Imports

[Revheadnz]

 

[niky]

I'm surprised you don't have to fit a couch.

Them's fighting words, skinny!

Should've taken pics when we did that Picanto test two years back. 450 pounds in the front seats and fifty lunches in the back.... the two of us laughing like loons...

-

Totally on-topic:

Thread needs more Sentra. And if they're reposts... well... it needs more Sentra, anyway.

 

[Stotty]

Them's fighting words, skinny!

Should've taken pics when we did that Picanto test two years back. 450 pounds in the front seats and fifty lunches in the back.... the two of us laughing like loons...

6'3" & 195lbs... so guilty as charged

The seats in my Mondeo would be made for you... I rattle around in them round the bends as although they look sporty, they are far too wide for my boney ass. You'd probably struggle to fit in the Porsche though... very narrow around the lower back area!

On topic...

The silver Celica and RAUH-Welt 911... lovely 👍

 

[niky]

6'3" & 195lbs... so guilty as charged

The seats in my Mondeo would be made for you... I rattle around in them round the bends as although they look sporty, they are far too wide for my boney ass. You'd probably struggle to fit in the Porsche though... very narrow around the lower back area!

Hey, I'm not that chubby... ...I'll fit in anything stock and most aftermarket racing seats, even those with high side rails. I'm just not comfortable in them.

 

[CodeRedR51]

6'3" & 195lbs... so guilty as charged

*cough*5'6 & 130lbs*cough*

 

[Stotty]

*cough*5'6 & 130lbs*cough*

Booster seat?

 

[homeforsummer]

Heh. 5'8" and 140lb here, always been very comfortable in any racing seat I've sat in.

 

[niky]

Last time I was 140, Bush was still President.

No, not that one... his Dad.

Booster seat?

Okay, now you're just being mean.

-

I know it's not done yet, but anyone else interested in seeing how this project turns out?

And if the engine looks unfamiliar, it usually goes in one of these:

 

[CodeRedR51]

Ah yes, more Sentra's indeed:

 

[Stotty]

Last time I was 140, Bush was still President.

No, not that one... his Dad.



Okay, now you're just being mean.

-

I know it's not done yet, but anyone else interested in seeing how this project turns out?

And if the engine looks unfamiliar, it usually goes in one of these:

I've seen quite a few bike engined cars over the years... the most impressive was a Westfield (Caterham 7 rip-off) with a highly tuned Hayabusa engine... around 550kg and c.200bhp... went like stink and made the most amazing noise!

Thing with bike engines is whilst they can make lots of power, they make no torque (relatively speaking), which is fine when the bike + rider weighs <300kg... but put them in a car weighing >1,000kg and they are generally useless.

Suppose you could alway slap a turbo on... I think a turbo conversion for the Busa engine is relatively common.

 

[exigeracer]

Nice set of B13 photos. Good Sentra photos are hard to come by!

 

[niky]

Indeed... with the death of NPM and the decline of some of the old tuner sites, it's incredibly hard to find clean Sentra pics nowadays.

When did they successfully transplant a VQ into the B14? Why was I not informed!?!?! Awesome... the B15 VQ swap was incredible enough... but this?

And anything that fits a B14 fits the "Classic"...

I've seen quite a few bike engined cars over the years... the most impressive was a Westfield (Caterham 7 rip-off) with a highly tuned Hayabusa engine... around 550kg and c.200bhp... went like stink and made the most amazing noise!

Thing with bike engines is whilst they can make lots of power, they make no torque (relatively speaking), which is fine when the bike + rider weighs <300kg... but put them in a car weighing >1,000kg and they are generally useless.

Suppose you could alway slap a turbo on... I think a turbo conversion for the Busa engine is relatively common.

Don't underestimate these guys. They're certified insane, and they have a captive machine shop and computer design.

What they're planning to do (well... doing already) is to attach the drivetrain to the input shaft, which is on a reduction gear from the engine. So while the engine will be fairly screaming along at 10,000 rpm, the flywheel and (Miata) transmission will think it's only at 6,000 or so. This gear reduction also increases wheel torque.

Probably not going to be the fastest build ever (it's still merely a 170 hp 1.3 liter engine in a 1,000 kg car), but it's going to be interesting to see what comes out at the other end of the process. This may be the first time a Hayabusa engine has been mated to a proper full-sized automobile transmission.

 

[Stotty]

Will it actually be able to generate enough torque to spin up the cars flywheel

I'll be interested to see how it actually drives... it's obviously a lot of work to do 'just to see if it can be done', but they should really slap a turbo on it as well.

 

[niky]

I'm pretty sure the turbo's going to happen, eventually, given the nutjobs in charge.

