Darkside

Kind of have a love hate relationship with the tyre rule. Its a decision you sweat over a bit and then roll the dice and take your punt and see what the weather gods dish up. I kind of like it in a sick masochistic way the fact that you do have to make a choice that may greatly affect your rally. Do you make the safe choice on a compound you know will get you to the end regardless of weather and just drive it like you stole it the whole time but potentially cost a bit of pace and wet grip, or take a punt on something soft and pray for rain and maybe have to drive to conserve??. I know I agonised over it a bit last year. Have to agree with Ben, 8 tyres kind of opens the door to two complete sets of tyres for dry and wet and I would have thought far less of a gamble/calculated strategy... Would have thought it would be a no brainer to run a reasonable medium/hard for all the dry stuff and any sniff of rain particularly heading west, (and an extra day over there) throw on some marshmallows. Sounds like airjacks might be a good addition to any car for quick changes...anyone fitted some recently?? The course revisions sound exciting. That bridge at the now end of Rossarden might be a nice place to spectate and collect front splitters from the over enthusiastic.

^^^^ Gold. Either that or "straight to the pool room. "

What about yourself Scotty? Is the car comign together? Hope you got the rim setup to work. You should be there or thereabouts... But I dont want to encourage you. Just stay away from the trees mate and keep the new improved TME nice and shiny. I find a pic of the aftermath of a crash stashed somewhere handly is a nice way to settle the red mist should it decend. Best of luck to all those having a crack. Seems like another life when I was actually lingin up for these events.

Nah, I'd say its cause you are using them well. Only time I found them hard on rotors is when they weren't up to temp. My only issue with them was I found the initial bite great in the dry, but found it could be a bit aggressive in the wet and really upset the ABS and make bad things happen. I guess I could have just manned up and got rid of the ABS. Wont be a problem for me in the future.

Happy new year evrryone. Hope its off to a good start with lots of petrol related plans. Used to be a ferodo guy, but have switched to Pagid and been very impressed with performance and low pad/rotor qear. RS19/29 is a good tarmac rally choice IMHO. And congrats on the shell Paul. First thing I thought when I saw the pic was what an ideal starting colour for a Z tune replica build. Should be epic.

^^^^ 200??? Your exaggerating again. Looks like 190 to me. But a volvo. What could possibly go wrong. I am sorry my evos keep trying to kill you. They can probabaly smell the GTR on you. Although the evos tried, if this RX7 comes together, it just might succeed given your love or RWD cars.

^^^^ No. Your excuse for that was you had sipped one mouthful of beer, and as you warned me, your super skills go to shit after any alcohol. Note: this was on a drive home from Collie not on the track itself. We arent that silly... Drinking while driving on the road is fine right??? All the electronic talent in the world couldnt save you from the understeer of fail you experienced through that right hand turn.

Timmy, would love to chat to him. Have just orderd a modified hilux diff with full floating hubs/axles with camber and toe adjustment and 2 piece brake rotors....and with 32 GTR brakes so there is something nissan on it. Allegedly its the same gear Miedeke runs in his Perana. But be keen to hear anything about the rest of his setup that he is willing to give away. No point reinventing the wheel.

^^^ No idea Timmy. Although i did have an odd moment in my old evo VIII MR with full electronic talent in the wet where it got into (or I got it into.... I was being a knob ) a big slide then it unexpectedly gripped up while still very sideways and shot off the track in the direction it was pointing. One reason I am not a fan of too much electronic talent. It can do strange things sometimes which I guess it believes are in your best interests but might not be.

Bit like putting an evo round a telegraph pole on kayena?

Yep, hear you Serge. I hope they get the support at future events as its always nice to have choice. Would be a great option if i was a little closer. I guess the challenging conditions make it more of a test. Had meant to ask if anyone from here made it up there.

Big turnout at lake Mountain on the weekend.

Octagon Targa events are now run under CAMS. Had you missed that bit? So now you nede CAMS national rally license I guess. Easy to get. A little more exxy though I would guess unless they are still including them in the entry like they did for AASA? Basically not much different to the basic L2S but you have to do an online tutorial thingo and they cost about $200 annually not around $90. (sorry, cant be arsed checking exact cost) I guess hand in hand with that you need a CAMS logbooked car? Havent actually chacked that bit. Octagon do run them under THEIR supp regs and not the CAMS manual national rally regs, so not sure the logbooked car is actually a requirement. So not much change really.

