Member profile - paggaz

[jay.ritchie]

Looks like so much fun!
What did the course consist of other than the practical "practise skid pan cone thing" and the heavy braking parts?
Was it worth doing?

I was meant to do something similar for my 18th birthday. Which is nearly 3 years overdue.

[paggaz]

Looks like so much fun!
What did the course consist of other than the practical "practise skid pan cone thing" and the heavy braking parts?
Was it worth doing?

I was meant to do something similar for my 18th birthday. Which is nearly 3 years overdue.

There was a bit of theory involved....
Off the top of my head, a few topics were:
- what makes a good driver
- touched on road rules, quick 20 question quiz
- statistics on road accidents in australia and causes
- correct driving position
- how to check basic vehicle maintenance items (fluid levels under the bonnet, tyre pressures and tread wear, etc)
- vehicle characteristics (FWD, RWD, AWD)
- how ESP and ABS works
- emergency procedures in specific situations

The practical side was
- in your own vehicle, experience understeering, oversteering, accelerating and braking mid corner, sudden quick steering, etc
- Jumped into an XR6 hire car and experienced the effects between having ESP on and ESP off (i.e. a few more drifts, few spin outs by some people)
- in the XR6, did a time trial thing around the skidpan with ESP off to see who could get the fastest lap time with the best control of the vehicle
- few emergency stops from 60 and 80km/h.......... - a Mazda 3 SP23 stopped earlier than me in the first run warming up the brakes worked better, it was a good test for the new Dixcel Type-Ms
- emergency swerving and stopping from 60 and 80km/h
- blindfolded activity at low (basically crawling) speed with one driver and one navigator around a few cones


The course was a full day event. For a new driver it's definitely worth doing.
I found it a very enjoyable experience....a lot of the theory part wasn't new to me but the practical skidpan experience was invaluable.
I'm glad I jumped on the opportunity to attend. It was highly subsidised by my work, but even if they didn't offer it, I was planning to book it through AAMI anyway because it would lower my insurance premium.

After I did that big drift at 1:56, the instructor encouraged me to take the Liberty to their next skidpan day

[jay.ritchie]

Awesome! sounded like a good day!
Haha that was a nice drift I hope the instructor went out and bought a GTB after some time in your car.

[paggaz]

Haha he was a Skyline driver so I wasn't successful in converting him. Although, he did acknowledge that the GTB is a very nice car and perfect for the skidpan days...would be fun to outdo WRX which are common at the skidpan days

[paggaz]

Got my new HKS Super Hybrid Filter. Nothing wrong with the Apexi Power Intake Filter, which is also reusable, I just thought I'd give the HKS a go since it seems to be a popular option. Performance difference is SFA.



Out with the old Apexi, in with the new HKS.



The bright green certainly looks cool. Too bad you don't notice it in the engine bay haha

[paggaz]

Also bought some 6000k HB4 globes from Joshy....thinking HB4 was high beam, but it's actually for the foggies.

Nonetheless, foggies needed to be replaced anyway.

Old vs new.


One installed. Not quite the same colour as my 6000k HIDs but so much better than the stock yellow halogens!


Both installed

[cruisn]

Put some foam tape around the edge of the HKS.

They dont seal properly out of the box and allow dust into your intake and onto your afm.

[paggaz]

Put some foam tape around the edge of the HKS.

They dont seal properly out of the box and allow dust into your intake and onto your afm.

Interesting, I noticed that the Apexi had a rubber seal but the HKS one doesn't...I didn't think it'd make much of a difference, but I can see how.
Will get onto that tomorrow. Cheers!

[shav]

I wanna change the globes in my foggies too. Was it hard to swap over and can u get those globes anywhere?

[paggaz]

Hey Shav, you'll want the HB4 fittings for the foglights and a lot of shops I visited didn't have them. Best bet would be online, eBay has genuine Philips Diamond or Crystal vision globes for ~$50 which is the cheapest by far.

Not a hard task to swap them over either. Jack the front up, undo the plastic on the underside of the foggies and access to the globes are pretty easy.

[shav]

Hey Shav, you'll want the HB4 fittings for the foglights and a lot of shops I visited didn't have them. Best bet would be online, eBay has genuine Philips Diamond or Crystal vision globes for ~$50 which is the cheapest by far.

Not a hard task to swap them over either. Jack the front up, undo the plastic on the underside of the foggies and access to the globes are pretty easy.

Awesome, Thanks Nathan

[paggaz]

Sooo...coilovers finally happened.

Will update with pics and details tomorrow.

[paggaz]

This





They're XYZ coilovers from a Gen 3, previously fitted to an Outback. Picked them up from Grant (PUDZ3.0RB) in Coffs Harbour.
The rears were a direct fit. Front strut tops didn't fit. I decided to adapt the original Gen4 strut tops to the coilovers. It wasn't as easy as a direct swap...I needed to make up a bush because the strut in the coilovers were thinner than the bilstein strut, therefore the bilstein strut top was loose over the coilover strut.

Got them fitted, played around with them a bit and finally settled with around 320mm from centre of rim to guard height all around. Got rid of front wheel gap and NO MORE BUM SAG!

Went for a drive with the family to Boolboonda Tunnel and took a few pics.

[shav]

Looks awesome. How was the ride quality?

[jakey]

Never seen a lifted foz before! Such a strange looking thing!