road 11 - track & race

32
Track & Race LIFE WITH CARS Caterham-Lola SP/300.R Mugen Atom Daytona 24Hr

Upload: road-magazine-blog

Post on 17-Mar-2016

241 views

Category:

Documents


12 download

DESCRIPTION

Road Magazine starts 2011 all track & race featuring ­ The brand new Caterham-Lola SP/300.R and Ariel Atom Mugen, and Stateside, a pre-report of the Daytona 24Hr with David Cheng's BMW M6. Also, a look at KW Suspensions.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

Track & RaceLIFE WITH CARS

Caterham-Lola SP/300.R › Mugen Atom › Daytona 24Hr

Page 2: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

XXXXXXXXXXX: XXXXXXXXX

www.adrianflux.co.uk

Page 3: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

A track and race theme to get us started in 2011... fol-lowing the UK’s catalyst to the motoring industry, Aut-osport International at the NEC in Brum. We’ve got

two of the most exciting cars from the show in full detail... to drool over, and they are both British: The devilishly hand-some and frighteningly fast Caterham-Lola SP/300.R and the latest offering from another Blighty cottage industry giant, Ariel Motor Company, with its Mugen-engined Atom. Here are two track and race tools that certainly get our blood pump-ing. What do YOU think?

Also this month, we’ve got a report from America, and our first lady, Ashley Van Dyke, who’s keeping an eye on a young race ace named David Cheng... racing in the legendary Day-tona 24Hr, in a BMW M6. We’ll be following his story closely, to get an insight into this most hardcore of USA circuit races.

Do enjoy the FREE monthly magazine, and please join and follow our daily-updated blog at www.roadmagazine.blogs-pot.com, where you can read all Road Magazine back issues and see the latest car news, and coolest videos, FREE!

Page 4: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

WORDS: WWW.ROYLEMEDIA.CO.UK

Prototype GoCaterham’s very first sports prototype racer is go! Enter the very special, very exciting Caterham-Lola SP/300.R. Frighteningly fast, rammed with C21st technology and drop-dead-gorgeous. Radical... be worried!

Page 5: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE
Page 6: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

So, the rumours were true... two British sports car greats,

Caterham and Lola, have joined forces to create something super spe-cial, ultimately desirable and highly exclusive. And here it is, the Caterham-Lola SP/300.R – a car that makes one very proud to be British, we feel. What-ho and who-bloody-rah!

This is Caterham’s first ever sports prototype racer,

created with technical and design input from Lola and powered by a state-of-the-art, supercharged 2.0-li-tre Ford Duratec engine, with 300+bhp, generating a quoted 0-60mph time of a staggering 2.5 seconds, and a 170mph top speed. Make no mistake... this is not a car for the faint-heart-ed. Big balls will be required to pilot this track and race weapon.

Caterham Cars say: “We

have opened an exciting new chapter in our 50-year history with the release of its first ever sports proto-type racing car for a new one-make series and the trackday community.”

The beast has just last week been unveiled at the Autosport International Show (Birmingham, UK), to sit alongside the legen-dary Seven, remaining true to Caterham’s lightweight, minimalist core DNA to

Page 7: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

roadmagazine.co.uk

deliver “all the thrills of driv-ing a fast, but confidence-inspiring, sportscar.”

Caterham Cars are in the final stages of development of the powertrain and han-dling characteristics of the car, in readiness for a one-make championship to start in 2012, while the feasibility of a road-legal version of the car is also being consid-ered. And we can not wait to see one of these on the M25, can you?!

Exclusivity is guaranteed

with the SP/300.R, as only 25 will be manufactured each year, allowing Cater-ham to focus on enhancing the build quality of every vehicle and maximising its renowned one-to-one customer service, for a be-spoke final specification and set-up for each lucky customer.

The car will provide the ‘top end’ natural progres-sion for Caterham’s already successful domestic and international racing ‘ladder.’

It will also provide the blos-soming premium trackday community – both home and abroad - with a potent new model: One to get re-ally excited about! We can’t wait to test one at a circuit, and see if it’s as good as it looks and reads in the tech-nical specification (see on).

