Ben Sale's white 1990 NA6

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:28 pm

Hearty congrats Ben! Amazing effort. :shock:

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:42 pm

Thanks guys =) I'll post the full sequence of gardening shots some time Greg =)

So now for a little rant......... Today my car received two official protests questioning the number of modifications to my car... Rob Downes (motor sport captain) is coming over tonight to inspect the car for legality... I've told him exactly what has been done to it and he can see for himself... We'll see what happens.

From what I can gather certain people believe that my car has no catalytic converter, an aftermarket ecu and extractors... Which I don't. There are three things which are questionable in my eyes, the car doesn't have a softop in it at the moment (replaced with an oem hardtop) which shouldn't be an issue as there is no weight saving and my main competitor does the same... He actually has no soft top and is running a carbon fibre hardtop... I have the oem front lip... and 3 one inch holes in my air box... Perhaps they'll kick me out for that?

I really can't believe how seriously people are taking this... It seems like the rest of the salon are racing for sheep stations... The fact that someone comes into the scene and gets used to running on the track and goes faster than them obviously can't be... If I were to rub salt in the wounds I would add that my 1.6 (vs there 1.8s) has almost 260,000km on the clock.

Whatever the outcome is I will take it and not be led to lodge a counter protest despite me being able to... I came second in modified on Sunday with a fraction of the allowed modifications and without running semi... It wouldn't be the end of the world to be pushed up to there... Or for the next round I could fix whatever tiny thing of no value they're bitching about and go out again... Either that or give up on the mx5 club motor sport run my alfa......................................

daffyflyer · Postby **daffyflyer** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:21 pm

They're just jealous of your mad skillz

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:39 pm

Lolz..! I wish it was that... But no, apparently it's all down to my car having an large number of modifications...

Should know the outcome tomorrow... Going to get a compression test done to prove nothing has been done to raise the compression ratio. The cams, ecu etc are also apparently suspect so should have a look at them too. My cat is exactly the same as Mr. Downes' I'm glad to report so no issue there as was rumoured =) There are a few things which could be issues which are of no real performance value... We'll see what the decision is... =)

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:29 am

Actually, Ben I'm not at all surprised by this development. Clubman is a very competitive class, sheep stations or not. Just take it as a compliment and try not to let the situation detract from your enjoyment of it all. You know you haven't cheated (not intentionally anyway), so just ride it out and humor the suspicious minds. If Rob finds any surprises, I'm sure they'll be a surprise to you too, and you can happily correct them or jump to modified class and continue to shock the establishment!

daffyflyer · Postby **daffyflyer** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 9:07 am

Yes, annoying as it would be, what it boils down to is that they think you are so fast that you couldn't possibly have a stocker, which is quite a compliment really :mrgreen:

-alex · Postby **-alex** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 9:16 am

The scene isn't much different down here.. That's motorsport for you. =(
So proud of your time though..!

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:22 am

I'm less annoyed by it today, I guess I just wish the guys who protested came up to me with there concerns and had a chat about that they thought was done to the car before officially protesting...

What ever the outcome I'll just do what ever they want me to do to the car and go out and have fun =) I guess it is quite a nice compliment this happening after all =)

Alex, at least you guys down in Targa Tas are racing for a nice plate, some decent trophies and just a little more glory in winning the world greatest tarmac rally... Slightly closer to that sheep station... We're racing for a $5 plastic trophy at the end of the season which I'm not even in contention to win because I can't afford to do all of the championship rounds...

daffyflyer · Postby **daffyflyer** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:42 am

Yeah, it is a bit low to just straight out make a complaint... especially given what is at stake - I.E bugger all...

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:55 pm

Yep... In the case of this round it was really only bragging rights as to my knowledge the race for the $5 trophy is decided anyway...

Got the compression test done...

1- 180psi
2- 180psi
3- 175psi
4- 180psi

So good healthy results for a standard engine, 3 is down a little but it's really pretty consistent. It shows that my engine definitely isn't unhealthy, but it's nothing trick either.

lee · Postby **lee** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:17 pm

Hopefully they don't find your flux capacitor :shock:

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:44 pm

lee wrote:Hopefully they don't find your flux capacitor

Lol! It's hidden in the space left when I removed the cat... It's there with the turbo... Ssshhh! ;)

91 Malibu · Postby **91 Malibu** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 6:18 pm

Fantastic time there Ben.
Don't let the protesters get to you too much, keep up the good work & keep embarrassing those 1.8's.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 6:46 pm

You should get one of those ricer electric blow off valves (they just make the whoosh sound). Just drive around the pits infuriating all your competitors.

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:51 pm

Thanks =) I love the idea of the electric blow off valve! If I find a really cheap one I may run it in the practice session for lols! =)

Change of focus for a bit, on Sunday I removed my rear mud flaps in the morning after some advice on the aero benefits... I'd be thinking of doing it for a while for looks anyway after seeing a red na a while ago without them and thinking it looked quite cool from behind. I cleaned the bumper up a bit today and took a few pics. i like it as it shows off a bit more negative camber and looks a bit tougher from behind.