nzskater

Interesting notes on Targa Tour. Hasn't been something I've committed to, mainly due to the fact that I satisfy a fair bit of that need through early morning weekend runs.

On the comments about the 160kph limit and the need to look at instruments: my radar detector can be set to notify me when a speed is exceeded (and would do so in a nice clear voice if I ever went over 150), and there are a number of apps for a smartphone that would do the same. Surely this would help minimise the need to glance at the dash on a regular basis?

gt38088

Gerry has done many full targa events - the last few in that car. Always finishes so presumably they put him in front because he is reliable and disciplined, to keep you boys in order. pretty big heavy car tho so never going to set a pace to test the super cars at the front of the tour.
safe tho which is the main thing as Targa is under pressure from motorsport nz.

Macca

John. I dont see your name on the SITT list yet. Might be good to sign up even provisionally.

Good spotting Walt, edited my post to read "30" years old.

Jake. Most of us used an excellent free iPhone app in the car to give speed warnings. It beeped loudly at a preset speed and I never once during the tour looked at my speedo. Jamie took the occasional glance as the GPS was a few seconds behind our actual set geo net using the app so it was possible to overshoot. We over shot every stage by 3-18kmph but were never given a "ticket" presumably because we never maintained that over speed.

Graeme, Gerry is a real character and I spent some time chatting to him about his excellently (and expensively) turned out BMW and his history with BMW and the Farmer Porsche assault on Le Mans in 1996. Very interesting chap. Unfortunately the car blew a gasket on the last day so the big stage and the following short one were behind a different pace car.

John McM

Macca, my interest is to tour rather than track, this time. Simple for planning and packing. I'm thinking the extreme points: Cape Reinga (North), East Cape (East), Te Anau (West), Slope Point (South). Join in where I can with the SITT, but be more flexible where I want to be e.g. a more leisurely drive back to Auckland bypassing Ruapuna. Go through Oamaru etc. I figure I will complete 7,500 to 8,000km. I was thinking the R, but am now leaning towards Herman as the gravel on some parts of the journey kills paint and glass.

John McM

Not sure what's required legally, but the 2k cup requirements for OEM replacements mean the suspension and brakes etc are 'ordinary' for racing. It's easy enough to change out these parts, but the costs mount when you have to buy four shocks and springs plus calipers and rotors. That said, biffo marks are relatively cheap to repair e.g. BB2's door, mirror and front guard are less than $300 shipped from Ashburton.

Thesnowman

New radiator arrived this am, power steering hoses should be ready today.


My leaky OEM radiator will be off to Fenix later this week so they can copy it and have a local alternative (great for 944 owners here and in Aus)

996tnz

Don't think my detector does that but had it switched off for special stages as it might alert at inconvenient spots and times. I had already set my car's own warning chime for 153 at the start of the Tour but between the Remus exhaust and my full face helmet it had no chance of being heard when giving it some. I did buy an android last week to run the rally tripmeter as the one I used last time had died, but didn't have another handy for alerts.

Later in the Tour, Paul downloaded an app called Speedometer for his iPhone and started calling my speeds but as Macca says there is quite a delay on the GPS reading compared to the dash so I think Paul was starting to watch my digital readout by the end. Would be brilliant if the dash went amber then red or something so peripheral vision could take it in easier. 100 to 160 only takes about 4 secs, and there weren't that many corners we exited at under 100 so we'd be hitting that limit all the time under hard acceleration. Much of the first day was super wet (Tour down to 60-70 kph on the straights once or twice) and I was trying not to speed (but not in a paranoid way that first day as I was watching the wet roads) and I still got pinged for speeding 11 times, fined for charity and warned I'd be thrown out of the Tour if it happened again. Again, that was on a mostly wet day. On a dry day driving like that it would've probably been 20 or more times and no doubt more still if no speed limit applied at all and I was driving naturally. Two other people were warned the next morning, one for going over two or three times to about 163 kph or so. So you bet my speedo was then getting a lot of attention as I tried to cruise at 155-157 or so to match the cars in front since the prospect of spending many thousands for just one wet day of running before getting sent home just didn't appeal.

Some other veteran tourists also commented that enforcement had got a lot more draconian and that their co-drivers were doing much less navigation and corner calling since they were having to dedicate lots of attention to watching the speed limit.



I chatted with Gerry too and he was a great guy who came across as a competent and calm driver. He did say he'd been told to keep it to no more than 7 or 8 tenths though and on days two and three we noticed him buttoning it back heavily a few times for several minutes a time each stage. I figured he was doing it to protect his engine but on asking him about it later he said his tyres were going off as they'd already had more than a full racing season on them and his car carries a lot of weight up front.

As mentioned before, when his car was on song and he was leaning into his work there were some really good sustained sections but then we'd suddenly be down to cool down pace for a stretch.


