Hi, We run a current model STi in the Australian GTP Championship which is a major national championship series 'down-under' for Global Touring & Performance cars (like the WRX STi, Mitsubishi EVOVII, Nissan 200SX, Mazda RX7, BMW M3 etc in addition to our locally produced 300kw V8 Fords and Holdens. In November this year we will also be competing in Australia's first ever 24-hour race at the famous Mt Panorama race circuit in Bathurst. It will be an international event that will involve our category as well as FIA N-GT spec sports cars. If anyone is interested our team web site is www.protecnica.com.au

 

Cool!

 

very nice.....

We have a couple of WRX's in the GT series in New Zealand, and the top one is only a whisker behind Porcshe GT3's and GT2's.
Lapped our Pukekohe circuit in under a minute.....I think the V8 supercars were clocking 56-57 secs!!!

 

That was criminal what Floydy did to you in Tassy. Damn weak *** holden brakes!

Good luck at Bathurst.




[Edited by StiScoobySteve - 5/30/2002 1:01:55 AM]

 

Hi Steve, I guess you saw the telecast. There are a couple of photos of the crash damage on the web site as well. It was a bit dissapointing and very costly in terms of championship points, Not deliberate though I don't think. Where do you live?

 

What kind of turbo-charger do you use on the race car????
And what kinda boost does it run??
Is the car pumping out over 250kw??

 

Turbo is a VF30. Boost is currently 1.3bar but is regulated by the series organisers. It is a 'parity' formula/category which means the organisers determine what boost, weight, revs & ride height each of the different makes and models can run to ensure close racing. Parity is looked at after each race meeting. I'd get sacked if I publicised how much power we are producing and I honestly dont know anyhow. Most of the dyno work has been on rolling roads but we have an engine on an engine dyno this week. My guess is around 230kw.

 

Saw this on TV Monday night - (from Sunny south Africa)
Whats with the 1.5 inch Zorst....

 

Boaty, Looks in one of your banner pics as if a Legacy is in amongst things there...can you tell me who runs that, please?

And nice site btw...shame about the damage you seem to have to put up with...but as they say, that's racing

Cheers, and good luck at the Mountain.

 

Hi Murray, exhausts are free .. in other words any size we want, no mufflers or cats. There are all sorts of differing views & theories on optimum exhaust design but our the engine builder specifically requested a 2.5" exit / tail section. Glad to see the series is reaching South Africa too. Which race was it - Adelaide, Symmons Plains or Oran Park?

 

I thing the 2nd meet - The one where the Holden forgot to brake...
Excellent job by your boys to get it back on the track!

 

Hi AJbaseBloke .... no there's no Legacies in the field, a couple of old shape STi's. If you tell me which photo (which age on the web site) and what colour car I'll have a look and tell you what it is.

 

Murray, I believe the show in South Africa is "Super Sport" is that right? Is it on a commercial network or cable tv channel?

 

South Africa DSTV Channel 21 - Its either Supersport 1 or 2 - cant remember which - very exciting stuff. I see you've got in touch with Darren - he's one of the preferred mod'ers of Subarus in this country. I drive a Prodrive 01 WRX with Short shift, Sway bars and
25 mil lower springs on the way. Any suggestions from Aus on the harsh heat - I'm thinking Intercooler Fan @ under 2500 rpm - lots of slow traffic in the mornings and arvies here and the heat really soaks. So a bigger intercooler will help @ AUD $2000 and then import costs - theres no local manufacturer that does it. (unless you have drawings/plans that you dont mind sharing...)
The fan seems like a logical first step to me. Comments ?

 

Murray .. I've never even heard of or thought about an intercooler fan?? and I'm sorry but we dont have the prodrive models here so I'm not really sure what a prodrive My01 is. What I do know is that the current model STi intercooler is a huge improvement over the old model Sti but I havent compared it to the std MY01 WRX intercooler which is probably somewhere in between the two. Why dont you see about getting a intercooler air temp sensor installed to see how much of a problem the heat soak really is. The other things that works well of course if the IC water sprays.

