911

Gulp.
I think I could make a good Hanging Basket of my helmet for next year..
There will be the Bank's Audi
Keith's A4
Roy
You
Your Brother
Maybe me.

Then there is Mike Gale and someone called Pavlo in a funny blue car.
I know to 2 other Impreza's and the ex-Jeff Stokes EVO3.
Can't discount Andrew in the Legacy (dark horse)

There used to be regularly 4 in the class, now about 14!
I'll be lucky to find one point next year.

Seriously though, now you can see why I say getting an entry could be hard.

Graham.

rob4620

it would be a shame if the same cars could not compete event after event to make the championship more interesting, i think they should embrace the tin tops and let the class grow, there seems to be 100's of west field and bike engined single seaters that you can't distinguish apart.

The A4 i was talking about above Graham is the one Keith is building for the guy currently in the lotus sunbeam, keith's old SWB UR qualified for the top 12 run off 3 times in his last season but as he had not entered he could not compete, he thinks this new monster audi will be considerably quicker than his SWB .

rob4620

dear bank manager....

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/90625.htm

911

Your dad's got at least one...borrow it and show him!
Will add that i totally agree with your thoughts above, and add also Keith Edwards (jokingly) has said several times i can have a go in the Quattro...just image that.

See you tomorrow with the rest of the circus!
Graham

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

Well, that would take the car out of equation Graham, once you had a bit of practice.

But after your trackday entertaining antics I would expect a few tenths off your times on the next couple of outings in the STi anyway... based on more feel / familiarity / experience in the car's abilities near the limit away from competition and other threats ... go for it big guy!

911

I hope you are right (about the Sti)!
Rob is a hard charger, but there are 3 bends that make/break a fast run at the hallowed Shelsley Walsh, and i hope the track day entertainment will be useful in the first 2 at least.

Graham

911

Practice day at Shelsley today.
Bit of a struggle to be honest, and i think a few others felt the same.
The track was not all it should have been, dry but dusty and the front-end felt wayward, not understeer, just loose a bit.
No probs, but undermined the old confidence factor.

Did 3 runs, and clocked a 32.98 or close to that, so just 0.1 sec shy of my PB.
(32.89) but the starts were tricky too!

Very hot on my tail pipe are Rob and Andrew..and I mean close.

Will need to drive the t!ts off the Sti to keep them behind me.

Time will tell, and I've had a great season this year, but 'we' will try!

Tomorrow!

Graham

ZEN Performance

Rob told me he wasn't even trying

cmpequeno

good luck for tomorrow graham. and to everyone else

911

Paul:
The rear of the car was a bit low, those sand bags will need to come out then today!
Rob is very pleased with the 'charcteristics' of the engine since your re-map exercise.
He is in good shape for today.
So is the dark horse, the Legacy....

Get out of bed and come over to support your new found customer!
With you competing against him and the Audi and the trio of hot EVOs next year, you will need to familiarise yourself with this game.

Must try harder today for sure

Graham

cmpequeno

do your best as always

911

Race day was not quite as hoped for. Car steered badly, and the harder i tried, the result was not quick enough at the end..

Rob came screaming by with a great 32.6 something and all i could find was a misserable 33.15.

Good news is I know where I lost the pace due to the detailed timing info from the track and I think plans for the winter will get me back in place.

The Kumhos were worse than i had expected with parts of the front down to the canvas (so to speak) though the rears are useable.

Startline antics were hard, with violent wheel spin off the fronts and loosing about 2/10's there.
It all adds up!

Great meeting and a reasonable finish to the season.

I entered 2 Championships, the Leaders and the Midlands, and took 2nd in class in both. The EVO of Roy won the Midland Championship today by a point, and is the first time in a long time it has been won by a tin-top, and Roy won both classes too! A truely great season for him.

So what now (assuming anyone is interested!)?

Spanners out in 4 weeks time and the tweeks will commence.

