The circuit club days are a great day at the track. I hope to make a few in 2016. A 1.45 is a good time for Winton but you will have to work a little harder to get down to a 1.37-1.36 as I did a few years back with the 170kw 3SGTE on Nitto's!
How was Calder?
Is it good value for money?
Track surface?
 

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track_mr2
I went back to winton on Friday for open practice to try out the semi slicks. First time I've been driving on proper semi's the rears are DG03 which are second hand and about 6 years old and the fronts were new NT01's. The tyres gripped up really well and I managed to get into the 1:44's. Was about a 25 degree day. I was hoping to go faster but that was the best I could manage, first time the tyres have been better then the brakes though, so now i'll bolt in my brake upgrade. There was more time to be had in the tyres but I don't think I could manage much better on the day, the track gets pretty dirty as a lot of people went off and dragged dirt on. One issue I had though was after about 6 flying laps I lose clutch pressure, so basically the pedal goes completely soft and wont engage, then once it cools for 5 minutes it comes back. Is it the pressure plate springs getting over heated? The clutch fluid is at the front so I don't think it could be the fluid boiling unless the line near at the gearbox side runs close to the exhaust? 

 
1.44 is a pretty good time. You may want to try insulating the clutch line or the area around it. Also upgrading to a higher temp fluid may also help.

track_mr2
Hey thanks. I still think I should be able to get around there faster then 1:44 but I'm not sure how. I could carry more speed through the chicane at the end of the straight but if I go too hot I risk hitting that concrete wall. Even though I go through that a bit easier I don't think i'll even gain a second if I took it at the limit maybe just a few tenths to half a second maybe. With the new tires the stock brakes do feel a bit limiting. Yeah as the for the clutch its definitely the fluid boiling, I read on the net another guy with an aftermarket manifold ends up with the same issue every two years and has to dump his clutch fluid. So i'll be changing the clutch fluid soon as I've never changed it and at the same time installing a big brake kit so dumping all the brake fluid too which I have never changed. I know what you mean about the Nitto's now, I noticed that the 2nd hand direzza's I bought that are 6 years old ended up picking up heaps of stones but the brand new NT01's up front don't have any stones stuck in them. The NT01's do grip sooooo much better then the RSR's though and they felt really good the whole day. they direzza's grip awesome though and stones get stuck so deep in them. Oh I bought a stock gen 3 cast manifold and heat shield, I'll end up changing to the stock manifold at some stage as the tubular one just puts out too much heat and causes too many issues. I just feel that the extra heat will end up causing other issues eventually like electronics failures or hose failures or something.

Yes, I agree with using the cast manifold. Its all you need for most applications.
The 'NT01' is a great tyre is value for money. They are not as quick as some other brands but there wear rate is good and they keep for years.
I ran around Winton in 2011 with NT01 doing 1.37-1.38 all day but they could not deal with much more as they did start to go off after 5-6 laps so slowed down a second or so for a lap then got back into it. So yeah, stick with the NT01 all round. About 2.5-3 degree camber all round, as much caster as you can manage should point you in the right direction.