2010 Bathurst Event

[White 35]

Drive & Sprint Bathurst 2010

This year I took up the challenge of running the GTR in the Drive and the Sprint Bathurst event.

After 5 days on the mountain and my car doing probably close to 150 laps I have to say to you guys out there that if you can afford to do either part of the event then it will be one of the best driving experiences of your life.

This year I allowed my brother to drive my car in the Drive event. Originally he wasn't really interested as the pressure of driving a 400kw at the wheels GTR on slicks around the track was pretty scary. I had no problems with it because he's an awesome driver and knew that he could handle it with no probs. After doing the event he can't stop talking about it and has now gone out and bought a jap import EVO 8 MR in preparation for next years event. I promise you guys that once you have spent time at this track you will not stop talking about it until it rolls around again.

So thought I'd share a few pic's and details of the event.

We started off with the Drive on Wed & Thursday. Both of us sharing driving in the same car. My bro in the slow group and I in the fast group. As per previous years we start out with what is called ducks & drakes. This is where an instructor sets the pace out front and the cars follow with the lead car falling to the rear after one lap. This ensures that everyone gets a chance to be behind the instructor and can follow the racing line etc. This is an awesome intro for everyone because it allows you to familiarise yourself with the track. Ducks & Drakes continues for 3 sessions until everyone is up to speed. From here the event really turns into the usual track day format.

Our car ran really strong immediately and we both started lapping at reasonable speeds. For the drive I kept with Semi Slicks so we could build up to more speed. We ran Toyo R888's and I know everyone out there hates these tyres but I've had good results on them (ran a 1.43 at Eastern Creek Sprint a few months ago) and if you adjust your driving to the tyres they are much better than the stocker tyres. My brother initially was lapping at around 3 mins but by end of day 2 was down to about 2.40. This is a really good result for him gaining 20 seconds in about 1.5 days of free practice.

I was immediately up to speed having done the event twice before and was lapping around 2.28 – 2.30 consistently.

At the end of day 2 the Boys from Croydon Racing Developments came up and gave the GTR a service. We changed the Brake Pads and fluid, engine oil and I put a brand new set of Michelin Slicks on.

Day 3-5.

Day 3 starts out similar to day 1 because most of the drivers from the first 2 days go home and a new bunch of cars turn up. The cars in the sprint are much faster and more race cars enter the Sprint.

OK so slicks make a huge difference and after adjusting to them my times started dropping. The GTR was out of control and I was clocking 260-270 up the mountain before turn 2 literally pulling in every car that was in front of me including the Ferrari Race Cars and the Porsche Cup cars. But down Conrod the GTR was flying clocking 300kmph down lap after lap. At one point I saw 304 on the speedo before jumping onto the brakes and pulling 5^th into the chase at 250kmph. I can't believe how good this car is at Bathurst. Seriously guys there is no other track in Aust where you are going to really drive your GTR at full stick.

Across the top I had to nurse her a bit. She would get a bit twitchy going up into Reid Park and down to Sulman Park near the grate alongside the wall. The car comes up through Reid Park and then blind comes into Sulman Park and it's scary. You have to wait until she settles before turning in hard left and heading across to skyline where I'm feeding power back on touching 180-200 before braking again for the dipper etc.

So I qualified 4^th overall with a 2.23.7 and then on Sunday set out to see if I could do better. I honestly didn't think that I could go any faster than the 2.23 because the qualifying lap felt so good.

Sunday morning the weather was good, the brake pedal still felt strong and the slicks were OK. First session the tyres over inflated and I was running around 2.24 for each of the 3 flying laps.

Session 2 we got faster and on flying lap 2 I did a 2.21.7 and thought that's it for me.

Session 3. Ok so there was 1 lap in this session that was unbelievable. I caught one of the Porsche Cup cars at the end of flying lap 1 because he made a mistake and was slowing before taking off on another 2 laps.

Basically I said F**k it. I'm keeping with him across the top and let's see how hard I can push this GTR. Into turn 2 up the mountain I was 1 car length behind him and I just tried to stick to his bumper. I kept on him all the way up to the Cutting but after the cutting he started to skip away through Reid & Sulman Park pulling out a car length here and there. Didn't matter cause I was flogging the tits out of the GTR and down conrod the front splitter was skipping on the ground at 300!! I came into the chase at 260 and stood on the brake pedal as hard as I could and the car just pulled up in time to go left through turn 21 (end of the chase) before keeping her flat in 3^rd, 4^th and into 5^th before hitting pit straight… End result was a 2.21.4 and that's all she had in her, plus my heart was beating at 200 beats per minute and I was mentally done………….. The porsche in front did a 2.17 that lap as well and it also ended up being his fastest lap.

So to wrap up.

The 5 days were seriously unbelievable. My car has run about 150 full on laps over the 6.3km track and did not have one problem. Some of the suspension and sway bar bushes are worn but other than that the car ran perfectly. AP Jhooks and Carbotek 16 pads were fade free and I absolutely hammered them every lap. All we needed to do was bleed them a few times to keep the pedal strong.

