Discussion
Targa time again and this year we get to play down south.
The Porsche 944 team are out again in 2 Wheel Drive classics class running number 260.
I'll be driving, Mike will be reading the road book and Nathan will be waving the spanners around.
The car is pretty much the same as last year - some brake & suspension changes, lets see if they help.
PLease come and say hello if you see us at service.. you will be doubly welcome if you bring coffee :-)
Itinery is :
Monday 27th - signing on and 2 stages in Christchurch
Tues 28th - Christchurch to Dunedin
Wed 29th - Dunedin to Dunedin
Thurs 30th Dunedin - Invercargill
Fri 1st - Invercargill to Cromwell
Sat 2nd - Cromewll to Queenstown
Full details at www.targa.co.nz
I'll try and get some updates on line during the event
The Porsche 944 team are out again in 2 Wheel Drive classics class running number 260.
I'll be driving, Mike will be reading the road book and Nathan will be waving the spanners around.
The car is pretty much the same as last year - some brake & suspension changes, lets see if they help.
PLease come and say hello if you see us at service.. you will be doubly welcome if you bring coffee :-)
Itinery is :
Monday 27th - signing on and 2 stages in Christchurch
Tues 28th - Christchurch to Dunedin
Wed 29th - Dunedin to Dunedin
Thurs 30th Dunedin - Invercargill
Fri 1st - Invercargill to Cromwell
Sat 2nd - Cromewll to Queenstown
Full details at www.targa.co.nz
I'll try and get some updates on line during the event
The team is now assembled in Christchurch and preparing for signing in and prologue on Monday. Looking at the weather forecast we will be running the RSR595 wet tyres tomorrow, I don't think the low temperatures and dampness will allow the FZ201 semi slicks get up to operating temp.
Quite a number of other crews have been spotted, phil and mike in the Abarth were on the ferry and the sunbeam tiger crew are staying at the same accommodation as us.
Christchurch is also awash with Ford Mustangs, there is a big meeting for the 50th anniversary of the iconic pony car. Some of them will be joining us tomorrow for the prologue stages.
Quite a number of other crews have been spotted, phil and mike in the Abarth were on the ferry and the sunbeam tiger crew are staying at the same accommodation as us.
Christchurch is also awash with Ford Mustangs, there is a big meeting for the 50th anniversary of the iconic pony car. Some of them will be joining us tomorrow for the prologue stages.
Monday was a long and busy day, it started cold and damp and we had hours lining up I a car park for various checks on the car before we could proceed to signing on. This was despite being pre scrutineers in wellington a week ago.
Once the queuing and paperwork were out of the way, things started to improve. To start with it stopped raining and then we got to drive the car.
First stage was up in the Port Hills above Christchurch. Teh stage stared late due to a police incident on the stage unrelated to the rally, but once underway we were treated to a tight bouncy road with some huge drops off the outside. Things were going well until a couple of km in when my accelerator pedal broke and started wandering around the footwell. I could still operate the throttle using the tips of my toes, but couldn't heel & toe on downshifts... Also getting between the pedals quickly was a challenge making it difficult to balance the car through corners. Progress was a bit messy but improved when I managed to kick the pedal remains out of the way.
There was quite a long tour to the circuit formerly known as ruapuna where we had to change into track mode. This isn't a circuit I have driven before and they managed to make it more complex by including some extra infield links to make it even more tight and twisty. I had a look at a circuit guide before heading out, but still had a voyage of discovery on the first lap. The circuit is quite tight and there is always some kind of a corner going on, only one real straight in the whole circuit. I'd love to spend some ore time there in the Caterham 7 one day.
We seemed to go reasonably well and passed a few cars on track. The seeding committee seems to think so too and have moved us 10 places up the pecking order for the start tomorrow.
The day finished with a beer and buffet at Addington raceway, we shared a table with Bernie & Jilly who are competing in a 2.8 Capri and were able to swap tales of of the day and tyre tips..
Tuesday is an early start with a long drive down to Timaru before we get to drive fast. The weather is looking better so we have put the FZ201 semi slicks on the car ready. Let's hope the forecast is right because those tyres won't be much fun in the wet.
