Whitley Warriors On

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October 3, 2016

Alexandra Whitley

photo credit: Matt Smith Photography

The SsangYong Dealer team and I made the trek down to Christchurch over the weekend, to race the second round of the South Island Endurance Series in the SsangYong Super Ute.

A lot more work had gone on to improve the Ute after its roll over at the last race meeting. This weekend was all about race testing for us after having made plenty of changes. Unfortunately we didn’t achieve the end result we wanted but we did kick some goals.

The rollover was little blessing in disguise as we needed to carry our significate repairs it meant that we were also able to gut the inside and cut more weight out, whilst having all the exterior panels off. The engine bay got a repaint ready for the freshly built engine from Edgells Automotive, MRX engineered stiffening and strengthen pipes the chassis, the roof was replaced with Carbon Fibre made by Mike Shaw, Sign On worked their magic and printed and fitted all the stickers and signage and finally Auckland Performance Tuning fitted the electronics and tuned the engine to perfection.

Friday practice saw trouble early as we were over the regulated noise level, fortunately a local exhaust shop fitted us out with a muffler and we could get back on track. Deon set some great times and with a few tweaks on our suspension every lap saw improvements. After lunch it was my turn to take to the wheel, getting to grips with the car and track was tricky as I had only raced there once before over 12 months ago and in very different conditions last time is was more like ice skating rink. After 15 laps or so at the end of the main straight the third link chassis mount on the rear suspension that holds the diff up failed, the diff fell down and tore out the driveshaft. We were towed back to the pit and the repair work began.3

Fortunately for us a local driveshaft specialist was able to fix our driveshaft while we waited. Another local business ConCut owned by “Duffy” a well know sprint car champion also came to our rescue with the use of his MIG welder and workshop floor, we could fit the driveshaft and repair the chassis, ready for Saturday.

Saturday morning came round and I was up for first qualifying session, only having had the one test session the day before this was challenging, every lap saw my times dropping. I qualified second by just two tenths in our class, the team and I were happy with the result. Deon went out in qualifying two. After the 2 qualifying sessions we started 20th on the grid for the race and 4th in class Deon started the race and took 6 positions in the first few corners, but with cold tyres he dropped off track and slipped back a few places. An hour and twenty minutes in and I was suited up ready for the driver change, when trouble struck again. Deon couldn’t find any gears with the continuing problem of the location of the 3rd link. After all our hard work the previous night the power of the mighty Super Ute was too much for the factory engineering. After all we have turned it into a “Super Ute.”

Even though the weekend didn’t go to plan, from what I learnt at the New Zealand Elite Motorsport Academy I was able to learn a lot more about understanding and reading data with the help of Jason Swan from Auckland Performance Tuning. On the plus side we seemed to have a great package with the engine that Edgell Automotive has built and with the new Motec M150 fitted and tuned by Auckland Performance Tuning by Jason. The engine and electronics were faultless over the weekend this proves we going to become a real contender in not only sprint but endurance racing.

On a side note here are a few facts about the SsangYong Super Ute
• To give you some idea on how fast the Super Ute really is, its 4 seconds faster than a V8 Ute and we have only just touched the surface on the performance we can achieve from the 2L Mercedes engine.
• Standard SsangYong Lap time Ruapuna 1.56.2, Super Ute Lap time 1.34.8 Difference 21.4 Seconds per lap!
• Standard Ute HP 150, Super Ute 480HP
• Standard Ute weight 1720kg with driver, Super Ute 1400kg
• Standard Ute top Speed, 160kmph, Super Ute still to be determined but have reached 235kmph

A Standard SsangYong Lap time Ruapuna 1.56.2, Super Ute Lap time 1.34.8 Difference 21.4 Seconds per lap!

It had been a while since I have been in the seat and it was great to get back in. As always there are many people and businesses that work endlessly behind the scenes. Thank you for all of your help and support.

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