Snowman

So it seems after winning the GT1's last year that JRM are now gone for 2012 with the new spec'd series which is a bummer. http://gt1world.com/news/article/2012-entry-list- Wonder if this means they are just concentrating on GT3 or if like so many other past GT teams have gone in a new direction (Enduro racing being the most common one).

fixed Also - I think the RB20 version would make it fall outside of Classics though which would defeat the purpose.

Now at a proper price! http://www.my105.com/tabid/65/id/5498/default.aspx

Well for me it's more based upon my desire to go do the Ring 24h one day. I like the idea of enduro's more than your typical door to door 8 lap sprints. Mostly because it also involves the team aspect (which is one of my main reasons I love rallies) + I figure there should be less panel banging in that style of racing - especially in some of the mid/lower classes. But most of the cool world wide big enduro races are on the fun tracks. I spent 2 days a few years ago driving around Spa and it sure didn't get boring. Hence why I'm going back to do it again - IN 3 WEEKS But the GT guys are running this year 5 rounds with 2 x 1hr races including driver swaps which the R35 can do - and I reckon they might be fun to have a go at (even though the GT3 guys will probably be lapping around 10s/lap faster so our eye's will be in our mirrors the whole time). But enduro events at places like Bathurst, Dubai, Daytona, Spa or the Ring I can't imagine would be that boring.

I'm seriously contemplating going the circuit route with the R35 currently after my recent forest failure. With the long term aim for B12H in 2013. There are a couple of 1hr races I could do at PI later in the year so it's just a case of getting the full details on what's involved / needed before deciding on which path to take.

Good stuff Stu. Now all someone needs to do is develop a proper semi in 20's Dunlop were promising something for a Feb release but it never happened. But interesting review on the RE11S. I remember Craig from Tarckside (Vic Bridgestone dealer) did a test on them initially about 2 years ago at Phillip Island on some Mustangs and said they were too soft. But I'm not sure what compounds they were. And good to see you with a helmet on. Is the plan to use the RX7 for the circuit racing and if so what type of racing category and where?

Definitely was April 2009 - I remember it well. But there was also a very small influx of cars from the initial delivery - so really don't expect to see a whole lot until around June / July if you think the 3 year thing will be the key factor.

Well hopefully it will be better than our last one because that ended with us stuck in the forest....

OT slightly - can anyone tell me how the R35 was classified as a GT4 vehicle?

Good job on the win today Stu! Shame you had to spend so much time behind the safety car though. (And shame the live stream quality is so crap!)

It's starting to make Colorado Springs 2013 sound more and more inviting.

If I was running the R34 I'd go with a set of Dunlop Hards and a set of Yoki M's - and keep the Yoki's for the wet only (or the end if somehow no rain came). Had I been going in the R35 I'd have taken a similar approach with a set of OEM Dumlops for the dry and a set of R888's for the wet. But I think a dedicated wet set could be a winning move.

Obviously the two Ben's have me confused with this bloke.

I used to run this in the R34 because normal padding meant my head was on an angle. LOL

if you want to build a stroker - have a crack at the "Superlap" kind of series. There is more and more of them popping up now with the success of the big one in Sydney (eg "Trackbattle" came to W.A last year - although I have no idea if it was a one season wonder or not). And you can make a trip to NSW in August each year your highlight. You can go nuts and do what you like with those rules. As already mentioned the Speedevent series in W.A is some fun too - especially the fun they have out the back of Collie. A time attack car is fine for those. Currently Tarmac in W.A. you have the 2 Rallies - (Targa West and Targa South West) - but the rules over there are super restrictive compared to the rest of the Australian Targa universe which makes it hard as a W.A. local. But as already mentioned if you are building a Targa car start with the regs and go from there. Same with IPRA. But I thought there was some other cool door-door event in W.A. with their own set of rules? The series that the local Bridgestone guy runs his crazy R32 in?

