Meade sports

2011-09-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

Skelta takes it to Porsche GT3

2011-08-11T01:56:00.000-07:00

Remember below when I said the Skelta caught and passed Targa Tassies' # 1 competitor and most prolific winner Jim Richards?

Here's the video and it was done in the wet.

click here >Enjoy.
No wonder they banned it, can't have an aussie made and engineered car beating an established marque like Porsche on an specialised aussie event, let alone catching and passing it on a Tarmac stage. Yes, that was a bit of fun-poking sarcasm...

We're heading back to Pikes Peak!!!!

2011-08-11T00:46:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's right! We're heading back to Pikes Peak in 2012 this time in a magnificent Skelta, Australia's own Porsche killer!

Weighing in at only 780 kilos and with a nominal 300 hp at the rear wheels from it's supercharged F20C Honda S2000 engine, the power to weight ratio is enough to scare the likes of Lamborghini and Porsche.

The car we'll be using is the same car that came 2nd on Targa Tasmania this year, loosing out to the top spot by 63 seconds due to running on JUST 3 cylinders on the final day. Not too shabby, huh!

But sadly the Targa Tasmania organisers got taken on a nice little junket by Porsche to Europe, got given nice vintage Porsches to drive in the Lemans 'classic' event, and around Europe, and a Porsche to drive at the Nurburgring for kicks, and when they flew home they immediately re-wrote the rules to stop the future entries of this magnificent Aussie built car into further and future Targa Tasmania events at the stroke of a pen. I guess it had something to do with the video image of the Skelta catching and passing the Porsche GT3 of Aussie race legend Jim Richards on one of the stages in last years event. I know Jim and if he found out why they banned the Skelta he'd be really upset.

Makes you sick doesn't it! An Aussie made car taking on the world in an Aussie event and the organisers are so wrapped up in a gravy train the refused to allow it future entries to please the gravy train from Porsche. The amazing thing is I like Porsches, having raced them in endurance events in the US, and I like the Targa Tasmania event too, but I also like the Skelta.

Anyways, so now we're not welcome here, (which may sound famialir to my friends and fans in the US) so we'll go to the big show across the pond and compete there...

Hey, does anyone know how Porsche got their start...? Wasnt it building lightweight small capacity cars that kicked the big established guys - ie: other motor manufacturers - butts in motorsports in the early years earning a reputation for well engineered and lightweight cars... Im just saying!

The nuances of life...

2011-07-11T18:26:00.001-07:00

Life's perplexing at times. How can it be that there is so much going on, yet nothing happening?

How can it be that I feel like Im running in circles putting so much together, then I sit back and see that actually nothing has come together? Is this going to be like a big rubber band that's being stretched and stretched and as you keep going stretching it you start to wonder if it's ever going to, A: snap, or B: pull you back so quickly your head spins. My life would 'A', then. And when it does snap, you wonder how things could all be happening at onc.... oh, never mind, I guess I just figured it out!

So we'll keep running in circles and wait for the rebound coil, I'll be the one in the heap on the floor.

2011-06-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

Doing a photo dump!

2011-06-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

These are some images of my past life. Hope you enjoy them.

In car video

2011-04-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Blogger isnt being nice and letting me throw up a link to the Facebook video, I guess Blogger and Facebook just dont get along, so here is the direct link.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=2079189462034

2011-04-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry, here is the results. Mt Washington 1999. That was soooo long ago. So many great memories also.

Wind back the clock!

2011-04-26T19:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we did Pikes Peak and did well, however, way back, like 12 years ago, in 1999 we did an event called the Mt Washington Auto Road hillclimb, or "climb to the Clouds" as it was known. We did that event also in an evo, but this time it was an evo 5 RS, which, given the sparcity of these in the US, it was a mythical creature that had a buzz around it from all the Playstation types.

We won class there also, and took a new record. This is the in-car camera that a TV crew set up, when we were the fastest car in qualifying, and were the only car into the sub 7:00 mins during said qualifying. Of course the two really faster cars had issues, but hey that's racing, and come race day they found their mojo and powered on, relingating us to a deserved 3rd overall but 1st in class. The evo was still fresh off the boat for this event, and sported just stock suspension, stock unflashed ecu, but sticky rubber that really worked over the suspension to the point ti was almost tripping over itself, often getting all discombobulated. With about a stock 290hp, up against the 650hp Nascar engined hybrid of Dan Rutan, and the 500HP REAL Group B Audi Quattor of the talented Frank Sprongle we still held out own and beat many faster cars, but only because I JUST hung onto the car. Enjoy, here is the video.

Here are the results from then.

A nice present!

2010-09-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

Our Sponsor and team partner, Meek Auto motive here in Sydney, presented us with a nice surprise last week when I visited thier shop in Western Sydney.

They commissioned a beautiful 1;18 scale highly detailed model, complete with allstcikers and details, and names etc. Just beautiful.

A quiet word of a friends passing

2010-09-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

My good friend of 20 years Ray Lintott has passed away. He was having a battle with cancer of late, and sadly lost to it.

It's sad in time like these you wonder if you spent enough time with someone. Ray and I had some fun times together, at Daytona, and the Nurburgring, and on some of his trips to the US to see me. He and wife Penny talked me into going to see Riverdance with them in NY at Radio City, at first reluctant, but in the end I was glad I did.

Ray had three children, Martin, Paige and Amanda.

A lot of people would remember Ray from his Lincorp dealerships, but Im sure he'd rather be remembered as a racer and driver.

Finishing events like LeMans, Bathurst, Daytona 24, The Nurburgring 24, Rally of Canberra, Targa Tasmania (runner up twice), European rallies, Australian championship in his Viper.

This is how I'll remember him. And often smiling and good for a chat anytime.

Vale Ray Lintott.

Final thoughts on our effort at Pikes Peak.

2010-09-09T01:11:00.000-07:00

Well, After much deliberation and conversations with the people that were there with us, I can say I am 110% happy with everything we did. I was happy with the setup, I was happy with the power, I was happy with the suspension, I am 90% happy with how I drove (is driver ever 100% happy??).

I think there were maybe two things I could've done differently at the time, but not wishing to give anything away I wont share them here.

Although the tyres went off about 3/4's of the way up the hill, that is to be expected, given it is a air-filled tyre and anything with air will try to expand on the way to elevation. Nitrogen wouldve helped but a very little, nitrogen doesnt account for altitude.

We will go back, but not till 2012. If all going well it will be in a 1000kilo evo with 700hp.

Simple.

Well, this will put us into the same power/weight ratio as Millen's car and Monsters effort. But there will be many changes, ie; the whole mountain will be paved, so slicks may be in order, unless it rains/snows/blizzards/floods, but we may stay with the Tarmac rally tyres.

We will slowly be formulating our cars specs over the next few months, we'll keep you posted.

All the best to everyone that came on to follow us on our blog, chase your dreams, follow your desires for whatever passion you have. The difference between a nobody and a somebody is somebody put effort in.

Take care, and check back occasionally, although this blog will be slower than it's been over the last couple of months.

Another video from Pikes - dont blink

2010-09-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

more photo dumping time

2010-09-08T19:17:00.000-07:00

These were sent to me, so thought Id put them.

some vid that popped up of our Pikes Peak run.

