popeyedoyle

KSport Impreza Time Attack Round 6 2013 Brands Hatch



So down to the Kent countryside to the racetrack that is Brands Hatch for the Final round of Time Attack on the 2013 calendar. Unfortunately due to a heavy Crash and poor reliability during the first half of the season Team Ksport Impreza were not in contention for the title. However there was still the glory of the individual win on the day that we were reasonably confident we could challenge for and I've always had a huge love affair with this iconic home county circuit.



Preparations went well in the run up to the event but even so we found ourselves arriving at the circuit at midnight, van emptied, beds rigged and one or two beers just to assist me and the team get a good nights sleep!



Out for the practice session on low boost and no major problems to speak of though the car was still understeering on turn in, particularly during corners that needed a lot of steering input (mainly Druids, but Clearways and Graham Hill bend giving me a bit of a headache too). Suspension bottoming out at the bottom of Paddock hill was also giving me some interesting steering issues that warranted further investigation too. Anyways at the end of the session an altogether more fundamental problem presented itself as one of the slip joints on the exhaust manifold opened up spewing stinking hot combustion gases all over the sensitive engine bay area and rendering me with no boost……hmmmmm a far from ideal start….problems were further compounded when we inspected the turbo inlet. It became clear that we had extensive foreign body damage on the compressor wheel consistent with a 20mm long M5 stains cap head bolt we found lurking inside the cover. This bolt is believed to have come from the air filter assembly housing but at time of writing further investigations are required to confirm route cause of the damage.



Next? Well quite a bit of head scratching, the damage to the wheel was so bad we considered putting the car on the trailer and heading of, but in the "never give up" spirit that is abundant in the Time Attack Paddock we decided to open up the turbo compressor cover and inspect further, possibly dress the wheel such that we can make it serviceable(ish) once again…the Ksport Pit crew (with assistance from Garry Plant of GR Performance) set to work with the open heart surgery with only 90 minutes or so available and before long the turbo and exhaust manifold were out on the floor for inspection and repairs (and I use the word "repair" in the loosest context). Its certainly the first (and I hope it to be the last) time I've ever reprofiled a compressor wheel trackside using a 4" battery powered angle grinder! But the method did clean the wheel up would hopefully get the car back out but at this stage we had no idea if it make any boost. Manifold slip joint issue was also resolved temporarily and with 10 or so minutes left in qualifying the team had the car serviceable for a function check. Fairly easy to start first couple of laps then I wound up the pace a little, for the final couple of laps I gave it a full pace test. Back in the pits and I was a little disappointed to find we are at the bottom of the time sheets. Still its clear the car was serviceable and maybe with one or two more tweaks (and some hard driving) we could be a bit more competitive.



The final then, we had made a few set-up changes prior to qualifying to attempt to counteract the understeer issue. This had worked to an extend and the car was now missing less of the apexes, a few more adjustments and a further reduction in ride height (ride had been progressively tweaked lower all day) and we were ready. Maximum boost selected (not that it made any difference as the turbo couldn't even manage the minimum boost setting) and out we went….4 laps in and I could manage only a 50.5 second lap which pt me somewhere near the bottom of the leader board. A visit to the pits and a strategy discussion with mapper Graham Martin, the clean translation of which would sound something along the lines "do your best to drive a little faster Paul", The real version of said pep talk I shall leave to your own imagination! So out for a few more laps and pushed the car as hard as I ever have….straight line speed was way down due to the duff turbo but apex speeds were good and although not eliminated understeer was much improved to….to into the 49's with a 49.9 then with 3 or 4 minutes left of the session I managed to put in a 49.5 putting me 4th on the board and 3rd in Pro Class 1.7 seconds behind Gav Renshaw and 2.6 seconds behind Gareth Lloyds blistering new lap record of 46.8!



Overall it wasn’t a bad way to finish the season, without the turbo issues I'd like to think I'd given Gav and possibly Gareth a closer run, but talk is cheap….Huge congratulations go to Gav Renshaw, Phil White, Nick and all the NR team for their 3rd consecutive Time Attack Pro Title and also to Gareth Lloyd and at the SVA imports team who are looking unstoppable at the moment.



Plans are already underway for next season with further handling and aero developments earmarked…..be sure to keep an eye out for the faster, meaner and altogether leaner KSport Impreza during 2014.

As always huge thanks to my crew on the day; Graham Martin, Dave Grice, Joho Humphries, Dave Skyline & Garry Plant of GR Performance. And to my sponsors and supports throughout 2013; KSport UK, Enginetuner (Plymouth), Paul Blaimire @ Zen Performance, AET turbos, Lateral Performance, SIMTEK Engine Management, Kaps Transmissions, Group B Motorsport, Turbosmart, Simon McBeath at SM AeroTechniques and Kev at APM Vehicle Graphics

Alan Jeffery

If anybody thinks Time Attack is easy they can think again. I'd still say this is the top end of it. Drag racing with corners!
Great report as always, well done Paul and team.
Always best wishes from us at Enginetuner.

tbtstt

Forgive the thread bump, somehow I missed this when posted!

Interesting to read the amount of work that goes into just getting the car out on track. As a spectator its often impossible to gauge how much tweaking is going on with the car and how much effort is required to post even a "slow" (relatively speaking! ) time.

Car looked great out on track though; look forward to seeing it again next year.

Bonus picture for the thread:

Alan Jeffery

Excellent picture! Saved that one.. many thanks..