ROC: Matt Cullen v the Fazz

[haggers]

Judging by the ROC website, Matt has beaten the Fazz on two of today's stages and is a head of him overall. See what a fat engine can do for you!!! The Fazz had strut problems on Day 1 so they may be cramping his style. No doubt we'll get the full story in due course.

Well done Matt :clap::clap:

Haggers

[ae86trueno]

Mathew's Excel = spent :clap:

He threw everything at this mornings stages and pulled it off,
But, we now need to fix front Uni joints (truly fuxked, backed of the last 2 stages so we could finish), needs a new steering rack, and the suspension needs a service :D

but is was worth it, we were the 3rd quickest 2WD car on this mornings first stage !!!
more tomorrow.

edit : FAT engine FTW !!!!

Ben.

[haggers]

Mathew's Excel = spent :clap:

He threw everything at this mornings stages and pulled it off,
But, we now need to fix front Uni joints (truly fuxked, backed of the last 2 stages so we could finish), needs a new steering rack, and the suspension needs a service :D

but is was worth it, we were the 3rd quickest 2WD car on this mornings first stage !!!
more tomorrow.

Ben.

Sh*t hot!!! Now you can get the tee shirt that says (with some liberties taken with logic but who cares!!):

" I beat the Fazz who beat Ed... therefore I beat Ed too !!!"

Haggers

[Glenn]

Yep. Matt and Ben had a great drive on Sunday....beating us fair and square. Top Job! We were definitely trying on Sunday, so it bodes well for the Series for the rest of the year


On Saturday morning we dropped about 3 minutes due to a rear upright failure (fatigue) and from that point onwards just getting to the finish was a bonus for us. We had two instances of the car not starting on Sunday (just to wrack the nerves a bit more) where we had to push the car into and out of the regroup...and we only just found the cause before using up our service time The initial failure seemed to be the MAP sensor and the second was a vapour lock....only seems to happen on that engine (the original one)

It's funny, the car felt absolutely fantastic on SS1 on Saturday morning and then it all turned bad rather quickly.

I'll post a proper event report when I get a chance.

[haggers]

Yep. Matt and Ben had a great drive on Sunday....beating us fair and square. Top Job! We were definitely trying on Sunday, so it bodes well for the Series for the rest of the year


On Saturday morning we dropped about 3 minutes due to a rear upright failure (fatigue) and from that point onwards just getting to the finish was a bonus for us. We had two instances of the car not starting on Sunday (just to wrack the nerves a bit more) where we had to push the car into and out of the regroup...and we only just found the cause before using up our service time The initial failure seemed to be the MAP sensor and the second was a vapour lock....only seems to happen on that engine (the original one)

It's funny, the car felt absolutely fantastic on SS1 on Saturday morning and then it all turned bad rather quickly.

I'll post a proper event report when I get a chance.



Matt had the look in his eye on the Monday before at the car club meeting. What a drive. All 4 Excels finished despite Canberra doing its worst. Some really impressive stuff. Any in-car, anyone?????

Haggers

[Damo666]

Short report from car 80 in the little white Excel -

Not counting a quick few stages blat at the Meander last year, this was the first time that Chris & I had been back in a rallycar for about 7 years. Adding that we were in a new, pretty much unkown car, and that it is one of those nasty FWD things, we were both very nervous before the start on Saturday morning. Many trips were made to the portaloo.

Things were going along fine in stage 1 until we got to the speccie point and got a bit......lost. Whilst trying to turn around from pointing the wrong way I drove the car though a BIG gutter out in the rough, instantly the shifter locked up and I thought I'd busted the gearbox. It turns out that one of the shifter cables siezed itself solid, and it could only be forced into random gears with extreme force. Generally we could only get 1st, 3rd or 5th, which made tigher corners interesting. I wasnt so keen to continue on at the next service, but Chris told me to toughen up and we continued on for the rest of the day like that.

We were one of the few crews that were just running on the roadbook, and in hindsight (after that incident at the speccie point), taking a day off work and doing recce would have been good idea!!
A bit of time was definitley lost slowing for crests or corners where I wasnt sure what was on the other side. Absolutley no problems with the roadbook itself though, so congrats to whoever put it together.

After the sixth 30 min transport between the service park & Kowen we were well and truly over it. Frankly I was hot, sweaty, tired and over rocky bumpy roads.....that was until we began the short blat down the last bit of Pipeline. Fantastic stage!! I loved the long sweeping corners one after each other, and this definitley turned my mood around stright away and had us looking foward to Sunday.

