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Weird science video - Quantum Levitation

Quantum levitation at work. Click on the link below to play the video

From time to time we get sent links to very interesting technology and physics videos. This video from the Superconductivity Group at the School Of Physics & Astronomy at Tel Aviv University is of a process known as "quantum levitation" at work, and is likely to be one of the most interesting videos you've seen in a while - the physics of this are amazing.

Click on the link below to watch the video ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/Videos/Quantum_Levitation_Video.html

created on 2011-10-24 by TTG.

Sparco 385 Carbon Fiber Steering Wheel now available from The Tuners Group

The Tuners Group is very pleased to announce that the new Sparco 385 Carbon Fibre Steering Wheel is now available.

The Sparco Carbon 385 is a super sports steering wheel with an outer diameter of 330 mm, with both the grip and the spokes made entirely of carbon, with the grip section covered in suede.

Extremely strong, while weighing just 385 grams, the Carbon 385 steering wheel has passed all the tests requested by the FIA for use in Formula One racing and the German TUV against collapse.

Click here to order this incredible steering wheel for your car ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/Online_Store/sparco_carbon_385.html

Our full range of steering wheels is here ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/Online_Store/browse/cat/Steering_Wheels.html

created on 2011-10-06 by adamr.

2 Stunning Videos Showcase Japanese Porsche Tuner RAUH-Welt

If you've never heard of iconic Japanese Porsche tuner RAUH-Welt, hold onto your hat. If you know about RAUH-Welt, and Nakai-San's incredible creations, simply enjoy the goodness of these two videos (kudos to Maiham Media for a great job on the videos) ...

You can view the videos here ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/Videos/RAUH_Welt_Videos.html

There's a fantastic purity to Nakai-San's work. Respect.

created on 2011-09-06 by TTG.

Car advertising Australian style - Holden gets it exactly right

In Australia's V8 Supercar Series, there are currently 2 manufacturers - Ford, and Holden.

As our Australian readers know, Holden has produced some epic cars, including the 2004 on Holden Monaro, which was sold in the US as the Pontiac GTO.

Wikipedia reports ...

"The third generation Monaro was exported to several overseas markets. It was sold as a (right hand drive) in South Africa as the Chevrolet Lumina. It was also sold, in left hand drive, in the Middle East as the Chevrolet Lumina Coupe, and in the United States as the Pontiac GTO, reviving another classic muscle car icon" and

"The GTO was assembled by GM's Holden subsidiary in the suburb of Elizabeth, South Australia."

In Australia, Holden sometimes releases special editions of their cars, and they are often very exciting cars indeed. The latest special edition from Holden is a ute - an Australian classic.

The car is called the Holden Thunder Ute.

But it's not just the car itself we like ... the advertising campaign is very clever and humourous, and our overseas readers will enjoy seeing perfromance car advertising done right, Australian style. Check out the TV commercial for the car here ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI3atOJhDvw

The behind the scenes of how they made the ad is here ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf1GLNOUqxs

You can find more info on the Thunder Ute by going to this page and clicking on the Thunder Ute link ...

http://www.holden.com.au/vehicles/ute/sv6

Well done to Holden for this excellent advertising campaign. It's spot on.

"One shade tougher than gunmetal grey" ... brilliant.

created on 2011-09-01 by TTG.

Speedhunters on Mark Berry's R34 GT-R ... "It truly is a world class time attack build"

A huge thankyou to Speedhunters for your kind words about Mark Berry's Advan / Hi Octane R34 GT-R which is also sponsored by The Tuners Group.

In Speedhunters' excellent article "Behind The Scenes, Life In The WTAC Pitlane", Charles Kha, the Editor of Speedhunters wrote ...

"Mark Berry really lifted his game this year and is starting to get a handle on his R34. It truly is a world class time attack build, and as they dial it in I'm sure it will be a force to be reckoned with."

A huge congratulations is due to Speedhunters.com for their outstanding coverage of the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge.

Well done to Charles Kha, Dino Dalle Carbonare, and all the other people who worked so hard this year to bring everyone around the world such amazing editorial and photos of the event.

Check out Speedhunters' article "Behind The Scenes, Life In The WTAC Pitlane" here ...

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/08/11/behind-the-scenes-gt-gt-inside-world-time-attack.aspx

... and Speedhunters' full coverage and epic photography of the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge here ...

http://speedhunters.com/archive/tags/WTAC+11/default.aspx

created on 2011-08-18 by adamr.

