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Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 9:15 am
by rahjr60
I've been considering going to a "destination" type track every year or so, and I have an invite from a local friend to come run one of the SCCA races at Daytona next year. I seem to remember when I started racing this car that someone told me roadsters don't like the banked portions of "roval" type courses. I think they were saying it was more of a transmission issue than an oiling problem. I do run the baffled racing oil pan. Anyone with experience have any thoughts?
Thanks
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 6:03 pm
by redroadster
Since you asked
I'd recommend not to for the steering shaft problem , it was known as the death spear by pro racers , we at our Datsun dealership had a racer day spring and fall ,
1 service manager and his tech brother had a Datsun race car team in the 60s with1200s 510s 610s then 311s
They would ask why no 311s came thru , the racers said "man we're done with those too many dead or seriously hurt from even not so big of a crash when the steering shaft drove into the drivers "
Datsun had a campaign to give new tougher horn pads to 311 owners in 79 or 80 as I remember , way cheaper than lawsuits
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 6:42 pm
by Solex68
Is that why some horn pads are bigger than others? I have both sizes.
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 8:01 pm
by rwmann
Never heard the bigger horn pad story, not that it would be much of a death spear deterrent.
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 8:56 pm
by redroadster
Solex68 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 19, 2023 6:42 pm
Is that why some horn pads are bigger than others? I have both sizes.
This replacement was extremely tough poly the original was nylon most were cracked and barely stayed on ., yeah the problem was most 311s were Frankensteins 3 different sizes I think
The shaft situation was like a just meeting a fast ball square ly almost a bunt is a medium base hit
One guy told us his buddy was racing the rear end went wide around a turn that had a 3 ft ditch , he thought he was going into the ditch fully sideways and it could roll over , he turned the frt. Wheels to the road when the car was sideways but at the last slowed half as fast as he had been the rear-end caught which sent the frt. straight across the ditch and hit the far bank thru up much dust. They were laughing him covered in dust , but saved the car and himself from serious damage , he just sat there. Then they realized the shaft had come at him he died later on
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 1:26 pm
by spl310
This doesn't sound correct to me. The 68 through 70 roadsters had collapsing steering columns. If you look at the picture of Dan's crash in the supplement to the rally catalog, the car was pretty mangled but the steering wheel barely moved. The early cars have the solid steel shaft, but so did every other car of the era. I'd like to see more information on this replacement horn pad.
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 3:36 pm
by Alvin
rahjr60 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 19, 2023 9:15 am
I've been considering going to a "destination" type track every year or so, and I have an invite from a local friend to come run one of the SCCA races at Daytona next year. I seem to remember when I started racing this car that someone told me roadsters don't like the banked portions of "roval" type courses. I think they were saying it was more of a transmission issue than an oiling problem. I do run the baffled racing oil pan. Anyone with experience have any thoughts?
Thanks
Contact Ron Carter (rc240Z) he's got experience in his roadster at SoCal tracks with "roval" style banking
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 5:35 pm
by spl310
Make sure to advertise here when you will be at daytona. I would certainly come down to see
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2023 8:30 am
by redroadster
spl310 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 21, 2023 1:26 pm
This doesn't sound correct to me. The 68 through 70 roadsters had collapsing steering columns. If you look at the picture of Dan's crash in the supplement to the rally catalog, the car was pretty mangled but the steering wheel barely moved. The early cars have the solid steel shaft, but so did every other car of the era. I'd like to see more information on this replacement horn pad.
That's what I said to older techs back then....i they said it was a steel shaft un plated the splines rusted after 2 or 3 yrs and was seized or it moved only .25 " , but the shaft gets hit like a baseball bat hit the ball it rockets back ,breaks off the gear & comes thru the bearing snap ring like it's nothing , some guy had a kit to help but it was $300 and was sold out , he may have been told that he can be liable for it not working in perpetuity and stopped producing, one racer told had a rubber piece that bolted in in frt. of the gearbox , a clamp on braket to keep the shaft in the housing, welding it also , and a cast piece replacing the factory one , or you had the shaft assy re plated
And the DSM was instigating the new horn pads , he was present when they schedualed the car in , wanted to make sure it was done right. I'd say they did this a bit hush hush. So as to not let others who had a family member injured in this way know
... hey now Dastun has a fix for the thing that injured/ killed them ...let me call that attorney again I wonder if this group emailed Nissan about this if they would have any horn pads still
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2023 1:46 pm
by spl310
I've pulled apart several - none were rusted in place, and I even worked on a flood damaged car...
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2023 2:12 pm
by redroadster
I guess the District serice manager., The racer teams , other long time Datsun techs Datsun engineers were wrong then.
I had more than 1. 311 come in were they had filled up the steering column with 90 w to hope it let it slide , here it's part of the rust belt 75 % humidity in summer
And a car 311 I aligned was in a wreck weeks after and the man died from the steering shaft
To his chest , head on crash but rather slow speed by both vehicles , I barely touched it on alignment
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2023 9:53 am
by rahjr60
Well that kind of went sideways!
Re: Has anyone raced at Daytona?
Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2023 6:24 pm
by Mike Unger
rahjr60 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 26, 2023 9:53 am
Well that kind of went sideways!
Yeah, really!
You might want to make sure you have baffles in the rear diff housing as a precaution. I ran a car at Charlotte with no issues but it did have baffles.
Mike