Milltek Sport Tuner Grand Prix
2006-08-30
Grand Prix Results
All in all another successful event. Competitor numbers
were down on last year due to the holiday date but those
that attended brought some of the best prepared cars we've
seen in the competition.
A
common observation from the 2005 Tuner GP was the need
for a practice day so this year we laid on exactly that
the Saturday before the competition we had a track practice
day complete with full timing. Strangely very few competitors
attended so this meant those teams that did got a bit
of a head start on the race the next day.
Unfortunately for Team DVA Power a fairly major engine
explosion late on the Saturday pretty much destroyed one
of the most highly specced Lotus engines in a cloud of
smoke and pistons but a flurry of activity that night
and the next day meant they weren't out of it just yet….more
of them later.
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photos © copyright Thorney Motorsport. |
The day began with the morning sessions of the GP and
after a stilting start the early best times were set by
the Lotus Elises of Team Auto teknix and Lotus Power but
rapidly chasing them and for a lot of the morning leading
them was a turbo charged Hayabusa engined Dax from team
DJ Sportscars. It was pretty exciting stuff seeing the
Dax and the Elises swap lap times like a sports car duel!
The action wasn't just limited to the Sportscar class.
In the Hot Hatch's there was a busy field including Seat
Supra R's, Renault Clios and VXR Performance centre's
Sprint Astra VXR driven by BTCC ace Gavin Smith. The Renault
Clio from K-Tec Racing performed brilliantly though out
the day and rarely seemed off circuit, both the drivers
emerging from helmets with larger and larger grins each
time. Mind you, on the practice day a slight miscalculation
on who's job it was to torque the wheels up meant a wheel
flying off the car and ending up in the maize field!
Team Big Boys Toys/Revo entered a wide range of cars from
a Seat Cupra R to a Skoda VRS all lapping with similar
times around the 1.27-1.30 mark and were clearly enjoying
themselves but it was the battle between the diesels that
raised most eyebrows. In one corner we had the VXR/Thurlby
Motors 888 Astra CDTi complete with uprated suspension,
Alcon 4 pot brakes and engine remap and in the other corner
was the Sanspeed Astra CDti SRI with just a Milltek Sport
exhaust and Superchips remap, these two cars swapped the
times between them on each lap with Sanspeed leading the
way until the final laps where Gavin Smith took the wheel
and snuck under Sanspeeds best time of 1.26 by half a
second. Gavin clearly used his racing experience in the
VXR Astra Sprint car as well claiming the victory in the
class three seconds ahead of the K-Tek Clio.
The MPV's/4x4 class wasn't really expected to be that
busy but the eventual two entrants we had; a Subaru Forester
STi from Litchfield Imports/Powerstation and the VXR Zafira
from VXR Performance Centre made for interesting spectating.
Watching the Forester four wheel drift its way through
Russells was hilarious and many specatators commented
that 'cars like that should be able to do that on track'.
The VXR Zafira generated even more incredulous looks,
the way it was hussled round the circuit made it look
that carrying dogs and kids about was far below its real
calling. At the end of the day though the Foresters superior
power (300bhp) and all wheel drive shone through to take
the class by almost 5 seconds.
The Sports Coupe class was a two horse race as well with
EVO magazine persuading Porsche GB to lend them a brand
new 997 Turbo to see how it compared to the tuned cars……very
well is the answer. Up against it was the Weltmeister/TTP
tuned Porsche 997 and the two traded lap times between
them never more than a second apart. The noise of the
Weltmeister/TTP 997 alone was worth a stand on the pit
lane as it shot past like a jump jet, but the bog stock
997 showed how good the manufacturers are in creating
cars such as these, with a best lap time of 1.18.98 it
was only 0.75 seconds behind the highly tuned Weltmesiter/TTP
car which won the class with a time of 1.18.23, impressive
stuff from both teams.
Got us thinking though……..maybe a separate production
class for the manufacturers next year?
The Supermini class was literally a one horse race as
we only had one car in it, however a trophy is a trophy
and Sanspeed cleared up nicely in the Skoda Fabia to take
the win with a time of 1.29.59 - not bad for a shopping
trolley with a remap.
The Sports Salon Class was far more entertaining with
a flat split of Subaru Imprezas taking on a gaggle of
Audi RS4's with a Mitsubishi Evo from Henstead Racing
making up the sandwich filling. The Audi's were an interesting
collection with a 4.2 V8 from Milltek Sport doing battle
with a pair of twin turbo V6 models and with an average
of 480bhp between them it was an interesting battle, of
note was the fact that they lapped the circuit in broadly
the same times with the Milltek Sport 4.2 leading the
group at the end with a time of 1.24.29.
The top four places in Sports Saloon were all Subaru Imprezas
with a Litchfield prepared Scoobynet car coming at 1.23.39
just behind a Sanspeed prepared version. Sanspeed played
a different game this year and ran one of their basic
£1600 conversions so the fact it performed so well with
a lap time of 1.21.25 is testimony to the fact that you
don't need mega money to tune these cars. Top hours went
to the Litchfield cars again this year with their type
25 just being pipped by their other Impreza with times
of 1.18.55 and 1.18.40 respectively.
