Toyota Sprint Series Update

[PaulT]

Toyota GB has entered five brand new Auris SR180s into the Sprint Series, and now we know who will be driving four of them. Spot anybody familiar? :D

Toyota has named 4 of the 5 drivers who will pilot their Auris SR180 diesels in the Toyota Sprint Series.

Car No 61, Joe Clifford – Banzai Magazine http://www.unity-media.com/banzai.asp

Car No 62, Chris Rees – Japanese Performance Magazine - http://www.japaneseperformancemagazine.co.uk/

Car No 63, Rich Beach – Max Power Magazine - http://www.maxpower.co.uk/

Car No 64, Davy Lewis – Redline magazine - http://www.redlinemag.com/

Car No 65, is likely to be kept as a spare press car.

But that's not all. Let's check the full entry list!

Confirmed Entry List for Round 2, Barkston, May 4th.

Class A1

Adrian Smith - Corolla GT4

Jonny Crisp - Celica GT4 ST185

Phil Reeve - Celica GT4 ST185RC

Barry Charters - Celica GT4 ST205

Darren Deavall - Celica GT4 ST205

Class A2

Steve Timms - Celica ST185

Kennet Climpson - Celica ST205

Adam Pemble - Celica GT4 ST165 - Reserve

Dave Ellen - Lexus IS350 SC

Steve Lawson - MR2 SW20 turbo

Nigel Levinson - Celica GT4 ST185

Andy Bunney - Celica GT4 ST185

Adam Levinson - Celica GT4 ST185

Mike Brebner - Celica 2ZZ SC

Christian Timms - MR2 Turbo

Richard Morrow - Celica GT4 ST165

Barry Sheldrick - Celica GT4 ST205

Nigel Hayes - Celica GT4 ST185

Melanie Metz - Celica GT4 ST185 - Reserve

Russell Giddings - Celica GT4 ST205

Otis Hayes - Celica GT4 ST205

Simon Marsh - MR2 SW20 Turbo

Class B

Barrie Newsome - Starlet Turbo EP82

Gavin Mycock - Sera 1.3 Turbo

Tim Cartledge - MR2 MK1 SC

Pete Grimmer - Starlet Glanza

Joe Clifford - Aygo SC

Class C

Mike Rawlings - MR2 MK2 V6

Bob Rawlings - MR2 MK2 V6

Rajan Nahr - Celica AT200

Jeff Lotts - Celica ST202

Dan Quinn - Celica ST182

Tim Cogman - Celica ST202

Class D

Brian Bales - Corolla GTI AE92

Phil Cutler - MR2 MK1

Vykki Hoult - MR2 MK1

David Brooks - STARLET 4AGE RWD

Jo Walker - MR2 MK1

Garrick Abrahamson - MR2 MK1

Class E

Joe Clifford - Auris SR180

Chris Rees - Auris SR180

Rich Beach - Auris SR180

David Lewis - Auris SR180

TBC - Auris SR180

Class F

Paul Thomas - Aygo

I imagine Class B is going to be a pretty interesting contest! At Waterbeach last time, Pete was about 5 seconds faster than me. Can the Aygo SC overturn that I wonder?

Hopefully, fingers crossed, I have now sorted out my track tyre problem. Will try tomorrow to fit those once the stud bonding agent has set. That might give me a little bit more speed.

Also, two of my friends who were coming to watch are now unable to make it next weekend. I therefore have two free tickets, so if you want one please pm me with your full name. It is an MOD requirement for airfield access that names of spectators are given in advance, so you cannot just turn up on the day I'm afraid.

Paul.

[SJandMR2]

Oooooh wow, I so have to come now, I hadnt got my spectator tickets sorted so if you still have them PM on the way.

SJx

[Zaaro]

sweet! would love to go if i could, bit too far north for a day event thought.

Have fun whoever gets the tickets :D

Also Paul hope it all works out well for ya

[PaulT]

Cheers Zaaro!

And amazingly my track wheels are now on the car

These are Toyota GB Yaris wheels with Hankook Ventus track tyres. It drives like a go-kart

Paul.

[Phoenix999]

What tracks is the series visiting? Will I be able to see this at Brands Hatch? I hope so :)

[Zaaro]

sweet as! might lose some grip with those stickers on the tyres tho :P heh

[Boro Sera]

What tracks is the series visiting? Will I be able to see this at Brands Hatch? I hope so :)

No Brands Hatch I'm afraid,

the full dates are

16th March - Waterbeach

4th May - Barkston Heath

14th June - Teesside (Light)

17th August - Woodbridge

25th October - Teesside (Dark)

2 rounds at Teesside is handy for me- and it's a real track too. Gav and Dan are good friends of mine so I'll be cheering them on there ( and everyone else of course. It's an equal opportunities cheer ! )

[PaulT]

Another fantastic day out, and here are the results: :D

I had a great time and was delighted to pick up the "Hard Charger" award for the driver who did well despite having a "slow" car. Both the Aygos were very popular with the spectators and we tried very hard to keep up with some very quick cars and drivers there on the day.

