I don't think so... how hard can it be to have a 450hp single turbo engine to be running 24h with some proper tuning. Every time they broke the seals.. you know your engine or you don't... Every time I spoke to them I was fully under the impression they were still tuning their MX5/Miata which they raced before the RX7. No way near that it is...

I asked them about the specs of the engine... the y told me it was a full standard with just a single conversion. When I asked about the type of porting the answer was "standard" that's just a load of crap to me...

So i hope they went to Kempower, Jan seems to know a bit around with rotaries and keep those fingers crossed

 

I think that FIA has removed the x1.8 ... here there are different rules... as soon as anyone runs fast in a rotary all rotarycars will have extra wieght or a new displacement..
Last year the guy who won the Rallycross cup here had to add 100kg to his car.. he still won it the next year! Thats the way to do it!

// magnus

 

I'm not sure about Belgium, but I guess it's very simular...

As for the stuff about "stock ports etc", I start to wonder if they realise what they are running...

 

Neal..
Have you heard anything about the 6 hr race this weekend??

any websites/links ??

 

Here is some Wankel Racer pics, just to get back on topic

www.wankelkim.net/rx7/dhb2005

 

They are going to race the 6hr Franchorchamps race.

I need to call the team chief this week so I'l try to get some extra info.

 

Thanks...

 

Uitslag race:

1 Selleslagh Racing Team GOOSSENS Marc HART David Chevrolet Corv. C5R GTA 135r 2:20.556
2 Kuismanen Competition KUISMANEN Pertti VOSSE Vincent HUISMAN Duncan Chrysler Viper GTS-R op 1:20.994"
3 Crauwels Marc LAMOT Franz PENDERS Rudi COUWBERGHS Bart Porsche 996 GT3 RS (1ste GTB) 131r
4 PSI Motorsport MENTEN Jos BOUVY Fred Porsche GT2-R GTA 130r
5 AD Sport WAUTERS Koen WAUTERS Kris SCHREURS Patrick Porsche 996 Biturbo GTA 129r
6 Oosterlinck Motorsport THIERS Frank THIERS Kurt THIERS Hans Porsche 997 GT3 RS GTB 125r 7 PSI Motorsport PALTTALA Markus VAN SANDE Leo HAEZEBROUCK Philippe Porsche GT2-R GTA 124r
8 Bokkenrijders QVICK Erik GEOFFROY Christophe VAN DELM Peter Ultima GTR GTB +34.821
9 First Motorsport VAN ROMPUY Dirk HAANE Henk VANLOO Johan Porsche 996 GT3 GTB 121r
10 S&P Racing CEUSTERS Patrick METIOR Steve JACOBS Karl Porsche 996 GT3/R GTB +15.945
11 GS Motorsport SEVERICH Georg STEINBERG Arvid BMW M3 GTR TA +17.921
12 First Motorsport CRACCO Philip JAMERS Kelly Porsche 996 GTB 120r
13 Belgium Racing DERDAELE Patric EMPSEN Johan VERHOEVEN Stefan Ultima GTR GTB +53.893
14 Markant Racing de LAET Danny VOLLEBERGH Joost VAN ROSSEM Bert Porsche GT3 RSR GTB 119r
15 NGT Racing MATON Marc BOGEMANS Dennis BOGEMANS Eddy Porsche 996 GT3 Cup GTB +32.782
16 SNEL SNEL Rene CREVELS Donny Porsche GT3 RS GTA 118r
17 de MEGNI Andrea CIOCI Marco MARINI Marco BMW E46 M3 G +2:27.208
18 Marcos Racing Internation GEBBINK Paul de WIT Jan Marcos Mantis G 117r
19 Speedlover VERHOEVEN J-P MUYTJENS Olivier Porsche 996 Supercup GTB 116r
20 Ham Car MOONEN Paul VAN AUDENHOVE Peter GEMOETS Yves Porsche 996 Biturbo GTA 114r
21 Belgium Racing BROODCOREN Philippe de COSTER Michel BMW E36 TB 112r
22 GPR Racing de GASTINES Nicolas de BOCK Alexandre Porsche 996 GT3 RS GTB 111r
23 Eurotech Racing NOORMAN Wim VAN DONGEN Danny EUSER Cor Marcos Mantis GTA 110r
24 GPR DUMAREY Maxime DUMAREY Guillaume Porsche 996 GT3 Cup G 105r
25 Brother Racing De HOEN Robert ESSERS Armand GROUWELS Roger BMW E46 M3 TB 103r
26 DGR Coast Racing VANCRAEYNEST Frank GRUTMAN Paul MEULDERS Wim Porsche 996 GT3 GTB 102r
27 G&A Racing LUMBEECK Wim BECKERS Peter VAN BELLINGEN Steve BMW Z3 M-GT GTB 100r
28 Van Herck Racing VAN HERCK Werner VAN HERCK Wim Mazda RX7 GTB +1:17.003
29 Moritz Racing MORITZ Bert HAPPE Rob SWART Dennis Marcos Mantis GTA 89
30 Belien Motorsport BELIEN Patrick JAKOBS Jan COLMAN Georges BMW E46 M3 V8 TA 76r
31 ALESSI Diego RAVAISO Francesco CANALI Alessandro BMW E46 M3 G 72r
32 Ham Car JANSSEN Jaak RAUS Raymond RAUS Gunther Porsche 996 GT3/R GTB 57r

They finished 28th after qualifying as 44th.