Sunday was much the same, shifter cables replaced (thanks Fro!) and our single set of tyres were looking pretty ordinary, but it was a good day. I loved the Greenhills stages again.
It was great to recieve the trophy for first Novice crew, but in reality we were pretty much spanked by Matt C & the Fazz in identical cars. I was trying to use Matt as a bit of a benchmark throughout the event, and whilst we did manage to beat Matt by 1 sec on two stages, we were absolutley smashed on others. Fantastic drive, well done Matt.
Either way, it was great to be near the other Excel guys and be able to talk crap between stages - indeed, all of the other teams down our end of the field were great to be around, friendly and chatty, which made for a good event.

Finally, massive thanks to;
Glenn & Anna for the offer to share thier service crew on Saturday.
Fro for helping diagnose and fix the shifter problem (I believe he was on hand for plenty of other crews too, top work!).
Matt Dyne for sitting around and waiting for us all day Sunday and servicing.
All the officials for standing around for us out in the bush - I know Stuart & Linda's team did three runs through their stage on Saturday, and were then back out at 3am setting up for Sunday. Fantastic effort.

[ae86trueno]

I was trying to use Matt as a bit of a benchmark throughout the event, and whilst we did manage to beat Matt by 1 sec on two stages, we were absolutley smashed on others. Fantastic drive, well done Matt.



Actually Damo, Mathews speed was all your fault,
I was hiding his results up until SS5, because i just wanted him to get through the first lot of stages and find his rhythm, as its been 6 months since he had driven. Once i told him you beat him by 1 second on SS3, he was fired up and driving faster :D

Ben.

[haggers]

Short report from car 80 in the little white Excel -

Not counting a quick few stages blat at the Meander last year, this was the first time that Chris & I had been back in a rallycar for about 7 years. Adding that we were in a new, pretty much unkown car, and that it is one of those nasty FWD things, we were both very nervous before the start on Saturday morning. Many trips were made to the portaloo.

Things were going along fine in stage 1 until we got to the speccie point and got a bit......lost. Whilst trying to turn around from pointing the wrong way I drove the car though a BIG gutter out in the rough, instantly the shifter locked up and I thought I'd busted the gearbox. It turns out that one of the shifter cables siezed itself solid, and it could only be forced into random gears with extreme force. Generally we could only get 1st, 3rd or 5th, which made tigher corners interesting. I wasnt so keen to continue on at the next service, but Chris told me to toughen up and we continued on for the rest of the day like that.

We were one of the few crews that were just running on the roadbook, and in hindsight (after that incident at the speccie point), taking a day off work and doing recce would have been good idea!!
A bit of time was definitley lost slowing for crests or corners where I wasnt sure what was on the other side. Absolutley no problems with the roadbook itself though, so congrats to whoever put it together.

After the sixth 30 min transport between the service park & Kowen we were well and truly over it. Frankly I was hot, sweaty, tired and over rocky bumpy roads.....that was until we began the short blat down the last bit of Pipeline. Fantastic stage!! I loved the long sweeping corners one after each other, and this definitley turned my mood around stright away and had us looking foward to Sunday.

Sunday was much the same, shifter cables replaced (thanks Fro!) and our single set of tyres were looking pretty ordinary, but it was a good day. I loved the Greenhills stages again.
It was great to recieve the trophy for first Novice crew, but in reality we were pretty much spanked by Matt C & the Fazz in identical cars. I was trying to use Matt as a bit of a benchmark throughout the event, and whilst we did manage to beat Matt by 1 sec on two stages, we were absolutley smashed on others. Fantastic drive, well done Matt.
Either way, it was great to be near the other Excel guys and be able to talk crap between stages - indeed, all of the other teams down our end of the field were great to be around, friendly and chatty, which made for a good event.

Finally, massive thanks to;
Glenn & Anna for the offer to share thier service crew on Saturday.
Fro for helping diagnose and fix the shifter problem (I believe he was on hand for plenty of other crews too, top work!).
Matt Dyne for sitting around and waiting for us all day Sunday and servicing.
All the officials for standing around for us out in the bush - I know Stuart & Linda's team did three runs through their stage on Saturday, and were then back out at 3am setting up for Sunday. Fantastic effort.

Well done Damo.:clap: Geez - Bastards Inc really do their best to provide top grade service to competitors at Canberra !! It would have been a real bugger driving without 2nd - to finish without understeering off into those lovely culverts is an achievement. At least you got some nice fanging in to make it worthwhile.

