Hayden's Cars- Annual update!

  • Thread starter Hayden
  • 428 comments
  • 72,324 views

What should I do?

  • Keep the 300zx, don't spend any more money

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Keep the 300zx, make it awesome!

    Votes: 6 54.5%
  • Sell it and buy a 350Z

    Votes: 2 18.2%
  • Sell it and buy an S2000

    Votes: 3 27.3%

  • Total voters
    11
  • Poll closed .
Hooray! New page! :lol:

Ok so we're onto some seriously exciting stuff right now! First thing first, we have a roll cage!
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We had some issues with the local business we got to do the cage for us. First the boss went on holiday and left the job with the apprentice who had a lot of trouble understanding the very complex technical regulations. There was someone who worked at the shop who could've helped but chose not to, because he builds roll cages for cash on weekends and was angry we didn't go straight to him.... When we didn't even know he did it. :rolleyes: Then they couldn't get the chrome moly steel we wanted or even a pipe bender to work with it.
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It got to the point that dad had to source the steel and bender, then he and a guy who works for us had to go in on the weekend and help the apprentice build the thing. To say we were angry is an understatement, and it's fair to say that if the bill comes back big, there's going to be a rather angry phone call or two. Regardless, the cage did turn out fantastic and when I first got to see it this Saturday I was blown away. We went above and beyond the regulations to make it as safe as possible and it makes for some seriously sexy race car stuff! 👍
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Talking about seriously sexy race car stuff... The heads are finished. The work speaks for itself and the massive valves look mighty impressive!
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And a reminder of how they were before...
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The builder had nothing but positive things to say about the engine and he's very excited to see what numbers the car puts down. He liked it so much that he put all these photos on his business' Facebook page :)
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Unfortunately it's came out to be a fair bit more expensive than anticipated and that may mean we don't get to do much work to the suspension or brakes. A situation that scares me far more than dad. I said to him "so we've basically built a drag car and now I'm gonna have to throw it up a mountain without so much as a test drive?" And he just laughed and said "well that's your problem isn't it!" :lol: Jokes aside I'm rather nervous about it and have found an open track day we should be able to use as a shakedown. The only downside is that it's a couple weeks before the hillclimb and that deadline's looking tight already :nervous:

Finally, I went down this weekend and we got to do quite a lot of work on the car. The most important and noticeable of which was what we got done to the roof. I'm going to making a video about the build of this car that will go into far more detail on all aspects, but for now, here's some pictures.
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Basically we drilled out the spot welds and cut out the old pillar, then put on the one from the donor roof.
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We then put the new roof skin on and welded it in place. Unfortunately my phone died before I could get a photo.

That's pretty much it for now! The gearbox is going to be picked up from Iowa this weekend and we're on the lookout for a safety harness and seat. Oh and we're starting to think of paint schemes. A combination of Matte and gloss black has been throw around a couple times :D
Thanks for reading folks! :gtpflag:
 
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Just a heads up, my mum makes safety harnesses for a living (along with all the other fabric-y motorsport stuff like tow loops, window nets, helmet hammocks etc.), so if you're looking for a good deal on stuff like that I might be able to help you out (depending on shipping of course, since you're on the other side of the globe). She makes them for TRS Motorsport and they were stronger than Takata last time they were tested, so it's the real deal!
 
Just a heads up, my mum makes safety harnesses for a living (along with all the other fabric-y motorsport stuff like tow loops, window nets, helmet hammocks etc.), so if you're looking for a good deal on stuff like that I might be able to help you out (depending on shipping of course, since you're on the other side of the globe). She makes them for TRS Motorsport and they were stronger than Takata last time they were tested, so it's the real deal!
I wouldn't mind 2 tow loops in silver. Would match my harnesses.
 
@Katiegan- If you could get me a price on two row straps and two 5 point harness', all in dark blue that'd be very much appreciated! I get the feeling postage might be the killer but you never know!

