We are Back - and racing - Hampton Downs 04 September 2011

Massive Thanks to the Fiat Club Waikato - for a VERY well organised and relaxed days racing - and to Mike Lowe for helping out - Malcom Simmonds for letting me sleep on his spare floor and to Mr G Sutton for building a very sweet drive line for the fiat....

A few changes for this outing - new wheels (Compomotive CXR's - 8 x 13 in satin Black) new tyres (Kumho V70a 215 -50-13)

Reverse!!!

and a few other tweeks here and there.

The bad news is the incar video failed and I didnt take any photos! so the following photos and links are as credited

http://www.shutterspeed.co.nz/Public-Events/FIAT-CLUB-Hampton-1/i-QVJwQfb/1/M/FIAT-Waikato-HD0116-M.jpg

All in all a good day - chain life was perfect - 54 links and now on its second event (12 standing starts and counting)  and looking fine - finished the day with a 1:25 flat. The handling is interesting - snap wander on partial throttle being the highlight - closely followed by wheel vibration so bad that the diff bolts all backed out - eventually got the car settled down by taking the rear toe back to factory specs (ish) so I was able to get the gas down - gearing for 126mph and I saw 11400 in 6th at the end of the straight.... so if I can get to go straight it will be flying :-) it hooks up the power nicely and goes where you point it flat and hard - brakes were good once hot... oh and the torque steer is gone - just weaves all over the straight bits of teh track!

will be getting all the caster I can in the front and treating the whole thing to a full wheel computerised wheel alignement... Next event Fiat Nationals - Taupo Novemebr.....

sweet.

Rear Hangers

The one item that came close to failing on the 13th of March were the rear arm hangers.... I made them in a hurry out of some 5/8" free machining hex stock ages ago - predictably they were a little on the frail side... they were never meant to be a long term item and the replacements were designed already - it took about three hours to have a new stronger (over designed) solution ready to be welded and bolted on...

the new and old are seen below clearly showing the "almost disaster" bend in the weedy looking bars and the "we wont be bending this - we hope" replacement units

First Outing - Paritutu 13 March 2011

Well we decided to go racing.

bit of a mad rush but I got the car ready to run and gave it a wheel alignment and it passed its Cage Audit.

There is a rough edit video on you tube



In short we drove it on to the trailer at the end of the day - and drove it into the shed after that.... It ran and stopped okay - nothing really broke and the water temps were 85 degrees centegtrade all day only getting over 100 when coming in after a run.

The handling was teriffic (terriable and horific!) the tyres were only there to hold the rims off teh ground which they did  okay.... they just did nothing else! - that plus bliblical levels of torque steer -
In the 7 days since then I have bought new tyres (215/50/13 kuhmo V70a) and am fixing a few of the obvious faults...

Track arms are now 10mm shorter - wheel spacers are now 5mm on the front... and the rear arm securing "hangers" are now 25.4 mm 3mm wall seamless tube rather than 5/8" hex stock (dumb - dumb - dumb idea that looked okay at the time)

When checking the rims I have found I have the widest 13x7JJ -7 ET superlights on the planet - they measure at 210mm - 8" which explains why the tyres have always been a hassle to fit...

My plan is to do two events in May and then park it for the winter and probably buy a set of 13x8's either Compomotive CXR's in satin black with some decent ET numbers - I think I have pleanty of room inboard of the current wheel package for an ET of anything up to 40mm but looks can be deceiving and wil depend on how the new tyres go on I may end up with some more performance Superlights with 6mm ET in Black to complement the rears better



Will really need to concentrate on the handling now - Chain life after the weekend looks like it might be okay... have also changed the shocks to full hard on rebound to see what that does...

Other stuff to fiddle with will be the CV boots (grease leaking under pressure) ducting some clod air to the chain... getting a heap more rear camber (which is how I found that the 5/8" hex rear hangers were not  far away from making the debut a disaster of large and ugly proportions - will take a pic of those this week...

January 2011

As you will be able to see from the Video uploaded in late December - the thing runs - you wont be able to hear that on the video but trust me it does! I have since managed to get a new camera so next run will be with screaming sound!

This post updates on the work done to date.

Headers were finished and given the space and packaging issues they are about as good as they are going to get. Obviously the wiring went okay and the fuel system worked. The radiator plumbing involved a bit of nutting out but thanks to some scrap stainless tube and great deal on silicone hose its worked out. you will see the bottom radiator hose goes through the header pile.... I have since lagged the whole lot and added some ACL heat barrier.

And due to the carbs hanging open at 5000rpm on the first test run I ended up striping them and giving them a birthday and a new factory return spring - plus an additional return spring mounted in true shed fashion of a handy bit of bracket....

 

So on to the photos.





This pipe will fit - eventually



And yes I know one is longer than the other.... its not optimum but then sticking this whole thing together has been a bit of a compromise

I call it "functional"

Snug fit with snakes and heat...

Strip and clean and reassemble the FCR's

Note the difference in return spring - new one on right....





Temperature Control V1 - Lagg yah pipes



Add thermal barrier



Pray...

Now the Stills from the test run 27 December 2010 - merry Christmas! I will be removing the front wheel spacers as the scrub radius is truly scary - that and an bit more work on the brakes and a long list of "little" prep jobs and it will be close to testing time. that and the small matter of reverse.....

next project is waiting....