ARC – Gripshiftslide

ARC Forum Battle :: Time Attack, Weather Assault.

Grant — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:58:23 +0000

Earlier this month Melbourne played host to the inaugural Forum Battle.
In true Melbourne syle, all our interstate guests and competitors were welcomed by some of our finest weather (sorry about that!).

The Forum Battle consisted of three separate competitions, originally there were more, but the weather had the last laugh.
The Time Attack was easily the largest category, with sixteen cars competing. This included five interstate cars.

Mr Advan and one of the boys from the ‘Big Red’ team talking strategies.
The car was covered in tape and cloth to test the aero package on track, the crew also made some last minute changes by cutting into the the tyres to help gain some extra grip in the wet.

Marty from Mighty Car Mods getting excited as he headed out.

Pedro in the insanely loud, left hand drive VW Golf.

Looking down the line-up for the Time Attack cars, I was pretty impressed as there was such a varied mix of cars!

After one lap behind the pace car it was time to start setting some times. Ovi in this red Evo was first off the line.

During the very first lap on the second corner the worst thing happened! I wasn’t even ready with my camera and I don’t think Ovi was ready either.

The track was just too wet and Ovi came in far too ‘hot’.

After the smash the drivers in the dummy grid waited for the track to be cleared and at this stage it was unsure whether or not the race would continue.

Eventually the Evo made it’s way back to the pits on the back of a flat bed. The tow truck drove past the dummy grid…

And then the radio announced that the race would continue.
The RX7 drivers thought it over and decided to call it a day though.
Some of these guys were from QLD so it was not an easy decision to make having traveled so far and having spent so much money to get here.

A short time later, the show continued. Drivers paced themselves and gradually got faster throughout the day as they gained confidence on the track.
Stephen Verschuren managed to crack the one minute mark with his tuned and built Nissan Pulsar.

Jason Naidoo got himself into poll position in his highly tuned Evo 8. This was one of the cars to watch after a very respectable 1:43.0420 lap at last years WTAC.

The fastest RWD for the street class, Chasers east side division’s S15 driven by Manny Su.

After a few laps the Mitsubishi GTO pulled in after having some ‘technical difficulties’.

The car had already set a very quick lap so it was given a chance to rest in the pits and retired early.

Having two events running side by side was great for the spectators. So while the Time Attack was underway the rally cars were coming past to get to the starting grid.

One of the Calder park officials looking very official indeed!!

My personal favourite car from the field, Ken Matsuda’s turbocharged AW11 MR2.
This car performed brilliantly during the Time Attack and even better in the Motorkhana session.

Marty’s 1.3l beast – this little car had a lot of grip issues in the corners.
The throttle had to feathered the whole way around the course, check out the in car footage from Mighty Car Mods Video

The crazy Golf managed to crack the 1 minute mark, a very quick lap of just 56.4

Throughout the day the Vic Drift demos turned heads everywhere. I even overheard some of the officials comment that it was very exciting to watch!

There were just six cars representing Vic Drift over the weekend. This included Nigel in the ETS 180SX and the JAK Motorworks boys in their freshly painted blue Nissan S14 and R32 4 door.

The track was absolutely soaking and the boys did a great job putting on a skid show.

All the water meant the tyres lasted a lot longer!

The Thunderdome allowed for some ridiculously long drifts around the banking corners.

Here is the official leader board for the Time Attack results.

