ECR033

Umm, I think you meant Alonso and Webber are under the same management (i.e good ol Flavio). I'm pretty sure Fisi split with Flavio after he left Benetton the first time round. Webber did have an offer to drive for Renault before they signed Fisi, but he turned it down in favour of chasing a more desirable drive with Williams. I wonder if he still feels the same way about that now...even the Toyota option would have been better than driving for Williams at the moment. The upside is that things probably can't get much worse at Williams now, so hopefully things will start to improve once they sort out an engine deal for next year and perhaps look at hiring some decent aerodynamicists as well (ex-Minardi/Ligier guys just don't do the job do they?!?!?!). As for the race, it was pretty simple really... Winners: Alonso was in a class of his own Kimi and Schumi drove good races Losers: Montoya lucked out again when a podium was on the cards Fisichella who got lapped by his teammate Sato for another bonsai passing move gone wrong Williams - crap.

Why not? It's quite simple - Nengun are in Japan, we are in Australia. They have no control over import duties and local taxes here, therefore how can they possibly quote a price including our local taxes when you purchase it from them in Japan. Just for the record, I'm expecting a bill for GST/Duty on my coils now - apparantly they were pulled up in Customs according to the EMS tracking on my parcel. Hopefully they let them through without slapping me the bill, but I guess it's the risk you take when you purchase from overseas...

Perhaps a nice new car for the misses?

But, on the other hand, Toyota could do with the extra team to aid their engine development/testing and also to get some economies of scale in their own factory. Signing up an engine deal with Williams isn't as far fetched as some people may believe. And for the record, the Cosworth engines aren't half bad. If you take a look at the speed trap figures for some of the races this year, Minardi are right up there (even surpassing the BMW's on several occassions). Just a shame the things can't go round corners too well. Tomorrow should be an interesting day...who know's what punishment the FIA will hand out to the 7 Michelin teams???

Nengun should be back in stock now. I ordered my coil packs around 2 weeks ago and got notification that they were sent yesterday. Now all I have to do is wait for the postman

I was planning to go tomorrow as well, but the weather isn't looking promising... I'll probably go next week if the weather doesn't clear by tomorrow morning.

Just click the link in Abo Bob's signature - or here to make it easier. I'm pretty sure I'll enter as well. I'll probably send the form in some time next week.

Might not be a Skyline, but still a very nice car. This car is only a month old - it's unwanted prize actually (if you can believe my luck ) 2005 Holden Astra Convertible Automatic Star Silver Only 1,000 kms (one return trip from Sydney to Canberra and a few small trips around town. Otherwise, barely driven) First registered May 2005 Black Leather interior Full 3 year warranty plus Holden Roadside Assist All power options Absolutely immaculate car Located in Sydney Asking $43,000 ono (Brand new cost is close to $50k including on road costs and registration, so this is approx $7k off the new price for a practically new car). PM me or reply in this thread for further details

How much for the gearbox? How many kms?

This is a good thread by the way The arguments in this thread are almost indiactive of the differing opinions you'd find in any F1 pitlane or grandstand. I guess it's part of why the sport is so interesting to follow

My stuff up, you're exactly right mate - must have been having a blonde moment LOL I think you've misunderstood me mate. You're right, goodwill has no place on the race track itself. My point was that F1 and every team in it had more to loose as a collective whole, then the 3 teams who did race had to gain. Therefore they should have attempted to somehow work together to find a solution. I'm not sure what the right solution would have been or if there was a solution at all to be honest. It just appears that one team in particular made no effort at all to help find that solution. I'm not saying any of this is their fault, all I'm saying is that F1 shot itself in the foot big time in the market it could least afford to do so and Ferrari did absolutely nothing to try and stop it from happening. There's an interesting article on team budgets in the May issue (i think) of F1 racing. Also, I think if you're going to refer to budget size, then it's also important to consider revenue and the share of the pie (so to speak) that each team gets from F1 TV revenue. There'll never be such a thing as a level playing field in F1 ;)It's no wonder why the other manufacturers of teams want to start up GPWC...IF GPWC ever gets off the ground, I wonder if Ferrari will still race on it's own in a 2 car field? At least, it'll make the 6 car US GP look exciting