All in all a good start, keen to get on with the main course now!
Once the queuing and paperwork were out of the way, things started to improve. To start with it stopped raining and then we got to drive the car.
First stage was up in the Port Hills above Christchurch. Teh stage stared late due to a police incident on the stage unrelated to the rally, but once underway we were treated to a tight bouncy road with some huge drops off the outside. Things were going well until a couple of km in when my accelerator pedal broke and started wandering around the footwell. I could still operate the throttle using the tips of my toes, but couldn't heel & toe on downshifts... Also getting between the pedals quickly was a challenge making it difficult to balance the car through corners. Progress was a bit messy but improved when I managed to kick the pedal remains out of the way.
There was quite a long tour to the circuit formerly known as ruapuna where we had to change into track mode. This isn't a circuit I have driven before and they managed to make it more complex by including some extra infield links to make it even more tight and twisty. I had a look at a circuit guide before heading out, but still had a voyage of discovery on the first lap. The circuit is quite tight and there is always some kind of a corner going on, only one real straight in the whole circuit. I'd love to spend some ore time there in the Caterham 7 one day.
We seemed to go reasonably well and passed a few cars on track. The seeding committee seems to think so too and have moved us 10 places up the pecking order for the start tomorrow.
The day finished with a beer and buffet at Addington raceway, we shared a table with Bernie & Jilly who are competing in a 2.8 Capri and were able to swap tales of of the day and tyre tips..
Tuesday is an early start with a long drive down to Timaru before we get to drive fast. The weather is looking better so we have put the FZ201 semi slicks on the car ready. Let's hope the forecast is right because those tyres won't be much fun in the wet.
All in all a good start, keen to get on with the main course now!
Tuesday was full on. We had an early start before 7 at the car in Christchurch and we reached our accomodation in Dunedin at about 8pm.
We are currently sitting 9th in class and have every intention of gaining a few more places over the next few days.
It was a steady start as I am driving for a finish not event victory! The new fz201 tyres are very different to what I have drive on before. They need careful prep, a different set up on the car and a different driving style. I think we have most things sorted now, the final tweak was to raise the rear ride height by about 15mm back to where it should have been... A bolt on the spring plate had slipped. The car feels a lot better now and I am driving with more confidence.
The morning stages were quite tight, but the afternoon ones were more flowing and smooth. We had to back off as we approached 200km/h (the event limit) on a couple of occasions. The scenery certainly passes quickly at that speed.
We had one mishap when I crossed a blind brow a bit too quick and arrived a LH corner facing the direction we had arrived from. No big deal, lots of space to slide around in and very little time lost. We ran that stage a second time and the skid marks and hole in the bank show I wasn't the only one to make a mistake there, at least we got away with it.
A few cars fell by the wayside today, several trailered away with mechanical problems, an escort hit a double caution dip in the road and took off across a field, taking out a marshals car on the way. The same mistake was later repeat by Tony Quinn in his new Lamborghini Hurracan in spectacular fashion. He won't be winning the event this year.
Wednesday will be another change in set up, rain is forecast so we are back on the wet tyres.. If it is wet we will do well...if not then we won't be making up too many places.. So let's hope for rain.
We are currently sitting 9th in class and have every intention of gaining a few more places over the next few days.
It was a steady start as I am driving for a finish not event victory! The new fz201 tyres are very different to what I have drive on before. They need careful prep, a different set up on the car and a different driving style. I think we have most things sorted now, the final tweak was to raise the rear ride height by about 15mm back to where it should have been... A bolt on the spring plate had slipped. The car feels a lot better now and I am driving with more confidence.
The morning stages were quite tight, but the afternoon ones were more flowing and smooth. We had to back off as we approached 200km/h (the event limit) on a couple of occasions. The scenery certainly passes quickly at that speed.
We had one mishap when I crossed a blind brow a bit too quick and arrived a LH corner facing the direction we had arrived from. No big deal, lots of space to slide around in and very little time lost. We ran that stage a second time and the skid marks and hole in the bank show I wasn't the only one to make a mistake there, at least we got away with it.
