Philia_Bear
Does the aircon work in the laser?
Spac
The aircon needs gas, at a minimum. I'll get one of the blokes at work to has it up, and see how quickly it leaks out...
Normally, I'd laugh at the suggestion of a Neon, but I was at a track day in 1999 or 2000 where two of them were running around - and they were both bloody quick. If my memory serves, they were doing 1:18 ~ 1:20s on road tyres on the old track at Wakefield.
Philia_Bear
The Neon with a stripped interior weighs in at under 900KG with me in it when I was racing one
Considering the 120KW the ACR motor made at the wheels and the motor loving being between 4000-7000rpm it was a seriously potent weapon on a track
Whens the first race of the year?
Spac
21/2/16.
Spac
Racing harness fitted. It's an old 4-point one that has been in the garage cupboard for at least 5 years. I'm calling it $0.
The eye bolts all fitted in nicely and discretely - The one on the LHS side of the seat JUST touches the centre console, the RHS one is hidden under the factory cover for the standard bolt, and the rear ones are in the cargo area (and covered by the boot matt when not in use).
Bought oil/filter/spark plugs/brake fluid.
Total cost: $410.
Philia_Bear
How's the brake pads and rotors on it?
Spac
Near new cheap stuff. I have been looking for a set of Lucas pads or some old Ferodo Excels for it.
Will buy some DS2500 or DS3000s if they're needed.
Angus242164
Send me a PM with the pad part numbers and I'll price up some TRW's for it next week.
In fact, if you have any Volvo parts with a high usefulness to me, it might be possible to arrange a swap.
Spac
Cheers for the offer, but I want the Lucas or Excels: both are exceptional at high temps for cheap pads. Word is that the Excels were a race pad formula stolen from someone else, that Ferodo "hid" in their cheap range.
Angus242164
The Lucas range of "green box" pads was phased out and replaced by TRW's in red boxes (same actual pad compound, to the best of my knowledge) back in approx. 2008.
I didn't think Lucas branded pads were being sold in any form after that, but I could be wrong.
Spac
Ah, ok.
It's a KJ2. Let me know if there's a listing.
Spac
So... Been a bit of work on this over the last week...
Most significant is that changed cars. Basically, I found another one that had taken a light hit up the bum for $50, and realised that the red one had some value.
So I've sold the red one for $500 (~$350 profit on the car), giving a $300 boost to the budget...
Bashed the back out on the silver car, so it looks passable (barely), and so the hatch opens and closes properly.
Stripped the interior. Got a rollcage hoop bent up, and then fitted it (with Shane at my work doing the welding).
Fitted a shitty old race seat that I had hanging around.
Cut the springs - one full coil off the rear, half a coil off the front (still need to cut more, especially in the rear).
Slotted the lower strut mounting ears for a bit of neg camber on the front.
Fitted the wheels with semis.
Bled the brakes.
Did the oil change.
And today, it went to Marulan.
It's really good to drive - steers nicely, nice firm brake pedal, goes pretty well. It's also geared well - you use third gear on the straight, and second gear everywhere else. This makes it really easy to drive.
I got it into the mid-high 55-second bracket, with absolutely no heroics - never even got close to overstepping the limits of adhesion. The faster cars are doing 51-52 second laps, and I have zero doubt that I can get into the 53s with a bit more track time.
The biggest drama was brake pads. Two aggressive laps with left foot braking leaves them hot and stinky, with the pedal getting soft.
I've got Lucas/TRW pads on order (thanks for the offer, Angus) - they're supposed to turn up on Friday.
Spac
Paulie at the tiller.
There was an AE86 there yesterday. Proper IP race car with all the fruit. He as doing consistent mid 49s, occasionally dipping into very high 48s.
egads (she/her)
Nice
Spac
Spac
Why does ozvolvo turn some photos?
Spac
Spac
Spac
So, the first race was yesterday, and it was awesome. Loved it.
Cliff notes:
Mike qualified it in 6th place (out of 12 starters). He started the race, and was hounding 5th place when the top radiator hose exploded. Towed back to the pits, then we drove to Goulburn to buy a new one.
Got it going with an hour lost. The other three drivers (including me) all got a full session in before the lunch break.
It wanted to get hot again, apparently due to a non-functioning thermo fan. Turning the heater on fixed the problem, albeit not particularly comfortably...
We all got another two sessions in before the end of the race. We all improved our lap times heaps, except Mike who was consistently the fastest of us anyhow. He hounded an NX Coupe for five laps before sneaking past under brakes - the rest of the NX's team were lamenting being overtaken by the Laser when Anna turned and said "it's a $50 car!". They went quiet after that...
So we finished last thanks to the missing hour, but were absolutely not disgraced. We did more laps than any of the DNFers (you've got to finish the last lap to be a finisher).
Mike: 51.8
Me: 52.3
Sim: 52.9
Anna: 54.4
Interestingly, consistency perfectly matched our best lap times - the faster we were, the more consistent we were.
Other notable point is that people had clearly used a creative interpretation on the $1000 limit... Maybe they really did buy the very tidy FTO and 206 GTi and SP20 for $1000 each: but if you had $1000 and wanted one of those cars, I think you'd be waiting a while...
Next mods are more negative camber on the LHS wheels, remove the aircon, and do something better with the rear springs (they clunk around, and are too soft). Plus fit the fans, of course.
Spac
