Tarmac Rallying Perpetual Thread

[t01-100]

Ok, lets condense three years into one post...

I started with this and drove it twice

did this

this

and this

got some of these

did this

got some of these

these

these

and one of these

as well all new ones of those

and so far we've ended up with one of these

Given a few more weeks it should start looking more complete...

but truth be-known I should have just kept this because i'm pretty sure it could be faster and looked tougher than the rx-7 ever will ever be!

[t01-100]

PS. R32 GT-R's are eligible for Classic Targa Adelaide (announced today to be run in September 2011)... have been over the course and a good 32 couldn't be a bad thing on the roads!

PPS. Yes Woo, on to it mate.

[PHaT MR30]

Yes you should have kept the 32 Benson, Rotories are for homo's.

Love you

[Marlin]

Thanks Benno!

[sav man]

where's the box-o-apex seals?

how much cheaper are the lico's than the sparco's?

[phunky_monkey]

Go the Rotor Bro!

From what Lee tells me your old GT-R has caused them a lot of pain over the past few years (through no fault of the cars). I bet he wishes you probably kept it too

[Marlin]

And another! lol

Chrisso hurling guts at the end of Cygnet stage 9Navving for Scott Millar, Showroom Winners.

[Roy]

these

I almost bought some of those seats last year as when they came in a place had a bunch for sale...do you stock them? If so interested in a PM of prices

[martyboy26]

In case anyone is wondering about the best on-board camera to get, the RadCam HDPro has been selected as the official video camera for entrants in the 2011 ARC. We've put a special kit together to meet broadcasting and mounting requirements. This kit would also be ideal for Tarmac events.

Here's the link

[sav man]

And another! lol

Chrisso hurling guts at the end of Cygnet stage 9Navving for Scott Millar, Showroom Winners.

seems like a great event for navigaters

[Roy]

In case anyone is wondering about the best on-board camera to get, the RadCam HDPro has been selected as the official video camera for entrants in the 2011 ARC. We've put a special kit together to meet broadcasting and mounting requirements. This kit would also be ideal for Tarmac events.

Here's the link

Pretty good things, the only criticism is buyers need to be very careful of where the power button is. A friend borrowed it and I didnt give him the remote which meant he had to handle the unit to stop and start and becase the power button is on the side, every time he grabbed it, your fingers cant help but press the power button which if shutdown before stopping the recording you will lose the footage.

I had some strange problems when i first got it, which due to the average battery life I needed to be using power from the ciggy lighter. Problem was it was cutting out which means the file was not being properly closed and I was losing footage. I have since replaced the ciggy plug with a better one and the problem seems to have gone away. (Though it could of been the wiring in the hire car i was using) My mates problems with it had me thinking the problem had returned but realised what was going on when going through the operation of the thing with him and saw that he wasnt being careful enough when handling with relation to the power switch.

So use the remote to stop (ie save) the footage, be aware the battery life isn't great and make sure the ciggy lighter power supply to the thing is rock stable. The quality of the footage is good, sound is great once you have a play with it...

[Beer Baron]

yeah I agree with troy. those little problems were small but were enough to make me stick with my POV. it's easy to use and never fks up and runs for bloody ages on 1 set of AA bateries. when the radcam would lose power half way through a day the pov was running for a couple of days straight on one set of batteries and even then I only changed them for a new set as a precaution against losing footage like what happened with the radcam. the footage was great but when you loose your best nurburgring sessions and the best half of a day a spa francorchamps because the thing kept switching off without us realising then it's a pretty joyless excercise. the real sad part is we used the pov as the incar looking back at the driver/nav point of view and the radcam in the usual over the shoulder view (which of course gives the best footage) so we had heaps of great facial expression footage from the reliable pov but bugger all great driving footage (not that I any of my footage would have been 'great' anyway... lol).

[martyboy26]

yeah I agree with troy. those little problems were small but were enough to make me stick with my POV. it's easy to use and never fks up and runs for bloody ages on 1 set of AA bateries. when the radcam would lose power half way through a day the pov was running for a couple of days straight on one set of batteries and even then I only changed them for a new set as a precaution against losing footage like what happened with the radcam. the footage was great but when you loose your best nurburgring sessions and the best half of a day a spa francorchamps because the thing kept switching off without us realising then it's a pretty joyless excercise. the real sad part is we used the pov as the incar looking back at the driver/nav point of view and the radcam in the usual over the shoulder view (which of course gives the best footage) so we had heaps of great facial expression footage from the reliable pov but bugger all great driving footage (not that I any of my footage would have been 'great' anyway... lol).

