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I've got an ND MX-5/Miata daily pretty well setup for the track (coilovers, sways, full chassis bracing and struts, rpf1s with semi slicks). Its a grippy car limited a bit by the slippery leather seats - and as it's a daily I don't want to change to a racing bucket (it'd waste the money I spent on seat lowering too - first Paco then Blackworks/Aurora). CG locks are no longer available, but I've come up with two ideas for the next track day and was hoping for some feedback from others that have encountered the same issue: Lap belt: I've bought a metal child seat locking mechanism to hopefully lock the lap belt into a tight position. Torso support/stability (in addition to the standard belt) l: planning on chucking a strap around my torso and the seat to see how it goes - one of these - https://behrents.com/parts/g-force-racing-torso-harness-red-4290rd.asp I think I can manage to get the torso strap in a position that won't interfere with the seat side airbags - has anyone tried similar? I did 50-60 laps around a 5km high-g track last week and felt like I'd been hit by a bus for days afterwards, trying to thread the needle of increasing body stability without going full race car. Neither option would present an issue for scrutineering, since the vehicles are assessed at the start of the day and no further checks are done - the events I'm attending are fine with just three point belts and a helmet.
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Oct 10, 2023 06:20
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honda whisperer posted:https://www.schrothracing.com/item/rallye-4-asm/ Excellent, thanks Honda! I'll take a look at that one and have a chat with some race stores here. It's a daily car (60k miles and counting) that sees track a couple of times a year and regular spirited hills runs, not warranted at this point. Most of the other cars out on track on the days I go are street driven Porsche etc all with stock seats - not doing the equivalent of the US HPDE/wheel to wheel stuff. Cage, bucket seats etc aren't legal on the roads here (Aus) so it's either three point harness and stock seat in road car, or track car trailered to the events. Phone posted:You’re not setup for the track; get another car or do buckets Isolationist fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Oct 10, 2023 |
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Oct 10, 2023 13:23
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Righto, cheers for the feedback guys. Basically not legal to modify any street car here (NA and NB street cars here you'll see out on track with some aftermarket rear roll cages, they sneak under cop attention by being entirely charming I'd guess) so definitely no buckets or full cage. I'll abandon the idea of half-assed improving driver stability and stick with stock gear for the rare times out on track - and have sent an email to Black Bird/Hard Dog (preferable due to diagonals) regarding a roll bar and the possibility of getting one shipped. Again entirely not legal here, but potentially close enough looking to stock to avoid getting my car defected for illegal mods. Purely as a snapshot for you guys of the setup in Aus (we don't have SCCA, NASA etc - though from what I can see ND soft tops are allowed out with stock hoops in certain grades etc over in the states?) the requirements to go out on track in most events are (keeping in mind insurance won't offer any coverage on track here, making the AMG's/Ferraris that go out either insanely slow or anus-puckering when they spin out): Requirement 1: online 'race licence', basically a few slides you click yes on and $100 USD per year Requirement 2: in-vehicle fire extinguisher Requirement 3: (sometimes) tow points mounted with blue arrows highlighting location The cars (unless a full race event/championship sort of thing) aren't generally scrutineered - you'll be out on track and wonder why an A45 flying past you doesnt have tow points mounted or any stickers, and when you chat with the driver later they won't even know what you mean when you ask. When you go out on track you're either paying $300-400 USD for 5-6 20 minute sessions (a state level points 'championship' sort of thing), or $400-$1000 USD for more time out on track for events where a private org has hired the track for 'non timed' events - the best being ones where the track is open for participants for 6+ hours with no sessions, you just head out and run data logging via RaceChrono or Track Addict. Get stuck in traffic/tired, pull out to the car park and wait a bit before heading back out. There's not really any universally understood point-by etc system - you get a five minute talk before most events with the organisers explaining what the flags mean, asking for no crashes and for participants to "not be dicks". This means you'll have a fair combo of people indicating to the side they're moving to to let you pass, indicating to the side they want you to pass on, point-by's, or utterly ignoring you while you're stuck behind them lap after lap. Due to the lack of insurance and our draconian car mod restrictions for street cars, you'll generally see three categories of cars out on track (typically at the same time): Street cars with stock seats etc, tending toward the performance end for obvious reasons: Porsche, AMG Mercs, modern BMW M cars, Ferraris, McLaren's and and Lambos down to toyobarus/newer miatas. Due to the lack of insurance coverage, these are generally blisteringly fast on the straight (the reason I think they go to track - max speed on the street anywhere is 68 MP/H with an incredibly active police force). These drivers are often inexperienced and most events I've seen to you'll see one or more spin/slide off track, crash into something or have