2010-08-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

from the top of 4th gear all the way down to 1st gear.

Mitsubishi Owners Day, 2010, Cypress California

2010-07-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

Each year now Mitsubishi North America hold an appreciation day, complete with lots of vendors, of which these vendors dont actually pay for a stall, instead they are asked to give up something as a prize in the end of day ticket drawing, of which everyone who comes through the gate gets a ticket for the draw.

2000+ Mitsubishis and evos showed up making for a mind bending show, if there were 1500 evos on display there was 1500 different ways of doing them up. Here are the pics from the day.

While in L.A...

2010-07-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

We went to lunch a few times with regular BMW racer, PR guru, and good friend Jay Jones. On one of our 4 hour lunch breaks, Jay took us to the restaurant Original Mikes. This restaurant was originally a Packard dealership, but after being baorded up for many years, Mike bought the building and with a lick of paint and some great automobile artifacts and paraphenalia, turned it into a great place to eat, drink, party and play.
Here are some images, and the link for the place if your ever in Santa Ana, California, stop by and check it out http://elmomonster.blogspot.com/2006/10/original-mikes-santa-ana.html

Photos from the trip itself. CA to CO >>

2010-07-20T02:00:00.000-07:00

Road trip!

photo dump time.

2010-07-20T01:07:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the extensive delay in adding any photos etc., so we do a dump on what we have, then we'll dump some more from the Mitsubishi Owners Day in Cypress California, and also from the dealer day which occurred the day after.

2010-06-28T20:18:00.000-07:00

some images for you.

2010-06-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

We WON!!!!!!!!

2010-06-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

1St in Class, and with the new qualifying record! thanks to Dave (aka Merlin) Hinde, and my other special half, and navigator, Cath.

We will post a full report later, this image is from the newspaper here in Colorado!

Photos by Kevin Hahn Photography.

Rest day is almost over...

2010-06-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Being a rest day, today we borrowed a lift and rotated the tyres, changed the oil, bled the brakes, bled the clutch, and did a checkover.

During the morning we came across many images of our car from AutoBlog, and a few other sites, and gathered them up for you to see some fantastic shots.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we race. We have to be up by 3:00am, and be at the hill around 3;30, we are scheduled to be on the hill competing by 10:30-ishy.

They hope to have us all run by 1pm, including over 200 motorcycles. Hopefully all will be safe, and well.

We are very happy with how it all has gone so far, how could we not! We set the new record for qualifying, but we have a target painted on our backs, and there are many aiming at it, not only in our classes, but also the 'open' class of cars of which we beat all but one.

Our focus now is slightly different, we had a plan to always run 70% speed but 100% accuracy, and I really hope my mindset stays with that, it will assist us in finding the rythmn early. Getting to the top is more important than winning for us now.

The record we set will stay for the year, as they pave the last half right after the end of this years event, next year it will tumble dramatically.

May all be well in your world, Chase your dreams, cherish the friends you have. Life is short, you only get one shot at it, and remember, you miss 100% of the shots you dont take!

Day 3 of Practice and Qualifying!

2010-06-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Day 3 was done and run today, the result was FASTEST in class, and a new Qualifying record!! Sweet. More later. Here's some images.

Day 2 Practice is done!

2010-06-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

Today we were at the very top of the hills, practicing on the last 3- 3.5 miles. Mostly very loose gravel, but very very fast! This is where we have to compromise with our lines, and hope there will be a good dusting on the race line on race day. The Kumhos are holding up, even on the gravel sections, at times, with the right dusting some of the gravel road has as much grip as tarmac. We shall see.

The yellow Mini is an all girl team that are fun to be around. They're giving it a shot, and a good one as well. Rhys stopped half way through the practice stage with a problem, on the previous run his guys were trying to source a 'glitch' via data log, but I guess they didnt find it.

We also had a casualty today, the white ex-prodrive Sti (GC8) rolled on one of the fast down hill sections into a hairpin. Car looks worse than it is, but will be an easy fix! We've offered to go around and assist with hammers, which I think we will have to do. He is in our class, but we need the competition, if for nothing else, to justify us being here.

The speeds on the gravel were very fast! I never look at my speedo, EVER! But Merlin (Dave Hinde our Ecu guy) asked what speed we were pulling, now I hate speed so I never look at what the speedo is saying, but this time I decided to sneak a peak at speed, and it confirmed why I never want to look. Going around a left hander, sliding, setting the car up for the exit, I run down the next hill full throttle upshifting, the car is squirrily and moving around a fair bit on the Kumho V710s, I take a peak as I reach the very point I need to brake it the speedo is past 120mph (200kph+) I then have to slow the car down for a fast but treacherous right hander which I swing the car through with a small flick.

Then on the way back I found we were all going quite rapid back to the start to do another (of 4 total) timed run, 3 of us travelling together hitting 100mph switching between the tarmac and gravel.

Oh, almost forgot, I was standing there after the drivers meeting, which took place at 5am, keeping Cath warm, and chatting to the BMW boys, when this hooded figure walks up and walks into me, I knew someone was playing games and pulled the hood off to reveal my old buddy Andrew Comrie-Picard (ACP to the world), it was a great surprise seeing him again, and tonite we shall catch up on lots of missed drinks. Tomorrow's Blog entry will n doubt be all about how I should stop drinking and how Im having trouble focusing because I'll be hung over and that I promise to never drink again.

Andrew runs and evo 8 as well, but highly modded with carbon, well, everything. He's a great competitor too, although he's not in our class. It's going to be fun having him around.

I love Pikes Peak, I can see now why it is such a drug for a lot of people!

Some vids of today!

2010-06-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

2010-06-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

Images from Practice day 1

2010-06-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

One thing I can tell you is the Media is very thick on the ground at all Practice points. So much so they actually stand on the road with their video camera, even on the apexes, but it's a little hard to say 'apex off camera man', it wont be good if he isnt there the next run.

As you can imagine being up the top of this huge mountain before sunrise gives an awesome view of the sun arriving for the day! The air is fresh and chilly, the head spins come and go when you get out of the car for a walk.

Videos will be loaded later today, all of which were taken by Cat's mom, Michelle, who has been terrific to have around. Check out the cute navigator in the bottom pic!

The shot third from the bottom is Rhys Millen's animal! This car will be taking the record! My fav shot is the first one (what, not the one with my car in it??) with the sunrise over the eastern US seaboard, and the trucks and guys standing on the edge of the road. 'Majestic' comes to mind.

Till next time

Day two in the bag!

2010-06-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

Well we got up at 2;30 am to be at the mountain by 3:30 am to be in position for our first practice. We had the middle section today, tomorrow we are on the very gravelly top, and Friday we will be running/practicing on the bottom. This works out very well for us as they use the bottom section for qualifying, so those that had it today, ie; all the bikes, quads etc, were in fact qualifying. We wont have to worry about that for another couple of days.

We did 6 test runs and learnt a lot, we saw no need to do anymore as it just wears on the clutch and tyres.

We also were given a test set of Elig competition brake pads, and I have to say, these were good, flying up to the first hairpin, flat in 4th gear, my notes say brake at the sign, but flying up to it foot down in 4th, 3000 foot drop off the side I thought 'am I crazy, that's too close to the turn', but I gave it a shot and whammo'd the brake pedal and the car stopped 20 feet short of the corner. Great pads!!

