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Posted
Oct 16 2010, 06:00 PM
by
Patrick McGrath
with 4 comment(s)
At the recent Modified Live event, Sumo Power pretty much pulled out all the stops with a team display at the event. Sitting pride of place was the #22 GT1 GT-R driven by Warren Hughes and Jamie Campbell-Walter. The #23 car was away testing for an upcoming GT1 event. For a lot of people, this would of been their first opportunity to get up close and personal with the car. 600HP of normally aspirated V8 filled the paddock with it's low beat as the car was warmed up for a systems check. It's...
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Posted
Jun 30 2010, 04:00 PM
by
Patrick McGrath
with 17 comment(s)
The Time Attack Series runs as a part of the Modified Live event. The event in it's entirety includes Time Attack, a static show, trade stands, demonstration runs and the European Drifting Championship. The scale of the static show is quite substanstial, with a wide variety of manufacturers and styles being represented by their respected owners. Because the event runs as a one day event, you literally can spend all day looking around without getting bored. I usually find at this sort of event...
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Posted
Jun 14 2010, 11:00 PM
by
Patrick McGrath
with no comments
I've just received some great news from Andy Barnes letting us know that the Sumo Power GT-R GT1 will be present at the Modified Live event on the 27th of June at Brands Hatch where it will be doing some demonstration runs before the crowd throughout the day. The same event will also be host to the third round of the Time Attack Series and the European Drifting Championship alongside the Modified Live show n' shine paddock. It promises to be a great day and of course Speedhunters will be...
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Posted
May 06 2010, 05:12 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 10 comment(s)
Dawn on race day at Silverstone. Dark skies threatened storms and reports were coming in that the track was flooded in several places from the heavy overnight rain – and that the early morning GT1 warm-up might not even take place. Add to this that Silverstone was a building site in place, and the prospect of mud and GT cars sounded less than attractive. Could we be about to see the inaugural Silverstone Rallycross Special? Thanks to the efforts of the marshals and clean-up crews at the track...
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Posted
May 03 2010, 06:20 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 4 comment(s)
In Spring 2008, a month before Speedhunters launched, I took a trip with Antonio Alvendia to the UK. One of our Speedhunting shoots was at Sumo Power, which at the time was mostly focused on building a contender to be the world's fastest GT-R drag car, Fuujin . Have a look HERE to see what the shop looked like then. Fast forward two years and now look at what Sumo is up too... Winning round two of the GT1 World Championship no less! Congrats to the team! To celebrate the moment, I'm releasing...
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Posted
May 02 2010, 08:00 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 9 comment(s)
It started so well for Aston Martin– and looked like it had finished well too – in a race that was full of drama, Crossing the line first after a hard fought race was the #7 Young Driver Aston Martin DB9 12 seconds ahead of the #9 Hexis DB9 which had lost its lead after picking up a drive-through penalty. Then came the flying #22 Sumo Power Nissan, 13 seconds back. An elated Sumo Power team were ecstatic at the result, but things were about to change… At the start the trio of Aston...
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Posted
Apr 25 2010, 04:35 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 7 comment(s)
Day eight of our thee day trip to Yas Marina for the opening round of the World GT1 Championship. As all the FIA GT1 teams and associated personnel sat in the various hotels on Yas Island, stuck in Abu Dhabi because of the Icelandic volcano fall-out, there was time for reflection: at least until the beer ran out, as was rumoured to have happened in at least one hotel. GT1 presents a new global face of sportscar racing (or, 'sportswear', as my computer is desperate to auto-correct it). It's...
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Posted
Apr 20 2010, 04:22 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 6 comment(s)
It's Tuesday, three days after we should have left Abu Dhabi and started preparing for the next round of the FIA GT1 Championship at Silverstone in the UK, which is in less than two weeks' time. The Sumo Power team are ready for round two: they want to be given a level playing field to show just what the GT-R can do… The two cars are already back in Europe, courtesy of freight transport – hopefully we won't be far behind. In the meantime, here are some desktops of the GT...
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Posted
Apr 19 2010, 10:40 AM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 21 comment(s)
After a hectic week in Abu Dhabi of performance balancing, testing and set-up, the late start for on-track action on race day meant that teams had a little bit of extra breathing space to prepare for the pair of hour-long races. It also helped counter the fact that the working days were ending so late at the track: night-time races might have that extra magic but they also mean more pressure over an extended time for the mechanics. Also at the back of everyone's mind was the Icelandic volcano...
