Murtaya Track Day Open Invite

Murtaya Track Day Open Invite

Author
Discussion

neilrallying

Original Poster:

200 posts

231 months

Thursday 25th January 2007
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Hi everyone,

As there are no shows for a few months and the TKC Live event has been cancelled we have decided to run a private trackday to demonstrate the Murtaya to anyone who is interested in experiencing the car.

The date is February 24th, location Llandow circuit in South Wales. The track has been booked EXCLUSIVELY for us and we will be lapping from 10am to 4pm. Full circuit services and back up will be on hand. The circuit is very easy to get to, being just a short hop over the bridge into Wales.

This is an open invite to all 'Pistonheaders' and anyone else that you may know to come along and try the car and have a social day out talking about cars. A good chance for an informal Pheads meet up.

There will be no charge for admission or for demonstration runs in the car.

In addition to the Murtaya we are looking to organise a few other interesting things for the day and I will release news updates to all those who register interest as requested below.

The car park could well be a highlight if you guys take the opportunity to have a run out in the toys that you have tucked away in the garage!

Please contact us on 01637 852500 if you are going to come along so that we can get a good feel for numbers before the day. You are of course welcome to turn up on the day without prior notice, it will just help us to work out how many tea bags and biscuits to bring if we know in advance!!

Hope to see lots of you there.

Kind regards,

Neil.

GTRene

17,822 posts

232 months

Thursday 25th January 2007
quotequote all
wish I lived near by, I would come and see the car and feel what it could do to me and the all round feeling.
But I wish you all a very good day ofcorse, also I think the Murtaya is a good kit with good parts, so I hope it will do good.
GTRene

peterpsg

813 posts

242 months

Thursday 25th January 2007
quotequote all
GTRene said:
wish I lived near by, I would come and see the car and feel what it could do to me and the all round feeling.
But I wish you all a very good day ofcorse, also I think the Murtaya is a good kit with good parts, so I hope it will do good.
GTRene


You could catch a flight to Cardiff... go you know you want to...

andy916

5 posts

215 months

Friday 9th February 2007
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Hi Neil,

Is there any chance of hiring out places in an trackday-type session or three during the day at Llandow? Am curious to see how well the Murtaya goes relative to machinery against which it might be compared, eg. my WRX with track-biased suspension and brakes but standard 260ps engine.

Would be an extra incentive to draw a few more enthusiasts and perhaps cover your circuit hire costs.

cheers
Andy

neilrallying

Original Poster:

200 posts

231 months

Saturday 10th February 2007
quotequote all
Hi Andy,

Thanks for the interest and the idea, unfortunately the insurance is an issue with this and puts a halt to us going down that route. Pity as we have an ever increasing number of customers who want to have builds done specifically for track days and this would have been an ideal opportunity to get some of them together.

I think that it is essential that we as manufacturers give you guys the chance to see cars in the 'off' season between shows as the last show of the year was Exeter back in November, and there is nothing happening until April. Of course the idea of having to drive the car on the track all day is hardly a bad thing :-)

As for the Murtaya vs track prepared toy debate, well it is an intersting and good one.
The Murtaya demo car is the road variant, not the lightweight track car which we also offer (we are hoping to make time this year to build our own lightweight demo car for trackday purposes and have already sourced a suitable engine, just need some more hours in each day to get one put together!).

However I am comfortable in saying that you would need to invest quite heavily in modifying an Impreza to attain anything like the performace that is achieved by bolting together a 'standard' road Murtaya, let alone the track orientated lightweight variant.

However I do know of people spending big bucks on building track day machines (our engine builder has just been putting together a 98 Impreza track car for a customer and that the owner has spent over £25k on modifying it, for the same money he could easily have midly tuned his Impreza for the road AND have us build him a trackday inspired Murtaya!!)

Best way to find out about the performance, get yourself down to Llandow in two weeks time and try it!

There will be a high profile professional race driver there on the day playing with the car so you will see it getting pushed pretty hard (although he has been told it needs to come back in one piece!).

We have big features coming up in the March issues of Japanese Performance magazine, Which Kit Car and Total Kit Car, so have a read of what three independant journalists think of the car (along with the road test already posted on PH by Graham Bell of course). They might help answer your question!

Neil.


Edited by neilrallying on Saturday 10th February 00:05

black5

579 posts

231 months

Wednesday 14th February 2007
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Who from PH is (thinking of) going?

Are you bringing your own kit?

I will be there, looking for some cars to photograph.

grahambell

2,718 posts

283 months

Wednesday 14th February 2007
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No plans for any PH presence as Ted's already reported on the Toniq and I've done the Murtaya, so we'll just leave it to the rest of you to go along and see if you like the cars as much as we do.

