MITZ@CougarStore Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Excellent progress... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robzracing Posted March 19, 2013 Author Share Posted March 19, 2013 So, another wet test session at Brands But the car is a completely different animal now! Suspension (Thanks Mark@Abbey) and traction control have transformed it. Both of my partners joined me this time one of whom hadn't even driven the car yet! We also brought a Guinea Pig to test how our sponsor days will run. We managed to get loads of laps in with only two spins (not me) (video to follow) It was a very busy day on track, and thankfully we had a reserved garage because all the garages were booked and a good 50% were race teams. The car works very well now with lots of feedback and far less edgy. On a dry track I think it's going to be awesome. We might find out eventually By lunch it looked like this. Plenty more to do though including a trip back to Abbey for a little bit more suspension fettling in the next few days. Back at Brands on 9th April Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robzracing Posted March 25, 2013 Author Share Posted March 25, 2013 (edited) A few more modifications and improvements. Before we went to Brands last week I fitted a quick release boss to the steering wheel. We also have a larger steering wheel on the way as this one is so small (300mm). So we're going up to a 330mm. The boss brings the wheel forward by about 60mm too which feels better. Fortunately we all seem to prefer the wheel quite close and having it QR should help should any of our sponsors need a little more space to climb in and out. You might also notice in the photos a new gearknob. It's a bit flash for a race car but the old one was so scruffy. This Richbrook one feels great (notice I'm avoiding inuendos ) We've also purchased an intercom system to make it easier to instruct when our sponsors drive the car Very easy to wire in, the only tricky bit is fitting the mics to the helmets which need to be glued to the outside on the open face helmets. (The full face ones are easy as it all fits inside) The mics have a hollow plastic base meaning that the double sided sticky pads that they supply to fix them have very little plastic to stick to. I could see them getting pulled off very easily so I've been attempting to improve them masked up and filled the voids with expanding foam made a template of the contour of the helmet transfered onto the mic all trimmed and filed and PVAd ready to take the double sided pads. We'll see if this works. Intercom installed. Just need to route the headphone leads up to a point where they can be easily plugged in to the helmets once people are sitting in the car. Finally, MSV have sold us an instructor brake pedal from one of their old 350Zs that they used to use at Bedford Autodrome. Seems like a nice bit of kit, with it's own slave cylinder and a modified cylinder for the main brake cylinder with a tee piece fitted. I'm going up to see Steve Page at Bedford on Wednesday who is in charge of their fleet of instructor cars to get some tips on installing it. These tips will likely get passed to Mark at Abbey as I don't think I'm going to have time to fit it myself before the car goes back to Abbey next week. Edited March 25, 2013 by robzracing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robzracing Posted March 27, 2013 Author Share Posted March 27, 2013 Good day today Took a trip to Bedford Autodrome to see the chaps at Palmersport engineering division. 6 or 7 years ago they were running 350Zs in their driver experience days and for driver instruction, so we managed to buy an instructor pedal off them that they had lying around and Steve Page the manager up there had invited me up there if I wanted to discuss how it was installed. Well, he didn't need to ask twice and I shot up the A1 this morning. Kid in a sweet shop doesn't begin to describe it! Steve spent pretty much the whole morning with me. Guided tour of the facilities, a look at the brand new Formula 4 cars that they are just finishing ready for a new race series for 16-21 year olds. Awesome cars that are likely to kill off Formula Ford but takes a much closer line to F1 which will hopefully see some more British drivers in a few years time. And the zed lapping it up! So I had a couple of engineers going through the details of the pedal. Then they called the designer over who had developed the pedal and we had a good chat about how great the 350Z is. They all recon it was by far the best car they had there for instructing. And also the most reliable. Then Steve mentioned that he had a set of Nismo Brembo calipers and 2 piece discs lying around. So he fished them out. 355mm AP discs on custom bells. The calipers need a refurb but they are monsters!! And at £200 I couldn't say no. For another £100 he threw in some brand new Carbon composite pads for the front and rear! plus all the hoses and some spare bleed screws. If that's not the deal of the century I don't know what is. Just need to get some prices for the refurb now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrumbMC Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Wow, great price on the brakes! deal of the century definitely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjt Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 This is awesome, hopefully see you out there this year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robzracing Posted June 9, 2013 Author Share Posted June 9, 2013 (edited) Time for a small update... The track days have been continuing and in the last 3 weeks the car's been to Brands, Bedford and Snetterton so it's seeing plenty of action. But now we've had a couple of dry days it has become clear that the standard brakes just aren't up to the job of constant heavy braking even with our ducting running from the front. At Bedford we could only get in 10-15 minute stints before the brakes gave up so our upgrade became a priority. Our bargain buy from Palmersport turned out not to be quite the bargain as the calipers were deemed to be scrap! At least we had the discs, carriers and hoses so still not a bad deal I guess. Brake Caliper Refurbs offered us a brand new set of Brembo F50s for £400 so we snapped them up and they finally arrived last week quite a bit bigger! but surprisingly not much heavier. Although the carrier is a separate component with these but ours are machined from Aluminium and are also pretty light . (forgot to weigh them though ) The swap took