Asleep
She's been sitting in the garage for most of the year but that may change this weekend.
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Asleep
She's been sitting in the garage for most of the year but that may change this weekend.
Auckland Car Club Clubmans Meeting 9/09/2007
We thought we needed to get some more racing experience so we went out to Puke and did the clubmans meeting. The weather forecast was crap but it managed to be dry for the first half of the day. I went in to quilifying full of confidence knowing I could beat the field which comprised of a porsche (bad word), a something else and a honda civic that races in the SS2000. But even though I though I was doing perfect laps I only managed a 1.11.300 which is at least 2 seconds of the pace. The civic did a mid 10 so got the pole. Bugger. In the first race he drove away from me! Double bugger. I could not go any faster - when I pushed I almost had a moment in the esses when the back went. Duncan and me were scratching our heads as to what it could be we though it was heavy with fuel and I am sure Duncan though the driver was a bit rusty . . .
Then it started to spit and then drizzle and then rain. Bloody Puke and the bloody rain. Duncan changed the tyres to wets and we found the pace problem. The tyres (especially the back rear) were poked. Adding back they have done about 300+ laps at least. So the next race on wets I managed to get the jump on the Civic and drive away from him. I also got half the class that was running with us and the had a 20 second head start. Conditions were atrocius and thank god for the Rainix but a wins a win. And its the first win . . . hopefully the start of many. We were supposed to get another race but they canned it due to the rain.
250 Resto
Andrew has started the restoration process - The body work is being done by Golden Gun by Ray. Ray has a 246 Dino and his car was the first Ferrari I ever went for a ride in at Puke in about 1995. Such a village we live in. I have put a Category in on the left for the Resto, and hopefully Andrew will send me some more photos. He could also add some comments below and tell us whats going on with it . . .
Finally a Nice Day at Puke
The last 3 times I have been to Puke in the Integra since we did the diff and the brakes it has rained - in fact since Taupo in the morning I havn't driven on a dry track. So friday came and the sun was shining (in between the clouds)
It was also the first day I have gone to the track without Duncan so I had a liitle bit of learning to do but his instructions about shocks and tyre pressures were great. There was quite a bit of traffic, a couple of NZ V8's and lots of Porsches and the usual bunch of hard driving talentless guys in road cars! (One guy in a new M5 was pissing me right off - quick down the straight but so slow through the corners. The electronics were definately making this guy a hero . . .)
So it was hard to get a clean lap. I was going out and driving 14-16 laps per session and only a couple in each were clear. I was slow in the morning and scratching my head a bit, struggling to break the 1.10 barrier. I even asked one of the V8 guys if the track was slow but he was finding it fine. Bugger!
Finally found form in the afternoon - fastest lap was a 1.09.41 which was not the 1.08 that I was looking for but I felt more comfortable in general. The car was going faster down the straight - the diff has mad a big diference coming out of slow to medium corners. I was also feeling better under brakes and in the traffic. Passed a few porsches!
The NZ V8 cars are much faster than me and I had my first off trach excursion. He was on my bumper all the way throught the sweeper and I made the mistake of looking in the rearview mirror and all I could see was his car! Blew my braking point and drove straight on to the grass feeling a little sheepish.
Sunday Blast
After getting rained out the week before owe went for a quick blast on Sunday morning that was sort of a rehash of last years club run with Mat and his new 430 F1 and Andrew with his 'old' 430 Manual and me with the Ferrari from the Dark Ages.
Now I'm not one to lust after the unaffordable . . . but Mat's car is very well speced. Carbon everywhere and race seats. We had a great run and a lucky break with a cop and then I had to hightail it home to keep Justine happy. Spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the car and Justines.
Ferrari Ownership is the most peculiar thing. Now I love my car. It goes as fast as one would possible want to go on the road and it is a wonderful road car. It is the best sounding car Ferrrari has built and most of the magazines celebrating the 60th Birthday made mention of the 355 as one of the landmark cars. There is no logical reason to me wanting a 430.
But for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning I was lusting pretty hard . . .
