Hi all, well yesterday I finally go to do it!!
Not only was I one (two) of the Guinness Book of Records breakers for the New World Record for the most Skylines on Track at any one time, but I got to put BEUT (my R33 GTR V Spec running 600bhp atw) up against Nissan’s finest, Scarlet (a Vibrant Red R35 running 550bhp)
I had four track sessions on the NEW Southern Circuit layout with Silverstone Circuit Organisers. The “show” was organised by ISTS, The International Styling and Tuning Show and I was there with The Skyline Owners Club for the World Record Attempt.
As per usual it was a little manic as these three organisations seemed (Hmmm, I know) not to have actually talked to each other and the organisation wasn’t err, spot on, but hey ho.
What you really want to know is which one was faster!!!
After the briefing session, which I must say was the shortest briefing I had ever attended, which was good as after we finally got parked up in “our” Skyline spot at 8-45am, we then had to traverse half way across Silverstone to sign on by 9-15am for the 10-00am session.
I had two of my closest friends and trusted Track Day drivers with me, John Barnes (No, not the footballer) who drove BEUT to Silverstone on Saturday evening with me driving Scarlet, and Nick aka “The Paddyman” turned up on Sunday morning. I won’t go into the shenanigans of Nick getting into Silverstone, suffice to say he had some extra exercise!
The first session of the day was “ever so quiet” and gave us, John and I, time to acclimatise to the new layout, and what a layout it is, new smooth tarmac and nice sweeping corners, with some very nasty curb stones NOT rumble strips!! WATCH OUT !
On the long back straight I tried to indicate to John to get in 3rd gear and I would pull along side him and we could carry out a “performance test”. The only issue with that was that he didn’t see my 3 fingers as my passenger’s head was in the way and he was in 4th gear, so Scarlet and I took off LOL.
We swapped places several times (by consent) and at that point I knew that this wasn’t going to be a case of one car would get left behind, in fact it was very much dog eat dog.
We returned to the “pits”, well our bit of tarmac amongst the other 260 + Skyline’s and had a chat. Nick finally arrived inside Silverstone and was looking over BEUT and was making comments such as “You must be mad putting both your cars out there” and “hats off to you my friend………………….. you bloody fool”
Whilst explaining to Nick the further modifications I had carried out to BEUT since the last time he saw her (when I went to visit his house and we couldn’t get her over the speed bumps in his road) I noticed that John still had the adjustable Tein Flex suspension setting in “comfort” mode i.e. everything soft, if you can ever have soft in a GTR. However, as we know it shows up out on track and then John started was giving me the excuses etc etc.
Anyway, 11-00am and Nick’s turn out in BEUT. I adjusted the harnesses and suspension setting to what I thought would be best for a now warming track and the sticky Toyo R888’s and off we went.
This time we had a plan. I would lead and when we had cleared the “debris” (the other Skylines, Chavs and Chavesses) we would pull along side each other after coming out of the corner, select 3rd gear and give it the beans ;-)
Bloody hell I thought, this is F’in ridiculous!! My12 year old Nissan Skyline R33 GTR V Spec keeping up with me, neck and neck, No wonder David Yu didn’t shake me off his tail at Castle Combe. There was NOTHING and I mean nothing in it at all.
BEUT was should to shoulder with the GTR. We approached the fast corner at the end of the long back straight. We had a made an agreement that who ever was in front would take the corner first, trouble was no one was in front, we were fast approaching 140mph.
Nick through the power of thought, my thought, started to brake, as I knew, and this was probably one of the few things that did separate the two cars, Scarlet had better braking potential (Alcon racing brakes at 400mm) and I could haul her down quicker, not much, but enough to just out brake BEUT into the corner, phew. Not necessarily a heart stopping moment but enough to the get more adrenalin flowing.
The other area’s that the R35 is “better” is at high-speed stability, you can feel the ground affects working and the car just squats into and out of the corners.
John proclaimed the difference when he was a passenger in Scarlet and Nick was driving BEUT.
He said, “BEUT is just raw, savage power, brutish and takes no prisoners”. Scarlet is much more linear in her power delivery. I said after my first drive in a GTR it felt, still feels like a highly tuned V8 with a super charger (just wish I could have the noise associated with that!!) So smooth and so, so very quick.
From that point on it was a nose to tail dogfight, 10 laps of it. Neither car could pass the other, a testament to my 12 years of personal R&D on BEUT.
We then had the Skyline parade of over 260 cars in their respective groups of R32’s, R33’s R34’s and one, yes one R35, holding her head up high. There was another R35 there but it was one of these funny Chrome wrapped thingy’s!! You know, show, pose and no go. LOL
I had another 2 sessions at 3-00pm and 4-00pm with John driving BEUT with the correct suspension set up and it was exactly the same. No matter how hard we both tried, unless one of us let the other through there was no way we were going to past each other.
Even when I tried some deft interesting lines whilst trying to avoid some kitty litter which had been spewn onto the track by another R33 that John was hustling and he wasn’t paying attention to the track as he saw two very fast GTR’s in his rear view mirror and missed the corner (sorry who ever you were, but you wouldn’t move over!!!)
The rest of the Chavs & Chavesses were subsequently annihilated!!
What a fantastic day. We done to the SOC for the attempt and I am sure New World Record
BEUT is still up for sale, but I still have fun in her and she will only go to a good (GTROC or SOC member) home. I may be playing again this Friday at Castle Combe if anyone would like to join me or just come along?
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