:)
 
I wouldn't mind 2 tow loops in silver. Would match my harnesses.
@Katiegan- If you could get me a price on two row straps and two 5 point harness', all in dark blue that'd be very much appreciated! I get the feeling postage might be the killer but you never know!

:)

I've given her your orders, hopefully she'll get back with a price tomorrow. ;)

@Hayden - There's a lot different harnesses they do though, so if I were you I'd probably look at the website and decide which one you'll need there. The choice is huge, from FIA approved to NASCAR harnesses, all different types. She says there's only one colour blue for the harnesses though, which is the one shown.
 
I've given her your orders, hopefully she'll get back with a price tomorrow. ;)

@Hayden - There's a lot different harnesses they do though, so if I were you I'd probably look at the website and decide which one you'll need there. The choice is huge, from FIA approved to NASCAR harnesses, all different types. She says there's only one colour blue for the harnesses though, which is the one shown.
I think the magnum 5 point is the one we need :)
 
More purchases have happened with our target event now less than 2 months away! First off is this BBK 90mm throttle body and R2C cold air intake. It took a lot of research to find the best of each of these parts and with independently reported, untuned gains of 15 BHP each, the potential for both of these parts is massive!
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The car has also got a little bit lighter with the inner skin of the boot getting gutted...
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And the rear windows being replaced with black Perspex. This stuff is extremely dark and looks killer!
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In news that has me quite happy, we've managed to find some aftermarket suspension too. An owner of this diesel 300c bought it on lowered coilovers and says it rides too firmly for him and his 50 year old rear end. He says its so stiff that pressing on the front guard, you feel the panel start to bow just before there's any give in the suspension. While not an exact science, firm and low tends to be the general rule for race cars so this should suit our needs quite well for a start. The best part is, he's happy to do a straight swap so our budget won't feel the hit. Here's how his car sits at the moment.
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We've also got ahold of a cheap CAMS approved seat, mounts and (sorry Katie!) harness. I managed to get it all second hand, never used from a seller for way less than half what it cost him. He had intended to put it in his AC cobra kit car that he's been building for the last 10 years, but decided to go for some more period correct items done by a highly skilled trimmer. He showed me the Car and it was awesome, 500BHP and a weigh bridge confirmed 1100kg. A nice gun metal grey, excellent fit and finish... I could talk about it all day but the only Cobra you guys really need to worry about is this one!
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And finally, in unrelated news, I've now owned this 86 for a little over two years. With just three months left in the loan, I couldn't be happier with the car. It's performance still entertains me, the way it looks still makes me smile and the way it makes me feel is something very hard to find in a car.

On the weekend I went to a photo shoot with the local 86/BRZ club and the photographer unfortunately had some issues. While my car is barely visible (you can just see the rear quarter in between the two white cars facing opposite ways), the photos are still pretty cool!
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One of the 25+ cars there was South Australia's only rocket bunny 86. While not something I'd normally like, in the flesh it looked rather awesome. Much race car. Very wow.
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Thanks for reading folks, there should be a little bit of Vert news next update :gtpflag:
 
Look forward to seeing how the 300C turns out! I've always wanted to see them built as proper race car. Also, I found this pic of one from the Superstars V8 Series (or whatever it was called).
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Look forward to seeing how the 300C turns out! I've always wanted to see them built as proper race car. Also, I found this pic of one from the Superstars V8 Series (or whatever it was called).
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Dad and I found that car when we first started researching on this idea. It went through a few paint schemes in its couple of seasons and had a little bit of success. An interesting fact is that the team had to make pretty much every panel out of carbon fibre to get the car down to the series' weight specs, while every other team had to add a heap of ballast :lol:. It also ran a manual 'box, but they sourced theirs from a Dodge Viper :)

From memory the team is called Zakspeed and they've got a brand new, fully built but never raced 300c in their museum because the series changed its rules and made it obsolete.

