Over the weekend we headed to a very chilly Wakefield Park for the AUS Time Attack Challenge. Our team for the weekend consisted of Dennis Resi piloting Lightning the R32 GT-R, and Ben Schwer in his 180SX. Apart from the cold start to the day, both Saturday and Sunday were absolute cracker weather conditions. Big thank you to the AUS Time Attack crew they put on a very smooth event.
It was a slow start for pretty much everybody in the paddock as the track temperatures just weren’t there until midday’ish. The first two sessions were very much just feeling out the track, and making sure all the mechanicals/temperatures were in check. Carrying on the niggling brake knock off issues from the previous outing, Lightning was not inspiring Dennis with much braking confidence. This is a huge issue and we are working to rectify it as soon as possible. We covered the brake issue in greater detail with our previous race feature. In a nutshell the R32 chassis naturally suffers from pad knock off/flex, although with this amount of power Wakefield really pronounces the issue with its short and undulated nature.
KUDOS to Dennis for turning a 1:03.63, as you can see from the video above Lightning is nothing short of a handful to control! Lightning turned well over 35 laps combined across both days, mechanically he’s on point, but we’ll definitely be back with an adequate braking system.
We are super stoked for Ben’s efforts over the weekend! Finishing up 3rd in Clubsprint with a 1:05.6.
Needless to say conditions were hard for everybody. Early on Ben was having under-steer issues which he slowly improved by adjusting the suspension, softening the front damper and sway bar as the day went on. It definitely helped. In combination with track conditions getting better, Ben went from turning mid 1:08’s to his best time of 1:05 by Sunday’s end. There is always room for improvement and Ben is still very much getting to grips with his 180SX. There is room to improve on the suspension as well, especially in the setup combined with the AD08R. A tyre Ben has had very limited track time with.
A true grass roots racer, Ben is improving with every event he enters and we’ll be following all his progress right here on our site. To Follow all his races hit Ben’s YouTube Chanel right here.
Just for good measure, below we’ve attached a much faster 1:03.7 that Ben has run at a previous Wakefield event. When conditions are good aye! Oh and slicks…
Ben Schwer’s race spec 180SX we have been preparing over the past year, gets an upgrade dash prior to this weekend’s racing at Wakefield. At the last event (in the video above) we had the workshop test dash fitted in Ben’s car, just to make sure the Haltech Sport 1000 ECU and installed sensors were all firing correctly.
With Ben lapping Wakefield last time at 62 seconds, it was clear all systems were go. Now that Wakefield is upon us yet again this weekend, it was time to swap out the workshop test dash with the MoTeC C125 Race Dash. The MoTeC dash will allow us to log data with greater precision, where by the C125’s 500/second sample rate we can essentially “zoom” into the lap’s data far more. To give you a visual idea of what that means, imagine a 4K image vs a 1080 image. This benefits racing in general because we can pin point those needed micro-adjustments, which in turn can gain those valuable seconds. Using a CANBUS template to decipher the Haltech 1000 ECU the raw data is seamlessly displayed on the C125 dash; making this a true Plug’N’Play dash upgrade!
Any questions regarding anything ECU, please take a minute to fill out this questionnaire and Chea will get back to you ASAP.
Lightning has been turning laps at various race days for well over 3 years now. Mechanically the RB28 power-plant is rock solid day in day out with plenty of power at hand. Since WTAC 2016 we have put in place a new engine program. Where by we have specifically modified the N1 RB26 block to be able to withstand 600kw of power in RACE mode. In the past years we have been limiting output power to around the 500kw mark as the N1 blocks seem to start giving way at around that point. But since 2016 we have put in place our new RB26/28 engine program, and Lightning Resi has been turning laps at well over 550kw without any signs of wear or damage. Just to make sure, and for our piece of mind we have been working closely with Nulon in sending away engine oil samples away after every race meet for testing. They are able to analyse the samples, and if any fragments or traces of metal are found in the oil we can find the problem area way before any damage is actually one. So far so good!
