Tag: Targa Tasmania

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Porsche Targa Tasmania

Porsche takes a look at Targa Tasmania 2011

Targa Tasmania 2011

At this year’s Targa Tasmania rally Porsche was celebrating two anniversaries, the first being the 20th running of Tasmania’s ultimate tarmac rally, the second being the 60th anniversary of Porsche in Australia.

The Porsche Musuem shipped over at least four cars to Australia to run in the event, including the iconic 911 SC to be driven by Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer; just as they did at the 1981 San Remo rally. There was even a Carrera GT road car on the Apple Isle during Targa. Clearly then, Porsche was taking this event very seriously.

You get the sense they were hoping Röhrl would write a fairytale story by winning the classic outright category, with Jim Richards to join in the winning fun in modern outright at the wheel of his 911 GT2 RS. In the end a driveshaft problem for Röhrl and a blown hose for Richards put paid to those hopes.

However, Porsche did have cause to celebrate when Rex Broadbent piloted his 911 Carrera RS to a fifth consecutive classic outright Targa Tasmania title.

After the break you can see how the Porsche media team captured the event over the course of the rally, as well as downloading three bonus AUSmotive wallpaper-friendly images. Simply click on any of the pics to view them in 2000px sizing.

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Nissan Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2011: Day 4 & 5 update

Targa Tasmania 2011

Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillett today held on to win their second Targa Tasmania rally in three years. In their Nissan GT-R the 2009 champs carried a comfortable lead into the final day and drove well to secure victory by 3 minutes and 39 seconds.

Wet weather on the last two days certainly provided tough conditions for all competitors and many found their limits. Yesterday, especially, claimed many competitors with the heavy rain in the afternoon.

Second in the modern outright placings was Dean Herridge (Subaru WRX STi), almost two minutes ahead of Matthew Sims (Nissan GT-R).

Winner in the classic outright category was Rex Broadbent (Porsche 911 Carrera 911 RS), from David Cooper (Holden Torana A9X) and Nick Ellis (Porsche 911 Carrera). This makes it five wins on the trot for Broadbent in the classic competition.

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Lamborghini Porsche Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2010 update – Day 5

Jason White, Lamborghini Gallardo

Jason White driving a Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo Strada has held on to claim the 2010 Targa Tasmania trophy. It is his second Targa victory and he finished 1 minute 5 seconds ahead of Ray Vandersee in a Skelta G Force. In third place was 2009 winner Tony Quinn driving a Nissan GTR.

The Classic competition was won by Rex Broadbent in his 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RS.

A full list of category and class winners is available HERE. Tonight’s local Tasmanian news bulletin can be seen after the jump. Congratulations to all teams, crews and officials for their part in another successful Targa Tasmania. Next year’s event will be a massive one, it will be the 20th anniversary of Australia’s most prestigious tarmac rally.

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2010 update – Days 3 & 4

Steve Glenney crashes out in his Mazda RX-8 SP

Targa Tasmania competitors have just set off on the final day of competition. Wet and windy conditions are expected for the race into Hobart. Jason White in a Lamborghini Gallardo continues to lead the field, but as you can see from the pic above it hasn’t been plain sailing for those chasing him.

On Day 3 Steve Glenney was in second position when he crashed out, involved in a three car accident. Nobody was seriously hurt, but Glenney’s Mazda RX-8 SP was in no fit state to continue. Ray Vandersee in the Skelta G Force has taken advantage of Glenney’s demise to assume a comfortable second position. Although, his car had a full engine change in Strahan overnight and he will have his fingers crossed that there are no gremlins to be found during today’s final stages.

Last year’s winner Tony Quinn in a Nissan GTR is third, 2 minutes 16 seconds behind the Australian-built Skelta. Former Targa West winner Steve Jones, also in a Nissan GTR, sits in fourth. While the Vandenberg brothers, in a Mitsubishi Evo IX, have moved ahead of Jim Richards into fifth place.

For now, though, the Whites hold a 1 minute 9 second advantage over Vandersee. They’ll be hoping they don’t follow the path of fellow Gallardo driver Kevin Weeks who last year took a slender lead into the final day before suffering a bad crash on a downhill section of the Queenstown stage.

You can keep an eye on results in all categories on the Targa Tasmania results website. News bulletins from Legs 3 and 4 can be seen after the jump.

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2010 update – Days 1 & 2

Tony Quinn, Nissan GTR

Tasmanian based Jason White in his Lamborghini Gallardo continues to hold the outright lead in Targa Tasmania 2010 at the completion of day two. However, it was defending champ Tony Quinn in his Nissan GTR who set the early pace this morning, posting the quickest time through the awesome Sideling stage.

Quinn is currently in fourth place, 54 seconds behind White. But the surprise packages have to be in second and third placings. Steve Glenney, 2008 winner, is second, 31 seconds behind the leader, in his one-off Mazda RX8 SP. Actually, Mazda are doing a good job of covering their three cars in the event, so make sure you take a peek at the Mazda Motorsport Australia website for more info.

In third place, 42 seconds behind White, is Ray Vandersee at the wheel of the extreme looking Skelta G Force. You have to respect the man who builds the car out there racing the car and doing very well.

News clips from the first two days of competition can be seen below and you can keep up to date with all the latest results, including live updates, at the Targa Tasmania results website.

