Joined
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167 Posts
Sorry I've been gone for so long guys.
For those of you who didn't follow Swade's Targa blog, allow me to fill in a few gaps.
For the first time in many years, it didn't start raining the moment that Targa Tasmania started. In fact the first three days were fine and sunny. Things were going OK 'til on the thrid day of competition, I thought I'd be changing from third to fourth and ended up instead with a box full of neutrals- no drive in any gear except for fifth.
We managed to complete that special stage.... and the next two.... and a further 60km to the lunch stop, all in fifth. At that stop (it was raining by now) , south of Hobart, the guys (Drew Bedelph and Matt Gould- hearts of gold each of 'em) decided we weren't going anywhere without a fixed/new box, so it was onto the flatbed truck for an ignominious trip back to town.
Waiting there was Steve Eyles who forewent his son's 14th birthday party to help fit a ($400) gearbox from a wrecked 900- the only one in captivity in Tasmania. (Thanks Steve and Michael Grubb of Hobart Automotive). It took until nearly 11.00pm to fit, but I felt considerably happier as the car resumed progress under its own power back to the parc ferme that night,
This gearbox was something of a mixed blessing, it was pretty hard to shift into second when cold, crunched into fifth and jumped out of reverse, not the mention the fact that we had to add seven litres(!) of gearbox oil over the next two days. Still, the aim was to finish and that we did, with an overall score of 78th (out of 260 starters) and a fifth or sixth in class. We encountered climates from 25C to snow.
The gearbox was just one of a multitude of faults with the car, not the least being an ongoing issue with the engine being quite variable in its performance- the dyno said it was running out of fuel at high revs/boost but it was literally all over the place, sometimes revving cleanly to the redline and beyond (it HAS been balanced) and sometime not accepting 1/3 throttle at 1,500rpm. :roll:
The latest way of pouring yet more cash into my 99T is to fit Autronic fuel injection- which will allow us to create three dimensional fuelling maps, control the boost, control the water injection, richen the engine if it gets hot, have a shift light, etc etc. We are looking for 225bhp which I believe we can achieve.
All this comes at a cost of nearly $5k.
It now appears that the gearbox we intended to last the whole of the event failed through a simple roll pin having failed/fallen out: the old 50c part causing a $1,000 problem. Oh well, that's racing.
There are photos of our adventure here : http://community.webshots.com/album/344282063iGacjL
I am looking for a large left hand indicator lens for a late 99 prefer (new if I can get one), so if there's a spare luking in your garage/shed/office/store, please email me. I'll pay a fair price.
I'll try and keep you up to date as the transformation progresses. I'll also
DanCethana
The Team
Elephant Pass
Prologue at Georgetown
Wet & wild Queenstown
Snow
South Rianna
For those of you who didn't follow Swade's Targa blog, allow me to fill in a few gaps.
For the first time in many years, it didn't start raining the moment that Targa Tasmania started. In fact the first three days were fine and sunny. Things were going OK 'til on the thrid day of competition, I thought I'd be changing from third to fourth and ended up instead with a box full of neutrals- no drive in any gear except for fifth.
We managed to complete that special stage.... and the next two.... and a further 60km to the lunch stop, all in fifth. At that stop (it was raining by now) , south of Hobart, the guys (Drew Bedelph and Matt Gould- hearts of gold each of 'em) decided we weren't going anywhere without a fixed/new box, so it was onto the flatbed truck for an ignominious trip back to town.
Waiting there was Steve Eyles who forewent his son's 14th birthday party to help fit a ($400) gearbox from a wrecked 900- the only one in captivity in Tasmania. (Thanks Steve and Michael Grubb of Hobart Automotive). It took until nearly 11.00pm to fit, but I felt considerably happier as the car resumed progress under its own power back to the parc ferme that night,
This gearbox was something of a mixed blessing, it was pretty hard to shift into second when cold, crunched into fifth and jumped out of reverse, not the mention the fact that we had to add seven litres(!) of gearbox oil over the next two days. Still, the aim was to finish and that we did, with an overall score of 78th (out of 260 starters) and a fifth or sixth in class. We encountered climates from 25C to snow.
The gearbox was just one of a multitude of faults with the car, not the least being an ongoing issue with the engine being quite variable in its performance- the dyno said it was running out of fuel at high revs/boost but it was literally all over the place, sometimes revving cleanly to the redline and beyond (it HAS been balanced) and sometime not accepting 1/3 throttle at 1,500rpm. :roll:
The latest way of pouring yet more cash into my 99T is to fit Autronic fuel injection- which will allow us to create three dimensional fuelling maps, control the boost, control the water injection, richen the engine if it gets hot, have a shift light, etc etc. We are looking for 225bhp which I believe we can achieve.
All this comes at a cost of nearly $5k.
It now appears that the gearbox we intended to last the whole of the event failed through a simple roll pin having failed/fallen out: the old 50c part causing a $1,000 problem. Oh well, that's racing.
There are photos of our adventure here : http://community.webshots.com/album/344282063iGacjL
I am looking for a large left hand indicator lens for a late 99 prefer (new if I can get one), so if there's a spare luking in your garage/shed/office/store, please email me. I'll pay a fair price.
I'll try and keep you up to date as the transformation progresses. I'll also
DanCethana
The Team
Elephant Pass
Prologue at Georgetown
Wet & wild Queenstown
Snow
South Rianna
