FTO not a race car.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 5:31 pm

A sorry tale to be told.
After spending Saturday lapping arround Willowbank, doing some good times ( 69 secs, for the sprint circuit ), I was all reved up for the second round of the Mt Cotton Hillclimb. For those not regularly on this site, I came second in my class at the first round. Come Sunday on my first run up the mountain the car was running well and felt great, then coming out of the first turn down the hill I planted it and lost the rear end. Most of the crowd were very surprised I did not roll it. I did manage to break the lower control arm, CV joint and bent a lot of suspension. For some photos go to the MG club site and check out the race results page. the 26th row down I believe.
http://www.mgccq.org.au/raceresults.htm
I had just put on a whiteline adjustable swaybar on the rear and adjusted up my rear konis to try to dial in some oversteer. It was great at willowbank, with the rear just tending to slide out. But obviously not as good for hillclimbs.
The morals of the story: If you love your car do not race it. Motorsport is dangerous. And don`t take your wife to any events.
I will continue to do sprints at Willowbank, but no more hillclimbs.
P.S. I do not know how Danny is going to handle all that power, and I am rethinking my turbo as well. ( ie T28 rather than 6A13 & GT30 )
Jeff

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 7:15 pm

Well for those who like to take on the track every now & then, i strongly suggest to import either another FTO or some other High performance car from Japan, cause u don't need to comply them (No mod restrictions what so ever) & they r dirt cheap 2.

$10k aus should able you to get a decent one, including FTO of course. But remember is for track only, not for road.

SilentBob · Post by **SilentBob** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 7:25 pm

oooo
not pretty, hope its not to costly to fix

but i dont really wanna see pics of a red fto off a track with dust around it....especially with the track day in 1 1/2 weeks

SilentBob

MADFTO · Post by **MADFTO** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:23 am

Why did you try to dial in some oversteer if I may ask???

People, if you do take your car out on the track, be careful and don't push it to the extreme limits if it's your daily. That extra little buffer/safety zone can save a lot of heartache =)

Sorry to hear about what happened Jeff =/

Kev: You also need to either buy a tandem trailer and a car that can tow, or hire tow trucks =)

Also, need to store the car somewhere, etc etc =)

Mind you, having a dedicated race car means you don't really have to worry about stuffing up your daily and going full tilt =) (or you could be insane and just run full tilt anyways esp with adrenaline =) )

Hmmm track day anyone? =)

MADFTO · Post by **MADFTO** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:28 am

Oh BTW, about the power handling thing =)

It's all about control and experience. You can any just about any car that has been setup to deal with the power (bigger brakes, suspension upgrades, tyre upgrades) you've just have adjust your driving to suit.

It's not the car that stuffs up, it's just follows orders from the person does in the driver's seat =) (Even if the person didn't mean it!)

(Running off corner 1 of sandown comes to mind here =) I'm just glad I took off enough speed to not hit the sand trap)

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 11:11 am

MADFTO wrote: Kev: You also need to either buy a tandem trailer and a car that can tow, or hire tow trucks =)

Also, need to store the car somewhere, etc etc =)

Ok people please read the DISCLAIMER before you read the following information.

The tricks to get a track car, & without spending a forture is to get the exact same same car u already got, so if u got a FTO then get another FTO. Now theres few way u can drive this "track" car to the track of the day without dramas & heres one example;

Use your current "road car" number plate & old rego stickers, as long as you carefull about it you shouldn't get pull over. Even if you do, cops don't check Vin or engines numbers, as they only check your rego, & in the system of RTA, Vicroad....etc, it clearly said you paid your rego & the car descriptions matches the car you are driving.

