Racing in Malta

Trip

Trip

New Member
I thought i should start a fresh thread in this section which will be related to my racing.

Starting off, i bought the Pulsar intentionally to start taking part in Hillclimb. Just to give you an insite, Malta (being such a small island) does not offer much choice in the car motorsport department. We only have 1 Drag strip and zero tracks. The only option for proper racing is Hill-Climb. Hill Climb is done in a public road, which is closed for the event.

In September 2006 i purchased my first Pulsar which was delivered to me on a Friday. The next day i stripped the interior, and made some minor mods so i could race the following morning. That was my first race with the Pulsar. Actually it was also my second time driving the Pulsar. I had no experience racing, didn't know the cars handling, car was bare standard and needless to say, I did horribly BAD :oops:. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3cXV8jB_88

From there on I decided to start building and moding the car. Without wanting to talk about to all the modding process, this whole transformation took 3 years to finish. Granted i didn't work all day on it. But i can say i did the best half of 3yrs working in my garage from 6pm till midnight. I have only drove the pulsar again (since the 2006 race) a month ago for testing.

I can say my car is in its final stages to being race worthy, and hopefully will be on the starting grid for the next hillclimb event. I am bloody nervous, happy and having all sorts of feeling( almost a heart attack). After all these years of hard work the day i will start racing will be arriving soon. The 11th of April :thumbsup:

I will be in the fully modified class, my competitors are a Lancia Integrale, Subaru, and an EVO8. They all have years and years of racing experience (local and foreign). Watching them on youtube makes me want to shit myself :sad:

It will be held in Mellieha, which is one of the longest "track" of the season. This track is favoured to high powered cars since they have a long stretch of road to exploit the power.
http://www.owenwebhosting.com/owd/islandcarclub/mellieha.htm

I won't be running on lots of power to start with until i get used to the car and tweek up the handling. If everything goes as planned i will fit a roller turbo, bigger injectors, Z32 maf and tune it in the 3month hillclimb summer break.


Thats all for now.
 
gtiroz

gtiroz

Administrator
Staff member
awesome little track to have all to yourself 8)

need to practice those 3rd-to-2nd heel-toe downshifts :) should be in gear and on the power after turn-in / before the apex...

looking forward to more footage!
 
Trip

Trip

New Member
The race turned out well for the first time.

In all 4 runs i did lots of mistakes which i could have avoided but practice makes perfect :)

The last run in particular, i did a very bad launch, changing gear for a higher gear for nothing (done it twice). Changed to wrong gear (done it once). I was coming off boost in the chicanes and braking too soon. I could have easily dropped 4 to 5 sec off if i drove like i normally drive. Astonishingly it turned out to be my fastest run of 74.744sec

As for the car, it performed very good for its first time. Was only running on 13PSI, It was a laugh for my competitors when we discussed the boost levels as they all run above 22ps.

I had some small minor problems.

1) I encountered was fuel surge in my first run even though i had slightly over half tank full. Luckily there was a fuel station nearby and filled it to FULL- Problem solved

2)After a run, the car will not start, ran to get my laptop and from datascan i found out i had a fault in the ignition module. Cleared it and all was fine. Second run, it did it again, Maybe its a coincidence but i opened the bonnet after the last two runs to let engine cool and it sort of cured it. i'll have to look into it, it looks like the ignition module is over heating.

3) The brake pedal is too long to be able to heal-tow and the pedal feel is not what i am used to.

4) The gear lever is way too far away for a good reach when strapped tight with a 6point harness.



Some footage of the last race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDjvOiB0z-M


Datalog of the last race

AFR


EGT
 
Trip

Trip

New Member
Few updates.

Got another Hillclimb this Sunday. After loads of hours spent trying to fix the engine, i am certain that i never ever experienced so much frustration, swearing, feeling sick (to the point of throwing up) in these past 3 weeks. Last option was to drop engine and put my old standard engine and gearbox in.

Have a few changes for this race including a new N/D FMIC and radiator, a TMOC, launch control, MSD ignition, bigger master cylinder, and removed the brake bias valve (master cylinder has one built-in). Down side is, a will be running the standard turbo at factory boost, open diff at the front, and lastly a standard clutch and gearbox (which will break/slip first ?)


This hillclimb will be held in a historic road which was used from the beginning of motorsports in Malta. This uphill stopped being used for races around 8yrs ago because of the condition it got in. The club managed to persuade the local council to fix/resurface the road and races will start again :)
 
P

pulsarboby

Guest
good luck for sunday ev and hope you at least finish with the clutch and all.

did you ditch those arp studs and get some stock bolts?
 
Trip

Trip

New Member
pulsarboby said:
good luck for sunday ev and hope you at least finish with the clutch and all.

did you ditch those arp studs and get some stock bolts?
Click to expand...

