VN Production Saloon

[VNracer34G]

Had a very busy week last week, got stuck into the car on Monday stripping out bent and broken stuff and picking through my spares to see what i could cobble up,

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I decided i didn't have bottom arms and tie rods in enough numbers to cut two up to make longer ones and then have spares so went back to stockers - lost a fair bit of neg.camber & pos.castor but what the hell, i had a nice tight 3.08:1 LSD on my diff rack i was hoping to save for a road car but in it went, was a bit of a punt on whether to stick with my rear tyre stagger i had with the welded diff or go to same size rears with the slippery, stuck with the status quo. Got the panelwork in reasonable shape and gave it a quick respray down the right side in good time for Saturdays Production Saloon Champs.

[VNracer34G]

Champs night was a bit of a mixed bag for me, i asked my sponsor to drive me around the track for our parade which she nervously accepted but thoroughly enjoyed it and got a feel for how steeply banked our track is - its like watching Bathurst on the tele then driving around the mountain for real - steeper than ya think. We had a big feild of cars boosted by a number of out of towners, the grid draw didn't do me any favours but i started the first two races behind a VR from Huntly that was here last week, got by it easily and cleanly, with all the changes made to the car i was amazed at how well it handled considering it was the worst track we've had all season so far.
Third race i made a slight tyre pressure adjustment that made the car a bit too loose at the start but i held my ground apart from opening the door for the VR, after a few laps i had the 9g Prelude bangin on my doors, hitting my arse end and left rear quarter over and over for two laps till hammering down the back straight i had a flash of 'wild willy' going up the wall in front of me in the same spot so i buttoned off and let him go then chased him hard into turn three and gave him a couple of wee taps to let him know he wasn't pulling away easily, coming through four the marbles were pretty high so with a gaggle of slower cars down low i pushed wide and got on the gas earlyfor the front straight and was hooking up real good when 12g BMW was headeng up for the wall after being tagged hard in the rear (no names mentioned) i was headed right at his drivers door but somehow i swung right a fraction before impact - went into him bloody hard then became the meat in the sandwhich as 31g had nowher to go but hard up the back of me, in the blink of an eye three cars VERY bent , time to watch the finish of a race from the infeild for the third time this season.

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[VNracer34G]

Next meeting is on Wednesday night so i've been hard out beating on it this week, had it out at a mates orchard for a few days being pulled between two tractors, its rough but dammit ats pretty much ready, off up the coast for a family camping trip with another family tomorrow afternoon and back on wednesday in time to race

[delcowizzid]

oh no time for a new shell is it

[Holden202T]

im guessing the back looks similar to the front ? :S

[VNracer34G]

oh no time for a new shell is it

Ahh yup

[VNracer34G]

im guessing the back looks similar to the front ? :S

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not quite as ugly on the outside but the rail is bent half way along under the boot floor and in the arch just behind the spring, the nice big crease just below the 'c' pillar kinda gives it away.

[delcowizzid]

you want a station wagon LOL

[VNracer34G]

Got back from Tolaga Bay after five days of sun & surf knackered & sore from four nights in a tent on an airbed (this old neck/back aint up to that these days) but refreshed and keen as to get back into it and headed off to the track with the ugliest car i've ever showed up with. I recycled an old left front guard and bumper cover (newly stitched back together with cable ties lol) and a 'new' bumper iron, the repaired VN grille no longer fitted in the gap between bonnet/bumper so i adapted a VX ??? one i had lying around.

Main 1: Thirteen cars gridded up with me starting off 7, the track was a bumpy rutted up dusty peice of shit but you drive to the conditions( thats what we're told ) My mate with the 13VL is away on holiday and is possibly going to be sidelined for the rest of the season so he's handed his car over to his brother who drives 14g VK, the race started cleanly enough and after a lap and a half i was up high hammering it out of turn two onto the back straight making ground when 13G got wobbly in front of me and got side on with me hard on the picks but too late boof into the back right side of it not that hard but it turned him around the wrong way and the orange light came on, made my way around the feild running single file and slotted myself in to where i thought i should be, car felt okay'ish but the arse end was hopping around a bit in the corners, managed to finish 8th.
Back in the pits i had a look at the front of the car - bumper iron bent back and up, bonnet folded over into the bumper cover and a huge gap down the sides for me to see the radiator support panel back where it was ten days ago - luckily i had cut back the fan shroud or it would have taken out the belt again, the radiator hoses felt hard holding pressure still and no apparent water loss so i left it alone figuring that if i opened the bonnet i'd have a shit of a time closing it again and wandered off to help out my mate with his streety. conclusion- the front of the car has had such a beating/straightening/beating its now about as strong as corrugated cardboard.

[VNracer34G]

Main 2: Grid one with 36G prelude on 2 setting the pace, track had been totally drenched by the water truck for us to groom it (last night was International solo bikes ) got a green light and as i was scrabbling for any grip got slammed up the arse and got another coupla hits before i managed to get up in the high line and find some control over the car but lost a few positions in the process, got down the back straight well enough and as i turned into 3 i started getting the rub on the inside from 9g (been tuned up by my streety mate about ferreting) so i headed down to the pole line to defend the position leaving him the options of back off or cross the pole line-he crossed the pole line and came through and hit me in the left front-a highly illegal move, car got all wobbly and had the bumper interfering with the tyre so i pulled the pin and retired to the infeild (becoming an all to common occurence ) i took a minute to cool down then hopped out and had a word with one of the referees about being hit from the infeild, he said that they were talking about 9g up in the tower to all the refs via there coms. After 9G shoved his way through the feild and got a lap with the flag he got a visit to the tower and i headed in that direction to have my 2c's worth, as i was heading there i got told by his old man that i was full of it and needed to learn to drive - i turned to the official beside me and said "you heard that, doesn't that constitute verbal abuse?" ( i know damned well that if it was the other way round i'd be in the shit), when the driver came out of the referees box muttering and cursing i found out from the class rep he had been excluded for hitting another couple of cars but they had ruled that our contact was 50/50 my fault so i figured nothing i had to say would make any difference after he had already been dealt with and had to wait for another round of solos before i could get in so left it to go and see about fixing the car.

I levered the bumper off the wheel and pulled the guard back from the back of it, jacked it up and amazingly the rim was straight when given a turn/spin, stuck my head underneath and the suspenders/steering looked straight enough so i dropped it down and went to watch some racing.