The evo got it's new tyres mounted yesteday, so we were bedding the tyres in and heat cycling them, but they came through on their first run.

Right now we really need a nap, not just because of the early start, but because we both didnt sleep last night, and we get to do it all again tomorrow. Umm, I mean tonite, well, you know what I mean.

On a sad note, Dave Kern blew his engine in his evo, it was an AMS special stroker, and it wouldve been a true powerhouse, but it seems the timing belt broke, so Dave has taken it back to his house and we've offered to help in any way. We hope it gets back together real quick.

Till tomorrows update!

Day 1 Done and dusted!

2010-06-22T17:17:00.001-07:00

Scrutineering done, Drivers briefing done, Rookie briefing done. Fuel canisters filled, evo filled, alignment (basic) done, Kumho tyres mounted and balanced and done.

Tomorrow we get up at 2:30 am and head off for first practice. Let me show you some of the cars that ran through tech today. Enjoy these pictures, and check out these evos that are running. And the eclectic joy of the vintage cars, also.

Into scrutineering and Tech Inspection

2010-06-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well, the time had come to prove we are capable of reading, and we went into drivers' registration, handed over all the docs, and copies of everything, and got signed off! Next it was over to scrutineering and tech inspection, which also went very smoothly. Right behind us was Monster Tajima's car. What a machine that is! No photos give it justice.

See you all for the next update!

Quick Updates

2010-06-21T15:15:00.001-07:00

We got our new Kumho tyres delivered, and put them in the room, once we put them in the corner I stood back, and sudenly I felt right at home, tools, helmets, tyres, all next to the bed - ahhhh, really is just like home.

And then the sticker guy showed up to install the numbers on the doors of the evo. We need these on to go through tech inspection tomorrow, and better if a pro installs them.

Back to the Hotel.

2010-06-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

After recceing today, we stop on the way back to own for some really nice burgers at a winery that has seating out by a fast running creek. Very nice. then it was back to Hotel where I updated the blog, checked our notes and Cath re-did the pace notes.

We plan dinner, and make more lists. Why is it the more I cross off the list the longer it seems to get!!??

UPDATE TIME!!!

2010-06-20T15:11:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been to the top a few times now, writing our notes and then checking them. The bottom starts twisty and fast, with bumpy tarmac, then it goes to fast hard 'dirt' that will seem like tarmac when driving on it, then back to proper tarmac, then onto full gravel dirt, which may well have a line with most of the gravel brushed off by the time we run on it.

Our first recce when we got to the top of the hill, we got out and walked around and went inside the shop they have there, and Cath immediatley almost fainted from lack of oxygen. We ended up seeing the EMT's service quite a few people, and even saw one rushed back down to the bottom, thrown into an ambulance and whisked away.

The road is forever changing, it was changing just between recces. Getting to the apexes is the #1 key for us, accuracy is tantamount. Speed will come.

Will add more images and details later. Keep safe.

Friday 18th June

2010-06-18T20:13:00.001-07:00

Well, we got out of bed, just, had waffles and coffee and headed out on the 'road trip' to our destination: Pikes Peak.

What a drive. Sometimes boring, sometimes incredibly spectacular! Check the shots in these photos, although these were done with a camera phone, they have come out quite good. From boring open deserts and fields to some beautifully rugged terrain.

The climb to our final altitude was a long and slow one, but all good, and at times we climbed to over 11,500 feet and finally, Colorado, which is actually on a very high plateau that sits about 6500-7000 feet. We did find ourselves gasping at times for deeper breaths of air.

We are now in Colorado springs which will be our home for the next 10 days. Tomorrow we clean the evo, confirm our order for our E85 race fuel, check out Pikes Peak for a pre-recce, and start to get things in order for the event.

More importantly, we are here, and time to finally relax, maybe sleep in, and get into the time zone and altitude. One thing that came to mind driving along looking up at the huge rock monoliths that skirt the highway that runs along parts of what seems to be the Grand Canyon are these beautiful and huge and majestic and imposing rock formations was 'it's bigger than you', if you get that at all.

JD

Dyno sheet

2010-06-17T20:19:00.001-07:00

this is the dyno sheet from the tune!

Tuesday, July 15.

2010-06-17T19:48:00.001-07:00

Got up and had wonderful waffles this morning, and then called my close friend Jay Jones (aka Jaybird) and arranged to have lunch in the middle of his hectic schedule. I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed being in his company again. Both Cath and I had a great 4.5 hour lunch.

Then it was onto Road Race engineering, these guys are pure pro's and like MEEK in sydney, there isnt much they dont know about evos. Once the workshop was cleared, we moved in to grab a lift and work on installing the new K&N intake system from i-autosport (iautosport.com.au for all your aftermarket needs, both european and Japanese brands).

When we finished this, the ECU guy showed and we set about getting a reading as a baseline on 98 octane (91 in the US). Once it was confirmed all the perimeters were set, we had a run, and with Meek hot side piping, Meek ECU flash, 272 Cams, turbo outlet, and the intake, it made 229kw at the hubs. Pretty impressive!

Then we drained the fuel and refilled the tank with E85, and RRE started to dial up some pretty impressive and continually growing numbers. Final result was 285kw, and we couldve stayed with 300+ but kept it down to keep it under control, with the older clutch and all best work within a cautious range for now.

The next day, Wednesday, it was off to GT Fabrications (ebay name evo05) for our new Hans helmets and hans devices, collected the truck, dropped the rental car off, picked up the rented trailer and headed back to Road Race Engineering to collect and load the evo.

Loaded up we headed up to northern Los Angeles to meet up with good friend Brendan, another good steak, quite a few laughs and then we crashed at his house for the night, but not before we dragged poor Cath through some photo albums at Brendans' showing some of my old race cars I used to run. Brendan is the drivetrain engineer at Honda US race team HQ, running the Acura's in ALMS series and at Le Mans. So when you watch the ALMS series and see the Acuras' kicking butt, know that that is Brendan's work, along with a team of course. Brendan is an early Datsun afficiando, having an early 510 wagon and 240Z at his house.

We are now somewhere in Utah, a small town called Richfield, and with 550 miles down, and 510 to go to get to Colorado Springs we will be on the road again tomorrow. Right now, we are off to have dinner and a cold tall beer...

On the road again....

Monday, June 14th, 2010.

2010-06-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

We arrive in LA at 6;15 in the morning on the 14th of June, which is the same time and date we left Sydney. Cool huh! We clear US Border & Immigration and grab the rental car (after what seemed like a very long ride to the rental company we used), then we rounded up the paperwork for the evo and head out to Long Beach to US Customs and Importations, once we found their office we walked in and were met by a young Customs Agent, and proceeded to do the evo clearance. Handing over tons of paperwork: title, rego papers, export docs, etc etc, we take a seat as they start the process of clearing it for us. After a short while we realise what we need is a big shot of red bull and some food, so I go in search and find some fried rice from down the road, bring it back and we shove some carbs down our throats, and suck on some Red Bull caffeine.

