Lola - Ke55 4a-gze

[Biggo]

Just did the ABV mod today :P

 

its a piece of piss really, just cut up a plate and block off the vaccume hose and your all set.

 

Just don't get around to playing with the sc output pipe like i did. I redrilled the holes and reversed it.....but its now held in by 3 bolts and lotsa gasket goo.

[ancullen]

And how does it feel to drive now? Very different or you can't notice?

[ancullen]

I've got some pictures from the Sunday from X-Pozd Photography (http://www.x-pozd.com/).

 

The blue AE86 has a silvertop 20v with a turbo running 5psi. It also has adjustable suspension. On Sunday it was lapping around 5 seconds a lap quicker than Lola, but the car has the potential to do better if the driver wanted to push a little bit harder once he learns the track better. The driver had originally only turned up for the drifting, but when no other drifters turned up, he entered the lapsprints instead and absolutely loved it!

 

Check out the massive negative camber!

 

Notice the difference in bodyroll between the AE86 and the KE55? Can't wait to get her lowered (or buy an AE86/TE72 and put in coilovers).

 

More bodyroll, this time going through the sweeper. Oh for some slicks and coilovers. A man can dream.

 

Here's a picture of my mate Anthony's Torana for reference. You can see the dramatic difference in body roll through the sweeper, and his car has had fairly basic lowering done to it (just some lowering blocks I think).

 

I think that as I improve my driving ability and knowledge of the track I could definitely take a second (maybe two) off my lap time. My best was a 1min39.328, but I'm not sure how accurate this is as the laptiming constantly plays up, but it seems about right. This is the best lap I've ever achieved in any car (having taken my Galant, the Starlet, & Lola out), so I'm pretty happy.

 

If I can get down into the high 1min37's with my current setup I'll be very happy. However, before the next meet I'm going to finally put my new brake pads in (Bendix Ultimates) and we're going to fabricate a new passenger side engine mount (solid mount). These modifications alone should reduce my lap time a little, but I'm not sure how much. It shall be interesting to see.

 

Anthony's best for Sunday was a 1min37.2660, however he has got a lap in the 1min36 range previously. My first goal is to beat his lap time consistently.

 

Goal number two will take some more work (and money), but I think is quite achievable. There is an AE71 that competes in the Improved Production racing. It has a standard (aside from exhaust and chip) 16v 4A-GE (never found out if it's a bigport or small), but the interior is stripped out and it has a pretty mean looking suspension setup. It's best lap on Sunday was a 1min34.1357. I don't think that a 1min33 is an unreasonable goal for Lola (with standard engine, no extra boost, and a good suspension setup).

 

Interestingly the Sprinter did a best lap of 1min34.1410, so there's bugger all between the two cars (both are stripped out with wicked suspension, but the AE71 has only about 78kW ATW and the AE86 has 99.2). It shall be interesting to see how Lola's times improve over the next couple of years.

 

Goal number three will take even more time and work. This goal is to beat Brenton Taylor's KE55 coupe Improved Production car. His vehicle is stripped out to the max, has a worked 20v silvertop (he's only willing to rev it to 8500rpm, but it's got some serious grunt), a 4.875:1 Hilux LSD, Volvo disc brakes front and rear, lowered suspension (including Sigma/Scorpion lower control arms for big camber), and I think that's all the important stuff. He does low 1min28's almost every lap, and I believe he has got a high 1min27 before. I believe that eventually Lola & I will one day be able to achieve a 1min27. When I achieve this goal, I will know that it is time to begin work on an Improved Production car of my own.

 

There is only one slight issue with these goals: if a cheap AE86 or TE72 becomes available for sale I would be VERY tempted to purchase it and drop Lola's running gear into it. This is because of the greater availability of better suspension gear for AE86's. However countering this will be my desire to make Lola the quickest car that I can.

 

LAP TIME GOALS

GOAL 1: 1min 36sec (currently 3.5sec off)

GOAL 2: 1min 33sec (currently 6.5sec off)

GOAL 3: 1min 27sec (currently 12.5sec off)

Edited March 26, 2006 by ancullen

[Biggo]

pics no worky....

[ancullen]

Try now.

[Biggo]

Still no worky

 

Sez or the like

 

might be missing the tag???

[ancullen]

The post with pictures has now definitely been fixed. Please enjoy (on previous page).

