go on Andy :)

just a follow up and a bit long but nice read.
Sadly didn't happen this time:

Long story alert!!

Living the dream part 1

Chapter 1 The beginning.........

I had always wanted to go to Australia but it was always next year, next year, maybe next year, so it never happened.
Then one late summers day in Scotland, when it was windy, peeing rain and 14 degrees, I had an email from Nev Scott.
Nev is a fellow Subaru nut from Australia who has a big power Time attack Impreza, we have chatted much on facebook.
Nev had been chatting to Ian Baker, the founder and CEO of World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC) and Ian had been asking if we would bring our Superlap Scotland winning Impreza to Australia for WTAC. My initial reaction was no, our car is just not at that level. He went on to say how many people over there had been asking to see our car and that as we were a Pro class invitation, WTAC would also help out with the shipping and supply of Yokohama 050 tyres. Another glance out of the window at the sideways rain was enough to convince me. It was a YES, we will go!
Ian and Nev were delighted. Then the reality hit home, we have a car that has just done a seasons racing and it needs to be prepared to WTAC spec.....and loaded into a shipping container in only 2 weeks time, ready for the 6 week shipping across the world.
Two friends came to mind that could help make this happen. Graeme Jeram at Whiteline UK and Andy Napier at RA Motorsports.Both these guys were keen to be involved and set about arranging parts and sponsorship to make it happen. Meanwhile at home, Lisa started to strip, clean and paint the
inside and underside of the car, the cars have to be spotless to pass the strict border control bio quarantine tests before they can enter Australia, slightest trace of soil or road grime and its a fail, it won't be allowed out of the container.
The next task was to up our game regards aero, our existing aero was considered quite wild by UK standards but was at around Clubman class level in Aus!
My namesake Andy Forrest at aeforrest.co.uk scanned the car into his system and we set about making up some wider canards for the front. Our front aerofoil wing was not allowed in any MSA events so after a few moments hesitation, the £1k+ wing was chopped up to make some WTAC spec 300mm wide winglets. Along with a flat carbon splitter, that would make up our 'international' spec aero. There was no time to test this on the car, so it was a bit of a gamble, only time would tell if it worked.
In the background Whiteline had been working on arranging transportation of the race car and the use of their R+D premises in Australia, along with sorting all our accommodation for race week. Graeme had also secured the services of Simon Stanley of Chevron Motorsport, this ensured we were well covered for all suspension and chassis set up work.
Andy Napier had meanwhile been securing sponsorship from Turbosmart UK, Gareth at Plastic mouldings, Glenroyal, Zac at Torque Developments, Daren at ABW and of course RA Motorsports themselves, sadly due to work pressures Andy was unable to join us on the trip. (next year Andy, next year)
We also had our existing support from Keith Michaels Insurance, ASPerformance, Blouch turbos, Roland Alsop and Extreme Clutch to help us on the way. We are extremely grateful to all our sponsors as this eased by around 50% the financial burden of what was still essentially a privately funded owner/builder/driver entry.
We hit our 2 week deadline for getting down to Dover to load the car into the shipping container alongside the SVA Evo, it was then a waiting game, it seemed like a long 6 weeks. Watching the tracking showed the car load on the boat, unload at Singapore, sit on the dockside for 2 days then change ships before heading to Sydney. Meanwhile we are thinking about all the things we would have done differently, things we would have improved and
added if we had the time.
A few weeks later we set off on the 22hr flight to Sydney, eventually arriving at the stunning Darling Harbour area. We met up with Andy Nolan, David Chenery and the team at Whiteline HQ and headed to the track to open the customs sealed container. Ian Baker met us there along with the Border control customs/quarrantine team. As they cut off the padlocks it was a bit tense as we looked inside, was it still all there, was it intact or....... Phew, it was all exactly as we shipped it
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After a few tense moments during inspection, when the inspector found a lump of 'something' up inside the rear strut turret, thankfully it was just a small ball of used rubber that had escaped us during the clean, it was a pass
smile emoticon
With that first hurdle ceared, we headed up with the car to Whiteline HQ to do a full geometry set up. The cars are known for changing alignment after 6 weeks of strap down on the back of a lorry and on board the ship.