Best thing about that car though is the noise. If ours sounds anything like this I'm gonna be absoloutly pumped! For your own sake watch the whole video :drool:
 
Come back later folks! Accidental early post :banghead:

Seeing as you've already clicked, you can have this picture. Shorty got low! ;)
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Full story of this weekend's progress in the next couple days :cheers:
 
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Gah! One of my favorite car threads updated, and it's just a teaser...

Either way, that 300 is looking really nice, at least from the picture.
 
So the weekend just gone was quite the productive one. To address the monochrome filtered elephant in the room, the car is a little bit lower than it was. Roughly 4 inches lower as a matter of fact. The springs we received in the trade wouldn't work with our standard suspension, so we decided to skip through the entry level and go straight to the top. These Pedders coilovers are fully adjustable and have a good reputation in track vehicles. While not cheap, it was something we were always bound to buy eventually, so we saw it as something of an investment.
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We also made significant progress in the engine department. Dad had started assembly during the week, but I'm glad I got to help him out on the heads, oil pump and sump. There's something really satisfying about seeing an engine come together. :)
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That night it was touchdown as our basically brand new engine made first contact with it's new (and old) home.
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The next day it was on to the gearbox. It had been held up in customs to clean off some Iowan(?) dirt, but had luckily made it in time for the long weekend.
It's worth noting that the bell housing and gearbox does physically bolt straight up, but nothing else does. The 300c was never intended to be manual, so it took quite a lot of work to make the transmission, shifter, pedal box and master cylinder fit.
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First off was the gearbox, which with some minor hammering of the transmission tunnel, fit right in place. The crossmember even bolted straight up. Our only problem was with the starter motor, which is a completely different shape and on the opposite side with the manual box. We have ordered one from the state's but are slightly concerned that it will intefere with our steering and will need to be modified. Time will tell.
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Next was the shifter assembly, which was basically a matter of cutting a hole in the body and trying to weld in pieces to make the hole as small as possible. There is a black cover that goes over all this, including my bad welding, so to the untrained eye it should look pretty clean when finished.
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After that was the pedal box and it took a lot of persuasion with the oxy torch to get the brake and clutch pedal into a good position. We can't be sure of how well they're positioned until we get to drive the car, but they do look the part.
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Finally it was on to the clutch master cylinder, which proved to be quite difficult in itself. First, we made a bracket and mounted it on the firewall, only to realise that the wipers would hit it. So we moved it to near the brake master cylinder, where the tight gap made it near impossible to bolt up. Then we realised we would only be running one hose off it, rather than the challenger's three and we'd need to blank two off. I scavenged a hose from an old Daewoo Matiz, and we eventually got it mounted up.
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We also got a chance to fit a front tow hook.
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The tailshaft was measured up and will need to be shortened, so I brought that with me when I went home. We also test fitted the headers, which will be quite easy to fit, and the seat, which won't be. The problem is, even on its mounts, it sits so low in the car that I can't even see over the steering wheel. We will be building something of a metal box on top of the standard seat mounts, which will bolt on to our racing seat mounts and get us an extra 10-20cm of height.

Unfortunately, we had to temporarily assemble both the engine and gearbox with some missing parts so we could set up the interior. I searched high and low for the pilot bearing and sensors, but had very little luck tracking them down. The one website that could source all three actually let me get to the checkout screen before telling me they had a minimum value on international shipping. I thought this was pretty funny... :lol:
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Luckily dad managed to get them all, with overnight shipping, from his local town dealer. That's after the three in my city, when given part numbers, told me it'd take three weeks to land them here and I'd have to buy them all in bulk batches to get them at all. To say I was surprised, after making countless phone calls (even a few to America) and spending many hours searching on the internet is a massive understatement. Can't go past local service I guess :boggled:

The 300c is really starting to come together and it looks like we may even have it ready for our mid-November deadline. I'm working on a video which will show the build from start to end and I'm excited about how it's coming together. I do apologise that some detail is being cut out of this thread as the video draws a lot of my attention, but I hope the end result is worth it.
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Thanks for reading and sorry for the teaser earlier in the week :lol: :gtpflag:
 
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Another weekend and another update on the 300c. I promise, once the hillclimb is done with my other cars will get some attention :lol:

Dad had done quite a bit of work without me, including building the mounts and installing the seat. It requires an extensive amount of metal work and modification, but I've gotta say, the placement is dead on and the driving position feels fantastic!
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First off we found that the radiator was completely stuffed and that it was probably the course of the cars demise. It was well and truly ruined so dad sourced a new alloy item and we fitted it together.
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I had the tailshaft shortened by a professional during the week and i drew the short straw to be the one to install it. The spline that connects the tailshaft to its centre bearing has about 50 teeth and, as it turns out, is balanced and has been designed so it can only go together if it's on exactly the right one. As there was no obvious marks anywhere on either part, it was literally a case of turning the shaft, notch by painstaking notch, until it slid in place. Next time we'll mark it before we take it apart :banghead:
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While under the car I also attached the midpipes of the exhaust. For some reason, the headers came with an odd angled flange that, despite searching low and high, we couldn't find a way to attach to the midpipes. Dad ended up cutting these off and welding square plates to both parts of the exhaust. With a gasket in between I was able to simply bolt them together.
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While I was doing that, dad installed our new 90mm throttle body and cold air intake, which came with the biggest pod filter I have ever seen. Seriously the thing is monstrous.
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We then put in fresh fluids and hit the hot wires to try to bring her to life.
Due to the massive differences between our upgraded parts and what the cars computer thinks it has, the engine would not fire. I hooked up our new flash tuner but it only allows us to do very basic tuning on it. Fortunately it came with a free custom tune from the seller, so we sent off our stock tune file to America; along with our extensive list of modifications, to recieve an in depth tune from an expert. We're hoping to get that back sometime this week.
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Next, we moved to the interior with the intent on tidying it up a little. The wiring had gradually become a mess of no longer required wires and awkward groups of clips.
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We spent a fair bit of time rerouting the particularly ugly stuff and zippy tying it all out of the way and out of sight. We decided against cutting too many wires as the risk of cutting something important was far too costly.
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We also mounted our 6 point racing harness, drilling through the cars floor and using large plates and bolts to attach it. I believe dad will be welding these plates in place during the week. (We moved the strap over the wires after this photo was taken)
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Finally we reinstalled the dashboard and gauge cluster and I modified the centre panel. Using an off cut of the Perspex from the back windows, I made a piece that slotted in where the radio once lived.
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I then drilled and dremilled in a hole for our incredibly ugly new starter button and put the centre panel back into place. We were both surprised at just how good the interior looked. When we disassembled the interior of the Skyline, we threw most of these sort of parts in the skip bin, so it always felt very rough inside. I'm glad we didn't make the same mistake again :)
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After that we called it a day and went our seperate ways. Unfortunately, we were both wrong about the date of the hillclimb. I thought it was the 19th, dad thought 12th, when in reality it's the 5th of November. That gives us just one more weekend, and whatever time dad can make during weeknights, to get this thing race ready. It's safe to say that a paint job is pretty well out of the question at this point and we may just be pushing the car up the hill :nervous:
 
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No point stretching this out, we failed. Despite our absoloute best efforts, the 300c will not be competing in the hillclimb this weekend.

