ECR033

I think the question that needs to be asked is... Why aren't the majority of Skyline (or other import) owners with 'big power' cars motivated to enter SC events??? I'm not sure what the exact answer is, but I'd say there's limited incentive to race due to the fact that... (a) the events are poorly promoted or not promoted to the right audience (both competitors and spectators alike) (b) competitor field depth is usually poor and crowd numbers are low © the events themselves are often poorly organised - absolutely nothing runs to schedule and the track is empty for long periods throughout the day (d) both competitors and spectators feel that don't get their money's worth (e) a lot of the officials really don't give 2 shits about SC and are just rude and arrogant towards competitors (f) there's a shitload of arrogance from some of the more seasoned competitors towards newer racers SC has the opportunity to be huge in this country and the target market (i.e you and me) is already there and just needs to be baited and hooked into the scene. I know it's probably easier said than done, but in reality it shouldn't be...from a street car perspective, take a look at any given Wed night street meet and you'll always see a vast array of different 10-13 sec import racers there every single week. What's so difficult about promoting SC to this lot and putting SC front of mind and giving them some incentive to race on the weekend??? Hell, give them discounted entry fees and free spectator passes. Perhaps consider, R/T or most improved ET competition's, lots of grudge runs, Make v Make battles etc for the runners who don't make the top 16 fields or any other incentive to compete and make competitors feel like they're getting their money's worth. Get a quarter of these street meet lot turning up to SC events and you'll easily have +50 car SRWD fields full of decent runners. Large SRWD, OzMod fields for starters + the usual PRORWD suspects and other classes + lots of entertainment between racing (eg burnouts, stunt bikes, whatever - as long as there's always something happening) = Lots of action = Bums on seats Bums on seats = exposure for event sponsors and team sponsors/workshops etc = more money coming back into the sport = more events = more incentive for workshops and racers to build new cars etc It's easy to imagine what SC could be...it can't be that hard to achieve it though can it??? LOL /end rant/off-topic dribble

I have a HKS low mount manifold with a Turbonetics 40mm external wastegate... No shiny pipes for me, although admittedly the wastegate isn't exactly hard to find if you know what you're looking for

It's usually replayed on Fox Sports the following week as well for those that missed it

I also saw the coverage (and was also at the event) and think it was fairly good on both accounts From the coverage perspective, I love the chase car concept as gives a unique view of the action that you're not gonna get from the sidelines. I love the onboard shots even moreso though as it's great to see the drivers at work, so definately keep those going. All in all, the footage was pretty good in my opinion...it's definately improved a hell of a lot. The commentary still could do with some work. I think everyone knows Racin Jacin is passionate about his motor-racing, but sometimes he goes over the top to the point where it becomes a little annoying (both at the track and during the coverage). It's great that he's enthusiastic about the sport (as most of us are), but perhaps if he toned it down just a fraction then it would a lot more enjoyable to listen to...but that aside, it's still not too bad. I'd still like to see some more stuff on the actual cars (like details of engine and suspension work etc) which I guess would also add value for the teams as it would give their sponsors a little more exposure. Perhaps some more driver profiles as well... And last, but not least, the grid girl shots are great (from my perspective), but they're not helping with attracting the ladies to the sport...my girlfriend loved the drifting, but got slightly frustrated at continually seeing some girl's rear end in between nearly every single battle...such a dilemma!

Happy b'day Caine

Most of Schumi's World Championships had a lot more to do with the driver than the car, particularly in the early years. Ferrari were rubbish for a LONG time before Schumacher (and his entourage - i.e Brawn, Rory Byrne etc) came along and revived some glory for Maranello and I dare say they'll eventually start heading backwards again once Schumacher, Brawn, Todt and Byrne leave or retire. In reality, Schumacher is largely responsible for making Ferrari what it is today. Schumacher is Ferrari at the moment and without him, well, they're not much! Just my 2 cents - puts flame suit on

Shite! Glad to hear you're ok Ben - really sorry to hear about the damage to the car though. I've never seen anything like that happen before... So, what time do you actually need to run before it supposedly becomes a requirement to get a ballistic blanket and/or tailshaft loop??? After seeing this, I'm starting to think that getting this safety equipment, regardless of whether its a requirement or not, is becoming a bloody good idea at the moment.

I've seen many cars drive round the water in the past, although admittedly I was probably paying more attention to the cars racing or to the other car doing their burnout then to whether or not they were getting told off by one of the officials. From what the guys are saying, it sounds like a bit of a 'no no' so i'd probably recommend driving through the water and just try to spin the water off the tyres as you get the all clear to do your burnout and move to the start line. Or, perhaps ask one of the officials - although it wouldn't surprise me if you got 3 different answers from 3 different people Good luck

Must say I'm a little dissapointed that Webber didn't join Renault (doors till open for 08 though), but given the choice between RBR and Williams, there's no choice that Webber will be better off at RBR. RBR could be on the crest of a wave next year considering it will be the first car they have that has the full technical input of Adrian Newey and Peter Prodromou (sp?), so I'd expect it to definately be more competitive and more regularly at the pointy end of the grid. It will be interesting to see how Webber compares with DC. Give him a few races and then I think we'll start to get a good idea on who's the quicker man. Now that Webber's signed for RBR, it'll be interesting to see what happens with the rest of the musical chairs...perhaps Raikkonen isn't going to Ferrari afterall (????)

