Mx5, Chapter 2

[The American]

I suspect it is a Russian device - most of the websites talking about it appear to be in Russian

[The American]

Numbered and ready for the next adventure

[The American]

The next event will be round 1 of the NSWHCC 'The Essess'. Round 2 is the following day and is known as 'Mountain Straight'.

'The Essess' starts at 'Forrest Elbow' and climbs though 'The Dipper' and 'The Essess' to finish near 'Skyline'.

'Mountain Straight' starts on 'Mountain Straight', and climbs through 'The Cutting' and finishes somewhere near McPhillamy Park, which is also where I believe I will be camping.

[RS2000]

I see, by that map, that the dipper & forrest elbow have been moved

[The American]

looks like my attempt to re-label that track map killed it entirely...

[Okibi]

Post it below, i'll fix the broken image and then delete the post below.

[The American]

[The American]

After a rather long break and a few modifications, I drove down to Bathurst on the weekend for round 1 and 2 of the CAMS NSW Hillclimb Championship.
I left early on Thursday morning and had decided to travel the Newell Highway as my tow car is not exactly powerful and I wanted to avoid the towns and hills of the New England highway (and the coastal route is a good hour longer than either inland route)

After grabbing a coffee in Toowoomba, the next stop was Goondiwindi…

…followed by lunch in Moree…

A quick stretch in Coonabarabran…

…and finally, dinner at the hotel in Mendooran.

Just about every building in Mendooran has mural on some part of it, and once I’d unrolled my swag in one of the covered rest areas, I went for a wander around the town.




The following morning, I made for Bathurst and almost got caught out when I discovered that none of the smaller towns that I’d planned to refuel at had diesel. After a rather long detour, I was able to refuel and make my way into Bathurst. By lunch time, I had pitched camp in McPhillamy Park on top of Mount Panorama.

Good facilities, hot showers and toilets, and the toilet paper didn’t run out until Sunday morning.
Tony had contacted me via the forum and offered to show me some lines for both hill climb courses on Friday afternoon – I gladly took him up on this offer! This was a tremendous help, particularly for the Mountain Straight course, which requires some careful positioning and a bit of nerve to get right.
Friday night ended up being a bit wet, which set the scene for competition the following morning.

Scrutineering kicked off at 7am followed by the drivers briefing.

First runs up the hill began around 9am. ‘The Esses’ hillclimb runs in the reverse direction to the usual use of the track and starts before Forest Elbow and finishes at Skyline. I drove most of it in third gear. There are a few corners that require very late apexes and you cannot see around them to the apex thanks to the walls and the steepness. With practice, I am certain I could carry more speed, and in particular could make better use of the braking assistance that comes from the steepness of the grade.
This clip is my first run up 'The Esses' on Saturday morning while the track was cold and still damp:


This clip was my last and best attempt at 30.77:

Tony was able to break the class record on one of his runs. This is his track prepared SE (in which I could not catch him!)

Keith Hammond was also there with his NA8 and produced some impressive times

As usual there were a host of other interesting machines. This Rx7 made all the right noises…


Day two began cool and damp, but warmed quickly into very good conditions.

The course for day two runs up the other side of the mountain and is called ‘Mountain Straight’. It’s easily the fastest hillclimb I’ve done, ending in 5th gear over the finish line. Because of the lines you have to take to set up for the last corner, I found this course to be genuinely frightening across the top of the mountain. My best attempt was a 54.97.

The class I had entered was the ‘Road registered, non-log booked, rear wheel drive, 2500cc and over’. There were 23 entries in this class, and I placed 13th and 9th for the two courses respectively.
After this experience, I am pretty sure I will be back at some point for another attempt.

After the last run on Sunday afternoon, I left almost immediately and made my way to the New England Highway. I stopped at the Burning Mountain rest area near Wingen, north of Scone and about an hour south of Tamworth. I unrolled my swag in a covered area complete with red backs and roosting swallows and slept like a log.
I stopped in a foggy Tamworth for a coffee and breakfast in the morning…

…and was back in QLD by midday…

… and home in Brisbane by 2:30pm

[Magpie]

So was it worth it when you take into account the distance travelled?

I would have gone through Warick (Cunningham's gap) instead of Toowoomba.

I found the New England not the best road to tow on and the rest stops were less frequent and inferior to the ones on the Pacific Highway.

[The American]

2250km for 6 mins of track time is not a lot, but I look at it as an adventure, an opportunity to explore, meet people and chat, and do a bit of camping.

No regrets on my part!

The GPS said Toowoomba was quickest. The return via the New England was scenic, but hard work rowing through the towns and hills. To cover distance quickly the Newell is the pick. Pacific Highway would have added about 1.5hrs to the total trip (again according to the GPS)

[Daffy]

Epic adventure, great pictures, vids and a really good read mate! (dont worry too much about them redbacks......they dont eat much)

[The American]

The Bathurst event was the first decent drive after installing the new diff, poly diff mounts and poly engine mounts.

You can see in the vids (compared to earlier ones) that the shifter movement is greatly reduced. I still missed a 4th to 3rd shift on day 2, but overall the shifting was easier. That 3rd gate feels stiff at the best of times and it doesn't always go in easily even when I'm just tootling along in the road. Clearly needs some Magic Grease or maybe a squirt of Nevermiss.

There's still some wheel hop, but it feels much less severe.

The new Torsen did its thing, and grip off the line was back to normal.

[S2-13BT]

I read through the whole thread last night.

Great read, great car, great driving! A bit of an inspiration for me, as I'd like to get out and have a go at a bunch of different events.

Now, I'm keen for the next event write up. I'll just sit here patiently.

[Daffy]

The Bathurst event was the first decent drive after installing the new diff, poly diff mounts and poly engine mounts.

You can see in the vids (compared to earlier ones) that the shifter movement is greatly reduced. I still missed a 4th to 3rd shift on day 2, but overall the shifting was easier. That 3rd gate feels stiff at the best of times and it doesn't always go in easily even when I'm just tootling along in the road. Clearly needs some Magic Grease or maybe a squirt of Nevermiss.

There's still some wheel hop, but it feels much less severe.

The new Torsen did its thing, and grip off the line was back to normal.

I had Issues with a worn centre bearing a couple of clutches ago that made itself known both from 3rd to 4th and back again, both under load as well as normal driving.....

[The American]

A bit of an inspiration for me, as I'd like to get out and have a go at a bunch of different events.

Get out there and go for it! Back 2011, I'd never done any form of motorsport, when I sent off an email to the Mx5 Club of WA asking what I needed to do to join one of their events. They invited me to a 'come 'n' try' event, told me to join the club, get a helmet complying with AS1698 and full length cotton clothes, and then come along to try things out.