Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Adrifto)

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 22:36:33 GMT

Another small update, with a couple of changes to the car as well!

Following the disappointing news of Wakefield Park being restricted to 4 operating days a month, I was overjoyed when I got the chance to book a Trackschool day for the 21st of August. As the date neared however, it became clear that this would be the last Trackschool and public track day for the foreseeable future, as the track was set to close its doors from the 1st of September. It is truly a shame to see this happen. I have my fingers crossed that they will be able to work out a solution, and I hope that we can all get back there very soon.

As some of you may have seen, I took down an old camcorder to capture the final trackday in a unique way, I have included a link below to my Instagram post where you can view it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChmBY1ElIEb/?hl=en

About a month earlier I had also attended Aus Time Attack 2022. It was great to take any opportunity to be out at Wakefield, as well as see some of these incredible builds up close.

With no booked track day, I took the down time to make some changes I had been sitting on for a while. I had purchased a catted downpipe from Brooks Racing Development in the UK earlier this year, but had a few things to tick off before installing it. The BRD pipe is handmade by Lou and he prides himself on focusing on the wastegate housing, as many cheap downpipes often restrict the wastegate from opening fully, leading to boost creep and over boosting. Lou was trialing his new welded heat shielding on this item, which he is now including on all his downpipes.

Even with the heat shielding, and retaining the stock heatshield, I knew that a stainless pipe would be producing a lot more heat under the engine lid, and so I decided to go a step further and have it ceramic coated. I got it done at Hi-Octane Performance Coating in Rydalmere. Marcus' pricing was very reasonable, and I think it is money well spent to keep engine bay temps in check, and avoid frying the air-con compressor that is right next to it.

I had also developed a slowly worsening exhaust leak since the beginning of the year, which I traced down to a failing flexi joint in the mid-pipe of my Phoenix Power exhaust. Initially I was planning to cut and replace the flexi myself, however my current welding setup isn't amazing with stainless steel, and I wanted it to be done properly. Taking it to the guys at Performance Exhaust Center, I was happy I made that call as they couldn't even do a cut on replace on the old pipe, as it was rusted from the inside and had barely enough material to latch back on to. I kept the old pipe and I am very glad it's no longer part of my exhaust system!

With all that done, I installed the downpipe one Saturday morning. A task that was made 100x easier by the use of my mates hoist. My first battle with the downpipe 3 years ago was painful and challenging working on the ground, so my lower back welcomed this opportunity.

As well as the increased response and boost flow, it definitely saved a whole lot of weight removing that heavy old cast downpipe from the rear of the car.

I couldn't stay away from the track for long however, as just last Thursday I was entered into the most recent round of the NSW Interclub super sprints. This round was at SMSP South Circuit, which has been on my bucket list for a while as it is not run for the public as often as the GP layout, and it looked like a perfect tight circuit to throw the MR2 around on. As this round was run by NSW WRX Club, I was the only MR2, and only MR layout car there, but it was a very fun night indeed.

The confidence gained from repeated Wakefield track days meant I could get out and start attacking corners after only a few familiarisation laps. My first session I ripped off a 1:08.82, which isn't super quick by any stretch of the imagination, but I was pretty chuffed for what was essentially a warmup session on a brand new track. The short sessions meant there were only a couple hot laps each, and I had a bit of traffic in session 2 leaving me with only a small improvement of 1:08.56. Session 3 saw the rain coming down heavy for about 5 minutes, which was enough to rule out any dry running for the rest of the night. It was a great opportunity to practice my sideways action however, and I learnt a lot about wet control under power. This car sure does like to dance in the rain, especially going up the steep sweeping Turn 5.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci1d7rBppXA/?hl=en

I was super happy with the experience and can't wait to get back out to SMSP, especially to hit the GP circuit for the first time.

