Guran's NA6 "Little Reddy"

[Guran]

I'll post a more detailed report on yesterday's club trackday at Wakefield Park once the official results are available (I forgot to take photos of the screens this time ). But for now I wanted to unload.

I was really disappointed with my times yesterday. Yes, I had heaps of fun sliding around all over the place, but a best lap of 1:18.9ish doesn't cut it against my street tyre PB of 1:17.00. At the time, I was inclined to lay blame on 1) the brand new Adrenalins, and 2) the strong westerly winds (steady 40km/hr, with 50-60km/hr gusts) and warm humid weather (25C and 50-60%RH). But I have to admit that I was worried that my car might have also been down on power. I had to put my mind at rest, so I compared my PBox data against previous runs:


WP110220v101205v091206 by Guran5, on Flickr

red = 20 Feb 2011 new tyres - set 3 (1:18.9)
blue = 5 Dec 2010 worn tyres - set 2 (1:18.28)
green = 6 Dec 2009 worn tyres - set 1 (1:18.11)

This shows that I was actually a fair bit quicker down the main straight yesterday than on those two previous days; same with the run up the hill to turn 3. However, the run down the hill towards the fishhook and on the back straight, were much slower. This suggests that the main problem yesterday was that strong westerly wind. I haven't done much analysis of the corner speeds, but there doesn't seem to be a dramatic difference from the new tyres.

So that's a relief - my car doesn't seem to be down on power afterall.

[mitch_f1]

WHat is this pbox you speak of to get such cool graphs?

[Guran]

WHat is this pbox you speak of to get such cool graphs?

My shorthand for Performance Box. It's a cool toy that I've been playing with for the last few years. You can do the same sort of thing much cheaper with a smartphone, GPS receiver and Racechrono. Or you can go one better and buy this.

[Guran]

20th February 2011

MX-5 Club of NSW track day - Wakefield Park

The first club trackday at Wakefield Park for 2011 after a long two months break over the summer. The weather forecast was for scattered showers, but thankfully they never arrived. Instead we had a warm sunny day, fairly high humidity and a strong westerly wind blowing all day. As I wrote a few days ago, this meant that we were heading into the strong wind on the run down the hill from turn 5 to the fish-hook, and then all the way down the back straight. So the conditions meant that most of the regulars were around a second or so slower than their PBs.

There was a very strong turnout of 72 drivers and would have been a few more but for some late withdrawals. I was asked to help out with the driver training for the first time, and enjoyed every minute of coaching my first student ... Brad Johnson. He and his wife Clare joined the club in late 2010 and this was their first visit to Wakefield Park. They enjoyed themselves and I look forward to seeing them at more track days in future. In fact, I think Clare will be doing the driver training day at Marulan next month.

After the success of the Interstate Challenge at Phillip Island in December, Mike Hicks decided to modify the format slightly. Rather than aiming for runs of 4 laps each, we started with 8 minute runs, and that was later cut back to 7 minute runs. This meant we had either 6 or 5 laps per run, and the faster guys snuck in an extra lap on top of that. I think everyone agreed that the new format was an improvement because it gave us all a little bit extra time out on the track.

A handful of drivers actually managed to improve their PBs, which was a great effort in the circumstances:
Steve Green (modified NB) 1:12.71 (-0.72s)
Craig Gartlacher (turbo NA6) 1:12.27 (-1.20s)
Robert Young (modified NC) 1:15.02 (-2.40s)
Ralph Thompson (modified NC) 1:15.86 (-1.05s)
Peter Browning (modified NA6) 1:16.28 (-0.40s)

The quickest MX-5 on the day was Brett Lansley (Class 7 Turbo NB8A) with a 1:10.36, followed by Mark Hellmund (Class 6) with a 1:11.05. Val Stewart had the fastest car on the day with a 1:08.36 in her RX7 (Class 9 / Group 2B), which was an identical time to her last club run in December.

