My British Racing Green '99 NB

[Trackphotos]

So I found an earlier date to run the skidpan, and had a crack at it yesterday morning. Never tried drifting, trying to slide in wet weather etc, but seem to have managed alright. It would appear that Assetto Corsa with the track grip set as low as possible actually replicates a wet surface fairly well, so practicing drifting in the sim has pretty much gotten me to a point where I wasn't having to think at all about where my hands were, when/where to use more/less throttle etc. We ran four sessions of 10 minutes, which given you're constantly on opposite lock, is more than enough actual skid time to justify the $155 event entry. Had heaps of fun, will definitely be going back again.

I've uploaded my entire fourth session with Callum in the passenger seat, and also a 40sec clip of one of the better laps from that session. Great fun, would recommend it to anybody who is looking for a half day of chucking a car around with no wear and tear, or anybody who isn't all that confident driving in wet weather.

Entire fourth session:


'Best' lap of fourth session:

[The American]

That does look like good fun. I think I would need to relocate the intake on my car before venturing into that much water (looks like it was a few inches deep in places ?)

Have you tried motorkhana or dirt sprints?

[Trackphotos]

Yet to do either of them. Maybe I'll get around to it between some other events. I forgot to remove my brake ducts, so I probably dumped a fair amount of water and diesel in them, but they would've been damn near ambient temperature at the time so no worries.

The water was more than a few inches deep at times, the sprinklers make it pool in a few spots. Deep enough to make the back snap around if you hit it sideways with your front wheel first, anyway.

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[The American]

This was from a motorkhana with the HSCCQ:

[Trackphotos]

Had fun at QR for the club day yesterday.

I didn't have the most productive time during the three Clubman sessions, unfortunately it turns out I've murdered my front tyres a lot more than my rears, and having swapped them end to end I was not able to adjust my suspension etc to compensate for the lower rear grip. As a result I was endlessly getting sideways in low speed corners like the dipper and turn 6. I rotated the tyres back to their normal spots before the Sprint sessions began, and managed to match my previous PB on the second session.

Here's me very nearly losing it at the dipper even with the tyres corrected. I knew these tyres can snap suddenly, but this was almost out of nowhere. It actually didn't let go until the weight was coming back down after the crest, which is interesting. Got away with it barely, but that's good enough.




And here is the sprint PB. Fairly happy to still be doing 141kmh minimum through T1 on massacred front tyres, goes to show there was a lot more in them back when I set my PB a year ago and the tyres were brand new.




Now I've removed the splitter again, and will be taking the car back to Mt Cotton for another skidpan on Sunday. A friend from work and his young son are going to tag along for a session or two each, both have rapidly developed a new interest in cars and racing so a low speed slidefest should be a fun experience for them.

[Magpie]

Thanks for the chase, I have ticked that one off my list of things to achieve (taken 3 years). Looking forward to when you get some more rubber

[Trackphotos]

Ran the MX5/86 Challenge at Lakeside over the weekend. Fantastic racing, lots of close battles and trading places during races 2 and 3, not so much in 1 and 4 but still fun. A few guys had incidents, James put the NC into the wall at Karussel in race 1, little bent but ended his weekend. Tony lost it in qualifying out of Karussel and hit the tyres on the outside, lifted the car off the ground and looked pretty serious but evidently was able to finish out the weekend without a problem.

I had some minor difficulties only, fortunately. 3/4 of the way through qualifying my power steering pump began to fail, no longer assisting past 90deg lock when turning right. By the time I got back to the pits, topped up the fluid, and did a short drive around the paddock, it had given up completely. Francois and Jaime gave me a hand removing the PC/AC belt to run the rest of the weekend with manual steering only. Also my tyres and brakes are both well and truly done now, the front brakes down to about 1mm of material left and the tyres have hardened so much I can't leave a fingernail mark at all anymore. Next set will need much better management of cycling them around to even the wear out, as the rears still have a reasonable amount of life left.

