The Hill.

It's here folks:

Noosa hill climb

I'll be going on the 10th. So anyone who can make it, I can give a lift from my place. Drop me a line!

Last year we had showers, but that didn't detract from the event significantly, plenty of historic and contemporary racing going on.

I'd say think of it as your local Goodwood festival of speed, but that might be overdoing it a bit. Mind you, as a bitumen drag up a hill it's pretty great, and there are plenty of vantage points.

Order of the day will be:

• Leave my place around 7:30am (unless it 's raining, see below).
• Take the following:
• A red cagoule so you look like a car nerd. (or something similar I suppose).
• Something to eat, there was a reasonable cafe, but it's at the bottom of the hill.
• A camera - you can walk the pits. Fast shutter/SLR for racing shots or you'll be disappointed.
• Maybe something to sit on - even a basic sheet or similar, it gets tiring standing all day.
• Racing finishes at 4pm, I'm planning on staying the distance unless it's raining (see below).

Oh no it's raining!
If it's raining I'll be watching the radar for an hour, if it's typical monsoon then no racing. If it's patchy showers then I'll be going. So leaving around 8:30.

This folks, is one of the better motoring events of the year in this region and has the capacity to be an excellent day's outing.

If you're driving, my advice is to head for Sunrise Road - it's at the top of the hill and generally speaking is easier to get into and out of (you can hook in from the Bruce easily enough).

Hope you can make it,
Andrew

E30 Sit Rep....

I think this sums up where I'm at right now:

Turns out there's quite a lot of parts in a car - I can see why folks end up with a half dismantled car parked under their house now. Like this in fact....

Amazingly the car would or at least should still drive! Commitment to breaking this one this weekend I think!

Of my white one?

• Rear light replaced - old one was cracked.
• Headlights replaced - were wobbly, the 'Ron' had new style.
• Air box replaced - was wobbly, the 'Ron' had a proper BMW one - good for now.
• Myriad of electrical and interior parts swapped out or fitted. My good one doesn't look like the above!

Work progresses, I'm heading towards investment time though, only big jobs left really...

League Fatigue

Hi Folks.
We're not exactly filling the grid on our Thursday nights, no matter, but it does mean the whole "let's have a championship" is thrown into a bit of disarray.

As such, unless there's an overwhelming response I'm going to ditch the points for this season - we'll consider regrouping for GT6 I think, possibly in the new year.

Oh no!

Oh wait...

I'll still be making a point of racing on a Thursday night, and when there's four or more racers online (not so much of late) then we'll look to meet the racing calendar's events. If it's three of us, well, we'll run what we brung on the night - as we have been - and have a jolly good thrash nevertheless.

Keep your class cars, including your GroupB racer - we'll still observe league rules in most of our races, lets face it the classes work and provide most entertaining racing!

It has all got a bit GroupB though - a few races and all cancel! Here's one of if not the last race of that class...

Epic racing I'm sure you'll agree.

I'll also keep posting to this blog - I like it as a resource for me and blogging what I'm doing with my Beemer - though I do need to sort image hosting.

Finally (and I wish I had camera evidence) I had the good fortune to race on RFactor at an industry conference, using these guys. Of course, I set fastest lap around Lakeside on my second lap - apparently to the surprise of the organiser, given it had been in heavy use for three days before I sat down there for a quick blast. Alas I wasn't eligible for the finale (Fix!), which was 3 laps around Bathurst in a V8 racer. Shame, I had a go after and was five seconds up on the winners time, 2:22 which I'm pleased enough with given the time I had on the set-up. Highlight of my conference I can tell you!

See you all on Thursday night(s) - I'm up for the racing of course*

Cheers
Andrew

* Except on the 31st, I'm away then!

Madness

I used to think Sprint Boat racing was probably the most extreme form of motor sport going, after all, a boats pretty hardcore if you need to stick a roll cage in it.  Here's a clip from a few years ago.

Today, I stumble across this race(well 2 actually) that put a pretty big smile on my face. These 600hp monsters with enormous suspension travel belt around the Toronto Indy Car Street circuit often on 3 and occasionally on 2 wheels  plus compulsory jumps around the track.  The action starts at 4.45, well worth watching even the 1st lap or 2...

Bits in the boot...

Unlike the 1994/5 Alfa Romeo Touring cars the bits in my boot aren't go faster things.
The story with them was that basically you had to have a BTCC car that matched the silhouette of the road car - so when you bought a 155 Alfa it came with some extra rear spoiler bits to raise it - in the boot.

These cars in fact:

Anyway, today, it seems that I've messed about and achieved very little other than getting to know my car and the 'Ron'. I do know that parking a car in the sun all day doesn't make it easier to crawl around.

So why 'the boot'?
Here:

Altogether too much high capacity red cable kicking about. That at least has been easy to remove. But, horrors... that little black box looks remarkably like some sort of immobiliser. Certainly it was/is wired to the battery. But then it gets weird. It also seems to be wired into the rear number plate light too.

I hope it's a remote central looking kit - which would be handy as mine still doesn't unlock on the key (I wonder, connected?). I also know I'm not game to go pulling wires out and see without being able to start the car  (remember no radiator so no running).

What have I achieved - well the dash in my car looks a lot tidier now, there's a stereo waiting to go in and generally the interior is around 90% sorted I'd say. I'll take a pic once I'm happy that it's good enough.

[edit] Finished fitting the stereo, complete with power aerial isolator switch - why? because I had a switch that's why. Here it is:

Not exciting to anyone but me who's had a two day fight to get this somewhere near where it is (fixing a few other things along the way of course).
What's left in the cabin?

• Throttle bushes - sat on my shelf.
• Gear Knob and boot - $80 from ebay, five minute fit (there, tempted fate).
• Plastic gutter guards etc - I have two of everything so not concerned...
• A set of 6x9 speakers for the shelf - all ready to go, wired and mounting points are in there.
• Fix the horn either by fixing the wooden monstrosity or buy a new steering wheel - xmas treat I think.

Once that quite minor list is done I'm going to be pretty happy with the interior being fit for purpose. I'd like to wire in a fan override and activity light simply because I don't want to cook my engine, but that's a future world thing.

Happy days.

Guess the track!

Oh yes...

Like you didn't know it already. But night racing too!