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Old fashioned performance


tazzieman

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Crosspost from Landsharks; should make all us guys in les voitures ancienne happy and content  :)

 

 

Sydney Motorsport Park ( Eastern Creek )  skid pan , yesterday ( Saturday ) , round 2 for the PCNSW Motorkhana competition 2014 

Good turn out of Porsche cars / competitors , the latest and greatest Porsche's , be it GT3's , 986 /987 Boxters , Caymans , 996 / 997 911's , 993 , 964 911's , 944 / 944S2's / 951's & earlier 911's all get their turn to compete on the skid pan in the dry ( morning sessions) & afternoon wet track sessions
 
Its mainly a test of pin point driving skill & memory driving around cones ( witches hats ) & you loose points by hitting a cone or going the wrong way ( wrong direction) around a cone at speed amongst a forrest of cones laid out in a pattern & at ground level ( looking out onto the cones ) there is no real pattern to see , each competitor receives a road map for each pattern & you get to walk the course before each session to help familiarise oneself with the course & this is where memory is vital & car control or better described as the ability to be able to get your'e car around each cone as close as possible ( milli meters if possible ) and to get the tail end of the Porsche you are driving to slide out & get the car pointed at the next cone & accelerate as hard as possible to that cone & repeat to the end of the course & to remember which direction ( be it clockwise or anti clockwise ) that each cone has to be negotiated , one wrong direction or even to touch one cone out the 30+ cones , one looses points , naturally the quicker one is around the course (without making one mistake ) the better chance one has to win the day , or you can go slower to not make a mistake , but the downside of this is you can not take out the outright win , because there will always be someone just a fraction of a second quicker who has just slightly better memory
 
The part I particularly like is the very last bit of each session , as each competitor is going around the last cone on the return pass ( yes you have to remember cone directions on the return section ) as as they normally do in laying out the cones , they give the competitor the temptation of one last quick ( 2nd gear flat out ) straight bit of the course to entry the" garage " , naturally the garage is just a rectangle of cones , open at the entry end , but only just long enough to fit a car in , now you do not have to be a genius to figure out that if you lock up your'e brakes / loose tyre grip as you brake hard to stop in the garage " But Not Hit the cone in front , then you have to judge this very carefully , this is very tempting , because you could pick up a second if you accelerate flat & hit the brakes perfectly as you come to a stop in this garage , to make it worse , there is a laser beam that has to show that your'e car has come to a stop within the garage & not hanging out the back , naturally ABS brakes are very very very very useful for this to happen with more ease , to see competitors do this to perfection with No ABS is something to see 
 
Remember for last century Porsche's , ABS was standard only on the 928S from 1986 , not available at all on the 911 series ( including the 911 Turbo ) up to & including the 1989 year type ( meaning non 964 )
ABS was standard on the 951 ( 944 Turbo from 1987 )  =  Sean's 1986 951 misses out 
ABS was an expensive option on the 944 series from 1987 to 1989 ( standard 1990 > )
 
 
And this is where Motorkhana is such a good driving skill & fun day out event to do , because it puts all Porsche's competing in a very very level playing field , because the car has less input than the driver , because the speeds are not high ( 2nd gear most of the time )& you can come way from one of these very inexpensive days out where you can get a better result on the day than much newer Porsche's ( great feeling )
 
No race helmet required , just join the club , pay the small entry fee for Motorkhana event/s & compete , most people just use their standard road tyres etc 
The guy's who are competing at the pointy end  ( there is always plenty of them ) will compete on road legal "R" spec tyres etc .
 
Any way at the end of yesterdays Motorkhana round 2 for the year ,  a last century front engined Porsche took the outright win for the day ( quickest time and least mistakes )  & yes it was Sean Buchanan ( again ) in his 1986 Porsche 951 & this time Sean won by some 21 seconds in front of 2nd place , normally the gap from 1st place to 2nd place is often 1.5 seconds or something similar , meaning it could go any which way & to show how outright mega horse power is not that important , one of our customers ( Fred D'Cruz ) won 4th outright in his 1983  944 ( very good result ) 
 
Regards
Bruce Buchanan
Buchanan Automotive

 

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My son turns 13 in a couple of weeks. I just bought him a Porsche NSW membership and a CAMS L2JNS licence for his birthday.

 

This means he can do these Motorkhanas.

 

He has proven his skill with stick and clutch in our 89 Cruiser on the farm.

 

All I have to do now is let him loose in my pride and joy :)

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