Sam's build thread

[metalhead]

Went over and got my entry and scrutineering sorted about 2pm this arvo, here's the first page of practice times:





Edit: Got the second page up now too.

[sambb]

wow the GTS and clubsport are high 42's low 43's which is much quicker than last year. Maybe the track was slow after it dried last year cos I don't think those guys have done much more to their cars since then. Check out graham in the 1.6 CRX - that's quick for a street reg car. Looks like it'll be freezing in the morning. Glad all those RWD boys have been putting rubber down for us today!

[sambb]

So the second last round of the NSW state hillclimb championship is finished. I managed to finish 3rd/12 or so cars in the road reg >2500cc class and bettered my pre-LSD PB by 1.6 seconds to get a 43.05. What made that all the sweeter is that I finally beat my nemesis in the HSV clubsport and the Megane RS 275 lightweight by 4/10ths and managed to stay ahead of the little <2500cc class CRX too. Also my time was only 2/100ths off my theoretical best (where they add together all your best splits) which shows that I left nothing on the table on that 4th run.
However I did nearly have a massive off on run 1. The car pushed wide coming over the finish line and as my outside rear went up and over the timing sensor which is buried in the earth, it pitched the car sideways big time. I had to keep my foot buried to drive out of it because if you lift there you are gone, but by the time I got the car straightened up I'd nearly run out of road to pull it up. It was very close to a biggn'. There's a vid of that to come and also of my quickest run which is far less entertaining.
Things to do - change over to 15 X 7 rims. The 195/55's will go over onto the wall easily and force me to run slightly higher pressures than what would be quickest so the slightly wider rim might help with that. Ultimately I'll move to 205/50's on the front and 195/55's on the back. I also will get on MCA's case to get the coilovers sorted asap. With the softs and LSD I'm now running out of damping big time and had the car hoping sideways as it was single wheeling and getting onto the stops on the front end on the really tight corners.
And well done Metalhead in the Vette only 4/10ths off the clubsport and megane. Bloody quick and made plenty take note. Good driving man.

[metalhead]

Thanks, it was good to catch up with you, well done on the 3rd (of 14 in class) place. If I'd not stuffed up the second half of my last run then I might've been close on your heels, my theoretical was a 43.21 which would have put me in 4th and in front of Steves Megane. It was interesting looking at the total time to the second split, you had the quickest time, followed by the Megane, followed by me (on my last run), and I had the only first split under 4s. Might have to pick up some semis and come have a real go next year!

Are you going to run Mattara?

[Eddy]

Hoyhoy.

Well done Sam.

[sambb]

Yep everyone in the States are getting quicker and quicker in our class and its mostly due to guys starting to trailer there cars and running on softs. Everyone pushing harder and harder and taking bigger risks. When we are going faster than the improved production cars somethings gotta give and it nearly did on my first run in a big way. I watched the vid of it and it just looks like a twitch but it was close to a biggn. And its definitely more dangerous for us since we can't be caged. Softs will definitely put you in the mix. Seriously get some cos we all want to see your thing roar between the walls at Bathurst in March. The over 2.5L class will be 20 cars all season next year and there'll be 30+ at bathurst for sure. Why don't you come down to Queanbeyan for the last round Sep 10? Guys will have trailers if anything happens and we'll probably meet for a drink in town on the saturdy night. No I wont do Mattara cos I'm going to be haemoraging money on rims and coilovers soon, want to do the last of the years club hillclimbs at Huntley in November and need entry money for the Whiteline tarmac rallysprints in a few months.

Thanks Eddy. Im a happy boy today.

[sambb]

YouTube the vid of run 3. I forgot that my quickest run wasn't filmed because I'd gotten all serious and laid the passenger seat flat.

Decided not to show my turd run - bit embarrassing really.

[metalhead]

I watched some YouTube videos last night, that hillclimb at Fairbairn park looks difficult, lots of blind corners over crests, at least from the videos? I'm tempted, but I've been planning to run a day/night tar khanacross at Ringwood on Sep 9, and my wife was going to run too - she hasn't run the Corvette in competition yet, so it will be good to get her out in the car.

During the event the week before, I had quite a big moment in that final curve on my second or third run myself, unfortunately I didn't have the camera rolling, because I would have liked to go back and have a look at it to trace through what happened. It definitely wakes you up!

My videos from this weekend didn't come out very well - I mounted the camera higher to get a better view of my feet, which worked, but it washed out the view through the windscreen. It's an invaluable tool for getting an idea of what you're doing out there as a driver, that's for sure.

I'll watch your video tonight when I get home.

[sambb]

Fairbairn is a nice track. Its good in that its closer to equal for all the cars in our class and brings it down to the driver. It actually flows well. The hairy corner is the right hander on the crest after you gather speed though the big depression. The car goes light just as you are turning in. I put two wheels off on the exit there last year which was a sphincter clencher. I reckon you'd be really quick there.

[metalhead]

Neat run! Your gearing must be a fair bit shorter than mine in 1st, I basically change into 2nd as I'm entering turn 1, whereas you change early enough to actually do some accelerating in 2nd gear before the corner.

[sambb]

I grab second quite early like a short shift to keep wheel spin under control and then just do a little lift as I dab the brake for turn one (whilst in second) and then get straight back on it ,which gets it up on its outside rear and it just rails around. If I don't do that right and it doesn't 3 wheel it'll just understeer though. The way the corner lifts as you go through it helps with that too. I think thats why I ran wide across the finish line. Looking at the vid it wasn't a cold tyre issue - normally as I approach that last left across the line i've done a little lift which gets the back end lively and it turns in no worries. It looks like I didn't do that in the vid - maybe I was trusting that the diff would let me just bore through there. I do the whole course in second. Even across the top 3rd isn't needed. Come to think of it I did all of tamworth in 2nd too though. It was sitting on 7200+rpm at the end of the straight in second there. I tried grabbing third in practice but the downchange through the fast kink was upsetting the car too much and was slower.

[metalhead]

Yeh, I change into 2nd as I turn into turn 1 and stay there for the rest of the run. I ran Tamworth in second too, except I was having a bit of breakup at high rpm on Sunday, so I changed into 3rd on my last few runs.

[metalhead]

Have you seen the photos on facebook? A few good pics of your car, I hadn't noticed their were any pics posted until tonight. CAMS NSW Hillclimb Championship - Home | Facebook

P.s. You mention 7200rpm... My tacho reads to 7,000, take a look at the in car video when I'm warming the tyres. Not bad for a big old engine built in my garage.

[sambb]

no I hadn't. I've resisted facebook for so long. I'll have to get on it. Just checked hillclimbnsw.com and they haven't updated the report yet. Usually the photographer puts up some good pics in that too. Get that miss sorted and it will love the cold Canberra air even more - PM me your email and i'll send you the entries for Canberra.

[sambb]

start line jittersturn 1 three wheelingno wonder I couldn't get the power down. Rear is on the kerb and front cant droop enoughlining up the down hill kerbexactly what I did. not as sideways but jumped the rear over the timing hump!st2nd4thLooking pretty mean. Only just bettered by the clubsport and the Megane. I reckon its so quick there cos of its short wheelbase.