Edited March 26, 2006 by ancullen

[anastasios]

yea stick with the 55 i will be goin 4age soon in mine and am still wondering what suspension to run, probably will be corona struts, what do you have planned for suspension?

[ancullen]

I have sort of decided that I will stick with the KE55. The AE86 would have many advantages (better suspension, more modification options, and it can end up lighter than a KE55), but I can't resist the idea of trying to take the KE55 to its limits and pushing myself to learn to be a much better driver. So the KE55 is going to stay.

 

I'll be going with the Corona struts at some point. I was going to go with the Hilux calipers, but the RX7 option is looking better (and lighter). For the rear end I want to track down a Corona Avante LSD disc rear end as it would be great.

 

Brenton Taylor who races a KE55 coupe with 4A-GE 20v has Volvo calipers front and rear. When he sold me the welded diff that I'm now using, he gave me the axles that were in the diff and a set of standard axles. The ones that were in the diff had had some extra metal welded onto them to allow for the disc brakes. I don't know if they'll be of any use to me, but I've got them there in case they do.

 

EDIT: I just discovered that the 1987 Corona Avante came in four different models with four different diff ratios. All had the disc rear end, but my info doesn't show if it was LSD (I'm pretty damn certain they were anyway). Here they are:

 

Avante 2.4L Manual: 3.42

Avante 2.4L Auto: 3.7

Avante 2.0L Manual: 3.889

Avante 2.0L Auto: 4.111

 

So it looks like I need to track down a Corona Avante 2.0L Auto. The ratio isn't ideal, but it'll do. It's either a T-series or F-series diff, but either way an LSD centre would be easier enough to get (although quite expensive).

Edited March 27, 2006 by ancullen

[ancullen]

Time for a little update on Lola.

 

After doing some searching on eBay, I've decided to buy a tacho. I was getting a bit sick of the fact that the only working gauge I currently have is the one showing how much fuel I've got. So I bid on a couple of tachos, but was then outbid, but then found this one for $34 plus $15 postage:

 

 

I think it looks pretty groovy, it has built in shift light, isn't one of those ridiculously big 5" monster tachos (this one's only 3 3/4") and is cheap. Hopefully it will arrive in time for us to install it before the next race meet.

 

Then I did some more searching and found something just too cool for school. No one had bid on it and it only had 18 hours to go. What was it???

 

Here it is:

 

 

I put in a bid on these four-pot Hilux brake calipers ($30 - BARGAIN!!!), but was outbid. So I upped my bid to ($50 - Still a huge bargain!) but was out bid again, and don't currently have the funds to bid any higher. They ended up selling for $145.

 

As I've missed out on the Hilux calipers, I will continue investigating the RX7 option. I'd prefer them as they're meant to be MUCH lighter, but I don't want too much of a fuss to install them.

[Biggo]

so lola is legless? :)

 

hmm, i dunno bout the calipers, i had the sam prob with my car. Wanted bigger calipers ate too much disc (had the pads hangin above the edge).

 

So i just bought the whole bloody setup (RA60) and I'm having my first attemt at making them fit this weekend. YAY

[ancullen]

Lola legless? No, I haven't touched the brakes yet (though I do want to put my Commodore brake pads on this weekend). I was just going to buy the Hilux calipers and then buy the Corona struts & Peugeot rotors later on.

[Biggo]

Pretty sure the hilux/rona/pug setup requires the OD of the discs to be machined down.....

 

sorta kills the idea of doin a brake convo when you add another 25 odd kg :)

[Rolla__Boy]

Amen to that...if it was 250kilos, maybe a problem, but not 25

[ancullen]

The extra weight of the Hilux calipers is why I'd prefer the RX7 calipers. They're alloy versus the Hilux cast-iron bastards. Plus I know that the good brake pads will fit without hassles.

 

And yes, with Hilux calipers on Pug discs you either have to have the disc machined down a couple of millimetres, or you can take a bit of metal out of the inside of the caliper. I don't know if that also applies to the RX7 calipers. It's weird that it has to be done to the Hilux calipers, as on the LN106 (the recommended model) the discs have a 302mm diameter, and the Pug discs being used only have a 273mm diameter. Obviously the caliper sits closer to centre on the Corona strut than it does on the Hilux strut. The Series 4 RX7 uses 276mm front rotors and the Series 5 uses 294mm ones. I'm not sure which model you are meant to use calipers from, but I've got a funny feeling it's meant to be Series 4.