Next day it was back down to Sydney Motorsport Park (SMSP) at 6am in the morning for what they call "dawn patrol". This is an opportunity for new drivers to have a few hours on track with no overtaking and a strict speed limit of 110kph (approx 65mph) it may sound slow but it was a chance to find the lines on the track and using the Whiteline demo 2015 Sti, it was an invaluable 2 hours. Those new Sti's with the addition of a Whiteline rear ARB
really are great handling cars. Then it was back to the hotel a few miles away for breakfast before heading down to the track again for the afternoon test session with the race car. Mick Riddel joins us, having also made the trip out from the UK to support us. This was it, suddenly it was time to get real!

Chapter 2 The middle.......

Our normal fuel was not available over here so we had an alternative supply of Martini race fuel, that would take a little mapping set up time so the first few laps would be gentle ones. It was quite some feeling pulling out on to the pit lane for the first time. We were in one of the first pit garages, so had to drive the length of the pit lane. We left the silencers at home (no noise limits) so it sure woke up the other garage occupants as we cruised by.
Out onto track and the car just felt at home, the circuit has such a fast flowing nature to it, then there is that long downhill straight! followed by the famous high speed turn1.
A few laps and we come in for a systems check, all good, tweek to the fuel map and we head out again, still on minimum boost. Give it some this time and before I know it, the shift lights come on in 5th gear.............that's 170mph and I still have not even reached the 300mtr marker, I lift off and drop to around 90mph for turn 1. It still seems fast, it is a long semi blind entry tightening turn. We need to be doing this at 140+mph to be on the pace.....gulp! In for a tyre temp check on these super soft Yokohama 050's that we have never run on before, hmmm they are up to 90+ degrees after 2 gentle laps and the max the should be run at is 100 C OK, so it's outlap, fast lap, in lap from now on. Track temp was mid 40's but the car was coping well. We set off for the next session (6 x 15 min sessions, alternating with road cars) we bang in all 6 sessions with no issues at all, spending the time getting a feel for the track and tweeking suspension and aero settings. No lap timing at this stage as we were just optimising on sectors and targetting the lower speed corners first.
The high temperatures seemed to be affecting the other invite cars, most of them spending the best part of the day in the pits changing broken bits, I think we done more laps that day than the others done all weekend!
At the end of the day we were well pleased with progress, the car was well balanced in the medium speed 50-100mph corners and was putting the power down well.
We had a slight balance issue in the higher speed turns where we were working on getting the aero balance sorted, high speed
oversteer is not welcome here! That front aero was certainly working, maybe too well. With a slight grounding issue at the front at high speed, we decided to stiffen front springs slightly which would also help dial out the oversteer. Simon had them changed before we packed up for the night and then we prepared for the full day of official practice to follow with some cool beers.

With the new springs in place we set out on our first session of day 2. Still on the old set of tyres that we bought secondhand from Nev, just for set up purposes, no point using new tyres for trundling round learning the track. The grounding had stopped but the car was still loose on high speed turns.....then we noticed that as we added more rear wing, the wings chassis mounts deflected, taking the angle back off again.....that explained why the adjustments made no difference! A quick trip to B+Q lol (Bunnings over here) and Graeme has some wire clamping the wing struts firmly in place.

We do another test run with the Go-Pro watching the wing and all is good and the balance feels much better. We add more rear wing again and a full lap proves that the car is now well balanced at speed, even though we are still not attacking turn 1 at full speed we have worked up to around 120mph apex speed and all is stable.
I come back in to refuel and we swap out the 3 year old worn tyres for a new set of softs. The track temp is high 40's by now so we know it requires 1 fast lap per outing in order to preserve the rubber.
Our 20 minute sessions are 40 mins apart so there is plenty time for cool down for the car and driver. We have now done 30+ laps and feel comfortable with the car and track. I set off, still on minimum boost, on a slowish out lap, just putting enough heat into the brakes and not the tyres, this is a 2.4 mile lap with 11 turns and it is easy to overheat the tyres if pushing too hard on the outlap. Coming on to the main straight I give it full throttle, it hooks up well, I let it auto shift up the gears as usual, then I short shift into 6th rather than it auto shift so close to the braking point. Previously we were lifting around the 300mtrs so I take a brave pill and run deeper into turn 1, lifting around the 150mtr point, still too early but I need to work up to speed gently. Brain says you can't go this fast round a bend, aero is telling balls, yes you can, balls aint listening
wink emoticon
the car has so much more grip on the new tyres that I feel I should have turned into each corner faster, I make a mental note and carry on pushing slightly harder, then at turn 8 the box misses an up shift, unusual? it gets it 2nd time, then, on upshift to 4th at about 100mph as we approach the final complex 9/10/11 turns I feel a vibration, normally I would lift......but I'm 'on it' so continue on, then bang, total loss of drive and a BIG vibration, feels like a broken driveshaft. Then I see flames under the car so as I'm undoing my window straps and harness, I'm using my knees to steer to the next marshalls post, as I pull up the flames go out and I jump out the car. I can see gear oil pouring out across the undertray. That's not good!

