Targa Tasmania 2002
The Brennan's Targa Tasmania 2002 Challenge
The Brennan Family/Primelife Targa Tasmania Rally Team Daily Diary. By Len Brennan, driver, and Garry Brennan, (son) navigator.
Hi folks. Day 1 Friday April 12
Well we made it!!!!
Here we are on Brambles shipping line crossing Bass Straight to Tasmania after having been invited to have dinner with the captain. I must say we are very lucky to be here. We had some anxious moments at the signage factory, almost causing us to miss our ship. Apparently his wife had just had a baby and came home from hospital last night, and I think the poor chap had neglected his business commitments, as you could probably understand.
When I tried to ring him this morning (Friday 12) found all his phones had been disconnected. I had his card but it didn't list a mobile number, so I had no way of contacting him to arrange a meeting time to fit the vehicle signage to it. Originally, I was to be there at 8.30am. This was then changed to 11.30 late yesterday. Then last night as we were frantically loading everything bar the kitchen sink. He then said he would let me know, but didn't.
He eventually contacted me late Saturday morning and said he wouldn't be ready till 1.30pm. That left us 1.5 hours to fit all the signage to the car. At 2.20 we advised the signer that we really had to be going to make the ships deadline. Eventually at 2.30, we left for the ship. Garry had left at 2.15 to ensure that all the promotional merchandise was picked up at Primelife city office before proceeding to the ship, as to ensure that the service vehicle arrived at the shipping terminal on time.
So I set off to Brambles terminal and to get my first Targa practice by travelling from corner of princess highway and Clayton rd to Web Dock in 28 minutes. I don't know how many speed cameras there are on the eastern freeway but I am sure the RTA can supply me with good promotional photos.
Having rarely driven through the tunnel, I was unaware that it was an 80-km speed zone as I was totally engrossed in finding clear lanes through the traffic. But after a frantic dash on the freeway I did make it to the docks on time for loading. We met the film crew and took some footage of the vehicle and the family before loading. Then thankfully we departed relaxed, in a heap, off to Tasmania.
Hi Folks, Day 2 Saturday April 13
We arrived in Tasmania after a very pleasant trip, curtesy of Brambles Shipping. It was a little rocky in places but not too bad. We arrived at Burnie at around 7.00am and unloaded the vehicles. We checked over the vehicles and then off to Launceston to where the Spirit of Tasmania had just docked.
We arrived just as the other competitors we about to start unloading. There were people everywhere waiting to see the vehicles drive up the designated streets to receive their welcoming package, which consisted of some food stuffs and drinks etc, which was nice.
We then joined in a long stream of Targa Vehicles on the road to Launceston. It was very exciting to see the cars and talk to some of the competitors. We drove up to the Casino to check on some paperwork, then left the race-car in the car park. We then headed off to our accommodation to check in and unload our baggage. We wanted to get rid of all our spare parts out of the ute to cut down the load.
, Our spare parts list consisted of the complete running gear for the race-car, every removable part below the floor, like two gearboxes, diffs, all four suspensions, etc. Garry contacted one of his local Mercedes-Benz dealers who were happy to store our gear which we were very appreciative of. We unloaded our gear and pumped our fuel into 20 litre drums so we could distribute the fuel at pre-determined places.
We then headed back to the casino to pick up the car and return to our accommodation where we fitted the balance of the stickers, and that was about our day, apart from a trip to the airport to pick up the balance of the service crew.
Hi Folks, Day 3 Sunday April 14
We had a bit of a late night last night going over some paperwork, checking rules, making sure we have all our paperwork ready for scrutiny. Today is going to be a pretty relaxed day just checking and cleaning. We had some concerns with the car that became evident last night when driving around. We found that after some time driving the car at normal road speeds, the car would jerk, miss and backfire under heavy acceleration. We thought the plugs may be fuelling up and causing the problem.
This was not a good sign, especially just before the event, as start time was rapidly approaching. We had changed the front brake pads to the new high performance Bendix Ultimate pads supplied by Bendix, but the brake pedal was a bit spongy, so we decided to bleed all the brakes again. The brakes then came up perfect, so now we had to tackle our engine problem.
We checked the electrical system for any faults just to be sure. We discussed if we should replace the distributor cap, but thought we should take one step at a time. We checked the spark plugs and found they were looking a bit ordinary. We jumped in the ute and headed down town to try and find an auto spares shop that may have been open on a Sunday. We eventually found one, got our bits and headed back.
It was nice to see that there were quite a few other Targa competitors doing some last minute preparations as well. We put the new set of plugs in and took the car for a run. It ran almost perfect and boy!!! did those new front pads make a huge difference to the stopping power!!!
By this time it was late in the day so spent what was left of the day cleaning and polishing the car for our appointment with scrutiny tomorrow.
Hi Folks Day 4 Monday 15
Preparation and Scrutiny day today, and we are not happy campers. The fantastic looking Primelife Decals that caused us so much grief and probably serious points loss, have started to peel off, wash water had caused them to de-laminate, then they blew off in the high winds from the test speeds. We decided to take the car to a local sign writer to see if he could fix the decals. He was able to fixed them really well, plus he added an extra signs for the bonnet, which read, "Youthful exuberance is no match for wisdom, experience, and maturity."
Scrutineering time had arrived, this is the next nervous time for all the competitors. We were booked in for 1.42 pm precisely for scrutineering, which had dually arrived. It took 3 hours to get through scrutineering. We were knocked back on our battery isolator switch, which did not kill the engine as required, it continued to feed off the alternator.
