liner33

When i packed up drag racing i was looking for something for trackdays and road use it had to be quick, tunable, seat 3 people and be able to be used as a car full time if need be. This dictates that a compromise must be reached, What makes a good trackcar would be hard to live with if like me you live out in the sticks, on the track its nice to have a full cage and a single seat but you cant get the family in and so on........... I decided on a Skyline, it had to be a R33 but i didnt have the cash to buy AND tune a GTR so a GTST it was. I bought the car at the end of 2005 it already had tein suspension, red stuff brake pads , the recaros out of an Evo, bodykit and a few other things fitted but the engine was pretty stock it came with a dyno sheet showing 270hp at the flywheel First mods were the normal stuff ie induction kit, de-cat, turbo elbow, downpipe, decent plugs coupled with a boost increase via bleed valve to .85bar, shortly afterward i fitted a nitrous kit. Im pretty comfortable after using it on bikes and in all honesty a little surprised its not used more on the Jap scene, but i was spraying 50hp into the car and it was a good all round package. But , its pretty well known the stock clutch on these cars doesnt like much more than 300hp so it would cry mercy when the nos was used so cue stage 2 A exceedy R32 gtr clutch was fitted along with a GTR fuel pump, power fc, boost controller and front mount intercooler , the car was remapped with 330hp at the flywheel, following the last nitrous experience i fitted a progressive controller and upped the nitrous a little to 75hp but off nitrous the car was very laggy , in hot weather the intercooler plumbing was working as a heat sink and heating up the air , off boost the car felt really flat and generally not fun to drive. Proof if it were needed that big dyno figures dont reflect what the car is like to drive Around this point i did my first trackday at Goodwood but it quickly showed the brakes to be naff, they were cooked and juddering after 2 laps , i managed to source an new set of R33 GTR brembo discs and calipers and fitted them along with braided lines and servo stopper to eliminate flex on the bulkhead. Cue more mods , i was convinced the main problem with the car was the way the air was getting heated up by all the intercooler piping sitting over the engine , i researched a little and found that Thor racing offerred a mod to the stock plenum which did away with all that intercooler pipework so the car was booked it and had some 740cc injectors fitted, a z32 AFM, the stock turbo was sent off for a stage 3 rebuild at Universal turbos the result was 361hp at the hubs on their dyno and a lovely progressive power curve now running 1.2 bar of boost. The nitrous went back on contrary to Thors advice but i found that above 50hp the wastegate was struggling to vent enough pressure and i am getting boost spikes resulting in high knock readings , so the progressive system was dumped and i reduced the jetting to 25hp for normal use, it doesnt sound like much but hitting the nos off boost really gets the tubby spinning and it holds that power between gear changes. I up the jetting to 50hp for track use of course sod the knock readings Due to the cooling effect you get with nitrous with a turboed engine you normally end up with a bit more power than the nitrous alone so that 25hp is probably nearer 40hp so still very noticable. Back when i bought the car beginning 2006 New wheels added Engine with the plenum mod

My 4th dragbike Started like this Finished like this Was a very strong bike motor wise but the chassis was weak , i had too much power for it and it needed a complete new frame really so i was contemplating having one built and this bike came up on ebay , since it was a similar spec i figured i could cherry pick the best parts of the engine and sell it on So onto number 5 and the final one Bought like this Finished like this So the little yellow bike actually had a better frame than the old bike so I took the best from that and beefed up the yellow one adding new tubing and a set of wheelie bars , my old motor was freshened up and a very expensive head fitted along with nitrous. A then "state of the art" ignition/nitrous controller added with a lot of other work . The bike ran a best of 8.6@168 but again was a handful to ride , it was running around 280hp and was very hard to keep straight. Decided to pack it all in at the end of 2005 as i really needed another new chassis and felt i wasnt a good enough rider to step up but wouldnt have been happy staying where i was. The bike and spare engines etc was all sold to a guy in Denmark and i started playing with jap cars instead

Thought some might find this interesting or not I started drag racing in 1992 and did it on and off until 2005 often when not racing i was crewing or setting up other bikes. My first bike back in 1992 a 1983 Z1000 J model bored to 1200cc and turbocharged ran a best of 9.5 but then it would just wheelie so i needed a "proper" chassis Second bike which was the engine from the first into a modified chassis with wheelie bars and a one piece fibreglass body. Didnt get chance to race this one much due to work and life commitments and sold it a short time afterwards, it did however go onto to win the national championship with its new owner My 3rd dragbike Started like this Was rebuilt with a 1325cc engine and modified chassis , ended like this The bug had bitten again so bought a complete dragbike again 1425cc , high compression 14/1 normally aspriated

Dont think the guy ever walked again:( He lost his leg and smashed his pelvis up pretty badly

