hrd-hr30

oh, titanium bits - it must be fast looks like Jyo's? If so, it still needs a fair bit of suspension sorting. With the spring rates it had before there is no chance of it being very quick on the Noosa Hillclimb. is your father a teenager? does his porsche run jap tiens? obviously I wasn't talking about that car. so why keep mentioning your rich daddy and his cars? clearly it isn't beneath you! you have a massively over-inflated sense of self-worth if you think I'd bother driving all the way to Noosa to accomodate your challenge, but its probably all just more talk anyway - just more of your internet bragging. Grow up mate. 1 minute at Mt Cotton Hillclimb is nothing to be bragging about! and what does his uncle's times have to do with anything? I was pretty obviously referring to the cars who Nismo_Boy claims the really fast times for Noosa Hillclimb. Was yours one of them? Its nice that you're sticking up for your mates, but what does your car have to do with how fast they are on Noosa Hillclimb? I can't keep up with all this - one minute its about how fast a couople of you kids are in an S13 and a R32 and next minute it's everything from Daddy's VIP Porsche to someone's V8 R33 drag car, and someone else and his uncle! flame away

I'd back all you 20yo's with no competition experience to get a fkn big wake-up call if you ever put your money where your mouth is and do an event. the times you lot are claiming to have done are up there with the formula libra open wheel hillclimb specials, with big bhp (eg turbo rotary), extremely low Cg, massive wings, big fat soft hillclimbing slicks, extremely well developed suspension/chassis, and very well driven. A far cry from a 30yo torana... and a far cry from some modern car slapped together and driven by a teenager, running jap teins and street tyres is ever going to get close to, irrespective of how powerful it is! I'm tired of all this talk - let's see you lot front up at Mt Cotton (only other hillclimb venue we have) and set some records! show us no hopers how to drive and how fast your modern street cars are. Let the excuses roll...

you crack me up! "don't you know whom I am?" apparently you're a legend in your own lunchtime who think their generation invented "sliding around corners"... oh and you've got a rich daddy. that pretty much sums it up, eh? btw, no-one else uses that same hillclimb. the rally stage is much longer. I'm sure you'll suddenly know that now... there are no other events there apart from those. but you were probably referring to the street racer's records when you said other people use that road too. well I guess wankers like me will just never understand legends like you! If your daddy owns all those MG's I guess you must be good ??? I stand corrected! I also like how your times just got 3 or 4 seconds quicker from 59s down to 55 or 56's. what's a few seconds here or there? I guess its much easier to make quantum leaps in your times when you and your mates just make them up

of course you have! probably on your normal street tyres too I bet Warwick with his turbo rotary open wheeler was very relieved to hear you two didn't enter to challenge his 57.7 track record! how many actual events have you ever done - anywhere? you must have won quite a few outright if you're capable of that kind of pace! street racers always think they're the best thing around, but this "59 seconded pass if not quicker" is the best one I've heard in a long time. thanks for the laughs Nismo_Boy!

the bushes are supposed to go into the holes in the sway bar as well... if the raised step on your bushes are gone, get some new ones. urethane bushes will also effectively stiffen the bar up a bit too.

The QR decision was announced a couple of months ago. Lakeside is not heritage listed. That was overturned by agreement with QHC and PRSC in an appeal lodged by PRSC. In that deal some significant features are protected until May 2010 IIRC. After that there is no protection for the site at all. I ran on Lakeside a few months ago, and the track is in exactly the same condition as when it was closed down by liquidators. They used to race on it in exactly the same condition. As for the buildings, well it was never very pretty, but they definitely need a tidy-up! I believe the deal currently being negotiated between PRSC and QR involves significant upgrades. State level racing is allowed under the terms of the tender, and the maximum of 20 events per year means you can basically run events every other weekend of the motorsport 'season'. It also depends what they define an "event" as. The facility also has to serve other community purposes and recreation activities. I'm just glad it's reopening! Any opportunity to race around Lakeside again is great, and something I never thought we have the chance to do again.

you can get good R32 GTRs for low $20K's. Take the time to find a good one and they're an absolute bargain. I paid $22 for mine a year ago and only ever had to fix minor things like TPS ($145 from Nissan), a ruptured rear cradle bush ($120 for alignment kit), and a CV boot ($14). In that time I've done 3 sprints, 3 hillclimbs, a tarmac rally, an autocross, and 10,000km of road driving. but there are duds out there - I test drove a couple! personally I wouldn't even consider a GTR in the $15K price range mentioned. Save (or borrow) another 6 or 7 grand and you should be able to pick up a good one.

some pics of my GTR from the 2006 QLD Challenge Rally

I thought it was you - the bright yellow 33 was looking pretty good.

you forgot Ti and Silhouette (sedan only) for the Aus R31 Skyline model range. oh, and the GTSI & II of course.

your loss is our gain apparently - ie I'll believe it (rally Oz in QLD in 2008) when i see it. but rumour has it, it could be a tarmac rally! yeah!

