First time out!

[st3ph3nm]

Sunday before last, the Nissan Datsun Sports Owners Club and the Ford FPV/XR Club got together for a motorkhana competition. Entered my roadster, and had my first crack at a comp. As well as the motorkhana, there was track that had some chicanes added in, and we used the back half of it. Sort of became a short (my fastest was 52.37 seconds) hillclimb. In context - a Porsche Carerra with an experienced driver at the wheel did a 47.55. The little car performed flawlessly - especially in the reverse slalom. With the roof off, it's the easiest thing in the world to reverse accurately! In the motorkhanas I came 19th out of 60 vehicles, and in the speed test, 22nd. Not bad for first time out, and crappy road tyres. The slaloms and chicanes were no problem at all - the car changes directions with aplomb, and in fact, someone later was under my car taking photos of the (now famous) volvo mono leaf setup. It certainly corners nice and flat.
It was certainly good flying the roadster flag. I can't wait to get some decent rubber underneath this thing!

Cheers,
Steve

[dbrick]

Cool, you did well, top third and I'm guessing you were near the bottom third for horsepower, so an even bigger accomplishment. Tires will make a big difference, shocks even bigger.

[st3ph3nm]

YMMV, but I'd have put that the other way around - even if I didn't already have good shocks in the car. Tyres are the single most important factor in handling improvements. My car's the perfect example of a well setup suspension with no grip!

Cheers,
Steve