Topic: 2012 Romanian Drag Racing Championship

[Kelu]

Elff  and I couldn't believe it when we went to a gas station...

You might missed something, that gas station where elff couldn't reach to use the urinal because it was too high for him ... that was unbelievable but true

My door is open, just let me know when you land.

[elff]

Worst case scenario, we need to get back there in 2014

[Sol Asylum]

You might missed something, that gas station where elff couldn't reach to use the urinal because it was too high for him ... that was unbelievable but true

My door is open, just let me know when you land.

He had the same problem at the restaurant where we had the ribs, poor guy needed a step stool.

I guess I need to start learning to speak Romanian.

[Kelu]

To end up like Mendoza? )

[Sol Asylum]

Little chance that I will be mistaken for a gypsy.  Where is the finger waving emoticon?

[Kelu]

Next weekend is the most important and probably the final race of this season.

It will a very hard stage because everybody wants to come, it will be a 2 days race, can't wait.

here is the promo:
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[Arabas]

Will u be racing?

[Kelu]

Of course, first time with +400hp.

I'm not expecting personal record because I still don't have proper tires and my clutch is killing my ET, I need to find a way to bleed the clutch for smoother and faster shifting.

13.30s is my personal best, if is going to be a 13.2s I will be very happy.

[Arabas]

Best of luck buddy! Go smoke them!

[DeepBlueGXP]

Of course, first time with +400hp.

I'm not expecting personal record because I still don't have proper tires and my clutch is killing my ET, I need to find a way to bleed the clutch for smoother and faster shifting.

13.30s is my personal best, if is going to be a 13.2s I will be very happy.

Imagine what you would get if you were on a prepared track like we have here at MIR

[Arabas]

Joe, dont remind him of this, he will get depressed

[Kelu]

I would be low 12s at least on MIR and good tires for sure. Don't twist the knife more in my wound

Yes, Arabas, thank you

[Kelu]

Last race report:

Great race, awesome results:
- 8.9s full street Nissan GTR, they broke european record with 0.4s and they got 0.1s only under world record of 8.8s
- first 2 FWD cars in 10s, both of them 1.8 Turbo engine
- many other romanian records and personal records

I sucked:
- raced only first day with huge wind from front 13.8s with cracked manifold, 3rd and 4th shifting was grinding and slow and than I had to rebuilt boost
- qualified into 4th or 5th place in the finals but I decided not to push it anymore
- I drove with no brakes for about 200 miles and with every slight deviation towards right on the steering wheel, the hanging brake pad from right front wheel it was braking causing huge and dangerous situations combined with lack of brakes

I called my tuner today who claims to be also my friend telling him that I don't want to continue our collaboration after 2 years of failing to accomplish the goal. He left the track without saying anything even he told me he will take care of the car to fix the brakes issue, I don't want to have such friends.

I seriously thinking to quit drag racing, especially in this country with no tracks and no good tuners.

[elff]

Kelu

I think you use the term Tuner the way we use the term "Speed Shop" or Mechanic.
Are you referring to the overall build of the car, or just the tuning of the ECU?

I know we can't help with the building part, but we do have excellent HP Tuners.

What happened to the brakes?

Sorry to hear it did not go well. 

[Brazen17]

That does suck Kelu. Sounds like your car has taken a bit of a beating. Hope you get it back in order.

[Kelu]

elff: ECU tune is very good, one of the best what I could see with LNF, low tq value but very constant till 7200rpm, that has been fixed some time ago and than we did like 5-6h of street driving when my ECU tuner calibrated the MAF very very good.

The speed shop is my big disappointing:
- they knew about the clutch issue from last year since they install it, but took them 1 week to replace the clutch and we all knew that a proper bleeding of the clutch would mean to take everything down again
- I had the crack in the manifold noticed for the first time 3 weeks ago but they had time to take down only the downpipe for inspection which was good but they didn't took the turbo out because they had other priorities

I understand he has clients with big pockets and those are priorities but in 2 years they could find time to fix my issues. My patience is gone, I was very nice guy in all this time but when I had enough I say stop and probably I will stop also the personal relationship with him besides he fact of 2 years of failures you don't left your "friend" at the race with no brakes and not too many options to get home without a word or at least a phone call letting him know that you are gone and he should find another solution.

Sorry for going so personal but this is the main reason for considering to quit drag racing.

If this is one of top 3 speed shops in the country if not the best one, imagine that I don't have better solutions to continue this path with others.


I noticed in the evening after I raced the car, when I was driving to hotel and I heard like a metal wire bouncing from my front wheel, I slowed down, I looked over the street and I couldn't see anything suspicious in the dark, I think in that moment I lost a flex wire from the brake pad.
Next morning I had brakes only on second pump of the pedal and when I was in reverse it was braking itself.
When I left the strip I had brakes only at 3rd pump on the brake pedal, after 50 miles I noticed a sound when turning right, after I started to have huge pulls to right when I was turning the car to the right a bit. I stopped and I saw like 1/4 of the brake pad lower than the caliper from than I had zero brakes, I tried to pull the pad up and down with no success and with huge burns on my fingers and than I continued my drive till home with huge risks but I got home safe.

