Kiwi scratchbuilt

[Trevor Booth]

Russ,
What you really need to know is how hot the tyres are and the rec temp by the manufacturer. With the same compound not hot enough- fitting smaller width tyre will increase temp. Stiffer springs , roll bar settings will also help.
You can also get them too hot.
I would not compare your car to an F5000 , it is how the tyre is "worked" by the car and driver that is the essential difference.

What you need is a proper pyrometer with a needle probe so that you can measure your temp just under the surface. Not cheap but cheaper than horsepower for the benefit gained. Those no contact infra red gadgets are a waste of time.

A11 is a middle of the range compound, A15 is a soft compound for wet tracks (grooved of course) prob too soft for your car.
A46 is softer than A11. You need to be careful with avon compounds , they dont run numerically and they rate them hard -soft related to the mass and type of car.
So what is "soft" for your car would be "hard" for a lighter car. You should have a chat with your avon tyre bloke.

as far as the other GT40 on slicks - his slicks old, your tyres new- better car and driver- more knowledge of the track. Many reasons why one car quicker than the other.

Personally I never compare different cars, what the other car is using (unless it is apples for apples comparison) is not relevant- to me it is about getting the car I am working on or driving to go quicker.

The right slicks with the right set up will certainly make your car quicker than treaded tyres.

 

[Russ Noble]

Russ,
What you really need to know is how hot the tyres are and the rec temp by the manufacturer.

Thanks Trevor, it never even occured to me that the mfrs would have a recommended temp. I've never heard anyone refer to it, but it stands to reason. I have just been using temps as a means of getting the most suitable camber and tyre pressure to get even temps across each tyre.

Early days in the setup yet and no doubt a completely different lot of settings for the slicks.

I take your point about comparing apples with apples. Thanks for the info on the Avon compounds.

I'm already looking forward to next season, I guess the car is either going to be much better or its going to be a heap of shit. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating.......

 

[Trevor Booth]

Russ,
as long as you are having fun

 

[Russ Noble]

Haha Trevor, if it wasn't fun I guess we wouldn't all be doing it!

Actually, I find the fun is more in the success of making it go quick than in the actual building of it. Building and modifying is just an interesting means to an end. I'm still looking for substantial improvements in my lap times and I'm sure as everything becomes better sorted and it becomes easier to drive I'll have increased confidence to throw it around a bit more aggressively.

A good day today, I've managed to secure a secondhand .71 ratio custom 4th gearset out of the States at the right sort of price. I'd almost given up hope on that, and wasn't prepared to buy new.

Much more important and useful will be a 1.04 ratio 2nd gear, and Albins are currently making this for me. They are predicting completion towards the end of next month, pretty tight for the Aug 1 race meeting. Unfortunately they have never made one that high and have hooked me an additional AUD150 design fee on top of the normal gear price!. I guess there was never going to be any hope of finding one of those secondhand!

First gear will be the old 1.30 2nd but we will have to fit the smaller 1st gear splines into it which will mean machining off most of the outside of the original 1st gear by wire cut to fit inside the 2nd gear spline and pressing the two together. Lim will be handling this when he gets back from China shortly. We did look at making a new mainshaft with bigger splines to suit but that became a can of worms and was going to work out too expensive.

So a hybrid 1st gear from existing parts, a brand new 2nd, the same 3rd and a secondhand 4th will give me a nice close ratio box at reasonable cost.

Ratio. MPH @ 6500 RPM

1.30 92
1.04 115
0.89 134
0.71 168

The secondhand 4th was at the higher end of the ratios I would have liked but at least it will be a lot better than the standard ratio. And at the end of the season how these ratios work out will give me a fairly accurate idea of what I will need to spec for the dog conversion.

 

[Lim]

Hi Russ
Glad that you have secured your gear form the States at the right price. :thumbsup:The gear will be ready to be picked up from my friend in a week time.
See you early next month.
Cheers-LIM

 

[Russ Noble]

Oh NO!!

The gear will be ready to be picked up from my friend in a week time.
See you early next month.
Cheers-LIM

Hmmmmm...... Have you outsourced that 1st gear job to your mates in China??

Jeez Lim, this is a precision racecar! We don't want any cheap Chinese crap in it!!! epper:

 

[Lim]

Re: Oh NO!!

