Snowman

Good job mate! So are you ready to do a Targa event or what now Russ?

Mate - I'm just glad both you and Kat are as sound as you are after such an experience. I know I'm wrapped to hear you're both doing so well. I guess most credit must go to the cage building skills down at Meridian. It certainly sounds like it's done its job well and I'm now super glad I had them build it to the level they did.

Unfortunately yes it was.

Definitely made for a funny phone call with Wooster. "Here comes YT - he's on fire. But like actually the whole back of the car is on fire!" And for anyone wondering I got a message last night from Kat saying Paul was air-lifted to Melbourne due to back soreness but he was ok. She was fine too.

I've had both. The R35 is definitely win.

Was announced at the SAU Nationals that SAU will be putting together a team for this. I can't make it We did something on a similar course back there in 2006 and it was epic!

So this means we aren't going to Syd to pick up the Cossie? I was going to ring you today and ask because if not I'm keen for PIARC. Will give you a buzz later.

FWIW - the club we run with here in Vic (WRX Club) used to run the first half of the day as Sprints (single cars leaving at intervals from the pits) and the second half as Super Sprints (cars lined up on the grid and let off in 2's). Super Sprints were fun - but not generally great for setting quick lap times.

Oh - and Slips motor never made it in time from AMS (even though it was due here AGES ago!)

Thanks Jonny - I've attached the dry laps vid below. You can see I'm still learning the limits of the car / tyres etc. I've only ever really run on R Comps before so the Dunlops are a challenge - especially the braking side. Shame I thought the car on show was g35me's - else I'd have made an effort to track you down and meet you. Your car was SOOO clean (especially those tail pipes - good job). For my car we are methodically working through it to better understand the limits. (seems they are quite a bit different to the old RB26's!) Turbo upgrade - which I must say are a great thing for a streetable track car as there is no noticable difference in lag - look like they really need the intercoolers / intakes upgraded to suit so that will be next on the list. Will sit down and work out whether to stick with the standard pull through style intakes or switch to a blow through system. But really that is as far as we are allowed to go with-in Targa regs especially now that E85 is banned for R35's. That being said we still might play with E85 for the Superlap stuff (can run different fuel pumps for Targa but not injectors - but they are an easy swap). The rest will be in set-up. I've got the Dodson arms in the front and rear now to experiment with geometry. Was running front neg 3 camber and 7mm castor plus neg 2 rear camber on the weekend and it was MUCH nicer - even on the street than the stock standard trim. My new rims are due here later this week (JUST missed the Nats which is a bummer as they are pretty sweet) - but have some R888's to run some back to back tests against the Dunlops as well. Once the engine / power set-up is sorted and we have a good base line on performance we'll move to the suspension. At this stage I'll be running with KW Competitions because they have good local support and a couple of small design features I like over the US popular JRZ's.

I'm keen to come up for a chin wag at some stage but not 100% sure I'll be able to do so. If I can make it I'll see if I can drag MrRB20 up and we can have some prelim discussions on Euro 2012 Woo. You're not in Melb for any length of time are you in case we can't make it?

Here is some in-car from the first wet session at Winton. I really like the new Akrapovic exhaust note too.

Yeah I think we were the only ones there right? Your car is definitely prettier than mine! I had some fun at Winton. Was good to get back in the car and learn some more. Geometry updates definitely helped a lot but we still need to find out why we can't get any boost into this car (anything over 17psi and the engine knocks). Shame because the Spec V turbo's really want to make lots of power. I'll chuck up some in-car footage later but 1.34.6 on OEM tyres is ok for starters.

I thought Duncan might just be having another one of his usual girly cries - but that does actually look pretty crap!

You are so uncultured It's the name of the dragon out of Tolkien's novel "The Hobbit" - because the old girl was also a fire breathing, money hoarding monster.

3rd pic is my all time favorite - taken on the back track at DECA Shepparton. Last pic answers the question I was often asked earlier this year. "How did you go from being so "average" at Wrest Point to on the money at Targa Tas?" Answer - I fixed the suspension! (Because otherwise it was the same damn car.)

Yeah that's why pretty much all of my Targa pics have watermarks - always been too tight to fork out the $400 on pics! Here's some others of my car(s) I've found laying around. And a good one of the last girl before the suspension was sorted!

Haha - yeah I keep thinking a 996 and a crack at the Challenge Cup is next on my list of things to do (entry is under $10K for a full season). With plenty of old cars well under the $100K mark it seems like it should all up be a lot cheaper than running a full Targa season in Modern. But the running costs for these things are the great unknown. I need to catch up for a beer with old mate Simon Middleton who is the typical gentleman racer in these types of series for his thoughts.

Haha - mate that's definitely your car because it never really felt like my car! THIS was my car. (even though your car is definitely better than this thing ever was, it still holds my heart today).

So how's it coming along Seb? 2 weeks and counting....

Sounds like a good excuse for me and Bris to come up fishing for a weekend

No matter what you're never getting the smell of it out of your house Paris! My plans after getting the new car was to get back for THC'12 - but I really don't know how accurate those plans are these days LOL Like Woo - I've got lots of other plans I'd like to do next year. And I'd still like to look at Pikes one day. Maybe once I get this car actually running properly I will think about what I will do with it.

I've never had a good crack at Strahan. The first time was VERY VERY moist and the second time was moist coupled with a busted shock. I'd love to do Queenstown in the dry once too.

This is something we haven't really ever wasted hours discussing before - favorite Targa stages. For Targa I'd have to say The Sideling, Sheffield and strangely enough Mt Rowland (and I prefer the direction of doing Mt Rowland to Cethana) are my top 3. Elephant Pass, Rianna and Paloona are unlucky to miss out. But I'd say out of all of them Mt Buller is hard one to go past as an absolute best bit of road to drive flat out. I think its a combination of the twistiness, the quality of the road and the fact that the pub is waiting for you when you finish it.

Is it just me or does Nick Percat have the makings of becoming Australia's answer to Sebastian Vettel? He seems to be the complete knob. I was half expecting him to raise the finger when Tander crossed the line! In saying all of that - fair drives from him and Thompson on the weekend. Two names we are sure to hear a fair bit of in the future I'm sure.