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Posted
Apr 17 2010, 05:30 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 12 comment(s)
The final sessions on the first day of the new World GT1 Championship comprised pre-qualifying and night qualifying: the latter an open session for a race that would set the grid for the main event the following evening. However, the session came to a premature end after cars had completed only half a dozen laps or so, with the terrible news of an accident involving Natacha Gachnang. Her Matech Ford GT had suffered apparent brake failure at the end of the long main straight and had hit the barrier...
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Posted
Apr 17 2010, 10:15 AM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 20 comment(s)
FIA GT1 World Championship, round one, Abu Dhabi. The Yas Marina track exists on an island dedicated to Formula 1 and motorsport. It's about as good as it gets for a petrolhead: an insanely luxurious but surprisingly affordable hotel in the middle of a state-of-the-art race track. As I flew in at night to land at the nearby Abu Dhabi terminal, the track was clearly visible off to the left, floodlights sparkling away and the pastel colours of the Yas Hotel shimmering and shifting. The wave of...
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Posted
Mar 08 2010, 04:43 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 28 comment(s)
It's not often that a team opens up their doors to the general public, and certainly not with the open arms that greeted people at the Sumo Power open day down in a surprisingly sunny Rye on the south coast of England. The entire factory was completely accessible and the whole range of JR Motorsport and Sumo Power's activities on display, with helpful staff able to talk through everything from CNC machining to the chassis dyno and, of course, the new Nissan GT-R GT1 World Championship weapons...
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Posted
Mar 05 2010, 11:10 AM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 23 comment(s)
2010 sees the return of top-flight GT racing as an official World Championship for the first time since 1992, lining up alongside Formula One, World Touring Cars and World Rallying. British team Sumo Power will be running a pair of Nissan GT-Rs in the 10-round championship, which kicks off in Abu Dhabi next month. Speedhunters were able to see the cars being unloaded and prepared down at Sumo Power's base in Rye , on the south coast of England, back in January: since then the cars and team haven't...
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Posted
Feb 15 2010, 04:10 PM
by
SPEEDHUNTING
with 5 comment(s)
I’ve recently come back from the NISSAN Motorsports Press Conference 2010. It was the first such event at the company’s gleaming new headquarters in Yokohama, where the DATSUN brand was born nearly 75 years ago. Naturally, the focus was on who will be driving for each of the three teams in the GT500 class of SUPER GT this season... .. but equally on what developments had taken place ahead of the inaugural FIA GT1 World Championship. With the sudden demise in December of Gigawave Motorsports...
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Posted
Feb 07 2010, 04:17 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 12 comment(s)
Hear that GT1 spec R35 roar!
:R
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Posted
Jan 24 2010, 03:54 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 17 comment(s)
This past Friday, Jonathan Moore and I drove out to the town of Rye to Speedhunt the brand new Sumo Power/JR Motorsport facility. While we knew this was an impressive facility, nothing could have prepared us to comprehend the depth and scale of the place, let alone the marvelous machines it houses. Jonathan is still trying to digest what we saw on Friday, and will be starting to work on a report just as soon as he can gather his thoughts together. In the meantime here's a little teaser shot....
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Posted
Dec 14 2009, 10:30 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 23 comment(s)
There is no doubt Nismo wanted to concentrate on the legendary racing history of the GT-R at the Nismo Festival this year, with a very evident focus being placed on more modern machinery. The next year will be very exciting for Nissan, Nismo and the GT-R as the FIA GT GT1-class R35 that has been under development for the past year takes on a full season of the FIA GT Championship. John Brooks has already taken a look at the 2009 car in detail , but after seeing the 2010 development cars at Fuji Speedway...
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Posted
Apr 10 2009, 07:25 PM
by
John Brooks
with 20 comment(s)
"Build it and they will come" Or so Stephane Ratel hopes. The head honcho of the FIA GT Championship revealed his vision for 2010 and the following years last week. Central to his plans for a Wold Championship was the creation of a new class of cars to take on the GT1 mantle. This is a bold move in these times of financial constraints and budget cuts but fortune favours the brave, or so we are told. Of course Stephane can draw some comfort from the fact that as he spoke to the room two...
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Posted
Apr 08 2009, 06:42 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 22 comment(s)
Anyone who works with me knows that I'm one of the world's most impatient people with an extremely short attention span, and a bit of an obessive mindset. This has it's uses for pushing through crazy media projects like Speedhunters, but I can also be slightly demanding to collaborate with.... Just ask UK Speedhunter John Brooks; he's been getting a daily dose of emails from me asking when we can see the completed feature on Nismo's new race car: the FIA GT1 spec R35. John assures...
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