hrd-hr30

most "entry level motorsport" guys don't want to race with heros who are "willing to bin it" in passing manouvers or who "will go under you into any turn" without regard for panel damage or its cost. I'd be giving people like you a very wide berth, even in my shitbox S13. Not because I'm terribly precious about it, but to avoid uneccesary repair bills and effort. if there's light damage from both drivers arguing over a corner, fair enough. But a bloke who going to throw it down the inside in any turn "if you're in my way" should probably stick to the playstation.

1. They've already announced they've stopped develpoment on the 09 car. that won't change because Schumacher is back in the seat. This means there wil be no more updates for the 09 car, not that they won't change setup of the hardware they have to suit Schumacher at the racetracks. 2. copout used by other drivers. he was fast from the moment he stepped into F1 having never driven one before or been to the track, and still out-qualified his experienced team mate. but irrelevant anyway as development of the 09 car has stopped. 3. the reason he is doing it is to support the driver they currently have! putting in a new driver would be far more disruptive to all parties involved, including Massa. 4. he is already on the Ferrari payroll. Ferrari and the promotors will make extra money from his temporary comeback as well. Besides, I can't see it hurting Ferrari's budget too much. But hey, its their money - and they seem to think this was the best move for them. 5. two dot points ago you were concerned about upsetting the current drivers and team. Blooding a young talent who has never driven in F1 before is going to be less disruptive than putting someone who is still heavily involved in the team back in the seat??? MS is no threat to Massa'a drive. The team is very familiar with him. And he is less likely to smash the thing to smithereens every weekend -see point 4. At this stage the obviously don't want a driver who will be of use for them in the future. They want Massa to have every chance to make a full recovery and get back in the seat next year.

they're called radius rods because of the function they perform, not wheter they are in the front suspension or rear suspension. The Japs typically call them traction rods, Australian manufacturers call them radius rods. He wants a bushed adjustable arm, so whiteline is the go. They list it in their catalogues as"Arm-adj uppr radius-camber/toe". If you go to them asking for a traction rod, chances are they won't know what you are talking about. they are to correct bump steer (toe change during suspension movement) after fitting camber adjustment to the main upper camber arm. Not for adjusting toe. If you have also lowered your car in addition to altering camber, you will need these to get rid of that bump steer induced toe change.

yes traction arms aka radius arms. Whiteline do a poly bushed adjustable radius arm. I think I paid about $250 for my S13 through Pedders. traction links are not for toe adjustment. they're to correct bump steer - toe change through suspension travel. toe is adjusted/set with the rear toe links or hicas steering arms.

quoted for later word eating... I think he's mainly doing this to help Massa retain his drive. Kimi can go sulk in the back of the pits all he wants. . Maybe an ice cream will cheer him up? The rest of the team have a very good relationship with Michael

exactly. and I very much doubt he would agree to do this if he didn't think he still had it. He'll be up the pointy end.

I'm led to believe 4.1 is the standard ratio.

well I washed the brake dust off the wheels and degreased the oil overflow from my rather undersized catch can and I'm ready to race again! lol tightened the front sway bar a little and will be playing with rear shocks on the day in the hope that they are bump & rebound adjustable. If its just bump its not going to help me. Hopefully I can knock a few tenths off my time. Ben - diff ratio is 4.375 by the old 10 turns of the road wheels method.

Very different circumstances. Very different incidents. Weber was 'blocking' someone from passing him on a straight, whether intentionally or not, but I find it hard to believe you would swerve around aimlessly not knowing where the other cars were... Anyway... Kimi was alongside someone else in a corner who squeezed him a little. It was 3 wide at the exit of that corner. the 2 incidents are completely incomparable. And don't forget Weber was also the beneficiary of not being penalised for that dangerous pit release by his team in this race too. yeah pretty sure the exclusion is more for Alonso carrying on with an obviously loose wheel or for his team not telling him to stop, rather than the accidental incorrect fitment of the wheel in the pit stop. His race was done well before the point that the wheel flew off the car anyway. Sensible thing to do is park it before the wheel flies off endangering people. I was surprised at the time that he kept going, wondering where his wheel was going to end up when it did fall off.

you're right, can't tell what's going to happen inthe next 7 races. Would never have picked McLaren and Ferrari to race so well this weekend. Its been a good season. Early domination by Brawn, RBR gradually catching them up, and now Ferrari and McLaren came from basically out of nowhere and Brawn are struggling. I'm loving the testing ban! Really has mixed things up. yep, Webber's going really well and consistently out racing Vettel. I didn't think it would happen that way this season. Good on him! But it will be hard for him to catch Button's lead if the McLaren and Ferrari keep up the race pace they showed this weekend and taking the big points. Good to see the Ice (cream) Man get a good result for Ferrari. Hope Massa pulls through OK. WRT to Alonso and the wheel coming off, Renault have been banned from the next GP but are appealing the decision: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77358

Boz racing his own car??? I'll believe that when I see it!

