Targa NZ

[pugMi]

went out to manoocow for a nosey. couldnt find anything initially, then spotted a couple of escorts heading up redoubt rd and followed them. ended up at aaaaardmore quarry rd...

pulled over to let these three pass...



and saw this tidy old girl parked near the spectator viewing spot







another one for datsun fans. choice plate too



aand





france was represented



and billy took his wife and kids for a day out..

[pugMi]

anyway, enough tomfoolery. on with the action...

rotangs, old and not so old





magnum had to catch rick and t.c. before higgins did... and yes i know its the wrong fezza














dr nick's so cool. saw the aftermath of him rolling a few years ago. just pushed the car back on its roof, fired her up and cruised off








this guy was showing some commitment




and then i nearly missed what i was hoping to see when i was fiddling with the camera. managed to fire off a couple of shots. sounded men too




followed by this wee beastie a few minutes later








things seemed to end prematurely. the marshall i was talking to reckoned there should have been more cars and then from up the hill i saw a ambleeance go thru. hope no one got hurted

[RENOholic]

The first read from kiwia110.

And a bit of a ramble. Day 2 tomorrow. Thanks for the interest all!

Targa 2009, from the silly side in an Alpine A110.

I don't intend to spend any time on Prologue day except that there was a lot of waiting, and discovering that the Terratrip was unbelievably inaccurate and worse still erratic, as it started last year!

Day One.
This started early for us, as the slower seeded cars start at the front of the Classic field, and we had been seeded 12th. We were actually pretty happy with this, the cars around us were perceived to be of similar pace so there should not be too much of a passing issue, but it meant early mornings.
We set of from the "Official start" with about 30km of touring before we had stage 1,Ramarama, a varied bit of country road, some sweeping corners and a bit of tight stuff and we eased our way into it with a 7.16. Not an inspiring start, but there is over 800km of stages to go!
Stage 2 held on the Pukekohe race track was "interesting" as we had to pass through the pits each lap (of 3) and then make some deviations within the pits. We were 3rd in category here, but results were only available very late each day.
Stage 3 was the first ever event to be run on the new Hampton Downs circuit, wow what a facility, but also what a huge p off that so many drivers won't listen to briefings that say "keep to the left and allow faster cars to pass on the right" and repeated many times. 2 cars for absolute sure did not as they baulked us for over a lap each. We now hold the dubious honour of being the first car to crash on Hampton Downs too, as we were carved up and then outbraked ourselves to slide into the plastic barriers marking the chicane on the vey fast front straight. Thankfully they were not water or sand filled!

Then a very long touring took us to lunch, followed a bit later by a stage lasting around 11 minutes in which we were again 3rd in category. The Terratrip was still giving me nightmares, thank goodness this event does not have pace notes, in fact they are strictly illegal, get caught, go home! I really can't remember a lot of this one, must have been innocuous!
A bit down the road, round 20km to the next 2 which we have done in previous years, and for me earlier this year in the 504, so I was able to call a few more things as I remembered which way blind brows went so we gained a bit of time, if not places. These 2 stages are around 8km apart and no servicing allowed, in fact this year the servicing has been slashed, so no chance to manage fuel loads, we needed to "brim it" pretty much every fuelling stop.
Then came a long and tedious touring stage to Taupo race track where we had two separate 4 lap sessions. It was here that the boys were to discover that the outer shell of the muffler "bomb" had become detached from the pipe itself and was steadily spinning round and machining itself so a repair shop was found for after the stage necessitating a release from "parc ferme". The help along the way in this event is fantastic, seems every enthusiast just wants to help!
So here we were in Taupo, the centre of the North Island, Day One gone and time for a meal, 9pm the service crew of Frans, Myles and Bert again being kept on their toes, and unknown to us in the car we are now 4th in category, having lost a bit of time later in the day to the high horsepower cars.
To explain the categories, the are purely age based, but there is nothing to prevent a "period" car from having later model mechanicals. The Charger in front of us owns up to a "new" factory 340 cube casting, Edelbrock ally heads roller rockers, dry sumped, Jericho box, twin plate V8 touring car clutch, etc, etc. Very period huh? The SLR 5000 has similar stuff, each in excess of 500hp comfortably with a period body shell, but it's in the rules so "fair does" The RX3 is more kosha, except runs 17" wheels to accommodate the massive multi pot brakes.
Personal opinion is that the cars should only have mods that could have been done in the period claimed.


