Tsukuba Super Battle 2011 - Revolving

One Revolution of TC2000 elapsed in '54.713. Too Slow!

As the Revolution TA-2 left the pit for it's first attempt, almost every eye was on the car.

I quickly headed up on the pit tower to get a few shots as I knew 3 laps wasn't enough time to get over to the other side of the track. Such is time attack photography.

This shot shows a bit more exhaust gas out the back on a hot lap. The car sits very low for positive ground effect.

You can't even tell the car is under FULL braking here. Spring compression is negligible.

The line here is setting up for the hairpin. The damp track resulted in less than impressive times (as far as the team were concerned) but still rewarded them with fastest open class car of the day. With 2 seconds in the track can we expect a 52 second lap from the car?

Again under full braking, the car is flat as is cornering, the car hardly rolls on it's suspension.

On a hot lap here, using ALL the road and ALL the ripple strips for maximum return.

I'm really looking forward to more times as the season progresses.

I'll finish my TSB 2012 posts with this inspirational shot. Brake lights a glow as the car heads around the inner hairpin at Tsukuba Circuit 2000.

Catch me if you can!

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Tsukuba Super Battle 2011 - 360 Degrees

Is a Revolution.  Since it's trip to Australia, this is the first chance I had to see the changes to the car up close .

Lets check some new details.

So I'll run around the car to show the changes. Aero has changed a lot. one of the first things you notice are the stacked canards at the front of the car. The lower one extends past the splitter quite far and a square end plate has been added.

A small clear plastic trim tab has been placed along the fender line so that it matches the super gt style of the RE-Amemiya car.

It should create a vortex past the mirror and along the side of the car to reduce drag in this area.

Craft Square mirrors are a well tested design.

The front ducting is also quite crazy.

The intricate bonnet has be setup to extract as much air as possible from the inter-cooler and the central duct feeds directly to the air filter.

Right beside that airbox is the huge GCG turbo. There are two tubes into this box. however.

Some more ducting. on the right you'll see the BOV hiding under the intercooler piping.

The engine really is very far back in this car.

More ducting.and a very rigid tube chassis up front.

Wastegate exits in this location in front of the door and there's some heat shielding here.

On the topic of heat, look at the exhaust.

Is this a semi blown diffuser or just a shielded exhaust.

An extra panel under the diffuser and small vanes extend from underneath in an attempt to tidy airflow.

  The wing is still the same super aggressive curve with gurney. I think we shall see some fast times in the dry.

 Inside remains the same awesome setup with hewland sequential.

Project Mu Calipers and brakes do the work and the new RAYS Re-30 Club Sport provide a foundation for the 295 hankooks to grip from.

bolted on and ready for action..

In the next post I'll show this beast in action.

the new livery is growing on me, but the raw carbon is missed.
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Tsukuba Super Battle 2011 - Panic Attack

It's time for the top two FD3s at Tsukuba's rev speed Battle. I think you can guess this car.

But it was a long wait until the big guns hit the track. Moist does not describe the weather.

Check the windows... a heavy breathing session...?

Laughing gas perhaps? No the Pan Speed car is like a space ship... It lives mostly in an anti gravity environment.

but when it touches down, it looks awesome!

Even doing 2 km/h it looks fast.

But on track it looks ballistic. Like a heat seeker.

Dunlop sponsored, the Pan speed car uses Direzza 03G tyres, which may be lagging a bit in the grip department compared to the other guys with super grippy GS compound.

Unlike those guys however, the TA2010 spec car is able to do 5~10 laps on each set. Providing a bigger reward for the driver.


That's probably the main difference in this car's times. so if you factor that in, it's probably capable of more. It's super reliable these days.

One of the few times I got the shutter speed and my panning speed to match the name's sake.

Back in the pits, some contemplation must be in their minds.

These cars run on a limited budget. You will notice pan speed use wheels from a while ago. SE37K etc

Rear brakes are ground back to make things work.

It's not your million dollar sponsorship deal from Mazda thats for sure.

Mazda spends more in America in a weekend on crap executives travelling to meetings and Mazdaspeed Demios and MX5 cup than it does supporting motorsport in Japan because there is ZERO tv coverage for any motorsport over here. The Sports car market is dead in Japan.

Has any tuner been given a Spirit R RX8 to promote the car...? NO!

The public is basically incapable of comprehending motorsport apart from F1 these days due to money going to a few tv execs who support the same tv actors for 30 years.

Mini-rant over, the Pan Speed team and all Japanese Teams need support...

Come on! Buy some genuine gear people! The AB-Flug / Pan Speed collaboration bodykit is now available.

Keep them near the front. They are fighting hard. '56.197 is awesome. But it's far from the car's true potential.

Tsukuba Super Battle 2011 - On Screen Antics

Now Screening... "Monster Attacks".

I was ready, but I wasn't. The start to the session happened suddenly with the cars exiting their respective pit exits in a blur.

Well, that's how I saw it, because I hadn't adjusted my camera from the previous session.

So I slid through the Tsukuba gate to get a few nice shots. I think I could sell a few RX-8 style light sets with this one.

Maybe some Dunlop tyres... No! The Screen car runs Hankook.

 A terrible shot, but the two hankook runners didn't get in each other's way.

Ahh, now the desktop shots are coming. What's that web address? www.screen-powers.net, Thank you!

Something about taking in more of the scenery. You get an idea of the atmosphere. If not the sound.

The guys did quite a few laps allowing me a few chances to get it right and many to get it completely wrong. I guess photography is just like driving in many ways. The right conditions, decent setup and a lot of practice.

The screen guys have an insane equipment, great setup, and they got their practice in early. Full attack landing them third fastest FD on the day, only 2 tenths off the Pan Speed TA spec machine. '56.415 is even under the RE-Amemiya GT AD benchmark of 2003. This car has really improved and it will go faster.

There's something about this car that I love. It's very close to the road looking machines and it is now arguable the fastest stock body machine. Pan Speed's suspension geometry could be said puts them in a different class. So has this has become the ultimate "FD3s"?

for the time being, let's say yes. Until the hurricane returns at least.

Congrats to Screen Powers. in the wake of the Tsunami, the sendai based outfit has been through a lot.

Screen Power's Blog Entry has a beautiful shot of their machine. Check it out.

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