Punknoodle's Lemon Racecar - First Race Run!

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Punknoodle_Nick
My friend and I bought a car to compete in the 24h of Lemons this year. It's a 1995 Nissan Bluebird SSS (2.4L, FWD). We've already started the build process - it's simply getting a cage, seat and harness, fire extinguisher and window net. Going to make a new exhaust for it and try to find some cheap suspension upgrades. Will try the standard calipers out with good pads and fluid. Really looking forward to this - it's in May.


 
They have all different categories to aim for don't they? What are you going in to? Outright win/speed or something else?
 
They have all different categories to aim for don't they? What are you going in to? Outright win/speed or something else?

Don't know about classes, we are going for outright win :)

Jealous. Lemons is on my bucket list.
It's going to be super awesome :)

We've made a little bit of progress with the car. We've painted the floor a nice white, refitted the dash, mounted the race seat (modified the old set rails to accept the new seat), fitted the new extractors, cleaned down the engine.

I took the steering wheel off, and in the spirit of Lemons I took a grinder to it and made my own bosskit for an aftermarket wheel. Basically I got some steel plate, marked the centre, marked out 2 different sets of PCD patterns to suit different common wheel PCDs, drilled, tapped and welded it to the little stub that was in the centre of the old steering wheel. Worked out perfect!




We've also been creative with the suspension. The car was very soft. We wanted coilovers, but a set to suit our car was very expensive.

We ended up getting a cheap set of front S13 Silvia coilovers for the front, and Toyota Corolla coilovers for the rear. We mix and matched top hats and drilled some holes to get the tops to fit, but the lower half was a little more complicated. We ended up cutting the old shocks up to use the lower mounts, then cut down the lower mounts that came with the coil overs, inserted the old shock mounts and welded them up. It actually worked out quite well, we have a much stiffer car, full suspension travel, a heap of camber adjustment, roll centres look good and the car kept it's stock appearance :) Parts were less than $300.









That'll do for now. Cage is being built as I type this, I've got replacement lower ball joints, steering rack boots etc to go on. We are chasing a radiator from a V8 commodore or 4WD or something which is thicker to replace the standard one, then we can put it on the ground, align it and drive it :)

Stay tuned.
 
Why am I only seeing this now? Dude!! This is awesome!
Haha thanks!

Little bit of an update, we took the car for a test day out at Queensland Raceway the other week. It was on a bit of a mix match of tires which made the car very interesting to drive - lots of corner entry oversteer due to the skinny rears but it was surprisingly quite capable! The engine was strong, the grip was pretty good and the suspension setup felt pretty good - it was able to transition well and change direction.




The event was actually a time attack event. I was there competing in my GT-Four so I only did a couple of quick sessions in the car, with my team mates who don't have a huge amount of racing experience getting the majority of laps in the car to get used to it. Still, one of the guys managed to get within 2 seconds of my laptime so I think they should do pretty well when it comes to the main race.

So, we've put some more finishing touches in to the car and here is how it sits now. 245s on 10inch wheels on the front and 225s on 8inch wheels at the rear. Safety items all finished, fluids all changed, race pads in. I even drew up some rings and had them laser cut from stainless to go over the rear strut towers to cover the extra holes we had to drill. It's all ready to go. We had it's first race scheduled for this weekend but unfortunately it was cancelled. We now have a fairly long wait until 24H of Lemons at Morgan Park in September but we'll get the car to the track a few times before then for some more testing. I'm also going to install some LED strip lighting in the cabin as it's a night event. Just like GTLM :D





 
Well it's about a month until the 24h of Lemons race at Morgan Park. During a khanacross event we did as a test, it became quite apparent that there was something really wrong with the clutch. It would shift ok whilst in motion, but if you stopped the car and went to press on the clutch, the pedal would sometimes feel like it was coming up against something and you wouldn't be able to select a gear. You'd fix it by turning off the engine, engaging a gear, putting in the clutch and then starting it. It would kind of clunk, then be good to go again.