1960 250 Pininfarina Coupe
A guy from the club has just bought this in from America as a do up project. When it came out of the container it wouldn't start so no honeymoon here. He is planning on gutting it and rebuilding the entire car. I love the lines especailly the rear 3/4 view - it is very reminiscent of the 250 GT California in the rear lights. They only bult about 353 of these - here is the link to the official register.
http://web.mac.com/ferrari250pfcoupe
A Simple Journey
I was going over to see paul and I thought I would take the Ferrari to make sure the battery was ok given its 3 weeks since its last outing. Get it. Start. Nothing but a click. Battery must be flat so I go get the Corolla (with the new battery). Click. Not the battery. A quick feel around and the starter motor wire was loose but they have billed me twice for fixing it. Grumpy . . . .
Puke with Paul
Went to Puke today with Paul who had a big accident in the Targa - rolled about 4 times and trashed his car! What a way to get on TV. Check out here for the full story http://paulgalemitchell.blogspot.com/
This is his new car and it was his first day on the track with it. He's planning on doing the Production Racing Series with me and Duncan.
Was fine when we got there and we got a few dry laps in. The diff in the integra has definitly made a change in the car - gets out of the hairpin much better but its not so good turning in under power in the corner before the hill. We didn't get any meaningful lap times as the lap timer wasn't working. Then it rained.
Spent the rest of the day driving in the rain showing Paul lines and where to get on and of the gas. The WRX has lots of grunt but needs work to be settled. Had a couple of moments but nothing major. I had a moment in the integra a the bottom of the hill trying the rain tyres on the integra - puke is a scary place. No runoffs just walls.
I hope next time its fine . . . . I can feel an 8 in the car . . .
430 Scuderia
This car is being released at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September - I need one . . . and I love the gold wheels. The word is it's faster than an Enzo around the Ferrari test track.
Throttle Potentiometer (SP?)
The joys of Ferrari ownership bit my wallet again today - the car was throwing up a "Check Engine Light" on the trip back from Taupo and we thought (me and the guy at Contis) it would be an O2 sensor on the exhaust getting wet and making the light flicker.
Dropped it in and they plugged it in and it was a Throttle body potentiometer (my spelling's attrocius) was faulty - $240 for the part plus labour. Bugger but I suppose it could have been much worse.
Also my daily driver corolla needed a battery today - why do they always go flat in the pouring rain? Bloody cars . . .
55700
Taupo First Time
Been a busy few months - New Baby girl, busy at work and busy with the cars - hence no posts. We did a test day at Taupo on monday - w hat a great day. We had the track to ourselves with The Integra and the F355.
Jono Lester came out to do some training and he was great - showed us where the lines were and also a few tips on driving the car. The Integra also has a new diff and some new front brake rotors. Its now getting to the end of the development and it is a very well balanced quick car. I ended up doing a 1.45.770 which compared favorabley to Zane Coppins pole lap at the A1GP meting of 1.45.707. Its a great track to improve your driving on.
Taupo is great - you really have to be patient with the throttle to get a flow going and the corners are a sequence - you duff one and you loose a quater of the lap. It rained in the afternoon and Russell took the Integra out and I was chasing him in the 355. The 355 is a couple of seconds a lap slower (mainly in the infield corners) but in a straight line the 355 is quicker.
Looking forward to my next fix.
Btw, the Ferrari has had its shocks rebuilt and is a different car. I also had to plead guilty to the speeding ticket as the cop who nailed me is "the cop they use to do DIC's on cops" - no chance of him making a mistake.
Have a look at Jono's page here - some interesting reading www.jonolester.com
V8 Supercars Meeting 20-22 April 2007
I am posting this way after the event but I though it significant enough to post. After 3 practise days my first race in the Integra was at Puke infront of about 60000 people which was an amazing experience to say the least!
The format was Qualifying 8.15an Friday morning and the Race 1 Friday afternoon. Race 2 was Saturday just before the V8s. I was very nervous!
I went out and did 7 laps in qualifying and set a 1.10.6 which was quicker than I had gone before and was good enough for a 3rd on the grid behind Jim Boult in the BMW and Zane Coppins in the Integra. Job done and I felt great! Then we did the thing that is the plague of motor racing - wait.
By the time I lined up on the grid I was almost in a full blown panic attack i was so nervous. I had never had a car race before and I was feeling it! When the lights went out It was a bit of a blur but The first couple of laps I was running 4th on the road and missing gearshifts and when I did setle down and got control of myself I ran over the kerb at turn 3 (like you are supposed to do) and the ignition circut shorted and killed the car. Bugger - parked it up on the grass and then got the tow in. We late found out on of the kill switch terminals fron the prevoius owners garage shorted on a steel piece with the bump - its long gone now.