I guess we didn't feel too bad as approximately 100 other vehicles had the same problem. Then surprise-surprise, they knocked us back on the front and spoilers, then later the rear one also, which they deemed not appropriate for a Nissan.
They claimed the genuine rear spoiler on a Z never exceeded the width of the hatch lid and did not protrude over the rear quarter panel, we all know that's not right.
The real doozey was the headlight covers, which they apparently are not, they are really aerodynamic aids, ( at 300 km maybe). I didn't remove them because I ran them last time and there wasn't a problem as I have extra lights fitted.
The following morning I got a message to see the scrutineers again, they had a charge sheet written up for not removing them, to keep the pease I removed them and fitted the clear covers, exactly the same as my painted ones. They suddenly became head light protectors and that made them OK. Please explain????.
Why do some scrutineers think they are God, and can never be wrong, and what's more, don't care if they are. NOT HAPPY JAN.
This meant that, instead of being in the classic "limited modified" specification class that the car was initially approved to be in, we were now in the full modified class, which puts us up against the full on race cars.
Then we had to start the daunting task of filling in paperwork, signing documents, etc. We finally got everything done and then drove the car up to the Silverdome to go on display.
Hi Folks Day 5 Tuesday April 16
Prologue day at George Town. This is a one only stage through the streets of George Town. The idea is to sort out the competitors from the fastest to the slowest. This allows the organisers to send off the slowest cars first, which would be the older cars, leading up to the fastest modern cars, like Jim Richards, Peter Brock etc.
This allows the organisers to close the public roads for the shortest possible time so as to cause the least amount of hindrance to the local people. I can't believe how tolerant the locals are, almost every person stands by the roadside to wave and welcome us.
The stage itself is a 5 km drive through the streets of George Town, along the water front then back through the streets again. We did the stage in three minutes, forty-five seconds, which was pretty quick, not the quickest, because I left that for Jim Richards.
I would normally go flat chat through this stage to see how I stacked up against the opposition, but considering I have not driven the car in serious competition since the 2000 Targa. I thought it may be prudent to take it easy till I got in the grove again, after all there is nothing to be gained by being the quickest other than giving your ego a boost.
I have seen an awful lot of cars wrecked in the prologue, besides, maybe it will lull Jim Richards into a false sense of security, you know the old psychological warfare trick, we will sneak up on him when he least expects it, if only, I wish.
We did a computer check over the measured 10 km section on the return trip to the Silverdome and it was still spot on accurate.
Hi Folks. Day 6 Wednesday April 17
Well this is our first day of serious competition and our sprits are high. Everyone was nervous and waiting in anticipation for what we all hope is an exciting time racing around the roads of Tassie. Our hearts were a little down still after yesterdays scrutineering, with our class change but we are here to do a job and we need to focus on what we are here for, just need to go a bit harder I guess.
Trying a bit harder will be difficult, as I have not raced the car since Targa 2000, so I am feeling a bit green behind the wheel. It generally takes a days or more to really get in the groove, to get the feel of the car, to learn any new behavioural differences from its all reco-ed shocker units, new more powerful engine, new heaver front springs, new first time Bendix pads, new navigator, etc.
We will have a fairly big day ahead of us today, as we will do a round trip of 327km, from Launceston to Devonport and back. The racing stages are very windy with all sharp corners, narrow roads, and rough surfaces. Plus you have to be ready for crashed car just around each of these blind corners while travelling at high speeds as they could be completely blocking the road, and that is a pretty daunting thought.
If that wasn't hard enough, you have to contend with slower cars that you may catch up to during a race stage, and have to get passed at race speeds on these narrow twisting mountainous roads without loosing control, or time on the stage. Then you have to deal with cars that have broken down on the side of the road.
They start the first day off with fairly easy stages so that all the drivers, particularly the newcomers can get used to the roads and other competitors and I guess just get a feel for everything. Garry was pretty nervous on the first stage as he was not sure what to expect or how he was going to handle calling the road as we raced. This is a very daunting task for the first time for anyone who has never done this sort of thing before, I could hear Garry hypo-ventilating through the helmet com . We got through all our stages well and with good times in them all. The second stage we had to wait for some time as a car had gone off the road rolled a couple of times and then caught fire. No one was hurt thank goodness but it took a while to clear the road.
This must have scared a few drivers, because our times were better than most, in fact Peter Brock and Steven Richards did identical times of 2.17 in their new 300+ kw Monaro's with their special chips, Harrop brakes, and other goodies, compared to our 118 kw. Well would you believe we were just one second slower for the stage. That 's what makes you feel good and gives you the confidence to press on.
You do something good, then on the start of the next stage the intercom in Garry's helmet failed so I couldn't hear a word he was saying which made it very difficult for the rest of the day. On the next stage we were told that a car had rolled approximately 4 km into the stage and to be careful. We kept an eye out for the danger triangles from about 3.5 km, then as we came around a very sharp corner hard there was the car, on its wheels but looking very flat and partially blocking the road on the inside of the turn, right on line.
As the day went on we saw more and more vehicles crashing and breaking down. The attrition rate in this sort of event is extremely high. Even the most expensive, and best prepared vehicles often fail because of a $2.00 part that puts them out. Well we made it to the end of the day without a hiccup, the car was going really well and we were making excellent times.
After our first day of racing we found that we had actually moved up to 35th place outright, not bad ah!!. even though we had been put up into the fully modified class with cars up to 5 litres, that had an awful lot more power, speed. As you can imagine, we were very pleased with ourselves but also felt sorry for the people who didn't make the end of the day. We have a big night ahead of us checking the car and getting prepared for tomorrow.
