Third time lucky?

After a little over two years of ownership and a lot of fun, I will soon be moving on to another car. The title of the blog will still be totally appropriate, but will now refer to this amazing car!




That's right, I will soon be the proud owner of my third S13 Silvia. I just can't seem to look past their "bang for your buck", rewarding yet challenging drive, and simplicity.

Here's a short list of things I wanted to improve on the old car:

Larger brakes, Re-Paint, Improve Suspension, Remove Sunroof, Install Temp Gauges, Engine work, the list goes on...

And this is the main reason for my upgrade. On the new S13, all of the above has already been taken care of! It would cost (in time and money) significantly more to get my current S13 to the same stage, and so it seemed a no brainer to purchase a car that was already so close to how I wanted mine to be.

The previous owner of the car was involved with a group called the Southern Sporting Car Club (SSCC). The group has track days once a month, and they're slightly more organised/competitive than the private track days i've been attending for the last two years. A good next step as I see it.

I will be attending as many SSCC events as possible in 2010, and hope to continue to improve my skills behind the wheel. I really can't wait to get this car out on the circuit.

I'll discuss the car in more detail later on.

Circuit Club Track Day: Oran Park South, 29th November 2009

Oran Park has a massive reputation amongst motorsport fans. You can see the whole circuit from the grandstand, so it's great to watch from, and the course is easily the most fun of the choices in NSW. That's rarely disputed.

Over the last couple of years, I've been here to watch drift and time attack, and I just had to get on to the track before it's closure. The land has been sold to housing developers, and as of January 2010, the Oran Park circuit will no longer exist.

I was also super keen to try out the latest investment for the car: a set of track only rims, and some semi slick tyres for extra grip. The tyres on the new rims were second hand, but that suited me fine. The driving style on semi slicks is quite different to on road tyres and given the price, I didn't want to damage a new set while I was re-learning how to brake and corner.

The weather in Sydney had been great (and very hot) in the days leading up to the event, and the Sunday was no different. It was cloudy but fine, and quite hot - around 30 degrees. I wanted to get stuck into it straight away, but first session out, I took it easy while I learnt the new layout.

I pushed a little toward the end of the first session, and had a bit of a half spin from being a little too eager on the throttle. I also had driver trainer Dave Sieders in the car with me. Dave drives V8 super cars in the Fujitsu feeder series, and had some useful words of wisdom for me. He also drove my car for a few laps, which was totally exhilarating. It gave me a benchmark to chase for the rest of the day, and showed me how much potential my car has, even in it's current form!

My thoughts on the day? Fantastic, for a number of reasons. First, the track layout is fast and flowing. Once you are comfortable with the layout, you can really push yourself a little at a time to get the most out of it. It rewards a little bit more bravery, but also you're always conscious that a mistake could find you in one of the many walls that line the circuit. I can see why the track has been so popular over the years - the bumps, quick changes of direction, and constant elevation changes all give the circuit a real character. If i'm lucky, maybe i'll be able to drive the full Grand Prix circuit before it closes.

Second, driving on semi slicks (even old ones) is so much more fun than radial tyres. After two or three laps when radial tyres are starting to overheat and get slippery, semi slicks are just switching on! They feel so much more stable, and allow you to corner with greater speed and confidence. I don't think I can go back to radial tyres now!

According to the time sheets, my best was 52.3, but that was with Dave at the wheel. After seeing an individual breakdown of the times, I found my best was a 54.9, showing there's a great deal of room for improvement. Better to save that money I was going to spend on the car and enter a few more track days I think!

One final note. Today I passed a little experience milstone - my 10th track day. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was taking my humble little non-turbo S13 to Eastern Creek to play with the "big boys". On my first ever Wakefield day (2nd track day), I lapped in a best of 1:21.9. I can now do it a full 9 seconds faster than that. I guess experience does count for something.

Autosports Track Day: MDTC, 23rd August 2009

What a fantastic track! This place is a credit to the owner, Garry. I had a ball today and will be back for sure. The Marulan Driver Training Centre (MDTC) is not advertsied as a race track per se, but a place where you can learn about your car without taking risks on the street. I think that in itself is a great initiative but on top of that, Garry has thought the layout through carefully, and the result is a technical, demanding short circuit which hardly gives you time to breathe.

