xr6_prod

Thanks bs888 We'll do our best

For anybody that is interested. The Ontrack Motorsport XR6 turbo will be racing again this weekend. This weekend is round 4 of the Australian Production Car Championship at Easten Creek. There is a large field of 22 cars entred including 2 XR6 turbo's. There is one race on Saturday at 4 pm and 2 races on Sunday 10:30am and 2pm. If any one from the forum comes out - please feel free to come and say hello, we should be located around garage 11. The round should be televised on SBS sppedweek the following week. Thanks Nick

I use Motec - it can do the lot. For more information contact Ric Shaw Performance in Sydney. Motec may cost more - however he has worked all the bugs out.

Round 2 of the Australian Production Car championship kicks off at Mallala Raceway (outskirts of Adelaide) THIS WEEKEND April 16/17. The Ontrack XR6 Turbo will be there flying the flag for the blue oval. If anyone in Adelaide is coming out don't hesitate to come over and say hello and have a chat about the car. The Ontrack Motorsport team will have team T-Shirts and Ford merchandise for sale for those interested. Saturday sees 1 practice session, one qualifying session and one race. Sunday has 2 17 lap races. I beleive the race meeting will be shown on SBS Speedweek 2 weeks after Yours In Motorsport Nick XR6 Turbo #12

The first round of the Australian Production Car championship (featuring 3 XT6 turbos) will be on FOX Sports at ~8pm TONIGHT. The program will also be shown on SBS Speedweek on this Sunday 12 noon to 2pm (assuming we don't lose anymore pontiffs). Thanks Nick #12 BA Falcon XR6 Turbo

How "stock" are the cars? I know they fit roll cages etc for safety, do they run slicks or street tyres? any suspension or engine mods allowed? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The cars are completely stock, except - MoTeC ECU - using origional wiring harness. Springs and shock absorbers are changed. Racing brake pads are fitted using origional base model brakes. The exhaust is 100% standard - however we have replaced the mufflers with straight pipe. The car runs a standard catalytic convertor (hollow in the centre). We use a road legal semi race tyre Yokohama A048. Everything else is standard. The racing wegiht is 1735 kg. We are limited to .6 bar of boost - this is checked with an on board independant boost monitor computer. Nick

For all those people that want to watch real production XR6 Turbo's battling it out on the race track ................ Round 1 of the Australian Production Car Championship from Wakefield Park can be seen this Sunday on SBS Speedweek at 12 noon. All of the action will be replayed on Inside Speed on Fox Sports at 8pm Thursday April 7. Thanks Nick #12 Red BA Mark 1 XR6 turbo Ontrack_Motorsport___Round_1_2005___Media_Alert.PDF

Ric Shaw performance in Five Dock is another flash tuner as well

Ric Shaw Performance in Five Dock also edit.

The box is 100% origional - never been opened. The only change is Redline lightweight oil (blue). The clutch has lasted over one season (7 races) however it is due for a replacement. Again 100% stock unmodified. My gear changes in qualifying are very close to flat changes. Driveline shunts usually come from excessive backlash in the diff and/or slop in drive shaft splines. After a seasons racing the splines on the driveshafts are reasonably well worn but they will last for a while longer yet. The backlash on the diff is considerable - however we are rebuilding LSD's every two meetings and keeping this in check - extra backlash in the diff is not such a bad thing for a race car, as the less the backlash the less the driveline power losses are - however it is a fine balance - with too much backlash you can break teeth on the crown wheel because you are not getting proper depth of engaugement. So suffice to say the driveline shunt would be annoying for road use but there is no concequence when racing (as longs as you keep an eye on the aformentioned driveshafts and backlash). The other source of noise in the rear end is a loud cracking and metallic clunking, usually most evident on slow turns in the pits. This is the LSD plates themselves moving out of position and binding up when worn. Sometime the diff behaves as if it is a locked diff (for a while) and if you do not attend to it the diff will then go completely open centre and spew all the oil out. We need to rebuild LSD centres every 2 race meetings to prevent the above from happening. However we are permitted to run a full spool and we are giving some consideration to using this rather than the LSD. The diff used by Ford (as people probably already know) is a Dana M86. Fundamentally this diff is well and trully up to the job. I beleive casting of the housing, crown wheel and pinion are robust for most duties (circuit racing and modified road cars) - however the a dedicated drag car might test it. The LSD is a torque sensing - passive, preloaded type clutch arrangement - which is no where near the mark - it is definitely the weak link in the drive chain, and from the day you first drive the car the LSD is wearing itself out. My guess is that most LSD are getting pretty lazy in as little as 10K-20K of spirited road driving - they are effictively only lasting 300km of race duty. Unfortunately there are not too many options on the market at this stage.

You have all of that spot on Turbo6man. Not a moments trouble from the gearbox or clutch with a full seasons racing !!!