Hi Folks Day 7 Thursday April 18
Today ended up being our blackest day so far. We headed off into our second day with great enthusiasm and high expectations. The car was going great. We were able to buy a new intercom unit. We were getting more comfortable with the routine and looking forward to a very good day. The weather was a little overcast but clearing, Garry was still a little nervous, as you could imagine, and I was a little apprehensive but quietly confidant. It is always a little a bit daunting to go off racing through the mountains first thing in the morning when the roads are wet and slippery and when you haven't even had time to collect your scattered wits!! The days are pretty full on!!
We had noticed on the last 2 corners of the first stage that the car surged and coughed a little. We had a look when we stopped but couldn't see anything and the car was still running fine, so we didn't worry about it. Well, 1.42 km into the Sideling stage the engine started to cough and splutter and lost power. It wouldn't run to its normal 7000 rpm, then gradually started to get slower and slower, till we came to a complete standstill in the middle of stage, it appears to be a fuel problem.
The car eventually started again and off we went. We only went 800 meters or so further and it started doing it again so we did our best to keep it running to try and get to the end of the stage. It took us 8.23 minutes to do a 7.07 minute run! NOT HAPPY JAN!!. I stopped at the first service station to find out what was going on. We pulled the fuel line off at the carburetors to check fuel flow and found that the feed line was partially blocked by a piece of rubber lining from the fuel line.
We quickly replaced that piece of fuel line content we had solved the problem, and we were off again. We arrived at the next stage Derby, assuming we had solved the problem because the car was going well again. This was a very tight uphill run . We started off and 200 meters up the road the car started to die again. The road was very narrow and only enough room for one car, let alone two, but we had to get it going again. At great risk, I climbed under the car while competitors passed by cm from my feet at 160 kph.
I removed the clear bowl filter that had no dirt in it, unscrewed the paper filter, it looked perfectly clean so I just blew backwards through the filter and refitted everything and away we went. Going like the clappers, pretty mad, as the fuel problem had stolen any chance of our Targa Trophy, and a potential podium finish.
It appeared to be right, then low and behold it happened again in the middle of the next stage. This time I removed the filter element altogether, it couldn't get any worse. But surprise, surprise, it gave us no more trouble for the rest of the day, and we continued to do quick times all day.
I figured tonight that the fuel problems were only waiting till tomorrow to start again, so we had to put a stop to it. I divided the fuel lines into two electric fuel pumps complete with there own separate filter each, this gave us two independent fuel systems with a switch between the two with there own line and filter each. Let me see it stop us now.
What I think the problem was, is there is still remains of the aviation fuel contamination in the tank, (the tank was flushed out but not removed after 2000 ), this consists of super fine copper granules in the fuel tank kept in suspension by the movement of racing. (the aviation fuel contamination was caused by a chemical that was many times its proper ratio in the fuel that dissolves the copper out of any brass fittings it passes through such as jets, fittings, etc, this produces a fine copper powder).or so I have been told. This is what I think is blocking up our paper filters although you can't see it, but hopefully that is all behind us now, as we are armed with a good supply of in line throw away filters.
Hi Folks Day 8 Friday April 19
Today was the Hobart to Hobart loop down south and back to Wrest Point Casino. This is a pretty full on day with some extreme stages which generally has a high carnage rate on the vehicles.
I feel there are two reasons for this, all the drivers that have not made a mistake so far are starting to feel over confident, and are yet to be caught out by Tasmania's tricky roads. Or they are starting to get fatigued, or their competition car is getting tired and does not handle as good as it did.
Navigators are another source of accident by not giving the right instructions, or getting the corners mixed up. The other problem is the roads that are on the south side of the mountain don't get any sunlight and grow a green moss on the road surface that is always slippery. It is even worse if there is a morning due or if the road has been wet and the overhanging trees keep it from drying out. When you come upon it you cant tell if it is wet or whether it is just a shaded spot.
Our day went without too much trouble, in the second stage our car jumped out of second gear, I immediately thought, here we go, now the gear box is going to fall apart. I didn't know whether I should start holding it in gear, or maybe I didn't put it right into gear properly.
We were plagued with large quantities of oil on the road surface which always scares the pants off me because you can't do anything about it, if you hit it you are instantly out of control and are only there for the ride, hoping for it to get traction again.
The Cygnet stage is always a troublesome stage for some reason or other, there is always carnage and this was no exception. We had a 20 minutes wait at the start because several cars had crashed off, and one had caught fire. We had no driving problems, but the car had developed a noise toward the end of the stage. At the end we discovered that the distributor body had vibrated loose in the block, we were able to tighten it and caused us no further concern
The Longley stage had a bad accident when a Triumph TR5 sports car hit a patch of oil and rolled into the trees destroying the car, I cant believe the occupants were not injured as the passenger side door was crushed right into the car. We hit the same oil and went into a high speed slide, but drifted right through it and out the other side and recovered, thank God. That is real living on the edge stuff.
We finished our day with the engine screaming for mercy again, we thought what could it be this time, we discovered that our harmonic balancer (crankshaft pulley) had started to disintegrate, with the pulley bolts machining there way through the timing gear cover. We were able to travel back to the Casino Park where we rebuilt the pulley and locktighted it back together, only to discover that the crankshaft boss on the pulley had cracked right along the keyway, Damn. Don't have another, so it has to go back on. Do it up nice and tight and hope the pressure holds it together. I will have to limit the revs to 6500 rpm tomorrow for sure. Regards Len & Garry.
Hi Folks Day 9 Saturday April 20
Today is the trip up from Hobart to Burnie through the centre of Tasmania, the first stage this morning was the Domain stage through the hospital grounds park with the road still damp, Its very rough with tricky sharp corners, but we mastered it OK.
