The 3rd round of Top Drift has come and gone and let me tell you, I had an idea of how it might have gone, and it went the exact opposite.
We started off by being about an hour and a half late because they closed the 5 freeway down due to a major accident. We arrived and quickly unloaded to get the car teched and hit the track to get some seat time. One lap in and already we could tell there was an issue. The hydraulic ebrake was staying locked up even when releasing the lever. We tried bleeding it and changed the master cylinder as well. We went back out and again the same thing.
After pulling the caliper apart we came to the conclusion that the piston on the rebuilt z32 calipers where too large and expanding under the heat, causing them to not let go of the rotor when releasing the hydraulics. We ran to the parts store to grab some fine sand paper and got to work.
We put it all back together and it helped a little but not enough, she was still seizing up.
Three runs in and we had to pack up and head back home to get the pistons milled down, but then unfortunately they where milled down too much. Now we had a new mission; find someone with z32 rear calipers.
A friend of mine actually had an extra set laying around, so I quickly picked them up and went back to install them on the car.
The next day we headed back up in the morning to get some practice in. The e-brake was feeling pretty good and we where able to get a few practice runs in.
Qualifying came up and on my first run I pulled my e-brake and there it was, a new issue. Now the e-brake wasn’t locking up, only slowing the car. I pulled up for the second qualifying run and on the second transition the rear spun around quicker than a top! Just like that we where out of the competition.
Later on we found out that I had only hand tightened the rear hydraulic line, so the first time I had pulled the e-brake, it squirted a good amount of fluid on the rear right tire causing it to have little to no traction and thus the aggressive spin.
And so, on to round 4 we go!
