Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[Ants]

Hello,

Awesome build thread.

Just a quick question, I see that you have cut the side of the mudguard off where the plastic clips use to reside. Is this going to be issue since your mudguard will be exposed to water, dirt, dust etc...

Only reason I am asking is because I would like to do the same thing but I'm concerned about dirt and water going behind the mudguard where electrics and other wires are also located.

[S13Jordie]

Always Enjoy these Write-ups. Your Brake cooling panels gave me an idea.

[MarusGTR]

I'm so jelly about the condition of your car, no surface rust on the subframes or anything

Good stuff btw, how much downforce do you think the front canards pull and did you check if your bumper could hold it without warping?

EDIT:

PS, for track brake dust I find canadian tire's brand brake cleaner, Certified IIRC, is so weak that it breaks up the dust with one wipe without damaging the paint.

For the love of god don't underestimate the real stuff though, being used to the Certified brand I got sloppy wiping my rotors with Gunk cleaner and it was melting the paint off my calipers lol.

[frankiman]

Chapter 49 - Keep on rollin'


disclaimer :
the following story depicts actions that occured on July 28 and august 5 2011
details are recalled purely from memory, so F off if it doesn’t seem perfectly accurate

so on the last update, i talked about my front wheels rubbing inside the fenders in tight corners during spirited driving

so i picked up a friend's westwood fender roller and heat gun;



it was missing nut cups, so i had to improvise and use multiple washer to be able to bolt the roller on the hub;



to make sure the radius of the roller would roller a good part of the fender, i had to unscrew the nuts of the top plate and lower it by almost an inch,

i only rolled both front fenders since the rears were done in 2009 at Autoworx

but in theory, the front fenders would be much easier to roll than the rears since the front GTR fenders are made of aluminum
but by doing it on my own, i got pretty though, since normally one person holds the heat gun and keeps hot air on the fenders to make sure the paint is soft and doesn't chip/crack, while the other person adjust the roller and puts pressure on it and actually rolls the fenders

so on my own, i had to heat the area i would roll for about a minute or twom then roll it, then swtich between rolling and heating while changing the pressure and angle on the roller till i had the right shape

i only rolled the top 60deg on the fenders, since its the area where the wheels (tires) are mostly to rub

i rolled the fenders to get the smallest possible angle, almost a full 180deg, making the most space possible for the wheels under compression

this is a transition between a rolled and un-rolled section;



since on the GTR, the front fender lines are clipped on the fenders on the inside, you actually have to remove the clips, than to make space, so the liners don't hang outside the wheel wells, i took a knife and cut a full inch off the edge on the whole liner;



and this is the final result, alot more space is obtaine;



and... to make even more space, and since the fender are aluminum, i kept the roller at the most extreme angle, but added ALOT more pressure so to pull the fenders outwards,
i could actually see the whole fender warp while moving back and forth with the roller

doing this, i gained a full 1/8th inch, you can see the outward bulge in the fender;




while working inside the fender wells, i saw that my custom ghetto plastic sheild, keeping rocks and dirt from beeing thrown inside the front diffuser;



but almost, i could easily be seen that my tires were rubbing on the front of the liners


then i cleaned my already dirty-as-fawk wheels;



but since it was just light dust from street driving, it came off super easy (this time);






next step, was to install some brand new carbon fiber pieces; front bumper canards, and vortex generator add-ons for the top secret style rear diffuser;



i got these canards from Yahoo Auction Japan, thru Adam@Feast, since i couldn't find any BNR32 specific canards anywhere on the web, of course you can trust the japanese to make these unique parts

these canards are really well made, 1 piece molded in real thick carbon fiber, a very very ridgid part

to install them, i used photos from the Yahoo auction to position the canard accordingly to hug the contours of the weirdly shape GTR bumper,

the reason for this is that since the canards are so ridgid, i wanted to make them fit as close to the bumper as possible so it would be easier to close the gap between the canard and bumper



i started by drilling 1 hole at one end, then screwing into the bumper slightly with my own black screws since the provided screws were shiny silver,
then with one end screwed in, i moved the other end up and down, and when i got the right angle, i drilled a second hole and screwed in too,



then with the canards held in place, i drilled the remainded of the holes and screwed them all in little by little to deform the canard and perfectly close the gap;