The second stage was more of a worry, a 6 km stage with heavy fog with 30 metre visibility, that was a little scary, Ross was another street stage, then onto Simmons Plains circuit where we did several laps with one timed lap, We cleared that stage.
Cethana stage was the most challenging one at a length of 37.6 km it is considered to be the best long section of tarmac road in the world. A very winding road with crests and dips with a fast section at the plateau, an undulating run through many difficult corners, then a steep descent into the Forth Valley and a climb to the finish.
I loved this stage you can really get your teeth into it. It is what separates the men from the boys. The only problem we had was a bit of brakes fade, we could smell them cooking but hoped they would last till the end of stage and they did.. We did the 36.66 km in a pretty quick time.
It was straight after this stage that Garry decided we needed a drink of coke after that stage, but didn't allow for the shaking it just got. We had coke all over the car, our clothes, the console, books, dashboard etc. We still finished our day in good shape
We arrived in Burnie where we decided we should change our front brake pads after the severe cooking they got today. We also discovered that the extractor exhaust header was blowing its gasket with all the bolts coming loose because of the severe pounding the car has suffered. We had to pull off all the weber carbs with a torch, but still couldn't get at all the bolts, the engine would have to come out to make a job of it, and that wasn't going to happen in the dark.
The bad news is that when we removed the wheels we found the right hand front brake disc had cracked from all the six mounting bolts out onto the braking surface. I could feel the small shudder in the brake pedal at the end of the 36 km stage but didn't know what it was. We had no spare discs, they were all at home. I have never had this problem before so I didn't bring them.
The harmonic balancer was gradually shedding the rubber from its innards, I had reduced the maximum revs all day to preserve the pulley, but it was still suffering. I didn't know what to do about the disc, all I could do is try to avoid using the brakes all day on the big run home to Hobart. That would be difficult as most of the stages are high speed winding roads through the mountains.
So apart form a broken brake disc, collapsing balancer, blown manifold gasket, worn tyres, tired, hungry, and cold, we were prepared for the start of our last day tomorrow. I just hope my usual guardian angel is riding with me tomorrow.
Hi Folks Day 10 Sunday April 21
It was with great trepidation that we started our last day. The plan was to go as fast as we could without using the brakes or at least to a minimum so they didn't get hot again. Sunday, the final day of competition, dawned sunny, bright and clear. We had difficulty stopping the car for all the stages as the West Coast run was mostly open fast corners through the mountain forests. I found I had to use the brakes but kept it to just using occasional quick two second jabs to keep the disc cold.
We were surprised at the times we were able to maintain despite limiting the engine revs to 5500 rpm instead of the normal 6500, (sometimes 7000+rpm) so as to preserve the front harmonic balancer. We did really good times up to the longest stage of the whole event. This was the Mount Arrow smith stage, a 47.96 km run at high speeds through mountain roads and long downhill stages where we would expect to reach speeds close to 230 kph and this without brakes worried me.
I was unsure how to approach this stage as the long stages is where our car really shines. I love the fast, high speed, down hill runs. Not knowing how much heat the discs could stand without disintegrating, that would be a grave risk. As it turned out, we didn't need to make that decision after all, as word came back while we were waiting to start that the stage had been down graded to a touring stage due to a serious accident 29 km into the stage.
Phew!! What a relief!! It is an ill wind that doesn't blow someone some good. Although it was a very serious accident, it was not life threatening for the couple, who were also seniors. But this meant we didn't have to race this very fast stage without brakes. So with only 2 more short stages to go to the end of the event, we decided to go for broke, I knew our car held together to the end. This we did in a good time for the 8km stage.
The last stage of the Targa was New Norfolk. This stage was a through the town streets stage of only 2 km. We cleared this last stage well under our base time, this is a good way to finish such a challenging event.
YAHOO!!!!! YIPEE!!! AND YABBA DABBA DO. We made it to the end without any major disasters or injuries to our fantastic 260Z car or ourselves. It is an incredible achievement just to finish such an extreme motor sport event of this type. Our heart goes out to those who never made it to the finish, and/or lost there classic and collectable cars along the way, and there, but for the grace of god go I.
Many thanks to my guardian angel who has protected me once again.
A special ending
In Targa 2000 we crossed the finish line with a carrot dangling from a long stick out the front of the car to coax our tired horses across the finish line. This caused a huge amount of laughter and cheers from the crowd.
So with this event, we had to come up with something new and funny. As we were representing the senior's movement in this event, I decided that it should be something that would be more appropriate to our seniors.
I did the rounds of the hospitals, and with great tenacity and perseverance, refusing to take no for an answer, I was able to acquire a new intravenous drip bag (don't ask me how) which was duly taped to the outside top of the windscreen. The hose and tap ran down the centre of the screen, across the wiper blades to the drivers door and up my sleeve.
When we crossed the finish line, it again created great cheers and laughter with a lot of television and media coverage, it brought the house down. Even if you can't win, the next best thing is to ensure you leave a lasting impression
Garry and I would like to sincerely thank Primelife Corporation for their considerable support, along with all our other sponsors. It has been greatly appreciated and hope it has enabled me to further the seniors cause.
Cheers to all seniors. Check out our brand new (under construction)web site: www.seniorsclassiccars.com.au
Final results:
Our race-car was a 1976 260Z Datsun sports coupe with a 2.8 ltr motor, std 5 speed gear box, and a std 3.9 diff, running triple 45 mm Webers, extractors and cam, and is painted in the 1970 original Nissan factory works team colours.
Best Regards to all
Len and Garry Brennan.