Apart from the short straight, it's a continuous blend of throttle, braking and steering all the way around this 1km roller coaster. There are fast sweepers and slow corners which are on and off cambered, undulations, and a few bumps which can catch you out. It tests your driving skills and keeps your attention all the way.

For the first 15min session of the day, I familiarised myself with the layout, trying to pick appropriate braking markers and corner lines. The fastest way through some corners isn't obvious, so it took a bit of experimenting to find something that flowed a little better. Because the day doesn't have official timing, I had a mate stopwatch time me to see roughly what times I was doing. I seemed to be around the 48s mark, with a best of 47.5. Anthony thought I might be able to make up another second on that time, because I was backing off when I let other cars past me. Maybe a lap in the 45's is something to aim for next time?

I had a little issue in the second last session, blowing an intercooler hose off which left me stranded half way along the uphill pit lane, requiring a tow back to my garage. Other than that, the day went smoothly and the car performed well. I think this facility is top notch, and some others must feel the same, because they've already cleared more land to extend the facility a little further. I can't wait to see what's in store for this place in the future.

Circuit Club Track Day: Wakefield, 25th July 2009

It had been just over a year since I last visited the track, and I was absolutely dying to get back out there. I would do it every weekend if I could but it's an expensive hobby, so sometimes these things have to wait. The weather was clear, with air temp of about 10 degrees, so great for the turbo cars.

The only change to the car since the last time I went out was a set of better brake pads, and some additional front castor from the adjustable arms, so I figured my times would probably be similar to previous times out. Given the gap between track days though, I wasn't hoping for a lot - just consistency.

First session out, the track was still a little damp, and there were a lot of offs, including myself. I spent the first two sessions getting back into the swing of things, and pushed myself a bit more later in the day when the surface was warmer and I was feeling more comfortable. By the end of the day my best was a 1:14.2 so after a year off, I got within about 1 second of my PB. I was reasonably happy with that.

The main difference between past days was that I didn't have the confidence in the car to attack the turn one kink as I have done before. I was braking before the kink, which was costing me time into turn two. Something to try and improve next time.

The Potenza RE001 tyres are also now around 14,000k's old, and have done four track days. I noticed a lot of understeer from the fronts once they got hot. I think after so many heat cycles and hard driving, their best days are probably behind them. In reality, that probably had a lot to do with my time too.

On the whole, it was a really enjoyable day. I got six sessions on track, with very few interruptions. There was only one red flag, and the traffic was totally fine. I probably did more laps than I’ve ever done at a track day - around 50 in total I think. The only down side was that in the final session of the day, the car developed a misfire under full throttle. I cut the session short to avoid any further problems, but the car was fine to drive home. The problem was later diagnosed as a shagged coilpack.

Now that I’ve got the bug again, I can't wait to get to another event. It definitely won't be another full year before the next time out.

5 stud conversion

I have had a full S15 silvia hub assemby sitting in my garage for a while, but becuase the car already has the 4 piston front brake setup (with the rotors drilled to suit the 4 stud hub), there wasn't a lot of urgency to get the 5 stud hub assembly on the car.

Anyway, I finally got my act together and had the 5 stud assembly installed by Autosport Engineering. There just isn't the space to do it at my current house, and it gave me a little extra peace of mind knowing the conversion had been carried out by a professional.

So the car now has a full 5 stud hub assembly, as well as S15 lower control arms (longer than the S13 items, with a resulting increase in front track). While it was there, I also had a set of adjustable castor rods installed.

The 5 stud assembly opens up a lot more wheel choices, and also makes after market brake discs easier to get. My next upgrade will be a second set of wheels with a set of semi slicks strictly for the track.

Braking Improvements: 21st September 2008

The brake pads in the car were starting to get down to their last bit of meat, so I saw this as a good opportunity to upgrade the car’s braking performance further by replacing them with some quality pads.

After asking some of the seasoned track goers in the club what they thought, I settled on Project Mu HC+ pads. They’re marketed as a high performance street pad, suitable for track use. They still operate effectively from cold, but have quite a high temperature threshold before performance deteriorates. Perfect. They weren’t cheap, but their performance was immediately evident. I spent a good 20-30 stops bedding them in, and after warming them up with a few stops from 60, I tried a fully committed stop from 100. I was rather impressed. Strong initial bite, but easy to modulate. I locked it up once, but got the hang of it quite quickly. I think this will improve my track times again, as it shortens my braking distances over the standard pads.