Sorry to hear that Paul, but glad to hear you are both ok. Testament to the build quality of the car and the rest of the gear you were both wearing. And thanks for sharing as I think your very honest appraisal of how it went wrong may save others from finding themselves in the same situation. Really hope to see you find a new shell and build SMAUG version 3.0 and continue the adventure.

Best of luck to all those having a crack over the weekend. Have a fast and safe one. Appreciate any updates from on the ground.

Cheers Woo, i really hope it works out, but gut feel is I had a pretty lucky run with the evo and it was a robust, reliable fast car. I think I might be out of my depth with the Rotor, but I do like a challenge. For anyone interested, am collecting the shell this week. In the background I have been chatting to some people in the know about the suspension. We got as crazy as looking to graft as much of an FD into it as we could, but I decided that was WAY beyond our capabilities. Have scaled back to not reinventing the wheel and doing a V8 supertaxi spec live axle rear end in it and updating the front end. Go as light as possible and try to get a strong reliable 350 odd hp turbo rotor for it..... dreaming I know. Reliable and rotor dont really belong in the same sentence:) Really wish I was coming to THC. The missus and I had such an aweosme time last year and are both a bit sad we arent there this year. Best of luck to all those taking part. Wlll be living the dream vicariously following it on the internets.

Ahhh, soo much rotor love. I'm keeping my mouth shut as I am sure any tough talk on rotors will only come back to bite me in the arse when it self destructs at a really inconvenient time. For your amusement....

Big fan of the "fanta" paintwork with black highlights. Is a very tough track 32 here in WA in that scheme.

^^^^ Kind of looks a bit nice to gut and put a cage in as well. Certainly something different though.

Fellatio??? Few tips here She must mahe her mumma so proud!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jswFuEHov4

^^^ Have you got the taste of it out of your mouth yet Woo??

Cheers for the input on the rear guys. That is by far the hardest part of the project, so if those in the know feel it is not worthwhile I will reconsider. Cost isnt a major consideration as I have some good engineering mates who will help with the work at the right price and have a complete MX5 at the right price to salvage all parts and to use as a guide. Have already got guys who beef up the MX5 rear end and can make FD diffs work for the guys that are already putting rotors and V8s in MX5's. Main challenge is prepping the shell to accept the subframe, and getting it at the right height to have correct roll centre. The upsaide is once its in with some decent coilovers, you have good amounts of ride height, camber and toe adjustment to fine tune the handling. Great to hear you are getting back amongst it Scott. Maybe its time for his to return in 2013??? 2013 - BATTLE FOR THE WANG!!!!!!!!!!!

Good to hear there is at leats one starter. [quote name='sav man' timestamp='1318322549' post='6055948' What rear ends did FB's have from the factory? Live rear axle with Watts link I think. They do some pretty trick stuff for the watts link that makes em work att he track, but I still dont think it would be as good as IRS for the bumps of tarmac rally. That said, the corvettes seem to make em work at the ring.

Thanks mate. I might need some counselling....or a hug... Stu, I really hope that doesnt happen with this one, but my track record isnt good...

^^ Going to be a long road Woo. I have all the main bits I need to get started but am under a bit of a promise to put it on the backburner until after this rather inconvenient wedding we are having in msrch next year. But am punching well above my weight so better lock and load before she gets wise and moves on. lol Will hit it hard after that but realistically could take til the end of the year. (2012) Am quietly looking at accumulating parts now. First stage is to complete the IRS graft and then cage it. The IRS graft is my biggest concern. Gonna have to school myself on some of the suspension science. Will do the custom cages T45 cage import from the UK. Just need to wait until after Jan to make sure there arent any FIA changes that affect the current cage designs. Then just complete the Group C kit parts and paint it. From there its mechanical. Will look to get custom MCA suspension, and probably get Rohan Ambrose to build the engine. Series 5 turbo 5 speed, and modified MX5 rear to accept an FD RX7 diff centre. Then its just fuel system, wiring, ECU (MoTeC) and the interior. Sounds easy eh?? Scary thing is I could do all that and it might turn out to not be a good thing, or could require quite a bit of sorting as its not a known quantity like an EVO or Nissan. Could be a chance for 2013...or the IRS could go badly and the whole thing goes in the bin and I come to my senses and buy a nissan. So no 2012 for me. Would like to get over there to be a part of it in some way, but will be in Tassie at the start of march for the wedding so might be a bit stretched to come back so soon. You'll be there is some form for 2012?