https://youtube/watch?v=n4GvNup8XiM TOTB 2014 Sometimes from the outside it can look easy, arrive, drive, win, go home. If only it was that simple! For the week leading up to the event, no customer work was booked in. Getting everything set up spot on takes up so much time its unreal! Coming from the Sprint win at Castle Combe earlier in the year to TOTB we change the front and rear aero, front and rear brakes. ECU, gearshift and diff maps, suspension geometry, fuel type, nitrous set up and of course wheels and tyres. Testing on the Saturday however threw us a curveball, the electric power steering was not man enough for the tight handling circuit. With its quick turns and on the wide 305 Kumhos it was just horrible to drive. The steering would load up heavy as you turned in, then go super light as the hydraulics caught up mid bend, there was no feel of the available grip whatsoever. This had never been an issue before on the narrower tyres and also we had just changed to a 2.2 turn rack, it was now a big problem. Just as well I had the air shift working on the paddles as I was going to need both hands on the wheel just to haul it round! We decided to wait and see how the track changed overnight, even rain would work in out favour! Sunday morning came and it was an even tighter track....... nightmare. Our plan was to get the top speed run out the way first (Over 200mph in an Impreza worries me) First run was just a warm up, just as well as I forgot to switch on the air shift and it just bounced off the limiter in 1st gear whilst I worked out what was up! Run 2 and I give it a run at 1.7 bar to check stability at the top end, its stable as a rock and we clock 199mph on the Km. Quick map check as we line up for run 3, Lisa turns on the NOS and I turn up the Cal switch to 2.0 bar, big boy pants on now as we set off to improve on last years 210mph, launch feels fine and we are doing 171mph at the quarter in 8.7.....but it doesnt feel right, it should be a white knuckle ride from here on and its not, I find myself watching the GPS speed as it just tips 200 at the finish line.......I almost miss my turn off as I overthink whats gone wrong, all temps and pressures look great. Back to the pits and its 201mph, so only 2mph up from what should have been an additional 290bhp. Datalogs tell us the car was running way too rich on both banks, further investigation shows that the NOS solenoids are not firing when tested. They worked just fine out on the road a few days previous, I have the skid marks to prove it! At this point we dont have a solution, is it going to be a problem, we dont yet know what the competition are capable of in a straight line. We need good points here as the handling circuit we know is going to be where we may struggle against the more nimble 4 cyl cars, especially now as we dont have the Nitrous to wake up that pair of billet 35 turbos out of those 2 tight 25mph hairpin corners. So, on with the wings and the narrow Dunlops (pumped up to ease the steering load) and across to the handling circuit. Run 1 and it felt better than the Saturday but there was less grip and the steering was still very lumpy and lacking in consistancy. The times were ok though with a 3rd spot on our 1st run. Simon Norris was the guy we had to watch, he was just behind us on drag and top speed and was currently ahead of us on the handling, I had to make sure he couldny get more than 2 cars between us on times if I wanted to keep the overall win in sight. Run 2 we removed a section of rear wing to try and ease the understeer, it was quicker but still behind Simon. Run 3 and we nailed it with what felt like a messy run but at 37.2 it was over half a second ahead of 2nd place. Simon didnt have an answer to that and we ended 1st equal (with Duncan Cowper) for a maximum 10 points. 3 x 10 meant we were uncatchable even if we screwed the handling shootouts (which we did lol) Heading back to the dragstrip, the top 4 times were close enough that a sleepy lauch was all that was needed to throw it away, luckily I was wide awake on the startline with my eyes firmly focused on that cold beer that was waiting back at the startline So although it may have looked an easy win, we were lucky that some of the other top cars had bigger problems than us, holding them back a bit also. Thats it for another year then. Id like to thank all our sponsors and contributors. We use all these guys because they are the absolute best in the business, not just because they offer something to us free or cheap! WhiteLine for Suspension components. Extreme Race Clutch. Roland Alsop Engineering for machining work, gaskets and Pistons. Lateral Performance for Rods. AS Performance for oils, AP and custom braking parts. RA Motorsports for bodywork and paintwork. MB developments for custom crankshaft. ABW for GRP panels, bumpers, bonnet and boot. Trackstuff for Race fuels. Syvecs for S8 ECU and adding my little upgrades. AFP for cobbling it all together and mapping! Lisa for sorting out everything else, including me when I have some unrealistic plans!
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 14:42:06 +0000
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