Riggle's 1990 240sx.

My name is Ian and I have a 1990 hatch. I race it competitively almost every Sunday (tire wear allowing) in Auto-X and run with MSCC, FVSCC, WAI and SCCA.

Here are a few pics, the first ones are the day I got her.
















Here is her first few autox, 4x4 representin in G stock baby.










Added a few items to enhance the driving experience.















Installed.















New kicks, before paint.






All stripped, DA sanded to new condition.







Added some of this.







Got this as a result. Should look good contrasted against the Maroon paint.











I would put them on now but I have these baby's to wear out before I buy tires for next years racing season.







Next season I will be stepping it up to 255/40/17 Kuhmo XS for the above rims.

I just copied and pasted my above post from my "Introductions" thread. Just wanted to have it all under 1 section under builds instead of adding more and more to an introduction thread.

Update:

So I got my 5 lug swap done. Rear's were a bolt on affair which was awesome, the fronts caught a little snag since I could no longer use my dust shields. So I had to trim my dust shields to where they would fit, but no big deal overall.

I also mounted my new wheels/tires and rolled my fenders. Good news is that they look baller and are exactly what I had hoped they would be.

Bad news is the front wheels/tires are so wide that I will have to use fender flares/over fenders in front. The rears tuck just fine with plenty of room to spare. I tried to roll/pull my front fenders but since they are just a single sheet of metal they roll with the roller. This means it just flexes with the roller, it wont actually form the metal permanently outward. So roll forward the back bows in, roll back and the front bows in. I did this so many times that the metal on the fender itself started to buckle from being bent back/forth. Just like how you can break a paper clip or a head off of a spoon. Back and forth enough and you will fatigue the metal and it will just break.

So I ended up buying a set of ZG flares for a 70-78 Datsun 240Z. It may sound hokey, but I am only going to be using the fronts for now cause...I only need clearance in the front. I was going to do all 4 flares and cut/reweld the rear sheetmetal, but with spring here like right the f*ck now I want to drive the car. I am going to get them painted body color and they should be done this weekend so hopefully I can have the front fenders cut, new flares mounted and be done.

I also installed Hawk HP+ pads in my new 300zx calipers (4 piston) on the front. The rears do a good enough job braking so a rear swap was not necessary (not to mention complicated, I wont go into details but anyone with an S13 knows the woes of doing rear 300zx alum uprights ect). I also got SS lines (haha, for you TOM!) but the SS braids are actually covered in a clear/blue teflon sheath so moisture/road debris cannot get into the stainless steel mesh and compromise the hoses. My brake hoses are 21+ years old, rubber just gets unreliable after that kind of age (in my opinion). Also got some ATE super blue fluid to help keep the brakes in check.

I am going to try and see if the brake pedal feel is ok without swapping to a Z32 brake master cylinder. If not a new one can be had from rockauto for like $76 and it bolts right on, so not a big deal if I dont like the pedal feel.

Onto the pics.

In the pics the front is not as low as I will have them since they rubbed on my fenders. So to roll out the car I raised the fronts up so they wouldn't rub.









The calipers wont be red either, they will be black, the red doesnt match my red, so no red. :mrgreen:

I will get final pics with the flares and ride height set. Then I will align the car to my specs (have a sweet in ground drive on alignment rack to work with...drool) and be ready for spring/meets/auto-x.

Edit** I also rerolled the rear fenders to get the rear flare action to be even across the rear quarter panel. It looks more flared to the rear than the front, I have since corrected that problem.

Not bad! I like that BMW color for the wheels, It looks sharp.

Just a side note... Even those 255's will struggle for grip with all the torque you want to introduce.

Good thing I have those ZG flares I just bought.

They are at the painters as of today. Going to have a good friend of mine (professional painter) stick them in the booth while he is doing all the other bumper covers ect. The flares themselves are small so they will take next to no materials. They will also have some flex additive in the paint/clear so I can flex them in a bit when I mount them. The elliptical pattern of the 240z fender well is somewhat different than an S13 so you have to compensate. Also gave him my gas door to hopefully do a good match/blend if he needs to (to make up for the age/sun damage the car has received over the last 21 years).

I plan on having the flares so I can eventually run up to a 295/315 and still stuff them under the car. That is where our previous convo comes into play.

At this power level I can prob only heat up a 255 or so. Going bigger at this point may even yield negative results. But then again, more contact patch is just about always better for dodging cones. Not on a track car, but an auto-x car can nearly always benefit from a bigger tire.

Riggle wrote:

I plan on having the flares so I can eventually run up to a 295/315 and still stuff them under the car. That is where our previous convo comes into play.

That-a-boy!! I too am looking to stuff 315's under mine. If you want to see what instant power feels like, let me know, I'll take you for a ride sometime... otherwise, you can ask a yellow Evo owner from HWY 100

i want to see what instant power feels like... ????

lmaooo... yellow evo?
they way you narrated that story was to funny...
got boost? what do i need that for? =p

car looks great, and the color of the wheels actually work alot better then i thought they would have.

car is really clean. i love those wheels too.

