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Report - Tuner GP

What a day! From the feedback we've had from all the competitors we can firmly say the first ever Car Tuner Grand prix was a massive success and the results speak for themselves just how close and exciting the racing was, a mere half a second separated the top three cars!

GP

The blue riband event certainly lived up to the hype, never before in the UK have over 40 car tuning firms made such a committed effort to race the best of what they do. Every class had a battle and every car marque had a separate battle within that - it really was exciting to see how the cars compared and at the end of the day the laptimes can't lie.

In the diesel class it was a hard fight between the Skoda Fabia VRS and the Sanspeed BMW 530d with them both lapping hard around the 1.30-1.44 mark but towards the BMW from Sanspeed emerged victorious with a winning time of 1.29 and we've no doubt both of them used less fuel all day than some of the other classes used in a session! Diesel cars are fast emerging as a tuned class in their own right so for the 2006 event we expect the class to be a lot busier.

In the 1399-2000cc NA class there was an interesting mix of cars. Yozzasports two Clios certainly turned a few heads with some consistently quick lap times the quickest being a 1.27 and they certainly handled well. Not bad for a company relatively new to the tuning World. Sportmeister BMW did well with the BMW E30 320 a car which they also prep for race meetings and Superchips entered into the spirit of the event with an MGA - the oldest car at the day so tuning isn't all about the new stuff. The real fight in the class was amongst the Elise tuners. DVA Power, Linkup and Elise Parts all had S1 Elises with a variety of engine swaps/upgrades were swapping places at the front with alarming regularity with DVA Power eventually coming out on top a mere 0.64 seconds ahead of the Honda engined Linkup. The fact these teams all shared a garage is testimony to the team spirit showed on the day up and down the pitlane.

The 1399-2000cc FI class was the busiest in terms of entrants and controversy. An eclectic mix of Subaru Imprezas, Focus RS Turbos and Elises made for fanstatic viewing. Puma Speed had a pair of RS Turbos which looked and sounded excellent and alongside them at the top of the pit lane WRC Technology arrived with some very well prepared Scoobys which ran well all afternoon. Big Boys Toys Leon (the only SEAT in the event) ran well without any issues and Lohen had the only Mini Cooper S entered which again performed well getting some good laptimes around the 1.26 mark. Interestingly the Clio from K-Spec Racing was having a right fight with an Impreza from Greenwood Racing,two Imprezas from new tuning company X-Spec Racing and another Impreza from Sanspeed all around the 1.23-24 mark with Sanspeed just nicking it within the group at 1.20.86. This all made Dialynx's A4 1.8T's laptime of 1.20.28 even more impressive. Fourth and fifth in the group was another tight fight between Litchfield Imports Impreza Sti Spec C and WRC Technology's Impreza Sti 8 both these impeccably prepared cars swapped times like women swap shoes with Litchfield overcoming early noise issues to better WRC by a mere 0.33 of a second. At the front of the group it was a tale of Westfield versus the two Elises from Linkup and Auto Teknix. This battle went right down to the last minutes of the day with the Westfield (being driven by Track and Race Car Editor Keith Wood) finally coming out on top by 0.04 of a second!

The 2001-2999cc NA class had another mini battle of its own with another magazine backed entry in the form of EVO with their project BMW E36 M3 GT which they are prepping for the Ring. Battling it out with them was a wolf in sheeps clothing in the form of Branded Untouchables BMW E36 325. BM World did a fantastic job of sorting a lovely E30 M3 in the class against the two later E36 cars but at the end of the day EVO got the result and walked away with the class win.

The 2001-2999cc FI class was another example of a range of cars closely battling it out. Breed Perfomance/RX Motors brought the only rotary engined cars there and performed brilliantly and Chiptuning UK had another of their tuned Volvos in the form of a V70 T5 surprising a few cars down the straights. The rest of the pack was a heady dual between the Scoobys and Mitsubishi EVO's with a CA Automotive supercharged E46 BMW thrown in for good measure. Early part of the day the RC Developments EVO 5 and 6 ruled the roost with the Scooby Clinic and Scooby Mania Imprezas regularly mixing it at the front, however after battling with noise issues Litchfield Imports came back right at the end of the day to take the win with their Impreza Type 25.

2999+cc NA class was a straight fight amongst the Germans. Birds Auto had their Hartge One Series (with a 5 litre V8 in it) which wowed the crowds on its road set up which proved difficult to rein in the power on the circuit. Milltek Sport had their 4.2l V8 S4 which seemed to spend most of the day entertaining passengers with the lovely V8 wail. The top of the group was split with 2 cars from Big Boys Toys in the form of their Golf R32 race car and a Porsche GT3 fighting it out with Branded Untouchables other entry a BMW E36 M3. Despite the car being fully road legal and complying with the rules and setting the best lap time in the class Big Boys Toys decided to withdraw the R32 from the event in the spirit of the road biased nature of the competitors leaving their own GT3 to take the class honours.

