Family Fun Car

[Danny]

The paint looks good in those photos. How much of a time improvement have you made over the track days? I'm guessing they have all been at Thunderhill?

Thanks! The paint could still use some work, it's certainly a 50 footer. Times haven't really improved too much. I've found myself not pushing the car TOO hard to save it for my dad and BIL since we're all driving it at the same time. That being said, I usually sit in the 2:15-2:20 lap times which is not exactly great honestly. I know this car has more in it but its definitely fun!

[Reichart12]

The paint looks good in those photos. How much of a time improvement have you made over the track days? I'm guessing they have all been at Thunderhill?

[Danny]

Update after the track.

Car handled really nicely! I'm a big fan of how the chassis bracing and sway bar influenced the car. Much more neutral and a little easier to rotate despite a clear lack of power. Another three driver track day was completed with no real issues from this little car. We developed either an oil leak, possibly at the rear main seal, or a leak from the transmission breathing. Here's some pics!




All the guys, I'm in the middle if you want to roast me.

[Danny]

So I have not yet tried my hand at buffing anything (still scared of burning through the clear).

We did however get our IS valance mounted.



On the bright side we scored a deal on some chassis stiffening parts from https://ultraracing-usa.com/ who provided us with front and rear sway bars, front and rear strut mounts, and an xbrace.

Here's some pics:









Initial impressions are good. Quality made products that bolted on easily with a high quality, shiny paint. Front bar is a 20mm and rear is a 19mm which may end up being a little THICC for our current springs. Track day tomorrow, we'll see how it does!!

[Danny]

Love the homemade paintjob. Perfect fit for a track toy!

Thanks dude!


I'm going to try my hand at buffing it this weekend. Wish me luck!

[Panici]

Love the homemade paintjob. Perfect fit for a track toy!

[Danny]

It was decided amongst ourselves that we didn't want the car to be red anymore. So I left it up to my dad and brother in law to do whatever they wanted to do to the vehicle. Our rule was it had to look good from 50 feet and 50 miles an hour (50/50 rule). This was never intended to be a Melon/Jordan level paint job since this is a track only car and we just wanted it to be a cool color. I am not a creative and have basically zero artistic talent besides spray painting trim pieces so full creative control was given to my dad and BIL.



BIL decided on a Datsun green which was pretty nice. I wanted to do a teal or turquoise color but those would have been more expensive since it is difficult to find in a factory color. Total cost for all the materials for a two stage paint job was less than 500 bucks.



We did a little body work. We aren't very good at it. The car was originally burgundrot and painted really cheaply at some spray and go joint to the crappy bright red that it was.






We got the car over to my place where we made booth in the garage.











We had inlet fans using household air filters and two outlet holes on the other side also using household air filters.






The boys got suited up and went to work.





Primed.








Color!






In the sun.




Bumpers tucked, trim painted and back on.






Overall, it was worth the time and money spent but it certainly doesn't look great. The paint is super orange peely and we're not super confident about trying to buff it out because we only have two coats of urethane clear on it. The color is cool though, its a lot lighter in sunlight than I thought it would be and sort of changes color when you walk around it.



It fits the 50/50 rule and that's good enough for me.

[e30RS]

Awesome job! Great dad video.

[Danny]

The amount of dirt on that block is insane.

You will achieve weight reduction once you clean it lol

Yeah no kidding huh?

Started sanding the car today to prep it for paint. We’re divided on what color to paint this thing. Options currently are:

Some kind of British racing green
White
Teal
Paint over the red with red again

I’m open to ideas if any of you guys have any. Just looking for this thing to look good from 50 feet away at 50 mph.

[Jokester]

The amount of dirt on that block is insane.

You will achieve weight reduction once you clean it lol

[Danny]

Got a little bit of work done disassembling the 2.7 engine we pulled out of the car.

This shit is nasty.



You can get an idea of how dirty this thing is here.



I don't think the previous owner cared much for maintenance.



Pistons and block look alright though.



Main bearings are very worn but don't appear to be anything out of the ordinary.





Rod bearings look worn but otherwise alright.



Block has some nastiness to it but I think it may come out with a hone. Need to get it to a machine shop and see what they think. I have an 885 head sitting around that I'm going to use with it. I think we'll end up going with John's (ForcedFirebird) method of 2.7 bottom end with 2.5i pistons and 2mm off the block. Seems to work well for him. Obviously that's contingent on what the machine show says when I eventually get it over to them.

[Danny]

that's pretty much the least scary way to screw that corner up. all the other ones end up in the inside wall. good catch, nice stabilization on the recovery.

Yeah I agree. He did a nice job, especially for his first ever spin out. It was a bit of a butt pucker-er from the passenger’s seat though.

[kronus]

that's pretty much the least scary way to screw that corner up. all the other ones end up in the inside wall. good catch, nice stabilization on the recovery.

[Danny]

Here's a little GIF of my Dad losing it coming off of turn 13.

[Danny]

Update after the track!

The day started very wet and rainy which was a learning experience for all of us. I've ran about 8 or so track days but never done one in the wet. I really thought I would hate it but it was actually a lot of fun and I recommend it. The track dried up in the afternoon so we each got about two wet sessions and three dry sessions. The car held together very well. Ran about 250 track miles over the course of the day and other than a couple of off-track excursions from my Dad and BIL (oops) it was largely uneventful.

Car has decent power and handles extremely well but we're having a difficult time keeping up with higher horsepower cars (duh). I think we need a driver mod more than any power mods. My best time looking at videos was probably around the 2:20 mark which is about 12 seconds short of the spec E30 lap record (aka not fast :rofl:). I really wasn't pushing the car too much because of the condition of the track and I had to let off pretty much every lap to point someone by.

The car held temperature even in back-to-back-to-back 20 minute track sessions, although it did consume/leak about a quart of oil during the day which I am totally cool with. Tried the car with BF Goodrich Rivals and also a set of used Bridgestone RE71R's which I picked up from Cabriolet (thanks dude!). Only ran the car in the rain with the Rivals but got dry laps with both. I think I prefer the RE71s but I don't like them as much as I like my Dunlop StarSpecs on my swap car. Oh well, maybe we'll try some StarSpecs when these tires are dead.

Anyway here's some pictures! I'll post some video later on.

Dad driving.


BIL driving.


Me driving.


All loaded up and done. Lots of mud to clean out of the underside.