Brakes shouldn't be any issue even with R-comps as they don't get near as hot on Targa stages as they do on track in a race. As Chris B noticed too, our race pads kept squealing throughout as they never had a chance to get enough heat into them. So even the wet RSG HD trackday was much more of a brake workout.

I'd be doing it more for experience than the win, so wouldn't see any suspension changes needed. Particularly in the wet, what's under them should do fine, and even in the dry the extra grip of R-comps is pretty much offset by the grip lost in going from a track surface to a road surface. If everyone was good with it, we'd still need to work out a fair charge for wear and usage back to the RSG car fund, with any damage repairs on top of course.

John McM

Ideally, I think setting yourself up with a personal set of rims, tyres and pads would be best. That's what we count as consumables. The whole lot would struggle to push $1,250 and half of that is tyres. At the end of the targa you just change it all back to what was in there. No charge as the other wear and tear is too hard to work out. The biggest thing coming through from the 1 hour experience is that we need to do our best to avoid body damage. We have a lot invested in the cages etc and body parts are getting harder to come by.

Maybe we should talk as a group re BB's future after the Dunlop 800? It seems short sighted to sell her for a bargain basement price to others if she is reliable and has parts we may need in future. Balanced off against that is the need to be fair to the co-owners who have had enough of her.

BTW: The AIM makes an extremely good speedo. You customise the display to give numbers as big as the display. Very accurate.

996tnz

Happy to supply those parts (and makes sense for a special event) but would still be looking to pay something per special stage kilometre towards wear of bushes, gearbox, engine and CVs. For normal running I find that total consumables cost is similar to the fuel cost, but as you say the main consumables I'd be supplying myself, so maybe still something like 33 cents/km of special stage to cover the balance?

Inclined to keep her around unless swapped for a VTiR or Si. At least until some of her other owners decide whether to run her in the 2K Spirit Cup.

Thanks John. The issue is not that my speedo doesn't work though, but just that I'd rather have my attention dedicated to car control and reading the road when accelerating over bumps at full chat. The AIM is good, and would be better placed in my field of vision but I'm still gaining more than one kph per tenth of a second at 160 so flashing figures aren't as easily read as colours might be. I could afford to buy quite a few more android phones with that fine though so I'll likely find an app for that and use a second dedicated phone if I'm placed in the same position again. Can't see the teggy threatening 200 too often in the competition though.

John McM

There you go Pete, a chance to hire a R http://sportshire.co.uk/car/porsche-.../#!prettyPhoto

Macca

John. I'm hearing you. Although frankly there will be likely no additional hassle in visiting the track with the air than touring in it other than taking a helmet. We will use the GT3 and I have no intentions of carting wheels/tyres and spares next year. I'm not planning any race support unless those with older cars want to arrange and pay for their own. We'll load the car Jo and I Hop in and treat it like a touring holiday with some arrive and drive track days thrown in. The R would work perfectly in the same capacity just buy a set of MPSC2 in 19" sizes....

John McM

I imagine I'll get the WAG thumbs up for another stay in Queenstown, plus an Amisfield lunch, but otherwise it's just me I need to keep happy and right now my happy place is a road centric tour of epic proportions in Herman. Go cars not show cars! I may offer to take on the role of tour photographer when I'm not off completing my geographic objectives. I have nothing against track tours, the last one was fantastic, I'm just trying to fill in the road trip gaps from the last one AND get my car back in Auckland more promptly than last time.

nzskater

If you have any desire for a wingman on the epic road touring, count me in. I'd love nothing more than to spend as much time as possible on the road before, during and after the track tour.

May or may not have a passenger (hoping so, and plan on signing her up for a photography course beforehand!). But will have a GoPro, camera and a better selection of lenses. Also trying to arrange semi regular use of a drone...

Macca

Fair call John. You are braver than me/us. After 14 consecutive driving days & 6000 kms in the 993 Jo and I wouldn't repeat it again. I suspect our old girl is a bit firmer on the road than Herman, and the bucket seats felt like concrete on the way home (interestingly they were fine for the 1500kms we did on the Targa). We are old and soft now so the GT3 will be the perfect choice!

Jake, I wouldn't despair. Dougie the Road Warrior is coming and if last year is anything to go by we will have many dawn raids and driving excursions built into the tour.We did a 2 day tour to WTGN via many of the old Targa roads on the way down including the Gentle Annies (awesome!), then the West-coast of the SI for 3 days before heading to QT. Days off Doug did a Milford sound return raid (7hrs driving) and we did a few goes at Crown Ranges as well as some lightening and hairy pre dawn runs to Teretonga from QT and Levels Timaru from Mt Cook. Im 100% confident that after 6000+km of the SITT you wont want to be driving much for a week or two afterwards - none of us had an appetite for a weekend drive after we got back!

John McM

Only too happy to have company for all of part of the journey. I would like to get more creative video for this trip