Snowman

Hey if there was ever a time for a girly squeel that was it. And the video is only gone due to the polite request by one Mr M. Perry. Because somehow that was actually my fault and shed a bad light on us competitors for the general public..... Anyways - let me go watch one of you video's Ben (and then get back to work)

Yeah I'm doing Vic Dutton (ATC) in a couple of weeks which will help ease these blues. Was going to do it in the new R35 but the little dragon is doing well currently so will have a crack in that once again (plus I'm still too scared to scratch the new toy). Would LOVE to do the NSW round as well - looks awesome but I just don't know if the budget will stretch since I'm also def doing W.A. Dutton (jn an EVO again) and Mt Buller in Dec. I need to find some time to watch those vids Benny - I'm stuck in training all day working hours currently for a few weeks. Infact I'm still at work now so I don't know why I'm wasting time as it is as I really want to go home!

Yeah you and your little GTSt was over a mintue up on me after 2 days and in fact you beat every other Nissan Skyline / GT-R in the whole event other than the one that came 1st ya FREAK! Actually Timmy is the concern. Anyone who gets in the passenger seat next to someone who is quite obviously oblivious to the laws of physics must suffer from some major form of insanity.

Actually my $$$ is on Jeff being in Modern next year in the Red Rocket

No I won't! Ben will be Classic, Jeff and the Manions will be Early Modern and I'm stuck in Modern with the R35's, GT2's and Lambo's due to me running as a 2005 Nismo Z Tune rather than 1999 Nissan R34 GT-R. So really I'll just be making up the numbers next year which suits me fine. I should just put the smaller turbo's on it and change to Early Modern but I like my funky body kit too much these days even if the rear pods do get completely destroyed in these events.

Why don't the rest of us get to know??

I'm not sure weight is a big an issue as some believe it to be if the car is designed to deal with it. From the stages I did the most up-hill stage was probably Rossarden and it was won by Steve Jones in his R35 GT-R. The opposite was the down-hill stage where my car struggled the most with brakes (and weighs in at 1694kgs without drivers) was Sheffied - and that was won by Quinn in his R35 GT-R.... Tyres is another unusual fact. None of the top deemed cars (R35, Lambo or Porsche GT2) can run on the top deemed tyres (Dunlops or Kuhmo's) for this event due to not being available in their wheel sizes. Richards and Steve Jones (running 19's on his R35) were on Pirellis, The Lambos run Toyo's and the rest of the R35's were on the factory Dunlops. It doesn't seem to bother any of them too much as far as speed goes and it means they drive flat out with-out any fear of tyre wear despite the weight of these cars. (All are S1 cars which mean they have to run at factory weight). The chasing pack which all ran softer tyres deemed better suited invariabley had to have tyre changes and consequent penalties even though they were slower. Herridge in the STi and Miedecke in the Daytona for example. Now I'm not saying a lighter R35 isn't going to be better again because it will - but it's not currently being a huge issue. The only thing you hear is that the brakes get cooked from time to time on these cars but then look at their times/speeds! I expect that to happen!!!!

The funny things is there was about 10 times down there when I said to myself "I can't believe they let us do this!" I then usually paused for a few seconds and followed it up with "I can't believe I'm mad enough to be doing this!" Anyhoo!!!

The older GT-R's stand no chance against the new ones in these events. Infact any of the older cars really don't stand a chance at all. Whilst some of them seem to do ok with some top 20 results they are miles off of where the fast guys are in reality. All you really need to do is look at the results from even the last 3 years and look at the stage times. Take The Sideling for example as 2 identical stages done is same conditions (dry). 2006 was won by Steve Glenny in a 2002 STi in 7:54. This year it was won by Weeks in the Lambo in 7:36. Steve's winning 2006 time doesn't even get him in the top 10 these days. And yet he got to use racefuel rather than just 98RON as everyone did this year. Even this year - look at the final classification for the Mordern V Early Modern. 12 mins seperated the winner of Modern v winner of Early Modern (2002-1992 vehicles). And Rick Shaw is no hack and know's that car of his well. But these new cars are just so much more capable. We did a straight line test between my R34 (375rwkw's) and my R35 (stock) from 40-200km/hr and the R35 wins by a car length. I still don't know how or why this is the case but it is. And despite being on factory shocks and tyres it also goes around corners better than the R34 on full set-up race tyres. And then there is the gearbox - in Targa I estimate that to be worth 1s/km alone and thats HUGE in this game. The R35 isn't the perfect Tarmac Rally car - there are some..... issues that people need to be aware of and drive around (it doesn't deal well with getting airbourne for example - the computers shut down) - but it's hard to argue that it isn't the best thing going around right now that's for sure. It's just a very capable all round car straight out of the box. I'm just up-set I can't afford to race one! LOL

Bad suspension can also be good at PI. Remember I ran the 1.49.3 down there on my old Tein HA's in a near stock car otherwise (just exhaust, ecu and cam gears) and yet they were rubbish everywhere else. Infact I reckon blocks of wood would go pretty good at PI! So don't use times there as an example. That place is too smooth for a propper suspension test.