Regards
RENOholic

[RENOholic]

Targa 2009 Day 2

This one started out boring! An hour and a half of touring before we were to arrive at the first stage, so far that we even had a refueling stop, which some cars needed badly! The irony was that we were only about 20km from where we had our last road stages the day before, but the event does have to accommodate a large number of people, and there are few towns in the area.
Stage 9 was the first in the rugged King Country with a few 90 degree intersections and a couple of warned tightening corners. Being the first stage of the day, normally we are a wee bit sluggish, but the long touring had us go well through here, at least we thought so!
Stage 10 allowed for a quick service which we did not take, as the logistics of getting service crews in were proving to be a bit tight. This was a bit longer and again flowed well for us.
A quick service, fuel and that's about all, except check the oil, clean the screen and we had the next 2 stages which were separated by about 2 km . We have done these ones before, so some of the memories are useful, just don't write them in the route book!
Into Te Kuiti, small town NZ, for lunch and a queue for the toilets! Here we had much longer and we would not see our service guys for 4 stages, so the car got a thorough going over. All the front end was spanner checked, bearings checked, pads looked at and all was happy. A quick run about 5 km up the road to a stage which has given us grief in the past, engine one year, minor off another, etc but this time we had no issues at all, and the stage had been altered a bit at the end. We were FAST here (at least in class). Most years the one after lunch can be a bogey, so this year we had decided to be really on the ball for those ones. We trundled up the road to Waitomo caves (no time for sight seeing) and a quick and tortuous stage, again we thought we were going well, and again catching cars in front.
Now we had a very long touring stage, so I went to sleep! This took us out to the west coast of the North Island at Kawhia. This is over 30km with some of the most challenging and varied roads you can imagine. Short sharp hillclimbs, long open blasts beside the harbor, one lane bridges (the long wooden one from last year now has some seal on it so should not be so slippery), tight little downhill blasts, this has the lot! At least there were plenty of things for me to keep awake, and thankfully the Terratrip was now very close to accurate. We caught 3 cars in this and were very happy as each let us past very cleanly, we reckoned our time would be very competitive.
After a tedious tour through very remote and graveled road we came to the last for the day. Last year this turned exciting for us as we were second car to a severe accident, this year, no such excitement, but the road surface had some broken seal and the odd patch of loose chip just to keep you on your toes. Again we passed the same cars, as each time we revert to the same running order at the start of a stage. The BDA Escort is not as quick as us, Chev powered E type replica is dispatched readily and another hybrid Escort is no match this year, as it had previously been.
A short tour into Mokau for the end of the day service before a very long tour into New Plymouth followed. At Mokau the car got a very thorough going over, and Donald and I shared a whitebait fritter and an ice cream each! This was where Myles commented that we were doing the same things at the same places, wipers same as the last 2 years, and now we discovered that the tags on the starter cables had fractured so they were taped together so that we would get alternator charge to the battery and do a proper fix in New Plymouth that night. Mokau was where we had starter issues last year! This car has a soul!
So, off we set to New Plymouth. Around 5kms down the road I looked up to find us drifting across the road! State Highway, normally very full of traffic, and Donald saying somewhat frantically "I can't steer the %&*&ing car, and there's no brakes either". Eventually (it seemed like minutes) we came to a sledging halt on the right hand verge, and now the master switch won't turn it off. (Remember the cables above?) First gear and drop the clutch stalls it, and we heave a huge sigh of relief. We have stopped, no injury, but what the hell happened? I had seen the wheel go past me at head height, my first unspoken thought was "Who did not do the wheel nuts up? Surely not, our guys are too good for that!" By now other competitors had come to us, one recovered the wheel as I looked at the broken end of a stub axle. This was not going to be a roadside repair.
We needed a new stub axle/kingpin, (there are at least one in the service car), bearings (yes), caliper (no) as the Aeroquip fitting had torn out of the caliper, and the bracket for the "big brake conversion" was snapped in 3. The spares for those are at my place, around 9 hours drive each way, I have calipers too, but this is all a bit impractical.
Now the cellphones start to be used, and the coverage area is about 1 metre square, don't move or you drop calls. A bit later we manage to flag down another service crew who have an empty trailer and we load the poor wee car on for a trip to town. By now I had completed the paperwork to withdraw from the event, and we will rejoin tomorrow (hopefully).
In short we find some steel fabricators who swap beers for steel after hours and Myles and Frans made a new bracket, Bert refits the new stub axle and does a pad and rotor change, a french guy Pierre turns up and finds us the old Renault Peugeot garage dude who repairs the caliper and the car was finished and ready by 2.30am. Sharon, my wife finds the spare caliper brackets in my shed and puts them on the courier so we have spares too.
How lucky was that? After a lot of looking the consensus is that the fancy new high temp, no melt clay based grease was 95% likely to have failed. I thought it smelled like the grease in Austin 7 back axles! What we do know is that it had new bearings, the stubs were crack tested so what else? The outer bearing had failed, welded itself together, and the inner part of that bearing was welded to the stub which had then spun off. The nut and washer were impossible to remove, even after cutting the nut in 3 parts. All was friction welded together. Thankfully the new stub had a nut and keeper attached. Another for the souvenir cabinet.
And this is only Day 2! Started boring, certainly did not end that way!

