Race to the sky pics (finally)

[GravelBen]

finally got round to resizing + uploading a few of my photos from the race to the sky, so here you go:


400bhp mid-engined Subaru Justy.


An interesting intercooler mount on an MR2.


Monster's beast (note the size of the turbo just in front of rear wheel - theres another one on the other side.
around 1000bhp, 700kg. goes pretty quick...


Kenneth Eriksson in Possum's old car, now with 750bhp.


Ian Ffitch, quickest quad - that rear wing is folding up as an airbrake in this shot, clever little trick.


This was once an XR6 turbo ute.


Tidy, well-driven Impreza.


Monster on the sprint-course at the bottom of the hill.


Marty Roestenberg's 700bhp Impreza H6 (3.0 twin-turbo flat-6)


Quadzilla spec



Quadzilla!


"Rocket" Ron Kirkman - pushing 70 years old and still going hard.


Quadzilla on the course.


Brent Buist's BDA Escort


An old Legacy.


One of the many Imprezas.


Nissan Silvia V8.


Emma Gilmour, now driving Subaru and 6th fastest overall.


Andrew Hawkeswood's 800bhp spaceframe Evo. (or Evo-shaped plastic shell).


Monster at 200+ kph near the end of the biggest straight.


Eriksson's mechanics trying to figure out what let go halfway through the final run.

Anyway, Monster won (as usual), breaking his own record but not quite making th 8 minute mark (8:01), Eriksson had been quickest in qualifying but blew an engine on final run. Was 2 seconds faster than Monster around the sprint-course in the top-ten shootout, getting some big air which may have knocked something loose on landing that broke later, but I don't know what actually went wrong.

was a good fun weekend all round, some of those quads sound remarkably simliar to formula one cars.

>> Edited by GravelBen on Tuesday 2nd May 06:14

[Esprit]

Great pics+commentary... it's one of those events I've sadly never made it to.... plan to rectify that in coming years.

[kylie]

Great pics thanks for posting them

[speedy_thrills]

GravelBen said:

Andrew Hawkeswood's 800bhp spaceframe Evo. (or Evo-shaped plastic shell).

First of all fantastic pictures.

Now how exactly have they managed to make plastic body panels that look like the original panels? It’s a great idea for a car you expect to be knocked around a bit.

[Esprit]

I'd imagine by plastic you mean fi-glass? Surely it'd be uneconomic to mould panels for them... you could always acuum-form a polycarb body or something I guess though, but this would be very very thin I'd imagine, not exactly "structural"

[speedy_thrills]

Esprit said:

I'd imagine by plastic you mean fi-glass? Surely it'd be uneconomic to mould panels for them... you could always acuum-form a polycarb body or something I guess though, but this would be very very thin I'd imagine, not exactly "structural"

Well it’s space frame so they don’t need to provide structural rigidity, just provide you with a barrier between you and the shrapnel at 200+ km/h.

[GravelBen]

cheers guys, always happy to share whats happening down here in the south. hehe had some nice trips that weekend too, did my travelling between Dunedin and Cromwell (where I was staying) at silly hours of the morning with practically zero traffic, no cops and 'reasonable' speeds, and then a coupla nice runs taking the Kawarau Gorge/Crown Range route between Crommie and Cardrona (hence avoiding Wanaka and warbirds traffic).


Hawkeswoods Evo may be fi-glass rather than plastic, I think I have a few more shots of it in pits so will sort through those tomorrow (as I'm about to go to bed now) and post them up for y'all.

[kylie]

Esprit said:

I'd imagine by plastic you mean fi-glass? Surely it'd be uneconomic to mould panels for them... you could always acuum-form a polycarb body or something I guess though, but this would be very very thin I'd imagine, not exactly "structural"

The moulds are the expensive part, but once they have been perfected you can make many panels like 10-50 or more before the mould starts to crap itself, Dean knows all about this stuff. Its way cheaper to make FGlass bodies than panel beat heavey steel panels after every smash up. I had a look in a few V8 super car trailers to find spare nose cones just a single coat of paint and made with a few layers a plain fibre glass. Suprised it wernt the expensive option of Carbon fibre like the interior stuff.

[GravelBen]

heres a couple more of Hawkeswood's Evo:


parked with a spare nose sitting on the ground in the background


The front naked, you can also see a couple of its door shells behind it

It's a bit of a weapon anyway, he bagged 2nd overall, about 10 sec ahead of Roestenberg in 3rd.

edit to spelt mine england gooder.


>> Edited by GravelBen on Thursday 4th May 05:21

[wedgepilot]

Great pics!

Looks like a fun weekend, I'll have to make the trip down sometime