The 2999cc and above FI class was one of the highlights of the day, watching the West Tuning Porsche 996 Turbo swap places with the QST Porsche 996 Turbo so seeing how two tuning companies can develop near identical cars was a fantastic spectacle. Vagtech performed brilliantly in their turbo charged R32 Golf and CA Automotive had their supercharged E46 BMW lapping consistently all morning. As well as the Porsche QST also had a thoroughly prepared Audi RS4 putting in some decent times around the 1.26 mark. The final result was QST victorious in their Porsche with only a 0.78 second advantage with West vowing to bring their other 996 to take the title back.

And the overall winner? Well with a laptime of 1.17.17 was the Westfield in the hands of Track and Race Car magazine. The fight with the Honda powered Elise from Linkup was heart stoppingly close and went right to the wire. Impressively enough they then drove it home on the road rather than on a trailer - respect.


Drag Strip

At 12 o'clock we turned Doningtom Park into a dragstrip - down the main straight we set up timing lights so the cars could show what they could do over the ¼ mile and 0-60mph times. Seeing as the main straight ends at Redgate corner it was a specatular event!

Under 1399cc Cruisesport noticed we had no entries for this class so cheekily sent their Citroen Saxo down the strip to collect the pot, even if the 18.19 second timefor the ¼ mile wasn't much to crow about. Shame we didn't have any really modified smaller cars there.

1399-2000cc NA This was quite an interesting class with a Yozzasport Clio fighting it out with DVA Powers Elise and AE Turbos custom Scirroco drag strip car. End result was DVA Power hurtling down the track to record a ¼ mile in 12.43 seconds and 60mph of 3.98 seconds. This was good enough to get them 4th overall in the 0-60mph.

1399-2000cc FI An interesting mix of cars. Team Speed brought up the rear with a highly modified Escort RS Turbo with a time of 15.7 seconds and just to show that Ford can improve on cars the Focus RS from Puma Speed just nicked the Escord RS from Tuner Speed with a time of 14.46 seconds for the ¼ although the RS was quicker to 60mph than the Focus in a time of 5.36 seconds. The head of the class was reserved for the overall GP winner in the Westfield but only just from the Audi engined Elise of Auto Teknix which managed a excellent time of 12.93 for the ¼ and 3.86 seconds to 60mph.

2001-2999cc NA This class was a straight one on one fight between the E30 M3 from BM World and the E36 M3 or Branded Untouchable with honours going to BM World with an excellent time of 14.17 for the ¼.

2001-2999cc FI Jap car fun with some Scandinavian spice in the form of a Volvo from Chip Tuning made this class entertaining with the Volvo turning some heads down Donington's main straight. Breed Performance's RX7 went down in a time of 13.91 seconds beaten by Dragon Racing Skyline (the only Skyline on the day surprisingly enough) in a 12.44 second run. Top honours though went to fanatastic performance by Scooby Clinics Impreza Type R, this stormed the strip in a mind blowing 11.182 seconds and still made it round Redgate - fantastic.

2999+cc NA Another one on one fight for Branded Untouchable in their E36 M3 and this time they got pipped by Big Boys Toys R32 Golf by half a second to record a run of 14.03 and a 0-60mph time of 5.48 seconds.

2999+cc FI For some reason the big Porsches didn't go out on the strip so Vagtech got to whitewash the big class in their turbo charged R32 Golf with a time of 13.23. We'll never know (at least this year) if the Porsches could've beaten it.

Diesel The closest class of the day and in many ways the most fun. Chip Tuning had their Fabia VRS TDI and their Volvo S60 D5 up against Sanspeeds BMW 530d. It a complete reversal of the GP result ChipTuning took it from Sanspeed in a 15.28 second run in the Skoda so diesel honours on the day were 1 all, Sanspeed getting the GP and Chip Tuning getting the drag.


The Drift Challenge

Sadly the actual drift competition never came to pass due to lack of time but the Drift Arena was a highlight of the day for many visitors. Paddock 2 was completely set out with a variety of drift courses that really tested the drivers and the public got to see some of the UK's top drifters show off their skills, the number of shock faced passengers we saw really showed the fun these guys were having. Drift Academy were flat out all day giving introductory drift lessons to many people with many being instantly hooked on this growing sport.

Melbourne loop also became a focal point for the day with single and dual drifting going on on what is technically a tough corner to drift on; the high entry speeds make it a turn requiring commitment. Vauxhall were entering the spirit as well, expertly drifting their VXR Monaro round the course. ;
   
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