Just prior to loading up and heading for Australia, Jono Lester took the team ReavolutioNZ Evo for a final shakedown session at Hampton Downs raceway in Auckland. It’s worth mentioning, this team are a mulitple New Zealand Superlap Champions but since confirming their attendance at the WTAC in Sydney, the car has undergone a total makeover and, as it often happens in this game, the build went down to the wire.
We caught up with a very enthusiastic Jono shortly after coming in from a couple of hot laps. Here is what he had to say just before the car was pushed into its container:
“Initially, we had plans to run two test days at Manfield, one at Taupo, one at Pukekohe and a final shakedown at Hampton Downs. It was always going to be down to the wire – we had a few delays throughout, but such is motorsport!”
“We needed to be prepared and mechanically, we were well and truly were. Cosmetically – perhaps not! We fondly named the car ‘Mad Max’ as it rolled off the trailer at Hampton Downs on a cool, wet Saturday morning, with no side skirts, the front clip still in prototype form, and a ton of stickers to remove from previous year’s of competition throughout New Zealand.”
“Rough and ready, it’s the Kiwi way. Many performance car enthusiasts now prefer form over function, but we’re still part of the old school minority!”
“This car has had a tough life over the past two years. But this time, we were confident that the combination of parts and expertise would see us on the right track. And we were correct.”
“Straight out of the box, we began trundling around warming the car up and roading in the new brake rotors, tyres, engine, aero… well, pretty much everything! The weather wasn’t being overly kind to us, and the first run was in the damp, as was much of the rest of the day, bar a short dry run at lunchtime.”
“We did arrive with a purpose, and a plan. As a driver, I wasn’t interested in breaking lap records. In fact, this was the last thing on my mind. Knowing full well the magnitude of the event we’re embarking on in a few weeks time, my primary focus was ensuring that we got through the day, winding the wick up slowly but surely, and giving all of the new components sufficient roading, bedding and settling time.”
“Needless to say, when I put my foot down, it was as if a rocket booster were strapped to the rear bumper. The power, and more importantly torque, of the Team RevolutioNZ Evo is now pretty outrageous. Four wheel slides exiting hairpins under boost left a good impression with the crowds lining the banks, as we mingled with the Garage H drift cars that had hired the circuit for the day.”
“The combination of the new Garrett turbo, producing more power at high RPM; the Kelford cams, the Alcotane fuel, the weight loss diet and the well-tuned Link G4 mean the power band was endless, and came in nice and early. It doesn’t kick you in the pants like it used to, and should suit the fast and flowing nature of Eastern Creek.”
“Handling-wise, we are also well on the right track. Even without our Hankook Ventus TD Z221 rubber and Ferodo race pads, which we will take hold of in Sydney, the car was a lot more front-end orientated straight out of the box. The massive camber in the rear has also aided big time in rear-end rotation late in the braking – ‘steering with the rear’ as I like to call it.”
“The nature of the day meant we didn’t have much of a chance to experiment with spring, shock and geometry changes, but I honestly believe we have a good starting point. The biggest thing we will come up against in Sydney will be the amount of roll the car will generate at high speed, for example at turn one. That’s the next challenge. We know we’re under-aero’d, in comparison with most of our rivals. That’s down to preparation time, and lack of budget.”
“But from our point of view, what an experience it’s going to be to witness in the flesh these machines – CyberEvo, Sierra Sierra, Scorch, Garage Revolution etc – and see what makes them tick!”
“We will certainly gain more of an advantage also from the addition of the Albins dog box that will be installed when the car reaches Sydney. We’ve made sure the boys machined up a longer final drive, as even up the short uphill Hampton Downs straight we were hitting over 260kph in the wet, and not far off the end of top gear.”
“There’s still the high boost setting up our sleeve also, but with a bog-standard gearbox for the Hamptons testing, we weren’t about to tempt fate!”
“We had five or six runs throughout the day, albeit in traffic, but in the short bursts of clear track we did have, I am very happy as a driver with the potential of the car, as are the team personnel back in the pits.”
“Our only issue throughout the day was the front clip balooning out when the air hit it at high speed, pushing back on the front tyres and rubbing a little. In the late-nights leading up to the test, we didn’t have time to machine up some support mounts off the sub-frame. This was sussed pretty quickly in at Cre8grafx, where our team mate Mad Mike wrapped the car in its sick new livery and strengthened up the front end at the same time.”
“Now, with the photoshoots and semantics over with, the Team RevolutioNZ Evo is tucked away in a 40 foot ‘cartainer’ awaiting shipping to Sydney next week.”
“Bring it on, because we honestly can’t wait!”