After having had them on the car for a while now, I've also noticed that these are very dirty pads. They shed a HEAP of dust, and make the wheels filthy very quickly. Lucky i'm not too worried about shiny wheels then eh?

Autosports track day: Wakefield, 19th July 2008

Goulburn turned on some great weather for the tubo cars again – about 12 degrees (freezing cold with the wind chill) and clear. I showed good consistency again, putting together a lot of laps in the mid 1:13’s. When I went for a look at the timesheet about midday, I saw I had run a 1:13.02 – another PB! I was very happy, but was determined to go home with a 1:12.something.

I went out in my second last session, and improved fractionally to a 1:12.99, so I got it! Funny that it’s 3 thousands of a second faster than the time above, but sounds so much better. Anyway, I was happy to improve my PB another 0.6 of a second.

I spent the final session of the day practicing a few more techniques that John Boston suggested; in particular a bit of left foot braking through corners where a gear change is not required. It’s a bit nerve racking, because the muscles in your left leg aren’t conditioned to apply gentle pressure, and it can result in some terrible lock-ups as you get used to it (see pic). Things are getting there though, and it’s certainly a valuable skill so I’ll persist with it at upcoming days for sure.

The down side of the day was that Dave (from Silvia NSW) wrote off his Skyline. He wasn’t totally accustomed to the new brake pads he was using, made an error on the fastest bit of the track, and planted it into a wall. It was very disappointing for him, and it also reminded me that this stuff IS dangerous. He was mostly ok, but visibly gutted - years worth of work (and quite a few dollars no doubt) all gone.


After a few months of contemplating, Dave actually bought a Silvia too. Already a dedicated track car, he's building it to his taste, and it should be super quick in the future.

Autosports track day: Wakefield, 24th May 2008

After posting a 1:13.8 at the track day a month ago, I was keen to prove to myself that it wasn’t a fluke and consistently lap in the 1:13’s.

The weather was perfect – about 17 degrees and clear. No excuses for a dud time then. First session out I did a 1:13.6 (new PB), and a string of mid-high 1:13’s for the rest of the day. I was positively chuffed.

I also had a wonderful opportunity to get a bit of free advice from a pro named John Boston. He currently works as a motoring journalist, and has raced in all sorts of categories over the years. Needless to say, I learnt a LOT with him in the passenger seat. He gave me tips on braking, fine tuned my lines a bit, and gave me some good encouragement.

Now, I wouldn’t be trying hard enough if I didn’t leave the circuit at some stage during the day, right? Well not necessarily, but that’s what happened. The first turn at Wakefield park is a gentle right hand kink coming off the straight. It may be gentle, but it’s still a turn when you approach at about 170+km/h. I’d been testing my braking points, and trying to work out how late I can leave it to get a smooth run through turn two (a 90degree right hander about another 200m down the track). I got on the brakes too late and too hard. Combined with the little bit of steering I still had applied, the back end got very unstable and I started to spin. I tried to catch it, but couldn’t recover in time. I went to the kitty litter off turn two backwards (see pic), but didn’t get bogged – which was nice b/c they have to stop the session to retrieve you if that happens and people don’t appreciate losing track time b/c of your mistakes. I did a gentle in lap off the racing line trying to get all the stones out of the wheel arches and pulled in to see if there was any damage. There were no visible signs of damage or funny noises from the car, so a cheap lesson in car stability really!

On a side note, Autosports (the organiser) did a great job of running the day. It really was excellent. I liked the format too – short sessions (10min) means things don’t have as much chance to overheat, and you’re not waiting an hour in between sessions either. Great stuff.

Timed track day: Wakefield, 25th April 2008

Ahead of the ANZAC day track day, I made a few small but important improvements to the car. I installed S15 front discs and four piston calipers, followed by a full bleed. During general street use they felt good, and the increase in pedal travel due to the additional pistons was totally bearable.

I also purchased a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE001’s (aka Adrenalins). I read a lot of good things about them, and was expecting good things from them. They have a noticeably stiffer sidewall than the Nankangs they were replacing, and the shoulder of the tread block is more like a semi slick than a street tyre, so a good improvement in overall grip was expected.

