The Saga is Finally Over

Since I haven’t been blogging for a while, I missed out on updating you on my V8 Race saga that you may recall from previous posts (here and here). Well, I finally went racing 🙂 and it was fantastic! I had a ball. I went on the morning of 30th September last year (2009 – yeah, I know it has been a while – over 3 months!) and this time it wasn’t raining.

I arrived at Eastern Creek Raceway early on the Wednesday morning, signed in, went through the drivers briefing again, and then got suited up, including a helmet, ready to race.  You get the choice to drive either Ford or Holden.  Of course I drove the Ford 🙂

When it is your turn to drive, they strap you into the race seat with a proper racing harness nice and tight.  The helmets have an intercom system that is connected in the car so you can talk to the driving instructor.  We had a bit of a chat, fired up the car, and once pit lane was clear, we were off.

The cars are amazing.  They sound loud and fantastic, like a V8 should. They handle very well for a big, heavy car (slick tyres and suspension mods help with that) and the braking capabilities are phenomenal.  The front brakes have huge rotors and dual calipers.

I found it hard at first to really push hard, but once I got a couple of laps under my belt, it was getting easier to go fast.  It is difficult to get out of the mindset of driving on the road, where I leave plenty of braking distance so I’m not braking ultra hard to pull up in time for the stopped traffic/corner/roundabout/pedestrian crossing/whatever.  Braking hard, and trying to co-ordinate down shifts with a gearbox that I wasn’t used to made it even harder.

The experience had given me a new sense of respect for the V8 Supercar drivers (and drivers in other categories too).  It was hard and hot work steering one of those cars around 5 or 6 laps of Eastern Creek, and it required a huge amount of concentration.  I can only imagine how intense it would be to do that for hours while battling for track position with 30 odd other cars…. then think about doing around Mt Panorama for a full day!!

I had a great day, and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in having a go at motor sport.  I also purchased a DVD of in car footage of my drive, which is good to look back at and relive the experience.

After my drive, I managed to snap a quick pick of the car I drive with my iPhone.  Here is is:

False Start 2 – The Saga Continues

You might remember my post about a rain interrupted V8 Race Experience back in May. Those readers with an eagle eye and excellent memory would have realised that I had rebooked for the 8th July (yesterday). Last week when I looked at the forecast, it was fine for the whole of this week. Great! Until yesterday… Rain… Again! It had been raining on and off throughout the morning. I called weather hotline in the afternoon before I left, they said that although there had been rain, it had stopped, the track had dried and they were running the cars. Sweet!

So I took off to Eastern Creek, but the weather didn’t look promising. It was dark and cold. As I got closer to the track, the sky got darker, and the rain started to fall. I got to the track and went into the V8 Race reception area, and they had stopped the cars and were waiting for the rain to cease.

I waited for a little while, but eventually, one of the guys that runs the V8 Race told all those who were waiting that there was little point in waiting around longer, because even though it wasn’t raining at that stage, the track was taking a while to dry out, and there was still a bunch of people who were waiting for a drive and there wouldn’t be enough time to get us into a car before the daylight runs out. So I now need to rebook again. The next lot of dates at Eastern Creek is the last week in September. I’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE: Rebooked again for Wednesday 30th September… keep that in mind all you eagle eyes readers who are playing along at home…

False Start

For Christmas last year, my wonderful girlfriend gave me a V8 Race Experience. This is conducted on the short track at Eastern Creek Raceway (for Sydney-siders, and at various other tracks around the country). The short track at Eastern Creek is basically the “Flip Flop” which joins Turn 4 to Turn 9 and cuts out the section of track that runs around “Corporate Hill”. They give you the option of driving a Ford or a Holden. The cars start as standard Falcons and Commodores, but they get a roll cage, racing seats and harnesses, modified exhaust (and don’t they sound awesome!!), slick tyres, a locked diff (I think) and a body kit that makes them look like a V8 Supercar.

