hrd-hr30

ok then, one more... here's a lucky escape! lol

and keep whoring it with other cars! the complete POS Sil80 that gave me my first sub 60 sec lap of Lakeside and a couple on track just behind Ben(Marlin) - this is what happens when the front left wheel bearing craps out and gives you some serious knock-off at the end of the front straight at over 200kph... my 2004 Stanza Rally car didn't end well My first track car - 1200 coupe with L18 at Bathurst in 2003 Mt Cotton

supra's first track day - a very wet Wakefield just after the resurfacing in Jan 2008 I think. I was planning on taking the CA18 1200 down there, but it was under the house with a broken diff and a fallen off turbo as usual... and its second track day at QR the week after, getting hounded out of turn 6 by a couple of mates in their Z's: dirty at Eastern Creek after driving down from Brisbane the day before: I'll stop whoring this thread with my Supra now...

you should still bring the R33 up to Lakeside - if you like fast tracks, its a ripper.

here's a few of the slightly crazy 1200 coupe I had a few years ago. 230rwkw CA18DET and slow, vague steering were not a very nice combination. You certainly knew you were alive in this thing though. It was only really good for hillclimbs because if you did more than 2 laps of a proper race track, the turbo would fall off the manifold. These are from Mt Cotton Hillclimb's corner known as Lover's Leap: and one from Lakeside just before I sold it. This was just after passing a STi in the wet - got a little sideways under the bridge... this lap was still the FTD before they cancelled the event due to the number of cars in the wall.

It ran a best of 60.7 the only time I drove it on the new surface at lakeside. That was on KU36 tyres. It was a 93 RZ 6speed, so it was the lightest of them, but still fairly hefty at 1530kg on the weighbridge! without me! I also ran it very light on fuel at Lakeside. About 1/4tank and would top it up with a jerry can during the day. Never had any fuel surge problems. The early V160 Getrag had shorter gearing than the later VVT models with the V161, which probably helps. All it had was Tein Flex coilovers that were pretty shagged by that stage - the RR was leaking and started axle tramping that day at Lakeside. The nice Rays GramLights with 245 and 275 KU36s. It had as much camber on the front as we could get with the stock adjustment - about 2.5degrees. Castor wasn't very much because of the way it was adjusted you had to compromise between static camber and castor, we went with max static camber. Zero toe. I didn't let them touch the rear alignment because it handled so sweetly the way it was, so no idea of what setting were there.. I found it was very sensitive to ride height adjustments and ended up with 600mm rear and 595 front from the lower edge of the 18" rims to the gaurds. Brakes were the small/early 2/1 sliders with TRW Lucas pads which worked great. Engine wise it had a Pod filter and cat-back exhaust. Still had the stock side mount intercooler and boost was standard 10psi. I ran it in TTC mode because it gave better midrange grunt than sequential and more linear response exiting corners. The next owner had it dyno'd as it was and made 186rwkw before he went single turbo. To beat the factory speed cut I just disconnected the odometer at the track. i still think it would be faster than my current 200rwkw 1250kg 180SX if I put proper semis on it like the 180 has...

few of my favourite pics from the dirt autocross My old GTR during the 2006 QLD Challenge touring road rally: The 180SX earlier this year:

hard to do this when you've had so many cars... I'll start with my favourite car. the Supra was so much fun to drive: Lakeside, Hungry corner Oran Park GP

and Vettel won in the Torro Rosso...

lol everyone knew the chequered flag was about to drop except him! Even when he's having a good weekend, he still manages to find a way to balls it up lol

give him a month then offer a bit less

I'd love to see Kimi back in F1. The most naturally talented driver of the last decade. The story of his path to F1 is pretty remarkable. Also hope the story of the Kube's recovery is true!

balance of probabilities is strongly against you mate. There's absolutely nothing to suggest the difference in the tyres is anything more than tread pattern. There is evidence that they're the same - eg Nitto are just a brand division of Toyo, they both use the same pic used to show their construction, they both have same treadwear, traction and temperature ratings... whereas the only thing to suggest there is any difference is you saying there might be. And Daihatsu isn't a brand division of Toyota. anyway, that's enough off topic from me...

if you've got two boot lids, so who cares how many holes there are in one of them? I'm sure expensive Voltex wings are very good, but my $300 CF China wing worked well enough to totally transfom my car from near uncontrolable oversteer to plough understeerer in back to back sessions on the same day not touching anything else on the car. While only costing ~3kph in top speed, but that was into a headwind that day... And it dented the hatch in on my 180SX. I went 7 tenths quicker than before on those tyres, while being very compromised by understeer. If you could balance that out with front aero, you'd easily make at least that much time again. probably more. If a $3000 Voltex wing works better, its only going to make your life more difficult to get enough front aero.

you mean the old bloke in the much slower car that again caught Hamilton napping at the start? at least he can admit it was his fault...

ah, well there you go. So they even come from the same place as Toyo R888s! I assumed they were made in the USA. As the Toyo release says, Nitto are just a brand of Toyo.

lesson is aero > power at Lakeside. Coop's 32 looked positively scary over drop off after the bridge into the downhill left hander before Hungry! Whereas the massively winged, splittered, diffussered and canarded Gools Evo was glued to the ground. Jap Nats needs some tyre rules though. You got people using full slicks, the Hoosier R6 which may as well be a slick, and then the majority of people on semis.

And Massa could ask Hamilton what its like to peak at 23... He drives like he belongs in BTCC these days

nevermind...

their overtaking stats don't include 1st lap pases.

lol - black belt when he was 12... He did some karate when he was a kid because he was being bullied at school. imagine that!

Hamilton isn't exactly Mike Tyson... I know who my money would be on!

the 'business relationship' is that Nitto is a brand division of Toyo in the USA (& Canada), with the marketing advantage of being 'made in the USA'. http://www.toyojapan.com/cgi-bin/column/data/release/1119852599.html Did Nitto North America's 25 staff develop an entirely new semi slick construction and compound and sell it cheaper than the parent company's R888, or is it built with Toyo technology and differentiated by a new look for the North American market? I'd be looking for any evidence that it is different...

the stats (taken from clip the apex) disagree on that point: Top driver statistics to date (R12): Most overtaking moves (season): Jenson Button 67 Michael Schumacher 58 Mark Webber 58 Felipe Massa 55 Sebastien Buemi 52 Fewest times overtaken (season): Sebastian Vettel 4 Lewis Hamilton 16 Fernando Alonso 17 Mark Webber 17 Jenson Button 19 Most overtaking moves (single race): Jenson Button 26 (Canada) Mark Webber 15 (China) Felipe Massa 13 (the sphincter of the universe) Most times overtaken (single race): Timo Glock 14 (Canada) Heikki Kovalainen 13 (the sphincter of the universe) Pastor Maldonado 13 (Canada)