TEAM LEGACY UK BLOG
Time Attack Oulton Park 2020
After the announcement that the 2020 British HillClimb Championship was cancelled we made the decision to enter the Legacy into this years UK Time Attack championship.
We entered the pro class as we wanted to see just how fast the car could be on slicks. Due to the low number of entrants we were bumped up to the highest class which is Pro Extreme, this class lives up to its name and regularly features the most extreme race cars in the UK/Europe. Full race teams and crazy aero are commonplace together with horsepower to match. Our old Legacy was set for her biggest ever challenge!
Damien has only driven Oulton Park once at a track day so we needed a plan (or a satnav) . A talk with Steven Darley and Oliver James Thomas and we had a rough idea where to go.
Friday night and the stickers were applied to the car, we ran out of time to complete the front splitter so that was left off leaving a rather compromised aero package, final checks and we were all set for the opening round of the championship.
Saturday morning and we were greeted by a beautiful clear sky and warm weather, great for track conditions, not so great for a 700bhp Time Attack car that likes to get too hot.
Out for the warmup session and the car felt great, the grip on the soft compound Pirelli slicks was amazing, we had to bed in the new Performance Friction brake pads so a few steady laps and we were good to go. Fortunately for us at this point Marc Kemp came flying by in the awesome TCR car, tucking in behind him would prove to be the best decision all day and we gained a much better idea of the correct lines around Oulton Park Island Circuit.
One of the biggest challenges in Time Attack is finding the space on track to compete that one perfect lap, you can perfect all your sectors and then encounter a car on a cool down lap on your last corner thus ruining writing off that lap and you have to start all over again.
Into practice and turning the boost up to 1.8bar it became obvious that we could only do one flying lap followed by a cool down in order to manage engine temperatures. It was a balancing act trying to get a clean lap and not overheat the car. The Aims dash confirmed a lap time of 1:27 so we parked up and saved the car for qualifying.
We have run the Legacy on Nimbus Motorsport supplied Torco fuel for over 5 years now. For the warm up and practice sessions we run an FIA/MSA approved 102 octane “pump fuel” this fuel is legal in most UK championships and provides huge gains over V-power from the roadside pumps, well worth considering if you want more power in your road/race car. For the qualifying and final sessions we run Torco 118NOS, this is a 120 octane race fuel that we switched to from VP Import. The 118NOS is rocket fuel, when we swapped to this from VP import (same octane rating) we gained even more power at the same boost. Contact us or Nimbus Motorsport if you are interested in trying a drum at your next dyno session.
Out for qualifying and finding space for a clean lap was really hard work, after a near miss with a clio and a wee trip across the grass finding the limit of the Bosch ABS and Alcon Brake combo we managed one lap and another 1:27 before the chequered flag.
The Final arrived and the plan was a couple of steady laps at 2.0bar then crank up the boost and go for it. A 1:26 banker lap and we were all set, boost turned up, car nice and cool. Turning into Lodge corner and up over Deer leap the Legacy was insane needing all the track as the KAAZ diff worked hard to keep the car on the racing line. Hard on the brakes into Old Hall corner and fast through to Cascades. Down towards Island Bend and this was gonna be a PB but sadly our day was cut short when the Syvecs S12 ECU killed the engine due to zero oil pressure. Apologies to our fellow competitors for the shortened final session. Being towed back to the garage wasn’t exactly what we had planned however a quick ch
After the announcement that the 2020 British HillClimb Championship was cancelled we made the decision to enter the Legacy into this years UK Time Attack championship.
We entered the pro class as we wanted to see just how fast the car could be on slicks. Due to the low number of entrants we were bumped up to the highest class which is Pro Extreme, this class lives up to its name and regularly features the most extreme race cars in the UK/Europe. Full race teams and crazy aero are commonplace together with horsepower to match. Our old Legacy was set for her biggest ever challenge!
Damien has only driven Oulton Park once at a track day so we needed a plan (or a satnav) . A talk with Steven Darley and Oliver James Thomas and we had a rough idea where to go.
Friday night and the stickers were applied to the car, we ran out of time to complete the front splitter so that was left off leaving a rather compromised aero package, final checks and we were all set for the opening round of the championship.
Saturday morning and we were greeted by a beautiful clear sky and warm weather, great for track conditions, not so great for a 700bhp Time Attack car that likes to get too hot.
Out for the warmup session and the car felt great, the grip on the soft compound Pirelli slicks was amazing, we had to bed in the new Performance Friction brake pads so a few steady laps and we were good to go. Fortunately for us at this point Marc Kemp came flying by in the awesome TCR car, tucking in behind him would prove to be the best decision all day and we gained a much better idea of the correct lines around Oulton Park Island Circuit.
One of the biggest challenges in Time Attack is finding the space on track to compete that one perfect lap, you can perfect all your sectors and then encounter a car on a cool down lap on your last corner thus ruining writing off that lap and you have to start all over again.
Into practice and turning the boost up to 1.8bar it became obvious that we could only do one flying lap followed by a cool down in order to manage engine temperatures. It was a balancing act trying to get a clean lap and not overheat the car. The Aims dash confirmed a lap time of 1:27 so we parked up and saved the car for qualifying.
We have run the Legacy on Nimbus Motorsport supplied Torco fuel for over 5 years now. For the warm up and practice sessions we run an FIA/MSA approved 102 octane “pump fuel” this fuel is legal in most UK championships and provides huge gains over V-power from the roadside pumps, well worth considering if you want more power in your road/race car. For the qualifying and final sessions we run Torco 118NOS, this is a 120 octane race fuel that we switched to from VP Import. The 118NOS is rocket fuel, when we swapped to this from VP import (same octane rating) we gained even more power at the same boost. Contact us or Nimbus Motorsport if you are interested in trying a drum at your next dyno session.
Out for qualifying and finding space for a clean lap was really hard work, after a near miss with a clio and a wee trip across the grass finding the limit of the Bosch ABS and Alcon Brake combo we managed one lap and another 1:27 before the chequered flag.
The Final arrived and the plan was a couple of steady laps at 2.0bar then crank up the boost and go for it. A 1:26 banker lap and we were all set, boost turned up, car nice and cool. Turning into Lodge corner and up over Deer leap the Legacy was insane needing all the track as the KAAZ diff worked hard to keep the car on the racing line. Hard on the brakes into Old Hall corner and fast through to Cascades. Down towards Island Bend and this was gonna be a PB but sadly our day was cut short when the Syvecs S12 ECU killed the engine due to zero oil pressure. Apologies to our fellow competitors for the shortened final session. Being towed back to the garage wasn’t exactly what we had planned however a quick ch
