Snowman

It's a well known fact that GTR's can only spend a maximum of 9 months per year in working condition. PS - Welcome.

Brisby, I always had the same issues as you do with the slower corners. For me the obvious killer was the 2 ends of Calder. But at say the Island I never had a problem. The fix has been adding more castor. Its made a huge difference. I still haven't learnt to drive it propperly yet with the extra front grip it has on the slower stuff.

Bec - the 39 was apparently done a while ago - before the cage went in. Not at the WRX Club day.

I've been told Sam did 1.15, Trevor did 1.18.8 and Kennedy did 1.22.4 (5th fastest car for the day) which was quicker than Crazy Tony but that's all I know.

Yep - thats him. He got sick of being beaten by GTR's so has joined us. As they all do in the end.

Word has it Trevor tapped the wall in the Purple MPC car as well. Any word on how bad that was? Also - JKF had his first outting is his new car (R33 GTR changed over from the old GTO) and did a 1.22 in basically a stock GTR (just exhaust and cam gears). Very impressive.

Actually they are white again now. But anyways......

I'll be there on May 1st (the water park). Now I'm even more excited! I'm stopping off for 2 days on the way home from Germany just to go to this water park.

We had a good chat to Dom on the Tuesday (from Autostyle with the Mines GTR) and they were never planning on attending the competition. They were down their with a perspective customer for the car. They had been running that car all day when at the end they let a "mate" take the car for a spin. And he litterally took it for a spin. During the spin they had a slight problem (and missed Terry Holt's EVO by mm's) but they fixed it up at the track and drove it home. It wasn't anything serious. The car was pretty impressive but I couldn't tell you any lap times. It certainly looked smick and the BBS rims were tough as. Brisy - don't dispare. Charles also said that the plan for 2007 was to hold 4 events and each of the events was for Marques - so there will be a Skylines Only day next year. Maybe you'll be right for that.

Brisby - I doubt it. It either had to be quick (like Russ's car and the MX5) or had to LOOK quick - like the teg, the M Coupe and the Zed- or just be different like the Turbo S2000 and Pete's car. So to get in you'll have to chuck on a big GT Wing or something probably or gte up there and run an official 1.07. lol The mag comes out in May so you can see what was there. There were stacks of cars in the 1.08's / 1.09's I think. Only the MX5 (1.07.8) and the Black R32 (1.06.3) were under 1.08's. But I think a few more cars will be there for the next one. Notaris said he'll be there and both him and Mark/Russ said they'll be aiming for 1.05's and the MX5 guy reckons he'll be in there too since this was the cars first run.

Frank's best is still in the 1.20's I believe. But he ran that in 2004. Last year he did his clutch straight up and never beat his 2004 time. Given no problems he'll kill it this time. Last year Sandown had 3 cars under 1.20. Sam, Benno and Clayton.

Also - even though you have said you won't track the car it's interesting to note that the guy leading the Wakefield lap times (Russ aka giant) runs those Tein Super Streets. Pretty much because Wakefield is a bumpy track and it seems those super streets are great for absorbing the bumps without making the car rolly. (For example Tien HA's don't abosrb bumps well and make a shockingly hard car to drive around in bumpy conditions) I know Russ rates them pretty highly.

Yeah Aaron - it was a disaster from the get go really. The hard part was I'd driven 800km's so I wasn't about to turn around and go home without having a play. Although in hind sight if I'd have done that it'd have saved me a few $$$. Anyways - as Ash said when we got there we noticed the rear left shock was gone. But I went out anyways. It wasn't too bad initially - but it got worse. I think I was into the 1.08's by the 2nd lap on the practise day (only 2 cars under 1.08 for the whole competition) and that was just running on low boost (1.2 bar or about 250rwkw's). I did get into the 1.07's in my 2nd session but then the car got worse. The bouncing caused me many visits to the gravel (I think I worked out I went off at every corner at some stage) and on one visit off the track I hit a bit of a hole which pretty badly buckled a rim. What I didn't realise was this actually was deflating that tyre slowly. The R comps don't really tell you when they have lost pressure as the side walls are so stiff. So basically on the competition day in the warm up practise session I went out and the flat trye rolled off the rim. Killed the tyre totally and I couldn't get another one this side of a 6hr round trip. It turns out that the other rear shock had gone by this stage too which was why at the end of the practise day I litterally couldn't do a lap without spinning at this one spot on the track. I think I spun on my last 4 laps on the Wed. The whole car was just bouncing like a kangaroo - it was pretty fuuny. So the only blessing is that due to the weather basically they are going to re-run the event later in the year. I spoke to Charles and he's keen for me to bring a few more cars from Vic up so I'm sure I'll be speaking to you later about it Aaron (they are making it a 2 day event next time) . You'll love the track - it's heaps of fun to drive. It's hard to explain as the top speed isn't high (just over 200) but it feels like a fast track simply because there is so many quickish sweepers. Lots of 4 wheel slides. It's tops fun. As for Mark and Russell's car it's impressive but I still think Frank would have him no problems. I reckon it's about on par with your car. With the dog box and the 4.3 diff's I reckon they'd run out of legs at the island and it also might be a bit soft but at Wakefield it's a pretty good car and would be tough to beat. Anyways - Benno has my car and hopefully come Morwell we'll finally get to have a run and we'll see where we are at Aaron.

I have a Jim Berry too. It's great. It's better than my old Nismo Twin G Max was.

You can only turn up and get the CAMS license sorted on the day IF someone from the committee of the club you are a member of is there to sign all the forms for you. But you'll also need to pre-arrange this as it's a slightly different form to the one downloaded from the CAMS website.

Also be aware that they are talking about being very restictive on spectators for this event as the last one they over packed. So if you do want to watch volunteering as a flaggy may be your best bet.

http://www.wrx.com.au/downloads/Sandown%20Entry%20Form.pdf http://www.wrx.com.au/downloads/Sandown%20Supp%20Regs.pdf

Hey its not so much that its just a close ration gear box - the 4.3 diffs are helping a lot as well. My order is now in for some 4.11's.

I have to upload that pic I took from the Autosalon thing. Because how those tyres are called semi slicks is beyond me. They are slicks with 2 tiny grooves. lol

Go the RE55's. They are a good 1-2s / lap quicker around Sandown than the Advans. However - if you really want the Advans you can get them from Traction Tyres on Kellets Rd in Rowville. They will cost you more but too. (There is only 1 distributer per state for each of the semi-comps).

Great work Russ/Mark. Your car was working sweet. I'm a bit bummed about all my drama's but I don't reckon I'd have got you guys anyways. It's pretty hard to gauge how quick the car could have been given I did the 1.07.8 with the stuffed shock and low boost but I'm not sure I could have got down to a low 1.06 even with the car spot on. By the time we got home we noticed the other rear shock was gone too and another of the tyres was flat! It just wasn't my event. Loved the track however - it really is a drivers track - so I'll be keen to come back again and I'll try and bring some more competition too.

I'll be getting there on Tuesday but I'm doing the open practise day on the Wed instead. Not sure if anyone else will be there on Wed or not?

All all R31 drivers so tight they can't afford to pay $50 for a bed? We currently have 2 rooms in the villa's. My room is full with me, my wife and my daughter. Ash has a room by himself til Bris rocks up. What all you boys do in Ash's room is up to you. Never having been to Wakefield before I can't say how big the rooms are. However the Villa's do have a lounge room so I'm guessing there is couches people can use if they can't afford the $50 for a bed.

pete - you can sleep on the floor in Ash's room. LOL My 5 month old daughter is sleeping on my floor and I'd hate for my wife to accidently try and breast feed you at 2am instead of my daughter.