Bearing subtle design cues from the Seven, the first new model from Cater-ham since the 21 road car reproduces the Company’s core motorsport values of

Page 8: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

“affordability, reliability and accessibility.”

Lola, as technical design consultant, has driven the aerodynamic styling and downforce development, creating something breath-taking, and no doubt... hugely effective.

Meanwhile, Caterham’s engineers have been re-sponsible for developing the Ford power plant, braking system and making sure the company’s renowned ride and handling characteristics are firmly transferred into the SP/300.R.

“Motorsport is not only part of the history of Cater-ham, it’s been the lifeblood running through the char-acter of our vehicles – race cars for the road,” explains Ansar Ali, managing di-rector of Caterham Cars. “Today, racing is not only the heart-beat of the business, it’s an intrinsic part of our fabric both here and abroad and the SP/300.R represents the next logical step in the development of our product offer-ing.”

Caterham’s engineers have chosen Ford’s super-charged Duratec with its drivers in mind. The super-charged induction module has been chosen for its

linear torque delivery across the entire engine speed range, which is perfectly-matched to the lightweight architecture of the car.

The Duratec unit is well-known to Caterham’s en-gineers and already boasts a proven track record as a resilient engine that is cost-effective for customers to run. And Caterham has worked alongside partners

such as Pectel to deliver a highly-developed package that will reward drivers with advanced data logging and features such as ‘push to pass’ power enhancement and an integrated semi-au-tomatic gearshift control.

The SP/300.R will come with a Hewland semi-au-tomatic FTR transmission, and Caterham aims to re-produce the enormously-

Page 9: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

roadmagazine.co.uk

durable drivetrain solution that has been so successful in the Superlight R300 se-ries, where engine rebuilds are virtually unnecessary.

A lot of work has gone into the sub-600Kg car’s chassis - an aluminium tub with a longitudinally mid-mounted engine, coupled to a stress-bearing rear transaxle. A forward splitter and large rear wing reduce lift, while

a flat underbody maximises ground effect benefits. A broad aero platform gen-erates optimal downforce and balance, while the aerodynamic performance is fine-tuned by ducts and dive-planes. The SP/300.R bodywork also features an F1-style raised nose sec-tion and sectioned panels, which will help reduce repair costs, ease maintenance

and, importantly, allow sin-gle-handed removal of body panels track-side.

Caterham quote a 500bhp-per-tonne figure for the SP, 0-60mph in 2.5s and a 170mph V-max. Suspen-sion will feature front and rear dual wishbones with pushrod dampers, adjust-able ride height, with be-spoke ATS, Speedline or OZ wheels and custom-made Cooper Avon tyres, creating “a race car of exquisite bal-ance and stability.”

Naturally, the SP/300.R has been built to comply with MSA safety regulations and it is Caterham’s inten-tion to launch a one-make race series for the SP/300.R in 2012. Bring it on!

We at ROAD applaud Cat-erham and Lola for creating

this exquisite engineer-ing masterpiece, and can not wait to see the SP/300.R race, and being driven at flat chat at European circuits, ASAP. Some-thing tells us that this is going to be a very special moment in Caterham’s illustri-ous history. It’s got

the looks, it’s got the pedigree, it’s got the speci-fication and we’d bet our grandmothers it’s going to go, stop and handle like a true champion. Hooray UK!

Page 10: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

Engine Supercharged Ford Duratec 2.0L

Max Power 305PS@7500rpm

Push-to-Pass Power 335PS @7800pm

Max Torque 290Nm@7500rpm

0-60mph (claimed) 2.8s

Top Speed 290kph

Wheelbase 2600mm

Overall length 4200mm

Overall width 1700mm

Height 1015mm

Downforce 450kg @ 250kph

Weight 545kg

CHaSSiS aND bODy

-Lola-developed aluminium honeycomb monocoque chassis

-Seven-piece lightweight Polyurethane body system

-Lola-developed aero package, including:

-adjustable carbon rear wing

-Composite front splitter

-Composite rear diffuser

-aero-optimised dive planes

-Three-stagedownforceconfiguration

-Quick lifting onboard air jack system

-Left or right-hand drive

-Schroth six-point harnesses

-MSAspecificationtwinrolloverprotectionhoops

-MSAspecificationfrontcrashstructure

-FIAapprovedfuelcellwithexternalfillingpoint

CaTErHaM SP/300.r TECHNiCaL SPECiFiCaTiON

Page 11: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

roadmagazine.co.uk

Powertrain

-Caterham Supercharged Ford Duratec 1999cc

-rotrex supercharger with charge air cooling

-aero optimised induction

-Uprated conrods, pistons and bearings

-Dry sump

-High-efficiency ducted cooling system (40deg ambient)

-aero-optimised high level ducted quiet exhaust

-Hewland Ftr six-speed sequential gearbox

-Shiftec paddle shift system

-Dual plate sintered clutch

-Limited slip differential

SUSPenSion

-Pushrod activated coil-over adjustable spring-dampers

-adjustable anti-roll bars front and rear

-Lola Formula 3 gearbox-mounted suspension

Braking SyStem

-aP racing braking system

-aP racing adjustable pedal box

wHeeLS & tyreS

-ATS centre-lock Formula 3 wheels 9x13 and 10.5x13

-Cooper Formula 3 size bespoke slick tyres

eLeCtriCS

-Front low/high beam lights with permanent LeD running

lights

-rear LeD running lights with integrated brake lights

-High-intensity rain light

-Pectel engine and gearbox management with integrated

data logging

-momo steering wheel with integral driver display system

Page 12: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

WORDS: WWW.ROYLEMEDIA.CO.UK

MUGEN ATOMFollowing the awesome Atom V8 in 2010, another limited edition Ariel Atom, celebrating 10 years of the ‘no screen, no roof, no doors’ hero is here & just ten 270bhp Mugen-engined Atoms will be hand-built – Banzai!

Page 13: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE
Page 14: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE
Page 15: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

roadmagazine.co.uk

What you are drool-ing over is the culmination and

celebration of a decade of the heroic Ariel Atom: The 270bhp, very limited edition Ariel Atom Mugen.

Launched last week at the Autosport International Show, this unique collabo-ration between the Ariel Motor Company and Mugen has been built to commem-orate 10 years of Atom pro-duction, and 1,000 Atoms manufactured: And what a fitting, exclusive representa-tion of a unique brand it is.

Only 10 of these £41,450 + VAT red-chassis, white body beasts will be made, each signed and numbered and coming with a hand built engine by a Mugen techni-cian, and the usual hand built, bespoke Ariel techni-cian care and panache.

Simon Saunders of Ariel

Page 16: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE
Page 17: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

roadmagazine.co.uk

said: “It’s directed at the person who does a lot of track days and is designed to give great low end grunt and throttle response to fly you out of corners. It’s been built as a response to a lot of supercharged Atom customers who say that car is too fast for track days, leaving them with no one to play with! People have been asking us what we could extract from the normally aspirated engine, and this is the end result.

“It’s a hand built car, tai-lored to suit individual cus-tomers, who we know and like as friends and who are

passionate about their cars and driving. The formula of Ariel + Honda + Mugen has resulted in a very special car that takes the track day car to another level.”

The Honda K20Z Type R engine has been tuned by Mugen to produce 270bhp at 8,600rpm and 255Nm at 6,000rpm and features high compression FIA pistons, high lift FIA camshaft, pul-ley and valve springs, FIA intake manifold and 64mm throttle body, a baffled sump, balanced flywheel, uprated oil pump, NGK rac-ing spark plugs and each unit is run in and given a full

power test on the Mugen dynamometer.

Alcon 4-pot lightweight brakes, 4-way adjustable remote dampers & springs (modified versions of the V8 units), adjustable wishbones and Yokohama AO48 rubber make up the chassis spec. And, “inside,” there’s a new LCD flat screen display housed in C-F, featuring shift lights and a plethora of info like lap times, data log-ging and much more.

Expect 0-60mph in 2.9s and a top end of 150mph+.

Could this be the best Atom to date? At £41K, we think it’s a steal...

Page 18: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE
Page 19: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

roadmagazine.co.uk

Page 20: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

IMAGES: DENIS L. TANNEY

So you want to race Daytona?Young American race ace, David Cheng talks us through his path to Daytona 24Hr in his BMW M6

Page 21: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE
Page 22: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE
Page 23: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

roadmagazine.co.uk

It’s been a dream of mine from day one – to one day win the Daytona 24

Hour race. Now, at last, it seems I have an opportunity to live my dream.

