John McM

Squadron?

gt38088

1,2,3,4, in the line up looking very smart - cant see the rest but 10 is a great turn out of 964

kiwi 911

^^^ I was thinking a mobile slalom ?? :-)

Fantastic photos!!!

peterC2S

+964 (to both comments!)

Macca

964 picture looks great. Pit garage second level extensions look fantastic to and glad t see a splash of colour in the pit lane.

Well done John. Its looking almost complete now :-) Make sure to give those brake calipers a good scrub to have them loking as spic and the new paint!

Well done Walt/Neil? in 2K. Watched a few of your races on Racemonitor. You held mid field well and even climbed some places in what looked like tough competition.

O2GO

It was a brilliant day. Hot, dry, and no worrisome incidents. Lovely playing with all the 964s. PM was looking impressive in the GT3. Steve had his latest purchase there, an ex-targa rally 964. Fantastic day had by all.

O2GO

Any news from the racing at Puke?

O2GO

More photos on FB Rennsport Gruppe

peterC2S

Walter's race still underway - program running very late!!

Neil and I had awesome battle in Pirelli series - hard fast & completely clean - some of the best racing I've had. Guys at the top of the field were also incredibly close - made for great racing all round.

Tomorrow looks like we'll get a wet first race then hopefully dry in the afternoon. Kind of looking forward to using the wets we've had in the van for 2 seasons!!

peterC2S

Walters 2nd race just about to start on race monitor. Looks like reverse grid - he's starting 17th

Looking at the light I can't imagine it will run. Perhaps defer to the morning?

Edit: Looks like they are running. A few scratchings but imagine headlights will be on for the rest!!

nzskater

What an awesome day today at HD. Perfect conditions and fantastic driving by all.

Car feeling a bit more settled now with my updated suspension map. Must have done something as I finally broke into the 1:17's. Can't wait to throw away the noisy (I'm blaming the tyres not my driving) MPSS so I can put on the new Sport Cup 2's and get out there again.

996tnz

Hope everyone had a great time at Hampton Downs and no-one's day worked out to be more expensive than planned. Great photos, and with their now appreciating values, my vote goes to a 'pride of 964s'.

For my part, I got back from the Puke 2K Cup races at about 11pm, boomeranged back to Drury to find my missing head and neck restraint and am now about to have a shower after this post. Quite a long day attrack, even if we only got there at 1pm, as our last race got away crazy late with headlights on.

TLDR version - I had fun. More info then:

Some challenges today. Car was pulling a bit when bedding the brakes but not enough time before qualifying to fix it. Appears the bloody Drury garage didn't fit my race pads as instructed. In fact, it seems they left Neil's Repco special TRW ceramic pads on the front left, and fitted my hardcore race pads to the front right. Made for some interesting car dynanics entering the turns as the front left had about half the bite and grip as the front right brake (30-35 mu ceramic TRWs versus 50-55mu HAWK DTC60s on the other corner). So no records set in qualifying, though I did get brave and keep it floored up the hill on the last lap, hitting the damn governor in third just as the crest was coming up. Grabbed fourth in that last turn onto the straight and kicked up dust as I went two wheels off onto the start finish but at least scraped together a sub 1:30.

I had no suitable matched spare pads available so swapped just one pad of each pair to the other side of the car. This made for one road pad and one race pad on at front left, and the same mix on the front right - evening things up for the races where I ran better times. It still meant though that the full racing pairs of Hawk blues in the back made her rear-biased (not great for a front-engined front wheel drive but much better than before).

First field I was placed 13 on the grid. At the 2KCup drivers' briefing, the Clerk of the Course had made it clear that we should go out in any order, warm our tyres and grid up in our positions. We would then do a '90%' pace formation lap (no passing) and regrid again before then launching into the race.

So stupid me did that, as did half the field. The other half had seen or heard that the plan had changed to just a normal out lap, grid and race.

