No Crust Racing

That's another thing I've noticed about his driving too, his seems to burn up the rubber quicker than Vettel and indeed other drivers also. Whether that's actually him and "he" is burning up the tyres through his style (maybe body weight also? though he has been looking pretty gaunt recently) or whether it's inherent in the cars setup remains to be seen. The fact remains though, that the current car/driver combo seems less friendly to tyres than others in the field. And agreed that in this particular race his final gear setup was not ideal, but my comments about his progress are more of an overview and spans 2011 as well, when in my opinion he really should have come away with a WDC. Take all that with a grain of salt though, I don't pour over the stats to back up my claims like some of the guys in here, and I'm glad you guys do because it brings clarity to rubbish claims sometimes, my comments are purely about "the vibe" of it. As a viewer, watching him race, those are the impressions I get.

I can, Skill. And that's coming from a fairly one-eyed Webber supporter. I think he needs more things to go his way to really get a top result than other drivers who in my mind are better steerer's/more aggressive at the right times who can make more happen from less. Maybe I'm being overly critical - make no mistake, it's clearly hard work to go fast in an F1 car, I think we've all seen Hammo try it on Top Gear. Maybe I'm just sour that he's not romping away from everyone with win after win, but I just wish he was more consistent and would step up more often.

Price dropped to $11,950. Can be had cheaper without RWC or Rego.

lol who would store tyres that way

I'm no pro but I'll wade in on this having had some limited experience with used tyres vs new. In my example I'm comparing VERY old RE55s 235 R17s that only had a few mm above the tread indicators left and had been heat cycled MANY times to brand new RS-Rs, which aren't an R-Comp. The RS-Rs have gone a touch faster, despite not being a proper R-Comp but that could also be down to improvements in the car and driving, the improvement is less than 1sec. That said, the second hand, used up, never ever use these (I was told) RE55s that cost me $200 were awesome to learn on and had a ton of grip and having been heat cycled a few times which hardens the compound, lasted better than I thought they would, I did 5 or so events on those. I've read heaps about the tyre rejuvenator stuff as well which seems to help to some extent to if outright grip is the goal. As Duncan said, for general track days, testing the car, bedding in parts, etc I think you'll be fine (so long as the price reflects the age, no point paying brand new prices for old stock just as a matter of principle).

Hah, OK I'll have a fiddle and see what I can do. Camera might take a back seat for the moment though, car dramas take priority.

Good idea. I've also been doing some reading on the AF system in the D90 to see what changes can be made to speed up the process, at the moment I think it's set to matrix metering and 3D focal points (or something to that affect) consensus seems to be that unless you are going for an artistic shot or a specific composition that you leave it to centre weighted and focused so I'll try that too.

All good, started it tonight, idled fine. No timing light here but if nothing else the idle revs are the same. I have other issues now but they go beyond the scope of this thread and I'll continue on that path in my build thread. At least we know it wouldn't start because the timing was out too far so I'm a goose.

I've got those points enabled and selecting between them is not an issue, my issue is more how long it takes the lens to focus. I'm assuming what you mean is focus on the point I think the shot will be at and be ready, but the what I'm trying to do is improve the time it takes the lens to perform its initial focus. Even in well lit areas in doesn't seem quick. Is that likely to be a lens issue, camera issue, or just the behaviour of the system?

Morning gents. I bought the missus a D90 kit 2yrs ago and she hasn't really taken to it. Granted she said she wanted to do a photography course and hasn't done so yet, meaning she really doesn't know how to drive the camera properly or get the best from it, but the big issue for her is she feel as though she misses the shot every time because the camera is too slow. I've spent a bit of time with it so I at least know how to adjust aperture or shutter speed to use to get a reasonable photo where as she just wants to leave it on Auto and have it be magic, I told her that's not how it works... That said, I do agree with her that sometimes, the camera can take too long on finding its focal point and I've tried to beat it using manual focus or selecting the focal point in the viewfinder to help but it doesn't seem to do much better. I understand that with a point and shoot it'll just take the shot anyway and be blurry, where as the D90 won't take the shot until it has focus, which can be frustrating when it's zooming in and out trying to find its range. Is this a limitation of the camera? or the lenses? (18-55m and 70-200mm kit lenses). I'll admit I did drop the 18-55 once and the ring gear is slightly loose but the focal speed has always seemed to be an issue and the images are still crisp when it does find focus. Can we just buy a faster focusing lens? Thoughts?

Ok good news. Got the missus to give me a hand and got the gears in place and the belt on (intake was about 3 teeth too far advanced, exhaust was about the same but retarded so no compression... Counted the teeth between the marks and it's spot on. Will re-assemble tomorrow night and see if it starts.

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Nick, No hijacking Mitch. I wasn't finished with him Mitch, no discomfort in those two movements that I can feel.

I wouldn't say either of those two motions are painful for me at all. EDIT: I iced it last night, and it feels a lot better today, but I think for safety I'll just continue that process through to Monday and skip Friday's session completely and have a light weekend on the tools. Good few days of rest, Ice and some tennis ball work has been the goods in the past.

OK I read up on that, and yeah could be it, the approach for the first link I read was tenins ball massage, rest, drop weight/avoid the exercise while repairing etc etc. Any other major things it could be that I should be aware of?

I AM the tuner If the cover is off, the CAS can't be mounted without a new bracket which I don't have so it has to stay on. How far would it have to be out to not start, the marks are pretty much dead on according to my before and after pics. If it was that far out surely it would've fouled when I turned it by hand first.

OK to try and time it while cranking? I'd resolved to pull all the timing gear off again and start from scratch. Everything was fine until I did this swap, and the CAS is back where it was so I'd say it's off a few teeth in a few spots.

It will take a good few minutes to decipher what you just said, I'm not quite that savvy with anatomy. Out of the two locations I "think" you mean, I'd say it's the lower of the two.

Swapped my CA18 intake cam for an exhaust cam and fitted adjustable gears at the same time. Took pics of the timing marks and was pretty sure the car was at TDC on the comp stroke, confirmed by the piston location (removed spark plug) and cam lobe and valve location when I removed the rockers, so I know it wasn't TDC on the exhaust stroke. Put it all back together and now it will crank but won't fire, managed to get it to fire and idle roughly with a bit of throttle but as it was running like crap I shut it down. I also marked the CAS ad tried advancing and retarding it, no dice. I'd have thought it'd still start if a cam or both cams were 1 or even 2 teeth off. Thoughts?

Dilemma gents. Shoulder twinged bit after a spirited rock skimming session when the family was up last, thought little of it, but it hasn't gone away and continues to get a bit worse. Cross chest tricep extensions seem to aggravate it the most so I've ditched those but tonight it was just unhappy with everything and feels quite tender so I bailed on the session. Sensation is notable around the back portion of the top of shoulder running down and over the top/back portion ot he bicep and into the elbow. At the moment, I'm icing it up. Thoughts?

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Another benching question. Since changing my form and pinching my shoulder blades together, I find I'm only contacting the bench at two points on my shoulders. is it normal for those to be quite tender? I'm assuming I'm just getting used to having the pressure on those areas specifically. Bench padding isn't stellar either. Managed 8-8-6 last night, it's a weird feeling though as the strength starts to wane. There's no discomfort in the chest/shoulders just lack of pushing power.

Those youtube vids are very informative Nick, thanks.