This morning I wake up and it is raining. That’s not a good start, because they don’t run the drive days in wet conditions. The cars run on slick tyres, ie. no groves to disperse water on the track, hence the not running in the rain rule (click here to see what can happen in the wet on slicks). There is a number to call that gives a recorded message with info about the weather and track conditions. During the day the weather cleared up and the sun was shining. A couple of calls to the weather hotline and the it appears that the weather is clear and the track is dry and the cars are running, albeit they are somewhat delayed due to the morning rain. That’s OK, I was booked in at 3pm, she’ll be right.

So, I head out to the track. You have to be there 15mins early to register and sign on etc. At this point you can also take the option of purchasing a DVD of footage from your drive for $49. I take this option. They give you a blank DVD in a case that you give to your driving instructor and he pops it into a DVD recorder in the car and you get a recording from a couple of cameras in the car that point at your face while driving and out the front of the car at the track.

Next is the drivers briefing. The guy runs through some racing techniques and safety type stuff. This lasts about 30mins. After this they send you to the pits to get into a race suit and helmut. At this point during our day, some guy in a car on the track has run off the circuit and hit the wall. The cars that are currently on the circuit are stopped and the onsite paramedics are dispatched. All is fine there are no serious injuries to either the driver or the instructor, however the session has been delayed to make sure that everything is OK. Safety is paramount for these guys.

So here we all are. About 25 guys (and 1 girl) were all suited up waiting in line to drive either a Ford or a Holden (I was in the Ford queue, because Fords are better). Just as we are thinking that we are about to get a drive, the black clouds roll in and the rain tumbles down. Oh, this isn’t good. It’s 4pm. The cars have to be finished on the track by 5pm. The track has to be dry before the cars to go out. And it is raining. That is not a good equation. When it was still raining at 4:30 there was no chance we would be going out on the track. I now need to re-book for another time. The next block of dates are in July, so I’ll call them in the morning and re-book.

John Bowe was there too, today. V8 Race offer a John Bowe Experience where you get some flying laps with John.

I was really looking forward to getting out and driving a V8 Race car. Oh well. I hope it isn’t raining next time.

UPDATE: Re-booked for Wednesday 8th July. 🙂

Cattai Ridge and Pitt Town Roads

As I said in my post about the Wisemans Run with the club, I took a nice drive back from the Riverside Oaks Golf club after lunch.

Here are the directions:

1. Come out of the Golf Club, turn right onto O’Briens Rd
2. Turn right onto Wisemans Ferry Rd
3. Turn left onto Halcrows Rd
4. Turn right (fairly sharp turn) onto Cattai Ridge Rd
5. Turn left onto Boundary Rd
6. Turn Left onto Pitt Town Rd
7. Turn Right onto Kenthurst Rd

Here is the map

On a similar note, if I want a fairly short, quick drive, there is a variation on the above, to turn it into more of a loop starting from Dural McDonalds and ending at Kenthurst.

1. From the Macca/KFC carpark, head out to Old Northern Rd
2. Turn left onto Old Northern Rd, heading north
3. Turn right onto Cattai Ridge Rd
4. Turn left onto Boundary Rd
5. Turn Left onto Pitt Town Rd
6. Turn Right onto Kenthurst Rd

Here is the map

HAPPY DRIVING!! 🙂

One hundred thousand

My car ticked over 100,000 kms this afternoon. I was able to snap a picture using my camera phone. Time for the BIG service.

Another Wisemans Run

Wow! It’s been ages since I last posted! Anyway, I have been on another Wisemans Ferry run. This time it was the monthly run with the MX5 Club of NSW. It has been a while since I have been on a run with the club, so it was good to go and catch up with a few people I haven’t seen for a while.

The run this time was in the reverse direction to the Wisemans run we did at the end of last year with the MX5 forum, and there were a few differences in the route.

