Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Awesome! Air dam is moving up higher in my list then! I also called Les and he is still making them but it’s on a pre-order basis and takes a few weeks. I think he said the price was $210

Will he made a deep one rather than the common style (deep like the BRE car has.) The bigger the air dam, the more effect it has.

Will

Cool thread 2mAn, post some pics of your progress too!

Great idea for the Racer's Page. 'Tips and Tricks', good name too.

My order for vintage racing concerns in a Datsun:
1) Safety, safety, safety. Original, old style bars/cages seen at the historics are cool, but provide little rollover and side impact protection.
-Keep the car looking vintage but do a stout, modern cage. Also a modern fire system, modern fuel cell, arm restraints, HANS, kill switch, etc.
2) Know your Club/Class rules!
-Cheaters suck, and re-doing illegal work is frustrating and expensive.
3) Cooling. Radiator ducting, radiator fan for long pit row sits, carb intake ducting, brake ducting, all critical and worth doing right the first time.
-BRE spook style air dams are allowed in most vintage clubs, large SCCA prod style dams usually are not.
-Headlight ducting is not legal in some classes, ok in others.
4) Brakes. Small, vintage-legal race brakes need fresh fluid and pads/shoes quite regularly as the heat kills them.
-Get some air to those front brakes with ducts in the legal place. Air to the center of the back of the rotor works best.
-Holes in the rear backing plates helps get the heat out of the drums.
5) Electrics. 50 year old wires and switches don't cut it, they WILL fail under race conditions.
-A new, simple, fused, wiring system will save many headaches later on.
6) Way down the list is suspension and engine mods. Without 1-5, 6 is useless. Speed comes from lots of seat time, which requires finishing every lap, every weekend. Keep the suspension and engine mods to a minimum until you have a safe, reliable race car. $1000 shocks, $5000 cylinder heads, and $7500 close-ratio transmissions are useless when your car is sitting on the trailer instead of being out on the track...
-Keep the compression and redline down for a while. Build a reliable torque motor. Easier to drive, easier to maintain, lasts longer.
-Some clubs/classes will allow rear coilovers but only if they supplement the OE leafs and they mount in the "OE" location, as with Mike's car (kinda). Some do not allow anything other than OE suspension pick-up points.
7) Tires. Sticky race tires wear out quickly, put lots of stress on 50 year old chassis components, and cover up poor drive technique and poor suspension set-up.
-Use some harder, treaded DOT race tires for the first season or two (i.e. Toyo 888s). Get everything else in order before spending the money on expensive tires.
8. Aerodynamics. Getting rid of lift and drag, and creating downforce, are the fun finishing touches to your Datsun race car.

2mAn wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 10:29 am Awesome! Air dam is moving up higher in my list then! I also called Les and he is still making them but it’s on a pre-order basis and takes a few weeks. I think he said the price was $210

I'd like to get one also!
Keep me in the loop
Thanks
Keith

Simon, I'm posting my roadster race car pics from RMMR here: suspension/exhaust/engine bays/roll bars/fuel cells. I didn't want to start another thread.
Steve Link's Jim Fitzgerald car:



front sway

Not a rivet in the C to be seen. LOL!

Alvin wrote: Sat Sep 08, 2018 3:20 pm Simon, I'm posting my roadster race car pics from RMMR here: suspension/exhaust/engine bays/roll bars/fuel cells. I didn't want to start another thread.

Thanks Alvin

Always love the pics. I took a bunch myself and have been lagging on posting them...

I had a chance to ask Mr Brock what was the most important tip to making a Roadster competitive and he said to get the HEAT out of the engine bay, suggested moving the brake/ clutch reservoirs inside, etc... Seems like you guys out there already know this.

I wondered about the brake line re-routing, but it makes sense to get them further from the engine bay heat.


and the other side


Another U20 motor, complete with lots of airducting/ shielding


more air ducting, but on the intake side here... also notice the reservoirs are gone, not sure if they are in the car.




also, dry sump



SO MUCH GOING ON HERE! haha


MOCAL oil cooler adapter??


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and then there was a more roll-bar/ cage pics

Vintage style, with updates


bolted to the body, but many had additional bracing underneath, also this one had the door-bar added later on




more bolted to the body mounting




and here, we're going through the body. I also noticed that the main hoop on this car was further back than most of the others, not sure if thats because they are taller, or because they wanted the hoop to go straight to the frame




I think this one is Fitzy's car... certainly a sexy engine bay



and another sexy engine bay, but I was curious to see how functional the engine bar is, that looks like it solid mounts the motor from rotating

2mAn wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 5:56 pm

Thanks Alvin

Always love the pics. I took a bunch myself and have been lagging on posting them...

Glad you could use them! It's fun to see what the racers are doing at these events.
So, are you sure you want to cut up your perfectly fine Roadster to make it into a race car?

2mAn wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 5:56 pm

and another sexy engine bay, but I was curious to see how functional the engine bar is, that looks like it solid mounts the motor from rotating

This is Craig Carter's roadster. It's a form of dampening engine vibration under hard acceleration/shifting, reduces wear/tear on engine mounts.

Alvin wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 9:44 pm
So, are you sure you want to cut up your perfectly fine Roadster to make it into a race car?

I do, but Im not sure the car wants me to... I literally just posted a confession in my thread haha

2mAn wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 9:47 pm

Alvin wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 9:44 pm
So, are you sure you want to cut up your perfectly fine Roadster to make it into a race car?

I do, but Im not sure the car wants me to... I literally just posted a confession in my thread haha

LOL I will head over there

2mAn wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 5:56 pmand another sexy engine bay, but I was curious to see how functional the engine bar is, that looks like it solid mounts the motor from rotating

I use a very similar idea on my street car. We use shock mount rubbers to make it solid with just enough give.. I got tired of tearing motor mounts..

Lets play: "Name all the mods!"

I see a few, but I am curious what you guys see

2mAn wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 4:12 pm Lets play: "Name all the mods!"

I see a few, but I am curious what you guys see

under_the_ladies_skirt.jpg

I see the same things you see...custom center link, tie-rods and jacking points on crossmember.

[quote=2mAn post_id=289287 time=1549660369 user_id=4843]
Lets play: "Name all the mods!"

I see a few, but I am curious what you guys see

under_the_ladies_skirt.jpg
[/quote]

What about the oil pan? Do I see a temperature sender installed? Is that the comp pan (8 quart) as opposed to the 7 quart solex pan?