R's Day 2023 in the Stagea 260RS

Not really the way you want to end a weekend, but it happens.

R's Day 2023 has come and gone. It was another fun year of Skyline GT-R fun at the track. This year again we were at Willow Springs, specifically the Streets of Willow Springs. Last year we did the track clockwise, this year we went counter clockwise. Streets of Willow is a great track for people of all skill levels. Big track is much faster, much scarier for newer drivers. Since R's Day is a fun event, we want to make sure everyone is within their comfort level.

Stagea 260RS at Streets of Willow Springs.

This year it really felt like we were behind it the whole time. I had slowly worked with Ernie on the Stagea 260RS. Since the last update, put a new Nistune in the #gtrhunter. So its on the 1150 cc long nose injectors, R35/Nissan style blade MAF in OEM sized housings, R35 ignition coils in an original Supertech mounting bracket. We also added an oil cooler, and an oil filter relocation, swapped wheels around a few times, added a gas cap holder(maybe critical part of this build), a Carbing strut tower bar with master cylinder stopper, some used Yokohama A052, and some OS88 sequential transmisson.

This was the best lap in the car. 1:27.2 Shortly after this, I heard a noise. I immediately slowed down and pulled off track. I actually thought it was the transmission. But further investigation in the pit determined it to be #6 cylinder. #6 rod bearing. During that session I was monitoring boost, and seeing peaks of only about 10-11 psi. However cornering over 1.2 G's, high revs, and that #6 decided it had enough. It was a given based on what knew about the history of the engine. So next will be....?

Motor Trend coverage of R's Day

TopRank Coverage of R's Day

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Swapping the strut tower bar to this one from Carbing. This fits R33/R34 and Stagea. It has a built in master cylinder stopper.

If you watch the firewall/ master cylinder flex when you push on the brake pedal, you will understand the benefit of a master cylinder stopper.

Critical part to the daily driving duties of a car that uses E85. A gas cap holder. This one came from Etsy. Some doublesided tape and you are GTG.

Ernie looking just as happy as ever!

Borrowing Ernies OS88 to put in the Stagea

Sequential transmissions are fun. They are loud. They are clunky. Its possible to get everything wrong. Since they are dog engagement, it sounds like you are hitting the transmission with a hammer on each shift. If you don't shift firmly, and "TELL" it you want the next gear, it will probably not engage the next gear. The OS88 in the Nismo stopped selecting reverse before last R's Day. In this case, we didn't have the time to troubleshoot the trans, but probably should have. We tested Ernie's OS88 on the bench and everything seemed good, but once we got it in the car, we had all the forward gears, no reverse gear.

In contemplating what to do, we started to take the other OS88 apart. Once we got it far enough apart to look at it, we figured out the issue. Honestly with the design, even fixing/replacing the clip that was ajar, wouldn't be a permanent fix. We could have put the old trans back, we could have done a lot of things, but in the end, decided pushing it back for reverse was the best course of action. Not the best course, but such is life.

Front undertray and OS88 specific trans mount. You can use the OEM but then its the lowest point on the car.

Aligning the clutch. The OS88 uses the large input shaft, so a specific clutch. Its GM splines.

OS88 sequential transmission mounted in the Stagea 260RS

Oil filter and swirl pot mount by Cisco.

Since the Stagea has a different fuse box than the R33/R34 mounting a remote oil filter is a little more difficult of a job. I also wanted to mount a swirl pot, and an oil cooler. At the track I always get a car hot. I run it between 5000 and 8500 rpm to keep it in the meat of the powerband. This causes heat in the oil and water. This was the quickest and easiest place we could find to mount. There were a few other possibilities, like moving the battery, or mounting underneath, but to get it done we mounted here.