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Shaz)

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 16:49:46 GMT

Adrifto
Doesn't look like anyone will be organising anything at Wakefield Park any time soon. Terrible news yesterday " />

Yep, a bit sad " />

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Adrifto)

Fri, 15 Jul 2022 11:39:10 GMT

Doesn't look like anyone will be organising anything at Wakefield Park any time soon. Terrible news yesterday " />

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Fast Eddie)

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 17:57:58 GMT

Shaz
Fast Eddie
Wow that's a great time, your SW20 is looking amazing, we need to organize a MR2 get together at Wakefield in the near future, I'll keep you posted.

Hey Eddie,

If the date worked for me, I'd be in for spectating / passenger laps if allowed. " />

Hi Shaz

That wouldn't be a problem at all, once I have a better idea on numbers and dates ill let you know.

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Admin)

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 17:39:30 GMT

My beast is still broken though I could be tempted to bring the Trueno to teach the MR2s a lesson on handling and RPM 😎😜

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Shaz)

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 17:09:18 GMT

Fast Eddie
Wow that's a great time, your SW20 is looking amazing, we need to organize a MR2 get together at Wakefield in the near future, I'll keep you posted.

Hey Eddie,

If the date worked for me, I'd be in for spectating / passenger laps if allowed. " />

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Adrifto)

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 22:57:17 GMT

Fast Eddie
Wow that's a great time, your SW20 is looking amazing, we need to organize a MR2 get together at Wakefield in the near future, I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the kind words!

Sounds good, keep me in the loop :)

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Fast Eddie)

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 15:57:51 GMT

Wow that's a great time, your SW20 is looking amazing, we need to organize a MR2 get together at Wakefield in the near future, I'll keep you posted.

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Adrifto)

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 22:10:01 GMT

Hey all,

Long time no see. Hope everyone has been well and enjoying their MR2s to the fullest.

I have not much to report on the banana car. Have been to 3 trackdays since I last posted and just yesterday got my PB down to a 1:11.6 at Wakefield Park. That was a 1.5s drop for the day and was a huge achievement for me. I made to sure to get roughly the same lap time at least 3 or 4 times to make sure it wasn't a fluke ;)

The car is set up exactly how it was when my PB was 1:16.1, so its super rewarding to look back on the time I've dropped through seat time and refining my driving. On that note, I have a few small mods coming up but nothing huge will change for the time being, at least until I hit a wall for lap times and get the itch for something more in the way of brakes or tyres.

I'll leave you with some recent pictures, hope whoever is out there still reading forum posts enjoys them!

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Adrifto)

Mon, 31 May 2021 08:36:05 GMT

Recent changes to the car include a swap to polyurethane steering rack bushings, which was a quick, straightforward install. Unbolt the rack, pull the old crusty bushings, lube the new ones up and slot them in, torquing to spec. Fiddling with the rack did throw my front toe out however, so I did a quick string and tape measure job to get me through to my next proper alignment.

Although cracking in places, the old bushings weren’t in the worst condition, so this upgrade hasn’t changed the driving feel much, if at all. But it’s always nice to get another 31 year old perishable component off the car and into the bin!

Towards the tail end of the last track day I felt a slight spongy feeling from my RBF 600 fluid. At the recommendation from a mate I took the plunge and ordered some Endless RF 650 fluid. This is almost definitely overkill but I got it for a good price and have been keen to see the differences between levels of brake fluid performance for myself.

Next trackday should be some time towards the end of June, though we haven’t booked it in yet. Until next time!

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Adrifto)

Sun, 30 May 2021 22:10:25 GMT

Falcon
After a lot of faffing about with different brake set ups I finally settled on Forza FP3 all round and found them excellent. Good bite on a cold rain soaked road where I hadn't used them for miles. They were fully alive immediately. They were also great on track with continual repeatable stopping ability. I never experienced any sign of fade ever.
And that was often with some very sticky 80 tread wear index tyres too. Allowing very heavy braking.
Thanks for the write up and all the pictures. We love pictures.

That's great to hear for when I eventually have FP3 on all corners.

No worries, I enjoy writing it up and photography is my other main hobby, so it's nice to hear that there are some members still tuning in to the dying art of build threads!

