Yokohama ADVAN World Time Attack: GT Autogarage/HKS R35 GTR
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Whilst there has been much chatter about whether HKS will be competing in World Time Attack we can now bring you the facts and the answer is “sort of”. To understand what this means I will need to explain the whole story from the beginning.
Superlap Australia has been in talks with HKS Japan since late last year regarding the possibility of them competing in WTAC 2011 in particular the possibility of the CT230R coming to Australia. Through our talks with senior management it was evident that the CT230R program was now well and truly finished but they have gathered an awful lot of data on the R35 GTR and this was likely to be their next time attack project almost without a doubt, but the big question was whether they would have the time and recourses to turn their black R35 that, over the past couple of years that has been the test mule for their range of products, into a full blown time attack car capable of taking on the world in such a short time frame.
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It was around this time that back in Australia GT Autogarage were talking with one of their customers, Drew Schull, with a view to also building a serious R35 GTR for pro class time attack racing and as they are the Queensland HKS pro dealer happened to mention their plans to Bruce Woodward at HKS Australia who in turn contacted HKS Japan and in no time flat Bruce and the guys from GT Autogarage were on a plane to the HKS Mt Fuji headquarters to establish a plan.
When this plan was presented to HKS and GT Autogarage said “yes we will have to work around the clock from now until August, but we can do it” a deal was done then and there that HKS would provide all of their test data through HKS Australia and the vehicle must run as much HKS components as possible including some secret parts that the Japanese tuning company had in development but are not available to the public as yet.
GT Autogarage then sourced a Japanese spec R35 GTR and flew American aero ace Andrew Brilliant straight to Australia to get to work on an aero package that would make the car glue itself to the track not dissimilar to the way an Indy car does and given Brilliants background, that is exactly what they have come up with. The car was then shipped to the carbon fibre shop to replace “everything” in lightweight “dry” carbon fibre and by everything we mean EVERYTHING!
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Whilst the team are very coy about revealing the true weight of this once obese supercar, needless to say it is a fraction of what it once was. The body was then returned to GT Autogarage where the fabrication began in earnest. A full lightweight Cro-moly cage was then designed and installed.
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“Due to the weight saving process necessary with building a Pro-Class entry for Superlap (World Time Attack), our approach to designing the roll cage for the R35 GTR was somewhat less than traditional. Besides ensuring that the critical safety aspects of the roll cage were met, considerable effort was put into enhancing the beaming strength and torsional rigidity of the chassis.”
“This was achieved through the addition of unconventional structural members (in on-road roll cages) between key node points for superior structure triangulation, and through the selection of structurally competent footplate attachment points on the GTR chassis. The weight penalty that goes hand in hand with the installation of a roll cage was minimised with the use of appropriately sized cold drawn seamless chrome-moly tubing.”
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With the shell preparation done it was time to turn their hand to the engine and this is where HKS really came to the party with a complete kit for an engine capable of well over the 1000 horsepower mark should the team need to push it that far. This comprises of HKS pistons and rods, camshafts and valve train and a monster HKS GT800 turbo kit. The heads are CNC ported by PWA and the whole shebang is tuned by an Fcon pro. The “top shelf” theme continues to the transmission with the original being replaced with a PPG straight cut 6 speed with Willall clutches.
The suspension is a combination of Hi Octane Racing arms up front and Sunline arms on the rear and the suspension is HKS Hypermax 3 with custom valving and setup by the HKS engineers in Japan. Keeping the whole package cool is a trio of F1 spec PWR coolers on the diffs and trans and a PWR lightweight radiator and intercooler also live up front.
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With time of the essence this team will be working 24/7 to ensure they have the car ready but feel confident that they have a combination capable of taking it to the foreigners. “whilst we do have a lot of work ahead of us, the fact that we have HKS to supply us valuable setup data means that we should hit the ground running” said David from GT Autogarage “plus with Steve Glenney doing the driving for us we will be able to make changes very quickly to hopefully put us right where we want to be from the get go. Steve is not only one of the most talented drivers I have ever come across but he also has the exceptional ability to relay extremely accurate data to our engineers”
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