A slight departure on my normal style, as it’s copy of my text from racingist.com. The stunning image below is courtesy of Ian Francis at IF Image Cymru
It’s all about the plates…
For those of a certain age in rallying, the mention of number plates starting ‘K-AM’ would get the juices flowing…Sainz,Auriol and many many more have all graced products from TMG bearing those numbers.
So when the chance came to get in on the action and enjoy some of that feeling, who was I to say no! But I’m jumping ahead here, how did the TMG GT86 CS-R3 come to grace the first round of the reinvigorated 2016 British Rally Championship? Well it’s a journey that started in 2013 for Neil Yates from RallyPrep when he approached Toyota with a view to doing something. The conversations stalled for a while and then came alive roughly 12 months ago, then around September time I launched my company (Lightning House Ltd) and said to Neil let’s see if we can finalise this deal.
Fast forward to the week after Rally GB in November which saw Neil and Myself go out to Cologne to agree terms with TMG for 2016. As an aside if you ever can go their museum is superb…everything you could imagine from Toyota’s history is there including an early 90’s fully restored service barge, WOW!
Why were we so keen on CS-R3, well it’s the only homologated R3 class car that is rear wheel drive, has 235 bhp and masses of sideways, what’s not to like !
We had the pleasure of announcing the deal at Autosport 2016 and then it was all hands on deck. Possibly time to put some myths to bed also, it is a full factory car, Toyota have registered as a manufacturer in 2016 and it will almost certainly be seen again very soon. All happy..very good, now on with the fun. Autosport was a great show as we also arranged a deal with Pirelli and those great guys at HRX racewear, (how good do those overalls look!)
As part of the deal we agreed to host a promotional day before the event, Ryan Champion kindly agreed to come down and set her up, but my mind started thinking who else might fancy a go…GT86 is rear wheel drive so former British Historic champion Julian Reynolds seemed a good choice as was Terry Brown, then I thought who could we get who would really enjoy it but also have a nice link to Toyota’s history…well Dai Llewellin of course (along with son Ben). All had a go and all loved it, a car it was easy to get in and extract fun from immediately. Oh and Dai? Well it would seem rude not to have a run with him, and wow that box was fully ticked from childhood memories, what a guy he is.
So the event, I’ve not mentioned our driver have I? When we were thinking of bringing it over we wanted someone who is well known and an exponent of sideways, that man was an easy choice in the form of one of my regular drivers, motoring Journalist Chris Harris. We actually didn’t know when we set the deal up that he had a Top Gear role, and found out much the same as the rest of the world.
The event:
The recce wasn’t great for us due to the challenging weather (snow) and indeed by nearly midday we hadn’t touched a stage. Therefore we made the decision to decamp and go through the DVD instead. The real event heroes were the marshalls for standing out in that weather which appeared on and off over the weekend.
Saturday dawned bright and clear although snow was still laying on the hills. An interesting day of various media events (which saw me interviewed by Colin Clark…quite the honour) before the meat of the action in the early evening.
That first stage in the dark was to be a baptism of fire , Chris’s first stage in the dark and 16 miles of Hafren to contend with. A stage I must admit I love as it has a bit of everything in there with a changeable surface that favours the brave. Chris was driving really well until about 9 miles in when the car stuttered and then stopped at 10 miles. Sadly the little race battery had cried enough and decided it didn’t want to play. Thus end of day one for us…funny story though. We’re right in the middle of the forest, it’s not an easy place to reach when out of the darkness suddenly a voice shouts, ‘Brynmor, it is you isn’t it’..There appears Darren Garrod (Mark Higgins co-driver)…as if that’s wasn’t weird enough he then introduces me to Antoine L’estage (multiple Canadian champion). Rallying really is a small world.
Sunday was a new day and we approached it with added vigour to do a decent job for the team and the fans, the first stage of Pikes Peak was really awesome, CS-R3 was in it’s element up the hairpins and the fans were literally hanging off the banks to cheer us on, we’d expected a reaction but not this. Myherin then followed which was a tricky stage with cars off everywhere , but I must say Chris was driving superbly, very much being a rally driver and playing the car beautifully. We’d also got a nice rhythm going with the notes which is also very rewarding. Trip to service saw a general check over and some new rubber and out again. SS5 was a repeat of SS1 from last night and sadly we didn’t reach Sweet Lamb again, a crew in a Subaru had a huge accident on what is known as ‘Mcrae’s ‘ coming over from Hafren into Sweetlamb and the stage was stopped. Fingers crossed they’re both well.
There then followed the final stage which was Pikes Peak in reverse (so down the hairpins)…Chris was again doing brilliantly, I was also impressed with all the Snowmen in there, kudos to the builders. All too soon it was over and back to the finish . Finishers awards, Sort Oil vouchers for Chris and spraying the bubbly for a class win (in my eyes, thanks Harris).
All in a superb experience and hopefully something that gave fans a different shape to enjoy on the stages. As a package CS-R3 is superb and you can tell it’s been built by such an iconic brand.
There will be several in the UK by the end of the year I’m sure and if you have any enquiries please contact Neil Yates at www.rallyprep.co.uk or myself at bryn@lightninghouse.co.uk and we’ll see if we can help.
Thanks to TMG, Pirelli, HRX racewear, RallyPrep and Lightning House Ltd. Not forgetting the service team of Neil,Kev,Graham and Dave.
peakrevs 