As me and my brother met up with Reece in East Taieri it was raining, and had been since about 5am. This no doubt resulted in the planned cruise of cars from ToySpeed and Southern Skylines being seriously dwindled down to only two or three ToySpeeders and three Southern Skyliners. *insert sad face here*

Nevermind. As it turns out Alexandra was completely dry, despite being overcast for basically the whole day. We all convoyded off from Milton where everyone caught up with each other and it was a six or seven car convoy (consisting of two R32 Skyline GTS-t's, one R32 Skyline GTS-4, one series four RX-7, a Celica and Civic plus a Corolla i think?). The group was split up again in Roxbourgh after a toilet stop was taken, the two GTS-t's continuing to Alex where we would later meet up and cruise over to the airport together again.

Thanks to us getting there early (about 9:30 or 10:30am - can't remember) we got a park right beside the fence running along the drag strip at about half track.

Unfortunately the checking over of the cars that were racing took even longer than last year (more entries this year i think), and this time they were about an hour and a half late to start! Everyone was getting impatient, and that wasn't the end of it. The organisers had a new timing system - which kept playing up for the first half of the day, resulting in constant 5-10 minute delays and a few angry/dissatisfied spectators.

It also resulted in some rediculous times. Like low powered cars, normally doing about 16 or 17 second quarter miles, were doing easy 10's! Some cars/bikes did 300mph trap speeds!! So at the end of the day you were not sure whether any of the times set on the day were entierly accurate, which is disappointing considering the organisers have probably had 300+ days to make sure the equipment is working alright. Oh well. We'll be going back next year (because i want to race my car), but if things haven't improved...

AAAAAAAAAANNNNNYYYYYwwwwhhho.

The dragster that only made it to the startline/burnout last year actually raced this time! And by crikey was that thing loud!!! Honest to god i have NEVER heard anything as loud as that in my life, so loud in fact that as it went past you it really felt like your ear drums were going to blow up - i'm not kidding. I think it ended up doing an eight second run, although with the timing system the way it was you just never know. Was over two seconds faster than anything else there though.

Robs' tiger striped GT-R was back again this year, but had been repainted and the body had been modified and now looks like what Godzilla would look like if it were a car!! I really like it. His red machine (as seen in New Zealand Performance Car Magazine #100) was also there, but was having a fair amount of problems during the day despite being a lot quicker than the black one. It kept running on five cylinders (or something) and whenever it raced it always ended up kinda cruising/limping up the straight until about fourth gear or so (right near the end of the strip) where it usually just took off.

After taking it for a run on the roads (i think, as it left the airport for a while) it came back and did another run. But by then all of us Skyline peeps were in our cars thinking about leaving. Suddenly we hear a roar and we see this red flash flying past on the track in front - immediately we all jump out to see the GT-R setting an 11.009 second quarter mile. According to my brother (who was watching it - Grrr) it got *REALLY* sideways on launching and after letting off it did it again in second gear or something then just tore up the tarmac.

Hopefully he's got the issue sorted now, and hopefully next years event will be more organised and have better weather. Was a good day overall, and i made it from Dunedin to Alex and back on just over three quarters of a tank of petrol.

The 550 hp Viper followed me home for a while (used to live around the corner from me) so that made the day even better!

R32 NISSAN SKYLINE
1990 GTS-4 Sedan
~ To do list
Model information

R33 NISSAN SKYLINE
Model information

R34 NISSAN SKYLINE
Model information

MISCELLANEOUS
Nissan Skylines i've been in/driven
SkylineObsession.com
Southern Skyline Enthusiasts (South Island, NZ)
Skylines DownUnder (NZ)

Waiting at Raes Junction (GTS-t, GTS-t, GTS-4, RX-7, Celica, Civic)

Replica Shelby Cobra!

R32 GTS-t, R33 GTS-25t, R32 GT-R, R33 GT-R

Three awesome cars (Falcon, Skyline, Viper)

A.k.a Tiger striped R32 GT-R from last years Alex drags!

Trying to get it running properly

TOP

Purple R33 GT-R V-Spec #1

Purple R33 GT-R V-Spec #2 and (purple or black?) R33 GT-R V-Spec #3!

Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo (yellow)

Can't. Stop. Drooling.

Viper GTS

R33 GT-R V-Spec vs. R32 GT-R (the R33 won)