At 3:00pm January 29th, the 49th running of the Rolex 24 Hours of Day-tona will begin. Roughly 50 teams of four drivers will compete in the Super Bowl of sports car racing – the toughest endurance race on the America race calendar.

For the past five years, I’ve been chasing my dream of becoming a professional racing driver. And this year I will race amongst the ranks of the best drivers in the

world, at the legendary Day-tona 24Hr.

I was born in Beijing, Chi-na, into a family with abso-lutely no racing pedigree. However, my first recollec-tion in life is of me sitting in front of our TV on my Tonka truck, watching a Formula 1 race. I don’t remem-ber much from that race, but I do remember how amazed I was at the sound of the cars, how exciting the speed was, how there were so many fans all wav-ing red flags with a yellow shield and a prancing horse on it, and the announcers cheering enthusiastically for some guys named Hakkinen

Page 24: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE
Page 25: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

roadmagazine.co.uk

and Schumacher. At this moment, I fell in love with motorsport. In my mind, the absolute coolest job in the world was to become a race car driver. So I set about achieving that goal...

After moving to the States at six years old, my passion for racing grew, as I did. Fast forward a decade and I turned sixteen, which was a big deal for me; as this aus-picious anniversary meant I could finally get my driver’s licence. Also unknowingly, that’s when racing would slowly start to turn from fantasy into reality. Grow-ing up in a Chinese family, I was raised with traditional parents who wanted me to get good grades, go to a prestigious college, and live a stable life with a respect-able career. But I had differ-ent goals...

My humble beginning of racing started after I at-tended my first high per-formance driving school at a local autocross event. I felt very natural behind the wheel and progressed very quickly. Soon after, I con-vinced my parents to buy me a Rotax go-kart and started competing in the lo-cal regional series.

After two years, with some success, I started to out-grow local autocross and karting. So, I started look-ing for more. With some research, I discovered the Skip Barber Racing School: I completed their three-day racing school and their two-day advanced racing school. Having done fairly well in the race cars, we de-cided to give it a shot and jumped into the Skip Barber Regional series in their two-

litre formula cars. With two back-to-back seasons and a few poles and podium fin-ishes, it seemed that I might just have what it takes. An instructor, Jonathan Bomar-ito, recommended me to a team that he had developed his craft with.

Graduating from Skip Bar-ber, I signed with the top-notch team of PR1 Motor-sports in order to have them assist me in developing my driving and racecraft skills – little did I know how much of an impact this team would be to my career.

PR1 has professional race-winning development programs in Zetec Formula 2000, Grand-Am GT, Ameri-can Le Mans LMPC, and Formula Atlantic. My first step with the team was to start at the F2000 level. We began the campaign with

Page 26: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE
Page 27: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

roadmagazine.co.uk

Page 28: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

sufficient testing before I had my first taste of profes-sional racing in a handful of races during the 2009 season. Here, clinched the “Rookie of the Year” title.

Next, we decided to race the compete Pacific F2000 schedule in 2010 and race for the title. We enjoyed great success in the 12-race 2010 season, just miss-ing the title, coming 2nd in points, with two wins, five podiums, four poles, five fastest race laps, and the F2000 track record at La-guna Seca. I also competed in the 25 Hours of Thun-derhill that year, under the guidance of Bobby Oregel, PR1 team owner, in a Maz-da MX-5 Cup car. We got a class victory by 45 laps.

Recently, I had a three-day test during the “Roar Before the 24” in our Dinan BMW M6 GT car at Daytona Inter-national Speedway. The ex-citement of driving at such a legendary venue, along with taming this beast of a

car was slightly overwhelm-ing, and I struggled some-what during the first day of testing. It was absolutely enthralling to be driving at speeds of over 180mph on the high banks, surrounded by the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Jimmy Johnson, and many other heroes of mine. But I knew I had to perform for the team and for Bobby; they’ve put so much faith in me over the years. Coming from my previous formula car background, driving the BMW felt like piloting a yacht. Over the next two days, I started to get more accustomed to my new surroundings. An additional challenge was pit stops. Although it looks easy, it takes a certain finesse to make the perfect pit stop; a second lost in the pits is a second lost to our competi-tors on-track. But, by the end of the final day, I was running a good race-ready pace and had all the kinks

worked out, including good pit technique.

