seats and I didn't want to infringe on that first plus with the quick release its quite easy to get to really plus I know it's smaller than a plumbed kit but anything is better than nothing while you wait for the pros I know the graphics were a bit of a sod it why not but there all coming off soon anyway 14 hours ago, Bry said: Looked better standard, but as it’s a track I guess looks are not top priority. What tyres are you using ? I'm using nangkang ns2rs that I managed to get in an 80 compound but I don't think you can get them anymore only 120 and 180 1 hour ago, davey_83 said: Real nice car pal and don't worry about those two above. I really like the exterior styling and at a glance looks like an Advan sponsored car!!! Any exhaust sound clips or track time vids? Donington is the best track I've had the 350z on, loved it. I've got a couple go pro vids I'll try and find them again and post them up 13 hours ago, ZMANALEX said: I think that the extinguisher positioning is functional providing the boot does not jam shut. The quick release clamp on the extinguisher will provide a quick release. I have my extinguisher on the passenger side floor, however, as being a Roadster I have no option unless I fix to the floor of the boot. In case of fire, the first priority is to get the belts off and out the car, so retrieving the extinguisher from the rear strut brace should not prove difficult. Regarding the look of the car, absolutely fine for track use, but ott for road use. All you need is some extra power to match the looks. Keep up the good work. The extra power is almost finished so got more writing up to do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted March 6, 2019 Author Share Posted March 6, 2019 So after 2 months and a few niggles to get past I've ended up with.......... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted March 6, 2019 Author Share Posted March 6, 2019 Took it to tdi north yesterday as well for the mapping and have to say I was blown away by the results so far, still some issues to sort and go back for more mapping but we ran 10psi and hit 465bhp and 417ftlb at 5k but unfortunately at 5k it started to lean out and the injectors maxed out so 5k limit currently. So the niggles were, the wastegate has a 3psi spring but yet we were hitting 10psi so....There may be an issue with the boost controller but we also have slight creep so that's to sort, bigger injectors needed for definite but after speaking to Paul the turbo may well be too big and produce more power than we want but once we sort the above maybe it will okay 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted April 1, 2019 Author Share Posted April 1, 2019 So over the last couple of weeks I've managed to fix the boost issue, and then, hit a deer and smash my bumper canards and power steering cooler to bits. Firstly I tracked the boost issue down to a faulty solenoid on the boost controller, only when I cut the wires to put on a new genuine mac valve did I see the one already on wasn't the greddy original and was infact a fake mac valve. Could have so easily blew the engine. Then after travelling to my mums (in the sticks) Haha I was greeted by a deer, which decided to meet my canards and front quarter, needless to say we both lost out. He died and so did the car with power steering fluid all over the road. So bought a new 4 core from toyosports and got that fitted so hopefully future proof any issues that appear from being on track. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 Well things have been quiet for another couple of weeks dur to working non stop and trying to get back on top of the house refurb. Found d a few photos of underneath though as I've has a few people asking on Facebook for details. First one being when we got the Turbosmart 45mm hypergate fitted which by the way is a very nice bit of kit for 300quid! And the second was when we started making the framework to support the weight using the existing exhaust hangers. I'm going to try and make a short clip of a pull as some people keep telling me how laggy it must be when in reality it's not really. I've still got some more fine tuning tuning to do on the EBC but I've got it dialled in so far that it will start generating boost at approx 2500rpm and I'm on full boost by roughly 3300rpm (I need to record it to make sure) so I don't think 800rpm of lag is to bad, or is it? I'd be more than happy to hear peoples opinions 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kieran O'Quick Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 Looks great, proper Zed that. It'll only be laggy if you're in the wrong gear. Who drops below 4k on track anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggerman Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 Yeah that was exactly my thinking but soon as peoe hear its rear mounted the laughs and scoffs come out about how laggy it "must be!" But I think with a few more tweaks I shouldn't be noticeably different to normal placement systems at least not on butt dynos anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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