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Quick introduction: Due to dumb, last year I decided to start a plan to buy an old fashioned, manual supercar before I was 30, despite not knowing how even do manual at the time. Somewhere into this plan, brain got involved: quote:this is brain So, like most people do when they want to learn, I bought an old, unmodified Honda hatchback; you know, a JDM Integra Type R.     Anyway, it turned out to be surprisingly amazingly kickass and probably the best introduction to a manual car ever, but I digress. While some of manufacturers these days staple an "R" onto the edge of a badge, add bucket seats and go home, Honda decided that everyone who bought one of these needed to suffer: -Alcantara-wrapped rocks carefully camoflagued as seats -Ride stiffness set to 'kidney transplant' -Sound deadening reduced to 'none' -8700rpm redline, because we can -Gearing: 3500rpm in 6th gear to do 100kph; 1st gear redline at about 40kph -No drive by wire no ABS no TCS no centre console no cigarette lighter no pants on -Inclusion of mysterious JDM explosive road flare to burn down the evidence when you crash The commitment to design in these cars was such that when I later got the Z07, I found the dedicated track car would ride like a Rolls-Royce compared to the Type R. Anyway, the Type R was probably the best and worst possible choice to learn manual in - an unforgiving clutch and super tight gearing forces you to be fast and smooth lest the car buck you out of the front window for the crime of missing a heeltoe by 50rpm, and the flywheel barely weighs 10 pounds which means you get no leeway at all for any mistakes. But once you get that down, fierce gently caress is it an insanely great car - it makes anything else from the JDM 90's feel like driving the titanic by comparison. As much as the car punishes every little mistake, it makes you feel like Ayrton Senna on angel dust when everything comes together. Once I get enough material I will post a glurge about the driving experience but I should probably move on for now. This particular car is also a bit special, being both the higher performance JDM version (rather than the lower revving AUDM model), and being possibly the last completely stock DC5 ITR in the country, having not had its power output destroyed by a stupid rear end pod filter and potato cannon exhaust. While my original plan was to sell it on after learning on it, it turned out to be far too good to be discarded like that - especially with it being a bone stock car - so I started trackdaying it instead. Even being slow as fug as I am, it massively outperforms its chassis (note this is shot with a wide angle lens, so we're close to bumper to bumper in reality): FQ Evo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nYDikISKos RZ Supra TT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm6dxKSplpc With some performance tires and brakes, this car'd have no trouble keeping pace with a brand new M4 or more - for now I'd rather keep it on economy boots so that I learn to maximize what little traction it has though. Also, here's me racing my father in his E36. We are giving each other fonzie looks.  However, trackdays do take their toll.  I will post a boring ramble about my Z06 and the insane terribility of my VK Commodore beater once I get some time tonight. Spades fucked around with this message at 03:57 on May 19, 2016 |
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May 19, 2016 03:55
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As for the Corvette (long E/N story ahead, skip to pictures if you want): About four years ago I decided to buy a Cayman S, as my desire for a nice sports car outstripped my actual logical decision making capacity. While doing so, I tested a big pile of sports cars as well as a Ferrari 355. The 355 was definitely one of the best cars I've driven, but the cost of ownership being about $30,000 a year turned me off, but I stuck it in my mind I'd get something like that someday. To do this, I started a consulting business, and managed to land a very solid client, who I still consult for to this day. With the resultant cashflow putting me in the place to buy a Gallardo via cash in full, I got in touch with a dealership that dealt with second hand prestige cars, and even found a rare Manual model. The day that I'd test drive my new supercar was set... ...And the Gallardo was complete poo poo. It didn't help that the Type R had conditioned me to enjoy a proper hardarse suspension, but basically every feature of the car was dissapointing, from the gearbox, to the power, to the sound, to the understeerious handling. So I figured I might try some top of the line sportscars instead to see if those got me what I wanted. The M4 was alright, but sounded like a diesel truck. The C36S AMG had the power and sound I wanted but didn't come in manual. The F-Type Jaguar Manual might have influenced my color choice on the z06 a bit...  But handled softer than a slipper, had a gearing as wide as a 3 speed and was slower than my Cayman, so I gave up on that too. So about this time the Z06 had come out and boomers were complaining loudly about it being supercharged and riding too hard for their athritis and how they preferred the LS7 and how they didn't like this newfangled direct injection and that their '73 Dart was a better car anyway, which are boomer codewords for 'this is actually a good car'. So I tried to look into it. At the local grey importer dealership, I was pretty much told to gently caress off because I couldn't possibly have the money to buy a Z06 at 27 years old, and that even if I could, I would have to buy it before I could test drive it anyway. So that was off to a good start. Luckily, I got in touch with Rod Bunce from Bunce Motors, who was a loving top bloke in general and went out of his way to let me test drive a Z06, even calling in a personal favor from a friend who owned one when they didn't have one on the lot. It took me all of five minutes of driving one to agree to buy a top trim C7Z06, aka a Z07. And then it took six months of bizarre delays (like Rod dying of a brain hemorrhage, the car's title being lost, being impounded for suspicion of drug trafficking and a dockyard strike). Anyway, the Z07 is finally the supercar I actually wanted - not interfered with by automatic gearbox or AWD, loud as hell, scary fast when pushed and stiff enough to rattle your eyeballs out of your head. Despite being a Corvette it has the kind of gearbox and driving characteristics you'd expect out of a much more expensive car; it might even a fair comparison to Porsches now.     