Snowman

So you were just suffering from a 24hr virus or something?? LOL But great news - I look forwards to you kicking my ass again I'm taking my little dragon out to Winton in a couple of weeks for its last spin in it's current incarnation before heading off to change a few little things in time for 2010. I'm personally quite excited about getting back into it all after a good 6 months break.

ROFLMAO - in what?

Lamborghini Countach. Do it (Might be slightly expensive to aquire and will almost certainly breakdown before getting to the finish. But by gosh it'd be cool! LOL)

Haha - it's also only Sept! April is still a long way off....

And Woo - you wouldn't even need to run E85. I can't see that many EMod guys actually bothering with it, and given you finished less than 1 min behind the EMod champ as it was last year - and some of these new rules help you out even further - you're not exactly in no mans land with your car. Stu tells me the profile of EMod will be raised next year (right Stu? ) so I wouldn't be chucking it in just yet mate!

Well I'm a happy lad. After talking to Stu it looks like all I need to do is swap over to 2 more usable sized snails and I'm good to go in Early Modern now. The rest of the car falls in-line as is no worries (aren't I glad I couldn't afford a 2.8L last year! LOL) These new rules really do mean that your average "club" car will fall in-line with the regs really really easily. Targa Tas is still a pretty big financial whack but events like TWP and TT Rookie are accessable with-out spending a small fortune, and with the car regs being a lot easier I forsee a good interest in new people having a look at them in the future. The tyre rule sure does make things nice especially for the RWD guys as well. I think all up these changes - whilst potentially annoying for some hey Benny - are all up another good step in the right direction.

The bigger worry about the E85 is if they are going to have filling points at the end of every stage. Because cars eat that stuff like nothing else! Lucky injectors are free as I know the EVO's on E85 all have to run 1000cc injectors minimum! Don't know how bad GT-R's are but I do know I have enough issues with fuel consumption with normal 98RON to make E85 not even an option! LOL

You know Ben that's why I found the idea of Showroom so appealing. There seems to be less bullshit (although Greg is trying to disprove this it seems). I just wish there was a good non-EMO option out there as I just don't like them. LOL I'd love it if they raised the price range to the same as the Bathurt 12hr so then at least there IS some other good options. You'd get more entry's that way. But these new rules really make building a good Early Modern car damn easy (so it won't be a 996TT cake-walk anymore) and that class will dominate the entry numbers in the years ahead - so I hope the organisers look at appropriately giving that class some more recognision and coverage in the future.

Dunc - dreaming.... So anyhoo - have we all looked at the new 2010 AASA Targa regs? The gulf between AASA and CAMS is now even wider!! The EMO boys are sure going to be happy again. The biggest bummer for me is that most of the reasons I decided to build my car as a Z-Tune are now obsolete, so it seems I came into the sport 1 year too early! LOL My delema now is to whether I continue one running the car as a Z Tune in Modern or go back to running it as a normal GT-R in Early Modern. Will have to give Stu a call and talk about the options for next year but there is no doubt the car will eventually go back to running in Early Modern at some stage. (so Stu expect a call sometime soon! LOL)

Tell you what - you give me the $3K I'm going to need to do the event and I'll go and get the license. Plus you also have to act as the garantee to fix any issues that might occur like Tom had down in Tassie before TWP in Jan. But then if you are going to give me $3K I'd rather put it towards doing Mt Buller over this anyways.

There is - but the driver doesn't have a CAMS National Racing licencse and CBF'd getting one in time!

It's not Adz. If you have a cradle like that you are fine to use the phone as a GPS. Basically what the new rule is about is not running around with the gps in one hand whilst driving with the other. It's the same principle as people who put phones on "loud speaker" and hold the phone in one hand or on their lap rather than just talking normally. People have said in the past "but I'm on hands free" and thats what they are trying to cut out as much as anything. All they are saying is that the phones or gps devices must be secured somewhere rather than being hung onto by the driver. Don't see a problem with this rule personally.

Yeah but 3 Days is usually $2K - so $495 for 1 Day works out better than usual! LOL Not to mention the reduction in costs such as accommodation etc. I thought it was alright given there's no other way we are going to get to play there and it was cracking good fun at that place.

http://www.duttonrally.com/lang_lang_2009.php

Nice on Serg. Now it's time to get the R34 ready for future fun Speaking of - the Dutton/ATC guys are running a 1 Day Dutton style event at Lang Lang in Nov. I've entered - should be some fun!

