[Peter]

Following Duke Video's attendance at one of the Skyline track days last year, they contacted me earlier this year as they are now in the process of producing a Skyline specific video/dvd and requested some assistance.

To cut a very long story short, Guy dealt with them for coverage of the dyno day and they also need some track action, in and out of car. A few of us are going to Oulton Park on Weds 29th May 2002 for that purpose. I think that they may be in touch with MM also.

I have suggested that a suitable airfield venue may make a good addition for some more lunatic action but this has not interested them so far.....

Peter.

 

[SteveC]

What about on an easy track day at brands or something ?
they are usually fairly priced and the one I came and spectated at looked fairly well organised if a bit over marshalled (Jamie M's power drifting)

If we all got together and arranged a day to do it on I am sure there'd be a good turnout from the usual gang..

the trouble is the meager membership on this register (of people who do track days) wouldn't cover us hiring a proper track venue so we'd have to share with another owners club.

unless there are any nutters out there who fancy privately hiring goodwood for the day ?

my 0.02p

/Steve

 

[MattPayne]

Skyline DVD

OOHHHHHH!!! Yummy!!!

I'd buy that for a dollar!!!


I hope you guys can get somewhere to play.. as 'lunatic action' goes down very well with the viewing public!!!!!

if your really strapped for somewhere to go, safeways near me has a medium sized carpark!!!!!

or, hows about my beach!!!! just watch out for seagulls and er... sea!

 

[Peter]

Steve,

The Oulton Park day is an Easytrack day which, incidentally, we're paying for individually. There are still places available so if anybody fancies joining in....

I suggested Brands but Oulton is supposed to be quite good for filming, undulating, interesting circuit, good backdrops, etc. Shame it's a 500 mile round trip for me! They may also be coming along to other events in the summer (Silverstone GP, Rockingham...).

I have approached quite a few guys on here about this day and, for a variety of reasons, most have declined although I think we now have a suitable number and variety of Skylines lined up.

Peter.

 

[Ian SuttoN1]

Still thinking about it!

Peter I am still thinking about it.....

I like a track day and it is a good circuit.

Will let you know ASAP.

 

[Peter]

Don't be too long Ian, we need to finalise everything very soon now. Looks like the dyno King may be well represented then!

 

[Fuggles]

With track hiring being as expensive as it is, won't Duke Video help out with the costs?

 

[Peter]

A sore subject John but needless to say, I've been down that route....

 

[Peter]

Had a great day at Oulton Park last Wednesday with Scott, Bruce and Jamie. If you get the chance to drive at Oulton Park, take it, it's a great circuit, technical, generally pretty tight but one that deserves enormous respect. Unfortunately Gary and Dirk couldn't make it in the end despite a monumental effort to get Dirk's car ready.

Jamie lived up to form and more or less demolished a set of Tuscan Challenge (285) slicks on the day. The grip that they gave was truly enormous but they just couldn't cope with Mr Martin for a whole day!

The video and dvd will be out in the Autumn. Duke are also hoping to visit Japan (Nismo...) for some Japanese footage.

My main reason for posting was to thank Rod Bell for mapping my car. As some of you know, I was one of the first GT-R owners to fit the Power FC in the UK (30 months since) and whilst I have always been happy with it and the way it's performed, it has never been properly mapped to my car. Following a series of mods over the past year or so, I decided to ask Rod to map her properly and I have to say that the result surpassed all that I could have hoped for. I came away from Oulton Park the day after Rod had done the mapping thinking what a lucky ***stard I was and privileged to own such a sweet car which is now running like an absolute dream. She pulls like train from probably 1000 revs earlier than she did before and she is so smooth now.

We did 784 miles in 36 hours a lot of which was at full pelt on and off track but she never missed a beat. I'd also like to say that she never put a foot wrong but that was my little mistake..

I respect most other Skyline tuners in this country but I have to say that Rod was like a breath of fresh air to me. No airs or graces, nothing seemed like it was too much trouble and the obvious skill and expertise he has was only too obvious to me (and very reasonable!).

Just one word of warning though, he's a bloody liar, when he says to you, "follow me in my diesel Primera, I'm not much of a driver", DO NOT believe him! My car must be packing nigh on 500 bhp now and I guess he knows the roads around his place really well, but we had to really press on just to keep pace with him.

I'll be dynoing my car again soon to see what improvement the mapping made out of interest by she is really flying at the moment.

Both Jamie and I run HKS 2510s and whilst they may regarded as 'established' now compared with some of the newer turbos around, I have to say that I think they are superb. They may not be large enough for massive power but with the elbows installed, on track they spool up beautifully and I'd love to run against a car with a pair of these other turbos on board as I reckon they'd be hard pushed to be much quicker.... Bedford Autodrome on the 21st June anybody??

Fuel consumption is noticeably better but the mapping did retain the 'flame out' function on my car (see attached pic)!

Thanks Rod.

Peter.

PS. Good luck to Jamie and Bruce on Tuesday at Bedford Autodrome when they're both having a go at the howfast.com day.

 

[keith]

power fc mapping

Peter glad you are happy with the work that Rod done to your car
i was down at his workshop yesterday he told me you were there from 3pm till about 9pm getting your cam timing and your mapping done.
i know what you mean about Rods driving when i went down
the first time with my old car i had to drive the skyline hard to keep up with Rod in his astra van MAD MAN

but as you said Peter he knows his stuff
also he knows what he is doing when it comes
to the mapping the power fc that comes with working on skylines for over 10 years

pity it is a 4 hour drive each way but well worth it

KEITH

 

[jamie m]

Oulton...........

