UK Time Attack visits Tsukuba

Recently 4 of the leading cars from the Time Attack series were shipped to Tsukuba circuit in Japan for the RevSpeed Tsukuba Super Lap event, probably the best known and highest level Time Attack event in the world

The cars were:

Zen Performance Subaru Impreza (2007 Champion)

RC Developments Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 (winner of Round 2 2007)

Fensport Toyota Celica

Sumo Power Nissan 350Z

As part of the build up,some of my photos were used in RevSpeed mag (bottom left corner) - a great honour for me!

In October the cars were shipped to Japan where they were stored in the Do-Luck warehouse,Mr Ito doing a lot of the behind the scenes work on the Japan side.

Unfortunatley - as much as I wanted to I just could not go, and I knew this so for once it was not so bad being sat 12,000 miles away watching it all unfurl!



Onto December and all the cars arrived safely, but during some dyno tuning for the Japanese fuel the Zen car sheared a cam sprocket - not good. After a miraculous overnight rebuild completed at 5am it was off to the track, where a misssed gearchange caused the Fensport cars engine let go in a big way and with a few custom parts installed that are not available in Japan (strangely!!) a standard 3S-GTE was installed, which although greatly down on power at least made the car mobile again, with a best time of 1.04




More bad luck, with the Zen car throwing a rod though the block,caused by oil surge,a common fault with tuned Impreza engines - but before this,driver Phil Glew managed a 58.5 second lap, good enough for 11th overall!!

Current Tsukuba record holder Nob Taniguchi tested the RC car and after testing different setups recorded a 59.1 second lap, which placed them 14th overall, another fantastic result.
A very trouble free trip for the RC lads a testiment to their work

NOB prepares to go out,also in the photo is Abe san of Blitz



The Sumo Car with Andy Barnes at the wheel set a best time of 1.03.5, later Tarzan Yamada improved on this slightly with a 1.03. With a track the size of Tsukuba (1.29miles) half a second is a big difference!

Overall winner was the M-Speed Nissan R34 Skyline GTR with a time of 54.202,which sets a new GTR record. The overall record is still held by Taniguchi in the HKS Carbon Evo 8 with 53.999

Tarzan gives his opinion on the cars for the cameras

2008 should be good!!

New European 4wd 1/4 mile record

After a year of development and only the cars 4th run Sumo Powers Drag R33 Skyline GTR Fuujin (Japanese god of wind) set a new European record of 8.27 @ 164mph, which is official as a backup time of 8.4 was done,unlike the 8.3 second time set earlier in the year by another car. The time was set at Santa Pod

Onboard video

Time Attack - Round 4 - Brands Hatch - THE FINAL

Wow what a day,what an event, Brands Hatch was the venue for the final of Time Attack and a great event it was, with all 3 championships going to the wire and being decided today. An extra big update was needed to cover it all
Pro Class

There had to be a winner and today it was Phil Glew in the Zen Perfomance Subaru Impreza WRX RA,who set a 49.771 second lap which won the Pro Class and the Pro Class Championship overall

Second was Steve Gugliemi in the Gugliemi Motorsport Lotus Elise with a 50.967 lap

Third was Clive Seddon in the RC Developments Mitsubshi Lancer Evo 6 with a 51.113 lap, this car had the highest overall speed on the day, with 155mph, which for the Brands Hatch Indy circuit is very fast

Having a go today was Mark Luney in the SVA Imports Nissan 350Z drift car,if the 2 way differential had been swopped for a 1.5 or 1 way the car would have been in the Top 10.....

Apart from Gugliemi in the Elise,the only other non-Japanese car in the Pro Class has been Dan Lewis,better known as Renton in the Redline Magazine Ford Sierra Cosworth with a 4x4 conversion

Martin Greens RC Developments Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5 - a nice car but a photographic nightmare

Making its debut was John Goodwin's fabulous WGT Developments Mazda RX7 FC3s

Also trying out in the pro class was Martin Hadland in the Reyland Ford Escort Cosworth,which may be seen full time next year

After even more tweaks the Sumo Power 350Z was being driven by ex BTCC driver and now Aston Martin GT racing boss Mark Lemmer

Apart from Ireland, the only overseas entrant in 2007 was 'Trackday' John Terzidis from Greece in the Auto Ergonomics Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8

