The TeamW116 Team (#1 & #2 @ Sandown)

I.

Where's the race report? Who won

I've been wrestling compatability issues and converting files for the past 3hrs and have finally got some stuff uploaded. This video was taken on an SD card, hence the poor quality and I can't upload the better quality snippetes off the DV tape till I get home.

Despite the cold it was a buzz. Time to get cracking on povo. Loved Sandown, just wish it was closer to home but I'll be back. Thanks for the day fellas, a real eye opener. Still stoked I got to see my first Delorean up close too.

Great pics guys, and good little montage of clips Oscar!

Thanks for the support today Oscar, was great to have you and the family there cheering us on!! Can't wait to see Team Car 3 in the lineup..

Well done boys.

You make us proud, especially that you are mixing with some serious dollar cars out there (Mustangs, WRXs, Falcon coupes, etc...)

Great work Oscar...

The 116es look quite diffrent with the blacked headlights and bumpers etc removed - like they're going to eat something (a BMW perhaps?)

Do the shiny cars like those Mustangs get involved in the racing too, or is there a "show only" component?

I don't think there was anything for show-only apart from the late visiting Delorean.

There was some like the XB/C coupe (can't tell the diff) the 'stangs and the HQ's that were as good as they come and were great to watch. The Supra was phenomenally quick. I saw that go past and thought to myself, I'd have no chance of controlling that thing.

Where's the race report? Who won

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Ummm... I think I did (with the aid of superior aerodynamics - one fewer external mirror and one fewer windscreen wiper) but in all seriousness yesterday was the all-important first outing for my car where top-speed takes secondary importance to things like:

stuff falling off the car

brake (effectiveness or lack of)

cornering ability / stability at speed (again, or lack of)

engine issues (o/heating, oel pressure, general state of tune, revability)

At which point I can work out a plan to sort the problems out. The results were pretty ordinary but nothing unexpected, so I'm ready to get my hands dirty again and start building a more competitive 116.

* Nothing fell off the car, and nothing externally sounded like it was working its way loose - don't laugh, its at a place like a racetrack where if something its going to come loose it will. Cam's car was making an interesting brake noise despite our cars having, now, identical braking systems....

* The QFM Comp 3 750 degree brake pads were absolutely phenominal - felt like a giant's hand was pulling up the heavy sedan no matter how fast we were going - no fade and consistent pedal effort once the pads were up to temperature. And here's the thing, they probably aren't up to their optimal working temp until sometime during the 2nd lap. I warmed mine up during the aptly-named warm up lap by braking early on the two straights before the competitive laps started. At the end of the runs both cars came in with front brakes with a vaguely copper-smell (not in a bad way).

* Cornering ability - can't speak for Cam although by all accounts he's pleased with it - but our cars differed with mine being SLS. I can say with much conviction that for all its usefulness in towing or moving a car full or people and luggage, the SLS system responds far too slowly thru twisty turning race track. The car never felt like it was going to let go, just it was wishy-washy. There was also a bit much body roll, but it was generally controllable and with the R-spec tyres, never felt like it was about to understeer or oversteer out of control.

* Engine - I knew mine was tired-as but for what it was it conducted itself as well as you'd expect a Mercedes engine. Oel pressure was lousey, esp. at idle (1.0 bar), it was just hitting 3.0 bar at 3000rpm, the state of tune let the engine down as it was out of power at 5000, and over that there was a large amount of visible emission (ie. smoke) from the worn valve guides/valve stem seals. I've never checked the chain stretch (assume its vast), or tappets. ignition timing was set to (?) because I can't see the timing marker due to the SLS pump. Top speed was indicated at 145km/h on a 350SE speedo coupled to a 450SE diff. If someone wants to do the calcs I think you'll find my top speed was something around 160.

On the plus side the cooling system held up perfectly, didn't go over 85 degrees, the oil got to 85 degrees also. the fuel pressure sat on 30PSI no matter how fast or slow I was going, the trans didn't slip and the diff didn't whine. The steering didn't leak or so anything stupid. The Oel pressure, its hard to judge - according to the guage its crap, but looking into the oil filler at idle there's a good feed of it to the cams... that and the engine didn't seize at 5000+ rpm...

Any questions just ask me.

Ian.

Cars really look good guys, firstly thanks for sharing your pictures and info with us,

Ian, how competitive is the 116, and against what other cars is it competitive against?
I see HQ's there, were these the 202 HQ racing spec cars? I'd imagine you could pass these easily?
What is your cornering like compared to other cars? How well does she stack up?

One last question, you mentioned the issues with the SLS, would you then use or prefer a 6.9 with or without the hydro suspension as a race car?

cheers and all the best


Des

Good report Ian, I reckon whitey did a sterling job for the first time out and i'm sure you've taken all the stats away and have an idea of what's next on the list to get her crankin'.