[RENOholic]

Day 3!
After the dramas of Day 2 I reckon we could be excused for being just a bit cautious for the first stage of Day 3, and we were! Not far off the pace, but as the front had not had a proper alignment the car felt a bit nervous, specially under brakes.
The first of the day headed out of Inglewood and over the Tarata saddle, very twisty and up and down, then an interesting diversion through a single width lane in front of a couple of houses before joining the proper road. An acute left takes this out towards the coast, and through a very dark tunnel before dropping down and then onto opening farmland. As we worked our way through the confidence started to come back, and at the end we were going well.
The next is a well known stage with very big jumps for those who are dedicated to getting good photos. For those who don't feel the need to break their car the cautious option over the yumps is a sensible option. Here the BMW which baulked us at Hampton chose the first option and crashed rather heavily through the fence. Oh dear!
Next was a favourite of ours, 36km of the Whangamomona (OK Aussies how do you say that?) This passes over 3 "saddles" each climbing for around 4 km before passing over it's top and dropping down for a blast along river valleys. Lots of first and second gear, hairpins, very tight and lots of tightening corners. We flew, passed 4 cars and nearly the 5th as it was just finishing when we came to the finish. The limited slip earned it's keep on this! A long lunch followed as we waited for all the cars to come through, then the non-competitive Narva Tour went back, then we did the return run, in opposite directions there are subtle changes of character, as we had done a pad change we had to bed them over the first few k's which knocked our time a little and so did not catch quite as many!
Next followed a short stage around 12km and then a very long tour to a 16km stage near Waverly. Here the ever helpful District council struck again having down some re-sealing of patches, mainly on the braking zone and apexes! I hate to think what it was like after 100 odd cars had been through, the tail enders either had a swept road, or a horror show!
After this lot the service was looking great, and the poor wee car got a thorough going over, and a proper wheel alignment on the machines at the Goodyear outlet. It seems that the A110 is very susceptible to adjustments, and for the first time it was done with both of us in the car. Myles was much less grumbly now that it has the Mecaparts adjustable tie rods!

The weather had deteriorated overnight and the outlook for tomorrow was not great so te car got the other set of tyres too. You are allowed a total of 8 tyres for the event, so tyre management is a bit of an issue. Not quite so bad for those running equal size front and rear, but we don't.

[RENOholic]