So like much of the field, I didn't launch hard at all (only time you'll see me beaten away by a Peugeot) and was only aiming for 90% pace during the lap (my lap 1 was a 1:57!. The minority in the know made out like bandits and ripped through us but I figured they might cop penalties and that they'd have to give the places back at the regrid. But there were no flags or lights from the hairpin to slow the field for the grid. At that hairpin, on what I still thought was the formation lap, a following car had also underbraked, gone two wheels off outside, got loose and hit my left side so I was not impressed with goings on. I still took it very cautiously over the hill as I thought there might be stopped traffic on the Start-finish straight for the race start proper but, no, a couple more cars passed me and it was obvious we were racing already. I was pretty peed off by that stage as 16 cars had been let through so I gave it death from then on and won back ten to a dozen places but was not a happy camper. To add to my woes, my AIM smartycam had broken loose of its bracket (the camera's thread had torn loose) and was firing around my driver's footwell for most of the race. They're about 2 or 3 times the size of an AIM Solo so half my attention was down there, clearing it out of the way with my feet at every corner entry and the other half was out on track. A bunch of cars went off at various places, including one that spun in front of me that I had to slow for, and the race ended early under red flags, which was a pity as I was still clawing back places I'd handed over. I started in 13, dropped to 29th during the lap one fiasco, then started racing and finished 18th.

I'd learnt from quali to shift up into 4th before the last turn up the hill and was taking that flat and fast, passing several through there. Turn one is so much kinder than it looks so just a dab of brakes to help her turn in and then back on the gas through the turn before grabbing third, running the kerbs through the esses then 2nd onto the back straight. Late brake around the 100 marker, and down to second through the new section before booting it down to the hairpin. second, third, fourth with foot flat up the hill, past the start finish and do it all again.

Second race, with lights on was also a short one as it was rapidly getting dark and the track's operating licence was hitting the limit. They again put stickers on steering wheels for our starting positions and mine was 25 (no idea why 17 on race monitor, but 25 is where I started). I was determined to get a proper launch this time and went on the lights as did those in front of me. Good launch but hey they're all stopping! Oh bugger, slam on anchors and come to a stop on the bumper of the one in front. That's right, it's a staggered reverse grid and we're supposed to wait for the second flag. We did eventually get away, maybe a bit after our allotted time of 20 secs after the first bunch. Slightly messy start aside, I loved this race. Only one or maybe two cars got by me and I made steady progress up the field. Matched brakes up front, nothing rattling around my footwell - this is how racing is meant to be. Biggest surprise was the Racing Club's sprinklers starting up next to the very fast Turn 1 halfway through the race, but the water seemed to fall just short. I started off grid 25 (though 19th on track if Mylaps is correct) and in a short race (14 laps versus the 23 or 24 expected) finished 5th. Despite today's challenges, I'm actually pretty stoked with averaging a car a lap in a race at Puke too now.

The Grinch was still fairly loose at the back but I just loved that last race and can't wait to do Pukekohe again.

Always something new to learn at these race meets, and I did also enjoy watching Neil, ChrisB, Peter and the rest of the Porsche Series field entertain the crowd too.

Maxem

An Orgy?

964X33

Yes, thanks John. Appreciate it. Shade of blue is very good. PM me the payment plan.
Herman is looking awesome.

John McM

Good, I had second thoughts about leaving it there after the incident a few years back where 7 banners I left for Steve went missing. I'll ask for money when I have a bill.

So many things to do and so little time, it was a wrench driving down to HD yesterday to pick up my seats then leaving before most of you arrived. I waved at many of you from the Cayenne as you passed on your way to the track.

That 10 964s made it on the day just makes it worse. Yes, Paul trots out the "mobile cone" mantra each time they are mentioned but what a testament to a ~ 25 year old model that they still turn up to the track in such numbers. They only other block of regulars are the GT3s where the track is their purpose for being.

Having spent so many days on Herman I'm struck with how beautifully engineered the 964 is. I've worked on military jets and it's the same ethos, it all just works. Roll on the festival. Does anyone have a spare G pipe? I'd like to either borrow it for the festival or long enough to to get it copied locally. It's unrealistic to have the cutoff done by then and I want max noise on the day, basically bypass all of the mufflers