RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

Took the car out to an HPDE I was instructing in this weekend. At first I didn't want to fix the race car from the last race but at the last minute I went ahead and replaced the fuel pump which is what died in the race. So, I put brake pads on and loaded back up and hit the track. Played around with spring rates, was able to loosen the car up and make it turn in better. Good stuff.

brawls43

iTrader: (1)

What spring rates are you using these days?

RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

Still running the tein lowering springs which are 12/8 I think. I think I found somewhere that the lowering springs were the same rate as what Tein used on the street basis which are 12 on front and 8 on back or close to that (maybe 14/8). I use spring rubbers to play around with spring rates, maybe I can settle in on a good set up and get some custom springs made.

Gothere

RXRodger, about three years ago, I drove down to Barbor Motorsports in Birmingham, AL. I am about 90% sure I saw you on your first outing in this car. I talked to you a bit, since I had a SC400 (black '93 with either black or gold G35 19" on it). I didn't track my SC that day because I was down there for ride in a friends GT3 track car. Great to see your car online and see what you have done with it since then.

Unfortunately I have since sold my SC400 (I regret this almost everyday). We now have a 2008 IS350 that we are selling (which I know I will regret) but we are moving back into the off-road community and we need a SUV for our three large dogs.

RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

Yes I remember. You should make another trip down for a track day, I'll take you out in the car. It is surprisingly fast compared to what you would think of as faster and much more expensive cars.

Gothere

I'll keep my eyes peeled for a track day.

RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

We entered the car in the WRL Sportscar Showdown at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham back in August. This was a 9 hour race on Saturday and 7 hour on Sunday. WRL is for the most part an open series with cars classed by hp/wt ratio. We classed in GP2 at around 14:1, can't recall the exact number. Up against some pretty fast race cars, we brought the SC home in 2nd place on Saturday. Unfortunately about mid day on Sunday we lost the serpentine belt and the driver didn't catch it soon enough before toasting the engine. We have another engine to go in as soon as we can get everybody together to put it in the car.

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

A 9hr race? Holy ****....

RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

Yep, the car will run about 2 hours, come in fuel up, change drivers, back out you go. We usually do this with 3 drivers.

Dmaccr

2nd place is awesome! I'm curious what other cars were in the class.

Oh no! What alerts the driver to broken serpentine? I still have my stock gauge cluster and I believe the battery light would come on because the voltage drop.

Do you change the oil every race? How many events will you go on one oil change. I have settled on Mobil 1 full syn 10w-40.

Dmaccr

I have collected a good bit of data on all the coilover options for our cars, linked below. I found some used Megan Racing EZ Street 12/8 and they have been working well on the track. I have dropped my cars weight down to 3160 by removing most the interior but 58% of the weight it is up front. I got out on NCM west track again and the weight drop really helped accel and reduced oversteer in turns, I also lowered the rear down some more which also helped. Plus I ditched the 15 lb mufflers.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

GP2 was a few BMW 3 series, some other random cars, an eco-tech swapped miata that ended up winning overall and our class (I mis-stated in my previous, we finished 2nd in GP2 and 3rd overall). The open class was an E92 M3 BMW and there was actually an Elan NP01 in the race which won overall Sunday.

Well, we had been having power steering issues so when the belt came off the driver thought the pump had gone out, but should have been alerted when the alternator was no longer charging. It didn't take but one lap, but that was enough.

We currently use Motul 300V competition oil and change it after every weekend set of races. I used Mobil 1 0W-40 prior to using LiquiMoly for a while because we had a sponsor deal, but I went back to the Motul that I had used in a turbo track car for for quite a while. Good stuff.

I documented all of the weight I removed from the car, I think it is updated in this thread somewhere. Seems like it was around 640 pounds. But, you add back in the roll cage, which for my car is around 150 pounds because I had it made out of 0.110" wall 1.75" tubing. I could have gotten by with 0.095" wall and possibly even went to 1.5" but I wanted the strongest cage I could have, no sense having a weak cage if you ever need it. Idea is to win. We weigh the cars as part of the WRL tech process and assignment of class, it seems like it was around 3,060 lbs full of fuel no driver and cool suit cooler empty but I may not remember that correctly (edit: I was wrong it was 3,150 according to the records). I have asked the tech guy to go back and look because it's a number I want to have anyway.

I am on Bilsteins with springs that I think are about 14/8. We can't use any kind of adjustable shock in our normal series, so this has proven to be the best setup given what we are allowed. I would like to stiffen the rear slightly but hard to find good spring options without going custom.

Good work on your car so far. You can move the battery to behind the passenger seat and it swaps some of that weight around. Options are kind of limited, I know some guys that say the moved the driver back a few inches and extended the steering shaft and relocated pedals and it helped but that is a tremendous amount of work that i am not willing to do.

RudysSC

Excellent work, but too bad about the engine. You guys have a great attitude and it sounds like you go out and have a riot together.

RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

I bought a JDM engine with about 50,000 miles on it to put in the car. We installed a new water pump, timing belt, timing belt tensioner pulley, plugs/wires, and IS300 oil filter housing bolt so I could move my oil pressure and temp senders from the old engine. I am keeping the old engine whole so I can have it as a spare (when I get the head reworked). Was about ready to go in the car when we realized the JDM harness is shorter than the USDM due to right side drive. I knew that, had read it multiple times previously, and had forgotten. So we stopped there and will pick back up on the harness swap next weekend. I have another harness, just need to get it out and make sure it's all ready to go.

We need to build a better transition from the stock manifolds to the 3" down pipe to hopefully get a few more hp out of it. I have the pieces, the 2-1/2 to 3 collector, etc we just have to build it. Then we will take it to a friend with a dyno and do a tune. Looking for every hp we can get, this race series is getting more and more competitive. Will update when we get the engine in the car and get it running.

RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

Replaced the harness on the JDM engine with a USDM one I had, actually had to use pieces and parts from another one and the jdm harness to get one good one to put on the engine. Had to swap the oil pressure and the instrument panel temp senders due to the plugs being different as well as splicing the alternator plug from the jdm to the new harness. Got it all done and on the engine. Next up is to replace the pilot bearing and install the clutch, then the trans and it will be ready to go in.