djr81

SK, If I wanted a slightly harder spring for the rear end of my R what would be the least painful way of getting it done & would the shocks need revalving? All the reast of the suspension kit is from the parts list on this thread.

Please complete the following sentence: "What happened at Bathurst 14 years ago is relevant to this thread because..."

Kelly was directly behind Lowndes, both of whom were on the brakes. So I am not sure how he was supposed to be overtaking him from there. In that circumstance it is up to Kelly not to run into the bloke infront of him, not nurf him square in the rear bumper. I wouldn't ascribe any malice to Kelly for the incident, but there "penalty" imposed was a joke. He didn't care where he finished as long as it was ahead of Lowndes. So what the stewards handed down was meaningless. I will be interested to see how much abuse he cops from the public next year. It is a bit unfortunate in the sense that of the four team drivers he comes across as the most grounded & least inflated with a sense of his own importance.

I think (ie don't really know) that the SLMZG bit is common to the early model R32's. Both the early R32 GT-R's I have owned have this on the build plate & didn't seem to have anything in the way of factory extras. The later models (94) have something along the lines KBNR32RXFS7 AA for a standard R. Note 2 spaces between the 7 & the AA. The V-specs have different identifiers. Anyway (Sorry to high jack the thread), but does the plate tell you anything about any extras an R may have other than the usual N1 & V-spec palaver.

Gees when JB was driving the Sierra you could just about set your watch by the time in the race Longhurst would punt JB off the track. It got so predictable as to be boring.... The point of interest was that during the course of the weekend ALL FOUR of the HRT/HSV team cars ran into Lowndes. Nice effort. As to GT"s last few laps in race 2 (he was behind Murphy) GT 1:38.4322 1:38.7484 1:39.4443 Murphy 1:38.1968 1:38.4317 1:38.6049 So given Murphy finished 2.5 seconds ahead of GT, you can't really say he had much incentive or even the chance to overtake him during the three clear laps he had after his stop/go penalty. & Gazza, bugger building a bridge. Maintain the rage, I say. It is all very well saying GT would have won the championship if the points had have been structured differently. More to the point, had he stayed within the HSV team instead of submitting to the Walkinshaw inspired dodginess in the enduros he would have bagged a heap of points for Sandown & Bathurst. Instead of bugger all.

I think in general that people attribute more of the cars handling to the HICAS system than it really justifies. ON my R32 I didn't have a huge problem with it, other than in two particular circumstances: 1. Off camber turn in. In this instance the back end can get a bit light in any case. Having the HICAS add its little bit to the turn in can make it hard to tell the difference between the rear end sliding & just the HICAS working. 2. Mid corner phase change. Not exactly brown underwear stuff, but a bit disconcerting through long corners on the circuit when you are trying to maintain your line.

The point I was making was in relation to the first unsportsmanship flag, not the subsequent black flag. Not sure about how anyone other than GT himself can establish he was going flat out in the last few laps - it depended on who he was racing (If anyone) with so few laps to go.

Here are GT's lap times from race two. Note how he suddenly 'found' a second a lap from lap 16? 1:45.4673 1:37.7668 1:37.9087 1:36.7994 1:36.8737 1:37.6745 2:16.9915p 1:41.5207 1:36.4804 1:36.5104 1:36.9697 1:37.0371 1:37.4534 1:38.5324 1:38.3199 1:37.4748 1:37.4753 1:38.3509 1:37.5791 1:38.0972 1:38.0625 1:37.8201 1:37.9480 1:38.2138 1:38.3389 1:38.2668 Black flag for blocking 1:38.8429 2:14.0403p 1:44.7444 1:38.4322 1:38.7484 1:39.4443

The first problem here is that GT was not racing on his own merits, he was driving slower than he could simply to allow Kelly to pressure Lowndes. The second is that the "punishment" handed out to RKelly was in no way proportional to the damage he had done to Lowndes. Simply put why would Kelly care where he finished as long as he was ahead of Lowndes? Punting Lowndes won him the championship - the fair remedy would then have been to stip him of the points earned in the race. The "penalty" was like being mauled by a dead sheep. In the fourth round of the series Tander would have been out there trying to win the race, not trying to hold up Lowndes for the benefit of his team mate. Doesn't say much for the points system. Kelly didn't win fair & square. He was beaten in the first two races & only achieved a result in the third by punting his opposition. How is that fair & square? Agreed, but he ain't coming back.

Just been confirmed that the Kelly gang have been awarded this years championship.... So that will confirm everyones tactics for next year. Stooge around in 20th place at every race meeting & punt off anyone who gets ahead of you in the points. What a disgraceful piece of work.

That sort of low brow, rock ape attitude is symptomatic of what is wrong with the current touring car formula where aspiration & excellence are exchanged for monosyllabic grunting to the effect that red is good & blue is bad, or vice versa.

I didn't say the bloke in 32nd would end up near the top! The point I was making was that if you stop awardsing points at, say, 10th place, then teams such as Britek, Team Kiwi, Team BOC etc probably won't get many or indeed any points at all during the year. Having points allocated so far down the list atleast allows the teams towards the back to have something to show for their efforts. Tander should have gotten a better result in chamionship terms this year. As should Lowndes & a heap of others. A DNF (More correctly, two) will kill you champrionship, whereas stooging around in 6th place every weekend will win you a trophy. That is the inherent problem with the current points system.

Whilst ever Tom Walkinshaw is involved with HSV/HRT you can be sure that the sort of dodgy stuff that went on this year will continue. You can take that to the bank.

Because if you bash the steering arm there is a good chance you will break it. The points system sucks wang. What it is designed to do is give the bloke in 32nd place something to tell his sponsors about.

To be fair, RKelly did win one race this year. Blame the points system, not the driver. RIngall shouldn't have won the year earlier (Ambrose should have, again). They have fixed it for next year, however.

You mean he was driving for another team to try & gain an advantage. That HRT stuffed up both there & at Sandown falls under the category of "You ain't much justice in the world, but there is some...."

So it is ok to win the championship by punting someone off? Because that is what was (is still) at stake. Losing third place to Kelly meant nothing. Beating Lowndes meant everything. You have to judge the penalty handed out in that context.

If Lnowdes outbraked himself, then why did Rick Kelly Liberace him???

Choose option B.

I think the problem was, as fas as GT was concerned after the issue of the first black flag he gapped Lowndes, only to fall back when he felt he was safe (ie within 5 laps) to do so. Which can easily lead to the impression that he wasn't out there racing to his own full potential. Whether or not there is anything wrong with that in the particular circumstances is another issue.

The really disapponting thing about the whole weekend is that all four of the HRT/HSV team cars ran into Lowndes at some stage. But for anyone who has followed motorsport for any time at all you have to expect that sort of thing from a team run by Tom Walkinshaw. Cheating dogs. Always have been, always will be. Having said that I do feel a bit sorry for Rick Kelly. He didn't mean to punt Lowndes. Tander was a completely different matter, however. As was Skaife on Saturday.

Nesh, I might be interested, but can you provide a photo of the right hand side of the wheel - ie the high wear bit?

How come the fastest cars in December & January (even February) go AWOL when the season proper starts?

Give the bloke a break, he may have been confused by the floor mats. Andrew, it would be a good idea to check the build number on the chassis plate. If it is a 92 the plate should read something like BNR218000 to BNR226000 (in that range.) A V-Spec from 93 onwards will have a BNR300001 - BNR314649 chassis number plus a couple of other identifiers in the model code.

Come on Duncan - it is the constructors championship that the manufacturers are after. All very well being smug when Takuma wins the drivers championship, but it won't count for anything when Spyker win the constructors now will it?