Some coments:

The unit has a key lock function which is very easy to use. It stops any button being accidentally pressed once recording is started.. You can still use the remote to start and stop recording though. See user manual for instructions on how to use this function.

Clips should never be lost if the power switch is turned off while recording. it will go through a proper closedown cycle before shutting off. In fact, that's how I use mine all the time. The only exception would be if you pulled the battery out while recording.

Battery Life: The RadCams now have upgraded batteries and we consistenly get a minimum 2 hours solid recording time per battery. We also supply 2, so just change when the battery indicator shows low charge. I just plug mine into the cigarette lighter in between runs. Black Magic Media use these in the ARC etc and have no problems with battery life.

While the POV's were good for their time, they are no longer considered broadcast quality. Top Gear Australia recently evaulated both the POV.HD and the RadCam and picked the RadCam due to its superior image quality and the ability to seamlessly run on external power. The POV.1.5 and the HD version will lose the clip every time the external power is disconnected as it has no batery backup. The POV.HD now only has short battery life and is still running on AA's instead of moving to Lithium.

[Roy]

How much for the upgraded batteries? Is the 2 hours at full HD quality?

Also, the file wasn't lost I have the files, they just dont play When the camera powers down due to low battery the file may be saved and exists...but its file format becomes corrupted. I really need 3 batteries to get me through an open pit track day. Sprints are ok as you only get 40 mins on the track. The 12V supply is great, you just need to be sure that the plug and your cars socket like each other as on the little Lotus you plug it in, light came on....but a bit of vibration and it lost contact and in turn charge (even though it was still plugged in)...hence low then dead battery

But the quality is well above the POV....maybe mine and its owner have been dropped on their heads too often....and dont get me wrong Mark. I am not intending to be negative or knock the product....I am not posting here anything I have not shared with you via email....just sharing the quirks of my experiences with the product in case others are considering it...think of it as a product review (I should add wasnt mine one of the very early ones sold and you did a great job to get it shipped off to the UK at short notice for me so perhaps later versions differ, better batteries?)

[martyboy26]

OK. Lets get this sorted and clear up any misinformation etc

When you connect to a 12 volt source, it merely acts as a charging circuit to keep the battery topped up. If you start with fully charged battery and connect it to 12 bolt power, then if the power supply is disconnected for any reason, it will continue to record until it senses a low battery voltage and it will close of the file correctly before turning off completely with no loss of video. If the battery was shorted or dead or faulty, then it would not provide backup power to allow for the shutdown, This safe shutdown has happened heaps of times where cars have been in accidents and have had the battery idolater pulled. In every case, it kept recording until the battery went flat and no video recordings were lost. This is the only system on the market that has an uninterpretable 12 volt supply option. This was particularly evident at the recent Bathurst 12 hour where Black Magis used 10 RadCams for their TV coverage on OneHD. All cars were connected to 12 volt power in order to get the whole 12 hours recorded non-stop at 720P on a 32 GB card..

If yours is not doing that, then please send it back and I'll find out what the issue is as it is certainly not typical.

[Roy]

Yep, and my tip for those using the system is to make sure that the 12V plug you are using is 100% compatible with the socket of the car you are plugging it into. When using the Radcam in my car I am not having any troubles, because its install-set and forget. But being an easy unit to throw in different cars, when using hire cars in Europe the silly 12v plug that goes into the lighter socket was not a consistant supply of power. Stupid thing would charge, and still whilst plugged in short (is that the right word?) the connection and whilst still plugged in the unit would then go back to its battery supply and if not checked battery would go flat. I use my car-mobile phone USB charger now anyway as it has this annoying big blue light on the plug so if the silly socket breaks the circuit its easy to see.

So i hope that explains why i found mine going flat....hardly a fault of the unit but something that can catch people out. So is something to be careful of if you are at a track day going from car to car etc.

Re the lost footage. I will throw the thing in the car over the weekend and just record whilst i am working on it to see what happens when the battery goes dead. Now that it is in my car i have not had any problems since the battery has never gone dead. Its only when its going from car to car that these things have popped up.

..oh and perhaps this discussion is best for the the camera thread?

[PHaT MR30]

Keep an eye on www.classictasmania.com.au we are competing this weekend, hoping for a trouble free run!

[Marlin]

Good luck Timbo!

[sav man]

all going to plan it should be a pretty easy class win for you (according to the entry list). Hope it goes well

[Snowman]

Hope it runs well for you guys Timmy.