Zilvia.net Forums | Nissan 240SX (Silvia) and Z (Fairlady) Car Forum - View Single Post - Blue Bayou S13 - VQ30DE Endurance Build (Tons of pics and video!)

knate · 01-23-2021, 01:00 AM

Will It Hold? (7/5/15) - 7 hours - Laguna Seca:

So after barely any sleep due to fixing the car, I was pretty beat. But I was pretty upbeat about our chances of the car holding together for the final day. Matt in his first ever race weekend, had not gotten a chance to drive on the second day.

After all the repairs, we still didn't know how the car handled or if everything worked. We sent Nathan Feigion out first to shake down the car. He started in 31st place, and the car is working good! Nathan slices and dices his way through traffic, while the temps stay cool and brakes are working great. By the end of his stint, he has made it up to 5th place and ran our fastest lap of the weekend at 1:50.4! For reference, the fastest time of the day was a 1:49.5.

Originally Matt had said that he didn't want to get in the car again, but we talked him into trying it out again now that it wouldn't be completely new and overwhelming. However, we don't do him any favors and we pull a rookie move, we forget to put up his window net. He gets black flagged and looped back around for us to correct it, dropping us to 21st place. Matt is a lot more confident in the car and is pushing it more, which does end up in one spin. He is really getting a lot more comfortable with the car and gets back up to 15th place. Then Matt gets a black flag for passing under a yellow flag. Oops! He pulls in, apologizes, and is off again in 22nd place. By the end of his stint he has made it back to 16th place before pitting. Matt pulls off a 1:57.7, a full three seconds faster than the first stint!

I get in the car next. I push as much as I can trying to beat Nathan's lap time, but I just can't pull it off. I got down to a 1:51.9 during my session, but did manage to get up to 9th place. On the plus side, the car is still driving around the track and the radiator fix is holding perfectly.

Dave is in the car for the final stint. Will the car hold all the way to driving on the trailer? Dave struggles a bit with some understeer, but pulls off a respectable 1:54.3 lap time and brings the car home in 12th. Success! Our only day of the weekend we actually finished the race!

The LED device I made showing "Time slip" worked.. somewhat. The refresh rate is not nearly as quick as I was hoping for, and if it ever lost communication it would just hang at the last value shown. So with the somewhat intermittent updates and not really being able to trust it.. it didn't prove to have a ton of value. On the plus side it did have a cool little startup animation!

Video overview of day 3:

So after the race we got the car home and checked out all the damage a little more closely. The front was really scraped up, but looked reasonably close.

With a little "footwork" at the track, the quarterpanel wasn't too terrible:

We had another race within a month, so we needed to work quickly. We got the car up on the lift, and yikes! That doesn't look right... A couple other tires had this as well, and we had never seen this before. I can only assume we were hitting the curbing harder than normal.

The track-fixed lower control arm:

We pulled the engine out to have better access to fixing the damage. Definitely a lot worse looking with the fender off!

I also did some comparison to my purple coupe.. and we discovered our left front strut wasn't where it belonged...

I welded up a quick and dirty strut pulling device:

I also made a backing plate to help pull out the left corner of the car:

Then with the help of a Porta Power a couple of excavators..

We got the strut tower brace to match my other 240SX and got the corner looking roughly correct.

Then I took a spare fender, some hammers, and some carpet, and I got the fender roughly back to the factory shape.

A little paint on the chassis, and it wasn't looking so bad.

I also wanted to remake the lower control arms, and then we could use the old ones as spares. I picked up some new arms from RockAuto.

I cut the arm and added in the new metal to space the arm. Again the reason for extended control arms was this was "free" in ChumpCar points compared to commercially available camber adjustment.

Next up I added a bridge across the bottom (with my OK at best welding skills on display here).

At this point I have two extended control arms that would likely be strong enough.

But to reduce stress on the joint, I then wrap the top with sheet metal and plug weld some holes in it.

I add some more braces on the bottom, and then I'm sufficiently happy that the rest of the arm will bend before anything I cut breaks (just like the last arm proved).

A little paint, and they are ready for the car.

And here is the car all back together. We added a factory front lip as well as a bit more of an air dam below that to try to reduce some drag on the straights. We always get killed on the straights, so every little bit helps. You can also see the aggressive negative camber we need for a Mcpherson strut car to have relatively even tread wear.