We all had a great day and I was finally pleased to master Oulton Park as last time I was there in my 32 (7 years ago) Andy Middlehurst cut my day short whilst lapping with me in my 32 by cooking my brakes to the point of disintigration!. He did open his workshop for me so as they could be fixed though!

A daring track that attacks you if you attack it. Ended up putting in a 1m 59. Bruce 2m.12, Peter 2m.07. We filmed with 2 in car cameras, one looking at the road and one facing me. I pulled out the stops and took quite a few risks hence 1m59! Touring cars get round at about the same pace!! The most dangerous part is the right hander in the woods that can be entered at a tad over 100 mph and requires a planted right foot almost all the way through to keep the attitude in a 4 wheel drift. Getting it wrong here is not an option as the barriers are very close like the ring. I scared myself here all day mainly because the entry speed is so high and the exit is blind! Bruce suddenly developed many good reasons as to why it would be a good idea to go back to the pits, NOW!

The video (if they edit it properly!!) holds up the GTRs end very well as all you can see is me passing all sorts of machinary the best of which was a touring car Vectra who just could not belive that I was knocking at his door! I literally sit on his bumper for half a lap until he gets blue flagged!!! We also beat an EVO 5 Rally prepared car, the owner of which came over to me in the pits and asked all the usual (I'm not bothered but I am really) questions! The people I have to deal with!!

Off to Bedford tomorrow to have a bash at the Howfast.com stuff, I don't have slicks so will be using scrubbed RE40's. My aim is to better the existing Skyline lap record and also beat Tiff Needel's 2.49 in a GT3. Fingers crossed for a dry track and low temps!! Wish me luck!

 

[Peter]

Jamie,

I only timed 2 laps both in the morning when I did a 2m 06s when it was still damp and before getting to know the circuit as it was my first time at Oulton. Didn't do any times in the dry though....

Tiff's 2m 49s at Bedford was set in the wet so you'll be struggling not to beat that. You need to aim for sub 2m 40s. I did a 2m 46s before the cams were fitted and she was mapped properly. No pressure mate!

Peter.

 

[jamie m]

Pete,

Tiffs time was not in the wet.

Thanks for the pressure!! Perhaps I'll bring up certain spins in a certain red Skyline, hey!!

Jamie.

 

[Andy Barnes]

Duke

Glad you had a blinding day, once again sorry that we didnt make it up there, thanks for your kind words, we really did try and get it done but Gary just wouldnt cut any corners putting it back together and a few hours turned into an all night session.

Sorry to let you down guys, hope you had a sterling time without us.

Until next time...............

Peter, dont suppose we have any chance of getting a refund or credit for another track day seeing as we didnt use it? Resigned myself to the fact I have lost the money but would be nice if we could use a credit at a later date? Thanks.

 

[Peter]

Jamie,

Tiff's time was definitely set in the wet. I was with Maurice Reeves on Saturday at Goodwood and he confirmed just that. He was at Bedford when his son Trevor beat Tiff's time by 4 or 5 seconds in his monster Golf IN THE WET!

As I said, I did a 2m 46s before fitting the cams and having her mapped. You NEED to get below 2m 40s!

Peter.

 

[jamie m]

Results!!

An awsome day at Bedford, before I tell you the results let me tell you how the day nearly went wrong!!

After watching a loonatic roll his car violently into the barriers at the left hander before the main strait, I found out that I had over filled my car with oil and the catch tank was full. Unfortunately when I found out I was doing 160 at the end of the main strait before the chicance and as I thought it was a puncture when really I had oil all over the off side wheels the resulting oversteer on braking caught me (and my passenger!!) by surprise. 15 to 20 corrections later I kept it on the black stuff and only got black flagged!! (as usual).

The black flag was actually for breaking the noise limits so I short shifted for the rest of the day by the detector and all was fine. Bruce with telephone help from Mark at Abbey fixed my car (thank you!) and then it was time for Howfast.com.


On road tyres I managed a 2m 41second lap, The only car that beat me (all day) was a Marcos Mantara race car driven by the owner racing driver who put in a 2m 40 second lap. The mantara weighs 1100 kg and had 420bhp, I think if I had not made a couple of mistakes a 2m 40 could have been acheived.

This time puts me 5th and is a new Skyline GTR record for Bedford, We should all be proud as the GTR put alot of serious machinary to shame. The previous record was a 2.49.

I hope to return soon with some suspention mods and get into the 2.36's. As for Tiff's time it would seem from talking to the staff at bedford that it was a changable wet/dry day and he may have had a dry line when he went out, anyway who knows.

Bedford rocks


and you should all go when you have the opportunity.

Jamie.

 

[somberg]

Hey Jamie

Did you catch any flies on your side windows this time ?

Andre.

 

[Peter]

Well done Jamie, I knew you'd do well there. Fancy the evening bash on 21st June....?

 

[jamie m]

Just wanted to add that Bedford's chicane is one of the most challenging bends I found in the UK. During my timed lap I saw 165mph at the 150 meter board, You then stand on the brakes and srug of 80 mph whilst double de clutching down to forth - as soon as the car settles you turn in sharply and grab the kerb on the left and then bury it out. Its blind on the way in and the barriers are rushing past you on the right so the sensation of speed is immence, I can honestly say that I scared myself silly here and loved it. I don't know of any other UK circuit where you brake from 165 for a 90 mph chicane?? The ring next I think!!

Happy Skylining....

 

[jamie m]

Hi Andre and Peter,

Andre - fast laps where done with all four wheels traveling in the same direction!!! I did do some power slide's though so yes there are flys on the side windows!!!!

Peter, Thanks for the kind words...... I'll have to check the schedule for the 21st, not sure, hmmmmmmm