Time Attack 2008 Round 3 - Silverstone

Round 3 of Time Attack at Silverstone, grey, overcast but no rain and perfect conditions for some very quick times to be set

Pro Class
The pro class was won by Olly Clark in the Roger Clark Motorsport Impreza with an amazing time of 58.877, nearly 3 seconds faster than the previous lap record on the track and faster than the BTCC lap record!
Second was Steve Guglielmi in the Guglielmi Motorsport Lotus Elise, with 58.911

Third was Tom Ferrier in the ZEN Performance Impreza with a 59.068

Legendary Japanese Time Attack driver Tarzan Yamada came over especially for the event and drove the RK Tuning R32 GTR

Ross Juniper in the Dragon Performance Mazda RX7, still on a development curve, but will be one to watch soon

Back after its Donington crash was Gary Hayward in the APT Evo 7

Reshelled since Round 1 following a crash at Castle Combe was Simon Norris in the Norris Designs Evo 9, Tarzan Yamada also drove this car during the day

Club Class


Kev Horsley once again took Club Class forced induction honours in his ScoobyClinic Impreza with a time of 1.01.689

Jeff Mileham won the club class normally aspirated class with a 1.04.256 lap in his TVR Tuscan
Barrie Rycroft in the DCY Evo 7 digs up the gravel

and to end, another photogenic car, John Begleys R32 GTR in replica STP/Taisan livery from the 1990's Japanese Touring Car Championship

Round 4 of Time Attack takes place at Oulton Park on the 5th of July

Time Attack 2008 Round 2 - Knockhill

I have a love/hate realtionship with Scotland, its a nice place, nice people, but it always rains, but at Time Attack Round 2 at Knockhill it didnt, glorious weather all day with glorious performance to match!

Pro Class

There had to be a winner and finally after over a year of trying it was Olly Clark in the Roger Clark Motorsport Impreza with an amazing 52.186, which is faster than a BTCC time around the track..

2nd place was Rory Butcher in the Autosportif / TEIN Impreza with a time of 52.254

3rd was Chris Ward in the RSE Motorsport Evo 7 with 52.565, the top 6 all got into the 52's

A bad day for Guy Harrington in the Auto Ergonomics Evo 8, despite a very commited drive, with terminal engine failure

'Crazy' Jamie Stanley put in another red mist fuelled drive in the RC Developments Evo 6, eventually finishing 5th overall, maybe if the rear wing struts had not collasped, resulting in the loss of a lot of downforce, he would have been faster again

Lee Broadhurst in the Edgehill / NR Autosport Evo 9 leads Andy Harvey in the Scoobyclinic Impreza

Earlier Harvey attacking Duffus Dip

A more sucessful run for the ZEN Impreza with Tom Ferrier driving to 5th place overall with 52.879

Club Class
Kev Horsley again took the F/I win with a 54.073 lap in his Scoobyclinic supported Impreza

And Craig Winstanley took the N/A win in his Chevy V8 powered RX-7 witth a 56.418 lap
Kev Atkins in the MA Developments Evo 6 attacking Duffus Dip

Barrie Rycroft in the DCY Evo 7, a flaming good car


And finally Tim Chandler in the best sounding car on track, Porsche 911 GT3 RS

The next round is at Silverstone, as part of the Japanese Tuning Show, featuring a visitor or two from Japan....

New project for 2008

On the shelves now is the June 2008 issue of Banzai Magazine. I am now contributing Time Attack and European Drift Championship articles and photos, aswell as my own column page, which despite its flattering name outlines a very serious issue for both modifiers,tuners and consumers alike. Check it out

What is Tokyo like?

A few people have asked me what is Tokyo like? This film will give you a good idea. Click the Vimeo logo on the bottom right of the screen for full screen


Alone in Tokyo HD from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Filmed and edited by Philip Bloom

Premier 4509 - New Styling by VeilSide

When I visited VeilSide in January there was a car in the corner having a new bodykit developed for it. It was a Lamborghini Murcielago, but at the time I respected a request not to publish photographs of it....