Graham:

Some vid clips as ever for you:
Andrew's Legacy
http://www.dropshots.com/daymainfram...0030103&cimg=0
The Sti
http://www.dropshots.com/daymainfram...0030103&cimg=1
Legacy at the base of the hill
http://www.dropshots.com/daymainfram...0030103&cimg=2
The Sti at the same place
http://www.dropshots.com/daymainfram...0030103&cimg=3

This is the state of the tyres after the meeting, front on the right

For me, THE best car there, a blast from my past:

rob4620

Was a good weekend indeed with fantastic weather and some good racing. My car performed brilliantly and just when i thought i could not improve on my mornings 33.18 i managed to push harder and pick up some more time and shock myslef with a 32.63. The remap from Zen saw my car crossing the finish line consitently 3mph faster than i have ever been before so i'm pleased to say the least.

Graham, I have never seen a set of tyres so toasted in my life, you could literaly pull £5 note size pieces off the n/s front if you wanted to.

Look forward to seeing your progress with the RA box which i think will realise you quicker times everywhere and take full advantage of all the power your car produces. Also to see if you choose to DCCD or not DCCD, personaly I have gone quicker whilst leaving it well alone in a mid orange setting which promotes understeer but means massive traction under power so you can get on the throttle early which is essential in this game. Unfortunatley without locking the diffs out for launches there is a much greater margin for error as i discovered, bogging down or lighting up the tyres is easily done. However the idiot proof 2 second dead and below launches DCCD can give you every single time gets lost pissing about trying to wind it back into a setting that will actually allow you to navigate around a corner during which time your lines and momentum go to complete crap. Over the winter break i will try and see if i can find a way to take advantage of the dccd properly for hillclimbing.

Keep us posted on your progress with the car and see if you can come and have a look at prescott on 23/24th should be a good weekend weather permitting.

Thanks also for your help and advise this season it has been much appreciated.

Rob.

ZEN Performance

Congratulations to both of you!

Remember, power is nothing without a touch of Zen....

cmpequeno

hello,

hill climbing sounds like a really hard sport... with the new guys it's getting harder graham...

Fuzz

Andy

ZEN Performance

I wonder how much faster Rob could have been with some decent suspension too! I think getting rid of those orange ***** could save a few tenths

911

Carlos:

The young guys won't have it all their way!
Roy is 60 years old and consistanly miles ahead of me and even Rob.

The EVO is a better base car of that I am sure.
The Impreza is cheap and easy to tune, and getting to grips with the hills is not easy at Roy's level, but Roy's car is very special.

I hope the closer ratios of the Type R will help and the other tricks I hope to put in place will overcome the weakness in my package...me!

After all, it must be the car not the driver!

Next year will see the class re-formed with the machinary and the drivers involved.
We also have young Paul to show us that a 500+ Impreza can catch a near pensioner in a lardy EVO; bloody sure that I can't.

Fed-up with coming 2nd and today third.
News about getting entries next year is worrying but expected.

Single seater could be good way to go after all.

Graham

ZEN Performance

I need some flat venue without the valley of death to the right or bank of doom to the left!

911

The orange ***** are just fine, there is a lot more Rob can do to compliment them and you all know that, so does he!

The AST's are good units of that there is little doubt.
I am very pleased with the results this year in the suspension, and i think the single and 3 way units are great for Hillclimbing.

3 ways are much harder to sort out in a 32/33 second run at a hillclimb no matter who's units they may be.
There is more for me to do in private. I think I have finished exposing the car now to everyone; should get a bit coy(sp).

I am suspicious about the tyres and will try something else for 2007.

Gosh, not even thinking of selling the car at this stage, that's a first...but I could be tempted.
That black 32B hotrod was so nice, gentle sunday cruising with nobody pestering me


Paul: Big flat open airfields with a few cones scattered around are nothing.
The Shelsley track is scarey; the banks suck you in (been into a 200year old tree in the 911 there) and the deep ravine is truely deep.
Go down there and the rescue crew will leave the car there for the meeting till the end then drag you out, gently of course.

rob4620

If you give me my 400+hp over the winter i don't think the colour of my ***** (ooo err) will matter that much.

911

Nice big box from Whiteline arrived yesterday, thanks Job!
Will be interesting to see what ihappens with the other parts.
Pity the season's over for me now.

Spanners out in October with the gearbox and tweeks and a few touches in one other spot, and it's good night till next year. Still contemplating this:



I spent 15 years with this kind of car before hillclimbing which probably explains a lot to some on here...

Or simply gut the Sti and fill the skip with trim and excess and buy some ear plugs.

Graham

Andy S.

Can do you a good deal!!!

