hrd-hr30

come on BB, you also get 2 laps in the afternoon! I wouldn't enter this in a million years either but that's OK, this event isn't aimed at people like me. does the normal WRX have that centre diff control thingy or is that just the STi? I guess I could go and look at subaru.com.au but I'm too lazy. does the motorkhana count towards result or is it just the fastest single lap of Wakefield? motorkhanas really are a specialist discipline and unless you're looking for the best motorkhana driver, I think this could skew results away from the fastest track driver. what tyres will these cars be on? normal road tyres will degrade significantly over the course of the day. even semis could wear significantly depending on how much time each car spends on the track. I'm tipping the front left wouldn't survive a whole day of abuse if the car is on the track constantly.

can't see that happening though. Mark used to have some mongrel about him but the racer seems to be gone now, like he's resigned to being a midfeild runner. Vettel is young and hungry, and very fast. My money is well and truly on Vettel in that driver line-up

kinda. I used to run alot at Morgan Park at Warwick which is the other side of the range. Used to borrow or hire trailers until I got my own and had some bad experiences! locking electric brakes down there in the wet isn't much fun! never had any issues with my hydraulic braked trailer. I've done quite a few trips between Bris and Sydney/Bathurst too and depending on which way you go, there's a few decent hills along the way too.

no worries ellie. I do remember you turning up to the hillclimb. I don't think you'll be dissapointed with them as long as you're realistic about what you expect from them, and it sounds like you are. In between a performance road tyre and a semi slick, but probably closer to a semi slick than road tyre performance in my experience anyway. They'd be a pretty good thing to be on in Clubman class of Superlap if that comes up here next year. Although the Toyo R1-R and Federal 595RS-R are both a little softer with treadwear ratings of 140. The KU36 is very well priced compared to them though. Bullet32, I actually like the Federal 595SS as a road tyre and have sung their praises in this thread before. If you read what I said, the comparison was obviously not intended to be a direct comparison of similar tyres, but an example of the kind of performance increase the KU36 offers over a good road tyre:

I've towed with electric braked trailers - I hate them. And I had the under dash controller in my previous 4WD. Hydraulics are the best setup imo. Those expensive electric brake controller gizmos are just trying to approximate what the hydraulic system does automatically. The amount of braking applied by the trailer is totally dependant on the weight on the trailer and how hard you are stopping. But hydraulics don't need adjusting and won't lock the wheels if you have no load or if over-adjusted. And over or underadjusted electric brakes can be downright dangerous down mountain ranges. If you store the trailer outside, simply cover the master cylinder resorvoir with a cup or plastic bag to keep moisture out. nothing too difficult about that. I've never had any jerking at light braking loads or backing off. I think the cable drums are the worst setup you can choose. the cables and drums all need to be equally adjusted to brake evenly. could get nasty down a wet mountain range if that's not right... And they need the most maintenance as shoes wear and cables stretch.

I've had the Kumho KU36 (Ecsta XS) for a couple of months now on my Supra. I've done 2 Lakeside Sprints and quite a bit of road driving on them, inluding about 280km yesterday between highway, hinterland roads, and suburban driving. They're a very good tyre. I finished 2nd in class (Road 8 - basically for V8s, turbo 6s and turbo rotaries) both times I've used them at Lakeside to a much more modified RX7 on Toyo RA1 tyres. And always have a good dice on the track with a lightly modified STi on RE55S. They howl a little when cornering hard, like a road tyre does but have much better grip than a road tyre - I went 2.2 seconds faster on the Kumhos than my Federal 595SS. They're best in the first few laps, but the Supra is a full street trim heavyweight and our QLD weather is quite hot. They're predictable and progressive on the limit. After the first sprint event you could still see the writing embedded in the centre strip of the tread, so the wear is not bad either - and I give them an absolute pizzling on the track! They're not too noisy on the road, but do tramline a little thanks to the stiff sidewalls. So far they've been very good int he wet too, but they're still virtually full tread. As a compromise tyre between street and track driving, I'd thoroughly recommend them. For the price you're looking at ($200 a corner) you can't go wrong.

one thing you can say about Hamilton - he's earnt everything he got! gotta respect a champion like that. Its not like the WDC was just handed to him on a silver platter like everything else in his career. /sarcasm

mine are hydraulic with VL commodore discs on both axles

one of them was a light truck retread which seperated. Not really too surprising. The other was a 6month old light truck tyre, which blew out on a 34degree day towing an R32GTR on the way back to Brisbane from Bathurst. I check tyre pressures each morning and at lunch on long trips like that. Tyres can and do just blow out sometimes, no matter what they're on.

never liked single axle car trailers. tandem axle with load sharing springs are much nicer to tow, not to mention safer. I've have 2 blowouts on the trailer which you don't even notice apart from it being harder to pull, then you look back and realise what's going on by the smoke. But I'd hate to think what would happen on a single axle trailer with a car on top of it... And trying to find a LT tyre rated to about 1000kg each (skyline plus trailer weight)may not be too easy either. I know of other rally drivers who've had a blowout and been dragged off the highway by the trailer, heavily damaging the tow car, race car and trailer in one fell swoop. Or simply getting a sway up and out of control - very easy to do with a single axle trailer if the load is not balanced properly every time. I wouldn't risk it. I'll take a minor sacrifice on manouverability for a big increase in safety every time.

