Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i Fast Car

While we’d take the first six months of 2021 over the same period last year, for fans of car shows it’s been a time of confusing and often conflicting information. Can we attend a car show? Will it be going ahead? Will we need to be vaccinated? Well, it appears that, as the country has done such a good job of culling the dreaded Covid, through all the measures that have been in place, we can finally enjoy a summer of car shows the way they always used to be, and just in the nick of time too. To celebrate our new found petrol-fuelled freedom, why not get yourself to one of the show season’s big three events and really get your show on. Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire is the…

Lee’s up front about how the whole Tucked Automotive brand was created, and it was more luck than judgement in the beginning, having started with just a random sticker that he created for his slammed – and tucked – Mk5 Golf. “People just liked the sticker and asked me do make some for them and it just grew from there really,” he says. “I then started doing some more branded merchandise, such as lanyards, caps and clothing and eventually setup my own small meets. I can’t believe how big it has grown in such a short time.”…

A lot of car manufacturers are pushing their models’ ‘green’ credentials these days. Of course, by this we mean their environmental impact, not the colour of their paint jobs. And while the world is going crazy for these squeaky clean electric and hybrid powered models, there still seems to be a big stigma attached to cars that actually rock the polarising hue as a colourway. In fact, if you do some research into the most popular new car colours, you’ll see that green sits pretty much at the bottom of the pile. Not only that, but it actually tops the list for the colours that attract the highest amount of depreciation. Double whammy. And for these reasons, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that green cars have become…

Turbos are the magical power adders that put huge smiles on our faces, but treat them badly and they’ll throw a hissy fit of diva-like proportions. However, is it all the turbo’s fault? Or are there other factors at work that are leading to their untimely demise? Speaking to a host of top turbocharging experts it appears that, far from being the prissy prima donnas that many people mistake them for, turbochargers are extremely tough pieces of hardware that endure some of the harshest conditions your engine dishes out. Looked after properly, they can last the lifetime of your car, even when tuned, but they’re not indestructible and they rely on other parts of your engine being in tip top condition too, so read on to see the top 13…

Surprise reveals are quite tricky these days, aren’t they? What you’re seeing here is a world-first exclusive magazine debut. Of course, regular readers will be very familiar with this car because we’ve been running monthly updates in the back of the mag for ages, the Meguiar’s face-off between Tom and Dale growing into a social entity way bigger than the sum of its parts. And those of you who were at the Players Classic at Goodwood in June will have pored over the Volvo in all its glory as the covers came off… and no doubt heard it a mile away, as Tom revved the nuts off that magnificently shouty engine. Screamer pipes are for winners, that’s just a fact of life. Quite a curveball choice for a project though,…

The Ur-Quattro’s legendary status is assured, but we bet Audi didn’t even dare to consider that its all-conquering rally weapon would spawn whole families of all-wheel drive sporting machines. Yet that’s exactly what it’s done. The 1990s S2 coupé started the ball rolling, the 311bhp Porsche-fettled RS2 (RS = Racing Sport) laying the foundations for the super-swift estate car. The first Audi hot hatchback, the S3 arrived in 1999, and has been followed by mega-powerful saloons, estates, and SUVs. Currently numbering 15 S and RS-badged cars, that sporting lineage has ultimately resulted in the R8 supercar, a very long way from those first snowbank-sliding Ur-Quattros, but a descendant none the less. History The first RS3 came to the UK in April 2011. Packing a 335bhp turbocharged five-cylinder engine from the…

TTS PERFORMANCE SUPERCHARGER KIT FOR FN2 HONDA CIVIC The FN2 Civic Type R may not have the same following as its iconic forebear the EP3, but peel back that polarizing angular styling and you’ll find the same over-engineered K20 engine that is just begging to be tuned to the hilt. What the screaming 2.0-litre VTEC unit has in abundance is revs, but it does lack torque and that’s where naturally aspirated tuning struggles to really add gains, as it often relies on raising the stratospheric rev-limit even higher with peaky cams. No, the best solution to add meat to the K20’s power curve is boost, and the supercharger conversions from Silverstone-based TTS-Performance are some of the best in the business. Using a range of Rotrex centrifugal superchargers, capable of boost…

BMW’s M-division, the in-house builders of its line of bonkers road-going ‘bahnstormers and the firm’s factory-backed racing entrants, has finally jumped on the drifting bandwagon by supporting two BMW M4 Competition models set to compete in the Drift Masters European Championship this year. Driven and prepared by the Red Bull sponsored Driftbrothers, Elias and Johannes Hountondji, the pair of highly modified M4s will take to the grid for the first time on the 10th and 11th July for the opening round of the season in Greinbach, Austria. “BMW M has always stood for motorsports at the highest level and in all of its diversity, whereby we are also open to disciplines such as drift sports,” says Markus Flasch, CEO of the BMW M GmbH. “The Red Bull Driftbrothers belong to…

The air ride gurus at Air Lift Performance have launched a brand new blog series that will run on their website. Dubbed the “Around the World” series, this online bi-weekly update is slated to feature 10 of the brand’s shops, dealers and installers from, cunningly… all around the world. The series has already featured bagged rides from as far afield as China, Indonesia and Australia, so head over to the website www.airliftperformance.comto have a gander and keep up to date with what’s going on in the wilder world of air-slammed rides.…