Master and slave cylinders for the clutch all looked good, so we decided to pull the engine and look at the clutch itself. We found the following:


While the engine is out we put it up on a stand and gave it a good clean, but we haven't stripped it down to replace anything - it still runs well and doesn't leak, plus it's a lemon so we aren't supposed to spend too much.


We bought a new heavy duty clutch for it, and I remade all the engine mounts using liquid urethane, replaced both left and right lower ball joints and everything else looks good, so it's all ready to bolt back together.


We think this car is going to be quite a competitor due to how simple it is and how well it runs - looking forward to getting out and doing a quick test before Lemons.
 
We had our first event in the Bluebird a week or so ago. The event was a 6 hour race, however it was a regularity style event which meant there was a minimum laptime to stick to. It's more for young drivers to get confidence behind the wheel but we were itching to get the bluebird out there so we entered. Plus 2 of the drivers on our team have no racing experience so it was good for them to get used to driving on track.



So first up we put Ben in the car. Ben has a lot of racing experience - was national Karting champion and placed second last year in the Australian Legends series - so he can definitely pedal a car. The minimum laptime for the event was a 1:12.0. Ben went out and within 3 laps had already posted a 1:10 laptime, so we cop a warning.



Anyway he comes in and Brent goes out. Now Brent has been driving fast cars for a while but not much track experience and he puts in some pretty consistent times of around the 1:14 mark. He comes in, and Sean goes out. The fastest car Sean has ever driven is a Landcruiser and the only time he's driven on track was our test day so it takes him a little longer to get up to speed, but he's improving consistently.

Now it's my turn in the car. I go out do a couple of laps to feel the car then I put down a reasonably fast lap - 1:08 something. Now we have our final warning for breaking laptime.



So anyway I come back in the we spend the next few hours trying to do it properly - Brent and Sean were improving trying to get to that 1:12, Ben and I were learning how to stick to a 1:12 - I was doing it by being off throttle from the exit of Eastern Loop all the way down to about 100m on to the main straight. Was quite frustrating and we both broke the laptime a fair few more times and because we'd already received our warnings, we were having to come in to pits and serve time penalties. There were a few other cars there always in the pits for the same reason - it was a fun event so the organisers were pretty cool and understanding about it, it wasn't a big deal and they were laughing as we kept coming in.



Anyway, during this time I was keeping an eye on the live timing and some of the cars were starting to realise they were out of the running too so were trying to just do fast laps. A few were getting close, but my time still stood, until a Focus went a tenth quicker. By now Ben and I were bored and the competitive nature between us was coming out. We sent Ben out to beat that guy, just go all out and take the penalty. So he goess out and does a 1:07.9. Comes in again, wasn't happy with the lap, serves penalty and gives it one more crack. 1:07.3. Now he's done, and we've comfortably got the fastest time again.

So Brent and Sean go out again for their final runs. Brent manages to drop below the laptime with a 1:10 so he has to serve a penalty, and Sean gets down to a 1:12 so we are thrilled with his progress.



Last 30 mins of the event and I want to beat Ben's time. So I strap in and do a few laps to build a large gap to the cars ahead. Drop the hammer, but turn 1 I mess up a little and when I cross the line it's a 1:07.6. So I come in and serve my last penalty. Now theres only 15mins left. I go out one last time. Build a gap, go for it, but catch up to traffic near the end. Slow down, make sure I don't break 1:12. Build the gap.

It's actually quite difficult as it's a small track, so slowing down from the cars in front, you end up getting passed so then there is another car in front of you. There were about 5 cars on track that were doing the same as me, trying to get that fastest laptime at the end of the day. Anway, it all worked out and on my final lap I managed to have a clear run and popped out a 1:07.0. Nearly got a 6, but was still happy as it was fastest outright of the day and there were some decent cars there - Subaru WRX, Honda Integra, Ford Focus, all quite well prepared and all trying to get laps below the minimum. Our Bluebird though had a 1-2s margin on all of them :)



Super impressed with the car, it felt great, didn't skip a beat and now we are really looking forward to a full 24h of Lemons race! I think we'll be strong.
 
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