March is a great time of year. AFL is back, and so too that of the F1 Season.

2012 is an interesting season for F1 for a number of reasons. More rounds and with it more restrictions around engine and gearbox life. Break an engine it could potentially ruin your season. With this reason the technical partnership between Shell & Ferrari is being forged ever stronger


Before reading on, if you remember past write ups I have done then sweet – if not then check them out as once again.

CLICK for 2009
CLICK for 2010
CLICK for 2011


F1 moves to 20 Rounds for 2012

20 round for 2012 - WOW. A record number for F1. Throw in the engine development freeze until 2014 and so the challenge has been set of not only sticking with what you have, ensuring it does not fail being more important than ever. Cara Tredget, Shell’s Formula One Technology Manager said ‘I’d say that our challenge is all the harder as we have less parameters in which to work and that make any performance advantage we can give Ferrari all the more rewarding."

Here is some further commentary from Shell on the work and development

Within the car, much work has been done on the new engine. Amongst other elements, the Maranello engine specialists have been working on performance drop off, with the aim of maintaining the highest possible performance level throughout each engine’s cycle of use, which has now reached an average life of three races.

Sums it up perfectly really. F1 Race engines lasting an average of 3 races, potentially more.






So Shell provide the fuel, engine, gearbox and other oils... Something I didn't know is that Shell also provide Ferrari with a bespoke fluid used in keeping the KERS battery system in running order. Perhaps not as cool a s cucumber however temperature is important to help prevent electrical charge escaping.


Time for some fast facts once again:

Fast Facts
• A Formula One car has a minimum weight of 640 kg, including fuel and driver.
• A Formula One car can go from 0 to 100 mph in 1.5 seconds.
• Over a race weekend, a driver will change gear about 8,000 times.
• Formula One drivers experience forces up to 5g when taking sharp corners
• The average cockpit temperature is about 50 ºC, rising even further at the hotter races.

And slightly more technical...
• Every year, Shell blends more than 200,000 litres of fuel for the Ferrari Formula One race and test teams – enough to last a road car for 50 years.
• Shell’s Formula One V-Power racing fuel contains up to 200 different components.
• Pistons can exceed temperatures of 300 °C


The Pit Tour

This year was a little different. Due to extra teams and Ferrari's season last year the pit area the team had to work in was about 1/3 smaller. McLaren were close by next door with staff from both camps essentially rubbing shoulders when leaving the pit area's. Certainly hard to keep any secrets in this environment.

There is limited pictures this year as we were not allowed to take our own pictures. A bit of a change compared to previous years however there are a few none the less.





Shell Corp Tent & Ferrari Drive Day

After the pit tour there was a opportunity to go on a Ferrari drive day... Unfortunately not being 30 meant I couldn't attend and had to send a proxy in my place. This will be the only time I wish I was older.

So I asked if I would like to stick around in the Shell Corp Hospitality area down on turn 1... After twisting my arm so severely it resembled a Chinese burn, I succumbed and agreed

On a more serious note this was a great opportunity to find out a bit more about the inner workings of Shell as a company, the people behind it. Who knows what else might occur as well.

My host for the afternoon was Paul Zenarro, Shell Senior Media Advisor. After some rather great food, Dick Johnson dropped in for a quick Q&A in-front of the guests present. His Fav car - The old Sierra Cossie (that one was for you Brisby!).

Later on in the day whilst talking about all things Shell, Paul advised it was a possibility organise tour(s) of the Shell refinery down in Geelong. Both on foot and via mini-bus. As SAU users are generally quite technically minded I thought this to be a great offer to look into further. I'll continue to work on that so keep a keen eye on the Victorian section over the next month if this is something that tickles your interest.


Enjoy Part 2

Cheers
Ash
SAU Admin

As you may or may not be aware, the Shitbox Rally is coming up shortly. The purpose behind it is to raise funds for Cancer Council, a very worthy cause indeed.

Aaron from Import Monster is taking part in this awesome event. Aaron has been a long time SAU Sponsor & Community Supporter... So what better than to help them out with some funding?

Aaron is teaming up with Kristian from Iron Chef Imports. Together they form Team Monster-Chef

How do they do it? By people driving a $1000 (or less) Shitbox from Melbourne to Cairns over 6 days. Somehow not killing each other in the process.


SAU is going to kick start this by throwing in $200 to help get them on their way. They need at least another $1500 to get there - The SAU Community should be able to help them out.


