searching for fellow B13 racers

[Brettt]

I won't be able to get to the car and take measurements for a couple of days, but I know that I'll need lengthened studs and spacers if I'm going to run 225s this year. Just going by the numbers I've found for OEM stuff, I'm thinking that ARP 100-7711 should work for the studs. I'm not so sure on the spacer thickness though. Without having a chance to measure yet, can any of my fellow B13 racers out there tell me what size spacer I would need? I've got a junk Hoosier 225 to use as a test-fitment this weekend, but that won't happen until then. As always, thanks in advance for any help!

On a side note, I was wondering just how many people still race a Sentra in ITA. I'm thinking there can't be more than a handful of us based on the stuff I've seen. If you drive a B13, speak up!

[CRallo]

The exact spacer you need will be dependent on your wheels' back spacing.

As far as the studs' length goes, of course you just need them to be LONG! a half inch won't be a big deal here...

The guys on NissanRoadRacing.com should be able to tell you what studs fit your car and may be able to help with the wheel spacer as well, however a lot of those guys run big rims...

As far as B13 drivers go: there are a couple in the NE, but we don't see them on here much... However, Greg Amy, the driver of the most well known and most successful B13 frequents the forum. He doesn't own the car anymore, but he might be able to help...

[Greg Amy]

Joe DiMinno runs an ITA B13 Sentra here in the Northeast, but with the economy being the way it is for the last 2 years his racing has been scaled back. My NX2000 (http://www.kakashiracing.com) ended up in Atlanta, where it's overdue for a re-chassis (got into an incident at Road Atlanta). There's also another well-built Sentra down in Atlanta, built and raced by Stephen Patterson.

There's also a decent contingent of Classics running PTE in NASA.

As for your studs, Chris is accurate in that the spacers depend on your wheel offsets. Maybe Tim Rogers (the NX current owner) can tell you the details, but I ran Volk TE-37 15x7 wheels with - I think - 10mm spacers and 225/45-15 Ho-Hos. The studs I used were ARP studs, Summit Racing part #100-7702 (7/16"-20 thread), with Summit acorn lug nuts, part #754002. They are the correct knurl size for the stock Nissan hubs, all you have to do is press out the stock ones and press in those ARPs, and you're set.

If you have any questions, I'll be glad to help...

GA

[EV]

Brett, your best source is at http://www.sr20forum.com there are several threads detailing the very thing you are asking about. In the road race section, you will find several helpful B13 racers mostly running with NASA. I think NASA-MA had 6 or so at their feb event at VIR where they are very competitive.

[Racerlinn]

Just one mid-pack beater running around the GLDiv...

[Brettt]

So I've been busy trying to get the car ready for the first race. We actually got to go down to the track this past Saturday and shake it down a bit and scrub in the new 225s(which have about 1" of clearance without any kind of spacer, btw) only to find that the horrible vibration that I thought we had solved about 3 times was back with a vengeance.

This vibration is on the left side of the car because it only ever happens when the weight transitions onto the left front in right-hand corners. I thought we had tracked it down with a new set of motor mounts and a stay-rod from the transmission mount to the center engine support, but I guess not.

I believe our problem comes down to our driver-side half-shaft bottoming out in the cup that goes into the transmission. I say this because after taking one out and looking in the bottom of that cup there were 3 dents where the bearings had been hammering on the end up in there.

My question I guess is this: outside of ordering a custom length half shaft, is increasing my ride height the only way to fix this problem? We're definitely not at the minimum right now, in fact we're closer to 6" in the front anyway as it sits

Greg A- Did you guys run your NX at the minimum height? If so, were the custom shock housings that Matt Kessler made what allowed this to work?

Right now we're going to try to dish out the bottom of the cup where it was hitting and see if that in combination with raising it about an inch might make it usable...

Thanks guys!

[Greg Amy]

...outside of ordering a custom length half shaft...

...which is not allowed by the IT rules...

Greg A- Did you guys run your NX at the minimum height?

Nope. You don't want to go all the way down. The geometry sucks down there, really really hard. In fact, you'll find that if you keep the ride height reasonable, not only does the car handle better it solves a lot of problems...like bottoming out halfshafts.... - GA

[Brettt]

...which is not allowed by the IT rules...


Nope. You don't want to go all the way down. The geometry sucks down there, really really hard. In fact, you'll find that if you keep the ride height reasonable, not only does the car handle better it solves a lot of problems...like bottoming out halfshafts.... - GA

That honestly is the best news I've heard in weeks! We'll raise the nose and put it on some scales tomorrow to see if we can get the weights in a reasonable range and go from there. I'm thinking 6.5" might be a good place to start and then go up if we need to. Does that sound like a ballpark number? I ask because unfortunately the next chance we'll get to test will be the first qualifying session at the race this weeekend, so we'll keep our fingers crossed and throw everything we can at it!

Thank goodness for the internet! Thank goodness for Greg Amy!!

[JLawton]

Thank goodness for Greg Amy!!

That's tGA to us meer mortals.....

[Greg Amy]

I'm thinking 6.5" might be a good place to start and then go up if we need to. Does that sound like a ballpark number?

I don't know the exact number but 6-1/4 to 6-1/2 sounds about right... - GA

[Brettt]

Got all of the ride height stuff and corner weights figured out only to find the car still had the nasty vibration. Made for a long race weekend... but still had some fun just being there. Long and frustrating story short, we pulled the opposite side half-shaft to find a toasted ball and marred race in the outer CV.
I don't understand for the life of me how the unloaded side of the car can produce such a vibration unless it settled in the bad spot when it was lengthened. At any rate, we may have finally found the problem, so that's a plus.

It's raining on what might have been our last day to test the car at speed, so I guess we'll try it at Topeka this weekend. Fingers crossed!