In a bit of a late decision, I ran the Spec C at this years TunerGP event yesterday at Snetterton.

After last years successful event which saw the Subaru marque doing extremely well at Donnington, the event moved this year to the Snetterton race circuit.

Whats the point of TunerGP?

Well, it has been heralded as the THE event for the tuning industry to show and demo their work around a track. It gives the respective tuning houses a chance to prove their modification packages in real-time and also gives customers the chance to passenger in these vehicles.

The day ran with every car being fitted with a transponder, with each lap they acheived being logged and timed. With the group of cars being split in to classes of car type (of course no pro driver split here), the fastest lap time in each class won that class.

Obviously with an event like this, ALL tuners running want their car to be the quickest, with many having extremely experienced drivers at the helm.

Although ScoobyNet is not a tuner, I was able to enter as ScoobyNet on the back of the Litchfield / Powerstation's Team.

As the day was an open pit lane, it was an ideal chance for me to gain some much needed track time, to gain confidence in both the Spec C and further my own ability.

I won't go in to too much detail about my experiences during the day as I intend to produce an article after this years race season, highlighting my humble beginnings and how much fun all this is and how much you can really learn (I know there are many people out there that would love to do track days, but are unsure based on many things).

After a well organised day (read: no track stoppages, which showed the level of drivers on track) some surprises were made in the final placings.

In the class I was running (sports saloon), Litchfield / Powerstation came 1st and 2nd (with the Type25 road car and Spec C GP edition). Sanspeed came 3rd with a Spec C and low and behold I came 4th in class and 12th overall (having a good tussle - amongst others - with a monster bhp EVO and RS4 in the last hour of the competition).

Litchfield / Powerstation also came 1st in the MPV class with their Forrester.

The event was excellent and personally for me was invaluable for experience and confidence building.

Many thanks to API for squeezing me in at the last minute on Saturday morning to rectify some minor issues and as ever thanks to Powerstation (especially Curtis) on the day for vehicle support.

If people thought Silverstone was quick, you want to try Snetterton. I was managing to hit 135mph down the back straight going in to a 90deg left hander. Jeese.... these AP's are awesome.

The car performed faultlessly thoughout the day and finally I am starting to realise 1st hand, how quick this car is. This is only the tip of the iceberg I am sure, but practice will hopefully further improve on this.

Excellent day / excellent experience and above all else the Scoobs cleaned up in class!

Regards,
Shaun.

 

Great day had by all I think.
Certainly makes up for the late nights, early starts and long drives.
400 mile round trip, 4 1/2 hours kip and a day spent ragging the **** off someone elses car.
Great to see your confidence growing Shaun, now you know what the car can do.
I know I was a little nervous first thing in the morning being my first time at Snetterton and in someone elses car. I felt awfully ragged in the Type25, sideways in the Forester and at home in the GP Edition.
Very bad idea letting me loose in the GP Edition Iain.... I want to buy one now.



Andy

 

Nice write-up Shaun..

Glad to see you enjoying your car the way you should

Keep on practicing like this and you'll be flying in the Time Attack next year

You should get along to our trackday at Castle Combe on 18 Sept for some more practice too

Cheers

Terry

 

Terry,

It was certainly what was needed after my very poor attempt in Round 4 at Silverstone.

It's amazing how much you get to learn whilst your in the right mind set. Whether I will continue to gain confidence is anyones guess, but I REALLY enjoyed myself yesterday and it really did start to open my eyes in to how much speed / corning grip I can start to achieve along with braking capabilities.

Unfortunately I am unable to make the 18th mate..... which is a shame. I suspect I will try and get in some normal track days over the Autumn / Winter period to keep me hand in though until next years season.

Regards,
Shaun.

 

Full results and write-up of this event can now been seen HERE

Regards,
Shaun.

 

Interesting to see that a tuned Elise is 4s quicker than a tuned Scooby or 911 Turbo

 

why on a very tight circuit?

 

Terry,

All I know is that I was about 1.5secs behind Iain when he was driving at Snetterton, and he was 3secs quicker than Neil during TA R4. Roll on the Final of Time Attack hey! roflol

I think they had some gooned up pro driver, and they were all over me down the striaghts, so gawd knows what power they had.

Regards,
Shaun.

 

*cough* 2 seconds.....

 

*Cough* doing passenger drives *cough*

 

Don't you dare come up with excuses and steal my thunder...... I havent had many highs on track this year!

Regards,
Shaun.

 

About 350bhp I think.

 

Only 196bhp in the Elise that came 5th with a 1:17.2

BTW hello all - my first post.

Just bought an 05 WRX - lots to read on here!

 

well done shaun, sounds like you're improving all the time, i need to get some more practice over the winter months for next year