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1400 rally car shenanigans

OP
OP
Huggy444
I did think that, but obviously this isn't a daily driver...
It would suck however if I lost front brakes on a stage and only had rear brakes to slow me down with
 

SuperUno

Buy & Sell Member
I had this last year when I burst a front hose, it wasn't awful, and I still keep braking on the other front caliper. This is also why you keep the handbrake on cables so you can you use that in an emergency...
 

frank

Club Member
I had this last year when I burst a front hose, it wasn't awful, and I still keep braking on the other front caliper. This is also why you keep the handbrake on cables so you can you use that in an emergency...
you must have the 4 port m/c then matt ? i had the front brakes freeze up in cold weather once on a ford cargo truck, was f/kin scary !
 
OP
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Huggy444
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Brilliant photo from the weekend
(is the photo working?!)
 
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OP
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Huggy444
So I can comfirm that a primera p10 1.6/2.0d master cylinder will not bolt up to the standard brake booster.

I'm unsure as to whether or not I could fit a p10 brake booster/servo onto the firewall, no breaker yards near me so will message some sellers on eBay to get measurements.
 
OP
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Huggy444
It'll be reet' :p

One caliper had a slight tear in the piston seal causing it to leak, meaning no matter how much I pumped the pedal it still wouldn't go hard - Tiny tear so lucky i found it.
Stuck a spare 100nx caliper on and bled the system up but I've dropped the car of at the garage now for them to bleed it fully as I'm away for the week now. They'll drop the car home once it's done (perks of knowing a local garage very well)
 
OP
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Huggy444
Had my first time navigating yesterday at The Donington Park Volkswagen stages thing...

Tis very weird to be sitting on the wrong side of the car, having to look down all the time!
Looking forwards to doing some more navving, especially when I'm away at uni (yes the little micra will be sold at the end of this summer :'()
 
OP
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Huggy444
Put the standard brake callipers onto the car, the 100nx setup caused me nothing but trouble. Will order new minted 1155's for Cadwell Park, race pads combined with the 5.1 brake fluid should keep the pedal feeling fairly consistent.
Whilst doing all this I noticed the front nearside wheel bearing was massively shagged a good 1cm play top to bottom, side to side etc etc... Can hear it grinding now when driving so getting this done next week.

Was practicing my welding the other day, getting better now (@h701micra)
 

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OP
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Huggy444
We had no issues with the fitting etc, just no matter what we did the brake pedal wouldn't go firm - you could pump the pedal constantly with the car turned off and wouldn't stiffen up! Very odd
I'll give the almeras a shot next time if the standard brakes give me issues at Cadwell
 
OP
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Huggy444
This weekend I had the TJS Self Drive Alan healy Memorial Rally at Cadwell park.
Very good day, no mechanical issues with the car to speak off.... Just lots of bodywork! Never damaged the car this much in one day before, but pretty much every other car I saw also had dented doors/wings or at least rubber marks down the side of the car

Stages 1-3 were good fun, very fast track and having never driven there before it was challenging learning the layout, especially with the track being so undulating you're having to rely on remembering where the apex's are!
Stage 4 I over cooked it heading into a chicane and ploughed into the tyres causing damage to the headlight, bumper, wing and bonnet! Carried on till the end, marshalls took the micky then headed back to service to cable tie everything back into one piece....
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And voilla we were good to go :)

Everything was good for the next few stages, @h701micra popped down with the family to say hello and to watch for a bit, other than the handbrake no being up to locking the rear wheels with the sticky Kuhmo C03's on resulting in us having to do an incredibly awkward three point turn :p
Clipped a tyre again, meaning yet more cable ties for the bumper.

Stage 7 I had an over exuberant start and damaged some 'virgin' paint, up until now the rear quarter panels had been pristine but I've ruined them as well now by sliding on some gravel and side swiping a tyre wall!
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Stage 8 we knew we had a good lead behind car no4 so we took it easy - Came home with a very respectable 3rd in class (out of 14 starters) and 42nd out of 88 starters, not bad considering the spec of some of the cars we were up against!

Lovely day, now just to sort out the mess :)
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h701micra

Deactivated Account
Thanks again Alex
The kids enjoyed the walk around until Kaiden and his puddle incident.
All looked to be in good form from the sidelines. Those novas were pretty quick. They carried more speed on the corners acceleration wise you weren't far behind but they were quicker
Still a respectable finish (at least you did finish lol) plenty to do for next time

If you're going for that hydro brake by the way. It's either new lines and use a single like split setup (like H) or get yourself a twin cylinder h/brake to plumb in. Be prepared to pull hard unless you change the handle for a longer one :)
 
OP
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Huggy444
I think my suspension is still very basic, all I've done is fit coilovers... Every bushing is still 15 years old, I really could do with getting the handling sorted properly!

