Just wondering how things went over Easter at Bathurst for the Sprintparts guys. Stories to tell?
Cheers
Paul Roberts
Western Australia
Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
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SPRINTPARTS
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
Well, what do you say, as this was the first time for both Philip and myself at this totally unique racing circuit. We have both driven around the "circuit" in road cars at 60KPH (it is a normal(?) road for all but 2 weekends a year), but in a race car at 200+KPH it is very different.
On Friday familiarisation, our only laps of the circuit was in heavy rain, which is not an ideal way to learn a new race circuit. The only problem for either car, was each time I touched the brake pedal the front wheels locked up, which made life interesting while trying to slow down for the descent of the mountain. For those that don't know about the Mount Pamorama circuit, (6.2km in length), apart from a VERY step climb to the top it has a VERY step descent, on relatively narrow road which makes Laguna Seca corkscrew look like a drive down the M1.
Saturday qualifying only lasted just over 1 lap before red flags stopped the session due to an RX7 parking on its roof in the sand trap at the LH bend in the Chase. Unfortunately the qualify session was cut short due to lost time from the red flag which saw us only do 3 laps which were all slow due to much faster traffic passing.
With a 55 car field, and both cars starting near the rear of the field around the corner on the bottom of Conrod Straight, it was extremely difficuilt to see the drop of the flag for race starts, so the trick was to watch as far forward as visibility allowed, and as soon as a car moved we started racing.
After a few "event problems" early in the weekend, the racing became very enjoyable on this extremely challenging circuit. Philips car ran well with no problems at all. For myself I was very tentative for the Friday and Saturday, due to a new motor which had only seen about 15 minutes of running, ie driving on and off the trailer plus leak tests. By the end of the weekend the motor was performing well. My problems saw a tailshaft CV boot explode the first time the car went over 170kph, a muffler that had a hole big enough to but your fist inside (hearing has finally recovered) and a possible brake master cylinder rebuild required.
Before Easter 2008, the last time my car competed at Bathurst was in the 1000KM race in 1981 with the previous owner. At that event the car qualified at a 2m51.7sec lap. During the racing on Sunday I acheived a 2m53.4sec lap, but in 1987 a "The Chase" was added to slow the cars on Conrod Straight which added about 7-8 seconds for the lap times of the day. These days the track surface is much improved since 1981, but overall we were happy with my times and I believe that there is some more seconds to be removed from the lap times, given more track time.
One of the most common questions I have been asked over the years, is "how fast does she go??" Well now I know. In racing, lap times are important not top speed. Due to the steep climb at Mount Panorama we had to compromise on gearing, so we we ran a 3.7 diff with 205/60x13 tyres, and we acheived 6000rpm in 4thO/D which equates to 215kph. The front running cars in catergory (Mazda RX7 and Ford Falcon V8) were lapping around 25 second a lap faster and seeing around 270-280kph!!!!!!!!
Hopefully we will have some photos on our web site in the next few days.
Mark
On Friday familiarisation, our only laps of the circuit was in heavy rain, which is not an ideal way to learn a new race circuit. The only problem for either car, was each time I touched the brake pedal the front wheels locked up, which made life interesting while trying to slow down for the descent of the mountain. For those that don't know about the Mount Pamorama circuit, (6.2km in length), apart from a VERY step climb to the top it has a VERY step descent, on relatively narrow road which makes Laguna Seca corkscrew look like a drive down the M1.
Saturday qualifying only lasted just over 1 lap before red flags stopped the session due to an RX7 parking on its roof in the sand trap at the LH bend in the Chase. Unfortunately the qualify session was cut short due to lost time from the red flag which saw us only do 3 laps which were all slow due to much faster traffic passing.
With a 55 car field, and both cars starting near the rear of the field around the corner on the bottom of Conrod Straight, it was extremely difficuilt to see the drop of the flag for race starts, so the trick was to watch as far forward as visibility allowed, and as soon as a car moved we started racing.
After a few "event problems" early in the weekend, the racing became very enjoyable on this extremely challenging circuit. Philips car ran well with no problems at all. For myself I was very tentative for the Friday and Saturday, due to a new motor which had only seen about 15 minutes of running, ie driving on and off the trailer plus leak tests. By the end of the weekend the motor was performing well. My problems saw a tailshaft CV boot explode the first time the car went over 170kph, a muffler that had a hole big enough to but your fist inside (hearing has finally recovered) and a possible brake master cylinder rebuild required.
