Snowman

Well Ivan you have to send 2 of those back since they aren't available in Australia......

That's what Marks mum and dad are around for.

yep - 240 is around 8,400 rpm which is just below my shift point. Come to Phillip Island (or even Sandown) and you'll need 5th for sure. We do things fast down here. It's the crazy speeds that make Phillip Island such a buzz. You just can't appreciate it until you have driven it.

yep - but prolly not at $90

Sorry - it is the Saturday before (August 25th). And remember also Winton is open every Friday (well most Fridays) so if you came for the weekend before for the 2 days you'd cover about half of what you'd need to know (total time spent at DECA + Winton = 1.5 of the 3 days)

We need to arrange an Audi session James before I could make my decision. But the 997 GT3 is in there (prob RS version though). That car is sweeeeet to drive

If you can get down the week before we'll be running a day at DECA which you'll be at for 2 of the 3 days. Will also give you some good cone practise if you haven't had much before and a few of us can show you some tips.

I could be up for this.

The Blue one?

They combated that yesterday by letting 2 cars out at a time rather than 1 car approximately 5-10s appart. So it meant IF we got the the front we didn't catch the "last cars". It just meant we used the out lap as an extreme overtaking lap rather than a "warm up" lap.

well PI was 14 until last week. It has just been increased to 26. So that could be the new number for EC.

Phillip Island wasn't too bad. I'm more worried about places like Winton where the track is much smaller. Will have to see if they use the new rules down there this weekend.

According to my little "excel" calculations sheet 8,100rpm in 4th is 239km/hr. I haven't looked down at the speedo to check how true that is however

Yep it's about as far south on mainland Australia that you can get. Literally as you drive down the main straight (at around 260-270km/hr ) you are looking over Bass Straight towards Tassie. Here's a Vid of the Vic Stig doing a lap of the track. Right Click - Save As (34MB) It doesn't do it justice and Jack makes it look easy but take into account the top of 4th gear is around 240km/hr and see how many corners are taken high in 4th. The video starts coming onto the main straight and you can see Bass Straight in front of you

Faster than Scotsman. That's all that matters

I fly in late Friday night and head back the Monday morning. I'll be back later in July for Dutton though. Well if there aren't YET many fast skylines out there in W.A. but you would like to get into having some legal fun feel free to come along and have a chat. I'm more than happy to talk to anyone that is keen. You guys have some of the best fun stuff you can do over there. Whilst Collie and Barbagallo might not be in the same league as say Phillip Island or Eastern Creek they still look like a lot of fun. And other places like AHG where they hold the regular sprint series and some of the hill climbs you have are awesome and a well sorted GT-R should smoke everyone. I had a play at AHG at Christmas time and its a brilliant facility. If you get into it you won't regret it - it's the best fun you can have out of bed.

Howdy Sandgroupers, I'm heading over to W.A. at the end of the month for a bit of a motorsport weekend getting a feel for the car and the tracks I'll be using for the Dutton Rally later in the year. There is a practise day at Barbagallo on Sat June 30th and a CMG day at Collie on Sunday July 1st. Can't tell you much else as far as details but it would be great to see some real cars along at one or both of these days and to see what W.A. has to offer as far as fast Skylines go. From what I can tell the only fast cars over there are EVO's (which is what I'll be driving in) and that just isn't on so it would be super to be shown otherwise. Cheers Snowy

Which is why the one session you were in front of me your best time was a 1.53...

I spoke to AIM Sports and they said they could fix it "for a fee" and we'd have to send the units to them. Basically I just cut my cable and spliced in a new length to make it longer with just some electrical tape and heat shrink. Its only a basic 4 core cable.

Which car Cam? The real one or the talentless one? Actually if you come and bring the EVO I'll speak to Uncle Jeff and see if he'll come down too. Not sure if you have met him yet but I'm sure you will at Dutton Vic this year. He's not bad for an old man.

Earlier this year John from UAS came down to Phillip Island for the Nissan Nationals and has since been looking for another date to come back. Yesterday at June PIARC sprint it was announced they will be holding another 2 day event on the weekend of October 20/21 and John is keen to come down again for it. It would be great if anyone else was keen to come down to join us and have a drive around what is with-out doubt the best full time circuit in Oz. The way these weekends work is the Saturday is non-timed practise sessions of around 15min I think - but you can usually expect to get around 50 laps on a Saturday ss there isn't usually too big a crowd. Sundays will be timed sprints which involves a warm up lap followed by 3 timed flying laps. You will get 5 timed sessions for the day and then given time you will get other non-timed sessions at the end of the day. Usually the entry costs are $130 per day. But it would be great to get a few SAU people from all over along for it. Entry Form And Sup Req's

Well apparently CAMS have now altered the rules for the number of cars allowed on the track per session in club sprints. I can't tell you the exact numbers for all tracks around the country and I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this but I have my guesses. I had my 1st experience of the new rules down at Phillip Island yesterday where the maximum number of cars allowed onto the track at any one time for a club sprint was increased from the old 14 cars to now allowing 26 cars out together. My theory is they have done this in an attempt to slow down the crazy fast cars now doing club sprints without roll-cages etc as with that many cars on the track it was damn hard to get a clean lap out. Although Phillip Island is a big track and we were able to get a few good laps out through the day. Next weekend we are going to Sandown where the limit has been changed from 12 to 20 cars. I think that is going to be harder to get a clean lap in. But at the same time it was kinda fun with lots of traffic - there was some great "racing" sessions to be had. Also it meant that pretty much you got back and parked your car and check the things you check and then you were already being called back up for your next session. So there was heaps more laps to be had through the day. So do people think these new rules are a good thing or a bad thing? The one thing I can say is that in all the years I've done super sprints I have only ever seen 1 incident involving car to car crashes in a club sprint - but they were WRX drivers so you can understand it.

The Jinx is Broken! :PBJ: :PBJ: :PBJ: :PBJ: :PBJ: :PBJ: :PBJ: I finally got through my 1st full track day since Oct 05 down at PI yesterday without drama's (well except for a cooler pipe in one session). And boy does it feel great to be back. So Sandown here we come!

Someone down at PIARC today actually said the accident was caused when a steering rack broke. This is the 1st explination that makes any sense as to how it may have happened. And I can tell you right now a broken steering rack is something I NEVER want on a racetrack!

Well after what seems like an eternity to me I'm finally back and marked my return today at Phillip Island with a new PB of 1.47.17. Not too shabby given it is the 1st full track day I have got through in my car since Oct 05 and that the tyres I was on (toyo's) were definitely a good 1.5-2s slower than the bridgestones looking at how much Scotsman could get back on me through the sweepers and under brakes.