Roy

Come on F1 fans, support Spa...If you would like for the GP to stay at the best circuit in the world. All in French but get on and sign the petition http://www.grandprixf1.be/

Keep it...you may end up putting it back on if the surge thingie with holes and hoo-hah in it cover sux

Road car engines maybe. Seems they are looking to what they already have developed as a race engine to cut developments costs

On the engine front... it has been reported in AA that the KR-Nissan-Nismo engine team have signed off on the powerplant.They have chosen the 5.6L DOHC V8 engine as used in the Nissan GT-R GT1 project in Japan. How they go about reducing the capacity to 5L or less is anybodies guess. I assume they will sleeve it down rather then throw in a new crank but who knows. Holden look to be preferring a Chev crate engine on the basis of cost. So you have Nissan running high tech, ridgey didge race motor, with twin cams, 4 valves per cylinder and lots of modern race design nice to haves VS Holden looking for a cheap crate Chev engine to build and spec up. I am guessing the Chevs are going to get some extra displacement if they are to have a hope of matching the Nissan in anything resembling a short sprint event. Seems odd that Ford and Holden are contemplating an engine change. Surely the change to COTF is expensive enough in the short term without taking on engine development And Rick Kelly is off to the USA for a car show to promote the Altima...so I guess thats what will be wearing Jack Daniels war paint next year

And an old favourite post of mine from something like 2002. If you are thinking about an upgrade its important to understand the following just so you dont have unrealistic expectations of what a brake upgrade is going to achieve other then cost you thousands Car & Driver did a test on brake upgrades. Test Car was a WRX (US Spec which only uses two piston sliding caliper, not as good as Nissan 4 spot or later Model WRX 4 pots) So tested kits were, std car, std car with upgraded pads and fluid, Brembo F50 Kit, Brembo Lotus Kit (Similar to as fitted to GTRs, 44/38mm pistons), Stoptech kit and Prodrive Kit (Alcon) Stopping Distances 70mph - 0 , 3 Stop Brembo F50;________________ 185 / 183 (Average / Best) Brembo Lotus; ______________ 200 / 196 Prodrive; __________________ 198 / 194 StopTech;__________________ 187 / 186 Stock; ____________________ 205 / 196 Stck with pads and fluid; ______187 / 184 The above figures are all in feet, one stop difference between pad and fluid upgrade and crappy std sliding caliper brake setup and massive Brembos is 1 ft...lol 30cms. And over 3 stops the average is 2 ft...lol 60cms So you can see the one stop max of the upgraded pads and fluid is damn good when you consider the $$$ to % difference. Stopping Distances 100mph - 0 , 25 Stop Brembo F50; ______________ 299 / 288 (Average / Best) Brembo Lotus; ______________305 / 294 Prodrive; __________________ 308 / 295 StopTech;__________________ 297 / 290 Stock;_____________________ 340/317 Stck with pads and fluid;______316/299 Not the world of difference you would be led to believe from the "i sailed up the inside under brakes because my massive brakes allow me to brake so much later" Specs of the kits: Rotor Weight (pounds) Size in inches (diam / thk) Brembo F50;.................15.8......................... .13.1 / 1.3 Brembo Lotus;..............12.9.......................... 12.9 / 1.1 Prodrive;......................16.5............... ............13.0 / 1.1 StopTech;...................13.9.................. ........12.9 / 1.1 Stock;.................. ......14.2..........................11.6 / 0.9 Caliper Weight , Piston Size, (mm) Brembo F50;..........8.6 pounds...........40 / 44, Leading / Trailing Brembo Lotus;.......6.8.......................36 / 40 Prodrive;...............9.1..................... 34.9 / 41.3 StopTech;.............9.3.....................36 / 40 Stock;.................10.8.................. .43 / 43 ...and COST!!! Brembo F50;.......................US$2,995 Brembo Lotus;.....................US$2,595 Prodrive;.............................US$1,999 StopTech;...........................US$1,695 Stock with pads & fluid;....... US$130

As per the others. I am guessing about the size of the 6pots, but having measured up the 4 pots their pistons are waaaay bigger then F50s which are borderline too big themselves. So F50s are 44mm and 40mm pistons, and from memory the Fords were 48mm and 44mm. So you would assume that the 6 pots offer the same piston area as Ford woudl not have re-engineered the master cylinders, pedal ratio etc for the same model car but with an updated 6 pot Brembo vs 4 pot Brembo (that is an assumption, but I dont think its too long a bow to draw) So it makes no sense to use Ford calipers on a Nissan. Nissans have all the brake balance and force you will ever need just with a pad upgrade. What you are trying to do is get more consistancy out of the brakes and larger pistons dont do anything for you in this regard, you need more rotor and cooling, in turn this often means you need similar or smaller pistons depending on what you are doing on your rears. To give you an idea just how fussy the balance can be when you sway too far from the more proven kits....have a look at this vid below. I had just removed my Brembo F40s and was half way through engineering up my custom 343mm Stoptech 4 pot kit when a skidpan day came up. Not wanting to miss out I threw my std R32 GTR calipers and rotors back on the front. So this means the fronts were 296mm rotors with Sumitomo calipers which have 40.4mm pistons. The rears were Brembos with 300mm rotors and 40mm pistons. Now these rear brakes normally run with front calipers that have the bigger pistoned calipers up front in 44mm and 38mm pistons. So what I was running with was calipers 3%smaller then usual at the front...the result Now what you would be doing running the Ford calipers is running about 25% more than usual caliper area. So you can see problems on the horizon

Sure, but what I would be interested in is if you put a quality manifold on the exact same setup, would there be a power difference at 4,000rpm, 4,500rpm and 5,000rpm. My thinking is the std manifold would trail the performance of an aftermarket manifold

I am hearing entries are closed hours after opening. If true, congrats on the demand and popularity

You are doing a stella job living with the open wheelers under brakes and mid corner

Proof is in the pudding. But still dubious of the 300-400% claim. Can someone point me in the direction of a good article on this? My understanding from the old Iron Carbon diagram has always been strength-Ductility-toughness vs hardness is greatly dependent on the rates of heating and cooling etc and grain size and type. With cryo freezing you are not changing the grain structure type/composition, rather just refining the grain structure by making it slightly smaller and more uniform. So you are not increasing the UTS etc of the component, but stress relieving it so that it wont fail at its weakest point.

Out of interest, why is it the govt's job to give us more facilities? Victoria has the most facilties of any state and to complain about having to drive there is a little thin. You cant have them in built up areas due to noise and traffic. You cant have them in populated areas due to cost of land and development. If you have to drive 200kms then so be it. ESPECIALLY when you say cruising is fun. You will drive around in your nice car with no real destination in mind burning fuel and probably spend more then 2 hours cruising....but you wont drive to Winton or PI? 75% of anyone with a genuine interest in motorsport will have looked into how they could get access to their local track. Or done some level of driver training. Before the days of car forums and CAMS website etc maybe they could play the card they simply didnt know. Hell, who works on their cars? Their mechanics etc would either run or participate in days. I bet they read all about Time Attack in whatever magazine they read. Sorry, I am just old and cynical, but I don't buy it. Its fine to be interested in cruising , I did loads of it as the designated driver back when I lived in Sydney. But if you want to be part of the darker sub culture of illegal street stuff then odds are you are there because thats what appeals to you, not because you didnt know there was an alternative. Let me know when that happens, I will steer clear. I have friends in the TV industry who are car nuts and its been done before. The ONLY way to do it successfully is to have a B-grade celeb or personality doing it. Or someone trying to sell their Driver Training School as a back story. Then its amazing fun and something everyone should be encouraged to do. If its a story of people that spend all their hard earned playing with track cars you will only be depicted in one fashion. Its not a new problem. If your Dad was into cars sit with him and get him to tell you his youth-car stories. Old people think young people are all villians up to no good and if they have a hotted up car then they are trouble because they are loud and driven dangerously (yes i just turned up the volume on the stereotype/cliche dial) OH, and those talking about 60 Minutes is some bastion for journalism. It died years ago. Watch Media Watch and you will see how so many of their stories are beat ups and nothing but sensationalism with interviews with people cut and shut or simply not included as it didnt help to beat up the fear/impact the story will make. 60 Minutes stink almost as bad as the others. BUT, will add more power and congrats to those that think the fight is a good one. At the end of the day its terrible when people die on our roads. But in Vic it was something like 280-300 last year. Yet all the stories, coverage, fines trying to promote safety etc and nationally we are losing something like 35% more people to suicide, yet this doesnt get near the attention that road safety gets.

Small thing, but I don't think cryo increases strength (technically). It works by improving the weak points by ensuring more uniform grain structures. Well at least that was my memory of it from 10yrs ago when I once read about it

Well, when it come to the crunch I think I am truly sick of travelling with work so unless its Belgium, Switzerland or Ireland I am not going to bother. So car has been stranded in Sydney, should be getting it back in the next week or so. In the meantime I have kept myself sane without her by planning this trip to Germany-Belgium with a few friends. And for two days this was my track car at Spa

16th Niv too. Late enough in the year that I can probably plan a trip after building up some more holidays

So you can take it flat but its actually slower due to a bit of mid corner understeer. But at least I can die saying I have taken Eau Rouge flat

Personally Abu Dhabi sux dog balls for a GP. You will pay big money for tickets and accom. There is no social life when in town. So many other GPs in Europe or Asia where you will have amazing fun and most likely way cheaper and also whilst there is still a championship being run

I wish it was mine but Euro track days are where you realise that we rarely get special cars at the track And for two days this was my track car at Spa

Really hope MS makes one of his blinder starts and holds up the Macs and we get a good race. If the Macs xlear out and MS just holds up the mid paxk then that will be a shame . I want a repeat of Monza where the old dog schools Hamfist

Out of interest, can somebody explain why some curves are all wavey and all over the place like that? Is it the resolution/scaling?

St George Tyres has them even cheaper then that @ $215 / tyre. Not sure if there is two compounds available but some refer to UTQG of 100, some 200

I can get them for $1200 from OS, so looking at that . The wear is encouraging, can you gauge their outright pace against other tyres you run or similar modded cars? Are they quicker then RE55s? Equiv to AO50s? I read they are quicker then R888s

So Tuggah isnt far away now. No news on who is actually running from SAU? Seems only the Tassie lads are running

Oh christ. Do you know I forgot to put my tips in.

What would have been real interesting is an old head in the Williams. I cant help but wonder if Rubens would have got a great result for the team yesterday. A top 4 finish. I dont think Rubens will always be the better bet, but in the more chaotic races where you just have to keep punting and watch those fall off the track, Rubens has always been able to come through, especially in the lowly Honda days. But I think Senna and Pastor are solid enough that if they are really any good they will raise to the occasion. Feelk sprry for Pastor yesterday but it was a 1st year Rookie mistake... he better not make too many more of them in 2012. Not if the Williams is as quick as it looks