Cro

Looks like no one from the ACT will be joining us, so we'll get rid of the middle meeting point. Will make the boring hwy drive a bit shorter

hill climb on jambaroo pass... less traffic with an overtaking lane near the bottom...

Doesn't look like anyone from Canberra is too keen on this cruise... If no one signs up, I'll modify it a bit to get rid of the boooring drive down the Hume

I’ve now got a touch over 6000kms after another overnight drive, this time up to North East NSW. The route on the first day took me up Putty Road, through Singleton over to Dungog, Stroud, via The Buckets Way, Thunderbolts Way, Gloucestor, Walcha via Oxley Hwy, Wauchope, Kempsey, Bellingen and my overnight accommodation in Dorrigo via Waterfall Way. The next day I went up to Grafton via Tyringham and down to Dorrigo via Ulong then back down The Waterfall way, south on Macksville Road and Pacific Hwy to Port Macquarie. I was meant to go home at this point, but I couldn’t resist a 1.5 hour detour up and down the Oxley Hwy again. Once back on the Pacific Hwy the only fun I had on the looong boring drive home was through the Old Pacific Hwy Buladelah bypass. I have to say that I’ve never had this much fun ever, Putty road was a good warm up for what would be some of the best cornering roads I’ve ever been on. The only downfall was that some of the roads (till Walcha) seemed to have been sealed over 10 years ago and every pothole since was just a patch job. This made the ride a bit rough, and every un-patched pothole I hit caused a very loud bang type noise from the suspension. No doubt the sound of it hitting the bump stops. I’m amazed at how composed and strong the car is on these sorts of roads. A good way to gauge how good your wheel balance is to keep an eye on your passenger seat vibrating on smooth hwy roads(with no passenger in it). When I picked up the car it was vibrating all over the place, and once I got the Michelin PS2’s + a Balance it didn’t vibrate anymore. After hitting at least 50 potholes, and running 150kms on dirt/gravel roads it still doesn’t vibrate. This is one solid car, wheels and all :D The Buckets Way and Thunderbolts Way is a great cornering road, with a lot of 55km/h+ corners and long open straights towards Walcha. It would be a great road if it was re-sealed. Oxley Hwy down to Port Macquarie has to be my favourite road I’ve ever been on, so much so I did it 3 times in two days!! It is a perfectly sealed road, with very few imperfections and two marked lanes all the way down. I didn’t measure how long the twisty part was, but there was a 45km twisty sign, followed by a 20km twisty sign half way down. This road has never ending low speed corners, 45 45 45 45 45 55 55 35 35 35 25 35 25 45 45 55 it just keeps going on and on and on. Hands down the most fun you can have with your pants down :D The Waterfall way to Dorrigo is just the same, just not as long. The road from Dorrigo to Grafton via Tyringham is a bit bumpier and is only 1.5 lanes with no centre line but isn’t littered with patch jobs. This road provides from memory 75km of very tight and twisty corners mostly consisting of 25, 35, 45, 55 corners. The road back down to Dorrigo via Ulong is great for the first 50kms, very similar to the previous road but becomes a dirt road for 25kms. It is very unfortunate as it would be probably the best road ever if it was sealed. The same can be said for the road from Bellingen to Macsville, 50% sealed 50% gravel..Such a shame. I’ve noticed that this car prefers going uphill, it is just so much easier to throw it into a corner with confidence when most of the weight is shifted to the rear. It means that you have to take it just that tiny bit easier going downhill than you would when going uphill, very similar to most other cars out there. Anyway, I don’t have as many pics as last time but here they are. Near Dungog http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page At Stroud http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Near Gloucestor on The Buckets Way http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Heaven (Oxley Hwy) http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Didn’t these use to mean Unlimited a few decades ago? Lots of them around here http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Macksville http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Bit too close for comfort http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page All the others are here: http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...0-%20July%2008/

lol It actually did have a bit of a drink.. As I took my foot off the brake to reverse back it rolled forward right into the river.. The lower bumper got a good wash Tabitha, I was lucky that 4WD was there to tow me out of the snow.. The road I was on was restricted to Snowy Hydro Staff only. Did make for a good picture though The whole trip was about 2000kms, and it was 14 hours a day driving due to all the side tracks and windy roads I went on. Stopping only for fuel, food and sleep Heading up north to Grafton this week, we'll see what pics there are to take on the way

