Performance News - 13 July 1999

AutoSpeed Shootout!

by Southo!

11am was the time, Hardware House was the place. And no, I wasn't preparing myself for a day of handy work around the house... I pulled up at the designated meeting spot for the 2nd Sydney AutoSpeed Shootout. Some of the guys I had met at the first Shootout at Eastern Creek about a month earlier, but there were a few new faces as well.

Quick introductions and we moved the cars to a more 'out of the way' spot so FischerP's baby daughter, Helena had a chance to show us her skills on her pedal car - look out Babalouie, I think you have a powerslide challenger!

A few late withdrawals meant that there were nine cars in total. The turn-up consisted of Marty (Liberty RS), JaPerformance (GTS25t), Dice (Impreza WRX), Corsa (HDT Corsa), Death Invader (VL C'dore Turbo), Twin Turbo Legacy (Legacy GT), FischerP and Helena (VR SS) and me (Southo, in my GT-R). I know I said there were nine cars - well Babalouie (with Uncle Dave riding shotgun beside him) was heard (well, his blow off valve was anyway!) coming up the hill in his immaculate DR30 Skyline, closely followed by a Ferrari.... Cool, Bab's brought a "rarri" with him! But nah, a big powerslide to effect a U-turn and everyone looked at each other and said..... "Babalouie's here!" Unfortunately the Ferrari kept going, so 'his loss' I said to myself as Babalouie pulled into the car space next to me. Yeah... great entrance... and for an encore?

We all stood around for a while, chatting and shooting the breeze, every now and then a bonnet would be lifted, and everyone would gather round, "Love the intercooler Babalouie, but why have you got braided lines to it?" Sorry, I should explain, Babalouie has an oil cooler at the front of his DR30, and a lot of people ask why he has got braided lines for an intercooler....Ohh, well, must run high boost eh?

We set off, our route decided on, until the National Parks ranger put a stop to our first choice and said we couldn't go through the park - not without paying anyway. No dramas, slight detour and we headed off for a blast through the windy roads of McCarrs Creek Road. We got to the bottom and turned around to head back up, the trip a little slower this time due to a couple of motorcycles just cruising along. We all decided that the Old Pacific highway is a great run, so we headed off there (a personal favourite of Uncle Dave and Twin Turbo Legacy, I hear)... We got to the "Pie in the Sky" shop for a bite to eat and ended up talking more and more about cars, and the upcoming Observation Trial.

A guy pulled up in a white 'de-winged' STi, and Dice started working out the best way to distract the owner while we stole his wheels and engine for him. Another guy walked over and said to us, "Hey, that's a nice car you've got there", as we all lifted our heads...

"Which one?" we said enthusiastically.

"Umm, the Skyline...."

Six bowed their heads, but three of us were still interested!

"Which one?" asked Babalouie...

"The grey one" he replied. Babaloiue and I turned away. This praise was for JaPerformance........

"Bastard" we both thought to ourselves jokingly....while smiling at the guy, not letting on our disappointment. "Yeah, yeah it is nice eh....."

After lunch, we all headed down to the Hawkesbury River and set the cars up for a few photos. At this stage, the Holden trio of our cruise had to leave due to other commitments. More like, they got paranoid about all the Japanese cars there - HA HA. So that left just six of us. We set the cars up and took some more photos and then headed back to civilisation, or rather, four of us went back to Babalouie's place to watch some Japanese videos and check out Babalouie's skills on the Playstation... Hmm, I hope you don't drive my GT-R like you do in the game "Driver"........

Anyway, it was a fantastic day, and although the weather looked a little threatening at first, it held off to be a nice day after all. The GT-R's ambient temperature gauge was showing about 16 degrees C, so it was great weather for the turbos along the Old Pacific Hwy.... as Uncle Dave, with Babalouie now riding shotgun, and Twin Turbo Legacy were soon discovering on the way back.

Our thoughts are with GTS25t who couldn't make it due to some low life scum bag who tried to steal his pride and joy, and damaged the steering assembly in the process...... if anyone knows who may be responsible, I am sure an 'anonymous' lead would be appreciated by GTS25t... Cheer up mate, you'll be back on the road again soon.

Thanks to everyone for coming along, and see you all at the next New South Wales AutoSpeed get together - The Observation Trail on the 8th August, 1999.

Editor's note: And you don't need to have a mega-dollar car to attend any AutoSpeed event - just enthusiasm and an appreciation of good cars! More AutoSpeed shootout reports are welcome.

Other performance news:

Hyundai Precision Driving Team!

Say goodbye to that classic institution of the Australian country show - the Bridgestone Precision Driving Team. Well, farewell the Holdens in it, anyway! Hyundai Automotive Distributors Australia have confirmed that the Bridgestone Holden Precision Driving Team as of January 1^st, 2000 will become the Hyundai Precision Driving Team.

An icon of Australian entertainment, the team was founded 31 years ago by and is still operated by ex-rally and ex-precision driver Lloyd Robertson. It has performed over 7000 shows from capital cities to small country towns and even overseas, enthralling people of all ages. Their shows include two-wheel tilt driving, ramp-to-ramp jumps, high speed crossovers, handbrake turns, ultra close formation driving and waltzing to music. Details of which of Hyundai's range of cars the team will drive will be announced in due course.

Quickies

• Audi in Australia will introduce 'Audi Guaranteed Buyback' in a move aimed at halting potential consumer concern about resale values of new vehicles purchased prior to the introduction of a wholesale Goods and Services Tax.

• In Australia the new car sales figures show that the June 1999 industry volume of 84,470 new vehicles was an increase of 28.5% on May, but the June 1999 market was down 6.1% on June 1998. Toyota was market leader in June, followed by Holden and Ford. Toyota regained the top spot in year-to-date terms and now lead Holden with a margin of 6,075 vehicle sales, or 1.5 market share points.

• A proposal has been put forward to the NSW state government well before the last election to build a dedicated drag strip west of Eastern Creek. The reason for this was that the current leaseholders of the existing Eastern Creek complex, the ARDC (Australian Racing Drivers Club) have all but abandoned drag racing except for street meets. There are many issues involved here but it all boils down to the fact Sydney, Australia's most populated city, is again without a 1st class drag racing facility after the demise of Castlereagh and then recently Eastern Creek.

  The proposal before state government has been tied up in some red tape by bureaucrats who obviously don't see the merits for this facility.

  What can you do? Well, write a letter to:
  

  The Honourable Bob Carr
  Premier of New South Wales
  Parliament House Macquarie street
  Sydney 2000 NSW

Did you enjoy this article?

Please consider supporting AutoSpeed with a small contribution. More Info...

Share this Article: 

Digg this story

Seed Newsvine

Post to Reddit

Save on del.icio.us

Email