Ten of the best 10.

[johnnyr6]

I Don't know if anyone on here will be interested but it looks like team Subaru has won this years 10 of the best.

Steven darnley won the drag contest with a 9.26 quarter and top speed as well hitting the kilometer mark at 194.1mph and Andy F hit 191mph.

I had a very good day with absolutely scorching weather and only 1 broken subaru.

Well done to all the team and good to see the hard work paying off.

Johnny

Edited July 31, 2011 by JohnnyR6

[paul555sti]

Great result for the team! Andy ran the fastest 1/4 mile time of the day 9.22 but it was in the final. Cant wait to see what he achieves once he winds up the boost!

[ciaranrb5]

Andys car has alot more to come

[fai17]

Good to catch up with you and colin.

Team Subaru indeed lift the team cup and fastest 1/4 mile cup and handling cup.

Brilliant day had by all.

[Gumball]

Sounds good. Im kinda sorry I didnt make it down today

[Midnight21]

Excellent ;-)

[scooby222]

result! top marks for sticking it to the evo and skyline boys at last

[braveheart]

Well done to all involved the trophy is where it belongs for another year. Steven Darley and the Yellow bananna what an all rounder. Massive respect to all Team Subaru Well done to Andy F 1/4 mile Fastest time there is alot more to see with this one. will be nice to see the Low 8s..

Also great to see folk attending this and giving support to the lads.

Chris

[simon.r]

Yeah - was a top day - Although I only made the Saturday.... But none the less - saw some amazing vehicles and some of the noises from those exhausts systems - wow I'd imagine like having a shotgun next to your ear.

Whose the fella on here who owns the silver impreza pre 2000 has a SIDC sticker on the front and back window?

[andrew_forrest]

Cheers guys and girls, we had planned to have the race spec sequential 6 speed box in the car for this event but for various reasons we were let down at the last minute and it was delayed beyond our control, so it was off to TOTB with the 5 speed and a sensible approach in order not to break it.

Here's a summary of our weekend.

Saturday started well with some time spent on the handling circuit setting the car up. Running at 1.2 bar boost 3rd overall at the end of the day was a good result.

Sunday arrives and we start off with a warm up run on the dragstrip at 1.5 bar with the skinny 215 M/T street tyres, lots of wheelspin off the line but it felt good once it hooked up. As I come back down the return road I meet Lisa giving me a big thumbs up, thats usually a good sign lol, it sure was, 9.3 as a warm up!

Keeping in mind that this engine makes circa 800lbft of torque at 1.5 bar and the 5 speed gearbox is rated nearer 600lbft, I was reluctant to wind up the boost. The time was going to have to come from the launch.

Then comes some bad news, Mikee has just blown his diff so we are already 1 team member down. Every cloud however as I eyed up his Hoosier drag tyres. Mikee was keen to let me run them so we set about changing them over. As I pick up the last one I notice it is covered in thick blue shockproof gear oil from the diff which had spewed 4 ltrs of oil onto the ground....eeek!

Lisa sets about cleaning it off with rags but its like grease. I suggest a petrol soaked rag will help so we set about washing it off, just as mikee returns to say the tyre man says whatever you do, don't use petrol.....gulp. He suggests just do a burn out with them.

In the absence of a water trough, I'm reluctant to do a dry burnout, for the safety of the single plate ACT clutch and gearbox.

We line up again and not surprisingly, there is not a lot of grip off the line and she spins up again in 1st and 2nd gear, the times dropping a tenth to 9.4 One more run and the tyres are starting to dry out and grip, even bogging the car down off the line on one run so it was time to increase the launch control settings. I also sneekily added another 0.1 bar of boost, hoping the box didn't notice.

We set off with the new launch setting and 1.6 bar, its off line like it has never launched before, clean clutched shifts all the way and nearing the limiter at the finish line, hmmm that was a very low 9 me thinks. Driving back the pit road I look for positive signs from Lisa, instead I see a raging Lisa strutting up the road...... time not recorded I set off down to the start line again with the tyres still warm but the extra grip bogs the rpm off the line so its another mid 9.

Aware that time is marching on and all the handling runs need to be done by 2:30 we set about changing to the Kumho tyres, boy its hot work in a 3 layer race suit as I drive down the pit road with the door open for some air (no opening windows or blowers in the car) Off we go for run 1 on the handling only to find on turn 2 that the door is not latched shut and it flies open, run aborted after 5 seconds but still counts as one of my 5.

We go again for run 2 only to find that overnight someone has turned the track into a go-kart track with 30mph mini-roundabout size corners. Our 5 speed custom long gearing is no good whatsoever here, 2nd gear will run to 85mph on this box so we were coming out 2 of the corners at under 2500rpm (for comparison a JDM 6 speed would be around 3600rpm on the same bend) a drop to 1st gear was considered but its not good on the gearbox so we trundled on in 2nd for the whole circuit, just getting on power as the next corner arrived.....not good.

With the sighting lap done, I go try again but just struggle with such low rpm out the corners. We ran a mid 54 but needed to be in the 53's ideally however we were sitting in 10th overall so good for 1 point and more importantly, an additional 5 points if we could score in the top speed as we would score in all 3 disciplines.

Ok so we will go do the dreaded top speed then (don't like Vmax runs) but wait, whats that water spraying out under the bonnet, argh sh1t, a water fitting to one of the turbos has split and its an odd size of -6 in and 12mm out. Back to the pits and everyone is in lending a hand David W is in about Stevens spares looking for a T piece and finds one, now we are stuck for an adaptor to -6.

