The 390kW all-wheel drive supercar’s ABS partially failed on the approach to a corner on the 22.9km Airwalk 1 stage, causing a front brake to lock .
"The sensor on the front left wheel failed, which locked the brake for about 30 metres," Quinn said. “The car pulled left and slid off the road at something like 80km/h.
"At first I thought we’d get away with just a few scratches, because there was a clearing with what looked like small bushes where we went off.
“But there was a small tree in amongst them – it made a quite mess of the side of the car.”
Although the Queensland-based Scot and his Adelaide navigator were able to regain the bitumen and complete the stage, they incurred a 20-minute penalty for failing to complete the next stage while running repairs were made to the battered machine.
The penalty put the V.I.P. Petfoods team out of contention in the two-day Hobart event, but Quinn and Tillett drove Saturday’s remaining stages to gain practice mileage for April’s Targa Tasmania, which will incorporate the same roads.
They intended to continue the extended practice session today, but retired after four of the seven stages when the 2011 model GT-R’s transmission began behaving irregularly.
“We kept going even though we didn’t have any chance in the event, because there were some things we wanted to test before Targa Tasmania,” Quinn said.
“This was only our second event in the new car, and it has quite a few things that are different compared to the 2009 model we ran most of last year.
“It was going okay after we changed the sensor and took off the broken bits and pieces, but we hit a pothole on Cygnet 1, and that did something to the transmission.
“There was nothing at stake, so I decided to stop rather than destroy a $40,000 gearbox.”
The event was won by Jason and John White in a Lamborghini, with Matt and Casey Close second in an Audi TT RS, and Brendon Reeves-Rhiannon Smyth third in a Mazda RX8.
The V.I.P. Petfoods team’s next tarmac rally is Targa Bambina in New Zealand from March 17-18.
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