Was feeling a little depressed with my performance up to that point when we got the lap sheets though - was way off the pace doing 12's and 11's. Dissapointing.
Saturday was a differentr race though. Starting off the back because of the DNF I got off the line well and passed the Integra of Peter Hills. Then tucked in behind the Mazda RX-8 of Joblin and got him in the first bit of the main straight. Then drove a calm race to finish 4th and My best lap time was a 1.10 flat - a much better result. Coppins won from Jim Boult and Jim set the lap record at 1.09.13
It was a fantastic experience and my team was awesome - Duncan gave me the perfect car and Clint and Russell were a great help. I'm also very lucky my wife lets me do this . . .
Results at http://www.motorsport.org.nz/Results/raceresults.htm and click on the production racing results at Puke
Ferrari Neglect
Came home tonight and took the Ferrari out for a strop. First time I have driven it out of town for a while. Lately I have been questioning why I own it when the integra is such a cheap hot thing.
For the first half of the drive I was comparing them and the shocks do need doing . . .but on some fast open stuff this car is the business. It is a fantastic road car whereas the integra is a fantastic track car.
I like to think I don't own it for what it is, but the experiences it gives me and when you're like that you need to experience it to turly appreciate it. I havn't been on the last couple of club runs either for various reasons and I'm looking forward to the next one.
1.10.97
Thats how long it took me to do a lap of puke today in the integra. I'm about only a second off the pace for the leading guys in the class - stoked!
Had a cople of moments today - the back stepped out around the sweeper and later a drift idiot tryed to chuck it sideways in the sweeper and me and the GT3 that had just passed me had to take avoiding action. I now have a nice flatspot on one of the front tyres to go with my hate of drifters.
Got another run in 3 weeks and then the V8 round at puke. Shake and Bake baby . . . .
Integra Track Day
First Track day in the integra. What a great car. It ran like a Japanese hatchback all day even though it was getting the nuts thrashed off it. Duncan (the guy looking after it) has done an amazing job. It used to torque steer like nothing on earth and now it is so well behaved its almost like a different car. Very well balanced and it goes very well. Best time of the day was a 1.13.09 and this was in traffic on a busy track day. The Production car class pole time in October was a 1.09.78 and there is alot to come from how I'm driving the car. I'm going to do the V8 meeting at puke in April to get the first race meeting jitters out of the way before next season. Might do the enduro series as well.
Shocks Take 2
Now that the shocks need rebuilding its going in to CCS to have the shocks taken out and then they are going to be couriered to Melbourne to Phil who's going to get them rebuilt. Muck cheaper than the $6k per set and just as effective. Its going to be a good opportunity to check all the suspension assembly and with a little luck it'll drive like new. Just waiting on sorting the Integra as having 2 financial drains at the same time is not a good thing . . .
Track Day
Had a track day at Puke today, was trying to get the integra ready but the suspension guy was choked up doing NZ V8's so no luck. However, taking a ferrari to track is pretty sweet too!
But it didn't feel so good. Was a bit sloppy coming up over the hill and we played with the tyre pressures and it settled down but not as much as I would have liked. The new tyres felt different too. Coming into the esses after the main straight swweped it was pitching when changing direction like the back shocks wern't doing the business. Scotty timed a me ond some laps and 2 up it was doing 1.17's. Car probably has a 14 in it maybe but not with me!
Later in the day Andy Booth took me to do some laps and he confirmed that the back shocks are past there best. (I should also note that he almost made me shit my pants - I almost told him to slow down . . . one of lifes incredible experiences)
THere was a 599 GTB there - he hit 262 down the main straight. A few 430's and an assortment of old single seaters.
Breakdown
As mentioned below it was just a cable on the starter motor that caused the fault but (theres always a but . . .)
The first call as about the tyres - needs 4 Pirrelli P Zero's. Ouch. Then the second call was that the warrant runs out tomorrow and the CV rubber boots in the back have failed and need replacing. And a brakeline in the front needs replacing as it has a bulge. $1150ish + $3800. There was also a thunk noise coming from the car when engaging the clutch in First gear - I haven't heard the results of this . . .