Last but not least, I had a standard viscous limited slip diff installed in place of the locked one. The locked diff was totally unsuitable for a street driven car (chirping the inside wheel around car parks etc), and was giving me massive understeer on the track. Aside from the benefits of a better behaved street car, I was expecting improved turn-in at the track.

Despite the promise of good weather all week, it was overcast and damp when I arrived in the morning. The first session wasn’t timed, so it was a good chance to familiarise myself with the new track (it had been resurfaced and widened a bit since my last visit), and not push it too hard. Corner exits and braking zones were trickier on the wet surface, but all was well.

In time for our first timed session, the weather had cleared and the racing line had pretty much dried. I was super keen to post a good time early, and had a great uninterrupted session. I checked the board to find I’d posted a 1:14.4. Before the day, I didn’t know if I’d be able to break 1:15, so to see that after the first timed session was great – there was still more time to be had.

The car felt fantastic with the LSD – much more eager to turn in at the sharper corners, and still very stable under acceleration. The brakes were also great – nice and stable, and with plenty more stopping power than the two piston S13 brakes.

As I’d hoped, I dipped into the 1:13’s before the end of the day with a 1:13.8, and did a lot of laps in the mid to low 1:14’s. It was a top feeling to see the changes you make to the car reflect in a respectable time. Considering I was faster than a couple of S15’s on semi-slick tyres, I thought the time was quite respectable.

Second skidpan: Oran Park, 30th March 2008

A lot of the nervousness was gone this time around – both because of the people I knew, and also knowing what to expect. I got whacked in the newbie group again (fine by me), and so off we went to my dreaded slalom. I had a good old time fanging through the cones, but it meant my entry speed was a bit beyond my ability for the handbrake turns. I ended up on the grass again, and started to get a bit of a sinking feeling.

I got talking to a great bloke named Kirk about his R31 Skyline drift pig. He told me about how he got into drifting and some techniques, and took me for a run. It got me keen again, which was good.

I struggled early on the skidpan again, but it was about this time that the penny dropped as to what my problem was. Aaron MacGill (instructor) said to me as I left the pan after a run “use less wheel mate – you’re getting all tangled up on the countersteer because you’ve got way too much wheel lock – use the throttle to get the tail out”.

For some reason it made sense all of a sudden. When the tail wouldn’t kick out because I was too gentle on the throttle, I was trying to steer it into oversteer – never going to happen. Then, when I finally did break traction, the amount of lock was sending me around in circles instantly. From then on, I concentrated on small but firm steering movements, and plenty of revs. It was a hell of a lot of fun, and I started holding some slides together.

Each time I left the pan to line up, I’d go for a bit of a fang down the strip trying to choko, but also doing a hand brake turn at the end. Practice makes perfect, right? By the end of the day I was nailing some hand brake turns too, so bring on the slalom at the next ‘pan day I say.

After my skidpan tyres for the rear were down to the canvas, I decided that because they were due for a change anyway, I would torture my road tyres a bit before coming home. I soon discovered that these required a lot more “commitment” to break traction than the skinny standard tyres I’d been using all day. Again I struggled with the understeer until finally I grew some balls and started giving the SR a flogging. The grippy tyres were great fun to slide on – harder to get sliding, but more stable once the slide got going.

First dry track day: Wakefield, 1st December 2007

After spending the whole first track day in this car wiping water off the windscreen, I got pretty excited about the prospect of a few laps in the dry. Whilst the Nankangs were very hairy in the wet, they prove an acceptable tyre for a couple of laps in the dry (before they overheat and turn to mush that is). I got a little more confident in the car, and pushed out some laps that felt significantly quicker (and smoother) than I’d even been in the NA car. It was a good feeling.

More importantly, something else happened that day. I had an opportunity to ride with Anthony in his Sil80 and Dave in his R32 Skyline (albeit with a boost leak). Riding shotgun in well set up cars on semi slicks really did give me the bug to get more serious about circuit racing. The mid corner grip, and stability into the braking zones was light years ahead of my car, and it showed me what a few thoughtful suspension modifications and a good setup could do. At that point I started thinking about my car, and what I could do to make it better.

The only bummer being that after two track days, I still didn’t have a lap time in my new car.

