The front brakes on the GT3 were getting down and the pedal feel wasn't what it should have been. Rather than just replace the 'standard' GT3 braking system, I decided to take the plunge & replace them with Carrera Cup six piston calipers with new steel discs clamped by Project Mu competition brake pads. A slight installation glitch made the initial drive home 'disappointing' but after refitting the pads more securely they now feel fine. This weekends competition at Phillip Island will be the real test. Watch this space!

We were again looking forward to our annual Queens Birthday long weekend trip to Benalla to compete at Winton Raceway and enjoy the fine food and wines of the north-central Victorian region. The weather was seriously cold overnight (below freezing, brrrr) but the days were cloudless and glorious. We trailered up on the Saturday and again the Toyota / Featherlite combo was superb. The Comfort Inn in Benalla is a very comfortable place to stay with a major advantage of having secure off street parking for trailers and race cars.

I told you it was cold!!!

Saturday evening we enjoyed a delightful meal at The North Eastern Hotel. Excellent staff, great produce cooked with great care and attention to detail. Snapper for him and chicken for her. The wine list has a good spread of local wines. We (I?) chose a Redbank ' Early Sunday Morning' Pinot Gris. Excellent.

The Porsche Club competition event at the tight and testing Winton Raceway on Sunday was a great day.

All drivers got a minimum of five sessions (one warm up lap, four timed laps and a cool down lap per session, and the smart ones got six, however I was snoozing somewhere... I was just 0.2 seconds off my Personal Best so just a bit disappointing. I was probably being a bit conservative and not enough aggression. More about that later.

A nice dinner at Georgina's in the heart of town followed the track day. This is a regular haunt for us and it lived up to it's usual standard for local produce, both food and wine. Sadly, Jade, the outgoing, was limping around in a moon boot after a slight accident. The injury did not affect her perceptions of Benalla, tourists and the world in general. Following a decent night;s sleep, we headed out for a day of King Valley wine country touring on Sunday. After some morning tea and a wine tasting in Milawa / Oxley we headed to towards Whitfield where we enjoyed a delightful minestrone soup & Margherita pizza lunch washed down with some pleasant Redbank wines. Dinner was an OK pub meal at the Bridge Hotel. Dodgy wine list though...

A rare apex... (Photo by Robin Humphries)

I had heard that there was a Peter Fitzgerald Driver Training Day scheduled for Winton on the Tuesday and it was under-subscribed. Given my performance, and with Robin's blessing, we stayed an extra day and under clear skies again, I participated in this event. Absolutely fantastic. Only four cars, with Winton Raceway totally to ourselves. Two Porsches (mine and a 997 C2S) and two BMW M3s, who were Fitzgerald Racing Services customers. Peter was great, took an hour or so with a white board discussing racing strategy & planning, describing / studying the Winton layout where to be quick, which kerbs to avoid, lines & braking points, aiming point through the sweeper (gold!) and other details.

At the start we went out for a few slow sighting laps (no helmets) behind Peter in the 997. One of the M3s spun right in front of me on the sighting laps! Then we each did five laps and our best time identified. Mine was a 1.43. Peter then drove us around in our cars, two 'hot' laps to set a benchmark time. Not car breaking pace and very smooth, about a 1.36 in the GT3, two-up. I am not a good passenger but I actually enjoyed it. As soon as he did his laps, we were instructed to go straight back out again and try and replicate what he showed us to set another time. Then he got in the passenger seat to instruct us around the track. He is an excellent and clear communicator. Then we enjoyed a tasty BBQ lunch, more white board / Q&A stuff, more timed laps then a challenge to beat Peter's estimate of how quick he thought each driver should go. For me that target was a 1.38.5. At end of the day, my best was a 1.39.2. Peter thought I should have gone faster so I let him down. And he told me so! But I was very happy as I had improved nearly three seconds from Sunday, and over 2.5 seconds from my previous PB, and I did many laps in the 1.39s, while still making plenty of 'mistakes'.

A fantastic day indeed!

