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COBB Motorsports Win Big at Redline TimeAttack Round 2
The huge 3,000 mile trek to New Jersey Motorsports Park for COBB Tuning Racing Team has paid off with an overall win for Brian Lock in the COBB Motorsports Modified class GT-R for round 2 of the Redline TimeAttack Series for 2010.
It wasn’t a walkover however and electrical problems with the GT-R causing limp conditions were damping their efforts to go all out in Sunday’s practice sessions. The guys worked hard on securing the cars electrical connections to ensure they couldn’t move about under high cornering loads and were rewarded when they were able to eliminate all trace of the problem. The GT-R’s laptimes improved instantly and they were able to turn an amazing 1:06.768!
This laptime was the quickest of the entire event meaning that, for the first time in Redline TimeAttack history, an overall win was given to a Modified Class car. The team also take home the Modified AWD and Modified Class trophies for the round.
Could the event win set a precedent for the rest of the series? We know the guys have the right car and the right driver to get there!
Congratulations guys and good luck for round 3 @ Las Vegas Motor Speedway on the 23rd – 25th of April!
Link: COBB Tuning Blog
Link: Redline TimeAttack Website
Redline Time Attack 2010: Season Opener This Weekend at Buttonwillow Raceway
Redline Time Attack is back and this year is promising to be better than ever. Round 1 is this weekend at Buttonwillow Raceway and along with the time attack events there’s also a two day Battle of the Bands, Miss Redline Spokes Model Search as well as Show N Shine, video games and beer garden.
Most interesting to us of course are the GT-R’s that will be attending and competing in the event. Here’s Cobb’s GT-R that is now fully decked out and ready for Brian Lock to take the pilots seat.
The latest upgrades to the Cobb Motorsports GT-R include fitting an all new AIT carbon wide body kit and the OS Giken TCD spec rear LSD. The LSD upgrade has done wonders for the driveability of the car:
“My first impression was “WOW!” What a difference the TCD LSD made! As I started my first hot laps I could feel the difference in the rear of the car. Now the chassis just seemed to hunch down in the back and squirt out of the corners with no rear inside wheel spin at all. Plus it was much easier to use the throttle to help steer the car out of the corners. With the inside wheel spin gone, I could easily modulate rear slip angle with my right foot, encouraging corner exit rotation by feeding in just a bit more throttle.”
– Brian Lock, for COBB Motorsports
They took the car out to Cali Speedway to gather test data, the video and MoTeC data logs you can check out over on their blog. The bottom line is the car is way more controllable at the corner exit which is going to help them turn some even more respectable laptimes.
Good luck to Brian and Cobb for this weekend and all the other teams competing. We’ll be keeping a close eye on things and be posting up results as we hear them.
For more information or to read the full press release, hit up the giant red read more link below….
Thanks to Brandon from WebRidesTV and Gary from Cobb Tuning for the input and help on this.
Link: RedlineTimeAttack Website
Link: Cobb Tuning Blog
Cobb Tuning Announce Redline Time Attack Series Entry for 2010 Season
The Redline Time Attack series kicks off in March on the 26th at Buttonwillow in California and Cobb Tuning have announced their three car entry for the season. Most exciting to GT-R fans is that Cobb’s GT-R will be there and that they have wrangled pro driver Brian Lock into the Cobb R35 GT-R.
GTRBlog readers will know Brian as the pilot of the GOTO:Racing über GT-R. He will race the 2010 Cobb Tuning GT-R in the Modified class.
“Everyone at COBB Tuning is fired up about our return to racingâ€, said Gary Sheehan, Director of Marketing. “Our company is made up of auto enthusiasts that love power, speed and competition! We are putting a lot of effort into Redline Time Attack this year as we think it is THE place to show off our passion as tuners, fabricators and racers. We are really looking forward to meeting up and spending time with fellow enthusiasts at these exciting events all over the country.â€
Quite a few changes to the Redline Time Attack series this year including the addition of Sebring and Infineon Raceway to the competition. Ten rounds in total there’s sure to be a lot of solid competitors.
Can’t wait to check it out!
Link: Cobb Tuning Announcement
COBB Tuning AccessPORT Powering the GOTO:Racing Time Attack GT-R
Earlier this month, the Cobb Tuning team put together this rundown of the features of the Cobb AccessPORT ECU reflashing tool for the Nissan GT-R. They’ve chosen to focus on how the top level time attack team, GOTO:Racing use it on their ~800hp GT-R to get the best results out of the GT-R with minimal level of fuss.