The cars must be the base model in the range - absolutly no options. Full interior, with operational power windows, the spare tyre and jack can be removed. The cost - expensive ! If you have help, know where to go and do a significant amount of work yourself - you can turn a road car into a race car for around $30K. If you need to pay somebody and don't get much help the actual real cost is more likely to be in the vacinity of $50K or more. This is of course to build a competitive car, non competitive cars can be built cheaper. The big ticket items - ECU - Motec including installation and dynoing - you would expect to pay $10K. We use tripple adjustable Bilsteins - specially made for the car in Europe with extensive shock dynoing and several recalibrations - these could well run over the $10K mark. A FAI homologated roll cage $3K to $5K. You then need to remember the small stuff that adds up quick, seats, seat mounts, harness, bonnet pins, tow hooks, stearing wheel, kill switch, braided brake lines, air bag removal, window nets, foam filled fuel tank, fire extinguisher, a selection of springs, spare wheels, air conditioning removal, the list goes on and on.

what sort of rear wheel power is it making and what sort of pads do you use?? good luck and I look forward to seeing the results... Dave. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Dave, The question about horsepower is a difficult one to answer, firstly most racers will not give you a true and honest answer. Secondly and more importantly (and I hope I dont offend anybody) I see people on the forum quote rear wheel horsepower or Kw (RWKW) as if it actually means something. There is an enormus variation between dyno's of the same make, let alone different dyno's of different makes; furthermore if you dyno a car hot or cold makes a huge difference; thirdly the weather conditions on different days effects reading dramatically; forthly there are tricks dyno operators can use to inflate figures. I firmly beleive that a quoted RWKW number actually tells very little about the actual worth of an engine in terms of race or street ability. What a dyno can tell you is the effective gain of a modification, as long as the testing method is consistent and the runs are not too far apart. So the best way of answering the question is we see around a 40 odd RWKW gain over standard using the same testing method. This number still tells you nothing about torque, lag or throttle response which are often more important criteria for race and road engines. Successful race tuners usually evaluate gains, and the worth of an engine, by the increase in area under the torque curve and race track performance (in either curcuit racing or quarter mile) - rather than any peak number. The brake pads we use are SBS (Scandanavian Braking Systems). We have tried Ferodo DS3000 and DS3000 Endurance, Carbon Metalic pads as well as some other no names. The SBS have been the best to date. They come in 3 compunds Heavy Duty Ceramic (not recommended), Carbon Ceramic (CC's) and Dual Carbon (DC's). The DC's have excellent coefficient of friction (bite) that rises slightly with heat. (I.e. works better when they get hot - this is a good thing). The SBS DC's are able to withstand the 800+ deg heat with satisfactory wear rates. We use the DC's exclusively in the front and mostly use the DC's in the rear however we have also successfully run the CC's in the rear. The CC's are the best choice for road duties with light race duties. These brake pads are available from Ric Shaw Performance in Sydney - Five Dock. The Ferodo Pads and Carbon Metalic are avaliable from Competition Friction in Canberra. I have also heard good things about Galfa pads - however I am yet to try. Also whist I am in the mood to give away free info - for any performance application (or even just road) you must change the brake lines to braided - the standard ones are just plain crap with way too much flex. The difference is very noticable. Brake fluid choice is also crucial.

Opps - I did not actually answer yor question - the ECU is free. We choose Motec: 1) it is the best 2) it has the capability of running the throttle and the cams as well as other items 3) quick and easy to tune 4) data logging and expandability For those that are interested Ric Shaw Performance (Sydney - Five Dock) did the origional installation and we were the very first to attempt Motec on the XR6 (well the first to attempt the cams and drive by wire). It was a major exercise and took several man weeks to before the car would even run. Getting the ford sensors calibrated and a base start up tune was a problem. However the results in terms of power (and more importantly torque) are well worth the investment. However a word of warning, neither Ric or myself are happy with the Motec idle control. This obviously has no effect whilst racing. However it is not appropriate for the street. The idle hunts badly, flatspots just of idle and will stall at a drop of a hat. The reason for this is the sync signal sent from the hall effect intake cam is very low (especially at idle). This signal is used by all computers to get a referance as to the current cam position. The signal is in the relms of 60 milli volts or less. Most ecu (inluding Motec) require 200 milli volts before a signal is considered satisfactory. The Ford ECU must have some fancy amplifier or signal processing built into it to make use of this signal. We have recalibrated Motec to use the 60 milli volt signal. We have tried amplifiers etc, however they do not improve the situation. This low signal level is the most likely cause for some cars with modified ecu that complain of hunt or stall, I.e. the CAM timing goes walk about at idle !! All in all idle quality is not so relevant to race cars and I am VERY happy with the performance of the Motec ECU. P.S> Ric Shaw also does flashing and/or piggy back ECU's for those who do not want to go to the expense of Motec. P.P.S> perhaps this post was better off in the technical section !!

