2000km Weekend Road Trip

[Cro]

It was that time of year again to make my annual pilgrimage to the Snowies this year with a couple of twists. No Fords (too slow) and I incorporated the Vic Snowies as well. I had a couple of mates with me, one in a MK5 R32 with Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric’s, and one MK5 GTI with Michelin Pilot Sport 2’s, sway bars, suspension work, Porsche Cayenne brakes, some engine work, exhaust and my R36 with Michelin PS2’s as well.
Friday night consisted of getting to our Accommodation in Tumut, so we could freshly attack the snowies the next morning. http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&s...e=UTF8&t=h&z=8
On Saturday the first twisty bits between Tumbarumba & Cabramurra had lots of damp patches, which by Cabramurra turned to constant rain for most of the day. The only dry section of the day was Mount Beauty – Bright, which was an absolutely sensational piece of road. Bright also, a fantastic little town I look forward to going back there again.
Half way up Mount Hotham we got fogged out, visibility was down t o 10 meters, and as you can imagine the pace was extremely slow but made for some fantastic photo opportunities. The next bit of road (Omeo – Tallangatta) made me fall in love with Victoria, by far the best windy road I have ever been on. For those that don’t know it, it starts of quite tight with no room for error as the slightest over/understeer will see you hit a cliff face or go into the oncoming lane. The road snakes along a river and definitely provided the most fun I’ve ever had whilst driving, well worth traversing the ~20km of unsealed sections along the way.
The last twisty section of Khancoban – Jindabyne provided the icing on the cake to the day, it was fast flowing with no traffic and a very enjoyable hill climb regardless of the constant rain.
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&s...894653&t=h&z=8
Sunday consisted of getting to the coast, via a partly sealed road and a fantastic twisty road through a forest between Bombala & Pambula. After that the rest of the day was marred by traffic and was a massive let down on the day before.
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&s...e=UTF8&t=h&z=7

Each of the cars/drivers had their own weak points, R32 Driver saying “These tyres are ****”, GTI driver “My inside front keeps spinning” me “I’m scared of heights” so we were all evened up in one way or another and kept together for the whole day. The R36 was definitely the car of the weekend, however if the R32 had the PS2’s or if the GTI was AWD it would have been a different story. Trips like this, especially with all the wet weather conditions re-affirm my decision to buy the R36 and spending big $$ to buy the best tyres. The car was faultless all weekend and there was no difference in wet vs dry grip levels. I’m definitely looking forward to my next adventure and Snowies again 12 months from now 
Some pics: http://pics.doncro.dyndns.org/pics/e...nowies%202009/

[apom]

Sounds like an awesome trip Cro! Would be great to get a new Golf R20 along when they come out!!


As an FYI the Pics page seems to not work when you click on the thumbnails... lking forward to checking out some of the images!

[Cro]

The GTI driver is playing with the R20 idea, so who knows what will happen next year

Here are the basic non thumbnails pics:
http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events...02009/Resized/

[nivek]

Trips like this, especially with all the wet weather conditions re-affirm my decision to buy the R36 and spending big $$ to buy the best tyres.

I wonder how the Michelin PS2s compare to the Conti Contactsport 3 fitted to the MY10. I hear the Conti's are better than the Dunlops...

[Cro]

The Conti's are much better than the Dunlops, to be honest there probably aren't many performance tyres that are worse.
The driver in the GTI had PS2's, then went to Conti SC3's when Michelin had stock shortages and is now back to PS2's.

I believe his words were to the effect of "you forget just how much a great set of tyres compares to a good set. They give you that confidence to push further and further every time, whilst the Conti's dont".

[jausho]

R32 Driver saying “These tyres are ****”

Great story! Sounds like an awesome drive... I'm actually quite surprised the R32 driver said that though! I've had the Eagle F1 Assym's on my R32 for 5K km now and just came back from a trip that incorporated the Great Ocean Rd & a lot of the Otways... I think they're brilliant - very neutral & progressive with their breakaway from grip (when you eventually get to that point), consistently high levels of grip on wet surfaces and pretty quiet. Turn in isn't as crisp as when I had the RE050A's however...

Maybe your mate got a dud set from China (some sizes/load ratings come from there) or hasn't found the sweet spot for his tyre pressures?

[gead]

tyres are so subjective, but fwiw, the results from the 09 motor mag tyre test, (all tyres tested on the s4, so a very similar setup to the r36)

Here are the results. Go buy the mag if you want detail.

Road Tyres
1. Goodyear Eagle F1
2. Dunlop SP SportMaxx GT
3. Continental SportContact 3
4. Maxxis Victra i-Pro
5. Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalin RE001
6. Federal Supersteel 595
7. Marshal Matrac FX

Semi Slicks
1. Dunlop Direzza
2. Bridgestone Potenza RE01R
3. Toyo Rpoxes R888
4. Toyo Proxes R1R

not doubting cro's experience, but i have found the dunlops more than adequate when pushing on...

[Cro]

Maybe your mate got a dud set from China (some sizes/load ratings come from there) or hasn't found the sweet spot for his tyre pressures?

Not at all, His are made in Germany as were my Goodyear Assy's that we both bought (different batches) when Michelin had stock shortages. The goodyears are definitely a good tyre, a massive improvement on the dunlop's and many other competitors.

The reasoning behind him labelling the tyres **** is the same reason why I have my half life goodyear Assys sitting in the shed. We have previously had the PS2's, and comparitively the goodyears have no where near the wet/dry mechanical grip that the PS2's offer. I haven't yet found the grip limits of the PS2's whilst it didn't take me (or my friend) very long to find the limits in the goodyears.

Gead, your just not pushing hard enough

[gead]

must be that public road thing.....