I had a great day at the 2019 Interclub motorkhana on Sunday. The car was fairly good. I am starting to get the hang of driving the car in this latest format. The new hydraulic handbrake in particular takes some practice. I also think it works best once warm. I did have some issues knocking my switches in the heat of battle resulting in a loss of power. So I will make a cover to avoid this in future. I am waiting for the calculation of the final results but I am hopeful of a solid result, possibly my best ever. I did capture some video but I am trialling a new camera and the results are not worth posting. I will need to do some more testing before the next event.
Well the results are in. I managed 7th from 44 entries. Not quite as good as I was expecting. Still respectable. I also managed 2nd in class, again behind the same competitor. I would have been 6th if I hadn't loaned my car to the 3rd place getter when his car died. The car is heading in the right direction and I have a few ideas for improvements. The next event is the Noosa Hill Climb early June so I won't be facing the same challenges.
Absolutely. This type of event tests the limits of the suspension. The other events I do are less aggressive on the suspension and are more about getting the car flowing. I am about to enter the Mt Cotton Hill climb on May 11 so we will see how it goes there. Mt Cotton is steeper than Noosa. So all my torque should give some advantage. I will report on the results shortly after that day. Then I will be at Noosa on June 8 & 9
I had a great day at the Mt Cotton Hill climb on Saturday. My results were not all that impressive but quite respectable for a first attempt. I did end up in the Macadamia nuts (quite an effective safety barrier) on my second run. This event has made me realise the "understeer" issue I had been trying to resolve is gone and what I am suffering from now is actually a brake bias issue. On the successful runs during the day I was forced to brake very early for the tight corners and enter at rather conservative speeds. On the second run I left the braking too late for the brakes to handle and as a result continued straight ahead into the nuts. There was no damage to the car or driver apart from some dents to the ego. All in all it was a very successful day as I now know what is required to make the car more competitive. Here are a few photos from the day.