Glad you're enjoying the GTR. The 1200 did you proud - despite the photos of me missing that apex by miles!

We got 5 runs in. My first three runs were 50.something, 48.something, and 46.86. I was pretty happy with that so early. 46 was my personal goal for the first hillclimb in the car, and I was still very much just feeling the car out at that stage, starting to increase the speed through the loops, but not picking up the throttle until very near the exit. Just trying to get a feel for what speeds it can do rather than how early you can get on the power. After that run I was thinking there was still seconds to be found yet. To put that 46.86 in perspective, my old L18 1200 had run a best of 48.37 in a real all out effort,and the GTR ran a best of 46.2, also pushing as hard as I could. So for the third ever run in the 230rwkw 1200 on such a tight technical track, a 46.86 was very promising.

I decided to start pushing a bit harder after that to see how early/hard I could pick up the throttle coming out of the loops, and generally being more agressive with it on the slower corners too. All I achieved was alot of fun in big powerslides on every single corner. And only ran mid 47s on my last two runs. I reckon I was faster in a few places, but alot slower in others - its not fast to hang the back out onto the dirt! But they were still useful runs for learning purposes.

There's definitely potential for this car to go alot faster once I get used to how hard you can squeeze the throttle in the 2nd gear "2nd Loop" in particular, and exploring the limits a bit more in the 3rd gear "1st Loop" in both directions. I'm still yet to hit the apex in 2 of the slower corners too! Not to mention getting used to launching this thing, and I'm sure there's still alot of time left in this car. No-one was running near their PBs yesterday, so there's probably time just in track condition too, it was a cold 3 degree morning on the way to the track, and the sun doesn't hit the track very early in winter becaus its on the south-west side of the hill and lined with tall trees... There's another hillclimb and a test and tune before the Australian Hillclimb Championships in November, so hopefully I can start to get something near to the best out of it by then.

Anyway, I beat the only other over 2L Sport Sedan, a 650kg Mk1 Escort with a mid mounted 315bhp SR20 turbo, with fat slicks and wings, perspex windows etc. But the driver was new to both the car and the Hill and wasn't running anything like competitive times. I was 2nd or 3rd fastest tin top though - only one or two of the AWD turbos were faster. Still waiting for the provisional results to be posted on the web. The car certainly drew alot of attention too.

here's a couple of pics I found that I can link. Gives a bit of an idea how steep the place is if nothing else:






and his gallery of all the cars:
http://www.dag-nabit.com/motorsport/album/thumbnails.php?album=7&page=7