I didn't read that JE article you posted. i formed my "JE is a knob" opinoion from his articles in Zoom about the handling problems of his GTR and the steps he took to correct the problems shows he had absolutely no idea. His opinion that his previous subaru (on semi slicks!) handled "better" than he thought the GTR did is not surprising. Yet he clearly described in those stories taking the subaru back out along the same roads he's been scared on by the GTR and praising it wholeheartedly for being as fast through the corners as the GTR! hello- the GTR was on road tyres and the suba on semi slicks! Clearly the GTR had no business being as fast through the turns, yet he praises the Suba and cans the GTR. clearly the man has nfi And any time he mentioned handling, he was only ever talking about traction out of corners. He wasn't interested in corner entry characteristics, where subarus are just farkin terrible (yes I've driven a number of these from standard to modified road cars and even PRC rally cars). Nor did he talk about mid corner speed or the overall balance of the chassis. All he was concerned about was being able to put the foot to the floor when exiting without having to do any driving. The fact that he expected the GTR to handle just like a constant awd car shows he did zero research before spending $80,000 he didn't have on the car! what a knob! One look at the photos of his GTR cornering would tell you that his was a boat. the thing was lurching all over the place. Its common knowledge that the standard shocks are borderline at controlling the chassis even when brand new. did JE know this, or find out from anyone? nup. again shows he did no research at all into his handling complaints. for crying out loud, he explained the steps he took to look into the handling problems - he just assumed they all handled like that. fact is that a few dollars spent on new shocks to replace the 7year old factory shocks would have done wonders for the car. and while the shocks are being fitted, may as well throw some aftermarket springs in too - won't coast any more in labour, and the car would have been totally transformed. No need for them to develop their ATESSA controller, but then what would they have done for stories for the next 4 issues of Zoom? and it s important to note that JE's background is with electronics - he really doesn't have any experience with mechanics, or car setup, or any sort of experience that would give his opinions on handling any credibility at all. JE only ever drove 1 GTR (which was 7 years old and totally original and standard - even on the original tyres at first!) and labelled them all as duds. I have driven probably more than 10 R32 GTR's and know that springs and shocks totally transform the way they handle. a GTR on standard suspension is much more oversteer prone than one with decent springs and shocks. If you want your GTR to handle better, that is the sensible place to start, not with an ATESSA controller! Get the suspension working properly and you will see that NISSAN did know what they were doing with the ATESSA system. Its really only when you start adding alot more power that ATESSA controllers really come into their own - with the exception of wet conditions and dirt. If you want to drive hard in those conditions, even a standard GTR will benefit from a controller. final word on JE and his eminent opinions on what makes a fast car - tight twisty road - maxda MX5??? it would have to be damn tight and twisty, without any straights, let alone uphill sections :lol: damn those MX5's! how many times have i not been able to shake one of them on a tight twisty road in the real world? yeah good one JE! the man has NFI. And this: firstly, wet conditions are the most favourable conditions for the constant awd cars' handling characteristics. but yes, the GTR is the drivers car of the awd world- ie you still have to drive it - like a proper car. it does not reward the hamfisted foot to the floor and expect nothing untoward to happen approach to "driving". nothing bores me more than driving understeering but safe feeling (to the average driver) constant awd WRX & STi's. Sure they're fast out of corners, but not on the way in and mid corner speed isn't great either. There is no enjoyment in driving them. Its like driving a good fwd car, except with traction on the way out. Its not fun to have to manage understeer all the way through the turn just so you can tromp it on exit without any driver input if you ask me. But if that's what you like, and clearly JE does then stay with the subarus. Leave the GTR's to the drivers.

Julian Edgar is a knob. if he wanted to improve the car's handling, he should have started with replacing the 7 year old shocks rather than trying to compensate for it by 2nd guessing the Nissan engineers ATESSA system. Mind you his only previous cars were fwd and subaru AWD - both of which are reknowned understeerers, so its no wonder he felt uncomfortable in the GTR and wanted to make it handle as badly as them...

yep, its either new bushes, which is a subframe out job or a set of alloy subframe alignment kits which fit down into the bush and compress it to hold the subframe firmly in place. they can be fitted without removing the subframe. they cost ~$120 do not confuse these with simple the poly pineapples which are just round rings that squash between the body and subframe. they are not shaped to fit into the subframe like the alloy blocks and do not replace the function of stuffed bushes.

fair enough. swaybars are a good upgrade for a road car. I was responding more to the suggestion that springs are only there to hold a car up! I think its become a more interesting topic than "should I get swaybars?". besides, he's got some opinions on that question already. that's arguable! a swaybar links both sides of the car and applies equal and opposite forces at both ends, if you hit a curb hard while cornering and the inside wheel moves up, you get a change of spring force at the other end - ie the outside wheel will temporarily see a softer spring rate, and that corner could also dip lower too depending on spring and shock setup. this will change the balance of the car mid corner and could very well unsettle it. the more you are relying on bar in your setup, the larger the effect it will have.

