Snowman

The former club president (but still club clown) turns 30 today! Congrats mate! And what better way to celebrate this occassion than to have a committee meeting! LOL. To show our love for James I think we should all use this thread to create some photoshop master pieces as a kind gift from us at SAU. Here is a picture to help.

So far the offical list contains the following people: Snowman heartbrkr Roy Ant95 pontiff Since the list was posted (Friday night) ferni and Scotsman have sent in forms (that I know of)

I'm only there on the Sat and Sun. Have to go to work the other days. Free piss for me both days however! And who else is coming to Monaco this year??

Well that will make it 6 confirmed from here. The rest of you hurry up!

Guys - stopping being slack and put your entry form in FFS! The current list of entries is up and it looks not far from full - but so far there is only a handfull of people from here on the list! If you want to make the field - SEND IN YOUR FORM ASAP!!! SHEEZ! http://www.wrx.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16851

wwwrxxx - you must be Aaron yeah? Frank called me on Friday night to tell me (and ask some questions I couldnt help with sorry!) But congrats on the new purchase. The G-Sensors etc on the MFD come from the Nismo upgrade. Costs about $1K from greenline. The most usefull function is if you decide to upgrade the turbo's to say 25/30's (same as Franks..... and mine) the boost gauge goes to 2.0bar (stock is 1.2bar). I can show you the extra functions one day if you like.

Azza - your ferni's mate yeah? Whats the scoupe with your B4? Anything of interest done to it? Still running the sequential turbo set-up? Now that your a club member we'll put you in the same class as ferni to race against.

I have a tentative list of 16 entries from SAU. That list includes you Denham. I don't expect everyone to make it for one reason or another. But in a field of 80 thats a fair contingent. So I stress again if people havent as yet put their forms in to do so. If paying by CC don't be too concerned about payment as I previously mentioned. I put my form in the first week and I still havent been charged. And I dont expect to do so until after the event. So it's best to get those forms in rather than missing out!

Look if there's anyone from SAU qualified to see what this car can do at PI then that person is unquestionably me. Anyone else here done a sub 1.50s in a skyline??? Plus - as club President it is my right to first drive any new car bought into the club. Much like the ancient rule allowing Kings the first night with any mans new wife.

Denham - you brake at the WHERE????????????? Fark! Let me tell you all a funny little story. My first ever track day was at Sandown. Never having done anything like it before I spent the first few sessions driving around behind slower cars just getting a feel for everything (as you do). Finally later in the day I found myself passing the slower car on the main straight and for the first time approached turn 1 at full speed. I wasn't sure at what distance I should be braking however so I thought to myself - "Well on the playstation I brake at the 100 mark and those cars are going much faster than me so I will give that a go". I went so far off the track and into the gravel pit is was hilarious. A good start to my "solo" track excursions. I have since discovered for me to make it around turn 1 I need to jump on the anchors HARD at about 175 out. Whats annoying is Ben - who travels about 40km/hr faster than me at this point - can do it from the 160 mark. (Stupid 383mm 6 Pot Harrops). But the 100??? Really? My advice - if you come to Phillip Island - I'd brake a little earlier than the 100 going into turn 1.

I rang them just before Calder and they were out of stock in my sizes at the time so give yourself plently of time in advance if you want to take advatage of these guys. Don't do what I did and leave it til the day before!

My opinion is Rallying is No. 1. Only because there is a huge change in surfaces throughout the sport, a large amount of variables to contend with (such as jumps and rivers) and tree's and things are damn close! The one thing Rallying doesnt have that circuit guys have to deal with is traffic / other cars. Overtaking skills - especially in something like a fragile open wheeler is a massive component of true circuit racing. Also - there is a level of constant perfection in circuit racing that is probably missing in rallying. I'm pretty sure when Petter won the rally of Sweedon recently he didnt take EVERY corner to its maximum potential. However - in a few weeks time you can be pretty sure that Michael Shcumacher will take 99% of the corners in the Melbounre GP to his maximum potential. I think at the top level the 2 are pretty close as far as skills required go - but I think Rallying requires a slightly larger range of driving skills to be at the top. Biggest skills in say Top Fuel Dragsters is reaction times and the ability to not pass out when those crazy G's hit you! I reckon that would have to be close to the biggest rush in motorsport!

