walsh128

I cant believe he saved that on the exit of brave (bray) hill. Who is the nutter in the passenger seat?

leecalcars

iTrader: (37)

Amazing control at those speeds ,congratulations subaru and mark higgins !

The Dogs B******s

I think I would of shat my pants.

Gambit

iTrader: (6)

here's a youtube clip of it at the bottom of bray hill, pity we dont get to see the recovery on up the road, but holy moly is he travelling a rapid rate of knots!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBqc4CqaEOo

Jonny_

jonathon elfalan - journalist from road and track mag

my06 ppp silver

iTrader: (2)

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/defa...?storyId=23737

Gary C

Love the way the passenger said 'I don't know how we held that'

like he had anything to do with it !

dean_gti

^ it was mark who said that pal

scoobyc

iTrader: (2)

holy jesus christ. that was mental. im scared just watching it!

gordy07

It doesnt get much closer than that.Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

alan.g.01

iTrader: (2)

i was told by a m8 today who goes to the tt every year that this lapped at 119mph on the tanoy

ajsti

anyone know what exhaust Mark's impreza was fitted with ?? sounds great

rigga

iTrader: (4)

Did a 115mph lap on its final attempt

walsh128

I wonder if he volunteered for that seat. Bray hill is the scariest bit of road on the TT course and, like always, the camera doesnt do it justice.

Heres another guy that got it wrong and lived to tell the tale.

http://www.ugoto.com/video_paul_orri...nkslapper.html

walsh128

It was probably 119mph upto Glen Helen. The drag over the mountain from Ramsey brings the speeds down.

rigga

iTrader: (4)

Mountain section is the fastest part though,so i doubt that would affect the overall lap,and generally a lap is measured from start to finish and anything in between is just a sectional time.

walsh128

Dont think so. There are lots of slow corners on the mountain section. Ramsey hairpin, Waterworks, Gooseneck, windy corner, creg na bar, signpost and governors to name a few.
I was watching at unoin mills on monday and they gave him a speed of 116 upto glen helen (first commentry point). Next one is Ramsey, but didnt hear his time upto there.

He looked really quick trough union mills. As fast as the superbikes. Faster than the sidecars.
It was impressive to watch.

sivo

iTrader: (30)

**** !.........



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6-5Q_sZGiM

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

That loss of stability after Bray Hill would have been scary on a track, on the road it must have been terrifying!

Temendous skill and composure displayed there!!

rigga

iTrader: (4)

Biikes spend the most time at full throttle over the mountain section,so hence my statement saying its pretty fast,of all the places you mention only windy corner is truely on the mountain section,goosneck onwards is generally accepted as the start of that section,ramsey hairpin and waterworks are before that,and the creg is the end,the section after at hillberrry is apart from sulby straight the ultimate speed point,but never the less it was a great effort.

urban

iTrader: (1)

That exhaust note is fantastic!

Fat Boy

From the horse's mouth - see lower down in interview with Max Rally:

Record breaking with Mark Higgins
Features10th June 2011
By Rebecca Jones

On Monday (6th June 2011), Mark Higgins broke Tony Pond’s 21-year standing TT Races circuit record in a US production-spec Subaru WRX STI. He averaged 113.5mph around the 37-mile course that works its way around the mountain roads of the Isle of Man. Yesterday, I travelled over to the home of the Manxman, to watch him take on the circuit for the second time, find out what modifications had been done to the car and ask him what it meant to break the record.

Q: Congratulations Mark, how does it feel?

MH: It’s a dream come true! To break Tony Pond’s record is one of my greatest acheivements.



Q: When Tony Pond set the record 21 years ago you were in your teens…

MH: Erm, unfortunately not, no. But thanks anyway! I’m forty now... Oh hang on, yes, I was, I was 19!



Q: What do you remember?

MH: Well actually, the year that Tony set the record was the last time I was on the Isle of Man for the TT Races. This has always been a busy week in the rally calendar, so I’ve never been able to come back, although I’ve tried on numerous occasions. I was a great fan of Tony, he won the most Manx Rallies at that point. Ironically, we only took over his record two years ago with Subaru when we won five Manx Rallies.