Strangely, after first being apprehensive about any luxury features being on the car, I'm impressed now you get stuff like a leather interior, heated/cooled seats, a heads up display, good audio options, magnetic ride suspension, parking and reverse cameras and other things which are convenient without really making the car an outright luxury barge. These are the kind of things you'd have to option for extra on a BMW or Porsche but come packed in for free with the car - it impresses me that the C7 is not just a power-per-dollars car. The plan is now to take the car to a skidpan and race track soon so I can really get a feel for it.  these look like great wet weather tires Spades fucked around with this message at 04:12 on May 19, 2016 |
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May 19, 2016 04:05
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And now carthartis time: Shortly after buying the Integra, I got the idea that the Z07 would not take that long to get in-country, so it would be a good idea to sell my Cayman S to free some money up for a few sets of street tires on the new car, bringing me to down to one car left. So I went racing again and after several hot laps, immediately pitted and pulled the handbrake up on reflex. Brain got involved again. quote:wat r u doing But it was too late and the pads and discs basically fused into a solid block of sadness, leaving the ITR laid up for a while as new discs and pads got sourced in (overnight from Japan was not an option). So I had to call on my father to let me borrow one of his old beaters to make do for a few weeks. The car I got was...  ...nooooooo good. It's a 1.5 million kilometre Commodore which is only kept alive due to a spiteful, caininist condemnation from God. I've posted this to the Terrible Car Stuff thread so I'll self-quote the story behind this thing: quote:
the driving experience is bad
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May 19, 2016 04:12
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leica posted:
A bit of both, I think - apparently, it's not that uncommon for luxury cars to get sent through Jersey docks to NZ/Australia loaded up with cocaine.
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May 19, 2016 05:08
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Yeah, that Commodore's been built to hell and back, the guy who runs it is a friend of a friend and I got to take a look all the way through. Thoroughly built up engine and running on mile wide semislicks all round - interior's all stripped out and even the rear doors have been sliced up to fit the rear wheels. Was keen to see if I could tail him through the infield, but got blocked by the Supra so no luck on the day. We did make a point that we'll have a proper match once I get used to the Z06 though - power to weight should be close.
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May 19, 2016 11:30
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meatpimp posted:I love the new Corvette for this. It is a game changer. Speed/power/handling of cars several times its price, and the look of a true supercar. Yeah, the look of the car is sometimes divisive but I don't think anyone can disagree it's now distinctive and less cheap looking than the C5 and C6. I can't really overstate how much stuff you get for what the car is - the magnetic ride suspension (and suspension setup in general) is super well done, leather interior comes as base (M3s are still coming with plastic interiors when unoptioned, ffs), you get a choice in transmissions (neither feels like an afterthought, unlike those in the F-Type and M3), great MPG (I usually beat the Integra's mileage on my trips to Auckland) and if you get the Z07 package (which only costs about $5000) you get $40k worth of gigantic carbon ceramic brakes, semislick tires, removeable aero parts and a telemetry recorder. also you get a targa top so you can pretend to be burt reynolds Also-also, the (toggleable) auto revmatching is actually really cool. It literally seems to hold the revs in perfect lockstep to the road speed - it makes the transmission almost too easy, since all you need to do is choose a gear; no heeltoeing, no revmatching and no muscle memory required. It even works going up gears as well as down, so if you miss an upshift it can match the difference when you find the gear.
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May 19, 2016 23:52
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BigPaddy posted:DC2 also had all round double wishbone suspension while the DC5 just had MacPherson. Yeah, this was always considered a compromise in the DC5's design and part of why both tuning companies and Honda fans seem to like them less than the other Type Rs. In practice it doesn't make much difference on the track, as most of the Type Rs perform more or less the same with the exception of the hugely improved FD2. Also, bogan redneck raceworks time - The C7's pedalbox is good, except for the way that the accelerator seems to be about a half inch too deep into the footwell to easily heeltoe with. I would presume this is to prevent baby boomers accidentally locking the rear up when they try to drive the car to church in steelworking boots, since it does mean you can't accidently press the accelerator and the brake at the same time. Either way, since I like to manually heeltoe around town, this is annoying, so with the power of cable ties, plywood offcuts and zero time wasted on painting prep, I made an accelerator pedal extender:  press the licorice pedal Even though this seems dumb as hell, it works really well, so I'm going to look at getting an improved version made from billet aluminum, including a recess on the back of the extender to properly locate it on the accelerator instead of crappy cable ties.