We were as prepared as humanly possible for last weekend, even getting dad's mechanically minded mate Darren in to give us a hand. Despite everything we got off to a bad start when we installed our custom tune and hit the hot wires, hoping to hear it roar to life. It took countless turns of the starter and when it finally did fire, it ran very poorly and sounded like it was only using a handful of cylinders. We researched for hours and changed everything that we thought could be the cause. Including switching the battery in the key, doing a lot of rewiring, plugging in the automatic shifter and even stealing parts from dad's SRT8 Jeep. Nothing we did made it start or run any nicer. After talking to our US based tuner, we decided it was probably software related and would need to be addressed on site by a professional who can fully access the ECU. Being the weekend, and with the state's only Chrysler software tuner shut, we moved on.
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It was my job to run and join the brake lines for our hydraulic handbrake. It was a time consuming and tedious task; partly due to the fiddly tools involved; partly because of the awkward positions I had to position myself in to do it; but mostly thanks to the frustrating process of making each piece of factory line dead straight. Words can't describe how much I hope I'll never be stuck doing this again.
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While I was doing that, dad discovered that the steering rack; which he'd spent hours fabricating a column to fit around the starter motor, was damaged. With replacement stock parts extremely expensive, miles away and hard to come by (because 300c limousines wear them out very quickly apparently), he made do with what he had. A new rack was sourced from my first car, a 2000 Ford Falcon that had been sitting idle since I first got the vert. It's measurements were spot on so dad spent hours fabricating mounts, and another steering column to make it fit. Only for us to have it all in place, bolted up and locked in late Sunday afternoon just to realise that when you turn the steering wheel left, the wheels turn right. After the hours of custom fab work and no parts on hand to get it fixed, that was the final nail in the coffin.
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With the Hillclimb deadline missed, we looked into different steering racks (that would actually work) early this week. We believe a Ford Transit van unit should provide us with nearly drift car levels of lock, the correct dimensions and most importantly, the correct direction of steering. We also booked the car in with the Chrysler tuner who will be taking a look at it early next week. He said that it's almost certainly software related and he should have no trouble getting it to work.

So with all that out of the way, and not wanting to waste my already booked and paid for slot in the hillclimb, I got in touch with the organisers and changed my entry to "a" Toyota 86 in the registered under 2000cc class. Now due to warranty fine print, I can't drive "my" car in a competitive event and keep dealer backing for mechanical issues. Good thing someone lent me an 86 that doesn't have number plates ;)
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The class only has 3 entrants so, assuming I keep it in one piece, I might even be in with a shout of getting a trophy :D
 
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(I've hit a technical issue so cockpit video of my best run will be added to this post in about 24 hours. I'll change the title once it's done :))

Every cloud has a silver lining and the incomplete Chrysler, as it turns out, was no exception.

The weekend started with the 450km drive to Mt Gambier in the trusty 86. This car has done this journey more times than I can count, and as always it didn't skip a beat. I arrived at the track (jumped into it's number plate-less twin) and went to scrutineering. Due to the last minute change of plan I was horrendously unprepared and consequently failed the check. The scrutineer told me to come back with battery and tow triangles, racing numbers and a fire extinguisher. I got the impression that he thought I was some joker who wasn't taking the event seriously, and I was slightly offended when he said to "at least make it look like a race car."

