The test driver from another world

Mika Salo is very experienced Finnish race driver who has been racing in many different classes, especially in the land of rising sun, Japan. He's carreers top, I guess, was he's years with F1 teams where he gained quite a lot of success. In this TV series Mika takes two similar, yet different, vehicles and attacks the tricky circuit of Ahvenisto race track for few laps. faster wins and in the end Mika picks his favourite for extra fame ;)

The opponent

The EP3, which was our rival, turned out to be product of very basic tuning recepie. Mosterious power with no proper tune of chassis. And, please excuse this opinion based statement, with hideous body kit... The owner stated he can't take any responsibility for hanling issues as the Civic stays 'as it came from the factory' but I would like to point out few details against this opinion

1. The wheels with monsterious offset were not chosen by Honda
2. Ride height was set to 'look good' with the kit so basically the balance was what the fiber glass arches stated.
3. Way too much power for FF vehicle :D with no brake upgrades to match :/

The 'race'

In the teaser videos it was a bit alarming to hear Mika say 'I have never driven this powerful front wheel driven car before', but as it turnes out, the more balanced MTek Civic is astonishing 4 seconds faster than the EP3! As well as Mikas favourite choise.

Still, one little detail has kept bugging our minds. Our Civic was not in right settings, instead quite the opposite, so what would had happened if it would...

We drive the Civic to all the races and track days where we go thus we need to have proper clearance for our bupy roads, especially on the gobble stone streets, with tram tracks, in Helsinki. Usually the clearance is adjusted with with method more-is-more because we also need to get the civic over the steep ramp of the garage. And this, unfortunately, was the case this day too.

Normally when we arrive to track, first things we do are change tires and lower the car to the proper ride height with 0.5 mm tolerance. This was the plan for this day too but, as it turned out, our car was the first to race in the morning and the producers gave us 5 minutes to change the tires! Keen eyed viewers may have notice our car in odd stance, with it's nose up in the skies. This is the explanation for it, no secret chassis tuning behind it :D This, of course, caused quite a lot of understeer, of which Mika'complained' in the show.

Oh how we wished for extra 15 minutes which we were not provided...

The bottom line

Our best time on the track with additional fast chicanes of season 2010 1:32,811, and without chicanes with unofficial hand timing 1:30,8 (this was also in 2010). Thus we were quite blown with 1:34,0 time driven by one of Finnish top drivers, as well as very dissapointed. We've heard, that 'Virittäjät' is searching for cars to be tested in next series. Maybe we should apply and make sure we have proper settings before giving the car for Mika ;) Be assured, if our car is in the telly once more, there will be more than just 'new settings' in it!

Nice picture gallery of the Tuning.fi car magazine’s photoshoot we had some time ago. Thanks for Mölsä for sharing it :

We regret that it took so long to publish these videos.

In the latest number of Tuning.fi you can get a glimpse behind the scenes of MTek racing team.

Pick up your copy while they are available.

http://waska.lt/#/content/Motorsport/2011/Radalle/

http://www.15min.lt/gallery/gazas/Fast-Lap-isvyka-i-Suomijos-Time-Attack-varzybas-20255

Last Saturday, in Ahvenisto racing circuit, radalle.com organized the One More Time races for it's popular Time Attack series. The day was super nice and very crowded, in a good way. The parking lot was filled with nice tuned, track built cars and variety was huge!

As this was outside of the series race, we spent most of the day fiddling with our cars settings. Some of them were not so successfull, while some were. In the end of the day the Civic felt super grippy and fast around the track, but the races were already done by then. Lucky for our competitors ;)

Here are the club series results for 1.10.2011 held Radalle.com Time Attack OMT races

The qualifying (there was only one qualifying set this time)

1. 1:37,916  Mikael Tuominen - Nissan 200SX S14
2. 1:38,296  Sami Sivonen - Audi TT
3. 1:38,543  Marko Oivo - Honda Civic - MTek Racing Team
4. 1:39,413  Tomi Saarinen
5. 1:39,536  Mikko Horko
6. 1:40,080  Leo Laukkanen
7. 1:41,122  Riku Järviö
8. 1:41,131  Joni Alasaari
9. 1:41,321  Jani Haverinen
10. 1:42,970  Jani Andersson
11. 1:43,184  Samu Vanhatalo
12. 1:46,107  Vadim Teplov
13. 1:55,446  Timo Risko

Super Lap

Club below 2.5l class

1. 1:38, 944  Marko Oivo- Honda Civic - MTek Racing Team
2. 1:39,874  Mikko Horko
3. 1:44,263  Riku Järviö
4. 1:45,525  Vadim Teplov

Club over 2.5l class

1. 1:38,293  Jani Andersson
2. 1:38,332  Sami Sivonen - Audi TT
3. 1:38,668  Mikael Tuominen - Nissan 200SX S14
4. 1:39,170  Leo Laukkanen
5. 1:40,575  Samu Vanhatalo
6. 1:41,268  Jani Haverinen
7. 1:41,708  Joni Alasaari

Club series

1. 222 p. Marko Oivo - MTek Racing Team, Honda Civic Under 2.5l
2. 185 p. Sami Sivonen - Audi TT, Over 2.5l
3. 144 p. Vadim Teplov - BMW, Under 2.5l

Competition

1. 218 p. Saku Nurminen - JN Motorsport, Subaru Impreza
2. 174 p. Toni Ruokonen - Rasmus Speed, Nissan Skyline BNR32
3. 123 p. Jani Koskinen - ESV Drift Team, Mitsubishi EVO V

Unlimitted

1. 85 p. Janne Niska - JN Motorsport, Subaru Impreza
2. 52 p. Antti Oksa, Audi S2
3. 45 p. Jari Kämäräinen

Some cars and team names are missing. If you know, please let us know and we will add them.