260DET

If oil pressure is good particularly hot when idling then go with 2, above all a track engine needs to be reliable and not drop shit.

AIM Australia sell them on line, think I'll go with the Haltech dash for $1100 including GPS. It's not very pretty but it is big and plug 'n play and cheaper than the alternatives.

Recent Z club from Qld to Bathurst expedition produced a variety of tow bitches, couple of Land Rover diesels, Audi Q5 V6 diesel, Jeep Grand Cherokee diesel plus my Cherokee oiler, Jeep petrol V8. Ford Ranger diesel. and a few others. General consensus was that the modern type SUV is much more suitable than old 4X4 technology for comfort and lap time with good economy., even for the petrol V8.

AIM have got back to me saying that the Strada and Haltech Elite will do happy talk together and that no extras are required. AIM now have a larger sized Strada so that looks to be a good choice. Any links or tips on hooking these sorts of systems up would be appreciated, I have no idea.

So what happened here, anything of interest? As well as the Microtech dash I'm considering the AIM (not AEM) MXS Strada which seems to tick lots of boxes http://aimsports.com/eng/products-car/mxs-strada/index.htm If anyone knows how one would be connected to a Haltech Elite ECU that would be great, am going to ask AIM about that too.

It will be interesting to compare PC2 Bathurst with the real thing 8 days from now, by that I mean lines, throttle control and relative corner speeds particularly. So far comparing PC2 with real footage of Bathurst it's pretty damn good, one of the things I've learnt is that corner speed is still very important for lap times even given the long straights at Bathurst. When 'driving' the IMSA 300ZX which is a 2min + low teen lap car backing off a bit on the corners lost ~10 seconds. I have no clue what the other games are like but PC2 gets a big thumbs up from me.

With a steering wheel attached to the hub as usual, where does the quick release kit go? Between the wheel and hub?

Changed cars to the LM 300ZX for a bit more go fasts, out of the box it's more realistic than the 240Z. For my purpose Cars 2 is great although I suspect it would be better on PC, Logitech wheel is a bit ordinary in that it does not self centre properly, otherwise it's reasonable, too small in diameter of course.

Renault engines starting to blow although they seem to be getting up there power wise.

PS4 pro with Logitech wheel and pedals running the Nissan/Datsun 240Z around Bathurst. Stock it's rubbish so dialled in some negative and camber now it behaves sort of like a car. Navigating PS4 for this non nerd is a super pain but whatever I get to familiarise myself with Bathurst and all it subtleties and that's the important thing, the circuit seems to have been modelled accurately so nice work there.

Get onto Gumtree or some where Anafree and get yourself a cheap wheel setup rather than use the controller, apparently the Ginetta ? goes pretty well out of the box, obviously some cars like the Datsun 240Z are crap out of the box but there is plenty of choice, it would be unrealistic to think that every car offered in the game would have been individually tuned to perfection.

What hardware are you using Anfanee? With the PS4 pro I found the 240Z with the stock setup a pig to drive, high speed oversteer, low speed understeer. Yet a real racer friend on PC is having a ball with the same car.

Can't see the point in using a race simulator without a wheel and pedals but anyway my new PS4pro setup will be finished soon so no personal experience yet. From what I've seen though the cars look and act real eg compared with Forza where the cars seem to float along without any direct interaction with the track. I've raced around Bathurst so the comparison will be interesting, there are a couple of Jap cars available so the aim is to tune the most suitable as similar as possible to my track car and go from there. The idea is to gain more Bathurst familiarity as relevant to my track car, will report back.

25psi cold is my default starting pressure for semi slicks.

Sounds like a deal.

Anything new? Present shopping list is PS4 pro, Thrustmaster T300 and Cars, the new version if possible.

New paint job would put me off.

With you Harry, going with a set of the Nankangs. Pissed off with the advice I got, or did not get, about the soft Hankooks from the Q distributor. From what I know now for a track like Bathurst mediums are the go, they just take a bit more time to heat up but cycle way better than the softs which is irrelevant when you are doing 20 minute sessions.

Bathurst in November will be my last run on 17" tyres so I'm a bit price sensitive having to buy a new set for only that event. With the Hankooks it looks like the price has gone up due to demand not to production cost, it's a bit annoying because it's always the club blokes looking for a bargain that first try out new tyres and so establish their reputation or not. Oh well, I'm going to try out a newbie and see how they go and keep quiet if they are good, stuff it

miss take

Good to see some input, there are quite a few tyres around described as semi slicks but which have road tyre type tread so that excludes them. Nitto NT01's have their fans as do the new R888's . .

Geez, this thread needs a bump to keep up with what's happening on the semi slick club race scene. OK I'm bitching, a set of new Hankook 214 SOFT worked great at Challenge Bathurst 2016 but that was it, plenty of tread left but zero grip, wheelspin in top gear, no grip whatsoever at Morgan park a few months later. So I'm thinking mediums instead for this year's Challenge but the price has gone up of course no doubt as a result of their club popularity transferring to the propretend (TV exposure) lot. What was once a budget buy is now a greed grab in price, I'm looking elsewhere.

Good to see the progress being made and some track time too. You got those GKTech dropped tie rod ends didn't you, how are they working and what's your opinion of the quality? I got a no brand set and am concerned about the strength of the through bolt part, have heard of them breaking too. When they are machined they should be rounded on the inside where the bolt changes diameter to prevent a stress riser, mine are not.

No need for mechanics with my 2015 diesel Cherokee, well just to get serviced. Tows great, nice to drive, no problems.

Bloody hell, we only need to tow a race car not tilt the world off it's axis It's a pity that Jeeps are currently persona non gratia, a friend of of mine has a Grand Cherokee petrol Mopar V8 that truly is one of the ultimate tow bitches, reasonable fuel economy too, 16 he talks about.