LOL

rob4620

That may explain why your car has such a shine to it every meeting, putting my filthy machine to shame.

ZEN Performance

I did my first sprint today. I was a bit faster than I thought i would be, so watch out!

911

On a friday?
Glad you are fast.
YOU can catch the bloody EVO, and the V8 Audi, oh, and Rob too!

I know my place. ( )

The race starts getting an entry (and an A Licence).

Good luck with it Paul.

Graham.

ps: With a zillion bhp you SHOULD be bloody quick!
pps: Most sprint series/Championships demand a FULL interior (no kidding) but hillclimbs allow roached out race cars now in the Road Going class.

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

ppps Paul is an ex karter
pppps he has really good suspension, with out gold *****
ppppps watch out!

911

That's ok, a new generation for hillclimbs! I've been out-paced pleanty of times before by all sorts of cars and drivers..Dents the ego but many are far more committed than i am.

Scooting between trees and Armco on a track that is about 14 feet wide in a car that is 5 feet wide is different, especially when you need to drive home in it and home is 100 motorway miles away.
Supposed to be a Road Going Class. Be nice if Paul drove the car to and from the tracks.

Quite separatly, the best suspension is the one that you can afford and works for you.

Time will tell. I've heard all the 'and I'm going to be fast' pre-amble, and sometime people really are, but I've learnt that it is the quiet ones who are actually quick.
Rob does not go on about being faster, he simply is. Roy (Championship Winner/track class record holder on all the Midlands tracks) never talks about being fastest, and neither does Roger Banks.

The only hillclimber I know in Tin-tops who says he is fast and truely is is John Stevenson in Scotland, justifyably so as he is the quickest.
Thank god he hates Englishmen and stays north of the Wall.

With a bit of luck, Terry B will launch the Subaru Challenge in 2007 which will allow the masses of 'I'm faster than you' pilots to truely compete against each other on some great hillclimbs and sprint tracks. For Paul it could include Three Sisters in Wigan Pier, a superb gokart track and killer to drive especialy in the wet.


Graham.

ZEN Performance

The track was about 14ft wide.

I drove the 90miles there.

Was very tight, didn't get out of second gear, except to go into 1st for a hairpin mich tighter than those at Shelsey.

I really enjoyed myself.

The car has dash and doorcards, no roof becuase of cage and no carpet. But I can put a full interior in if that's what's required.

I'm not here to boast. I was genuinely surprised at how competitive I was. I would have been more competitive as I was just getting the hang of it when "something" happened to the engine, valve train or camshaft related. Car of the day for me was a RWD N/A BMW running around 180hp. He was running around the same as me timewise, but very smooth, without an explosion of power to deal with! We were less than a second behind the winner, he was also the winner last time there (EVO4).

I was able to learn a lot about the setup of the car in just a day as individual runs meant I could tweak the car a little in between. So sprints will deffo be on the cards for next year. I don't fancy the faster venues just yet, I felt very much in control at the speeds we were at (65-70mp peak) despite the tight nature of the course.

I'm not sure where I'll be racing next year, whether it will be RAC run or what.

Paul

911

Fair enough.

Like drag racing, hillclimb and especially sprinting looks so easy many simple say that they will be ballistic etc, but as you know much better than me, Drag racing is far from simple to repeatably get best times every time, yet it looks stupidly easy.

The fact that the BMW @ 180 bhp, probably the same torque and simple rear wheel drive is right there shows that the fabled 4 x4 500+ bhp stuff is not always the successful route. This is shown also in Rob's blistering performance this year. A mature natural driver (his dad is the same) with a very nice balance of a car can deliver the result. I can say that my Sti with 312 bhp was very very nearly as quick as the car is today on crappy road tyres. This is why an 18g turbo may well be better than the current 20g, but hindsight is a great thing...I think you tried to tell me this when I was doing the engine.(?)

I mention the interior as I have seen people removed from Class because of the interior (me included) 'status'.

The Regs for the meeting can be a minefield for everyone.

I started my 'motorsport' on sprints but tired of them quickly, but most are one day events so might suit your business timetable too?

It would be a good session to share a private (sprint) track morning with you and Rob early next year or for you to do a day/weekend at my local Hill climb, Loton Park in March when we have a Members Only weekend, but you will need the full overalls/helmet/license etc to do it.

Graham.