The Brennan Family/Primelife Targa Tasmania Rally Team Daily Diary. By Len Brennan, driver, and Garry Brennan, (son) navigator.
Hi folks. Day 1 Friday April 12
Well we made it!!!!
Here we are on Brambles shipping line crossing Bass Straight to Tasmania after having been invited to have dinner with the captain. I must say we are very lucky to be here. We had some anxious moments at the signage factory, almost causing us to miss our ship. Apparently his wife had just had a baby and came home from hospital last night, and I think the poor chap had neglected his business commitments, as you could probably understand.
When I tried to ring him this morning (Friday 12) found all his phones had been disconnected. I had his card but it didn't list a mobile number, so I had no way of contacting him to arrange a meeting time to fit the vehicle signage to it. Originally, I was to be there at 8.30am. This was then changed to 11.30 late yesterday. Then last night as we were frantically loading everything bar the kitchen sink. He then said he would let me know, but didn't.
He eventually contacted me late Saturday morning and said he wouldn't be ready till 1.30pm. That left us 1.5 hours to fit all the signage to the car. At 2.20 we advised the signer that we really had to be going to make the ships deadline. Eventually at 2.30, we left for the ship. Garry had left at 2.15 to ensure that all the promotional merchandise was picked up at Primelife city office before proceeding to the ship, as to ensure that the service vehicle arrived at the shipping terminal on time.
So I set off to Brambles terminal and to get my first Targa practice by travelling from corner of princess highway and Clayton rd to Web Dock in 28 minutes. I don't know how many speed cameras there are on the eastern freeway but I am sure the RTA can supply me with good promotional photos.
Having rarely driven through the tunnel, I was unaware that it was an 80-km speed zone as I was totally engrossed in finding clear lanes through the traffic. But after a frantic dash on the freeway I did make it to the docks on time for loading. We met the film crew and took some footage of the vehicle and the family before loading. Then thankfully we departed relaxed, in a heap, off to Tasmania.
Hi Folks, Day 2 Saturday April 13
We arrived in Tasmania after a very pleasant trip, curtesy of Brambles Shipping. It was a little rocky in places but not too bad. We arrived at Burnie at around 7.00am and unloaded the vehicles. We checked over the vehicles and then off to Launceston to where the Spirit of Tasmania had just docked.
We arrived just as the other competitors we about to start unloading. There were people everywhere waiting to see the vehicles drive up the designated streets to receive their welcoming package, which consisted of some food stuffs and drinks etc, which was nice.
We then joined in a long stream of Targa Vehicles on the road to Launceston. It was very exciting to see the cars and talk to some of the competitors. We drove up to the Casino to check on some paperwork, then left the race-car in the car park. We then headed off to our accommodation to check in and unload our baggage. We wanted to get rid of all our spare parts out of the ute to cut down the load.
, Our spare parts list consisted of the complete running gear for the race-car, every removable part below the floor, like two gearboxes, diffs, all four suspensions, etc. Garry contacted one of his local Mercedes-Benz dealers who were happy to store our gear which we were very appreciative of. We unloaded our gear and pumped our fuel into 20 litre drums so we could distribute the fuel at pre-determined places.
We then headed back to the casino to pick up the car and return to our accommodation where we fitted the balance of the stickers, and that was about our day, apart from a trip to the airport to pick up the balance of the service crew.
Hi Folks, Day 3 Sunday April 14
We had a bit of a late night last night going over some paperwork, checking rules, making sure we have all our paperwork ready for scrutiny. Today is going to be a pretty relaxed day just checking and cleaning. We had some concerns with the car that became evident last night when driving around. We found that after some time driving the car at normal road speeds, the car would jerk, miss and backfire under heavy acceleration. We thought the plugs may be fuelling up and causing the problem.
This was not a good sign, especially just before the event, as start time was rapidly approaching. We had changed the front brake pads to the new high performance Bendix Ultimate pads supplied by Bendix, but the brake pedal was a bit spongy, so we decided to bleed all the brakes again. The brakes then came up perfect, so now we had to tackle our engine problem.
We checked the electrical system for any faults just to be sure. We discussed if we should replace the distributor cap, but thought we should take one step at a time. We checked the spark plugs and found they were looking a bit ordinary. We jumped in the ute and headed down town to try and find an auto spares shop that may have been open on a Sunday. We eventually found one, got our bits and headed back.
It was nice to see that there were quite a few other Targa competitors doing some last minute preparations as well. We put the new set of plugs in and took the car for a run. It ran almost perfect and boy!!! did those new front pads make a huge difference to the stopping power!!!
By this time it was late in the day so spent what was left of the day cleaning and polishing the car for our appointment with scrutiny tomorrow.
Hi Folks Day 4 Monday 15
Preparation and Scrutiny day today, and we are not happy campers. The fantastic looking Primelife Decals that caused us so much grief and probably serious points loss, have started to peel off, wash water had caused them to de-laminate, then they blew off in the high winds from the test speeds. We decided to take the car to a local sign writer to see if he could fix the decals. He was able to fixed them really well, plus he added an extra signs for the bonnet, which read, "Youthful exuberance is no match for wisdom, experience, and maturity."
Scrutineering time had arrived, this is the next nervous time for all the competitors. We were booked in for 1.42 pm precisely for scrutineering, which had dually arrived. It took 3 hours to get through scrutineering. We were knocked back on our battery isolator switch, which did not kill the engine as required, it continued to feed off the alternator.
I guess we didn't feel too bad as approximately 100 other vehicles had the same problem. Then surprise-surprise, they knocked us back on the front and spoilers, then later the rear one also, which they deemed not appropriate for a Nissan.
