Shak's next project, my 2nd DC5R.

[McDognalds]

Car looks even better in flesh Shak,

I'm Adam's mate, chatted to you for a bit. was tryna find ya after that to chat to you a bit more bout your car cos i might be joining the cw dc5r crew lol (inspecting one next saturday) but couldnt find you in the big turn out lol!

next time

[Shakeel]

Car looks even better in flesh Shak,

I'm Adam's mate, chatted to you for a bit. was tryna find ya after that to chat to you a bit more bout your car cos i might be joining the cw dc5r crew lol (inspecting one next saturday) but couldnt find you in the big turn out lol!

next time

Ahh sorry Andy! I'm sure we'll run into each other again, otherwise there's always facebook . That's great news man! The CW DC5R crew is on the rise!

[McDognalds]

Ahh sorry Andy! I'm sure we'll run into each other again, otherwise there's always facebook . That's great news man! The CW DC5R crew is on the rise!

haha for sure. already have you on facebook and i think i remember why lol did you ever play MS? :S

anyway bro, i looked the CW dc5r today, it wasn't perfect had couple dents on driverside door and rear quarter panel, front and rear bumpers resprayed but colour doesnt really match, right guard inside has some rust due to paint chipping and right headlight tab broken so im guessing some sort of accident? decided not to buy it haha :/... gotta wait for another one to pop up now lol

[stienerv2]

wtfreak.... mugen wing.

[crashprash]

nek minnut..full mugen lip kit

[Shakeel]

Very nice surprise

Wouldn't mind to see some of your surprises!

pmu rotors!!..phwoaarr!

Ball so hard....

If Shak does not ball, then the ball will not shak-e

Whoa. Another set of regas!. Incredible

Look who's talking, can't wait to see your next set of regas.

Will see you tomorrow Shak! Will look for the DC5 with two sets of Regas.

Sorry guy, not sure if I did meet you or not. I apologize if I didn't!

Incredible indeed.

haha for sure. already have you on facebook and i think i remember why lol did you ever play MS? :S

anyway bro, i looked the CW dc5r today, it wasn't perfect had couple dents on driverside door and rear quarter panel, front and rear bumpers resprayed but colour doesnt really match, right guard inside has some rust due to paint chipping and right headlight tab broken so im guessing some sort of accident? decided not to buy it haha :/... gotta wait for another one to pop up now lol

Yeah I did play MS! Take your time when looking for a DC5. Unfortunately many of the CW (and non CW) DC5R's in NSW are very dodgy.

wtfreak.... mugen wing.

You just had to spoil the surprise hey..

nek minnut..full mugen lip kit

I won't deny it haha


Post H Nationals update time!


19 April 2013 - later on in the day.

I did try to change the rotors in the morning but I had no luck. The 2 screws that hold/align the rotor did not want to come out. For future I'd like to buy that certain tool (when you hit it with a hammer the tip turns). I didn't want to damage/ruin the heads on the phillips head screws anymore so I just let it be. Changing the rotors wasn't anything major and I'll eventually get it done at Top One soon.

After packing my bags and loading everything I needed into the car, I made the drive down to Heasmans Steering for the wheel alignment. I waited a good half hour before they began work on the car as they were quite busy (and behind schedule). The serviceman was quite an old fellow at least in his 60's. He took the car for a quick spin around the block with me as passenger and immediately knew something was not right. Once back at the workshop he popped the bonnet open and pointed out to me that the locking nut on the tie rod end was loose. Once he did tighten it up and started the car again, the rogue vibrating noise I had was gone! I was very impressed at this as he found out immediately after a quick 2 minute drive around the block. He did suggest that the threads on the tie rod ends may be buggered as the locking nuts weren't tight and I think he may be right. Definitely not taking my car back to Jax Tyres in Liverpool ever again. In the mean time while the guys were working on the car, my tow buddy Raf had arrived from work.

Now that the car was finished we drove back to Raf's place where his wife and son were waiting for us. They loaded up the Navara and we made the short drive to our hire shop to pick up the trailer. Once all the necessary paperwork was filled out we secured the trailer to the Navara and tried to load my car on to the trailer. Unfortunately due to my car being quite low this did not work. The front bar did suffer a few chips and cracks in the paint.. oh well. After finding a nice slope where the ramps were almost horizontal, the car was on the trailer with ease. The car was then tied down with ratchet straps and we finally left for Benalla at 5:30 pm.

We did have a couple stops on the way but we finally reached Benalla at around 11:30 pm. Now I must say I've heard stories about the weather in Melbourne but it was bloody freezing! Quickly got my bag out of the car, said bye to Raf and family, and jumped into my room. Now this motel was pretty good, had A.C, electric heaters in the bed, and a nice reclining chair. I fell asleep at around 12:30 am after watching an hour of random things on TV.


