hrd-hr30

low 1:08s is pretty slippery mate! good times. WRX incar footage just makes me wonder why anyone would want to race one. what an excitement machine. only thing it ever does is understeer... yawn

yeah, I bet he's already bought some Avons!

Roy, why do you say they're not a 'real' semi slick? For years they were the gun tyre for hillclimbs based on their cold performance, and at or near full depth you won't find a better wet semi slick. For dry use only Toyo recommended they be buffed before use IIRC. That would certainly improve their feel underneath you. old semi slicks though aren't worth much - a few years and they're well past their best regardless of the amount of use they've had. Manufacturers throw them out if they exceed their 5yr shelf life. I bought a few semi slicks that found their way over here via an importer that had exceeded their shelf life. They were throwing them out for $50ea brand new, and that's about all they were worth...

faark - street tyres! that's a staggering time... wonder how it would go on the same rubber as the R32 beast???

great to see someone go out there and put Mike Collin's WRX in its place finally! hehe but it is an awesome car and he knows that place like the back of his hand. so it really is an awesome effort to run those times for people who aren't that familiar with the track - it is a very technical little course. To put that time in perspective, that's not only the record for the AWD turbo class, its the fastest tin top ever around Mt Cotton if I'm not mistaken! Previous fastest I know of was Kevin Mackrell's awesome V8 sprint car engined 4WD 260Z that ran 42.8 at last year's AHC i think. And that thing is along way from being road registerable! what tyres is the R35 on? as a comparison time against other GTR models, my old R32 GTR ran 46.24 on std turbos and std boost. Had exhaust, mines ecu, pods, buddy club coilovers, and std 16*8" wheels with 225/50*16 RE55S SR compound (hard) tyres. 9 tenths faster is alot of time out there! well done guys! going back I hope???

hehe it doesn't make much sense when you put it like that, but it feels worth it at the time! nice looking open wheeler Michele. what's in it?

good one! glad to hear it went well

sounds about right. My R32 GTR with only pods, exhaust and Mines ECU got to about 200-210kph IIRC. I've been there twice - 2003 & 2005 - they started at the same place. A much lighter stripped GTST with similar power doing 230kph sounds about right. I'd be keen to come back down again this year if the budget allows - towing a car that far isn't getting any cheaper!

nah, the Conrod supersprint starts at the bottom of the hill after Forest Elbow. You still get plenty of time to build up a good head of steam speed before the Chase. And then you probably get back up to the same sort of speed before Murray's corner onto the pit straight finishing at one of the lines there - not real sure if they use the start line or the finish line... oh and its 2 cars at a time overtaking allowed in supersprints Bathurst Speed Weekend is the Conrod Supersprint on Saturday and normally Mountain Straight Hillclimb on Sunday. That's probably the best bit of sealed road I've ever competed on I reckon.

I tend to only have one real setup per car. I might make very small tweaks at the track if the car doesn't do what I want it to on the day, btu they are generally tyre pressue, swaybar, and maybe toe. But my cars seem to handle the same every time I drive them. I'd leave different setup for different tracks to professional race teams with engineers who have far more in-depth knowledge on suspension tuning than I do, and data avaiable from previous runs at a particular track to refer to. At our level, there is more time to be found in the driver than setup changes to suit a particular track. And its very easy to loose time and loose track of where you were with your setup if you're constantly changing it. Esses hillclimb really is a power course anyway rather than handling. Biggest gain from suspension tuning at this hillclimb would be ensuring you have good traction for the start line (very steep uphill start) and out of the 1st turn (forest elbow) for the long "straight" that follows it. But it shouldn't be too hard to get good powerdown up such steep hills anyway - gravity has already trasferred alot of weight over the rear for you. Depending on your power level, you may even need less squat than you normally run to reduce understeer out of those uphill turns. My advice is just turn up and drive it. - tune the driver into the track before worrying about tuning the car to the track. At a track you haven't been to before lined with concrete, you're probably better of knowing how your car is going to react anyway, so pre-event setup changes would be ill-advised

I guess I got that impression because you kept saying Superlap was your first event and how good your time was for a first time and so on...l. how were we to know you're actually more experienced at circuit events than drags? sorry if the little jibe about corners offended you, I also got the impression you were a bit thicker skinned than that. I'd hate to be responsible for you "sticking to drag racing" when you don't even like it. Harry

yeah its alll over pretty quick because its such a straight hillclimb. It's a different Datto to the one I have now and was going to sell, but they both have the same flares so they look pretty similar. The old Datto back then just had a junker L16 motor I threw together with some L18 bits I had under the bench and only had 116bhp at the wheels, and the Esses really is a horsepower test so more powerful cars will do it alot quicker. That Datto could barely accellerate after the dipper in 3rd gear! poor old thing... it does get a little bit light as you crest the dipper if you're going hard. Its a bit daunting though - when you turn in all you can see is a wall of road in front of you and a green concrete barrier beyond that

nah, didn't upset me, just saw a chance to have a dig at a drag racer. the was supposed to show its just poking fun.