They claimed the genuine rear spoiler on a Z never exceeded the width of the hatch lid and did not protrude over the rear quarter panel, we all know that's not right.
The real doozey was the headlight covers, which they apparently are not, they are really aerodynamic aids, ( at 300 km maybe). I didn't remove them because I ran them last time and there wasn't a problem as I have extra lights fitted.
The following morning I got a message to see the scrutineers again, they had a charge sheet written up for not removing them, to keep the pease I removed them and fitted the clear covers, exactly the same as my painted ones. They suddenly became head light protectors and that made them OK. Please explain????.
Why do some scrutineers think they are God, and can never be wrong, and what's more, don't care if they are. NOT HAPPY JAN.
This meant that, instead of being in the classic "limited modified" specification class that the car was initially approved to be in, we were now in the full modified class, which puts us up against the full on race cars.
Then we had to start the daunting task of filling in paperwork, signing documents, etc. We finally got everything done and then drove the car up to the Silverdome to go on display.
Hi Folks Day 5 Tuesday April 16
Prologue day at George Town. This is a one only stage through the streets of George Town. The idea is to sort out the competitors from the fastest to the slowest. This allows the organisers to send off the slowest cars first, which would be the older cars, leading up to the fastest modern cars, like Jim Richards, Peter Brock etc.
This allows the organisers to close the public roads for the shortest possible time so as to cause the least amount of hindrance to the local people. I can't believe how tolerant the locals are, almost every person stands by the roadside to wave and welcome us.
The stage itself is a 5 km drive through the streets of George Town, along the water front then back through the streets again. We did the stage in three minutes, forty-five seconds, which was pretty quick, not the quickest, because I left that for Jim Richards.
I would normally go flat chat through this stage to see how I stacked up against the opposition, but considering I have not driven the car in serious competition since the 2000 Targa. I thought it may be prudent to take it easy till I got in the grove again, after all there is nothing to be gained by being the quickest other than giving your ego a boost.
I have seen an awful lot of cars wrecked in the prologue, besides, maybe it will lull Jim Richards into a false sense of security, you know the old psychological warfare trick, we will sneak up on him when he least expects it, if only, I wish.
We did a computer check over the measured 10 km section on the return trip to the Silverdome and it was still spot on accurate.
Hi Folks. Day 6 Wednesday April 17
Well this is our first day of serious competition and our sprits are high. Everyone was nervous and waiting in anticipation for what we all hope is an exciting time racing around the roads of Tassie. Our hearts were a little down still after yesterdays scrutineering, with our class change but we are here to do a job and we need to focus on what we are here for, just need to go a bit harder I guess.
Trying a bit harder will be difficult, as I have not raced the car since Targa 2000, so I am feeling a bit green behind the wheel. It generally takes a days or more to really get in the groove, to get the feel of the car, to learn any new behavioural differences from its all reco-ed shocker units, new more powerful engine, new heaver front springs, new first time Bendix pads, new navigator, etc.
We will have a fairly big day ahead of us today, as we will do a round trip of 327km, from Launceston to Devonport and back. The racing stages are very windy with all sharp corners, narrow roads, and rough surfaces. Plus you have to be ready for crashed car just around each of these blind corners while travelling at high speeds as they could be completely blocking the road, and that is a pretty daunting thought.
If that wasn't hard enough, you have to contend with slower cars that you may catch up to during a race stage, and have to get passed at race speeds on these narrow twisting mountainous roads without loosing control, or time on the stage. Then you have to deal with cars that have broken down on the side of the road.
They start the first day off with fairly easy stages so that all the drivers, particularly the newcomers can get used to the roads and other competitors and I guess just get a feel for everything. Garry was pretty nervous on the first stage as he was not sure what to expect or how he was going to handle calling the road as we raced. This is a very daunting task for the first time for anyone who has never done this sort of thing before, I could hear Garry hypo-ventilating through the helmet com . We got through all our stages well and with good times in them all. The second stage we had to wait for some time as a car had gone off the road rolled a couple of times and then caught fire. No one was hurt thank goodness but it took a while to clear the road.
This must have scared a few drivers, because our times were better than most, in fact Peter Brock and Steven Richards did identical times of 2.17 in their new 300+ kw Monaro's with their special chips, Harrop brakes, and other goodies, compared to our 118 kw. Well would you believe we were just one second slower for the stage. That 's what makes you feel good and gives you the confidence to press on.
You do something good, then on the start of the next stage the intercom in Garry's helmet failed so I couldn't hear a word he was saying which made it very difficult for the rest of the day. On the next stage we were told that a car had rolled approximately 4 km into the stage and to be careful. We kept an eye out for the danger triangles from about 3.5 km, then as we came around a very sharp corner hard there was the car, on its wheels but looking very flat and partially blocking the road on the inside of the turn, right on line.
As the day went on we saw more and more vehicles crashing and breaking down. The attrition rate in this sort of event is extremely high. Even the most expensive, and best prepared vehicles often fail because of a $2.00 part that puts them out. Well we made it to the end of the day without a hiccup, the car was going really well and we were making excellent times.
After our first day of racing we found that we had actually moved up to 35th place outright, not bad ah!!. even though we had been put up into the fully modified class with cars up to 5 litres, that had an awful lot more power, speed. As you can imagine, we were very pleased with ourselves but also felt sorry for the people who didn't make the end of the day. We have a big night ahead of us checking the car and getting prepared for tomorrow.
