Trackside at Oran park today, Good to see Franz again, showcasing his skills in the drift Zed. Caz having the time of her life wearing out the tyres, ports and myself getting harrased by a sports sedan, (how quick does that thing come up behind you). couple of pics Caz getting down and dirty. Dan,Franz and Wokkie working on the Zed Bit of a minor fuel prob Caz waiting to head out on the track Caz and franz lining up Caz leading Franz into turn one.
Jeez Franz moves around quickly, it was only this sunday he was telling me about he's going to drive the blue drift zed, didn't think it was this soon lol, nice work Franzy and co :zlove:
Fun as always and always fun. Oran park still brings a grin to your face, sadly though, for only another 12 months. Great to catch up with Wiz, Caz, Wokkie, Dan and Franz.:zlove: some pics
That red RX7 Was pretty quick,was able to get past me down the straight,but i had the black ones measure and was able to pull him in. Mostly my lap times were all over the shop, having a lot of adhesion probs, track seemed very slippery as Franz can testify.( post up that vid and you will see) A couple of 52 sec laps was the best i could do. But yeh good fun and nothing broken.
So much fun! I really should do that more often, what a hoot!. Having Franz over east is always special but to be able to go play in Zeds at the track with him, Wiz and Ports was just brilliant fun! BIG thankyou to Thinker (aka Bill) for loaning us his Rodeo(tow vehicle) so Franz and I could take the DriftZ to Oran Park for the day. :zlove: Im sure Bill enjoyed my Charade You're a good man lol. DriftZ was still set up for drift, we hadn't changed any settings so Franz had a MAJOR challenge on his hands trying to get a car designed to kick out and slide to now grip up with only driver skill. It wasn't long before he was smiling and the DriftZ survived the day unscathed. So it looks like we will be taking it to the Nissan Nationals next Easter! yay Im sure Franz will post up some of the in car footage from the day as soon as he gets home. My Zed always amazes me with how well she behaves, with such high k's on her I always expect the worse with things like track days or drag events but she never lets me down, just keeps powering on! I LOVE my Zed :zlove::zlove:
What an awesome day. For me it wasn't one of the easiest; learning a new car (which the first time ever I drove it was out of the garage, into pit lane and then onto the track), learning a new track (which is far more technical than anything we have in WA) and learning to drive on slicks (albeit very old and worn). Its a great challenge that I would take up again in an instant. With no changes to setup other than slightly softening the rear shocks (not sure how much this really changed things!) and with well over 500rwhp it was never going to be the easiest to drive straight; couple that with just before heading out for my first few sighting laps, Dan Mackie thought he'd tell me there were walls just about everywhere right next to the track with no run off, where there was run off before a wall it would generally be grass and downhill - awesome!!! ...no pressure then! haha I took the first few laps easy, being seated very low in the car visibility wasn't the greatest, so I did what I could to try and work out the lines myself. This job was made harder by alot of the exit points of the corners were over a crest and couldn't really be seen until you're almost right on top of them; not to mention the flip flop coming over the hill before the last corner being completely blind! Ports gave me some advice on lines and told me the quickest way around the track was to cut it as much as possible; there are a few corners which have rumble strips on the insides of the corners; on the insides of these rumble strips are concrete - that's where you want your inside tyres to be making the corner as straight as possible; unfortunately the DriftZ is really low and when wearing slicks with smaller sidewalls it was even lower; I only tried this line once, the track told me it was a no go bouncing me back into the middle of the track and knocking the steering wheel out of my hands (as shown in the video - link below)! All in all a great day; one that when I think about it brings a smile to my face everytime! My highlights are on my 4th lap of the track and the car I managed to cut a mid 53sec lap and my 6th lap I cut a mid 52sec lap. Big thank you to Caz1 for organising everything and making it all happen. Thanks to Greg, Al and Kurt at Sureflo for the work they've done on the car and for letting me take her out for a few laps; thanks to Dan Mackie and Wokburner for their help and advice at the track and finally thanks to Wizard and Ports for their support and giving me the opportunity to play with zeds on the track again! Now, for the vids; This video shows me chasing Ports and Wizard: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=AwdunEqoYOY This video just shows my quickest lap of the day: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=aOCc59fadNA
Nice work Francis... I'm just watching your vids now. Did no one have a phone book you could sit on? Worn slicks + drift setup + 500rwhp + circuit racing... Couldn't have been easy, but you must of had your socks pulled up, looks like you did a good job :zlove: I'm sure with the suspension setup different, and decent tyres... the Sureflo Z could be a very quick track car.
Cheers Simon. A few suspension and alignment changes along with new tyres will make it much more of a grip weapon!
Triple whammy For Franz, car he's never driven, track he's never been on, slicks he's never used before. Done very well to come to grips ( no pun intended) with it all so quickly. With the way your sawing on the wheel Franz, makes me look very smooth, but i think most were having some traction issues. What about that bloke in the VN commy with all his brake lockups, waved him through and he has a big one up the inside of me, knob. Be good to see the drift Zed at the Nationals with you behind the wheel.:bow2:
awsome vids franz, wat an awsome effort to jump into a powerful machine you have never driven before and hit the track in it. awsome work, just love your vids
I didn't see the shift light come on once, and it looked like you were out for a Sunday drive in the first few laps. Looks like you are learning to Drift Franz !!! A lot more traction, phone book on the seat, and some planks on his foot so he can at least get to rev limiter, and she will be fast. I think we set the rev limiter to 6300rpm so it stops revving before it gets to 7000rpm. Franz, if the car gets to the first round of the Drifting in WA in February (depending on sponsors), and if we are allowed to do passenger rides, make sure you are available. A passenger ride in this thing gets the heart pumping, especially if you are used to circuit racing. The braking and turning is in all the wrong places, and Dan's lap times are probably as quick as yours, but sideways !!! Had the car been set up for circuit, Franz's lap times would have probably been around the 48 sec mark, as there is a lot of time to be had just driving smoothly, without having to fight the car and stop it drifting around corners. Cheers Greg
Nice work Franz, Looks like you got to "grips" with the car and track really quickly, I would have killed for some laps in it, but wasn't going to fork out the mulla for only a few laps, lol, bloody work getting in the way all the time! Glad you enjoyed the day and sorry to put the pressure on re walls, I really was only trying to help I promise. Looking forward to catching up with you in Perth next year, if we make it of course. Stay sideways champ! Dan.
