I’ve been racing the Wagon for one year now, and as I’m starting to get my lap times down, I’m dealing with a bit of front end push. The standard solution is to either soften up the front or stiffen up the rear. I went full soft on my front swaybar, and that helped a little. The limited slip diff helped some too. The next step I’ve taken is dropping the front coilover spring rates 50# and added an extention to the front bar to get a couple more adjustments out of it. If that doesn’t do it, I’ll try adding some spring rate to the rear.
This weekend I joined HSR-West at Willow Springs Int’l Raceway for their Fall event. Ed Swart always puts on a nice weekend, and this was no exception. Unfortuantley the tough economy is taking its toll, and participation was smaller than usual. When I started racing cars ten years ago, I used to hope for a small grid like this so I could just learn the line and stay out of trouble. But now I look forward to a packed grid to work on my racecraft and mix it up with my racing buddies. A few other 510s showed up, and we had a grid of 8-10 cars in small-bore production. Dick Jutras even joined us with his gorgeous ’58 Devin Special.
The Wagon ran well all weekend, and my latest radiator upgrade did the trick. The weather was clear and 85 degrees and my water temps were more than 40F cooler leading to 10F cooler oil temps – problem solved. I had the Wagon down in the 1:39s, with my best lap being a 1:39.2. For most of the event I enjoyed racing with Shannon Johnson in his beautifully prepared (and very fast) 510. I tried to bribe him to keep this video of Sunday’s points race off of YouTube, but my cheap offer didn’t do the trick. Please ignore the wagon departing the paved surface in T9 with a lap to go, DOH! Several excuses are available (oil on the line, a broken switch at my feet, etc), and all of them are worth nothing…
As usual, this weekend I was asked several times about how quiet the wagon is. Not only do I run a snorkled airbox, but a pre-muffler after the header and another muffler at the tail. I set it up like this for Laguna Seca trackdays that require very quiet cars, but have grown quite fond of it. It certainly is less fatiguing over the course of a race weekend, and I can hear the competition go on and off the throttle. I do lose a few horsepower, but I’ll just have to make it up elsewhere 
My 40 year old radiator has earned it’s retirement, but I’ll keep it as part of my ‘race spares’ package. It has been replaced with a small, universal aluminum AFCO unit from Summit Racing for about $250. To use it I needed to set up a different mounting system, and change the angles of the inlet/outlet tubes. The Grainger catalog came in handy for the mounting system, and after I cut up some new tubes, my master welder Paul Moore worked his magic on the aluminum. The Wagon’s cooling system has finally joined the 21st century.
Today I put the 4.38 R180 diff back in after converting it to a Limited Slip. I used a Nissan Motorsports 115mm 4 pinion clutch type LSD from Nissan Parts Warehouse. I had John at S.F. Differential shim it up for me to get the correct gear contact pattern. I removed my spare unit which is a welded 4.11 R160. The picture below shows the difference between the two. The R180 on the right is about 10lbs heavier than the R160 at 60lbs, and 1/2″ wider at about 7″ (depending on where you measure it). I have my CV joint adapters in place on the R180 while the R160 is wearing stubaxles. More info here
This weekend I made the trip down to Buttonwillow Raceway to compete in VARA’s annual Octoberfest event (Septemberfest?). The turnout was quite healthy with over 140 competitors, and the wknd featured two special races: the All German Car race and the Formula Vee Challenge. VARA rekindled the Saturday night potluck dinner and it was a smashing success. While the weather was quite hot and humid, 98F and scattered thunderstorms, there were still quite a few spectators in the stands.
This weekend’s groupings had me racing with a different group than usual. I normally race with the B-Sedan and C-Sedan group, but instead GTL was combined with H through D- Prod. It was fun to get to watch the guys I’m usually dicing with, but it left me with less competition in my group. Turned out to be a blessing in disquise as the Wagon finally met up with the thermal limitations of a stock radiator. I could only run 3-4 laps flat out before the engine temps became unacceptably high, and then I’d have to loaf around for a few laps to get the temps under control. A large AL radiator was in the plans, but I was curious how far I could go without one, I guess I found out… And this weekend’s ‘Golden Wrench’ award goes to Team Wilkins for first finding and then fixing their broken oil pickup tube on Saturday, and going on to take third in Sunday’s race after starting dead last.
Two highlights of the event for me was seeing the Historic Group out on track (instead of in a museum somewhere), and getting to drive the 3MC Motorsports 240Z on Friday’s test-day. John LaChappelle graciously offered me a few laps in my old car to try out a new racing gearbox he had recertly installed. The car has continued to be developed under his stewardship, and it was a real joy to be back at speed in this wonderful car.
Gracie’s new ride…
Yesterday I went to Infineon Raceway to watch my buddy John Teaby celebrate his 59th birthday by making a return to SCCA racing. Some years ago he was a SCCA National front runner in small-bore, but he’s making his return in SCCA’s newest big-bore class, SS. He’s racing his Factory Five Cobra and it’s wearing the livery from his new sponsor, Libertine Films.
My posts have been far and few between this summer as a busy work schedule has kept me out of the garage. I finally got around to pulling the cover off the Wagon for the first time since my last race wknd over two months ago as I had just put it away dirty and left it in the corner… Last time out I lost fifth gear in my close-ratio Comp tranny and so I needed to pull it out. In its place I installed my ‘spare’, a 280Z five-speed that has similar 3rd thru 5th gear ratios. Of course 1st and 2nd are really low for racing and it’s a brass synchro box instead of steel synchros, but it will do while I get the Comp rebuilt. Problem is the Comp tranny uses a flanged output shaft, while the Z box uses a splined output shaft, so I had to prep a fresh driveshaft for the trans swap. I took a stock 510 4 speed driveshaft, had it shortened to fit in the IRS Wagon, put in some new u-joints, and had it balanced up. South Bay Driveline handles these duties for me and does a great job. While I had the car up on the lift, I removed the 4.38 welded r180 diff and put in my spare 4.11 welded r160. I finally got a NISMO Comp LSD unit for my 4.38 and will work on getting it ready while my trans is getting fixed. Next race wknd will be in Sept with VARA at Buttonwillow Raceway.