Club Class

Todays winner and winning the club class forced induction championship was Kev Atkins in the MA Developments Evo 6 with a quite amazing 52.914 lap,which would have been quick enough for 9th in the Pro Class final

2nd overall was Ron Kiddell in the RK Tuning Nissan R32 Skyline GTR

3rd place was David Harrison in his Abbey Motorsport supported Nissan Skyline R34 GTR. This is the old Sumo Power R34 'Ichiban'

1st (again) in the club class normally aspirated was Nadine Geary in the Viper (note the reg plate)

2nd was Jeff Mileham in his AC Schnitzer BMW E30 3 series

3rd was Dixon Cheng in his Honda DC2 Integra Type R, which was enough to secure him the club class normally aspirated championship

Phil Burdock in the vastly improved Burdock Flooring Impreza

Oliver Crawford's Supercharged EP3 Honda Civic Type R,shoots nice flames,but sadly got none on camera,maybe next year....

And finally the trailer for the Motors TV coverage of this round of Time Attack

Fuujin Runs

Sumo Powers new Nissan Skyline R33 GTR drag car, called Fuujin had its 1st proper runs at Santa Pod and ran a 8.54, not a bad acheivement



This was the cars 1st proper run and there is still a lot more to come as its development cycle continues to the 7 second barrier....

Time Attack Round 1

Wow what a weekend,full of surprises and broken records. Loads of new cars,updated cars and new drivers. A lot of the teams watched 2006 with interest and now have entered the 2007 series. It can only get better

This round and all rounds of the 2007 season will be shown on MotorsTV

The overall winner was the Zen Performance Subaru Impreza driven by GT/BTCC driver Matt Allison with a 1:14 lap,3 seconds quicker than the fastest lap from the 2006 final

2nd overall was the Roger Clark Motorsport Subaru Impreza WRX driven by Ollie Clark losing by just two tenths of a second to the Zen car

3rd overall and breaking up the Japanese car dominance of the event was Steve Gugliemi in the Audi 1.8 turbo powered Gugliemi Motorsport Lotus Elise

Simon Norris in the Norris Designs Evo IX SWB was 4th overall, but is 1 to watch as always, perhaps the snot rocket has met its Subaru Nemesis??

Andy Barnes's Sumo Power 350Z didnt make the final but was a fine sight ontrack, moreso as the pink paintwork made it easier to photograph, hopefully will place better in the remaining 3 rounds

Unfortunatley for Mick Wade, the Distinctive Cars York R32 GTR suffered from problems all weekend but should place better next time, gotta love the R32 GTR's

and finally 'Fast' Rob Barnes in the Sumo Power Evo VIII widebody put blown off boostpipe problems behind him to record a well deserved 5th overall

A few of the teams were still not ready for Round 1 whereas others will be making adjustments for Round 2 which will take place at Silverstone on June 3rd as part of the Japanese Tuning Show Keep an eye on the website for the latest info

EDC / Time Attack 2007 is here

I was recently at the NEC in Birmingham for the Autosport International show, 1 of the biggest motorsport shows in the world where the European Drift Championship / Time Attack 2007 series were formally launched. EDC was formally known as D1GB and although the name may have changed,very little else has, the same with the Time Attack series. EDC had a stand with both drift and time attack cars there and there was a lot of interest in both series, particularly from the UK motorsport industry. I was there for Time Attack as I am the series official photographer, but ended up covering the event for EDC too as sadly the EDC photographer could not make it, so there was loads to see and take photos of

A few pics,it was a stuggle in the halls with the lighting but learned a lot about shooting in these conditions



Pink jacket,pink bag, pink........



Norris Designs Evo IX SWB. Very big power levels,very big turbo,very long spec list,very fast. If Satan modifed a car it would be a bit like this.........


In Satans corner we had the Norris Evo,but in Emperor Palpatines corner we find RC Developments new car,their Evo VI. Evo IX Mivec engine,rear mounted radiator,400kg lighter than their last car, loads of carbon and a big turbo. Let the fight begin......

SVA Imports Nissan 350Z drift car,with added turbo,rebored engine (3800cc) and rear mounted raid. Mark Luney aka Sidewaysbuff will drive this car in 2007, so hopefully some excellent results are in store. With a speical mention to the lovely Yokohama ladies


Overall view of the stand on Sunday with the Sumo Power 350Z after its clutch had died in the life action arena,of which Ill be talking about soon, so watch this space. A more indepth look at all the cars on the stand will hopefully follow also