Meridian Test and Tune Day - September 5, 2008
Our first ever “Test and Tune” day has been and gone and it appears to have been a roaring success for all involved. The Winton circuit turned on a beautiful mild and sunny day with conditions being near perfect for all sessions. The only downside was that the Meridian race car remained on the dyno, back in the workshop suffering an ignition malady that we still haven’t sorted! Here are a few insights and ramblings on some of the cars and drivers that turned up on the day:
- The low grip award goes to Mark O’Connor for dusting off the hardest set of second-hand tyres he could find for the Exige! His lack of grip on the day was only matched by the supercharger whine of what is one very quick Lotus!
- The most improved award goes to Clinton and Chris Graham who picked up 10 seconds a lap after having the Elfin properly dyno tuned with all wheels now pointing in the right direction. The modification of the brakes to remove the previous superhuman stopping effort should have these guys late braking, after the Mini Cooper ‘S’ of Paul Stokell.
- The best presented award goes to Kel Kearns who managed to get his GTM Libra to the circuit without having it smashed on the trailer; again! This production version can pull some serious g’s; have a look at the LH repeater hanging out the side of the front clamshell.
- The quickest on day award goes to Col Joss and his beautifully presented M3 which acquitted itself well against another 7 litre, 650 HP Chev powered BMW 3 series of similar vintage.
- The most competitive award goes to Franz Bird who consistently raced another Clubman all day without running into it; or it into him!
- The purple heart award goes to Tony Boreham who managed to punt his beautiful PRB lap after lap in spite of recent arthroscopy surgery on his left (clutch) knee!
- The gardening award goes to Doug Dick for a couple of spectacular excursions which made the turbo Datsun 1600 look more like a tractor at a mud sprint. If ever you need to see an inexpensive race-car go really fast keep an eye on this very well driven Datto.
- And finally the production car award goes to Con who turned up in his Subaru STI Spec C RA which consistently clocked very rapid times with no effort and little special preparation.
If any of our customers or other attendees wants some photos from the day, please contact the number 1 boss at Meridian and speak to Jane!
Meridian will hold further test and tune days spaced approximately 6 weeks apart. Please keep an eye on your email for the next event. We have also been asked to hold some “introductory setup” seminars for suspension and tyre tuning and basic race car setup. We will email further details to elicit feedback and confirm demand.
Yours in racing from the team at Meridian Motorsport.
