Just a note - you can turn up to TOTB with *just* legal tyres, do a couple of standing quarters, five one-minute runs on the handling circuit and find that your tyres are very illegal afterwards

Take a look at this Youtube video - look closely at my nearside tyres at 16 - 18 seconds and you'll see what appears to be dust being kicked out - it isn't - it's the tyres being ripped to shreds

dam i need to make my car faster so it can go back to what once was the fastist sprinty

TOTB entry cut-off date has been extended to 24th July, so if there's anyone else that fancies their chances, you can still enter

Anyone coming as a spectator ?

is it this weekend?

This sunday matey!

I was considering going, but its a lot of petrol and I'm out the night before it, so hope whoevers going enjoy's it and take some photos/videos!!

Ross

can't believe i am saying this after all the time and effort but right at the last minute after getting it all up and running and very very quick (probably too quick) it seems the ecu (which has been sat on floor with all wiring under mat untill all finnished) has been shorted somewhere throwing everything into turmoil and i can not get down with a trailer and get it to a mapper (even if i could get a last minute booking) to work it out.. so thats me out and absolutley gutted..i knew we were pushing it but to get so near is just pants! all the excitement then nerves then more excitement has sent me greyer for sure...but we tried our hardest..my appologies to the forum for not being able to do it..in the words of steve greenauld (mapper) and i suspect many others "thats hard core tuning for you"

Any coupes this year?

No - none at all

Didn't miss much lads.

Apart from Andy Forrest running a magnificent 9.48 on his first run, the trusty Granada and a few spirited efforts in a longer handling circuit, not much going on.

Fair play to the organisers for making an effort with a bus to the top speed run, helicopter rides etc, but crowds and competitor numbers down. On the plus side, the lack of queues for the quarter mile/top speed run mean if you can hit the times needed you'd have got plenty of runs in for your £100 in front of a reasonable crowd.

It was always a bit of a funny decision to run it on the same weekend a Time Attack round was taking place.

Aye, we were saying that earlier - must have impacted on the crowd. To be fair to TOTB though, it's always been last weekend in July.

I reckon they were struggling for competitor entries this year - the closing date was extended several times and they were still taking entries up until mid last week

Unless they change something, I reckon it's going to die in the next year or two - it's basically lost its universal appeal and now its just about a handful of Jap 4WD cars going extremely fast after spending a huge amount of cash

It's stuff like the Granada that made it interesting, but this is now the exception, rather than the rule

Typical the one time i cant make it theres not many there.
I have said this for the last 3 years but next year i WILL be there.

Hard to argue with this Nigel - no list of competitors in the programme backs this up too.

After 40 minutes (and seeing the same Evo make about four runs) the action dried up on the quarter mile. Unthinkable a few years ago when the queues went on for ever and crowds flocked around open bonnets as you well remember...

Of dear - just been on the TOTB site to check the results - I've also had a check round some of the other forums to see what people thought

All I can say is I'm glad I didn't spend the money and petrol to drive up there

EDIT - numbers changed from the first entry I made half an hour ago - found the official results

FWD

Top speed - 2 entries
Quarters - 17 entries
handling - 4 entries

RWD

Top Speed - 9 entries
Quarters - 13 entries
Handling - 10 entries

4WD

Top Speed - 33 entries
Quarters - 48 entries
Handling - 36 entries

the event has clearly turned into a jap rally slag 4WD drag event - there was just ONE non-jap car in the 4WD class (a 911) and even in the RWD class, more than half the field was jap. If that's how the event set out to be, then it's a resounding success, but I have a feeling that this was never on the original plan.

From what I've read on other forums, there were far too few cars competing, far to few cars actually running and nothing exciting to watch (once you've seen one ten second Impreza/Evo you've seen them all?)

Apparently, the few competitors that did a lot of running were going up the strip, coming back round and straight onto the startline again - no queues at all

The problem the organisers will have now is that the crowds will stay away next year, even if the competitors come back

Shame, but not surprising

I think tbh Nigel, there is another way to look at this.

Think of all the competition the coupe has had in previous years, now would be the best time to get 3 strong coupe's to enter.

Supposedly, due to flea maps, we have circa 10 coupes over 350bhp, which should be plenty to get into the 12's and try and hit the top speed. Then just need someone who's good on the handling (wonder who Nigel ) and the coupe's could potentially take a clean sweep of the FWD?

Do we have winners times for FWD on 1/4 mile, top speed and handling?

Ross

The best FWD quarter was an 11.26 (Honda Civic) and the best top speed was 166 (Corsa) - both well out of the capability of a Coupe with less than 600bhp

When I first won the handling at TOTB, it was against eight other FWD cars, including a hillclimb-special Nova with a seasoned race driver. Any victory at this year's event would have been very hollow indeed.

TBH, I'd rather come halfway down a packed field, than at the top of a (very) short list of entries - it's the competition that I enjoy (as well as being the underdog)

It looks like my decision not to compete this year was absolutely spot-on. Unless something radical changes at Straightliners (and with my finances), I can't see that I'll ever compete again.

Wow. I retract my above comments. 11.26 is UBER fast for FWD. 166 is a potential to beat, but to travel all that way and then carry all your spares, plus remove an interior, doesn't seem worth it right enough.

Why don't we arrange a coupe shootout?

Ross

I presume the Vaux Tigra wasn't running as he get's into the 10's and has a stupidly high top speed as well.

Coupe shootout, I did look into this a while back, it won't be cheap.

Begbie - Specky's Tigra dropped a valve into the piston a few weeks ago - it went with such force that bits of piston and valve went back out through the intake, then got sucked into one or two of the other cylinders as well.





You're right - last year it came eighth or ninth OVERALL in the top speed times - truly amazing car..

Could we extend this to Fiat shootout, get a few more owners clubs onboard to reduce the cost?

Ross

Cheers Nigel, couldn't remember the name. Looks like it did a fair amount of damage there

Ross, hiring a runway for a day is approx £5k, who is going to front that money upfront? Then you need to have timing equipment, liability insurance etc..

TBH, if you want a HUGELY entertaining day out with a bunch of Coupe owners, Curborough is the place

£500 covers the circuit hire and up to 25 cars can have a whole day out shredding tyres and getting all competitive ( as well as learning their car's limits in relative safety)

About time we did another?

agree with you there Nigel!
great day out, relativly cheap, plus i want to bring the GTA there and see what it can do

£90 each gets you brands hatch indy all day with a open pit lane

Despite the fact that some big names weren't there, the fastest time of the day was still pretty impressive

0-155 in less than 10 seconds and 0-194mph in 16 seconds