djr81

Yeah great idea. 2 hours of racing which would include atleast an hour and a half of safety cars. Plus there would be exactly zero chance that the Bathurst circuit would be able to be certified to run a GP. The only circuits worthy would be Adelaide & PI. It is a shame that the money poured into Albert Park every year can't be put somewhere that could use it for the remainder of the year. Still anyone old enough to remember the "international" circuit at Sandown - remember the Group C race in the eighties? - may conclude it isn't worth the risk...

Calm down. I am not saying they should bin the Australian GP. Just the Albert Park circuit. It is dull as dishwater - at no point do the cars even look like they are going faster than your average Formula Ford.

They actually gave the award to the Pulsar in about 92. It won in conjunction with the Hoinda NS-X. That the Commode won will come as absolutely no suprise to anyone who reads Wheels magazine. To win you need a car that has no glaring shortcomings (Which usually rules out most European cars) & is good value for money. Hence the history of Japanese & Australian cars winning the award. The second point is timing. Every new Commodore released won the prize, but in hindsight I am not sure that any of them were truly deserving. There was very little competition this year - maybe the Toyota & that was about it.

For my 10 cents worth I wish they would replace the Albert Park circuit. It has to be THE most boring circuit for F1 racing anywhere - even the track in Hungary is better.

I strongly suspect you will have problems on the back if you are running a centre of tyre to guard height of 345mm as recommended. In anycase you don't want/need much -ve camber on the back. The fronts should be fine with a useful amount of -ve camber.

Try Noltec or Whiteline.

To anyone out there running a useful amount of -ve camber on their R32 GT-R. By this I mean more than two degrees on a 355mm front height ot there abouts. Having set my car up this way I find that the front rims could happily run much less offset - about half an inch less. I guess I have two options - spacers & a different rim. The questions I have are two fold: 1. Will 15mm extra offset be felt in steering kickback/bump steer? 2. Does anyone offer a rim in 17*9 with a +10mm offset or thereabouts which also happens to have enough room for an aftermarket caliper? This would go with a +22 (or more) on the rear.

But if they are running on this years tyres, how would they even get close to the record?

Based solely on this test result I am predicting a Super Aguri 1 - 2 result in Melbourne. Better get on the bandwagon now, Roy. Before it leaves town.

Problem was the wind was really howling - to the extent that I couldn't get the camera to hold still properly. A 4 - 5 second exposure would have been better, but there was no way I could have got a proper shot with it. I had to use the 0.125 second & even then half the shots had the comet walking across the photo. Played with the histogram. Not suprisingly everything was on the LHS for this shot.

I played around with the ISO settings on the camera last night. Turned out that I needed them turned up to 400 to compensate for not being able to have the shutter open for as long as I would have liked. Anyway, I think it worked ok.

I think you are drawing a long bow to say that the constabulatory hassle import drivers to protect Australian car manufacturers. More probably they don't like imports for more pedestrian reasons. Whether we like it or not a not insubstantial percentage of import & even Skyline drivers are tools & probably deserve every bit of targetting they get.

Here is hoping Toyota can bolt together a decent engine. I have a sneaking suspicion the only differences will be that the Toyota motor will have less hp than last years Cosworth & the driver pairing won't be as good. Although maybe Rosberg will stop running into his team mate. Hope I'm wrong.

Yeah, sorry I get lazy & tend to refer to rear suspension as double wishbones when there are inevitably different layouts of the links involved. Probably it's because of the rear wheel steering, but may just be a lack of application on my behalf. They are fundamentally different to struts & semi trailing arms & in a way the arrangement of the links doesn't make a whole heap of difference. Here is one prepared earlier. What Salad said with regard to the transference of load to the chassis via the suspension arms to bang on.

I'm guessing the list would start out something like this: Swaybars Struts/spring combo or coilovers Control arm bushes Subframe bushes Steering rack bushes Strut brace(s) but being new to the world of skylines (coming from the cordia the above list covers it all ) I don't know what else is needed. Are there other bushes and bits that you'd do if completely overhauling the suspension? If you inspect the bushes then you only need replace what is stuffed. Your list is comprehensive. 1) Is the rear suspension a strut design like the fronts or independent spring/struts like a trailing arm? I ask because I wonder whether there are strut braces available for the rear and whether they're worthwhile. The rear suspension is a double wishbone like the front. (ie not a semi trailing arm). On the rear, strut braces aren't needed. 2) What's the difference between a coil/shock strut design and a 'coilover'? I've always purchased separate spring/strut combos for my cars but I keep seeing coilovers for skylines at fairly massive prices, so what's the difference? A 'coilover' has a threaded shock case & the coil is closely wound around the shock body. On ordinary shock wont have the height adjustability that a coil over has. In terms of function there is no real difference. There is a third type eg the bilsteins whereby an ordinary spring is used but the shock body has clips to allow height adjustment in increments. 3) Are nolathane products common and in a skyline what is the compromise between comfort and handling like? Some cars get a really sharp and ultimately uncomfortable ride with nolathane while others just seem to tighten up and still feel nice. And are nolathane bits made for most of the car? The Whiteline gear is not Nolathane, nor is the Noltec stuff. To be honest it is probably not worth bothering with on a Skyline. 4) Re strut braces: reading SK's Shockabsorber 101 thread I found the following information: Since the purpose of a strut brace is to try and stop the tower from moving when the strut takes (mainly) lateral force, if the double wishbone setup takes care of this is there any point to strut braces? Or is there still significant force in the direction of the strut that a brace is valuable? Strut braces work much better on MacPherson strut suspended cars than on Wishbone suspended cars. I would defy anyone to notice the difference in a back to back drive, but they don't hurt & if you want some bling then go buy one.

Thanks for that - you're a champ.

Do WASCC members get free entry to this?

I usually set the camera to be able to manually select the shutter speed - mostly because it is in auto the car is gone by the time it gets its shit together. The speed I use varies, but typically is something like 1/400 or 1/640 or 1/800 (from memory). The ISO speed has four (I think) settings - so I should use a lower setting for the shiney stuff? BTW, what sort of DSLR whould you recommend for this sort of caper, ie cars on circuits.

The shutter speed (if that is what you mean) will go down to 1/3200 of a second. The equivalent film speed is Auto*, ISO 50/100/200/400 equivalent (* Camera automatically sets optimum speeds.) Specs are here if it helps... http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras/d...s2is_specs.html

I am having all sorts of problems getting good photos of white cars on racetracks (ie moving) when the sun is out. The panels on the care seem to flare. (If that is the correct expression). anyway, see the attachment for what I am trying to say. Can anyone suggest any set ups tips (eg exposure length etc) for the camera. It is a Canon S2 IS.

Ferrari are still sponsored by Marlboro. Hence the ciggie packet red instead of a proper scarlet colour. They just aren't allowed to show their logos. Besides, it is not like they need the money.

Try www.pitstop.net.au

Um, I think people are getting their wires crossed. The R compound Bridgestone tyre is the RE55. There are two compounds available in Australia - a hard & a soft. If you go to an ordinary Bridgestone shop you will probably get a blank look from the bloke behind the desk, so try the more motorsports orientated outfits.

Well the rear ends in the V8's are only very tenuously linked to the Ford 9" diff. There has been (Like every component in the cars) an awful lot of engineering put into them. If you take a look at the detail work of the diffs in the car you can see why Ron Harrop & the like earn their money. There are plenty of showroom series out there. Unfortunately the history of showroom class racing is a litany of cheating when done at the top level.

Which entirely misses the poijnt of using a broker. he should be using his contacts & relationships in Japan to ensure you get a car in good condition. It is not just about paperwork...