Before Easter 2008, the last time my car competed at Bathurst was in the 1000KM race in 1981 with the previous owner. At that event the car qualified at a 2m51.7sec lap. During the racing on Sunday I acheived a 2m53.4sec lap, but in 1987 a "The Chase" was added to slow the cars on Conrod Straight which added about 7-8 seconds for the lap times of the day. These days the track surface is much improved since 1981, but overall we were happy with my times and I believe that there is some more seconds to be removed from the lap times, given more track time.
One of the most common questions I have been asked over the years, is "how fast does she go??" Well now I know. In racing, lap times are important not top speed. Due to the steep climb at Mount Panorama we had to compromise on gearing, so we we ran a 3.7 diff with 205/60x13 tyres, and we acheived 6000rpm in 4thO/D which equates to 215kph. The front running cars in catergory (Mazda RX7 and Ford Falcon V8) were lapping around 25 second a lap faster and seeing around 270-280kph!!!!!!!!
Hopefully we will have some photos on our web site in the next few days.
Mark
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SPRINTPARTS
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
My postcript-
I want to go back with a more suitable car, say an XKR, Porsche GT3, Lotus Exige or Ferrari 360 Challenge....... any donations??
Philip
I want to go back with a more suitable car, say an XKR, Porsche GT3, Lotus Exige or Ferrari 360 Challenge....... any donations??
Philip
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straylight
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
great to hear you had a good time and arrived back safely. I've only had the thrill of doing bathurst at the speed limit and it is an eyeopener at 60km/hr. Listening to a hot sprint engine whining out to 6k rpm up the hill would be fantastic.
trotting across to your website now.....pics ahoy ?
stu
trotting across to your website now.....pics ahoy ?
stu
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KWM338R
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
"You lucky lucky b'stard". 
Can't wait to see the pics.
Cheers
Mark
Can't wait to see the pics.
Cheers
Mark
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Keith CANSDALE
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
Mark, I was at Bathurst in 1977 with my new sprint. The competing sprints were unable to run their race motors and I never found out why. It seemed a tragedy, as the Australian car production companies did not embrace the ground breaking 4 valve technology for years to come. Any thoughts on this?
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SPRINTPARTS
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
Keith,
The team was in dispute with CAMS over the eligability of the homologated pistons and despite documentation from BL in the UK and the FIA CAMS would not accept the components and the team was ultimately withdrawn
Photos to folow soon
Philip
The team was in dispute with CAMS over the eligability of the homologated pistons and despite documentation from BL in the UK and the FIA CAMS would not accept the components and the team was ultimately withdrawn
Photos to folow soon
Philip
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SPRINTPARTS
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
Hi guys the following photos added as below-
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Keith CANSDALE
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
Phil and Mark, thank you for the information about 1977. Would you believe that the rumoured "official explanation for the withdrawal" that filtered through the crowd, was that the cars had been sabotaged by someone putting sugar in the petrol tanks overnight! Was there a comparison between your cars this year and those " banned "cars of 1977 as far as pistons, power and speed, were concerned?. Great pictures-thanks!
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SPRINTPARTS
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
Keith,
Dont know how our cars compare engine spec wise but would think they are similar, but we use less revs due to budget considerations. See Mark's original reply with respect to lap times from the early days to our times.
The areas where our cars are improved over the 1977 cars will be in brakes (ours are much bigger with 4 piston calipers), suspension and although we are racing on radials these are quicker than the old cross ply slicks on which we used to race and probably about 30kg lighter because we are allowed to remove passenger seats.
Philip
Dont know how our cars compare engine spec wise but would think they are similar, but we use less revs due to budget considerations. See Mark's original reply with respect to lap times from the early days to our times.
The areas where our cars are improved over the 1977 cars will be in brakes (ours are much bigger with 4 piston calipers), suspension and although we are racing on radials these are quicker than the old cross ply slicks on which we used to race and probably about 30kg lighter because we are allowed to remove passenger seats.
Philip
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straylight
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
fantastic Mark and Phil, thanks for putting up the pics. The cars coming down over skyline look magnificent. Great stuff.
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SPRINTPARTS
Re: Mark and Phillip Lamour - how was Bathurst?
Hi All,,
Thank you for the compliments regarding the photos. The credit for great images goes to my son, Christopher. I think we have a future professional photographer in the family.
Philip
Thank you for the compliments regarding the photos. The credit for great images goes to my son, Christopher. I think we have a future professional photographer in the family.
Philip