Interestingly:

The Hayabusa engine doesn't have that much less flywheel torque than the stock Miata engine... which would mean it'd accelerate slightly slower, but for twice as many revs. Thus, the issue with many motorbike engined cars that aren't ultra-light tracksters... poor low-speed performance, but great up top... especially if they use a long-geared motorbike box. And such boxes tend to break when asked to haul around big, heavy cars.

Put it through the reduction gear:

And the torque equivalent is nearly 160 ft-lbs... which should give it the performance of a 2.4 or 2.5 liter engine with just half the displacement and much less weight over the front axle than if they were using an actual 2.5. The idea should be validated when they get the car running.

The crazy part is the adapter plate. Most of the time, when you stick an engine to a foreign gearbox, all you need is a flat plate to bolt the engine to on one side and the gearbox on the other... (oh, and machine the output shaft to fit)... since the Haybusa engine was never meant to be mated to a tranny in that manner, their adapter plate is significantly more... significant:

http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_arti...oject-miatabusa-part-2--the-engine-is-in.aspx

I wish I had such cool toys at home.

 

[speed junkie]

Most cars. Not all.

Right, the exception being super cars and some sports cars, such as the Elise, which in that case still have plenty of room for improvement in the suspension category without being "too stiff for the streets."

You've never autocrossed a car on 60-series tires, have you? Most people only play with cars after they've done all the obvious modifications or with good tires. I've gotten to play with various cars bone-stock. I've had rims touching the ground on occasion. Pumping up tires and even playing with mixed inflation rates is a good way to get crisper performance from an unmodified car on the autocross and to even change the handling balance. Don't knock it till you've tried it. Of course, that's not to say that as much air as possible is good... there's always such a thing as too much. But if the sidewall is soft enough to allow your wheel to touch tarmac at stock pressures, you can get a whole lot of extra performance by experimenting with better pressures.

No I haven't but I know what you mean. The previous owner of my first Miata had installed some 17s with very low profile, s**ty tires. That is one obvious example of when you can have way too thin of a tire. The ride was harsh (and this is on stock suspension) and the sidewalls must have been no thicker than the dollar bill that bought them. I took it to an autocross and after explaining to everyone that the hideous 17s had been installed by the previous owner and that I was in the process of getting new wheels I took it for a run The rim would scrape every time it would do the "skipping" thing you mentioned. The car handled horribly. I also drove it at the local mountain road and the same was true just at higher speeds Also Ive driven my car on stock civic HX wheels and tires when I had stock suspension and never had the rubbing problem. But I think what may make the difference is that it wasn't at an autocross and involved much higher speeds. They were never "sticky" enough to flex the sidewall enough for the rim to contact the ground.

Either way, I have no choice but to take your word for it. The whole pumping up tires thing, that is. You have done it, I have not. I was just never one to mess around too much with tires past the point of their optimum pressure.

True enough. A Miata is actually wonderfully pliant. Enough so that adding ultra-sticky tires to it bone-stock is enough to ruin the experience if you don't upgrade the suspension to suit. But for the tires that come stock with the Miata, and even slightly better ones, the suspension is more than enough.

I agree. First set of tires I got were BF Goodrich G-Force Sport (205/50/15). And they were great tires for what they were meant to be. Definitely nothing too outlandish for the stock suspension. By the time I moved up to Azenis, Ecsta XSs, and now R888s I had coilovers and sway bars.

Though, actually... such suspensions are the reason why I said what I said when we started this off-topic discussion (which is a fun enough diversion that it deserves its own thread). I've driven lots of modern stock cars. A bunch of them on track. And more of them off-track but in a spirited manner. Now, manufacturers, hoping for a good review, will sometimes give us stock cars kitted with bigger wheels, wider tires and sometimes (but too rarely for my tastes) with suspensions upgraded to match. And thanks to the advent of "tuner tires" (which I mentioned earlier), they give us these big rims with the same tire type and compound as the boggo standard edition.

Some cars can use the additional tire (especially if the stock on has crap sidewalls). Some just can't. I've driven boats on plus-1 or plus-2 rims (plus 2 is the biggest that most consider acceptable). And they were still boats. Only now, when they lost adhesion, they'd unpredictably skip like skateboards at the edge of adhesion, where, on the stock fitment, they'd simply slide in a calm and predictable manner.

I agree.

They can be stiffer because you can adjust them to suit each and every stage.

That's the thing, stages aren't like tracks, they don't loop around and repeat (at least not in the manner that a circuit does.) So the objective of setting up a damper as intricately as you would on a circuit for the purpose of optimizing the handling characteristics for the most important sections is virtually non-existent in rally. I'm not saying the dampers aren't adjusted to the best of a drivers judgement but not in the way that would make it somehow an exception for why they can be as stiff as they are. Not to mention they rarely get out of the car between each and every stage to make adjustments to a 4-way damper until they reach a service station. The 4-ways (or more) of adjustment are there to modify the same forces that a single-adjustable damper sees and, more often than not, those dampening forces are very similar to a well designed single-adjustable damper anyways.