Hi Folks Day 7 Thursday April 18
Today ended up being our blackest day so far. We headed off into our second day with great enthusiasm and high expectations. The car was going great. We were able to buy a new intercom unit. We were getting more comfortable with the routine and looking forward to a very good day. The weather was a little overcast but clearing, Garry was still a little nervous, as you could imagine, and I was a little apprehensive but quietly confidant. It is always a little a bit daunting to go off racing through the mountains first thing in the morning when the roads are wet and slippery and when you haven't even had time to collect your scattered wits!! The days are pretty full on!!
We had noticed on the last 2 corners of the first stage that the car surged and coughed a little. We had a look when we stopped but couldn't see anything and the car was still running fine, so we didn't worry about it. Well, 1.42 km into the Sideling stage the engine started to cough and splutter and lost power. It wouldn't run to its normal 7000 rpm, then gradually started to get slower and slower, till we came to a complete standstill in the middle of stage, it appears to be a fuel problem.
The car eventually started again and off we went. We only went 800 meters or so further and it started doing it again so we did our best to keep it running to try and get to the end of the stage. It took us 8.23 minutes to do a 7.07 minute run! NOT HAPPY JAN!!. I stopped at the first service station to find out what was going on. We pulled the fuel line off at the carburetors to check fuel flow and found that the feed line was partially blocked by a piece of rubber lining from the fuel line.
We quickly replaced that piece of fuel line content we had solved the problem, and we were off again. We arrived at the next stage Derby, assuming we had solved the problem because the car was going well again. This was a very tight uphill run . We started off and 200 meters up the road the car started to die again. The road was very narrow and only enough room for one car, let alone two, but we had to get it going again. At great risk, I climbed under the car while competitors passed by cm from my feet at 160 kph.
I removed the clear bowl filter that had no dirt in it, unscrewed the paper filter, it looked perfectly clean so I just blew backwards through the filter and refitted everything and away we went. Going like the clappers, pretty mad, as the fuel problem had stolen any chance of our Targa Trophy, and a potential podium finish.
It appeared to be right, then low and behold it happened again in the middle of the next stage. This time I removed the filter element altogether, it couldn't get any worse. But surprise, surprise, it gave us no more trouble for the rest of the day, and we continued to do quick times all day.
I figured tonight that the fuel problems were only waiting till tomorrow to start again, so we had to put a stop to it. I divided the fuel lines into two electric fuel pumps complete with there own separate filter each, this gave us two independent fuel systems with a switch between the two with there own line and filter each. Let me see it stop us now.
What I think the problem was, is there is still remains of the aviation fuel contamination in the tank, (the tank was flushed out but not removed after 2000 ), this consists of super fine copper granules in the fuel tank kept in suspension by the movement of racing. (the aviation fuel contamination was caused by a chemical that was many times its proper ratio in the fuel that dissolves the copper out of any brass fittings it passes through such as jets, fittings, etc, this produces a fine copper powder).or so I have been told. This is what I think is blocking up our paper filters although you can't see it, but hopefully that is all behind us now, as we are armed with a good supply of in line throw away filters.
Hi Folks Day 8 Friday April 19
Today was the Hobart to Hobart loop down south and back to Wrest Point Casino. This is a pretty full on day with some extreme stages which generally has a high carnage rate on the vehicles.
I feel there are two reasons for this, all the drivers that have not made a mistake so far are starting to feel over confident, and are yet to be caught out by Tasmania's tricky roads. Or they are starting to get fatigued, or their competition car is getting tired and does not handle as good as it did.
Navigators are another source of accident by not giving the right instructions, or getting the corners mixed up. The other problem is the roads that are on the south side of the mountain don't get any sunlight and grow a green moss on the road surface that is always slippery. It is even worse if there is a morning due or if the road has been wet and the overhanging trees keep it from drying out. When you come upon it you cant tell if it is wet or whether it is just a shaded spot.
Our day went without too much trouble, in the second stage our car jumped out of second gear, I immediately thought, here we go, now the gear box is going to fall apart. I didn't know whether I should start holding it in gear, or maybe I didn't put it right into gear properly.
We were plagued with large quantities of oil on the road surface which always scares the pants off me because you can't do anything about it, if you hit it you are instantly out of control and are only there for the ride, hoping for it to get traction again.
The Cygnet stage is always a troublesome stage for some reason or other, there is always carnage and this was no exception. We had a 20 minutes wait at the start because several cars had crashed off, and one had caught fire. We had no driving problems, but the car had developed a noise toward the end of the stage. At the end we discovered that the distributor body had vibrated loose in the block, we were able to tighten it and caused us no further concern
The Longley stage had a bad accident when a Triumph TR5 sports car hit a patch of oil and rolled into the trees destroying the car, I cant believe the occupants were not injured as the passenger side door was crushed right into the car. We hit the same oil and went into a high speed slide, but drifted right through it and out the other side and recovered, thank God. That is real living on the edge stuff.
We finished our day with the engine screaming for mercy again, we thought what could it be this time, we discovered that our harmonic balancer (crankshaft pulley) had started to disintegrate, with the pulley bolts machining there way through the timing gear cover. We were able to travel back to the Casino Park where we rebuilt the pulley and locktighted it back together, only to discover that the crankshaft boss on the pulley had cracked right along the keyway, Damn. Don't have another, so it has to go back on. Do it up nice and tight and hope the pressure holds it together. I will have to limit the revs to 6500 rpm tomorrow for sure. Regards Len & Garry.
Hi Folks Day 9 Saturday April 20
Today is the trip up from Hobart to Burnie through the centre of Tasmania, the first stage this morning was the Domain stage through the hospital grounds park with the road still damp, Its very rough with tricky sharp corners, but we mastered it OK.
