[V8ST12R02] Ruapuna - 7–8 Apr 2012

[on_to_it]

Originally Posted by logy22

Im not sure why some cars are having more problems than others but even with a new engine in McLauglin's car they were still down on power it may be computer problems

All the engines were dynoed and were within 5% of each other. His car with the new engine had a problem around 6000rpm and you could see it slowed abruptly at the end of the straight, so I think that has to be electronics.

[DX20VT]

Originally Posted by logy22

Im not sure why some cars are having more problems than others but even with a new engine in McLauglin's car they were still down on power it may be computer problems

All the cars run the same ecu with the same programming,
each ECU is not tuned for each individual engine,

basically the tuned one engine and then loaded those settings into all the ecu's.

Pretty sure the teams cannot get in to change the tune ect.


Also the teams cannot repair the engines from what we were told.
If your engine does a head gasket, sell it and buy another one,
you are not allowed to open them.

And 6 hours work for an engine change, so no Andy Knight in race 3

[Southern Man]

Originally Posted by DX20VT

Also the teams cannot repair the engines from what we were told.
If your engine does a head gasket, sell it and buy another one,
you are not allowed to open them.

If thats correct then does the ticket get clipped on the sale of the old engine too ?

[NZSTfan]

13000 people! crazy numbers for Ruapuna...great stuff.

Pity about these engines though i must say, i thought they were supposed to be good for 10,000 'race' km's....obviously not, unless it is an electrical issue that is isolated to a few cars.

Still, even at 15k a pop or whatever it is, doesn't that work out to be a lot cheaper than replacing a V8 engine in the old cars? (always thought they were upwards of 40k)

[harcey]

[QUOTE=DX20VT;305561
Also the teams cannot repair the engines from what we were told.
If your engine does a head gasket, sell it and buy another one,
you are not allowed to open them.
3[/QUOTE]
i find that hard to believe-although these engines are supposed to do a season or 2 without being touched!!.
cars look great/sound great but racing was tight but processional---support program was very Club.......personally i like to see good hard racing with drivers being the difference.
the crowd was tier 1 size from about 3 seasons ago.(i honestly cant see how either track or V8ST management would have made any money from the first 2 x rounds).
i dont think V8ST is quite the great white hope yet especially with winter to follow.
i really hate to say it but somehere along the line MNZ(not TMC) and v8ST are going to have to align a bit to allow a complete package of events to happen
really needs a decent support program as will be hard to stand in the winter in the cold waiting for the main event to roll up.
i guess grid girls will gradually disappear too.
not trying to be negative but 2x rounds down observation.

[M Jones]

Originally Posted by harcey

i find that hard to believe-although these engines are supposed to do a season or 2 without being touched!!.
cars look great/sound great but racing was tight but processional---support program was very Club.......personally i like to see good hard racing with drivers being the difference.
the crowd was tier 1 size from about 3 seasons ago.(i honestly cant see how either track or V8ST management would have made any money from the first 2 x rounds).
i dont think V8ST is quite the great white hope yet especially with winter to follow.
i really hate to say it but somehere along the line MNZ(not TMC) and v8ST are going to have to align a bit to allow a complete package of events to happen
really needs a decent support program as will be hard to stand in the winter in the cold waiting for the main event to roll up.
i guess grid girls will gradually disappear too.
not trying to be negative but 2x rounds down observation.

I can't remember a meeting that I've been to in the last 15+ years at Ruapuna with that many people!!! Awesome stuff

[CDM]

Originally Posted by harcey

cars look great/sound great but racing was tight but processional---support program was very Club.......
really needs a decent support program as will be hard to stand in the winter in the cold waiting for the main event to roll up.

Not sure what you expected as support classes from the South Island. With the combined races it was pretty much the best of the SI classes and from what I heard there was some great racing.
Even noticed by some of the V8ST teams and here is a post from Tasman Motorsports from their facebook page "A well organised event by Canterbury Car Club and excellent racing.Particularly enjoyed local saloons"

[DX20VT]

Originally Posted by harcey

support program was very Club........

Welcome to the south island.
That is about as good as you will ever get in the way of SI entries
Alomst every south island register was there and there was more than avaerage number of club entrants too.

If you want more you will have to get them to travel down from the North,
and good luck with that.

[DX20VT]

Originally Posted by harcey

i find that hard to believe-although these engines are supposed to do a season or 2 without being touched!!.

Just because you find it hard to believe it, doesnt mean it is true.

If you have a series where you'd expect the engines to last that long,
( and really they probably should )
then the easiest way to prevent people from cheating is to only supply sealed engines and once the seal is broken you need a new one.
Makes technical inspections so much easier for the organisers.

Just a shame that about 18% of the engines (3 out of 16 cars)
failed in one event.

[smokin'joe]

#23 smokin'joe
Racer

Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 128



Quote:
Originally Posted by Goat Boy
How are they expected to test it under race conditions when it's a brand new class? It's called a teething problem.

maybe they could have tested the car (like i believe i suggested) with Super GT's or similar??

Quote:
Originally Posted by Goat Boy
I don't imagine we will be talking huge cost in any case but can find out if you really want to know.

still an additional cost, have any engines been compromised due to overheating ?. normally if a manufacturer or supplier delivers a product with a known defect/inefficency, then manufacturer/supplier reticfies the problem at no cost to the customer, do they not???





soooooooo, where hot engines from HD compromised, thus deciding their short life span??

did the powers that be, genuinely test the 'mule' under proper race conditions to ensure it would not terminally over heat?

are they caled a "crate" engine, because the engine builder consumes a dozen 'talllies' as he's bolting each one together ?