Just hope they're not having Jim Cameron taking people round in the Toniq though. As far as I can tell, every time he gets that car out on a track it pees it down...

custardtart

1,736 posts

261 months

Thursday 15th February 2007
quotequote all
I think this is a fantatsic idea, free rides aorund a circuit should get a few people thinking. Well done chaps clap The industry needs more good promotion like this.

Are you guys planning to race it?

I know there's a race series specifically for Kit Cars although not sure if the scoob engine suits the regs.

www.750mc.co.uk

ps. If you need a driver - nudge nudge

neilrallying

Original Poster:

200 posts

231 months

Friday 16th February 2007
quotequote all
Thanks for the positive comments, we are in discussions with a number of drivers regarding racing projects for the Murtaya which we hope will see at least one car out in a very well known series this year (fingers crossed!).

There is an independant review of the Murtaya in the new edition of Which Kit Car, out on the news stands today (Friday), the car also features in the current Japanese Performance Magazine and the upcoming edition of TotalKit Car so there is plenty of well informed views available.

We still have capacity available on the 24th at Llandow (there are lots of people booked to attend the day already) and we would of course love to see as many people as possible there. Take the chance to see the car driven by a professional race driver and then laugh at the company drivers trying to emulate him!!!

Neil.

Tris.E

78 posts

220 months

Saturday 17th February 2007
quotequote all
grahambell said:
No plans for any PH presence as Ted's already reported on the Toniq and I've done the Murtaya, so we'll just leave it to the rest of you to go along and see if you like the cars as much as we do.

Just hope they're not having Jim Cameron taking people round in the Toniq though. As far as I can tell, every time he gets that car out on a track it pees it down...


No its just me at the min jim has family stuff to do i think so hope it stays dryrotate

peterpsg

813 posts

242 months

Tuesday 20th February 2007
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Sorry Guys, I won't be able to attend this one after all...

I'll either try and make it to one of the other shows, or fly down to see you's a bit later in the year...

jim..c

833 posts

231 months

Thursday 22nd February 2007
quotequote all
grahambell said:
every time he gets that car out on a track it pees it down...


Graham, thanks for that! I'm taking my own personal thundercloud back to Yorkshire for the weekend so I'll be missing out. Shame...

twin40s

154 posts

263 months

Friday 23rd February 2007
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I'll probably come along for a look tomorrow.

See you there

MTv Dave

2,101 posts

264 months

Friday 23rd February 2007
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Would love too, but have the in-laws over for the weekend, and whilst they're petrol heads too, I think flying from Aberdeen to Bedfordshire to drive to Wales is a bit much to ask

neilrallying

Original Poster:

200 posts

231 months

Sunday 25th February 2007
quotequote all
I would like to thank everyone who made the trip to Llandow yesterday.

We had a superb day with around 40 people attending and getting to experience the Murtaya.
As usual the car performed faultlessly all day and did approximately 200 laps before being driven back to Cornwall last night.

The two Toniq demonstrator vehicles also ran well all day, giving rides to interested parties and even attracting some enquiries from the kart racers next door.

All in all we had a terrific day (including selling several cars, one to a chap who had travelled from Switzerland for the day!) so once again, thanks for coming.

The car park was also interesting during the day with GTM's, Marlins, and many modified Japanese motors in evidence.

We will be repeating the event later in the year, and are already planning a day in the middle of the summer and another just after the end of the show season at the end of November.

Look forward to seeing you all at one of the shows during the year, or down at our factory in Cornwall.

Neil.

GTRene

17,822 posts

232 months

Sunday 25th February 2007
quotequote all
Good to hear you all had a fantastic day and hope the Murtaya does do well in the car-world, and I really think it deserves a good place in there cause it looks like a real good all day usable very sporty car, and you "proved" it can do all that, well done sadly it was a bit to far when its in NL I surely will come and take a peak
cheers, and oh..some pictures says more then thousand words so if you have some of the day show us please, thanks.
GTRene

neilrallying

Original Poster:

200 posts

231 months

Sunday 25th February 2007
quotequote all
Pictues are on the way GTRENE, Black5 came along on the day and did his usual superb job. I know the pictures will be very good when he posts them.
The magazines should be commissioning Mark to work for them, he has a great eye for a shot and uses interesting effects to make the pictures interesting. Excellent photographer in my opinion.
We are planning on being at the Continental Kit Car Show in August if we do not get to see you before!
Neil.

FNG

4,409 posts

232 months

Sunday 25th February 2007
quotequote all
As one of those lucky enough to get some laps in the car yesterday, I thought a few words from the passenger seat might be useful.

But first, a big thanks to the guys at Adrenaline for putting on the day, working hard to keep everyone informed and happy, and putting up with daft questions..

As for the car, well it looks fantastic in the flesh, very purposeful and well proportioned, there's no angle it's viewed from that makes it look ungainly. It holds its head up on merit against OEM designs, I'd rather have one of these than a Z4 or something similar.

