My British Racing Green '99 NB

[Trackphotos]

Latest addition to the stable is in. 2010 Boxster S, 3.4L, PDK box. Will put up proper photos another time. I'll take it out to watch the Porsche club/mx5 sprints at Morgan Park tomorrow, good 500km of driving there.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Trackphotos]

Here's a couple of nicer shots from a run up beechmont and oreillys plateau today. So far about 750km on it since Friday night. Very enjoyable to drive.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Red_Bullet]

Nice, nice, very nice. Civilised even!

[Trackphotos]

Indeed, very comfortable and sedate when you leave it in auto and don't turn sport mode on. Once you put it in sport+, manual shift and open the exhaust valves it becomes much less civilised

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Red_Bullet]

I've been thinking along the same lines for a while. I'd really like one of those Boxsters, but my pragmatic side tells me not to do it. Plus, I'd then have 4 cars which is ridiculous, I'd have to sell both my MX-5's. Then I'd have two cars and no track pig. I enjoy my track pig at track days, the green NB is too sweet to sell, I just can't seem to make myself do it. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable tracking a Boxster, too valuable, too expensive if anything stuffs up.

Which car are you bringing to the next track day?? Good on you for going with your heart! Enjoy.

[Trackphotos]

The boxster will be running Norwell on august 20th, and probably QR street sprints on october 14th. Unfortunately I can't make it to the september 11th club day, it's the day after my cousin's wedding and I doubt I'll be in a state to hit the track.

As for the other car, I'll be doing the brake rotors and pads on Thursday. Need to hit up Z Car Workshop for some new Z214 tyres to replace the worn ones, and it'll be ready to go for the race meeting at QR in September. Would be nice to drive it again before then, but it would appear that having the boxster means I don't mind driving the MX5 so infrequently anymore. Who woulda guessed that having a comfortable, sporty, significantly faster, 100% legal road car, would make reserving the race car for race duties only easier to accept?

[Magpie]

The boxster will be running Norwell on august 20th, and probably QR street sprints on october 14th.

Two events I will not be going to Waiting to hear if there is a cancellation for Norwell.

[Trackphotos]

Upon further investigation, I may yet make it to the club day. Hope so, would be good to give Steve Carroll a chase in his later model boxster s

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Trackphotos]

Have managed to work out a way to both go to a wedding and get mostly cut, AND get to QR the next day. So I will be at QR in the Boxster for the september 11 club day

Today was also productive. I've replaced the brake pads and rotors on the MX5. Turns out I was even closer than the 1-1.5mm of material left that I thought I had. They weren't sliding evenly, and all four pads are worn a fair bit more on one end than the other. Made sure to use even more grease on the slider pins this time, although I'm certain I used a decent amount last time. Will just have to keep an eye on it.

W5_wear_1080px.jpg

Also went to TMR and got the new plates for the Boxster registered. I think they suit nicely.

FLT666_1080px.jpg

[Trackphotos]

No real updates. All About Detailing in Loganholme have had the Porsche since Saturday morning, in for paint correction and quartz coating to help prevent it from swirling to hell again. Picked it up today, looks fantastic. Porsche use notoriously soft paint, paired with it being black, it's going to be a pain to keep it healthy. May need to invest in some touchless cleaning hardware like a foam cannon, and use a leaf blower to dry it off.

Plans remain the same. Boxster at Norwell August 20th, then at QR September 11th, then the NB at QR for the MX5/86 Challenge on September 15-17.

[Trackphotos]

So, plans changed a bit. I ended up running Norwell, had a bit of fun chasing Michael's little Elise. Sadly on the third lap of the last session I had the rear end step out, underestimated how much it wanted to continue rotating, and came off track at 155kmh. The end result was a high speed rallycross excursion ending in a tyre wall at about 50kmh. 4 years of racing the mx5 without any wall or car contact, first time in the Porsche and I bend it.

The total damage isn't known yet, but so far it is at minimum:
- Alignment, or whatever is causing it to drive straight but with wheel a few degrees off centre. Tie rod maybe?
- Front bar needs replacing
- Front right quarter panel needs straightening at least, hopefully not replacing
- Front boot floor needs to be flattened out; it's caved in pretty badly
- Supporting broken plastic pieces, centre radiator shroud etc

It's already had a cracked front right radiator replaced, which was a mission in itself. Who thought it would be a good idea to have a cooling system with a 22 litre capacity, without a bleed valve? Body damage should be getting looked at next week, then suspension after. It's at least driveable now.

