Most of you will know that the Isle of Man TT is on next week, some of you may know that Subaru are an official sponsor of the event and are putting on, what the organisers are billing as, 'demonstration laps' in a brand new 2011 Impreza STi.

The truth is, they are 'unofficially officially' attempting to beat Tony Pond's four wheeled lap record of the Isle of Man TT circuit, an average of 102.1mph round the 37 mile circuit.

Subaru America who have championed this attempt are backing driver Mark Higgins for the lap record. The car itself is being run and prepped by BRC champions Teg Sport to an incredibly high standard.

A series of small changes to the car have had to be made in order for it to compete safely. It had been fitted with a safety cage, extinguisher system and electrical cut-off. In addition to this fuel manufacturer Carless have supplied fuel to run the car on so a remap was necessary. Especially given that the USDM cars run on 91 octane fuel!

We know that Tony Ponds car was definately not standard although otherwise publicised, however Subaru had dictated strict modification guidlines as to what could and could not be done, fuel was one of those.

For the mapping of the car both Steve Simpson and myself teamed up in an effort to make the most that we could from the race fuel. Due to the nature of the car, (the fact it was a USDM), it meant no aftermarket ECU would work, so we came to the conclusion that given the time constraints we would Open Source flash the original ecu!

A few hours of playing on the dyno resulted in some reasonable numbers for which the race fuel was optimised at. I'm sorry I can't post any dyno graphs at this time as I'm not allowed, want to keep you guessing me thinks!

I must say thanks to Epifan Software for sorting me out with a definition to work with this car.

Anyway pictures of the car, outside Teg Sport:



The full Teg treatment, strip check and rebuild:




Steve driving it onto the dyno:



Steve and myself deep in mapping concentration:



I'm not mapping here, I'm actually playing Solitaire whilst Steve is watching. To think how much faster we could of been otherwise!



Big thanks to Teg Sport for their warm hospitality and excellent workmanship and Steve for the invite to the dyno to get involved, he knows his shizzle when it comes to ECUs, top bloke, top mapper!

Graham

 

Nice!

Wasn't it an old rover 800 series that Tony did the lap in? Surely they've gotta blitz that!

Seems funny that Subaru have let someone post on a public forum that the car has been remapped on race fuel. You'd have thought they'd of at least wanted everyone to think it's an off the shelf Impreza.

 

if it beats the world record, no1 would belive that anyways

 

Already publicised about remapping on carless:

http://www.rallybuzz.com/vital-equip...ecord-attempt/

You would think it was an easy walkover, but we think, (from careful calculation), that Tony Pond and his rover had 240bhp and 1100kg. The Subaru I think weighs approx 1500kg and only has 60bhp more in factory trim! Don't forget the drivetrain power losses. Still think it's an easy one?

Graham

 

Average speed of over 100mph !!!!
That will take some beating.

 

All the best guy's hope you can beat the record

 

http://youtu.be/G6noOET7Eik This is what they have to beat

 

Average speed is ramped up on the long high speed sections... Not the impreza engines favourite, hope it doesn't go bang lol. Suppose it's a 2.5? Probably explains why they want it remapped I guess.

Imagine if it'd been attempted back when the P1 was current.. BANG!

 

1st dibs on the front seats when engine let's go and you decide to break it

 

Awesome! So glad to see the saloon being used. It should handle better and Higgins is a great driver so let's hope he can keep the speed up.

 

Mark should have a good go, will be good to see the results

 

Opensource mapping? Semi-official support from Subaru? I can see this coming up in the opensource vs. ECUtek debate.

 

Good Luck and may the force be with you!

 

I hope they crack the record, good luck Graham.

 

If nothing else, it certainly underlines what a stunning drive that was by Tony Pond!

 

For those of you who don't know who Mark Higgins is;

http://www.creativetalent.co.uk/mark...s/profile.html

 

Including the brown staines? lol

 

Graham, the USA fuel you refer to does not use the same Octane system as the UK, in the USA the pump fuel is rated in PON (pump octane number), in the UK and Europe we use RON (research octane number).

PON is a value that comes from the RON and MON (motor octane number) value of the fuel and is a more acurate measurement of fuel rating than our RON system. To get PON you take the average of the RON and MON value of the fuel. (PON=(RON+MON)/2)

Also, the USDM STi is not designed to run on 91PON, it's designed to run on 93PON, with 91PON being an acceptable but not prefered fuel, so if you run a USDM STi on 91PON the ECU retards the ignition using it's active knock control capability.

91PON is aproximately 95RON
93PON is aproximately 98RON

So the USDM STi is designed to run on the same quality of fuel as the UK STi, it's not the horror story your article sugests with your 91 Octane fuel! statement.

Best of luck with the attempt, having Mark driving is as good as it gets round there so you have a very good chance of taking it.

 

Yes sorry you are right! This version seemed to have quite a timid ignition map compared to EDM earlier versions. This and a few other differences to the EDM cars that we found indicated it might not have been putted out it's quoted figure perhaps.

Graham

 

Should a mapper ask what modifications a car has before he maps it?

 

Graham

If Mark higgins is too busy, I'm not doing antything next week Any way good luck with the attempt

A true Legend and bet he still would be RIP

Tony

Ps

I'm taking a test drive in a 2011 saloon tomorrow I wonder if Cross Roads will let me pop over and beat the record first LOL

Tony

 

Is it Mark Higgins or David Higgins the Team USA driver? I think it might be David.

 

Good luck can we watch it on tv anywhere ??? Channel and Time etc

 

Good spot more likely to be http://www.davidhigginsrally.com/ if Subaru USA

Tony

 

It is David that drives for Team USA, but Mark doing the attempt.

Graham

 

Graham

ask them to change their names it will save the confusion LOL

 

Tony Pond's lap was really something special but it was also done nearly 20 years ago! Mark Higgins is without the best man to have behind the wheel for the attempt but I don't reckon it'll be as easy for him as people think. Tony Pond was holding it flat out at 150 at some points of the lap

I hope there's footage of this attempt like there was with Tony Pond's attempt & record

 

i,ll guess an average speed of 113 mph, smashing the record.

 

Wonder if mark will have the subaru mirrors touching walls at silly speeds like tony did

 

Whys the engine been taken out of the car, Me thinks subaru arnt confident in the std powerplant....