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2010

Targa Tasmania 2010

Targa Tasmania 2010 kicked off in earnest today with the first leg of the event taking place. Wet and wild conditions greeted the field and while most crews did manage to make it back to Launceston safely, some crews are already out of the rally. Fortunately there aren’t any reports of serious injury, despite some very ordinary looking cars.

A quick shout out to all the drivers, navigators, support crews still competing, as well as the event officials. Here’s hoping they enjoy a safe and successful Targa for 2010.

Live updates from the rally are available from the Targa Tasmania results website. It’s not the most sophisticated set up, but based on today’s effort it seems to work quite well. You can also see some news footage of yesterday’s Prologue at Georgetown after the jump.

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Skoda Targa Tasmania

Skoda Octavia RS-P ready for Targa Tasmania

Skoda Octavia RS-P

Skoda Australia’s wicked one-off creation, the Octavia RS-P, is all set to make its tarmac rally debut at Targa Tasmania which kicks off next week.

The recipe is pretty simple, take one standard Octavia RS, turn up the boost of the 2.0 litre turbo, fiddle about with the intake and exhaust. This will see you increase power from 147kW to around 190kW. Then throw on some adjustable suspension, a few strut braces, some uprated brakes and fit semi-slick tyres to great looking 18″ alloys and you’ve just cooked yourself one very cool, and surprisingly rapid, Euro estate. Five stars!

At the wheel of the Octavia RS-P will be Mike Sinclair, Editor-in-chief of carsales.com.au, with Justin Hunt guiding the way in the nav seat. Further detail, and extra pics are available after the jump.

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Audi Targa Tasmania Top Gear

AUSmotive – Best Stories 2008

AUSmotive.com

For my last post of the year, a quick reflection on my favourite stories from 2008.

Getting a world exclusive on Top Gear filming in Vietnam was right up there—thanks to Andrew for giving me the scoop on that one, it has provided some nice traffic to the site, that’s for sure, with Jalopnik and autoblog just a few to reference the story.

Sharing my experiences as a Targa Tasmania service crew member for friend and privateer entrant ‘Robbo’ was also a rewarding process to go through. All going well, I should be back on board helping out Robbo in 2009, so stay tuned for that.

Credit goes to Ross and Debra for taking me back to my youth by bringing their Audi RS2 to the Shannons German Autofest. If I made a list of the cars that have shaped my love for most things automotive the RS2 would be in the top five. Putting together that piece and seeing the car up close and personal was a real highlight.

I also enjoyed covering the MINI CHALLENGE during 2008, there were plenty of thrills and spills, and here’s to a bigger and better 2009 for the MINI team.

A special mention to Gabe and his team at MotoringFile/BimmerFile for their support, their willingness to reference both AUSmotive and AUSringers has been a great help in building up traffic.

Finally, thank you to all of the readers out there. Your comments have been great, but, please, post lots more of them! Page loads and unique visitors to the site have really grown in the last few months, a trend I hope will continue well into 2009. If you have any feedback about AUSmotive that you would like to pass on, please share your thoughts below in the comments section. Your feedback can only aid the continual improvement of this site and help me provide the content you want to read.

Thanks
Liam

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MINI Random wallpapers

Random wallpaper: Team MINI at 2006 Targa Tasmania

Team MINI at 2006 Targa Tasmania

While trawling the press archives at AUSmotive I often stumble across some pretty cool images. Rather than keep them all to myself, I figured it would be nice to share a few from time to time. In the first of what will become a randomly updated series, I trust you enjoy this image taken from the 2006 Targa Tasmania. Click on the image above for a 2000x1320px version. Should you choose to use this as a wallpaper/desktop image that size should cover most monitor resolutions. If not let me know what size you need and I’ll see what I can do.

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Motorsports

Winding Road reports on Targa Tasmania

Winding Road reports on Targa Tasmania

Winding Road, an aptly named US online magazine, has a report on this year’s Targa Tasmania in their latest issue. Check it out, it’s a good read and nice to see a homegrown event written of so fondly.

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania – At your service

2008 Targa Tasmania

An all expenses paid trip to participate in Targa Tasmania. Sounds good doesn’t it. What would I be driving? And could it compete with Gentleman Jim’s brand new Porsche GT2? Service crew … what do you mean service crew? Yes, the offer to take part in my first Targa Tasmania was not behind the wheel of a tarmac tearaway, but behind the wheel of a service vehicle. Still, when Andrew Robinson asked me to join him and his 2002 MINI Cooper S for his fourth Targa Tasmania assault, I couldn’t say yes quick enough.

This opportunity came up by chance, as most pieces of good fortune do. As an owner of a MINI Cooper S since 2004 I’ve very much enjoyed the social aspect that MINI ownership brings. There’s been plenty of great drives and new friends made in that time. It is through such connections that I had previously met ‘Robbo’. He’s shown me the way around Wakefield Park once or twice and seems a likeable enough chap. So, let’s talk Targa…

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania in pictures – part 2

2008 Targa Tasmania

This is the second batch of images from my 2008 Targa Tasmania experience, all taken at the Longford town stage on Day 2. Most of the cars featured are from the classic categories. After Robbo went through in his MINI Cooper S (car #923) we had to get back to Launceston to help sort one of the minor gremlins that had appeared on his car. You’ll be able to read more about that when my detailed account is posted in the coming days.

In the meantime, enjoy these images. Point of note is the Porsche 356 (car #260) which was flown out to Tasmania especially for the event direct from the Porsche musuem in Germany. The car was driven by Klaus Bischof, the museum’s director. Nice work if you can get it!

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