BossStrifeGixxe

I'm going to be joining the local SCCA circuit this summer and I chose an s14 body 240 for the following reasons:

loads of tourqe from the KA24 engine, well ballanced and solid chassis, RWD.

Now I'm not in this to drift... yet (yes it is a fad and I wont mind playing around with it...)

But as I'm looking into start racing I'm wondering what tips anyone has. wheels, tires, recomended upgrades, driving tips. this is my first RWD car in 4 years so I'm all ears.

highly skilled on bikes and in FWD vehicles but as I said... my RWD experiance is lacking. so any tips pertaining to an amateur 'legal' racer please go ahead

soldierdude262

Start w/ suspension, get yourself adjustable coilovers, swaybars (adjustable if you can), strutbars, and camber kit (also adjustable i think), that'll give you a suspension setup that will keep you in control and you can change it to suit various tracks you'll face, a BBK with ventiliated rotors is a must, and sport/racing brake pads for thr BBK.

Run tires as wide as possible for best grip, and choose a compound that'll last long so you don't need a new set after or during every race (scca events may be too long for that but it;s a thought), make that 2 sets, i think they'll still make you race in mildly adverse weather so a dry set and a wet set will keep you competitive no matter what. After that strip the car, and put as much motor in it as you can or want(i have no idea what motor setup you intend to go with).

For driving style, beware of too much power oversteer, RWD cars tend to push the rear end out if you go into the throttle too early and too hard coming out of a turn, too much power oversteer and you'll spin out. This effect gets amplified with more power, so if you make your ride into a real beast be careful. With any new car I'd suggest getting some track time to get a feel for this effect and explore the throttle limits at turn exits. Or just take it easy when you start your first season and just spend more of your effort experimenting with suspension and tire setups and getting a feel for the car rather than trying to be rookie of the year. good luck.

edit: if you're mostly using the car for scca you may want to keep the engine NA for a power delivery that will best suit road racing, going turbo may make the engine peaky, depending on setup of course, but a turbo rarely equals NA power band

Cape 240

Thats not true at all. Wider tires often times, will loose traction around corners, b/c the weight of the car is spread too thin, thus not pushing down enough on the tires.
Find a comfortable width i'm going to say 8.5 or 9"

Also, strut bars, coilover, brakes.
I would suggest a cheap short-shifter, to cut down shift times. A new clutch is always nice.

STRIP THE CAR! (unless is daily driven)Replace glass too.

Do your i/h/e cams, flywheel, underdrive pulley, and tune. That should be a decent, easy N/A build.

Driving style: When going into a corner, ease off of the gas, don't completely let up, this will put you into a type of drift known as a "lift-off". When at the clipping point, begin to ease on the throttle, and don't floor it until you are almost straight.

Also, put in a racing seat and harness, this will hold you tighter for better control.

BossStrifeGixxe

Much thanks all around guys:

actually the noted technique above is how I tend to manage the weight transfer of my street car (FWD)... also one of the more common ones used in the drift bible

furhter awnsering some questions raised: I'll be keeping the KA n/a for now while gently building the engine as this car will be a street car as well next year I can only go so extreme with the stripping... but I do want it to border on the street/race aspect. I have a family friend that used to construct roll cages for nascar so I will most likley end up having him make and install a cage and harness bar.

Suspension and wheels were the first plan... my cousin did recomend getting a LSD first though. thoughts on that?

Bryan

First I'd start by finding out which class your going to be participating in and seeing if they have any limitations on mods.

Then I would attend as many events that I could while the car is stock to learn how it handles to get re-aquainted with RWD. No mods can replace seat time.

When I felt I had a good feeling for it, and felt I was ready for something more, then I would start the modding.

As for the LSD first, it will be a great first mod. Since you said you were not really looking to drift I would either go with a 1.5 clutch differential or a helical/quaife/torsen for grip driving. I'm planning on joining NASA this year so I can see some track time and personally I'm going to try and get a quaife differential.

Preston

Hey Bryan, isn't NASA for space exploration? Lol.

Bryan

Yes it is, I wanna race on the moon!

There is also a club called NASA, similar to the SCCA, check them out here

Preston

Sweet, I'll hafta check them out. Dude I bet my car could hit 200 on the moon....NO WIND NO GRAVITY=NO LAG........then it could take off and fly (some chick at school says my car looks like an airplane)

soldierdude262

Interesting, I've never heard that, I was thinking on the lines that the largest contact patch possible is preferable, thanks for the correction.

BossStrifeGixxe

I've heard similar things. however most cars I've seen running wide *** tires usually have a negative camber... when they hit the corner then the rest of the tire is used

soldierdude262

Ahhh that makes sense

CowboyTurbo

That doesn't make much sense to me. "Wider is better." Obviously the type of tires you're running is going to make a difference (in terms of how sticky they are), but come on~ how much does an F1 car weigh? How wide are it's tires?

soldierdude262

The counter to that is that an F1 car makes TONS of downforce, the "weight" of car while it's moving is actually pretty high, more than double beyond a certain speed

CowboyTurbo

so... get a shopping kart spoiler.

soldierdude262

do you think a 240 with huge front and rear spoilers would be rice? Let's put up a pole and have a vote lol.