For dinner we found 'Rafferty's' a popular Benalla bistro. It was our first time to try it and we left most impressed. A very comfortable room, great open fire with an excellent menu, if slightly too 'fishy' for Robin's liking. Surprisingly, it was chicken for her and snapper for me (again). After a hard day of driving and a great meal I fell into bed quite exhausted.

After one last breakfast at the Benalla Bakery we set sail for home after a really fantastic Queen's Birthday break.

The PCV 996/997 Register organised a fantastic run to the Harcourt Valley Winery.

Some 29 folks met at McDonalds in Flemington at 9.30AM before a brisk run up the highway to the cafe on top of Mt Macedon. Surrounded by fog and very cold, hot coffee and home made cakes and scones were most welcome.

On the northern side of Macedon the skies cleared and we followed the superb roads that were planned for our couple of hour drive to Harcourt.

On arrival at Harcourt, Lebanese finger snacks were consumed while mingling outside in front of a glorious open fire.

Lunch was a Lebanese BBQ and salads. including a regional specialty version of 'Boerewors'. We ate inside, enjoying the estate wines (bot red and whites were popular) and the volume of conversation in the 'vat room' indicated that a great time was had by all.

Cars & Wine - Harcourt Valley Winery - 2010

We decided to take the long way home until we had to hop on the freeway to complete the return journey. Another super PCV outing!

Late May saw us saddle up the Turbo and head off on the PCV Autumn Run to Blue Pyrenees Winery in Central Victoria.

Our first stop was at Creswick where we enjoyed a tasty morning refreshment while enjoying the architecture and history of this old gold mining town.

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PCV Creswick invasion (Photo by Felix)

Enjoying fine weather, the route then took us to the winery via some pretty narrow single lane roads towards Avoca. The pace was steady and we duly arrived at the winery for some wine tasting and a BBQ lunch. Other club members enjoyed a couple of nights at a nearby B&B and in total some 120 people attended the event.

After lunch, we took the short way home back down the Western Highway.

The Festival of Sporting Cars 2010 was held at Mount Panorama, Bathurst over the Easter weekend. Some 800 cars entered making it one of Australia's largest motor sports events ever. As part of the FoSC, Porsche Cars Australia invited all the Porsche Clubs from around Australia to participate in a Porsche Regularity event. After some initial self doubt, I entered a couple of months ago and joined 170 or so Porsches at Bathurst. And boy, I am glad that I did!

The car and trailer were set up on Thursday morning and we were joined by another GT3 couple, Chris & Julie, for the trek to Bathurst. After checking & re-checking tie down straps, lights etc we set off towards our scheduled overnight stop in Wagga, NSW, some 500 kms north. With Chris in his Cayenne S, and Robin driving the Land Bruiser we made the trip with little or no fuss.

The final 200 km short leg to Bathurst the following day was punctuated by a visit to Cowra and the famous Japanese Garden. The day was gorgeous and the gardens were a very peaceful place to spend an afternoon. The Japanese-influenced menu in the cafe worked very well for a Good Friday luncheon. Julie, Robin and I gave the cameras a workout whilst Chris tried some meditation (looked a lot like sleeping to us). Some touristy pictures here.

Tranquility - Cowra Japanese Garden

The run into Bathurst was easy and we were excited to be at the famous 6.213 kilometre, 23 turn Mount Panorama circuit. For my 'Porsche Cars at Bathurst' photo gallery, click here.

Our hotel, the very new Mirvac Citigate, is situated right at the Caltex Chase corner overlooking the circuit in an absolutely awesome location. Our sixth floor unit gave us a superb base to watch the action from the balcony or take the short walk over the 'ArmorAll Bridge' to the paddock & pits proper.

It looks easier on Paper! - The Mount Panorama Circuit Layout

As a special treat, Porsche Cars Australia arranged for two 'Museum' cars to participate in the event, a rare road-registered RHD GT1 from the early 2000s, and a 935 Turbo in splendid Martini livery, circa 1985. Also the limited edition Boxster Spyder, the only one currently in Australia prior to it's public release later this year made an appearance. Outstanding!