In regards to competitveness des, in the latter stages of the day (once i'd figured out my new handling characteristics) I really started putting it to a few different commodores through the esses and corner sections...though on the straights they'd start pulling away from me halfway down. I'd keep with them up until bout 2nd/3rd gear change then they creep away. I put this down to the diff and not being able to draw on the full gear range. Looking forward to seeing my times though..

A big thanks goes to Ian and his mate Brendan for helping me out too... due to an 'incident' earlier in the day (first lap of first sprint) there was every chance I might not get back out there.
You'll understand once the video is up....

Next time that is on, I'm going down and spending the day there. Looks like a ####load of fun.

Well thats easy... Nov 4th.

Who else wants to come down and see the (by then) 3 W116s battle it out for TeamW116 honours?

I.

I forgot Cam's "incident" was captured by the in car-cam. We all missed it due to it happening over a rise.

Good write up Ian. I wish I took the opportunity to have a look at the timing marks on the M117, d-jet. Don't know if the k-jet's different but since Cam's got no sus pump it doesn't matter. With a sus pump it's a real prick to get timing right due to the things that are in the way. You can see timing marks or timing pin, never both.

You both did really well, I can only imagine my first outing is going to be more sedate. Definitely come next one bb. It was a good day.

Nov 4th should be sweet.. Can't wait to drive Sandown again, definitely the best of the tracks i've driven! (only Winton and the Hillclimb track are the other 2 though)

Be unreal if all 3 lined up for the Cup Day sprint in november.

Watched the in car-cam a little earlier... and realised why the camera used to point across the cabin. The wipers are in the f*kn way! It's still watchable, but not as much detail with the wipers there. The 'incident' isn't crazy bad on replay, but with a good surround sound system turned up full ball makes it pretty realistic.


Ian, I managed to borrow a couple bibles from John @ MB Spares today that will help with looking into development of the cams etc. Apparently the M116 cam is identicle, though the m117 d-jet cam and k-jet cam are different. So there may be something in looking at interchanging parts between. And i've not done my research yet, but the m116 heads may have bigger intakes?! so with a little swap around of parts it could put a few more horsies in the stable. (post that, it's a blower where the A/C compressor was.)

Got another vid up. This is the DV stuff though it's better than the SD card youtube still massacres it but it's good to watch. Plus better sound.
Turn up da volume and sub.

Just wish I took more DV and from down the bottom of the ramp.

Great work mate!! come out really good!

I'll post you the DV tape off early next week...if you wanna splice some of that in there? Otherwise it'll take me weeks to get it up..... maybe that's why my girlfriend left me?.

Smoke notwithstanding, I think whitey aquitted herself quite well.

Might be just personal preferance, or different filming distances from the cars, but I reckon whitey has the better, more purposeful, exhaust note.

Now all we gotta do is wring more speed outa her....

I.

B13 said:

Now all we gotta do is wring more speed outa her....

I.

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Which would be cheaper and or easier to do,

lighten the car?
can you drill holes through the chassis and underbody work? I think it was GrantV that mentioned this over on the w116 forum months ago, shedding every little kg helps. Or plastic, lexan? sp? for the glass?

improve the performance of the driveline?


well im sure you know 100 times more about this than me, just a few ideas and love to hear where you are going with your race car.



Des

Des,

I've already dropped all interior (except passenger seat), all A/C equipment (compressor / condensor / plumbing), all bumpers.. a heap of stuff.
I can tell you the increase in acceleration response is definitely noticeable!!
BUT, still not enough.
The driveline performance is definitely on the cards but where to go is the question.. being that NOBODY has an LSD for these things! I'm looking at going to a mild supercharger setup - to offset the fact i may put a 6.9 LSD diff in. so dropping all the way to a 2.76:1 diff ratio rendering more of my gear range useless would be off set by adding boost to get use of the rev range.. would that sort of setup be effective? possibly?

...i have no idea, asking questions here.

Cam2.

SELfor50 said:

Des,...i have no idea, asking questions here.

Cam2.

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Maybe it would be worthwhile if it is affordable to keep an eye out for a crappy 6.9, remember that white one with the head gasket issue sold for $1500, that blue one Michel bought was around $2300?
Keep the driveline for your car, then sell whatever bits are left over for spares for other people, to ease the cost of purschasing a car.

Des said:

Maybe it would be worthwhile if it is affordable to keep an eye out for a crappy 6.9, remember that white one with the head gasket issue sold for $1500, that blue one Michel bought was around $2300?
Keep the driveline for your car, then sell whatever bits are left over for spares for other people, to ease the cost of purschasing a car.

Click to expand...

There's another crappy white one in melbourne. But it wouldn't even kick over when I was there - and the owner wanted "at least" $2,000.00 for it!! Not worth it at all. I'd pay $1000 for it, and even that would be generous.

If I were to drop a 6.9 engine into the car, i'd then have the added costs of sump re-location (to the boot) and servicing costs.. Being that Team 116 is on a 'restricted' racing budget - constantly redlining a 417ci block at the track can take its toll on the wallet..