4th Day!
When we woke in the morning the weather was, if possible, worse than expected. Grey, wet and windy. As the window of the car did not shut properly I now had a pool of rainwater in my seat, yes it was cold and very uncomfortable! As we had an early start it was Maccas for breakfast again. A huge touring took us to a stage never previously used. From memory, around 25km long and this one had it all! Rain and heaps of it, slips, leaves on the road, moss in the parts which on other days might be shady, and we were Cautious (yes with a capital) as a result we did not do well on the time sheets, but we finished unscathed!
Next was a stage called Waiouru, again we were sluggish, our time down towards the end of the class, but neither of us could settle and just never got comfortable. As results were proving impossible to get from the organizers all we had to go on was whether we passed cars, or them us, and this was not a great stage as 4 cars passed us.
A service was next in Waiouru and here a number of competitors were anxiously looking for crews as it took longer for the service guys to get here than the event! Frans found the he is just a bit taller than the bottom of a sign, and then it began to snow!
By the time we approached the start of the next stage it was snowing heavily, the demister was not working, nor was the Rainex, so I have no idea at all of the stage as I saw absolutely nothing! Here the fast guys in classic took around 9 minutes, we were in the upper 10's. In this stage we discovered that the biff at Hampton downs had an unexpected side effect, the mounting for my side window was broken and in cross winds the top of the window opened by about 2 inches, so it snowed inside too.
We then had a service in Taihape, and the sun came out! The 2 next stages were much better, well back on the pace 4th in our class behind the Charger, SLR Torana and a very quick RX3. That's OK. A short tour over gravel roads with a warning to keep less than 30km/hr to appease the locals and the second of the short stages for the day and the sheets show us as 3rd in class!
Next after service was what is, probably our favourite stage of the event, Rangitikei. This starts with a quick blast then a descent into the river valley with several hairpins and massive drops off the side, across a long bridge then a climb up the other side of the river, across flats, through windy hillridges, then around a sharp corner for a flat out blast before coming into yet more ridges with big drops, tightening corners, up and down and more gearchanges than Monaco GP! And because we like it, we went rather well! The new wheel alignment was better than ever before so getting up to the 200km/hr allowable maximum was now comfortable (previously has always felt nervous). Here we had a solid 3rd in class with only the Charger and the Mazda in front, and there were plenty of places where the high horsepower would have been advantageous, but plenty where our nimbleness was paying too. Towards the end of the stage we got rain and then hail in the car. Thankfully we finished before it became too bad. But the touring now became an issue! Hail lay on the road, to the point where we were making wheel tracks for well over 10km and the big tarmac tyres aren't really designed for that. Jelly snakes were vital now to keep us both sugared up.
It seemed like forever till we got to service before the last 2 stages for the day, Marton (famed for Cop Corner) and the race track of Manfield. We debated about putting the old tyres back on for Manfield but decided not as the weather was still playing games. Marton shows that we were very quick, only 1 second from the second fastest and 30 odd off the Charger over 15 minutes. I thought we had done well! This time the wee Fiat Abarth Corsa discovered that 46 degrees of body roll is just too much so it lay down for a wee zizz, thankfully with a lot of spectators who responded to it's toots for help and stood it up again, largely undamaged. At the end of the stage after a long fast, cautioned corner we spotted the Mazda parked on top of a bunch of flax bushes well off the side of the road. They were later to tell Donald that the Alpine was the best sounding car in the event! Yee ha! That's great coming from the guys who like the sound of "Crap, Crap, Crap" of a rotary!
Final for the day was Manfield, where it would be very easy to toast a set of good tyres. This car is not very controllable on cold tyres on a circuit and it showed for the first lap. After that we got down to work and posted a respectable time within touch of the 2 in front and a full minute up on the Fiat 124 Coupe who was our competition for 3rd in class after the demise of the RX3.
Well we had all the weather could throw at us, rain, hail, snow, sunshine and wind, what a day! Discussion was held without Donald being aware that we were now 3rd in class, should I tell him? To keep this we need to "up the anti" in the mornings as this is where we were vulnerable. No I did not tell him, just encouraged a bit more, and had to listen to "times are not important to me" Yeah Right!

[RENOholic]