20 April 2013

Woke up nice and early at 5am. Had a shower, made a cup of coffee, and waited in excitement for the hours ahead of me. I heard Raf getting some things out of the Navara so I went outside and discussed with him when we would leave. At 7 we left for Winton, also had a quick stopover at Maccas for some brekkie. As we turned into the main road to get to the track I was amazed. So many honda's on less than 200m of road. Some being towed on car trailers, some being driven to the track, it was awesome!

Once the gates opened we let all the cars go in and found a spot just after the gates on a slight hill to unload my car, then drove in and found a free pit. Unloaded all my stuff, signed all the forms, got my timer and prepared for the day. Raf left soon after to go rest for a bit and pick up his family to bring them back later on in the day. I was all alone ! After walking around I did see a few familiar faces (Berty, Matt, Napo, Ryan, Carl, Jaz), and also made a new friend called Vijay. I got Matt to jump in and passenger with me for the first two sessions (Thanks Matt!). Here's how my sessions went:

Session 1 -
2:35.0890 2:05.8910

Session 2 -
2:18.0560 2:00.4510 1:57.2140 1:59.5070 2:02.7540 1:56.0890

Session 3 -
1:55.8060 1:51.4870 1:52.9300 1:52.8030 1:50.7980

Session 4 -
2:13.6600

Session 5 -
2:07.9160 1:59.2520



Unfortunately Sessions 1 and 5 were red flagged after one lap due to a certain dc2 spinning out and being stuck on the track . Sessions 2 (with Matt) and 3 (alone) were probably the best of the day. Thanks to Matt I was able to learn alot on my first ever track day. He gave me very helpful tips throughout the day which I will carry with me for a long time. During Session 3 I got my P.B of the day, (1:50.7) and I was quite pleased with it. Funnily enough this session was also my worst in a way. During the last few laps the car just kept sliding around and didn't want to grip at all. I didn't know what was wrong as they were brand new tyres! I came back to the pits and asked Matt what I was doing wrong. He told me to check the tyre pressures with his gauge.. they were 55-60psi hot haha. So it's a bit confusing how I got my P.B when the tyres were running such a high psi when hot. I lowered them to 36 as suggested and waited to head out again. Session 4 was after PBOI's oil spill, and I spun out on some saw dust coming out of turn 8 I think. I did have a minor bump into the tyre wall and decided to come back to the pits after hearing a rubbing noise. My bumper popped out, the left side tab was broken, and the splash guard was rubbing on the tyre. I was pretty upset that I had spun out and decided to begin packing up for the day. After talking to Bryan (Apu/Works Engineering), I decided to go out once more for Session 5 to have some fun. Sadly the same car from Session 1 spun out and we got the red flag again haha.

I was extremely happy with how the car performed! The oil never rose above 110 degrees, didn't burn too much either. The tyres held out very well! The coilovers could have been wound stiffer and you'll see that in one of the pictures below. If I had more track time I'm sure I would have been able to break into the 1:46-1:48 range (especially after adjusting my tyre pressures ). I also need to learn and master that fancy heel-toe technique (rev matching wasn't good enough haha).

Overall, I'm glad I made the decision to come down to Winton and support H Nationals 2013. It was a great experience and one that I'll never forget. The day did have quite a few hiccups but stuff like that is out of anyone's control. I was glad that I got to meet most of the CITR Melbourne gang, but I did miss out on a few including the infamous and e-famous ChargeR (sorry guys). I got to see so many nice machines in action, including the one car that inspires me (JDMyard's DC5!).

I'd like to thank Raf and his family first of all for towing my car down. If it wasn't for you guys I don't think I would have driven down alone as my friends bailed at the last minute . Secondly, thanks to Matt for being a great teacher. Finally, thanks to everyone else (you know who you are) who came up and had a chat to me on the day, making me feel very welcome and not lonely. Winton is a great track, and I have no doubt in my mind that I'll be back soon (hopefully towards the end of the year). I feel like I have unfinished business!!


Some random pictures:

First stop-


Second stop-


Freezing cold morning in Benalla-


Gripshiftslide-


Lawson Photography-



Good to get that out of the way. Will have another update soon as I didn't want to have 10 pages worth in one update.

[crashprash]

those wheels look so yummy. i want to eat them

[eskimo_firefighter]

Nice work out at H-nationals, you're car is looking great out on track.

[McDognalds]

haha good old MS, met u in scania or bera looool hahaha, fking small world.

[jdm.itr]

Nice update Shak! Sorry didn't get a chance to talk to you, saw you a couple of times but wasn't sure if it was you! Great job, your car looks amazing on track! What brake pads are you using btw? After the whole day your wheels were still shining white with no brake dust... Haha

[crashprash]

^ Shak doesn't use the brakes. He aint got time for that

[Timmy_B]

was that your first track day Shak?

[M@lew]

Good work at Nats Shak!

You picked up everything really fast and that's an awesome time for your first time out!

[white_r]

your car is sooooo cleann

[mugsee]

Nice writeup Shak! It was great meeting you there even though we didn't have much time for a chat.

Glad to hear that you enjoyed the track despite the incidents. I'm sure you'll be back there with a vengeance and will rip out a mid 1:40's the next time you head out our way!