Croydon Racing Developments – MASSIVE THANKS!!!! The boys from Croydon Racing Developments prepared the car and attended for 2 of the 5 days. We changed engine oil, plugs and pads once over the 5 days and I ran on Michelin race slicks for 3 of the 5 days.

I won the road registered class with a 2.21.4 lap time and I think this would be the fastest lap by an R35 GTR at the Mountain, 5^th overall. THEN DROVE HER BACK HOME!!!

The only cars to beat me were 3 Ferrari 430 Challenge GT3 race cars and one 997 Porsche Carrera Cup – plus these blokes all had new slicks for the final day – mine were 3 days old and I was only 5 sec's off the winning Ferrari. With new slicks I maybe could have broken a 2.20.

The car was clocking nearly 300kmph down the straight each lap and I did see 304 at one point.

Willall - Martin thanks for your help with the oils, the tranny temps never exceeded 120 degrees c. And the larger engine oil sump kept the temps lower also, don't think engine got above 125.

The splitter was awesome it really kept the front down however it really started to bow after the first day or so. I think the massive speeds up and down the mountain were a bit much for the plastic and I wouldn't mind investigating having one made of carbon fiber etc.

Forged Performance USA – Sharif, Ryan thanks for all the support from a product point of view. The HKS stuff made a big difference to keeping everything running smoothly and we made consistent boost thanks to the Intercoolers etc, average power was about 380kw at the wheels. (these guys are seriously awesome and if anyone needs an intro to the USA for parts then you need to speak with me or contact Sharif & Ryan directly)

Trevor Schumack and Shane from Michelin for their help in getting the tyres to last 3 days on the mountain.

Unfortunately we can't run the event again on slicks without a rollcage! So im going to have to seriously think about what we do with this car??? Its just too fast to not have a rollcage.

Only downside to the last 5 days is that this is arguably the best event in Australia each year and given the last 5 days I don't know how any other circuit in Australia is going to cut it for me…

However I'm going to take this car to as many tracks as possible in Australia in 2011 and have as much fun as possible.

I'll hopefully post some video shortly.

P.S Congrats to HKS850 (previously 09GTR) for hammering out a 2.26 in a car that was only 1 week old and with 500kms on the odometer…

Next year its going to be GAME on between the two of us… I see sub 2.20's coming on.

Here's a list of the mods to my car so far and photos below.

Cobb custom tune by CRD

Custom 4 inch exhaust – by CRD

HKS Actuators

HKS Plugs

Mines airbox filters

HKS Boost Controller

HKS tranny cooler

HKS Intercoolers

Altered Atmosphere intercooler piping kit

Eibach Springs

Sunline front camber bushes (giving -2.5 degrees on the front)

Rear camber factory adjustment -2 degrees

AP J Hooks all round

Carbotek 16 front pads

Carbotek 12 rear pads

Stillen Braided Brake lines

Stillen Sway bars

Willall Gearbox & Diff Fluids

Willall Splitter

Aeromotions wing

Michelin slicks

Rays VOLK RE30 racing rims 19inch

Recaro seat

Sabelt 5 point Harness

Sparco Harness bar

Removed front passenger seat & stripped all rear interior out

[LSX-438]

Fantastic write up, i am jeaous! What sort of tyre pressures do you think worked best Miles? You had the 19" N1's?

[blah_blah]

Gread read! Thanks for spending the time to write it! Must have been an awesome experience!

[shaunr34gtt]

Why arent you my brother hehe

What sort of costs are involved in entering

[White 35]

Fantastic write up, i am jeaous! What sort of tyre pressures do you think worked best Miles? You had the 19" N1's?

Dunc yeah the 19's and they were best at 35psi and took about 1 lap to come up to temp. The turn in was awesome and the car has Zero understeer. If you push it to hard the front will kinda tramp which was telling me i was at the limit of the front grip.

[White 35]

Why arent you my brother hehe

What sort of costs are involved in entering

you are looking at just under 3k for the Drive and the Sprint is I think about 5k.

So its not cheap but the event is run so well.

I guess if you lower the price too much then you would have lots more people wanting to come to the event and then you run the risk of lots of cars in the walls etc.

Over the 5 days there were only 3 incidents i think and the track was cleaned up quickly so we didnt lose much time etc.

For me 3k at bathurst for 2 days is expensive but its worth 10 track days at Eastern Creek if you know what i mean.

[09GTR]

you are looking at just under 3k for the Drive and the Sprint is I think about 5k.

So its not cheap but the event is run so well.

I guess if you lower the price too much then you would have lots more people wanting to come to the event and then you run the risk of lots of cars in the walls etc.

Over the 5 days there were only 3 incidents i think and the track was cleaned up quickly so we didnt lose much time etc.

For me 3k at bathurst for 2 days is expensive but its worth 10 track days at Eastern Creek if you know what i mean.

Never thought I'd say this - great read White35!

by the way the 2010 car has absolutely no understeer whatsoever