 Default  Yeeha
Two to go, Day 5.
At the beginning of the week it seemed that 35km+ stages were daunting, now it feels like the ones less than 20 are just a run around the block!
The first of the day was one I look forward to called Windmill Alley. It's named this because it climbs up over the bottom end of the Ruahine ranges and through the Windmill Farm. What a disappointment. Due to the high volume of heavy construction vehicles the surface is now severely broken up. Lots of reseal patches, clay on the road and generally in sad state of repair, ah well! We lost a few seconds to those around us in class on this, just never really settled.
Next was the longest of the event, 43 km of "Ormondville". Partway through this has a set of windy downhill corners with horrendous drops on the left hand side, and it's possible to make up, or lose lots of time on this one, we gathered close on 40 seconds on our closest rival for the 3rd we were chasing. Not much for the co-driver on this one, and especially for us as the mishap with the stub axle had ripped out the terratrip sender so I was constantly doing sums off the barely visible tripmeter (which we can't reset, and which is also around 18% optimistic). At least I had more to do than just sit and watch! No issues at all for us, perhaps we should be a little quicker!
After a service of 15 minutes we set off to a short one of around 9 minutes on the outskirts of Dannevirke. This has a huge variety of quite difficult to read corners, crests and intersections, but again we gained a little on the close rivals. The big engine cars took around 30 seconds off us here, that is about consistent in minutes per km.
Now came a huge touring to the start of the next long 43km stage (not the longest by 02km). This starts in one of the more remote regions of the east coast of NZ and threads it's way back towards the central ranges. This took just a bit too long to get in the swing, we dropped a few seconds to our closest rival and just on 2 minutes to the class leader. This had a lot of wide open straights where the 200km/hr max could be easily reached if you had the power (and big kahunas), we sat around the 190 for quite long stretches, but we know more hp gets you there sooner and more often.
Lunch at the Tui brewery with a service followed, the girls this year were nowhere nearly as friendly as last year!
The next stage was a fairly well known one with a couple of tricky 90 degree corners, long narrow bridges and even a railway crossing. Here we grabbed 20 seconds back from our rival in the Fiat who now had 16 seconds on us. But of course we don't know these comparisons, I just know that we need to keep pushing if we want a result, and Bert and I have discussed this, but we don't tell Donald. We (Bert and I) had evolved a plan, keep pushing, try for 90% everywhere and hope that someone in front goes off then we are secure. So far the results are showing us 4th, but I thought that one of the cars in front had dropped too many stages in one day so we were 3rd really.
A bit of a tour down the road to a really strange stage which starts with a bunch of 90 degree corners through the village of Ekatahuna then opens out into the countryside before a few nadgery bits. The guys in the Charger had evolved the annoying stance of jumping the queue, which is actually stupid as they will now encounter slower cars, and have to pass more often. Ah well their problem! Part way through this stage what do we see but the Charger apparently parked in a semi demolished barn alongside the road! The OK signs are out so we renew our efforts. It subsequently emerges that they had passed another car just before a left onto a bridge, right off (both 90 degree) and really stood on the gas, lost the back end, spun into not only the barn, but about 50 metres of decorative fence, and a brand new rock feature in front of the house. Anyone have a new Charger shell lying around, cos they need one! The even stranger bit was that they had almost 20 minute lead in class. Perhaps they were shooting for an overall classic result. Now we are only 8 seconds from our nearest, but behind!
Next was a combination of 2 stages previously used , now named Dryers Rock. We flew on this one, the time sheets show us as fastest in our class, I must check the route book, but would not be too surprised as we did catch a couple of cars in this.
The last stage for the day was Gladstone, a 6 or 7 minute blast with many flatout bits, interspersed with a couple of windy bits around some headlands. Here the big hp would earn it's keep, but the advantage is not huge in overall time. For those who don't complete a stage there is a "bogey" time awarded, I'm not sure how this is allocated, slowest + x% in your class, but still means they are officially showing n the results and the Charger shows as only 1 ½ minutes slower than us!
Long service in Martinborough and the vivid memory is the girl in the coffee shop! Here most crews were going for LOTS of coffee, but event sponsor Clark "Metalman" Proctor in his V8 twin turbo Escort went one better. He went in and asked her how many coffees he had to buy so she would take them to the car, and she did!
Very long and boring tour into Wellington!

[RENOholic]

Well this is the last!