No offence, but what a load of crap! I wasn’t going to bother with a reply, but it beats doing work, so here goes… By taking a “no issue” stance, they guaranteed it’s failure. Without unanimous support from all teams, there’s no way that the FIA would have sanctioned it. They knew about this problem on Friday afternoon. The chicane situation could have been rectified on Saturday. Yes it would have been unfair to the Bridgestone runners, so common sense says that the Michelin runners would have been heavily penalised or excluded from the results. Not necessarily a good result, but at least we would have had a race. True, although I don’t think they tried to change the playing field. They knew that they’d stuffed up big time and that they shouldn’t be allowed to race on principle. The only reason they should have raced is for the good of the sport and the paying fans and sponsors. It’s a motor race isn’t it??? Drivers will always push the boundaries and there’s no way their competitive nature would have allowed them to slow down in turn 12/13. Yes the Bridgestone teams would be slowed as well, but I think you’re missing the point as the Michelin teams would have been more than likely disqualified anyway. The point of the race was to provide a spectacle for the fans and sponsors, not some 6 car farce. True, but the tyres were unsafe full stop and the risk to the drivers safety was too high to run on them at all. They chose not to on the grounds of safety. Would you have raced if you knew there was a high risk you could end up in the concrete wall??? Doubt it… The second tyre option (the tyres they used in Barcelona) weren’t safe either, so that wasn’t a realistic option. Fact of the matter is that this was the first time Michelin had run a one race tyre at Indy and they grossly miscalculated the wear rate. In short, they stuffed up and the only viable solution was to physically force the cars to slow down into turn 12/13. Crap. Big difference between Jordan/Minardi and Ferrari – the minnows supported a chicane so the race could go ahead while the rich boy’s in red saw an opportunity to finally win a race (with huge media/sponsor exposure) and decided not to. As for Jordan and Minardi, they would be out of their minds not to race as nobody should knock a gift horse in the mouth. As for Ferrari, well they didn’t have much to loose either. Surely they would have won the race anyway as a result of the penalties imposed on the Michelin runners.Facts are that Michelin stuffed up big time and should be punished severely for their mistake. The fans and sponsors however did not deserve to miss out on watching a full grid of cars battle out the GP – again, Michelin’s fault. For the good of the sport and as a sign of goodwill, Ferrari could have supported the chicane that would have pressured the FIA into putting it in place to allow the GP to go ahead. Ferrari simply chose not to and we were left with the biggest F1 farce in recent memory and a lot of unhappy fans and sponsors. Phew

I was thinking the exact same thing... Same thing happened with the Honda ads during the GP's that BAR were excluded from

I'm pretty sure Ferrari didn't block the chicane, they just didn't support it and without the unanimous support of all 10 teams, it was never going to happen. The FIA made sure of that. I also agree that it's ridiculous and dangerous (to some degree) to change a track on the morning of a GP. In this instance though, it may have been the lesser of 2 evils considering a 6 car GP is bordering on lunacy and the teams would have had a morning practise/familiarisation session if the chicane was in place. Don't get me wrong, Ferrari are definately not to blame for the situation. The blame lays squarely on Michelin and they should hang their heads in shame for the damage that this episode has caused. I just think it's very wrong that Ferrari did absolutely nothing to rectify the situation, especially considering the other Bridgestone teams (and minnows of the sport) were able to put self interest aside in the best interests of F1 itself.