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Falcon)

Sun, 30 May 2021 08:46:48 GMT

After a lot of faffing about with different brake set ups I finally settled on Forza FP3 all round and found them excellent. Good bite on a cold rain soaked road where I hadn't used them for miles. They were fully alive immediately. They were also great on track with continual repeatable stopping ability. I never experienced any sign of fade ever.
And that was often with some very sticky 80 tread wear index tyres too. Allowing very heavy braking.
Thanks for the write up and all the pictures. We love pictures.

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Adrifto)

Sun, 23 May 2021 20:00:50 GMT

Lumix
Fantastic update, the car is looking mint. Congrats on hitting your time goal and getting the PB!

How do you find the Forza FP3 brake pads?

Thanks! It was great to redeem myself after all those months haha.

It's a bit hard to tell given I only have them on the rear, but I didn't find myself losing any performance compared to my last trackday, when I was still on Project Mu TypeHC+ at all corners. I will likely use the FP3s on the front too when my current set give up the ghost, as they are quite good value.

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Lumix)

Sun, 23 May 2021 18:27:24 GMT

Fantastic update, the car is looking mint. Congrats on hitting your time goal and getting the PB!

How do you find the Forza FP3 brake pads?

Re: Adrifto's 1990 Gen3 Banana (Adrifto)

Fri, 21 May 2021 11:52:21 GMT

As 2021 steamed ahead at full pace, we began the typical murmurs about when our first track outing would be. After a soaking wet summer we were conscious of picking a day that would hopefully be dry, while also getting some cool weather to be kind to our engines. April seemed like a nice time of the year, and soon enough we were booked for an Anzac Day Trackschool day. Let the redemption begin!

A few weeks before this newly set deadline, I was doing a nut and bolt check on my car and realised my rear brake pads were down to a couple of mm. On most other cars I wouldn’t have worried too much and swapped them after the track day, however I know these cars use the rear brakes more than most, and I wasn’t 100% sure how much material I tended to shave off during a typical track day.

Some overnighted Forza FP3 pads from BrakesDirect did the trick, and I went about slapping them in along with a quick brake bleed to ensure everything was in tip top condition.

I’m sure this isn’t a new revelation to most of you, but WOW does winding the rear calipers back in suck. Must have taken me over half an hour for each side, just spinning the piston around and around with very little visual progress. They both got there eventually however, and I think this quote found on the forums sums up my experience pretty succinctly.

Suddenly there I was, in the car staging up for my first session of the track day. It had been a frustrating time getting back to this point after last track day’s outcome, but I was determined to change things this time around. It would surely take me a couple sessions to be truly confident in the car again, so I went out with the same goal of warming the car up and getting a feel for things.

I may have got a feel for things too much, because on my first session of the day I put down a 1:15.10. This was a full second shaved off my previous PB, and I felt that both I and the car had way more in it. My personal goal for the day had been reset to a low 1:14, which would have initially seemed fairly lofty coming off my previous time of 1:16.1.

As the sessions went on the car felt solid, predictable and tight. Getting to really feel the effects of the suspension kit was great, but more importantly, the bucket seat had me absolutely locked in place. I no longer needed to brace myself against anything and I was able to steer with complete control. The time kept falling as I knocked my way down to a 1:14.6 in a session full of traffic and slower drivers. I later found out that a time of 1:16 was approximately the threshold between mine and the next most advanced sessions, so having blitzed this barrier straight off the bat, I likely spent the whole day in the wrong session. As well as being full of 1:19 lappers, the session was FULL. Almost 20 cars on track at one time, and not many with the discipline to blue flag themselves and wave past hot lappers. Due to this I was lucky to get more than 2 hot laps in any session, which I think slightly dampened my progress.

In the final session I found a bit of open track and ripped off a 1:14.5 to close out the track day. I was over the moon with this time, both because it was a drop of 1.6s from my previous effort, and that the car ran faultlessly through all sessions. That being said, there is a 1:13 for the taking with the car in its current configuration, its just up to me to drive that lap now.

Leaving Wakefield Park under its own power once again, I was grinning the whole way home.

As is tradition, enjoy some of the track photos from the day, including one of myself and a mate sneaking up on one of many GR Yarii to hit the track with us.