Hi



This is a professional video of the Snowy Mountains 1000, I'm interviewed. https://youtu.be/vw-HameNCl0


Steve

Very cool report and great they interviewed you!
Good speed!

thanks, the guy who interviewed me is a friend of my son, he works at Turbosmart and they have been really helpful

Great stuff Steve :D

Holy crap Steve!! You went 148mph! I bet you were getting close to a dimensional shift at that speed!

Nice!

Thanks, lots more in it I cant wait till next time in November, 148 mph sounds faster that 236 kph somehow

thats awesome! was cool to put a face to your amazing car after watching the video.

Thanks, as you can see Im an old bloke, but love my cars

Hi

I went to Sydney Motorsport Park soon for a twilight supersprint on the Gardener circuit.

I've recently done some suspension improvements and I have about 70 more kilowatts so I was expecting to have some fun.

Well lots more kilowatts and a wet track dont go well together, I was running on low boost for two laps in the rain got overconfident and put the boost up to the next level lost traction and hit the wall coming onto the main straight.

I bent a lower control arm, broke the bottom off a strut, creased the front 1/4 panel, broke two mudguards and a headlight but worst of all is I bent the chassis at the torsion bar housing and the front part of chassis where the sway bar bolts on.

I always regretted putting so much weight in steel into my chassis, so I have a spare chassis that I was saving for a rainy day at the side of my garage, it will get modified with less steel this time, I will be doing much the same as Ricola did with his chassis.

Steve

Ugh Steve! That poor, fine car of yours. Too bad for your car you're a man of action. Alas, I bet it was fun.

That sucks Steve, are you sure the body isn't twisted?

Damn! That sucks! Good to hear repairs are already in the planning.

Thanks guys, still pulling it apart but the body looks OK.

Rich is it OK if I send you an email with few questions about your chassis mods?

Ah, dam Steve, sorry to here about that mate :( Good luck with the re build

thanks Graham, I will make it better and hopefully lighter, so I will be adding some light weight for more power.

What I plan to change is a less complicated chassis mods like Ricola did, I had rear toe out issues which was caused when the chassis was cut and re welded, I also want to move my motor forward about another 20 mm and move my gearshifter forward as well, it ended up too far back.

Hi

A few photos,

the impact moved the torsion bar housing back a bit
http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/...y.jpg~original

broke a brand new Koni
http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/...k.jpg~original

side view
http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/...m.jpg~original

bent LCA
http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/...p.jpg~original

damage to front 1/4
http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/...7.jpg~original

damn this really sucks to see. best of luck with the repairs

Wow, that LCA is really bent.

I'm sure you were starting to get bored (as I am!) when everything works... Good opportunity for some other mods like you say! Will you need to go through all your engineering inspections again?

The new pan Im going to use is very rusty (wink wink) in a certain area is so I will need to repair that area with piece from the old pan.

I was really finally getting some things sorted so it will be good to take some weight out of the car. What did your car weigh in at again Ric? Mine was 1160 kgs

I was getting toe in when the car was jacked up and if I pushed the car up and down you could see the toe changing, so I refitted a tie rod re locater as seen in this picture and also unflipped my tie rod ends, it was perfect after I did this

http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/...1.jpg~original

Bugger... :(

Owh, that's bad news, it's horrible to see your beautiful car like that. :(
Good luck with the rebuild, make it better and stronger!

You were OK after the crash?

Mine was 1200kg wet with a full tank, not light but the power more than compensates! 60/40 weight distribution, that was on the MOT scales so possibly not very accurate. I did pick the heaviest bug ever produced by the factory to start with...

I'm sure you broke the G50 too...Dang it, I guess you're gonna need a reverse R&P Subi trans

:mad: wow, no matter how you feel you can handle it, that was your baby dude. Sorry for your loss man.

Weird, thought I replied days ago. Sorry to read about the hit, you obviously went in HARD!

