Great GTA days coming up!

Guys,

Some well deserved GTA days are coming up.

Tomorow a visit to Squadra Tuning for some extra kick to the V6.
Friday a circuit training and free driving on Zolder Circuit (Belgium).
Saturday new wheels (OZ Granturismo GT 17") and tyres.

Nice !!

And maybe a visit to the dealer (regarding brake upgrade) might be usefull..... I suspect warped discs on my GTA (2003) with 305 mm. Threads about upgrade are much appreciated.

I'm looking forward to using the GTA for what it's made for.

SPEED !!

Nice

There are plenty warped discs threads on AO. Just look at the sticky thread on top of this lounge and try a search with "warped discs"

Ask Hugo aka Throttleman to be your cameraman. I know he will be interested for both next Friday and the 147 Meeting

Gday Hans,

Unless he can be at the border NL/BE in Hazeldonk at 6.00 next morning, the camera is tied to the passenger seat with straps. Hope it doesn't fly around the cabine at 200+ kph.

The 147 meeting is always possible though. Passenger seat is taken, but rear seats are all empty.

I'm gonna write-off some tyres tomorrow. Goodyear Eagles F1 rubbed all over the Zolder track.

If succesfull, video will be online sometime this weekend.

Looking forward to see her taken around the famous Zolder track.

oohh hope you have lots fun

Guys,

Zolder was great. Learned a lot and had mega fun.

I'm working on a video of three alfa's going around Zolder. Me behind (with camera), Lucien (ClaSSic) in front of me with his 156 2.4JTD wich the GTA can hardly keep up with, and Roy (the instructor) in his GTV 2.0 showing us the lines. At the moment the video is 13 min. long and around 200MB big. I'll keep working on it. Total video is almost 30 min. and around 400 MB.

For the moment a picture taken by ClaSSic.

Brakes (305 mm.) on the GTA were !!!!ty and after yesterday even !!!!tier. Also the suspension needs to upgraded.

What a great day.

Looking good dude.

Today she got here new wheels and tyres. Take a look at the pics.

I cleaned the original wheels today. Big pieces of rubber where on the inside of the rim. Probably picked it up from Zolder.

Although I really like the OZ Granturismo GT, I'm not absolutely convinced this is better looking than the original wheels. Maybe this set will be the next circuit set and the original will go on for everyday use. I'll have to take a longer look.

Anybody with ideas on wich set is the lighter set, or wich is best suited to trackdays?

Your views are more than welcome.

Just looked up Zolder in my Euro Circuit Guide
See www.circuitguides.com.
The standard of instructional detail for correct lines etc is generally superb - you can also buy individual circuits I believe if you wish.

It looks like Zolder has chicanes and very slow bends everywhere!
I would imagine this contributed to the JTD giving you some competition especially while learning the track
It would be much more tolerant of not being in the optimal gear, and it doesn't look like there are many places where you are on the power for long before hammering the brakes.

Edit: Oooohh I just read your first mail again, you think you started the track day with warped disks, braking can't have been too much fun!

Cheers,
TB

Originally Posted by guezen

Guys,

Zolder was great. Learned a lot and had mega fun.

I'm working on a video of three alfa's going around Zolder. Me behind (with camera), Lucien (ClaSSic) in front of me with his 156 2.4JTD wich the GTA can hardly keep up with, and Roy (the instructor) in his GTV 2.0 showing us the lines. At the moment the video is 13 min. long and around 200MB big. I'll keep working on it. Total video is almost 30 min. and around 400 MB.

For the moment a picture taken by ClaSSic.

Brakes (305 mm.) on the GTA were !!!!ty and after yesterday even !!!!tier. Also the suspension needs to upgraded.

What a great day.

Originally Posted by guezen

Total video is almost 30 min. and around 400 MB.

Converting it to a .wmv file with Windows Movie Maker should make is a lot smaller. If there is sound on the video, my advice is to use at least "512 kbps" setting, otherwise it will sound horrible

Originally Posted by Trailbraker

Just looked up Zolder in my Euro Circuit Guide
See www.circuitguides.com.
The standard of instructional detail for correct lines etc is generally superb - you can also buy individual circuits I believe if you wish.

It looks like Zolder has chicanes and very slow bends everywhere!
I would imagine this contributed to the JTD giving you some competition especially while learning the track
It would be much more tolerant of not being in the optimal gear, and it doesn't look like there are many places where you are on the power for long before hammering the brakes.

Edit: Oooohh I just read your first mail again, you think you started the track day with warped disks, braking can't have been too much fun!

Cheers,
TB

Hi TB,

One friday in the month you can buy circuit time per hour. But it's a busy 4 km. of circuit with some really fast cars. It also seems like racing teams use this day for practice. The morning (with just the cars in the study group) it's much better.

Zolder is indeed a circuit wich doesn't need high topspeeds. I never reached fifth gear. And my topspeed would have been somewhere around 170 - 180 kmh.

ClaSSic's not so standard 2.4 JTD has lots of torque (around 400 Nm), and espacially accelerating out of the chicane while climbing a small hill, he's got the edge on my GTA. And with 200+ bhp (thanks to Stephan at Squadra) it's a formidable opponent. I think he only used third and fourth gear. I sometimes went back to second.