Hmmmmm...... Have you outsourced that 1st gear job to your mates in China??
:idea:

Jeez Lim, this is a precision racecar! We don't want any cheap Chinese crap in it!!! epper:

:shocked::veryangry::furious: Looks likes I need more toys in my garage to make gears.

I visited the AUTO Components exhibition held on 21st June in Shanghai. One of the exhibitor told me that their Company manufacture components for the Italian Super Sports Car. :lipsrsealed:


LIM

 

[Russ Noble]

Not as much progress over the winter as I would have liked, but it's been one of the worst winters in years, and then the quake as well...... But daylight saving has arrived so everythings looking up.

Besides the crash repairs needed after punching the wall at the last Levels meeting there has been some other progress over the winter, I have been converting my carb to E85 as we are no longer allowed to use leaded fuels, specifically AvGas. This was a bit of a mission as it is difficult to find out in detail the mods that need to be done. Most people with the knowledge and experience in E85 play things pretty close to the chest. After a couple of months fairly solid hunting around on the web I think I've pieced together most of the info that I need, and have modified the carb accordingly. It's not simply a matter of merely jetting up, there is a multitude of other carb mods that are required too. The proof of the pudding will be on the dyno next week. Not much point in posting pics of the carb, it doesn't look any different to how it was before! LOL. Shit loads of work required just because some wankers :lipsrsealed: in MotorSport NZ think we should lead the world in environmentally friendly motor racing! :cussing:

I have also gone to bigger brake m/cyls and softer pads which I'm hoping will be an improvement in that department and have also gone to a top hinged throttle pedal which I think will be better for heel and toeing.

The trans is back together with the new close ratios. This should be nicer to drive although it probably won't make it significantly faster.

I am still in the process of flaring the guards for the F5000 slicks and resetting the suspension. And then a quick paint touch up and everythings ready to go!epper:epper:

Photos later as there seems to be a problem uploading many of the images from the camera.

 

[jeff]

Shit loads of work required just because some wankers :lipsrsealed: in MotorSport NZ think we should lead the world in environmentally friendly motor racing! :cussing:

We are having the same issue, ideally you would run a different cam grind for E85 as well I think. In dads mustang race car we had just spent an absolute fortune on having our engine rebuilt around AVGAS when they made that decision. I think there is alot of people who are flat out refusing to change. There is other things too, you use 20-30% more, so our brand new fuel system and drop tank etc is all too small for some of the longer races.

I saw your GT running at the Wigram meet today, car looks fantastic on the track, i enjoyed watching you teasing the zakspeed escort and then just dissapearing into the sunset on the last lap :shocked:

 

[James McNutt]

We are having the same issue, ideally you would run a different cam grind for E85 as well I think.

Generally the combustion chamber shape is quite different between leaded and unleaded as the flame front speed of unleaded is quite rapid compared to Avgas. :uneasy:

 

[Dalton Veitch]

Russ, are you going OK there? We heard of aftershocks even quite recently, and wondered if you spend your evenings picking everything up off the floor and putting them back on the workshop shelves. But seriously, hope your house, workshop, and everyone are OK.

 

[Russ Noble]

I saw your GT running at the Wigram meet today, car looks fantastic on the track, i enjoyed watching you teasing the zakspeed escort and then just dissapearing into the sunset on the last lap :shocked:

Jeff, you should have come over and said gidday.

Generally the combustion chamber shape is quite different between leaded and unleaded as the flame front speed of unleaded is quite rapid compared to Avgas. :uneasy:

Jimmy, I'd never even thought of that. Any ideas on E85?

Russ, are you going OK there? We heard of aftershocks even quite recently, and wondered if you spend your evenings picking everything up off the floor and putting them back on the workshop shelves. But seriously, hope your house, workshop, and everyone are OK.

Dalton, there have been a few 5ish magnitude aftershocks lately. They are actually causing quite a lot of additional damage. All my stuff is good and we are just carrying on as normal but some of the aftershocks have finished off the ex's house (and others) and she is living in a caravan at present. Some people are a bit shell shocked, but really you just have to get on with things.