The sound is the challenge and I don't know if there is a perfect solution - especially in rally environment. In a normal track day environment definitely an external mic under the dash is the way to go. Even in something like the little Caterhams and our POV camera that worked a treat. For Targa last year we ran dual mics in the GT-R. One under the dash and another clipped onto Matress's harness (but that meant no driver voice input). It was done this way as my old intercom only had audio in. Last weekend at Mt Baw Baw we just ran with the new audio into the new Stilo and I don't reckon there was enough car sound - so next time will run dual cables, with one into the intercom and one under the dash and that might be bang on. FWIW - I spoke to the guys at Protech yesterday and the new VBOX HD camera is out in April. I reckon that will be the bee's knee's motorsports camera (but will be around the $2K mark)

Well if you think about the turbo sizes in relation to the old models - the current stock R35 turbo is the same size as found on a stock R34 N1 GT-R (which was a 2.6L engine) and the Spec V turbo's are the same as the Z Tune ones (which was a 2.8L engine). So really they are massively under turbo'd which is why the upgrade made no noticeable difference in drivability from a response POV - but made a significant difference in power.

Having a good chat with Nick over a beer at Baw Baw - Nick would fall into the Greg Burrows category of drivers if that makes sense. His passion seemed to be participation and a showroom EMO is reliable and easy to drive so I actually think in his case it's the perfect car (I did actually suggest a Scirocco R but he balked at a FWD option! LOL) Coupled with the support you can get from people like TMR it makes for an easy week.

The Spec v turbo's were about $10K for the pair. They were $25K ea from Nissan! IHI couldn't sell the whole things directly but they did sell us the cores and the guys at Racepace built them from the stock housings. Given the wheel sizes etc it would be much easier / cheaper to get the same results using a Garret turbo (basically if you look at the numbers the standard turbo's are the same as a Garret 2860-7 and the Spec V turbo is the same as a 2860-5. It costs about $4K for a pair of -5's). You will still need to either change the manifold or adapt the cores into the standard housings however. Or else buy one of the pre-done units like the AMS Alpha 9 etc which is essentially all they are. But I actually think this slightly bigger turbo is ideally suited to these cars. As for the car it's mostly superficial from our initial inspections. Nothing serious is broken - I drove it onto the trailer after it was pulled out of the ditch. And the good news for me is there is a top bloke by the name of Mark Hansen that happens to have a bunch of these parts I need laying around

Can't let lifes knocks get you down Anyways - was great to meet you Nick. I secretly loved your car - I reckon they'd make the best tarmac cars around. But as you say there is plenty of capital in them. No doubt we'll see you in May if not beforehand.

So - first test didn't go so well... Will fix it and try again

Honestly mate who know's. The car was so different to the last time I drove it and there are so many factors as to why that might be so until we can rebuild it again and start playing in a better testing environment I'm not really sure. Even little things like the tyres I used we had to run on the dyno - and they got HAMMERED on the dyno (RWD only) so I don't know the effect that had on the rear grip in relation to all the other changes etc.

The car was stupid fast. I was feeling unwell in the morning so we'd just been cruising really and yet was more or less on ok speed. I'd actually just decided to take it up another notch that run - we were 5s up on our previous best run and only 1/3rd into the stage - and it was wet (the others were dry) when we had the off. They just generate speed so easily. But hindsight says it wasn't tarmac rally ready yet. Just glad that error hasn't hurt anyone.

A thread already exists on this topic. (Actually so far there are 3 live ones I know of not including this one on these forums! LOL)

Well the car has been fully bolted back together an tuned now. I'm not a huge one for dyno numbers as they are too varying across the world - but I have attached the dyno graph more to show the power curve itself on this kind of set-up. I'm pretty wrapped and this is only at 19psi (it common to run this set-up around the 23-26psi mark in the US). It's also only on 98RON - not E85. But this is about 80kw's up on where it was previously. I reckon this would make a killer street set-up though. Unfortunately this car came with a built motor which has a tenancy to rattle a lot (even on a dead stock OEM factory tune) once it gets some heat into it - possibly due to it's large piston clearance (3.5 thou) hence the low boost levels. So we will run some logs over this weekend and see how it runs but I think long term a good bottom end will be required to get the max out of this set-up. Anyways - hopefully we'll see a couple of you up on the hill this weekend.