About the brakes, they where slightly warped before friday. I already felt some vibration. But it only got worse. And it's not very nice racing when you don't trust your brakes.

Next trackday looks to be sept. 13th at Assen Circuit in Holland.
Sept 2nd at Zolder is not possible for me as I'm in the south of France.

HANS - I'll continue working on the video today. Thanks for the .WMV tip. I'll give it a go.

Originally Posted by selespeed

Converting it to a .wmv file with Windows Movie Maker should make is a lot smaller. If there is sound on the video, my advice is to use at least "512 kbps" setting, otherwise it will sound horrible

OK, videos have been uploaded. I don't know if my premium membership on MegaUpload.com functions. So perhaps a little pauze before downloading starts.

Part 1: (49 MB)
http://www.qfile.de/dl/168585/Zolder2.wmv.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=23CUVQQ2

Morningsession. Filmed from my GTA with the camera strapped to the passengerseat. We are learning the lines behind the GTV of instructor Roy and ClaSSic's 156. After a few laps we lost sight of Roy. Couple of beginners.

Part 2: (38 MB)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=369HSWHU
http://www.qfile.de/dl/168640/Zolder4.wmv.html

After lunch. Filmed by me from ClaSSic's 156. Short intro filmed from the pitwall. Impressive 2.4 JTD power.

Part 3: (46 MB)
http://www.qfile.de/dl/168487/Zolder5.wmv.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3329NV1W

(Sorry, quicker download form qfile, but 60 minutes pauze between downloads). Hope to be hosting in privat space soon.

Filmed by ClaSSic from my GTA. It started to rain a little and there were some fast cars around (and some weird ones also).

Some comments on my own driving:
- like instructor Roy said, I'm way to nice for my GTA. It can handle a lot more punishment.
- I lift the throttle a couple of seconds before I brake. Who said I didn't trust the discs?
- sometimes I move over to soon and for cars wich aren't that much faster. Lack of confidence I guess. But, it's not a race, it's having fun and that it was.

The Sierra Stationwagon seems to be in every video.

The driver of the white Honda Type-R was a very nice belgian guy. We had a talk afterwards in the pits. Amazingly fast car for a 1.8 liter / 190 bhp / 1100 kg car. Stripped for weight and stiffened for racing.
His friend (in a red Type-R) ended up in the tyrewall. The righthand side of his car was wrecked.

BTW.
In the first free driving session in the morning, within 10 minutes some Porsche 944S2 landed on it's roof. He completely wrecked it. At that moment we only did about 5 laps behind the pace car.
A slightly damp track and a rear wheel driven car. Add that to inexperience, and the tyre wall is the only logical result. Unfortunatly, the camera wasn't installed yet.
Driving past the accident on your first few laps on the track, gave me goosebumps. The track was closed for a good 30 minutes and I saw the wreck being towed behind the pits. It was a mess. I'm glad the driver was OK.

That was the other thing the Euro circuit guide said about Zolder - very little safe run off

Working things up gradually sounds like a good idea here

TB

Originally Posted by guezen

His friend (in a red Type-R) ended up in the tyrewall. The righthand side of his car was wrecked.

BTW.
In the first free driving session in the morning, within 10 minutes some Porsche 944S2 landed on it's roof. He completely wrecked it. At that moment we only did about 5 laps behind the pace car.
A slightly damp track and a rear wheel driven car. Add that to inexperience, and the tyre wall is the only logical result. Unfortunatly, the camera wasn't installed yet.
Driving past the accident on your first few laps on the track, gave me goosebumps. The track was closed for a good 30 minutes and I saw the wreck being towed behind the pits. It was a mess. I'm glad the driver was OK.

Thanks for the nice video clips. It took ages to download them (could only download 1 clip at qfile due to bw limitations), but it was worth the wait.

Guezen, did I tell you that it was my first time in an 147 GTA ? When I stepped in, the big doors reminded me of my previous car. And love the v6 sound ! Next trackday, we swap cars ?

Originally Posted by ClaSSiC

Guezen, did I tell you that it was my first time in an 147 GTA ? When I stepped in, the big doors reminded me of my previous car. And love the v6 sound ! Next trackday, we swap cars ?

Swapping can be arranged, but I couldn't live with myself if I make a small mistake and wreck your 156.
Picture of classic when I tell him =>

Ofcourse I can drive you home in my GTA (if you keep it safe that is).

Originally Posted by selespeed

Thanks for the nice video clips. It took ages to download them (could only download 1 clip at qfile due to bw limitations), but it was worth the wait.

Sorry, that is the problem with these big files and no room te share them.

I'm increasing the server space on my company websites so I can upload these kinds of videos and share them at full speed.

Guezen,

Great to hear you are getting so much enjoyment out of your GTA

I have just bitten the bullet and ordered some O.Z. ETTC Superturismo in 17x8..... will have to get some shots together once sorted

I will be keen to hear what you do re suspension, i am really leaning towards Koni Yellow + H&R or Eibach springs and replacing bushings with Poly as the need arises.

Cheers
Rob