I spent around 15 years at the dragstrip either racing myself or crewing and I once saw a top fuel bike launch while the crew were pushing it back following a burnout , the crew mans hand hit the bikes throttle and with the centrifugal clutch (like a moped) that these things have there was no stopping it , it was truly horrendous the guy was holding on to the front of the bike with the rider trying his best to stop it but the bike hit the wall and then rolled over the crewman, he suffered terrible injuries Tis a dangerous sport A top fuel bike looks like this although this wasnt the one involved

Yeah i think you mush be right but the car definatly feels like its in a groove when the steering is straight , maybe the rack ends were more worn than they appeared

Bikers are their own worst enemy quite often, I followed one on Weds on the motorway weaving through the cars at around 100mph. When I used to ride bikes (Self-confessed speed freak) i used to find riders on smaller bikes trying to overtake me in stupid places just trying to prove something, I've given up on bikes now , road bikes arent fast enough (I know that sounds stupid but i used to ride dragbikes) and the old cliche of having lost too many friends

Well here we go full history the first sheet is from the previous owner done about 5000 miles ago (Not many cars get alignment done 3 times in 5000 miles i bet )!! Car was totally stock when this was done ie stock ride height stock springs and ARB. Second sheet is after fitting lowering springs and new ARB (Had to remove the rear lower arms to do this hence the figures being way out ) Finally sheet from yesterday I cant see any glaring differences to how the car has been set up but the first two settings made the steering feel twitchy and now the car feels like it actually wants to go straight and needs steering to make it deviate from that , before a bump in the road could have the car moving around

Reg on the sheet i got was E6 VDO I have the sheet i was given but dont know what has transformed the steering as the toe and caster is around the same as it was last time ,the camber has gone from 1.12 to 1.28

So obviously fake but clever done by a French student How he did it here

Took my Evo 6 into WIM today , I had changed a load of bushes and the rack ends as well as a few other bits and bobs so settings were all over the place But a bit of background first Since I bought the car last October I always felt the front end was twitchy especially when pushing hard it just changed direction too easy very little feedback, not a problem as such but you felt you needed to keep a good hold on it , I just thought this was just an Evo thing Shortly after buying it I decided to lower it firstly because it looked a bit ridiculous and secondly as i figured the springs were probably a little weak, I'd hoped after fitting some Eibach progressive lowering springs and getting the alignment done it would sort it but it didnt , i even hoped that fitting new rack ends and track rod ends would help but no difference there either But now its all been set up correctly, what a difference, I dont know exactly what specific adjustment has made the difference but the car is transformed , the steering feels properly weighted now , the car wants to go straight, a bump in the road would throw it off line before , the difference on the motorway is amazing its far more relaxing , i know it sounds silly but would find myself tensing up when driving the car on the motorway and used to have to make a concious effort to relax Of course everything else feels good as well , threw it down a few twisty roads on the way home and it feels well planted but then it always did , grip on these cars is impressive Many thanks to all Oh and BTW the knocking noise from the rear mustve been the stone it didnt happen at all on the way home

The pen is there to sign cheques , lots of them :) Lovely car always been a dream of mine to have one , perhaps one day

Having nitrous on your car can be troublesome only a couple of companies will cover it , my last car was heavily modified and had nitrous and it was insured to be fitted but only used on the drag strip :) The insurers were cool (A plan) so anytime i made a change they just listed it on the policy and asked me what the total horsepower was Many many years ago I had a street legal turbo-charged bike which i tried to insure for use on the road as i only rode it on the drag strip but the premuim was £1800 third party only so decided to give that a miss

Steve Parish (Ex bike and truck racer now Moto GP commentator) used to have PEN I5 on his car I was never a fan of them but bought one for my new car last year which had both mine and the wifes initials, means nothing to anyone else of course and my Evo which i bought last October came with a private plate on it E6 VOO

Couple more Here one of my old bike and a friends Rover 827 all good fun and great bang for buck

Nitrous isnt an accelerant it isnt even flammable until it breaks down in the cylinder (it needs a temp of 595f to break down ie to set the oxygen molecule free ) its N20 ie two parts nitrogen and one part oxygen you can even put a fire out with it !! For diesel use they do indeed inject propane and the nitrous is simply a oxidiser to allow this extra fuel to burn , its the extra fuel that gives the power rather than the nitrous. I'm not sure I would like a cylinder of propane in the boot either but not sure why when we carry ten times that amount in thin walled petrol tanks, i certainly never worried about nitrous thats only dangerous due to being a pressure vessel normally around 1000psi but does have a burst disc if the bottle gets too pressurised I've had a few cars and bikes with nitrous and its a hoot if used properly , I love this dyno sheet from a Skyline GTR fitted with a small nitrous kit this was done by a company in NZ