01-23-2021, 01:00 AM	#22
knate Leaky Injector Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Washington Posts: 138 Trader Rating: (0)	Will It Hold? (7/5/15) - 7 hours - Laguna Seca: So after barely any sleep due to fixing the car, I was pretty beat. But I was pretty upbeat about our chances of the car holding together for the final day. Matt in his first ever race weekend, had not gotten a chance to drive on the second day. After all the repairs, we still didn't know how the car handled or if everything worked. We sent Nathan Feigion out first to shake down the car. He started in 31st place, and the car is working good! Nathan slices and dices his way through traffic, while the temps stay cool and brakes are working great. By the end of his stint, he has made it up to 5th place and ran our fastest lap of the weekend at 1:50.4! For reference, the fastest time of the day was a 1:49.5. Originally Matt had said that he didn't want to get in the car again, but we talked him into trying it out again now that it wouldn't be completely new and overwhelming. However, we don't do him any favors and we pull a rookie move, we forget to put up his window net. He gets black flagged and looped back around for us to correct it, dropping us to 21st place. Matt is a lot more confident in the car and is pushing it more, which does end up in one spin. He is really getting a lot more comfortable with the car and gets back up to 15th place. Then Matt gets a black flag for passing under a yellow flag. Oops! He pulls in, apologizes, and is off again in 22nd place. By the end of his stint he has made it back to 16th place before pitting. Matt pulls off a 1:57.7, a full three seconds faster than the first stint! I get in the car next. I push as much as I can trying to beat Nathan's lap time, but I just can't pull it off. I got down to a 1:51.9 during my session, but did manage to get up to 9th place. On the plus side, the car is still driving around the track and the radiator fix is holding perfectly. Dave is in the car for the final stint. Will the car hold all the way to driving on the trailer? Dave struggles a bit with some understeer, but pulls off a respectable 1:54.3 lap time and brings the car home in 12th. Success! Our only day of the weekend we actually finished the race! The LED device I made showing "Time slip" worked.. somewhat. The refresh rate is not nearly as quick as I was hoping for, and if it ever lost communication it would just hang at the last value shown. So with the somewhat intermittent updates and not really being able to trust it.. it didn't prove to have a ton of value. On the plus side it did have a cool little startup animation! Video overview of day 3: So after the race we got the car home and checked out all the damage a little more closely. The front was really scraped up, but looked reasonably close. With a little "footwork" at the track, the quarterpanel wasn't too terrible: We had another race within a month, so we needed to work quickly. We got the car up on the lift, and yikes! That doesn't look right... A couple other tires had this as well, and we had never seen this before. I can only assume we were hitting the curbing harder than normal. The track-fixed lower control arm: We pulled the engine out to have better access to fixing the damage. Definitely a lot worse looking with the fender off! I also did some comparison to my purple coupe.. and we discovered our left front strut wasn't where it belonged... I welded up a quick and dirty strut pulling device: I also made a backing plate to help pull out the left corner of the car: Then with the help of a Porta Power a couple of excavators.. We got the strut tower brace to match my other 240SX and got the corner looking roughly correct. Then I took a spare fender, some hammers, and some carpet, and I got the fender roughly back to the factory shape. A little paint on the chassis, and it wasn't looking so bad. I also wanted to remake the lower control arms, and then we could use the old ones as spares. I picked up some new arms from RockAuto. I cut the arm and added in the new metal to space the arm. Again the reason for extended control arms was this was "free" in ChumpCar points compared to commercially available camber adjustment. Next up I added a bridge across the bottom (with my OK at best welding skills on display here). At this point I have two extended control arms that would likely be strong enough. But to reduce stress on the joint, I then wrap the top with sheet metal and plug weld some holes in it. I add some more braces on the bottom, and then I'm sufficiently happy that the rest of the arm will bend before anything I cut breaks (just like the last arm proved). A little paint, and they are ready for the car. And here is the car all back together. We added a factory front lip as well as a bit more of an air dam below that to try to reduce some drag on the straights. We always get killed on the straights, so every little bit helps. You can also see the aggressive negative camber we need for a Mcpherson strut car to have relatively even tread wear. __________________ Blue Bayou Youtube Channel Facebook Last edited by knate; 04-18-2021 at 01:26 AM..