MrLizard Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 It is about time i posted this as work and life has been so hectic i havent had a chance... Late last year it was decided to try and progress the car a bit taking on AbbeyMotorsport's advice. Having completely reworked the suspension and tyres/wheels for the last trip this time we had the addition of a fully working dash and a new Quaife LSD. The original VLSD on the zed is ok for a few minutes but seems to become unpredictable and eventually gives up when it gets too hot, this seems to result in me not getting to that sweet spot quickly enough because occasionally the car will just slide over it, not the quickest way round the corner! (though sometimes good fun) Last time at Brandshatch we had the suspension on the front right strut collapse which woke me up quite quickly as the wheel was ripped out of my hands and sent me spinning down the hill towards graham hill bend at 80mph. Part of the suspension got stuck under the slick! Instinctively i floored the brake and the clutch, the brake probably made things worse as it just locked one wheel. This time out the faulty part had been switched out and we were hoping for a good day of data and practice. The weather was greasy, which is worse than rain for me, i quite like rain, in fact i think the car handles well in the wet but this was a half way house, ideally we wanted to use semi slicks with a dry line, but there was no dry line and we dont have inters, so on with the wets... After a few parade laps following a scooby around to show people the track we were let loose, understanding that I now dont have any ABS and was struggling to get heat into the tyres i thought this was going to be tricky... Coming around on the second lap building up a little pace the evo 10 in front of me loses it at paddock, coming out of druids on the same lap i see a fiesta slide off as well, red flags and we are back to the pits... A few adjustments and we are back on it, Mark from abbey had given me some advice on gearing and i was now trying 4th through graham hill into the esses in 5th. laps start to come down but i am being very careful with brakes, braking earlier and lighter until i get some confidence back. I decide to push the brakes to find the lock point, not much travel, all 4 wheels lock in tandum and i go sliding forwards, but at least i go sliding in a straight line, come off the brakes and try again, all ok and so I start to push more... the traffic is heavy and im losing ground on some of the more powerful 4wd cars on the straights but cornering quicker than anything by a mile even though the back end is taking some taming The majority of people are being very kind and letting me pass out of corners, better than I expected, knowing that it was a public day you have to assume the level of courtesy could be up and down but on the whole it was excellent..... apart from 2 people, both of whom unfortunately were in black nissan R35 GTR's, i was on their tail for maybe 6 laps, on the exit of the corners i was pulling alongside waiting for them to let me pass rather than barge my way through (save that for racing;) ).... no joy, they were together and they didnt want to be seperated... flashed the guy twice to make sure he could see me, still no joy, at this point i was a little silly unfortunately but lessons learnt! Coming out of druids i went up the inside of gtr one into graham hill (so passed on the left on a straight, sort of) and then went round the outside of the other one around clearways, no problems caused other than 2 people in cars that wernt happy being overtaken by a 350, over the next lap i pulled quite a distance as i was trying to get back up to pace, unfortunately coming into druids i managed to lock the brakes again and was carrying too much speed, came off and reapplied but no luck, too late and went into the gravel, missed the wall on the left by about 1ft... dragged out in shame! all my fault what a pleb!!!! Gravel trap did its job and the marshalls were fantastic (though i did get in more trouble ) After the pit crew spent the next hour clearing stones out of the zed filling our pit garage and both my shoes and hat (fair play really ) we were ready again. Over the next couple of hours i started pushing more and trying to find some space to try the different corners at different speeds, Mark from Abbey also had a go, we decided that the grip levels were a little low and kept playing with the suspension. As time passed the weather got worse and the light levels were getting poor, then a miracle, it started raining in the UK!! The traffic went away Tyres got grip Mist descended Brakes came to life with the added grip The LSD was working really nicely through clearways the corner being long enough to push the car just to the point of sliding, each lap just trying to hit this point quicker. If we had been timing i would guess we would have knocked about 3.76 seconds off our previous best laps. I sort of lost track of time and stayed out for about 30 minutes... Had to come in when the chequered flag came down Great day Huge thanks to Abbey Motorsport, their expertise and advice were invaluable As well as our other sponsors Total Nissan Magazine Zenzero IT Support **REMOVED** UpRev OPIE Motordyne Then it was definitely time for sleep! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Great write up, good to see another side to the whole adventure My race partner and I are dropping in a new engine and gearbox this weekend in our MR2, so we might actually get to see some race time with it this year fingers crossed. On another note, why is it always GTRs driving like utter plebs on track? I've only ever seen one being driven courteously, and that's only because he was driving so bloody slowly as he was terrified of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLizard Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 ive met a few courteous gtr drivers but these two were far from it, they didnt treat me any differently to anyone else, still my own fault for binning it tho! Really looking forward to seeing the mr2 sorted m8, are you going to enter the mr2 series? i know a few of the guys in that and be happy to come and lend support Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Yup, that's the plan anyway. Thanks for the offer, as soon as we're up and running I'll give you a shout Tbh I think I'd probably have done exactly what you did with the same outcome, always the way sometimes. I think back to some of my early experiences on track and I took far more risks than I would ever dream of now, despite not being remotely as quick back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebized Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Thanks for the update Steve - sorry I missed the day. The car is really looking the part these days, with the wing, white wheels and the overall stance No doubt the GTR boys think they have the quickest machinery on the track but as has been said, few will know how to drive them and you ceratinly had a couple of plonkers there by the sounds of it. Now know what they mean by using ballast - but didn't realise you had to go and collect it yourself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLizard Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 Haha thanks colin, still cant tempt you out in the 370z ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT4 Zed Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 nice one Steve. Hope you have an even better season this year. Must come and watch/support you this year;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebized Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Haha thanks colin, still cant tempt you out in the 370z ? You can tempt me by all means, its when I get home afterwards having sneaked out not letting on what I will be doing that things will get really Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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