I'll be getting away for a break over the school holidays and then I'm off to China for work after that, so this week I sent in my entry forms for the next lot of trackdays at Wakefield Park. I'm in for the club trackday on 24th October and the MX5 Nationals Regularity on 29th-31st October. November will be a quiet month, then I have another club trackday on 5th December and the interstate challenge at Phillip Island on 12th December. And that'll be it for another very enjoyable year on the track!
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
Guran wrote:So my official new PB at Eastern Creek is now 2:00.734.
I just stumbled across an article in the July 1994 issue of WHEELS in which Mark Skaife lapped 18 cars around Eastern Creek for WHEELS' annual "handling test". His best time in a Clubman with hardtop was 2:01.79. So there you go - I'm a second quicker than Mark Skaife - and that's in an NA6 with less power, no TorSen, no Bilsteins, thinner front swaybar, but ~50kg less weight (28kg kerb weight, 20kg hardtop) ... and R-specs !
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
Nah, Skaife was on 1993 vintage stock tyres, of course . Can't help but wonder what he might have done in an NA6 though. The extra power, TorSen, Bilsteins, and swaybar of the Clubman must surely be worth at least a second at EC. The diff in particular because i get lots of inside wheelspin. So if R specs are worth a couple of seconds, my time seems to be roughly line ball with Skaife's. There's possibly not much left, but rest assured, I'll be hunting for another couple of tenths to grab the Class 1A record and then 1:59s will be the goal. I'd love to beat my old PB in my modified Cooper S (2.00.0).
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
I've been in China (Shanghai and Guangzhou) for the last ten days for work, and arrived home yesterday just in time to attend the MX-5 Club of NSW AGM. Came home with this lovely trophy as a reward for posting the fastest lap for Class 1 in the 2009/10 season.
I was also voted in as the new Publicity Officer for the club, which means that I will be responsible for producing the Club Torque magazine for the next year. I've already got a few new ideas for new content, and some forum regulars can expect to hear from me soon!
And this morning I had new genuine swaybar bushes and swaybar links fitted to Little Reddy. I took the easy option and paid Pedders to fit them for me. Now there's no more creaking and groaning when driving over curbs. All good to go for the club trackday at Wakefield Park on Sunday.
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
The weather forecast for Sunday wasn't too promising with the prospect of showers throughout the day. So none of us were expecting quick times. Thankfully the rain never arrived, apart from some early mist and a few drops after lunch. Otherwise, the chilly air meant that most of the 67 entrants (47 MX-5s) finished with PBs; many were even faster than on the "perfect day" in June this year. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of those and my best was 1:17.28, which was only a few tenths off (1:17.00).
The quickest MX-5 on the day was Mark Hellmund (as usual) with a 1:10.16, but Phil Ashton pushed him hard with a new PB of 1:10.64. They were closely followed by Colin Moore with a 1:10.81. The quickest cars on the day were four regular State Supersprinters: Eric Scheeren 1:07.40, Leigh Hemmings 1:07.47, Ian Diven 1:08.04 in Clubmans, and Roger Rantfl 1:09.70 in a Commodore; in addition to a visitor in an XR6T Falcon (1:10.01).
Hammer and I had yet another ding-dong battle in Class 1. Here's how it played out:
Run 1: me 1:18.42, Allan 1:17.94 ... Allan led by 0.46s (I overcooked the fishhook at the end of my 3rd lap which was on target for a 1:17.7 but finished with a 360 spin) Run 2: me 1:18.33, Allan 1:17.75 ... Allan led by 0.58s (I had heaps of traffic and no clear lap) Run 3: me 1:17.28, Allan 1:18.67 ... I led by 0.47s (thought I had it with this one ...) Run 4: me 1:17.92, Allan 1:17.10 ... Allan led by 0.18s (... then Allan pipped me only minutes later) Run 5: me 1:18.02, Allan 1:17.92 ... no change Run 6: me 1:17.45, Allan 1:17.49 ... no change Run 7: me 1:17.88, Allan 1:18.05 ... no change
Round two for 2010/11 goes to Hammer! Thanks Allan, it was great fun once again!
Here for your viewing pleasure is my bloopers reel that focusses on my turn 5 adventures, where I was having heaps of fun with four-wheel drifts that mostly worked but sometimes didn't. My big spin at the fishhook in my first run is also included at the end: in fact, there are two different angles of it.
Thank you very much to the club officials who did a great job once again. Especially thanks to Keith Monaghan and Glenn Thomas who helped out with marshalling in addition to driving.
Later at home, after analysing my PerformanceBox data, I discovered that I was consistently losing three or four tenths on turn 10. I got it right in my third run, but then was trying too hard for the rest of the day, and getting too much understeer as a result. Bugger.
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25