Project-D – Suspension Built
It’s been like this now for a couple of weeks while our new suspension was being sorted by Koni/Kings technical team at Stocks.
Having never played with any specialised drift-spec suspension (but literally hundreds of race, rally and road applications) Stocks suspension gurus Edgar and John were very keen to be involved with our project, and have come up with a set-up that looks pretty damn impressive.
After a bit of research, and comparison tests with an HKS Hipermax D coil-over kit (thanks to Reece and Justin from Team WSX!), the guys have come up with a fully adjustable package to match, or perhaps even better the Japanese-built set-ups – and at a really good price.
We asked to go low without running out of shock travel and that’s what we’ve got, along with damper hard-to-soft adjustment, full coil-over height adjustment and even handmade adjustable top plates for fine-tuneable camber tweaks. We’ll have the full run-down on this set-up next month, and show you exactly how our shocks and springs came together in the Koni workshop.
Burly Brakes
On the brake front, the front and rear brake rotors and pads were pulled off the car and are now in the very capable hands of Steve at Race Brakes (0800 BRAKES).
While we won’t get back the crusty оГ bits we gave him, we will receive a full set of brand new slotted rotors, and a Mintex pad and Elf fluid upgrade set that comes with Race Brakes’ “You can’t outdrive these” promise. I’ve got a similar pad and fluid set-up in my own car from the lads at Race Brakes, and I can assure you that after some seriously hard driving, I have yet to be let down – they’re bloody marvellous!
Remembering that our new set-up on Project-D (courtesy of Peter and the team at M’S Racing) now consists of five-stud, 114.3mm PCD hubs, and much bigger rotors front and rear courtesy of an R33 Skyline and 300ZX, we’re obviously going to be well sorted in the brake department! Again, we’ll have more on this upgrade in the next month or so.
Kelford Cammed & Ice Sorted
After hearing nothing but good things about the performance camshafts coming out of Christchurch’s Kelford Cams, we’ve recently contacted Kevin about a possible fix for our SR20DETs stock top end. While a pair of cams and adjustable cam gears would have made us very happy indeed, Kevin’s decided to come to the party with the whole hog, so our complete dohc cylinder head will soon be heading south.
With its wealth of performance cylinder head knowledge, Kelford will not only fit those cams and gears, but also subject the head to a good porting session, and perhaps throw in a set of decent valves and springs too! We’ll keep you posted on progress here.
As this magazine goes to print, we’ve also been able to nail down an ICE (In-Car Entertainment) sponsor for Project-D.The good folk at Sony will supply us with some very nice Xplod gear from their all-new 2003/2004 range – stuff which won’t have been on the market long before we have it all custom-fitted to the Silvia.
The full specification for the system has yet to be confirmed, but expect a very grunty sub/satellite-style system with custom door and boot enclosures, a screen up front and maybe even a PS2 gaming console!
Source: Performance Car