This selection of photos was taken on day one at the ‘Merseylea’ stage, a 9.9km stretch south of Devonport. The fastest through this stage was Jason White in his 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo, but it was the Lambo of Kevin Weeks that stole the show with flames spewing out of the exhaust throughout the corner where [...]
The first hit out for Targa Tasmania competitors is the ‘Temco Prologue’, held on the streets of George Town. The stage itself doesn’t count towards the final placings, but effectively seeds the drivers by determining the starting order for the rest of the event. In order to help compress the field during the rally, thereby [...]
Tony Quinn (QLD) and Naomi Tillett (SA) in a 2008 Nissan GT-R have won this year’s Targa Tasmania. Quinn was at the pointy end of the field throughout the event, but he faced an eight second deficit to the 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera of Kevin Weeks (SA) leading into the final day. And what a [...]
AUSmotive will be making the trek to Tasmania this weekend as preparations for Targa Tasmania get into full swing. I will be returning to work as part of the service crew for two privateer entrants, Andrew Robinson (#923) and Stu Jones (#916). Here’s to a great rally for the guys, especially after Robbo’s disappointment last [...]
Dean Evans will be gladly flogging the bejeezus out of a Lotus Exige Cup 260 in the Targa Tasmania event later this month. With 192kW at their disposal, and just 890kg of car to move around it’s pretty safe to say Evans and co-driver Simone Bachmann have the ingredients to be at the pointy end [...]
Mazda Australia is planning one of its biggest and best assaults on Targa Tasmania yet. They have signed 2008 winner, South Australian Steve Glenney, and thrown him the keys to a 205kW turbocharged RX-8 SP. “I’m excited to be chosen by Mazda Motorsport to play a role in the development of the Mazda RX-8, and [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The 2008 Targa Tasmania event marked the international racing debut for the new R35 Nissan GT-R. Sadly, the event didn’t go entirely to plan for the big Nissan, forced to withdraw from the event on Day 2 with suspension problems. You can read more about the car’s involvement at Targa at gtrblog.com. There are also [...]
Here is my first installment of Targa Tasmania articles. There’ll be a few popping up over the next few days—a few picture essays like this one, and I’ll finish the series with an account of my experience working as a service crew member for Andrew Robinson in his 2002 MINI Cooper S. In the meantime, [...]
South Australian Steve Glenney, driving a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, has taken outright honours in the 2008 Targa Tasmania tarmac rally. Jim Richards was behind the wheel of the Porsche GT2 in it’s world racing debut and was able to steer his car into second place 1 min 31 secs behind Glenney. In third [...]
One of the great things about being involved in the MINI community is meeting some pretty cool people. A few weeks ago I was asked to join Andrew Robinson’s team at the 2008 Targa Tasmania. He’s a privateer running a 2003 MINI Cooper S and has competed in the last few Targa Tasmanias. I’ll be [...]
A recent article in the Tasmanian rag the Mercury has given the opportunity for a couple of Hobart Alderman to voice their complaints over the impending Targa Tasmania event. The piece, titled Targa racers just ‘hoons and bandits’, details a plan by the aldermen to have the Domain stage of the event cancelled. Opponents to [...]
The iconic nameplates of Porsche GT2, Nissan GT-R and Corvette Z06 will all make their worldwide tarmac rally debuts at the 2008 Targa Tasmania, held from 15-20 April. The newly launched R35 Nissan GT-R, to be driven by Tony Alford, is one of the most keenly anticipated new cars in recent years and Australia is [...]