Today at Santa Pod

[Charged]

I was at the Pod to today for 'Suprapod'. The Mkiv Supra club had hired the venue for the day and I was able to get on the strip with only 75 others cars, mainly Supras. There were some seriously fast cars there which made the 1.5 look very ordinary to be honest!

I had yesterday off work and was with Luke from Pacific Works trying to pin down a misfire on my 1.5 which had been there for 3 weeks and was seriously getting on my tits. We started on it at 11am and finished with everything running perfectly at 11.30pm. In the end we had to clean up a couple of earthing points and tidy up some wiring but this was after we had changed every ignition component (including igniter/coil) and the fuel filter. We did various other bits which have been 'on the list' and it has made the car feel a lot better.. At one point we even went to Martin's (Ratty) gaff and borrowed his ECU and AFM, cheers for that again mate, and the tea!

So after all that it was all over pretty quickly, first run went very well although it was still spinning the rear wheels up and I stupidly changed gear just before the finish with a few RPM left..the time was 13.32 at 99.79 :thumbsup: My previous best was a 13.6 last year and this time I was running less boost so I am chuffed with that and would be hopeful for a very low 13 maybe in the 12's with the charge cooler on and more boost.
I went straight back round after the first run and joined the que (just one Supra!) for run number 2. As soon a I launched it there was a bit of a bang and then no drive. I guessed driveshaft straight away and sure enough it has split! The trouble is the grip you get at the Pod.. it is so sticky up there, when I got out of the car to tell the guy not to tow off the bumper towing eye, my shoes were sticking to the surface!

So, that was it really, I watched a bit of the action and then got towed to just outside the entance so I could get recovered. I was hoping to get a load of runs in and bring down my times but nevermind, there's always next time! Has anyone uprated their drive shafts? lol

[adamh]

the bumper towing eye was not up to the job? :roll:

sounds like good fun,. wow i cannot believe a drive shaft split under load, thats alot of torque mind!, a new one would probably be fine for abuse as opposed to an old age hardened one. ive not heard of anyone uprating driveshafts yet< these things support mr2's upto serious power i would have imagined.

thats a great time ollie 13.32! second best weve seen from a u.k 1.5. keep it up :thumbsup: , with any luck there might be more of us next year to do an event.

[Murf]

Good time bud, youve bumped me into 3rd place though so i'll need to get working.... :)

[OlberJ]

Get to a proper 1/4 mile Murf, crail is about half a second slower than other strips.

Good time though Double L. :thumbsup:

Am sure Johnny was talking about caged driveshafts but i dunno if that's the actual shaft and not the CV joint? Anyone?

[bburn13]

good tme that ollie
and from such a pretty car.
I`ll be looking for a 12 sec next year
Dave

[Marksman]

Where did the shaft let go Ollie? Stu showed me one that he broke. It failed on the solid splined bar that goes into the hub so that part was weaker than the CV joint! It was an aftermarket one though so not sure if the toyota ones use different materials. Maybe it's time to graft some turbo / camry outer hubs and joints onto an MR2?

Owen.

[millentubby]

ive not heard of anyone uprating driveshafts yet

There's a couple of guys running low 10-sec 1/4 mk2's and this is what's keeping them from completing a weekend without failure - first the CV cages were splitting and now they've been uprated they're both shearing the actual shafts.

Mind you...AFAIK they're running 500+bhp ATW and have drag-radials on.

[Charged]

I'm pretty happy and quite surprised with the time considering it was the first run of the day for me and with the silly change of gear at the finish line, but that only leaves room to improve I guess.. shame about the drive shaft. I would have been pretty pissed to break it on the first run after spending all that time getting it ready, so at least I got the one run! My car is a real test of patience at times but it never ceases to amaze me and as I said, with more boost and the CC, a high twelve is easily possible. I'm still a way off Stu though!

Owen, it sound like it split in the same place as Stu's, I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow. I'll also try and get the time slip scanned in and get my myself on the table at last! I'll have a word with my man about the other hub options, hadn't thought of that.

MT, shahid was there and I'm pretty sure he had a driveshaft problem as well.. he fixed it pretty sharpish though

Santa Pod is fantastic when there are only a limited amount of cars.. hopefully I'll be able to take advantage next year, maybe with a bit more power ;)

The driveshaft problem is a bit of an arse.. It must be a bit of a weak link so it will happen again and again. The trouble is, I'm a bit of a tight arse so I'll probably replace with used parts and hope for the best! For everyday road use I dont think it is an issue though, its only when you get on a really sticky surface like the Pod.

[Paul Woods]

yes the one weak link on a tuned 1.5 is the partsinabox outer CV joints,they are not designed to take this sort of abuse.The OEM st185 outer CV's are better,being toyota quality they will hold more power,to date nobody has managed to break an st185 CV.

Peter Gidden has been working on a mk1 rear hub that is specially machined to take a mk2 stub axle....this will allow complete mk2 turbo shafts to be used with the thicker hub spline...they should be good for 400bhp.

Peter has been talking a lot to me about it and i dont think he is too far off completion,the plan being to offer these modified hubs on an exchange basis.... the stub axle will also be redrilled for a 4 stud fitting.

As soon as peter tells me they are done i will let you chaps know,but it would be interesting to hear if anyones ever bust a st185 joint?

[rattymr2]

glad you got the car sorted in the end as the problem had been bugging you for weeks, and happy to have helped even if all it did was rule out parts on your car. interesting that you said that the car ran worse with my ecu on.

have to say Luke pissed me off when he put back my afm in a half arsed manner leaving the hose clip off and the electrical connector disconnected. not what i would have expected from him.

Like i said yesterday, good one on the time but bad luck on the driveshaft.

Ollie's launch technique is to use 1st gear but i have heard it is better to use 2nd gear and 4500rpm. does anyone have other thoughts on launches.

[OlberJ]

Nah, 2nd gear launching is for folks that can't drive.

You've got a whole 3000rpm's worth of accelerating in 1st gear you're missing out on, just need to time it right, be right on the power band as you launch, little bit of tyre squeal to show you're right on the limit of adhesion and then make your 2 gear changes as quickly as possible.

You'll go over the line in 3rd no worries, at least we did in Shug's car, which shocked me as it was 100mph.

It's all down to the launch though. What i found best was to heel 'n toe off the line. In other words, heel on the brake, toe on accelerator left foot on clutch, get the biting point at your chosen revs and then let off the brake and go for it.

See here where i kick Murf's much higher powered Mk1.5 ass easily (off the line at least lol )

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6kbaZOv1riU

We've gotta get down to Pod sometime.

[sidewaysfreak]

Good times on the quarter :thumbsup: my brothers old mk2 running about 380bhp was only just in the 12's if I remember correctly. I really need to get mine down there at some point, how much did booking the place cost? Would anybody be up for trying to sort this out? I know I could get a decent crowd of family and friends down with a 590bhp skyline r32 amongst others. :thumbsup:

[Gary Symons]

Definately use first gear, below is a link to my run against Nik. I started in first Nik in second:http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l106/haribo_lover/Japshow%20finale%202007/?action=view&current=nikvsgary.flv

[MRV6]

Well done Ollie, get the driveshaft sorted and into the 12's next year.

[Charged]

righto, I've uploaded the time slip and put my time on the board.. my scanning skills leave a bit to be desired lol

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h135/retrocarrestoration/Suprapod18102008.jpg

Jason: an event like Suprapod costs a fair bit (probably £5k+), I got my place for free because Sky Insurance provide the event insurance. There were 75 competitors paying £55 each, some of the Supras were awesome, so were the 10 second Civic and new Skyline!

I haven't fixed the 1.5 yet, I need to tax and MOT my fiesta daily driver first :rant:

[rattymr2]

No Uno Turbo then.<:(

[Charged]

No Uno Turbo then.<:(

Not this month, thats for sure!

[Tom G]

well done ollie!

I can't wait to get mine on the strip!
No chance of driveshaft failure with my skinny 225s, just lots of smoke :)