I came back with electrical tape doing the job as triangles and numbers and a fire extinguisher zip tied up to the glove box hinges. The regulations for the event do state that it needs to be bolted down and I was more than nervous when I lined back up for a second check over. Luckily I got a different, far more casual scrutineer this time and he laughed as he said "zip ties, that's fair enough," ticked the box and let me go.
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My first run was extremely cautious, with it being my first time driving the closed and barriered public road as a track. I took a lot of care to feel out the lines and stay far away from the walls, cliffs and trees. My time of 1.15 was miles short of my class leader, this S14 Silvia, with a 1.03.
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My next few runs got gradually quicker and by mid day I was down to 1.07, still a few seconds off the Silvia's now improved 1.02, but starting to reel in my other competitor. This little slick wearing XR4 Fiesta Turbo was running consistent 1.05s all day.
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Due to the lack of a return road, half the cars do their runs, then travel back down the track, before the other half do theirs. With 135 competing cars, you end up spending a lot of time at the top of the hill with nobody to talk to except your competitors. This lead to me getting to know the drivers of both the Fiesta and Silvia quite well. Chatting away about our cars and competition experience while we watched some awesome cars stretched to their limit on the closed public roads.
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On my second to last run of the day I managed to pull out a high 1.05, putting me just half a second from the Fiesta but still 4 seconds away from the Silvia who'd been improving all day to run a low 1.01. It was after that run that Mr Silvia mentioned the officials had put him in the wrong class, and that his turbo should have him in the group above ours. He also said that should he win the trophy for "road registered under 2000cc", he won't accept it. With one run left in the day, and a whole Sunday of racing still to come, I let down my tires from 35 to 28 psi with one goal. Catch that Fiesta!
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My last run of the day felt good. I'd given up on using the handbrake for the tricky 'bus stop' corner and started to get pretty brave at some other parts of the course. There was one moment when the tail kicked out, and I was watching the wall come ever closer in my mirror, and I kept on the throttle, pushing for the lap time and completely forgetting I wasn't in a race car. As soon as the run ended and I realised how close id come to sticking it in the wall, I felt like a bit of an idiot and vowed to be a bit more careful the next day. Last thing I wanted was to end up like this very unfortunate guy!
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At the top of the hill, the Fiesta driver was quick to say he thought I'd caught him. Apparently the run looked pretty good from the top of the hill and he was miles off his best time. Checking the sheets back at the bottom confirmed this, with me pulling out a low 1.05 to edge him out by milliseconds.

The next day started edgy, with me trying to let a bit more air out of my tyres, but due to a disagreeing valve, doing them unevenly and having one wheel feel far less grippy than the others. My 1.07 time reflected this, while the Fiesta picked up right where he'd left off with a mid 1.05 and the Silvia pushed ever closer to breaking the one minute barrier.
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My time didn't improve on the next two rounds and coming into the final run the fiesta had actually edged me out, setting an impressive 1.04 lap time. Talking to the driver, he was convinced he'd given it his absoloute all and that was the quickest he and the car had in them. The Silvia driver was also very happy, with his slick equipped s14 hitting the 59 second mark and now beating the (very awesome) ex- WRC Celica that made up much of the promotional material for the event.
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My final run was pretty much perfect for me. With the tyres at 25 psi, the pressure on and the competitors watching me on the TV at the top, I got everything just right. The launch felt great, I held good lines through the extremely complex early sector, hit 4th gear and 140kph for the 1st time going up the hill and kept it reasonably tidy at the bus stop. At the top both drivers told me it looked good from up there and we all congratulated each other on a great weekend. I'm not normally a competitive person, but having those two guys encouraging and pushing me all weekend made the whole experience so much more fun. A feeling shared by both of them and an experience I won't soon forget.


Back down the hill and all the drivers were in a rush to see the timing sheets. I'm stoked to say that I'd done it, hitting a 1.03.8 and finally getting on top of the little Fiesta. Unfortunately an Integra that had been listed in a different class all weekend, had mysteriously appeared at the top of ours with a low 59 second lap, but that didn't concern me. Even if I didn't get to take home the trophy, in my road legal little "borrowed" 86, I felt like a winner.
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Here's a link to a gallery with photos of all the cars in the event in order of fastest time. It's worth noting that at least 90% were on semi or full racing slicks, most were caged, extensively modified and driven by people with far more experience than me. To say I'm happy with where I ended up is a massive understatement, and it's a testament to how excellent the 86 really is as a sports car.

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At the pointy end of the competition there was a lot of drama, ending with this 1000BHP STI edging out the Datsun 260Z below to take top honors. These cars, along with all the others in the top 10, are incredible. Hitting over 180kph on the ascent and clocking times in the low 51 second range. Ultimately it's where I want the 300c to end up, massive power, crazy sound, amazing lap times and all. Whether or not we can get it anywhere near that stage in the next 12 months, time will tell.
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Cheers for reading folks! :cheers:
Full credit to the photographers I've used. Here's a link to my google photos album with pictures I took of the event :)
 
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What tires were you using on your "borrowed" 86? Mighty impressive results considering what you were driving against. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that the 300C wasn't ready.
 
