Tarmac Rallying Perpetual Thread

[Kel]

Burnouts are bad kids- confirmed that we ran days 4&5 with a mostly 2wd GTR!

The boys discovered a very shagged pump & suspect the damage was done by some rather 'spirited' launches early on.

[Bazil_1]

Did everyone hear the Targa news today? Adelaide is no longer a Targa event however High Country is now a 3 day event with 5 new stages for a total of 270kms.

[sav man]

Back at work, so time for some sau

The week was going so well until Saturday morning. The only issue I had to that point was a leaking end tank on my oil cooler, which I swapped over after the prologue. I had wound the boost back on the Friday night, as Pete had engine problems on the way into Strahan, and then pulled out the next morning.

We took off from the start of Reece Dam and as soon as a grabbed 2nd gear the Alt warning light came on. I turned all the electrics off I could, and watched the battery gauge drop the whole way through the stage. I got out and checked the belt, connections, and fuse links at the end of the stage, but they were all fine. I drove another 2-300m and the car ran out of electricity.

When we were sitting on the side of the road some local photographers that I happened to know drove past, and had jumper leads. We jump started the car, and the alt magically started working again. We caught up to the field at the lunch break, and Damo had a look at the alt to try and diagnose it. But nothing could be fixed in the time we had, so we set off for the next stage Natone. I took off from natone, and the alt light came on (it had been working fine for 2-2.5 hours), I turned everything off again and made it to the end of the stage. I did all the things Damo told me not to do (sprayed brake cleaner into the alt to try and clean it). The car ran out of power just before the next stage.

We kept putting batteries in the car to get back to Strahan, and swapped the alt over. My alt was diagnosed with a faulty regulator. The new alt was less powerful (80a vs 120a), so I had to disconnect the passenger side of the heated windscreen to keep the battery charging for the next day.

I started the next day full of sand in my vagina, and decided to have a good dip on the run home. We got some pretty good times in the wet, I was pretty pleased to finish the wet Strahan stage 3^rd outright only 5 secs slower than Vandenburg.

Liam and Larry deserve the result, they earnt it in the wet weather.

[fatz]

think i might enter this high country shit

[tweety bird]

The targa tas highlights are on 7mate at 12:30 today.

[JimmyRickard]

What tarmac rallies run in NSW?

Does anyone have an event calendar for national events also?

[Roy]

Well...based on some piccies I saw on FB, Blaise has the right idea of building a very cool old school car within the loose regs of historic... woudl love to build a DR30 competitor to go up against it but that aint going to happen

[sweefu]

Tarmac Gurus,

Would Federal RS-R or Kumho KU36 be an acceptable tyre to use for the touring class of Mountain Motorsport's 'Great Tarmac Rally'?

I've wanted to get into road rallies for a few years but don't have the budget to commit yet and it seems the touring class would be great for me to be able to have a go without having to change my car a lot.

For around $1k budget, what would be the best tyre to go for? I was looking at 235/45r17 or something similar to that size. Nitto NT01 and NT05 seem to be available for around $1k or less too, but I don't know a lot about these tyres.

Thanks fellas.

[LotusGTR]

I've not done GTR, but I have done both Baw Baw and Lake Mountain touring events and in my opinion it won't make any difference what tires you run. You won't be going fast enough to worry. I did all of mine on Pirelli street tyres and they were more than adequate.

That said, how fast you go depends a lot on the pace car. You get a 'liberal' pace car and dry conditions then...

[sweefu]

I've not done GTR, but I have done both Baw Baw and Lake Mountain touring events and in my opinion it won't make any difference what tires you run. You won't be going fast enough to worry. I did all of mine on Pirelli street tyres and they were more than adequate.

That said, how fast you go depends a lot on the pace car. You get a 'liberal' pace car and dry conditions then...

I wasn't too sure how held up you might get, was the pace even slower than a normal hills run you'd do for fun on a weekend?

Also, is the pace car just one of the touring entrants or an official from Mountain Motorsports or similar?

Cheers mate.

[Duncan]

So, is anyone else heading out to THC next weekend?

We are pretty much ready to go, just sorting out the alignment today.

[Bazil_1]

We recced the course on the weekend. The new stages are quite fast and open though the roads seem rougher than the rest of the course.

Will be leaving early Wednesday morning.

[Duncan]

Recce, eh? Sounds serious. Kel did say it's a thing now.

Catch you down there

[nekminnit]

My father and I are entered. Was down that way a few weeks ago for the Great Tarmac Rally, roads are looking nice.

[Duncan]

Good to hear John, see you down there too.

My prep (which I though was pretty much finished) has gone kind of backwards. Current state

Since I need to leave 5am tomorrow I have a bit to do

The bush that needs replacing....

THen an alignment in Canberra tomorrow hopefully, then head down on Thursday

[Bazil_1]

Damn, nothing like pulling things apart only a few days before.

Picked up mine from my tuner today. Need to put the passenger seat back in, oil change, swap the wheels over and get it registered tomorrow. Leaving at some ridiculously early hour on Wednesday so hopefully have time to drive a few stages in the Patrol/towcar in the afternoon.

[nekminnit]

Anyone know of someone in the Mansfield/Melbourne area that could supply and help fit a nismo twin plate clutch tonight (Saturday)? Clutch started slipping after lunch today on the Targa High Country.

Please call 0422 808 999.

Any help much appreciated!

[Duncan]

hmm well that didn't all go to plan.

simply put, the tyres were not up to the distance in those temps. this was the better front that we took off before the last stage.

I took 4 Dunlop mediums and decided not to spend another $1k on 2 spares so I just grabbed some 5 year old Federals I had in case of emergency (1 in the car, one on the trailer). The tyre shop were super confident the 4 tyres would be fine. They were wrong.

I noticed the front left had delaminated on the stage after lunch on sunday so changed it for the spare, but since I only had one spare we had to roll through the next 2 stages with mismatched fronts, we lost about 20min in those 2 stages. We managed to stay ahead of 999 back to the base of Buller, Neil and Mark did a super quick change of the other front and we were able to complete the rally; even with the rooted and mismatched fronts we were only 10sec slower up Buller on the last stage than we were on day 1.

[Duncan]

The car was awesome for the first 1 3/4 days but we lost the brakes on Sat arvo; the pedal did not work 30% of the time which made it an interesting guessing game. The boys worked most of the night changing and bleeding brakes, and then changing the master cylinder at 5am the next morning to get us back out but it did not sort the problem; it seems to have some sort of air lock in the ABS because it magically gave us more air every time we bled it; we spend the day on Sunday bleeding it after every stage. Also had a minor electrical issue which returned us to wastegate boost on an ad-hoc basis, a fuel pressure issue (which luckily was only a problem at idle) and a diff that was shaking itself apart.

Can't believe how good these cars feel when they are behaving though, it was beautiful and totally predictable.

Overall the event was excellent fun, the roads are very (too?) fast with plenty of time over 6,000rpm in top gear, although we never got to the redline in top. Some tighter stages but I enjoyed the open stuff.

Kel is an awesome navigator and didn't give a wrong call all weekend; as pretty much a rookie I was lucky to have her calling the shots. And not just good calling, also knowledge of the rules and logistics that kept us on track and got us to a medal at the end despite the car issues.

And finally a huge thanks to Neil and Mark, they worked their arses off to keep the car running and were always in the right place when we needed them. Plenty of experience with these cars mean they did everything quick, right and no fuss.

[Duncan]

Oh and BTW well done Larry and Liam coming home 4th, it was great to compete with you guys.

And good to meet you John, shame you couldn't get a new clutch in but at least you made it through the event....hope to see you out there again soon