RE-Amemiya's Hurricane 7

Well, it's finally time to reveal some images RE-Amemiya's Hurricane 7. I think you'll agree this car has the potential to be the quickest in full bodied FD in Japan. Maybe it will even surprise some others. There's a lot to check so scroll down and enjoy an in depth look at the newest time attack machine on the block.

Starting with the body, although it looks totally different. This is basically the same shape Super GT body that adorned the Aspara Drink, ORC, M7 Super GT car from 2006 to 2010. Some minor changes of course have to be made for the full chassis and smaller tyre combo, but essentially it's the same with some items installed from a more conventional machine.

Ride height is currently set for ease of transport, but the car will be low to ensure ground effects work well. Have a good look at the pictures, because I'm sure you'll find small details for inspiration. Front bumper fasteners offer easy release for maintenance.

The bonnet has an extra set of vents to try and release extra heat that the car will produce. Super Gt requires NA 3 rotor, this car adds a huge turbo and waste-gate along with associated inter-cooling that requires a little extra width on the bonnet openings.

Here you can see an extra bulge to accommodate for the turbo and the gills for the extra heat extraction from the special v-mount.

Yes it's a Greddy T88-34D! This side panel is also different to the Super GT's gentle curve behind the front wheel. Instead choosing to channel air down the side of the car rather than extract it from the wheel well at this point. Side diffusers are also a little changed in design.

Without the huge profile tyres used in Super GT the body seems somewhat compromised. There's about 50mm of extra bodywork around the wheels that confuses the shape a little. It makes the sides look a little flatter and more square. Either way, the wheels look much smaller than the 18x10 size they are.

Motorbike mirrors are a common choice these days with more shapes on offer than the single design offered by craft square. Side fins help airflow past the mirrors and minimize their effect in the overall scheme of down-force vs drag reduction.

Here you can see the overall effect of the Hurricane Livery. It's a strange choice of name because hurricanes are called typhoons here in Japan. In any case, don't tell General Electric and Whirlpool.

The front of the car is it's least flattering pose with the giant swirl dominating. The swirls seems confused against the angular machine, however the side and rear offer a much more effective and aggressive look from a livery perspective. Especially on the front right.

Anyway, lets move to the back of the car to see the other changes have been made Vs the Super GT machine. The side of the car must be cut substantially behind the rear wheels to leave a flat area for drag reduction. Bernoulli's principles at work here.

Also, this leaves an almost unrestricted exit for the air from the rear Advan 265/35/18 AO50 tyres behind the car. Through the mesh, you can see how much was removed from the body.

In this shot also you can see the supports for the bodywork and the other major change to the rear... the IPF light clusters and body mounted wing supports.

Up close, the IPF clusters really are nice items that RE-Amemiya has included in their body kits for a while now. Front lights are also IPF for their small size.

The diffuser is quite the dominant feature on the rear. If you ignore the huge rear wing of course. Lots of carbon used to create this.

Another change from the short side exit exhaust in Super GT is the massive cannon out the back of the car to try and quiet the expected roar from the 20B T88 combo. Angled down for that trademark "Dolphin Tail" style.

The underside of the car is relatively flat anyway. Routing the exhaust effectively. You may also notice some blue round things, being the air activated jack stands for the car.

Back on top you will see the Huge Super GT Spec GT wing. It's wide profile designed to speed air over the thick section and generate huge down-force. This combined with the thin rear profile (around 40~50 cm) will reduce drag also. Rear hatch removal is a two person job but there's not much to see under there except a small reservoir for the suspension.

This system involves RE-Amemiya spec, Quantum Dampers and Swift Springs of varying rates depending on circuits. These are the rear brakes. Special Custom RE-Amemiya calipers and floating slotted disks.

Only a small spacer on the rear was necessary due to the large offset rear 10" width wheels. GTC-01 wheels were supplied by Enkei but it amuses me that they still wear the "racing prototype" sticker after being available for years.

Same size Enkei wheels up front are fitted to large AP calipers, which do the frontal braking duty. Only small scratches on the brakes from pushing the car around.

Here you can see the ducting inside the wheel straight onto a custom plate bolted to the hub. Effective.

I was lucky enough to attend this shoot at RE-Amemiya's workshop with Dino Dalle Carbonare just after Tokyo Auto Salon in January. My compact camera shots were hardly the highest quality, so you will also have the opportunity to see more of this car on Speedhunters, in Super Street and other magazines around the world right now.

Pulling back to the engine bay is where more superlatives flow. Blue heat coatings have been added to many surfaces. The plenum says 3 rotor, which I guess is correct. However, 20B maybe a little unrealistic as there's 3 x 13b rotors. Ama-san has a room full of special compression rotors for any purpose. You can sure this car will run high horsepower as Amemiya-san expects a reliable 650hp from the 20bT.  The gold is there to reduce intake and fuel temps from exhaust heat. Gold is a very effective option for this.

It certainly has all the ingredients. Speaking to Koseki-san from Scoot at TAS (a good friend of RE-Amemiya and part of the successful Super GT team)  revealed that the target times for the car were around 1:40 at Fuji speedway. This is very fast indeed and on par with Super GT 500 class times.

To achieve this, Koseki-san (an ex F1 suspension engineer) has also been involved in the suspension setup of this car. It runs a ride height control active suspension system that aims to counter the effect of roll on the car. Thus providing maximum traction and tyre contact patch at all times.

Driver support includes a Special Bride and RE-Amemiya Maxis III collaboration seat for the driver. and a blue fau-carbon finish momo race steering that matches the dash panels. A complement of M7 gauges may serve as secondary warning only.

RE-Amemiya also fitted the lightest and smallest BRIDE seat as a passenger seat. I guess Ama-san wants a ride beside the driver which will probably be Nob Taniguchi driving the car.

A few controls for bars, ride height control and the Super GT sequntial shifter for the Hewland transmission. Door panels feature small MX-5 latches for exit.

Here you can see the modified transmission tunnel and the controls in detail. Something Amemiya-san was very excitedly happy to emphasize to us, were the Super GT components in this car. He is certainly proud of this creation as it will be the fastest circuit car that RE-Amemiya have built to date.  

An extensive cage runs through the car for security and rigidity and the buttress bracing also leaves that special view from the outside as well.

Acrylic windows in fixed positions eliminate power windows and reduce weight. I'm unsure whether the front glass is Speed Glass or the new Cool Vere glass for lower temps.

So at the moment (September 2011) the car has been sitting in the workshop for 9 months as other projects including D1 dominate the schedule, however, we don't have much longer to wait for shakedown.

The more I look at the car, I am convinced they have something pretty special here. Combine the incredible car with years of setup and Japanese circuit experience from Super GT / JGTC in the support team and drivers familiar with the car doing literally thousands of laps around the target circuits, you have a capable team.

Tyre size may on paper be the only limiting factor as Time Attack teams have evolved to run an extra 30mm of tread since the car's build commenced. But as we've seen from RE-Amemiya currently, "evolution" is definitely part of their vocabulary and this machine is just starting it's evolution to become Japan's fastest.

I for one will be following this car with extreme interest. You can expect almost every run to be recorded by Option and Rev Speed magazine's cameras and video, so you won't have to look far to

Russ.

...