djr81

If you get the fenders rolled you should be ok on the rear. Depends on how much camber you run also. The fronts are much the same. If they foul the outside of the guard get yourself a camber kit & dial in some -ve camber. It will help your handling & pull the tyre away from the guard.

Chi, I would still try Perth Brake Parts. To be honest, if you need to get them machined & redrilled you are probably just as well to get some new ones via a group buy or similar.

The rotors shouldn't be too hard. Any number of places can help you with them. Try the parts for sale section. What do you mean by redrilled/machined? If they are new they don't need machining & if they are the right rotors they shouldn't need drilling. Try Perth Brake Parts.

With a bit of luck Williams' form at Monaco can translate to Hungary....

Yep, class act. Stole his bosses major sponsor, the Stone Brother's from DJR & set himself up on the Gold Coast. Bathurst 95 was an unhappy one for Glenn Seton for so many reasons. Lost the race when the engine built by his dad went bang with 9 laps to go. Had to sack his Dad because he couldn't afford to keep the engine development in house. How would you have liked to have had that conversation?

It never really got completely clarified, but the supposition is that Frank signed HH up before his big accident at Monaco when he put his Sauber into the barrier (out of the tunnel, from memory). At the time Hill was a bit wobbly & HH was the coming man. Frank stood by the contract even after Hill had won his world championship & it was obvious the HH was not as good as everyone thought he was. (Did good work at Jordan, however). BTW, I loved Coulthard's recollection of Patrick's pre race briefing before his first race: Patrick "Well, good luck then".

Sorry bout that. I have this reluctance to compare drivers when they have quit F1 & are racing in other, lesser categories. Primo example is Alan Jones. In the Williams he was absolutely first rate. In a touring car, well to be honest most of the time he never really looked like he gave a shit. Bathurst '96 was the only time I can remember him ever kicking arse.

Frank has always been a straight kind of a person. Patrick too. (Actually I was going to call him a stand up kind of guy, lucky I didn't) Look at the way he looked after H-H Frentzen all those years ago when he didn't have to. (& people here reckon Mika was a dog....) I am sure the rhetoric coming out of the Webber camp would have been pretty savage had Williams done the dirty on him.

Well, thinking it through. McLaren - Bad year this year & Alonso as your partner for next year. Would you want to go there? Ferrari - No 2 to some bloke called Schumacher. In any case Kimi looks to be headed that way, so is there actually room? Not sure if Webber would have enough clout to negotiate a good contrct with Ferrari. BAR - Done nothing, going nowhere. Plus I think both drivers are signed for next year. Jenson has to pay Frank's bill somehow. Nup, Webber has to have something sorted for Renault. Otherwise I am sure he would have re-signed with Frank. As an aside I desperately hope this doesn't mark another point in a Williams decline. It worries me that they be headed in the same direction as Lotus, Brabham, Tyrrell, Jordan...

You are 100% right. What is killing the Australian component supply industry at the moment is cheap imports from China. How can they compete with companies that pay their workers stuff all an hour, don't expect to make a profit & benefit from a government mandated fixed & artificially low exchange rate? To anyone who may get fired up by that, just go down to the local hardware shop & buy some cheap, shiney Chinese shit. It will make you feel better.

Actually, Predator, there is a fair chance that the BMW you may covet is made in South Africa, or the US. Just like those shiney new Toyota Hilux's come out of Thailand....

My memory is a bit befuddled by old age & infirmary (& doubtless too much beer), but other than Kevin Waldock Playscape/Blast Dynamics example I can't really remember any privateer Sierra's that were around in 92 and campaigned on a regular basis. Glenn Seton & Dick Johnson had Ford support, as did Colin Bond. Tony Longhurst had switched back to M3's by 92. OF course Bob Forbes GIO GT-R was the sole privateer example to ever run in Aus. People forget that during the mid nineties, thanks in part the the crap economy, top level motorsport in Australia nearly died. When teams like Gibson Motorsport & Glenn Seton Racing cannot find major sponsors then there are real problems. Not like now where 888 racing looks to have signed up Vodafone for $8million PER YEAR. Cripes. As for the comment: Australia lacked the technology to develop the 2L engines. Eh? DJR at the time were making 2L turbo charged Sierra motors as good as anyone in the world. The MOTEC engine management system is after all Australian. Perkins Engineering didn't lack anything for developing motors. Bo Seton & Gibson Motorsport knew a little about engines too. There is nothing in a 2L rev & compression ratio restricted motor that is foreign to the best Australian engine builders. They tried to keep 2L formula alive in Australia. Not enough people cared. A shame, really.

