Sydney Motorsport Park - 16-17 August - Hot Tuners

[Guy_H]

I think the so called EVL golf R is actually the Road,track,rally Golf R.

Correct - It had some Stage 3 turbo parts & some custom parts & custom tuned. It wen't really well.

Does someone know if you are allowed to enter the same car consecutive years? Or do you have to enter a new car each year??

I know some of the company's put some serious money into developing these show/test cars but wouldn't it make better viewing if all of the cars were fresh.

Not allowed to run the same cars again, that's in the rules. They will make exceptions if they need (Like the GTR Skyline bore no resemblance to the one last year - but really wasn't a street car - or the car is significantly modified from before). They also let the Corvette in because it's unique (but not available new in Australia) - makes interesting reading I suppose.

[Guy_H]

So its a bias tuner challenge then ? I guess as a pretty much small nearly backyard operation I dont want to upstage the big names spending big dollars ?

Now I understand why Motor Magazine wouldn't invite you. A word of advice, act like a professional & you may get invited. Act like a Pre Schooler throwing a dummy spit because some other kid didn't want to play with you certainly wont get you invited anywhere.

[parso_rex]

I wouldn't be losing any sleep on it Seb you knew it was like this, every car there..well at least in all the previous hot tuners was at least a paying advertiser and some of them pay an awful lot too which is to some extent fair enough that they get a good look in - have you seen the prices they pay (I have a link if you like). Oh on the plus side it doesn't say that they are the hottest tuners does it...
There are many tuners I know, no not in the VAG community and they don't even know this whole thing exists. These are real professionals too and they are amongst the best in the land IMO. The thing is they already have all the customers they need so they don't need to pin their hopes on a sticker pack and the rest.

I stopped my subscription with Motor recently just because I became tired of the same ol recipe being flogged each year, hot tuners was great for the first two but now meh... I'll still buy it on occasion if something catches my eye but its been a pretty poor effort lately and this was confirmed when I had dinner with an ex journo from there about a month ago, I now realise how money based things have become. Probably not a fault of the guys there but of the corporate machine cracking its whip.

At least the guys here are getting out on the strip or track or whatever and giving things a run unlike 95 percent of the forum who are too busy doing kufatec mods

[Candyman]

Hey, nothing wrong with my kufatec mods

[parso_rex]

Hey, nothing wrong with my kufatec mods

Damn I meant to change that to sprintbooster

[Guy_H]

Unfortunately there are not many avenues for this type of testing - the old small population gets Australia every time. The US & UK (and Europe ) have mod specific magazine & even modified marque magazines (Performance VW).

Top Gear Magazine won't test modified cars, Wheels normally tests Camry vs Magna (and how many white hats fit on the parcel shelf), so Motor is really the only one doing it (unless we all go into Fast Fours & Rotaries ).

How long will the print media last? No one knows, but the pressure is sure on & the revenue model that Journalists work on has changed dramatically in the past few years.....

[Bug_racer]

Now I understand why Motor Magazine wouldn't invite you. A word of advice, act like a professional & you may get invited. Act like a Pre Schooler throwing a dummy spit because some other kid didn't want to play with you certainly wont get you invited anywhere.

Date and time please . I'll be sure to invite Viezu/Giac/Revo Golf R owners as well .

[Guy_H]

[brimway]

Thanks for the teaser Guy. I'm keen to see the results. The vid would be better without the music.

[Guy_H]

Thanks Brimway, I'm not real good on the video stuff, our cameraman was shaky & the inside car video is three times the volume of the Go Pro, and the track side video has almost no noise at all.

Anyone on here a pro at putting this stuff together?

[VWindahouse]

So did Rick say what it was like to drive a real race car

[piston broke]

Hey is that the new south circuit at EC, I was there a few weeks before and it still wasn't finished.
Keen to try it out.

[Guy_H]

Less offensive music I hope:

[Bug_racer]

So Ive finally bought the magazine and had a read .

The rules seem sketchy , there was a small box on page 43 in the corner which was headlined : Finding the ultimate rules . Pretty much said same fuel , same tyres and no laptop tinkering . So its pretty simple . I would have thought BTA's FPV with water meth would have been legal ? I dont know , the rules need to be looked at a bit more closely . If everything was officially legal then every single modifications would require an engineers certificate , including wheels , brakes etc . Was this even checked ?

The VW results (the other cars I cant comment on too much cause I dont know how much effort / work went into them etc)

Viezu car :

Its interesting that this car was a last minute entry , no fuel pump was fitted but it managed to have a carbon fibre hood ? I would have though an expressed posted fuel pump and rs4 valve would have been quicker to get here than a carbon fibre bonnet ? I also find it odd that it had sway bars fitted before coilovers ? I dont rate front sway bars at all on the mk5/6 platform at all . Even if one was given to me I wouldnt fit it ! Maybe sway bars work well with the factory set-up ? Who knows , it worked well for Viezu in the figure 8 .
The biggest controversy will be the 188 kmhr trap speed on the quarter and only 168 kw atws . With also a mention of the power falling off at the top end during the dyno . So either the dyno was off or the timing gear was off . Its a pity they dont post up a full report of 60ft times / 1/8 mile , 1000ft etc . You can almost calculate the acceleration rate if you had more data !

