Bathurst Easter 2010, races and a six hour regularity relay, anyone interested i

[620Z]

Sounds to me like the age old story. Some half baked person organising it ran out of money and let the big boys take over. The big boy's let all the Porsches in and pay their money for max track time. While the plebes get less track time but stuck paying similar money. Of course the organisers still want the non Porsche entrants to come along so they can get your money. But that's all they want from you hence the restricted or lesser track time. Bottom line the Porsche boys get their event partly subsidised by the people who have less.! Why am I not surprised they won't offer a refund even though they have changed the event. Ahhh motor sport you got to love it.

[1600dave]

I'm waving flags Fri, Sat and Sun morning, then competing in the regularity on Sun arvo, Mon and Tues. Pale green Datsun 1600, car number 41, in the Qld Z Car Club "Red" team. I finished the engine rebuild last Friday, got it running for the first time on Sunday. Ran out of time to fit and tune the new, bigger SU carbs so I'm still running the L18 with the factory "Hitachi" SU carbs. My biggest worry for the event is my lack of straight line speed compared to the many others in the field, will need to make sure my mirrors are in perfect working order 

 

I'll reserve judgement on the event till I've seen how it goes. Although its disappointing that its not a real "Team Regularity" event, I still get 80 minutes track time, plus practice time, plus "Masters" familiarity sessions. If it were still the 6 hour relay format, in our team of 5 mambers I would have had 80 minutes track time, plus practice time, plus "Masters" familiarity sessions.

 

$700 for maybe 2 hours around Bathurst sounds OK to me.

[Whittie]

I'll be waving flags (hopefully at various spots) and should be able to get some good video footage also.

Looks like there will be plenty of datsuns

 

I just bought another battery for the camera so should be able to hot swap them and make sure the in-car footage is going the entire weekend. Good vids will make youtube for sure. Hopefully can catch some tussle's with other zeds. Just gotta make sure everyone knows the story "We weren't racing, we were regularly lapping at the same speed as each other" 

 

Anyone who needs motivation to enter their zed for next year check out my '08 incar zed and '09 incar Supra footage at http://www.youtube.com/user/whittie260

 

Tom.

[NEW240]

Hi Tom.

Met you at Oran park last year (Silver Z no 551) we are sharing the same garage, look forward to catching up with you and your dad. Should be a great weekend.

Cheers Vince.

[.]

$700 for maybe 2 hours around Bathurst sounds OK to me.

 

I think 2 hours is a bit optomistic. I will be happy if I get anywhere near 1 hour.

 

Here is the latest pick of my car ready for the event (minus the comp numbers). I now have the Subi LSD in the car. My top end speed is not the best either, lucky I have all three mirrors working.....just hope a wall doesn't jump out and remove them for me.

[Whittie]

Looks good mate!

 

Looking forward to this more than a little.

 

Although they say the events are 30min each, you have to allow the warm-up and cool-down times, probably 10mins or so, maybe more. Should still get some good laps in with any luck

[Lgee]

PACKED UP ,JACKED UP WE LEAVE IN THE MORNING AT 5, SEE YOU UP THERE

 

[jackhelm93]

Guys i have been up there and i think i talked to a couple of you. I didnt realise that was your car galderdi i might just pop up tomorow and have a bit more of a look around. Whos still racing?

[PeterAllen]

Results:

 

Regularity Festival

http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?06/04/2010.BATH

 

The Way It Was

http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?04/04/2010.BATH

[Whittie]

I'm only on 3G internet here till I get home so it's too hard (and expensive) to get youtube videos going but I did get this good one of Vince and Myself taking the silver bullets bush bashing.

 

 

More coming once I'm back in Perth, probably over the weekend.

 

This was a wholly fantastic weekend and it was great to chat to a few new zed faces. If anyone is considering doing this then I say just bite the bullet and enter! The organisers are accepting ANYTHING that moves and they seem to like the zeds, given the success rate of getting a start in one, so if you put an entry form in it's fairly likely that you will get a spot.

[Lgee]

$738 for 18 laps, meh, i did catch up with a couple guys, the guy in the #26 car, took us 15 hours to get home.

[stevo_gj]

That spinout video on the track is sweet!

[1600dave]

I was flag marshalling on the flag point in the chase where they went off. A GT40 (I think) had dropped oil, the two in the video were only the first to go off - there must have been 10 or more cars all over the place in the next 15 seconds or so. We were waving the yellow flags and waiting for the "BANG" but everyone got through unscathed.

[NEW240]

Thanks for mentioning the oil Dave, I"m thankful it happened there and not up the top.

Other than that I had a fabulous weekend. Good to catch up with with the Qld boys.

Vince.

[.]

Well I had a great time. I did anything but a blistering lap time. I did manage a respectable 3.09 which demonstrates I was slowly improving from my startin point in the 3.30s My car was woefully underpowered going up the hill which cost me dearly but every where else it was sweet...Just don't ask what my top speed was cause I have no idea. I just know the speed was showing past 240.......I mean way past 240. I checked its accuracy with a GPS and I think that equates to about 235. I think this is believable because I am running the 3.9 diff, series 1 280 5th gear and 16 inch wheels and I was doing about 6500-7000rpm down Conrod. Its just a shame all that top end speed cost me so much going up the mountain. The "Cutting" should be renamed to "Pulling Teeth"!!

