nismoman

^^ haha of course mx5's!! But anything that's not a Nissan! lol! Seeing how this is "Skylines Australia" don't forget Marek in his R35 GTR and setting a new class record with a 1:38.62 Fastest Nissan on the day and 3rd outright is an excellent effort. This competition continually gets the lap times to tumble at EC and Wakie. To give you an idea on how close the competition is, 2 seconds covers 17 cars, from the 1:46 to 1:48 bracket. If you can lay down a 1:50 (which is a very respectable time) you would've placed 44th out of 97 competitors. It's getting expensive to keep up!! Full results found here (clicky) http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?22/05/2011.ARDC.S1

I'd say it's between 0.5 - 1 second quicker to the old old track. The two recent changes I'm aware of: 1 - track resurface was carried out a while ago now (18mths ago?). It resulted in a quicker track probably close to a second faster. 2 - new ripple strips and curbing. This made it more difficult to jump the curbs so makes it slower again by maybe 0.5 sec Plus I find Wakefield varies alot due to temperature and condition of track surface. Sometimes you can beat a PB by 0.5 sec, other times you struggle to match it. The reason I'm going quicker is I added some aero pieces to my car, i.e. rear wing and front splitter/undertray. Plus Kumho V710 tyres which offer a bit more grip over the usual semi slick. So far with these changes I've beaten my previous PB by 1.1 seconds at Wakefield and 2 seconds at Eastern Creek. Before photo After photo

Thanks Stuart! But congrats to you also new PB and fastest tin top of the day. I'm stoked with my new PB of 1:05.42! Really pleased with the Silvia's pace at Wakefield. It's a favourite track of mine that's for sure. Cheers Mark

I realise they have to wear them, was referring more to myself. I'm only running in supersprints so it's not mandatory to wear a balaclava or even gloves. I have a balaclava and I often don't wear it. Sometimes can't be bothered or don't want to be too hot wearing it. I'm going to make sure I wear it everytime from now on. Early days I was never a fan of wearing gloves either. Then I figured it would be hard to undo seatbelts, window net and open doors while your hands are on fire. Gloves buy you some time to get out. It's easy to forget some of the dangers of motorsport and become complacent.

Wake up call for me. I'm going to make sure I wear my balaclava from now on. Every bit helps hey!

Variety is the spice of life! Good to see more than just a bunch of evo, wrx and gtr's going around. That said, I don't think it will set any records. If it adds aero and some good sized rubber, it could be reasonably quick. At a recent supersprint at EC, the old Larry Perkins VL Group A racecar reeled off a 1:48, so I would expect this VL to be similiar and perhaps a bit quicker. 1:45's?

I noticed that as well. The poor guy obviously had hot hands, he was shaking them like F*CK! It was hot hot hot!! Face suffered burns I guessing from him having his helmet visor up?

Awesome stuff. Love the R32's. Great to see you enjoying it on the track and loving it. Any weight reduction plans?

Here's some pics of the AU and GTR from the last supersprint round at Eastern Creek. Cheers Mark

Simply awesome Stu! Great race, great footage and great driving! Congratulations! You must be stoked. Was it a cool trophy? Bet it's gone straight to the pool room. haha!

Thanks Chris, slowly chipping away at the times but still just want to go faster! We've been missing you mate, come on out and say hi when you can. For some more photo's of the event, click here: http://www.nissansilvia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=487573

Twas a good day indeed but the rain shortened the prime track time! I got 3 sessions in and set a new PB of 1:44.95 and 15th overall, 3rd in class. First time I tried Kumho V710's and they were fantastic. They are kind of a slick but have two grooves in them. I loved the extra grip and might even try not braking through turn 1 next time when I grow some bigger kahunies!! Pics of the S13 in action attached.

Hi Dale, There was a thread started by Duncan for last year's comp. I competed 8 of 9 rounds last year and had a blast. It's a bloody shame Oran Park has closed. Now we only have 2 tracks to fang around. However, I didn't hesitate to enter again this year, it's a good comp with plenty of fun sensible people involved. Last round on 26/02/11 was a bit of a shocker and the hosting club had some delays in the morning which cut our sessions down to only 4 for the day. We usually get 5 sessions, but 4 is still ok. I'm in the white S13 Silvia, come and say hi when you get a chance at one of the rounds. Cheers Mark

The news tonight had some short footage from the heli of Button going down the mountain (only about 10secs worth) They did say the helicopter was having trouble keeping up!

CAMS Level 2 Speed is a good place to start.

^ + 1 about the S13, but stop telling everybody lol!!!

I've never seen anything like that GTR absolutely leave a V8 supercar for dead like that. From the one of the other vids, I noticed Stuart noted something like "V8 supercharged skylines brakes work". So not running RB26/30 but possibly LS2/3 with f**king big blower???!!??

Damn that R32 GTR is quick! I thought your V8 Supercar was awesome, but you'd have to be impressed with that R32!!! Any specs?

I have an Uncle that had his caravan overtake him going downhill on a freeway! Not once but on two seperate occasions!! Wrote off both caravans of course. He stopped caravaning after that....

I rate webber in the top 5 in F1 at the moment. (just!) Not bad considering the high caliber of drivers in the field.

^^ Cool!!! Can't wait to see you on Sat!

haha! Yeah the good ol days hey? Worst thing with sailing for me was very light air. It was so slow and boring! Oh look I got overtaken by a bit of seaweed! YAY! Also it lightened my wallet as well, I spend $25k one year on a new rig for the 16ft skiff. Good way to be aware of your senses though. I could always feel the effect of more vang or cunningham on boatspeed and the same with shifting my bodyweight. I'd hang out for 25-30knots NorEaster or Southerly just to get a buzz and that happend only a few races a year. With fanging the car at the track, it's like it's 50knots everyday all day long. Huge adrenalin rush.

^^^ Cool another sailor that's into motorsport! I sailed Flying Ants to 16ft skiffs and some yachts too. Off topic, but don't you think sailors have good "feel" for driving? I mean like limits of grip, brake thresholds and the affects of small steering inputs? Back on topic, If it's outside the spirit of the rules and you win because of it, then you have one hollow victory on your hands.

What's the point of having class rules then? May as well just compete in a "no rules" form of racing. I have a competitive sailing background and we have one design classes where nothing can be changed from the manufacturer. Think Olympic classes with boats such as Laser, 470 and 49er's. The idea is to give everyone a level playing field. You should be able to hop from one boat (or car) to another in the same class and the only difference is the driver. Then there are development classes which virtually have no rules except "must be 12 feet long" for example. This way you get to choose what suits you. If you want to be creative and smart, go the development class. If you want fair/level racing go one design class. To hear about the cheating in the RS Impreza challenge is absolutely woeful. It breaks all the rules and ideas behind a one make series. It's a moral and ethical issue for me. Getting away with it cause you didn't get caught doesn't cut it with me.

I remember reading about the Gibson motorsport team using a fire extinguisher to cool engine temps as the rules stated you had to carry an onboard extinguisher system. The rules said nothing about it having to be full at the end of the race. Another one was Fred Gibson running a larger than standard/homologated intercooler and when the CAMS scrutineer found the item on the race car did not comply, asked him to replace it. As Gibson Motorsport were backed by Nissan then, he had an exact same intercooler (that was still oversize) on stand by wrapped in Nissan packaging. So replaced with this, the scrutineer was satisfied it was a genuine part. I personally don't agree with "bending" the rules, as there is a fine line between that and cheating. It seems some people try there darndest to justify their cheating by saying it's "bending" the rules and not "breaking" the rules.