the cutting's a left hander for one thing! you really don't know your corners huh? found my Datto's time from the Esses 2003: 32.51 seconds

back then I had Hankook Z2000 semi slicks on the old 1800cc Datto 1200 - this is it coming up out of the dipper I guess I was a bit harsh on the Esses, but the only real challenging part of it is the left-right through the dipper. You barely get up to speed for Forest elbow after the steep uphill start (well not in my old datto anyway!) and the rest of it is pretty straightforward. It definitely is interesting through the dipper though! Mountain Straight goes from near the winery on Mountain Straight to just after Sulman Park, then they exit the cars into McPhillamy Park itself which is used as the pits. Its a great piece of road to drive at speed, but requires a fair bit of commitment to drive it fast with only 4 r 5 runs over the course of the day

are you doing the Esses hillclimb or Mountain Straight? I did the Esses in 2003. Its boring. you really only get 1 corner - the dipper. But you're going the wrong way. The rest of it it just an uphil drag. Can't remember what time I did there in my old Datto in '03 Mountain Straight on the other hand is awesome! My advice is don't do it if you're the kind of driver who notices things that you might hit instead of focussing on the point of the wall where it meets the ripple strip that marks the apex or exit point. On road tyres and trying to go fast over the top of Mt Panorama with blind corners and concrete walls everywhere is a recipie for disater for the inexperienced... My stock R32 GTR on 225/50*16 RE55S ran 52seconds dead up Mountain Straight in 2005, which was good enough for 3rd outright that day

you can't learn to drive on a web forum. what do you want us to tell you? brake as late as you can, get the apex right while holding as much corner speed as the car is capable of, and get on the gas as hard and early as possible - simple really

umm, hasn't RD been setting up the environment for LH to succeed for the past 6 years??? LH is the puppet not the maestro another masterful drive by Hamo - a car that's at least a sec a lap quicker than anything else and he still nearly blew it. everyone was jumping out of his way when he came to pass because they still vividly remember his pit lane effort! Hamo Hater #1

don't worry mate, my car won't be troubling you front runners at all! just doesn't have the development in suspension and steering to really cut it. and 230rwkw probably isn't quite enough for about 900kg of car either. nor is the 4 turns lock to lock steering really up to those 230rwkw in such a short wheelbase with leaf springs trying to put that power down! Superlap at Oran Park really got me motivated about this car again. Its just been sitting around un-used since the Australian Hillclimb Championships last november until now.

bring it on Marty! but the SR's are damn heavy - I doubt you'll make your weight target. I'll be mounting the intercooler in the new spoiler to get it out of the way of the radiator where it is now and have some sway bars to go in. depending on what tracks they use next year I might trade off a little mid-range for some more top-end power too. And with a little tweaking I can squeeze the 15*8's and 225/50s on the front as well

its supposed to be closing in October for the resurfacing. At the last Sprint there Tetly mentioned they want to "change the cambers" in the corners too. He didn't get any more specific than that but if they change the exit of caruosell and hungry. the other issue is they're widening the track too, which will also totally change its character... maybe we can 'clock it'?

I think its much more likely to become something like NASCAR, with a spec spaceframe chassis and drivetrain (which they've almost already got) and bodywork 'representative' of whatever manufacturer you want. Something along the lines of Super GT with Australian delivered cars would be awesome, but I can't see it happening.

there's a common misconception going around that to be fast you have to be smooth. This really only applies to cars with lots of aerodymanic grip. If you are running around perfectly smooth in a prod car even on semi slicks, you are loosing a bit of time. You only need to look back to any production based racing (Group A, Group C, or current Improved Production etc) and you will always see that the fast guys are running right on the edge like Boz in the S2000. Particularly when you are going for the fastest possible single lap from the car - like in qualy or in this case at Superlap. Its only when it gets 'too' sideways that its slower than being smooth.

thanks for throwing a photo of my slow barge in there Michael. I didn't go a gear higher in that corner - figured I was never going to be fast anyway in that boat so why be slow and smooth? Thought I'd at least try not to bore everyone too much.

ah yeah, that's right too. in that case if he chucks on a set of semi slicks, why not have it at Superlap? They allow unlimited suspension mods and lightweight panels and glass. Would be another interesting car in the line-up