Tearing up Wakefield with Porsche Club

Saturday saw another painfully early start in order to reach Wakefield Park Raceway in time for the start of the first Porsche Club NSW Supersprint of 2012. I have high aspirations this year so made it down early, swapped my semis on and quickly consumed some caffeine before the Driver’s Briefing.

The track was wet despite several creative counter measures as Goulburn had effectively been under water for the past two weeks. The hilly landscape at Wakie means water will continue to rise up out of the ground long after the clouds have disappeared.

So with that in mind I cautiously headed out onto the track…. well that lasted all of about 3 laps and before long I was pushing hard so as to secure a spot in a fast group which would hopefully not hold me up later on in the day. Turn two was VERY tricky… the standing water meant that the car would simply stop turning and go straight ahead. This is not ideal! After setting a decent lap then spinning on the aforementioned corner I returned to pit lane for a small tyre pressure adjustment and to check the group allocations.

To my surprise I ended up in Group 4 – in the company of some pretty serious race cars including a GT3. I had a great moment where I let the GT3 pass me on the straight, then hounded him for two laps – closing significant distance through the top of the circuit. What a rush! Such a shame the video data from this session was corrupted.

I ended the day with a best time of 1.15.4, o.3 of a second off my PB. I was happy with this time considering turn two was wet all day and I would have been losing at least 0.7-1 seconds slowing down for that section before the hill. I can smell the 14’s! The time I set put me three seconds ahead of the next fastest car in my class and I am anticipating being close to the top of the driver’s leaderboard when points are announced. Feels good man.

Also got to test out my new 70-200 2.8L, which I am VERY happy with – check the photos and judge for yourself. Panning at longer focal lengths is still a challenge, but something to be worked on!

The cover photo was taken by Tiit Saul – it’s one of my favourites of the 944! Nice guy who takes a mean photo. Funny that I added him on Flickr & saw he’d already snapped me at the Circuit Club day in January!

As always, more photos on my Flickr.

Some updates & Porsche v BMW day

A few (good) updates!

I ordered Advan A048s from Tire Rack, in 225/50/15 which are now fitted to my stock 15×7’s. This wheel and tyre combo represents 26kg less unsprung weight!! They aren’t the prettiest things but are light and strong. Got some mad fender gap now. Hellafunctional.

Also got a new exhaust put in from extractors back. Saved some weight, it’s almost straight through so flows a bit better, and now I can actually hear my engine over those bloody Hondas at Circuit Club. 😆

Also went out to the Porsche v BMW day. This is my 2nd time at EC and represents almost a year of being a track fiend. The car ran great and took down many supposedly faster cars. Unfortunately with over 100 cars attending and a rather “relaxed” attitude to getting cars out on track I didn’t really get to put together a decent lap. I managed a 2:00:6xx which I was happy with & apparently was a new PC class record.

Here is a vid of the last session of the day. I do a 2 min lap then am on a real blinder until I come off at the hairpin from shitty braking. Pay attention to the last 30 seconds or so… you get a good idea of what an E36 looks like after a disagreement with gravity and a wall at 150km/h. Thankfully the driver survived with only a shattered sternum. The session & day ended after this.

With the semis and smaller wheel/tyre combo the car feels like a sharpened tool. So responsive and communicative. The slight understeer with the old setup made the car forgiving but ultimately slower.

I have a Sparco to go in before the next event & want to replace the stock pads with something more track suitable! After that, maybe an LSD and I will be happy with the car 😀 Just have to work on my driving! Loving this car more and more.

Playing with cars…

I installed race suspension in the 944, here is how it sits now:

And a little shoot I did with Dale:

Distractions…

Well, some time has certainly passed since I last posted! I’ve travelled to both Japan and America and am almost at the end of the first semester of Uni. The last few months have been tough, battling with a mystery illness and (resulting?) demotivation etc. The end of my studies are also fast approaching which brings me to a real crossroads!! What to do with myself next year?! It’s scary seeing half my friends suddenly swapping long hair and hoodies for a business haircut and matching suit as soon as they land a grad job! Reassuring though is that most of my closest friends are in the same boat as me… namely HMAS NoFuckingIdea.

I’m feeling much better as of yesterday re motivation etc, have cleaned the desk and set up my new Macbook properly to get some work done. Amazing how a clear workspace can help clear the mind! I was using a calendar productivity encouragement thingo (http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2010/02/calendar-win-rapid-course-correction.html) (found through tofugu.com) for most of March to fair success, so have restarted that as of yesterday. Give it a look if you are looking for a simple way to encourage good habits!!

Have been working on/tracking the 944 a bit recently, which has been going great. Installed front coilovers last weekend, so low and awesome. Printed off the 14 + pages of instructions re installing new torsion bars in the rear and decided it would be worth getting a quote from my mechanic. I have a lot of uni work on at the moment and can’t really afford writing off a week just to install rear suspension. You can follow my build thread here.

Highlights of 2011 so far…

My Japan trip!! Best month of my life!!! GAH I love this place wayyyy too much. I may be back there in the near future… but you will have to wait and see.

Find some other photos on my Flickr –>

The US trip, had a good time but in no rush to go back.

Vegas Baby!!

That’s it for now – back to study.

P.S. get some of this into your system – Minimix by Cosmonaut Grechko. Sublime.