I've now had my R36 for 3500kms, and have had a good chance to learn its capabilities and limits in every possible imaginable scenario. It’s been through twisty road, track, alpine roads, snow, ice, dirt road, mountain passes, rained out and damp roads. The first moment I drove the car through a windy section of road I knew this thing was good, but the tyres (Dunlop SP01’s) let it down big time. It will understeer if no throttle is given before entering a corner, it will understeer if too much throttle is given in a corner. I’ve even had it oversteering on direction changes under full load. All this under/over steer was accentuated on the track astronomically. These tyres are good for nothing but cruising around town and on the hwy. The only other problem I’ve had with the car is if you hit a bump mid corner the body of the car wollows around a bit, but the wheels stay planted to the road and keep on powering on. This doesn’t affect the performance but the first few times you notice it you get very very scared, especially on a cliff face. I’ve since fixed the tyre problem by fitting a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 2’s on the car. These are rated as the best road use tyres in the world, standard on all Porsche 911’s and the Carerra GT, Bugatti Veryron, All Koniegsegg’s, McLaren SLR, Audi R8 / RS4 / RS6, BMW M3/M5 and the list goes on. You can call them a super tyre, and unfortunately they have the price tag to go along with it. The best I could get is $590 a corner for 235/40/18 95Y. I’ve recommended these tyres to everyone who asks for the best, and they are worth every cent. Most of the performance tyres out there will be better than the Dunlop SP01’s, Michelin Pilot Preceda 2, Pirelli P Zero Rosso, Dunlop Sport Maxx, Bridgestone RE050’s, Continental CSC3’s are names that spring to mind. I just wanted the best. The car now has now been absolutely transformed into a cornering weapon in all conditions. Turn in is precise, it just goes where you point it. It stays on track all the way through the corner, going where you’re pointing it no matter how much throttle you give. It even gets rid of the plow on understeer problem, as the tyres just grip so much. To get the best cornering speed it’s best to come in to a corner trailing on the throttle and flooring it once you’re past the apex. I spent the last two days cruising along every twisty road I knew about in southern NSW, and I haven’t yet found a road this car and these tyres can’t handle exceptionally well. For example, you know those yellow signs advising what speed is safe to do in a corner I have been more than doubling it in the dry and wet conditions. You can just keep on pushing and pushing well beyond where you think the limit is. The weak link in the whole scenario is me the driver. I just didn’t have enough bravery or stupidity to push the car further even though you can tell the car and tyre package can handle it. The suspension is very firm, and so it should be for a performance car. It has no problem navigating a bumpy country road, or even a smoothish unsealed road. The only time it got unsettled was when I hit some corrugations on an unsealed road. Power wise, this car is fantastic. The power delivery is so smooth and deceptive you never realise how fast you are going till you look at the speedo. The acceleration is insane when using launch control, and also when dropping back a gear or two. There is so much torque in the middle of the rev range (3000 – 6000) that it is happy just staying in 3rd gear all the way up through a twisty mountain pass. The DSG is just fantastic, before I picked up the car I wasn’t happy about the fact that it changes gears up when it reaches the redline. I now realise that it just does not matter with a DSG, as the change is seamless and doesn’t unbalance the car in anyway. This car has more than enough power and speed to keep me satisfied for the next 5 years. The comfort of this car is very very good. The seats are very supportive, and comfortable even after 14 hours a day on the road over consecutive days. The Climate Control and heated seats did a great job of keeping me comfortable, even when the