The route this time was as follows:

1. Start at Rofe Park in Hornsby Heights
2. Turn left out of the car park onto Galston Rd and head toward Hornsby
3. Turn left onto the Pacific Hwy, heading North
4. Follow the Pacific Hwy through Asquith, Mt Colah, Mt Kuringai and Berowra
5. Follow the road onto the Freeway (not the Old Pacific Hwy) headed for Newcastle
6. Take the Calga Interchange exit onto Peats Ridge Rd (Exit for Peats Ridge and Mangrove Mountain – this is just before the Mooney Mooney Bridge)
7. Follow Peats Ridge Rd for a while
8. Turn left onto George Downes Dr headed for Mangrove Mountain
9. Turn left onto Wisemans Ferry Rd at Central Mangrove
10. Follow Wisemans Ferry Rd through to the ferry. You can stop and Spencer for a bite to eat if so desired (this was our morning tea stop, there are toilets there if needed)
11. Cross the ferry into Wisemans Ferry. Once you are off the ferry, this is Old Northern Rd
12. Turn right onto River Rd (before heading up the hill out of the town, also near the Police station)
13. Follow River Rd for a while passing through Leets Vale
14. Turn Sharp left at Cliftonville Rd and follow to the end
15. Turn right onto Wisemans Ferry Rd (different to the previous Wisemans Ferry Rd)
16. Turn right onto O’Briens Rd headed toward the Riverside Oaks Golf Course
17. Turn left into the Riverside Oaks. This is the lunch stop and the end of the run.

Here is a map of the route, for those who are more visual people.

It was a beautiful day. Great weather and lots of cars (about 30). Lunch at the Riverside Oaks was rather nice too. Our convoy of 30 odd cars was stopped at Berowra just before joining the freeway for random breath testing (before 10am). Obviously they couldn’t test us all in the limited space they had set aside, so most got waved through and waited down the road for the others to be breath tested. Just a small disruption to the mornings drive.

Spencer, which is the “Hub of the Universe” according to the signs that are there (see link to wikipedia 😛 ), is a nice place to stop. It is right on the river. There is not much there, only a general store and some toilets.

As I said in my last post about the Wisemans run, Wisemans Ferry Rd between Mangrove Mountain and Wisemans Ferry is quite rough and bumpy, and there is a section where part of the road is closed for work and there are traffic lights to allow cars to pass.

River Rd is a lovely drive although it is a very narrow and twisty road with many narrow, blind corners. This can prove to be a bit dangerous at times with oncoming traffic. Thankfully each of the times I have driven the road, it has been fairly quiet, and I’ve only ever seen just a few cars…. until Sunday that is…. there were heaps of cars on Sunday. There must have been another club driving that road on the same day. We came across many old American cars coming in the opposite direction.

The run ended at the Riverside Oaks Golf Course for lunch. We went into the bistro for our meal, which was pre-ordered at the start of the run to allow the bristro to be prepared for an onslaught of people coming in for lunch. I had the beer battered fish and chips. It was rather nice, but similar to all the other places around that do beer battered fish and chips. Other options included hamburgers, chicken burgers and steak sandwiches, which all looked nice when they came out.

On leaving the golf club, I took a few nice back roads on the way back home. I’ll post these in a separate post soon.

It was a great day of driving. Great roads, great scenery, and great people. It was good to finally get on another club run, I will have to make sure I go to more in the future.

More Wisemans

Went on a club run on Sunday. Had a great time, no major incidents, but tune in later to find out why the NSW Highway Patrol stopped 30 odd MX5s in convoy. Details will follow.

Wisemans Ferry Run

I’ve been want to write about this for a while now, but haven’t had the time to sit down and get it done. Just before Christmas, the guys from mx5cartalk.com organised to do a drive through Wisemans Ferry. It was on the weekend before Christmas, and we had about 15 cars show up (including a Nissan Skyline).

