1800Ti Racer

08/31/08

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Craig Hughes's Sprint and Hillclimb 1800Ti


This 1800Ti was previously owned and developed by Nigel Reeves; Craig bought it a couple of years ago.  It has previously (and still does) compete very well against the heavily modified Scimitar GT (Coupe) and GTEs in the RSSOC Sprint and Hillclimb Championship.  Since then, it's recieved a few mods here and there, as well as a new engine for 2005 following a "little" mishap..

      Demise of an engine..Curborough 2004

      New engine build

      New engine fitment

 

With the new engine run in and quite respectable results in 2005, it needed a few more improvements for the 2006 season. 

 

The Canadian spec front facing manifold generated around 20bhp and 50lb/ft torque on its own due to the improved plenum volume and the rear arch mods allowed for larger rear wheels and tyres.

They must have worked as Craig won the RSSOC Scimitar and Sabre Speed Championship 2006 with a record breaking maximum points score of 80 (out of 80...).  With the bar now raised, mods are now underway for the 2007 season.

With the 2007 season over, a change in the rules for the turbocharged Scimitar in the RSSOC Speed Championship effectively made Craigs car ineligible for the current SuperMod class.  There was a hard decision - detune the car to stay in SuperMod, or go hell for leather and step up to Competition class...does anyone ever make a race car slower?

Turning a Supermod car (road legal) into a Competition class car took Craig considerably longer than expected - work commenced on suspension mods to accommodate the wider and higher grip slick tyres now allowed, plus what effectively adds up to a new body to drape over the chassis.

Modified trailing arms, allowing adjustment via spherical rod ends

... to try and make the best of these wheels and tyres..

Hundreds of hours (and much help from Pete Silcock) went into the new bodywork with rebuilt doors and a two piece front end

Quick lick of paint (thrown from about 20 yards, according to Craig), and the "Silver Batmobile" is born..

Its first outing of 2008 at Loton Park (Craigs "home track") gave a taster of what the car was now capable of; the grip now available resulted in Craig turning in too early....

Fast forward to the RSSOC Sprint at Curborough in August 2008, and Craig wins the FTD.  It is to be noted that the field also included a large contingent of Ferraris costing many, many times more.  I need to include a para-phrased quote from Craig here...

Scimitar SS1 bought 4.5years ago = £2.75k
1000s of man hours, blood sweat and tears = £??k

the look on the Ferrari owners face when he realised his £140k Ferrari F430 had its time destroyed by @ 2secs by a nasty looking, pointy, plastic car from Tamworth

= Priceless !!

for everything else, there's MasterCard

Laughing Laughing

Heaven knows what 2009 will bring, as i hear there is more power still to come from the engine "as-is", as well as Craig having to re-learn how to drive the car with its new found cornering prowess.  As for the RSSOC Sprint Championship, Ben Gough and Iain Daniels (in the recently re-bodied supercharged Scimitar GTE) now have a rival in the Competition Class.  At the time of writing, its 2-0 to Craig..

 

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This site was last updated 08/31/08

     

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