Q: So, is this something you’ve wanted to do for a long time?

MH: I’ve been trying to get it to happen for about ten years with different manufacturers, but it’s so difficult. When the opportunity came up with Subaru I jumped at the chance.



Q: At the time that Tony set the record, did you think, "I can beat that"?

MH: No, even before doing the lap on Monday, I wasn't confident I could do the 100mph lap… and that’s genuine. I know the guy that built Tony’s car and they put a lot of work into it. When Tony came here in 1988 he was nowhere near the 100mph mark, so they went away to totally re-do the car and they spent a lot on development and testing.

We’ve come here with a car that is very stock. I’d not driven the car before I came onto the island. I’d taken a couple of times going up the mountain and looked at the top speeds of the road car. We were only five or ten miles an hour more than Tony, at the top speed. And I thought, we’ve moved twenty years on, we’re not on a slick tyre, which is a big factor, and we hadn’t done any testing for here. The biggest surprise of all was when I found out I’d done 113.5mph.



Q: And, timewise, do you know how much faster that it?

MH: Yeah, it’s about 2 minutes faster. Everybody thinks, yeah you’ll go faster, but I didn’t actually equate how many minutes you have to shave off to get the extra miles per hour. For every two and a half miles an hour faster you have to finish 30 seconds sooner.



Q: So, can you run me through the car, what modifications have been made?

MH: Yeah it’s a 2.5 llitre American production-spec Subaru 2011 STI. It’s got modified brake pads, but we’ve kept all the brakes the same. We’ve put a Fire Eater system in for safety, as well as the roll cage the seats and the harness. In terms of the engine, they’ve taken the speed limiter off; it’s really geared for 155mph but we managed to get 162mph out of it, so they’ve been into the map to do that.

The reason it sounds very different is the exhaust. We’ve put a rally exhaust on, which is a requirement of the organisers so they can hear us coming. In terms of performance and safety we’ve put rally suspension on. So, we’ve got tame dampers, which are what you’d use on the Manx Rally, so, probably a bit soft for this course. But, with the jumps and the high speeds it would have been a bit silly to have a standard road set-up.



Q: But power-wise, fairly stock?

MH: Yeah. A standard stock car is about 305 bhp and we’re getting about 350, with the extra air from the exhaust, that's about what you'd expect.



Q: A lot of people on Twitter want to know if a proper rally car, Group N or WRC, would go much faster…

MH: From a chassis point-of-view, obviously, it would be a lot better. Power-wise, you’d have to de-restrict the engine because the WRC car is restricted to 34mm. This car has no restrictor so we’ve actually got more power in terms of top-end speed, but chassis-wise there’s a world of difference... with a World Rally Car, not so much Group N.



Q: If you could drive the circuit in any car, what would it be?

MH: Well, it would have to be a Subaru on Pirelli tyres! I suppose you could look at Le Mans-type cars, but really you’d have to design one especially for the course.



Last night Mark drove the circuit again, this time with a co-driver. He achieved an average of 110mph. He will have one final attempt at the lap today at 1510hrs.

Fat Boy

No, it wasn't. It was Chris Cantle - photographer/videographer - but also from Road and Track. He was just there to make sure the camera's were working correctly.

Having said that he makes Chuck Norris look like a lady boy given his stoic reaction to impending death

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

Mark Higgins:

"We’ve put a rally exhaust on, which is a requirement of the organisers so they can hear us coming."


Not surprising!

urban

iTrader: (1)

I have to get one of those

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

That Subaru rally prep place in Witham, Essex ("ATW" or something), was selling a genuine WRC97-00 one a few years back. Just a simple 2-part, straight through, wholly unrestricted, ceremaic coated job (from turbo back).

Would have looked and sounded pukka - I should have bought it...

Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

Can people who run decats use the same excuse 'pedestrian safety orificer, my decat is saving lives! Who believes in that global warming nonsense?'

Anders

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

Not as 'silly' as it sounds...


Have you ever, er... NOT heard a Prius in action?! Bloody things are so quiet, they're a bloody liability to inattentive pedestrians... and general thickos lol.