Targa 2009

[Colin Byrne]

Well we've made it to tassie, done our documentation, passed scrutinineering and the cars are now parked in the silverdome.  Laura and I arrived on Thursday morning on the boat and drove the competition and service car to my dad's place in deloraine, which will be our base for most of the event.  We spent the next couple of days mucking around with the cars.  As always happens, no matter how organized you are, something major seems to occur just before the start of the event, and this year was no exception.  First my dads rally trip meter totally died, this was discovered on Thursday afternoon, so quickly on the phone and organized a new one that was delivered and then fitted the next day.  On a little road trip to test the trip meter I noticed my steering had become a bit nervous, got under the car and released that both chassis rails had fatigued around the steering box and idler arm.  Luckily the cracks hadn't propagated behind any suspension components so removed all the brake lines and started cleaning up the area before I spent a couple hours upside down underneath the car with a tig torch welding it all back up, shouldn't complain I only set fire to my shirt twice.  Anyway it's all fixed now and as good as new.
So yesterday we drove to Launceston and put the cars through there technical inspection, both passed with no problem except I noticed that the volt gauge in the car was jumping around a bit on the drive and had determined that the alternator reg had failed.  As I was pulling it off to rush it down to an auto elec I noticed that the reference wire to the alternator didn't look right, and after a quick check with the multimeter determined that it had lost continuity.  A new connection was made and all looked good, on close inspection of the offending wire both terminations where fine, the wire had broken internally!!.  So hopefully that's the end of our issues, today is a bit of rest day, the cars are locked away and we don't have the prologue till tomorrow, and then it all begins!!

[alfagtv58]

Sheesh....what a start 

Very best of luck Col.  I will bookmark the results website and will be checking it regularly for your progress.

12 Alfa's entered this year!!  Everything from a Giulia Super to a 147GTA.

[branko.gt]

Amazing! Aparently nothing can stop the team Byrne !

All the best Col!

BTW, this is much more interesting read then whingeing about the top gear Australia in another topic.

[Gary Pearce]

Go Team Byrne. I look forward to seeing the results as they appear. All the best Col.
BTW what's wrong with TGA?

[scuzzyGTV]

Colin

i'll watch out for you when you guys finally reach hoabrt.

Good luck & have fun!

Scott.

[GTAM1]

Good luck mate!
Well they say things happen in three's so let's hope all your problems are out of the way already!
Cheers

[alfisti2]

go alfa. 

[Barry Edmunds]

Colin
Bets of luck to you and Team Byrne. Sounds like you have had all the dramas bforr the event. Should be plain sailing from now on.

Keep an eye out for that Giulia Super for me.

Look forward to seeing the Alfas figure prominently in the results. Otherwise hope you have lots of fun along the way.

Barry

[Evan Bottcher]

Great time to be in Tassie:

"Tuesday: Southeast, Huon, Channel and Lower Derwent Valley: Scattered showers, falling as snow to as low as 400 metres overnight, then lifting tomorrow, becoming isolated tomorrow afternoon. Local hail about the south. Cold, although locally very cold overnight about the Derwent Valley with frost patches. Moderate to fresh southwest to southeast winds easing tomorrow afternoon"

Minimum 4°C  Maximum 11°C

I hope your oil cooler has a thermostat and your radiator is full of anti-freeze!

[Davidm1600]

Barry, the Super is Norm Henry's bright yellow one.  I caught up with Norm yesterday morning, as he was having a coffee with another long term Alfa mate of ours, Kim Briggs.  Norm's Super didn't have its war paint on (eg. Targa stickers etc), and he didnt seem in a hurry to get to Lonnie, so it leaves me wondering if he may have withdrawn for some reason. 

Must say, and as a non-competitor bug I reckon that Targa has been butchered since last year when they split the event with no stages in the south except for Grass Tree Hill.  Even more cynical of them is that they said the roads were not up to standard and then turn around and had a mini Targa (Wrest Point) early this.  My second biggest gripe with the event has that there has always been far too much concentration by the media etc, let alone the organisers on the modern cars.  Now with the 4wds in the event, I am even less interested.  To my mind it has gone too far away from what Targa should be, an event for classic cars, rather than simply an all out race.  Sorry these are my views.

Dave

[alfagtv58]

Times are not validated yet......but.....

BANG....Top 10 in Early Classic.....way to go Col!!
Early Classic

And our esteemed Tres. Andrew's brother is navigating the Porsche of Tierney/Carra in the Late Classic comp.  Currently leading!
Late Classic

[Barry Edmunds]

Dave

Hope Colin has got his winter woolies packed.

Top Ten, Terrific Col.

Targa Tas lost its soul some years ago when they opted for the 'late' model rocket ship cars instead of sticking with its original concept of being a fun event for classic cars. Can't blame the competitors tho.

Sadly it has been turned into yet another cheque book category of motor sport with 'he with the deepest pockets' usually does best. The others just turn up and make up the numbers and the ghouls of the media come along in the hope that they can 'get' the action.

But then, that is just my cynicism showing
Barry

[Davidm1600]

Barry

No mate, I really must agree.  Though as I said I havnt competed in the event and therefore am not able to comment on what it is like to compete.

However, from discussing this issue with a number of other competitors over the past few years, but all from the classic section, including my brother (who has competed about 6-7 times), there is a general agreement with such views as yours and mine.  The problem in part stemmed from when the current owners of Targa bought it out.  They run events world wide and to an extent simply see it as another money making venture.   

The sponsorship deals with the motoring manufacturers etc, let alone media issues mean that the modern rocket ships dominate.  In addition, while people like the event director notionally acknowledge the need for and interest in the classics, it is a half-baked effort at best.  This is pretty obvious by the falling number of historic cars entering, let alone the predominance in both late Classic and modern by Porsches, Skylines, and the 4WDs.  In the early days of Targa the entrant listing was excellent.  These days it is the exception.

Some of the other recent changes (eg. the tour ?? let alone the showroom 2wd and 4wd classes only further deviates the event from what it used to be, could be and to my mind should be.  A pity really since it had the chance to be something special.  Now it is largely a speed event for mostly the wealthy and/or professional driver. 

Goodluck to Col and the team, ditto Jack Waldron in the Fiat Abarth etc. 

Dave

   

[Sheldon McIntosh]

I was hoping this was going to be a thread updating Colin's adventures in this years Targa.  Not sure why I thought that, maybe the fact that it was started by Colin and was an update of what was happening so far with the team.

Do we really need to hijack his post to have a whinge about the event?  Maybe you could start another thread for that purpose?

Good luck Colin.

[branko.gt]

....
Do we really need to hijack his post to have a whinge about the event?  Maybe you could start another thread for that purpose?
....

Not sure I agree with you, the whinge is aimed at the event in the thread title so it legitimately belongs here even though we may feel it is inappropriate. 

are you thread monitor for this week ?