M@lew's DC5R

[MYDC5R]

And yeah the wing cover is for when I don't drive it to protect it from the elements when it's on.

No undercover parking for the dc5 i take it then ay?

[M@lew]

Time for a well overdue update!



Since DECA day last year I’ve attended 3 track days, EXE Nov 2011, Tampered Labour day and the May EXE double weekend.

EXE Nov 2011 was the first day trying out the Federal 595 RS-R tyres, which felt pretty good from the RE001’s I was using previously. Ran 235 / 40 / 17 all round for tyre rotation purposes although in the future I will go back to staggered. Managed to get 1:43.59 which I was happy with although a lot of people are going faster on streets now which makes me want to go back! After setting the time there were still a few sessions left in the day, so I went to try some A048 245 / 40 / 17 on 17 x 9 + 22 TE37 rims which were really bad. Could not get any heat at all into them and managed to spin out twice which is 2 more spin outs than I had done all year!









Vid of my PB + spin outs here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP5l9GFLVJE&feature=plcp

Then came a big break of nothing until March where I picked up a set of 17 x 9 + 22 Gramlight 57D’s (as some of you spotted on Facbook) and A050 235 / 45 / 17. The RS-R’s were changed to the 57D’s to become my daily wheels and the semi’s were put on the RE30’s. I also grabbed a set of Project Mu HC+ which were a lot dustier than my DS2500 and noisier but seemed to grip a bit better. Still have yet to take proper photos with the wheels though.







Went out to tackle Winton at the Tampered Labour day event and they felt a lot better than the old A048 I tried previously. With passengers all day I managed a 1:40.8 which was already a lot better than street tyres! The biggest difference I think was the ability to have more balls through the corners, I’m sure street tyres could still get close to the time but you need the confidence to be able to push them like that. (MR team of Mugsee and ChargeR)

[M@lew]

EXE May 19 & 20



This is the most recent event happening only a couple of weeks ago. Car still remained very similar to what it was except instead of my J’s wing I was trying a V-Mount wing and after March my rotors could do with replacing so I overhauled my brake set up with these.



AP Racing 4 pot’s with DBA 4000 slotted and Project Mu Club Racer pads. The rotors are 320mm and currently off a 350Z since they’re 1 piece and brackets custom made to fit. These make it a whole lot easier to source in the future although when I jump to 2 piece I may change them back to fit 330mm. Being x 28mm though makes rotor choices a bit of a pain.

First impressions were they’re noisy as. Pulling up to my house at night I’m pretty sure I wake the neighbours with my brake squeal rather than exhaust. After installing them it was 1 day of work and then up to Winton!

Saturday



The day started out well just like any other track day. This was the invite-only day and although entries were limited the turnout was crazy for both drivers and spectators. Went out for a quick warm up in the first session and after a few laps my brakes were failing. The brake pedal would hit the floor and I would still be driving. I came off and bled the brakes and it wasn’t a surprise that there were lots of bubbles. Session 2 went out and the same thing happened although I managed to set a time of 1:41.07, still 1 second off my PB. Brakes were bled again and went out for the third session. This session was a bit more eventful, coming down the back I went to turn and the car only slightly moved causing me to go off. The steering felt really sloppy so off we went to pull the car apart and inspect the problem.



The culprits were loose camber bolts and tie rods. When I would turn the steering wheel, the wheels would stay in the same position or follow the pull of the car making it quite a handful. This was the day for me and since I had to be back for day 2 the race was on. Tom (ChargeR) and Mugsee came down and gave a helping hand to adjust the bolts to max camber and tightening them up and then my friend Bernard and I got to work mucking about with the alignment. It was hard to find any string but we had a laser on our hands which we used to adjust the toe.



The laser was placed onto the wheel and if it pointed into the car it was toe out, away from the car toe in and rather flush was close to 0 toe. Wasn’t a bad alignment since when I was measured on the weekend my car was only sitting about +3.5mm toe, not bad for a ghetto alignment.



