Back to Project Mu's!

A quick post as I am about to fly back to Australia for a long overdue
holiday!
My existing endless pads have ended! Yes after Tsukuba time attack in
late January which Im yet to write a blog entry about my MX72 pads on
the front are down to just a few millis! The rears are in good shape
though and will last for many more runs!
A word about MX72s! Great pad giving an excellent pedal feel and
control with amazing stopping power but not a long lasting one! They
wear off faster than my previous ones from Project Mu but at the same
time are a lot quieter and by nature of their lower friction
cooficient damage the rotor far less! I'd recommend using MX72s as
long as you're a sporadic track runner (2 sessions a month tops) and
not a frequent one like myself (4+ sessions a month)! Also if you care
about noise MX72s are for you ! if you want more bite especially under
high speed (120kmh +) braking MX72s are not for you!

Anyway I ordered and just received HC+ front pads from Project Mu, the
same ones I'd used before switching to MX72! I'll stick with them long
term now having experienced different pads and understanding their
unique characteristics !

Btw! Check out the latest Tsukuba time on the right of this post!!
Broke 1'10"! My goal before the winter ends and upon my return from
Australia is 1'07"-1'08"! After that Ill stop chasing time and start
concentrating on consistency

I'm off to Perth now! Hopefully me boys down under let me drive one of
their race cars on some of Perths race tracks! We'll see what comes
up! At any rate Ill record video of anything remotely car related and
post it here!

Till March!!

See yas!

------------------------
Sent on the move

Photo a Day Gallery (2010)

Happy New Year everyone !

I thought I'd kick off 2010 by introducing my "other", less prominent hobby which happens to be digital photography!

In the last 6 years I have taken a lot of photos from all of my travels and I thought I'd share them with the world in a form of a 'Photo A Day Gallery'!

Every day I will pull out a photo from my vast collection and post it on www.pbase.com/roliradr/photo_a_day/ so please check it out !

Today's photo was taken in Gifu prefecture, Japan. Enjoy !

Last Fuji event for the year !

After a long absence from Japan's circuits (almost a month) I thought the last track visit for the year should belong to Fuji Speedway!


Mt Fuji overlooking the circuit

23rd was a public holiday so Tom, James and Simon (and his NSX crew) we all decided we'd give it a go. Seeing that it was a holiday we were worried about having to compete with too many cars on the track but in the end it wasn't too bad.

Tom and I wanted to start the day by attending the first 2 early sessions but when we proceeded to buy tickets we were told that these 2 sessions were for beginners only and one wasn't allowed to exceed 180km/h on the straight and have a faster lap time than 2'30''! Bummer !! Tom decided to skip these sessions and join the S4 instead(faster cars with roll cages etc) and I decided to sit them both out until a proper NS4 session at 1pm came up. I didn't last long. Seeing that I woke up at 6am to enjoy the day I wasn't going to sit on the sidelines and twirl my fingers so I bought the remaining beginner's session ticket and went out there.


DC5 in front of the main straight

It was a drag ! Drivers were truly inexperienced and I was forced to brake on the main straight just to stay above the lap time limit. The only good thing that came out of it was I'd been experiencing a lot of oversteer in that session and upon return adjusted my rear suspension damper which made a world of difference in the NS4 session later in the day!

My goal was to beat 2'11'' and I was truly going to push for 2'10''! As the video below shows I beat my personal best and arrived at 2'09''55 on 2 laps which were relatively traffic free ! I was extremely happy ! What a way to end the year !


Capturing the achievement here on my way home


Tom's Mazda next to yours trulys


The irishman who got me hooked up on racing !

It's been almost 12 months since I started going to Fuji. I came here and got my first ever lap time of 2'29'' something. Back then it was something, 12 months later I am down to 2'09''! I've learnt a lot ! I've experienced a lot ! And as Tom rightfully observed I was no longer just rocking up and tracking my car but spending a good hour or so prepping my car before a session, a sign of a truly dedicated racer he said ! :)

Hope you enjoy the video ! 2010 will see me tracking more at Fuji and Tsukuba and hopefully improving as time goes on ! I'll try to steal a lesson and a drive from one of them GT300/GT500 drivers to see what they can do in my car and attend some driver training here and there !

Happy New Year !

Bad tyre damage

I noticed these deep holes with chunks of rubber missing all around the outside edge of the front tyres. I've counted about 5 on each side already ! I'm not sure when this happened and whether my last run off in Tsukuba had anything to do with it.




Perhaps it's time for a new set of NEOVAs !?

An intro from Sony Vegas

Any thoughts ?