Paulo P

Today I was at Brands Hatch with a couple of friends to help set up an R33 Skyline GTR for its first time attack outing this Sunday. We attended the drivers briefing and I signed on as a driver just in case

First off we had issues with a misfire when coming on boost so I decided to remove the plugs & gap them because they hadn't been gapped. We gapped them to just under .7mm and out we went but it was still missing on boost unless you came on boost gently then it cleared

My friend had a session booked with an instructor but he only got half way through that session before his catch tank filled up with oil It turns out the oil level was too high because he has a big wing sump on the car and it doesn't hold as much oil as it should do.

We emptied the tank and took to the track again to try and get some laps in and to see how it handled, he wasn't confident in the handling but it was completely incident free He then went out on his own and we did a little timing to see how fast he was lapping and he was running 1:00 to 1:01 but suddenly he disappeared We ran to the back of the pit garages and there he was sat on the grass on the Cooper straight The car had coughed and died It was towed back to the pits and after we replaced a fuse for the fuel pumps he went out for 2 more laps until it died again, this time he was lucky enough to roll it into the pit garage.

We decided over lunch that we would try and fix the car and with the help of Abbey Motorsport we found the issue and that was that the standard fuel pump controller wasn't earthed. It still uses the in tank pump as a lift pump and external pumps for a swirl pot.

Once that was fixed we went off for more fuel and I was chatting to him about the cars behaviour and he wasn't confident to push it too hard in case the back end broke away. He had already said before Dinner that I could go out next so I jumped in the car on my own and out I went I only did about 4-5 laps just to see how it handled, once I was happy I pulled back into the pits to take him out for a demonstration and I was told that on my 2nd flying lap I'd done a 56.1!!!!! I couldn't believe it because I'd never driven Brands before, I'd never driven the car before and I hadn't ever driven a car with that amount of power, the highest power car I had driven was 365bhp and this is 600! I wasn't even trying to go hard or set a time! We went out onto the track and just messing about powersliding around every single bend to show him what the car does when it looses grip and I clocked a 58 second lap I decided the car was all over the place at the back end and the tyres went off too quickly so I softened the rear suspension & lowered the rear tyre pressures and my friend went out to see how it felt.

He returned to the pits much happier with the changes I'd made My friend decided to strap the bullet cam into the car and we would go out again this time with me driving & I'm downloading the video now. Instantly I could tell that the changes had made a big difference to the way the car handled and I was just playing for the camera. For the last Session my friend got back into the car and you could see instantly that he was more confident in the bends and the times started to come down, the best time we clocked was a 56.5

What a day, I had no idea I could jump into an unknown car on track and be on the pace so quickly, I just need to track my car now

rapidcossie

Sounds like you can handle a car mate, well done!

Any pics of the skyline?

As for the oil did you not dip it after filling up and notice it had too much oil in it?

J1mbo

iTrader: (1)

sounds like a good day
but tbh the times for a 600bhp car isnt very impressive
rod birley in his 500bhp car does 51's ?!!!!

Paulo P

We didn't until we noticed that it was filling the catch can, as soon as we noticed we got the excess oil out (through the catch can ) and once the level was correct it stopped doing it

I've just seen the video and I'll upload it to youtube and post it later

Paulo P

I wasn't out to set times, if you had seen how the car was handling and the way I was driving it you'll understand. I think the last lap on the video was also a 56 second one I've also never driven that car, track or done many track days before

J1mbo

iTrader: (1)

ah right i thought it was there to set time lol
well a 56 for someone with not a lot of experience is blood good then !!!

Paulo P

No I don't have much track experience at all I've done 2 sessions of a track day at Bruntingthorpe, 2 public sessions at Silverstone and 2 laps of the ring and that is it

Here is the video, It's the whole video so you might want to ignore the 1st part where my mate was playing with the camera. The 1st lap was to get the car warm, then the action starts properly on the 3rd lap Shame the oil temps went so high so quickly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4WNWR1k8tk

J1mbo

iTrader: (1)

awsome looked fun ! any pics of the out side of the car ?

Paulo P

Yes but they are still on the camera because I've not downloaded them yet I'll get them up tomorrow. Sorry it's been busy

Paulo P

Here are my photos from yesterday. Check out my mates face as he sees Oil everywhere



I don't know why he was looking like that, we had just cleaned it up really







Terry B went out for a passenger ride