996tnz

Her colour has grown on me. Sets off the intakes and she does pop in any group. She ran fantastically over the 3 days, though she does like her drink. Couldn't have asked for a calmer, more relaxed co-driver than Paul either. Sorry, didn't spot you heading the other way Michael.

sp1ked

Speaking of intakes Walter. Was that yours I saw on the road on the last stage?

Macca

Congrats to all who took part in the Targa. Condolences to RSGers Chris T and Graeme W for their off road excursions. Glad no one was hurt and I hope the repairs aren't too expensive. Big thanks to Jamie for his co driver efforts. He's now a seasoned navigator and acquitted himself well. The 993 was the probably oldest car in the Open class Tour but not the slowest. We had some great stages on Day 2 and 3 once things had dried up a bit. Car ran faultlessly and demonstrated again that power does not always equate to speed. Fantastic chassis and mechanical grip (given lack of electronics and being 2WD) and only thing I could ask for is more torque and a little more power as gear selection becomes very critical without. We ran on road tyres which worked fine once they got to temperature and pressures were adjusted. Many positive compliments on the sound it makes ripping through the countryside which was nice as well! It was a great way to get properly acquainted again with the car after a long hiatus. It's a keeper!!

Congrats to Mt Hellier team for finishing the Targa comp successfully!!

Look forward to getting back to NZ in September for some fast B roads and the NITT!!!

996tnz

I'd better check the front of my car. Paul was itching to get home so we handed over the tracker for someone else to take back and then flew back to our respective kids without getting out of the car.

I'd say it was my aero dam because I had to reattach it several times already when it had half come off on earlier stages after banging on various bumps and one lane bridges. Was quite surprised as it looked like it might survive the Tour. That last stage there was a bang from the front and we ran something over so I figured it was probably that at the time. Had forgotten about it by stage end. My fault for encouraging the leader to give it more jandal I guess.

I take it you leaned out your window on the way past and collected it for me Glenn?

996tnz

Was great having you there Macca and that 'nuts and bolts in an industrial blender' exhaust riot of yours really is distinctive and awesome.

Street tyres are the go I reckon. We probably ran on the cheapest tyres of the top dozen cars and that added to the fun. Only time we wished for better rubber was the last stage on day one, crossing the Coromandel. Earlier in the day, when properly wet, we had good grip and the odd bit of manageable slip. When properly dry on the last two days, we drove with predictable slip to run happily with those using the grip of their R-comps and pricey Super Sports. But that one Coromandel stage had a huge mix of wet and dry patches in almost every corner, with grip and slip often varying at every corner of the car. PSM had turned itself off completely again on what in hindsight would've been the one stage where I might have preferred it to be on. With the bum getting a bit random in several of the early corners we had to back off a few percent and ended up holding up the upgraded C63 and two GTRs so at stage end I spoke to the guy in that last GTR and arranged to slot in behind him the next morning until the roads dried out a bit.

As it happened, I got pinged for speeding too much on day one (11 times) so the Kids in Cars charity got very lucky and I also had to run the first two stages of Day Two behind the mid group pace car of the fast group after which we moved up again. Confirmed my fears about the silly speed limit as I was actually trying not to speed but it is much safer to be watching the road than your instrument panel, especially in the wet.

By the time we'd done our penance runs the roads had dried out and we slotted back in to our normal position, running with ChrisB's similarly tweaked 996T, the 580hp C63 Merc (both on serious R-comps) and the orange Lambo 550-2 as a group just behind the couple of 991 GT3s that shadowed the leader.

You're right on that power not always meaning speed thing too Macca. At one point the C63 driver asked if he could go ahead which was fine as we were on the same pace but he also suggested we should let his mate in the black GTR through, saying 'he's got 660hp you know'. That we declined, since we'd often seen a growing gap to the Audi R8 behind us, and I'd seen in my mirror that the R8 was still putting an even bigger gap on that GTR. And it does suck to be held up too much, as we'd found out on the two penalty runs.

Further to the power versus speed discussion, our favourite stage was the Maungatautari stage where a certain Boxster S and the yellow terror arrived at the start after the field had gone already. It looked like we'd be refused the run but the guy at the start line instead arranged to guide us through.

It was by a fair margin the most flowing and consistently fast stage we ran (although many other stages had faster driven sections). The kicker is that the guy was driving a Mazda 6 2.2 Turbodiesel (just 173hp, but with its 310 ft-lbs of torque almost matching the 928 S4's 317) on Turanzas. At stage end I jumped out to shake his hand and tell him he was one hell of a driver. He thanked me and then asked where my mate had gone in the Boxster so I told him he'd be arriving any second.

He was a modest bloke so won't name him here but eventually he admitted that he got paid to drive fast since he was a national driving instructor for the police. He certainly had the goods, much deserved to be instructing, and has a big thanks from us.

gt38088

yea thx Macca
I haven't put a wheel off the tarmac since I have run that car though others have - so pretty annoying really. Car is awaiting transport back to welly which I am trying to organize today, thinking of some ways to improve it since it needs some work anyway...