Ha ! - brake shudder hey - there is not enough of the brake rotor left after a race meeting to shudder !!! We have already asked for nicely if Ford cared to warrent an engine that lunched itself. They politely said no ! Now that's a supprise !!! In all seriousness however we use the DBA 4000 rotor. This rotor is FAR supperior to any other rotor on the market, and the only rotor that can stand up to the punishment.

What about the mods to the XR8 and SS. Any details? Whats .6 bar of boost - 8 PSI ?? How do they control / enforce that bit Good Luck !! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The mods allowed to the XR8 and SS in terms of engine - is only ECU. You are allowed to use any ECU you like. However no other changes can be made. This includes things like air filter & entire inlet track, every thing the manufacture includes with the car must be in place and working as the manufacture intended. You are limited to the engine sensors and wiring that the manufacture provides for the car - I.e. you can not add or change any engine sensors. The exhaust for the XR8 and SS is free after the exit of the manifold (I.e. no extractors) the internal dimension of the exhaust can not exceed the origional exhaust diameter however. For turbo cars you have to use the origional exhaust - however you can replace mufflers with straight pipe. All cars must be under 95 db. The rest of the rules in terms of springs and shocks apply equally to all makes. .6 bar equates to 8.5 PSI. The officials enforce the boost limit by making all competitors use a standard logging system. This system logs boost preasure, wheel speed, lateral and longitudinal G forces, throttle position, brakes and RPM. This logger is used to enforce a wide range of rules and to keep competitors honest. A man comes round after each session and downloads the data from each car.

Brakes !!!

Thanks for all the support guy's. It was great to put some faces to the names, (JB, Falcoon, Turbo6man and others) I hope those that came to the track had a great time. The weekend for me was mixed. Race one on the Saturday saw us finish 6th after I was jostled out at the first corner and had to work my way back thru the grid. Race 2 on Sunday was a better race for us - I finished 6th again - in the reverse class handicap race (the format is a bit difficult to explain here). What was pleasing was I set the 2nd quickest time of the race (1:11.4) so we are starting to show some pace in the car (considering the hot weather). Race 3 was looking better again. I had worked my way to 5th place with around 4 laps to go. We had a real possibility of a podium. Unfortunately the car lost power (dropped a cylinder) - I continued to drive it to the finish to still pick up some points. I am not sure what damage has been done - however we have our fingers crossed it is electrical. However in the next day or two a leak down & compression test will soon tell us. I beleive the race will be televised on April 10 on SBS speed week (after round one -he events will all be televised immeadiately after race dates). I will confirm with a new topic post closer to the actual date. I beleive the dates for the upcoming rounds have been posted already. I will be delighted to meet forum members and Ford enthusiasts at race meeting - so come an say hello. If people have nay more questions I will do my best to answer them - however I can't give away too many competitive secrets.

I will definitely post results to let people know how things pan out. I will also let people know the exact time of braodcasts in advance. As some of you have pointed ot Wakefield park definitely does not suit the large cars, however to make up for it we do 2 rounds at Eastern Creek and 1 at Phillip island - these tracks definitely do help the large cars - look forward to these later in the year. We also go to Mallala and Queensland raceway, these also suit the engine - however they are real hard on brakes.

Please see other post on Circuit racing: XR6 Turbo Production car. As it indicates I currently race an XR6 Turbo in the Australian Production Car category. My previous background is in Improved Production Car Racing, which is considered by many as the fast per dollar form of circuit racing in the country, and an excellent entry level category. The car of choice has been Mazda RX3's and 7's, however some of the later model V8's and Turbos are becoming more competitive. For more information visit www.ipransw.com.au or www.ipraqld.com The Gemini racing in QLD has been a great series - however as the cars are aging I am not sure what the long term future is for this category. I hope this helps. Send me a message if you would like some further info.

If anybody on the forum is interested. This weekend (Feb 26/27) is round 1 of the Australian Motor Race Series at Wakefield Park. Top billing at this meeting is the Australian Production Car category. This is the former Procar production car category (Procar dispanded midway thru 2004). It features 3 XR6 Turbo falcons !! pited against VX SS Comodores, BA XR8, Honda S2000 amongst other. The category will be featured on SBS Speedweek, as well as Foxtel Inside speed. This category the origional production car category, and cars must be raced with minimal modification. For more information about the category please visit www.pcaa.com.au My name is Nick Dunkley and I race the red number 12 XR6 turbo (see pic), for those that know Wakefield I will be located in the first row of carports. If the schedule permits I would be happy to met members of the forum and answer questions, so feel free to come up and introduce yourself. For those interested in the specifications of the car (No other mods allowed). 2003 BA Mark 1 XR6 Turbo MoTeC M800 ecu Bilstien tripple adjustable shock absorbers (fast bump, slow bump, rebound) We are controlled to only run .6 bar of boost Spring rates to suit individual race tracks Yokohama Road Legal control tyre Minimum weight 1735kg For those of you wondering the brakes are 100% base model standard (apart from pad material), this means the brakes are required to do 18 laps of Wakefield Park in a 1 minute 10 sec lap time. Very character building.