Did some browsing (trying to convince myself) & thought I share something…

The 12A series motor was in production for about 15 years, from 1970 through 1985.  During 1974 the 12A became one of the first engines outside the US or Europe to compete and finish in the famous 24 hours of Le Mans The 12A is considered a “bored-out” version of the previous 10A engine.  Although the diameter of the rotors stayed the same, the depth was increased by 10mm (0.4 in) to 70 mm (2.8 in).  Each rotor housing had a displacement of 573 cc, combined the engine had a total of 1146 cc.

During the production of the 12A engine they started using a new method of hardening the rotor housings.  In 1974 the Sheet-metal Insert Process (SIP) would use a sheet of steel similar to a piston engine’s cylinder liner with a chrome plated surface.  They also changed the side housing coating which eliminated the problematic sprayed metal that was used previously.

With the use of the new “REST” process, they were able to create a significantly strong housing.  This would make it possible to start using conventional cast iron instead of the old carbon seals.  The earlier 12A motors featured a thermal reactor, which were similar to the 0866 10A.  Some used an exhaust port insert which reduced exhaust noise.

The fastest 12A motor produced was the turbocharged and fuel injected model.  This was used in the Japan-spec Mazda Luce, Cosmo and the RX-7. Luce, RX-7, and the Cosmo.  This engine showcased a “semi-direct injection” into both rotors at once, this technique turned out to be more successful than it appeared.  They added a passive knock sensor to eliminate engine detonation, and some later models included a specially designed “impact turbo,” which was tweaked to give the rotary engine a unique exhaust sound.  This motor produced 165 hp (123 kW) at 6000 RPM and 186 Nm (137 ft/lbf) at 4000 RPM.

Source: Wesley Mahler, [http://www.rotaryengineillustrated.com/list-of-past-present-engines/12a.html], “The 12A Series: Rotary Engine History”, 28 Dec 2009.

Checkout this TA22, one of the badest TA22 so far I’ve seen!!!

No secrets anymore, as I will be going for this look. Choosen paint: GLASURIT’s deep solid black with extra super glossy.

Link:  http://speedhunters.com/archive/2009/11/21/car-feature-gt-gt-bosozuku-celica.aspx

P/S: I’ll be slowing down on r/c as I’ve got 2 most important things coming in 2010 (wait & see….). Actually its 3!

Just recently got my PS3’s Modern Warfare 2 (sooorry Haidi, Azhar, Azman Azam & Fairuz sebab lambat), saje je beli lambat sebab Xmas sale (bought it for roughly RM200). Esok start cuti sampai 3rd January 2010, soooo excited nak main in the network, main sampai lebam… guys please add me in the playstation network as ‘azmanomura’.  Xmas eve maybe??? Email me please!

Next… Band Hero???

Its snowing at Norwich, boleh tahan jugak lebat. Its fun to enjoy snow with Didie (before this I enjoyed snow sorang-sorang je). Come to think of it kan, last time I had snow was 7-8 years ago while I was still studying in UK. I was alone that time but this time its totally different just because I have my Didie with me. Nothing better in this world to spend quality time with your love ones, nothing can ever ever ever beat that. My family has and will always be my 1st priority than any other things in this whole wide world…

Anyway we build a snowman! Its was cold (-3degC) tapi dah soooo excited sampai lupa sejuk hahahaha! Syok sangat!!!

Office dah kosong, mat salleh balik kampung cuti Xmas. And most of my colleagues (including Farraen) are going back next week. So tinggal lah me & another colleague of mine Faizal at the office until next year. The office will never be the same again, sunyi. Hari ni kita orang bawak makanan and makan ramai-ramai dalam office.

Continuation from last time, I had Front toe 0*, camber -6*, caster 4* and Rear toe -3*, camber -4*, caster 0*… and today, well it was a different story Hehehehe!

First of all, first thing I did when I arrived was to have a go on the track to recap last weeks driveability. After couple of laps, I swapped over to Yokomo rings. Amazingly it was waaaaayyyyy much better (just in case you guys wondering, I was on HPI T-Drifts). With the Yokomo rings, the car control feels intact.