To donate see here:
http://everydayhero....au/monster_chef


For more details, the main website:
http://www.everydayh...tbox_rally_2012



We'll keep a record of who's donated - Lets get them over the line! There will also be a bit of an interview with them if we can wangle it, and some running updates (meaning I'll harass him daily) over the 6 days to keep everyone updated


Donor / Amount

SAU - $200
PurpleR32- $100
Bec - $30
acsplit - $30
Snowman - $100
xALmoN - $20
Nightcrawler - $30
R31Nismoid - $100
Jap_Star - $50
Mavric - $50
willzgtst - $25
Sinista32 - $50
Halle - $50
SAU-Vic - $200


Total: $1035




Cheers
-Ash

SAU wins overall honours in the inaugural ARC Forum Battle, sponsored by Just Car Insurance.

Sean Ryan from Forum Battle said the event was going ahead rain, hail or shine… Well Melbourne put on enough Rain & Shine for everyone, thankfully no hail!

Feel free to chat here and post pictures you took of the event


Saturday – Motorsport

Even before the event started, Team SAU was off to a rocky start with a number of last min cancellations due to various reasons, so this was going to be a solid test of the group.

The day was easily summed up with 3 letters: WET

Everyone arrived early around 7am to damp conditions, but no rain… By 9.30am when driving briefing was to begin the weather was turning sour with rain coming down steadily. Events required alteration and until 12pm, the short course Lap Dash was going to run.

We took an initial tour of the course, there was a little standing water in some sections however overall the track was good, straights were grippy & corners being quite slippery, a challenging combination. It was set to be a good 2 hour session…

Unfortunately a Red EVO (2nd car) flew off the track and punted a wall on the warm-up lap… That took around 30-40mins to be fished out by the recovery crew. This effectively more than halved what was in the end, our only track session for the day. Whilst waiting the RX7 boys decided the track was too dangerous for them & turned around and went back to the pits, on trailers, and went back to NSW!

Everyone else however stuck it out and there was around 20 cars left to challenge one another for points. SAU took out the top end of Pro Class and Street AWD. There was actually plenty of grip out there and I saw over 160km/h on the back straight.

Later in the afternoon the Gymkhana still went on. By this stage only 10 cars completed and SAU took 2nd place in this event with Reece McIntosh showing his brilliant car control in trying conditions in what was essentially a stock R32 GTS-t, stellar effort there mate!


Summary of SAU Results

Lap Dash
Pro Class

1st – Chris Thomson – R33 GT-R on Yokohama A050
2nd – Adam Newton – “BIG RED” R32 GTS-t on Yokohama A050


Street Class – AWD/Outright

1st – Ash Cosgriff – R33 GT-R on Yokohama AD08


Gymkhana
Outright

2nd Reece McIntosh – R32 GTS-t on Federal RS


Team SAU placed in all events giving us the outright win for Motorsport on cumulative points

The Drags were cancelled as there was literally a river of water across the track by late afternoon. No results there, unfortunate for Brian in his R35. He was ready to dominate as well with a fresh 400rwkw tune!



Sunday – Show’n’Shine

Good start to the morning with only patchy skies and by 10.30am the sun was out with almost clear skies. Was a great say with lots of clubs on display from MelbS15, gripshiftslide.com, SAU, VicDrift, Mightycarmods.com & many others.

SAUs display has some great depth of cars and models. If by some work of magic, there were more R34 GT-R’s (4) than R33 GTS-t’s (0) in fact – bit of a surprise given the quality around the community. Gerry’s C110 & Team R34 GT-R pulled big crowds all day, with John & Scott’s Winfield GT-R Replica getting the most questions without a doubt from the intrigued public.

The other car club displays were great for making it quite diverse with everything from AE86s to S15s and even a worked Falcon! There was even some RC drift car action going on around the place, a solid show indeed given the previous days weather.


Show’n’Shine awards as follows:

Gerry C110 – Best Presented

Daniel R34 GT-R – Best JDM

Anthony R34 GT-R – Best Street Car

Scott/John Winfield R32 GT-R Replica - TBC (unsure of the exact award name)


Overall SAU took out Forum Battle honours.






Huge thanks to Scott Pedder for including Online Forums in the ARC Rally round (All ARC staff for that matter), talking to Scott for about 10-15mins in the afternoon, I left with the distinct impression this will occur next year so watch out for that!

Sean, Rob, Tate, Jon & Co. from Matespace, the men behind Forum Battle organisation. Lot of credit to you guys, thanks for putting up with my constant emails & phone calls

Simon Jreige & Team from Just Car Insurance. It’s great to see Just Car getting behind the grass roots car community the past 18 months and hopefully in years to come.

Also thanks to all other sponsors including Yokohama, Odyssey, Mothers, Zen Garage & many more.


Most importantly thank you to all SAU - who kicked in half the entry fee's for everyone.
Also every entrants who came along to represent SAU's finest. Lastly, all who braved the weather to come out and support/say a g’day & have helped get Team SAU there over the past 4-5 weeks. Lots of people put in some major efforts.



Team SAU will be back next Forum Battle