My baby turned 300 at last (pic heavy)

[discostig]

Long time between updates these days but here's the results for Racewars 2019!

 

Here's all you need to know

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK so maybe I was in the first run for the 800m sessions and those pics don't tell the whole story...

 

 

 

I bested my 2017 1000m speed by 1km/h over only 800m which was awesome.  I foolishly didn't enter the 1000m VMAX (again) but at least I was down on the full tune this year.

 

I actually spent minimal effort on prep.  Was not as into it as last year due to group splintering (accom booking cancelled on us and the CBF factor set in).

 

I changed the oil, filter and rear pads, and used 3 cans of degreaser on the engine.  Didn't even tighten the exhaust manifold/turbo bolts.  Did them 5 or 10 thousand kays ago...or 15 thousand?

[arronm]

Glad I wasnt at racewars.  

 

Just want to forget this year. 

[discostig]

Saturday was quiet at the end hence the number of runs I got that day.  Sunday was the worst possible outcome for a race event.  I only spectated Sunday until the accident ended proceedings at the airstrip.  Car and even motorbike racing are actually safer than horse riding (death or injury stats) I've come to find out, but if things go wrong in motor sport it's far more dramatic so we hear about it on the news.

 

The show went on for Monday at the different location and CAMS run Sprint/Hillclimb event.  It was a serious mood at the driver briefing I can tell you.

 

Don't really want to get deep into it here, so on to the personal prep side of things...

[discostig]

So I fronted up to scrutineering and got given a list of things to fix, fixed them and returned and passed

 

 

 

Added another pass sticker to the laundry list (missing the 2013 sticker sadly)

 

 

A couple of days later I hit 368,888km

 

 

Drove to Albany end of Feb for a Rufus Du Sol concert (fun) and ended up realising I would tick over 370,000km on the way down to RW

 

 

Removed the old banner and took a pic of the normal windscreen since I never see it like this any more

 

 

...and got to work on the annoying job of fitting the new one single handedly.  Rush job thanks to mozzie attack means it's got loads of bubbles in it this time!

 

 

I had grabbed some BA XR8 18" rims as spares months ago and got some daily driver spec tyres fitted to them to drive down on

 

 

...because I was also buying 80 treadwear tyres this year for proper race level grip (Nankang AR-1 in 255/40/17) instead of driving down on a grippy all rounder road tyre (Pilot Sport 3) or harder tread semi slick (Nankang NS-2R 180 treadwear) like prior years.

 

 

 

Lugged them home along with previously fitted 17" sh*tty tyres which I need to sell...

 

Edited 05/03/19 02:18 PM by discostig

[discostig]

They sat in storage for about 24 hours...heaps of room!

 

 

Now, I left work early at 4pm Friday arvo so I could make the 4.5 hour (!) drive down that night.  Not wanting to be punched in the head by a wheel and tyre combo if I had an off on the way down, I discovered that you can fit 3.8 race tyres in the boot of a Falcon.  One in spare well and one slightly poking through the 60% fold seat, with double seatbelts buckled across it just in case.

 

 

 

Finally fuelled up and all stickers on I left the suburbs at 6:30pm for the long drive down...

 

 

 

<scene missing>

 

 

The next morning it was a wheel change in the driveway of the accommodation, empty the car and head on down to the airstrip to meet up with the other two tragic fools from the forum

 

 

And soon after that I was lined up and ready to race with 370,373km on the odo

 

 

 

 

 

The usual dusty approach road

 

 

and bogans in taxis

 

 

 

I'll just chuck up a bunch of pics without much comment, they speak for themselves really from here and it's getting late:

 

 

 

Needs moar mods

 

Paused racing to land two RFDS planes, but were able to drive around them on return road while they loaded up

 

Edited 05/03/19 02:50 PM by discostig

[discostig]

Looking back at 2017 results I got 229.30km/h over 800m and 241.40 over the 1000m, so that year I picked up 12.1km/h in the final 200m.

 

Going from my 242.59km/h over 800m and guesstimating for increased wind resistance at higher speeds I might have grabbed another ten km/h with another 200m this year, which would put me at 252km/h.  I'm not sure why I didn't spend the extra $75 on VMAX (again).  Would have been nice to have a real number...see if it returns next year.

 

Anyway back to the pics

 

 

IATs were up at 67° at one point.  Bonnet up and a wait between runs saw them get as low as 33° for me.  Factory intake and stainless cold side pipe around engine to stock crossover problems...I found that ten degrees seemed to rob me of about 5km/h - hard to really judge without identical launch and shift points though

 

 

 

 

This 335 was FAST.  I shouldn't have rolled on easy hahaha

 

This Stagea not so much

 

A few videos up next.  Forgot to switch on dashcam this year and used phone to watch intake temps mostly:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How the fronts looked at the end of the day!

 

 

Took the evening to get some pics of the car out and about in Albany too

 

 

 

 

The hill I was looking forward to tackling on Monday:

 

Edited 05/03/19 04:04 PM by discostig

[discostig]

Also visited the National ANZAC Centre that night solo and quietly got some history in:

 

 

 

You can hop on and aim these guns using the hand winders by the way.

