Morgan Park (QLD) Sprints 2018, Round 1, Group C.

Sprint Race on "Clubman" circuit: The new front disk rotors and aluminium calipers work heaps better. My Confidence is up and I can now brake a lot latter into the corners. The Haltech IQ3 dash data shows some very interesting results.

a) Time taken to take my foot off the throttle when braking is about 3 times longer than when changing up a gear. Its as though i'm anticipating the speed at which to ease the brakes on compared to stabbing at the clutch for a gear a change.

b) The 3.7:1 diff may not be a good idea as first thought. I can't get to the rev limiter in 5th along the front straight and 3rd is too low for faster corners and 4th is too high. I think it would be faster if 4th and 5th were a bit lower.  

Passenger ride day on "National" circuit: This was the second outing this month, QR put on a special day so we could take sponsors, crew or family members out as passengers. I took a few mates out but time was limited due to the turbo/manifold gasket failing. We did manage to get a few runs in.

Finally After 18 months of work I finally had a chance to give my Nissan 200SX a run on a race track. It was just a practice day at Queensland Raceway, no timing etc, but a good chance to make sure every thing was ok.

The acceleration in 1st and 2nd was excellent. But the first application of the brakes into turn 1 revealed the first major problem. The Brake Rotors had high spots on them and the whole car shook violently when the brakes were applied.

Down the back straight the power was even more noticable, The standard 6 speed gearbox with its close ratios helped to keep the revs up during gear changes with no noticable drop in turbo boost. The aceleration in 4th and 5th gears was good. Braking into turn 3 from over 180 kph was a nasty experience with the vibrating brakes.

In September we used a regularity event at Queensland Raceway to see if the recent alterations to the 200sx had improved things.

• • Previous outings were plauged with engine cut outs caused by loose connectors in one of the ECU power relays. 
  • The front disk rotors were also re-machined to remove some buckling that was causing the steering to shudder under hard breaking.

The electrical gremlin has been fixed and the brakes started off real good but by the end of the day the shudering was starting to raise its ugly head. Our team even came 2nd in the regularity event which was a bit of a bonus. Thats the first trophy for the Nissan S15 :)

I managed to attend 2 sprint meetings at morgan park in 2012. The car went well, the new brakes are a fantastic upgrade ( See Brakes section for more info ), I'm now running a set of Grams light 57S rims, 17x9 rear  and 17x8 front running Dunlop 245/40zr17 and 215/45zr17 tyres respectively. Handling was not the best, First upgrade for the 2013 season will be a set of coil overs.

A practice day at Queensland Raceway provided the ideal chance to try out the most recent modifications to my Nissan 200sx S15. Nismo 2-way diff, Sparco race seat, A better steering wheel, Adjustable front coil over units.

WOW ! What a huge difference, The car was a lot more controllable,  I can't  wait until I get the rear coil over units fitted and lower the whole car down to a more suitable ride height. All of these mods added to much improved handling and cornering speeds.

I only had 2 issues

1) After about 10 laps the steering would shudder under heavy braking - I think i'll have to look at fitting air ducts to the brakes.

2) The exhaust came loose at the turbo allowing air in during overrun, This resulted in rather spectacular flames out of the exhaust which didn't do the paint work a log of good.