benm

6 acres with a big barn shed here merli if you need to leave your toy somewhere 2000 Grand Cherokee: 1837kg, 4.7L, V8, 162kw, 390nm, petrol. 2002 Grand Cherokee: 1776kg, 4L, I6, 140kw, 295nm, petrol. 2003 Nissan Patrol: 2440kg, 4.1L, I6, 114kw, 360nm, turbo diesel. 2005 Toyota Hilux Ute: 1490kg, 4L, V6, 175kw, 343nm, petrol. Lighter, newer, more power, more storage, most reliable. I know which i'd have at the top of my list

When not towing the trailer where the hell are you gonna park a 4wd and how practical will it be for day to day life? Or are you gonna park this tow vehicle in the shed with the trailer and gtr?

Where will you put spare wheels/tyres, jack, seats, tools, lunch in a VX R8? Sure you could put all of that in your circuit car but then you have to load/unload it everytime you take the car off the trailer. If you absolutely had to get a FalcoDore v8 atleast get a stationwagon. I personally would be looking at something like a 2005+ Toyota Hilux (GGN15R), V6 4.0L with 176kw and 343nm and can be picked up from $13k depending on how many km's (anything under 200,000km will be perfectly fine). Plenty of room in the back tray to put all your bits and enough power to get you to Bathurst and Wakefield. I towed my 550kg trailer + 550kg car to Wakefield with my 80kw Toyota Hiace which has 342,000km on the clock and it didn't miss a beat although didn't like some of the hills heading down the Hume Hwy. Having 250kg of tools in the back (I practically loaded everything I owned into it) settled the light back end down. Heading back to Sydney it was totally fine because it's more downhill, although if I was going to Bathurst i'd be using my work truck because the van wouldn't get me up the Blue Mountains. I'm gonna try upgrade that in the next few months to a 4L v6 Hilux which for me will be perfect for towing.

You don't need $100k to build a track car, unless its a car containing an RB26 and 2 diffs.

The upgrades required are traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and the track being renamed to "the streets of Hobart".

The place that I got mine made at (www.uniquetrailers.com.au) located at Hoxton Park were about to start making aluminium car trailers the week after I picked up mine (red trailer in the pics). I think the cost for them was going to be about $5k but a fair bit lighter than steel.

I realised the financial costs of a GTR track car just before I was about to get the cage fitted. Hence why I ended up with what I did, apart from gokarts it would be the next cheapest way of having fun at the track.

Stick with whichever wheel weighs the least, that will be 1 less gym session you will need to attend

Once you are in 2nd gear semi-slick circuit tyres will still be better than road tyres, provided that you heat them up with a gentle burnout. Also, no point taking your 16's in the back seat, where are you going to leave them whilst waiting around in line all night? Swap all 4 back to the 16's before you leave home the night before and drive to/from the track in them.

Like me he was probably hoping that the Ferrari's SS tyres would be used up quickly and allow Webber to catch/pass them in the remaining few laps. I think another 3 laps and Webber would have taken Massa.

Did anyone else see Kimi smile when he was on the podium, first time ever!

I think Massa was the luckiest in Qualifying, to go out and do that much damage to his car without actually breaking any of the front suspension components and live to finish 5th was extremely lucky. Webber will do well to finish in the top 4.

Nice work Neil, looks like heaps of fun to drive, gotta love the gear changes eh! I seriously don't think I could ever go back to a conventional engine/gearbox car for circuit fun after driving a motorbike engined vehicle just way too much pointless crap to deal with just to get it to the track. When you think about it, 2 blokes can lift your entire engine/gearbox, its a dead stock road engine/gearbox/clutch and yet it's still able to mix it up with a 400+ kw car that has brakes bigger than my dinner plates. Can't wait to hit OP.

Nobody runs a full slick tyre, they are all grooved drag radials (which are a different design to circuit semi or full slick tyres).

Definitely go back to your stock wheels with the 225/50/16's as they will provide more grip on a prep'd track. The thicker sidewall will dampen the launch and allow the heavy car to slingshot from the line where as your 18's are too firm with no sidewall flex and will either create axle tramp or just spin and go nowhere. A recent example of this theory would have been last weeks Top Gear Australia episode where the supercharged Walkinshaw VE Commodore was quicker on the factory wheels than it was with the Walkinshaw wheels. If you want to spend some money then get stock R32 GTR (16x8 as opposed to 16x6 for stock gtst rims) rims with a pair of Mickey Thompson ET Street Drag Radials. As for help with a quicker time, the first thing would be a new full exhaust system to replace the stock, that will give you better midrange power. The second is just heaps and heaps of practice and to keep all your timeslips and collate the data in a spreadsheet.

P1: http://www.justin.tv/vip_racing_1

RB26 Patrol?

Was a perfect day to be on the track, even with that oil down at T10.

Any idea if the Panasonic DMC-TS1/FT1 can take larger than 2gb memory cards as according to this review site 2gb = 23mins on the highest quality setting. A 16gb hd card is only worth $50.

Remember to pack a spare set of globes for the trailer next time Michele

Definitely a gtst with rb25 conversion if you have a budget of under $50k to spend. I quickly bailed out of the gtr track car when I realised just how much a half decent car would cost to build, but building it is only half the cost. The other half is actually keeping it on the track in perfect working order because it will most certainly break and every time it does it's $1000 a piece to fix. Do something different and buy an old mini and fit a Yamaha R1 or Suzuki Hayabusa engine to it.

Is their a price worked out for non-members yet as I have 2 co-workers that are keen (evo + turbo falcon) and I highly doubt we will get close to 50 entrants and of course they will need a few weeks warning so they can organise the day off and prepare car.

What pressures do u need to run Ando and what have you been running? At that Wakefield day (first time on semi slicks) I was running 30psi cold which rose to about 32-33psi hot but found out from the Yokohama dealer just near me that I should have started them at 25psi cold which will rise to 26-27psi. Doubt I would have noticed any difference on my first day out in the car but ill give it a go at the OP GP day.

Thats the best quality i've ever seen from an in-car cam, ever! The sound was fine, not much sound to be recorded whilst on a motorway doing 100km/h. I'd love to see a video of some city driving or country type roads.

Sorry mate they are sold already.