Import duty on cars is now at 10% By historic & international standards this is quite low. Your LTD/Caprice/GT-P/HSV or whatever will still carry the same luxury car tax as an import - it is a tax on the car which is not based on its country of origin. So making the argument that a Holden and/or a Ford should be the same as a luxury German car is erroneous. It has been a very long time since Australian manufacturers have been able to hide behind trade barriers. And, by the by, the proleteriat in Germany drive Fords/Opels/VW's, not BMW's and Mercedes Benz'

I think everyone is getting a bit carried away here, or atleast losing sight of what the different cars mean in the different markets. A few points come to mind: 1. They used to make Nissan Skylines in Australia. Nissan Australia basically went belly up because too few people wanted them. 2. We tend to view the Skyline range as containing only the GT-T's & GT-R's. There are much more pedestrian versions that make for a better comparison with a povvo pack Commode. 3. You have to give credit to the local stuff for their fitness for purpose. They are essentially a cheap, large car the likes of which no other country makes. OK, they aren't BMW's, or Lexus', but do you really expect that for $35k? 4. Every Foulcan/Commode model released since the VB/XD has been a make or break model. Hell Holden went within $40 million dollars of packing up in 1986 when the VN was authorised for development. If you read any industry analysis written by an overseas journalist anytime in the last twenty years they will have essentially written off the Australian car industry. That we have one at all is cause for celebration, no bitching. Just think what happened to the UK car industry.... For the record I own both a GT-R & a daily driver AU Foulcan. I know which I choose when I have a 1000km trip to do & I know which I choose when I want to go the the track.

It does depend a bit on how much -ve camber you run on the rear of the car. It requires quite a bit of movement of the the top of the tyre outwards to get rid of a usefull amount - hence bringing it into contact with the guard over bumps.

You mean your SAUVic sticker, or the baby on board one?

Jason, In a circumstance like this you have to trust the bloke on the ground who is inspecting the car. Unfortunately second guessing via a few photos is too hard. What did the buyer say? Is the car a goodun? Does eveything else check out? Did he say what he thought was going on in the photo? So many questions, so little time...

Garrett publish the compressor & turbine maps for these things (as with most of their product). Have a look at www.turbobygarrett.com under the part numbers. You can quite reasonably relate airflow to engine hp. This is actually what people are dong when the quote a 350hp turbo or whatever. Anyway, have a look.

The other thing is that changing the roll centre on a Watts linked live axle is dead easy. Changing it on a double wishbone suspension is much harder as it breeds other, more subtle changes to the set ups. From memory the Group A regs allowed you to move pickup points by a nominal amount. Not sure what the regs said in reference to the arm lengths.

Probably best to. You wouldn't notice the 10mm difference in any case.

Ben, I have 255/40/17's on the back of my R32. Whilst they are RE55's (Which I have been told are wider than the ostensibly equivalent 255 road tyre) they do just rub the inside of the lip of the back quarter panel. Best bet is to have this rolled out & you shouldn't have any problem with the tyres rubbing. By the by, is that a typo for the sizes? Because 265/45/17 will have a much larger rolling diameter than a 255/40/17.

Nick, For my 10 cents you can do ALOT better than Bendix ultimates. If you are wanting to do some track work I would recommend Ferodo DS2500's as a start point. Don't forget the fluid as well & make sure you check your rotors for cracks before & after.

Well, as it happens, yes. It just worries me that the questions you are asking betray a lack of a firm understanding on your behalf as to what you need to do to achieve well, you haven't really stated that clearly. Changng the length of the links in the suspension is dead easy (It is common practice to change all the upper link lengths as well as the caster rods). Relocating pick up points, be they on the chassis or on the hubs is a completely different kettle of fish. Only when you have developed (ie drawn) all the geometry, calculated the roll centres and plotted the centre of gravity relative to the roll centres can you be in any position to make a first pass estimate of any changes you may require I never did say it was pointless, but it is difficult & not the sort of thing to play around with on a whim. Anyway, as has been said previously, it's nice to be nice. So all the best with your mods.

Will the trust sump extension kit with baffle and pick up reduce my blow by? NO. I have seen this happen to a few cars now. Mostly it is related to having too much oil in the head of the motor & it overwhelming your catch can. Sometimes it is dependent on whether a circuit is clockwise or anticlockwise - people can have problems if their catch can is on the passenger side & the circuit is anticlockwise. Have you plumbed the can back into the sump?

I dunno either. The only things that come to mind are: Check the sidewall deflection on the 17's. This may be tyre pressures, or it may be due to the height of the side walls. Dunno what the psi boys on 18's were running, but mine were only 35# on account of needing to generate some temps on a cold day. My shit box (White car on 17's) was still understeering too much. Must work harder....