MSCA round 1, 2017

The day dawned a cool and overcast Sunday, and those clouds would soon turn nasty. And at the worst possible time; we had sideways rain during the drivers briefing! Long-time TA member Colin was at Mallalla Motorsport Park for his first Super Sprint. Sure, he's a CAMS scrutineer, and an ANDRA steward, he's been a state champions at drag racing, he’s hillclimbed at Collingrove and he finished 3rd in the Rookies class in Modern Regularity last year at this very track. But none of them are Super Sprints. And very few of them were in his much-maligned Nissan 180SX. 
 
Now if you've never entered an MSCA Super Sprint before, it's a bit daunting straight up. Colin and his general racing buddies tend to drive the car to the event, unload their junk, stick the number to the door and head to scrutiny. This is a rarity at a Super Sprint with so many competitors electing to trailer their cars. It's almost as though the level of seriousness has increased between a Modern Reg round and a Super Sprint round. But this is really an illusion, as it’s not uncommon to see tools and spares being lent between competitors during the event. 
 
As a first-time sprinter, there was a dedicated practice session prior to the beginning of the Sprints proper, and the track was cold and damp. For the first session, the weather hadn't improved and the rain was probably best described as persistent drizzle. But if the first session was a little drizzley, the second was very wet. Colin likes to drive with his windows down, and had them down for this session. B ut shortly after commencing his third lap, the monsoonal conditions that occasionally are seen at this racetrack came about; and Colin got a face full of rain as he turned through turn 3. Which is a fair effort since he wears a full face helmet with the visor almost down!
 
Sessions 3 and 4 were not as weather effected, as the skies cleared up nicely after lunch. Ambient temperatures approached almost warm, and while there was still plenty of standing water on track when you were off line, it was essentially dry and the dry line started to get faster. And the water off line? Well, stay on-line and you won’t have a problem!
 
Mallalla has a reputation as a bit of a car breaker, and Colin learned this first hand. Typically he brings a jack and a couple of stands and some basic tools, but figures if the day requires anything more drastic than that then it’s probably too much to fix at the track anyway. But on this day, when the weather was at it’s hottest, the engine got a little warm, and Colin boiled off some coolant. And without a spare bottle to add at the track, the cooing issue reared it’s head again, cutting short the final session.
 
So would he do it again? Hell yeah! With a fastest lap time only a couple seconds quicker than what he has run in the Excel on similar tyres (it should be a much slower car!) there’s plenty left in it, and Colin is resolute in his belief that the car will go faster next time. After all, it took a couple of events to get comfortable in the Excel around the circuit too. But if he’s to continue Sprinting in the 180, then the seat needs to be lowered. And the cooling system needs upgrading. And the brake pads, while they’re a good street pad they certainly ain’t a track pad! 
 
Colin has now competed in his first Super Sprint, joining Nathan who is a regular Sprint competitor in either his Nissan GT-R or his Circuit Excel, Jason who's also a regular in either of his RX7's and Shaun, who has done numerous Sprints in the Evo VI. Will you join us for the next one?
 
Contacts: www.mscasa.com

2015 Eden Valley Hillclimb

Mid December saw the inaugural running of the Eden Valley Hillclimb by autocorsa (add link). There was a bit of skepticism about this new event, on a new piece of road, so close to Christmas and forecast hot weather. But what can we say – we want more!
3 Touge members were entered, Garry gotr his tarmac/khana GC8 WRX out for a run, Greendog had the GTR out fresh form a run at Willunga and Vinh debuted his beatuful FD RX7. We were joined by fellow NDCC competitor mark is his accountant spec S13, who also got there nice and early with Garry to secure us a choice spot right near the start line.
The couse is a ripper, with fast and flowing start, holding it flat 9nearly) through the first few corners using 4 of the 5 cogs before getting into some more of the technical stuff. The run is a continuous climb, in the spirit of a hillclimb, with plenty of well sighted corners, along with a couple of doozies. One particular corner seemed to catch a few out in the first session which wsa a bit of a dampener, delaying proceedings but the rest of the day ran quite smoothly. Too hard, too soon 2015-Eden-Valley

2015-Eden-Valley

Vinh's Comments:
Being new to the world of organised racing, the lead-up to an event like this would have been quite daunting. However, with tips and guidance of the senior veterans (Mark, Nathan and Garry), newcomers would find themselves safely completing all 4 runs through the hill. Many lessons were learnt on the day, not the least of which was to listen and respond to the how the car was behaving through the day. Simple steps such as monitoring/moderating tyre pressures, fault finding and topping up fluid levels would definitely ensure there were no hidden surprises waiting when your foot sunk to the floor around the number 2 hairpin. Possible exception being another victim of the deceptive corner.

It was great to see a few Touge members out on track again and we look forward to getting more people on track in 2016. If you are keen to find out more, whether its social, cruises or getting started in any number of local motorsport events, get in touch, come out and say hi and get involved.