996tnz

Yes, Paul and I remarked on that too Graeme when we got the news. Looking forward to you bringing her back better and stronger. It's small compensation but well done in leading your class up to that point too!

Chris T - sorry your Targa ended a stage or two early and like Macca wishing your black beauty a speedy recovery. There's a few here that have unfortunately been there before so you're not alone mate.

O2GO

Let's put our heads together Jake. John inspired me to think about a raid base of the Coromandel. Stuart D suggested he knows some great roads around his region (Tauranga) so there's material for another weekend away I there somewhere.

Ha ha, you guys were too quick for me and dragged me off. That run sure was a blast. No traffic and the whole road to ourselves. It was a very lucky bonus.

Stuart Davey was my co-driver. He did the SITT with Playday in the Prestige group with his Cayman R (now Johns) alongside us last year. He's waiting for his Cayman GTS which is in build at the factory about now. He was a great co-driver and was very enthusiastic about the event. He's coming on the SITT with us next year and I'm working on him for the Targa Bambina Tour which he's also keen on.

On the long 70km stage, Chris T came off just ahead of us and I was having to work very hard to keep up with him and Macca (one ahead of Chris). Having him go through the fence was awful to see and I buttoned off accordingly as we had been hitting the odd bit of gravel which may have been Chris's issue. We lost contact with Macca and Stuart worked on me to keep the pace in check. Our tyres got pretty hot and went off by 2/3rds of the way through the stage getting pretty squirmy. We help us the rest of the field a little after we buttoned off a few % and I got told so too when lining up for the last short stage. On that stage the tyres had cooled down and we attacked it behind Macca at a hard full-on pace which was a nice way to finish the event. Macca's 993 sure makes an amazing noise at all rev levels and is loud as hell when following adding to the excitement and experience.

It was a real blast and I'm already looking forward to next year.

No stone damage or marks and damage at at that I've noticed. We kept a good 50-70m behind the car front most of the time and I think the huge amount of rain leading up to the event may have washed the grit off the road for us saving that peppering that has occurred in past years.

Wish I had more photos.

O2GO

Oh one more thing, I posted a few more photos during the event on the RSG group on Facebook for Diana and others to see. :-D here are some more...

O2GO

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O2GO

....

Macca

That's the spirit Graeme! Always a sliver lining in there somewhere. Adding some improvements will make the rebuild less painful. Looked at the video a few times and looked like a fairly unlucky situation. One of the loose patches that had been recently sealed perhaps. We can across a few along the way, in one case the front wheels sledged but not the rears. Haven't had that one in 14+ years of 993 ownership. We had a stage where the rear got away a little a few times but that was largely due to tyres that needed their pressure dropping which seemed to cure the problem.

Haven driven the GT3 a number of times at Targa pace with Doug & Paul & John, I'm very aware the machine can make up much of the gap for the driver. In 2012 the lead car did not slow the group down nor did we have a 160kmph geo net so the flow was faster throughout the closed stages. The fastest tourer was a British gent (had some amateur rally background in UK) driving a factory Megaene 265? on R comps and with better pads and fluid but otherwise 100% stock. I think Ron and others with 500+ bhp were a bit surprised at his pace!

As for me personally, I think this may be my last Targa Tour. The bang for buck isn't there for me and this year disappointed a little on a number of levels.

Doug, was good to have you "back in the game" on that last stage. We had a good pace going until the white Lambo slowed down John in the 981 Boxster S ahead of us partway through the stage. We backed off after passing the BMW M3 race car that had gone down the bank with Walts splitter in the middle of the road. I always find those scenes a bit unnerving too so understand completely what you mean. The guys at the front miss all the drama mid group I reckon. In 2012 we were witness to 5 accidents, all of them 1-3 cars ahead of us. Makes it pretty real I reckon aye!

This morning we had breakfast with Mark & Glenn before heading back to Auckland. Very pleasant indeed. Always wonderful to be in the company of real car enthusiasts. We discussed the possibility of Boomrock Track for the 2016 NITT and it looks like it has cult appeal. I'm thinking half a day with an additional few hours on their skidpan and a few hours of set up laps for the drone GoPros to make a little "Magnus W" style RSG NITT/Roadtrip video we can circulate virally. I have some ideas in mind I will story board and maybe Aarjan or Sam & his mates will help with production.

Ill leave you with these shots to get your adrenaline flowing (Chris M please note ravine a few hundred meters at the end of the straight!).

O2GO

^^^^^ I hope you run anticlockwise on that circuit

Macca

I think so Doug. Basically its a drag strip with a sweeper then a funnel at the end leading onto the back straight. Could be fun to turn it upside down for a few runs but probably a bit ambitious :-)

kiwi 911

^^^^^^ We have to do this track next year guys. I have a bucket list item of driving every track in NZ and this one is missing...........

I even managed to drive Bay Park before it was demo'ed.