Mark Webber in his F1 Red Bull in Perth !

Last sunday saw the annual Festival of Speed event held at Barbagallo Raceway here in Perth but the main star of the event and the much anticipated drive was that of Mark Webber in his actual F1 Red Bull car !

Here is a video I shot from one of the spectator points



And here is one shot by guys from SpectrumTV



- Rod

More MOTUL !

I finally got my hands on very inexpensive MOTUL 300V engine oil !
Even cheaper than I was paying for it in Japan ! In fact a 4L bottle cost me just AUD$90 and a 2L bottle only AUD$50. Come to think of it, 1L in Japan was always costing me around Y3,250 which is about AUD$40.
DC5 needs approx. 5.3L so this combination of 4L/2L works perfectly !

Started off by removing the oil sump bolt

To help with flow I lifted the car up in front just a tiny bit

Loosening the oil filter was a challenge!
Access is VERY limited but with the help of an oil filter wrench extension it was a little bit easier.

Crap ! When the filter came off all that oil started spilling out all over the driveshaft and lower frame.

Here is the new filter I brought back with me from Japan

After finishing I took the car for a drive and thoroughly enjoyed it !
Fresh engine oil, fresh transmission fluid and a fresh brake fluid made for a very smooth and fun drive !
Afterwards I checked for leaks and since there were none the car is now ready for a wash and storage until the end of this very hot summer !

- Rod

How to change your DC5's transmission fluid ...

Now that I have my own "workshop" and a desire to get down and dirty I took it upon myself to do the already long overdue tranmission fluid change.

So without further ado ...



Put the car up on jack stands and layed down a protective sheet in case of any spillage.

 

A shot of the 2 bolts taken from the wheel hub



Top bolt is where the fluid goes in, bottom one is where it flows out.

Red OMEGA 690 spewing out



Since access to the tranmission case is VERY tight, I put together this clear hose and a funnel.

The funnel goes on top of the engine bay ...



... and the hose goes all the way down to ...

... the transmission case.

Let the pouring begin

And here it is,
1.5L of red OMEGA with a few drips of the green REDLINE (so much for REDLINE being red huh ?)

All in all it took me around 45mins and it was quite easy.
Now I need to find a way to dispose of the excess oil...

And of course this post wouldn't be complete without ...

- Rod

Gear oil is here !

After much consideration I decided to get my hands on the REDLINE Lightweight Shockproof gear oil which just arrived this morning ! Usually one bottle (1 quart) sells at $50 but I managed to get it at $25.

Curious to know what it performs like but like I said before it is just going to be a placeholder until a) I get my hands on OMEGA 690 myself or b) my friend becomes a local OMEGA distributor.

And before I go, some more eye candy from Japan ! Enjoy !

-Rod

Race Queens !!!

Since I began writing my blogs I've received countless requests to post photos of japanese Race Queens and so here is a teaser of what's coming ....

[photos courtesy of TGR racing drivers Mike, Miguel and myself]

Time Attack Battle 2010 - Night Video

Here is one other in-car video from the event taken sometime towards the end of the evening.



-Rod

Time Attack Battle 2010 - Video

Here is a video of one of the 5 sessions I did on the day.
It isn't of the fastest lap though but of one probably about a second slower.



-Rod

Time Attack 2010 Battle Victory !

I've been meaning to complete this post for over a week now but time just wasn't on my side and so here comes what I've written so far ...

Last friday night under the cover of lights at Barbagallo Raceway Raventech Racing held its 2nd TIME ATTACK BATTLE for the year ! The event was very well organised, ran surprisingly smoothly and included a wide range of cars ranging from your every day street-stock types right through to race-built purpose cars.

I'm proud to say I won 1st place in Limited 2WD (up to 2-litres) category !

The event was broken up into Street, Limited and Unlimited classes and within each they were broken down further into 2WD (up to 2-litres), 2WD (over 2-litres) and AWD.

Out of a maximum of 30 cars which were allowed to enter the event, my overall standing was 18th with a time of 58''70 with the fastest being somewhere in high 51''s recorded by a Mitsubishi Evo X RS.
Full results can be found here if anyone's interested.



Live results

and this one with a touch of color :)

It was a pretty cold evening of low 10Cs and right from the start I was struggling to get my tyres up to their optimum temperature with just 1 warm-up lap and 2 hot laps allocated. I presume everyone had the same problem since no one was allowed to use tyre-warmers and so this disadvantage was wide spread. Nonetheless I pushed for whatever I could get out of those tyres.

As far as the car was concerned, it was very well prepared. I was unfortunate enough though to have a full tank of fuel which added extra, extra (!) weight to my car throughout the entire evening! Even after completing 5 sessions of 1-2-1 laps I still ended up with over 90% of the tank full ! I didn't have a fuel can so I couldn't go light and I learnt my lesson badly ! I should have run with just under 30% of the tank as others did and topped up whenever needed. Ah well, there is always next time ! I didn't do so badly though did I !?

The car was definitely very competitive still being in its stock form and all with the exception of suspension and tyres. I can easily slash another 2 seconds off of my best time recorded that evening but I'll need more practice on the short circuit. I found it very hard on the engine and transmission, with running through the "shortcut" in 2nd gear at very high revs until the entry to the back straight didn't do my MT any good. Other than that I prefer the long circuit better.

Oh and where were those race queens I am so used to seeing in Japan ???? :) Nothing makes us go faster than the subconscious desire to impress one of them right ?! :)

Here are some snaps from the evening

Some competition

Waiting to be scrutineered

And some more better funded folks !

Another angle

Next door neighbours

The only other honda at the event.
The guy was very quick !

Transponder

Waiting for my 1st run of the evening

Thoroughly enjoyed the event and the barbacue ! Thanks to my friends Steve and Mikey for showing up and lending a hand pre and post. Perth needs more events like that, Perth needs more motorsport everything to be honest :)

Now it's time to thorougly service my car before my next event which is when well I don't know yet. I just got my hands on very cheap (!) MOTUL 300V engine oil here in Perth and I'm just waiting for my MT OMEGA gear oil to arrive. It's all about the wait now ....

-Rod