My Diaries

A Lurid Tale of Obsession, Depravity, Wits and Attempted Wit

Wed may 5, 1999

del Sol LM Edition Wins at Grand Valley

Well, the del Sol LM Edition got the job done, but it didn't do as well in the Grand Valley 300 as I had thought it might.

del Sol LM Edition (red) Grand Valley 300km Endurance Race

Results:

I got off to a slow start, as you can tell from the first lap time. The Skyline appeared to go off very strongly, with the twin turbo right behind it. I was third a lot before the first pit stop, although I was jostling strongly for second by lap 3. I had just barely caught up to first place when it was time for my first pit stop.

I was clearly in control after the second pit stop, holding the lead from then on, and lapping the entire field eventually.

I had no real disasters in the race, but at least one near one. I'm not sure how I managed to turn the one 1:34.000; I had very few laps even below 1:36 apart from that.

Afterwards I did a two lap Grand Valley time trial, creating a ghost very close (on the same second; 3:11.XXX for two laps) to the Cerbera LM.

Essentially, the del Sol LM seems to be a difficult car to drive consistently very well, although it is an easy car to drive consistently not badly. So it's strange that it could not come closer to the 1-38 time I managed with the Cerbera LM.

I won Cr300,000, and a black/green Castrol Supra GT.

The next Grand Valley 300 entrant will be the race-modded Supra RZ; the Normal Car Series prize car. It turns out that Supra cannot be made quite as powerful as one you buy from the dealer! But even so, running between 779 and 897hp, it is a handful to control.

Early tests indicated it might beat my Cerbera LM time, but now I am not so sure.