Wow what a trip. Lakeside was awesome. Couple of highs and only the one low. Cracked a 58 flat on the first day with only 3 clear laps for the day as I was with a very slow group having never posted a time there. On tuesday I binned it into the armco at the entry to eastern loop trying to give another car some space to pass me and forgot to turn in myself, fell off the track and slipped down the grassy hill and into the fence. Bent a guard, a quarter panel and broke a wheel. Managed to break into the 57s that day.
Bashed out the damage and chucked on some borrowed wheels and went out again for a shake down for the Japnats on thursday. Bit scared to go hard with a bit of bruised confidence and borrowed wheels. but still managed some solid 57s.
Jap Nats. Well I did 2 sessions on the ageing federal FZ 201 medium compounds and was pretty skatey. The last session came round and I slipped some 18x 10 Advan wheels and Advan AO50 soft compound tyres and instantly dropped 1.5 seconds to post a 56.26 to be the second top qualifier by 0.04 seconds and, from what records I could find makes it the second fastest Skyline ever around Lakeside behind Mr Mark Berry in the Hi Octane R32. Needless to say That made the whole trip worthwhile.
Top 20 shootout came around and I got on the brakes too early into turn 1. With the soft tyres I'd pulled up 25 meters too early that I reckon cost me half a second through Carousel but still managed a 56.6 and still good enough for second outright for the day.
Because I broke a wheel and bent another one I have just ordered another set of RPF1s but in a 10.5 +15 so with a bit of love I'll get some 285s under there.
The diffs were well worth it as I was having alot of oversteer dramas which the lsd in the front has pretty much cured. It actually is a little understeery now which is OK because it's easier to deal with then snap oversteer off throttle. Being a 1.5 in the rear it seems to handle mid corner stuff Ok but the front seems to allow me to get on the noise earlier.
Some pics from the week.