Place	Time	Name	State	Car	Forum	Group
1	00:47.0	Chris Thomson	VIC	Nissan GTR	SAU	Pro
2	00:48.5	Adam Newton	VIC	Nissan Skyline R32 GTS	SAU	Pro
3	00:50.6	Jason Naidoo	NSW	Mitsubishi Evo 8	EvoOZ	Pro
4	00:53.2	Steve Reed	NSW	Mazda 3 MPS	OZMPS	Pro
5	00:53.6	Shane	NSW	Supra	JDMST	Pro
6	00:53.6	John Kennedy	VIC	Mitsubushu GTO	3si	Pro
7	00:53.8	Ash Cosgriff	VIC	Nissan Skyline R33 GTR	SAU	Street
8	00:54.4	Ken Matsuda	VIC	Toyota MR2	MR2 Australia	Pro
9	00:54.7	Rory Hollingsworth	VIC	Holden Astra VXR	OpelAus	Street
10	00:54.9	Johnathon Green	VIC	Mitsubishi Evo	Fullboost	Pro
11	00:55.7	Stephen Verschuren	VIC	Nissan Pulsar SSS	Pulsar Group	Street
12	00:56.4	Pedro		Golf	Euroevolution	Street
13	00:57.6	Manny Su	VIC	Nissan ilvia S15	MelbS15	Street
14	01:03.2	Gareth Yemm	VIC	Nissan Pulsar N13	Pulsar Group	Street
15	01:03.3	Marty	NSW	Dihatsu	Mighty Car Mods	Pro
16	DNF	OviZabecca	NSW	Mitsubishi Evo 8	EvoOZ	Street

We still have the Motorkhana post coming up and a final recap of the entire Forum Battle event.
So until then, thanks again for reading.
– Gwyn.

ECB Rally Calder :: Shakedown

Grant — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:50:24 +0000

ARC Rally Calder, the first event on the 2012 rally calendar. With so many new cars, teams and classes it was hard to know what to focus on! The first thing that caught my eye was the polaris All-Terrain vehicles.

Yes you may have noticed they are a little dirty! after heavy rain on thursday the tunnel had to be pumped out because of flooding and the rest of dirt track was looking like a swamp.

By Friday the sun was back out and it was time to get the cars on the track , it was a pity that the grandstands had not received the maintenance that had been planned.

The Legendary ford escort, a classic rally car back in action!

Check out the array of switches, not sure which one launches the missile?

Jeffrey David was one of the exciting guys to watch in his wild Porsche 911, this car was allways thumpin!

Honda pulled out all the stops with their brand new Honda Jazz rally team, Eli Evens and Mark Pedder are the lucky men who get to drive these angry little machines.

A rally Aston Martin V8 Vantage? the sound of this car was amazing! unfortunately this very expensive rally car had a meeting with a barrier late in the rally. See Video

This replica model of the RA40 celica took Neil Bates and his team 18 months to build. Inspired by Ove Andersson and Henry Liddon RA40 driven in the World Rally Championship during the early 1980s.

Overall 2nd in the classic rally division.

A consistent force during all the stages of the rally the powerful Evo of the Knowles team.

Strange choice of rally car but i do like the aerodynamic tunnel on the back.

Presentation line up! check out all those cars!

More dirty polaris!

I still cant believe these things are V8, what a crazy old school machine!

Mascots rock! they are a rare creature that today have almost become extinct in Australia.

Nathan Chivers, Les Chivers coming in 2nd driving the Polaris RZR 900 XP

Cody Crocker, Greg Foletta winners of the Side x Side Rally Challenge.

A well known name in rally! Neil bates win’s with a new car, being out of rally game for a few years this is an extremely good effort!

Another debut and another win, Eli Evens, Glen Weston take out the 2WD Championship

Steve Jakobson, rally driver, movie start, co-host of aus top gear was helping promote rally school this weekend.

Check out the width of the track! originally designed for racing NASCAR, the track is now used for all different types of racing.

Technical problems plagued this team and they were only able to compete in the first round heat.

One of only two Evo 10’s at the event, Tom Wilde managed to win the ARC 4WD Championship

One of the hardest working RX7 on the track this yellow fire breathing dragon managed third in the 2WD Championship.
With an extremely wet track and unpredictable weather all competitors pulled through the 4 day event without to much carnage.
Despite the conditions spectators still showed their support for ARC, for the results Click here or you can download the full list of results as a pdf here. If you have never attended a rally event its one of those things you really should do! more support means more competitors which results in a better overall competition and atmosphere.
-Grant

Forum Battle :: Show And Shine.

Grant — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:49:24 +0000

Sunday was the final day for the Forum Battle weekend, the show and shine event was all that was left to decide the winning car forum.
Heading to Calder park at 7am it was still raining, so we were unsure how the day would pan out.
Luckily the sun started shining and almost immediately the ground quickly dried up.

