Snowman

I'll be there with the R35.

Hey mate - I was on the same podium with Herridge and we both had plates saying 2nd and a big bottle of champagne. You'll never be able to tell me I came anything else but because that was my only focus for the race! There is no such thing as an overall prize / trophy in that event. Now with this new car the eventual goal is Targa Top 10 but a desire is for a Top 5. IN MODERN. But the first main goal is going to be Superlap Clubman Class next year in a car that is either fully Targa spec or with easily swapped mods (such as we may look at E85 for Superlap).

Exactly I wasn't competing against Herridge so he has nothing to worry about. But next time.....

God - not you too. Where did you finish your last Targa? 3rd or 18th?

Timmy - not sure what Alford ran but Jones ran 19's (P Zero's) Steve-o. My best at PI was a 1.47.1 - but that was a LONG time ago in the blue car and on rubbish tyres. I never went in the White car but I reckon a 1.45 was possible. Mind you if the engine wasn't playing up on Saturday I'm sure a 1.45 was easy done with this new car with just the A050's - which is pretty amazing I reckon given it was running low power and otherwise stock! These things really are an awesome bit of gear. I'll be back there in Oct for the PIARC weekend so we'll see if I'm right.

Yeah Richard the car was definitely better ratio'd through turns 9,10,11,12 and to a lesser degree in 4,5,6. But it's possible with some extra grip this might reverse - will have to wait and see. But the objective is to get the car into the 1.43's @ PI in full Targa trim.

Another interesting little fact for people who like camera thingies. The Vbox guys told me last week that early in the new year they will (finally) have a HD, 16:9 camera available for the Vbox / VBox lite. The other little bit of info is that this will be the first ever CCD HD camera available (as opposed to all the other ones out there which are CMOS). Anyhoo...

So - as some of you already know after a short hiatus I've jumped back into an R35 GT-R. This time with Targa Tasmania as it main goal. Its a 2007 JDM formally piloted by giant from these forums. The beauty of this car for me is that the annoying parts have been done (cage, race seats, fire bombs etc) but the rest of the car is pretty stock standard with the exception of an exhaust (which is no longer with-in the Targa regs so needs to change) and a Cobb. So I thought I'd start this thread up as a log of the development of this car, some of the testing results we find, and also as a guide for anyone else ever thinking of building an R35 for Targa. Unlike say the awesome Superlap builds we have a fairly limited list of things that can and can't do so our objective is to build as good a car as we can within those rules. As a consequence what I will try and do is explain why we have gone in some directions where the current common options may differ. As a very quick summary I will list the basics of what can and can't be done for an R35 Targa car. Brakes are free (that means you can do what you like as far as mods go) Suspension - shocks are free. Arms however must remain standard. Wheels - only 1 inch variance from OEM allowed (so no 18's running good R comps like RE55's, A050's etc) Engine + turbos must remain factory. Exhaust - 80mm max OD. Fuel system - we can change the fuel pumps on R35's but can't change injectors. So no E85. Aero - must remain OEM. You can replace the bonnet, boot, wing, skirts with different material but must retain OEM shape. Weight - minimum weight is 1740kgs. So the initial plans are to fix the exhaust, get the car tuned properly and then we can start really testing the handling side. This past weekend I took the car out for its first real run at Phillip Island raceway (I had done a day at QR but was just putting around given the distance from home). Unfortunately I've discovered the car has some form of engine knock / miss. Not sure what it is but it doesn't seem to be a tuning issue as even with 25% race-fuel (Martini 110) and just the Cobb Stage 1 tune the knock is still there. So the guys at Racepace will try and nut this problem out this week. But in-case anyone out there doesn't know this little fact - if you have a Cobb Accessport with the latest software and you have your boost gauge on your MFD (doesn't matter if its part of the 6 gauge screen or the 3 gauge screen) and you see this flashing white - that is Engine knock - which is not cool. Anyways, despite this little issue I still went out and did a few laps in the car even though I really couldn't give the car any WOT. But what I was able to do was give the car a few laps on some old worn OEM Bridgeston RE070's and then a few laps on my old very worn Targa A050's (on 18's) just so I could compare the balance and the grip of the car with both types of rubber. Here's a video of a lap on each set of rubber. The major thing I found with the old OEM rubber was it had poor initial turn in where you really needed to get the weight forward to turn in - and then you had to steer it a lot with the back of the car in the slower/mid speed corners. But the car was REALLY well balanced on the R comps. I was surprised given we only had 1.9 degs neg camber on the fronts, and given the state of the tyres, and dead stock suspension just how well balanced it was to be honest. The other noticeable thing was how much better the car was "geared" with the smaller diameter wheels. It's a real shame we can't run them for Targa - but for anyone doing other track work you'd be mad not to go the 18's option. (Also for what it is worth I was running 18 x 10.5 + 15 TE37's but I think +22's would be prefect. But brake clearance was great) So the next main test for me will be to get some new good rubber that is Targa legal and see if any can come close to the feel of the A050's. I've ordered a set of the new Dunlops and a set of Toyo R888's and will do some meaning full back to back tests on the same day to see what results we get.

