Beer Baron

cool. only 2 hrs? he must have been in a hurry... haha. good stuff. go for it mate.

that would be ideal. It also leaves a bit of 'black ice' for that mosler behind to deal with. failing that the only option is a set of pull ups cause you're a big kid now. but who wants to hop in after you hop out? it would become one big 12hr stink.... I mean stint. anyway jokes aside I imagine Mark Eddy/Craig Lowndes/Warren Luff Audi R8 LMS will be pretty hard to beat if their car is any good. I'd like to do it one day but it's not exactly easy to get seat time at bathurst and I wouldn't want to be jumping in to a race weekend completely green. bathurst is the kind of place you need some laps and half a clue to be anywhere near the pace. it's deadset easier and cheaper for me to go and get practice laps at the nurburgring or spa that to get full on race laps at our own 'mini ring'. which is pretty sad really. the sooner the make it a full time race track the better for us all. especially for us poor fools living in NSW who have just lost oran park.

I dunno. 2 cars are ok but I don't know when to stop. currently have: S13 silvia (SR20, pretty modified, GTR brakes etc, 240kw) R32 GTR (very modified, Jun 2.7, 2530s, motec, F50 brakes, cage etc etc etc) R32 GTR (not big power but also heavily modified cage etc) Evo 6 RS (genuine RS, so front rear and centre LSDs, super close ratio box, fair few mods too) Big stupid Altas truck (stock, great for my mates to bludge off me when they need to move stuff) Subaru Libery 08 model (the daily car, GF drives it to work) 2 motor bikes (fireblade which I ride to work and a scooter which the GF rides) right now I dunno what to do. I'm ready to sell the liberty and replace with a new daily. I want to sell one of the GTRs but I like them both for different reasons. I want to sell the truck but have never sold a truck before (much less an imported truck) and have NFI where or how, The evo is up for sale and I think I want to sell the S13 but don't want to as it's a great little drifter/track car and the only proper RWD car out of the lot of them. cars are great. too many cars can bring the party down a bit. just keeping the batteries running in them all is a challenge. let alone all the rego, insurance etc.

yeah it's not easy to make a sidepipe for a 32 with any kind of sane ground clearance. mark and russ's 32 had the conventional just out the side pipe on the passenger side but it was pretty low. for marks car he cut the passenger floor and made a nice tunnel for it so it comes out level with the sills out through the side skirts. short of doing that to tuck it up in the body it's not easy. the auto gallery R32 in japan runs one out the door. I have seen it up close and it's quite cleverly done. some pics:

to me it dependds on where the puncture was on the tyre and how big etc. if it was anywhere near the shoulder or the sidewall then forget it. but if it's on the face of the tyre it may not be such a bad thing. if you get it taken off and do a proper inner repair where they patch and vulcanise it etc it should be fine. it's your safety though so if it worries you then don't do it.

yeah like the d-man said to the best of my knowledge the front is a F160 not a F180. F being front and R being rear incase anyone is wondering why there are R200, R180 etc. front GTR diffs are tiny. it's still worth looking into though if there are other 160 diffs out there but you need to figure out for sure if there are any differences between the F and the R models. I assume crown wheel is the same but the pinnion shaft could be very different.

well I think the biggest fck up has been the super hard durable tyres and the lack of fuel stops (ie removing fuel strategy). look how much V8SC was improved this year with more pressure on fuel usage and very soft tyres that mean you get to choose at which point of the race you are fast. if you chose that point wisely, get some clean air and bank quick laps you can overtake a rival who chose his 'quick laps' session less wisely and got tangled in traffic etc. makes for much more exciting races and means you can start 6th, 7th, 8th etc and still have a chance of a podium. as it stands in F1 if you don't make a pass on lap one, turn one then you are almost guaranteed to finish where you are baring any retirements ahead of you. maybe they should just have a 1 lap race, all pull in at the end of the lap and stick the cars on dynos for a 60 lap dyno session. if your car survives you get to hold your end of lap one position. for the waiting time we could put the drives to good use boxing each other, or playing darts or table tennis or something with a chance to move up another spot or two if they score a knock out.