Chapter 3 The end.......

Tow back to the pits and we strip off the aero floor for a look at the box, hmmm its ugly, the carbon prop has snapped and taken out the centre diff casing with it, the drop gears (still intact) literally drop out the hole in the casing. Ok, we can fix this. Nev has a carbon propshaft lined up and Brett Middleton from MRT knows of a Subaru specialist transmission shop that has casings and is willing to stay up all night if required to allow us to fix it.

You can't beat the Australian hospitality
smile emoticon

As we look at the damage in more detail it becomes clear that the drive to the front diff has also been damaged, ok this job has just got bigger. We can still do it though.
We get the car up to Peakhurst transmissions to find literally hundreds of Subaru transmissions on the shelf, these guys are full time on this stuff every day so know them inside out. Brett also sets us up with 2 of his own technicians to help out with the job, Jake Hancock is particularly keen to get stuck into the stripdown, even though it's now gone midnight
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The guys get the box out, no easy task when it has twin turbos and twin wastgates in the way,
as well as dry sump and cooling hoses for the rear rad. As we strip off the broken casings we notice that the front transfer shaft is tight to turn, it should be free. We remove the front diff complete and Graeme looks up the inside of the hollow main output shaft, he sees what looks like a line of grease halfway along, on closer inspection it has a sharp edge. We open up the main casing and the output shaft drops out.....in 2 pieces, snapped clean
through. As we look closer, the reason is clear. The needle roller bearing on 4th gear has failed (a £10 part) and partly siezed on to the mainshaft, the resulting heat from this has softened the mainshaft to the point that the torque has just ripped it apart. The gears and selectors were all still perfect.
The prop shaft breakage was likely as a result of this failure, not the cause of it. Bugger, we can't fix this without new parts from Modena and with our box being a special 1 off, the ratios are all special order and not a stock item. Typical, this box has been perfect for 4 years with only a minor selector glitch
between routine servicing.
We get the car off the ramp as the workshop is busy the next day.

It's 2:30 am and Nev rings us, he has someone with a Modena box that is similar long ratio to ours that is willing to pull it out of his car in the morning and have it flown down to Sydney from Brisbane (it's a 10 hour drive) This is subject to it going back to Modena for a service after we use it as he is in the middle of a championship with the car and can't risk a failure. We agree 100%, it's only fair that we rebuild it after putting 1000+bhp through it !! It means we will miss the Friday tracktime but should be running for the main event on the Saturday.
We get loaded up and head back to the hotel for a few hours sleep. 2hrs and we are up again to get to the track to arrange where the car goes now.
Brett and Ian had arranged for the car to go to Hypertune which is only 15 mins from the track. Great, all we need now is the box. Mid morning I check with Nev that all is well and he doesn't seem his normal happy self. The owner of the box has just checked with Modena and the parts required to refresh his box are not in stock, so he can't risk giving it to us. Totally understandable but we are all gutted. We have offers of a 6 speed H pattern but our seating position has been moved back 300mm along with the pedal box, wheel and sequential shifter, we don't even have a hole in the floor
anymore for the stick to come through, even if it was within reach.
Next option is someone offers us a rally box, modena sequential, used for 18 months but it has the wrong gearing (way too short) wrong diffs (plated) and he wants $27 aus for it which is around £13k.
Time is moving on and it's looking less likely we will find a solution.