about 3 hours......... before ...and after and back on its wheels Need to get the pads bedded in before Brands on Friday and possibly another quick bleed through as the pedal travel feels a bit long. Lets hope they work! Edited June 9, 2013 by robzracing 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilMH Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Interesting stuff. My day at Palmer was why I bought a 350Z in the first place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robzracing Posted March 13, 2014 Author Share Posted March 13, 2014 A little overdue an update I think!! Our season went very well last year with a total of 12 track days and no mechanical issues. Our last visit to Brands last year at the end of October was the one and only time one of our guests put the 350Z backwards into the tyres and to be honest I think we got off lightly as the track was just about the most slippery I've seen it. Even I spun it once! Thanks to Alfie on here we have a new bumper on its way to us ready for our first event of 2014 So, since my last post we also aquired another car which we hope to race this season if the sponsors come on board. It's a championship winning sprint car but we'll be entering an endurance series with it. New livery just been done and this was it before It's far from standard mechanically, running ITBs, close ratio box and LSD putting out about 215bhp at 970kg laiden. So it's pretty quick and corners like nothing else, especially on slicks! Lots of plans for 2014 and the Nissan is due a trip to Abbey in the next few weeks for some routine maintenance. Hopefully it will be working even harder for its money this year. More updates as the preseason work begins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Very interesting read and liking the 350Z track car although the Clio is obviously very cool especially with the ITB's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfie Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 I'm Glad to help out, all the best throughout 2014, hope it's good for you with awesome results! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meeerrrk Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Only just seen this thread....now subscribed. I've got a little mr2 that I'm very slowly turning into a track car so find threads like this really interesting! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robzracing Posted March 24, 2014 Author Share Posted March 24, 2014 Off to Newcastle (4.5 hours away!) to pick up another Clio on Thursday. We will now have a matching pair Not nearly as tidy or well specced as the other one but it comes with a trailer and was half the price, so a good starting point. Also a bonus that it's the same colour so body panels can be shared too. And this is the Nissan at the moment Sadly Alfies bumper didn't travel well...... Very disapointing and the courier is not making any claim easy unsurprisingly. Does anyone know whether with some gentle heat I might be able to ease that dent out? Any advice appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 Liking the brakes alot, are they a big improvement over the standard 4 pots? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryjackson Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 Awesome track car!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamc Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Which of the 2 do you prefer? The clio on ITB or the 350z on track........ Im torn between converting the 350z and buying a clio track car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robzracing Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 Both very different cars to be honest (obviously!) the 350z is such a beautifully balanced car it's great to drive on track, but you are always aware of the weight of the car, especially under braking! The Clios are huge fun but a handful to drive quickly. Miles faster than the Nissan around the bends and probably a good 2 or 3 seconds a lap faster as a consequence. ( depending on the track) The clios are also much cheaper to run and repair too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamc Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Both very different cars to be honest (obviously!) the 350z is such a beautifully balanced car it's great to drive on track, but you are always aware of the weight of the car, especially under braking! The Clios are huge fun but a handful to drive quickly. Miles faster than the Nissan around the bends and probably a good 2 or 3 seconds a lap faster as a consequence. ( depending on the track) The clios are also much cheaper to run and repair too. Not helping with my decision I like the idea of RWD on track to help learn and outright speed is not the goal, since I own a 600+hp GTR which sees the odd track and not much comes close Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pritchard Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Great thread. So you weighed in at about 1460kg, thats still amazing heavy. i thought it was about that unladen, I thought it would be nearer 1300 than 1500 now that the big stuff is gone - the heated leather seats, speakers, spare wheel, trim, plastic etc. shifting that weight distribution to 60/40 too must show how much you've lost. Must be some hefty lumps of metal hiding in these chasis' Car looks great. Keep updating. subscribed Pritchard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d95gas Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Off to Newcastle (4.5 hours away!) to pick up another Clio on Thursday. We will now have a matching pair Not nearly as tidy or well specced as the other one but it comes with a trailer and was half the price, so a good starting point. Also a bonus that it's the same colour so body panels can be shared too. And this is the Nissan at the moment Sadly Alfies bumper didn't travel well...... Very disapointing and the courier is not making any claim easy unsurprisingly. Does anyone know whether with some gentle heat I might be able to ease that dent out? Any advice appreciated I have just had my 2013 Mondeo bumper and passenger wing sorted after a prang that left a mess with the wing and bumper. Bumper was far more mangled than yours, but the bodyshop just used a heatgun and got it back into shape, you honestly cannot tell it had been managaled. Got nothing to lose really, so I would go with the heat gun and see what you can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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