2015 Adelaide Motorsport Festival Wrapup

The Adelaide Motorsport Festival is a recent initiative by the Sporting Car Club of South Australia and promoters to bring motorsport back to the CBD, combining the rejuvenated Classic Adelaide with the Victoria Park Sprint.
The “Sprint” event uses a abbreviated Adelaide F1/Clipsal 500 circuit, confined to the parklands. While the course appears short, it provides enough action and speed (comparable to Mallala).
The highlight of the course is attacking the chicane getting some awesome air time. Photography access was limited but one sneaky shot captured by Member August just captures some of the fun.

2015-AMF

 

2015 CAMS Club Challenge - Hillclimb

TeamTouge

September 26th 2015 marked the first ever CAMS Interclub Challenge at the Collingrove Hillclimb.  The idea of this event was for all CAMS affiliated clubs to participate against each other to bring more attention to the sport.

Touge Alliance entered the challenge with “Team Touge” consisting of Jason and his FD RX7 track car, Damien with his Evo X, Josh with his JZX100, Justin with his Proton Satria and myself Brad, in my 180sx.

The weather for the day was a perfect 26 degrees and Sunny, allowing the track and tires to get plenty warm.  Damien managed to run the best time in our team with a 35.5 putting him 7th out of the top 10 fastest drivers of the day.

I managed to run a best time of 40.16 in my NA 180sx, Jason managed a 38.4, Justin a 38.9 and Josh; who had never been to the Collingrove track before managed to come away with a 40.93

Overall Touge Alliance came 8th out of a total of 17 clubs with the overall winners being the SA Supra Club.

We at Touge Alliance want to thank CAMS for running such a great event and wish they continue to run more of these interclub challenges as TA will be out there giving it a crack.

B'Day Cruise 2015

The cruise started at Munno Para Maccas, there were only a couple of us to start with after a short stop off at Castle Plaza Maccas we picked up a few extra cars. The majority of the members had their family sedans out for the day but that didn't stop the fun.

During the trip we cruised through two of the best hill climb stages South Australia has to offer before stopping in at Middleton for lunch. Lunch at the bakery consisted of good food and a lot of laughs between friends.

After lunch the cruise went on to Melba's Chocolate Factory in Woodside for some sweet treats and some more laughs. A few people chose to leave from here but most continued on to end the day at Cafe Verde via Gorge Rd.

It was quite a long cruise with good scenery, and luckerly for us the weather was perfect for the outing.

bdaycruise2015

Dyno Day 2015

2015dynoday

8th August 2015 brought about round 2 of the Touge Alliance Dyno Wars.

We had a total of 22 cars hit the rollers at Graham west Workshop ranging from a stock Toyota Echo up to a highly modified supercharged HSV R8.

Special thanks to:

Adam Taylor from AT Performance and Fabrication for the awesome trophies

Graham West Workshop for running a well organised day

Cameron for cooking the BBQ & my wife Kimberley for helping organise the food & drinks.

Results for the day:

Forced Induction 2WD

*Ben Cox - HSV VE3 R8 (Supercharged) 392.4kw

*Adam Cowie - Ford G6E Turbo 238.5kw (TA Member)

*Kym Barwell - Chrysler Galant 148.3kw

*Leo Capizzi - Mini Cooper 119.4kw

*Paul Vanderbraak - Toyota Landcruiser 99.4kw

Forced Induction AWD

*Jimmy Huynh - Mitsubishi Evolution 9 266.2kw

*Rocky Codispoti - Subaru WRX 262.3kw

*Tim Bawden - Nissan Pulsar GTi-R 238.8kw

*Hamish Scott - Subaru WRX Wagon 233.9kw

*Kat Kandalis - Subaru WRX STi 216.7kw

*Shaun Dwyer - Mitsubishi Evolution TME 199.8kw (TA Member)

*Jack Hansen - Subaru WRX 189.7kw

*Tek Lim - Mitsubishi Evo 9 180.6kw

*Vut Bam - Subaru Forester STi 153.9kw

*Sam Misson - VW R32 130.9kw

*Jason Bradbrook - Mitsubishi Pajero 82.5kw (TA Member)

Naturally Aspirated FWD

*Justin Nottage - Honda Accord Euro 116.2kw (TA Member)

*August Boehm - Honda Civic (1979) 50.3kw (TA Member)

*Linda Hurley - Toyota Echo 42.9kw

Naturally Aspirated RWD

*Dominic Perre - VX Calais Commodore 223.1kw

*Michael Darroch - Toyota GT86 119.1kw

*Jeremy Smith - Toyota GT86 117.7kw (TA Member)

Lowest Output today was the Toyota Echo of Linda Hurley.

Hyperdrive3d Interclub Challenge 7 & 8

Hyperdrive3d Interclub Challenges held their 8th track day in May 2015 and once again it was a successful day. With the group now averaging around 35 - 40 drivers each time and an extra 30 odd passengers the event has grown to proportions outweighing a private track day. The future holds many secrets but we can assure you that these days will only get bigger and better.

Hyperdrive3d Interclub Challenge 7 Hyperdrive3d Interclub Challenges 8