@Korza- Coincidentally it uses Pirelli Cinturato P1s much like my daily does. Same size too at 215/45/R17! They're marketed as Eco-friendly tyres with low rolling resistance but have a decent amount of grip for regular duties. Not exactly suited to racing between concrete barriers, trees and cliffs though! :lol:

Here's the promised onboard video. Hope you enjoy :)


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That's impressively fast! Looks like an exciting but scary hill climb with the speeds that can be achieved. Well done.
 
It's been a while since the car that birthed this thread has been given any attention. Both in this thread and in the real world. But, upon hearing that the Aus300zx forums annual calendar was coming up, and that they were looking for submissions, I've spent a bit of time this week with the Vert.

It was all minor jobs; replacing battery terminals, wiring in some new speakers I got a while ago for the rear deck and installing a new shift knob, but it was good to give it some love. With that done, I gave it a good clean and clay bar, then went for a drive with my new Nikon D3400 and the hope of capturing something calendar worthy.

While I was parked in front of the lions flour shed (illegally and on bark chips), a cop drove past and had a really good stare at me. I guess he seen the tripod and decided I took this seriously enough to leave me alone :lol:

I'm really, really happy wth how they all turned out, so here they are, straight out the camera. Fingers crossed she makes the cut! :)
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SVX
Those two sunset ones are ace!
Cheers man! I only just got the camera and it's not quite as happy with low light as the one I used to borrow so it took some fiddling to get those shots. I'm thinking about experimenting with light painting next time I do a shoot :)
 
Cheers man! I only just got the camera and it's not quite as happy with low light as the one I used to borrow so it took some fiddling to get those shots. I'm thinking about experimenting with light painting next time I do a shoot :)

@Korza can give you some tips with that. :sly: ;)
 
:lol::lol::lol:. In that case, back to YouTube tutorials I go hahaha!

Edit: I found a few photos I forgot to upload! :)
I really liked the way the cranes lit up on this container ship and I tried for quite a while to get the shot. It's a place I'll be coming back to once I've figured out light painting.
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This ones pretty similar to a couple I uploaded earlier but I deliberately shot it so you guys could see the wind deflector. :gtpflag: :cheers:
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I'm not sure why I like this building so much. It could be the way it looks fresh but run down at the same time, or how it stands out in its industrial area so much. Either way, it makes for a pretty cool backdrop :)
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Merry Chrysmas everyone :cheers:

I brought the 300c up here a couple weekends ago using dad's V10 Ram as a towcar and dropped it at the only tuner in the state that can access a Chrysler ECU.
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First off, they licensed and fully accessed the ECU, allowing the car to happily start and run, but it still only fired on 4. Our standard wiring harness was pretty ratty and a lot of the clips were broken, so the tuner recommended getting a new engine bay harness. We sourced one from the same wrecker and funnily, the very same car as our roof, but it didn't help.
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The tuner then checked the injectors, to see if they'd been damaged by the heat that destroyed the rest of the engine but they came back fine. They drew a blank and said that they believed it was a problem deep rooted in the ECU or further along the wiring harness. The recommendation was a Haltech ECU and due to the prohibitive cost, and the thought that their diagnosis might not be correct, dad took the car back home, still running like a (terribly unfit) dog.
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We'd had a suspicion it may be something to do with the MDS cylinder deactivation system ever since we'd first tried starting it. With the MDS now completely disabled in the ECU, the only part of that system left was its hardware. Namely, the lifters. We'd researched this months ago when doing a big order of parts from the states and found conflicting information. Some people said the standard lifters work with our cam, some said they wouldn't. Trying to save money as always, we decided to keep the standard lifters and pretty much forgot about it. Dad pulled the engine back to them and found that, indeed, the cylinders that get shut down by MDS hadn't fired at all, so we ordered replacement parts from the US and sat the car back in the shed. Here'a a little sneak peak of where we plan on going with the paint job :)
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It's starting to look increasingly likely that the car may receive some kind of forced induction sooner rather than later. With our deadline now over a month behind us and no new one set, we've been discussing the pros and cons of each option. I come down on the turbo side while the Old School old man prefers superchargers. Time will tell! ;)
 