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May 21, 2016 06:41
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revmoo posted:I'm so spoiled by my bmw when I drive something like a civic that can't really be heel-toed it drives me crazy. Surprised something like a corvette wouldn't have that ability. I think it would be fine if I didn't have huge feet (size 12.5 width, size 11 length) - it means I end up hitting the footwell with my heel unless I choke up on the brakes a bit. It may be a factor of familiarization with driving on the left hand side of the car too.
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May 21, 2016 19:59
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 A revision later and it feels about right, though I need to do some threshold braking to make sure it's still possible to reach up onto the pedal at the limit. dont make fun of my cableties this helps it really helps In general, the pedalbox is pretty cramped on a C7 because of the torque tube tunnel right next to it, so getting the muscle memory down will be key to not locking the car up on the track when kicking the carpet instead of the accelerator. Also the Integra's headlights have done that thing all Hondas do where they turn terrible yellow-white-opaque so I'm going to fix them this weekend and possibly install the performance brakes for the next track day. Few more trackday clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2j8dSKq0_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmVeVOSWVTs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZwcPIN44uo Overall times are still rubbish as I need to learn how to exit corners in FF - but I didn't have any trouble passing most of the other cars on the day. It seems like changing from econo pads and middle-tier performance tires to race pads and semislicks would get me pretty close to my goal of 1:14 on gear alone, but I don't want to learn bad habits due to infinite grip.
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May 23, 2016 19:54
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Fortunately we are getting the new Civic Type R in the US. Unfortunately, it's a little too over-the-top looking for my tastes. I like the somewhat more subdued look of the two posted in this thread! All in the name of marketing, I think - I feel like the Type R's more relaxed appearances before was down to them being pure mechanical machines without a major emphasis on branding, while Honda's trying to retake its 90s reputation nowdays, so is trying to cash in on the idea that the people who bought and ruined EP3 breadvans with coilovers and chromespray wheels might have more money rolling around ten years later. It's a good thing, though, that the new Type R does keep up its trend of being way, way, way better than all of its competition and yet having the press denounce it because it's not European and doesn't come with butt massagers. In a race car.
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May 23, 2016 20:02
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Krakkles posted:I need to know more about this. Just ... because. Some inspection law in Japan requires cars to carry a road flare with them for emergency signalling, which is usually a standard phosphorous flare to my knowledge, the kind that's also good for burning your entire body off at the slightest contact. I think they're meant to be removed when exported, but as far as I know there's no law in New Zealand stating that you're not allowed flares in your car. I took mine out because it seems like cars are flammable enough without a superheated roman candle ready to unleash itself with minor provocation. If you google "JDM road flare" you'll see examples of what they look like; most cars seem to have them held by a ring mount in the passenger footwell. You can also buy duds and LED versions to stick in USDM cars, which sometimes still have the mount point in the usual place. Larrymer posted:To be fair, it heel-toes for you. This is for him. The car will do it better than the driver and get it right every time. It can do this, yes, but it cannot recreate the thrill of slipping off the brake, missing the shift, grinding the gearbox, locking up the differential and swinging sideways into a sandtrap like real heeltoeing can. Spades fucked around with this message at 01:31 on May 24, 2016 |
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May 24, 2016 01:28
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22 Eargesplitten posted:My father in law has a DC2, he got it with I think 30-something thousand miles on it. His son must have been the perfect age for The Fast And The Furious, because he has a Prelude with a body kit he built for drag racing. They are thinking about putting a turbo on the DC2. I haven't managed to talk them out of it, but at least they won't use the original engine. Always feels like a waste to turbocharge a Type R - you get the feeling that they set the entire car up absolutely perfectly for its tires, suspension and brakes from the factory, moreso than any other performance car I've driven. But I can see why people do it - the car drives so well that maybe common logic would suggest more power would make it even better (it doesn't). The normal C7 Corvette runs smoothly, but the Z06 and particularly Z07 are set up to be firm from the factory. The Z07 in 'tour' mode is a little softer than the DC5 but still firm, while in 'track' mode it feels about the same as the DC5, which suits me pretty well. Laserface posted:so that video basically proves that most evo drivers are poo poo and its the car that makes them fast. I think that comes down to demographics - Evos and STis seem to have a lot more of a casual 'cruiser' fanbase (while most Type Rs are raced or crashed while trying to street race). When they get to the track, they quickly find out they've been using about 10% of their car's performance on the road and have no idea what do with the 90% left over - I would guess by his super early braking that's the first time he's braked hard.
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May 25, 2016 01:19
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I took the Z07 in to get its plates finally so now apparently JUW843 is its new name. jubei? whatever Either way, this is our weather at the moment:  Fortunately, the Z07 package is a well rounded combination and the tires come rain-rated* *Rain rating: 0, safe for none rain This leads to fun and excitement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heBdwA8O1pQ On the drive back the rain became extremely heavy and I think that I probably made various finger-shaped indentations in the wheel keeping the car steady. With the tires as they are, it seems to lose traction on one wheel at a time at least rather than completely aquaplaning.