 

Best way to explain the Prodrive model / kit is as follows. Std WRX on our local favourite Dyno does about 98-102 kw atw and 210-220Nm. A PPP kit ups this to 112-118 kw atw and 220-230Nm and a vastly improved torque curve (area under graph). Search on the net for "Intercooler Fan" - quite a common idea - on the WRX it would be a fan that sits under the intercooler and sucks air through at low revs / standstill - various options available for switching it
on. You dont need a temp sensor to measure the soak, just run the car hard, stop and idle for 2 mins and then open the bonnet and feel the IC end tanks... very warm. With the above proposed
method, the cooler outside air gets sucked in through the scoop.
Then, when you drill the pedal, revs climb, fan disengages and
natural force feed occurs. Best idea I've heard of for years 8-)
Of course, this idea coupled with a larger IC would be ultimate (although the fan at AUD$ 50 vs the IC at AUD$ 2000, I'd like to
give the fan a shot first, then when summer arrives, a larger IC
will be on order.

 

Boaty,

Are you allowed to change the aerodynamics, e.g. rear spoiler for high level prodrive type? What tyres do you use, full slicks?

 

Boaty,
Could you send over some Holdens, they are the nuts.

 

Boaty

Nice pics on the website - looks like good racing. It is just a shame we don't get to see it over here (or even better, have our own version of this championship).

Chris

 

double post..

[Edited by Chris L - 5/30/2002 3:43:24 PM]

 

Speedking ... we aren't allowed to change the aero package. Each year however we can make submissions with regard to models, variants and options that we would like to see made eligible. We will probably ask for the new Type RA C spec or S202, later this year. The Mitsubishi EVO VIIs we race against are RS2 versions rather than GSRs. In other words they have the lightweight bits, different turbo etc of the RS pls the big brakes and 17" rims off the GSR.

Tyres are slicks, yes. We can use any brand, size or compound as long as we stick to std size rims (17 x 7.5). We are sponsored by Falken and use a 225/45-17. There are a wide variety of other tyres used in the series incl. Michelin, BF Goodrich (owned by Michelin), Dunlop, Avon, Yokohama & Pirelli.

 

Is it just me that cant get www.protecnica.com.au to work ??
I dont know why but the idea of a Scooby on a race track seems a bit strange, guess im just ue=sed to seeing them on the rough stuff.
Keep up the good work though.

Andy

 

HELLOM8, Bloody Holdens! They are certainly fast. As a std car (i.e. a Holden HSV GTS Commodore) they produce 300kw and in racing trim they are well in excess of that. They also have the biggest brakes in the business so on fast circuits they are very difficult to beat. Thats the attractive bit about our series though, its got all sorts of differents makes and models and configurations of cars that have different strengths and weaknesses on different circuits ... 4 cyl Turbos, v's straight 6s (BMWM3) v V8s v rotories; 4Wd v's 2wd, etc. Our cars work better on the tighter circuits with lots of direction changes; often we get an advantage off the start with the 4wds, then get run down in the middle of the race by the faster 2wds then come good again at the end as the tyres adn brake go off on the big heavy cars.

 

Andy, I just tried our web site as well and its obviously got some kind of problem. Sorry about that, its the first time we 've ever had a hiccup with it. I'll talk to our webmaster guy straight away .... probably a damn Mitsubishi driver!

 

www.protecnica.com.au is up and running again. sorry about the hiccup.

 

Hey Boaty,
I'm up in Qld mate, just west of Brisbane (Laidley). I must say that SBS have really got their act together this year with Speed Week.
I am very much looking forward to November. It's a shame they won't televise the whole thing.

 

Steve, they havent announced the tbe deal yet but the original intention was to do a big chunk of live coverage (like 6 hours) then hourly updates thru the night then more live coverage the next day.

If you come to Round 5 of our championship at Queensland Raceway on July 14 make sure you drop in to our pits and say hi.

 

Boaty,

My mistake, no Legacy in that pic - it is a Holden...last time I ask a Q on behalf of a (former ) m8 from the US!

Sorry for the false alarm Grassy-**** for the offer of help, and keep on flying the Scoob flag high fer us...

 

Can anyone tell me of any WRX circuit racing teams in the U.K.?

 

Boaty,

I don't think there are any that do circuit racing, or certainly none that I am aware of. Most of the teams here use Imprezas for rallying, though that does include some tarmac events.

I know that quite a few are also used in sprints and hillclimbs, which are also tarmac events.

It's probably because there isn't a suitable class for the car to compete in that it isn't used more.

John