Its probably a little of all 3. Would be reasonably light, but still plenty of stuff that could come out. All the air con apart from the compressor is still there. Front half of the interior is still in, including passenger seat, console, carpet, CD player, speakers and rooflining. The thing has 270bhp at the wheels, but that's only part of the story. Its also got over 260bhp at the wheels from 5000-7500, so basically there is no point on the track where it has less than 260bhp available to use Its very nice power delivery. If I can harness a bit more of it on the exits of Carousel and onto the straight it will get faster. I don't really know what diff ratios are common in these things. But if I had to guess I'd say its around 4.3ish? I'll have a look while I'm tinkering on it this weekend. The shift into 5th before the bridge is a slight short-shift. I figure its better than wringing its neck in 4th under there and wanting another gear half way through. Similar sort of thing for Hungry. Could use 3rd but it would be reving its tits off for no real reason. So I leave it a gear higher and just try to carry as much speed as I can. Your RB20 probably revs higher than my truck engine too?

my vids up - link in the videos thread here http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...t&p=4724359

last session from Lakeside yesterday in my ~200rwkw Sil80. PB lap of 59.87 is the first lap on the video. Still needs some more suspension sorting, so it should get a bit quicker yet.

They have said in earlier drivers breifings that they are not even going to fill up to the new height of the track surface. So I doubt there is any plan to put in new ripple strips. There would be a 4" (or more) drop in places off the edge of the track. Their response is "stay on the black part and you'll be fine". They haven't even painted lines around the track yet - 7 months after the resurfacing.

ming spec, was that you in the gold R34 GTR? that thing was beautiful! Completely agree with Noddy about the kink. the next sprint is the 2nd of August mate. See you there! Thanks Ben. Its just shy of 200rwkw so its not an animal in a straight line but goes OK. Not sure what diff ratio its got. I just shift into 5th before the bridge.

My second drive of the Sil80 at Lakeside yesterday was a bit less scary than Noddy's experience! My first 2 sessions were wasted with an overboost problem caused by a faulty bleed valve. But once I removed that everything was good. Wastegate pressure was 0.9bar (~13.5psi) so I only lost 0.1bar (~1.5psi). Imperceptible to the seat of the pants, but must be a touch shy of the 200rwkw it made on the dyno now. Handling is much improved from the first drive at Lakeside, but still has a way to go. It doesn't like bumps at all, so under the bridge which I take at full throttle in 5th gear at over 180km/h, often involved significant amounts of opposite lock. With only 2 sessions of the car running properly, I only got to try 1 change at the track (rear shock adjustment) so I'm looking forward to the next Lakeside Open Sprint in 2 weeks time. I ended up with a new PB in the final session of 59.87. My first ever sub 60 second lap of Lakeside! I'll have some video up in the coming days. There should still be plenty of time left in the car yet. Its early days for the suspension setup, and its still fairly crude at the moment. But for now I'm over the moon with that.

because most of the poofs driving thee days will swerve to avoid and you may put them off enought o retain the position. at least Rubens showed he isn't going to be pushed around on the track. Not budging is exactly what Senna/Prost/any other hardman racer from the goold old days would have done. That's how you stop this over agressive defending - let the other bloke crash into you. He won't swerve at you again knowing he really is risking his race.

problem with Bathurst is its a temporary/street cicuit. Club level people don't really have much access to it. Unless you want to spend $5K on the Drive Bathurst sprint, which I certainly don't! The only other option is to go circuit racing with FoSC, which would be much better value, if you can get in. Hell, you could get a cage, race suit and do the FOSC event and still have change left over from $5K! For regular club level guys the closest you'll get is BLCC hillclimbs and sprints using parts of the circuit. Mountain Straight Hillclimb is awesome! The Esses Hillclimb is run in reverse direction and is pretty boring - its just a power track that way. And the Conrod Supersprint is a bit of fun, but it only has 3 real corners in it, so its all about power too. Good fun if you run against a car of similar speed though. I'd love to have a drive of PI, but its just too far away for me.

Weber ran Massa (IIRC) over the pit line and 2 wheels onto the grass in a previous start this season and got no penalty. He's got a habit of over-agressive "blocking", but blocking is done while you still have the lead - mark still does it when there is an overlap. This is the way he drives. Its not just an one off incident. Rubens had him already. Weber didn't loose the spot because of the incident, it was as good as lost already. Weber's side pod into Ruben's front wheel - he was already done for. Whether he was disadvantaged or not is irrelevant. you cannot go around swerving into other cars that are alongside you. Weber said in the post race interview that he didn't get a great start and didn't know where Rubens was. If you don't know where the other cars are, don't go darting around blindly. simple. blindy swerving around is just dangerous. If you don't get a great start, get across straight away as most drivers do before the other cars establish an overlap.

accidently running into the back of someone, however hamfisted that accident actually was, is a totally different scenario than swerving into car that is already alongside you on a straight. You're allowed to block once - you aren't allowed to ram someone overtaking you.

only because Weber ran into him too!

It looks like the ultimate in side impact protection. As Zebra suggests American oval racing has far greater likelihood of high speed side impatcs. Speedway in Aus requires that design, obviously a hand-me-down from the states oval racing regs.

actually, the speedway guys in Aus use exactly that style of intrusion proection.

OK, you like it and think its very technical indeed. We'll just have to agree to disagree.