Few of you may remember my mate Neil who brought the Starion to one of our rolling road meets at Peco.

Well since his last Championship finished (Toyo Tyres Mod Prods) and this year mixed with the historic Touring cars, hes had to make a few mods to get the car competitive.

He has no moved to Slicks from road tyres meaning its had to be dry sump'd, but the biggest mod is the 16V Mitsubishi Evo head, plus the other obvious addition

Hes allowed to use any head as long as he uses the std block (All be it modded), and the manifold must be std production, as must the turbo - which these are

It made 400bhp on the previous T34 and 8V head, 5-600bhp is no expected with this set up

We also belive this is a UK first..

No wounder you couldnt get any ramp time matey must of taken some work that.

The engine has been in progress since about Christmas, but has has had the old 8V engine in up to now.

The 8V motor however let go at Brands Hatch and cracked the head. With there not being much point refitting another 8V head, he got cracking with this, and started fitting the 16V head, and then getting it in the car. Its been on the ramp for about 4-6 weeks now, and he thinks it could be ready for mapping next week, or the week after

The Spec on this car is now very impressive

Looks impressive anyway!

Yeh very impressive,
when is the first race with the new mods ?

I think he is hoping to have it ready for Pembrey at the End of August. The engine has been run, but at the moment has no plumbing on it. It then needs to be run in a little, and then mapped.

Heres some more pics, the old, tired 8V lump:



And the new one...



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Was that 2 tubo's on the old head?

On the old engine??

On the left is the turbo, the right is the inlet manifold - only one turbo on each engine matey.

He won much in this stu.

This engine has yet to be run, but he has had numerous class wins throughout the last few years.

The only reason he has never won the championship outright is due to not being able to score maximum points as there where never enough cars in his class

You could win every race in the season, but if you are the only car in your class, you cannot score maximum points. Another car in a class with 5 cars could have 2nds, and some 3rds and win the championship!

dam that looks sweet mate

Wouldnt it be more sensible to go with something that is capable of winning the world championship as well as its class too?? As its somewhat defeatest if he cant win the world championship even if he were to win every race

Either way though, spectcular car and figures!

World championships

This is Clubman racing mate, not F1

And yes, it may be a bit of a downer if you win your races but cant win the championship, but there are reasons. When you enter the championship at the start of the season, you dont know how many people in your class will enter each event. The Starion is a Class "A" car - top class, and therefore the fastest class with the fastest cars - I guess the other class cars just aint fast enough to give him a buzz any more, years of development have now gone in to this car, and he cant just give up on it, plus the new Classic Touring series he is going to do this year now has more people in his class race after race.

He has won races when there where cars in his class, which shows the car and driver are up to it, but I think a lot of it is how much of a rush he gets driving the car - Ive seen him in races where he could have walked away with a victory, but has held back to make a race of things

Heres an old archive clip from the New Brighton Sprint in 2005...


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sweeeeeeeet

Looks like a barrel of laughs driving that!

Neil is a dame good driver. Where it kicks sideways off the roundabout, there is a dip in the tarmac which really upsets the car and kicks it out like that, and the car has no handbrake, yet he slid it round that hairpin to perfection (I doubt there is enough steering lock to get it round without flicking it like that)