In 2017, the Hyundai i30N hit the hot hatch world with a bang. Seemingly out of nowhere, the Korean manufacturer had pulled out a car that could take on the segment’s top guns and not only that, but beat them at their own game. Much of the hot Hyundai’s success came from the firm drafting in engineer Albert Biermann, who was previously the head of BMW’s revered M Division, and honed and developed the car at the legendary Nurburgring. Packing either 250bhp in the N, or 271bhp in the N Performance model, straight out of the box, with braking, handling and build quality to rival the best in the game, the i30N should be overlooked at your peril, especially the N Performance model, which would be our pick of the…

TTS Performance has long been hailed as a respected specialist in the field of supercharging thanks to a colourful history of car, motorbike, jet ski and industrial generator forced induction conversions that it has carried out using Rotrex superchargers. The Silverstone-based company’s choice of blower is largely down to the fact that Rotrex units are almost silent in operation, even though they can be run at much higher speeds than superchargers from rival manufacturers. An ability for even the smallest of Rotrex units to run at 250,000rpm means that characteristics including increased boost levels, totally linear power delivery and instantaneous throttle response are achieved – features that will boost your car into hypercar levels of performance!…

PIONEER SDA-11DAB DIGITAL RADIO ADAPTER Fed up with the limited choice of tunes on analogue radio? Then you need to get into the digital age and get yourself a DAB radio. And with Pioneer’s SDA-11DAB adapter, you don’t even need to change your existing headunit. For a bargain £110, this nifty piece of kit can be installed into any existing factory stereo either wirelessly or hard-wired and also features Bluetooth technology to allow you to safely and legally answer your phone on the move. With great DAB performance opening up a whole new world of digital stations, you’ll be spoilt for choice, and its easy to use interface and menu system means it’s a cinch to set up and use, even while keeping your eyes on the road. Price: £110…

Set in the beautiful rolling hills of Cheshire, Oulton is a spectacular (and long) circuit, and a very rewarding one for the driver. What makes it so great for the crowds is your proximity to the track, so you can almost feel the heat of the exhausts and smell the tortured rubber. However, this comes at the price of less prevalent runoff areas, meaning caution should be advised – especially as Oulton is one of those tracks that just makes you want to push harder each lap. From the awesome first Old Hall right-hander, through the almost blind downhill entry to Cascades, keeping your lines is key. As the track drops away and the camber works against you, this is easier said than done. You can tackle Island Bend carrying…

We were all smiles when the RX-8 sailed through its MOT last month. After more than a year sat idle, we were worried that something might rear its ugly head and cause a problem, but after that 12 month ticket was issued we breathed a sigh of relief. But just a mile after leaving Knight Racer’s MOT station, we found the car was not able to rev past around 2500-3000 revs. We looked at the dash to see the check engine light was illuminated and knew something was not right. Luckily, we were still close by to Knight Racer, so we turned around and limped back to the garage for further diagnosis. At first, we thought it may simply be a glitch that required disconnecting the battery to reset the…

If Brian O’Conner knew that his lurid orange Supra would one day fetch a whopping $550,000 (£393,000), we don’t think he would’ve been so keen to give it away to his fellow petrolhead Dom Toretto at the end of the original Fast and the Furious flick, even if he did owe him a 10 second car! But this is not a movie, this is real life and that was the actual price paid for the car when it went to auction in Las Vegas recently. Eddie Paul at The Shark Shop in El Segundo, California, built the vehicle which was used in the film for the interior and exterior shots and driving sequences with Paul Walker behind the wheel, but admits that, unlike its portrayal on-screen, this is no fire…

There’s a certain appropriateness to the way Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution models evolve at the hands of tuners and modifiers. After all, the very nature of natural selection and genetic variation are baked right in to the formula – it says it right there on the bootlid, the car’s all about evolution. And this is something the brand has been proudly displaying for over 150 years. One of the oldest and most diverse manufacturing outfits in Japan, Mitsubishi was founded in 1870 as a shipping firm; the name translates as ‘three diamonds’, hence the iconic badge. The firm rapidly diversified – shipping requires coal, so company founder Yataro Iwasaki made inroads into the coal-mining business, then setup an iron mill to provide the requisite raw materials, before starting a marine insurance…

They say that ‘fortune favours the brave’. But if, at the start of the year, you were considering launching a brand new automotive event onto the calendar, most people would’ve thought you less brave and more foolish. This was a time that restrictions on social gatherings were still rife. Yes, the vaccine was being rolled out and there was talk of relaxed rules on the horizon, but at this point in time making any plans for a car show in the near future was like spinning the roulette wheel and slapping your house on black. No one knew for certain just how, or even if, the tide would change. Add in the wildly changeable weather we were having back then, and the chances of a successful outdoor event must’ve seemed…

25-years. A quarter of a century. That’s how long the Porsche Boxster has been around. It’s a length of time that seems practically impossible, as even the earliest examples still look fresh today. But then, that’s probably because Porsche hit he nail of the head with the Boxster. In the early nineties, Porsche was on the ropes due to the recent recession, cheaper competition and an antiquated, over-complicated, manual production process. The company knew that its 968 replacement entry-level car had to be something special. And when the covers were pulled off at the 1993 North American International Auto Show, it was an instant hit. It won the hearts of the press and, importantly, the buying public, who now had an agonising wait until it went into production three-years later.…

How did you get into motorsport? I actually started my racing career on two wheels, not four, when I raced motorcycles in the National MotoCross Championship and later in the Superbike National Championship. I started car racing very late in 2009 in the KTM X-BOW battle series. What other series have you raced in? I have also raced in the Creventic 24-hour endurance series. What has been your racing career highlight so far? I’d say that would have to be my 3rd place finish in the SPX Class in the 24 hours of Brno and the 24 hours of Barcelona. They were great races that I really enjoyed. It was a hard fought battle over such a long race, but to end up on the podium was an amazing achievement.…