In essence, that is 100% true. But when you look at the bigger picture and the damage that this debacle has done to F1 (paticularly in the US), did they do the right thing by choosing not to agree to the installation of a chicane that would have allowed the race to go ahead? Is it right to deny fans who've paid up their hard earned money to come watch a race simply because it's not your problem, even though you could possibly do something to rectify the situation? Tough questions... It's quite an ironic situation actually... While reading through an F1 website last night, I came across an article that refreshed my memory about a similar incident in the recent past. If anyone remembers the 2003 Brazilian GP at Interlagos where Fisichella unbelievably won in his Jordan in the monsoon rain, you might remember that the start of the race was delayed for a good 15 minutes. Why? It was because Bridgestone (and Ferrari), fully aware of the impending rain, decided to designate their very competitive intermediate tyre as their wet weather tyre just prior to the race, whereas the Michelin teams rightly decided to use full wets (less competive) as their's. The race was delayed for 15 minutes while the pouring rain passed, obviously with safety in mind as it was deemed unsafe for the Bridgestone teams to run on their intermediates and the rules dictated that they weren't allowed to switch to a full wet despite the fact that the Michelin teams were able to run in those conditions. Nobody complained as the choice was made with safety in mind, no penalty was imposed on the Bridgestone runners and ironically a Bridgestone runner won the race. I think there's are quite a few similarities here between what happened in Brazil and what happened on Sunday, but obviously it's hard to find any consistency in the rules (unless you drive an all red car that is ). Sure the majority of the blame for this debacle lays squarely on Michelin (and they should be very heavily penalised), but you'd think that some sort of solution could have been found. For Ferrari to simply state that it wasn't their problem (which essentially it wasn't), but fail to do anything to help rectify the situation when they could of for the greater good of the sport, just shows the arrogance of the team and it's complete disregard for the fans and sponsors of F1.

On a side note, how's this for a laugh - Button and Sato are now the only drivers (and BAR the only team) not to score any points this year. ....I swear I remember Button saying he wanted to win races and contend for the world championship this year

Just on the point regarding using Indianapolis as the track for the US GP, I read somewhere that due to the already declining crowds there and the fact that the F1 GP is sandwiched between the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 300, there is serious talk of moving the GP to the Long Beach Street circuit. Sounds like a good idea considering that they'd be lucky to get a hundred people at Indianapolis next year after this years debacle.

Should be there - might be the first time I actually get myself to one of these meets

:werd: Bloody disgraceful. Even though the withdrawal of the Michelin runners was not the direct result of anything that Ferrari (or the other Bridgestone teams) did, they blocked every attempt to somehow get the race running for the greater good of the sport and the fans. They could have installed the chicane before turn 12 which would have slowed the cars down enough for the Michelin tyres to be safe, but Ferrari blocked that resolution and therefore ensured we had no race to watch. Sure, the Michelin teams deserve to be very heavily penalised, but I don't think the fans deserve the same treatment. Even if the Michelin teams were excluded from the results or had a time penalty imposed so that it would be practically impossible to finish higher than 7th (ie behind all the Bridgestone runners), they probably would have decided run to at least get some exposure for their sponsors and for the fans, even though there would be little to race for. Talk about F1 shooting itself in the foot in a such a competive market that it was already struggling to crack in the first place - shame on Michelin, shame on F1 and shame on Ferrari (the smirk on Jean Todt's face at the start of the race said it all).

That's a good thing though - that way it doesn't spoil the race when I get around to watching it after I get home from work Doesn't look too promising for Webber tonight. Starting from P9 (probably P12 by the end of the first corner) means that a points finish may be all we can hope for tonight.

86 Toyota Corolla Seca CSX 97 Hyundai Excel Sprint (unfortunately written off 3 days after I bought it) 97 Hyundai Excel Sprint - yes another one :Oops: (w/ the usual ricey mods for the late 90's :Oops: :Oops: :Oops: ) 94 Mazda Astina SP 97 Honda Prelude VTiR (Stock) 01 Holden Astra CD (lightly modded) 97 Nissan Skyline GTS25t - Current (lightly modded) 05 Holden Astra Convertible - Current (Stock - for sale actually if anyone's interested )

Yep, that's the one

Awesome time - congrats

Spotted Maroon Stagea (JAG-75R?) on Great Western Highway, Girraween this morning. First one I've seen on the road for a good 6 months at least! Anyone on here? Nice ride in any case

Does sound pretty high for stock boost, stock ECU and stock turbo to be honest. To give a comparison, my car was dynoed at 195rwkw with the following mods: R33 SII Power FC Profec B (set to 12psi) Blitz FMIC 3" turbo back exhaust (w/ hiflow cat) K&N Panel Filter HD Clutch ...and yes, it was also in shootout mode on a dyno dynamics dynometer. I think the figure for my car is pretty comparable to quite a few others on here with similar mods. Perhaps you've got one of those so-called 'freak' ECU's??? Either way, I'd be cheering if I got 189rwkw with your mods. Well done