[Ugy]

The Ford fans will be happy if they use these engines in the NZV8 next season.

[Goat Boy]

have any engines been compromised due to overheating ?. normally if a manufacturer or supplier delivers a product with a known defect/inefficency, then manufacturer/supplier reticfies the problem at no cost to the customer, do they not???

Pretty sure this was supposed to be a race-proven package, which is one of the reasons it was picked. If the problems were caused by some sort of manufacturing defect, you would expect the engines to come with some sort of warranty wouldn't you? I guess they will have to do a bit of forensic work to find out why. Hopefully before Round 3!

Has to be said that apart from HD and Puke (now included on the calendar, yay!) NZ circuits are pretty difficult to overtake on if you have decent aero, grip and brakes.

[flyingduck]

Have to say I was a bit disappointed in the racing on the weekend, I thought we would get more passing than what happened, blowing 4 engines in a weekend happens in all classes but will be interested to hear the reasons for it happening.

A question

Are the brakes getting enough heat in them because it seemed that a few of the cars had the ducts taped up to add temp. I thought that Ruapuna would have more than enough braking to get the heat up in the cars.

[Mr Revhead]

It seems they added a couple of warm up laps. I recall less on Saturday.

And re crowds seemed to me to by more at skope last year

[Biggy G]

@flyingduck, some seem to think the brack taping is working for them, whilst others haven't found a gain in doing so. Kayne Scott got to the grid with the brake ducts taped for Race 3, the team then peeled them away on the grid.

Re: Crowds, heard a few of the flaggies say it was the biggest they have seen in years, not sure if official numbers are even taken are they? Just estimates? First time I have seen them seated around the last turn sweeper like they were on Sunday, usually just a line of cars, people 3 or 4 deep all the way round there on Sunday.

[Biggy G]

Sorry for the double post, but just got Andre Heimgartners Race Report in my inbox, and some interesting tidbits, aparantly a clean sweep for Fabs:

"Johnny McIntyre who finished first got DQ'd for suspension irregularities."

and from Race 2

"Craig Baird who finished 3rd got DQ'd for caster irregularities."

[NZSTfan]

So a mixed bag of feedback then for round 2. Broken engines, inferior support classes and 'lack of real racing' according to some on here.

I think the way to look at it is this, the V8ST class is new and is designed to be 'future proofed' for the next 10 years or so. With that in mind these issuse are going to pop up initially, afterall the cars have only completed in 6 races so far. The broken engine thing and having to throw it out if it blows a head gasket or similar, i have to admit is bung (if its true) and a total waste of engine and $$$, which is not good IMO.

With regards to the 'lack of racing' i did not get that from the TV3 coverage (admittedly i was not there). I thought in particular the battle between JM and FC in race 3 was as good as you'll see anywhere. Yeah sure R1 and R2 was a walkover for FC but there was still some good stuff going on behind.

I have noticed a trend so far though. It seems that you get a leading procesion of 1 or 2 cars that steam away from the rest of the field, and then there is a second bunch or 4 or 5 cars all racing each other, but still quite far back from the lead pack. And then another gap to the final group of cars who battle it out for the scraps. Just my obs anyway.

And i agree with a previous poster about how MNZ will have to get behind this. When we all now know that this time next year there will be 24 cars floating around, which equates to 48 drivers in total then the field is not only going to be massive but also have big names in it as well. If MSNZ doesn't see the merits in this then maybe they should try looking after a different sport, such as croquet or darts.

So Scott Dixon, Lee Holdsworth, Cheese-burger, Will Davo, Alex Davo, Frosty, Fabian Coulthard, and the swag of other overseas drivers already locked in is something that MSNZ cannot scoff at.

[Mr Revhead]

Over those 3 races not counting the first lap. There would have been less than ten passes.

[NZSTfan]

Originally Posted by Biggy G

Sorry for the double post, but just got Andre Heimgartners Race Report in my inbox, and some interesting tidbits, aparantly a clean sweep for Fabs:

"Johnny McIntyre who finished first got DQ'd for suspension irregularities."

and from Race 2

"Craig Baird who finished 3rd got DQ'd for caster irregularities."

ooh thats not good for Johnny Mac, wonder what those irregularities will be?

[flyingduck]

Originally Posted by Mr Revhead

Over those 3 races not counting the first lap. There would have been less than ten passes.

Yip I didn't think it was that bad but a lot of looking and not many moves able to be completed.

Interesting on the suspension and caster problems any other tech issues over the weekend how does that change the points, if J Mac DQ'ed from the round or just race 3??

[on_to_it]

My guess would be that race only. The techies can't prove the "irregularities" were there for previous races.

[Mr Revhead]

Can they by adjusted more than the rules allow?

[DX20VT]

Originally Posted by on_to_it

My guess would be that race only. The techies can't prove the "irregularities" were there for previous races.

Hmm, maybe.

Wasn't it last year in NZV8's that Kayne Scott was disqualified for alomst the whole season with an irregularity found at round 5 of 6?

Originally Posted by Mr Revhead

Can they by adjusted more than the rules allow?

I too though there was meant to be very limited adjustment availble in the cars, unless they slotted the holes, lol.

[on_to_it]

Originally Posted by DX20VT

Hmm, maybe.

Wasn't it last year in NZV8's that Kayne Scott was disqualified for alomst the whole season with an irregularity found at round 5 of 6?

Correct, but that was a sealed engine and it was clear it had not been changed since the start of the season. So he lost all his points.

[flyingduck]

Is this confirmed anywhere as the ST site has not been updated to show any changes. It seems strange that 2 leading drivers would be the first to be caught.