From Mean to Green in Japan: Two weekends, two races, two podiums

[AVOturboworld]

The AVO Japan turbo BRZ has participated in a lot of race events, but none so far apart in purpose as what happened over these past two weekends. Our first event was rather traditional and one we have been to for many years now. The Hypermeet is a glorious day of incredible cars and incredible racing that is held every spring at Tsukuba Circuit. All levels of tuner cars participate in time attacks and races, the most notable being the 5 Lap Battle.

The 5 Lap is a balls to the wall, run what you brung race with only one requirement, that you run on road legal tyres. So we prepped the AVO BRZ carefully for this event by working on the aero bits and suspension. We also brought the power up to a nice satisfying 420whp on race gas. This turned out to be enough to shred one of the rear axles in the practice session, so we had a bit of a last minute scramble getting a new one in. Practice otherwise went very well, and we were quite excited about racing the next day.

It turned out to be quite an epic Sunday with Ross easily winning the 5 Lap Battle in the BRZ. After qualifying in first place, the car was placed at the back due to it being a reversed grid at the start. With that much power on tap, though, it took very little time for Ross to pass the field and get up into 1st place, which he held all the way to the end!

The very next weekend, though, was a completely different race for the BRZ. We were invited to participate in the 86/BRZ Green Cup. This wasn’t about the fastest time around the circuit, it was about who was the most efficient. Now, they may have invited our turbocharged BRZ race-prepped car to show how less efficient it would be than a n/a setup. And the rest of the field was naturally aspirated, and filled out with a mix of amateur drivers, Toyota engineers, and professional race drivers.

Points would be accrued through two main factors in the race. The first was the total amount of laps finished in 90 minutes, and the second was the final fuel economy over the entire race. The car needed to be fully road legal for this race, so we had to put the stock driver’s seat and passenger seat back in. Other than that, the only thing we adjusted on the turbo BRZ was to remove the front diffuser. Additionally, the car had to have a driver switch a minimum of 5 times. So we picked three drivers for the event, Ross Wilson being the main driver. Derek and Esumi from the AVO Japan office were our other drivers.

After one of the slowest starts we ever participated in, we settled down into doing our best to win this event as well! The thing is, turbochargers are used by a lot of manufacturers not just for power, but because they are inherently efficient about how they make that power. Our strategy to win the race was based around that fact. We took full advantage of the large amounts of torque developed low in the RPM range by our kit, and simply drove the entire race in 5th and 6th gear, never going above 3400rpm.

We barely had to slow down in most corners and just cruised through the entire course. The biggest issue we actually experienced had to do with one more regulation, which was to never go faster that a 1 minute 18 second lap. One of our drivers inadvertently broke that time, causing us to be penalized one lap.

And that one lap cost us 1st place! It was that close, we actually were one of the best overall in fuel efficiency of all the cars there! We finished a total of 62 laps, for a total overall of 124 kilometers in 90 minutes. It’s too bad that we lost for once for simply going too fast! The top finisher was the RevSpeed magazine car that had a full complement of professional race drivers at the helm. It was a good battle, and one I’m sure we’ll be able to win the next time we go!


Ross at the 5 Lap Battle:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8ElzEvIQjI"]2015 Hypermeet at Tsukuba - 5 Lap Battle - YouTube[/ame]










Images from the Green Cup: