Litchfield - Newsletter - June 2007 part 1

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Japfest and Scooby Shootout shows

Litchfield Imports had a stand at both shows and the cars on display proved a huge hit.

Japfest once again took place at the famous Castle Coombe race track with over 10,000 Japanese car fans enjoying the track action, club and trade stands. The track sessions saw some eventful moments. A NSX had a nasty meeting with a barrier, a Time Attack car blew its engine and caught fire and drift car also ended its day in flames. Thankfully no-one was hurt. Our Track time allowed us to test some of the new developments on our GP Edition demonstrator and was great fun.

It was also the first time many customers had a chance to view the Japanese Legacy GT Turbo. It proved very popular, so much so our stunning Legacy Spec B WR Limited sold on the day.

The following weekend was the much anticipated Scooby Shootout. Once again some of the fastest Subaru's from around Europe entered this fun event at Elvington Airfield. The day consisted of a ¼ mile drag strip and timed handling circuit.

On our stand we displayed the; Spec C GP Edition, Type-25, Forester STI, Legacy WR Limited and the latest Legacy Spec.B Turbo. All were well received and Tim was busy answering questions all day.

Our Spec C GP Edition was entered into the handling event and did superbly. With over 46 cars running including many high-power race and Time Attack cars the GP Edition managed to qualify in the Top 4 for the final in dry conditions.

The GP Edition was only beaten by Roger Clarks stunning 850bhp Time Attack demonstrator, Andy Forests 9.3sec ¼ mile Type-R weapon and Dale Howards beautifully built 500bhp MY02 Spec C. Not bad considering the power deficit and a very satisfying result that capped another positive show.

New Spec C GP Edition has successful tests.

Final testing is underway on our latest GP Edition with some very useful data being collect.

Along with the usual road and Dyno evaluation the car has recently be on a couple of circuit events mentioned later in this news letter.

Suspension testing is finished with the latest version of the Type-25 chassis enhanced with STI ball jointed rear trailing arms and revised damper and spring rates. Together they have formed the sharpest handling Subaru we've ever driven and yet a quick turn of the AST adjusters gives the GP Edition fantastic ride quality. This chassis really is the benchmark against which all our future developments will be judged.

On circuit the car proved extremely composed with a natural stance throughout high speed bends. The STI arms and revised dampers have significantly improved rear end grip.

During the damp conditions at Scooby Shootout the balance of the car was further highlighted with almost no under steer and a slight tail out stance as the car powered out of the bends.

Engine testing has centred on the Turbo choice and combination. All the other aspects of the engine have been thoroughly proven during our many years of experience with the Japanese models. The previous 2006 version of the GP Edition basically took the standard turbo to its comfortable limit.

The aim with the new model was to try and find a turbo that would naturally suit our power and response expectations.

Last year saw the introduction of a new version of the Type-25 Garrett ball bearing turbo that was adapted to fit into the Japanese twin scroll exhaust housing. When fitted to the 2.0 car it would easily produce 400bhp however we wanted to keep the quick response/spool of the standard unit with the improved high rpm flow of the 400bhp turbo. And so testing began. Fortunately we have tested a number of different versions of the Twin scroll turbo so we had a good knowledge base to start with.

Working closely with Turbo experts Turbo Dynamics we tried a version of the new Garrett Turbo with a smaller compressor wheel. Response was amazing but it struggled and suffered significant surged when pushed hard. This turbo was run on the Castle Coombe Japfest day and in this trim produced a disappointing 355-360bhp. Clearly more work was needed. After careful studying of the data and temperatures Turbo Dynamics revised the design.

The new Turbo features a larger Compressor wheel (although still smaller than the Type-25) and a Ported Shroud to reduce the onset of surge. So far the tests are extremely encouraging. Turbo response is even quicker than standard and there appears to be ample flow at higher RPM.

Scooby Shootout was the perfect showcase of the GP Edition concept. The car was driven to the event, competed with its full weight including spare wheel etc and then cruised home in comfort. In fact it was the only finalist to leave the event not on a trailer.

Over the next week or so we should finalise the full specification and update the website.

2007 Honda Civic Type-R almost here

We currently have a number of Civic Type-R's arriving later on this month including our long awaited demonstrator.

Interest in the new model has been amazing both here and in Japan. If you are interested in booking a test drive let us know as soon as possible as demand is extremely high.