Couple of home grown R36 vids.

[Jayse]

Track Day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKBltLbqzlA&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfxDHbuYKuI&feature=related

[Jarred]

crossing arms whilst racing.... hmm....


looks like a pretty mad track though.

[Pana]

crossing arms whilst racing.... hmm.....

I thought you're not meant to take your hands off the wheel while racing....

[Soundofav6]

THat HSV was braking out of a corner... what a looser !!!

R36 FTW

[Jarred]

I thought you're not meant to take your hands off the wheel while racing....

yea, I'm no racing expert, hence why I didn't nessecarily say it was wrong. but there was some times in the vids, where he's run the full width of the track (the proper line) and been at maximum 'lock' with his arms in that position, ie he couldn't turn anymore if he had too.
should he have had understeer, or powered on too much and pushed wide he wouldn't have been able to apply more lock, and possibly run off the track. (in short and in general)

Doesn't look safe too me. I'd be interested to hear other peoples thoughts though. Again, I'm no expert, just wondering myself.


and yes, I reckon the HSV driver needs some more lessons! not saying I'd be better nessicarily, just saying really

[Pana]

yea, I'm no racing expert, hence why I didn't nessecarily say it was wrong. but there was some times in the vids, where he's run the full width of the track (the proper line) and been at maximum 'lock' with his arms in that position, ie he couldn't turn anymore if he had too.
should he have had understeer, or powered on too much and pushed wide he wouldn't have been able to apply more lock, and possibly run off the track. (in short and in general)

Doesn't look safe too me. I'd be interested to hear other peoples thoughts though. Again, I'm no expert, just wondering myself.

yeah good point. I guess a professional driver wouldn't get himself into a situation where the car is understeering that much that he cant turn the wheel any further.

[Rocket36]

Track Day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKBltLbqzlA&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfxDH...eature=related

That's me in my R36 at the track day I did with the HSV Club of Canberra two days after I picked the car up. There was only really 3 people other than me who knew what a race track was, one in a Evo IX and two in Clubsports. Everyone else was all over the place and one guy even drove his GTO Coupe into the wall! But that's OK - he had a Supercharged VE GTS and a VE W427 that he could switch to.

Even had three people who went for laps with me and laps in a VE GTS with $10,000 spent on mods tell me I was faster around the track. The short straight helped... The guy that owns/runs the track told me only the Evo was faster through the corners.

LOVE the R36. It's a much better overall package than the VE Clubsport I had previously... Not as much power, but also not as much weight and AWD! The build quality ships all over and Holden/HSV too (obviously).

yea, I'm no racing expert, hence why I didn't nessecarily say it was wrong. but there was some times in the vids, where he's run the full width of the track (the proper line) and been at maximum 'lock' with his arms in that position, ie he couldn't turn anymore if he had too.
should he have had understeer, or powered on too much and pushed wide he wouldn't have been able to apply more lock, and possibly run off the track. (in short and in general)

Doesn't look safe too me. I'd be interested to hear other peoples thoughts though. Again, I'm no expert, just wondering myself.

Not safe? Road cars are setup to understeer... Slow corners are predictable with an understeery car so I just found where the limit was and drove consistantly.

yeah good point. I guess a professional driver wouldn't get himself into a situation where the car is understeering that much that he cant turn the wheel any further.

Correct! I professional driver also doesn't drive cars setup for the street around a track. If I had time for a wheel alignment, the only thing I would have done differently for that track day is add negative camber. Get a better turn in. Also, and I know this is somewhat cliche but it's the truth, the laps that were videod were actually some of my worse laps. Better tyres, more tyre pressure and more negative camber would equal less understeer. But with what I had, I found the limit in the corners and I had a heap of fun!

And you aren't meant to take your hand off the wheel when racing - BIG NO NO!!! So yes, sometimes your arms end up crossing (watch in car footage sometime - Monaco F1 is a good example). It's how you get taught when you do the various CAMS licence courses.

Here's some pictures from the day...

[Jarred]

fair nuff mate.

I was just wondering really. doesn't seem to be any room for error, that's all. Like i said before, not trying to say you're wrong or anything, just saying.

[Rocket36]

Once you work out where the limit is, its actually not to hard to maintain consitency. At least that's what I find.

[Pana]

Rocket, dunno what cars you've driven on a track, but did the Passat feel heavy? Coming from a WRX, it was awesome fun on a track - could really chuck it around and have a lot of fun with it. I've only had the R36 for a week and have only taken it on one spirited drive so far - it just felt that on a track it would require a bit more thinking to keep it going fast (by that I mean weight transfer, momentum etc) - whereas the Rex was quite forgiving - even if you stuffed up it was easy to get back the speed you might have lost.

Even if you came in to a corner too hot, you could generally get through it and stay on the track. For some reason it feels like if the same happened with the R36 - you wouldnt get out of it so easily....

Of course the two cars are different - and overall the Passat excels - just thought it would be an interesting comparison.

[GoLfMan]

its good to see a car being used for what its designed to be used for!

I know you cant adjust camber on the polo (or golf i dont think!) Im not sure about the Passat?

to fix the understeery nature (in the R32) Haldex controllers give more of a rear bias to the driveline, i'm not sure if they are available for the R36 yet though, someone feel free to correct me on that!
Maybe that would be a good investment, along with ugraded suspension and semi slicks if you are going to do trackdays alot?

[Rocket36]

Yeah the Passat likes to be driven smoothly. It can't be thrown around and chucked into corners. I once drove a mate's WRX (with the Hyundai headlights) and it was very light and didn't mind being driven like it was stolen. The Passat is also a heavier car but it's in a class of it's own as far as being a decent sized saloon, with amazing appointments, performance, build quality and price!

I will most likely upgrade the suspension and tyres if I get serious with the R36 but at the moment I'm building a Targa Tasmania car. I haven't done a Targa Rally yet.... Aiming for 2011. Should be fun!

[GoLfMan]

Yeah the Passat likes to be driven smoothly. It can't be thrown around and chucked into corners. I once drove a mate's WRX (with the Hyundai headlights) and it was very light and didn't mind being driven like it was stolen. The Passat is also a heavier car but it's in a class of it's own as far as being a decent sized saloon, with amazing appointments, performance, build quality and price!

I will most likely upgrade the suspension and tyres if I get serious with the R36 but at the moment I'm building a Targa Tasmania car. I haven't done a Targa Rally yet.... Aiming for 2011. Should be fun!

thats the spirit

Alfie on here has coilovers and semi slicks on his R36 and boy does that thing hammer through the twisties!!!

[Rocket36]

Yeah some fully adjustable coilovers would be a great addition to any R36.

[GoLfMan]

Yeah some fully adjustable coilovers would be a great addition to any R36.

get onto evorobin, I hear he does some great deals on Weitec and KW stuff