outside temp was at -3. My only real annoyances are that the lower side bolster dug into my thighs (I need to lose weight), and the brake pedal is too high to keep your foot hovering above it for long periods of time when using cruise control. I did a lot of night time driving in kangaroo country so this was quite annoying. The Xenon lights do a great job of lighting up the road, the cornering is great too. I find that the right cornering visibility is better than left cornering visibility for some reason though. I also think I will put some spot lights on the car when I go into the country at night, I want just an extra 100 or so meters of vision as I had a few close calls. The Dynaudio system is flawless, playing everything near full volume created no distortion. I tried all types of music from Heavy Metal, Korn, Rock, Dance, and even Opera. The SAT NAV on the other hand gave me the ****s, on several occasions after adding a touring route the system froze on me and the only way I could reset it was to turn the car off for 10 – 15 mins. I need to get this looked at. On some occasions it also sent me the wrong way, and I found that many country towns are not mapped. Fuel economy has me amazed, I was used to using 19 – 22 litres per 100kms in my old XR6 Turbo which had similar performance but the R36 is so far averaging 14L per 100kms since I picked it up. Through twisty country I get about 400kms to a tank, and over 600km on the highway. I’ve learned to trust the range guide, as when it got down to 0 a few times I filled up 65 litres (70 litre tank). I’ve run 98 Octane mostly, but on the last tank I couldn’t find any so it now has 95 Octane in it. I don’t know how much of a performance impact it has, as the fill was in Tumut and I just did a cruise control hwy drive back home. Anyway, it’s been an absolute pleasure so far and I don’t regret buying this car one little bit  Here are some details and pics on where I’ve been.. I look forward to my next twisty drive. The route took me from Sydney – Bowral and Kangaroo Valley, then down to Batemans Bay where I went up and down the Clyde Mountain. I took off to Dalmeny, then Bermagui, Tathra, Bega and the Brown Mountain. At this point it was night time, so the drive to Bombala and back to Pambula through roo country was a bit of a worry, especially through the twisty bits. I went south through Eden into Victoria and then back to Eden for an overnight stay. The next day I went back to Bega for 98 Fuel, up the Brown again over to Dalgety via some dirt, into Jindabyne and down to Khancoban. Over to the Murry River, then back again through Tooma and turning on the Elliott way to Cabramurra. From Cabramurra I went to Adaminaby and back tracked a bit to Tumut, Gundagai and then back to Sydney. Pooh’s corner, Clyde Mountain (near Batemans Bay) http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Dalmeny, South Coast NSW (near Narooma) http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Narooma http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Tathra http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Top of the Brown Mountain (near Bega) http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Over the border south of Eden http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Eden http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Just south of Thredbo http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Geehi Rest Area http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Murray 1 Power Station http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Murray River http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Cross roads http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Near Cabramura (highest town in Australia) http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Cabramurra http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Getting unstuck in Cabramurra http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page Near Kiandra http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...img?action=page All the rest of the pics: http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/events/roadt...0-%20July%2008/

