Guran's NA6 "Little Reddy"

Hammer · Postby **Hammer** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:01 pm

Guran wrote:I just bit the bullet ... this afternoon I traded-in my BMW 135i and replaced it with a 2009 NC2 Roadster Coupe in Stormy Blue. Pretty bloody excited! Say hello to Little Bluey.

IMG_1605 by Guran5, on Flickr

Nice one Bryan. Not bad daily driver. :lol:

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:26 pm

Ha ha!

You've seen through me. :lol:

My intention is definitely to continue running Little Reddy on the track - that's what I bought it for. Alex can have his own NA6 when the time comes, and Arthur & Lynette from Queensland already offered me dibs on their gorgeous low-km NA6 when they're too old to drive it

.

I admit the temptation is strong to see what I can do with a stock NC2 around Wakefield Park. However, I wouldn't say that driving Rob's NC was the thing that tipped me into buying an NC. Have a good read through this garage thread and you'll see that I've been keen on getting an NC for the last two years and have dríven several of them on the road and track since then:

4th Jul 2010 - drove Matt Wilmot's modified NC on the back roads of the southern highlands
24th Jul 2010 - took a new NC2 soft-top for a test drive from Dwyers Mazda. I even briefly had this one parked in my garage! I wasn't happy with the trade-in offer. Tried to sell my 135i privately for the next four months and that was a dismal failure.
13th Mar 2011 - had a couple drives of Russ Maxwell's modified NC around the track at Marulan.
27th Apr 2011 - took my 135i to Wakefield Park for the first time and a moment of brain fade resulted in a low speed crash into the tyre wall at turn 10. Paying for the repairs forced me to ease up on my spending, including the idea of swapping over to an NC.
4th Dec 2011 - drove Joe Kovacic's stock NC2 around Wakefield Park for his first-timer training.
20th Jan 2012 - had another drive of Russ' modified NC on the track at Marulan (45.77s).
4th Jun 2012 - drove Rob Young's modified NC around Wakefield Park (1:12.19).

So yeh, Rob's car was the most recent influencing factor, but there's definitely a long history of other factors too. I was always going to get myself an NC ... it was just a matter of "when".

I guess the thing that finally tipped me over was the recent discussions about the 86. A few guys, Roger in particular, were talking about trading in cars to buy their 86. That got me thinking: was I interested in trading the 135i on a new 86? Trading-in the 135i was attractive because I wouldn't need to go through the pain and anguish of trying to sell privately. Redbook suggested trade of around $39k for my car, and I was keen to see a few grand end up in my pocket after the exchange. The 86 ticked all the boxes for me in terms of lightweight fun factor, but new cars tend to depreciate faster than older ones, and I really didn't fancy the thought of taking another big hit on top of the massive depreciation I've suffered on the 135i ($40k in four years!). I'm also not entirely convinced by all the published road tests that the 86 is truly all that much better than an NC. Much of the difference comes down to tyre choice, with both cars offering similarly driving fun factor, and the NC has the added bonus of being a convertible. I never really "fitted" with BMW ownership, and likewise I don't think I "fit" the demographic of 86 owners. I much preferred to have an NC instead - same fun factor with the lifestyle to match our needs.

Another factor was the announcement of the facelift for the NC. I was secretly hoping that the ND would be released in 2013, and the news of yet another facelift was really depressing. Looks like the ND is at least a few years away now. An NC it would be.

But which NC, what year and how much to spend? Fiona prefers the look and feel of the PRHT coupe over the soft-top, and since I was keen to get something she would enjoy (she didn't like driving the 135i), that decision was made for me. I was keen to try and get an early MY09 since I knew from previous experience that I liked the higher rev limit, the sound enhancer, the new nose treatment, and the other changes of the NC2. I wanted to spend about the same as it'd cost to land a new 86 GT so that gave me a budget of around $34k-$35k, and I was encouraged to find that early MY09 roadster coupes had depreciated into my price range. The rest followed extremely quickly ...

On Friday morning I found a couple NC2s of interest on carsales. Within two minutes of submitting enquiries, one of the dealers phoned me. I wanted to check it out on Sunday, but he insisted on driving it down to my home from Blacktown. He arrived at 3:15pm and by 5pm, the paperwork was all done, the dealer was driving home in the 135i, and Little Bluey was parked in my garage! After two years in the making, the deal left me stunned, breathless and extremely happy. :mrgreen:

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!