Our latest feature car, Pond’s GT-R Nur. Getting all shiny after a very wet drive to the track.

Check out that professional looking banner!

Plenty of different car makes under the gripshiftslide banner, Mazda, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Daihatsu and Subaru.

Mark’s crazy clean R31 had a few people stopping to see what was what.

Isaac’s stupidly low S15, this thing is intense! The judges gave Isaac a win and he scored a Zen Garage tee.

Some of the drift demo cars were left to cool down after their only show on Sunday, Vic Drift put on a hell of a show despite the weather. More on the drift demos later this week.

MelbS15 club had a descent turn out for the show, this subtlety kitted S15 stood out…

…Thanks to an interesting wheel choice, you don’t often see a Silvia ‘tucking’ the rear wheels.

Melb S15 club didn’t just have Silvia’s on show, there was two nice Supra’s and a Skyline.

A sneaky S14 hanging out in the pack, It looked great on a set of black Meisters.

Strange wheels on this S15, would love to know how it ‘scored’ that battle damage.

One of the winners from the S15 club, Renee’s beautiful grey Silvia. She scored a set of brake pads, not too shabby!

Some of the guys from the S15 club got restless and started sliding around their ‘RC’ Drifter.

It seems even remote control cars are riding hard, check out that offset!

One of the highlights was this Holden Astra with a blackboard paint bonnet, Zen Garage got in quick!

By lunch the sky was looking a lot better for the show and shine, and soon it was too hot!

Very, very clean late model Astra.

One of only two AE86’s at the show, both were spotless!

Crazy aero package on this sexy black Supra, These JAK motor works cars are popping up everywhere!

Gareth’s tough daily MX-5.

One of the wildest Evo’s in town, Givan has just put a new set of Work Emotions on and it looks great!

Mark’s R31 managed to score a win for the team and got a few freebies from the Zen Garage crew.

Another win for the team was Michael’s RX Impreza, his car’s built for the track but can be slammed lower than the rest of ’em.

In this setup you literally can not fit a finger between the tyre and the guard, I even tried a credit card… No luck!

The Mighty Car Mods “Blue Turd” still wearing some mud from the gymkhana session the day before.

Kebab pride! The infamous “Kebab Hunters” sticker.

Agis from Insane Drifters checking over the engine before the car gets loaded up and towed home.

Easily the biggest team at Forum Battle, Skylines Australia had more cars competing than anyone else.

Bringing with them some very impressive and rare cars, like two Nur spec R34’s and this gorgeous GT-R.

The Rays TE37 SL’s looked amazing on this R34. People were staring all day long!

In terms of ‘cool’ nothing came close to this C110 Skyline, It was absolutely pristine and very heavily modified!

Packing an RB26 swap and brakes bigger then a small house, this thing would move very fast!

Some of the other Skyline Australia entries included this immaculate R32 GT-R and a very cool DR30 Skyline.

One of the only domestic cars to enter was this built XR6 Falcon, The owner got to take home a trophy which makes it all worthwhile.

The Skyline boys gathered in the rally starting grid for a display while the group received their club trophy.

The team took out the overall win for the very first Forum Battle.

Thanks to some crazy cars, crazy driving and some of the most dedicated guys and girls in the car scene.

With all the cars lined up it was time for some shots, only something was missing…

Models! Here you can see me concentrating and carefully aligning my shot of the girls…

And here’s the actual shot, magic!

Ash from SAU accepting his trophy and a pose with the Just Car promo girls.

The man behind the event with one of the Zen Garage boys, busy working the awards around the chaotic rally championship.

Marty from Mighty Car Mods proud of his trophy for the Gymkhana session, Marty took out one of the front wheel drive awards for the session.

Congratulations to everyone that won a prize and a big thanks to everyone who attended, it was a great way to finish up an awesome weekend of cars, rain and more cars.
There will be a write up on the full weekend coming soon!

Thanks for reading,
-Gwyn.