I guess even with a hydro, the limiting factor is the crap drum brakes :/
 

SuperUno

Buy & Sell Member
Unless you are well practiced (from autotesting / autosolo'ing) then 99% of drivers loose time using the handbrake, rather than not using it. It just feels like something we should be doing, but most stage rally drivers don't understand how to handbrake properly and thus loose time...
 
OP
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Huggy444
Well, the handbrake would have been quicker than doing a three point turn to get around the stupidly tight hairpin :p

All of my practice is on gravel, and as I'm an instructor at Silverstone Rally school I hope I can do a handbrake to an acceptable standard haha

Edit: obviously, there's always room for improvement
 
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h701micra

Deactivated Account
I think my suspension is still very basic, all I've done is fit coilovers... Every bushing is still 15 years old, I really could do with getting the handling sorted properly!

I guess even with a hydro, the limiting factor is the crap drum brakes :/
I'll go through it with you one day.
Can get very expensive though so you'd have to be sure on keeping the car
 
OP
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Huggy444
You'd be silly to move on I think
Lot of time invested in that car. You're gradually progressing with it so you'll only get quicker

You'll catch those novas soon enough ;)

Just need me a dogbox, LSD, full engine build and a complete new suspension setup and I'll be there :p
 
OP
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Huggy444
Well I got an hours racing Sunday which wasn't too bad - I've though about it but the costs for time attack are relatively high when I looked, and I just find rallying more fun than straight track driving tbh!
 

h701micra

Deactivated Account
When you factor in the cost of car preparation. Your initial outlay is a lot higher compared. You'd enjoy it. I'm thinking of putting mine round cadwell in the pocket rocket class

No idea what today's entry fees are but nothing will beat rallying for variety
 
OP
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Huggy444
Nah if I want track time I do sprints, only like £100 per event :)

Rallying entry fees are usually circa £220, more or less depending on the events prestige. I love the variety :)
 
OP
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Huggy444
So I've got a donor car arriving on Saturday, it's a mid facelift and isn't perfect but atleast it's panels are in one peice so that's a bonus!

I'll try and repanel the car on Saturday night (in codriving at D'isis stages during the day) and if I get it done I'll cruise up to japfest :)

If not, I'll spend Sunday fiddling with the k10s carb and ignition system
 
OP
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Huggy444
The donor car arrived yesterday (Whilst I was navving at Horiba D'isis stages, ta dad), so today I started stripping it down and getting the rally car looking nice again :)

Took all of about half an hour to remove the front end, then took both doors, all lights and the rear boot and bumper too. Interior is mouldy as fook, nearly gagged when I opened the door, and unsurprisingly the glove box was full of flyers for a takeaway company haha! Nearly wet myself laughing haha

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Started getting it all reassembled now, ran out of light though so will get it all sorted tomorrow :)

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Liking the look of the 'mid' facelift front end - I'll try and keep this one in better nick!
 
OP
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Huggy444
Everythings back in one piece :)
Looking smart
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Will leave the boot and doors for now, they're still good enough - Going to be removing the stickers soon though in place for a new design, im as of yet undecided on what it will be but I liked the old blue colour/design so will try and sort something out
 
I was thinking last night about this, there's something about that setup I don't understand, if when you are working out the roll centre you join the lower ball joint and the lower arm pivot then the arms pictured seem to change neither of these?
Yes the arm now points further down (which makes it look as though things have changed) but the ball joint / pivot point is still at the same position??? so the bottom arm has just sort of changed shape?

Where have got it wrong? :confused:

I know this post was a fair while ago but I found this website and it reminded me of this previous discussion.

Says what I was trying to say better than I can with pretty diagrams too.
http://www.meganracing.com/tech/faqs.asp?id=106&subject=Suspension

Which would mean that the micra would need the V.2 type of roll centre adjusting ball joint (see link above), as the ball joint sits in the bottom arm.
 
If such a part exists for the micra it would be an easy fix, it might be worth asking Matt Humphries or other micra parts specialists if something is available or which other makes or models have the same taper, I was trying to imagine some sort of screw on extender but there's not much room available and I think it would be weak.
I was just looking and it appears there are no other models that use the Micra ball joint, so it might be a tough search.
 
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