What do you get when
you when gather 12 of the top European vehicle tuners and let them duke
it out among themselves?
The annual Eurotuner GP Cup, of course.
This year Madness was invited to attend this annual event. The rules were simple, no Nitrous and a you had to run a spec tire from Falken, the RT-615. This being the case we decided to enter our Turbo charged MINI Cooper in the event. This vehicle has been in the development phase for quite some time and has recently proven itself to us at our local tracks so it was the obvious choice for the competition. Nobody at this event really know what to expect out of the stealth black MINI, after it was all over everyone though a little differently about the MINI.
The overall event lasted 3 days with each day presenting a new performance challenge to the drivers and tuners.
Day one was the dyno day where every car was tested for it's horsepower and torque numbers. When our turn came up for the dyno runs we knew that the car would easily put down 300 whp so we were curious to see what the dyno at AWE tuning would yield. Much to our surprise it yielded more power than we imagined, 328hp and 237TQ! During the first 2 pulls we were generating so much power that the wheels kept slipping off the dyno rollers giving us inaccurate readings. The solution was to plant 2 warm bodies on the hood of the car for extra weight. I was one of them! As the car slowly went through the gears terror filled my brain as I imagined the engine exploding at 7500rpm with shrapnel flying out of the hood! Not only this but the dyno cooling fans blow wind at roughly 70mph so just sitting on hood and not flying off was a challenge. Luckily nothing catastrophic happened and good reading's were achieved.
Day 2 took place at the drag strip. The drag strip is really not our forte, were much more into the road course arena so we really didn't know what to expect. Having a car with so much power in a front wheel drive package presents problems. Hook up seemed to be the main issue, power comes on hard with the turbo. 1st, through 3rd gear had to be managed consistently to limit wheel spin. That being said we decided to do 3-5 runs with the best one being a 13.8 at 106.5. Not bad considering it's first time to the strip.
Day 3 is what everyone was really waiting for, the track test. This is the place that truly test's the cars performance, reliability and our driver, Brian Smith's skills. 12 cars in all showed up that day and the results were very favorable for Turbo MINI. After 2 practice sessions, minor tweaking of the suspension settings it was our turn for the timed laps. The running order was first come first serve. This had a significant benefit because the track had just been cleaned of dirt and rock debris so being one of the first meant a clean track for our runs. After the 5 laps were done we had the fastest time until the 286hp Lotus Elise ran. This car was driven by Pro Driver Chip Herr and was a shoe in for the top spot. Anytime you mix that kind of horsepower and low vehicle weigh it's sure to do well. Second place was taken by an old Audi 90 quattro putting down 402 all wheel drive horsepower. This car was also driven by speed world challenge driver Christian Miller. 3rd place went to the Torque Factory Audi S4. This car also put down 512 all wheel drive horsepower and was driven by Chip Herr. 4th Place is where the Turbo MINI Cooper ultimately placed which was the fastest most reliable car there that day. After us was the eurospec Coswort Ford Focus with 401hp. Virtually every tuner at the event had some mechanical issue to deal with but the MINI was trouble free for 3 full out days. We basically had the fastest most reliable front wheel drive car at the event.
Best quote in from the magazine article
"After that it was the very suprising MINI and Focus showing the VW tuners how it should be done."
<Sam Du, Greg Emmerson, editors Eurotuner Magazine>