I, personally, woke somewhat sad as this was to be the last day for this year, and what a week it had been!
Today we were having yet another change of character in all the stages, and these were all the tight twisty ones which suit us better with very little of the long, flat out blasts for the big hp cars. What's more, for the first time, the weather in Wellington looked promising.
Yet again an early start, but this time we found somewhere for a reasonable breakfast, but for m e just poached eggs on toast. I am pretty lucky that I don't seem to suffer from car sickness, but I have also learned to eat pretty bland food for the event, I was looking forward to a decent steak tonight!
The day started in Downtown Wellington and threaded our way out to Shelly Bay, a very short stage around the shores of the harbor with the sea very few metres away and many rocky headlands, short straights and even 3 speedbumps, a few buildings to pass between and then out through the gates of the old Navy depot. The lycra cyclists did not seem too pleased to have the road closed, and a couple tried to force this, and failed. Arrogant #$%^s. We went pretty well here, a good thing as we normally are too sluggish first stage.3 minutes 41, as against 3.45 for the Fiat and 3.51 for the Torana, but of course we are not aware of that at the time.
Stage 2 a fair distance away was in the hills behind Lower Hutt, so plenty of spectators, started wit a VERY tight hillclimb, mainly first and second gear, full noise and plenty of brakes, then opened out across some farmland, a tight 90 left and then narrowed up some to a bumpy but quick road. I reckoned the Torana would be a bit slower at the start, but faster at the finish, and we were all in line on the road, Fiat in front of us and the Torana behind. Now we had a gauge, if we caught time off the Fiat, that was good, if the Torana caught time off us, not too bad as he started the day about 11 minutes ahead of us, so we knew we could not get that back. At the finish the Fiat was still at control as we came in, hopeful and we had just pulled out when the Torana arrived, times 10.11 for the Torana, 10.16 for us and 10.28 the Fiat!
Next came one Donald loves Moonshine, if possible even twistier and longer. As usual we went pretty well, we tend to do this on the ones he likes which is pretty natural, but the surface was breaking up in places and I do not like the feeling of the front on loose stones, nor the noise from them blasting the bottom of the car! The results show that we took 23 seconds off the Torana and 14 off the Fiat!
Now off to Paekakariki, it took a long while to get there, and this 14km stage had 2 instructions, Start, Finish! It starts at near sea level with a very smooth surfaced hillclimg of close on 4km with MASSIVE drops alongside. You would not have time for your clothes to go out of fashion before you hit the bottom, but you would have time to re-write your will! This would be a seriously scarey place to go off, thankfully almost everyone gives this respect. After passing over the top it winds down a river valley with lots of second gear corners, and by the time we got there there were quite a few long black marks before the corners!The results show that we took another 9 seconds from the Torana and 17 off the Fiat! Now it was time for lunch and a service, and hopefully a look at results. When we arrived the guys had the spare alternator sitting out ready, as this was where we dropped charge last year, and so far all our main troubles had been repeats at the same place as last year! But no charge problems this time, perhaps the wee car, now with a name, had seen this spare and decided she would not need it. There is no doubt whatever she does have a soul! Here the boys discovered more cracks in the exhaust, thanks to the Enzed Fiat team they were Tig welded in no time, and as for results... No chance. The website had so many hits it had crashed again and the organizers could not access the results, so managing the afternoon would be impossible, just go hard!
Only 4 to go, a re-run of Moonshine ( few seconds slower as the surface was worse still) lost 4 to the Torana, but gained 14 on the Fiat.
Then a re-run of Paekakariki, with the times almost the same for all 3 of the cars we were interested in, so we gained a bit more time in class!
A trundle down the road for the final service of the event, now the guys were playing games with each other! Zip ties on the driveshaft was swapped for an oil bottle tied under the other service car, they were obviously having way too much fun! We got fuel, a quick clean of the car and off we set for Makara. This is the most incredibly bumpy, narrow road it would be possible to find within 10kms of a major city in the civilized world, and last year it had been nothing short of horrible. This year with the car going well and the sun shining it was great. We saw no signs of any other cars until the finish where the Fiat was just pulling in as we finished. The photo which Exocet posted was taken as we came through the flying finish. I was sure we had done just fine. We had, we gained time on both the others taking 10.07. The very fastest "classics" did it in just over 9 minutes!
Now it was time for a trundle through Wellington to a re-run in the opposite direction of the first stage of the day at Shelly Bay. It was amazing how a stage changes when run the opposite way, but the times were almost exactly the same!
It's over!
Well except to get to the official finish and a beer or several (and hopefully that steak!) All we had now to do was cope with all these lycra cyclists (and that's the guys) very few females to gawk at! It would be so easy to have a minor traffic biff as the city drivers were out in force. They have to make the most of a fine day in Wellington cos there aren't that many. A couple of reminders to Donald to stay focused and we arrive at the official finish. All the usual carry on and the Tui girls still haven't learned to smile!
Several beers later we head off for a meal, and it's Indian! Onion barghi would remind us all day tomorrow what we had! Results were handed around and this was a real smack in the teeth! They showed that we had LOST time to the Charger which had crashed out! Really took the edge off, but as Myles said, wait for the prizegiving on Sunday morning. The official results give us 2nd in category (class 1) The torana guys are a bit under 10 minutes in front, the Fiat 124 3 behind, but if you look at the result table you see 2 cars in front of us, the Charger and a Mazda RX3, both of who had crashed out and therefore eliminated from the results. We were ecstatic, and even more so when we got 2nd on index of performance.
Thanks to all, Donald for a chance to be driven fast around the coolest roads in the world, Frans for making such a great and powerful engine and Myles and Bert for the unending service work!
And of course M Redele for making such a cool car, I feel that he rides with us every stage of the way.
Her name by the way, started of being Bare Linette, as in the way a Frenchman would say Berlinette, but we were visited by a french guy at Paekakariki who said "no it must be Nude Linette" pronounced Nu lintte
Now how is this for co-incidences? The wipers gave us grief on the exact same stage as last year, the Terratrip became totally erratic on the same CORNER as it did last year (and was never totally resolved till it broke), the starter gave grief at Mokau, the same place as last year. An all nighter at New Plymouth, same as last year, the axle nut gave us noises at Taihape, not quite the same place, but only 15km away from the same place. And the charge system, well that was beaten by being ready for it!

Well that's it, thanks for taking the time to read my rambles, hope you enjoyed it. Our total stage time 8hr and 59 minutes, it has taken more than that to write this!