Monday, March 7, 2011

Split Directions


OK, so here is the current scheme of things. I think I can get away with feed skirts, a splitter and a slight drop on the suspension with new tyres.


With GT wing also. It's well hard looking with or without some vinyl.


As for the spare set of rims. Work IIRT seem to be getting their nose in front right now.

Just need money.

Reflections


Went out today and the car was parked up, quick snap. The suspension is awesome compared to the old junk!


I was thinking of returning it to a stock front bar. But I know that would last for ten seconds before I got bored. I saw an original '97 car go past the other day and it just looked great. FD design is great standard.



But for now still dreaming. Of course I can't keep anything standard. Modifying is my hobby.

So the basics are there. Maybe Feed side skirts in carbon and an RE- A or CC diffuser in carbon. And the splitter maybe back on the cards.  They should make for a good combo.




Work 11 RT look great (kind of like gram lights optimise) and there is that splitter again. This time jsut a flat sheet. without air dam. 

Why? ... As it turns out the current undertray has been replaced with a crap plywood design already and I need to replace that anyway as it's really not good. And as I love this bumper with the splitter. Feed skirts. + diffuser + splitter realistically will be a good image. (chop coming)


Im also thinking about what to do with these defis. I'd like to clean up the dash.


Mounting position of the boost guage is challengine my ideas.


Currenly the glove box has a defi cable nest. and the PFC is not so desirably located.

Any Ideas?


Thursday, March 3, 2011

An pan man dam can can


Ok, the white snake is getting closer. Click here first for some background music to read by.


I went to KTS today to get something done.


Look at these old Scoot dampers. ALL the oil has completely gone. After talking to Koseki-san I was thinking about rebuilding them. He said basically not to bother, they were old technology and the shafts basically would need to be replaced. And I wanted independant height adjust anyway.


So I did a lot of research and thought about it a lot. Resulting in the other blog post about suspension. KTS recently developed these alloy body, fully adjustable dampers with external extension reservoir tank. so rather go for something less flexible I decided to go targeted for what I want to do.

KTS SC damper system ∑

They were a bit more than I wanted to spend, but they gave me a rebate on my old dampers and free alignment and install. All up about $1500


They have a 30 point setting on the top for compression and another on the external tank for extension damping. Currently I'm sitting in the middle on all settings. I chose 16kg Swift springs for the track as the car will be getting some more upgrades as money provides.


This is the after picture.... you don't need to see the before settings, they were ugly. This is a fairly general circuit setup. I decided not to drop the car too much as the front inner fender covers are still there and they require some work.


I had to do a few things after the install. Running on the street with the settings I found myself immediately feeling the camber and the no damping bounce has gone and the pillow ball clunk clunk has gone. GREAT! A bit of tramlining keeps you awake and concentrating. The car feels really solid and much much tighter than before.

It's getting to where everything is working properly and I can enjoy not worring about stuff and go faster.


Just like Luke Skywalker... almost. You should hear the sound of the thing in here. 1st gear mandatory.  BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!


iPhone seems to be doing all my camera duty recently. It's really not good, but handy.


 I'll need to sort out the brake line and air line. a bit close. and I discovered after a good look under the car that there is alot of dodgey stuff that needs cleaning up. All in time. Next tyres. The ones I have are quite tall for 265 and 235. so replacing them will lower the car just that extra few mm. 

For now I'm very happy. 


You can see this car is not the prettiest but functional. It'll get cleaned up eventually.


But here is a sad sight. My cool storage shed photo location is now rubble. I guess ANOTHER BIG APARTMENT building will go here. Japan is getting out of control. It's not like there are more people. Hasn't anyone told them the population is shrinking. 

By the way, gas went up almost 10Yen in the last week now 149yen/L. I guess we are looking at a repeat of 2008. Just when I build an FD and ready to drive. Gas goes up. WTF! It will probably reach 190 like before and I'll have to sell it.

This one likes the taste of the earth juice a bit too much. hehe.

Russ.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Tyres


I guess when I make polls I should put more info. Everyone recommend Neova when RE-11 are often regarded in Japan as a superior tyre. Do they really have that good a reputation in other countries?

With current Japanese Pricing. 1 set 2x 225/40R18 & 2x 255/35R18

Advan Neova AD08
Yen148700 or $1500

Bridgestone Potenza RE-11
Yen122700 or $1225

Dunlop Direzza StarSpec Z1
Total Yen117040 or $1170

Federal 595RS-R

Total = Yen62520 or $625

for the record.

Nankang NS-2
Total = Yen36120 or $360 for 4 tyres. Thats cheap.

For my Max Fun, Minimum Outlay, I think I'll be using Federal.
R-Magic have a test in a few days for their D1 car.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Bare Curves - Hello Shape


Pulled the aero off the car this morning. The FD shape is back. I can see some small carbon skirts going on there. but thats it.


Black RP-01 still looking sweet. Don't get too close though. they are rough.!


The sides of the FD really do curve a lot. Covering them up was a bad idea. Whereas before, I was thinking the front needed to be a lot lower. Now, I don't think it does. Don't get me wrong, I certainly want to lower the car a tad more. The rear is quite high, but that was probably die to the GT wing, (that i still have.)


During this exercise i saved not much weight. maybe 5Kg. Rear wing is quite heavily constructed. Side skirts are cheap and thin. Shame I stuck the enkei stickers on the skirts... damn!

Can't wait till Friday... secret secret. haha.

Happy to be back on track.