If they ask why u didn't put the new rego sticker on? All you have to say is "The new rego stickers fall off & got lost, & u are currently waiting for an other one sent through". Since you did something about the "lost sticker" the cop can't give u a fine for not putting the new rego sticker on.

scracy · Post by **scracy** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 5:53 pm

Or alternatively Kev you could go to the rta and get a replacement rego sticker (which are free) and tell them your old one broke when you replaced the windscreen

RallyMad · Post by **RallyMad** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 8:33 pm

ohh, sorry to hear about that Jeff. I think there is something that this discussion has missed so far. That being that Race tracks are designed with run offs and other safety measures in case of these sorts of problems, which hill climbs don't have for obviuous reasons. This isn't saying that accidents don't happen at race tracks but in my opinion they are less likely with more room to move.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 9:18 pm

Good point RallyMad, I`ve always felt safe at Willowbank, but the hillclimb is out for ever.
Great idea about a second car. I`ve never thought about this, but it might be a good option, pitty I`ve already spent a lot of money on this one upgrading brakes, suspension, and tyres,etc.
As to your question MadFTO, Being a Front wheel drive it suffers a lot from understeer, remember the last time you took a corner slightly to fast or in the wet. By stiffening the rear, you can create oversteer which negates the understeer. This certainly works, as said earlier the car was great arround Willowbank (fastest times ever), if I took a corner hard the rear just started to slide out a little. A weird feeling in a front wheel drive but great.
I`ll update the damage bill as I find out. I just put my baby on a towtruck to the mechanics today.
Jeff

Post by **smorison** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:33 pm

for a hill climb and other road events i've found a little bit of understeer is better than oversteer and easier to control....

btw guys i think the importation rules have changed now and you have to have a CAMS license to import a car for track use... but don't worry come July 1 you will be able to get your CAM's license through the FTO Club of Australia

Post by **smorison** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:36 pm

OUCH!

SilentBob · Post by **SilentBob** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:44 pm

ouch indeed

*vows there shall be no such images of any red fto's doing anything like that at wakefield*

SilentBob

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 11:46 am

Stephen,
Where did you get that picture of me trying out the off road capabilities of the FTO? ( I stuffed up ! )
Jeff

Post by **smorison** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:32 pm

Jeff wrote:Stephen,
Where did you get that picture of me trying out the off road capabilities of the FTO? ( I stuffed up ! )
Jeff

http://www.mgccq.org.au/hcapril04/oops2 ... _small.jpg

i clicked on the photographer link and found that

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 6:07 pm

Ouch that pic looks nasty!!! Gosh that makes me think twice what i'm going 2 do on track day.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 3:59 pm

Just an update on the FTO as a race car, it is almost fixed. Just waiting on a couple of parts from Japan. So much for Mits promising 3 weeks delivery from Japan.
On another note- I stated earlier I was doing great times arround Willowbank (69secs) which was very good on the day, but when I checked the points table I only earned 1 point.
See http://www.queensland-raceway.org.au/ go to sprints then click points table.
I was very dissapointed with this, until I saw how hard they award points. The FTO is in class A2 ( don`t know how they class) but I was racing against RX7`s, Integras, and a lot of other fast cars that have only managed 1 point per meeting. The car leading the class is a suped up Cooper-S.
I don`t feel too bad now.
Once the car is back to 100% I`ll be back attempting to get more than 1 point.
Jeff

ruchi · Post by **ruchi** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 3:54 pm

maybe the FTO is a race car?

Candellan · Post by **Candellan** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:35 pm

Good to hear the car's getting back on the track. A friend of mine rolled her KE30 Corolla on corner 1 @ about 130kph. Thankfully she had a cage in it, but it was a complete write-off.

If you're willing to try your luck on a tighter track again, I'm organising a series of days @ Darlington Park next year. Is 69secs your best time around QR's Sprint track? If so you'll be in equal company with the group I'm organising. We're all about 70-65sec. I've posted some details here - http://www.ftoaustralia.com/modules.php ... pic&t=3811.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 4:12 am

sooo true, i too raced my FTO and now i got my controller arm gone and a bit of the suspension

after my incident i too feel the same way, i just luv my fto too much to put it in risk like this again and learnt it the hard way.

SG · Post by SG » Sat Apr 09, 2005 3:23 pm

ahyou just need to find the limits of the car in a safer way... like autokhana where if you stuff up u hit cones.. all the joy of racing your fto and non of the set backs