Guran's NA6 "Little Reddy"

JBT · Postby **JBT** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:10 pm

Good on you Bryan. Will you be getting a bespoke cardigan or just picking one up from the shops :?:

de Bounce · Postby **de Bounce** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:13 pm

Congratulations Bryan.
Nice choice

evil_weevil · Postby **evil_weevil** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 10:28 pm

I knew you had a BMW 1 series didnt realise it was a 135i - Ive got a soft spot for them!

congrats on the new purchase.
time for a new thread so we can keep up with both cars now!

kris · Postby **kris** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 12:10 am

Congratulations Bryan and what excellent taste in colour of NC you have! (i think that makes 3 stormy blues on the forum now?)

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 3:49 pm

The rego papers for Little Bluey and cheque from the dealer both arrived today. As it's my regular "day off" (I work a 4-day week), I was able to go straight up to the RMS office at get myself a new set of plates to replace the personalised ones. I just went with slim white plates with black writing ... nothing fancy.

I'm doing the CAMS Supersprint tomorrow at Sydney Motorsport Park Grand Prix Circuit with Little Reddy. The paperwork from ARDC indicates there are 82 drivers entered and 13 are in MX-5s. I did my six-monthly oil and filter change this morning, and fitted the R888 R-specs so I'm ready to go for tomorrow. I'm hoping that the R888s will start to come good, although I'm not expecting too much from them just yet. We'll see. I'm also interested to see how the realigned turn 6/7 is now that they're removed the little right-hand kink. Supposedly the track is now a little faster than it was with the old layout.

Charlie Brown · Postby **Charlie Brown** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:02 pm

Guran wrote:....also interested to see how the realigned turn 6/7 is now that they're removed the little right-hand kink. Supposedly the track is now a little faster than it was with the old layout.

Good luck Bryan, I'm missing this one.
Last EC entry for Little Reddy? :wink:

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:31 pm

21st July 2012
NSW Supersprint Round 4 - Eastern Creek GP Circuit

ARDC organised this round and it was our first for the 2012 season on the original Eastern Creek layout, with the realignment of turns 6/7. There were 91 drivers entered, including 27 non-championship entrants. The weather forecast was for possible showers, but thankfully it stayed dry all day. Temperatures ranged from 12 to 16°C and there was a lot of cloud cover. Rather than the usual 3 flying laps, we were given 8 minute runs which meant that most got 4 flying laps per run, and a total of up to 5 runs - including a half hour lunch break for the officials. That total of 20 laps is much better than the usual 15 laps, but there's still room for improvement with quite a few delays through the day.

Run 1: 2:03.661, 2:02.363, 2:02.086, 2:01.553. I took it pretty carefully on the first run with the R888s. Started with 23psi cold and they climbed to 30psi. I dropped them back to 28psi after this run.

Run 2: 2:01.743, 2:01.078, 2:03.591, 2:01.251. I followed Peter Browning's Class 3A NA6 on this run. Peter hasn't dríven Eastern Creek for a few years and I kept catching up to him and had to back off on the third lap and give myself some room.

Run 3: 2:01.856, 2:01.019, 2:01.171, 2:00.669. After passing Anthony Crott's NB into turn 2 on the first lap, I had a clear run. Experimented with a few different approaches to the new turn 6, and found a method that worked for me: turning in with a touch of trail braking to get the rear sliding, then cutting the apex and sliding all the way to the start of the south circuit extension. Good fun! I dropped the hot pressures back to 27psi after this run.

Run 4: 2:03.415, 2:01.158, 2:01.020. The first lap was a bit frustrating as I had to overtake an Alfa GTV into turn 2 and then kept catching an XR8 in the corners. So I backed off at the end of lap 1 to give some room. Had a few problems with the rear stepping out a bit too much in the 3rd gear corners. Lap 4 started really well but I was surprised to see a car off in the gravel at turn 1 (no yellow flag!), and I had good speed through turns 2 & 3, but the run was red flagged just as I crested the hill to approach turn 4. Bugger. So I only got 3 laps for this run.