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Merry Eighty6mas everyone! :cheers:

I'm extremely happy to say that after three years, 156 payments, 2 cars, 80,000 kilometres and 4 home addresses, I've finally paid off my Toyota GT86! :D
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It's a massive financial weight off my shoulders and the money that was being put toward it will now be going toward saving for a home deposit and I'll be taking a little bit aside to spend on my cars. The good news is that I will now have a steady stream of money that can go toward the Vert and any minor mods I decide to make to the 86 while not affecting my savings or day to day life.
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I've gone through several mindsets during my ownership of the car, with the desire to sell, upgrade, keep, modify and extensively change the car all being my game plan at one stage or another. What I've realised though, is that the car is actually pretty much perfect for me as is. I don't need it to be quick, the Zed & (soon) 300c have that covered. I don't need any more seats, It's comfortable, good on fuel and reliable. I've already taken the biggest depreciation hit and I still like how the car looks and love how it drives.

I've been eying off ducktail spoilers, and the tail lights from the new 86, but apart from that I can't see any big changes on the cards in the near future. It's a great car and I'm very happy to finally call it my own :)
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So last weekend I went to a cruise organised to be a meet for the South Australian 300zx, Modern Z and Datsun Z clubs in my convertible.
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It was a great day with a solid turnout of cars covering nearly every generation of Fairlady Z. The cruise route was fun and beautiful and the people were friendly and welcoming. Here's a video of the event put together by YV media, who was there in his NA Z taking video and photos all day. He was a great guy whose done a fantastic job and I'm more than happy to say the Zed makes a good couple of appearances :D


The cruise had some really fun moments, watching people snap their necks to look at the cars, driving 4 ZXs across on a freeway and having some safe fun on the twisty back roads.
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The day went pretty smoothly for the Vert, with everybody there loving the car and threatening to steal my number plate. There was one interesting moment however, when we pulled up after a spirited hills drive and I noticed a small amount of white smoke coming from around the shifter. I searched high and low to be sure there was no sign of flame or heat but I knew what the cause was. The clutch has been spongy ever since I first drove the donor car and the strong smell and wisps of smoke is a sign that it's finally had enough. I nursed the car home and it made it without issue. I think I'll get the new clutch installed and the car dyno tuned all at the same time early next year. I've looked into E85 flex fuel kits and the like, but for now I think I'll just settle on having the clutch done, getting a nice exhaust and a good tune.
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And finally, in some news I'm very, very happy about, the Zed made the calendar! :D
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Mizz January! :D :gtpflag:
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I'll post up a picture when the physical calendar turns up early next year.

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Thanks as always for reading everybody and sorry for the triple post. I hope you all have a fantastic holiday season and a happy, fast and fun new year. In the spoiler I've put some photos of the other cars at the cruise. Cheers and have a very Merry Zedmas :cheers: :gtplanet:

The blue car in this photo is fitted with a 1970's body kit which is apparently 1 of 1500 ever made. The owner put it together from a very rough shell he bought a few years ago. Nice guy and extremely interesting car!
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The 350Zs were out in force. I've always had a soft sport for these cars :)
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The cool thing about cruises like these is you can see people express their differing personalities through the same medium. While all the 300zxs there came out of the factory looking pretty much the same, there was no two cars the same at the event.
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Dam!
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And we'll end the post and the year with a ClaZZic. Enjoy your holidays!
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