The South African Feel Good Thread

[Vladror]

i've only had it in for a week, so too soon to see effect on fuel economy..
daily traffic is much bigger factor on economy for me.

from reading up, it seems liqui moly octane plus has no long term detrimental effects.
in any case, our engines were supposed to run on 98 octane anyway

[Fish Eagle]

Originally Posted by Vladror

my feel good for the day: did my first dyno..
142 wkw, 211 Nm
Brz exhaust + liqui moly octane plus

place of dyno: topend racing bellville

Wow, that's cool.
Have you been slipping some Captain Morgan into your tank??

[Vladror]

another CPT guy went to the same place yesterday with a stock car, and did 109 kW and 186 Nm.
So that removes temperature and dyno machine variation.
i think i got quite a few people sold on that liqui moly with my results

[Fish Eagle]

MIDVAAL RACEWAY 11 Jan 2014

Originally Posted by Alang

Interested to see your top end now, on the back straight.

192kph and 1m25

Great fun!!
I was the only road car there. About 12 race cars and 6 or 7 bikes (one had quite a bad pile-up, but he's OK). Speedwise, I was about midfield which made me (a track virgin) feel pretty good. Very encouraging to be quicker than some bespoke race machines and drivers, but some of them are very, very quick - phew!! I think my 45 years of hooning around in cars did help a bit though

Early this morning I had about 7 laps coaching from Trevor who was superb. I'm colour-blind and I can't see their apex markers at all so I had to go by gut feel with that, but I found it fairly easy to get the right lines most of the time. Trevor was actually quite complimentary and said that I had worked out most of the lines on my own quite well...

Interestingly, I mostly used 3rd for the 6 slow corners (about 80kph) which was a lot smoother and more predictable than in 2nd which would make the tail step out very easily on the exits. Certainly 2nd will ultimately be a lot quicker, and maybe one day when I'm big, I'll be able to handle it better. With a stock 86 and the torque dip, I would think that 2nd would be a given for turns 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 & 8 to get good drive out of those corners.

I still fear two corners. OK, not fear, but I treat them with plenty circumspection. That's turn 5 entering the main straight - not sure why I don't like it. Maybe because you have to commit with putting power down in a tail-happy car. The other one is turn 9 onto the pit straight where a slow spin to the inside puts one headfirst into the pit wall. Other than that, the track has got massive runoff areas and gave me confidence to give it horns with minimal risk.

I've got a minor problem with oil temp which (at 130C) is running a bit hot for my liking so I'll probably go for some bonnet ventilation, and if that doesn't help then probably an oil cooler.

But a much bigger problem was the brakes. The combination of the stock brakes and stickier rubber (235/40-17 140 R-compound), and they just don't cut the cake at all. They work wonderfully for 5 or 6 laps, then - hello, a nasty surprise. Fortunately my nasty surprise happened at the end of the pit straight when I was only doing about 130. No warning at all, suddenly just a spongy pedal and 50% effective. I managed to hold it but I was a hair's breadth from going seriously farming...

However, I must say that my tyres are brilliant on track - love em.

Thereafter, I took it easy, especially on the main straight.
If I held it down to 160 on the back straight, that lightened both the oil temp and braking stress, and I could still lap at 1:30 which was fun.

The Midvaal guys are great, and made me feel totally at home.
Very, very enjoyable and highly recommended.

[Jacques Blom]

Till date I did two track days. It is a LOT of fun and makes you a better driver...good for you...use the car for what it was buid for.. Play play play.

[Vladror]

an average sunday in Cape Town:

[Fish Eagle]

"FEEL GOOD" doesn't get better than this...

Last week Lindy got the green flag from her oncologist
Today I got the green flag from my cardiologist
So far, 2014's looking rather good for us

So we took a not-so-leisurely drive up to Kaapsehoop and celebrated with the wild horses and a cold beer (or two).

LG - Life's good!!

[sav]

That is awesome news!!

[Fish Eagle]

Originally Posted by Fish Eagle

Stoked!!
Going to put in some track time this weekend at http://www.midvaalraceway.com/TrackDays.aspx

STOKED AGAIN!!
Going to put in some more track time at Midvaal next month - I can't wait.
Hoping to have upgraded my brakes by then!!

My tyres should handle one more track day, then they'll be moer-toe - but that's OK. It's the price of a very big smile!!

I've only got a bit of really crappy video which I took last time on my old Nokia.
This was taken after I cooked my brakes so it's taking it very easy on the straights and with braking.

This is about a 1:30 lap. The best I got earlier on was about 1:25 when I was caning it.

I don't have a timer, but I was reeling in Stefan's racing Honda at 1-2 secs a lap when my brakes handed in their resignation and he was running 1:26's.

Going to be interesting to see what I can manage with some more experience and a brakes upgrade.

[ame]http://youtu.be/HpvTEHb4Lls[/ame]

BTW, an A-class Super Saloons BMW M3 did a 1:10.33
I won't give you a link to that vid because it makes mine look stupid...

[Vladror]

sjoe, that looks fast already...

[sav]

Rather than adding a turbo to the 86, got a boxer that's got a turbo already.

[Fish Eagle]

Originally Posted by sav

Rather than adding a turbo to the 86, got a boxer that's got a turbo already.

Lookin' good - ENJOY!!

[sav]

Thanks.

I wonder if they haven't added fuel cons display on purpose?

[Fish Eagle]

Now how cool is that?

At the bottom of the pic is the orange and black 86 "Go Play" shirt which I got as a gift with my car (think for orange cars only - wonder what the other colours get? nyaaah, nyaaah!!), and on top is the long-sleeved lightweight jacket I bought today for only R130 compliments of Jonssons protective clothing.

Solves my problem of fulfilling the "long-sleeves" requirement to go on track.
Being semi-retired for 10 years, I really don't have an extensive "long-sleeves" wardrobe - LOL.

Up to now, my long-sleeves choice was - wedding/funeral shirts, wedding/funeral suit jackets, very nice WRC blue Scandinavian Subaru anorak (which very seriously doesn't work in SA in summer), bamboo mountain climbing long-sleeved thermal underwear, and a few other horrible items...

Hey, I live in Nelspruit - what's long-sleeves? Under 20°C is cold snap