Until now:

and the resulting aero kit:
The range is called Premier 4509 and like most of their newer kits the 'combat' style has been done away with in favour of smooth lines to compliment the car and look almost as if it was designed like this originally. White is certainly the new Black

The kits consist of front/rear bumpers, sideskirts and the carbon rear wing. The wheels and exhaust are available separately also
There is also a kit for the smaller Lamborghini Gallardo, the front design is identical to the Murcielago
And the third design is for the Bentley Continental GT. Like the Lamborghini kits, the design is clean and subtle and only 10cm wider than the standard GT
And the rear. Once again the creative artistic genius that is Hirano Yokomaku has created a stylish and purposeful design. One of the true automotive artists, as he moulds the design himself using foam and clay and does not sketch the design on paper.

Some people might argue that why should you personalise your very expensive and exclusive Bentley or Lamborghini? Why not would be Yokomakus answer. Not everyone can afford to own such cars and since some people can, they can choose to personalise their car even more, as opposed to just a personalised number plate!

The Bentley will feature in Fast and Furious 4, unsure yet whether it will be a major role or just in the background! VeilSide are creating other cars for the film too, which is in pre production at present

The next generation of VeilSide has arrived. It is going to be an interesting journey

Time Attack 2008 Round 1 - Donington

Its back!! Time Attack 2008 will be bigger and better. More tracks, more entries and much more interest all round! An interesting weekend, for Round 1 at Donington Park: dry,windy, rain and then snow, it had it all!

Pro Class
The day was eventually won by Duncan Tappy in the Autosportif/TEIN Subaru Impreza with a time of 1.20.550 in the damp but had earlier set a time of 1.12.758, the fastest of the day overall

Not far behind was Olly Clark in the Roger Clark Motorsport Subaru Impreza, with 1.22.691 in the final, easily the loudest car of the entire weekend with its side exit exhaust, visible just infront of the real wheel

Third was Jamie Stanley in the RC Developments Evo 6, with some great drifting at times even though its Time Attack! His final time was 1.23.114

One of the most improved cars in round 1 was the Scoobyclinic Impreza, driven by Andy Harvey, with a strong 6th place in the final
Not long back from its trip to Japan and Tsukuba was Fensports Celica running a new sequential gearbox, eventually finishing 9th

Stanley and Darren Robinson in the Whifbitz RX7, in the snow

Club Class
1st in the Forced Induction class was Kev Horsley in the Scooby Clinic supported car with 1.28.569

1st in the Normally Aspirated class was Paul Hughes in the Buddy Club UK Honda Integra Type R with a 1.36.185

Fastest overall club class lap was 1.18.286 set by Barrie Rycroft in the Distinctive Cars York Mitsubishi Evo 7

Not every day you see a Renault Clio (briefly) leading a R34 GTR

A few offs and crashes but this is the only 1 I caught on camera

And to end this overdue update, 2 of the more interesting cars running in club class:

Craig Winstanley's Mazda FD3S Rx7 -with a Chevy v8 transplant

and the Apex Performance Skyline R33 GTS - also with a Chevy V8

Ready....

For Round 1 of the Japaneseusedcars.com European Drift Championship / Time Attack series

Ive invested in some new photographic equipment for this year too...

A Nikon D300 Digital SLR, I bought this in Japan and saved over €700 compared to what the ripoff camera shops here want for it! If you cant get to Japan, theres always ebay! Ill be using this for the majority of my photos this year

And this Canon Ixus 75 digital compact. Cheap but good value and it takes some great photos, and far more discreet than the big Nikon, perfect for snapshots. Sometimes its far easier just to let the camera do all the work, or if you want to take things easy, as it clips onto my belt, and does not need a rucksack to hold everything belonging to it. A lot of my recent photos from Japan were taken with this camera, but for action shots or when you want to do what you want as opposed to what the camera wants, the Nikon is king