Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy

Everyone is down at the Rennsport Reunion, and I'm just sitting here taking photos of things at cars and coffee. Really cool Mini Clubman GT: full blog post

Yeah the knurling isn't exact, but it's close enough. If you put the studs in a freezer overnight they shrink just a touch and you can get them in using a (significant) vise. I used a Harbor Freight mega socket on the front of the hub and pressed the stud in through the deep well of the socket. Josh is right, keeping them straight is the key. You'll also probably need a pipe to extend the lever of the vise arm. I used about 2' of extra pipe and all of my body weight (only like 180lbs... I'm 6'6" and built like a stickbug).

Thanks! Larry Butler still runs down there with his little green monster (now with new aero, which some other Datsun head deemed the "Superbrick"). He still takes top time of day fairly often, and that's at a PCA autocross full of crazy modern monsters.

It's definitely a learning curve. I've found that the image stabilizers are basically a must if you want more than one in every 25 photos to actually turn out. Makes me jelly of that 70-200 Sigma. :P I also seem to get much better photos when single shooting panned shots, rather than burst or high speed. I think the Canon 80D body just can't handle that level of autofocus change when the shutter's flapping that fast lol. Glad to see you posting again, feel like I haven't seen a ton of stuff recently. Maybe I'm just not on enough...

His flyer said 89k. Little steep, I thought. Very cool build though. It's a stock bore L18 with mechanical fuel injection and a turbo hanging off the side of it. Wild stuff, bet it breaks a lot.

metalmonkey/Matt, what lenses are you shooting with? Looks like you're getting some great subject/background definition and your panning shots are framed excellently. I'm sure a lot of it is experience, but I wonder if there's some lens magic happening as well...

Lots more photos coming. I have about 300 in the pipeline to be edited. Took well over 2000 total lol.

I was just planning to respray the stock "Space Grey" metallic. I want it to be a budget job, and this way I don't have to dig into the bay, trunk, or door jams.

The end goal for this car is a respray and enough bolt ons from JWtech to get about 150whp. I'd be a happy camper with that.

Is this car using the Evil Engineering VG swap kit? Really want to do that some day, looks like it makes a killer daily (in something a little less... nice).

We going to back to talking about cars now? Yeah? Sweet.

After blowing out 5th gear (surprise, surprise) and having a battle with an East Coast shop and their invisible replacement trans, the Sentra is back on the road and on daily duty thanks to some nifty Nissan bits from Japan. The trans fix came with a new Jim Wolf clutch and an 11lb flywheel (8 pounds lighter than the stock one). Feels like a different car. Searching through my photo dumps for the photos I took of the coilover install on this car. They're TDMi coils, and thus far I'm pretty happy with them. I think they're a little on the rough side for street use (like I get to talk, lol, my wagon is stiffer than a teenager in a strip club). Found out from the proprietor that the springs are roughly 430lbs/in and 240lbs/in. Instinctively this feels a little stiff, so I may look for some slightly softer springs, knock each down about 15% in rating. But man, the car looks so much better low, and it still handles like it's on rails. Running up and down some SLOcal canyons I ended up chasing, passing, and completely dropping some kids in a tricked out Cooper S. Call it driving experience or bigger cohones if you want, but that's not bad for a normally aspirated 2 liter in a two-and-half-decade-old chassis. Also picked up some 15x7 Kosei K1 Racing wheels for cheap (seriously, cheaper than Rotas) and got a deal on some new Continental Extremecontact Sport tires (205/50s). They're a touch higher treadwear than the Yoko S Drives, but my butt G-force gauge tells me they grip better. Now that this car is back in action I'll be able to get back to work on the wagon... 44 Mikunis, dual brake masters, and larger fueling system inbound on that car (stay tuned). In the meantime, Serenity will take over the fun car duties -- including some time at the autocross! That will be the real test of this little thing. Next up is a pop charger from Jim Wolf... fix that mid-range throttle lag.

Been a while since I've thrown an update on here. There are a few things to address later when I have a chance to work through the photos, but for now... Ooooh she look good. Also, coming soon... very soon:

Agreed. I think it was right call style-wise.