Someone stumbles upon the PPG stand, they have a 6sp sequential in a display case. This could work but will they let us use their show stock? After some gentle persuasion from Lisa, Tom Perham agrees that we can purchase the display box although it is not without it's trip points. The input shaft is
stock Subaru size and we use a big input shaft. We quickly go round all the clutch suppliers at the show to see if we can either replate our existing clutch or buy a new one.
The best we can find is a 600bhp unit, hmmm, no good. Then Brett (who knows EVERYONE) tells us to speak to Dominic Rigolli who is at the event supporting another car. After a few swaps of compliments (we follow each others drag cars from across the world) Dom says he has a 1000+ capable clutch on his drag car and he can pull it out for us, it just needs a release bearing set up and its good to go.
The bits are falling into place again but its getting late in the day. We have another look at the PPG display box and realise that the roll pins in the selectors need replaced with proper ones, the
front bearing is just a bush for display purposes and the mainshaft is the longer one for a later type dccd. Also the gear linkage comes out a different part of the box, has a different stroke and the neutral detent link will hit our turbo exhaust from the passenger side (not an issue on a 4 cyl)
So, each of these jobs in isolation is not a show stopper we can do it......but can we do them ALL ?
Fit the diffs, fabricate a new shift linkage down the side of the box, rewire and calibrate the barrel position potentiometer, change the flywheel and clutch, renew burnt wiring on the DCCD, change to a pull type clutch mechanism, re pipe the hydraulics, modify the long output gearbox shaft to suit our centre diff, modify the exhaust downpipe, new cable and bracket to make for neutral detent, buy and fit a new input shaft bearing, buy and fit new roll pins throughout the box, lockwire roll pins, renew front pinion, change front crownwheel, set up front diff preload and backlash, install box, propshaft, wastegates, exhausts, floor etc. Then ideally put some miles on the new gears before hitting them with 2x their maximum design load.

We sat down with the sponsors and all of us reluctantly agreed that it was unrealistic to get this amount of custom work done in time available, we had all been thinking this but nobody wanted to be the first to say it.

That was it, end of play.

We have all had disappointments in motorsport, it's the nature of the game, if you can't cope with the ups and downs, motorsport is not for you. This was a tough one though as I felt like I was letting people down. It was emotional, particularly having to type out the "Sorry, we can't make it" post on facebook as we drove to the track to spectate, instead of compete as planned.

Had it been a 2 day event we would have made it through to the final without a hitch but I needed the tracktime during the 2 days testing, so the car got a bit of a workout before the event.

It wasn't all gloom on the Saturday though as Nev and Dan let me have a session on track in Daniels CMA car, top guys
smile emoticon

Chapter 4 The future........

On the positive side looking forwards, we have gained heaps of data on the fuel, ambient conditions, the track and the tyres. Our car ran in these high temperatures and at high speeds without a hitch whilst most of our fellow visitors had lots of big issues. We were on for a sub 1:30 lap when the box went and that was with a turn 1 speed some 30-40k's short of our target. To put that lap time in context, the Australian V8 supercars, running on slicks
and with pro drivers, lap in the 1:30's. Although we have to balance that with a further reality check of just how fast these WTAC cars really are, the Mighty Mouse Fwd Honda ran a 1:29!

We were running 280kph down the straight on minimum boost, braking early for turn1, I can't wait to find out what it would do with the additional 400bhp available from high boost, never mind the Nos!

I can't thank everyone enough, particularly the team at Whiteline Au, Graeme, Simon and Mick. Nev and Daniel from the CMA team and Brett and his guys from MRT. Finally Ian Baker for making it all possible.

So where do we go from here. Well the repair parts are already ordered for the Modena gearbox, we have also ordered a 6sp PPG sequential to set up in our car and test run in the UK so we have a spare box modified ready to plug in and we have a certain well known WTAC aerodynamicist coming to visit us shortly to discuss enhancements in that area. WTAC is the best place ever for networking and the friendliest race environment I have ever been
involved with.

If I had known back in August what I know now, I would have still come over here, even to trip up on day 2. It has been the best experience ever.

Our place at WTAC is already booked for 2016.....unfinished business........living the dream part 2.......bring it on!!

Andy.
 
He had some great runs though was doin 1.30 with the power on a low setting, which is what v8 supercars run around there my brother lives ten minutes from the track and said he was at it. Very disappointed to see he didn't get goin but I'd say next year will be something to watch he will be back to make amends

wagon dec
 
Great read :thumbsup:

He probley had spares of nearly everything else there with him bar the gearbox unlucky alright being at the other side of the world but great experiance for next year back better than ever :clap:
 
it was done on a hype but it was worth it as an experience and data collected.
Im looking forward to the next year to see how he mach up to the big boys.
And this is just mind blowing:

We were running 280kph down the straight on minimum boost, braking early for turn1, I can't wait to find out what it would do with the additional 400bhp available from high boost, never mind the Nos!
 
Iv driven eastern creek that turn 1 he is talking about is mad, the main straight is about twice mondello it's downhill and turn 1 is blind as view is blocked by the pit wall and pit exit Road. I reckon he will be up there as he ran 1.30 tge winning car ran 1.23 afaik

wagon dec
 
Bad luck for him but jasus did they try and det it going great team of people helping out
 
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