 

 

 

 

 

This next gun was VERY easy to move using the tiny brass winder handle as big as a thumb on a circular path of maybe 10cm diameter.  I'm talking single finger, barely had to push it and it rotated a degree or two!

 

 

 

Even the big cannon only took a bit of effort on the wheel to alter pitch.  Impressive engineering.  As Luke said, we do our best engineering when we are trying to kill each other. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grabbed dinner in town and wandered around a bit

 

 

Wait a second, what's this?

 

 

 

Someone is famous!  Time to blackmail them now that they have a public image to uphold (lol yeah right)

 

Edited 05/03/19 04:27 PM by discostig

[discostig]

Sunday arrived and the 1000m solo runs were first up.  Jose in the ITP Supra set a national record of 338km/h, and about ten minutes later Willall Racing beat it  with 351km/h.  Jose in his blue Supra later had a fairly big off after his chute failed to open.  The car runs small brakes up front to fit the front runner wheels so there was no way he could stop in time.  He was somewhat injured but he survived relatively unscathed from what I understand.  Very lucky.

 

 

Then the worst case scenario happened.  As I said, I didn't race in the VMAX on Sunday, and the airstrip event was halted completely after a second big solo crash in which someone paid the ultimate price, though we only found out how bad it was later that night.  Not something you ever want to see happen and no amount of thoughts and prayers will bring him back.  His family and friends left behind will be in a very dark place right now.

 

The day wound up early as you'd expect, so not much else to say on Sunday's events.

[discostig]

I had an early night and headed down to Middleton Beach the next morning to see what was going to happen to the event.  It is run by CAMS in conjunction with Racewars staff and is a separate event, so it went ahead.  Media from the TV networks were around the public access pit area trying for interviews apparently.  I didn't go looking, it was time to concentrate on the racing ahead of me and get myself ready mentally.

 

Briefing at the base of the hill we had to contend with

 

 

With that over Racers assembled in bays and the more serious ones prepped themselves in race suits etc

 

 

 

 

 

I was glad to see my rears still had lots of grip.  You can see the Nankang logo clearly still visible

 

 

 

This nice Jag got rear ended by the VN 😞  Luckily just on the push handle

 

 

Weird rim flex but OK:

 

 

Time for the sighting pass!  Here's a more interesting vid on the way down

 

 

 

 

The real passes started and parking was a nightmare upon return to the pits.  I had to pull in a random bay and wound up between the Wyldcat Racing boys when they parked at their marquee.  They weren't super happy with the marshalling of cars!  Perfect time for an awkward pic.

 

Pics while waiting at the top (The National ANZAC Centre car park).  We got sent in groups of 30, two groups would go up and then convoy back down again all at once.

[discostig]

On to the best part - Hill climb vids!

 

Lap 1 - never had a hillclimb before so racing flat out around blind corners on the wrong side of the road was unnerving, let me tell you!  

 

No interior video for this lap, sorry.

 

Also I think the phone camera anti shake does funny things to the motion on the tight corners.

 

Result was 1:49:39 and 17th - but the whole field hadn't run yet so I knew that my position would fall

 

 

 

 

Lap 2 where increased confidence in speed, braking and layout knowledge shaved 2.3 seconds for a 1:46:76 and position 28 of 87 cars

 

You get steering wheel and interior views this time!  G forces visible thanks to the UBD in passenger door and the hard drive read head hanging by wire from the sunvisor hahaha.  Speedo from laggy GPS is in bottom left.  I was over 160km/h at some points along a large hillside overlooking the ocean...weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee *Thelma and Louise theme plays*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lap 3 - lets call this the 11/10ths lap, at least on chicane 3 hahaha

 

 

It was very rumbly after that soft shoulder hit so I took it slower the rest of the way.  I was a bit worried!

 

Turns out once I got to the top, it was just pea gravel and dirt rolling around in the rim barrel and hitting/grinding the calipers.  It poured out of the body kit hahahahaha

 

 

Scoring on the rim barrel

 

The bumper is in bad nick anyway to be honest, this is meh.  Silver FTW from a distance lol

 

The rumble was gone on the group cruise back down which was a relief.

 

 

 

Final lap I was ginger starting out to ensure it was good at speed, then realised I could have been hitting first on exit from the chicanes...this resulted in nice wheelspin!  I could probably have run 28 or 26 PSI (airstrip pressure, gripped well) in the rears instead of 30, but was worried about rolling a tyre off on a corner, so hey.

 

Very fun final lap!  Sorry the dashcam cuts out in these vids by the way.  It's 5 years old now and fragile...

 

 

Skids skids skids skids

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final result, 33 of 87.  I was hoping for mid pack like last year at the industrial estate sprint but I did much better and didn't total the car so that's a win in my book

 

 

 

 

Edited 05/03/19 06:14 PM by discostig