A few cars fell by the wayside today, several trailered away with mechanical problems, an escort hit a double caution dip in the road and took off across a field, taking out a marshals car on the way. The same mistake was later repeat by Tony Quinn in his new Lamborghini Hurracan in spectacular fashion. He won't be winning the event this year.
Wednesday will be another change in set up, rain is forecast so we are back on the wet tyres.. If it is wet we will do well...if not then we won't be making up too many places.. So let's hope for rain.
Wednesday wasn't wet...one big shower all day and of course rain while we were doing the final service at the end of the day. So being on the wet tyres wasn't perhaps the best plan. I have learnt that they are more progressive than the dry tyres and that they deal with gravel better, but they are not as fast in dry conditions.
The first stage of the day was straight out of dunedin and over Mt Cargill, this was a tight and twisty stage more like Teh North Island stages we are used to. Did well on this one setting a 6th in catagory, and followed this with another decent stage time. After this the character of the stages changed and they became much faster and more open. I don't think I have ever spent so much time in 5th gear wondering what was over the next blind brow.. Lots of time and slides at about 180 km/h... Which is quite full on and makes you wonder about what you need to do to bring the car home in one piece. Caution was the selected option and the cars still looks great...
Weather for tomorrow looks damp again so I'm staying on the wet tyres and hoping that the forecast is more accurate this time.
We were pleased to see the MK 1 Escort back today after its big off yesterday. The bodywork is mainly made of duct tape plus it needed a new axle and wheels . No sign of Tony Quinn after his spectacular incident with the Lamborghini, there is a rumour that he is going to raid his museum and bring the Nissan GTR out of retirement
One regret is that we didnt have time to look at "steampunk central" in Oamaru today. It was right next to the service area but we were kept a bit busy.
On to Thursday, we travel down to Invercargill via the catlins and the final stage at Teratonga circuit. We are just looking at the road book and it seems to be full of huge drops and triple caution corners. Should be interesting.
The first stage of the day was straight out of dunedin and over Mt Cargill, this was a tight and twisty stage more like Teh North Island stages we are used to. Did well on this one setting a 6th in catagory, and followed this with another decent stage time. After this the character of the stages changed and they became much faster and more open. I don't think I have ever spent so much time in 5th gear wondering what was over the next blind brow.. Lots of time and slides at about 180 km/h... Which is quite full on and makes you wonder about what you need to do to bring the car home in one piece. Caution was the selected option and the cars still looks great...
Weather for tomorrow looks damp again so I'm staying on the wet tyres and hoping that the forecast is more accurate this time.
We were pleased to see the MK 1 Escort back today after its big off yesterday. The bodywork is mainly made of duct tape plus it needed a new axle and wheels . No sign of Tony Quinn after his spectacular incident with the Lamborghini, there is a rumour that he is going to raid his museum and bring the Nissan GTR out of retirement
One regret is that we didnt have time to look at "steampunk central" in Oamaru today. It was right next to the service area but we were kept a bit busy.
On to Thursday, we travel down to Invercargill via the catlins and the final stage at Teratonga circuit. We are just looking at the road book and it seems to be full of huge drops and triple caution corners. Should be interesting.
Motivation is an interesting one. Being away from work is a good start, as is having the opportunity to wring out the Porsche on some great roads.
We realised at the start that we were going to have a hard time to do well, I think only 3 out of 12 in our class are running on Federal tyres. Dunlop or Toyo would be a big advantage so I'm not really thinking about trying to beat them.
Also there are a few new people with some well prepared toys and some who have done a load of development and are going faster this year.
Another difference is the character of the stages... They are very fast, with blind brows and blind corners.. So a test of bravery. I need to bring the car home in one piece, so will back off. We have had one stage Today (SS 18, Larnach) which was tight and twisty and we did really well there... We need more technical stuff to do well.
So basically I am using Bernie in the Capri as a yardstick and at the moment he is beating me too.
Still, it is fun, the scenery is great and I am hoping to get the satisfaction of completing another Targa... Two days more fun left....
We realised at the start that we were going to have a hard time to do well, I think only 3 out of 12 in our class are running on Federal tyres. Dunlop or Toyo would be a big advantage so I'm not really thinking about trying to beat them.