Your loosing memory in your old age mate, for some reason you keep forgetting the number of laps you kept slowing me down and then not being able to keep up

Ferodo Formula pads are much better than Bendix Ultimates. I ran both in my first XR6T with DBA 4000's, The ultimates would loose their bite after just one or two hard stops whilst the ferodo's kept biting hard for a few more.

Well I had an absolute ball today, I'm glad the new car not only lived up to my expectations but also exceeded them. Beating my old time set in the XR6T was a bonus It's been 2 years since my last track day, so it took a while to get used to track + performance driving and also making the change to AWD. It's a completely different experience than a RWD :D Those new FG XR6T's are awesome too, very brutal power delivery in manual form with sideways actions all the way through to third gear. Thank's Junior for the quick blat

Well it's definitely not being led by you after todays results

Some of the roads are quite bumpy, so you will be bounced around a lot at speed. If you hang out near the rear of the pack you'll be fine as the pace is a bit slower. Most of the run though is smoother than a freshly polished duco

What is it with that family and asking mrs' permission... See you all tomorrow!

Forecast for Tuesday An isolated shower or two, but fine for most of the time. Light west to southwest winds. Goulburn : Mainly fine. Min: 1 Max: 14 Looking good so far, hopefully the rain stays away from the track

Sorry..a comment like that can't lived down

Stuff the SOFT list, you're going straight to TONTINE for that comment :ifiusethisimafag:

that's what happens when you drive a car, it's called brake dust You poofs have softened up, I expected better... Where's Rob, lets see if he still has some decent ones in him

http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/cars/vw/My%2...img?action=page Both yours and Rob's mum can have an orgy in there

Thanks

Thanks everyone!! Infact I'm suprised that none of the usual suspects gave their 2 cents worth, maybe it was just too easy or their getting soft I'm going on two weeks holiday next week, lotsa cruising to be done

It is the most important latest accident prevention feature any manufacturers can provide. Google stability control, and watch the various video's on what it does then make up your own mind. You can always turn it off when you don't need it, and when it's pouring rain or your on the looong boring hwy drive leave it on for added piece of mind

should be right the car does it by itself

Bionic, send her to herz.com.au IB, might get a bit boring after a while, but if your keen you can be my lap timer

Forget the manual, and I'll tell you why.. DSG shifts faster, resulting in a faster car DSG can upshift and downshift just like a manual, it also blips throttle on downshifts DSG results in better fuel economy No need for a clutch pedal in traffic Launch control

LOL Maybe with a Sunroof and the extra LCT... Those a stock plates, after Gadan I chose never to choose named plates again It was 78k with the options, but I got a corporate discount down to 68k

Some of you know I've been waiting for a VW for some time ever since I sold my XR6T almost two years ago... The wait has been absolute torture, but not having a car meant that I could buy a house and still afford to spoil my my daughter On Thursday evening my wait was finally over, I took delivery of the long awaited car of my dreams. I had talked this thing up so much to my friends, family and most of all myself. I haven't seen it, let alone driven it as it was a new unreleased model. In fact no one in the world had taken delivery of the car till just two weeks ago, so there were no reviews to go off either. Thursday was a very nervous day, as I didn't know if it would live up to my very high expectations or end up being a sh*tbox. I put a deposit down knowing just the following specs: VW Passat R36 3.6 litre V6 220kw, 350nm torque 6 Speed DSG (dual clutch gearbox) AWD 0-100 in 5.6 seconds All my fears were put to rest after I saw my new car and took it for a test drive, I am so glad I waited for this car. It has every little luxury I have ever wanted, whilst still has enough speed and handling capabilities to keep me satisfied for the next few years Now that I've driven the car a bit more, I still can't fault it. It has so much power throughout the whole rev range, and keeps picking up speed relentlessly all the way up the speedo. I can't compare it to the XR6T I used to have because it's been so long since I've driven one, but I am more than happy with the performance. The gearbox is also a brilliant invention, it shifts gears in 6 miliseconds so there is no interruption to the power, it blips the throttle on downshifts and it goes right to the red line of 7000rpm. The handling is simply brilliant, the suspension does a great job at keeping the tyres on the road and the AWD keeps all four tyres planted as much as possible. I have found the limits of the sh*tty tyres that came with the car (some German Dunlop SP01's), and I've ordered some Michelin PS2's which will fix that problem soon. I've always wanted a car with Xenon lights, so I didn't have to load it up with spot lights and this car does not dissapoint. The Xenons even have cornering capabilities and the beam is so well spread I don't think I'll need to put the spotties on. The one thing I've always missed about my old XR6T is the sports steering wheel, as it had the perfect thickness and contours. This steering wheel is just the same, perfect thickness and contours with the added benefit of flappy paddles (on the wheel not the column), and a perfect weighting. The sports seats hug you like there is no tomorrow, and are completely adjustable electronically (including the side bolsters) with 3 position memory that can be customized to a particular key. I optioned up the DVD based Sat Nav with 30GB HDD for music files, DVD Player, Bluetooth phone and Ipod connector. Also the 600w Dynaudio system is an awesome bit of kit, definitely the best sound system I've ever heard All in all, I am more than happy to keep this car for the next 5 years and look forward to going on many cruises again with you guys. that's of course if you don't mind a VW slowing you down I've taken a few pics as well, but will take some more decent ones once I detail it one day. http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/cars/vw/My%20R36/