[elff]

I completely understand.   I figured you meant speed shop because the actual tune looked really good.

Yea that does suck.  Are there no other places that do work like this?  Can any of the other guys where you did the Dyno work on your car?

I am really surprised about the brake issue.   I wonder what caused that?  Is the caliper OK, or does that need to be replaced?  Fortunately you got home safe. 

Don't worry about venting.  That's a very frustrating situation.

[Sol Asylum]

Hey Elff lets go start a speed shop in Romania.  GJ are you in?

Kelu think back and remember how much you liked drag racing a few years ago before you make any decision about giving it up.  Don't base any decision only on how things have been of late.  Now go find a new speed shop get your car fixed and then go race.

[Kelu]

Yea that does suck.  Are there no other places that do work like this?  Can any of the other guys where you did the Dyno work on your car?

The dyno was done at actual greek speed shop. You saw it when you were here, the new room.

I know most of the other speed shops from Bucharest and I don't trust them, I saw way too many things in last years. There are only 2 shops in the country where I will be able to trust but they are like 6-8h away (300-600$ only to drive up to there and back). Most of the guys from the race are doing the work themselves even if they are not mechanics they became good on their cars just because we lack the mechanics and specialists. Probably if I could rent a garage I could work on my car myself and do pretty close job to the "great" mechanics are doing.

I am really surprised about the brake issue.   I wonder what caused that?  Is the caliper OK, or does that need to be replaced?  Fortunately you got home safe.

I really don't know what could cause the failure, no work on the brakes since last year. Also I don't know the damage on caliper, disc or pad, the car sits in the parking lot and it will be sitting there for a while, I have no mood to fix it.

[Kelu]

Kelu think back and remember how much you liked drag racing a few years ago before you make any decision about giving it up.  Don't base any decision only on how things have been of late.  Now go find a new speed shop get your car fixed and then go race.

I agree, first 2 years I enjoyed the drag racing a lot, the car ran perfectly in those conditions, I was afraid to upgrade the turbo not to get into a situation exactly where I am now.

I studied the upgrade of the turbo for more than 1 year and EFR broke and than all the circus started, hopefully I was smart enough and hopefully I had something to offer instead of money from pocket for my upgrades and prevent transforming the car into a money pit.

Having patience for like 2 years and over 10 races and getting over after each disappointing moment on my own, all these stretched my nerves to a point where I don't know now if I might be able to retun.

[Sol Asylum]

Well you know how to fix the brakes yourself so get that taken care of.  Good thing GJ showed you everything he knows about brakes.

Then work on getting the other issues sorted out, Andrie seemed to know who can do a clutch.  Remember to ask us any questions, I promise I won't lead you astray.  (Others are out of luck though)

Once you get the car worked out then decide about racing again.

[Gentleman Jack]

GJ's house of Kars

I like the sound of that. We need one really tall lift for SA to work under, and then we need another sort of lift for Elff.

Kelu will be the "nice guy negotiator" who works the deals and i'll troll the beaches looking for new clients.

Perfect!

[Arabas]

Kelu, i understand your dissapointment and fury.
IMO 50% of heavily modded cars like yours, start having issues. a modded car can not compare to a stock one in terms of reliability..
but as already said, don't go to the other end...

my proposal would be: get your GT back to stock (i mean stock turbo, clutch etc) and just drive it with stock turbo+tune and bolt ons.
then find an old car, like an escort MKII, or an Ascona etc and tune it to the bone for drag racing. old cars are cheaper, many aftermarket and used parts and i bet you could do more stuff on your own.

cheer up buddy!!!

[Critterman]

You don't need a lift for elff, any curb will do.  I can supervise.  It appears I have already retired as one of my credit cards is taking a grand tour of Europe and the Middle East.  Wonder if I am enjoying myself?

[elff]

Critterman, Bring me back something good!!

Kelu
I now this is all frustrating.  So stepping back for a while isnt a bad thing.  Just don't make any rash decisions in regards to getting rid of the GT.
In reading about everything. It does look like you have 3 items that need to be addressed.

1. Fix the brake that has the issue
2. Replace the cracked Manifold
3. Fix the clutch

Aside from the cracked manifold, you did agree that the car was running great. The Clutch is your performance issue, not the engine.
If you think about repairs, 1 and 2 are pretty easy.   They really come down to removing and replacing bolts and swapping in non broken parts.  Especially since you did all the brake work at the mod meet. You are an expert now.  So fixing those 2 is more motivation than then skill.
The Clutch is the big PITA. 
Could you find out where Andrei had his installed?  Then have yours fixed there.  Maybe you could duplicate parts to make sure you get exactly what he has as his drives very smooth.

But for now, don't sweat it.  Take some time off.