♦ ♦ ChargeR's DC5R Blog ♦ ♦

[dnapol]

Sex <3

[pung_dc2]

OMG! i just spent 3-4 hrs reading gliding through your thread! very impressive! and a very sexy red dc5r :P love your other cars too

[tRipitaka]

coming out of retirement are we?

[markR]

everytime this car came flying down the main street at wtac last year i jizzed in my pants.. luckily i brought a second pairn of pants in the car!

[MYDC5R]

The DC5 lives! Good stuff Tom, now bring her to Melbourne son!

[ChargeR]

OMG! i just spent 3-4 hrs reading gliding through your thread! very impressive! and a very sexy red dc5r :P love your other cars too

Thanks mate, hopefully it inspires other MR DC5R owners like yourself!

Sex <3

coming out of retirement are we?

Perhaps. I would never say never.

everytime this car came flying down the main street at wtac last year i jizzed in my pants.. luckily i brought a second pairn of pants in the car!

Thanks Mark, it has a bit of an exhaust leak at the moment though so it's sounding a bit rough.

The DC5 lives! Good stuff Tom, now bring her to Melbourne son!

Thanks mate. There is a plan in the works that may result in the Integra returning to Melbourne, I have unfinished business. I would like to hit the 1:37s at Winton and with some fiddling and some better driving I think I can get there.

Great to hear you back in the DC5 And wow 6.3 degrees of caster I can only manage 3.2 with the PCi bushes and noltec "caster plates" haha.

Really hope you take the DC5 further I live that car so much, pin up car for ClubITR !

Thanks fellow, and it is 6.7°/6.9° caster . I don't think it is much of a pin up though, it is one of the roughest cars I have seen when viewed up close.

You eye-balled pretty well!

Good to see it on the road again

Thanks Felix .

Symmons Plains Testing

I am planning to head down to Symmons Plains to do a bit of light testing on Thursday. So I will report back on Friday hopefully with PBs, since the last time I went there the car was unmodified except for the intake and exhaust, street tyres and a few alignment tweaks. I am fairly excited to be hitting the track again in the old faithful DC5, I just have to change the oil again and do a general check of the suspension and maybe bleed the brakes if I can be bothered.

[MYDC5R]

Sounds great Tom,
By the way, because of you mate i had my best experience on my first day out at Winton.
Im actually going to Tampered on Thursday now, you weren't wrong, it gets addictive lol...

Hope to see your DC5 in melbourne mate, would be good to get a photo shoot done with another MR DC5

[dnapol]

for the love of god Tom, bring this to melbourne and unleash at winton!! i have to see this artform take to the track !!

[tRipitaka]

Perhaps. I would never say never.

[ChargeR]

Symmons Plains Test and Tune

Australia day, a good day to celebrate one of the many great aspects of this country; affordable club level motorsport! Last Thursday I headed out to Symmons Plains for an open practice day to test the lastest modifications I had made to the car over a year ago; PCi spherical lower control arm bushes and Hardrace spherical rear adjustable upper control arms.

Open practice days at Symmons are the best part of Tasmania, though that is no great feat. Generally minimal traffic and no supervision make for a great day out. On this day a handful of cars and bikes turned up, and after a brief discussion we ran alternating 15 minute sessions until the end of the day, so the available track time is massive and the cost is less than half of the average Victorian club day.



My preparation for the day was less than perfect, I couldn't find anyone in Launceston that stocked RBF600 or similar so I decided to run with the 14 month old fluid in the car. I ended up regretting this. I also changed to a fresh set of Project Mu LM500 pads at the front, and changed the oil to some 10w-30 Red Line.

The first session out was cautious, I hadn't driven the car in a long while and it was the first time driving the car briskly since the suspension changes. Everything seemed to be fine though and I easily got down around my previous best just cruising around with the AC on. The only fault was that the pedal feel was terrible, I nearly had to double pump the brakes heading into the final corner at around 200km/h which was a spooky feeling, but I just had to drive around it and brake much earlier than I usually would have.