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May 26, 2016 09:58
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While I was waiting for the Z07's plates to get sorted I trundled around the dealership and engaged photographic snoopery. imgur due to huge unresized images: http://imgur.com/a/nttUD
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May 27, 2016 08:51
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The squeaking on the DC5's accessory belt was starting to ride my rear end so this weekend I changed it with the aid of a complex set of pulleys to keep the drat autotensioner sorted. Also took out the tensioner bearing and repacked it with grease as it turned out that it had dried up and was due to become a very sheared bearing in the new few hundred kilometres. The headlights had also almost completed their sad descent into yellow opacity (stock photo:  ) so I sanded them back with two grains of cutting compounds and then got ready to seal them with self levelling clearcoat.First it was dry  Then it was wet and ugly  While this was happening I had a beer  I had some beer to go with my beer  I decided that watching paint dry wasn't so boring, really  But then the cold came in because I left the garage door open and slightly clouded the clearcoat, basically ruining everything. gently caress 
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Jun 5, 2016 22:19
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Hot take: I decided to see how good a mileage I could get by driving the Z06 like a grandma My supercar gets considerably better gas mileage than my hatchback
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Jun 5, 2016 22:25
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Mcqueen posted:What grits did you use for the headlights? Wet sanding with Meguiar's ultimate compound and then polishing compound with a little electric polisher. Could get away with doing it by hand as well, just want to turn the lights on after you're done and make sure there's no cloudy spots or rough patches. Not sure of what the actual grit levels for those two are but the general recommendation is 1000 and 2000. Sanding them will kill the crappy UV protection that still remains so they'll yellow again in a few weeks' time unless you clear coat them. The clear coat is enough to maintain the finish since an old R32 Skyline that I buffed up the same manner still has clear headlights years later (that's about the only part of the car still in decent condition). Whatever cheap $5 can of acrylic clear will do, so long as you don't let a damp breeze cloud the thing up like I did. Some people will balk at the idea of using cutting compound on headlights but gently caress it. Spades fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Jun 5, 2016 |
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Jun 5, 2016 22:42
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Having started playing around with launching the Z07, I noticed a bit of a sticky, gravelly feeling changing into 2nd gear at higher speed - with only 3600 kilometres on it'd seem like it's really just the 2nd gear syncro ring hasn't bedded on the cone just yet (typical wear-in that cleans up at about the 10,000k mark). To be sure though, I borrowed a mate's auto pit to flush the trans fluid.  Post-drain shot. Huge amount of space around the trans because of the rear end being sized to also fit the A8. Fluid was a bit milky looking - probably contaminated with some part linings and syncro bits. Seemed to clean up a lot after driving but still slightly touchy - apparently this is typical on very heavy duty-level Tremec transmissions though.  Front. Oil changes are going to be a hell of a lot less of a pain than the DC5 (For anyone who hasn't done so - the easiest way involves jacking up one side of the car, taking the wheel off and threading your arm around the struts to twist the filter blind and splatter poo poo all over the crossmembers).  Steve is always working on about ten cars at once - the 987 Cayman there has its engine out after fun with a spun bearing.  GT40. Aftermarket Fuel rail has gone out on the clevo in it - never understand why people don't just put a 427 FE into them. Apparently the plan is to change it to a double quad and, later, see if a modern Coyote can be massaged in with aid of a dry sump.  Pretty as fug 964 race car. Body is mostly fibreglass and CF, makes so much lateral grip it'll turn your stomach.    Engine dungeon  This place has a lot of Porsches  A lot of Porsches  a lot of porsches If I get the time this weekend I'll be wetvaccing and re-detailing the DC5 as I haven't cleaned it since last trackday and the combination of driving in sleet, gravel rally tracks and using it to transport tires and ancient engine parts has left it looking like a moth orgy. Spades fucked around with this message at 07:02 on Jun 10, 2016 |
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Jun 10, 2016 06:47
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Today we detailed. As mentioned, since this is my daily driver and general runabout in addition to race car and illegal race car, it tends to get a bit grungy:     Hired a wetvac today and went over everything on the inside, and pulled the floormats out and did them separately. In addition to the wetvac foam I used a spray on lifting upholstery cleaner to get some of the grass stained out of the driver's side mat and the grease stains from the seat bolsters. Before on the mats:  After: (overcast so it looks a bit dull)  In total, a crapload of filth was extracted  While the upholstery and carpets were drying, I popped the hood.  Engine bays don't really need cleaning, but why not; superficial, non-steam clean later and it's cleaner than the outsides of most cars  Anyway, after photos:        While I was out buying new eyedrops after accidentally spraying degreaser in my eyes, I noticed this when I got back to the z07  Anyway, I picked up some minor amenities for the car too: A medical kit for when I crash and lose a leg, and  TOWEL R  Also, interesting note - this car was a track day special in Japan, and amongst other things, the red seats and red carpet are actually swap-ins on the car, which originally had black seats and black carpet - they didn't bother doing the door cards. When the owner had the carpets changed, they also had the driver's seat mounted a few inches lower than default, which makes the car a hell of a lot easier to heel toe and gives a better view on the track. Spades fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Jun 11, 2016 |
