Cue Ball, the S40 Cheap Race Car.

Spac

These photos from Wishart Media on FB. There's an album of photos from the event, all of them are great.

Spac

6th place today, 5th in the series.

Car was a bit off pace this morning, for no apparent reason. We qualified 10th, which is our worst for a while.
Some playing with tyre pressures got the pace up a bit, and we spent most of the morning in 7th or 8th place.

I did the last stint before lunch and there was smoke in the cabin, and a strong smell of burning power steering fluid...
The newly fitted Commodore reservoir was ok, but there was ATF everywhere. Found a loose fitting but tightening it didn't solve the problem - it was still leaking.

So after lunch, it ran out of PS oil and there was no power assistance . we chose not to keep topping it up, as it was obviously going to end up on the track.
Interestingly, it didn't slow any of us down much, but driving it was much harder work.
I did the last stint of the day - saw the power steering/alternator belt on the track after my first lap, and spent the rest of the stint waiting for the battery to go flat.
It didn't happen - even set our fastest lap of the day on the third-last lap of the race.

You can see the pink power steering fluid over the guard if you look closely. There are no PS components on this side of the engine bay...

Lots of oil in there, even though the photo doesn't show most of it.

Um yep... This is supposed to be the pulley on the PS pump... It was inevitable that the PS pump would seize after being run hard for two hours with no oil, but I am surprised that this was the mode of failure.

Spac

Planning for next year has begun!

Vee_Que

Did it get the m56?

Spac

Not yet. Going to need a custom clutch plate to mate the smaller diameter clutch and matching single mass flywheel to the M56, which is why we didn't try to do it between events this year.

Vee_Que

Why not use an 850 flywheel and clutch?

Spac

Because I don't own one.

Spac

bowie

"ya put ya right leg in,
ya right leg out,
ya right leg in and ya shake it all about."

Spac

My hands still smell like ATF.

cubic25

Spac;123842 wroteMy hands still smell like ATF.

Wash them with fish sauce. They won't smell like ATF anymore.

Spac

Car now has a B4204S2 (ie VCT 2.0 litre instead of the VCT 1.8 litre that it came with).
Stuck with the Renault box because we know that the gearing works at Marulan.

While the motor was out, we swapped the entire steering setup from the same donor car - rack, reservoir, pump and hoses. Will add a cooler too - just haven't had time.
Will see if this setup is less determined to pump fluid out...

New bushes in the lower control arms. EBay seller provided me with one standard bush and one "castor correction" bush... I fitted them anyhow.

Also new front brake pads fitted. Although I have been wondering about going to something like a Ferodo DS3000, it is hard to justify the significant extra cost when the car already out-brakes everything else anyway.
So I went with QFM's A1RM pads again.

No events so far this year. The Marulan track is going through a major revamp, and they are behind schedule m, so the first two rounds have been cancelled. :(
Rallycross in a few weeks should be the first event back.

Will try to get it to a track day at Wakefield in the next couple of weeks. Hoping for times around 1:15ish, although I won't be amazed if it is anywhere from 1:13s to 1:17s.

Spac

Killed the 2-litre on the third lap of practice today. #1 conrod punched a hole in the block.

I can accept the previous 2-litre motor dying, because it was a badly neglected motor full of sludge.
This one is a bit harder to take.

Currently drinking beer and trying to decide whether to do a proper rebuild on a B4204S3, slap the B4184S2 back in, fix the CB Lancer, or build a BMW 318Ti.

None are garbage options, none are without pitfalls.

The easiest option (refit the 1.8) is also the least appealing. That poor motor has done 200,000+ km as a road car, before its first race - and 2,000km+ of race km since then hasn't magically made it fresher or faster.

Kind of a bit burned by the 2.0 experience at this point - there's been problably 40 hours in collecting cars and swapping motors for about 7 minutes of unremarkable track time (although the VTiR Intega didn't visibly catch it on the straight today, which is a marked difference to previously).

The little Lancer needs a bunch of things done to it before it can be a decent, legal CCC car - and once those things are done, it will still be a heavy 1.6 litre car that is relatively difficult to get parts for.

Half-drunken me is strongly favouring building a BMW, but I really need to take the rally car around the track before I commit to anything.
And I also have to work out what I would do with the S40... But I have a cunning and devious plan for that. Sort of.

bowie

Sounds like you just want it to be fun again.

Well a B5254S2 with a shaved head, and big cam running on E85 is the answer :P

Also condolences for nuking that 2L. :(

Vee_Que

I drive my s40 almost as hard as you would on a race track (with the loaded 8x5 on it from Melbourne to act to Sydney I'd say it was driven harder) but it does do poor fuel economy (82* thermostat, starting to think the car thinks it's not at temp so runs rich) so maybe you want another s40? Will accept trades for a v40 t4 manual :p

Spac

Hmm... That car did manage more than five laps of Marulan without shitting itself.

Ex850R

I've got an even shittyer one out front! Scrap prices!

Spac

Car is officially for sale.
Just not going to have the time to fix it anytime soon - it has been sitting there with the dead motor since June...
Will come with the original 1.8, and known healthy 2.0 VCT motor with M56 and as many panels as you want.
And a whole spare car if you want.

Will put up a proper ad in the morning.

bowie

*Gasps*

Spac

Spac;c-112592 wroteDid some number crunching. The T4 spec M56L2 ratios are much better than I thought.

The gap from second to third gear is only 3.4% larger, and the total reduction in third is pretty much identical (less than 1% different).

Discovered today that the M56 in my late NA S40 is a M56H with 4.45 diff.
Unexpected!

M56H with 4.45 diff
2nd-3rd: 0.67
3rd-4th: 0.73
Total reduction in 3rd: 5.30
Total reduction in 4th: 3.87

M5P with 3.87 diff
2nd-3rd: 0.64
3rd-4th: 0.73
Total reduction in 3rd: 5.11
Total reduction in 4th: 3.75

What this means, is that this M56 is unquestionably better than the M5P, with the only possible risk being that it might need a change to 4th in an awkward place on the track. In theory, with the extra grunt of a 2-litre and the lower gearing, it should do most of the track in 3rd.

So, despite my last post, I have renewed enthusiasm for the S40 race car.

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