Also there are a few new people with some well prepared toys and some who have done a load of development and are going faster this year.
Another difference is the character of the stages... They are very fast, with blind brows and blind corners.. So a test of bravery. I need to bring the car home in one piece, so will back off. We have had one stage Today (SS 18, Larnach) which was tight and twisty and we did really well there... We need more technical stuff to do well.
So basically I am using Bernie in the Capri as a yardstick and at the moment he is beating me too.
Still, it is fun, the scenery is great and I am hoping to get the satisfaction of completing another Targa... Two days more fun left....
Ben - the story you heard about the cancellation of the final stage today was the same one they told us at the start line, so I guess it is probably true. It was a shame to have to tour through as it was good fun when we did it the other way earlier.
Let me know if you have any photos of us.. All the pictures I have are of a stationary car... Hope we weren't going too slow...
Great to see so many vehicles still going, and a lot of broken ones returning. Then Lamborghini is back and so is the little Abarth which is now on its second engine.
Let me know if you have any photos of us.. All the pictures I have are of a stationary car... Hope we weren't going too slow...
Great to see so many vehicles still going, and a lot of broken ones returning. Then Lamborghini is back and so is the little Abarth which is now on its second engine.
Ben - the story you heard about the cancellation of the final stage today was the same one they told us at the start line, so I guess it is probably true. It was a shame to have to tour through as it was good fun when we did it the other way earlier.
Let me know if you have any photos of us.. All the pictures I have are of a stationary car... Hope we weren't going too slow...
Great to see so many vehicles still going, and a lot of broken ones returning. Then Lamborghini is back and so is the little Abarth which is now on its second engine.
Let me know if you have any photos of us.. All the pictures I have are of a stationary car... Hope we weren't going too slow...
Great to see so many vehicles still going, and a lot of broken ones returning. Then Lamborghini is back and so is the little Abarth which is now on its second engine.
Nice photo of us Ben! Almost lifting a front wheel, must have been trying a bit...
Sorry about the lack of updates over the last few days. The event is full on and there are a few after match functions to go to..and then there is the matter of needing to sleep...
We have completed the event with a straight car and no mechanical failures. I don't know our final position yet, but it won't be anything fantastic. We shot ourselves in the foot at both Teratonga and Highlands Park with errors... Not enough laps, the first due to going the wrong side of the cones at the end of the first lap, and the second by turning 2 pages in the road book and missing a laps worth of instructions out... That got us default times on 2 stages which dropped us back a load of places. Errors that shouldn't happen, but did on this occasion.
Anyway, back to the main story... As I think i already said this is a particularly fast event... Open roads over crests mean you carry a lot of speed. We hit 200 more times per day on this rally than we have in the entirety of any other event. I am happiest on tight twisty narrow Slippery stuff.. And there hasn't been much of that! The exception was a stage on the Otago peninsular, the first stage out of Dunedin.. The road got narrow and tight...and the horns came out and the stage was attacked. Our placing on this one was probably our best for the event. More twisty nasty stages please, I love them.
Most of the rest of the stages down to Invercargill and on to Cromwell were open and fast. Moa flat had some fun stuff in it which raised a few giggles.
The weather forecast didn't really tell then truth... We were promised much rain, so I ran the wet tyres...and no rain fell! We eventually had sleet, hail and rain for half a stage and the it dried out again. The wet tyres are nice and progressive but don't offer the ultimate grip that the semi slicks do in the dry, so we probably lost out on some time there. Plus we had to put up with Bernie & Jilly in the Capri saying "told you so" .. They were on semi slicks the whole time.
Anyway the semis went on for Friday..and predictably didn't work at all for our first run up the Crown Range.. They warmed up in time for the descent, which was probably a good thing as it was very fast.
highlands park was fun, it is a complicated circuit that can be run in 27 configurations. We used the one that used as much of it as possible, however the notes in the road book only tell part of the story, so you are trying to remember where the track goes from a quick look at a layout map and a couple of laps that Tony Q drove me around in May. You could spend a lot of time on this circuit and still not fully know it. I'd love to come back with the Caterham 7 and get to know the place better.