[1600dave]

Thanks to all the "Z" guys (and the lone Mazda guy  ) for welcoming a ring-in to the team. I had a fantastic time, enjoyed flag marshalling for the first few days and just had an absolute ball on the track 

 

I managed a best time of 3:18 in my Datsun 1600, likewise down from around 3:35 at first. I was showing a top speed of 181 down conrod straight on a datalogger, so should be accurate. My 1600 is still fairly standard (L18 with SU carbs, last time on the dyno showed 68hp at the wheels) and compared to a "Z" has the aerodynamics of a brick, so I don't doubt that the zeds would have been hitting much higher speeds.

 

Beforehand, I was concerned about my top speed down conrod straight being an issue, but I found the run up mountain straight and thru the cutting was what really killed me. I took the corner onto mountain straight in 3rd, and only hit 4th after I was already over the "hump" towards the end of the straight. In 4th for maybe 100 metres, back to 3rd for the corner, then the run up to the cutting in 3rd was just painful 

 

Towards the end of the meeting I was starting to really enjoy the run across the top of the mountain, and particulary from "Skyline" onwards. This was the scariest bit initially, but once I got the hang of it, it was very satisfying to get a decent run through there. Amazing how steep and narrow it is in parts though, you just don't get an accurate impression from seeing it on the tele.

 

Thanks again everyone. Have to start saving for next year, I think I'm hooked....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sco_aus]

Man that looks like fun.  I will point out though, that the Z nats are on at Wakefield Park next easter, 2 good options for the weekend

[D.O.G]

I'm not really into racing much but Mt Panorama is special, so I packed the wife and son in the Datsun for an outing.

My son and I had a ball on the Saturday, wandering through the pits, or watching from 5 or 6 spots around the track.

It was great to see Zeds on the track and a few in the carpark. I was surprised at some of the other cars on the track but overall it seemed a great mix of odd and awesome.

 

My wife was brave until lunchtime, then went shopping.

[.]

Man that looks like fun.  I will point out though, that the Z nats are on at Wakefield Park next easter, 2 good options for the weekend

 

Guys, I hope many of us get behind the nationals again next year. I know how hard it is to organise and participation is the best way to show our appreciation. Maybe....just Maybe it would be possible to attend the Thurs, Frid, Sat sessions at the mountain. Then head on to Wakefield. Wouldn't that be awsome. For us that have to travel for days to get there killing two birds with one stone would be excellent. I won't get my hopes up though.

[.]

Here are the Bathurst videos. Sorry about the quality. I didn't realise the camera tends to point up. Next time I will need to have them further down my nose.

 

It seems so much slower on video too.

 

[260DET]

Seems like everyone had a good time and no prangs, may try it myself next year with the 280ZXT. Some air getting under the front of those S30's, compare the space between the top of the front wheel and the mudguard arch when stopped and when moving at speed. The two pics of that silver Z (Dadsons?) show this clearly.

 

Needs one of Greg's deep front spoilers, for a start.

 

Is that red #12 Lee Faulkner? Look at the front of that lifting 

[.]

Yes that was Lee.

[1600dave]

The photos I posted of the various Zeds were coming out of Hell corner, and accellerating hard up mountain straight. Roadster was at the end of conrod straight. The nose lift is probably more due to accelleration than aerodynamics as they would have only been travelling at 100kph or thereabouts (well, that's what I was doing at that point of the track, so they may have been going faster  )

[Whittie]

Hi all,

 

Well back in the land of the real today and got some new footage up of my 2:55.3 lap. I believe this is the fastest lap around Bathurst of any road registered zed of the weekend. This does exclude "Targa" cars and is restricted to R-comp tyres. This 'historic class' is pretty popular and is what I base all my mods on for eligibility.

 

 

Hope to do Philip Island AND Bathurst next year.

 

Dave (260DET) my car (Dadson) has the swan on the rear fenders and you can see in the vid down conrod just how much air gets under the zed. I do believe that the bonnet vents (Hybridz thread) made a difference compared to last time as well as helping cooling. There will be a few mods before next time though so it will be interesting to compare to next year!

 

To be honest, that trip through the esses and the dipper was too fast. I alsmost kissed the wall into McPhilamy (spelling??) park too...

 

I am in the process of putting up some photos too, I'll post a link when I'm done.

 

Tom.

 

**EDIT**

 

My dad beat me to the punch, the photos are here:

 

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v621/Tommo560/Bathurst%202010/

 

Also look on the left hand side of the page for the sub albums in the folder with the photos broken up by day. A few highlights for me:

 

 

 

 

[260DET]

The photos I posted of the various Zeds were coming out of Hell corner, and accellerating hard up mountain straight. Roadster was at the end of conrod straight. The nose lift is probably more due to accelleration than aerodynamics as they would have only been travelling at 100kph or thereabouts (well, that's what I was doing at that point of the track, so they may have been going faster  )

 

Yeh, I guess my point is that most S30's lift, lean, pitch etc too much, compare them with any decent modern sports car to see the difference. If you don't have a good structural cage there is not a lot that can be done due to body flex, except for the aero stuff.

 

Great pics by the way, thanks for putting them up