The Cobb AccessPORT still stands as one of the best bang for your buck modifications anyone can do to their GT-R and this video highlights a couple of the features you may not of known it had.
On the topic of the AccessPORT for the GT-R, Cobb Tuning have also now released a version for the East Asian and Japanese markets. Preloaded with the latest 2.0 version of the Cobb Tuning default maps, it’s available now. This brings the total global markets supported by the AccessPORT up to:
- Australia
- East Asia
- Europe
- Gulf
- Japan
- South Africa
- United States
Cobb don’t stop there though, one final AccessPORT related announcement was made recently, regarding the AccessTUNER Pro software compatible with the Nissan GT-R. The latest release of the software, version 1.8.1.2, contains updates that will allow tuners to utilise the Proportional Gain Boost Control logic, as seen in the canned 2.0 maps. It’s also available now and supports all of the above listed regions.
Source: Cobb Tuning
SuperGT 2009: Michael Krumm Back Onboard for Pokka GT Rd 6 at Suzuka
Michael Krumm will return to the MOTUL Autech #1 Nismo GT500 Nissan GT-R hot seat in two weeks time to sit in for regular driver Benoit Treluyer. Krumm who, in the past would be piloting the second team Nismo GT500 GT-R (if there was one this year) has taken the year out to drive for Nismo’s FIA GT team in Europe while development continues of the 2010 specification FIA GT1 GT-R. He will co-drive the Round 6 Pokka International Summer Special race at Suzuka Circuit, a race that has traditionally been known as the Pokka 1000 due to being a 1,000 km race. The rename comes after the event is shortened to 700km this year.
Krumm started the 2008 Pokka 1000km at Suzuka on pole position but faces a tough challenge to repeat it. The car is burdened with “success ballast” since team Nismo is leading the championship. To top it off, he will only have a short few laps to reacquaint himself with the car which has changed in terms of aero package since 2008.
Treluyer has to skip the round after receiving what is known as a “Moral Hazard Penalty”. Yeah… Veteran and 2008 champion, Satoshi Motoyama will be co-driving with Michael.
The Pokka GT Summer Special begins Saturday 22nd of August for qualifying with the final on Sunday 23rd of August. After this, it’s back to Europe where he will drive in the final FIA GT round for the GT-R’s 2009 season on 25th October 2009 at Zolder in Brussels.
Link: SuperGT Official Website
STILLEN Targa Newfoundland Nissan GT-R Gets New Paint
Time is flying by in the countdown until Steve Millen contends the Targa Newfoundland 2009 in mid September. STILLEN have been busy innovating new durable racing components for the GT-R while at the same time preparing their own race car for the event.
In a STILLEN blog update they’ve showed us a bunch of paint prep and paint booth photos showing the process of taking their Vibrant Red GT-R to bright orange which matches Steve’s previous Targa weapon, the orange Ford GT.
Also painted and fitted up are carbon panels from Password:JDM including a dry carbon hood and dry carbon trunk. Looks good guys, cant wait to see it assembled.
Link: Full story and more photos over on STILLEN Blog
SuperGT 2009: MOTUL AUTECH GT-R on Pole for Round 4 at Sepang
Finally another weekend of GT-R motorsports has kicked off, firstly qualifying for SuperGT Series 2009 round 4 at Sepang Circuit in Malaysia. After a too long, 6 week break between round 3 and this weekend, we get to see the GT500 Nissan GT-Rs doing what they do best – that is – grabbing pole position during qualifying.
It’s good news for the #1 MOTUL Autech GT-R as they’ve managed just that with a best lap of 1:58.124 in the heated SuperLap qualifier round. Also, even more good news for Hasemi Racing with their #3 Tomica EBBRO GT-R in 2nd spot on the grid after setting a best lap just hundreths of a second away from first at 1:58.195.
Back in 7th places we see the #24 HIS ADVAN Kondo Racing GT-R with the #12 IMPUL Calsonic GT-R back in 10th place wrapping up the last of the GT-Rs.
With wet weather sitting in later in the day today, who knows what tomorrow will bring and teams will need to be ready for anything.
