October 2nd, 2008
First thing I need is tires. I received 9 wheels with the car, and found another in the trunk, so I have 10 rims to play with. I decide to get some Falken Azenis RT-615’s. This is a street performance tire, that will work well enough, last a while, and costs 1/3 of a true DOT race tire.
I spent a day removing lot of pealing stickers and giving it a general clean up. I change the oil, bleed the brakes installing DOT 5 fluid. I install a race seat for the passenger side I bought off ebay for $145, and a set of 5 point belts. I determine she is ready for the track.
I sign up for Scca’s PDX at Summit Point Raceway. This is an event where you can take your street car out and learn to drive fast. I have done some other events like this so they put me in the more advanced group, with and instructor to make sure I am safe.
On the first lap, the new tires still had a coating on them and it’s sliding all over the place. After a few laps it calms down, and I start to push it a little. It drives like I expect it would. It understeers like no bodies business, and leans like a fat chick in a boat.
The car does quite well, I am happy with the purchase, now it’s time to start the conversion to it’s current class, Improved Touring A (ITA).
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September 26th, 2008
Now that I have the car, of course I want to drive it. First thing was to get the seat move back as the previous owner was around 5 ft tall, I am 6′1″. I got to a friends house and we proceed to remove the seat and redrill some holes in the seat mounting and I take a ride to the end of the street and back.
First impressions are good. Plenty of power, the transmission is smooth as silk (I guess he wasn’t fibbing when he said the trans was freshly rebuilt), no strange noises or smoke from the engine. It seems mechanically sound..
Since it had been sitting for a while, some mouses had made it their home and peed on everything. I commenced on the next phase, interior removal. I must have pulled 200lbs of seats and trim out of the car. Since the car is being built to compete with SCCA, and the improved touring rules package allows for this, it was first on the list. I also removed the factory air box, and replaced it with a K&N cone filter. That will give it that nice growl when you open the throttle. This work takes most of the day so back on the trailer it goes.
Next up, I need to get it ready for it’s first track day. In order to do that, I will need a passenger seat similar to the drivers seat (race style with 5 point harness). I will be watching ebay and following up with some racer friends of mine.
Let see, what else is on the list…
- tires
- oil change
- brake fluid change
- check all fluids
- a good looking over
- the aformentioned seat and belts
I have a lot to do…
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September 25th, 2008
This is my first race car. I bought the car from a fellow who had not raced the car in years, 3 to be exact. It was in good shape, but dirty.
The car is a 1996 Nissan 200SX SE-R. I has a 2.0L SR20DE inline 4 cyl. engine. It was built to compete in SCCA’s (Sports Car Club of America) SSC (showroom stock) class. The rules package for SS for this car was take the stock car, add some performance shocks, a rear sway bar and modify the ECU to remove the speed limiter. Other than that, the normal SS rules applied. Among the rules, it must have all the interior parts the car came with, you may however install a race driver seat and some other small items like a race steering wheel. Safety items include a 6 point roll cage, and removal of the air bags. For more detail check out the SCCA Web site.
The car had low miles as it was built from a wrecked car into a race car with around 20k miles on it. The odometer said 28K when I bought it. The body was in good shape, but many of the stickers were pealing away, and the drivers door had bondo falling off from a poor repair job.
More later..
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