It broke the arm because the Nismo arm was apparently in up-side down! (and the replacement one went in up-side down as well! LOL) The arms are all the right way up now, and the rest of the car is running fine - but it still doesn't drive all that nicely so I'm told. I can't tell you what settings the suspension is set to right now because I simply don't know. And I don't know who set it up either (I just know where it is now!) But I do know in my discussions with Murray for what spring settings he suggested for my car for Targa it was 500lb front springs and 400lb rear springs - which is a lot different to what I currently run. And we went though a lot of different set-up changes in my car to get it to where it is now. So I would be suprised to hear that people who race these cars in these events (or anything really) would agree that those rates sound about right for a GTR. And I also wouldn't be all that suprised it if turns out the rates in that Silver car are around those figures. I'll say it again that I'm sure Murray knows his stuff backwards but perhaps he doesn't know the ideal settings for every single car out there. Gary himself has said in here when he orders MCA stuff he gives Murray the spring rates he wants to run and Murray does the rest. The point being that the shocks can be the best in the world but it might matter squat if they aren't set correctly to the car, so don't necessarily go giving MCA a call and say you want some new shocks for you car and expect to go 2s/lap faster if you leave everything up to them! Maybe he does and maybe I'm wrong, but I won't be running 500/400's in my car just yet.

Yeah well I know one R33 GTR that has some MCA's in it and it's very average. It was used at Targa and had no end of problems as well. The guy who drove it there hated it and sold it straight afterwards and by all accounts the set-up on it is still shocking to this day. I can't say for sure who was responsible for the settings in the car as it sits now, but if it came with Murrays recommended settings for that car for Targa and nothing has changed then I think you are going to have to spend some time finding what works for you (unless you either get lucky or else can pinch someone else's data who has the same basic car) if you go down that path. I have no doubt Murray knows suspension as good as anyone out there - but that doesn't necessarily means he knows the atributes of all of the cars he builds suspension for and consequently the prefect settings. I know the suggested settings he discussed with me were along the lines I'd expect to see in an EVO which from my knowledge are usually fairly different to a GT-R - but he was the first person to admit that his suggestions were only a guess. So....

Dane - Blaise used to run the KW Variant 3's on his old EVO 8MR (there is also an agent in W.A. for them) and I'm found them very comparable to the Teins (RA, RS) we've all run in the past.

Yeah.... but MCA's are only $8K if you buy them through a middle man. Ring him direct and you might find they are a hell of a lot cheaper than that! LOL

Definitely some R8 envy. But if a Mazda 3 can do ok there is no reason this can't be midly competative. The EMO is still the Showroom weapon of choice no question, but this little thing won't come with the weight of expectation which would be a blessing, and if it's anything like the Scirocco it will be fun to drive which is just as important as being fast IMO.

The Golf has been released! AWD, 270HP - 0-100km/hr in 5.5s in stock trim. Not quite EMO X specs but it sure looks pretty in blue!

Ok there seem to be plenty of eggsperts out there so here's a quick question (which seems to regularly have a long answer). Shock types aside - there seems to be 2 quite different trains of thoughts on spring rates out there. Now my understanding is as a rule of thumb spring rates should ideally follow the weight split of a car. AKA - if a cars weight split is 50f/50r then the spring rates should be pretty close to identical front and rear. Skylines (well GTR's at least - I have NFI what the weight split in a GTS is) are a lot front heavier and I've always run much higher weighted front springs as a consequence. But a lot of people seem to run a much higher rear rate than I do, as well as a softer front. I can't fathom the logic as to why this would be, so I'd love to hear the reason for it - if there is one!? I'm looking at changing my shocks over currently and the suggested spring rates by the builder were significantly different to what I'm running - hence the question.

The only thing they can really do is put a wall in there close to the turn 2 exit side of the track. But I don't know how happy the motorbike guys will be about that!

Yeah didn't you watch the V8's yesterday?? Spearing off at Turn 1 backwards at 250km/hr is something everyone should experience at least once!!

So it looks like TQ was disqualified for having a cat-less mid-pipe (which I personally think should be standard on all R35's! LOL) and intercooler pipes. Questionable on how much difference either makes to the perfomance of the car other than sounding better! There would be some but nothing too significant. But you can be sure both were on the car at TT since they were both part of the HKS GT570 kit he originally got. Just lucky they didn't check his actuators! LOL