Well I ran in the AHC last weekend. I knew I wouldn't be competitive in the over 2L Sport Sedan Class on the road legal semi slicks, but I figured it would be a good chance to run a fast time with 4 days of cars laying down rubber on the track. I had a few goals in mind - beating my previous PB in this car 46.35, beating my GTR's time 46.24, and trying to break into the 45's.

I did 3 runs in the Friday Practice with a 47.4 and two 46.9's. We got 6 official runs on Sat and Sun. I ran:
46.66, 47.08, 46.39, 46.33, 46.54, 46.59

So I just managed to beat the car's PB by 0.02 with the 46.33. At least I'm consistently down in the mid 46's now. That's about as fast as I can drive it in its current setup.

I finished 6th out of 7 cars in the over 2L Sport Sedans class, two hundreths of a second behind 5th place and 2.52 seconds behind the winner -
Michael Collin's insanely fast WRX 2200cc 43.81
other cars in the class were:
Mark Trenoweth's awesome V12 Jag XJS 6000cc 43.84
Alan Hunt's LJ Torana 3408cc 43.96
Wayne Burden's Gemini 3300cc 45.26
Darren Siddin's Supercharged Escort 2038S 46.31
Sean Sorensen Anglia 2600T 46.74

A set of slicks would make it competitive in Sport Sedans. A mate of mine, John Siddins ran on slicks this time in his 3000cc 240Z. His previous best on semi slicks was 48.20 (class record) and on 220/560*15 Dunlop mediums he ran 45.60 for a new class record. Exactly 2.6 seconds quicker. If that translated to my car I'd be right up there against those Sport Sedans.

for those not familiar with the classes, Sport Sedans can run lightweight body panels, rplace glass (except windscreens) free suspension, wheels up to 14" wide I think, and can recess the engine to the mid point of the wheelbase. I run full steel and glass, production suspension design with the associated ride height limitations, Improved prod limits on wheel widths (8" max). So does the class winner, Michael Collins' WRX btw. Its in full street trim with interior, full glass, exhaust etc and runs road legal semi slicks. Its an amazing car! He had a new shift cut system on for this wekend so he could flat-shift the close ratio dog box. Its staggering fast. To put it in perspective, Kevin Mackrell's insane 830bhp 6000cc V8 4wd 260Z on 280-300mm wide slicks ran 42.82, 0.99 faster than michael Collins' road registered WRX on semi slicks! And Stuart Inwood's fast GTR from NSW which is also road registerd and on road legal semi slicks ran 44.89, 1.08sec slower than Collins.

Grant Liddell won the under 1600cc Improved Production class in his A15 1200 Coupe in a very tight battle with 4 cars seperated by just 0.6sec! He ran a very creditable 50.01, ahead of a whole bunch of modern twin cam 4valve powered cars like a mid 90's Civic racecar, a 4AGE Sprinter and a few Swift GTi's. Great to see the old A series still kicking arse!

Peter Gumley is the 2007 Australian Hillclimb Champion with a 37.53 just 0.11 away from his own track record time, ahead of Andrew Howell's Gould 37.62 and Alan McConnell's Van Diemen 38.50 in thrid. Until the final run Gumley was just 0.01 sec ahead of Howell so it was a great battle for outright honours. Man those things are awesome to watch!

pics to come when they're available. in the meantime, there's a bunch of small pics here

Great result and good report Harry... well done. Where do you think you will go with the suspension setup from here? 4-Link ?

dunno Benny. As Gary and Paul (b310gx) pointed out, the car need to be built to fit a class. either fit a turbo restrictor and run improved production or whack a set of slicks on and run sport sedans. it would be very competitive in either category. I don't want to cut it up for 4links or stuff like that. And personally I'd rather spend money on making it faster with the slicks rather than slower with a turbo restrictor and retune.

But there was an expression of interest in buying the car on the weekend, so we'll have to wait and see what happens there first.

Hard decision there harry, IPRA it or sports sedan. I reckon IPRA it cause sports sedan is pretty much a bottomless pit of development. I wonder how much the restrictor would choke your car and i know the suspension in it is John Taylors starting package (which is very good) but I reckon shes got a alot of time left in her. But your driving as consistant as the car is letting you.

Good read Harry and well done given the rest of the field,if i was in your position i would'nt do anything just yet other than getting in as much competition as possible,making a few small tweaks along the way to help the times drop a bit,we all know with a limited budget these things take ages to get to our liking.The split times will be interesting to compare with the others in the class,to see where the car needs more pace to have it closer to the pointy end.Don't drop your chin,you did a good job,and forget IPRA unless you win the pools,it's more than S/Sedan at our level
Cheers

Thanks Bert. I'm not used to being so far down the order, but running semi slicks compared to everyone else on full slicks I knew I was on a hiding to nothing before the event, so I was trying to focus on my PB and just getting the most I could out of the car. I tried not to worry about what times everyone else was doing. I can't drive it any faster than that, and I was pretty happy with my consistency too.

I think with a set of slicks it would have been fighting for the class win on the weekend, or at least not too far behind them, so that would probably be the way I'd go. I don't like the idea of spending money on a turbo restrictor and retune to make the car slower.

The max people get out of the 36mm restrictor is 350bhp. And that takes some development to the restrictor shape and efficiency. Currently it has about 400 flywheel bhp. The restrictor limits power production to about 6000rpm so the Tomei cams might not work too well with that rev range, and if the turbo is too big the restrictor could cause it to surge. So it could get real expensive real quick trying to fit the restrictor and make it work well enough to reach the max 350bhp. You could very easily make alot less than that.

I'd rather go slicks and try my luck against the big banger Sport Sedans I think!

Well done Harry! nice reporting too.
I'll see you at Bathurst I hope!!

Good results Harry nice and consistant The next step for me when I owned the car was going to be full slicks at least a second or 3 to be had on most circuits. I wasnt too keen on running in improved production as restrictor issues ect was going to be a pain.
I know a few of the cars that where running >Martin Mcloughlens LJ is always pretty quick he runs in improved produstion over 3000cc waynes Gemini is a beast to be only a bit over 1 second behind him is a real acheivement Peter Gumleys VW powered open wheeler is a sight to behold the man can sure drive.
Just found a few pictures from the weekend.

RPM photography
Cheers Andrew

thanks for the links Andrew. Might have to get a couple of prints I think.

There's a few more here, just click on the Sports Sedans 2001cc and over and you'll see what I was up against in the class. There's a shot of the Datto up on 2 wheels too! :)
Osella Photography