After a short while we are waved to the counter, we go there and we hand over the last bit of paperwork, and are met by an older well dressed gentlemen behind the counter who says "so about this car, it's a rally car?", "yes sir!" I reply, his immediate response was " you have a log book?", our answer, "yes sir, two of them!" and hand them over with our Cams and AASA licences. He looks at us and says, thank heavens someone does it right, and proceeds to tell us horror stories about people trying to import cars, ie; rally cars, and they have no Logbooks, or even race licences, etc, he then spends the next 1/2 hour thanking us and congratulating us on being legit racers, and welcomes us as the car is quickly cleared, hand shakes and huge thanks on their behalf for making their job easy and uncomplicated. He then brings out his photo album of the cars he used to rally in the 70's, and it was a old Mitsubishi. This older gent also turned out to had been a master artiste and painted cars for a living on canvass etc, he showed us some of his work and we are in awe of his talents.

With clearance in hand, we then head off to Collect the evo from the dock yards, and despite a bit of running around (to be expected) we are taken to it sitting out on the docks, but then we are slightly delayed when we realise they have locked the keys in the car out in the middle of the dockyard and we wait for the mechanic to show with the slim jim and a few other items to unlock the car. Once these guys find out we are headed to Pikes Peak they can't seem to help us enough, wishing us well with huge smiles. We pull the evo pull it out of the docks, and drive it up to Sant Fe Springs to the great guys at Road race engineering.

Now, we are fortunate to have been in racing and rallying for going on 30 years now, we've raced on three continents and we've met and gotten to know many a great person, as time goes by you realise we are all connected by the passion of motorsports and hard facts. Whether we are dealing with the great guys at MEEK automotive, or Road Race egnineering. And between these two groups, there is nothing that is not acheiveable, or doable with evos.

We deliver the evo up to Mike Welch at Road Race Engineering and he is pure pro. He builds some of the fastest race evos in the US, and tunes 2-3 a week to E85. His yard is full of evos with stories. Such is Mike's work schedule he works on and tunes evos well into the early morning hours most of the week, a car showing up for a tune at 11pm at night is an often occurance. 'Dedicated' comes to mind. As MEEK and RRE work closer to bring the best of development to Australian evos, your going to see some great stuff in Australian Motorpsorts with evos. The top few images are from RRE's activities with evos.

After dropping the evo at RRE, we set off for what had to be one of life simplest nicest pleasures, a HOT SHOWER, which after 45 hours in the same clothes, and a 15 hour flight, and running around half of California, was simply the best thing in the world at that point. Then it was off to the second best thing, a nice juicy incredibly well cooked steak and a bottle of Red Wine, which we got at the Outback Steakhouse near our hotel, and oh man it was juicy and nice.

Visit RRE at www.roadraceengineering.com and check out their site. Also, visit our supporters by clicking their links above.

Tomorrow we share the latest updates with the tune from RRE. - JD

1 Sleep to go!

2010-06-12T18:50:00.001-07:00

As we sit here watching the LeMans 24 hour race live, having had our typical big sunday breakfast while watching the F1 Qualifying we are now down to one sleep before leaving for the US very early on Monday Morning. The 6am flight to be precise.

But now for some updates;
Tyres are sorted and we have gone with the Kumho V 245/40/17's, we will need to add some sipes to these after we get them for the gravel parts, but we are big fans of the kumhos, and used them in our pre Pikes Peak test event, Mt Buller Hillclimb in the Victorian Alps here in Australia.

We have also ordered our hans devices for collection when we get to LA as well as our new helmets. The Hans is mandatory for Pikes Peak, as well as Mandatory for Australian events as of this year, so they are an adjusted and amortised costs, being we will now have them for the next 5 years before needing updating and replacing again.

The Kumhos we got for a great price, after watching the tirerack website for the last two months and seeing what other tyres were availble from other people, old stock and even used to keep within our budget, our patience has paid off and we got the 245/45/17's for just $134 each! Go Tire Rack!! What a great group.

Monday plan is a big one. Up at 2am, watch F1 Race from Montreal, that will end around 3:30 3:45, then the taxi will be here to take us to the airport at 4am for all the preflight baggage and ticket stuff, then we go into the lounge and watch the Australia v Germany soccer match, then fly out to LA via NZ.

Our next blog will be after we get into the US and we've saved an introduction till then when we introduce you to our US race buddies Road Race Engineering, in Southern Los Angeles. Till then race fans.

A quick bit of practice

2010-06-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

We took our little WRX RA to the local hill climb this past sunday, we were in a class against a nicely built and prepped Sti with sticky tyres etc.

I held off his runs, for each run I got a fraction faster, he got a fraction faster, just trailing us by a few 10th's of a second or so. Then I went a little too fast into the last turn and went wide onto the mud and had to back-off. The Sti driver got a bit ahead. And went from 3rd overall to 2nd taking my spot.

Lesson learnt, and I shot off for the next run, and not only beat the Sti again, but got 2nd overall jumping up the podium.

Then the rain came, practically canceling any more effort by anyone to do better. Phew! Fastest overall wasnt going to happen, so we'll take second fastest behind the Jedi open wheel racer.

After that run we did just one more and Cath and I were happy to call it a day. The Sti guy stayed on for the last three remaining runs to try and get the jump on the standing after it dried out again, but it wasn't to be.

The little WRX RA, totally stock, with stock suspension and street stock rubber held it's own. Homologation is a good thing.

Trucks on the Peak

2010-06-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

I mentioned before about trucks running up Pikes, but never posted a pic, so here is one. It's seems hard enough slowing down a car for the hairpins, but slow this thing down!! And then try to get it going again, all while trying to look smooth.

Nervous.. anyone.. yet..??

2010-05-31T23:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, as we get closer it's time to check out the array of machinery that do Pikes Peak, these images were from 2009, and a lot of these same people will be there. Dave Kern, in the Orange evo has been going for a while, his car has been heavily developed and is now faster and wilder than ever, Dave is a Colorado local, and does the hillclimbs there, he's also in our class, and we expect a pretty good whipin' off him on race day, if I said his evo was highly modified that would be like saying the Space Shuttle is highly powerful, so you get the idea. Dave has been great to communicate with, we have swapped ideas and setups lately, he's going to beat me anyways, so assisting him with suspension setup is not so bad.

Motorcycles run in groups in practice and on race day, it must make for some interestingly crowded corners and bumpin' going on.

Sidecars run also, and that is just insane, speak of insane, they also have a truck class, and Im not talking just pickup trucks, they have those too, Im talking about full blown Peterbuilts, and Kenworths, etc.

ATV, and quads are all the rage, can't say I blame them, it far cheaper to enter one of those.

Along with the Vintage array of entries, and pro-built cars like Monster Tajima's Suzuki thingy, sporting 900hp and 1200+ kilos, and a mass (ha ha, I made a joke) amount of downforce. Mass! Get it, but it's by volume... oh never mind.

Even looking in forward-sight (that's the opposite to hindsight, although my journo friends are probably going to email me and tell it isnt the right word, it's my blog, so jeff-isms are ok), I know there is a lot we couldve done already to the car to make that itty bitty bit better, but it comes down to funds, and there aint a lot of those, but we also need to bring the car back to full stock spec when it returns to Australia because of the classes we run here, and so it's no use modifying a lot, and then spending even more to un-modify it all.

With less than a month to go we have to ask; Are we Ready? Umm, no not really...