Thanks Bob :)

I put in my other engine which is all standard and left the freshly built "faulty" engine aside for now. Will strip it down and take it to an engineering workshop together with the head for full inspection. ARP head studs will be used as a monument to remind me of my frustrating 3 weeks i had. Martyn offered me new OEM head bolts.


Thanks once again Bob for all the help and time. Another thanks goes to Martyn for offering me the OE head bolts. :thumbsup:
 
Trip

Trip

New Member
It looks like i am back in business. The car ran and handled sweet always with that understeer character :). I wasn't very happy with the time though, compared to others, but what could i expect running on standard engine, ecu, turbo and 10psi of boost. Best time was 68sec where first in my class got 62sec if i remember correct.

Brakes: I was not too happy with the brake pedal input which made me lack confident was braking earlier. It had what i could describe as wooden feel. Partly i am to blame. I upgraded to a bigger master cylinder with 1" bore to eliminate the long pedal travel i got after upsizing the calipers. Pedal travel is shorter but lacks input. Something to look at for the future.

Gearbox: I had on two occasions difficulty putting into 2nd gear which made me loose time. I was probably trying to find the "slot" between the 2nd and 4th gear. At one occasion i did put it in 4th instead of 2nd. Gear ratios are a disaster. Last corner was a tight 180deg, I tried putting in 1st gear and hit the rev limiter a fraction of a second after. On another run i tried 2nd but was coming out off boost.

Shift Light: I have a Gizzmo shift light with the launch control module. Tried the launch control function and it worked great. Not too much boost buildup to blow the spin wheels endlessly, but neither too little to bog on launch (and break the gearbox). The Shift light was too small to see it in bright day light.

On the whole I am very happy with car, just needed a little bit more boost :)


I have some crappy onboard footage i need to edit and upload (forgot camera attached to car). In the mean time you can watch an onboard fantastic driving of the Subaru which came first in class http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFAT6UeCPSU

Some other footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCTUbeIL3_0 @ 04:37 there is me on the last 180deg curve. As already said, running wide and hitting the rev limiter in 1st gear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_0FQo_Odjw @ 06:06 just before approching the last curve.

Enjoy :)
 
Trip

Trip

New Member
I got a quaife gearbox with shotpeened and cryro threated casing and braced too. I doubt an RB will hold the abuse once i put more power to the ground.

I wish there is a close ratio "heavy duty" gearbox out there. It would be good to have a split torque controller front/rear like the Subaru have
 
Trip

Trip

New Member
I had another race last sunday, Race was being held in a place called Mizieb, Its the same place i did my first race back in 2006. The "track" (road) is very narrow and unforgiving. One mistake and you can easily end up crashing on a rock or worse falling a couple of storeys down.

The day before as usual, I took car to test it out in a go kart track. I noticed that the car was sometimes bogging down like you hit the rev limiter, It was either fuel or spark. I knew in the past i had fuel surge. On returning home i filled tank to the brim, changed plugs and put a new set of HT leads. Whilst working on it i could smell fuel coming from rear and i spotted a fuel leak. it was the top pipe situated under the car on the side of the tank. I thought that that was the culprit of my bogging so fixed it by cutting the pitted section and joined it with a fresh pipe.

Other problems i found at the go kart track: brakes were not to my liking, i was locking the front but not the rear making the car dive a little.

Race day: The bogging re-appeared. I was getting hit by what i can describe as a mind-of-its-own-rev-limter. It was coming in after i launch and other occasions in 2nd gear. I set my rev-limiter to 6200rpm so i shift before but it did happen below that point. I was ending up shifting at around 6000rpm and loosing my concentration (with frustration) on the racing line and late braking.

To make matter worse during the final run, my engine died and while still moving i managed to switch it on in gear. needless to say i drove the rest of that run a little more cautious and not to the limit. After the race, many came on me and told me why the heck did I take the last run so relaxed and thought i had some problems. But..... When times were published and to my surprise, that run was my fastest.:doh:

On reviewing my datalogs from that race, the engine died twice. First one took 5.2sec and the second which i didn't notice only for a 1 sec.

Between the seconds lost with engie cut off, car bogging down and me not driving to the limit i could have easly chopped around 4 sec to my score. :cry:

I am blaming my launch controller not compatable with my MSD. I will remove both together with a new distributer cap, rotor arm and a fuel filter.


Some video footage + pics.. Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU5DE_UjQGY






Next race, TaQali sprint on the 14th
 
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S

steve55

New Member
looking good! ... hope you sort the fuel problems mate

one of my best mate's dad owns the awsum evo 6 ... is that in your class?

Steve
 
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