Sentra SE-R

Brettt

Brettt

New member
Hello, I just found a link to your website on a thread in the SCCA forums. I'm totally new to driving a car on the track, but I've been following and bleeding road racing for as long as I can remember. I've got a 93 Sentra SE-R, which I understand fits into ITA. I've wanted to prep and race it since I got it back in about 02, but I just recently got another car and the money to turn the sentra into a track-worthy machine. I've been to a number of events at my local track just to watch, but now I want to drive.

I guess my biggest question is this: I know what the physical limitations on what kind of suspension I can run, but I have no idea what kinds of spring rates and shocks people with this car run. Also, I'd heard that it's hard to be competitive in ITA with stock or close to stock engine. Any insights you guys have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome to the wars. :)

The answer to the "How much does it cost?" question is always, "How competitive do you want to be?"

A stock engine isn't going to get someone to the front of a competitive ITA field but for someone just starting out, the learning curve will be steep enough that power isn't the biggest concern.

You'll hear this a lot but I'll be the first to say it: If you can find something already built, you will save a LOT of money over building exactly the same car yourself. This is particularly the case right now, with the economy making it a buyers' market for race cars.

There's some people here who can give you guidance on the spring rate question but before you get to that level of detail, do some shopping around and see what you can find on the used market.

K
 
Brettt, they go from mild to wild. Specific to springs, I'm a budget racer (mid-pack) and I run OEM style after market springs that are 350#. On the other end of the spectrum are SE-R guys running 800-1000# coilovers. Likewise, I'm running a stock junkyard engine, while others have full IT built (0.40 over) motors. Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?
A good BASIC resource would be www.sr20forum.com/forum Stick within the Race subforum and you can ask some good questions and get some good answers, but don't believe everything you hear. But it's a good starting resource for the car.
 
tnord-
I am located just south of Omaha, Nebraska, about 3 hours north of Topeka. I've been going to Heartland Park for drag races since I was a little kid and I always thought the road course looked way more fun.

Racerlinn-
I'm definitely on a budget for the beginning here. I know people have said that I can save a lot of money and headache by getting a pre-built car, but this car is a project my dad and I are doing. He's built his own race cars for years and this is going to be a fun project to start out. We're going to build our own exhaust, intake, strut tower braces and other little stuff like that because he owns an auto body repair shop. (lucked out there) Basically, what I'm saying is things like fabrication aren't going to really be a problem.
-I've already ordered some hyper-flex bushings for the car, and my next move is to buy the suspension. I have the money saved up, but now it's time to make the choice. If you have any suggestions as far a brands on springs and shocks I think that might be the most helpful. I'm still trying to figure out what people out racing actually use.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
I guess my "home track" would be MidAmerica Motorplex, since that's an SCCA track and it's about 20 minutes from my place.
 
Welcome to the fray,

Brettt, for what it is worth, if you are building the car yourself, you need to become very familiar with the GCR. You can find it online at www.scca.org. Be sure to prep your car to the correct ruleset.

IMHO, you should spend your efforts in building a safe car, ie good cage and safety gear, then suspension, and then engine. If you get the safety things out of the way then you can concentrate on getting used to racing while tweaking the suspension. Then you are ready to spend some $$$ on an engine.

You might want to take a look at Dave Gran's book, "Go ahead, take the wheel." It will help you out a lot.

Good luck and welcome
 
Brett -

I run at MAM quite frequently, live in Kansas City, and have an ITA car as well. I hope to see you often this year. Do you have plans as to how you're getting your liscense yet? Did you know there is a double school at MAM in April where you could complete your liscensing requirements and even run a race on sunday?

with a couple exceptions, ITA cars in MiDiv don't have near the prep level that some other areas of the country do. even if you do nothing but intake and exhaust work, you'll probably have more power than anyone else in the division, and certainly enough to be "in the mix." If I were you I would make sure to get a good cage in the car first, then focus on suspension, and lastly engine. If your funds are somewhat limited, you can skip the motor stuff for this year and spend it on track time.

I'm not sure what shocks/struts the nissan guys are using, but Eibach Race Springs are pretty standard across all makes/models. As far as what spring rates to go with, i would lean more towards the softer side that Steve Linn was suggesting rather than the really high rate 1000lb+ stuff. The higher rates may ultimately be faster with the right driver, but the softer springs should be easier to handle for a new driver.

if you have any questions about what you need to do to get started, the liscensing procedure, or anything else, i'm happy to help.

[email protected]

PS - some of us are planning on a test day at MAM in mid/late march to shake down the cars before the season starts up. if you want, i can keep you in the loop of when we'll be there if you'd like to join in.
 
Brettt said:
tnord-
I am located just south of Omaha, Nebraska, about 3 hours north of Topeka. I've been going to Heartland Park for drag races since I was a little kid and I always thought the road course looked way more fun.

Racerlinn-
I'm definitely on a budget for the beginning here. I know people have said that I can save a lot of money and headache by getting a pre-built car, but this car is a project my dad and I are doing. He's built his own race cars for years and this is going to be a fun project to start out. We're going to build our own exhaust, intake, strut tower braces and other little stuff like that because he owns an auto body repair shop. (lucked out there) Basically, what I'm saying is things like fabrication aren't going to really be a problem.
-I've already ordered some hyper-flex bushings for the car, and my next move is to buy the suspension. I have the money saved up, but now it's time to make the choice. If you have any suggestions as far a brands on springs and shocks I think that might be the most helpful. I'm still trying to figure out what people out racing actually use.