I was at a CAMS supersprint this weekend, and no-one I've spoken to around the traps up here has even heard of this "national" championship! Its not even on the CAMS calendar... I might be the only interstate person even thinking of coming! lol

it is a great little track. Awesome fun. Only 4 real corners, but its surprisingly tecnichal and difficult to get right - particularly 4 times in a row. The little Datto ran faultlessly all weekend and won Improved Production over 3000cc. Pretty happy with that considering the amount of competition in the class, and a couple of modified WRXs which were well suited to the tight layout - I was struggling to put power down out of every corner even on the low boost tune I was using (1bar/180rwkw) whereas they could just floor it and blast out of the corners. I'll definitely be back there next year!

yeah I figured they'd be checking eligibility stuff for this, so I wanted to tick the right box on the entry form. The NSW vehicle classifications are so vague! one of the things I'd imagine road registered turbo cars that are otherwise suitable for IP wouldn't have is a restrictor??? I wouldn't bother coming all the way down there for an arse kicking in Type 4 Sport Sedans. Can't compete with them on semi slicks. and it looks like SV have to be road registered. Maybe the Supra in Type 2 would be the go. Although it says no inlet system mods for turbo vehicles, and I have a pod... these rules are gay!

I'm definitely interested. I'll see how the car holds up at this weekend's supersprint and see if I can make it down there. Damn, that's only a month away... I haven't heard anything about this around the traps up here in QLD. For a national chamionship they haven't put the word out very widely! Qiuck question for you NSW Supersprint competitors. I'm not too familiar with your Type 1,2,3,4 categories. In type 3 which is loosely based on IPRA regs, do turbo cars have to run a restrictor?

I found about a dozen of mine from last weekend in the gallery linked off that page. like this one

marsta photography has his pics up: http://marsta.com/gallery/2008/081019_LSR/ shots of both Ben and I on that title page hitting apexes

I think my speed calculations might be a bit optimistic too. I found my copy of July Motor magazine yesterday with a PCOTY test at Lakeside. The Porsche GT2 hit a top of 215kph and ran 58.5 according to the performance box data. They come with Michelin semi slicks and it was driven by Warren Luff I think. The Supra can't be doing the same speed as that Porsche. That's what you get for using speed per 1000rpm data from the internet I suppose...

the turn onto the straight at Lakeside isn't that fast. about 140kph I'd say. I don't think Ben has that much speed on me down the straight either - I'm hitting 214 by the braking area after the kink, and seem to pull away in a straight line. Maybe its got a lower diff ratio?

Well they say Lakeside is the highest average speed of any track in Australia. But I know the locals say the same thing about PI... so to compare i just went and found the outright IPRA lap records for both tracks (IPRA was just the easiest for me to find this data): Lakeside (2.41km) Wayne Wakefield Mazda RX3 25/10/1998 0:57.4500 Phillip Is (4.448km) ROHAN AMBROSE MAZDA RX7 12/09/1999 1.46.0362 Unbelievably, both lap records work out to be 151.01kph average speed - equal to 2 decimal places! The Supra is basically the way I bought it from Japan. Its got Jap Teins, Jasma exhaust and pod filter. It has the small brakes but they do a pretty good job - don't fade or go long in 5 or 6 laps of Lakeside. No other suspension mods apart from the Teins, but I spent a fair bit of time messing around with ride heights to find a nice balance. And we got as much camber and castor out of the standard adjustment facilities as possible. Camber maxed out at 2 degrees on the right, but we got 2.5 on the left. Castor is 3.5 degrees. Zero toe. I haven't messed with the rear end alignment yet. Tyres are Kumho Ecsta XS (KU36) 245/40 & 275/35R18. They're not a real semi slick with a treadwear rating of 180, more of an in-between tyre like the Toyo R1-R but they have a treadwear of 140. Engine is standard boost, standard intercooler. I did what they call the 'TTC mod' which involves re-routing a couple of boost lines that control the operation of the vavle to the second turbo to make it run in parellel rather than sequential. Gives you a fair bit more mid-range, but obviously nothing extra up top. It was hopeless on the track in sequential! It really needs to be driven hard to get those times though. There isn't anything left in it - not with me at the wheel anyway. And I have alot of experience at Lakeside, which is a massive advantage there. I'm a bit surprised to only be 4 seconds off the IPRA lap record in a near standard road car in full street trim and street tyres!

Thanks Ben. Always good getting a new PB You've got that little GTSt doing very good times! Imagine what it will do with a bit of sorting and getting rid of that old hard rubber! Shame about the box, but at least it was late in the day and the car was still driveable. Are they known to be weak in 5th? With the cooler weather I was hoping to sneak into a 61, but a bit surprised to go quite that deep into the ones with a 61.39 I had a good look at the tach at the end of the main straight a couple of times - 5800rpm in 5th there works out to be 214kph. Here's hoping they don't alter the track too much for next year! I HATE the idea Tetly mentioned of running cars through the bus-stop. That makes the best corner on the track into a straight

hehe, you don't know the half of it mate!

yeah Stuart's OK in my book too I've watched it closely. Massa established overlap on Webber with 2 wheels on that wide white line, then got squeezed further and yet further by Webber. I think Mark was dirty at himself for misjudging how much real estate he left inside, or how much mongrel Massa has in him. I like the new Massa - I still lol everytime I watch him punt hamilton. good boy!

and not so good if you already paid good money for one I think the best bet these days for a cheap light rwd car is the 120Y coupe, but they are a bit thin on the ground and their prices are just starting to take off too. I think they look great with a nice low stance and wide rubber to fill up those gaurds. here's an example (not mine) I have a 120Y coupe at home as a project car (also have a 120Y wagon, but lets not talk about that!). Bigger engine bay and trans tunnels than the 1200 make conversions easier. also much easier to fit bigger rads and alot of room for an intercooler behind the grill. the gaurds take wider wheels without mods - 7" wide easily, 8"s on the rear can be done with just a bit of pumping. Taiwanese gaurds and bonnets or fibreglass replacements are available. Just think of the fun you could have beating WRXs and Evos in a 120Y!

:laughing-smiley-014:

lol OK Schumacher!