90 replies to this topic

[enderwigginau]

Good stuff
When are we getting Graham on here too, hehehe

Grant..

[Tiny]

LOL @ Howard

[A9X]

Hi all,

Thanks for your good wishes, must have helped.
Finished in fourth after running as high as second, thanks to a 1 minute 40 sec time penalty for a restricted speed zone infraction.

Contraversial end that i won't go into, with second having a 5 minute penalty for the same speed zone retracted and 3rd having a time allocated for a special stage although he pulled off that stage with a mechanical failure.

But i'm happy to have been running the times we did.

Car was fine with good lessons learned.

I'll post again soon.

Ache all over !

Welby

[MRLXSS]

Good stuff! almost on the Podium!!!! Next year!

[A9X]

Thanks Rory.

It's all a bit of an anti climax now.



Best i start a to do list.

See the new thread for some vid.

Welby

[Tiny]

Great news mark!
4th is most respeactable and if we ignore that pesky penalty! Wow!

Well done to you and the team, I hope you had a ball!

[Tiny]

Multimedia Rory!

And turn ya speakers up mate.. it's worth it!!

[A9X]

Thanks guys, it means a lot.

We pushed pretty hard this weekend, the car gave us very little problems, and those it did were of our own doing.

We fixed the flat spot in the carby after prologue, and the only issue we had after that was a liitle fuel starvation just creeping in at high RPM in sweeping corners. Tate-o has already told me my fuel pump is too light, so there ya go.

We changed from front mount to rear mount on the front sway bar fairly late and during the weekend we bottomed the car out a couple of times and ground the u bolts away.
Again, fairly quick fix.

We have been playing with front suspension all year now, and we are almost there. This weekend we ran Dave's King's 1130 lb fronts and as thought, they are far too stiff for our country roads, with the car skipping across ripples at pace. So it's back to the <900 Lb range for me.

The exhaust was the weird one. I must post a pic.

The Thursday arvo during Prologue the outlet tip started to split along the weld. We presumed harmonic vibration because the muffler was touching the body after we shimmed the gearbox /crossmember mount.
Over the next three days, the outlet lip extended the split, then peeled back on itself. Quite impressive to think of the forces involved.

We feel the rear springs are a bit soft. The car picked the inside rear wheel up Saturday, so we backed the rear sway bar off and that sorted that.

Positives from the weekend.

My 30 year old Torana, using basic 'street' modifications, easily kept pace with and in some cases was far quicker than, many modern cars.
We ran many long sweepers in high fourth, low fifth. While the car moved about, it was always very solid and 'tight'.
There should be some people out there quite embarrassed.

Couple of giggles.

We were driving out from the Northbridge Street Party and a lady walks up and hands me a brochure, she says you might be interested in this - It's a 'last of the big bangers' brochure from the HDT museum in Yepoon, QLD. I say , nice pic, great car. She says, yes its in QLD. I say, yes, Peter Champion owns it. She points to a man on the kerb and says yes, that's Peter there, he says yours is the nicest car here......

Last stage of the day Saturday is run twice. As its a short stage, the middle guys find themselves running at 30 second intervals to the slow guys, who are doing their second run. We are lined up next to Tony Longhurst and Alistair McRae. We say to Alistair, who is leading Classic in a 911 IROC Porsche and going like shit of a shovel, if you see us coming up behind you, can you give us some room as we come past. He has a smile, gives us a wink and says sure, i'll keep an eye on the mirror. Longhurst meanwhile, calls over the stage commander and demands to be let in front of us because ' i don't want to be held up by that old thing' referring to us. The stage commander comes over and says, do you think that you will be holding him up? i say, we did the first run in 2.41. There is no way in the world that anyone is catching us with a 30 second head start. Longhurst is adamant, he demends to be let in front. I'm cool, let him go i say.
He is faster by 12 seconds. The timing crew apparently gave him shit the next time he lined up, that he couldn't catch a cold, let alone a torana. He's an arrogant prick and the more he got riled, the more they were poking him.

But i'd like to close off by saying a big thanks again to Dave and Alex. My service crew extraordinaire.

Sorry i couldn't pull the podium guys, you deserved it.

Welby

[rodomo]

A mate of mine used to go dirt bike riding with Longhurst and Jimmy Richards.
He reckons Longhurst was a bit of a girl.

[Racehatch]

LOL at the Longhurst comments, never meet the guy, but any time I have ever heard him interviewed he's always sounded like a winey old mole.... haha

Funny you should mentioned that issue with the welds on your exhust, I had a similar problem with my car - as you said, I always put it down to vibrations. Depending on the track (and how much i used the kerbs) it would need repairing almost after each meeting.

[A9X]

Yeah, i've never been a fan, but its always funny to meet these people in real life.
We got his nose out of joint last year at the media day, it was Jimmy Richards, Longhurst, Paul Summers and I. The media guys were all over Jimnmy Richards and using my Torrie for the backdrops . Longhurst never got a look in and shot through early.







Sam, we think the exhaust is being bent back by the hot exhaust gasses, especially as the tip is being bent forward into the airflow.

Welby

[MRLXSS]

Great Stories Welby! Sounds like you had a real blast!

When you coming to race in Victoria!! I wanna see that beast!

[GML-31]

TL is a tool....Total...
R

spoilt rich kid by a fag of a father....

[RIM-010]

Just read over the results Welby, and I reckon you definitely deserve a round of applause for your efforts

It's a shame you didn't get a spot closer to the top at the end of the weekend, but the way that you put it to those Porsches, in a car with 30 year old technology, earns you a 5 Rockin' Banana rating from me

Tim

[Tiny]

HAHAHA love the stories of the weekend mark!

Sounds like you guys had a ball, those short clips are just fantastic...
Mate, All i can say is good on you, i KNOW the ammount of hard work you've ALL put in and to go as well as you have is a credit to the whole team.

Onward and upward! Shame your not coming to bathurst again this year! I'm planning on marshalling the whole event this year for a laugh!

Cheers!

[dattoman]

Congratulations
Glad to see you did well
Shame I wasn't involved this year. I guess the car was well enough sorted
We'll have to catch up for a parts swap soon

Neil

[retired308]

new mini targa announced for hobart 18 entries already including jimmy.