My best lap was a 1:18.89 in the third run (1.89s off my PB), which saw me finish second in Class 1 behind Allan Cruz. I simply couldn't get anywhere near Allan and his best lap of 1:17.99. Allan started immediately behind me all day, and I can only speculate that being able to chase me down must have been inspirational for him! Unfortunately, his day ended early on the 4th run when a small coolant hose split, sprayed coolant on the track and caused him to spin suddenly on turn 9. He was lucky not to get T-boned by a silver NB that understeered off the track seconds later. I watched it all happen in my rear-view mirror. Scary stuff!

Due to the high number of entrants, there was no regularity event. Other class winners were:
Class 2 (Std NB): Brad Carpenter 1:17.19 (ahead of Glenn Thomas by 0.01s!!!)
Class 3 (Std NC): Stuart James 1:16.99
Class 4 (Std NA/NB on R-specs): Ian Vickers 1:17.49 (sole entrant)
Class 5 (Mod NA6): Peter Browning 1:15.88 (impressive effort from mitch_f1 to finish second!)
Class 8 (Group 2F): Dennis Brady 1:11.76 ("Old & Bold" winner)
Class 10 (non-MX5s): Craig Hasler (E36) 1:11.19
Class 11 (visitors): Kayne Hasler (Evo) 1:14.28

Once again, I got video of every one of my runs, but didn't have any spectacular spins. I did run wide onto the dirt a few times between turns 4 and 5, but managed to hold it each time and line it up for turn 5. The video below is from my 3rd run and features laps 3 and 4 which were the only ones that dipped into the 1:18s. As you can see, my slow times were not for lack of trying!

[Guran]

Eastern Creek supersprint today! And it could have been a very bad start to the day if Fiona hadn't noticed a dull glow from the parking lights of Little Reddy, parked out front last night . I must have bumped the lights switch somehow during the day . Lucky! So I put the battery on a charger overnight and now just need to connect it up and re-pack the boot.

[evil_weevil]

4:22am post!!?!?

[Hellmun]

Your forum time is out by 1 hour. That was 5:22am which is pretty normal for for me to be wide awake before a trackday.

[Guran]

Yep, 5:22am AEDT! And I had already been awake since quarter-to-five. Not by choice - my wife had a nightmare and I woke as a result. Couldn't get back to sleep after that. Hence I was eating breakfast and posting a quick message on the forum between mouthfuls. I normally leave home at 6am for a 7:30am arrival at Eastern Creek (likewise at Wakefield Park). And yesterday morning, the extra time was handy because I also had to reinstall the battery.

[Guran]

26th February 2011

NSW Supersprint Round 1 - Eastern Creek

The 2011 Supersprint season kicked off at Eastern Creek under the "management" of NSWRRC. What a bloody shambles! The queue for signing in took about half an hour to get through because they were hand-writing details on the scrutineering sheets. One fussy scrutineer was chewing out every NA/NB driver for their BD rollbar, claiming it was illegal because there was less than 50mm head clearance. Never mind the fact that BD rollbars are ADR and CAMS compliant, and have been approved for use at Supersprints for many years. Said scrutineer also had a go at me for removing my front number plate (which I always do to maximise flow into the air intake) - perhaps I should have directed him to clause 1.10 of the Vehicle Regulations: "Numbers plates may be removed or concealed but current registration label must remain affixed to the vehicle." The drivers briefing was a joke too, they didn't bother turning on the microphone so people at the back couldn't hear, and nearly all the basics were not mentioned despite the presence of about 15 first-timers. Is it any wonder that some drivers later continued circulating, oblivious to the display of a red flag?

After much thumb-twiddling, I finally got onto the track at around 11am! We had blue skies most of the day, no rain, and forecast maximum of 31C. So I was aiming to book a quick lap while it was still reasonably cool (25C). Unfortunately I got stuck behind a slower Commodore, and after completing one lap (2:06.187 - my slowest all day), the run was red-flagged because another Commodore had spun off at turn 1 and was left in a dangerous position. We were sent back out after the track was cleared, but I had to pass a Pulsar, the first Commodore again, then a Skyline. My laps were 2:04.025, 2:03.992 and 2:03.390. Subsequent analysis of my delta-ts suggested I was on target for a 2:02.0, except for the traffic.

