I spent Sunday at Mallory park watching the Nippon Challenge / Subaru Cup races, the grid is made up of various Jap (eastern) cars, any Jap car is eligible and is split into distinct classes based on horse power, GT 150 up to 150bhp, GT200 up to 200bhp, and includes GT250, GT300, GT500 and so on up to a super GT class with no limits on anything!! So there’s a place for anything cars include Mk1 MR2s, MX5s, Nissan SX200, Honda Civics, even a MG TF !!! which apparently is eligible due to MG now been Chinese, a very tenuous link but I suppose it helps fill the grid
Also running within the Nippon grid is the Subaru Cup which is a production based class for the Impreza classic, these were the cars I was interested in as it’s the class I intend to run next year.
And it looks like I have lot f work to do in the mean time, I was expecting little more than stripped out road cars with just the necessary safety gear added to comply with the series regs, but these cars are very well developed race cars, not so much the engine as they typically make about 280bhp but it’s the chassis set up where the real work is, all the cars are stiff, light and very well set up.
The silver Xpec car reputedly weighing just 1060 kg.



Unfortunately it seems I came on one of the worst days with in terms of Impreza attrition, the Frogget Scooby Clinic car failing to make the grid, clutch problems and a terminally blown engine cruelly robbing the Howells car of a very strong second which found the car ending it’s day on the trailer, although they said they would've fitted a spare engine between races if one had been available.



Probably the unluckiest man was Matt Edwards in the silver Xpec car, his gearbox failing in a big way in the first race then been involved in a start line collision with one of the Buddy Club Civics in the second,the damage was quite substantial considering they didn’t even clear the grid
The fact he made it to the second race at all was amazing the Xpec guys changed the gear box in the lunch break between races!!!


The rest of the Imprezas did rather well, the GT500 car of Dale Genty totally dominated, qualifying pole, setting fastest race lap and winning both races by a country mile, it was a little embarrassing to be honest such was his dominance, the Subaru Cup cars did very well finishing 2rd and 4th overall and don’t forget these cars are production class cars so are the least developed.

All in all it was an interesting day and I'm now even more convinced I want to be involved next year, it did however highlight the level of comittment required, and I may have to rethink my budget a bit just to get a car on the grid!!

 

I sat watching the BTCC...

Swap ?

dunx

P.S. Damage is to be expected in racing.

 

yeah I watched the BTCC when I got home and it highlights your point that damage is to be expected, quite how Matt Neal gets away with it is beyond me he was just punting cars out of the way same place lap after lap, and Plato caused his own demise running up the back of the car infront (at least he admitted it later) but imagine that Chevy was is my Impreza at Mallory, Plato just says get it fixed boys, me I'm out the rest of the year.
BTCC is supposed to be the pinnicle of British Motorsport it more like banger racing (great viewing though), if club racers carried on like that they'd be no one left racing by mid season, sure there's some rubbing but it's not intentional like in BTCC.

 

I'm sure an honourable scar or two is normal, mine usually gets scuffed at Blyton...

dunx

P.S. I do enjoy a good BTCC brawl...

 

Me and Mr Crafts don't know what ya mean Dunx (no not the fighting)

 

My wheel arch liner and front bumper are both well aware...

LOL

dunx

 

'ello budd. Glad you enjoyed your day.

Don't worry too much about car prep. Remember to have a set of the regulations to hand so you don't overstep the mark. Chassis rigidity is down to the 'cage and strut bars. Everyone uses coilovers. Most use Whiteline ARBs and decent bushes. The real secret is the geometry settings. We're lucky as ours is done by Powerstation, but Martin's (Tengudo) car was setup by XSpec I think.

Shame Race 2 was red flagged and re-started as Karen had jumped from 8th to 4th by the first corner. The guys in front had wised up for the next time.

Get out with us and have some fun!

 

yeah really enjoyed it, and your right it's really easy to get side tracked with the finer points of prep, but I did notice how well the cars (all the cars) were prepared and above all set up for the job.
My plan is to put a car on track for the least possible expence, fitting only what is absolutely necessary while maintaining reliability, after all I'd expect the majority of the first season to be all about learning to drive the car.
I'm hoping th more I drive on track the more informed my choices will be, so I won't waste time and money fitting things I think I need.
I will of course continue taking advice and trawling forums / ebay for bargains, coilovers often come up at good money.
And I'll be talking to Martin re fitting the roll cage, plus he mentioned the struts on the car Karen drove on Sun may be for sale so that may be an option.
The main thing I need to do at the moment is to get my TVR prep for sale, as it's sale is providing the budget for next year, once it's gone I''ll be able to really press on and get things moving.

 

Cool.

Be careful about your coilover choice. Current regulations outlaw top adjustable mounts...

 

yeah I'm aware of that and most coilovers do indeed come with adj top mounts, (although Matt Edwards is running Zeal coilovers with adj pillow ball tops) and to be honest I can't see them making much difference, as I think most cars are running with at least 2 degrees neg camber anyway, I would have thought 2 degrees neg shouldn't really be possible with O/E parts but where there's a will there's a way.

 

We had been made aware of Matt's adj top mounts, and being copiously under-weight. Suffice to say there'd have been a protest lodged if he'd placed. Matt's a great guy and a terrific driver. He doesn't need such "illegal" advantages!

Our own car is running geometry within production tolerances. It's surprising how good it can be! About 1.5 neg at the front. (Can't remember the back). No Camber bolts. Don't forget the imprtance of caster and toe too.

I'm just surprised the Subaru Cup hasn't been much more popular!

 

Yeah I was surprised just how light they've managed to get it, and as I said before I don't think adj top mounts or camber bolts would make that much difference (not as much as the weight anyway) but it's the thin end of the wedge, ultimately the rules are there for a reason (to keep the class affordable) so you could argue that the rules should be enforced, but with relatively few Imprezas in the 'Cup' I guess there's also a case for turning a blind eye to minor infringements in order to get the number of cars on the grid the series deserves.
And I agree it's surprising the 'cup' isn't better supported, I see all these 'race preped' road cars with £1000s spent here on the forum I think man it wouldn't take much to turn that into a racer but the truth is their owners have to much money invested in them to risk racing, I read a quote somewhere along the lines of 'if you can't afford to walk away from a total loss you shouldn't be racing', plus they need to be usable road cars to, although I think the current economic situation isn't best suited to launching a new series, hopefully things will improve next year, I'm very serious about entering and if things go to plan we'll be there next year.