djr81

Here is a revolutionary idea. Write a letter. Not an email because that will be ignored. A proper letter. Type it out, even. Use punctuation. Maybe even correct grammar. Make your argument in a lucid, coherent way with out resorting hyperbole & without pointing the finger at everyone else in the community eg saw some dickhead in a Commodore blah blah blah. In other words a letter quite unlike most of the posts in this thread. You could perhaps explain how this sort of law making, despite having the veneer of being targetted against social outcasts has a wider & indeed more pervasive negative effect on the car enthusiast community as a whole. You could perhaps give examples of such effects. Nothing over the top, just demonstrating how these stupid laws make you life as a proper, responsible grown up harder than it needs to be. You could also explain how this sort of nonsense has a negative effect of the type of organised, legal & beneficial activities & facilities that do their part to stop the sort of stupidity the laws are designed to prevent. You could also explain how the sorts of people who have "no regard for the law" will still have no regard for the law, irrespective of how punishing any law may be. Then perhaps, politely ask him to stop being such a spanker & stop taking advice from malformed fkwits who think anyone under the age of 60 is out to rape, pillage & generally destroy society as we know it. Ok, maybe leave that last part out.

As said you need to be a member of an affiliated car club to get a CAMS license. The WASCC is particularly good value for money if you enjoy your motorsport. You get: 1. Access to all the events held there, which include the V8 (all days), truck races, drift events plus all the local stuff. 2. A voucher for a practice day where you get to do as many laps of the track as you can manage/be bothered. 3. Quarterly mag. 4. Plus loads of other stuff as per the www.wascc.com.au website. Yes it is more expensive than some other affiliated clubs but there again you get much more value for your dollar. Hell if you take out the cost of just attending the V8 race for Sunday alone (With, say a pit pass) it is nearly half paid for.

Am I the only one amused by the fact that the mock up cover for this years Autocourse has a picture of an McLaren on the cover. Lewis's McLaren at that. Last time they did that was in 1983 with Prost in a Renault on the cover. Oops.

The inherent flaws in this sort of stupidity are in multitude, but here are just a few: *It has little to no influence over the brain dead clowns who may engage in "street racing". It does however have a major affect on the constabulary who will now be out accusing every man & his dog of doing so. * The clueless spankers who advocate this sort of nonsense do so for the publicity, not for any effect on road behaviour. Other than any minor affect on a select few morons who may engage in "road racing" overwhelmingly all this sort of nonsense does is help promote a culture of intolerance on the roads towards other road users. * It diverts attention from the fundaments of road safety, ie improving roads, improving education & improving the standards of the cars on it. What shits me to tears is that those with their snouts & both front trotters in the trough of "road safety" will happily ascribe any improvements in accident rates to their malformed "initiatives". Please note "initiative" is used here in the Pickwickian sense, ie it can be taken to mean slavishly copying what someone else in another juristiction has done. On the flip side any temporary cluster of bad accidents or fatalities is taken to show the need for more stringent measures, ie heads I win, tails you lose.

Flava Flave says harden up you FIFO weiners & get your entries in.

It would be nice to see some Skylines along to one of the Speed Event Series sprints - even if it is just to spectate. The next on is on at Wanneroo on the 2nd December (a Sunday) and goes from 10am to about 3pm. Entrry is absolutely free & you can get yourself some lunch etc at McCracken house. The series website is at www.speedeventseries.com. Flyer for the event is at www.wascc.com.au. There are a good variety of cars that turn out - everything from wings & slicks open wheelers to sports sedans to road cars to historic cars. In fact you name it & it will probably be there, HSV's aside. There will even be some twat there in a white R32. For some photos of the previous event are at www.circlework.com.au - see the July photos.

Sorry, what day is that again? My browser has been playing up too.

The interesting bit is that the FIA appear to have something more substantive than vague generalisations this time. Anyone care to raise the bar on 100 million?

Well I am off down the TAB to invest $100 in Spyker winning the 2007 constructors championship.

Well to be perfectly honest I don't know. I had changed a bundle of things since my last track day so a difference in the springs is hard to fish out. I can say that the car handles much better during changes of direction particularly through the chicane & even the left/right after the start finish straight (At Collie in WA). The balance of the new car is better than the old, but there are other factors involved not just springs. The grip hasn't improved but then the tyres I was running are not getting any younger & it was bloody hot. If I had to put a number on it it I would say maybe 2 or 3 tenths over a 51 second lap. The advantages are that the car is much less pondorous than before. I would post a photo for a compare & contrast but whomever the blokes in the orange jackets with the long lenses were, they aren't publishing anything. Maybe after next month at Wanneroo.... xmas_sprint.pdf

The FIA has summoned representatives of the Renault F1 team to answer charges of possessing confidential McLaren information, as a new spying scandal threatened to engulf the sport on Thursday. "Representatives of the Renault F1 Team have been requested to appear before a hearing of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Monaco on Thursday, December 6, 2007," read an FIA statement. "The team representatives have been called to answer a charge that between September 2006 and October 2007, in breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, the Renault F1 Team had unauthorised possession of documents and confidential information belonging to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes," the statement continued. "Including, but not limited to the layout and critical dimensions of the McLaren F1 car, together with details of the McLaren fuelling system, gear assembly, oil cooling system, hydraulic control system and a novel suspension component used by the 2006 and 2007 McLaren F1 cars."

Not quite sure why it has to be Japanese in origin. http://www.aurorabearing.com/ Available through Go Gear in WA amongst others.

Not that his old man ever drove for Williams (may explain why Honda snatched their motors) but here is hoping he is just as entertaining. Albeit not so much in a "stuffing it into the wall at heroic velocities" kind of way. We have Force India for that.

