Tsukuba Circuit

One of my last Japan post before the next trip, whenever it will be and a return to Tsukuba Circuit for a small time attack event, quite a busy one too. Tsukuba is quite poor for places to shoot from so this set is similar to the last time I was here. Cheers to Mike Garrett of Auto-Otaku for the lift and hanging with us for the day

This very tidy Nismo kitted 350Z was zooming around

And a nice FD2 Honda Civic type R

Nice Suzuki Swift Sport, I love these

And a very cool and fast....

Honda Fit (aka Jazz) with a J's Racing bodykit, and Id say a few J's bits underneath too

Only in Japan would you find a Ford Ka running on RS watanabe wheels and at a trackday too...

You cant escape, AE86's are still everywhere

And much rarer stuff like this Z31 300ZX

Most R35's I have seen so far have been parked up, or being wafted gently around - but not this 1, the first time Ive seen a R35 get some proper right foot action, and this 1 had a rear wing, different wheels, a Cobb accessport ECU and a centre exit exhaust among other things

Needless to say it tore up the track, overtaking everything and proved to me that the GTR is a fast car, and one that is even faster with some tuning applied

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

Time Attack - Round 2

The 2nd round of the UK Time Attack series took place recently at Silverstone, in glorious weather but it would have slight imperfections in terms of grip and performance for some cars, but still it wouldnt put people off!


The overall winner was the RC Developments Evo 6 driven by Clive Seddon with a 1:01.455 laptime, if the weather had been a little cooler this time would have been faster again


2nd again was the Roger Clark Motorsport Subaru Impreza WRX driven by Olly Clark,not even a second off 1st place


And 3rd again was the Gugliemi Motorsport Lotus Elise, again just 1/1000ths of a second off the fastest time


1 of my favourites from the weekend,Dave Ellen in the Prolex UK Toyota Aristo Vertex V300, running with full leather interior,aircon and stereo, along with a 2JZ-GTE with automatic transmission with the steering wheel paddle shift controls, and it didnt finish last either!


Winner in the Club Normally Aspirated class was Nadine Gearys Dodge Viper,easily the most menacing car on the track,coupled with the soundtrack provided by the 8 litre V10 engine, which set a winning class time of 1.06.312 which was a comfortable 4 seconds ahead of..

Dixon Chengs DC2 Honda Integra Type R who was just ahead of....


Simon Miskellys newer J's Racing Dc5 Integra Type R which proves my own theory that loads of revs and no torque are no substitute for higher engine displacement,lower revs and high torque levels, or maybe its just Im not a big Honda fan!!

2 in a row for Ron Kiddell in the RK Tuning R32 Skyline GTR who once again placed 1st in the Club Forced Induction (Turbo) class

And finally Andy Middlehurst who won the British Saloon car championship in the R32 GTR in the 90's,aswell as introducing the GTR to the UK market was driving the Trackday Performance R32 GTR in the pro class, which was very quick but a few mechanical gremlins got in the way of things,so should be interesting to watch in Round 3 as only minor problems put the car out

Round 3 takes place at Knockhill in Scotland on July 28th