All road-going suspensions are compromises. With a non-adjustable damper, you can have it riding great when it's just you, then it's too soft when you have a full load. It'll ride great on the highway, but not on a back-road. It'll ride great on a back-road, but be too wallowy on the highway, or oscillate terribly over high-speed ruts and bumps. With my adjustable dampers, I find myself changing settings every other day to suit where I'll be driving for that day.

Remember, it isn't the dampers fault (association, not causation) for the car feeling softer with more weight on it. It's the springs as they are what support the cars weight. Without them the shocks would just bottom out.

And with my Ohlins I don't need to bother with any adjustments besides making them "stiffer" when I install the r-comps and back down when I install the all-seasons. And right now I'm driving them with the all-seasons and the setting I had for the r-comps and its really not hopping around at all. Good dampers will perform well in almost any situation. As mine do.

It's very rare to come upon a suspension that gets everything absolutely perfect without adjustability. And even then, opinions will differ over what's perfect. Perfect comfort for everyone will not always mean perfect performance.

Well as far as I know all aftermarket coilovers have rebound adjustability. even some Koni replacement dampers are adjustable.

They sort of are. Especially after that last typhoon. I hate taking my cars out now... the dirt is killing my tires, and last time I went out, I got a tree branch stuck in my subframe.

Well that sucks

I've seen this car in person. Came to the open house at Flyin' Miata last year. (he's running one of our turbo kits)

So you work at FM, I see. 👍👍 to that.

What year car? I figure since it was on the floor, must have been a 90-93, which is where Mazda put it. He must have been missing the metal panel that covers it.

It's a 90, and the metal panel was taken off a while back I simply have never gotten to put it back on

Gotta check those out... I do recall sitting in the SPARCO copy of one before, but it was too tight for me... I do like the reclinable Recaros, though... just enough support... but not all-encompassing tightness.

A good race seat that fits you like it should will not feel cramped or uncomfortable at all. The Recaro Pole position is too large for me. I'm 5' 6 or 7" and weigh around 135. I'm too short and definitely too thin for it but its still the best seat I've sat in. That is, until I sat in a Recaro Profi/SPG. It was amazing and it felt like I wasn't even sitting down. When you sit in a seat that fits your body as well as it should, only then will you understand what no pressure spots and perfectly distributed loads feels like.

 

[Azuremen]

Either way, I have no choice but to take your word for it. The whole pumping up tires thing, that is. You have done it, I have not. I was just never one to mess around too much with tires past the point of their optimum pressure.

I've run all kinds of crazy pressures in my various cars. Adding 10 psi to any tire, even something like the Kumho XS or RT-615 will make a noticeable difference in response and break away. On my old AW11 I would run 28psi in the front and 45psi in the rear, on old RT-215s. When I autocrossed my old Tercel on some "Performance" All Seasons (think Falken Ziex), I'd generally run 38 up front and 41 in the rear, to assist with rotation of the vehicle.

I made a thread some time ago in regards to autocross, which would be ideal to continue the tire topic if we'd all like...

 

[CodeRedR51]

When did they successfully transplant a VQ into the B14? Why was I not informed!?!?! Awesome... the B15 VQ swap was incredible enough... but this?

This car has been roaming around for a while now. Only VQ B14 that I know of in existence. (and he did the work himself)

So you work at FM, I see. 👍👍 to that.

Thought everyone knew already.

 

[homeforsummer]

And the torque equivalent is nearly 160 ft-lbs... which should give it the performance of a 2.4 or 2.5 liter engine with just half the displacement and much less weight over the front axle than if they were using an actual 2.5. The idea should be validated when they get the car running.

That Miata/Busa (Biata? Musa?) is awesome. Especially considering the power and torque gains.

I wonder how the reduction in weight would feel. Probably makes the car a bit "pointier", given that I don't think the Miata is perfectly 50/50 front to rear. Should be fun! Awesome on the track, though probably drives you mental on the street...

 

[WeinerSchnitzel]

 

[eSZee]

When did they successfully transplant a VQ into the B14? Why was I not informed!?!?! Awesome... the B15 VQ swap was incredible enough... but this?

That does make me want another se-r.

 

[CodeRedR51]

If I had the cash I'd have Travis at Forced Induction Racing do a high compression VQ swap into a B15. Kind of like this:

 

[niky]

Yeah... but the B15 is a jellybean...

Seriously... while a VQ B15 is just as good as a VQ B14 (probably better, even... stiffer chassis, and I like the looks of the non-"nose" models), the B14 swap opens up the possibility of a VQ-powered B13... which would be so cool words can't describe it...