Now running the MoTeC M150 GPRP ECU package, the Albins gearbox has been optimised and tuned. As you can hear from the video above, the shifts are smooth and fast! 232km/h down the straight to be exact. This time at Wakefield though, we were yet again dealing with braking issues. Any R32 Skyline owner that has pushed their car to the limits will eventually complain about the Hub Flex or Pad Knock Off that occurs naturally on the R32 platform. Since WTAC last year, we have tried a few different methods to rectify this problem. We’ve replaced the OEM bearing for a much wider one, in hopes that it would centralize the hub and not allow movement, this did not work. We then tried installing some Pad Knock Off Springs, again in the hopes that it would stop the brake pad from opening up during steering wheel inputs and cornering. This did not work. Our latest attempt just prior to arriving at Wakefield was to try and use 5psi pressure valves in the brake lines with the aim to hold much more brake pressure in the lines, again to no avail. We have now literally exhausted all of the ‘off-the-shelf’ avenues to rectify the Pad Knock Off.
Our next plan of attack is to completely redesign the front hub assembly, which will be designed specifically to counteract the Hub Flex issues that come factory fitted with the R32 Skyline. Obviously we did not see the times we were after with a 1:02 at Wakefield, but in saying that every test is very important, and yet again we completed a full race meet without any mechanical issues from the workhorse Lightning Resi. It was also great chance to test all of the MoTeC data logging, and being such a short track a great circuit to optimise and tune the gear shifts. Until next time!
With a great starting platform that is the Nissan S-Chassis, it really doesn’t take much to bring the car’s potential out whether it be for drifting or circuit work. With the correct suspension modifications, and a little bit more power than factory, the S-Chassis range of cars can be amazing on track!
It does not take much for one to get addicted to circuit racing! After just a few laps as passenger in a friends race car, Ben found himself hooked on the track life! He quickly found himself this tidy 180SX to fuel that adrenaline rush he had experienced as a passenger. It wasn’t long after the purchase that Ben came to us for some much needed SR20 power upgrades.
When it comes to adding that ‘little’ bit more power Powertune has you covered with intimate knowledge of the SR20 platform. Ben’s 180SX features our 300Kw Stage-1 SR20 Power Package, and as you can see from the above video it is the perfect entry level track package. Kudos to Ben with a impressive time of 1:03, and setting a new PB for both driver and car. With continued commitment to support our grassroots level drivers it is needless to say we are very excited to see this car and driver combination evolve into the future. Stay tuned for a complete Drivers Bio page coming to our site soon.
John may be the latest driver to join our grassroots racing team, but is no noob when it comes to the track by any means of the word! Prior to taking ownership of the Red S15, John has turned many laps with motorbikes, various RWD / AWD cars, and even tried his hand at a few drifting events.
John entered WTAC 2015 in the Clubsprint class with his Stage-2 Golf R, but by the time WTAC had come around he’d already decided that he wanted to build a RWD track car. Having always loved the S chassis, and thinking the best bang for buck would be a Silvia. John found this red S15 which had previously been built here at Powertune with a 300Kw Stage-1 SR20 Power Build. The only other upgrades we made prior to the Wakefield track day was the RB25 gearbox conversion, and a few engine protection sensors just to keep an eye on the systems while it is being punished out on track. You can see the track preparation feature in greater detail here.
John’s plans for the moment are to do as many track days as possible, and compete in the Super-Sprint series, with the first event coming up in June. After completing his first track day since buying the S15, John is very happy with the swap to the S-Chassis. “It is a much more challenging drive, I have a lot to learn, and much confidence to gain.”
And again, with the continued support for our grassroots drivers the future for John and his S15 will be to further develop the S15 platform, with the car transitioning into a dedicated track car. The end game for John will be to race it around the infamous Mt Panorama Bathurst circuit. Stay tuned for a complete Drivers Bio page coming to our site soon.
Above; Dennis struggling for traction on a fairly damp circuit. But makes for an entertaining lap.
Above; After a short but much awaited burts of sunlight the track somewhat dried out. Dennis rounded up the day in overall 2nd (to a Radical) with a best time of 1:36,66 which we are all very happy with. The conditions even when it was druing were far from ideal. Sweet pedaling Dennis!
Every Time Attack event is an immense learning experience, and our 2016 campaign was very much that. We did not see the results we would have liked, but, we had a host of amazing drivers pilot Lightning Resi over the week long test leading up to World Time Attack itself. Dennis, Barton, Cole, and finally taking the helm for the race day we had the honour of Tarzan Yamada piloting Lightning. It is no secret every driver has their own style. What this line up of incredible drivers allowed us to do was see how Lightning performs with such a vast array of driving styles. With every driver we received performance feedback. Suspension, balance, power delivery, boost limits, shift points, all great feedback that we put directly into the car’s setup.
As every driver has their own style, we know that the power delivery at the time of WTAC 2016 was not suited for the style of driving that Tarzan was accustomed to. The chassis changes we made with the insight from Cole and Barton definitely helped in settling the car around the track, especially through the faster sweepers such as turn 1. But what we weren’t expecting was the super aggressive manner in which Tarzan attack the circuit. We tried our best in staging the boost to come on a little easier through the gears, as Tarzan really liked to jab the throttle in the lower gears (On-board video of Tarzan’s lap here). The slight adjustments helped in Tarzan achieving a better time, but it was not enough to be at the top. Nevertheless the amount of data we collected was inspiring us to hit the drawing board yet again, and revise the power delivery and response of Lightning’s RB28.
Fast forward to now. Over the last few months we have been working closely with PLAZMAMAN in developing a new twin fuel rail, single throttle body intake plenum. This would give us the option to use 12 staged injectors, and drive by wire throttle. The turbo itself stay as is with the PTE 6870 Gen 3 with H cover. We are very happy with it’s performance and do not see a reason to change it out. In terms of the turbo exhaust system though, we have revised the manifold design, relocated the twin Turbosmart waste-gates to create a more efficient turbo system. In last years set up, we had higher than preferred turbine back-pressure to inlet manifold pressure ratio. An issue that has been rectified now with the updated exhaust manifold design.
This year also sees us making a change to the engine management system. Which in turn means a new system of control for the transmission, data acquisition, and power distribution. We have moved over to a MoTeC M150 ECU, with a MoTeC C187 data dash display. The ECU will be controlling 12 sequentially staged injectors, drive by wire throttle, closed loop gearbox shifting, and downshift throttle blips. As for the super sharp C187 dash display, it will be logging all chassis inputs such as brake pressure, tyre pressures and temp, steering angle, throttle position, and so on. With the new management system comes a fresh wiring loom throughout the car, we have used Tefzel wires, Raychem heat shrink and Autosport connectors as they are a far more durable and reliable wiring solution. Overall these changes have seen improvements on the AWD Dyno, with increases in both Peak Power and in the Torque Curve. But as we all know…. Racing doesn’t happen on the dyno.
The 2nd round of the Interclub Super Sprints held at Sydney Motorsport Park over the weekend was a great chance to test the changes in the real world. Unfortunately mother nature had other plans for us all. Arriving at the track we were greeted by a drenched circuit, with parts actually covered by running water. So, we weren’t able to crank the power to max, but were able to establish that the new electronics and engine management systems were communicating correctly, and safely.
Below are two in-car videos with boss man Dennis Resi behind the wheel. The first video is an early session and really just an entertaining lap, with Dennis struggling to find traction on a very wet Sydney Motorsport Park. The second video was from later in the afternoon. A small burst of sun in combination with quite a humid day saw the track almost completely dry out (with exception to some mud around turn 5). We were able to turn the power up a little, and Dennis had a better crack at a fast run. Coming in with a best time of 1:36.66. The main aim was to test, and we did so. The immediate feedback from Dennis was that the suspension setup need tweaking to compensate for the increase of power over last year’s setup. With the last session being cancelled this was all we had time for. Overall things are looking very promising with the changes we’ve made in 2017 so far. More testing is needed as everyone will say, we hope to get a dry run at Wakefield Park next time around. A big thank you to our partners! Nulon, PLAZMAMAN.com, Turbosmart, MoTeC, Comp Coat Race Coatings, and World Time Attack Challenge. Enjoy the videos and images created by our media partner SELECTNINE.
Above; Dennis struggling for traction on a fairly damp circuit. But makes for an entertaining lap.
Above; After a short but much awaited burts of sunlight the track somewhat dried out. Dennis rounded up the day in overall 2nd (to a Radical) with a best time of 1:36,66 which we are all very happy with. The conditions even when it was druing were far from ideal. Sweet pedaling Dennis!
Blood, sweat and tears aren’t enough. The pursuit of the perfect connected performance of car, tyres, track and driver is possibly the hardest-fought battle in any Australian Motorsport. But in time attack, this synergy is everything. Lightning Resi was back for another campaign for the win in front of a record WTAC crowd and with Eiji ‘Tarzan’ Yamada at the helm of this beast, we waited on baited breath to see if the stars would align for us this year. A week before our campaign kicked off, our technicians completely overhauled the 2015 engine package making sure the RB28 was ready for another grueling week of racing.
DAY 1 – TUESDAY
To begin out WTAC 2016 campaign, we arrived two days ahead of official proceedings to begin testing. Barton Mawer, who would eventually pilot the PR968 Porsche to second place in Pro Class, jumped in Lightning Resi for a drive and feedback session. See one Barton’s hot laps in the video below.
“It’s a fun car, and should go very well!” said Barton of our R32 GT-R. Barton was impressed with the power and delivery so the changes we made from his comments were to the suspension dynamics to rectify some slight under-steer.
The Nulon guys were supporting us all weekend with oil testing, helping us diagnose any internal issues before it became catastrophic. Comparable to a blood test, any traces of foreign fluids or gasses in the oil usually points to engine or gasket disintegration. We treated Lightning to a fresh round of synthetic Nulon 15W30 before cleaning up and preparing for another busy day ahead of us before the big event.
DAY 2 – WEDNESDAY
Still one day out from official proceedings we were back at SMSP again for our last round of testing and tuning. Dennis Resi, car owner, team boss and all-round legend is in the seat for today.
In the video captured from this session, you’ll see Dennis driving at the highest RPM for most of the lap, as Chea tests for maximum boost pressure through the gear range.
As much as Dennis would have loved to drive the car at its absolute limit, today was not about lap times but more so about diagnostics and data collection. Chea had given Dennis some criteria to feed into the data logger for analysis. Hard braking and acceleration events as well as driving in low and high RPM would be priority, also testing the boost levels at max RPM.
Dennis’ Boost log from the lap featured in his video above “DAY 2 – WEDNESDAY”.
Owner Dennis Resi finally gets behind the wheel of Lightning McQueen.
Another part of testing is keeping an eye on tyre pressures and temperatures. An event like WTAC puts a limitation on the amount of tyres you’re able to use over the weekend as well as the kind of tyre you’re able to use. For WTAC we have a very soft Yokohama Advan A050, which is a competitive tyre that offers a small window of peak performance. We are only given about 2 hot laps with a set of tyres before degradation occurs and the performance maximum is greatly reduced.
We had Cole Powelson of LYFE Motorsport have a steer of the GT-R in the afternoon. Sending him out with a full tank of fuel, he was out for what we counted to be 9 laps, 4 of which were flying laps! He brought the car to its absolute limits in regards to fueling, and had the crew waving hats from the pit roof trying to call him in. BUT in hindsight, he was able to assist is in getting great data entries about the limits of the engine’s efficiency. Crucial when we want to send the car out with the minimum amount of fuel to save weight. Check out Cole’s aggressive lap below, with the fuel log attached underneath just for some laughs. Starting with 20L ( shown as 2.0 on graph ) the car returned with only 500ml! It literally stalled as we were loading it onto the trailer.
From almost a 20L tank of fuel, Cole brought it back in with about 550ml, literally running on fumes!
Two EGT sensors failed, sending the engine into limp mode. Chea had noticed a data anomaly in one of the cylinder temperatures, showing 800 degree C spike for a split second, physically impossible and a sign of sensor failure. Thankfully the guys from Haltech were on their way with 6 new EGT sensors.
From this crazy 1000 degree spike in temperature, Chea knew the EGT sensor was failing.
After consultation with the Nulon team, we also opted for a higher viscosity engine oil as we found the previous oil was thinning out due to the dilution caused by high ethanol usage. A very common problem for cars running ethanol, we opted for a 10W60 for optimum shear resistance qualities and for the stability it offered after a full day at the track.
Sending a few samples of the oil over to Nulon for overnight analysis.
Another fuel pump was added for the flexibility of turning up the power if Tarzan Yamada asked for it. To support this addition we also installed a high-amp alternator to provide the extra bit of spark. We tuned these additions along with the new EGT sensors on the hub dyno and tested for a high level of fuel delivery and flow.
Lightning Resi was put to bed for another day, ready for the first day of the official WTAC attack.