The second run was much the same as the first ... but hotter (30C). I had to negotiate the slow Commodore again, and finished with laps of 2:03.749, 2:03.766 and 2:04.645 - no improvement. I had no traffic on the third run, but the temperature hit 32C, and I had times of 2:03.614, 2:02.941 and 2:04.360 - into the 2:02s at last. The fourth and final run was red-flagged before I crossed the line on my first lap. The reason was a sports sedan had spun on turn 1, only 50m ahead of Stewart Temesvary's NC, causing him to take evasive manoeuvres at ~160km/hr and spin off too. It was a VERY scary moment for Stewart! After restarting, my tyres and brakes were still hot, so I got stuck in, skated around turn 1 at Vmin 161km/hr (right foot flat to the floor), and did a 2:01.722. I pipped Scott McGarry's modified NA6 by a couple tenths once again, much to his disgust. That was my best lap, and only a second slower than my PB (2:00.734).

So that was it. I had only 13 timed laps spread over four runs . Fair enough, there were 109 drivers so I wasn't expecting much track time. But it has to be said that NSWRRC could learn much from AROCA who can give 125 drivers 30-odd laps at Phillip Island, on a day that also featured morning drizzle, and several vehicle retrievals. Frankly, I am very tempted to skip any future Supersprint rounds that are organised by NSWRRC.

Natsoft Results

I finished the day 4th in Type 1 behind Paul Bower's XR4 (1.57.275), Stewart Temesvary's NC (1.57.829), and Saba Hanania's C63 AMG (2.01.456 - seriously!). It looks like I might be in luck this season because two drivers have entered stock 1600 Pulsars, which means that Class 1A is up for grabs. So I finished 1st in Class 1A by a comfortable five second margin.

Fastest MX-5 was Steve Green with a 1.55.768. Stewart Temesvary's 1:49.6163 on Natsoft was a stuff-up by the timers (his first three lap times belonged to another car), although that didn't stop him from teasing his rivals! Same with Keith Monaghan who was briefly credited with a 1:58 but later finished with a new PB of 2:08.227. Stewart and Keith got plenty of mileage out of that.

After Round 1, the MX-5 Club of NSW (101) are third in the club championship, behind ARDC (120) and NSWRRC (112). However, we were missing several regulars: Mark Hellmund, Glenn Thomas, Mike Hicks, Phil Ashton, Bob Gage, Leigh Hemmings, Steven Pender, and Kevin Addison, just to name a few. Normal service should be resumed at Round 2!

Oh, and I didn't get any video of my best run because the memory card was full. There wasn't anything notable to see in the rest of the video, so I wont be posting any of it.

[de Bounce]

Could be they came to Victoria to see how to run a efficient event and ended up at a WRX or HSV round

[evil_weevil]

good write up!

spewing I couldnt make it

[Guran]

It's been a while since my last update ... so here goes. Much of it is lifted from other threads anyway.

13 March 2011
MX-5 Club at Marulan Driver Training Centre

Although I was the first person to register for the driver training day, it turned out that I was needed to help as an instructor, so my entry fee was refunded (allowing hamx5ter to attend in my place ).

I've gotta say that I had a fantastic time I spent nearly the entire day jumping out of one car and into the next. Gotta learn to drink more fluids though - I was badly dehydrated at the end of it. During the day, I had time in a Mazda2 (Steve with an auto), Mazda3 (twice - with Clare & Brad), midori's NA8 (what a noise that makes!), Peter's lovely 10AE (what a great car to drive!), hamx5ter's NB (love that Cusco diff), a Honda Civic 1600 (twice), an LSD-less NB8B (really struggled to get the power down), Russ's modded NC (twice), and probably others I've forgotten. I snuck in three runs in my Little Reddy too with a best lap of 49.99s (timed with my Performance Box). That was a bit slower than my PB of 49.28s from exactly two years ago, and the difference was lost entirely on the last corner - it's a real bitch to get right.

