We never set the bar too high here at Super Street. We've always been content with the upper limits of mediocrity and quite frankly we don't think we could produce anything better even if we tried. But somewhere along the way we became the perpetrators of the premier Time Attack event in North America. Sure, the National Auto Sport Association (www.nasaproracing.com) and Primedia's International Group Event Marketing Division (a fancy title for Elliott Moran, his clipboard and bullhorn) did most of the work. Okay, they did all of the work, but our Super Street name is on the event, in addition to that of eurotuner, our slightly misguided sister publication.
Our original intent was to produce a fun little invitational-a circuit challenge issued to a sampling of the world's top tuners for the benefit of you, our beloved readers. Normally we limit the car count to 50 or so vehicles, but our latest Time Attack saw more than 70 entries. A majority of these were world-class tuner cars and there were even a handful of purpose-built race machines, with one in particular creating a swirl of controversy.
The Global Motorsports Group Porsche Type 996 GT3 Cup car with James Sofranas behind the wheel ran a 1:49.019, which was more than enough to earn the Unlimited FR crown as well as the fastest time of the day. GMG's time was barely a tenth of a second from the all-time record-the 1:48.906 held by the Sun Auto Cyber Evo with Eiji "Tarzan" Yamada on the controls. The only problem is that the GMG Cup car is a racecar and not a tuner car. It's like comparing Jonny to someone who likes girls. Okay, so we may need to rethink who we put on the Evite list for our next event, but at least our records are in order.
In order to build consistency for our Time Attack record book we hold our final event at the same track each year, much like the JDM super lap battles except that the Japanese time attacks take place at Tsukuba-a legendary circuit steeped in JDM lore-while our benchmark is the notorious BRP aka Buttonwillow Raceway Park, located in Cowpie, Cali aka that desolate wasteland between LA and The Bay.
The Gran Turismo designers may not be adding Buttonwillow to their roster of tracks anytime soon, but the #13 course configuration we use is a serious test for both tuner and driver. This three-mile 23-turn layout is a wonderfully infuriating mix of high-speed straights, fast sweepers and tight hairpins that reward overall chassis balance, explosive acceleration and powerful braking. Achieving the perfect balance of these ingredients is the challenge for both the tuners and drivers. Stringing it all together in one single record-setting lap is the desired result. The increased popularity of our Time Attack advanced the level of competition, and at this latest event the difference between record-setting glory and not-quite-fast-enough was separated by the slimmest of margins, sometimes only a fraction of a second. Aaah, the clock, she can be a cruel mistress. Let's see who she fancies.