The exhaust note is very meaty, it sounded to me more like a big V-twin than a flat four and certainly not the sort of thing you could instantly compare to an Impreza - so that'd keep the neighbours guessing.

Inside, perhaps a little disappointing to my eye in terms of styling in the cockpit (it would be great to carry over a more dynamic interior style in the same way that GTM did in the Libra) but on the positive side, the entire interior is made from grained moulded plastic not wrapped GRP, it looks well finished, is pretty respectable for everyday use, and a lot better in reality than I thought it did in pictures. Good to see a nice solid dashboard construction, the heater vents work well, it looks like decent screen demist is no problem at all, the instrument cluster looks like it belongs there.

There's a pretty good amount of storage space behind the seats, and at 6'3" I had enough headroom (at least, I was looking through the windscreen not at the header rail, and there was room to drop the seat a little more) and loads of legroom. I didn't see in the boot but it's bound to be a good size cos there's nothing else to take up room behind the rear bulkhead.

Only other question I couldn't answer (forgot to ask if I could check) was headroom with the hard top on. Maybe one of the taller Adrenaline guys can comment?

Under the skin, there's been good attention to detail like the way the bonnet is hinged. It was up at one point, rocking gently in the wind (can you believe it, a trackday with wind and rain?) but at no point did I worry that it would come adrift. Little things like that matter when this sort of car is going to get everyday use. Elsewhere, it's a substantial subframe taking the entire subaru front end, looks as best as I can tell to be both strong and efficient, and should make for a relatively easy progression to a rolling chassis stage.

On track, the car was quick, obviously so with ~270bhp and 4wd in damp conditions, but it impressed me in that there was absolutely no scuttle shake, no bumps or knocks, nothing to suggest it was anything other than very well bolted together but also well designed. The tub must therefore be commendably stiff especially considering it's an open box not a closed coupe.

At the moment the car is on fairly soft spring rates so it rolled a little (by no means a lot - masses of grip and it was very progressive) but rode kerbs and bumps fantastically well. Llandow to my mind is a pretty good representation of a decent B-road or a poor A-road, and as the setup is currently more road-biased I thought it was just what you'd want in those situations. Setting up the car before the corner, it points in nicely, gets the rear working and keeps both ends working on throttle on exit. If you went in a little hot it's perfectly recoverable. It was also very composed when a wheel locked under braking or it mullered a kerb, never making you feel a spin was imminent.

This was with a setup that can still be tweaked considerably so a properly neutral stance could be dialed in, and spring and damper rates have yet to be finalised. There was also no rear anti-roll bar on this car and that would obviously help get the rear working sooner.

That said, even now the setup is more than capable of being driven to the track, hammered round without modification (tyre pressures aside) and driven home again without risking a trashed nearside front tyre. That's far better than a great many road/track cars!

To improve things further, I'd be definitely planning an adjustable centre differential, the DCCD system on Type Rs and other late models is a must-have for me. The ability to turn the car from docile front-drive bias to a backlane blaster to a trackdayer as required, to me makes the use the car could be put to, just perfect.

Conclusion - I want one, lots. Anyone want to buy a bright orange drift-ready 200SX? Finally, a car you truly can use every day but take to the track as well without fearing for it. Strongly built, reliable mechanicals, comfortable to cruise in but responsive on track, fast but docile, complimentary to the driver without taking over... thoroughly recommend looking closer at this car if that's your bag.

It's also worth noting that the guys at Adrenaline are very talented engineers, in the true sense of the word. They're not ex-blacksmiths or mechanics, and it shows. This car has been rigorously designed and well executed by people who know their business inside out and operate to very high standards, and that's rare regardless what many manufacturers would have you believe. As a car designer and almost-manufacturer myself I could only be impressed by what I saw. They've got a grat product and deserve to win big on the basis of this car.

Last comment - my girlfriend's opinion is that she wants me to buy one, thought it was the business, that Kirsten Scott Thomas would get in it no problem, in fact more than once, and it sounded horny: better than her Impreza WRX. Is that compliment enough?

GTRene

17,822 posts

232 months

Sunday 25th February 2007
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good write up James...getting more interested though I have a special car right now(just bought it a few weeks ago and just registered it for Dutch roads) I'm always open for looks into other cars that can appear on my wish-list to own someday, so I follow this story because the product seems to be very good even as it is now...thumbup and a car with hugh power which can deliver on the tarmac is great.
GTRene

Black5

579 posts

231 months

Sunday 25th February 2007
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Yes, excellent write up.

Quite an impressive car isn't it.

Anyway here are a few pics from the day. Firstly the Murtaya in it's new colour scheme:






Toniq were also there, with a couple of crackin' cars: