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Team SP Garage put the rest of the nation well and truly on notice to look out for the team, and driver Ben Purtell, at the remaining national events for the year following an impressive display at the nation’s largest drift event to be held this year.
After tailoring the Team SP Garage Nissan 180sx almost 1300 km’s to Mallala Raceway in South Australia, the team will be undoubtedly one to watch for the remainder of the year on the national stage, despite further bad luck hampering the cars final result.
The two day event, which had been promoted heavily for the two months prior and touted as the years national drift event, attracted almost 10,000 spectators despite atrocious weather on the second day of competition.
This event report is a little different to the last, in the form of a blog/first person view point. See below for the full report:
After having no brakes at a Tasmanian Drift Series event I spent the entire time before Super Cup trying to diagnose the problem. After replacing brake calipers, rotors, checking hubs, bearings, run out, brake line, brake master cylinder......in other words nearly everything. We managed to track the problem down to a ballooning front brake line. Now I would not have found this problem so quickly had it not been for the amazing support from Martin at Tasmanian Mobile Mechanics. He kindly took a few hours off work one afternoon to come around and run through some tests. Martin was also kind enough to hook me up with some extremely high quality braided front brake lines for the car and they would be at Smooth Garage awaiting our arrival on the Thursday before Super Cup
So I packed the car and trailer to the brim, with the addition of an extra two Federal 595 Super Steel tyres thanks to Wayne & Helen at Goodyear Hobart. Wayne & Helen have been an unbelievable help with the car over the last few years and it was fantastic to be involved with them and have a guaranteed supply of tyres to last the weekend!
After driving over 1200km's from Hobart we arrived at Smooth Garage in Adelaide at around 8:30pm Thursday night. At this stage I was extremely grateful that Nicko & Ben from Smooth Garage had been kind enough to store the car for a few days before Super Cup. However much to my bemusement a black cat must have been hiding in the tray of the Hilux as a string of bad luck was to follow.....
We untied the car from the trailer and I proceeded to drive it off the trailer.....“oh hang on this is strange I can't get it into first....try again...nope nothing”. Having driven the car onto the trailer in Hobart and having all six gears I was now left with a car that wouldn't engage any gears. Good start to the trip, however I could only laugh it off, have a good sleep and be back first thing in the morning to tackle the problem head on.
First thing Friday morning and a number of things were checked to rule them out of a possible cause:
- Clutch Slave
- Clutch Master
- Clutch Fork
- Pivot Ball
etc etc
The only possible cause was the clutch itself as with the car turned off all gears were able to be selected. We had a few probable causes including clutch failure, clutch spring stuck jamming the plates, loose flywheel (highly unlikely) and a few other smaller percentage options). I also installed the new braided brake lines in the front of the car and bled up the brakes....the brakes felt better than ever before. But how much would this be attributed to the braided lines? Only time would tell, however I was confident we had overcome the braking demons associated with this new car
A few hours later and the car was placed on the hoist at Smooth Garage. Upon removal of the gearbox the problem was found!!! Now prior to this I had never heard of such thing happening however a clutch spring out of one of the ORC twin plate discs had fallen out of its holder and had jammed between the clutch plate and the flywheel teeth. I had a huge sigh of relief at this time.
Put the clutch and box back together....time for the car to move and success! Everything was back on track for a big weekend, however another twist in the tale would soon surface unexpectedly.
In the middle of helping the boys perform the final touches to my usual team mate’s (Paul Austin) Smooth Garage Onevia I started the car to put it back into the workshop. Not wanting to foul the plugs nor drain the battery I drove the car into the cul-de-sac, turned around and BAM! Due to a massively long day I wasn’t thinking properly and I had forgotten to put the bonnet pins through the bonnet. One smashed windscreen would feel the wrath of a proven quality Origin bonnet. As per the gearbox issue, rather than getting angry or feeling sorry for myself about what had just happened and admit defeat I desperately wanted to drive. So the phone calls began to 24 hour windscreen repair/installation businesses. After hours of calling one of two 180sx/S13 front windscreens stocked by Windscreens O'Brien was located and a time was set for the removal and install...........4:30am. Less than ideal, however it was this option or watch all weekend.
After a 45 minute delay the Windscreens O'Brien van would arrive and just before 6am the job was done, just in time for an hours sleep.
An hour later and the alarm would siren, signalling the start of another long day, hopefully this one would be slightly more enjoyable and less complicated. We arrived at Mallala just after 8am and setup our display. A few hours later and finally I would get to drive the car after what had seemed like an eventful trip already.
One lap into the Pro Class morning practice session frustration would again set in with the car still encountering severe brake fade. Rather than risk anything I decided to come straight into the pits, disconnect the side in question and use the brakes in emergency (as the car will pull violently to the left, so hardly ideal to try and drift with the brakes like this). After a few laps of getting used to using zero braking throughout the course I slowly became accustomed to the course and started to finally get the feel of this new car. A set of rear tyres later and for the first time in the long journey I had a smile on my face, even with less than ideal braking this car is just a load of fun and with further development....who knows what it can do. I must say the corner off the front straight is loads of fun and something totally different to our two local tracks.
A few hours later the qualifying session was the first chance to see just where I stand in such a high quality field. My first run was solid everywhere apart from the entry into turn one after the front straight, which was a complete stuff up. I kept practicing and then was told I had to take my second lap as time was running thin..so I did. The first half of the lap was spot on and then PUFF.....nothing I lost all power and the car switched off. I knew exactly what it was and the cooler piping was retightened. With 1.5bar and the heat generated in the area the silicon joiner connecting the compressor outlet to the turbo just expands, becomes moist with the excess heat and doesn't stand a chance. This will be welded onto the turbo before the next event.
After day one I would learn of 23rd position in qualifying. Not where I wanted to be, but considering the circumstances I was just happy to be there. Closer inspection of the front drivers rotors revealed the rotor was touching the inside of the brake caliper, something that had not occurred with my normal caliper & rotor combination (changed for this event to rule out caliper piston issues). It appears as though either the front knuckles or hub is flexing, why? Well the only rational explanation is the size of wheels on the front of the car (18x9.5 +2 in size) with 5mm lock spacers and the drivers side having more lock than the passenger side on an S13, which leads to one part not being able to take the loading. These have since been replaced with beefier S14 items to rectify the issue.
Things were looking promising on the way out to the track as rain had fallen overnight and was continuing to bucket down. I don't usually like the rain that much, but as rain = slower drifting less reliance on using the brake pedal by most of the field would mean I wouldn't be at as big of a disadvantage, well that was the positive theory anyway!
After getting one lap in the morning shakedown and noting the brakes were still not operational (we had sent the caliper in question away overnight in an attempt to try something and see if that fixed or at least helped the problem, in short no luck). Went back to three brakes again and headed out for the top 32 battle against a local, Andrew Milne in an R33 Skyline.
I followed him in to the first corner, went to disengage the clutch coming out of the hairpin and got absolutely nothing......the clutch was jammed again! After a few forceful forearm jabs of the shifter I somehow managed to select third, by this time Milne had a decent gap on me. By the start finish straight I made the decision to enter the corner from a fair way back and hope I could gain on him and pull it up for the corner... didn't happen as the car stalled mid drift due to a faulty idle air control valve (I was having to blip the throttle to keep it alive whilst the clutch was dipped). The car was towed away into the pits and I kept trying to get the car in gear. With about 4 minutes gone I managed to roll start the car and with a great rush tried to get back to the start line before being disqualified.
I returned to the start line and went to stop the car.....wouldn't stop! The car was stuck partially in gear even with the clutch engaged. I knew something was wrong, but didn't come all this way to give up! So went to lead Milne away in the second run, but alas it was not to be. Couldn't select second gear so the event was over for us! Extremely frustrating, however you learn from your mistakes and bad luck and I think I've certainly had my fair share of them since this car was built.
On track photos and a short video produced by the man himself, MeZ will be available in this thread and the drift video forum shortly.
This trip would not have been possible without the support of a large number of people. I cannot thank everyone enough for their continued support, whether it be financial, products, physical or emotional support!
Barnzy @ Specialised Performance Garage- www.spgarage.com.au
Shaun @ Bisley Workwear Australia- www.bisleyworkwear.com.au
Martin & Alan @ Tasmanian Mobile Mechanics- 62734777
Nicko & Ben @ Smooth Garage for their unbelievable help & storage of the car!
Nick @ GT Garage- 0407666107 or 0408782632
Matt @ Highway Crash Repairs- 62671018
Wayne & Helen @ Goodyear Hobart- 62342722
My parents for their continued support
Stay tuned for further updates shortly!
Regards,
Ben
Team Specialised Performance Garage
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Team SP Garage makes a huge impact on the nation’s biggest stage
