What is The Line?
The most important part of high performance driving is mastering The Line. In simple terms, The Line is the fastest route through any corner or group of turns. There is a Line through every highway ramp, and there is a Line around every racetrack. If you drive on this Line, you will be able to squeeze the most speed and performance out of your car. Every car from a Mitsubishi 3000GT or Dodge Stealth to a Mazda Miata to an F1 race car benefits from being driven on the line. Read the rest of this entry »
This gentleman in Portland, OR is finishing up an amazing piece of engineering – the DP1 racecar. Specifications are nothing short of astounding: 2.8L Hayabusa-derived V8 producing 375hp @10,000 RPM, structural downforce-producing carbon-fiber chassis, 170+mph top speed, 850lb total weight, and Quaife AWD with inboard brakes. Needless to say, this thing is wild. Projected cost is $125,000. Check out his videos or (for you engineering-types) the design/build [b]logs while I pick my jaw up off the floor.
Road and Track has posted new information about the specifications of what may be the most hotly-anticipated successor sportscar, the 2008 Nissan GT-R. The article confirms rumored info that the engine will be a 3.7L version of Nissan’s acclaimed VQ-series V6, twin turbocharged to 450bhp. Personally, we’re very excited.
If you are new to turbocharged cars or just have a stock 3000GT VR-4 or Stealth Twin Turbo and don’t know where to start, the following basics will get you immediate returns for not much money. Turbo cars respond very well to some modifications, while others should be avoided or left for later. This will serve as a detailed FAQ and primer for those who want to get involved and find some power — the first fifty to one hundred horsepower may only cost a few hundred bucks!
The Very Basics: make sure your car is healthy. Not everyone is fortunate enough to start with a low-milage car, but basic engine health can not be ignored if you intend to add power. If your car burns oil, hesitates, or hasn’t had basic maintainence done (timing belt, spark plugs) take care of that first and foremost. Consider using thicker oil if the engine has higher milage and it’s warm where you are.
Intake: The cheapest, easiest place to start. A high-flow air filter like a K&N costs penuts. Though it won’t make much power by itself, it sounds very cool and will allow your turbos to do their job more effectively later.
Exhaust: Helps now, helps later — factory exhaust parts suck as a rule. Dramatic reduction in lag can be expected from simple exhaust parts, and it will make you more power. If your state isn’t likely to notice, removing the pre-catalysts and main cat are worth your while.
Boost Control: The previous steps prepared your car for the most gains most safely. This mod is worth a ton of power, but engine monitoring becomes critical. A boost gauge should be considered essential, and a method of detecting knock is very important (though not always possible).
The above is typically worth 350-400hp total on a 3000GT/Stealth turbo when carefully executed on a healthy car. But what parts should you buy?
Solid motor mounts are an excellent modification for a 3000GT or Stealth. It was among my first upgrades and I recommend the same to all 3/S owners. The stock Mitsubishi mounts wear and weaken. The rubber cracks and the engine moves excessively, causing rough driving and poor throttle response. Two kinds of solid mounts are available:
Polyurethane, which use the stock motor mount frames but replace the rubber with hard polyurethane inserts
Installing polyurethane or solid mounts with the engine in the car looks like a daunting job, but it is easier than it seems. What follows is not a comprehensive walkthrough, just my tips and recommendations.
According to Left Lane News the 3000GT falls in between the 240SX and 300ZX, and two spaces below the generic “Toyota Pickup” in used car searches.
This just shows how stupid most people are. They want a 3S, so they search for the 3000GT and don’t even consider the Stealth. Small wonder outside the 3/S community the Stealth is viewed as being less valuable than the 3000GT. Also of note, the RX7 was #10. I am shocked such a nice, but difficult car would be top 10.
More disappointing is the whole layout of the concept. Instead of the light, mid-engine NSX, here is a front-engine AWD coupe. Sadly, it all reminds us of the Dodge Stealth, quite a stretch from the old NSX.
While this isn’t even true (Honda has stated that the car will be lighter than the most recent incarnation), it is annoying to see any sentence with “Sadly” and “reminds us of” “Dodge Stealth” all in the same sentence!
I put about 150mi on my new tires earlier this week in the dry and wet to feel them out. In the wet they resist dynamic hydroplaning much better than my summer tires. On dry pavement they work like I would expect any good snow tires to work — poorly. Changing my driving style so as not to destroy them has been difficult, but I’m getting used to it.
Thursday night we finally got some winter weather in the form of a couple inches of snowfall. With barely a break-in and the ice compound not yet emerged, I went to play on backroads for several hours after normal people were soundly asleep (and racked up nearly a hundred miles in the process). Snow traction is very good. They shine at acceleration and braking, but do surprisingly well in cornering. The generous layer of medium-heavy wet snow on wet roads was absolutely no obstacle, and I came to retrace my tracks of hard-pack many times on the better roads. Drifts are predictable and controllable, with relative oodles of traction forgiveness. It took almost peak torque in second to get wheelspin, and they wouldn’t budge in third. On the trip home in freezing slush, traction was less though still confidence-inspiring. It’s just as well that there was no sheeted ice because it would be unfair to judge these before their real magic comes out to play. With any luck there will be ice racing soon to make my review complete.
Setting and tuning the Greddy Profec B Spec-II boost controller is straightforward. Compared to other electronic boost controllers (EBC), the Spec 2 uses a relatively simple interface and set of controls. I have had excellent results on my 3000GT VR-4 with my Greddy, and I have tuned several other modified 3/S using this EBC. The boost response, boost curve, and falloff are all as good or better I’ve seen with more expensive boost controllers like the Blitz DSBC, the AVC-R, and the HKS boost controllers. Plus, it has all the basic features you’d want in a controller: 2 different boost settings, a warning alarm, a peak boost display, the option to read in psi or kPa (kilopascals), and intuitive buttons for making adjustments on the fly.
When tuning the Profec EBC, there are 3 important settings to understand:
1) Set: This sets the duty cycle of the solenoid and the base setting for your peak boost
2) Gain: This modifies the “set” to help your car hold more boost to redline and prevent fall-off
3) Set Gain: This sets the pressure at which the solenoid begins to control boost
Here is a video of me taking a lap by myself at Watkins Glen International Raceway. Watkins Glen is my favorite track in the Northeast. It’s long, has a lot of elevation change, and is very fast. If you look at the tach, you will see that I am floored starting at corner 2 all the way through the “Esses” and up the back straight!
