Posted: 18/07/2013
While the weather has conspired against the Willall Racing team getting a circuit benchmark from their WR86 Toyota 86, it was decided that come rain, hail or shine, the June 7th Porsche Club Sprint meeting at Mallala would be the first time WR86 sees a dedicated track. Once more the weather threatened, but save for some cold and windy conditions the rain thankfully stayed away.
“We weren’t interested in running the full round” Willall Racing driver Martin Donnon explains “rather we wanted to get a couple of practice sessions in and gather around 10 – 15 laps of full speed data to work out what other aspects of WR86 we need to develop”. Getting out in the morning sprint sessions WR86 placed 11th and 9th outright out of a field of 30 plus cars, eclipsing every Evo Lancer and WRX/STi for outright pace in the same sessions.
“The balance of WR86 is incredible” Donnon tells us “it’s so neutral now with our specific WR86 HSD suspension setup. The coil over suspension and the Whiteline sway-bars keep WR86 sitting nice and flat in high load corners meaning you don’t need to run a lot of negative camber on the front wheels, which is better for tyre wear and braking performance. In fact I would go as far as to say that WR86 would probably have matched any car out there on the day in terms of mid-corner speed, only losing out against 450+hp GT3 Porsches in straight line grunt.”
“The wider 235/40/17 Toyo R888 tyre also worked very will being progressive in the way it came onto temperature and then stayed consistent in performance across a five or so lap run. There was no sudden greasiness or drop off in performance, which gives you a lot of confidence when steering the car at high speed. Combine this tyre performance with the predictable nature of the OS-Giken limited slip differential and the recipe was there for a serious bit of sideways fun and some great lap numbers.”
With the chassis, tyre, and brake setup all working well together it’s now time for Willall Racing team to work on extracting more power from the engine in an attempt to make even more gains in lap time. “We will definitely stick with the normally aspirated theme!” Donnon exclaims “and push the envelope harder with traditional engine breathing modifications rather than adding handfuls of boost”. Keep an eye trained to find out exactly what Willall Racing have up their tuning sleeves!
www.willallracing.com.au