Finally, I had earned my shot at Daytona, the ‘Holy Grail’ that I had been striv-ing for all my life. The road has been tough and gruel-ling, with many fun ups and some low downs, all making for memories I’ll cherish for life. I have to thank every-one that’s helped me along the way: My parents, my manager Dan Gulickson, my publicist (& Road’s first lady) Ashley Van Dyke, Bobby Oregel and the whole PR1 Team. I’d also like to thank all of our private financial backers, Corsa Car Care, and our Partnership with C.J. Wilson’s Children’s Charity.

We are all looking forward to a great race and a great year to follow. Follow me at www.DChengRacing.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DChengRac-ing. And read all about my Daytona 24Hr race here in Road real soon.

Page 29: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

Royle Media Photo-jouRnalisM Royle Media desiGn Royle Media PuBlishinG

Royle Media Photo-Journalism is high-impact, innovative, creative and bold.We take exciting images – editorial and promotional – and match them to the best quality journalism/PR writing; all done by NCTJ-trained news and features journalists, and qualified, expe-rienced, published photographers... giv-ing you a one-stop-shop for copy and pictures, saving both time and money.

Royle Media Design offers cutting-edge, first-rate, great value graphic design services - from promotional material, logos, advertising campaigns, business cards, stationery & invitations, to full editorial products: Digital and Printed. Our skilled team of designers create high-impact, innovative branding and superior layouts – at very afford-able rates. No job too big or small.

Royle Media Publishing is the perfect one-stop-shop for all your publish-ing needs: Printed or Digital. We have a top-talented-team of NCTJ-trained news & features writers, first-rate snappers and top-end designers on tap, to help you create the high-impact publication you are after – whether it’s editorial, B2B, membership titles, or any other publication. We can help.

ContaCt us

E: [email protected]: +44 (0)1379 688168W: www.roylemedia.co.uk

w w w. r o y l e m e d i a . c o . u k

Page 30: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

For many years, the KW automotive GmbH is

the epitome for premium products in car tuning and automobile refinement. KW offers its customers the largest suspension pro-gramme world-wide. The entire assortment – from springs over sports sus-pensions to coilover sus-pensions “inox line” in three damping versions – such a variety of products is un-surpassed on the market. Moreover, KW automotive GmbH develops racing solutions for national and international motor sports. The racing programme KW competition is successfully used by numerous racing teams on many race tracks around the world.

made for winners!KW is one of the world’s

leading suppliers of per-formance oriented suspen-sion systems. KW’s wide range accommodates near-ly every vehicle platform.

KW HLS (Hydraulic Lift Sys-tem) avoids road clearance difficulties. Technical de-manding sport drivers who are interested in huge low-ering with high comfort level are using KW Coilovers. The product range KW Suspensions with its three

lines: KW Spring Sets, KW Sport Suspension Kits and KW Sport Shock Absorb-ers has been extended for 2011. KW Street Comfort has been developed for the performance orientated commuters who require an increase in the level of com-fort of their performance suspension system. KW Clubsport is the solution for the track day enthusiasts who require a more aggres-sive suspension setup

In 2006, a state-of-the art 7-post drive dynamics test stand (one of 15 globally) has been put into opera-tion at the KW automotive GmbH headquarters in Fichtenberg, simulating dif-ferent race track conditions.

KW Automotive UK LtdTel : 0870 990 7536Email : [email protected]: www.kwautomotive.co.uk

KW ADVERTORIAL

Page 31: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

www.kwautomotive.co.uk

Page 32: ROAD 11 - TRACK & RACE

Road Magazine’s daily updated blogVisit our fresh ROAD blog! See the latest issue, and back copies of our monthly magazine. Get news, views, reviews, videos & special offers to ROAD readers. Join in! Follow us! Tell your friends! Comment! Join the Twitter feed & Facebook group!

www.roadmagazine.blogspot.com