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Jun 11, 2016 07:31
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some texas redneck posted:I'm pretty OCD about keeping a clean engine bay, personally. Once or twice a year I'll bathe it in degreaser (followed by plain water). Which brand of degreaser do you use? I used a brand of brake cleaner I've come to trust when sprayed on literally anything - the degrease I've got warns to specifically hose it down and not wipe it off, and it seems to leave residue. Edit: Went for a hardish night drive since I like my fresh detailing wrapped in bugs and brake dust.  Parking garages' flood lightning makes reflections happen. Spades fucked around with this message at 09:37 on Jun 11, 2016 |
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Jun 11, 2016 09:13
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Given what mileage the Z06 can manage, I imagine the C7 can practically be classified as an economy car. Looks pretty good though - the white seems to fit the C7 a lot more nicely than it does the Z06. Minor update also - next time I get some time home I'm thinking of polishing the turd - cleaning out the Commodore and vinylspraying the insides to satin black to hide all the disease then popping the air cleaner, carb and head to bust the rust off and engine enamel them all. Ideally want to sell it for more than the cost of those cans of spraypaint. Prognosis: unlikely.
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Jun 18, 2016 00:03
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Deciding to do something with the disease festival to maybe make it actually sellable without paying somebody to take it, I took a look at it while I was home this weekend.    aaaghh We wetvacced  And some minor vinyl and carpet refurb was done  Old aircleaner and carb is going to be replaced with a Weber and a Mercedes supercharger will be sandwiched in there, because why not. Suspension bushings have been replaced, power steering seems to have been instructed to stop leaking successfully. Head needs to be popped off and de-crapped. Going to degrease/brake clean the entire engine bay and respray it in black. Also the dashboard needs to be re-fitted since it's missing some parts, the seats need to be replaced and the outside paint will need to be redone in boatpaint best of paints Spades fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Jul 11, 2016 |
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Jul 11, 2016 06:00
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 New seats picked up from a wrecker for about $200 - the ones in the car are too shithouse to respray and finding one that matches the other would require too much work.  Smashed all the plastic fittings (they were brittle enough to break on the slightest torquing anyway) and hit the whole thing with penetrating spray and sandpaper, smacked loose the rails with a rubber mallet and lubed everything up, then bathed it all in brake cleaner and sprayed on some metal paint. Going to need a bottle jack and a vice to break loose the driver's seat's riser sometime in future as the whole gear winder has completely rusted to a block - a super common occurrence with cheap holden seats. Tomorrow if it stops raining for the first time this year, going to hit the seats with vinyl spray and blacken them out to fit the rest of the inside. Also - Supercharger is a little Eaton M82. Hoping that it'll make some boost - the Holden 3.3/202 is a little bigger than the 2.3 Mercedes engines it's usually on but it shouldn't need much work given the compression on the 202 is only a little higher than atmospheric. Spades fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Jul 15, 2016 |
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Jul 15, 2016 08:06
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 Result acceptable, time to buy even more vinyl stain though
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Jul 16, 2016 02:21
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When I was back in the Bay for a while last weekend I saw an unrusted, uncrashed looking Silvia for sale for $2k, which is a little under half of what most of them seem to sell for. An auto non-turbo with buggered paint, I figured it was worth doing some quick poking and selling it off again later to some minor profit and the value of the experience itself. So I put together a list of things to check over for my father to pick the car up in my absence. Dad received the list, ignored it and bought the car after ascertaining it was roughly the size and shape of a 90's Nissan.  welp, projectCarCount++; i am going to start investing in boat paint futures More photos: http://imgur.com/a/MEEhT
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Jul 25, 2016 20:40
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Silver advans hand painted black, no less I'm probably going to head to the bay this weekend and see how much I can get done. Going to build a new boot liner and install the new seatbelt. Also going to try to find some stock Silvia wheels to replace them with so I can go mad with the metal polish and sell them online as refurbs. Since I haven't actually popped the hubs off I'm kind of apprehensive if I'm going to be met with some horrific cross-drilled five stud/four stud shear-fest, if it's going to be a four stud V2 (Which I don't think exists), or if the car's running five studs after all. Edit: Super Advans, not V2s. Apparently pretty rare and mechanically very sound wheels but so ugly. Spades fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jul 28, 2016 |