The second stage was more of a worry, a 6 km stage with heavy fog with 30 metre visibility, that was a little scary, Ross was another street stage, then onto Simmons Plains circuit where we did several laps with one timed lap, We cleared that stage.
Cethana stage was the most challenging one at a length of 37.6 km it is considered to be the best long section of tarmac road in the world. A very winding road with crests and dips with a fast section at the plateau, an undulating run through many difficult corners, then a steep descent into the Forth Valley and a climb to the finish.
I loved this stage you can really get your teeth into it. It is what separates the men from the boys. The only problem we had was a bit of brakes fade, we could smell them cooking but hoped they would last till the end of stage and they did.. We did the 36.66 km in a pretty quick time.
It was straight after this stage that Garry decided we needed a drink of coke after that stage, but didn't allow for the shaking it just got. We had coke all over the car, our clothes, the console, books, dashboard etc. We still finished our day in good shape
We arrived in Burnie where we decided we should change our front brake pads after the severe cooking they got today. We also discovered that the extractor exhaust header was blowing its gasket with all the bolts coming loose because of the severe pounding the car has suffered. We had to pull off all the weber carbs with a torch, but still couldn't get at all the bolts, the engine would have to come out to make a job of it, and that wasn't going to happen in the dark.
The bad news is that when we removed the wheels we found the right hand front brake disc had cracked from all the six mounting bolts out onto the braking surface. I could feel the small shudder in the brake pedal at the end of the 36 km stage but didn't know what it was. We had no spare discs, they were all at home. I have never had this problem before so I didn't bring them.
The harmonic balancer was gradually shedding the rubber from its innards, I had reduced the maximum revs all day to preserve the pulley, but it was still suffering. I didn't know what to do about the disc, all I could do is try to avoid using the brakes all day on the big run home to Hobart. That would be difficult as most of the stages are high speed winding roads through the mountains.
So apart form a broken brake disc, collapsing balancer, blown manifold gasket, worn tyres, tired, hungry, and cold, we were prepared for the start of our last day tomorrow. I just hope my usual guardian angel is riding with me tomorrow.
Hi Folks Day 10 Sunday April 21
It was with great trepidation that we started our last day. The plan was to go as fast as we could without using the brakes or at least to a minimum so they didn't get hot again. Sunday, the final day of competition, dawned sunny, bright and clear. We had difficulty stopping the car for all the stages as the West Coast run was mostly open fast corners through the mountain forests. I found I had to use the brakes but kept it to just using occasional quick two second jabs to keep the disc cold.
We were surprised at the times we were able to maintain despite limiting the engine revs to 5500 rpm instead of the normal 6500, (sometimes 7000+rpm) so as to preserve the front harmonic balancer. We did really good times up to the longest stage of the whole event. This was the Mount Arrow smith stage, a 47.96 km run at high speeds through mountain roads and long downhill stages where we would expect to reach speeds close to 230 kph and this without brakes worried me.
I was unsure how to approach this stage as the long stages is where our car really shines. I love the fast, high speed, down hill runs. Not knowing how much heat the discs could stand without disintegrating, that would be a grave risk. As it turned out, we didn't need to make that decision after all, as word came back while we were waiting to start that the stage had been down graded to a touring stage due to a serious accident 29 km into the stage.
Phew!! What a relief!! It is an ill wind that doesn't blow someone some good. Although it was a very serious accident, it was not life threatening for the couple, who were also seniors. But this meant we didn't have to race this very fast stage without brakes. So with only 2 more short stages to go to the end of the event, we decided to go for broke, I knew our car held together to the end. This we did in a good time for the 8km stage.
The last stage of the Targa was New Norfolk. This stage was a through the town streets stage of only 2 km. We cleared this last stage well under our base time, this is a good way to finish such a challenging event.
YAHOO!!!!! YIPEE!!! AND YABBA DABBA DO. We made it to the end without any major disasters or injuries to our fantastic 260Z car or ourselves. It is an incredible achievement just to finish such an extreme motor sport event of this type. Our heart goes out to those who never made it to the finish, and/or lost there classic and collectable cars along the way, and there, but for the grace of god go I.
Many thanks to my guardian angel who has protected me once again.
A special ending
In Targa 2000 we crossed the finish line with a carrot dangling from a long stick out the front of the car to coax our tired horses across the finish line. This caused a huge amount of laughter and cheers from the crowd.
So with this event, we had to come up with something new and funny. As we were representing the senior's movement in this event, I decided that it should be something that would be more appropriate to our seniors.
I did the rounds of the hospitals, and with great tenacity and perseverance, refusing to take no for an answer, I was able to acquire a new intravenous drip bag (don't ask me how) which was duly taped to the outside top of the windscreen. The hose and tap ran down the centre of the screen, across the wiper blades to the drivers door and up my sleeve.
When we crossed the finish line, it again created great cheers and laughter with a lot of television and media coverage, it brought the house down. Even if you can't win, the next best thing is to ensure you leave a lasting impression
Garry and I would like to sincerely thank Primelife Corporation for their considerable support, along with all our other sponsors. It has been greatly appreciated and hope it has enabled me to further the seniors cause.
Cheers to all seniors. Check out our brand new (under construction)web site: www.seniorsclassiccars.com.au
Final results:
- 51 position overall from 280 cars.
- 3 rd in the fully modified class.
- Got as high as 35 th outright at the start of day 2.
Our race-car was a 1976 260Z Datsun sports coupe with a 2.8 ltr motor, std 5 speed gear box, and a std 3.9 diff, running triple 45 mm Webers, extractors and cam, and is painted in the 1970 original Nissan factory works team colours.
Best Regards to all
Len and Garry Brennan.
Last modified:
12 August 2009
12 August 2009