DAY 3- THURSDAY
Time attack legend and pilot of Lightning Resi for the official WTAC Eiji ‘Tarzan’ Yamada had his first drive of Lightning Resi today in official testing today. We were keen to see what he had to say about the car, as we wanted to make sure he could be 100% comfortable in the car and to focus on getting the one perfect lap.
Tarzan’s feedback after the first session was that he wanted a lower front end on the car. We adjusted suspension to rectify this and also made slight adjustments to the suspension canisters and sway bars for extra stability in high-speed corner entries. Tarzan had no complaints about the engine performance that meant the team and Tarzan could focus on the driving and other fine-tuning.
One point of adjustment that needed to be made for Tarzan’s aggressive style of driving was power delivery. Using an overlay of track data and engine data, Chea was able to pinpoint specific sectors of the track and was able to to increase or reduce levels of boost and power output accordingly. This assisted in providing better grip levels where the power came on too strong, and also better power in sectors where Tarzan needed more muscle. It was all about giving Tarzan the perfect tools to make the perfect lap happen.
Green line represents the run at full boost, whereas the blue shows a much smoother power delivery which was gained by tweaking where in the gear full boost comes on.
All the while, the Albins sequential’s flat shifting timing was still being tuned, incrementally reducing the shift delay across testing days to get it into a sweet spot on race day. You’ll notice this change in shift timing across our videos some shifts will sounds slower than others.
During the last session of official practice, Tarzan had reported that the car’s drive had gone into full bias to the rear wheels. After checking the 4WD controller and other electronic controls, the issue still lingered, meaning something had failed mechanically.
The transfer case had taken a beating over the year of hard driving as well as an intense hub dyno session the night before. It had finally given way, unfortunate but not uncommon after the duties we had assigned to it for a long time. This was replaced, another round of oil samples were sent away to Nulon, we serviced Lightning Resi and gave him a wash, said our prayers and went to bed.
DAY 4 – RACE DAY 1
No news is good news – exactly how we’d describe the first day of the WTAC festival. A very surreal feeling as the car did not skip a beat and Tarzan did not encounter any issues. Nothing to adjust, nothing broken. The team actually got paranoid and started looking for problems, but alas, the time in development must definitely have paid off.
We just let Tarzan loose to do his thing and ended with a best time of 1:32.3070. With no major issues to rectify on the GT-R, we did our routine mechanical and fluid inspections, gave the car a wash and locked up the garage for our final day of the WTAC campaign.
DAY 5 – RACE DAY 2
Nothing dramatic to report on the final day of proceedings. As Tarzan spent more time in the car he was getting faster and faster and bettered our time by a second (1:32.3070). Unfortunately, in the game of time attack, even if we got a little bit faster, there were teams who were a lot faster. We were up against a very strong and competitive field and were not able to place, finishing 11th in Open Class.
There’s no replacement for experience. We’d like to congratulate and thank Ian Baker and the WTAC team for the biggest event we’ve seen yet and we know it will keep growing to be bigger and better each year. It’s with deep gratitude that these events are held, as it gives us the perfect platform to ‘walk the walk’. Many of our customers build cars to break their own PBs and what better way to show them we know what they want than breaking our own PBs with a bullet proof package?
We walked away this year with an unprecedented amount of data that has lead to us with our most reliable package yet. Our engineers have a deeper insight into pressures, temperatures, efficiencies and strengths of high-powered engine packages and, like F1 teams and their associated manufacturers, are converting these key developments into palpable benefits for our customers.
Our new engine packages will be as solid as our race package and it’s thanks to the huge team involved in our campaign this year that is had all been made possible.
Special thanks to
Ian Baker and the whole World Time Attack crew, every year bigger and better congratulations to the whole team on another stellar event. Nulon Oils Australia for their support across the whole week. Plazmaman.com for fabricating up our new intercooler so quickly. Haltech for their ongoing support and really coming through for us on those EGT sensors! Turbosmart for all the R&D help along the way.
Last but not least SELECTNINE for the media coverage of our 2016 WTAC campaign.
As much as Dennis would have loved to drive the car at its absolute limit, today was not about lap times but more so about diagnostics and data collection. Chea had given Dennis some criteria to feed into the data logger for analysis. Hard braking and acceleration events as well as driving in low and high RPM would be priority, also testing the boost levels at max RPM.
