JUNE 1999
Barretts
Test pace gives hope for Higgins
SUBARU driver David Higgins has stated that a recent asphalt test
has improved his Impreza by "one second per mile". The Carno-based
Manxman was using the Bala Ranges venue to find some base asphalt
settings for the car ahead of the SEAT Jim Clark Rally on July 3/4.
This season is the first time the Barretts
Motorsport run machine has used Michelin tyres and Proflex
suspension. Both companies were present at the test and reported
positive feedback. "It was one of the best tests I've ever had,"
enthused Higgins. "I was a bit worried about going onto tarmac, but
with the car working this well I'm quite looking forward to the Jim
Clark. "Everything worked well - we found the right suspension
set-up which kept the car baIanced while not shredding the tyres.
We also tried some bigger rear brakes which we'll fit to the car
for the first time on the Jim Clark" The team had considered
fitting the new brakes to the car for this weekend's Scottish, but
with no time to test them on gravel Barretts decided to leave the
car in its current gravel spec.
JULY 1998
Prodrive
Once again this month has been a very busy one at the Ranges with
a lot of teams testing for events and also testing specific
components of their cars. One of the latter was Prodrive who spent
3 days testing gearboxes on a Subaru Impretza GpN.
They had four drivers up there to do 500 Kilometers, including
Richard Tuthill, Terry Kaby and Gregoire de Mevius. Unfortunately
on the third day one of them had a bit of an off destroying a large
section of fencing, and a gate post. this in turn obviously did
damage to their car so they headed back to Banbury early.
The fence and subsequent damage will hopefully be repaired this
week.
This week also sees Asquith Motorsport testing there on Tuesday
and Vauxhall up there on Thursday and Friday.