On the last page Steve who works at DBA rates his best 10 street / track pads. The Ferrodo's (DS2500) come out on top in his opinion. One thing he does mention is the squeal they can have if not driven hard occasionally. I can tell you from my experiences if I have been to the track in a few months they do get noisey - but after a track session they are totally quite for a number of drives. Its easy enough to do even if you can't get to a track. Find somewhere quiet (prob at night) and do 10 or so hard 150 - 40km/hr stops in succession and they'll be all good for a while.

Ferni / anyone else that cares. I found this thread on the MRT forums extremely helpfull - even though its more of a Rex forum than anything. But all reports have come from users and many people have tried different pads. It was from this thread that I chose my pad combination (Ferodo DS3000 fronts and RB Comp 9 rears). http://www.mrtrally.com.au/forums/topic.as...asp?TOPIC_ID=36 Its a long thread but a good read IMO.

Also (especially for Gareth) - Greg (blindelk) at the recent motorsports expo has arranged for a group discount for the purchase on Ferodo brake pads. I use the DS3000's but for a good street / track pad I believe the DS2500 are fantastic as well. The prices between the 2 are pretty similar - Greg will have to confirm but I believe its about $220 for a set. I highly recommend these pads.

BTW - I have a mate and his Mrs coming down to stay for the weekend as well. (Some of you know Jarrod already and know how entertaining he can be! LOL) So between Chris and Roy we really need to work out how many beds there are available and start allocating them - then working out what we need to do for the others (if there is enough people even trying to source another house!? Or are people happy to camp in back yards / sleep on lounge room floors?)

Obviously I'm all in favour of you taking it to the track Chris as well. Infact I have also promised you a drive in my car - just never had the chance to take you for a spin. Maybe I can take you for a passenger lap at a track day if you like? But for me a great example of someone going to the track is ferni. When I first met ferni he was pretty crazy on the street. But at his first track day I think he quickly learnt a) How fast his car really is. B) How much he still had to learn to drive it properly and c) How doing those speeds on the track is a hell of a lot more sensible than on the streets after he did make some mistakes when trying to drive fast. Doesn't matter what type of thing you do - whether its a club sprint, drifting, or something like an advanced driver training - get out somewhere and safely take you car to the limit and really enjoy the power you have. I can almost garantee at the end of it you will be thinking about how to best improve your handling, grip and stopping rather than your power as well.

Ok - it's time to burst you bubble a little! Cairns is also full of weird Austrian tourists doing nasty things to nature!

BTW - for those that are attending - please can you use the club calender attendance function located at the link below. Its help me get things like the club championship prepared and lets others know how many others are coming. http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/ca...3&day=2005-3-12

Does it have air-conditioning? The N1 had that plus the radio plus the rear wiper all removed. Handbrake cover is plastic instead of leather.

Sorry for the slight delay in getting this to you guys - but here is the downloadable pdf of the Club Newsletter. This file is pretty big so if your an unfortunate person like myself on 56K you will have to be very patient. and happy reading. http://vic.skylinesaustralia.com/newsletter/002.pdf

Over here the track days are usually organised by car clubs. These car clubs must be affiliated with CAMS to do so. So to do a track day first you need to become a member of a car club (can I suggest Skylines Australia Victoria ) - then you need to get a CAMS license (thats easy - its just $85pa). The you can go to any of the track days held by clubs. Those of us here at SAU are doing our track days this year with teh WRX Club. You don't have to be a member of the hosting club to participate in their track days (usually) - you just have to be a member of ANY car club. As mentioned those of us from here are going to Phillip Island on Sat March 12th for our next event. Details are found in the Events sub-heading on this (Victoria) forum. You can also do a search in Victoria with the words - Sandown, PI, Winton, Calder and Wang and you will find plenty of reports / pics from past events we've had. Look out for some pics of a Silver R32 GTST - plates BRI58Y. Its a weapon.

lwells - I paid just over $1K for the Nismo upgrade so I'd take $300 for these boards (including the required boost gauge). They are the standard boards from a V Spec.

Ok - injectors now also sold.