Time to revisit the costings

2010-05-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, one thing I have learnt over the years is that you NEVER EVER ADD IT UP! Like you should never actually add up the calories you take in, because you know it will scare you, and let you see why your not getting any thinner, or in this financial case let you see why you bank account is always running down, close to the wire.

So here's where we are at:
Freight of car to LA - $1820
Clearance of car LA side - $450
Entry fee - $1700
Hotel - $1000
Airine tickets - $2600

Note food and beverage not yet counted in, and probably wont be. We've yet to determine the price and how we are getting the car from LA to Colorado and back to LA for shipment back to Australia, but we might just find ourselves driving it there as part of the adventure. It's 'only' 900 miles there, and 900 miles back. hmmmm, where have I heard those words before...? Oh, I know, It's what Burt Reynolds told Jerry Reed, aka, the Snowman, about going down to Arkansas to grab some beer and bring it back... I wonder if you do a similiar run in an black evo with a boot full of Warsteiner if it is still bootleggin'??

"we've got a long way to go and a short time to get there, keep on truckin' bandit run..." sorry, got a little carried away there and a bit nostalgic.

Meet Dave!

2010-05-30T17:34:00.000-07:00

This is Dave Hinde, some of us call him Merlin because he's a ECU guru and has charted all the evo ECUs and gotten into the Ralliart ECUs and AYC ECUs as well. He's meeting us at Pikes Peak to chart our ECU and make sure it's reading correct and balanced for proper delivery. He'll be doing a couple of recces with us to graph the Barometric pressure and to make sure the air mass sensor is re-tuning the fuel delivery correctly. I know it sounds serious, but it's more about getting to the end than winning, as we are already outlassed by the other more purposeful cars in our division, so hanging on will be more important than thinking we can go at the other teams in our class.

We creep forward...

2010-05-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

Well, Both Cath and I got our mandatory medical's this week, I got a clean bill of health, but when my doctor looked at the form and saw what it was for he shook his head, said I was very healthy, but recommended me to psychic examination: He lived in Colorado and knew of the Pikes Peak event, and officially said I'm healthy enough to possibly drive off a 2000 foot drop! Wished me well, and shook his head, but had an evil laugh as I left - he's French, after all. Merci! Quack!!

Road trip! What truck do we use...

2010-05-17T23:52:00.000-07:00

So as time is getting closer and closer to departure date, so must the time to decide on what we are going to use to tow our car from LA to Colorado, and back.

All the cars in these images range, pretty much, from $1999 US to $3000 US, except the Silver GMC Yukon, which, at 202,000 miles is $3,999, but the dealer says they are very negotiable.

We'll be shopping hard, and deciding shortly, but what ever we get will have to tow the evo from LA to colorado which is a 900+ miles trip one way, then we have to come back. Then what do we do with the truck? The idea is we sell it and blow it out the door. Believe us, we researched the cost of renting a truck, and the cost to do so, with mileage calculated, is a $2500 - $2900 rental for the two weeks, that's money thrown away, at least with buying something we have a few options, one is to sell it at a blow out sale and still save money over renting, the other is to buy a pre-1989 vehicle and ship it back to A: use here or B: sell once itgets back here and recover the funds... hopefully.

Time ticks away, decisions to be made and actioned. Just wished it wouldn't cost so much money!

Here's a teaser for you...

2010-05-12T00:08:00.000-07:00

A while ago, like soooo 2009 ago, we built a evo coupe. Wait, what you say? They never made an evo coupe...! No, Mitsubishi didnt, but they should have. In fact they planned to, until the marketing department totally nixed the idea due to the market being bigger for a 4 door small sedan. So the little Coupe (Lancer in Australia, Mirage in the US, although the little three-door was called the Mirage here; oh forget it, Im not going to try and explain that, except the 4 door was also called the Mirage in the US... dont start on me, we continue). Anywho... MEEK automotive had built a few evo coupes by now, mostly for the show pony people, you know sweet and nice paint jobs, huge bazooka mufflers hanging out the back, 50kilogram speakers and subwoofers in the back, not us baby! We went for less weight, ugly looks and raw speed, and we found it. The car pictured here was built in 3 months by MEEK, with the help of Brett, his workshop assistant/manager/Evo gearbox and transfer case expert (in fact, he's called Mr Gears).

We started with a bare shell I scoured from the piles of a dismantler here in Sydney, and dragged over to MEEK's workshop. I should mention at this time that it was merely my idea, it was my friend Josh Robinson in Perth that funded the whole thing, he got me for free to get the project going and keep it on (almost) schedule. As I was saying, we had a shell, and got it to MEEK's where we then tore it apart, removed the rear floor, cut out the rear chassis rails for the suspension mounts, and then did the same to a donor evo 6 rear end MEEK salvaged.

In went the evo 9RS rear diff, evo 6 RS cradles, evo 6 RS rear floor, then the evo 7 GTA donor engine got bigger cams, titanium retainers, race springs, 20G turbo, MEEK piping, and evo 6 flashed ECU. Then a brand new evo 9 Rs gearbox went in, evo 6 front and rear axles, mated to brand new hub bearing carrier knuckles, and a stock evo 6 intercooler.

Then it went off to the shop for some body work mods to fit the rear flares, front evo 6 TME front bumper.

Then it went to SouthCoast suspension for the chassis and suspension balance with the fantastic KW coil overs off an evo 9.

Total weight: 1107 kilos. We never dyno'd it but we figure about 400hp at the flywheel. Whatever it was it projected the little coupe to 60mph from stop up a slight incline in just 3.0 sec flat!! Suck that Veyron!

Now, with time and more additions the car will be even more developed, when you consider we just finished it before we had to go to the start line of a big driving event, we did well, and still did a 1:44 at the huge Eastern Creek track, wouldve been faster if we A: had a front LSD in it as the front tyres were spinning in 3rd gear, and B: even knew which way the track went over the blind crest. You see I'd only ever done two laps of the place, and that was three years prior, and they were both real slow.

We are in the start of getting the pieces together to build another evo coupe, but this time we'll do it differently by having brand new rear frame rails and floor installed into the chassis by a body shop, then we just bolt all the evo bits on, you know, like 2.6 stroker, 20G turbo, oversized piping, and induction, blah, blah. Dreaming? Yes, sort of, for now.

And why am I telling you about this? Well, we really can't use this car in most (99%) of all events here in Australia, but we can run it at Pikes Peak in 2011. Monster Tajima's car has 950hp and weighs about 1300 kilos. We think we ca do 700hp and about 900kilos, but with a smaller volume (by area) of drag.

Sorry, dreaming again...

Beer!

2010-05-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

There are many things I love about America, besides having a ton of long-time friends there it's the choices of beer. From Generic Beer (that I wouldnt touch, ie: Budweiser) to fantastic Micro breweries that dish out some of the nicest you'll ever try, like the Hops Chain of micro breweries, to just cheap German Beer. Well, cheap as in cheaper! ie: a 6 pack of Warsteiner or BitBuger Beer here in Australia is $19.00, but it is $8;00 for the same in the US. And, of course the wonderful taste of Sam Adams Beer from the Boston Brewing company. Hmmmmmm, nice, sweet beautiful full tasting beer!

And of course we can't wait to try some of the micro breweries situated in Colorado, with a healthy spout of meat to go with them.

