Name: Andy Barnes
Location: Sheerness, Kent UK
Previous Locations: London UK
Career Path: Skyline Drag Racer, Co-Owner Sumo Power Ltd & European Drift Championship & Time Attack Series
Previous Career Paths: Professional in the Freight & Logistics
Industry, started tuning cars in 1999 as a hobby, then professionally
in 2002 as Sumo Power.
Notable Projects/Wins: Building of the first true 1000bhp Skyline in
Europe and smashing all 4WD drag records with it in 2004, the car was
an R34 GTR named ''Ichiban'', which is translated from Japanese as
''No.1''. We also built the first professional drift car in Europe, a
Nissan 350Z which was way ahead of its time in our market and exceeded
even the specifications of D1GP cars at the time as well as being the
most powerful 350Z in Europe at that time. In 2007 we returned to Drag
racing, building an R33 GTR, named ''Fuujin'' which is the Japanese
name for ''The God of wind ''. Fuujin almost immediately put Sumo back
on top as the 4WD European record holder with an 8.27 @ 164mph pass,
demonstrating our ability to perform on track with a concentrated
effort to be world class, this project is still underway as we plan to
attempt to break the world 4WD drag record with Fuujin.
Car: Toyota Landcruiser Amazon & R32 GTR Skyline
Fav Past Cars: Ichiban GTR, Toyota Supra
Next Car: New GTR & Evo X
Car Passions: I was never a big fan of cars until got a Playstation.
Having previously had BMW's and Peugeots, it introduced me to Japanese
cars. After playing it and seeing these 1000bhp carbon-propshaft
Skyline GTR's, I just had to have one as it was unheard of and a young
persons super-car was a Porsche 911 or a BMW M3 at the time. I bought a
Toyota Supra Twin Turbo to start with but it wasn't enough, everytime I
looked over the bonnet from the drivers seat I imagined it was a GTR
but it wasnt. Soon after I bought an R33 GTR with 400bhp and put a
smile on my face. Only 4 days after buying it I crashed it into a wall
being deep in the hype that a GTR is so intelligent that it drives
itself, they dont! After fixing it I then increased the power to
500bhp. When the R34 was released I bought one and the day it arrived I
had an HKS exhaust waiting for it to be installed. This car was
Ichiban. I owned Ichiban for 6 years and in that time I put 50000 miles
on it and turned it into the quickest 4WD car ( and GTR ) in Europe and
it was still a street car. This car went on to be a legend in GTR
circles and I spent around £120,000 on the car in the time that I owned
it and enjoyed every minute. Since then I also gained a racing licence
and have participated and won various Endurance races using a Group N+
Honda Civic Type R in the Britcar Championship over the past 3/4 years.
Whilst we have built many different show and race cars since 2002 for
various reasons, still the passion I have personally is for the GTR and
what awesome machine that it is.
Personal Style: Not really into fashion as statement but like 60's trends
Favourite Band of the Moment: Kate Nash & Duffy
Personal Motto: If it was easy everyone would be doing it