C.J to the rescue as he offers to strip one off his fuel system for us (top man) which disables his car. Great stuff, we are up and running again. I ask Clive how fast we need to run to score points on the top speed, anything over 170 is the reply. Ok, thats not so bad I think, thats slow enough to correct it if a tyre blows etc

We line up in the left lane only to find it closed due to some dispute, they say maybe 15 mins until it opens. It is now 2pm and we had hoped to get back to the handling for another run or 2 to try and improve on 10th place, the 15 mins passes and the lane is still not open. The car is set up for top speed and I'm all taped in (to stop the windows popping out) and slowly frying in the heat, sitting thinking about how many things could go wrong on a home made shed running at that speed,then Bingo, its go go go. Set off at 1.6 bar with a gentle start and wind it on, it feels stable enough, the change from 4th to 5th at 160mph gives a little wobble but it self corrects, I watch as the shift lights gradually climb from green to yellow, red and then flashing red, just as we cross the line, perfect, it seems to take ages but in reality is only 17 seconds.

Back to the pit road and I have to ask Lisa the speed which I thought was odd, 149 she says, **** off I say and dispatch her promptly to the start line to get the correct speed. (normally I'd get a slap for that) 191.something and 3rd place, ok, that will do nicely for now me thinks

Back to the handling with seconds to spare, hot supersoft Kumhos and no rear wing, the car is a handfull and runs a similar mid 54 as before, I ask the startline man where I'm placed, 10th he says. Ok, no point in trying another run as the Kumhos need to cool off for half an hour. We head off back to the pits to fit the drag tyres again for the shootout.

Shootouts come and we are running in the semi against Ross in the EVO, someone 'in the know' says I'll nail him on the start no problem but the car has good power midtrack. I think, take no chances, boost up to 1.7 bar. We have the faster qualifying time so I get lane choice, Left please, its been faster all day. I do a short dry burnout, big risk but take the chance. Pre stage with revs high and then nose slowly into Stage with launch control fully primed, lights change and off we go, nailed him on the line as suggested, clean into 2nd, up into 3rd and I'm well ahead, then disaster, the engine bounces off the limiter and the car shudders real bad....clutch slip....shiiiiiiiiiiiiit, I shift into 4th and I can hear him closing in, floor it and judder judder bang bang bang off the limiter, i lift and hit the throttle again, car hits the limiter again, under any other circumstances I would abort the run before the clutch or engine let go but as I see Ross flying up on my right........ I can also see the finish line, Ross flies past and so does the finish line................. we drive alongside each other on the way back looking at each other and shrugging shoulders, wondering who won?

Ross ran the faster time but it was 1st across the line that won and that was us, by what could only have been a few mm!

Steven takes his semi final from Paul and I watch from behind as he leaves the line like an absolute rocket.....gulp, that new bottle of NOS they fitted before the shootout is certainly working!

We have a short cool down break before the final, just to get the nerves up I niggle Steven about startline strategy and we agree no messing about and even offer each other the opportunity to stage 1st or 2nd lol. Mark tells me I really need to take care of my little 5sp gearbox and I should turn the boost down lol. Funny but it was more the clutch that was worrying me, had I just fried it? You don't normally get 2 chances with these things as they warp just like overheated brake discs.

I decide to put the boost back down to 1.6 but have the N2O enabled with a 50 shot, should the clutch hold then I can switch it on, if it doesn't hold, we are screwed anyways.

Steven has lane choice and takes the left lane again, he does a dry burnout, I don't, hoping to save the clutch for the launch.

Pre stage and we are both in early, boost builds and we both go into stage like coiled springs, between us over 1600bhp under pressure screaming to get out.

Lights barely change and we are off, I find I now have a higher clutch bite point so slip it more than was ideal, losing critical reaction time, the plus side is it then bites hard and with a 1.51 60' time, we are side by side by the 60' marker. As soon as I come off the throttle and clutch shift to 2nd Steven pulls a car length, then an even slower clutch shift across the gate into 3rd and he gains a few more car lengths with the super slick, full power flat shfting sequential....but wow, the clutch is gripping and we are now stetching its legs in 3rd and reeling him back in........get the nos on you twat someone shouts in my helmet.....but I also need to go for 4th and the switch is on the other side.....aaaargh, bang into 4th, other hand down to nos switch, the car twitches due to nobody steering for a few milliseconds and we really get going in 4th and start reeling him in fast...... but not as fast as the approaching finish line, It looks like Steven got it by a foot but as we travel back down the return road side by side, Steven doesn't look so confident as we both give each other a big thumbs up.

I have the quicker time with a 9.22 but Steven takes the win by a few feet as I cross the line at 159mph to his 144mph. Role reversal from my semi final result. In the pits Lisa looks a bit confused as nobody ever explained the first across the line thing to her.....oops, my bad!

What can I add, nothing that I have not already said to the people on the day, it was a fantastic result for Steven, an excellent effort from the whole of the 22b.com entered team and support team. I'm not too unhappy with the fastest time of the day and 3rd overall either

cheers

Andy

[jef]

fantastic write up there andy!!

need to get to one of these events at some point, to see how the good drivers use there cars.

[johnnyr6]

You don't need to go too far. Go to one of the days Barry organises at Kames, especially if John Stevenson is running, not too bad behind the wheel for an old un.

Johnny.

[ROBBIE-T2000]

bit of good reading there

how do you remember all that detail doing sub 10 second runs

[johnnyr6]

bit of good reading there

how do you remember all that detail doing sub 10 second runs

Adrenaline

Johnny

[BalliSTIc]

Well done team subaru, and great write-up Andy!

I love it... an extra 0.1bar of boost here a wee tweak there. Genius!