With all the travelling we used to do to the Nurburgring - 2-4 times a year - the Bit burger Brewery was always right down the road from the track, ask me, one day, about the time I was dragged aside early one morning between huge trucks and Motorhomes at the Nurburgring event to have a celebratory beer with some race colleagues, right before I was due to go out for my stint. 'Keeps ya nice and loose' said the German. He was right!

Evos, evos, evos

2010-05-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Last weeks Targa Tasmania had one of the biggest fields in history. Besides Porsches being the main brand of driving enjoyment, evos were probably second, with a huge amount of entries, covering all evo chassis and years, except for evo 1 or 2, pics showing the evos though the years, all on the one event. From top to bottom: evo 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. Nice.

I'll, just... put this...

2010-05-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

here for now...

Slowly we get there.

2010-05-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well, we are now in the blackhole of waiting. Car has shipped out, entry is in, we now wait on our trip to sunny California, and then the long slog of a drive through the Nevada desert to get to Colorado, which can actually be a nice drive.

So lets look over the figures for now;
Entry fee $1700 USD ($2,000 AUD)
Ocean Freight of Evo $1440 USD, plus $500 in fees (so $2000AUD rounded).
Two airline tickets $2400 return
Hotel; $1000

Sundry items will be fuel, food, and of course the beer. So, so far the bill is about $7400. Or about the same it cost to do our last event, which was our test event, which was Mt Buller in the state of Victoria here in Australia.

Then we have to get a truck, rent a trailer and drive to colorado which is only a days drive. then we have to ship the evo back to Australia, but we'll be loading the container up with stuff we need back here.

We'll be buying the truck, and if it meets import guidelines, we'll bring it back with us, or we'll re-sell it before leaving the US.

We're still debating and trying to decipher what tyres we'll use, and the Silverstone tarmac look good, but at worst, we'll just go with the Kumho and cut them for corner sipes for the gravel sections.

Here's a bit of fun for you.

2010-05-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

This is my friend Samantha Stevens, a local automotive journo, and rallyer. She's a load of fun and this is one of her videos made from an event she did recently, these gals are fun. Let it load & turn the speakers up.

Gronholm NOT coming to Pikes this year

2010-04-30T01:13:00.001-07:00

We think.

This is from maxrally.com website.

Double world rally champion Marcus Gronholm has conceded that it’s unlikely he’ll tackle the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb for a second time this season.

The 42-year-old Finn set the second fastest overall time on the Colorado mountain last year at the wheel of a 850bhp Ford Fiesta prepared by Andreas Eriksson’s MSE organisation.

He said: “It’s a shame, but I don’t think the car can be built for Pikes Peak. I enjoyed that last year, the car was really funny to drive with all that power.”

Gronholm could still be heading to America this year however after he was linked to an outing in the rally section of the X Games in Los Angeles form July 29-August 1. While the event’s selection committee has yet to discuss the matter, Gronholm said: “We have to see. I was invited before but didn’t go, it could be interesting, I’m thinking about it. Why not?

So, umm, we move up one more position.... Possibly.

Now we're Fully Committed.

2010-04-28T00:18:00.000-07:00

Well, we had quite the mission today. 1: get out of bed, have breakfast, grab the Pikes Peak-bound evo and drive from where we live in the very southern suburbs of Sydney to Brookvale which is on the very northern end of the Sydney suburbs, which took about 1.5 hours as we were going with the traffic into the city, then against the traffic once on the Northshore and over the Harbour Bridge, which meant all the traffic was now coming at us, a good thing, until you get to parts where they have ALL the lanes and we have one, which means our 3 lanes of traffic get squeezed into one lane heading north. But I digress. So we finally got to Brookvale which was our first stop ( did I mention it was Peak Hour Traffic and I was in the rally evo with a competition clutch? - creep, stop, creep, stop, brake, creep stop, bastard just cut me off, well, you get the idea..) to collect our newly purchased and imported evo 6 which had to be complianced for Australian Roads, sort of the EPA/DOT requirement to put it on the Aussie roads for the US friends out there reading this.

Anyways... Next stop was Way up north in Newcastle to drop the evo 8 off for shipment to California, which is it's next stop, providing it gets on the boat ok. Oh, which, by the way, also has our Tow vehicle on it which is coming from LA - shouldve just left it in LA and used it while we are there, oh well. So we picked up one evo (evo 6) dropped off the other evo for shipment (evo 8) and came home, except we have to do the 3 hour drive again next week to pick up our truck. Phew.

The pic is the battle ready evo 8 (black) now delivered dock side with the evo 6 sitting next to it which was our chariot home. We used Cath's Iphone to take the shot as my phone decided to now work right when I needed it to to use the maps feature to get us to our destination.

Almost there!

2010-04-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

Well, next week sometime I will get a phone call to deliver the car to the docks, like, now. Such is the way it is currently. We are dealing with sending the car out of the Newcastle, NSW port instead of my local, and very close, port of Port Kembla, ie: 45 mins, as opposed to 3 hours. Trust me to pick the only boat in 5 years that ISNT going to Port Kembla docks. Oh well.

Today we MEEK Automotive with David Hinde (Merlin) doing ECU checks now the 1000cc injectors are in place, and all seems good. Setting intercooler spray temps and times for cutoffs etc, it was all about small numbers on a screen today, numbers only someone like Merlin can make sense of. Merlin is the Go-To guy in the industry for all ECU matters in evos, go to his download section here, and see what I mean: Here: http://www.4g63evolution.net/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=96

Today while at MEEK I got the chance to take some quick pics with my phone, and here, ladies and Gentlemen, is the car in it's Livery for Pikes Peak, 2010. Ok, ok, yes, we shouldve washed it, but we didnt. Until next time when I go digging for more info to add, which isnt that hard as there is always so much going on, have a good day. Race Safe!

some more pics:

2010-04-20T23:16:00.000-07:00

Had these sent to me from the track day a few weeks ago when we were testing, I like them, they are very 'stark' in composition.

2010-04-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

Brief Interruption; Some Maps. Head to that location, drive up that hill. FAST!

Say hello to some of our friends;

2010-04-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

We just want you guys to meet a few of our friends we've met along the way to getting ready for Pikes Peak. Our new friend Andrew Phillips will be running the Peak this year on his BMW motorcycle (that's him in the pic), although it wont be THAT motorcycle, there probably isnt a calender long enough to run a vintage motorcycle up a hill with limited air available. Andrew is a Mad BMW guy (aint all us nice guys!) and races motorcycles in his East Coast semi-frozen state of New Hampshire, and my close friend Max (Max BMW motorcycles, NH, and NY,) sevices Andrew's race bikes.

As we count down we'll be paying homage to the peple we've met, and more importantly, people assisting us on their way, in particlar with their own effort. One guy in particular is 'Merlin', and he's up next!

Rhys and Team Hyundai/Toyo are flatout!

2010-04-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

See these images? Know what they are of? Yeah, yeah, the heading gives it away a bit, but check out the work proceeding rapidly on the Millen Hyundai Toyo Pikes Peak entry. Ok, ok, I know we've already given them some space on MY blog, but hey, they're super nice people, and they are good friends of our good friends, TOYO tyres, so we can do what we like. The full link is here to the story and even more images, follow the link. http://blogs.insideline.com/straightline/2010/04/rhys-millens-unlimited-pikes-peak-car-with-a-41-liter-hyundai-genesis-v6-we-go-beneath-the-skin.html

Wasnt expecting this!