53200ish km
Fun Run Febuary 2007
We had a good run today out south through Pukekohe and Mercer and back up through to Manukau Heights. What made it quite entertaining was the F355B broke down. Sitting not very far away from this 512bb at Mercer my car refused to start and we had to push start it! Turns out a wire had fallen off the starter motor so nothing terminal but it had me going for a while.
I have a new gadget and this is exactly where the run went. My average speed was 80.1kmh and the max was 161.3
Integra!
F355B has some company in the Garage now with this! Its a 2001 Integra Type R Race car with a full cage, no interior and Mugen computer, exeddy race clutch, factory LSD, brembo brakes, Koni adjustable suspension. 240hp and not too much slower the the Ferrari. I have been stalking this on Trademe for the last few months and finally it all cam together. Planning on doing Targa with it and also the producton car series this coming summer.
360 N-GT Michelotto S/N 11
In 2002 at the Aussie GP I took this photo - turns out this car left aussie and went racing in Europe and then came back to aussie and was bought by Scott (360C in this thread, he also owns a 308GTB and a yellow F50!). Have a read its quite interesting . . .
Court Summons
I got my court summons today - going to court on the 12th of April over the last speeding ticket. Hopefully I'll get off!
Fun Run January 2007
The first run of the year and what a cracker - drove to the outskirts of Hamiltron to hang out with a lot of flies! Check out the front of the car. But seriously, saw the second 599 in the country driving and what an awesome car. The detaing on this car is spectacular. Ferrari always seem to be looking forwards in their design and that one of the fantastic things about the marque.
Now I'm not very proud to admit it but I hit the limiter trying to out accelerate Callums 430 out of a corner - dumb stuff given he has 100 more horsepower than me but also part of what makes the runs great. We parked up and I found out I wasn't the only one to hit the limiter!
599 GTB Launch
One of the great things about owning a Ferrari is you get invited to Launches! The 599 GTB has been praised workwide as the best car on the planet. We went, we saw, we had a sit and we were impressed. (although the price tag at $565,000 stopped me ordering). We also got pissed which was quite good too.The guy who ordered it must have been in the crowd - it must have been quite a feeling to be standing in the crowd seeing your ferrari under a cover and the crowd not knowing it was yours.
Christmas Run 2006
We went out west for this run and there was a bit too much traffic but there was some good eye candy around! Callum bought this along and what a mad car. The body is mostly of carbon fibre and it has some severe presence on the road. The colour almost makes sense as well given how extravagant it is. On the V12 engine it also has the most useless piece of trivia - the engine firing order!
We drove to Huia and then to Piha and had lunch at Cassells. I took most of these in the carpark. Maya came with me and was bored off her face. Slept through the last half!
Proper Track Day
Finally got a track day at Puke. It was awesome and no cops. I am sick of Cops! In the morning it was raining and we were trudging around behind a pace car and I was thinking what a waste of time but it came right in a big hurry.
We also did a slalom excercise in the wet which involved us going through the hairpin in the wet. This was the first time I have had the back of the car break loose. Something which you'd have to be trying real hard to do in the dry.
After Lunch they ran us around with some chicanes in the back straight to get the feel of it with instructors and I missed out. On my third run Andy Boothe got in the car and gave me a lesson i puke and the car. I was fine changing up and gaining speed from the hairpin to the end of the front straight but braking and changing down had me rooted. You are supposed to use the brakes to slow you down but I had always used some engine braking to help me (a very old habit) and i was all over the place. But by the end I was braking in a straight line, changing gear only to get into the right gear to accelerate in and carrying alot more corner speed because of it.
I also got a ride in Paul's Maserati Trofero Targa Car in between sessions and man that was a rush. The brakes were awesome and the car had great grip and balance. It was also the fist time I had ridden in a car with a sequential gearbox - great for keeping both hands on the wheel but it made my learning experience above redundant. Sort of like playing playstation - you don't need to coordinate your body (maybe it could be a good thing given my coordination levels) but I think you also miss a part of the experience.
My fastest laps in the 355 can in the last session when they took all the chicanes out and we went for it. I did 235 down the back straight and I was breaking at about 200 on the front straight. There is still more to come the more I get used to the new driving technique. I followed a F430 in this session and he passed me on the straight but he didn't get much more than 6 car legnths ahead of me after that. All in all a great day . . .