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Jul 25, 2016 21:05
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Due to arriving home late and having to fit in 9 hours of work I didn't get most of what I was trying to do, as expected - Turns out the front fenders can be completely removed from the car without removing the bumper - except that's a lie. The bumper conceals a single bolt for some reason which makes removal of the front fenders impossible. Considering potentially tapping a thread into some metalwork nearby in a location that won't be occluded by the bumper so it's not such a process. Removed the bumper, found some rust on the mounts (likely caused by the motion in the headlights rubbing the paint off the front clip). Bumper had a crack I hadn't noticed so epoxy welded a metal shim to realign the whole bumper and strengthen it in future. Bapped the fender dent out and repainted the inside and outside. Used this as a chance to test the boat paint was compatible with the car's old paint - seems to have worked. Will actually use a spray gun next time instead of a brush but a heavy primer layer is needed as the dent carries further than the picture suggest. Do not use a brush for painting a car. You will have a bad time Polished the headlights to reverse the UV stainage and tried out the new clear coat I bought. Turns out Lyndar clearcoat is absolute loving dog poo poo and not only clouded but also later cracked while setting, giving my headlights the same kind of finish as a broken fishbowl from 1920. Can't be arsed to re-sand and start over so they'll stay horrible for now. Spades fucked around with this message at 08:19 on Jul 30, 2016 |
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Jul 30, 2016 07:44
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I decided to go along to an expedition day to see how the Z06 would do on a glorified indian lap Whilst doing so the expedition day turned into an actual trackday And with the Z06, the nice thing is that instead of cursing the semi-slick-clad, caged up bastards with their unfairly power-to-weighted race cars, you just pass all of them and then get bored and pit out However, it also has put me into the sad contingent of people who have fast cars but no talent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbGxS0W1YzU Also bonus video where I thought my diff had exploded https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxxXOuKr_M4 Interestingly for the event though, looking at the attendance I actually had a pretty middle of the road level of power but generally didn't have any trouble in catching up or passing anyone - could either just be being able to put the power down, or just having more of a death wish. I don't think many cars were actually stock with exception of mine. Spades fucked around with this message at 11:25 on Aug 7, 2016 |
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Aug 7, 2016 09:11
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Some of my passengers on the passenger laps were exciteable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQtEVmjnI3U
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Aug 7, 2016 21:26
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I guess it's interesting in a way that 1:16, while being held up by another car, is a seriously fast laptime (tuned R35 GTRs and M3 GT3 race cars run a 1:13 or so), but that's on half-worn road tires with no aero and bad lines - I wonder if it could do a sub-1:10 with more practice.
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Aug 8, 2016 00:38
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A side effect of the trackday has turned up - a big rear end stone chip that was hiding underneath all the regular track filth on the driver' side door. No damage to the door itself (CF doesn't dent, as it turns out). However I have corollary observations: - non-homo supercars should go to the track as often as possible and thus they dont give a gently caress about stone chips So I'm leaving it as-is for the time being and I might dab some coverup paint over it later but bugger taking it in for panel correction when it's going on the track again in a month's time. Also can you believe people pay real money for fake toasted exhaust tips when they can just make real ones by driving like a mad oval office and burning the poo poo out of their exhaust tips with with massive loving flames (according to the track marshal) on every downshift overrun?  Closer shot of the exhausts. The two center exhausts run with mufflers and (I think) secondary cats while the outside exhausts only have a resonator. I've brightened the exhaust throat so you can see the flappers, which I've permanently bypassed so they don't close at low RPM anymore - all they do now is wobble a bit which apparently gives the crackling noise that drat near every car from the RS3 to the FType has nowdays.  Also, Type R is back from getting its clutch replaced. Turns out it was the original OEM clutch, which means that a car that's been tracked most of its life got almost 150k kilometres on one clutch - standard Honda engineering, basically. Spades fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Aug 13, 2016 |
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Aug 13, 2016 04:03
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First mod for the Z06 is in place - I'll upload some photos later, but basically at the last track day I twice almost blew the engine by shifting into the wrong column due to the pretty vague definition of the stock shifter. As such, I went out and ordered a MGW short shifter which comes with an extremely solid feeling linkage. It is also VERY loud. This is good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDadP4k-2l4 CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK CHOK shaw brothers 1960 (tm) and (c) On a side note, during the installation process almost every single hardware issue imaginable struck and the three hour installation exploded into a 20 hour action fest of swearing and thrown spanners and split shift boots and RTV just being pumped onto everything, which is par for the course with me really. I also recently got a basic dyno run done, which reveals that my Z06 is in fact a ringer and apparently making 680 crank horsepower according to the tech:  this is ok i am ok with this. Spades fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Sep 3, 2016 |
