Day 0 – Prologue – Wednesday

The Prologue is to determine the starting order for the competitive stages of the event. It was run on part of the old GP circuit. It was very slippery even though it was dry and 37˚. We did a 2.22. Beat our main competition (Curnick/Winter #416 2.7 RS replica “the girls”) by a second. Also beat Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down, Hulk etc) in his 944 by a few 10ths and we end up starting right behind him.

Prologue

Prologue

Day 1 – Thursday

It was good for most of the day. We were going reasonably hard but the girls took a few seconds from us until the eventful last stage of the day, the 12 km Corkscrew. About half way into the stage the clutch pedal went to the floor and stayed there. The only gear I could find was 4th, so we went as far as we could in 4th and I parked it beside the road 2km from the finish because there was no way it would go up the mountain at the end which had first gear hairpins. After watching the field go past and waiting about 2.5 hours the tilt tray arrived and took us back to the service area. Gear box then came out and we find that the clutch fork pivot has unscrewed itself from the case. It has a pull clutch in it. So we put it back together (with some locktite) ready for the next day.

Meanwhile the Girls in the 911 have engine problems on Corkscrew, but manage to finish the stage. Turns out to be broken rocker, broken inlet valve and bent exhaust valve. Not pretty; see photo below.

D 1

D1

D 1

D 1

D 1

D 1

The Girls cylinder head

Wrong photo

Day 2 – Friday

Starts with the Coromandel stage which is a fantastic bit of road. We really hammered it. Second stage was Wickham Hill and about 2 km into the stage the clutch pedal goes to the floor again. Fortunately I got it into 3rd so we drive through the stage. Its obvious because of the smoke what’s happened. The pivot bolt has pulled out of the case and gear oil is coming out the hole and falling on the exhaust.

Back at the service area as soon as the box is out our diagnosis is proved correct. This time its pulled the time cert out of the case. So if found a mechanic with a lathe and drilled a hole through the centre of the pivot ball, made up a top hat bush to go in from the diff side, drilled out the time cert hole and bolted the thing back together. Becko and I are sick of groveling under the car and eating fast food by this time.

Day 3 – Saturday

The Dog pulls like a train all day. Becko gets the calls right and I drive it pretty hard. Whilst the result is now irrelevant because of the time we have lost we end up running in the low 20’s for the day in our classic division. Our friends Norm and Nigel King in their E21 BMW came to grief on Basket Range. The car went in fairly hard and then caught fire, putting Norm (the navigator father) in hospital for a few hours. He ended up with a broken toe and chipped tooth. See photo below. Later investigation reveals that the sway bar/drag link broke where it goes into the lower control arm most probably because the bushing material was changed to poly graphite.

D 3

D 3

Day 4 – Sunday

Pretty much a repeat of Saturday, although we take the first stage gently after about 1km into it the Dog gets a serious front end vibration. Transpires that it has shed some wheel weights so we ignore it for the rest of the day. Managed to rotate it on Piccadilly and scare Becko a bit. Came out of a series of sweeping downhill corners at the top of 3rd (about 130kmh) and coming out of the last one the back steps out, had 2 or 3 goes at catching it but she just went round. Didn’t hit anything, but it made me a bit more careful for the rest of the day.

All in all a great event but I wish I hadn’t missed most of day 2. But as they say that’s motorsport.

PS The Girls did manage to get the engine in their car running after putting a replacement head on it but it was sick so they parked it for the weekend and went out and drowned their sorrows a couple of times.

D 4

D 4

Thanks for the report Howard. We were following the results here. I'm glad you got it fixed.
Those pictures are awesome, too!

well done

fantastic photography and a great car.

You fought the good fight.
We are all very proud of your effort.

also werd

that is totally f-ing awesome.

i WILL do something like that one day.


congratulations

Thanks guy, I forgot to mention that there were a lot of interesting cars in the non competition tour; all sorts of Ferraris, Porsche museum 356's, 13 Gullwing Mercs mostly from US, and a Carrera GT from Cali. It went past us when we were parked on Corkscrew and the sound of it going up the hill was a bit like an F1 car.

Stunning looking car, great pics
iow... AWESOME!!!

So, is the cheque in the mail for the 2005 round? I'd not of thought the pivot was a weak point. Any ideas why it failed? Who was taking all of the pictures? They got some great shots. I like the one of the city far below.

I take it that some cars like the very fast 59 Karmann Ghia were quite tricked out.

Photos were taken by Perfect Prints from Hobart. The Kharman Ghia is something else. Pretty much a purpose built race car. The regs are getting tighter each year for the classics, eg the Cattlin Mustang run last year with full Motec kit and 6 speed Holinger sequential box couldn't be run this year so they built another.

I found out after the event that if you use a tricked up pull clutch then you have to bolt the pivot right through or it will pull out. The clutch has a 5 button carbon metallic disc with 2400lbs clamp pressure.

That picture of the car airborne is absolutely awesome!

It just became a resident on my hard drive.

awesome pictures...any larger/higher resolution pictures??

thanks

Mike, I can scan them to any resolution you like. I only scanned them in low res so far so I could post them. The after market pace notes we buy warn us when we are likely to get air.

Good job & great pics, Howard. Sorry that a breakage ruined your fun. Like I always say.....we'll get em' next year.

Great post great pictures... looks like a fun time thanks

wow.... i have a new screensaver

Howard

Beautiful car and way to go. It's great to see you runnung the car in such a classic competition.

Maybe someday I'll get an opportunity like that

Dave

Howard,

thanks for sharing with us..
REALLY REALLY GREAT!!!!
good job.


can I ask you a few questions about your front end set up?

specifically I'm looking at the front tires in the front wheel wells and guestimating ride height.
-are they 15inch wheels?
-what is your front suspension set up?
-anything special for bump stop?
-anything special for lowering (body drop or raised spindles?)

Looks really good
beautiful car
good job

brant

Thanks guys. Brant, they are 15 x 7 wheels with 205 55 15 Yoko 0032R tyres (spelt the proper way for 914RS). The spindles have been raised 19mm and the steering arms bent down 19mm. Standard 19mm torsion bars and adjustable 18mm sway bar set to half. (I may go up in front torsion bar at some time). 1.5 deg neg, 4.5 deg caster, 0.2mm toe in each side. The corner weights worked out about 230 kg each side on the front and about 285kg each side on the rear. For completeness the rear has 145 lb Eibach springs and standard rear sway bar. Also 1.5 deg neg and 0.5mm toe in each side. I can't tell you what the ride heights are because the book is in the car which is on a truck in the inland flat country somewhere.

Howard,

thanks a ton.
my father and I were debating as the front looks very low (good)....

he said that you must have some extra spindle work and once again he was right...

beautiful pictures..
good job

brant

Thanks for sharing the pictures.. Awesome!

I am envious, not only do you have some awesome pictures but you have the memories of the turns that go with them!

Great pics Howard!

I made up a wallpaper jpg for my own use. If anyone is interested:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/adelaide.jpg