Archive for May 2010

1

Lexus deep dish alloys

With the huge arches left by the Carbon cladded Lexus, one of the challenges is to find deep enough alloys to bolt to the existing hubs. Using hubcentric spacers is like putting up a white flag and giving in. The Lexus IS 200 comes with a standard wheel width of 7J and an offset of 45mm. To bring the wheels out flush I need to decrease the offset in proportion to the width (J) of the wheel. With my trusty tape measure I need to bring the wheels out an additional 80mm. So something like the following would work 18x11J -30 offset (Front) 18x13J -3 offset (Rear) These wheels were found on an eBay listing from JapanDyno. If you look through his daily blog some of the wheels he's bought and sold are outstanding. The only place to find deep dish wheels like this in the UK is Driftworks . I also found out recently that Nengun are now offering an English interface to the Yahoo Japan Auction. So I've been looking at Japanese Auctions as well. The Work Emitz wheels pictured above would fit the arches nicely, however the styling of the wheels doesn't realy suit a Japanese JGTC inspired racecar. Also they are pretty heavy at over 15kg a corner. Last night I found the following wheels on VRWheels.com - Work Meister 18x10J -21, 18x11J -23. At over $2.5k in the USA an our rubbish currency rate at the moment they are equivalent to a brand new set in the UK. But with this dish and offset is quite rare. I've dropped an email to VRWheels and will see what they say about shipping. Whilst we are working on the Lexus I'm pushing it around on the Volks Racing GT-C's used for drag racing, even at 18x9.5J and 18 offset they look tiny on the new wide arches.

0

Weekend Photos

Check the Gallery for updated pics...more coming soon!

1

JapShow 2010 Preparation

JapShow is on the 4th July 2010, and is creeping up fast. The GTR is not ready as it misfires above 1.5 bar of boost and when it gets hot it misfires at just over a bar. After doing a lot of research I came up with a few different options:

Splitfire - Super Direct Ignition System

Splitfire Super Direct Ignition System are what I am currently running and just after a years use and less than a few thousand miles they have failed, I expect this is due to the high under-bonnet temperatures and more importantly my right foot which finds itself planted at most opportunities. I bought these from Demon Tweeks for just under £400, now it's nearly impossible to get hold of them in the UK. So after speaking to Charlie at Thor Racing today trying to get a set a decided that it was best to look at another option.

Okada Projects ignition coil packs

Okada Projects - now these do look the business and were used on the Do-Luck Toyota Supra, after exchanging emails with Akira from Okada Projects themselves and talking to their UK reseller EDO Performance I found out that this kit would cost over £1100 + VAT. That is crazy prices! You could buy three sets of splitfires for the price of a single set of Okada Projects coilpacks. It really makes me wonder who comes up with these ridiculous pricing sometimes. It explains why not many people have heard of this company as they are overpriced, and don't end up on many people's cars.

Do-Luck ignition kit

Do Luck Ignition System The Sumo Power R33 aka "Fuujin" is one of the best built R33's I've seen and unlike the boys from Abbey Motorsport they've always been friendly when I've talked to them at Santa Pod. In their spec list they list the "Do Luck Ignition Kit" which is actually coil over plug ignition coil packs from a company called T M Works in Japan. After a week of contacting Sumo Power with various questions doing my research before purchase I put in an order today which should arrive on Monday.

Installation

On the Fuujin the coil packs are not located under the spark plug cover like typical RB26 GTR's after talking to Mark this is to keep them cool and it makes a lot of sense. It can get extremely hot under the centre spark plug cover especially on some high speed drag runs. Luckily I purchased a nice set of chrome coil pack brackets that typically sit in the engine which I will be using to place the coil packs in a similar position as to the Fuujin R33. I have to fabricate a bracket for them to sit correctly and I'll try and retain the spark plug cover as aesthetically the engine looks a lot better. Once the system arrives I'll get the coil packs installed and it's back off to TDI's for further mapping and hopefully get the car back to 2 Bar of boost and 800WHP.

2

How not to drift an R33 GTR

For my birthday I was given drifting lessons at Santa Pod and so was my housemate. So we travelled up in my GTR and practiced all day in a Skyline GTS. During the tutors lunchbreak I sneakily put my Skyline into RWD mode and had a play. This is not how you are meant to drift just me messing around. When it got to the point where I couldn't see anything as I was surrounded in smoke I decided to pull in and act like nothing had just happend.

0

How low can you go

Ray from RMS JapWorks came around today and welded two brackets for the front arches. His friend Rich came round and looked at the suspension setup I did yesterday and showed me how to get the coilovers even lower. It seemed that I had inadvertedly raised the cars suspension when I was trying to lower it. After some refinements all round not only has the car been well and truly lowered the knocking noise from the rea n/s wing has gone. I'm really pleased with the way the car sits now and just to demonstrate how low this car is: Hopefully this weekend I'll get the rear arches cut and begin to reweld in plates to maintain some structural integrity. The front also needs to be cut as the arch sits really close to the top of the existing arch Really pleased with the progress made in just a week. The engine has been worked on today with both cam covers and the inlet manifolds off and cleaned with a couple of base coats of paint to clean up the engine. Tomorrow the rest of the engine will be painted. [autoviewer id=12 width=580 height=420 ]