Targa 2012 Begins

[Davidm1600]

There is more than just Colin and Ian in Alfas in the event.  Ogg is in a 1750GTV, a couple of guys from our club (Geoff Storr and Steve Caplice (my mechanic) are going well in Geoff's Alfetta GTV and some other Tassie guys came 4th in their GTV6 in the Rookie Rally. 

[len105]

You are completely correct David - David Ogg ( a Targa legend ) is going great guns & continuing to knock off more powerful cars in the category - but unfortunately your other mates Geoff Storr & Steve Caplice may have had a setback today .......

[Davidm1600]

Thanks Derek, yep I saw the comment on Targa live. A bugger for them, as Geoff's a solid driver, done heaps of Targas and his GTV was really well setup/presented. Hope the damage is not terminal.

[ChrisGTA]

Day 4 interviews (courtesy of Ben Sale), including David Ogg:

http://youtu.be/KI8ZJhPUgso

[alfagtv58]

OH NO, looks like Colin has some dramas with the car   

[Simon Bidese]

Phil - did you get anymore updates?  Looks like unfortunately the issue meant they slipped down the results ladder.....what a shame.  Do we know what happened?

[Neil Choi]

Colin mentioned he broke the throttle link by having too much open throttle!!!

Lost the podium finish, damn it.

[Neil Choi]

Ian Morris was second in the Late Classic class.

[Colin Byrne]

Hi guys
Well unfortunately we lost the podium finish,  everything looked good and then about 8k into the first stage of the morning the little pivot arm that is bolted to the inlet manifold snapped off and we lost throttle.  I was able to cable tie it up enough to get to the end of the stage but even with 40 mins of late time we couldn't come up with a good enough solution to keep us going for the rest of the morning and there was no way our crew could get to us so that was the end of that, we managed to fix it at the lunch brake and get to the finish line.
what an event though over 2000km of touring and over 600km of competition, biggest Aus. Tarmac rally ever, and it felt like it,  i'll save the full report for the mag but congrats to the GTV6 that made it 2nd in late classic and also congrats to the guys in the volvo that got second in early classic by 1 second, we had a good chat with that team during/after the event and they where top blokes who where wrapped to see a new classic car really going for it.

we still managed category and class wins and i guess all i can say now is, can't wait for the next one....

[aggie57]

Despite the late issues another great effort Colin.  Well done.   Looking forward to reading the full report👍

[Davidm1600]

Rotten luck Colin, still at least no damage to your car. Caught up with Blakey at the club meeting tonight. The off they had was pretty scary stuff. 140km into the trees, lucky they didn't roll or hit a telegraph pole. The Lancia is reparable but won't be cheap. Geoff Storr and Steve Caplice in the Alfetta hit a tree head on but again all are ok, and the car is fixable. Oh well there is always next year.

[len105]

Hey Colin
Still a great effort in being so close to the pointy end for much of the event ! A real test of man & machine - as they say !!
I was receiving the daily update from Ashley in the Volvo - and I know they were watching your progress very closely !
Well done to your dad in having a solid finish also......
Regards,
John L

[Simon Bidese]

Hi Colin, That really is rotten luck and regardless a TOP effort.  You have got the juices flowing again....its a box that i really wanna tick one day!!!!!!!!!

[Tastarga]

Gentlemen,

Colin's performance is not just a "top Effort", "Excellent" or even "outstanding". It is also "Astounding" - in fact, had I not witnessed it first hand, I would actually think it unbelievable!

There were 7 Alfa's entered in the Classic category of this years Targa tasmania, and the results in Classic Outright were as follows:

Ian Morris - 12th
Colin Byrne - 18th
Peter Heron - 32nd
Paul Byrne - 36th
David Ogg - 38th
John Keating - 50th
Geoff Storr - DNF

However, please note the following:

1. Ian Morris drives a GTV6 and is an A grade peddler with lots of experience - he has WON Targa Classic category outright previously in another GTV6.

2. An analysis of the individual stage results shows that, after ignoring the prologue stages and the stages where their times were equal or both clean sheeted the stage, there were 34 stages that they competed on.

Colin beat Ian's time on 28 of these stages - apart from Sheffield stage, all other stages won by Ian were after Colin had trouble with his throttle linkage!

3. My estimate is that the throttle linkage problem cost Colin between 15 and 16 minutes after it occured - if I am correct, he would have placed 9th outright in Classic Competition, ahead of a large number of Porsche's and all Ferrari's - an astounding result.

4. Colin has shared on the forum his car preparation skills and he has a very fast and great handling car - BUT I believe these results are equally a reflection of a seriously talented driver - I don't think many others could equal Colin's times, even driving his car. Perhaps he should seriously consider becoming a pro??

General comments:

1. My own performance was partly affected by a series of electrical gremlins that attacked my car - turned out to be a condensor, causing great misfiring in most stages for the first 4 days (you can hear it on the youtube video referred to by ChrisGTA above), although I was grateful for both Colin and Paul's effots to help diagnose the problem on my behalf.

HOWEVER, age appears to have wearied me (see my comments in this regard in the Targa NZ story), as I have absolutely no excuse for my 5th day performance, when my car was at least mainly running on 4 cylinders - yet the day 4 stages were some of my worst (relatively) of the event. Why? Ihave asked myself this question, and I can only conclude that after I regained 4 cylinders, I became complacent and "cruised" to the finish, as well as perhaps becoming tired/losing concentration - the latter may be the reason I was 2 minutes or so slower on the 59km Mount Arrowsmithh stage than  I would have expected!!

I had some close competition with Paul Byrne, and out of 34 relevant stages, I won 14, and Paul 20 - but his concentration must be better - the day 5 stages that he won were by a considerable margin!


2. Despite the better weight distribution and more balanced (as delivered) handling of the later transaxle cars, it is unclear whether these are actually consistently any quicker than the older 105 series cars - even if running larger V6 engines - interesting.

3. None of the Alfa's experienced any terminal mechanical failure - the 1 DNF was as a result of an accident.This is a very respectable result for highly tuned cars over this long an event.

4. When I get the in car video footage from my navigator, I will post the section showing Colin passing me on the Rossarden stage - I reckon he passes me going 80kph or so faster than I am going - looks very impressive!

[Colin Byrne]

Hi guys
After I've had time to sit back (have a beer!) and re-read a lot of the posts I'd just like to extend my thanks to ALL OF YOU!
   The whole team put a huge amount of effort in this year.  Paul Stoopman my best mate, who's vehicle dynamics knowledge has been instrumental in improving the cars handling, agreed to strap himself back into the nav seat for another crack, and did an epic job. Another of our best mates  Damian Barri, who helped build the car, sacrificed a week to crew for both my car and my dads, and constantly went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure we made it across the line.  And of course my dad who did many things including rebuilding a spare engine in a week so we could take it down with us because he knew there was a good chance I was going to need it!
   On behalf of all of us, thank you all for your interest in the event and all the words of encouragement and praise, it really means a lot to us and particularly me.  As you guys have said we had some serious pace this time and we know we can go faster and really show what Alfa's are capably of.  Now comes the hard part of trying to track down some sponsorship so we can continue at this level!
   So once again thanks to all of you.

And also a quick but massively deserved thanks to

Vin Sharp - PACE
Historic and Vintage Restorations
Maranello Pur Sang Motors