No Crust Racing

Here's an example of the cheapo setup I was talking about with RaceChrono data overlayed. Basically all settings on low on the camera, encoding etc

11,500 and can be had cheaper without rego and rwc, excellent daily and makes a great family car.

Details on the caddy? Found this but no details on the car, what's done to it and what made them want to Targa a Caddy? http://www.targa.com...&team_id=236322 Edit: Hah! Check this out. " A bigger turbo is pumping 45psi of boost into the diesel engine, which is limited to 450nm of torque and puts around 130kw at the wheels through a limited slip diff. And what’s more, it’s lighter than the Golf it’s based on, too."

"955 Ryan ‐ Sierp 2005 Volkswagen Caddy 9MSD 43:03 9 20:39" What?

Some great pics in there.

I've been cobbling together a little system for myself and have just started testing it. For $45 delivered I grabbed a Kodak Playtouch HD - http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/PLAYTOUCH_Video_Camera/productID.200992300 Even on the WXGA setting of 480 the quality is quite good. IT also does 720 @ 30fps, 720 @ 60fps for slow mos, and 1080 @ 30fps. Battery life is listed as around 110-120mins when recording at 720 @ 30fps, I'm expecting more when using the lower quality WXGA setting which should be fine for YouTube clips. I've worked out that a 4GB SD card should be enough data for a track day, but for the extra 50 cents I'll just grab an 8GB (testing with a spare 1GB atm). It has a USB arm built in so it can be charged on the fly, Winton also has powerpoints and I've got a USB car charger so topping it up won't be an issue if it's needed. Initial testing is good, though I'm not sure how the audio will fair in track applications or outside of the car. When tested in an adjustable phone mount in the work car it picked up a lot of noise from the mount vibrating, but I guess that's to be expected. For around $5 though you can buy a Sony Stereo External Mic off eBay, which seems to be quite popular for people running these types of cams. I bought an adjustable suction mount off eBay for under $5, it's on the way so can't comment on quality on that yet. I'll start out by doing in car footage so if the mount fails it won't be a huge dilemma. If it proves to be trustworthy I'll attach it to the outside of the car, though I'll likely knock up some kind of protective case as well, or a tether to the car. I grabbed some universal screen protectors for $1, as the unit is touch screen, and I cut one down and put it over the lens. I've dug up my old Nokia E52 and have RaceChrono installed on that and have dabbled with a program called RaceChrono2AVI which allows you to generate gauges from gps mapping data and overlay those onto your in car footage. This will at least give me a track overlay with position and speed. The internal 1Hz GPS is not accurate enough though so I'll likely buy a QStarZ 10Hz unit and connect that via Bluetooth as that's a proven combination. So all up I'll have spent under $150 (though I already had the phone) and should be able to get some OK footage with basic data on top that will show split times etc. At the moment I'm still testing all this as I'm in the process of fixing the car but I'll post some footage when I have run it all at the track.

I dunno Bris, in my head there's been a few times when they've pitted because his lap times were dropping off, not because they were trying to be overly tactical, but again, I'm just an armchair commentator. Some hefty entry fees there just for the privilege of being involved...

That's another thing I've noticed about his driving too, his seems to burn up the rubber quicker than Vettel and indeed other drivers also. Whether that's actually him and "he" is burning up the tyres through his style (maybe body weight also? though he has been looking pretty gaunt recently) or whether it's inherent in the cars setup remains to be seen. The fact remains though, that the current car/driver combo seems less friendly to tyres than others in the field. And agreed that in this particular race his final gear setup was not ideal, but my comments about his progress are more of an overview and spans 2011 as well, when in my opinion he really should have come away with a WDC. Take all that with a grain of salt though, I don't pour over the stats to back up my claims like some of the guys in here, and I'm glad you guys do because it brings clarity to rubbish claims sometimes, my comments are purely about "the vibe" of it. As a viewer, watching him race, those are the impressions I get.

I can, Skill. And that's coming from a fairly one-eyed Webber supporter. I think he needs more things to go his way to really get a top result than other drivers who in my mind are better steerer's/more aggressive at the right times who can make more happen from less. Maybe I'm being overly critical - make no mistake, it's clearly hard work to go fast in an F1 car, I think we've all seen Hammo try it on Top Gear. Maybe I'm just sour that he's not romping away from everyone with win after win, but I just wish he was more consistent and would step up more often.

