# Brighton Speed Trials, in the wet.



## Rich-GT (Apr 2, 2008)

Interesting day at the Brighton Speed Trials on Saturday. I have been trying TCM maps from Ben and Joe at Cobb all week, but none of them seemed to work with the revs dying after launch. Ran out of time and was in London on the Friday, but Joe sent over another map so I loaded it up with the only chance to try it being in the services on the Journey down to Brighton,  seemed to at last be working so left it in.

Unfortunately like nearly all other clubs B&HMC has finally succumbed to pressure from the MSA to put 4WD cars in a class of their own , so unlike previous years with a class of 30 plus with all the other exotic cars there were three of us. A Mitsubishi GTO & Justin Nicholson in the 996 Turbo. However Justin was always going to be the main competition, so everything still to play for. I only beat him by 0.03 last year.

Brighton was wet….. but decided to give the new launch a go on the practice run although I was not at all hopeful. Selected RROFF, wheels span all the way into second and the 4WD light came on, computer was not happy and one of the photographers reported that the rear wheels seemed to be spinning much more than the fronts. I ran a 12.13 and Justin ran a 11.87. He came over and chatted while we waited to return to the start and said he had a secret weapon this year, Hybrid turbos & 670BHP. Things were not looking good. 

We had our first timed run after lunch and things had dried out a bit, had planned to not use the launch this time, but to put in a banker run just flooring it. However at the last moment I decided it looked dry enough and went for it. Launch seemed good and I got some tramp which I have never had before. I hear this is what breaks transmissions? Got the times and Justin was happy with his 11.6 until I told him I had done an 11.32. 

Worth mentioning at this point that running at Brighton is not like Santa Pod. This was at best a slightly damp road surface. There is no 1ft roll out, and 60ft becomes 64ft. I usually recon to run ½ second slower at Brighton than at the Pod. This 11.32 is 0.2 second better than I did last year in much better conditions, this bodes well for a 10 second run at the Pod.

64ft time was 2.16 and the terminal 128MPH, however needs to be looked at in comparison with the fastest car there Mike Endean’s Xtrac GouldPuma which did a 2.38, 10.63 @143 MPH. Last year he did a 1.93, 9.68 @ 141MPH

Second timed run was the wettest, so I just floored it. 64ft was respectable at 2.33 but back started going round big time as I went into 3rd so had to get out of the throttle and finished with a 12.62 @122MPH. There were a couple of people who did manage to spin, an F40 and the twin Hayabusa Force SR8 who unfortunately did some damage hitting the curbs.

So usually it’s all over at this point, but Brighton do a top 6 runoff, and due to the conditions the GT-R made it in with the 3rd fastest TOD, with most of the usual suspects having failed to put the power down. Things quite wet now, so went for RRR & just floored it, bit of a twitch half way down but kept my foot in. Ended up second to the Puma that did a 10.72, me with a 11.96. 

So a good day, with more to do in a straight line than usual. Thanks to Ben and Joe at Cobb for the new Launch TCM. I think it needs a bit more work but need to do some runs at the Pod with logging on to really see if it’s working. What I would love to have is to be able to select TCM maps like the ECM ones, so that you could quickly choose different launch revs….


Rich


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## David.Yu (Jun 28, 2001)

Awesome result Rich and sounds very scary for a straight line event... :nervous:


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## Cris (Sep 17, 2007)

You might like these then:


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## _shaun_ (Jan 16, 2007)

David.Yu said:


> Awesome result Rich and sounds very scary for a straight line event... :nervous:


Guess you had VDC off when the back was coming round?


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## Rich-GT (Apr 2, 2008)

Cris thanks for the pics. Yes I had VDC off for the first three runs, but went to RRR for the last one when things were much wetter. With the traction in R the electronics were much quicker at catching the back. 


Rich


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## Steve (Sep 21, 2001)

Nearly made this myself as I have in years gone, but bloody work got in the way again !!


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## ANDY400R (Mar 28, 2008)

Congratulations Rich you are getting to be a bit of an expert in this straight line racing, a possible 10sec for a bog standard car with just a custom map would be rather special, Im sure that you will achieve it.


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## Zed Ed (Oct 24, 2007)

Great. When I need a ven, I'll know where to come


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## Boosted (Jun 5, 2008)

Gary Passingham of GT ART ran 10.07s @ 141mph in an R33 GTR at the Speed Trials in September 2008


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## w8pmc (Sep 16, 2010)

Excellent results, well done.

I'll be running in VMAX at Brunters in 3 wks, but mine will still be very new & stock so i'm not sute how hard i'll push.


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