 

[jeff]

I came over and had a quick squiz at the car at the end of the day but you weren't there at that stage i don't think

 

[James McNutt]

Sorry Russ but cant really help with E85. My experience was mainy with two stroke road racing motorbikes (combustion shapes were vastly different) when they changed from leaded to unleaded '98/'99. The change was so radical we used to use earlier model heads. The only reason we wanted to continue with Avgas was so we could carry a little more ignition advance without resulting in detonation.

With the four strokes we just ran them on unleaded as with the ECU tuning boxes that are available we could get the results we needed.

 

[Russ Noble]

Anyone who has been reading http://www.gt40s.com/forum/race-track/30372-scratchbuilt-kiwi-40-goes-racing.html will know things did not go well at the Levels 14 Nov meeting. I have been somewhat lethargic since and not really up to posting much. However before that meeting I had done a few mods to the car, fitting larger brake master cyls and softer pads. The Girling cyls that I was using I thought were available in most sizes up to 1" but I was misinformed and had to change over to Willwoods to get the size I wanted. This meant chopping out a bracing bar in the front of the chassis to make them fit.

First pics are the offending bar and the chop. Subsequent ones are the new cyls and new bracing gusset.

Also because of the necessity to get my engine temps up for E85 I machined up a thermostat housing to weld into the swirl tank inlet.

Both these mods were successful, the brakes now feeling good and engine temps sitting steady at 200°F.

I am starting to feel a bit better now and will shortly start the rebuild process required after that Levels meeting. Since there was no hope of being medically fit for SFOS I have had the luxury of a nice break from the car and the aim now is to concentrate on having the car ready and improved for next season.

 

[Terry Oxandale]

Good to see your "energy" level coming back and some work getting done again!

 

[Kevin Box]

Russ

Good to see you on the move again.
Hope all is well

regards
KB
:thumbsup:

 

[Josh long]

Hello everybody

I would like to start my own project of chevron B16, but do not know how to obtain the chassis blueprints. Can someone help?

Josh

 

[Russ Noble]

Josh,

Wrong thread really. Try a B16 thread. Try this search on Google:-
b16 site:gt40s.com
Brings up over 100 B16 results on GT40s forum. Take your pick......

 

[Russ Noble]

I am starting to feel a bit better now and will shortly start the rebuild process required after that Levels meeting. Since there was no hope of being medically fit for SFOS I have had the luxury of a nice break from the car and the aim now is to concentrate on having the car ready and improved for next season.

Just updating since I have had several enquiries as to progress.

Well not a lot of progress!

During the month following that post, 22 Feb to be exact, Christchurch suffered another massive quake. Only a 6.3 this time but on a new fault line almost underneath the city and very shallow. It did massive damage to the city, much more than the original 7.1 in Sept. Tends to sap ones energy. Almost 200 deaths.

And then just last Mon 13th another 6.3 equally damaging which has finally finished off virtually all the remaining historic buildings in the CBD and the eastern suburbs, not to mention a lot of newer buildings including most of the high rises. Houses in much of the eastern suburbs are either broken or terminally affected by liquifaction and it appears whole suburbs will have to be abandonned. Very distracting.

Although I am in the east of the city my home and work buildings and land are substantially unaffected, but there is devastation all around. A lot of my spare space has been taken up storing friends and rellies furniture etc as they no longer have anywhere for it.

Scientists are predicting a 33% chance of a 6.0-6.9 quake in the next 12 months. My eldest daughter has had enough and leaves permanently for Melbourne tomorrow night:cry:


After all the devastation and destruction, ones priorities tend to change and I am making a start kitting out my tow vehicle (Fuso 7m bus) as a motorhome with provision for spares, tools and fuel for the Kiwi 40. It will also be fully self contained and and could be a welcome refuge if any further events make my property uninhabitable. It's partly done and we have spent a couple of (non motor racing) weekends away in it exploring different areas of the South Island:thumbsup: Most enjoyable just to get out of the city!

So not a lot done on the car, although I have started building a rotisserie to rebuild the car on. I used Lim's originally but he has it in use now. Winters coming up and I can't be bothered doing much on the car until the spring, by which time I expect to have rekindled my enthusiasm.

So obviously I am going to miss most of this coming season, but quite frankly at this point I don't really care. The current attitude is it will be finished when its finished, no timeline and no pressure. I intend to enjoy some of the other pleasures in life for a change.....:thumbsup:

Will post more as the rebuild gets underway.