Tarmac Rallying Perpetual Thread

[DJRIFT]

Its a bit sereal? To have been on top of the podium. The feeling was a bit bitter sweet for me unfortunatly as there was a bit of controversy in the final 24 hours. But at the end of the day we fought by the rules and stuck by the rules and if targa as a whole decided not to go by the rules than where does that leave the whole sport.

Targa is a very long a torturous event but on average The little old 32 that Ben and damo built in a shed was consistently faster than its rivals per km and whist the field wasn't huge this year we were sitting in the top 10 outright for most of the event. This was further emphasized by setting 3rd outright times for the last 4 stages of the event. Ben pushed to the end which you will see from the woods dale stage where we took a win it or bin it approach and for the first time in 38 stages he scared me twice.

From the day 2 fuel pump failure I thought is it even possible to make up 1 minute, then 2 stages later ( cethana ) to lose another 1.5 minutes and end up only 9 sec off the lead going into day 5 was just a huge effort from Ben.

As most would know the lead up to this event for us has been less than ideal and after pre event testing the car was only 1/4 sec per km than last year but once into the swing of things we turned that into 1sec per km on last year. Maybe even more.

Looking at the car itself this morning it has never looked better. I would happily jump in it and do another 5 days rallying tomorrow. No broken or falling parts and everything still works. Just a few 1000 more stone chips thanks to a massive amount of cold seal road works done since last year. And the motor, Wow what a motor Ben has built 3 years of r&d has lead to a strong torquey high reving beast with all parts and most of the work being hand crafter by Ben or I. And they are cheap haha.

Myself as a navigator I have been lucky as this year makes 3 from 3 and thus a gold targa plate. And a podium to top it off. That in itself is harder than most would appreciate and some people go years trying to achieve what we have in only 3 years.

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone's support on here and in person.

[Marlin]

Good on ya Damo. It really is a team effort and for that you should be proud.

To have a "can do" guy like yourself sitting beside him is be a huge leg up during those times when the shit hits the fan.

[sav man]

Thanks for all the support.

It was about this point where I thought all chances had slipped away.

Damo did an unbelieveable job to get in and out of the car twice on the stage within 1:35, and then pick up the notes only 2 km down the road.

We opened up the oil restricers to the head, so it would stop being starved of oil. This made a huge difference, as I had no worries about reving it, and keeping it in the power band all day.

At the end of the event CAMS stroke tested my car and Thatchers car. I'm glad they did, as it's proof the engine is legit.

Looks like we finished 5th overall.

Edited April 22, 2013 by sav man

[Marlin]

At the end of the event CAMS stroke tested my car and Thatchers car. I'm glad they did, as it's proof the engine is legit.

Looks like we finished 5th overall.

lol, awesome sauce! Go the 20!

[fatz]

hihihihhi

stroke check

[Roy]

LOL, stroke check. Was someone having a sook or std protocol?

[Darkside]

Waiting for Roy highlight the superior features of the RB20 over the GT3 metzger engine......

[Dale FZ1]

It was about this point where I thought all chances had slipped away.

Great pic - oddly I was following your times against this very car until they struck problems.

[sav man]

LOL, stroke check. Was someone having a sook or std protocol?

It's meant to be std protocol, but I don't think it's been done for a few years.

[Marlin]

They've been doing it regularly for the past couple of years. Evos mainly.

[No Crust Racing]

How is that done?

[navdan]

Congratulations Ben and Damo certainly a well earned victory. I can still see you passing us on Arrowsmith last year (prior to your issues) and am in now way surprised you're up there this year. That car is very well sorted
We were stroke tested at Targa Tas last year and then another 'eligibility check' at High Country last year so it's becoming standard practice thankfully. To do it Dan, they remove a spark plug, put the car in fourth gear, and roll the car till the piston measures bottom dead center. Then its rolled until the piston reads top dead center. The difference is the stroke
In the case of the Evo, 88mm.

In the checks last year at the end of Day 1, one Evo was found to be a stroker with the story going that he was unaware as had just bought the car. Octagon let him compete in the NC class.

[Roy]

So my RB24 Neo RB20 is no longer the gun engine for Tarmac events

Just have a switch that shuts off the wastegate and on the final stretch of road when you can see the finish line opull unlimited boost and give ita a FnF downshift to get the revs up to 12k and push hard for the finish line. Wont be enough of the engine left to check

[No Crust Racing]

How does that stop you having larger bores or something like no quench pads for extra displacement?

Is what they use to measure stroke also measuring cylinder diameter?

Edited April 23, 2013 by ActionDan

[fatz]

they way around it is to call your car a super alphabet lotto numbers that comes with a strocker

[Roy]

LOL, Tomei and HKS did an RB24. The HKS even had its own crank back before the day of RB26s.

Can I still commission a build of a limited number of re-engineered cars and go racing? Time for Ben to step up and make a Spec-TR R32 GTSt for other competitors

[Dale FZ1]

How does that stop you having larger bores or something like no quench pads for extra displacement?

Is what they use to measure stroke also measuring cylinder diameter?

Quench pads don't affect swept volume ie bore x stroke. Removing material in that area will decrease static CR.

Bores generally won't be able to exceed .060" over due to cylinder wall thickness issues. Group A Sierra RS500 had a habit of splitting bores back in the day.

[navdan]

How does that stop you having larger bores or something like no quench pads for extra displacement?

Is what they use to measure stroke also measuring cylinder diameter?

Generally you are allowed 1mm overbore and as Dale FZ1 mentioned, any more that that and you start running into wall thickness issues.

they way around it is to call your car a super alphabet lotto numbers that comes with a strocker

Octagon is a business so if you have money to spend and an unlimited imagination you can run almost anything in any class/category (last time I checked EM was up to year 2002... )

[No Crust Racing]

And running sleeves? Stroke test won't can't that either?

[Marlin]

It's my understanding they don't just use a basic stroke test but rather a "ballooon" method whereby they measure he entire volume of the pot at BDC prior to a compression stroke.