2010-04-19T14:26:00.001-07:00

Well, we all knew Millen was redoing his effort for PP this year with a new Hyundai powered car, but I didnt expect this! He's serious, very serious about the record, and is bringing a sort-of Lemans-spec looking vehicle. I guess he's parking the famous Hyundai Drift car this time. It's going to be exciting, and if he does it, we will be there also for the thrill of it all and our own entry. Which, hey, by the way, there seems to be 3 cars in 4WD Time Attack, so we expect to at least be on the podium in third place, given we're up against seasoned Pikes Peak pros who know the mountain better than they probably know their own wife/partners. On a light stressful note, , I have to run our car over to the shop, I think we have a bent valve, and the car has to be at the docks next week for shipment...

Just a few more...

2010-04-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Just a few more images from our last event. This was the Mt Buller Hillclimb, it is 10 miles in Length, and all smooth tarmac, and very twisty. This was the event we used as a test bed for Pikes Peak. We were the fastest evo for most of the weekend, then just got pipped by the evo X, but then we got the position back, but in this event we lost it again due to the rules of dropping your worst run, and the evoX's worst run was worse than ours so in that scheme of things it put them back ahead. This is not a rule I agree with, as this is a rally, and on a rally there is no rule about 'droppping' your worst stage time. Before the event Cath had asked where we might end up in the results, and i said we'll be top 15, for sure, but not top 10, and we ended up 11th overall, and 1st in class. Couldnt be happier with that. Although 10th wouldve nice... Some pics.

2010-04-17T02:50:00.000-07:00

Went digging for some more pics of some hillclimbs I did in the US. I did the New England hillclimb series in Vermont and New Hampshire and the hills were nice and long. These pics are of my Euro (Brit Registered) Sti Type Uk 300 Prodrive I imported to drive. It did well. they told me not to bring it back and changed the rules to read: all cars entered must be available for sale in the US.. but added 'showroom'. So it stopped all our Euro and JDM cars. These shots were from Burke Hillclimb, a 3.5 mile event, brilliant hill.

Some Previous hillclimb pics.

2010-04-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

I scoured my system to find some previous shots of some of the hillclimbs I've done in the US, plus of course some here in Australia. Enjoy.

this first one is when we ran a 1995 Sti at the Aussie Mt Buller event. We did one run, took on some bad fuel (elf fuel SHOULD NEVER be used in a Subaru) and popped the engine. sat in the bar the rest of the weekend.

Next up is the Old BMW Grp A we ran at Mt Washington, we took the class record in this car and was 3rd fastest in qualifying, beating the AWD 400hp Escort Cosworth. Sweet! Sadly on race day the timing weights in the distributor froze, and we were S.O.L.

My Evo 5 at Mt Washington, going through Craigway, which was right about the halfway mark, took the record again that year. Another shot of the evo 5 coming through Craigway. Mt Washington was 30% gravel, 30% smooth tar and 40% rough pavement. Stll a fantastic hill, we certainly hope we can learn off doing this hill and apply it to Pikes Peak.
another shot of my old Grp A BMW car in line ready for a hillclimb.

Our evo 8 at the last Mt Buller, we took 11th overall, and 1st in class.

tyres, tyres, tyres!

2010-04-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

PPIHC being 12 miles in length, 60% tarmac and 40% hard gravel, the choice of tyres is a tough one, especially when you dont have the funds to just 'throw' money at choices, test and decide. So here are our options; Hoosier DOT Wet (people who race on these in the wet love them), Kumho W710's which look very close to what we need, but if it stays hot all weekend on the hill we'll fry these babies quickly, or go with a tyre Im leaning towards, which is the Silverstone S595's. The S595 is a proper tarmac rally tyre, so it would have a very stiff sidewall, and being an intermediate weather tyre should give us the dirt and tarmac grip. If it rains with any of these tyres we'll be well ready to keep going hard. We are meeting Silverstone tyre importer this week and discussing availability. The Kunhos are out of the size we need (only 275's available) Hoosiers are in stock. We'll see where this all goes. Stay tuned.

A few announcements: Welcome IautoSport as a partner.

2010-04-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

Along with our other partners in Motorsports, Meek Automotive, GTpumps turbos, we also welcome aboard iautosport http://iautosport.com.au/ this is a aftermarket supplier to all categories of performance, and we'll be keeping you updated with their releases and activities and their involvement with our efforts for 2010 and onwards. they always have a huge track effort and will have a stand at the Eastern Creek Time Attack world event and are constantly at most other tracks and club events. Run by Marc Hammond, iautosport support all levels of motorpsorts with a strong presence and support. So check their website over, and visit them and our other supporters. Also check out their other event http://epcc.net.au/ .

We'll be back with even more information shortly. Namely our quest for the right tyres for Pikes Peak, which is a never ending pursuit.

Millen going after the record at PPIHC

2010-04-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, Rhys Millen has been going to the PPIHC for a while now, I think back in the late 90's he ran a R33 skyline there. His dad has won there and taken the record, and now Rhyc is aiming to take the record off the current holder, Monster Tajima.

Just a side note, I dont understand why they say 'World Record Holder'. If you have the record at a hillclimb, or track etc it is a 'record', a hillclimb record, a track record etc., heck, even I have hillclimb records from hillclimbs in the US, including Mt Washington in New Hampshire. But I would never call it a World Record! A leap from an airplane at 60,000 feet would be a world record. A run up a hill is a 'Record'.
Anyways, I digress, here is the release from all round good guy Rhys and his dad and a teaser video. Wishing them good luck and look for forward to seeing Rod Millen again, I used to compete against him rallying.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/04/15/video-rhys-vows-to-bring-pikes-peak-record-back-to-millen-famil/#continued

Of course, if I ever took the record at Pikes Peak, I would put 'World Record Holder' on my press release too. Oh, the complicated web we weave...

2010-04-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, you know that evo video that shows the evo sliding off the road and rolling? This isthe incar all the way to that spot.

2010-04-14T21:29:00.000-07:00

Just a few things to get you warmed up! the first one is a subaru that doesnt make it.

Evo doesnt make it..

And of course a quick one by Eriksson in the Fiesta wild beast.

Just to warm up the show a bit.

2010-04-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

Well hello race fans!

An update in general proceedings. We just got a tracking system (real time) for the car, this will be installed on Monday at the electricians, and once we dial it all in and get it setup, we will hope to have it sorted so you can see us real-time (although I'm sure delayed) over the web as we climb the peak. This particular system also has a microphone installed which will be in the cabin and we will work on the possibility of letting the followers listen in as we climb the mountain, with Cath calling the pace notes, that will be exciting to listen to. - JD

Time for BIG THANKS

2010-04-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

Just a sidestep to recognise the people who have assisted me so far with this effort, firstly, the great guys at MEEK Automotive, these guys are the premo' aussie evo service and tuned parts installers, and their ECU mappings are terrific. www.meek.com.au Meek supplied the 272 cams, the mapping, the cam timers pulleys, the 3" exhaust, etc all to make it breath better, and it certainly does, we just need to tune the cams in and get that last 15 or so Kilowatts out of it.