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Sep 3, 2016 13:11
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iwentdoodie posted:It's still cool/cold there, right? I'm curious to see if you have issues when it gets warm out. I haven't got the videos uploaded, but after driving the car hard for 30 minutes I managed to overheat it. I gave it five minutes to cool down and it was good for another 15 or so laps - it didn't overheat for the rest of the day. Ambient temp was about 20 degrees out which isn't as high as California though. Having done the research before buying the car I knew about the potential already and also know that the fix is way simpler than you'd think - pretty much, the car has a V6 Camaro radiator in it for some drat reason and you can replace that with a big-rear end three row DeWitts block to remove the problem entirely. Really, the overheating thing is way overblown in an odd way - you don't hear the same complaints about say, the Cayman and GTR's auto transmission overheating issues, yet those are just as big of an issue. I think that due to the Corvette's dad-car / easy hateable status it's something that people obsess over - kind of like the mustang crashes deal. Spades fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Sep 4, 2016 |
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Sep 4, 2016 03:11
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iwentdoodie posted:Oh, it's not hating for me. I just live in an area with a lot of them, and they're pretty common to see out there so I've seen it happen a lot. Might have mis-stated - more that there's a cachet of people who'll go out of their way to try to find issue with Corvettes in general. I gave some thought to the hatedom and stigma that comes with the car after I decided to buy one and found it interesting - I think some if it is well placed around the stereotypes of owners (and most of them being fat, bald and 67), but I think that the actual stigma runs a bit deeper against what the car itself stands for. In a some ways it's an illusion-ruining car for young adult, middle class aspirational living - it's an almost entirely classless 'blue collar' car which is, by and large, faster on both the road and track than anything 'exotic' which costs less than a million dollars, whilst being powered by an 'old fashioned' pushrod engine (which happens to have one of the highest power-to-weight and efficiency ratings of any production engine to date) and riding on 'ox cart' leaf spring suspension (which happens to be better than practically any suspension on the market). As such, I could see it being a threatening multiplier of cognitive dissonance for anyone who's bought anything from a Focus ST through to a Ferrari 458. I think that it's common to try to think of traditional premium or technologically complicated cars in a particularly high-nosed manner, yet cars like the Corvette and Viper violently subvert the classic expectations. On top of this, a lot of car fans generally tend to be a immature and hold strong brand allegiances and a simplistic interest in what car is the "fastest" or "coolest" and so on. On the flipside, I think that after owning a Corvette it's impossible not to be a bit iconoclastic towards traditional 'premium' marques - particularly considering that I bought my Z06 brand new for less than the price of an entry level non-S Cayman. On the other hand, it has enhanced my appreciation for the non-performance elements of cars like the Type R; raw performance is one thing, but how a car achieves it is interesting as well. what im saying is that i dont know what to say really so i wrote a bunch of words
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Sep 4, 2016 09:00
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Phone posted:It sounds you're on the cusp (if not already all-in) on the realization that it's rewarding to do more with less than it is to do less with more. More of a middle-of-the-road appreciation for cars bought on by having one of the fastest ones you can buy and the realization that having 650+hp actually doesn't feel as scary or as fast as you'd think - but having driven 1000+hp drag cars beforehand, this wasn't a huge surprise. Straight line acceleration at even <3sec to 60 is incredibly boring after you've experienced it once or twice - what interested me in the Z06 was the dynamics. But now having experienced dynamics better than any other car I've driven, the differences that other cars offer seem to be more pronounced than ever. For example - the Integra's brutally sharp suspension and front steering feedback makes the car more communicative about its grip than anything else. An S2000 I drove recently required extremely deft use of the gearbox to deliver any power at all to the road, and that S14 I posted earlier, even with an automatic gearbox, practically oversteers at walking speed due to its peculiar suspension geometry. These nuances are not something that exists in the Z06, and while it is a fantastic allrounder, you simply can't have one car do everything. For a long time I was convinced I wanted a 991 Porsche Turbo for this end, but a car trying to do everything doesn't do anything particularly well. As for the less with more - there's some truth that driving a slow car fast is enjoyable, but driving a fast car fast makes you feel like a norse berserking slavering lunatic but sadly priapism is not a medical condition that is covered by most health insurers.
