NSW Dutton Rally 2008

[jamesatfish]

Just got back from the NSW Dutton Rally, and I thought I'd share some results as I'm pretty pleased with how the little Polo went.

Out of a field of about 62 cars the Polo was pretty much the cheapest car competing - with the dearest being a very heavily modified 996 GT2 with a price tag well north of a half-million. The Dutton people have some strange class splits so we ended up in a class which included Lotus Exige and Elise sports cars. With that in mind we did well to end up 2nd in our class behind the Exige and take out 5th Overall (Handicap Adjusted).

Of more interest to the forum are some of the outright event results:

900m Sprint at Goulburn Airport First Run (full results)

1. 996 GT2 - 19.14 sec
2. Evo 8 - 20.35
7. 2003 HSV Clubsport - 21.8
8. 1994 Skyline GTR - 21.87
13. Lotus Two11 - 22.44
17. 997 GT3 - 22.65
26. Ferrari 360CS - 23.35
33. VW Polo GTI - 23.90**
36. MKV Golf GTI - 24.30
38. 986 Boxster S - 24.53
40. MKV Golf R32 - 25.12
54. Subaru Forester 31.15 (slowest)


Wakefield Park (Wet) (full results TBA)

1. Evo 9 - 1:06.54
2. Evo 9 - 1:07.3
9. Lotus Exige - 1:08.15
11. Ferrari 360CS - 1:08.66
13. 996 GT2 - 1:09.03
26. 986 Boxster S - 1:12.11
29. MKV Golf GTI - 1:12.73
30. 1994 Skyline GTR - 1:12.91
36. MKV Golf R32 - 1:13.75
42. 997 GT3 - 1:14.77
44. Polo GTI - 1:15.2**
83. Subaru Forester - 1:41.13 (slowest)

Some of the results are still being uploaded but you can see the full event list here.

Will post some pics once we get access to the official shots online.

[jamesatfish]

A couple of pics from the skidpan on Day 1.

[RhysQ]

wow over 900m only six tenths of a second behind the Ferrari Challenge Stradale... and only 1.3 secs behind a 997 GT3!!!

how the hell did you go that well.....did they not get any traction.

what mods have you got james?

you can really see the issues when it comes to Polo's and a track...

straight line = awesome
corners = not so awesome

[DaveMack]

Well done, James ... excellent results.

Dave

[jamesatfish]

wow over 900m only six tenths of a second behind the Ferrari Challenge Stradale... and only 1.3 secs behind a 997 GT3!!!

how the hell did you go that well.....did they not get any traction.

The cars were split into 4 groups on that first day, so I didn't get to see the 360CS or the 911s do their run to see what happened there. The runway surface is tarmac with lots of loose gravel, so perhaps traction was an issue for the more powerful cars in 2nd and 3rd gear whereas the Polo didn't have any real issues from about 20kph onwards.

It would have been interesting to see the Vmax of the bigger cars at the 900m mark - the Polo reached 179.9kph according to the PerformanceBox. I suspect 900m was the Polo's sweet spot - the bigger cars would have just been starting to stretch their legs but the Polo was hitting the limiter in 4th with not much acceleration left to offer. Any further and I'm sure the results would have been quite different.

what mods have you got james?

APR chip (v2), Bilstein PSS9s, 323mm Brembos, Rear sway bar, APR engine mounts & downpipe, SEAT intake & Kumho V70A R-Specs. The back seats & timber floor in the boot have been removed but we ran with 17" spare and full toolkit in place.

you can really see the issues when it comes to Polo's and a track...

straight line = awesome
corners = not so awesome

Sadly the weather wasn't on the Polo's side for the Wakefield sessions - I was hoping for low 1:13s but it was raining during the 2 timed laps where as luckier cars managed a few dry (or at least drier) runs.

That said, the big issue at Wakefield for the Polo is getting power down out of the tighter corners. Where the RWD and AWD cars just power away from the tight apexes, the Polo prefers to turn its expensive rubber into smoke rather than forward momentum. If we could get some more traction out of the final turn onto the straight I reckon we'd see an extra 15kph by the braking marker and at least another 1-2 sec off the lap times.

[Guy_H]

Excellent result James - good job!

Good to see a Polo in mixing it with them again

[Sharkie]

Great job James

A LSD will give you better traction out of the corners. Talk to Guy, he used to run 1 in his Polo.

[phaeton]

WOW congrats on the placings James

Do you mind if I save your images for my own archive of VW pics that I have ?

[jamesatfish]

WOW congrats on the placings James

Do you mind if I save your images for my own archive of VW pics that I have ?

Thanks all - it was great to fly the VW flag and come up with such a good outcome.

No problems saving the images - hopefully there will be some better 'action' shots to share in the near future, but in the mean time here are a few more:

[rennenhaus]

what a silly amount of fun!

need your email address james... have a few good photos for you





and my fav event:

Sutton Rd VMA Motorkhana 2 (full results here)

1. 2001 PORSCHE GT2 0:37.06
2, 2007 MITSUBISHI EVO 9 0:37.57
3. 2007 MITSUBISHI EVO 9 0:37.93
4. 2006 VOLKSWAGEN R32 0:38.10 (*cough* me *cough*)
5. 2006 MITSUBISHI EVO 9 0:38.31
6. 2001 MITSUBISHI EVO 6 0:38.48
7. 2006 MITSUBISHI EVO 9 0:38.51
8. 1994 SUZUKI SWIFT GTI 0:38.51
9. 2006 MITSUBISHI LANCER 0:39.82
10. 2008 PORSCHE 911 GT3 0:40.04
11. 2006 LOTUS EXIGE S 0:40.15
12, 2007 VOLKSWAGEN POLO 0:40.39

kudos to co-driver troy who kicked my arse at ALMOST everything....

we believe due to the early realization that it wasn't his car....