Right, the exception being super cars and some sports cars, such as the Elise, which in that case still have plenty of room for improvement in the suspension category without being "too stiff for the streets."

I'll agree the Elise is not perfect... but it's a good balance.

Now an Evo... och... my aching spine...

That's the thing, stages aren't like tracks, they don't loop around and repeat (at least not in the manner that a circuit does.) So the objective of setting up a damper as intricately as you would on a circuit for the purpose of optimizing the handling characteristics for the most important sections is virtually non-existent in rally. I'm not saying the dampers aren't adjusted to the best of a drivers judgement but not in the way that would make it somehow an exception for why they can be as stiff as they are. Not to mention they rarely get out of the car between each and every stage to make adjustments to a 4-way damper until they reach a service station. The 4-ways (or more) of adjustment are there to modify the same forces that a single-adjustable damper sees and, more often than not, those dampening forces are very similar to a well designed single-adjustable damper anyways.

Ah... but there will be a general theme to the stage. The consistency of the surface, the harshness of the jumps and the general condition of the road. The settings for backroads are obviously different from the settings for some of the hillside tarmac stages, where they can run the cars nearly as stiff as possible. For backroads stuff, they'll set the car to work for the biggest jumps and hope that works all around. Besides... they have in-car adjustability.

Remember, it isn't the dampers fault (association, not causation) for the car feeling softer with more weight on it. It's the springs as they are what support the cars weight. Without them the shocks would just bottom out.

While that's true, you also need to match dampers to weight. more weight requires both more spring and more damper force. It's not the softness per se, though that sucks too, it's just that the damping falls out of sync with the road with different loads.

And with my Ohlins I don't need to bother with any adjustments besides making them "stiffer" when I install the r-comps and back down when I install the all-seasons. And right now I'm driving them with the all-seasons and the setting I had for the r-comps and its really not hopping around at all. Good dampers will perform well in almost any situation. As mine do.

Agreed. Unfortunately, that's very rare to find in stock suspensions, and very difficult to achieve with non-adjustable stock dampers.

Well that sucks

I'd bore you with tales of how my current car has bent or broken at least eight different wheels (wheels... not sets)... but I stopped counting after the last and simply take them to a hydraulic press when they're annoyingly out of round.

A good race seat that fits you like it should will not feel cramped or uncomfortable at all. The Recaro Pole position is too large for me. I'm 5' 6 or 7" and weigh around 135. I'm too short and definitely too thin for it but its still the best seat I've sat in. That is, until I sat in a Recaro Profi/SPG. It was amazing and it felt like I wasn't even sitting down. When you sit in a seat that fits your body as well as it should, only then will you understand what no pressure spots and perfectly distributed loads feels like.

Being 5'5" (5" is close to "a half!" )... or more accurately, 5' 4 3/4ths" (still close!) and over 200 pounds, it's hard for me to find something suitable. What's worse, I'm wide at the shoulders, too, so I find some shoulder-supports annoying (though when they fit, they're a great help!). You're right about the good seats... if the support is just right, it doesn't matter if the seat is stiff... you can drive for hours with no issues.

I know there's a perfect seat out there for me... it's on my list of "must-have" purchases, right after an NA Miata. Though I think the missus would bemoan the seat purchase much less...

 

[CodeRedR51]

Yeah... but the B15 is a jellybean...

Eh, with the right mods they look pretty damn good.

 

[niky]

Eh, with the right mods they look pretty damn good.

I know... the Spec Vs (without the "nose") have always reminded me of R33s. But they're so darn big compared to the old cars...

 

[Blitz187]

I've always wondered... what do these guys do when they encounter a speed bump??? Drive over it diagonally? Avoid it at all costs? Only drive on smooth paved roads making parts of the city unreachable to them?

 

[uk86ze]

Old School Skyline day.

Some more later on, got to get some work done.

 

[Blitz187]

^^^^ NICE

 

[CodeRedR51]

I know... the Spec Vs (without the "nose") have always reminded me of R33s. But they're so darn big compared to the old cars...

They're not too bad. My 2000 weighed in at 2650lbs. Light compared to other small cars now days.

 

[niky]

They're not too bad. My 2000 weighed in at 2650lbs. Light compared to other small cars now days.

Too true. I literally goggled when I first saw the weight quotes for the Mazda3 back when it came out.

And the Focus... last one I drove was around 3200 lbs. And it felt like it.

Actually... that Sentra curb weight would pass for "lightweight" nowadays... as the lightest cars in the class (the Corolla and the Civic) weigh about that much... with puny 1.8 liter engines!

 

[uk86ze]

KPGC110 GTR

KPC10 GTR

tommorow well have some old school Z's