Finished in time for a last test and tune session where I went out without a bumper although I had already returned my timing device so not sure how the time went.



Sunday



Woke up to a freezing Sunday morning with ice all over my car. Was pretty keen to see how I would go with an unknown alignment (although my brakes seemed to have sorted themselves out!)



The weather was good and all the sessions ran pretty smoothly although there were a few more spin outs and breakdowns than the day before. My steering wheel still wasn’t straight as it was about 45 degrees down on the right but at least my car would turn where I wanted it to. Most of the day I was only hovering around the 1:42 / 43 mark which was disappointing since my flying laps were ruined by either a red flag or someone in the way. (Rare occurrence at EXE and the car was shown the blue flag immediately) Went out for my last session and decided to just go super hard and by the end my car was making funky sounds under hard g’s! Everyone from the sideline heard it (and myself in the car felt it) as it caused my car to lag through the corners. I came off and decided it was due to low oil and lack of a baffled sump.



Went to check the time which was bitter sweet. Target for the day was to get into 1.30’s and my time on of the last session...1.40.01!. I beat my PB but still if my car wasn’t starving I would’ve made my goal! At least that’s motivation to go back out. Even though the day was over there was still some last minute drama as we had to try and get Peter (eskimo_firefighter) back on the road after he had some wheel + tyre issues!



Once we were all packed up and fixed we just made it out before the Winton gates closed for the ride home. Awesome weekend and it was good chatting with a lot of new track faces such as the BYP boys.

[rookie]

Awesome update! Too bad you had so many little problems that set you back at Winton. Now i expect it all to be dialed for the next track day haha.

[manonastick]

quick question
how did you mount the camera all the way back?

[maracer]

Great update Matt.
Have to say with all the little setback you kept yourself focused and calm, a true sports man mate love the Video too

[M@lew]

quick question
how did you mount the camera all the way back?

Yeah on the rear window. I'll be trying to mount it to be c-pillar though for a clearer view in the future.

--------

Got my car back from the panel beater today, at least someone reversing you isn't ALL bad. (Still a pain though) Have to figure out how to install the parkers and high beams now.

[gunpoons]

FAIL
not a fan sorry, abp should only be seen on a pre-facelift, car looked so much nicer before, front bar and lights look so nerdy, just don't dig it at all

[M@lew]

FAIL
not a fan sorry, abp should only be seen on a pre-facelift, car looked so much nicer before, front bar and lights look so nerdy, just don't dig it at all

Maybe you're just biased Haha But it's definitely a lot more plain than my old bumpers. (Especially without any sort of lip) I was thinking about going aggressive aftermarket but I wanted a stock bumper along with it, and it's more of a pain to get my hands. Still searching for an aftermarket for track though!

[gunpoons]

yeah, i'm most def biased,
i can understand why you went the way you did, but don't be swayed by all the type-s ladyboys, the type-r is the king, thats why they all rock the wing!

[plAythiNG]

too bad the ings bumper i had got sold

needs V LIP and foggies Matt!

right now looking real plain!

[M@lew]

I guess I'll have to get a v-lip from the states then, any local? May get one in carbon but that might be a pain to install.

[Oz Striker]

+1 for the v lip, really suits the type s front bumper! You'll probabl destroy a carbon one though at the height your cars at, I've even managed to scrape not just underneath but the front as well where you can actually see it!! Would look cool though, Maybe carbon wrap one?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[se7en]

u can buy local which would cost abit more =D

[eskimo_firefighter]

Nice update Matt. Really am thankful of you guys helping me get my car back home. Totally just bad luck that you didn't dip into the 1:30's, but I'm certain that you will dip into the 1:30's sooner or later.

Hopefully next time at our track days well run into no problems what so ever and smash some pb's. But was a pretty hectic weekend (EXE double track day weekend that is).

And I like the facelift very much, but with a Mugen lip or some other lip would set it right off.