Given the awesomeness of the day, my first outing in the new toy could have gone a little better. Something is causing engine knock (and even back-firing at high rpms) so it meant I had to basically run part throttle all day for the laps I did do. Still - the car will be pretty cool once the guys figure out what is wrong with it (fingers crossed its an easy non expensive fix!) It's unbelievable how much more slippery this car is to the old one. I hate to image what speeds it will do down the straight once we can give it the full beans. Despite not being able to go maximum attack all day I did learn a fair bit about the handling. And thanks to Paul I was able to get a good feel on the differences between the old worn OEM rubber and some old worn R Comps. I've put together a quick vid show my best laps on the street rubber V R comps - its a fairly different beast. So anyone who hasn't run on R Comps before can see just how much they change the attitude of the car.

I agree - these types of events mean that cars you don't normally see at your usual club sprint meets (because they might run with different clubs - or come from different states) all come together in the one place. Although I still do think its a shame that Porka's/Lambo's etc can't come though. They would add another cool dimension I reckon.

Ok - we uninstalled the Cobb and reinstalled it and now Fast Flash works. (just in case anyone else ever has this issue).

I was actually just talking about this very topic to Chris @ Racepace on the weekend. I've ordered some ID1000's for my car for an E85 set-up. But PROEFI also do plug in looms for the R32-R34 platforms and so Chris is about to experiment himself with the flexi-fuel concept on his development R33 GT-R.

Well I was flashing in-between the tune that was in the car already (the car is a JDM 2008 - been here a while now and had the Cobb for a while too). There was the "mail order" tune in it which we then swapped to the Cobb basic Stage 2 tune - then back to the mail order tune that was in it - then back to the Cobb tune but this time used the Cobb tuning software rather than just the hand controller - and they all took 10-15mins.

Hey all, Started playing with the R35 yesterday and one of the things I was really looking forwards to seeing was the "Fast Flash" feature that now exists with the Accessport. But despite updating to the latest Firmware the flash was still taking 10-15mins - which is a killer for proper dyno tuning. All maps are V3.00 maps. Anyone else have this issue?

Sebs a good man. He knows a week is more than enough time to turn it around. Actually mate - the Sandown day I mentioned on Oct 16th is the Maserati Day that you can Neil came down for previously. There are plenty of cool cars at that event (just not likely to be any actual Maserati's however! LOL) And rASh - Slips car definitely needs to be a feature car too

Excellent. Trent if you guys want to either come early - or stay a while later I can arrange storage of your cars in Melb as well if you like. There are some good 2 Day Phillip Island days around Oct/Nov + another really good day at Sandown on Oct 16th. Plus for others thinking of coming specifically for the motorsport side Winton will be open on the Friday before the SAU Nats (non timed practice) and also on the Sunday with our affiliate car club (WRX Club) that we can arrange entry for. The other option for extra motorsport is to stop off at Bathurst for Drive Bathurst on Nov 9-13. There are a few of us from here doing this after the Nationals.

LOL - I had actually been reminiscing over the old "Supercar Club" days and was thinking how apparently that was poorly named since it turns out pretty much none of them are Supercars now. But perhaps the one exception would be the Ford GT40 - which looked awesome, sounded awesome but was pretty horrible to actually drive on the roads. So perhaps that's the definition? Look great, sound great but you really don't want to drive one anywhere.

The nicest places to stay up there are the Parklake Hotel or the Carrington (both are next door to each other). I'll probably be at the Parklake now as I think the wife and kids are coming too.

I think a question would be - if an R35 and a Gallardo are not Supercars, then does Ferrari currently make a single Supercar?

I personally think the term "Supercar" has evolved over the years. I think these days the term Supercar is based upon performance - and the original definition of a Supercar has now evolved into the term Exotics. So for me - is the R35 a Supercar - yes. Is it an Exotic - no. (Same for the Gallardo - especially say the Super Alphabets etc) But again - this is really a topic which is every mans own opinion.

I'm there for sure. I'm really looking forwards to the event.

Yeah I'll be keen for the Sandown Sat / Calder Sun option. Will also be in Tuner Class however simply because of the cage even though I will most likely be on street rubber.

fixed it

ROFLMAO!! It's just a matter of time....

+1 - think that would work. Also - make it so that only M compounds and harder are allowed for Open. This way there might be a bit more of a split between the Pro Class times and Open times.