Whether or not you get the Bilsteins revalved depends on the spring rates you want to run. I got them done when I first bought them, ie when running the Whilteline springs. I didn't get them re done when I changed to the Eibach springs, however had I gone for a higher rate they would have need looking at. If you are spenging the kind of money to get good springs & dampers it makes sense to get the right damping rate. Otherwise you are just wasting your money.

Perhaps, but it doesn't justify things like renegging on agreements to not run cigarette sponsorship. F1 has always been about money & ego. Although to be fair for some teams it is just about ego. In fact I would go as far as saying just about all forms of motorsport are about money & ego. I mean lets face it how many sponsors don't like seeing their company name on the car - you can't tell me that the overwhelming majority of deals (that is number, not dollar value) really represent good value for money? For that matter if you look at the top drivers & even team managers/engineers over the years a shortage of self belief & indeed ego is not usually a problem for any of them. It is more so a prerequisite to get to where their going. If you have some amusing tales about DJR I would be interested to hear of them, maybe a PM?

Well "other teams" didn't instigate protests because they were supposedly held up by another car 100 metres plus down the track. Or get their drivers to park at the apex of corners to prevent others from qualifying. Other teams didn't lobby the FIA to change their mind to classify suspension systems as aero components - simply because they themselves couldn't get them to work. Nor use their own dodgy designs to try & impugn other teams. It is not arrogance to take the view that you follow the rules & do you best out on the track. For me winning in the stewards office or winning by forcing other teams to chase around after nonsense you yourself have created is no way to go racing. Tom Walkinshaw was a past master at it. Which is why I was glad when he got the arse from Benetton & Ligier & then I wasn't so sorry to see Arrows disappear. Some people admire this sort of carry on - even think of it as clever. It just so happens that I don't. At the end of the day and despite the stupid amounts of money involved it is supposed to be sport, not world war 3. Yes maybe McLaren would dominate. Just like Renault before them & Ferrari before them & McLaren before them & Williams & Benetton & McLaren & Williams & Lotus & so on & on. It is more usual for one team to dominate than there to be much in the way of competition. It is the nature of categories that don't fall under the "control" class. This season has been the worst in F1 since 1994. But atleast no one died. Although not too many years ago Kubicas effort in Canada would have been fatal. Hopefully after the sham FIA hearing next Thursday everyone can put a line under it & move on to 2008.

You adjust pressures to obtain (To the extent you can) the best possible temperature gradient across the tread face, ie to even out the temperature at the inner, middle & outer edge of the tyre. This is hopelessly complicated by the (for example) different amounts of camber induced by braking as against cornering. The second reason is to do with needing to generate temperatures at all. Sometimes too high a pressure will not allow proper temps to be developed on low grip surfaces. The third reason relates to the tyre construction & maintaining the requisite pressures to allow it to work. This is most commonly shown up by massive vibration when cornering on cold/underpressured tyres. The fourth reason relates to how many laps you want to do & when you need the tyre to achieve it peak grip (Assuming you are not running valves that allow a constant pressure to be maintained.)

Actually they got handed both championships by the FIA. But you are right in part because they did beat the powerhouse that is Spyker, not to mention Toro Rosso. Your also right about their management techniques, Niccolo Machiavelli has nothing on the mob from Modena. That they can sleep at night is probably only a by product of having no scruples.

My point was that the team will be more successful if its drivers are confident and believe that they have the confidence of the team. The exercise of having Schumacher around may make headlines & some people feel good about themselves, but I cannot see how it helps either of their two current drivers develop such beliefs. Clearly it doesn't help Kimi because he basically ignores Schumacher. Massa drives well when he is out in front but tends to make a dogs breakfast of things when he qualifies beyond the first two of rows. So don't you think a bit of self belief would help him aswell?

So you are advocating treating the drivers like dogs as a way to motivate them, engender some confidence in them & generally help them put in their best performances? Ferrari are past masters at treating their drivers badly.

Well I reckon the past is just that, the past. As high a regard as some people may hold Schumacher in it is no different to having someone like Prost or Mansell or Berger or Alesi or any of the other former drivers attend a test. I was looking at it from the current drivers point of view. It would be giving them conniptions - on the assumption either of them are presently sober enough to care. The team should be focussed on building a car for next years that can win without the help of the FIA, not on nostalgia. They have the thoroughbred GP series for that.

The unfortunately reality is that the inline 6 has probably had its day. The packaging benefits of the V6 makes them a better proposition for the run of the mill car companies - particularly those running transverse installations. Even in longitudinal ones the gains are there in making the car easier to engineer for crash worthiness. But to defend the old inline six (Which I have a soft spot for) they have the following advantages over their bent up brethren: * Inherent first and second order balance - the V6's either run funny vee angles or need an extra balance shaft. * Easier packaging when you turbo charge the motor. * More room on the axhaust side which allows better cooling for the turbo chargers etc. * Cheaper head castings as you only need two cam shafts & on head. * They sound much nicer.

I can't imagine why Kimi hasn't yet gone ballistic at the Ferrari management. I mean, he has just won them the drivers championship & they return the favour by dragging out some retired old hack to test their car. Wouldn't he just tell them to keep Schumacher the fk out of everyones way?

Yeah, strange isn't it. You'd think that the fact that it is both ugly & over weight would be enough for most people.

A few of points. 1. F1 cars do not have tail shafts. 2. Transaxles have been around for longer than carbon fibre has been used in motor cars. 3. All that Nissan have to do is to ensure that the harmonic frequency for the tail shaft is higher than the speed that the tail shaft can reach. Obviously putting the shaft being before the gearbox has a tendency to make the figure a higher number (Assuming you can't hit the redline in top gear - not true in the case of most GT-R's). As an example my old AU Foulcan has a limiter set at 180km/h to prevent this very problem.