I'll mail them tomorrow the congratulate them on finishing their first race and ask what problems/enhancements they have come up with/discovered

Greetz
Neal

 

Thanks Neal

That's great they finished, look forward to hear more details as well.
That race sure was dominated by Porsches...cool to see a Vette beat them all. Seems like Corvette is having a good year (Le Mans 2005)

 

The Vette and Viper are a bit out of competition in Belgium. The Viper has been racing a while now, and dominated the seasons. Only when the Corvette arived there's been some challenging again. Although the Viper is a great car, and I love the sound of that beast, it's a bit boring if you see it winning all the time. For example, in a 24h race, it'd look as they were flat out start to finish, and all the others had to be aware of the fact it wasn't a sprint race.
I guess the porsches are just no longer up to the task.
Since I don't expect the Aston Martins to start racing in the Belcar, I reckon we'll have to do with the Viper and Vette
As for Le Mans: it's pretty great they won, again! That'll be one more corvette in my model car collection But overall victory went to Audi, again, which starts to get boring... Even if your Danish superman beat Jacky Ickx now...

 

it's hard to compare 6 liter V8 or V10 factory preped engines to 3.6 cilinder turbo's + the aerodynamical differences. In Belgium there are not enough teams to have each class have their own race so they jsut throw it all together and in the end nobody seems to have a clue where hey are :-D

 

Got lucky and found a photo of the Van Herck RX7!

Clicking around and looking at photo's of the other cars on the site....all I can say, they might not be top teams like LeMans but there sure are alot of nice looking race cars which look to have pretty good funding!

http://www.autosport.be/shownews.awm?id=5164

 

There are quite a few "semi-pro" teams: they're doing well, and have a lot of knowledge, but fundings are not as good as they could be. So local "stars" (TV-people, singers, people who are famous for whatever reason- or no reason at all) have been among the drivers more often lately. Some perform ok, or even good. But they are mostly there to attrack sponsors, of course.
Unfortunatly, in Belgium, TV stations haven't got a clue of any other sports but soccer and bicycle racing. And lately tennis too. Motorsports are really neglected, and when something is shown, commentary is extremely unproffesional. It's a pitty, cosidering we have had (and still have) some very talented people racing in various two and for wheeled sports. One of the biggest examples is motorcross: we delivered many world champions, and current nr1 is Flemish too, but coverage is very poor.
Compared to the very poor condition of Belgian soccer, it's a shame...

 

SOO true ^^^^

 

Ok...Thanks for the inside scoop Bart!

 

Compare this to The Netherlands.... I think it is better in Belgium... We don't have that many interesting racing classes.

 

Found a few more photo's...

http://membres.lycos.fr/vincentdebra.../image102.html
other cars..............
http://membres.lycos.fr/vincentdebra...lcar/index.htm


www.racingworldpictures.be
Click on photo... then spa enduro race / belcar...3rd page at the bottom!
2 nice photo's of the FD

 

wwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwww....
Ultima's, Marcos, Gillet,... Who ever cares for a Porsche???

 

Id take a Porsche

But the Marcos´ are nice too

 

Update... :-D

This morning I got a mail from the RX7 race team. Seems they ware racing at Brands Hatch last weekend. They were in 12th place but they're second driver was 10 sec slower per lap.. (what a wimp :-p). So, 2 races completed without any mentionable tech problems. I still need to verify if they had the car tuned at Kempower. (Kempower is only 5 min from my new work)


And some tech info:
They are running +- 400 Hp on 0.8 Kg/m³ pressure

 

To bad about the other driver but glad to hear they have things working now.

Thanks for the update Neal!

 

Got on the phone with one of the drivers (owner) of the team and it seems they had dhe car tuned by a certain Pip ... in the UK and he wil continue to do so.
The engine is the 3rd since the beginning and since the tuning they are slowly putting boost on it... 0.8 Kg/m³ so far

engine has been ported just as it came from pettit (exhaust port and maybe some minor inlet porting). OEM 2mm apex'es for now and goal is to keep it running like that (under 1bar boost) till the end of the season.
Then a fresh engine will be build with additional inlet porting and some ground-off tuning to make some real numbers.
Acc the driver they were giving the Gillet Vertigo a real hard time at Brands Hatch, keeping up with it's pace



So far...so good

 

hmmm Pip know's his stuff

 

Mireck do you know who I'm talking about? I wrote it down on my desk paper at work but forgot.

 

Yes he does, and after what pip said, van herck had some problems with the Haltech ECU causing the power and boost to go up and down like a heart beat.

I was at pips this monday with my car. And the dyno run did not look very good. But pip said they are thinking about getting a motec. That will help alot.

And about pip. He is probably the best rotary mechanic in europe. So if u have problems of any sort, he's the guy to contact. Even if u live in europe.