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Sep 5, 2016 11:26
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Photo time: Initial removal of the topmost parts of the console, exposing a bit of the trans tunnel and the electrics. Wiring loom isn't too much of a pain with connectors that don't need a screwdriver or a hammer to break them loose, while the clips that hold the trim on thankfully come out with damaging anything (though they have a habit of all letting go at once which is kind of pucker-inducing when it happens).  Close shot of the upper boot on the stock shifter handle. This is the first part to go as part of the swap since its being bound to the shifter handle literally leads to the stock shifter's slightly rubbery feeling. They tend to also self-destruct over time which makes shifting feel nicer after a while.  Annoyingly, the tutorial was written for pre-Z06 C7s which use ladder pins rather than punchpins to hold some of the electrics in place. While I'd later decide to just gently caress it and slice the punchpins' asses off with my leatherman, I wasn't keen to start stabbing away at a supercar's electronics with a serrated steakknife. So I improvised by hanging it up with the drawstring out of a pair of pants because gently caress you that's why  Next I Wait what's this     Looks like the transporting over the ocean might have sweated-in enough moisture to rust up the only component in the whole car which is apparently made from the brake discs off of my long lost first car which i thought I had safely abandoned in a salt mine after crashing it into a lemon factory gently caress Did what I could to give it a quick bash with high grain sandpaper, painted on some rust converter and then painted on some black zinc - unfortunately getting at all of it would involved taking the whole dash apart and it's much easier just to treat what's there and then induce alcoholic amnesia so that you forget about the way someday your dashboard will probably just cave in on itself. -- Removed the second rubber boot from the shifter and removed the shifter box from the transmission. What they don't tell you in the tutorial is that you're meant to put the transmission into neutral before you do this (I did not) and that the linkage rod horseshoe clip will fall into the torque tube surround tunnel and that when this happens you will want to kill everybody. So half way through installing then new shifter later, I had to take it apart because I'd been trying to set the deadzone to be in 4th.  Also, because of the way you've removed the thicker of the two shifter boots, MGW has you install a bunch of heat shields and sound deadening here. Forgot to take a photo since I was hilariously tired at the time and got started again on this in the morning, so have a stupid picture of a cat instead  I then assembled most of the new shifter. For reference, here's an indication of the differences in quality between the two:  On the left is the stock shifter box, and on the right the MGW model. Besides being made from prettier colors (vitally important in performance supercar components), it also doesn't look like it fell off a kalashnikov back during the Sarajevian civil war. Compared to the stock shifter box, it has two double-row plastic bushings (instead of a single single-row metal bushing), nearly zero clearance between the linkage connecting rod and its bushing (stock had some play), and its transmission tunnel mounts are solid-bushing instead of rubber (giving you more feedback from the driveline). Anyway, the only thing remaining was to insert the assembled shifter stick into the gaping transmission-hole. After minor amounts of panic and fitting, re-fitting, quintupple-re-fitting and spending half an hour to find the threadlocker so that the linkage horseshoe doesn't fall off, I got the thing installed properly, obsessive-compulsive style. Testing the new shifting feel at this point may have taken up a portion of the afternoon. Anyway, before you put the interior back together, they have you And immediately this happened  gently caress Basically, the shifter boot is a rubber membrane glued to a plastic frame, and this particular membrane probably hadn't been glued with hard enough epoxy from the factory. I tried aralditing it back together with the aid of an oven to set the glue, but the fit was simply too tight and it ripped free again. At this point I adopted a stance of 'loving gently caress this in the oval office this has taken longer than doing an engine rebuild', and just pumped a load of instagasket RTV rubber across the split, levelled it off with a paint scraper and let it tack up. Thankfully, it would turn out later that this did the job perfectly and didn't let any sound into the cabin. And finally my shifter is now like thiiiiiiiis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDadP4k-2l4 Really, while I've never been entirely sold on the concept of short shifters, the stock shifter's fundamental tolerances aren't really up to what I wanted (having come from a Type R, which are cars which generally have been agreed to having the best gearbox feel in any car ever made) and this one brings them into the same ballpark as the Integra. I would probably prefer a slightly longer throw to the rod but the definition it gives to shifting is a lot more helpful than the stock shifter. Spades fucked around with this message at 08:46 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 08:40
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Since I have a set of semi slicks sitting around half worn, I've decided to free the space in my garage up via a track day next Wednesday. Good news, forecast is set to 'ultra rain'. probably going to die
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Sep 6, 2016 23:30
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sharkytm posted:
Yeah, I don't literally shift like I'm trying to rip the gear lever in half and turn the syncros into pulp, but for the sake of a video, nice little clicks just weren't gonna do it. I also fed my forks and gently pet them afterwards assuring them more abuse was not coming Spades fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Sep 7, 2016 |
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Sep 7, 2016 03:35
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your shift forks, but that's a very precise sounding (and likely feeling) shifter.
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interwhat posted:Just wanted to chime in and say you're awesome and also: that rust most likely won't go any further than that, I've seen plenty of cars, primarily the dash beam- I guess you'd call it, with rust that looks like that. To echo another poster, it probably won't go beyond that stage. Also, I think your commodore is leaking fluid into the tie rod boots. Yeah, I suspect they'll be fine - just a long term project of an HQ Holden (apparently made from panels discarded from the Lancia factory for rusting too fast) has led me to treat even the smallest of rust like you'd treat the smallest of ball cancer. also those are factory leaks and I wish them to be kept for classic value no lowballers I know what I got
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Sep 7, 2016 03:42
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Small storytime: I went for a little shakedown (no video, sadly) to see how the new shifter would feel when driven in anger a bit. When I was getting on the grid, a Lamborghini Gallardo driver distinctly saw me and suddenly pulled back out of the grid and pitted out. sweet That reminds me - I haven't actually had a chance to go up against any other supercars besides an R35 GTR on the track yet which is a bit lame. The GTR driver was a bit timid and I passed him very quickly so hopefully next time will be more interesting. Spades fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Sep 8, 2016 |
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Sep 7, 2016 03:43
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