The route was as follows:

1. Start at Rofe Park in Hornsby Heights
2. Turn right out of the Rofe Park car park onto Galston Rd and head towards Galston Gorge
3. Proceed through the Gorge, veer left at the top as you come out of the Gorge
4. Drive through Galston, past the shops
5. Turn right at the roundabout after the shops on to Mid-Dural Rd and follow to the end
6. Turn right onto Old Northern Road and head north towards Wisemans Ferry
7. Drive right to the end of Old Northern Rd going past the shops and pub in Wisemans
8. Cross the car ferry at the end of Old Northern Rd
9. Turn right onto Wisemans Ferry Rd as you drive of the ferry
10. Follow Wisemans Ferry Rd all the way to Central Mangrove (it is a fair distance)
11. At Central Mangrove (the next big crossroads after the ferry) turn right onto George Downes Drive
12. Turn right onto Peats Ridge Rd
13. Follow this under the F3 Freeway and turn right onto the Pacific Hwy, then turn left onto the Pacific Hwy (otherwise you end up on the freeway)
14. Follow this until you reach Pie in the Sky at Cowan (at the top of the hill after you come up from Brooklyn)

Click here for the map of this route on Google Maps.

The drive is a good one. It isn’t too long, only a couple of hundred kms round trip, and it only takes about 3 hours to complete. There are good winding, twisting driving roads and some nice scenery. The most picturesque part of the drive is along Wisemans Ferry Rd, from Wisemans through Spencer and up towards Mangrove Mountain. The road here runs alongside the Hawkesbury River for a while and makes its way through some small country towns. The problem here is that the road in this stretch (Wisemans – Central Mangrove) is not all that great. The surface is bumpy, uneven and has many small potholes that upset the car. The road is also very narrow in some sections, but there are very few cars that use it most of the time…. until you run 15 odd MX5’s along there 😛

Of course, there is the run along the Old Pac to finish up the run. Ahhhh…. the Old Pac is a great piece of road. Lots of twists and turns and undulating ups and downs. It is a nice drive, but with a speed limit of 60km/h for the vast majority of the way, it is a little slow. You can always stop for a pie at Pie in the Sky too 🙂

I have done this run on a number of occasions in both the MX5 and my previous car in both directions. It is always a nice drive and usually free from traffic for the most part.

New Tyres

Last week I went to get the rego check on my car and was knocked back because the state of my tyres. I wasn’t surprised about this at all. My old tyres were Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3, and they had been on the car for a little over 2 years and about 45,000 kms. Also in this time they had done a number of track days at Wakefield Park, Goulburn. The track days don’t really do your tyres any favours. I have considered getting a 2nd set of rims and some track tyres so I’m not chewing up my good road tyres, but I’m not sure that I could justify the extra cost and storage space (in my parents garage), for something that I would only use maybe 2-3 times a year.

Anyway, I now have a set of Dunlop Direzza DZ101 tyres on the car. In the week and a bit that I have been driving on these tyres, I have decided that I am pretty impressed with them. They offer very good grip in both wet and dry. I found that a little provoking on a wet road and they didn’t break traction. They don’t seem very noisy either. The only problem i did find was a vibration in the car when travelling at 110 km/h. I am taking the car back to the tyre place to get the wheel re-balanced tomorrow to sort this problem out. Hopefully all will be good after that 🙂

The Car

My car is a Mazda MX5. It is a late 2001 model (also known as an NB8B in the MX5 community) and is Brilliant Black in colour. It has a 1.8 litre, 4 cylinder engine, and on the dyno it produced 78.4 rwkw. I was impressed 🙂 as it is completely stock. The MX5 is a lightweight convertible sports car renowned for it fantastic handling capabilities (and its good looks).
While my MX5 is stock engine wise (at the moment), I have added a few minor modifications inside and out:

• Clear side indicators (from MX5 Parts in the UK)
  
• Clear side reflectors (from MX5 Parts in the UK)
• Voodoo Magnum Spun Gearknob (from Thompson Automotive in the US)
  
• Satin door handle surrounds (from MX5 Parts in the UK)

I enjoy driving my MX5. It is great to be able to put the roof down on a nice sunny day (don’t forget the sunscreen!) or even on a nice, warm night and cruise around with the wind in your hair…. *dreams of driving around with the roof down* 🙂

Anyway, here are a couple of pics. I might put some more up later.