nismoman

I loved the rough nature of Oran Park. You could attack the curbs like no other. It was also like a giant roller coaster. Oran Park was the first track I ever drove on. I will never forget. RESPECT! Here's a cool action shot going over the flip flop!

Cool! Yep that's me getting it all crossed up coming into the esses! Nice photo. From memory, I was sideways from the exit of the bridge all the way through to suttons! Wasn't the quickest lap but sure was fun

Best I've ever done actually. I was gunning for a sub 1min 20 sec lap, but couldn't quite make it. Managed a 1:20.8 and 28th outright. I'm happy about the result considering it was the absolute last competition at Oran Park, it's going to have to do! Competition is very tight and there are lots of closely matched cars. Bring on next round at EC, can't wait.

Any more pics or even video of the event? I was there in my white S13 Silvia and loved every minute, despite some delays in the morning. I was satisfied after 4 sessions. Got sideways over the flip flop a couple of times. Had a little off at turn one in the last session as well! That certainly got the pulse racing going off road at approx 160/kmhr

Going fast is cool. The fastest I've ever been was a tad over 230km/hr down the straight at Eastern Creek. My little S14 had not much left though. Was in 5th gear and reving around 6500rpm. For ultimate top speed you'd have to check out the salt flats in SA. They hold a competition every year there.

Plus Oran Park is notorious for being hard on tyres so from what you say, that's pretty good! Ku36 control tyre for the win!!!

Nice MR2. I think more people should track them! Good to see a bit of variety out on the track.

I guess Kimi's won a WDC so even if he achieves nothing more in his racing career, he made it to the top in F1. I would be said if he doesn't race F1 again cause he is such a character! He could just spend the rest of his life enjoying his money and fame. (read: girls and parties!)

Obviously tyre seletion is crucial. Last year they considered Federal 595RS tyres to be semi slicks. It all comes down to the UTQG rating. If lower than 100, then the tyre is considered a semi slick. What Kuhmo tyres are you talking about being grouped in "full blown track semis"? KU36, V700?

I'm up for a KU36 "control tyre" lap attack! Sounds very cost effective. Let's set up a pinned thread to record our lap times at various circuits across the country. Maybe Option 1 could offer us discount with group buys? When my Kuhmo V70's wear out, I'll look at getting the KU36. Just need my track buddies to do the same so we are all equal. Badhairdave: I would think it would turn out better than a Nankang tyre challenge! That was with dumhed and TMB yeah? lol nankangs!

KU36 tyred lap time challenge anyone?

Anyone watch the Race of Champions last night on One HD? Schuey in fine form. Was a bit boring though, the course was slow and tight, not much action. The cars are interesting. Obviously a lot of money spent on turning an athletic ground into a motorsport tarmac circuit, but I must admit I was struggling to stay awake.

I was thinking of doing the same and buying the KU36's for my next set of track tyres. For the price, it's very tempting. Does anyone know what they are like after 5 hot laps? Do they go off like a standard street tyre? Or do they hang on a bit better?

Good onya man! Well done for doing something about it. I love the R32. I think they are the best shaped skyline of all time. My brother has owned two of them, and one day I'd love to have a R32 GTR V-spec sitting in my garage.

Any updates? Did you decide on what to get? By the way, to keep prices down, a road registered car you can drive to and from the track would help greatly. Don't have to buy a trailer or tow vehicle then. Just have to be careful and not bin it on the track.

Don't bother o-ringing the block. The thicker head gasket will lower your compression enough to handle the extra boost. Providing block and head are decked nice and flat, should be no problems. I like your plan with the rebuild of the RB20 out to RB22, because you're making the best out of the parts you have available. The larger tomei pon cams will certainly help with getting the head to flow more air as well allowing you to push past 250rwk's, question is will your turbo go that far? If not at least you'll get good response from the set up with the cams and larger capacity out to 2.2ltrs. Forged internals will give you reliable performance. Low down torque is what's lacking the RB20 so it sounds like you are doing the right things to rectifying this. After the rebuild, you might even be able to beat a couple of pesky S13's out on the race track!

I don't think I've ever witnessed a season with so much happening right to the end and past the season's final GP. We don't know where half the drivers are going to end up, we've got teams pulling out, new teams coming in. A change in the FIA president....What next? It's a total revamp! I'm having to check planetF1 daily just to keep up with the latest.

What would everyone rate their top 5 F1 circuits on the calendar? I mean in terms of entertaining to watch and not put you to sleep. Historically, I've found the best top 5 to watch: (not in any particluar order) Spa Silverstone Interlagos Suzuka Sepang

I know you have mates to do all the buying and shipping from Japan, but ring Ichiban imports at Moorbank NSW, they always have race/rally import cars for sale so they should be able to give you some advice, worth a phone call. I have seem them advertise race/rally S13's SR20DET 5spd manuals for $6k as well.

So the change in point system had no effect on the outcome. Congrats to Button. He is a smooth and consistent driver. Congrats to our man Webber for his 2nd Grand Prix Win. That's another big trophy for the pool room!

Yes. Problem is, if you forget one pin, you're going to forget the other one aren't you? So then if you go out on track forgetting to lock your bonnet pins, whammo! Bonnet in your face. Seen it happen plenty of times. Keeping the standard latch in place has it's advantages. If you use bonnet pins without the standard latch, you just have to be dilligent and do a check before heading onto the track.

The 1:20.XX laps were not captured on the vid. I know my quickest lap of the day, 1:20.65 was in the 3rd session as was John's lap of 1:20.06 in the black S13. The youtube vid was 4th session. I think Andrew just uploaded the video with the most action going on! Last session of the day Andrew managed to punch in a 1:20.80. We were all using the XT lap timer, I know it's not official Natsoft timing but I've compared the two on a previous supersprints at OPGP and they were within .05 of a second of each other, so pretty accurate. Wouldn't mind attending one more supersprint or event with official timing just for the record before it closes! Lol! I know Circuit Club has a day coming up at OPGP 28/11/09, hoping it will have official timing.

It definitely needs wider rubber. It's got massive track and wide guards, I think they could fit wider wheels with the correct offset. They just seem a bit skinny for the amount of power and potential this car has.

Evil, I was behind Andrew at the 6:40 mark on the vid in my white S13, he slowed and went wide to let me through, but I stayed back and waited for another opportunity. All three of us (Andrew, SRS13 and myself) managed to dip into the 1:20 lap time, which isn't too bad considering it was very dusty from the dust storms we had during the week. We all wanted a 1:19 but it didn't quite happen. There were a couple of times we were fanging down the straight and then just at turn 1 a car would enter from the pits causing some severe holy crap moments!! Don't know what the guy releasing people from the pits was thinking sometimes! You're close to the limit and then you have to deal with a slow car entering on your line. After the first time it happened I was more wary but would've liked a less crowded day. All in all, it was one of the best track days I've done. It's an awesome track OPGP and I shared it with some mates, met some cool people and totally loved it. Can someone please build another Oran Park GP real soon??