Qualifying was very crowded, attempted to pull back and leave a gap but inevitably someone would pass me and shorten the gap from me to the next car again. I ended up with two, maybe three clear laps and only did a 62.9, qualifying p14 of 19. With tyres on the way out, even being in the 62s again isn't too bad; the push through Hungry was getting pretty bad, and the less-worn front left wasn't fairing a whole lot better.

Race 1 started and finished in p14. Immediately lost a few places on the first lap, before managing to get them back as two cars didn't finish. Mostly spent being overtaken and learning the limits of the worn tyres, trying to be cautious and not cause any trouble. With James' crash we ran 19 laps instead of our planned 10, 9 of which were under clampdown conditions. The lack of power steering wasn't a problem at all with long 80kmh straights to rest arms.

Race 2 was the most exciting. Started p14 and finished p13, and with Gaving starting rear of grid in the yellow 2B car, he carved through half the field in the first lap. Exiting karussel on the first lap I managed to get past Tony Ross, and be overtaken by Gavin, as we hit the crest before the back 'straight'. 3 wide may be a regular occurrence for ProdSports regulars but it's new to me, so good to have it happen safely. From there on was 9 laps of nose-to-tail racing with 5-8 cars together, a few position changes with Angelo in the silver and green #12 car, before he got past on the back straight in the final lap. In retrospect, looking at the rear cam footage I could have defended both times he got past there, but not being sure how far back he was I was happy to let him go rather than risk cutting him off halfway through the pass. At the end of 10 full laps of constant fighting, the lack of power steering was much more obvious. Not even able to use the straights to rest didn't help.

Race 3 on Sunday morning was the next best race, with some good battles between myself and Francois with Tony Bonnano looking for any opportunity to sneak past. I made a couple of moves on Francois into Karussel but unfortunately each time I found myself with no room to defend as Angelo was fighting with Henri right ahead, and Francois was able to use the outside line to put us side by side again. Eventually we got past Henri and were able to get back up to speed. We ran the back straight side by side at least once, the next time around I refused to back out and Francois filtered back in behind me around the bridge. From here on I left Francois to defend against Tony, and pulled a gap on them while gradually shortening the gap to Angelo ahead, but ultimately was too far behind to make any moves before the race ended. Started p13 and finished p12 after Gavin was given a 30sec penalty for pushing Shane Freese off track at Eastern Loop. No damage etc, not even a caution as he rejoined the track immediately.

Race 4 was mostly a nonevent for me. Once the first lap or two were done, I had found an open spot between Shane and Angelo fighting ahead, and Francois behind, and pretty much continued that way until the end of the shortened 8 lap race. The interesting stuff ends at about 7:30, but around 8:30 Tony can be seen spinning out of eastern loop and just barely getting away with it, having Francois and Henri close behind.

I've uploaded races 2 and 3 in their entirety with front and rear facing cameras. I don't think I'll put the others up as there wasn't a lot to see, but these two were definitely great racing at least from my seat.


Race 2:


Race 3:

[The American]

I watched and quite enjoyed race 2 on YT last night (?).

Definitely looked like fun, and a challenge to maintain track position for the best pace onto the straights.

[Trackphotos]

Decided to be productive today. Power steering pump is out, rack lines are cut and looped, and it's a lot lighter than it was, having to push fluid through the entire loop and the dead pump. Now it just needs new brakes and tyres before the next MX5/86 Challenge round at QR in September.

[Magpie]

How long before you stop paying rego

[Trackphotos]

Probably 6 months. I renewed it a week before the power steering died, but probably won't do it again. Skidpans will just have to be at Gympie instead of Mt cotton if I want to do them after deregistering.

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[Trackphotos]

So the brake pads I ordered 5 weeks ago turned up today. I should be able to get them and some new rotors in this weekend, if I don't spend the entire weekend driving a new car Tash and I are picking up this friday... That seems pretty damn likely, so maybe brakes on thursday/friday next week instead.

[plohl]

Did she get what you mentioned last time we spoke?

[Trackphotos]

Indeed. All will be revealed shortly

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[plohl]