The new Boxster Spyder

The format for the Porsche event was a CAMS approved 'Regularity'. With such a large number of cars participating, the timing was slightly changed to an 'average' timed lap deviation, rather than variance from a specified time. There were three cars to a team, and I again joined with Chris in his silver GT3 and Dennis in a slightly tricked out white 928S. Our team was catchily named 'Jive Torque', complete with a (supplied) Bee Gees soundtrack. We were ably supported by our pit crew of Robin, Julie and Team Manager Paul. The girls were decked out in fancy hats and seemingly had more cameras and stop watches than hands!

GT3 Pit Crew, Julie & Robin

We kicked off with a Masters Session (basically a guided tour, five cars at a time) behind a designated 'Bathurst Master' to learn the lines and get a feel for the circuit. Our next chance was an untimed session of 30 minutes to put into practice what we had learned in the Masters session, followed by three separate 30 minute timed sessions over the next two days. In total we enjoyed over two hours total track time on Australia's most famous race track. Bring it on!!!

Dennis & our intrepid Team Manager Paul

Be careful what you wish for. In my Masters Session, the 'Master' was driving a Skoda Wagon (!), with a passenger on board, and I was unable to keep up, slipping and sliding all over the place and seriously wondering what I had got myself into. I felt way out of my comfort zone. The practice session wasn't much better. I was getting passed by everybody, the car felt 'floaty' on the straights and 'taily' on the twisty bits. Joyous.... The serious Session 1 continued the trend of disappointment. So on Monday night I went to bed really upset that I couldn't even enjoy the circuit, let alone post a decent lap time. My mindset was not helped by the fact that Chris was some 12 seconds quicker than me...

Best to drive a Silver GT3 then ...

Following a decent night's rest and some soul searching, the final two sessions duly arrived on the Tuesday and I resolved to 'have a crack'. I was lucky that a guy that I had a problem passing was brought into the pits early and I had some clear track ahead. After a couple line changes, some different gear selections at a couple of corners, and a little more courage to drive through the floating on Conrod Straight I managed to improve some 13 seconds and post a time of around 2.56. Not fast but no reason to feel ashamed either. Chris still got me as he improved to a 2.50. Dennis' times improved significantly as he also got more comfortable with the track and his new tyres.

A bottle of Moet was on offer (thanks Chris!) if the 'Jive Torque' team completed the event with cars and bodies intact. We all did! So we duly celebrated the achievement over yet more wine, dinner and tall stories at 'The GT Angus Steakhouse' in old Bathurst town. A fitting end to a sensational week. Thanks team!

We have been speaking to various people regarding winches for the car trailer. A journey to The 4WD Workshop in Frankston yesterday had us returning this morning with the empty trailer with a plan to measure and install an IronMan electric winch. After arriving at the workshop and following some serious head scratching, it was owner & head bush-basher Geoff's recommendation that we use a portable winch instead, which would be powerful enough (at a 450kg dead pull / lift), much simpler (and therefore much cheaper) to fit and be lighter as well. A 24V Warn PullzAll has duly been ordered and will be configured and installed in a week or so. As an added benefit, it is a unit that we can probably use elsewhere around our property given it's flexibility & portability. I will also ask the guys to supply (and fit as necessary) a safety chain to attach the LandCruiser to the tow hook on the GT3 just to provide one last level of security.

As we had the trailer on the LandCruiser, we thought it was about time to bite the bullet and take the GT3 and trailer for it's first loaded drive. So out with the tie down straps, tools, ramps, blocks of wood, gloves and who knows what else we had at hand. The recent ride height change now means only one extension wood block is required each side to drive the GT3 onto the trailer. And Robin has found a place to store these blocks together with the metal ramps so storage is neater and simpler.

After some experimentation and fiddling with the tie down straps & winches, the car was loaded and tied-down quite solidly. The good news is that we were able to fully utilise the in-built (& re-inforced) tie down 'eyes' / hooks on the floor of the trailer. Robin duly climbed aboard the LandCruiser and we set off for a slow lap around the block. Taking it very, very easy, we managed it no problem and the GT3 had not moved at all over the, admittedly, short journey. And Robin thought the combo towed pretty well and felt stable.