That's it - you can just drive around it before you go into stage (i.e line up for the start)

Calm down and get your facts straight mate. I don't think anyone's trying to take your precious thread away. It'll either be in a subforum, or just not stickied, so the rest of us don't have to sort through threads of rubbish that aren't relevant to most people to find something we're interested in looking at

I'm out again - damm work commitments... But, I'll be there next week hopefully! You don't have to do a burnout - just drive around the water before you go into stage.

I agree - makes sense to group them together in their own sub forum instead of having half a page of stickies of which only one or two threads at most would be relevant for most people... Not overly fussed though

Happy birthday fellas

Geez, that looks very nasty - hope the driver is ok... Any idea on the cause - breakage? or did he drop fluid and then loose it as a result?

There's a VW meet on this weekend at Nambucca Heads on the north coast - no doubt they were all heading up there...very slowly

Someone remind me to mention this quote when he wins a race next year with Renault Webber's proven in the past that he can win races in all the other categories he's competed in given the right equipment, so to claim he is a 'chump' or a 'nobody' is ridiculous. The simple truth is that he's never had a car capable of winning races in F1 - simple. There's no doubt that he's a top line driver. He's always outperformed his teammate and the relative performance of his car compared to the rest of the field. I'd go as far to say that arguably he's one of the better drivers in the championship - probably just behind Schumi, Alonso and Raikkonen (based on the fact that he has never had the equipment to truely compete with these guys head to head). Admittedly, I'm probably a little biased, but i've never let that get in the way of a good argument

I agree that Webber will not end up at Maclaren. Aside from the fact that Flav and Ron aren't the best of buds, Webber also had a major falling out with Mercedes after that spectacular accident that he had while driving a Mercedes sports car so it would very much surprise me if he ever drove a Mercedes powered car ever again. Webber's also mentioned previously in an interview a few weeks back that he had already done a deal for 07, so that leads me to think that since he didn't sign with Frank then perhaps a deal has already been struck with Briatore and Renault and that Flav's comments last week regarding Webber staying at Williams were just a smoke screen. For what it's worth, my predictions are: Renault: Webbo and Fisi Ferrari: Raikkonen and Massa Maclaren: Alonso and Paffet/Hamilton/Mika Hakkinnen j/k EDIT: I'm sure Webber regrets the day he signed up for the Grove team - had things gone the other way, he might have had himself a few race victories or dare I say potentially World Championship by now.

I'm must admit I'm a bit surprised that Williams have gone first and announced they've replaced Webber when he hasn't publically advised that he is changing teams... The good news is that given they have annouced their driver line up, I think all the other cards will shortly fall into place - in my opinion, it's almost a forgone conclusion that Webber will be going to Renault next season which would be fantastic. There hasn't been much noise about Kimi going to Renault lately, so my guess is that he'll either partner Alonso at Maclaren or join Massa at Ferrari (I have a suspicion that Schumi will retire especially if he's in a championship winning position by the time we get to Monza next month). Since Williams have made their annoucement, I think it will only be a matter of days till we find out where Webber is going - in all liklihood, at this weekends GP in Hungary. Let hope he finally gets the opportunity he deserves to show what he do with a drive in a top team.

Might have to wait till next week - I got to WSID at 6pm, but the 180 car quota had already been filled, so I missed out unfortunately

After tonights debacle (i.e getting there at 6pm only to find out that the 180 car quota had already been filled) - I'll try to make it next week work permitting

In an attempt to settle this (kinda ), I'm going to WSID tonight...well I was going anyway! I usually badly bomb the 60' on my first run of the night with a load of wheelspin due to not having enough heat in my tyres, typically something in the region of a 2.1 short time. I'll let you know what my mph is on this run. I'll then compare it to the mph from my best run of the night with hopefully a substantially quicker 60' - usually around a low 1.8ish... Before anyone asks, yes my car is a manual, but I've had a lot of runs previously and I'm usually fairly consistent once I get to grips with any changes to the car so this shouldn't really come into the equation for the sake of this comparison. I'll let you know how I go

Only 4 double retirements for Williams by my count (may be wrong though) - with only Malaysia having both cars retire with reliability problems. Can't believe how unlucky Webber's been - to have so much unreliability (compared to Rosberg) is unbelievable. It's even worse when you take into account that he was an innocent bystander on the 2 accident related retirements as well. Malaysia - Webber (Hydraulics), Rosberg (Engine) Australia - Webber (Transmission), Rosberg (Accident damage) Europe - Webber (Hydraulics) Monaco - Webber (Exhaust), Rosberg (Accident) Britain - Webber (Accident) Canada - Rosberg (Accident) United States - Webber (Accident) France - Webber (Wheel Rim) Germany - Webber (Water Leak), Rosberg (Accident) Total Retirements: Webber: 8/12 (6 reliability related DNF's) Rosberg: 5/12 (1 reliability related DNF)

Post em up

Same here