This has gone a little OT since the original question - but for what it is worth Ben Wooster in the R32 GTST that came 3rd Outright at Targa Tas Classic was running some "borrowed" DMS suspension and puts his result down completely to those shocks. He was raving about how good the car was to drive on the 1st couple of days and hence why he had the confidence to push so hard. Mind you he did also drive through 2 fences on 2 seperate occassions over the course of the event so at some stage something went a bit wrong. LOL

Yeah but 2 of the 3 retirements were driver error and whilst I know 3rd one was drive-shaft related I'm not sure of the full story behind it. Having said all of that there are some known issues with these cars for these events. But the drivers are all starting to work them out and are driving to suit. But all up that drive was brilliant by TQ and a very deserving win in the end.

The funny thing is I have sat down and done the maths and my prize of a "free entry for 2010" is going to cost me around $10K to accept. LOL It sure aint cheap this event! So time to start saving the pennies!

More Vids for anyone that's bored. Weldborough Pass - Merseylea - (Crazy roads at the end and a big crash passed on the last corner).

Hey boys and girls - we're back! Thanks for all the comments and support we recieved - it was hugely appreciated even if we didn't have time to reply down there. We did get it all. But what a buzz that event was and the result was really just a huge bonus. I really thought after lunch on Day 1 I had no chance but then the crazy man came out and changed things around. To get a result in anything down there I've quickly learnt means a wild ride the whole way. But I have a real appreciation now for what the guys at the pointy end of the main game are doing - amazing stuff really and I have a long way to go to get near them. Here's a coupe of the in-car vids I have from the event. The Sideling - Rossarden - Cheers

Yeah the Cross Flow seems to have really done the job (along with everything else including all the ducting, the body kit, the smaller intercooler etc). The shift light is one of the cool little Ecliptech ones I got from Meridian http://www.ecliptech.com.au/main_win_sep06.html It sits on top of my dash but you can see the reflection in the video. Once you have used one you'll wonder how you ever did with-out one before. But they are especially invaluable at a Targa type of event.

Engine temps were awesome. Water never above 70 and oil never above 100. Here's another good vid - Rossarden. Wooster beat me by 2s on this one (bastard). He was over 1min up on me at the end of Day 2. Very impressive.

Ok - here's some footage from The Sideling which is probably the most famous stage us Rookies got to do and was also the 1st stage I mentally decided to have a full red hot crack at. As can be seen I got over excited once or twice. Ended up doing an 8:09 which was around 20th outright (but best in Rookie by 10s) - but to show how the Woo is doing it was still 1s slower than him in the RB20 R32 fence eater.

Hey boys and girls - I'm back! Thanks for all the comments and support we recieved - it was hugely appreciated even if we didn't have time to reply down there. We did get it all. But what a buzz that event was and the result was really just a huge bonus. I really thought after lunch on Day 1 I had no chance but then the crazy man came out and changed things around. To get a result in anything down there I've quickly learnt means a wild ride the whole way. And I've also learnt that the boys at the pointy end of the serious catagories are in a whole new level - I'm blown away by what they are doing. Madness really - especially that boy Wooster. Anyways - will load some in-car ASAP for you all to have a look at.

Looks great Stu! Here's a quick vid of some interesting times we've had with the locals whilst doing recce. Most love the R35 but it seems some not so much so... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq0QmfaA_Z0

I've caved - Dunlop M's it is. Sure fire way to make sure it's going to be sunny now. About to get on the boat across - very pumped indeed!

I really can't fault Ben's Teins. They are really nice on the road (not harsh at all) and we all know how good they go on the track. I know he's done the RA's, RS' and what ever Chris has but he basically couldn't do bugger all with my old HA's - they were crap no matter what. Not sure what the scoop with the RE's are however - thats something you'd have to ask Ben. Having said all of that whilst I have no experience with DMS in Skylines I have in EVO's and they are also very good (these were the DMS 50's). Having them set-up right is the only question but I'm sure Ben could arrange that regardless.

Did Theo take you for a hot lap 1st? Who needs the Ring Taxi when a lap with Theo is as insane as you could ever want to experience! LOL

Except for me - you'll see me on the boat tomorrow PS - was awake at 5:30am this morning with the brain ticky thing also. LOL *tick tick L3 tick tick R4/o tick tick* Probably shouldn't have spent yesterday evening watching targa vids on Youtube. PPS - the weather forecasts are looking on the up Dry racing conditions FTW!

My thoughts are the OEM system should have been better. I got the "premium audio" package in the Mrs VW and that is a kick ass sound system - I was expecting the GT-R's premium one to be similar but its lacking in depth and the music box thing is a PITA to use unless you are someone that just likes to listen to normal cd's and and doesn't want to manually change discs. It's back to burning MP3 cd's for me now - or just listening to the radio.