First skidpan: Oran Park, 17th Nov 2007

This was something entirely different to the track days i'd done before. I’ve never been a street hoon and so until this day, hadn’t really slid the car at all. I was quite nervous, just because so many people were watching. As it turns out, we were all in a similar boat and no-one was looking at me. All good.

The slalom scenario was a lot of fun, learning about weight transfer and what not. I stuffed up stacks of hand break turns, and went to the skidpan feeling a little demoralised. As soon as I got on the wet donut course, I felt good again. The car broke traction with ease, and after a few laps, I was minimising my spins and getting a good feel of what was involved.

The courses got progressively more elaborate, and so I routinely spun or understeered off the skidpan. As it turns out, I simply wasn’t being aggressive enough with the throttle. I went for a run with the old owner, Mitch, and things started to make a bit more sense. I pulled off a few skids before the day was out, and left feeling a bit more encouraged.

In hindsight, the locked diff certainly wasn't ideal for a newbie either. It required a bit more commitment than I was giving, and so it just made life hard for me until I had the guts to give it some stick.

First track day: Wakefield, 8th Nov 2007

Luckily enough for me, there was an open day at Wakefield only a week or so after I took possession of the car. So on my 23rd birthday, I took the day off work and the new machine for a run. There was drizzle all day, and the track was certainly damp.

And so I got my first little lesson in throttle control: In the non-turbo Sil, you put your foot down as early as you like and didn’t really get punished for a lack of throttle finesse but in the turbo, the torque was there to produce more oversteer if not treated with respect. I also had a nasty aquaplaning moment after I missed my braking point into turn two, and ended up in the kitty litter. It all sounds pretty demoralising but it was a great day and already felt that I was learning.

Intro

Im going to use this blog to record how my cars develop over time. I'm starting to get a bit keener on track driving, and hopefully it will allow my to log some of the things I learn along the way.

After owning a normally aspirated Silvia for a bit over a year, I started getting the itch to find out what this turbo business was all about. Luckily enough, I saw the car I ended up owning in action at a Wakefield park track day. It was owned by a bloke from the Silvia club of NSW named Mitch, who had put a lot of effort into the car to get it to the point it was when I came along. When he made the decision to sell it in October 2007, I decided to snap it up – it just seemed right for me. I paid $10,000 for it.

When I first took possession of it, it already had some extras. The engine was an SR20DET Blacktop (2.0L DOHC, fuel injected, turbocharged) with a Garrett GT28R Ball Bearing turbo, and "breathing" modifications (an intake pipe, free flowing cat and exhaust). It had an upgraded fuel pump to add the extra fuel, and a Skyline radiator to help keep temperatures in check. The clutch had been replaced with a Nismo item.

There were also a few suspension items to improve the handling feel of the car. It had a front strut brace, some new bushes, new brake pads and rotors, replaced springs and shocks, and front and rear swaybars.

It also had a nice set of Rays engineering rims 17x7 fronts, 17x8 rears.
On the inside, there was a dished steering wheel with boss kit (so I could fit my knees behind the wheel), and a nice bucket seat.

It was a fantastic all-round upgrade over my first Silvia, but for the first couple of months, all I noticed was how much more power it had than the first car!

==
This bottom section of my first post is to record my fastest lap times in each car I own, along with which tyre I was using in eachcase.

Track PB's:
Silver Silvia: October 2010 -
Wakefield Park: 1:33.6 (!!) (Yokohama Advan A048) - 13th Jun 11

Blue Silvia: Jan 2010 - April 2010
Eastern Creek: 1:56.9 (Yokohama Advan A048) - 18th Apr 10
Wakefield Park: 1:12.9 (Yokohama Advan A048) - 14th Mar 10

Black Silvia: Oct 2007 - Jan 2010
MDTC: 47.5 (Bridgestone Potenza RE001) - 23rd Aug 09
Oran Park South: 54.9 (Bridgestone Potenza RE55S) - 30th Nov 09
Wakefield Park: 1:12.9 (Bridgestone Potenza RE001) - 19th Jul 08

Dark Blue Silvia: Dec 2006 - Nov 2007
Eastern Creek: 2:13.6 (Goodyear Eagle F1) - 4th Aug

07
Wakefield Park: 1:21.9 (Goodyear Eagle F1) - 1st Oct 07