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Well, we came, we saw, we rolled :(

The trip started off good, although being a different car there was a lot of learning to be had by both Paul and myself. The car was different. Pretty quick (it WAS a GTR!), but very very laggy. The point-and-shoot stages like the prologue really didn't suit the car, and in fact we weren't all that quick at all through the prologue, coming in somewhere around 25th or so. Tyres were a different choice (Kumho hard compound), and while they had heaps of grip, we were a little underwhelmed with them...

Day 1 was totally awesome, and we got a whole lot quicker as we learnt the car and got used to it. I was using different notes to what I was used to, and that combined with the much faster car gave me a few issues with the calls, which was really frustrating me. Still, I tried my best and things slowly fell into place...

Day 2 we had a bit of an issue on The Sideling, when there was a discrepancy with the time we were given. We had to fight for our time, and this went all the way till the end of Day 4 (we eventually won and got our time), which was a rather big pain and a burden I wish we didn't have to carry. Still, we slowly climbed the ladder, approaching podium position...

Day 3 we started having some issues with the car. We had a massive backfire at the beginning of one of the stages, and for the rest of the day the car sort of sounded a little strange, like turbo whistling or something. Tyres really suck in the wet.

Day 4 was a totally interesting one. Very wet, and yes, those Kumho hard compounds, are really bad in the wet weather. Fish tailing through Hellyer Gorge, I think we gave the spectators something to cheer about... The car started making some really strange rattling sounds too, rather disturbing. A 200km/h moment on Strahan reverse opened our eyes and made my hands numb... At service that evening, we discovered what might have been causing the turbo whistling noises - the bolts for the turbo manifold had worked loose, and in fact we'd even lost one of the two bolts! We also found the cause for the suspension rattle and fixed that, YAY!

Day 5! It started out wet (again), although it looked like it might finally clear up a tad. We were sitting in 4th place, and rapidly catching up with 3rd. We expected to be in 3rd by the end of the first stage of the day - Strahan. A massive 40 odd km stage, one of my favorites from the past.

About a kilometer into the stage, things turned bad. We had a few massive backfires, and on the last one, the whole dash lit up like a Christmas tree. ABS, 4WD, and a few others... what this effectively meant was the 4WD computer had malfunctioned, which meant we lost ABS, all drive to the front wheels, and the active limited slip diff in the back. Driving an effectively 1-wheel-drive 1800kg 400hp car in the wet with shitty tyres = FAIL.

Still, we pressed on. And then, close to the end of the stage (I forget the km reading), it all turned to shit. We hit a slippery fast left hand corner, and the tail end of the car stepped out. In a normal situation, with 4WD, or at least a rear LSD, we would have just driven through it easily. In fact, we'd gotten a whole lot more sideways more than a dozen times the day before, without even really blinking. But no, with no drive, the car just kept going sideways, and then *snap* it tank slapped the other way, and at about 140km/h, we hit a rock bank, and over we went. Rolled the left rear tyre off the wheel, flew about 20 meters, landed hard on my side of the car and bounced, flew a bit more and landed on Paul's side, bounced again and landed on it's wheels, before coming to a stop against the rock face. Glass everywhere, glass in my mouth. Checked that Paul was OK (he was waving the next car on), frantically searched for the OK sign which had jammed itself under my chair...

The rest of the day was pretty sad. Us standing in the rain for ages with the OK sign, watching all the cars get sideways and untidy on that corner and just about running for cover when a few of them looked like they were going to lose it and take us out. Loading the poor bent GTR onto the tow truck. Then the very very slow long ride back to Hobart in the bus with all the other non-finishers :(

Fortunately both Paul and I were okay. I had a sore arm, and a bruise across my shoulder and a stiff neck, Paul had a bit of a headache and was just generally sore everywhere.

All in all, it could have been a lot worse. But still, it could also have been a lot better. Oh well, I guess it happens :( Hopefully better luck next time :(

More photos in the photo album