Price dropped to $11,950. Can be had cheaper without RWC or Rego.

lol who would store tyres that way

I'm no pro but I'll wade in on this having had some limited experience with used tyres vs new. In my example I'm comparing VERY old RE55s 235 R17s that only had a few mm above the tread indicators left and had been heat cycled MANY times to brand new RS-Rs, which aren't an R-Comp. The RS-Rs have gone a touch faster, despite not being a proper R-Comp but that could also be down to improvements in the car and driving, the improvement is less than 1sec. That said, the second hand, used up, never ever use these (I was told) RE55s that cost me $200 were awesome to learn on and had a ton of grip and having been heat cycled a few times which hardens the compound, lasted better than I thought they would, I did 5 or so events on those. I've read heaps about the tyre rejuvenator stuff as well which seems to help to some extent to if outright grip is the goal. As Duncan said, for general track days, testing the car, bedding in parts, etc I think you'll be fine (so long as the price reflects the age, no point paying brand new prices for old stock just as a matter of principle).

Hah, OK I'll have a fiddle and see what I can do. Camera might take a back seat for the moment though, car dramas take priority.

Good idea. I've also been doing some reading on the AF system in the D90 to see what changes can be made to speed up the process, at the moment I think it's set to matrix metering and 3D focal points (or something to that affect) consensus seems to be that unless you are going for an artistic shot or a specific composition that you leave it to centre weighted and focused so I'll try that too.

All good, started it tonight, idled fine. No timing light here but if nothing else the idle revs are the same. I have other issues now but they go beyond the scope of this thread and I'll continue on that path in my build thread. At least we know it wouldn't start because the timing was out too far so I'm a goose.

I've got those points enabled and selecting between them is not an issue, my issue is more how long it takes the lens to focus. I'm assuming what you mean is focus on the point I think the shot will be at and be ready, but the what I'm trying to do is improve the time it takes the lens to perform its initial focus. Even in well lit areas in doesn't seem quick. Is that likely to be a lens issue, camera issue, or just the behaviour of the system?

Morning gents. I bought the missus a D90 kit 2yrs ago and she hasn't really taken to it. Granted she said she wanted to do a photography course and hasn't done so yet, meaning she really doesn't know how to drive the camera properly or get the best from it, but the big issue for her is she feel as though she misses the shot every time because the camera is too slow. I've spent a bit of time with it so I at least know how to adjust aperture or shutter speed to use to get a reasonable photo where as she just wants to leave it on Auto and have it be magic, I told her that's not how it works... That said, I do agree with her that sometimes, the camera can take too long on finding its focal point and I've tried to beat it using manual focus or selecting the focal point in the viewfinder to help but it doesn't seem to do much better. I understand that with a point and shoot it'll just take the shot anyway and be blurry, where as the D90 won't take the shot until it has focus, which can be frustrating when it's zooming in and out trying to find its range. Is this a limitation of the camera? or the lenses? (18-55m and 70-200mm kit lenses). I'll admit I did drop the 18-55 once and the ring gear is slightly loose but the focal speed has always seemed to be an issue and the images are still crisp when it does find focus. Can we just buy a faster focusing lens? Thoughts?

Ok good news. Got the missus to give me a hand and got the gears in place and the belt on (intake was about 3 teeth too far advanced, exhaust was about the same but retarded so no compression... Counted the teeth between the marks and it's spot on. Will re-assemble tomorrow night and see if it starts.

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Bump - Feel free to make an offer or comment on the price, open to negotiation.

Nick, No hijacking Mitch. I wasn't finished with him Mitch, no discomfort in those two movements that I can feel.

I wouldn't say either of those two motions are painful for me at all. EDIT: I iced it last night, and it feels a lot better today, but I think for safety I'll just continue that process through to Monday and skip Friday's session completely and have a light weekend on the tools. Good few days of rest, Ice and some tennis ball work has been the goods in the past.

OK I read up on that, and yeah could be it, the approach for the first link I read was tenins ball massage, rest, drop weight/avoid the exercise while repairing etc etc. Any other major things it could be that I should be aware of?

I AM the tuner If the cover is off, the CAS can't be mounted without a new bracket which I don't have so it has to stay on. How far would it have to be out to not start, the marks are pretty much dead on according to my before and after pics. If it was that far out surely it would've fouled when I turned it by hand first.