But the rear was still too difficult to modulate or in other words, slight snappy. So I swapped the rears over to softer springs (now that I have done that, fronts and rears have same rate - soft) and changed the rear toe to -1*.  And the car totally feel a lot easier to drive (I might have an idea on how the rear modulation works).

Since aku ni tak terer, so I decided to start practice by familirising and understanding the car control. I did some CS runs from island to island on the track (hehehe memalukan).

At the moment, I’m quite comfortable with this setup but my run still not good. All I need to do now is just more time to practice, I hope?! It was a good and fun day today, learned a lot

So as for today…

Front: Toe 0*, Camber -6*, Caster 4*, Soft Spring, Damper Oil 250, Modded ackerman.

Rear: Toe -1*, Camber -4*, Caster 0*, Soft Spring, Damper Oil 250.

Others: Overdrive 2.03, 50g weight on front end, spur 70, pinion23, SP brushless 10.5T motor, Yokomo single ring tires.

I will probably tweek the weights & damper positions next week

I’ve got this raw idea of visiting all the r/c tracks (where r/c drifters are playing) in Malaysia (including Sabah & Sarawak) and considering Brunei.

What I meant by visiting is having a drift sessions with the host & locals. Well not at one go, probably to complete before end of the year (2010). And not to forget to blog about the tracks I’ll be going to. I might travel alone since I’m so use to travel alone to tracks here in UK. At the moment I’ve got about more than 10 tracks to visit inclung indoors. We’ll see next year how many tracks will be available. I’m not limiting myself to outdoor tracks only, I will be also taking account all indoors or temporary carpark spaces where drift meetings were held. I’ll be summarizing the track list early next year. Nothing that I’m trying to proof here, just wanna have fun all over Malaysia… Malaysia here I come!

Heres Farraen’s new shell, HPI’s Lotus Elise. Quiet nicely and neatly done with the painted stripes and impressed with his DIY diffuser (made from scratch from polystyrene). And hes planning to do the front scoop from scratch using polystyrene. This guy got the skill & effort lah, and I’m too lazy. I could remember my first shell was totally crap macam sampah, and still macam sampah hehehehe. But well done for Farraen! Bet his future shells will turn out really really good. Keep it up bro!!!

Sambil-sambil tuh aku selit 1evia aku sekali…

While I was on my holiday last week, sempat lagi aku lari pergi tengok Azman Azam & Shahrin masuk touring competition. Sambilk-sambil aku pun ambik kesempatan belasah kita dia orang hehehehe just testing & practicing my car control, it wasnt that bad ya know! Heres some pictures for ya folks!

Initially the chassis setup was base on several common setup I took from various websites. Typical front soft spring, one way diff, camber -6*, toe 0*, caster 4* and rear medium spring, spool, camber -1*, toe -3*. Both front and rear internal ratios has been changed to meet overdrive of 2.00. Surface was smooth asphalt. And the car is very very snappy. Its really hard to modulate the rear throw

Gave up even by changing my driving style. So then I tried to change the internal ratios to meet overdrive 1.50 just to give a feel. CS was very easy to control but at times occasionally it was neutral drifting, which is not what I wanted.

So I changed back the overdrive to 2.00 and tried different springs on rear. I tried about 5 sets of different spring and ended having the rears on soft-medium spring (slightly harder than the fronts). CS is way much better to control with transition is predictable and controllable I’d say. And I did some changes to the camber along the way when I tried the springs, front camber -6* and rear camber -4*.

I tried to put more weight on the front about 100g, I think its twitchy so I decided not to put any weights yet. Later on the weights.

Next week I will try to play with the front and rear toe. Currently I’m having front 0* and rear -3*. Plus will also need to try out the weights and shock position.

As for today, the car is controllable but still couldnt do a complete perfect CS run over the track. Always spinning (this is because not enough run time, need more practice). I still havent change my driving style which I should.

And I also notice that even with the CS setup, the car speed is similar to my non-CS setup.

 Sorry no pictures, I was alone (…and freezing) at the track.  To be continued…