Anyway, here's the footage. Sucks, but at least I got a cool video out of it all?




As for the club day that I was going to run this past Monday, I ended up having too much to drink at a wedding the night before and decided it would be best not to run. Instead I will be going to general practice tomorrow morning to heat cycle the new twin grooves and bed the new brakes in, ahead of the MX5/86 Challenge at QR this weekend.

[Magpie]

Good luck on the weekend!

[chefie]

Anyway, here's the footage. Sucks, but at least I got a cool video out of it all?

Ouch, if it was the Mx5 i could help with guards and bits

great footage and sorry to see, your hands at the end say it all

[Trackphotos]

Alrighty then, race weekend is over and the boxster has been dropped off for repairs.

QR was great fun. No mechanical failures, no incidents, don't think I even dropped a wheel off track all weekend.

Qualifying:
National circuit. A turbo NB dumped oil all through turns 4 and 5 on the first lap, so it was slow for everybody. After 5 laps of slipping around and feeling like I wasn't getting any faster, I gave up and headed back to the pits. The results ended up showing that the oil was drying up, and everybody set their best laps at the end of the session. Had I stayed out I might have done better, but ultimately I qualified only 15th of 17.

Race 1:
Clubman. Started p15, finished p13. Still relearning QR, so it took a bit to get up to speed. Had some excellent fights with Jaime, before getting away and chasing down David and Richard. I was able to stay close, but not pass before the end of the race. Fairly uneventful once I made a gap back to Jaime.

Race 2:
Clubman. Started p13, finished p13. Managed to take advantage of a brake lockup by David on the second lap and get away while he was defending against Richard. I chased down Shane, we battled for a few laps, then I got away and started closing on Julian. His car had a pretty bad misfire under full throttle, so definitely trying to keep it safe, but it gave me a chance to catch up. Close on the last lap, but unable to pass.

Race 3:
National. Started p13, finished p9. Spent most of the race chasing Lisa and Julian, while watching Richard get closer every lap in the rear view mirror. My aero advantage was significant, and I was able to stay very close right up until the last lap. Unfortunately Julian made a good overtake on Lisa through t1 before running wide at t2, and spearing across the track sideways. I braked a bit more than necessary and let Richard gain on me, and through making some less than perfect lines through the rest of the lap, gave Richard the chance to make some great moves to get past on the final turn.

Race 4:
National. Started p9, finished p9. Swamped on the start, I dropped 4 positions almost immediately. This was the least exciting race of the weekend, spent almost entirely trying to catch David in the much more powerful 2B car. Despite a few mistakes on his part that might have afforded me a chance to pass, the sheer power advantage always let him pull a large gap before the next braking zone. There was a questionable pass on Shane on the first lap too, after seeing how far back the dive was done from, and how wide the resulting line was, I was a little apprehensive about trying to get any passing done under brakes even if I had the chance.

Here are the videos, with front and rear cameras, and lap time/speed data. For reference, front camera is a Gopro Hero 3 Silver, 1080p30, either medium or wide Fov I don't recall which, and spot metering enabled, ensuring that the centre of the frame is out the window and not inside the cabin. Rear cam is an SJCAM 4000, does the job well enough. Those clips are spliced together in Sony Vegas. Data is recorded on a Qstarz bt1000ex standalone gps logger at 10hz, data is exported through the Qstarz Racing software which came with the logger, and then overlayed onto the combined video file from Vegas using Dashware, which is also included with the gps logger.

Race 1


Race 2


Race 3


Race 4


The boxster is sounding promising. The price I've been given is about 20% of the price of the quote I got for repairs directly through Porsche's preferred repairer. It seems like it may be done and ready to go in less than two weeks.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Custardtart]

Looks like fun.
Can I politely suggest reviewing the footage with an experienced racer? You look fast and smooth in clear track but your race craft is holding you back. I think you could finish much higher with better car position and anticipation.