Run 5: 2:01.628, 2:07.704, 2:00.627, 2:01.238. In the last run with the setting sun streaming in under the low clouds, I started last in the group and behind a Porsche 944 Turbo who was doing similar times to me. He let me pass on the straight to begin the first lap, but then frustratingly blasted past on the main straight at the start of lap 2. My speed through turn 1 was badly compromised as a result (words were spoken!). I caught him again by turn 6 so I backed right off to give some room. It worked because my fastest lap of the day came on the next lap. I caught slower cars on the last lap.

Overall, I had a best lap of 2:00.627 which was 1.34s slower than my PB (1:59.288). I reckon I was gaining about half a second in the new turn 6, but lost quite a bit of time in the other corners due to reduced grip from the R888s. We're talking 0.5s in turn 1, 0.4s in turn 2, 0.3s in turn 7, 0.2s in turn 8, and 0.4s in turns 10/11 ... it adds up.

The R888s are starting to come good but are still nowhere near as sticky as the RE55s were at the same stage of their life. I'll be taking them to Phillip Island for the 6hr Regularity Relay on 4th/5th August, and hopefully they'll be well settled for the next Supersprint on 12th August - first try of the new long circuit at Eastern Creek.

I had one interesting experience during the day when the eligibility officer asked to check my car :shock:

. Apparently someone reckoned that I had an LSD fitted, which is ineligible for Type 1. My diff is definitely open and I was able to quickly demonstrate it by jacking up the rear. With the engine running and in first gear, it took no effort to stop one rear wheel while the other spun. Then with the engine stopped and out of gear, turning one rear wheel left the other stationary. And lastly, with the engine stopped and in 1st gear, turning one rear wheel caused the other to spin in the reverse direction. Yep, an open diff alright

. Of course I know this full well because I've spent the last few years figuring out how to get decent exit speed from tight corners without uselessly spinning the inside wheel. :lol:

I finished 4th in Class 1B behind Alexander Ball's Elise 111R (1:49.044), Tony Chan's Celica (1:57.529), and Glenn Thomas' NB8B (1:59.386), but ahead of four other drivers. In the championship, I'm now 4th in Class 1B and Type 1, with a good chance of finishing 3rd. The MX-5 Club of NSW collected plenty of club points too, with class wins to Ralph Thompson (2B, 1:51.362), Steve Green (3B, 1:52.737) and Peter Browning (3A, 1:59.897), and second places to James Horne (2A, 1:58.308), Russ Maxwell (2B, 1:54.104), and Phil Abraham (3B, 1:53.957). After four rounds, the MX-5 Club has a healthy lead on 401 points, to ARDC (340), and NSWRRC (263).

Natsoft Results

My video didn't run out too well this time as I had the spycam misaligned. Got lots of coverage of the cabin and very little of the view ahead. :oops:

So I don't think I'll worry about posting any video this time.

Hjt · Postby **Hjt** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 9:36 pm

Mixed results, seems your r888s will hopefully come on at the right time, shame the Porsche held you up. Good overall result.

Will we see you next week?

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 9:47 pm

29th July - definitely. It'll be my first outing in Class 4, but still with a standard car. Looking forward to it. :mrgreen:

PeterB · Postby **PeterB** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:47 pm

Strange that the eligibility officer decided to check "Little Reddy" for a lsd - maybe they thought you were set up as a "drifter" with your tail out driving style.

Shame you were held up or red flagged on your quick runs as you definitely would a have been quicker than me with a clear run and into the 59s or 58s.

You are still welcome to run a session or two in my NA6 next weekend if you want to see how the modifications feel.

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:29 am

Fan-bloody-tastic day at Wakefield Park yesterday with the MX-5 Club trackday. New PB of ...

1:15.80

... with a standard unmodified NA6 on Star Specs. :mrgreen:

I also had a 1:15.89 and 1:15.99 in the last run so the 15s were reproducible. Running in Class 4 (clubman) I finished 0.08s behind Brad Carpenter and 0.30s behind Ian Vickers. It was a ding dong battle all day, with Ian jumping from 3rd to 1st on his last run. Awesome fun!