a mechanical failure from lack of preparation (second to last event I went to had an 86 blow something and dump oil, then catch fire and keep driving before all the oil caught alight and it span out). Track cars: Fully caged cheaper cars with bucket seats etc, window nets and branding. One of the best and most common on the lower end is the humble Hyundai Excel driven shockingly quickly - with each event typically having a few 90s M3's, old race prepped NA/NB Miatas, or one or two ridiculously loud and fast old Australian muscle cars stripped of all weight making earthquake noises (same niche as your camaro/mustang people?). These drivers are typically all fast but cautious around other drivers (understandably). Oddball cars: Caterhams were made locally for a bit under the name Puma Clubman, so you'll see some of them out on track with SR20DET's or more. Home made racecars from various local engineering groups will be seen, often looking like a go-kart with F1 car aero. There's the also typically one or two people at each event bringing some high strung and ridiculously quick built race car of one variety or another (think FD RX-7 worth more than a house etc) that is basically trailered all over the country getting track lap records at venues. This all sounds quite disorganised and dangerous compared to the US system I imagine - it's a low pop country though with only a few racetracks nationally (three within a 500 mile radius of me). Speeding/driving aggressively on the street here will result in a loss of your driver's licence very quickly, and legally speaking everything is setup in such a way that you can't modify your car at all without it being illegal or uninsurable. If a policeman pulls you over and doesn't think your wheels are OEM spec, or suspects your steering wheel has been changed from factory, or your car is too low (meaning possibly modified from factory spec thus illegal), your car gets 'defected' and can't be driven on the road. For this to be cleared, the car needs to be trailered to a government inspection station where it'll go on a hoist and be checked over to make sure that everything matches the Australian Design Rules (meaning everything needs to be stock/factory).
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Oct 10, 2023 22:18
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TheBacon posted:Man goonspeed but gently caress aussie laws that does not sound cool or fun at all holy hell. Yeah, Mad Max lied 😢. Thanks for the tips guys - I've bought some mounting points for the ND (https://rev9autosport.com/nd-16/interior/harnesses/FUJIMURASEATBELTANCHOR.HTML) and a Scroth Rallye 4 ASM, which I'll wear in addition to the factory three point. Wrar posted:Y'all don't have road legal roll bars? That's odd. They make the car safer. The government doesn't care about safety, they care about whether they've been paid to certify something as safe. When a vehicle or vehicle part is set to be released here, it needs to go through a governmental process (at applicant cost) to demonstrate that the part or vehicle passes the Australian Design Rules (list of requirements). No application/no pass? No certification. You can pay to get things 'engineered' yourself (tested and signed off by a certified engineer authorised by the gov/licencing body), but there are downsides: costly, not recognised from state to state (so if you move interstate you either now have a car that can't leave the shed or need to go through the process again with a local engineer and hope that it works for you again with the separate state's DMV). Police aren't generally educated in the specifics of the laws they're enforcing (instead just broad strokes) so you're still able to be defected for an engineered mod, meaning you have to (at your own cost) trailer car to government facility and pay for an inspection. The inspectors will rubber stamp the engineered item that got you caught, but still inspect the rest of the car - hope you didn't modify the exhaust, or put coilovers on it, or a big brake kit, or have tires that extend beyond the body of your car etc - if you did, you fail inspection, have to return the car to stock and apply to go through the process again. Vehicles have been known to be defected bone stock - numerous instances of vehicles that, by design (and in compliance with the ADR's), are quite modified-looking being defected on the way home from being purchased brand new and stock. There's naturally an element of socio-economic targeting and blind spots with the application of the law too - giant modified lifted bro-dozer 4wd's happily drive around for years in violation without a cop batting an eyelid, but if you drive a 'hoon' car or are driving around blasting drum and bass your mileage may vary. My favourite of this locally was an instance where a learner motorcyclist was road raged heavily by a crazy person on the street. He rode into a local police station, took his helmet in to report the issue to the police - and provide the footage that was on his helmet-mounted Go-Pro. Police reviewed footage at his insistence, then gave him a multiple hundred dollar ticket to him for having a mount for the camera on his helmet in violation of the ADR's. When he complained about this (citing that police motorcycle helmets have the same mount in the same location), they walked outside and defected his bone stock Ninja 400. Australia has a lot of this sort of thing - Fallout 3's Med-X was originally set to be called morphine worldwide, but this would have resulted in it being refused classification in Australia and so banned from being sold here. Bethesda changed it to Med-X worldwide to allow them to sell it here. Isolationist fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 11, 2023 06:10
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