May I suggest, in addition to the obvious pan/suspension repairs, that you seriously consider replacing both your harness belts and your seat. Harness belts at the very least, and I'd replace the seat to be 100% safe. Both items should be considered "one-use-only" in a crash. I'd also look heavily at your helmet, any scuff marks or signs of impact and you should consider retiring it as well.

-Dave

Hi

No harness, jut a lap & sash inertia reel belt, I will replace it, it was very low speed crash, helmet didn't hit anything.

Powercruise was on this weekend in Sydney, I was going to take my Beetle to it but that wasn't going to happen, so my son found this little beauty for me, a Nissan 180 SX, came with a healthy SR20DET, 3 inch turbo back exhaust, two sets of wheels, new coil overs etc.

Fixed a few little issues, rego on Friday, did several cruise sessions and my son did about 3 hours of drifting with it and it didn't have any problems, its a bit gutless after my Beetle but its a really nice car to drive.

I plan to do a few speed events in it and my son is going to help me learn to drift

Steve

http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/...a.jpg~original

I forgot to mention this, I fitted some of Lanners heavy duty tie rods when I built the car, outer tie rod snapped inner one bent, Lanners tie rods looks like new

Hi

Car is at the panel shop now, working on the new chassis but I found another problem, the G50 bell housing is cracked very badly, anybody know anybody that might have one?



http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/...j.jpg~original

http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/...c.jpg~original

sorry about the crappy phone pics

The G50 bellhousing is not a seperate part like it is on a T2 transmission, so you basically need the total gearstack housing casing.
I'd say thats usually another tranny as the new Porsche part for that will surely be expensive. Maybe search for a G50 with an internal problem?
Very sorry to see the damage is more then sheetmetal :-(

Can it be welded? Or did it damaged the gear stack supporting areas?

Hi Wally

The damage is only to the bell housing area but the main shaft is offset slightly, I'm hoping that is in the bell housing distortion, the left hand axle hit the centre bolt in the drive flange. The Porsche specialist was telling me that he had a customer who needed one and he bought a re welded one from the US for $1700 US plus shipping.

Steve

You are my hero!
Not only did you just build it and race it, you pushed it hard enough to wad it up!

Now you rebuild...

Major props.

I'm just a boy.

:eekno: you are kidding aren't you. G-50 in a bug, wonderful. That was not a smash up bang up ride. Somewhere in Steve's personal space that hurt. That whole rebuild is going to Cost$$$. Smash up bang up cars, were already banged up. Or, is this the phrase "break a leg", that actors use?

Thanks guys, a lot people build tough cars but they are not always driven hard.

I think apart from too much boost in the wet is that I built so much grip into the car it felt invincible: in the dry and being a nice car I avoided driving in the rain.

I feel that I have only been pulling things apart on the car, so no actual progress, tomorrow I start on the pan, so a gradual putting it back together again.

I have some good ideas about how to tackle the G50 fitment and make it better than before, I will post photos etc as I go.

A sad and tough break that Steve, Have you looked at the Renault UN1 box? detachable bell housing and all, quite a versatile trans.

Hi

I looked at Reno boxes years ago, pretty rare down here. If the G50 proves to be not an option I might go to one of these http://www.subarugears.com/ not as heavy duty as a G50 but with a weight saving on the chassis and transmission one might survive.

I like doing this sort of thing https://youtu.be/spgKInSH1D0 and this https://youtu.be/uhgVgzf5oD0 not sure how a Subaru box will handle it.

Steve

One thing I don't like is the Subaru hypoid r&p for correct drive shaft alignment tho, I looked at them when I built my 4x4 Rallycross '03 and had an option with used prodrive development 'boxes, at cost obviously�� but the positioning was all wrong for my requirements, it forced the trans/motor install up too high for me, hope you get it sorted whatever option you go. ��

Not been on here for ages due to moving abroad . Sorry to see so much damage to your car Steve good luck with the re build dude.

Thanks Graham, I'm still waiting to see how welding goes on the housing, I've been talking to Todd at Subaru gears. If the welding of the bellhousing is unsuccessful I might go 6 speed Suabru with one of the new forged R&P