race cars use in-car adjustable bars to trim the car during long stints with changing fuel loads and tyre condition. its the most simple way to change balance quickly within the car, not necessarily the best way to setup the balance of the car! conventional race car setup is to use springs primarily to control the car's behaviour. sway bars then used to fine tune the balance. shocks affect mainly transitional state handling - ie initial braking, turn in or change of direction, and transition to applying power out of the corner, by mid corner, you are relying on springs and bar to provide the handling balance. this whole soft spring hard bar setup approach comes from categories trying to maximise the effect of their aerodynamic freedoms, and requires quite sophisticated shock tuning and dynamic control of roll centres. I think its a bit of a mistake trying to apply it to a car with no real aero to speak of, and production cars where dynamic roll centre geometry is likely to be far from ideal.

early GTR's didn't have "oil probs due to crank collar design". The crank collar is a weakness if the car is bounced off the harsh factory rev limiter too much it can break and then there's no drive to the oil pump - which means one stuffed engine (not to mention two turbos). if its not broken, there are no problems caused by the crank collar design, and if you stay off the rev limiter there's no reason to expect any problems. AFAIK all R32's have the same crank collar oil pump drive except for the uprated N1 version. all GTR's have oil problems with running at constant high rpm (ie track work) with too much oil supply to the overhead parts. you will be able to find heaps of info about this posted by SK. and all are suspect for oil surge during track work. some say even a hard launch on the street can cause oil surge! common advice to prevent this is to use an extral litre of oil. obviously if the engine ever comes out (ie to change turbos), it would be money well spent to fit the N1 oil pump and drive and a sump baffle kit. otherwise, be careful to stay off the rev limiter and use an extra litre of oil.

track days are only as dangerous as you make them. there's no sheepstations on the line - you don't have to push 10/10ths. most of the time, less experienced people are smoother and faster at 8 or 9/10ths anyway. But there is always a chance something will go wrong. Most tracks have plenty of run-off areas, and on corners where there isn't just be sensible and ease back a bit. If you drive within your limits you'll be fine 99.9% of the time. At any rate, its alot safer than playing up on the roads!

In 6 or 7 years of SuperSpints and Hillclimbs I've had a few offs, but never any accidents. Rallying on the other hand offers much greater scope to express your true crashing style... http://members.westnet.com.au/debandtim/images/stanza2.jpg on a 3rd gear RH corner - probably around 80kph actual road speed. 2004 QLD Rally Championship round. I just ran too wide on the exit of a nice smooth, open corner and went up the cutting on the outside - sideways, of course... and it came back down on the road upside down and sorta nose first. Not quite sure what happened at the top of the cutting to flip the car and throw us back towards the road...

thanks, but I've found a set already.

I make the numbers up in word too, but just leave them on A4 size. I use clear contact to stick the numbers on the doors. no problem even if it rains.

slicks are allowed. just means you compete in Type 4 its definitely an event worth doing. last year we got 5 runs of the Conrod Supersprint and 4 runs at the Mountain Straight Hillclimb.

you're right - I was looking at the wrong line in the table. in 91 Maclaren won the Constructers and Drivers titles, and the 2nd driver ran 4th in the Drivers Championships. It can't have been all bad!

In 93 the Benetton was so uncompetitive they rushed out the new car after just a few races. And McLaren got more than double the constructors points of Benneton! Hardly the most equal year... 92 seems to be the year they were in the most evenly matched machines if constructors points are anything to go by. And Schuey was 3rd in the Drivers Championship that year, his first full F1 season, ahead of Senna who was 4th in the standings and much more experienced having won the previous 2 World Drivers Championships with the same team.

general concesus is that it was the better car. Senna made no secret about being unhappy that the traction control had been banned. He thought it made the cars too dangerous. I've not heard anything about the 94 Williams being anything like recalcitrant before! well, that's one way to put it. A more accurate way would be that he led in Brazil until L21 when they both pitted and Schumacher got ahead. Then Schumacher was consistently faster. Schumacher continued to lead the rest of the race. After the second round of pitstops, Senna spun (on lap 56 of 71) pushing too hard trying to catch Schuey. Schumacher was consistently faster on the day. Its hardly an accurate summary to say Senna "led in Brazil before an uncharacteristic off" - making it sound like he was in the lead when he went off and handed the win to someone else... mid corner checking is a very common and totally legitimate tatic to help ensure you get a better exit than the car behind you. No problem there. you will see it done all the time in any category of motorsport. why is that worth noting? FIA found electronics left in alot of cars that year, but no evidence they had ever been used in any ar. No traction control was found in the Benetton, and judging by his teammate's performance, its fairly obvious they didn't have a magic advantage. Also after the FIA checked all cars and the offending electronics were completely removed, the Benetton performance relative to the other teams didn't change. At Aida after his crash, Senna remained at the side of the track listening for tell-tale traction control from the Benetton - he begrudgingly admitted he couldn't tell... At the next race at Imola, JJ Lehto stalled his Benetton at the start, hardly likely to happen if they had launch control...