I’ve mentioned it earlier than and I’ll say it once more: I completely love time assault.

Overlook the extraordinary competitors and driver focus – simply take a look at the wild vehicles that get constructed within the pursuit of lap instances. Sami Sivonen and the Audi R8 1:1 Skilled Amateurs crew are a major instance of a workforce pushing the rulebook (and physics) to the restrict, all within the identify of velocity.

The R8 1:1 isn’t any stranger to those pages, having been featured six years in the past in a lot tamer guise to the automobile you see now. “We’ve virtually modified the entire automobile since 2017. The body across the driver is similar, however just about all the things else is modified or fully rebuilt,” says Sami.

Essentially the most important upgrades are the in-house-designed and constructed entrance and rear subframes, permitting for customized suspension geometry together with an energetic third damper. This in essence connects the suspension at each side of the automobile and ‘pushes again’ in opposition to forces which act equally on the impartial suspension.

Sami’s R8 is setup to deal with huge quantities of downforce and dive forces with little compromise to ‘low velocity’ dealing with traits, because the impartial Öhlins coilover suspension doesn’t have to be too stiff to counter the Dynamic Aero Options-developed aero package deal.

Oh, and after I say downforce…

… I imply heaps of downforce.

Tons, and much, and plenty of downforce.

“We have been gaining a lot tempo [since 2017] that the inventory suspension parts didn’t wish to take care of the masses,” Sami explains. “We principally had two choices: enhance on what we had across the inventory chassis or go all in and totally construct the automobile round WTAC guidelines.”

Sami and his workforce have actually pushed the rulebook with the Audi’s customized aero package deal; the rear wing being 2,400mm huge and the entrance round 2,800mm finish to finish (WTAC-spec). “It makes our R8 probably the widest race automobile on this planet,” says Sami.

“With European laws the overhang is bit extra restricted, so the entrance wing is round 2,650mm huge, utilizing modified foot plates.”

The result’s 4.8 tons of downforce at 280km/h. At 300km/h there can be six tons, however that form of load can be a giant drawback for the wheels and tires.

With the entire further efficiency potential within the chassis, consideration was then directed to the Audi’s V10 powerplant for extra outright velocity.

“The bottom engine is similar, however we’ve made the change to water-to-air inter-cooling and decrease compression to help effectivity,” says Sami.

In 2017 the workforce have been utilizing Garrett GTX3576 turbochargers, however now the engine bay is residence to a pair of Precision PT6870s with plans to go larger nonetheless. “The primary purpose for all of the enhancements has been thermal effectivity however now we have gained numerous driveability in addition to torque and energy.”

The workforce has seen a max torque determine of 1,280Nm at the hubs, while energy has jumped from round 960kW in 2017 and is now 1,016kW on the hubs too. That’s a smidge over 1,362hp in outdated cash. “Torque exceeds 1,000Nm at round 4,000rpm and continues all the way in which to redline, which is at 8,700rpm,” Sami added.

And but with an influence determine as ridiculous as that, the livery continues to be the principle speaking level of the R8 in its present guise.

WTAC Australia was the inception of the thought, when Sami’s Audi was concerned in a recreation of cat and mouse with Rob Nguyen’s Mighty Mouse Honda CR-X.

It was obvious early on that the large outdated Audi was the sooner automobile between the 2 that weekend, and the spectators jokingly named the R8 the cat, being the one automobile that would catch Mighty Mouse. Sadly, some unrepairable injury to one of many Audi’s wings knocked it out of rivalry and it got here second to the CR-X.

Mr. Nguyen determined to pop all the way down to Sami’s storage and crack a joke alongside the traces of ‘the fats cat must lose some weight…’

… igniting the concept that the Audi – which is definitely reasonably mild all issues thought of – would bear a mobster-inspired cartoon cat toying with a little bit mouse in between its claws.

Sami and ‘The Fats Cat’ crew have set official monitor information on the Porsche Ring, Pärnu in Estonia and Motopark, Virtasalmi Finland, in addition to GT-car based mostly information at Mantorp Park in Sweden, TT-Circuit Assen and Botniaring, Finland in addition to an unofficial monitor report on the Alastaro Circuit, additionally in Finland.

They’re additionally planning on conquering considered one of my private favorite circuits, the Nürburgring GP structure.

The Skilled Amateurs are one of the vital enjoyable but devastatingly aggressive groups in time assault for the time being, and this picture sums that up brilliantly. I can’t wait to see what else Sami, Henri, Riku, Mikko, Sanni and Märt can add to their report streak.

Mario Christou
Instagram: mcwpn

Photographs by Alen Haseta
Instagram: hazetaa