afterwards, i added the vortex generators top the rear diffuser, a not-so-simple add-on, since both the diffuser and the generators are replicas, made by different manufacturers, it was kinda hard to align the holes (3) all at once with the 3 different parts; the diffuser panel, the rear spats and the generators





then i finished fabricating the brake cooling deflectors, by using neoprene hose clamp the fix them to the tension rods, then custom aluminum brackets bolted to the end of the tension rods underneath the FLCA;





this is what the finished product looked like;







during that week, i did my first track session of the summer, during the Autodrome St-Eustasche lapping evenings

when i got to the track, it started to rain, but since i was already there i decided to go on anyway, and the club wasn't shutting down the session anyway,

so while i was waiting on pit lane, alone, since i had upgraded to the intermediate drivers at the very end of the previous summer, it really, really started to pour

i got pretty extreme as we could see lightning strikes a couple kilometers away, so the organizers said on the loud speaker, that if the lightning didn't come any closer, it would be fine and the event would continue

so i finally get on the track, with the a/c and wipers full on and there is about 3" of water on the track, where some spots are shallower and some deeper;

but with my brand new Dunlop Star Specs, with super deep threads, traction was suprisingly enormous considering the conditions, the tires were evacuating an incredily amount of water,

what was more impressive, is that in those conditions, i was really hauling ass, passing STIs and even a V10 Audi S6, amongst others
(i also found out a week later that my all wheel drive wasn't even functionning properly)

afterwards, the rain came down a bit, and i got to chat with the drivers of the STI and the S6, both told me that because of my rear diffuser, on the straights were i could only reach 120-130 km/h because of the rain, i was pulling a tower of water off the track behind the car, kinda like an F1 car in the wet

but they said that there was so much water, they couldn't see the back of the car at all, only my backfires

when i got home, i realized just how much of an effect the diffusr (and vortex generators) had on the aero of the back of the car
you can clearly see the difference between the back and the sides of the car, pretty incredible



all the water, grime and dirt that was beeing pulled up by the diffuser, would get caught in a low pressure area right behing the trunk created by the interaction of the OEM rear wing and the Nismo trunk lip, and would simply stick to the back of the car,



even the wheels got super dirty during the track session;







lastly, i tried cleaning my Koyo aluminum radiator by using a microfiber rag and metal polish;



it worked so well, i tried it on my muffler, but it didn't work so well;






on the next update, i'll talk about the last time i went to a car wash, and why i never go anymore;




keep posted, another update will follow next week
thanks for reading

[NismoS-tune]

Same clutch club ftmfw! Best performance clutch I've ever felt.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Same here!!!







Until I sold it and got myself a Carbonetic twin that is! Booyah

[curtisgoodman]

I'm a little late but the nismo twin copper mix clutch is very close to stock feel and holds the power it states plus a bit

+1 for nismo twin

and Frankiman very epic thread keep up the good work!

[frankiman]

for the amount of time it would take to make this into a paper/book format... people wouldn't want to pay the price i'd charge
maybe i could start something on Kickstarter

[MattiasJacobs]

Time to write a best selling novel! Haha I'm just kidding. I know it's been mentioned and how you feel about it.

[frankiman]

"officially the most viewed thread on GTRC since sunday january 20th 2013"

[nimblestix]

Nismo Twin Copper Mix

Same clutch club ftmfw! Best performance clutch I've ever felt.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[frankiman]

Nismo Twin Copper Mix

[ihaveagtr]

...And what's that clutch again?

[garetth]

The way back was so freaking long. I was alone and rigged my steering lock bar between gas pedal and seat to have a ghetto cruise control.

Sounds dangerous

[Oakville]

so i had the chance to chat with Matty, Daryl, Ryan and Harvey for awhile, which was super cool,
even let Ryan and Harvey drive my car back and forth in the parking lot to try my awesome clutch, which to this day i still don't think they can beleive how great it is

I remember this. To this day, nicest clutch I've driven. Not to mention the nismo solid shifter, just wow!

[archaeic_bloke]

Nice comeback Frank! lol

YOOOO the reason I HAD to comment was because that's my first GTR yo!! The red one, with black spoiler.
hahahah check it out: http://www.skylife4ever.com/2011/01/first-gtr.html


I will hand it to the new owner, it's looking BEAUTIFUL! Great job!! it looks better now then when I owned her. Glad to see she's still kickin' hard!

Great story Frank, can't wait till it's fully up to date!