Also, his neighbour, Mark at GT Pumps turbos etc., Mark rebuilt our 9.8 turbo to a nicely balanced level, and it blew all the bigger turbos away at our last event. Mark also supplied a 10.5 hotside for us, and a 1.5 bar actuator. And convinced me to try the new Elig competition brake pad, and I have to say, Im impressed with these for friction feedback and bite. It took 4 track sessions to get them to bed in.

Also, my race buddies in California, Road Race Engineering, who will be recieving the car and giving it a final tune in California when it arrives to US spec E85 fuel. http://roadraceengineering.com

Visa Time!

2010-04-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

Well, with my US Visa up for renewal in February I went through the most amazing amount of online registration formality to renew my US Visa. filled out the online forms multiple times because the system kept freezing up, and some 20 pages later it had finally accepted my Visa renewal application.

This is where it starts.

That was back in early February and as it is now the middle of April we are in a bit of a panic (should we be, or are we just being overly worried?). Now all details on the web about a US visa says DO NOT CALL, so we havent, being good people. Then Cath got a hold of the US number for the US Department of state that handles the Visa apps' and called, and was told that only 'I' can talk to them being the applicant. So, after messing with time zones for a week or so, I got up early today to call and talk to some one about my renewal application. Went through all the recordings and button pressing for the 6th or so time, and finally got put on hold to wait in a queue that was said to be 5 minutes long, which turned out to be 15.

Got hold of a lady and gave her my passport number and she then went off to look up the application, the response - "we have nothing in the system for you, sir!, there is no application".

What? Wait! What?

Fearing I would have to start again, I started to question the process and how it all goes - and the lady in Washington was getting snippity with me. I maintained pure courtesy the whole time, of course.

The end result? So remember all the info I mentioned above about DO NOT CALL, well the system actually says we will get a letter in regards to our appointment time in the mail to visit to US Consulate in Sydney, well, apparently not going by the lady in the US state Department. The lady on the phone at the US State Department informed me that WE need to CALL to US Consulate in Sydney to make an appointment for an interview. Seriously, that is what she said. So we shall do that and call today for a scheduled 'interview'. Who wouldve thought a simple VISA renewal would be this hard.

Updates soon.

Wanna see some pics of the decals?

2010-04-11T21:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, so dont get too close, they are ten-footer decals. Here's a brief sample.

PPIHC Schedule!

2010-04-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

YIKES!!!!

Looking over the schedule for the PPIHC event, Im hoping jet lag will kick in and stay with us for a while while there.

Day 1 Practice - 3:30 Am gates open, competitors go to upper section. Three-thirty AM! YEEESH. Given the hill is over an hour away from the hotel, that means up at 1:15AM. Practice is all over by 10am, and we are back at the hotel, sleeping no doubt.

Pikes Peak International hillclimb

2010-04-11T21:45:00.001-07:00

Instead of just typing away, and then posting and seeing all the spelling errors, Im going to try and type slower, and reduce the spelling errors. My 6th grade English teacher wouldve been proud.

Well, Pikes Peak (PPIHC) just updated their website, and it looks a treat now. so check it out at www.ppihc.com. Navigate it a bit, there is plenty there.

This week the injectors go in, and a quick checkover at MEEKS ( www.meekautomotive.com.au ) next week should see it get a clear bill of health and we 're off to the last test day at Wakefield on the 26th of April. Im actually instructing ( www.circuitclub.com.au ) but will take the car out for a few hard laps to get some data with the lap top hooked up to keep the ECU magician happy. The we drop it at Port Kembla on the way back home that night for shipment.

Entry is paid for ($1700 USD), Hotel is paid for ($1000 for ten nights). Just have freight to pay for and a truck and trailer, as the big ticket items. Currently we budget for $500 for the trailer use and $3500 for a truck to use. then we just have airlines tickets ($2400 for two return)

2010-04-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

A day of testing in the evo, still running the Mt Buller settings. We knew it was going to be a relatively slow day, but staying focused on what we were doing on the day was crucial, as we were testing Toe alignments, and mixing things up to find a high-speed setting. We started with a generic setting, ten a track setting, and then swung to the toe setitngs we used for Mt Buller, and amazingly, the car felt best in that setup. So we locked it in.

We havent played with the suspension since we did setup prior to Mt Buller in testing, then played with the setup at Mt Buller and found what we think is a sweet spot for the suspension we have, and we wrote it down and left it on those settings.

well, we are getting motivated now...

2010-04-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

Pikes Peak is getting closer, and closer. the car leaves shortly to be taken to Port Kembla for transporting to California where we collect it and tow it to Pikes Peak.
so far we have set the suspension to where we think it should be, we used the Mt Buller sprint event in Victoria, Australia as a test session for the car and we won class, and got 11th overall. Which is near spot on for what we expected, achievment wise. Cath, my girlfriend, and navigator asked me at the start of Mt Buller where we think we'll end up, and being we are running an ex-street car and not a proper RS evo, I said we'll be top 15, but not top 10, so to finish 11th overall, first in class was a sweet result.

We went to Wakefield Park racetrack last week to get some data, and we found the sock injectors with the 272 cams were beyond their maximum load, and the duty cycle was running at 120% at times, which is not good at all. So this week we hope to have the 1000cc injectors in place, these will work well with the cams, and will be even sweeter when we tune for E85. We were actually slower than we've ever gone, but I put this down to the very old, and undersized (225/45/17) tyres, as we shouldve been running 235 series, and they were already 3 year old yoko's, and despite screaming in agony most of the day they didnt wear much, which tells me the balance is currently good also in the car. But also hardened tyres.

Yesterday I tried to install the Aussie-flag decals, and they were a mess. It seems the decals sheet had many crimps in the sheet, which wit the curves of the car, made it worse, but we appreciate the effort of Mike, from euro-graphics who dontated his time to make them for us and we'll try to clean it up later.

We tend to push on regardless, so we will continue to do so.

Jeff

Outside of the Cams, and 10.5 hotside the car is pretty stock.

evo coupe.

2009-03-30T23:53:00.001-07:00

Oh, and stay tuned as we build an evo coupe, which we will be speccing out to hopefully be a Skyline GTR R35 killer. - JD

Evo super coupe

2009-03-30T23:45:00.000-07:00

Hi all, this is the start of my Blog, I'll be sharing a lot to whomever wants to read it, or happens to end up here touring the highways of cyberspace.

Primarily this Blog will be about cars, racing, prepping of cars, people and other thoughts. But, off the bat, some sad news, my friend back in Connecticut, Brian Moran passed away last night, and Im very saddened by this. Brian was a good man, of deep character and friendship. Brian went throgh some heart problems whcih, due to the medicine presribed to him, he grew to be quite large, but he was always active, and boy could he drive fast at the track. His ability was beyond a certain comprehension when you see his size, well, girth. But it wasnt fat it was the medicine, but I was always amazed watching him qualify and he'd come flying onto the front straight at Lime Rock, and it was like your watching one of those cartoons where the wheels are on the ground but the car is ten feet over further. We'll Miss ya buddy. May you be 30 mins in heaven before the devil knows your dead.

I'll leave my initial blog entry there for now. Will be back.
-JD