Haggers

[Whitey]

:clap:Well done everyone on making it to the finish of undoubtedly one of the touchest events going. I think the Fazz may have had a bit in reserve on Sunday as he was consistently about the pace of Russ Dixon on Saturday.

Anyway it makes for a good load of pot stirring before Lithgow:potstir:....

Bring it on guys

[Glenn]

To be completely honest, I didn't have much in reserve on Sunday. Sure, I wasn't taking any risks (my position after the dramas on Saturday meant that there wasn't going to be much possible improvement in position) but I was happy with the pace as my normal "fast" pace, so Matt definitely was quicker on merit.

If he keeps up that pace, he'll be quite difficult to beat this year!

Also, Damo's times were pretty good too. He'll be in contention for Excel podiums this year too.

[wagonist]

Surprisingly, Matt didn't do that much damage to his car either (at least that needed immediate fixing) much to my relief:lmao:

Coming in on Sunday with a "knocking" noise under deceleration was a bit hard to diagnose, & having the car fall off the jack on Saturday was interesting (especially as it fell toward the towcar:()

Overall a good event, though it certainly didn't feel like a ROC:confused:

[ae86trueno]

If he keeps up that pace, he'll be quite difficult to beat this year!

Also, Damo's times were pretty good too. He'll be in contention for Excel podiums this year too.

I think that statement is, if i can keep the car held together for the season Mathew will be fast :)

The scary thing is our second run through the 30K stage on sunday was about 10-15 seconds slower then what it could have been, as i told him to back it off after he bounced off the concrete barrier in the spectator complex. :wtf:

Ben.

[Glenn]

:eek: That would have been an excellent time! I reckon that for us to do that sort of time (about 25-30 sec faster (1sec/km) than what we did) we would have had to be in "crash or win" mode.....oh, and had decent tyres on it too.

Based on that I reckon you guys should start first Excel at Lithgow :D

[ae86trueno]

Can i scare everyone just a little bit more,

Mathew doesnt left foot brake !!! :)

[AnnaR]

Excellent drive Cullens!! :clap:

So what was the final dyno figure on that engine??!

and had decent tyres on it too
You mean those 4 year old second handies weren't good enough - what a tyre snob you are Fazza!! ;)

[ae86trueno]

So what was the final dyno figure on that engine??!




50 FWKW :hyper:

[AnnaR]

50 FWKW :hyper:
Greased Lightning :D

[haggers]

Can i scare everyone just a little bit more,

Mathew doesnt left foot brake !!! :)

I was aware of that from the Oran Park training day but wasn't game to mention it. Ben - how long is your leash on this wild man??? :potstir:

Haggers

[Kirrilee]

Good work to the Cullens :clap:

I was in Kowen on the sunday at the jump WOW I didn't think an excel could get that much air!
I didn't like that thump on the landing.... I hope that sump guard is ok :)

[ae86trueno]

Good work to the Cullens :clap:

I was in Kowen on the sunday at the jump WOW I didn't think an excel could get that much air!
I didn't like that thump on the landing.... I hope that sump guard is ok :)

Thanks Kirrilee, the eternal answer is yes the sump is fine,

But...

the mounts that hold the front if it to the car, thats another story,
off to the panel beaters tomorrow to see if they can pull the front end back into shape :(

[haggers]

Thanks Kirrilee, the eternal answer is yes the sump is fine,

But...

the mounts that hold the front if it to the car, thats another story,
off to the panel beaters tomorrow to see if they can pull the front end back into shape :(

Ben - do you have in car? Are there any external pics of of Matt's aeronautical exploits (has he been getting tuition from Justin????)

Will you be able to front up at Oran park?
Haggers

[Kirrilee]

Thanks Kirrilee, the eternal answer is yes the sump is fine,

But...

the mounts that hold the front if it to the car, thats another story,
off to the panel beaters tomorrow to see if they can pull the front end back into shape :(

That explains that indicator that was hanging out.
Regardless you guys put on the best show!! :clap:

[fro]

the mounts that hold the front if it to the car, thats another story,
off to the panel beaters tomorrow to see if they can pull the front end back into shape :(

I did try to warn you boys!

As Kirrilee said though, top effort.

[MattSearle]

Are there any external pics of of Matt's aeronautical exploits...

I can confirm two things...

1. The Kowan Settlement jump was spectacular!!

2. There are no external photos.