Thread: chassis advice

Hi all, im after some advice on chassis to use for a sealed circuit race car.

At the moment i have a P10 JDM SR20 i run, but it's come time to up the power and put a cage in but my body has a bit of rust in it so im considering a couple of options before spending money on a dud body.

1 Another P10 shell

2 A p11 or U14 bluebird shell, not so old or out dated now.

3 Or my favourite option at this stage is a N15 Pulsar VZR, factory SR16VE and LSD box. This option appeals to me as buying a non compliable one of these is only about $1000 more than buying a motor and box off an importer which i will need to do for either of the other options anyway.


My concern involves mostly chassis handling from the N15 being shorter and having a solid I beam rear axle. How much of a disadvantage, if any, is this going to be over the longer wheel base and independent suspension setup of the P10 ?

Some info from some one who has used both chassis would be great.

Cheers
Cy

I would focus on a rust free shell. Our p10 is rust free and it makes a huge difference IMHO. We haven't caged it yet but will soon. I'd stay away from the p11 shell for road racing because it's got that solid rear end and is heavier overall.

I've logged over 1400+ track miles on my p10 and being 100% rust free shell is a huge bonus given the track abuse it sees.

We also have a p11 and I would never even consider tracking it.. just the street handling alone tells me to stay away from trying anything more than daily driving it.

sorry I don't have more to tell you... hope this helps

Thanks dude, weight is something to consider, the Pulsar is, i think, about 150kg lighter than a p10, all unnessary weight will be gone anyway.

Solid axle in rear can't be a big disadvantage can it? rear only follows the front after all ?

They made the Rear work in BTCC. Maybe there is some tricks those teams learned that you can replicate with a P11.

I would probably say go with whatever is easiest to get parts for. Custom parts will start adding up.

Nissan actually ran a macpherson strut rear on the P11 chassis until the end of their (highly successful) 1998 season. They were able to do it because they were permitted to run any trim level of that chassis built anywhere in the world - and they sold a 4WD Primera in Japan.

That clause ran out in 1999, so they reverted back to the rear beam. If I remember correctly, the 99 car used a single rear panhard rod on a bracket (much like what Mike Kojima had on the Dog II).

Any pics of that setup ^^^^^^^ there is a 4wd N15 too, maybe the rear of that could be adapted.

I originally saw it in an old issue of Racecar Engineering or Race Tech, so I don't have a picture of it readily available.

Basically, what they did was take the whole rear subframe of the 4WD Primera and stuck it on the back of a UKDM Primera Sedan. They fabricated some stub axles, yanked out the rear diff and axles, and used the extra space to route the exhaust system out through the trunk.

If you're willing to do a little work and are able to get a Primera rear clip, it's pretty doable. I remember the article claiming that it was a "bolt-in job" on the P11 Sedan body. Not sure if that's legal in your class though.

If I was in your situation I'd opt to go the panhard bar route. While therear beam is obnoxious on a Sentra, with a double A-arm front I suspect that you could make it work fairly well.

Sticking with the P10 shell, going SR16/20 VE

cool... keep us updated

A friend of mine bought P10 and we are preparing her for hillclimb racing next year.