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Well what a
fantastic end to 2007, the Sumo
Power / Do-Luck 350Z landed in
Japan to take part in the 18th
annual Revspeed Super Battle
event held at Tsukuba Circuit on
December 6th.
Along with 3
other teams from the UK Time
Attack series the 350Z was
invited to take part along side
the cream of the Japanese tuning
scene at the home of Time
Attack.
Do-Luck and
Sumo Power Japan liaised with
the event organisers Revspeed
and a host of Japanese sponsors
to make the whole thing happen.
After a 12
hour flight from Heathrow to
Narita Airport in Tokyo on
Sunday 2nd where we were met by
the President of Do-Luck & Sumo
Japan and taken by coach to the
Do-Luck HQ in Yokohama to catch
our first glimpse of the car
since it left Sheerness back in
October.
The car was
sat in the workshop on the Dyno,
Mr Itoh of Do-Luck had decided
to do some last minute fine
tuning to the 350 after ARC had
provided us with a custom made
intercooler and TM Works had
supplied a set of their new
Hyper Coils too, the dyno run
was a success with the new parts
working perfectly and giving us
lower intake temperatures things
were looking good.
Sunday evening
we attended a meet and greet
event, all of the Japanese
sponsors were present as were
all the UK teams, each
representative made a short
speech on who they were and what
they did and the night fly past.
Monday was a
tinkering day, getting tools
ready, checking the car over,
making sure everything was set
for our first practice session
on Tuesday morning.
Bright and
early Tuesday morning, the coach
picked us up and ferried us to
Tsukuba, Andy settled into the
car and the circuit but found
himself struggling for traction
in the first session, Tarzan
Yamada offered to drive the car
in the second session and
provided feedback on how the car
was performing on the circuit
and offered advice on how to get
more traction, a few adjustments
were made to the suspension and
Andy took it back out for the
third session, slightly more
grip was available but still a
fair amount of sideways action
from the pink beast.
Wednesday
morning saw us up early again,
this time we had been allocated
2 practice sessions of 20
minutes on a track day which was
running at the circuit.
Toyo Tires
Japan provided us with a set of
the new R1R tyres for us to test
on the Z to see if that would
help our traction issues, Andy
set off and put the car and the
new rubber through their paces,
still sideways, the beast was
proving hard to tame. We decided
to switch back to the R888 tyre
but opted for a softer compound
than the ones we had brought
with us from the UK. We got held
up with our wheel change and
missed out of the second session
much to Andy's dismay.
We checked
into a local hotel in Tsukuba
for the night as our schedule
meant we had to be up and out by
05.00 hrs Thursday morning.
Arriving at
the circuit just after 06.00 we
set up our pit area next to the
support truck & base which had
been provided by Toyo Tires &
Sunoco Fuels Japan, Andy
attended the drivers briefing as
the rest of the team wandered
through the pits checking out
cars which until now had only
been pictures in magazines, this
was heaven, M-Speed R34GTR & The
Cyber Evo were among the line
up, crazy lowered, full aero'd
machines with millimetres
between them and the tarmac,
this was going to be tough.
In the
practice sessions earlier in the
week, Andy had been posting laps
of between 1:06 and 1:04, Tarzan
had given a time of 1:03 behind
the wheel of the crazy horse and
he knew the circuit like the
back of his hand and is
regularly called on to drive
other tuners machines.
It was all or
nothing for us now, we had gone
with the hope of breaking the
minute marker and so far it had
eluded us.
The Z rolled
out in the first session, Andy
was looking comfortable but the
car still wanted to push
sideways, after 20 minutes and
nearly as many laps it came back
into the pits with a 1:04.877
under its belt.
Session 2 saw
much of the same sideways
action, we altered the
suspension settings and tyres
pressures which seemed to help
and this time Andy managed a
1:03.560, the tight twist track
and conditions were proving
difficult for the Z.
Early
afternoon and the final track
session of the day, Andy had it
in his mind to push the car to
the limits and he did just that!
At one stage
the whole circuit seemed to stop
as he exited the final corner
onto the start finish straight
at an angle which defied belief,
you could have heard a pin drop
as it broadsided closer and
closer to the barrier, still
with his foot pressed in hard
the Z seemed to be tamed for a
split second allowing Andy to
get back in charge and carry on
over the line to post a 1:03.529
his fastest lap of the event.
We
had lived our dream of running
the car at the circuit where it
all began, Tsukuba, and although
we had not managed to crack the
minute goal we had hoped for we
came away buzzing, looking
forward to the next event and
already talking of a brand new
build to take on the best
machines Japan and the rest of
the world have to offer.
The
three other teams who came out
with us had their fair share of
ups and downs, to see what
happened to them visit the time
attack website
www.timeattack.co.uk
Thank you to everyone who made
this dream a reality, without
you none of this could have
happened.
Andy & Rob Barnes - Sumo Power |