Some fine tuning work to do to trim the lines to remove some excess strapping and to maybe tie the rear down a little differently but it all seemed good to go and pretty straightforward. Some heat proof gloves will be necessary to thread the straps through and around hot wheels and brakes following a 'real' race day though.

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All in all, a very positive day in the lead up towards the big Bathurst road trip in April!

While I have some upgrade plans to ensure that the GT3 is as good as it can be for the big Bathurst bash in April, as the old saying goes, the greatest weakness in any car in the 'loose nut behind the wheel'.

In 2009, I attended a couple of driver training days (Winton and Sandown) and, not surprisingly, my confidence improved and my times dropped. An easy thing to do would be to say that I did the training and I will continue to get better. At my level, that is possible, however not probable. Fortunately, an invitation hit the 'InBox' in this week for a John Bowe Advanced Driving Course to be held at Phillip Island in late June. I am staggeringly slow at this very fast and challenging circuit, so count me in.

And today, I bought a book, 'The Complete Driver' from the US-based 'Speed Secrets' series. I look forward to a couple of gems from this plus the above driver training to help me continue on my quest towards 'Adequate'.

Regularity events seem to be gaining popularity as a way for various car clubs and their members to get closer to 'real' racing while still being safe and not getting too close to their fellow competitors.

So PCV decided to run their own Four Hour Regularity event last weekend. Teams of four tackled Sandown Raceway trying circulate as close as possible to their pre-determined lap times. Chris in a GT3, Dennis & Adam in glorious sounding 928s and me in my GT3 made up team #18, 'Jive Torque'. Dennis was also able to recruit Paul, an experienced Team Manager and John, his capable pit lane assistant. They kept us well informed all day with relative lap performance which was indicated on a pit board. Excellent work, but trying to find 'our' board while under full power on the main straight, avoiding other competitors and keeping an eye out for the start/finish flag marshals was a bit of an added challenge!

The day dawned threatening but the 90 minute practice session was dry and the entire day was clear. With each of our target times set, we did a little bit of standing around waiting for the first group to grid up and head out. I was the lead car for us, so to the dummy grid I went, was duly waved away a little before midday to do two formation laps behind the Safety Car before the event officially kicked off at 12PM. See, I told you it was like real racing!

I can certainly see what 'red mist' means for racing drivers. The first half a dozen laps were a bit of a haze as the tyres warmed up and I was chasing down the cars in front. Except that I was not supposed to be chasing anyone, but circulating as close as possible to my target lap times. When I settled down, 'it' happened again.

Sad, very sad... (Photo by NikoFoto - 2010)

Braking for the Dandenong Road corner at the end of the back straight, I went to down change to fourth, and thought I missed the gear. So I tried it again (now running out of road) and still nothing just the gear lever feeling like it was stirring porridge, not connected to anything. And the 'kitty litter' and tyre wall were now looming large. With no drive to push me around I had to try to balance the brakes and steering to get me through the corner. Once done, I just coasted to a graceful halt. Not only disappointing for me, but the lost laps while I was being picked up and towed back killed our chances for a decent finish in the event AND while I was being picked up, the Safety Car was out spoiling the other drivers fun as well. Apologies to all.

I knew what the problem was as it happened to me late last year at Calder. Once again the gear linkage cables became disconnected from the gearbox under load / stress. It was a five minute temporary fix with cable ties to get me running again. Thanks to Dean from NinePlus Motorsports for stepping in to assist. Great job. So I was able to get out for my second session in the afternoon but I must admit to not brimming over with confidence every time I reached for the gear lever! I now have the car booked in for the fitment of a pair of GT3 Porsche CupCar gearbox linkage cables (ex Germany) which will fix this problem once and for all and also improve the feel of the gear change, which I thought was pretty good anyway. While it is 'on the hoist' a quick suspension check will also occur and adjust the settings so the car is corner weighted and balanced front to back, side to side. If it is OK now, fine, if not, it should drive better than ever after the balancing. Only wish I could drive better...

And to cap off a miserable car day, I got a decent stone chip right in my line of vision on my first lap out. Oh well...