The next 2 stages were a repeat of the first 2 with the crown range being more fun on warm tyres.
The last two stages however were the jewel in the crown of the event, Queenstown to Glenorchy and back... 33km each way of fast, twisty fun...and yes 200 was achieved both ways.
The finish line was in Queenstown and all of a sudden the event is over. It is quite a full stop when you cross the line and collect your medal... Normal life ie work etc is back and all you are left with is the glow of a major achievement... And you start wondering how you can get on to another event...
Thanks to Nathan and Mike who were the long suffering crew, the Targa organisers, marshals and support people without who the event wouldn't happen. Also to our wonderful sponsors without who we probably wouldn't be there, Elm Decorators, Atomise, IEEI.com, Porirua automotive smash repairs and UPS Power solutions.
Finally thanks to the other friends and competitors, particularly Bernie & Jilly and our West island friends in the RX7
More to follow when I have had time to digest proceedings and look at the results.
Sorry about the lack of updates over the last few days. The event is full on and there are a few after match functions to go to..and then there is the matter of needing to sleep...
We have completed the event with a straight car and no mechanical failures. I don't know our final position yet, but it won't be anything fantastic. We shot ourselves in the foot at both Teratonga and Highlands Park with errors... Not enough laps, the first due to going the wrong side of the cones at the end of the first lap, and the second by turning 2 pages in the road book and missing a laps worth of instructions out... That got us default times on 2 stages which dropped us back a load of places. Errors that shouldn't happen, but did on this occasion.
Anyway, back to the main story... As I think i already said this is a particularly fast event... Open roads over crests mean you carry a lot of speed. We hit 200 more times per day on this rally than we have in the entirety of any other event. I am happiest on tight twisty narrow Slippery stuff.. And there hasn't been much of that! The exception was a stage on the Otago peninsular, the first stage out of Dunedin.. The road got narrow and tight...and the horns came out and the stage was attacked. Our placing on this one was probably our best for the event. More twisty nasty stages please, I love them.
Most of the rest of the stages down to Invercargill and on to Cromwell were open and fast. Moa flat had some fun stuff in it which raised a few giggles.
The weather forecast didn't really tell then truth... We were promised much rain, so I ran the wet tyres...and no rain fell! We eventually had sleet, hail and rain for half a stage and the it dried out again. The wet tyres are nice and progressive but don't offer the ultimate grip that the semi slicks do in the dry, so we probably lost out on some time there. Plus we had to put up with Bernie & Jilly in the Capri saying "told you so" .. They were on semi slicks the whole time.
Anyway the semis went on for Friday..and predictably didn't work at all for our first run up the Crown Range.. They warmed up in time for the descent, which was probably a good thing as it was very fast.
highlands park was fun, it is a complicated circuit that can be run in 27 configurations. We used the one that used as much of it as possible, however the notes in the road book only tell part of the story, so you are trying to remember where the track goes from a quick look at a layout map and a couple of laps that Tony Q drove me around in May. You could spend a lot of time on this circuit and still not fully know it. I'd love to come back with the Caterham 7 and get to know the place better.
The next 2 stages were a repeat of the first 2 with the crown range being more fun on warm tyres.
The last two stages however were the jewel in the crown of the event, Queenstown to Glenorchy and back... 33km each way of fast, twisty fun...and yes 200 was achieved both ways.
The finish line was in Queenstown and all of a sudden the event is over. It is quite a full stop when you cross the line and collect your medal... Normal life ie work etc is back and all you are left with is the glow of a major achievement... And you start wondering how you can get on to another event...
Thanks to Nathan and Mike who were the long suffering crew, the Targa organisers, marshals and support people without who the event wouldn't happen. Also to our wonderful sponsors without who we probably wouldn't be there, Elm Decorators, Atomise, IEEI.com, Porirua automotive smash repairs and UPS Power solutions.
Finally thanks to the other friends and competitors, particularly Bernie & Jilly and our West island friends in the RX7
More to follow when I have had time to digest proceedings and look at the results.
Edited by iain a on Sunday 2nd November 08:00
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