Targa Tasmania 2009: Drama Filled Day 3 for Nissan GT-R Pilots
Day three of Targa Tasmania 2009 was a troublesome one for three of the five Nissan GT-R teams as they battled in early wet conditions. First incident of the day involved Team Donut King’s GT-R driven by Tony Alford when they had an off around 11am on TS19. Front damage included a cracked radiator so he pulled out of the event.
Next was the sad news that Steve Jones, the young Western Australian who had been maintaining a solid top 5 position on days 1 and 2 had also had a more serious off on TS21. Steve was taken to hospital for observation but co-driver Rauri is OK. The car is damaged but witnesses said it could have been worse.
Thirdly, Russel Newman’s GT-R was seen exiting TS20 driving quite slowly. Mechanical dramas may have befallen them but we cannot say for sure. Chances are they will investigate the issue overnight and assess if they will continue in the morning. Fingers crossed.
Tony Quinn who began the day in first position on the other hand, had another top day of racing. No serious troubles except for the serious competition from the Lamborghini teams of Weeks/Crunkhorn (1st) and White/White (2nd) both in 2007 Gallardo Superleggeras. Tony, in third place, is only 4 seconds behind the leader and just 1 second behind 2nd place however as the competition this year is extremely close.
Peter Leemhuis in the second Team Donut King Nissan GT-R had a solid day finishing in 14th spot for day three.
Jim Richards who is always a favourite was also not immune to the dramas that befell teams today. After seemingly misjudging the surface conditions of a second gear corner, not expecting so much loose debris to be on the tarmac, he parked the nose of his Porsche GT2 into an embankment. This was enough to hole the radiator and end the event for him. Jim is in good spirits though even considering this is the first stage of a Targa Tasmania he’s ever entered but not finished.
Two more days of competitive racing ahead, weather is expected to be fine for both of them. Stay tuned for more updates and check out the entire press release from Targa Tasmania 2009 after the jump…
Link: Targa Tasmania 2009 Website – Results
Link: Targa Tasmania – News Website
Photos: Joel Strickland (C) Joel Strickland Photographics
SuperGT 2009: Nissan GT-R Podium Finish at Suzuka
Not a dream day for the Nissan GT-R today at Suzuka Circuit for round 2 of the SuperGT 2009 series. Beginning the race on pole the MOTUL Autech #1 Nissan GT-R had a great start and fought hard to keep in front of the Toyotas and eventually began to build a lead.
The rest of the race consisted of MOTUL Autech GT-R leading in front with as much as a 13 second gap while the IMPUL Calsonic #12 GT-R ran a race of consistency in and out of third place.
With five laps remaining, when they seemed almost a sure thing to win, they suffered some trouble and weren’t able to maintain the pace. They were forced to concede the lead to the ZENT Cerumo SC430 which finished the race first. They were able to complete the race finishing in fourth position but were later penalised 27 seconds to result in a heart breaking 11th place finish.
Meanwhile, the IMPUL Calsonic #12 Nissan GT-R finished their consistent race with a third place, a solid points round for them which moves them into fourth position in the championship ranking. For the full race results click the Read More link below, otherwise enjoy the photo gallery from today’s SuperGT action.
Just two weeks until round 3 at Fuji Speedway, let’s hope the GT-R’s get back on top then.
Update: Couple of mistranslations corrected and full race report from Nissan added after the jump.
FIA GT1 Nissan GT-R In Detail: Photo Gallery and Video
The Nissan GT-R has spent it’s first official test day at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France and been the target of quite a lot of attention. French website endurance-info.com has the hookup for some real great photos.
You can see in these great shots, the basis of the Nissan GT-R is a standard car. The standard radiator support is even reused in a modified form. As for the engine bay, well not much remains stock here with a 5.6litre NA V8 VK56DE in place of the standard Nissan’s VR38DETT twin turbo engine.
On the same subject, MC from NAGTROC spotted that GigaWave, who have partnered with NISMO on the FIA GT1 spec nissan GT-R have setup a new streaming video website, called GTRLive.tv, to show off some of their technological capability. The first video is an in-car camera video from the GT1 car testing. Check it out below.
Photos: Anthony Megevand, David Fontayne
Link: GTRLive.tv – GigaWave’s Streaming Video Site for GT1 GT-R Activities
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