I was very impressed with Joe's Aygo SC. He's got the bucket seats in now and it feels much more sporty that the stock car. It was also significantly quicker on the straights than my n/a, with me topping out at about 60mph still in second gear and Joe going on to well into third.

However, you can see from the results the difference track tyres can make to the performance of the cars. Many people were running serious competition tyres like R888s (Toyo offers cheap tyres to the competitors) and those Hankooks on mine performed really well, an absolute bargain for £60 per corner.

The Aygo SC and Aurises were on (good) road tyres, but they weren't really a match for competition rubber. I was able to carry plenty of speed through the corners but Joe unfortunately complained of frequent loss of grip during the sweeping high-speed bends.

Was great to watch the supercharged Aygo take off from a standing start, though. It was strangely quiet I thought but you could hear the supercharger whine. Looked very odd to see an Aygo accelerating that quickly B)

Now we both have some thinking to do to get higher up the results. Everybody else isn't standing still either, so very much looking forward to the next round at Teeside.

Dave Ellen from Prolex-Uk snapped this nice photo in the pits:

There are more pictures and reports on the TSS web site, toyota-sprint-series.com.

Paul.

[SJandMR2]

Well done Paul, sorry i didnt make it, would have been great to watch. Am I reading that right? you got a better time than the s/c aygo ?

SJx

[T600]

That's a fantastic result Paul; well done.

It just shows that it's not all about power.

Patrick from Rogue Systems did incredibly well again considering the power he's giving away to the A class cars. Well done Jo and System G too.

And an MR2 tubby almost kept up with Fensport's rolla; well at least got within a second and a half of it which is no mean feat.

I wish I could have been there, but something that I couldn't get out of came up.

Glad it was another successful day though, long may it continue because it's an exciting format.

[PaulT]

Was a great day out, would recommend sprinting to anybody :D

But that isn't the end of it. What we want to know is if the supercharged car had some competitive tyres, how fast could it go?

It's quite simple to do a quick calculation. We'll start with my time of 64.25sec and assume that the Aygo SC has the same brakes and corners at the same speed as I did, but can accelerate a lot more quickly: we know that the SC can do 0-60 in about 8 seconds, maybe less. The stock car takes 14secs.

The start straight to the first chicane is 221m. The cars start at rest and hit the chicane at about 35mph. I know that I braked 41m before the chicane because I measured my braking point against landmarks on Google Maps :D

So I can calculate my deceleration (a bit soft actually, 5.88m/s/s but it seemed scary :D ) and extrapolate back to get acceleration and vmax.

So I reach a top speed of about 55mph, in second, and Joe gets up to 70mph. He confirmed that he had got into third. This means I did the start straight in 14.79 and Joe could do it in 12.47 if he was as wussy on the brakes as I was :P

So on the start straight alone the Aygo SC is 2.324 seconds faster! Blimey!

Now if you work out that the Aygo SC gains 2.324 seconds in 221m, and there are 772m of straight around the whole lap, a simple approximation suggests that the Aygo SC could comfortably be 8 seconds faster than the stock-powered car.

Look at where you would be on the timing sheet with a 56.25!

We haven't even talked about coilovers, excessive lightening etc. All the top Celicas and MR2s are stripped out and on proper suspension.

Like I say, the Aygo has proper performance potential B)

Now somebody hurry up and buy my MR2

Paul.

[Boro Sera]

Well done Jo and System G too.

Glad it was another successful day though, long may it continue because it's an exciting format.

Blimey, I didn't notice Garrick on the list too !

Well done Paul, Gav and Dan too and I'll see you all at the next one on Teesside !

Can't wait !

[PaulT]

There is now a video of the event which contains some footage of the Aygo SC B)

Paul.

[aygo vvti]

well done paul looks fun ! seeing you driving there make me miss the national hillclimb challenge cos i havent took part in for sooo long now .

[PaulT]

Ta everybody! And now the Waterbeach event has a nice write-up in the June edition of Japanese Performance, including a picture of the Aygo B)

Seems like the series is really generating some good interest and coverage, great payback for the work the organisers have put in.

Paul.