Excepting that fault the car felt very good, except for difficulties with corner exit traction at the exit of turn 2, this probably could have been remedied by a damper adjustment but I forgot to bring my 3mm socket to adjust the front dampers. Session 2 was more of the same, except I turned the AC off now and started pushing a little harder and trying to find the braking points and lines since so much had changed since I last had the car at this track. I went a little quicker, times are below. The brakes got even worse and after this session I took a break for a while in an attempt to let the brakes cool a little. The next sessions I managed to get held up by one of the other two cars on the track, and went a little quicker:



After my 4th session I had pretty much had enough of taking my life in my hands in every braking zone and had decided to call it a day until my brother in his dirty VL commodore drift car went out and ran a faster time than me:



So bled the front brakes with some fluid that I had scrounged up, they were still terrible, and I went out for one more session and managed a 1:05 flat and a couple more low 1:05s, just enough to put him in his place. After that I took a few friend's for passenger rides, changed my wheels back over and went home. My work here was done. With a fix of the brakes I think I should aim for a low 1:04 which isn't too bad a time.



Times

Session 2: 1:07.45
Session 3: 1:06.54
Session 4: 1:05.93
Session 5: 1:05.03

Review and Changes

The changes I had made to the car were very noticeable, though it having been more than a year since I have been on track with this car my memory could be faulty. The front end felt much more crisp, more responsive on turn in and small corrections at the wheel were easier and more direct. The reduced rear camber made the car looser on turn in and mid corner, exactly the effect I wanted, having always been plagued with more understeer than I would like on the Hoosiers. From seeing my previous tyre wear though the outer shoulders of the rear tyres will pay the price, even before with -2.5ish camber the tyres were wearing more on the outside. I will just have to get them flipped inside out at some stage.

On to the negatives. The brakes were the worst they have ever been, and I hope it is only due to the old fluid causing fluid fade. The previous front pads were very unevenly worn though, so I should take the calipers off the car and inspect the sliders and maybe rebuild them again with some new slider pins. Also engaging 4th gear is getting worse and worse so a rebuild is on the horizon, though it wasn't bad enough to slow the car down. Finally the persistent issue I have had with wandering steering centre is still there, and after doing everything I could think of to fix it I am beginning to think it is either the subframe shifting slightly or the steering rack shifting, so the solution is to fit the Mugen rack mounts I have had for years and drop the subframe and retorque the bolts.

[ChargeR]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PCNvZzDJ6Cc/TSu1SOkifPI/AAAAAAAAAAU/ZSye47Nsnko/s1600/lol.jpg

I am going to test my ban hammer on you.

for the love of god Tom, bring this to melbourne and unleash at winton!! i have to see this artform take to the track !!

EF8 > DC5. Got a nice warehouse/workshop for me to store it in then guy?

Sounds great Tom,
By the way, because of you mate i had my best experience on my first day out at Winton.
Im actually going to Tampered on Thursday now, you weren't wrong, it gets addictive lol...

Hope to see your DC5 in melbourne mate, would be good to get a photo shoot done with another MR DC5

Glad you are liking the track mate, it is the best way to enjoy our cars. I don't think I should park my car near yours though, mine is very rough in comparison.

[eskimo_firefighter]

Nice update dude, good to see that you're tracking the Milano Red beast again. Going to take it up to Winton sometime by any chance?

[MYDC5R]

I am going to test my ban hammer on you.



EF8 > DC5. Got a nice warehouse/workshop for me to store it in then guy?



Glad you are liking the track mate, it is the best way to enjoy our cars. I don't think I should park my car near yours though, mine is very rough in comparison.

Don't say that! Im lucky i didn't lose the drivers side rear after my replica wing snapped lol.. Will tell ya the story next time i see ya... Was lucky big time...

Will have to get you show me some good tips at Winton at the next event you attend if you ever do go up again!

Sucks about your brakes and gearbox hopefully can be fixed though....

[Norm]

Tom, seeing your red beast on the track in that photo just demands authority. Great shot and always a pleasure to read your updates.

[dnapol]

tom, potentially you may have somewhere to store it however, currently all spots are full we'll work something out wanna see that beast up at winton!