CPC car :
I know nothing about this car . Whats a stage 4 turbo package ? Going off the results it sounds like maybe a gt2871r ?
Fairly expensive build @ nearly $22k to run mid 12s ?

RTR car :
Having raced against this car when I was at Heathcote it still has potential . It ran a best of 12.3 that day @ 117 mph ? It runs pig rich on take off which once sorted will get the car sub 2.0 60fts and possibly into the 11s .

APR car :
I was disapointed that I wasnt invited to enter cause I would have liked to compete against this car 1 on 1 . Sure I would have lost , but Ive spent less than $6k on my car and Im only 0.06 seconds slower on the 1/4 so the bang for buck rates highly with me . So , the claim of running at 8000 rpm @ 24 hours is a bold one . Has APR done this or is this just an assumption ? Also why build the engine and not spend a little more doing headwork ? With the massive amount spent on this car already I would have spent $2-3k just to clean up the intake and exhuast ports and get them match flowed .


Conclusion :

Its clear to see that the majority of the tuners advertise in Motor and thats the first step to gain a spot . So I do wonder if the magazine is turning into a cash for comment about tuners ? The advertising of new products depicts that it is ! It seems like the basis of the magazine is to report on whats happening with the car industry around the world , and also a select group of advertising tuners in Australia !!!

The results for the Golf R compared to the other cars are fairly good . But could they have been better ?
My emphasis on all TFSI engines is the need to clean the intake on a regular basis . Before every race I spend at least a day cleaning it . Im doubting any of the Golf Rs had this done before the event so the performance could be improved by doing this alone !
An exhaust on a Golf R is a must . Im only running a downpipe and I have so many issues with surge and flutter that it really affects the performance . I remove it whenever I race , I think all the entries had an exhaust which is good (CP only had downpipe though?)
So lets hope I actually get an invite for next year , by that stage I would have built the engine and put a larger exhaust wheel on a stock turbo . I think 10s are possible with this set up with race gas . low 11s on pump fuel ....

Flame away !

[Guy_H]

Rules are pretty straight forward, they are posted in the first page of the thread.

People push the rules, so next year the rules WILL change again (and probably have an independent scrutineering body).

Water Meth - totally illegal in all states of Australia unless certified to ADR 17 & engineer plated. I don't know of a single vehicle that has a legal, engineer plated system fitted in Australia. Certainly the BTA car had a tank mounted "temporary" in the boot of the car. Considering the accident that almost happened @ ~ 130mph, having a meth mixture sprayed all over the vehicle & driver involved in the incident would have been very nasty.

To the best of my knowledge, carbon bonnets are not legal - it's certainly the case in QLD - not sure if you can have them certified in NSW or other states - never attempted it personally (not ever owned a carbon bonnet).

Viezu did run a fuel pump (they told me they did - and they purchased an APR pump days before the event), we shared the pit garage with them. Maybe they didn't install it or they forgot about it?

Mod plates should be fitted for all entrants, maybe it will be mandatory next year (I certainly hope so), that will help get the event back on track.

Some teams also broke the rules by reprogramming their vehicles mid event, not that it seemed to change any results.

APR Golf R? Head work doesn't make any more power at this level, certainly not with the control fuel we had to use, so no use changing or working on the cylinder heads. We will eventually upgrade to one of APR's Centroid CNC ported cylinder heads, but only after the program is complete & there is proven power gains on the board.

The "Stage 4" motor in our car is based on the APR MK5 GTI's they have been running for 5 years in the Grand Am / Continental tyre series, I know the engine builders first hand, if they tell me the car will run for that length of time & at that RPM, I will put 100% faith in them - they have the runs on the board with this engine.

We are very happy with how our car ran, full weight (less space saver), fully street legal, full tank of MOTOR's control fuel. Only adjustment we did was pull 10 PSI out of the tyres for the drags after the first run spun the R compounds to half track. Car is a fully legal, engineered daily driver.

Oh, our Recaros's were listed as a $5100 mod, I purchased them in 2008 & they were in my S3, then my other Golf R, then this Golf R, - they cost less than 3k back then, so yes, there are typo's in the article.

Carbon Bonnets & cars with factory Recaro's were not upped in the price range (but doesn't matter to us how they declare things).

Anyway, on the chassis, this car is set up for time attack, not drags & the front swaybar is probably the biggest chassis mod we have on this car, and certainly attributes to the lap times. You may prefer just a rear sway bar only, but that's not the way I would do it.

The RTR Golf R had a pretty well set up chassis & scoring all round points is the way to finish high in these event (as they proved).

Good on Motor Magazine for running the event, I hope they make a profit on it & get more advertisers because of it. In Australia's small market, it's all we have.