----------------1984 Daily 20v AE86 ***PARTED OUT*** =(
Originally Posted by Cerby86
Reply With QuoteOK, I thought it was about time to write up an update about the weekend!
Before I headed out I wanted the car to be one colour at last, I was out of Vinyl, so I did what I should have done ages age... bought a couple of rattle cans and finished the rear bar. I also figured I would need a rear tow attachment in case I ended up beached off CAT corner (turn one) which I have to admit plenty of people managed several times over the weekend.
The results the night before:
Then all loaded up on the trailer ready to go at BS O'clock
After arriving at the track at about 6:40 with a crispy morning temperature of 3 degrees it was time for the dreaded scruiteneering...
Really I had nothing to be worried about, but being the first time the car has been scruiteneered since I built it I was always going to be a little nervous. That said, the car passed with no concerns or even a second glance really which is always a relief
After the driver's briefing came the first (and only) race of the weekend, which was who could get their cars to the line in pit lane first, lol. I placed somewhere mid-field but in the end I was all set to go:
I am not going to lie to you guys, I was pretty damn nervous about heading out at all. To put it in perspective this was the Car's first proper track event and even including driving to and from workshops and bringing the car back from tuning it had less than 150kms on it since the ground up rebuild, so it was still pretty much untested
Then there is me, who hasn't been to a drift event since 2011, hasn't been driving an AE86 since then too and hasn't been out at Barbagallo since early 2008
'Well there's your problem'...
Anyway I fixed that up and got back out and still had a good time. But left the day with mixed feelings about myself, but a lot more confidence in the car.
Unfortunately all of the pics I have seen so far were taken on Saturday, here they are anyway:
Anyway, overnight I decided that I would push a bit harder and that as long as I could connect C-red (the long uphill left hander) intermittently with the hairpin after it than I would call the weekend a success because that's roughly what I was able to do when I left Perth last time (in 2008).
In the car bays before heading out I was talking to Matski (Matt-AE86 on here) and he asked how the car was going, I replied something like 'It could use a better driver' as a bit of a joke and then next thing I knew he had teed up one of the trainers to come along and give me some pointers. I have to say, best thing that happened all weekend. To be completely honest, he didn't tell me anything I didn't know, but pointed out a couple of things I was doing wrong with my line into some corners that I used to do right and got me to shift gears in slightly different places, which where also where I changed when I was here in 2008. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment and the confidence in my driving was also boosted by the fact that he was only pointing out a couple of minor things that I was literally fixing in the very next lap. To put the whole thing in perspective as to how much my driving developed between the two days, I was on the same pair of rear tyres all day Saturday. I'm pretty sure I went though 6 or 7 pairs on Sunday... Admittedly some of that was fairly early delam, but that's drifting
Some of my tyres must have gotten Stockholm syndrome because even though I brought them to a painful death the didn't want to leave my car:
I'm not sure that my tow point mascot was all that impressed...
Anyway, by the time my camera ran out of battery (just before lunch on Sunday) I was doing fairly consistent laps that looked something like these ones:
So yeah, in the end BDA was a kickass couple of days. Bit of a lackluster start to the weekend, but it made putting down consistent laps later in the weekend more satisfying.
I had told myself before the weekend started that I wouldn't drift the second of 'the esses' (the long chicane type corner after turn 1) because I have seen too many cars hit the wall there and I knew I wasn't familiar with the car. By the end of the weekend I think I would have been fine to give it a go, but I decided to not potentially ruin a good weekend but pushing that little bit too far and writing the thing off
For those who are wondering what happened to these:
The 175s were hilarious! With those puppies on I could pretty much do the whole course in 4th gear (which is up 1 to 2 gears depending on which section) it was an absolute laugh, but they only lasted 4 laps
I am definitely getting me some more, I really wish I had some footage of when they were on, I was laughing like an idiot the whole way around the track and you probably would have heard me over the motor, lol
But yeah, great weekend, car still undamaged and running strong. One thing I did notice was that the way I have routed the intercooler piping causes it to push up against the body of the car under revs, so that's what was causing the boost leaks. I will have to have a think and change the route a little to stop it from happening and possibly fit an engine dampener as well.
Good times