In the final wash up, "Jive Torque' finished 18th out of 21 teams. Not a stellar result but mechanical disasters notwithstanding, we all enjoyed the day and especially the camaraderie of the our team environment. The structure and organisation of the day was superb and a real credit to all involved. Especially impressive considering this was the first time the club had run such an event. Provisional class results can be found here.

Roll on Bathurst!

It was with some trepidation that I entered and duly arrived for the first club meeting of the year at the ultra-fast Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit. At the outset I must say how lucky we are as club to spend the entire day competing on an absolutely world-class facility for just a few pacific-pesos each... Welcome to the lucky (motorsport) country!!

The Wonders of Photoshop - Greg on Pole! (Photo by Julie Mason 2010)

I knew going into the weekend that I was many seconds off the pace for my car but hope springs eternal... Hope however doesn't beat the stopwatch. The bad news is that I am still about five seconds behind where I should / might be, but the good news is that I set a Personal Best, some two seconds better than my previous best time. And the better news is that I felt I could have gone even a second or so quicker on the day after a spirited (but un-timed) last session of the day. Also I was happy with the in-car comfort of my HANS device, and even given it's narrow range of designed movement, I would say it helped me improve my in-car stability and then, my times. An excellent investment in time and safety!

One of my GT3 buddies, Chris, improved some five seconds on the day following some tyre and brake upgrades and after encouraging words from his tuning 'guru'. Great driving mate.

And I would be remiss if I did not mention the outstanding job done my wife Robin, who was Clerk of Course for the event, and ensured that all 115 competitors ran safely and efficiently throughout the day. Great job sweetie!

Robin 'On the Job!' - (Photo by Julie Mason 2010)

Provisional results can be found here.

I am really pleased to report that the GT3 has finally made its way onto the new trailer. Thanks to the team at Jocaro Motors, some minor ride height modifications to the GT3 have enabled an easier loading process. I just picked up my HANS restraint device today to give me even more protection & safety on track. It is the new 'Sport' model (read cheaper and heavier than the carbon fibre 'Professional' model but with the same safety standards), using a new floating tether system. It seems relatively comfortable and less restrictive than I initially imagined. A big thumbs up to the guys at Revolution Racegear in Melbourne for their great advice and fitting service, and to my PCV buddy Linley for courageously drilling the 'post' holes in my helmet. The last equipment update is to get my 'boring' white Sparco full face helmet resprayed to add some 'bling' to my race kit. I know it won't make me any faster but... The plan is really coming together now. Roll on Bathurst!

The moment of truth came this morning. After a fair few days of stalling (it is too hot, too cold, I am too tired etc) I really had to try to get the car on the trailer. Would it get up the ramps, would it fit, could I get out once the car was on the trailer? The last time we tried to load the GT3 on a (rented) trailer it ended metaphorically and literally in tears. I was nervous, to say the least about the prospects. More questions and concerns than answers.

After some chocking & blocking of the ramps to get the approach angle correct, and a couple of gentle runs partly up the ramps to check alignment, I eventually gave it enough to get the car on. It fits! But I can't get out!! No biggie, as the trailer has easily removable mud guards and once taken off, the doors open fully and the driver can simply alight. Awesome.

The next step is to take the car and trailer to an experienced aluminium fabrication shop to get a front wheel stop bar installed and the tie down points re-jigged to suit the car and its relative position on the trailer. We bought industrial-strength tie down straps, brackets and ratchets recently from a very experienced guy at Load Restraint Systems in Dandenong. So with a following breeze we are only a week or so away from having a fully road legal, functional GT3 carrying conveyance!

Once the setup is operational, in future I would like to add an electric winch to make handling of the loading process easier and assist in loading the car, if for some reason, we couldn't do it under its own steam. Then maybe a nose cone (with wheel racks) to protect the front of the car (and possibly aid fuel economy), some lockable storage for tools and a jerry can holder or two.

But fair to say, I am now really happy. The matching silver GT3 / Featherlite aluminium trailer combo behind the Land Bruiser looks fantastic!

Happy New Year and Happy (Porsche) Motoring,

Where did all the previous posts go to from this blog?

They have been archived (by year) and are easily accessible via the links in the sidebar on the left hand side of this page.