duncan and everyone else. if you want this to happen you need to contact foxtel and/or speed channel (it's not a foxtel owned channel) and let them know you LOVE the new channel speed and you LOVE coverage of local racing championships. otherwise it will just fade away. they now have a one in one out policy so for every new channel that gets added an old one gets cut. I can't remember which they cut for speed (may have been the "how to" channel). They need this feedback to know they are on the right track. ratings are so easily skewed since so few people participate in TV ratings. in reality they have NFI what people are watching so we have to let them know. I have already done so. Hell even tell them you are a member of a car club with branches in most states of Australia and that the new Speed channel and is a hot topic of discussion with lots of new viewers watching it. I know I already have. All that aside, great race dunc. the start was awesome! shame the 'moment' at T3 cost you 2 places but up till then you had those guys covered despite a clear power difference between the cars. I guess the wet evens that up a bit but it's still a tough track to keep fast cars behind you. well done mate. it must be nice to hear "Duncan Handley" mentioned on TV with nice things being said.

yeah guys windscreen man is the same as I was talking about. we go back about 10 years so was just helping him fill some orders. just been off on leave and computer free though so kind of fell off the map. back at work now though so neil if you've had no luck let me know and I will pick it up again.

looks very nice now with the penske's in and it all pretty much done. I'm excited to see what you think after first drive. it has a lot of great ideas in it now from the ABS, to the shocks to the airbox and on and on. should be a winner.

nice conversion. looks super cool in red and black. not a bad idea either, I've seen a few converted old busses now used as car carriers, usually for formula fords or formula vee's though. did you ever get aircon refitted? cause it will get bloody hot in there on those summer track days.

doesn't matter what the car is going to be used for the import taxes etc are all the same. the only cost saving is you don't comply it and you don't register it. you still need to pay 10% GST and 5% import duty. along with the other normal AQIS/customs charges, freight charges etc.

yay, what a top idea. Karthikeyan was shithouse in 2005 and now 6 years later at age 33 they think he can do any better? to be honest he'd probably have a better chance driving his 05 jordan than a 11 tata/HRT.... the bloke has not been near an F1 car since 07 and not raced one since 05. Michael Schumacher the best driver in the world had a 3 years off and came back with a fairly decent team and still struggles in the mid pack. where on earth does Karthikeyan think he fits into the picture? if he's thinking anything other than annoying backmarker then he's not a sane man.

I can certainly see that point of view benno. I agree it would be not much fun tootling down conrod in a prod car slowing inching your way towards 200km/h as you check your temps, change the CD etc and 2 GT spec cars dicing for a podium give you the short back and sides at nearly 300km/h. definite brown moment. maybe they can provide a cool suit hooked up to a nappy that can also pump in reverse to clear any.... ummm... waste?

hmm, now we are talking. I have just bought a new car with motec ECU but no timing beacon or dash..... I might be keen to talk of course pending what it has optioned etc.

that's sick!

adriano is on the right track. needs a bit of lateral thinking done here. its like the problem of getting the pen cap out of the bottle without disturbing the bottle etc (fill it full of water and float it out). pls don't try that example though! but I'm sure there is a way to get it out and back up into the valve guide.

well if you don't have access to a dyno in suriname my advice would be send the car to australia (or even easier BUY the car here in australia) have it upgraded at the shop you want, get them to tune it (if possible send them a sample of the fuel you use in your country) and then import the car back to you in suriname and enjoy it there.

pretty much everyone I know adds a little in no 5 and a little more in no 6. very easy to do with injector correction % values. just trim in a bit there. to do it properly though you really need to measure the AFRs and/or EGTs in each runner and get it right that way, but just for a simple mid range kind of set-up adding a bit of fuel to compensate for the extra heat in no 6 and the extra air it gets (plenum design) is a good idea.

good idea. any link to or info on the tester you bought? price?

I haven't been watching 34 GTT auction prices in japan for a while now so can't help there but I certainly wouldn't both container shipping. Roll on Roll off is plenty safe. I would be surprised if one in 5,000 cars is damaged. they are loaded carefully, strapped down tight and deep inside the ships belly. for a car like the 34 GTT that is over 10 years old and worth less than $20K container shipping is way over capitalising. I have only bothered to container a car that was worth over $150K and was brand new. even then it was a line ball decision.

petrov is not bad. He might pull his socks up and surprise a few. if he can get close to cube then he's doing well as cube is a polish driving GOD!

well these days $50K USD is roughly equal to $50K AUD so you should get close. your best bet is talk to CRD and ask them what they think of the project. do you plan to send them the whole car or just want an engine built etc?