My absolute highlight of the day (make that "the year") was when Hellmun and I swapped cars and I had a run in his red beast . That thing is absolutely amazing to drive. Unlike most highly modified cars, it is beautifully set up with awesome mid-range torque, and very nice balance, braking and power down, making it highly predictable, controllable and deliciously playful. Breathtakingly fast too! I even managed to spin it at turn 2, when I mistimed a downshift and popped the clutch mid-corner. Steve Green was in close pursuit at the time and reckoned my eyes were like saucers as he took evasive manoeuvres. The official photographer indicated that he caught it on camera so there might be visual evidence coming soon. I can't wait to have another go in it at Wakefield sometime ... if Mark lets me behind the wheel again.

[Guran]

18 March 2011

I bought my first set of RE55s secondhand in February last year, and they've finally lived out their usefulness. I was really happy with their performance at Supersprints, so decided to try a new set this time. So last Friday, I drove up to Eastern Creek to buy a set from Gordon Leven who were at the track for a state championship round. Unfortunately, the price has gone up to $330 each (was $300 a year ago) for 185/60R14. And here they are sitting in a corner of the garage waiting for Round 2 of the NSW Supersprints at Eastern Creek on 10th April ...


IMG_1339 by Guran5, on Flickr

[Guran]

6 March 2011

50th Anniversary of Mini in Australia

OK this is going back even further now ...

Long before I discovered the joys of MX-5s, my first automotive love was Minis. As noted on the first page of this thread, I owned three different Leyland Minis between 1988 and 1994, and then a new Cooper S from 2002 to 2008. So when I heard that the 50th Anniversary of the Mini in Australia was due to be celebrated with a Mini-only race day at Wakefield Park - I just had to be there. I dragged along the whole family too! It was a fun day out and the racing, regularities and show&shine was worth the trip. It was fantastic to see so many old classics being dríven hard around the track, with everything from showroom stock Minis through to slick-shod Sports Sedan racing cars doing 1:09s (Natsoft times). My only disappointment was that there were no modern MINIs in the races or regularities. The old divide still exists! However, MINI Australia had a strong presence with several cars on display, including the butt-ugly Countryman.

Big rear swaybar in floppy FWD equals lots of cocked inside leg!

IMG_1086 by Guran5, on Flickr

The Sports Sedans start Race 1. Bob Bell in the green & orange Mini won Races 1 and 2 and DNF'd Race 3. Bob runs an auto repair shop just five minutes from my home.

IMG_1101 by Guran5, on Flickr

Definitely not a stock proboscis on Peter Crocker's Mini. This is how you squeeze a crossflow head onto an A Series engine.

IMG_1117 by Guran5, on Flickr

A gaggle of Group N Minis negotiating turn 2. Craig Heydon in the gold Cooper S with P-plate is a regular at Supersprints.

IMG_1130 by Guran5, on Flickr

Blue is the colour for these Group N Minis at the fish-hook

IMG_1138 by Guran5, on Flickr

Replica of Paddy Hopkirk's Works Cooper S that won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964

IMG_1141 by Guran5, on Flickr

Replica of Rauno Aaltonen's Works Cooper S that won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1967 (they put the wrong name sticker on the replica!)

IMG_1145 by Guran5, on Flickr

Charlie Borg's Sports Sedan was the winner of Race 3

IMG_1193 by Guran5, on Flickr

Mark Broadhead's lovely Morris Cooper S finished 5th in Group N Race 3

IMG_1211 by Guran5, on Flickr

[Guran]

Video of my second run at Marulan, including a best lap of 49.99s. You can see from this video how the track surface has been repaired with a concrete patch at turn 3, and the surface is breaking up at the exit of turn 6.