Well I got the flares back from paint and installed last week. I was out of town on business all last week so I wasnt able to clean the car up and take some real pics, but here is a quick snap of how it looks now.







I had no idea how dusty these freakin pads were either (Hawk HP+). I will prob only rock black wheels from here on out. I am already entertaining the idea of blasting/prepping the current wheels black next year (over winter).

I also plan on prob installing the flares for the rear for next year. I didnt put them on the rear because the rear tires clear just fine, the fronts were no where close, even with a roll and a pull the front fenders just collapsed from metal fatigue.

Also have to sort out why my right front brakes are braking more than my left. Roughly ~40 degree difference from left to right via infrared temp gun for both the caliper and rotor. Enough of a difference to get my attention.

I have pads made by Axxis an australian company. they are very low on dust and grip really well. I bought them 3 years ago, no idea if they still make them. and they were reasonably priced also.

Axxis's aren't bad pads. I race on the pads quite regularly and dont mind the dust, just didn't know how bad it was really going to be. I was really going back and forth between Porterfield, Carbotech, and Hawk. I ended up with Hawk HP+ for pricing and reliability. Alot of people run them and have nothing but good things to say. I also need firm quick bite because I auto-x so much that the brakes really dont have time to warm up. HP+'s bite quick even when they are "cold".

I ran EBC greens for awhile but they didn't quite fit the bill. Took some heat to really get them to bite hard.

Looks pretty good, i woulda almost put the rear flares on the car just to make it look the same as the front, those front wheels do look pretty dirty though.



Do you have any experience with the Hawk HPS? seeing how you auto-x figured you would be a good person to ask on that.

I would put the rear flares on, but it requires cutting the sheetmetal/unibody, removing a 1 inch section, and stitch welding it back together, priming, then undercoating. I am just not willing to take on a project like that with the race season just about to start.

The rears clear just fine with the roll/pull so I saw no reason to jump into a project like that at this point.

For me its Function > Form. I dont need my car to look a certain way, only needs to perform a certain way. If it looks good in the meantime thats just a bonus!

Next year the rear flares will be on though, so we will reach uniformity next season. I want to have all winter to cut/weld that rear section like I want to so I dont get rushed into making hasty repairs. Hasty body repairs are the worst IMO.

Hawk HPS's are great street pads man. They can also autocross just fine, just not as grippy on the rotors. They will outperform any other pad in their class. The price is respectable too. If you are considering them, I would certainly pick those over the majority of other avail options. Dust is relatively low, bite is nice. Best of both worlds!

Riggle wrote:

Also have to sort out why my right front brakes are braking more than my left. Roughly ~40 degree difference from left to right via infrared temp gun for both the caliper and rotor. Enough of a difference to get my attention.

Hoses and calipers should be the only reason for that. Either a plugged hose, caliper slides, pads not sliding freely, or caliper piston are my best guess.

Here are some pics from this weekend at the USAIR Lapping day. Big thanks to Jake Webb and Robert Ananiadis for the sweet shots! Cannot thank you guys enough!





Gone Subie hunting. Caught em' too.










I ended up running a 1:16.97 (I think anyways, forgot exact decimal) which is great considering I ran a 1:19ish last year. Huge improvement (all due to the tires) that was well worth it. I could pretty much never lift since I had so much grip. Track layout really favored my car's setup.

From what I understood, the street car/street tire record is a 1:16.70 by Tom Hille in his 2000 Integra Type R. I was super close to getting that time and I am sure I made several laps that were well within that time, but I didnt get timed on every lap only a specific 3 laps.

There is always next time. I ended up making about 50 laps and just didn't want to waste any more of my tires considering its still stupid early in the season.

The session wasn't without casualties either. I ended up being a bit low for the elevation changes and rubbed hard on my harness (never relocated it, done now though) when I was coming down the S corkscrew. I ended up raising my car three times in the front. What really sucks is this is about the only race track with those abrupt elevation changes so I can lower the car again for regular tracks/auto-x but USAIR is a no-go-when-ur-low.

nice to see sombody tracking their car

Nice moving shots, seems to be a pretty good time.

nice looks like u had fun!
better beat dudes record next time!!

looks like a great time. It is great that the weather was nice also.

thing looks awesome, hope to one day soon at least get to drive my car lol!

Drive first, modify later.

drive prone to collistion and costly reapirs around my area lol

Ok, so its been awhile...like 6 months awhile.

I am fully aware of my douchebaggery, and in the spirit of my position here as king douche I apologize for not posting more often or sooner.

I hereby swear to buy the first pitcher or first round at our next gathering.

In all reality I have been extremely busy with work and school. Since I am a full time student and work full time I have had no time for the car scene because the driving season is over and I needed to focus 100% on school.

With that being said, now that the 2012 race season is just around the corner, I am back and ready to hit the tarmac.

Here is my new mod/toy/ .

SWEET That should be alot more fun then that ole single slammer.