in fact the whole autospeed article is hilarious. probably the only genuinely funny part of this whole debacle. http://autospeed.com/cms/A_0402/article.html AutoSpeed Interview: Powerchip's Wayne Besanko - Part 1 Putting the man at the helm of Australia's oldest hot chip company under the microscope. by Julian Edgar Wayne Besanko is the Managing Director of Powerchip, Australia's oldest hot chip company. A man who very strongly defends his company's products against criticism - but will not allow any magazine to do a story on Powerchip's chip development or programming procedures - he agreed to a full and frank interview with AutoSpeed. This two part series is a completely unedited transcript of the tape. AutoSpeed: Wayne, what's your background in automotives and electronics? Wayne Besanko: Well, I've always had an interest in automotives since Year 7 at school. I followed that through by being an active reader of everything automotive from - back then - Motor Manual, Modern Motor, Wheels, Car & Driver, Car and any magazine that I could get my hands on. I then did Automotives in Year 10 and always kept a keen interest in the automotive industry, even at Uni and then in my other marketing jobs. AutoSpeed: What did you study at Uni? Wayne Besanko: Commerce. AutoSpeed: So you don't have any tertiary training in computing or in automotives? Wayne Besanko: No, I have other people in the organisation that do those roles. Bill Dimovski, our senior programmer, studied Digital Design at Monash University, and his expertise is in designing the software. We also have other people in IT that provide the back-up for our NT server, and we allocate each role based on the person's expertise in that area. AutoSpeed: How would you describe the products that you sell? Wayne Besanko: We offer a cost-effective means of improving a car's performance. The benefits that a customer receives are more power, more performance, better acceleration, generally smoother acceleration, and also our ability to customize chips to suit customer needs. AutoSpeed: Leaving aside the custom chips for a moment, the (comments about the) chips that go into standard cars implies very strongly that the manufacturer has got their programming wrong. Wayne Besanko: That's correct. They're wrong for a number of reasons, and on the whole, at least 95 per cent of the cars on the road have opportunities in terms of engine management to obtain more power from them. In general, the reasons why manufacturers de-tune cars are for servicing, where the service intervals influence the manufacturer's program; on European cars insurance regulations can specify a maximum horsepower rating - particularly in Germany; they (the manufacturers) have to adapt - and this is the main reason - to poor quality fuel in many cases, particularly 91 octane or as low as 89 octane in some countries; and cars these days are built down to a lowest common denominator. We have chips that are available for standard unleaded cars and we promote our customers to use premium unleaded fuel which means that we can then advance the timing beyond what we can for cars running standard unleaded. AutoSpeed: Of the chips that you sell for cars, how many have you developed and how many are bought in from outside suppliers? Wayne Besanko:Approximately 95 per cent of our range in terms of models that are available are manufactured locally, and about 5 per cent of the actual cars that we sell are sourced overseas. AutoSpeed: But the actual program development for those cars - does that fall into the same category of 95 per cent local and 5 percent overseas? 'Manufacturing' of the chip is not a very specific term. Wayne Besanko: I don't understand what you mean. AutoSpeed: The chips that you develop yourself, what proportion of those would you have in a car, have the car on the dyno, perhaps have the engine out on an engine dyno, do five gas analysis, study air/fuel ratios, do durability testing - perhaps 1000 hour test trials - the sort of thing that every vehicle manufacturer does when they are developing the original software. Click for larger image Wayne Besanko: In terms of the development of the chip, we go through the most stringent test procedures of probably any chip company in Australia. Air/fuel ratios are important; we have a portable air/fuel ratio meter that we test air/fuel ratios on during development - both on the road and on the dyno. In terms of long-term testing, we have a group of our customers that always provide feedback to us - I guess that's one of advantages, that our customers become part of the Powerchip family and will assist us in feedback of any area that could be improved or is perfect and doesn't need any improvement. So the testing does take place long-term, and it has over the last nine and a half years. If we found any area that was wrong that we were doing, we would improve it. AutoSpeed: How would you feel if you bought a brand new car and you found a problem with the car, and the manufacturer said "You're part of the Holden family, you're part of doing our long-term testing for us"? Wayne Besanko: As in a manufacturer approaching us to do development work? AutoSpeed: No, as in you making a personal purchase - buying a motor vehicle and having exactly the