The final two classes, Sports Cars and the single entrant
in the Track Car class ran a repeat of last year with
the class and overall honours being fought out by two
highly professional teams. The early running was made
by the Autoteknix Elises all of which run with Audi 1.8
turbo engines and they were all lapping at around the
1.15-1.16 mark and then in jumps the turbo charged Dax
with a stunning 1.14 - that's not far off BTCC times and
they run on slicks not road tyres!
By the lunch break it was the Dax by the smallest of margins
from the Elises but then the news came through that the
Dax had engine issues and couldn't continue. The engine
had only just been run in so the team from DJ Sportscars
were actually pretty pleased to have done so well and
reckoned more could be had if they wound up the boost
a little but it wasn't to be. With a clear run at the
track the Auto Teknix cars were able to improve their
times with driver Steve Gugliami eventually chalking up
a stunning 1.14.42 to win both the Sports Car Class and
the over winner - Car Tuner Grand Prix 2006.
And what of the DVA Power Lotus that blew up so impressively
on the practice day? Well with a blur of activity and
people driving all over the country to collect pieces
of engine here and there the team amazingly managed to
replace the engine and just got out on track for the last
15 minutes of the competition and collected up a magnificent
5th place for their hard work, not bad at all seeing as
the day before it was basically a bonfire on wheels!
Drag Strip Results
Such was the importance to the teams of the GP a lot of
them didn't enter the drag strip so we had a depleted
field for this event however those that did entered did
a stunning job.
The Hot Hatch Class was most competitive with top hours
being vied for by the VXR Sprint from the VXR Performance
Centre, the Clio from K-Tek Racing and a couple of the
Revo/Big Boys Toys entries in the form of the Seat Cupra
and the Skoda VRS.
Top honours eventually went to the VXR PC in the ¼ mile
coming up in 13.665 seconds just pipping K-Tek at 13.752
seconds. The 0-60mph followed a similar theme but in reverse,
where the Clio was beaten to the ¼ mile it beat the VXR
Sprint car to the magic 60mph by a mere 0.13 seconds in
4.73 seconds - pretty impressive for a Hot Hatch. Amusement
of the day was provided by BBT/Revo in the Skoda VRS who
managed to floor it off the line …………..in reverse, I promised
we wouldn't mention it in the report but I lied J
The competition between the Dax and the Elise from Auto
Teknix continued from the GP into the drag strip with
both cars sharing the spoils. In the 0-60mph the Dax reigned
supreme with a time of 3.98 seconds but in the quarter
mile the better aerodynamics of the Elise came to bear
with a time of 12.852 seconds compared to the Dax with
13.168. Our only claim to fame was the VX220 that Thorney
Motorsport had prepared but was entered under a Sanspeed
banner (we can't enter our own cars) which got to 60mph
in 4.11 seconds and the ¼ mile in 12.975 so we were pleased
with that.
However above all these was the EVo 3 from Henstead Motorsport.
Simply one of the best prepared EVO's we'd seen and wowed
the crowds with a best time of 3.61 seconds to 60 mph
and a ¼ mile of 12.010 seconds - truly impressive, each
time it launched the chassis would twist and the front
wheels lift off the ground, truly a great drag car.
Milltek Sport Car Tuner Grand Prix 2006 Winners
- GP
Overall winner - Auto Teknix, Lotus Elise
- Hot
Hatch - VXR Performance Centre, VXR Astra
- MPV/4x4
- Litchfield Imports/Powerstation, Subaru Forester
- Sports
Cars - Auto Teknix, Lotus Elise
- Sports
Coupes - Weltmeister/TTP, Porsche 997
- Superminis
- Sanspeed, Skoda Fabia
- Sports
Saloon - Litchfield Imports/Powerstation, Subaru Impreza
- Track
Cars - DJ Sportscars, Dax
- Drag
Strip Overall Winner - Henstead Motorsport, Mitusbishi
Evo 3
- Hot
Hatch - VXR Performance Centre, VXR Astra
- Sports
Cars - Auto Teknix, Lotus Elise
- Sports
Saloon - Henstead Motorsport, Mitubishi Evo 3
Next year?
Well, we'd be lying if I said we were happy with the
turnout or the crowd as both were significantly down
on last year but we're sure this was down to a combination
of factors such as dates, venue and marketing. However
since then we've now spoken to some key sponsor partners
and we'll be announcing next years Tuner GP at AutoSport
in January.
We'll be making a few changes to the location and moving
the time back to its traditional slot of late September
and have already secured a new media deal that will
put the event back where it should be. One thing is
clear for those that attend the Tuner GP come away with
the over-riding feeling that not only is it great fun
to compete in but also offers really valuable marketing
of their tuning, we hope that the third year will allow
the event to grow to new heights.
I'll finish with the usual thanks to the Tuner GP sponsors.
To Phil Millington of Milltek
Sport exhausts, their second year of sponsorship
who continue to use the event to its best potential
- showing customers what they do best, to Superchips
with their support on the drag strip and finally to
Greenergy
and Tescos
with the supply of their 99 Octane fuel.
The Tesco involvement came late in the day due in part
to the extensive testing Thorney Motorsport conducted
over the last 8 months, basically we were so impressed
with the fuel and its effect on power that we now recommend
it to all our customers. Full details of the report
and its findings can be found on the TMS website - HERE
Here's to next year.
John Thorne
Full Results
Results are in Acrobat PDF format and can be downloaded
by clicking these links:
2005
Results
Available here
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