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It was no consolation, I tell you, even after Powerzone managed to clock some impressive times for the century sprint with my SR3 on Saturday. Sirazul of Powerzone was rather delighted with the numbers – quickest being 7.25s, from the previous 8.56s some months back. Way back when it was still virginal, stock with cat intact. With the PowerZone LSD kit installed to the standard F5M22 1.8 gearbox, improved traction meant better transfer of power from the engine to the front wheels, resulting in better times. A cheap, effective mod although no replacement for a real LSD gearbox.
Fastest SR3 on the planet? Hardly…
It was also no consolation that my partner-in-crime Stanley a.k.a Ninja_iga and I practiced handbrake turns in a simulated autocross environment at the 1Utama car park. The same car park where the SSO 2dot5 Drift event was held just days before. Armed with cones and a strong gut and left hand, I was smoking the Yokos with left handed, handbrake assisted turns, in anticipation for at least 3 potential handbrake turns for the SSO 2dot5 Time Attack course.
Come race day on Sunday morning, having just slept 3 hours the night before, Team TTR which consists of Stan, Prozac (the other SR3), Val a.k.a Whit3puppy (female contestant!) and Alex, our trusty crew member, were in high spirits despite suffering sleep deficiency. Andrew, another SR3 owner, was there to support and cheer us on.
Running pretty much in stock trim with the additional LSD kit fitted, plus a bottle of octane booster to prevent any form of pinging/knocking to the engine, we also ran stock tire pressure settings. Merely clearing the car of any lose items and removing the spare wheel, we were banking on our limited driver skills and the car, in stock form.
The course was quite challenging, the most challenging so far in fact, as compared to previous SSOs. A combination of fast straights and sharp hairpins, the course was met with part enthusiasm and part nervousness. Stanley and Prozac did some above average 79s runs in the Hung class we participated in, the fastest being previous winner Hammond Lai in his 1.8 Civic, low 73s. I managed a crappy 82s on my test, just trying to get a feel of the course.
The course was definitely fast, sandy and rather understeery in many turns, posing some problems (some quite major!) to front-driven cars, my SR3 included. Did not help that my front Yokos were balding at an intense pace. Bald! Barely 17,000kms clocked, geez!
My first timed run saw me improving by 3s from my test run, but far from impressive. Eventual winner Hammond obliterated and demoralised everyone with a 71s run, beating even the Rocco (1.8 class and above) category cars. Incredible. Stanley scored 78.67s and 78.64s for his first and second runs respectively, whilst Prozac 79.52s and 79.05s. We found the course understeery, maybe due to the sand, maybe due to the bald tires, and maybe we were simply trying too hard. Absolutely no answers. I had to yank the handbrake to counter the understeer, by forcing the rear out. This helped somewhat, but not enough to better my times by much. In the end, I scored an improved 78.2s in my final run as compared to 79.39s and 79.14s in previous, not too distant from Stan’s best of 77.14s. Prozac scored a close 79.05s, not bad for his first ever SSO event.
Team TTR and supporters in full force!
Final result and standing for Team Titan Racing (TTR) - Stanley - 8th. Vernon - 9th. Prozac - 11th. Hammond went on the win fastest time of the day with 71.43s. Absolutely fantastic time. There were some surprises this time round, much attributed to a faster course overall.
I had a good time nonetheless. Always fun, autocross events. Looking forward to the next round! Down, but definitely not out!
Full results should be out on Race Rally Research by tomorrow.
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