same philosophy as you just espoused, espoused to you. You buy a Holden and the steering wheel falls off, and they say "Well I'm glad that you have told us that, that's part of our long-term test and development that our customers can tell us what's good and what's bad. You're part of the Holden family because you have told us that the steering wheel falls off." How would you feel as a customer being put in that position? Wayne Besanko: Well I guess it's a matter of looking at the runs on the board. If we look at what has happened over the last nine and a half years, we don't have a car that has ever suffered engine damage as a result of fitting a Powerchip. I believe that we are the only chip company in Australia that can make that claim. We stand behind our runs on the board; no-one has ever had a chip that has caused engine damage from Powerchip. AutoSpeed: I have talked to another head honcho of a chip company who has said to me that he expected about thirty percent of his chips not to give any benefit. I think in the past that you have said to me that you believe that a hundred per cent of your chips will give benefit. Is that the case? Wayne Besanko: Yes, one hundred percent of the chips that we offer for sale, the customers receive the benefits of fitting the chip. If there is a car that it is impossible to get (extra) power from, then we simply don't offer an upgrade for it. AutoSpeed: What's one of those sorts of cars for which it is impossible to get power from and which you don't offer a chip? Wayne Besanko:(7 second pause) There's probably a handful of cars that are very difficult to obtain power from, but still small gains are possible. In particular, on part throttle, the most difficult cars to get power from are Porsche 993 RSCS, BMW M3 3 litre and probably Range Rover 3.9. AutoSpeed: Do you offer chips for those vehicles? Wayne Besanko: Yeah we do, for the benefits that we receive from them. So if we look at a BMW M3 3 litre, our Powerchip offers a twelve kilowatt increase in power. As a percentage of the overall car which is 210 kilowatts, that's roughly say five percent. What we say is, if the benefit to the customer is worthwhile then they should consider purchasing our product. If the customer wants twelve kilowatts from us from our chip, that's one point, but it also has other benefits as well. We raise the rev limit to the level that the customer specifies, we smooth out the transition between part throttle and full throttle, we remove an inherent problem of backfiring on cold start - on trailing throttle which causes a misfire or a backfire, we remove the speed limit if necessary, we change the VANOS camshaft timing to give more power down low, and if all of those benefits to the customer (makes) them perceive that it is worthwhile purchasing our product - then they do. So a chip is more than just kilowatts at the flywheel or at the wheels. AutoSpeed: But isn't this the car that you nominated that in fact you didn't sell a chip for because it didn't give an effective power gain? Wayne Besanko: No it's not. The cars that I mentioned are ones that a minimal power gain can be had from. AutoSpeed: So back to my original question, what is a car for which you believe you can get no power gain, and therefore you do not offer a chip for? Wayne Besanko: It would probably be a McLaren F1. The car pings on normal premium unleaded which means that.. well even then it's possible to get some benefits from that (chip) because it would stop pinging. It depends on what the customer wants. That's a car that would be very difficult to get (more) power on full throttle from. AutoSpeed: So there is no car that you believe will not benefit from a chip? .since you haven't been able to name one. Wayne Besanko: No, none come to mind at the moment. AutoSpeed: So there aren't any cars that you don't offer chips for because you don't believe that you can get a power gain? Wayne Besanko: That's correct because the customer looks at the benefits that are available to them. If we pick the RSCS Porsche we can get minimal power gains at the top end of the rev range but there are benefits to be had from say, two thousand revs through to five thousand revs. www.powerchip.com.au In Part 2: money-back guarantees, emissions, and dyno development and testing. AutoSpeed Interview: Powerchip's Wayne Besanko - Part 2 PART 2 is here: http://autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&A=0408

I read about 3 posts in the forum but they were just the usual "he's a tool" etc. the only interesting bit I read was the auto-speed interview. one question in particular was funny: AutoSpeed: WXXXX, what's your background in automotives and electronics? WXXXXX XXXXXX: Well, I've always had an interest in automotives since Year 7 at school. I followed that through by being an active reader of everything automotive from - back then - Motor Manual, Modern Motor, Wheels, Car & Driver, Car and any magazine that I could get my hands on. I then did Automotives in Year 10 and always kept a keen interest in the automotive industry, even at Uni and then in my other marketing jobs. ok, so his bacground is reading motor magazine and wheels, then he did year 10 'automotive' whatever that is. oh and he's 'interested' in the industry.