Thanks for the help guys!
Click to expand...

Not a nissan guy here but I would suggest Koni Sports with Ground Control sleeve kit. You can get a package deal on shox.com for about $965 bucks. That way you always have the flexibility of going double adjustable and different valving based on spring rates when you get there. As far as spring rate I have no idea. Kinda depends on what tracks you are going to run the most at. I would stay pretty conservative say 350-400F and 250-300R with an adjustable big rear bar.
 
Brettt said:
I know what the physical limitations on what kind of suspension I can run, but I have no idea what kinds of spring rates and shocks people with this car run.
Click to expand...
You've opened a large can of tasty worms. Bottom line: the car can be competitive. This car will be all about engine, a drivetrain to put that pwoer down, and an attempt to build a suspension to keep it on the track.

I don't have a lot of time right now, but:

- Build the best engine you can. We developed one to 155 whp (Dynapack), and there may be more left with better tuning.

- Suspension is completely limited by your pocketbook. You need high spring rates, and spring rates are limited by what you can spend on shocks. Forget KYB AGXs, they're crap. Next step up is Koni Reds inserted into stock tubes, probably good for ~300-400# springs. Jump up to revalved Koni 8611s in custom tubes (~$2500) and you're good to about 1000#. What you really want is Koni 2817s so you can actually CONTROL those springs, but now you're talking $6000+.

- You've got a big problem with the LSD. The factory viscous won't cut it, and no one is making any aftermarket LSDs for the car any more. If you can find a used Quaife or used NisMo clutch-type LSD (I prefer the latter) jump on it. Otherwise you'll never be able to put that needed power to the ground.

- I can point you to a JDM-spec 4.437:1 final drive. You'll want that, too.

- The chassis is a flexible-flyer. Without a good rollcage you'll never be able to keep the chassis straight and use those new high-buck shocks.

Yup, it's nationally competitive, but it takes work and time. Or you can just enjoy the heck out of it locally.

GA
 
Greg's given a road map of the "high road". My low road budget map:
Koni red insert's - not that hard to build your own struts, go here:
http://www.sr20forum.com/chassis-suspension/185484-custom-shortened-koni-info-discussion.html
I run OEM style Road Magnet springs:
http://www.sr20forum.com/group-buys/189333-road-magnet-springs-round-2-b13-b14.html
Hyperco "2" springs are also out there. These are your low buck entries. I stuck with those due to cost as well as the fact I already had Cusco camber plates to work with them.
There are lots of suspensions constantly being sold in the classifieds on the SR20 forum. You can usually find a deal.
As I said earlier, I run a stock motor, it's a 50k mile junkyard motor (I blew up my original 138k mile motor last year with a missed shift).
I run only the OEM LSD. As Greg said, you can't put the power down as early.
Build up your own intake with a big "pop charger" style filter.
And as they all said, make sure you work on the cage first. It was easily my biggest expense on my low budget build.
I run mid-pack at the big events in GLDiv, but can also run at the pointy end of weaker fields in both GL and MidDiv. There's almost always someone to race with, that's what I want and am happy with.
 
Brett -

Don't worry about it, I bet there's only one car in this division making over 130whp. There's also another guy down in Lawrence KS running an ITA Nissan NX-2000. I forget his name though.
 
Actually, Travis, I seem to recall our mid-miles junkyard engine was making 135 'packs with external bolt-ons (header, intake) and the stock ECU on pump gas (in fact, I won the '06 ARRC with a stock ECU...:shrug:) - GA
 
Greg Amy said:
Actually, Travis, I seem to recall our mid-miles junkyard engine was making 135 'packs with external bolt-ons (header, intake) and the stock ECU on pump gas (in fact, I won the '06 ARRC with a stock ECU...:shrug:) - GA
Click to expand...

which would mean he'll be plenty fine in this division with a stock powerplant + bolt ons for his first year.
 
I have seen plenty of bolt-on'd and Wolf-ecu'd SR20's making 140 Jets. As has been stated, you will have plenty of power to run at the front, even with just bolt ons on this car. Getting her to handle and stop is where you (IMHO) should focus your development efforts.
 
If you or your dad are well versed in welding, you can make the cheapest nsd (no slip differential) there is.

Just weld it up.:eclipsee_steering:
 
There's also another guy down in Lawrence KS running an ITA Nissan NX-2000. I forget his name though.
Click to expand...

Michael Pearson......that's the guy with the NX-2000. Greg I think he said he spoke with you about the car a couple years back, i think it was an old SSB car.
 
tnord said:
Michael Pearson......that's the guy with the NX-2000. Greg I think he said he spoke with you about the car a couple years back, i think it was an old SSB car.
Click to expand...
Yup, I've been in contact with Mike over the last couple of years, been offering him recommendations. He bought my Advance Design shocks/suspension parts from me... - GA
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I'm gonna put the cage in and get new suspension first off. The cage I pretty much have figured out, but I'm not sure about the suspension. I found a group buy on some Ksport coilovers on the sr20forums, but I haven't found a lot of info on that brand. Basically my budget for suspension is about 1000, so what do you think my biggest bang for that amount would be?

Travis- I would love to tag along to your shakedown sessions. My car might be stock still, but it would be fun to go around the track. Let me know when you're planning on going- [email protected]
 
I almost forgot- how do I make this thing stop? The last time I took this around midamerica, the pedal was almost gone by the third lap. I feel like this is something I should be considering when building this car. Any suggestions there?
 
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