Mark Berry Reveals How His Advan / Hi Octane R34 GT-R Went 2.2 Seconds Faster At 2011 World Time Attack Challenge

In an exclusive interview today with The Tuners Group, Mark Berry, the owner and driver of the Advan / Hi Octane R34 GT-R pro class World Time Attack Challenge car, has revealed how the dramatic 2.2 second lap time reduction witnessed at last week's 2011 World Time Attack Challenge was achieved.

As detailed in our 2011 World Time Attack Challenge Wrap Up article, "Last year at the 2010 WTAC, the car ran a 1 min 34.109 second lap. This weekend the car ran a 1 minute 31.905 second lap ... a full 2.2 seconds faster than last year."

At this level in Pro Class, where improvements are hard to make and are measured in hundreds of a second, 2.2 seconds is a truly massive improvement.

There was speculation after the event about exactly how this huge improvement was achieved on such an already highly developed pro class car.

A new aero package was developed for the car for 2011, with a Formula One designer hired to work on the aero for Mark's car, and the car is now running one of our DJ Engineering wings designed by world renowned wing designer and aerodynamics author Simon McBeath.

Despite the fact that a Formula One designer had worked on the car's aero, and that Simon McBeath had designed the rear wing, some people outside of Mark's team were wondering how much difference the new aero package and new rear wing made to the car's laptime.

How had the dramatic 2.2 second lap time improvement at the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge been achieved ? Had the car been lightened ? Was the car making more power this year than last year ? Had Mark's driving skills improved ?

Mark Berry at the wheel of the R34 GT-R. Photo by Mark Pakula

So to set the record straight, we went directly to Mark Berry and asked him to explain how the dramatic 2.2 second lap time improvement was achieved.

In the interview today, Mark Berry said ...

"The car is 80 kg (176 lbs) heavier than last year, and has less power.

All the speed in the car this year was from aero."

When we then asked Mark if his driving skills had improved since last year, he replied that after last year's 2010 World Time Attack Challenge, he only drove in one event - an event at Lakeside Raceway in which he drove the Hi Octane R32 GT-R (the other Advan / Hi Octane GT-R).

Kudos to Mark for being so honest about the suggestion that his driving skills had improved. Many drivers would be all too happy to place the credit for lap time improvements on their own driving skills. But Mark clearly understands that racing is a team sport with many people working very hard to achieve the results, and Mark clearly has great respect for the hard work of everyone involved with the car.

It also must be said that for Mark to have done so little track driving after the 2010 World Time Attack Challenge, for him to be able to jump straight back into the R34 at the 2011 event and run right up there with the fastest time attack drivers in the world, finishing 6th in the top level international Pro Class, is an absolute testament to Mark's outstanding talent as a driver.

So there you have it. Direct confirmation from Mark Berry that "All the speed in the car this year was from aero".

So even though Mark advises that the car was 80kg heavier than last year and had less power, the car ran 2.2 seconds faster.

As lighter versions of certain parts on the car are built in the future, the car's weight will drop, and we expect the car will then be even faster.

The rear wing is already very light indeed, as it is made from genuine pre-preg carbon fibre.

This result is of course yet another example of how important properly engineered aero is in time attack racing, and a great example of how much of a reduction in lap times that properly engineered aero can make. The 2.2 second improvement on Mark's car speaks for itself.

A huge congratulations to DJ Engineering, to Simon McBeath (the designer of the DJ Engineering rear wing run on Mark's car), to the Formula One designer who has been working on the aero on Mark's car, to Mark Berry, to Mark's extremely dedicated and hardworking crew, and to all the people and sponsors involved with the car.

More info on our range of DJ Engineering Wings designed by Simon McBeath as seen on Mark Berry's car at the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge can be found here ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/Products/wings.html

Info on The Tuners Group's Racecar Engineering & Development Team is here ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/engineering/

Our tech article titled "An Introduction To Racecar Aerodynamics & How Aero Can Improve Your Laptimes" is here ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/engineering/aero_intro.html

More info on Mark's R34 can be found in our customer cars gallery here ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/Cars/

created on 2011-08-18 by TTG.

NAsix's 2011 World Time Attack Challenge Video

JDM Style Tuning member NAsix has put together an epic video of last weekend's 2011 World Time Attack Challenge.

Check it out the video here ...

http://vimeo.com/27488073

created on 2011-08-11 by adamr.

Our 2011 World Time Attack Challenge Wrapup

This year's World Time Attack Challenge was an epic event, and we had the privilege of being right amongst it in pit lane throughout the event, with Mark Berry's R34 GT-R sharing a pit garage with the Cyber Evo.

Some fantastic results were achieved by the cars we sponsor and by a number of our customers' cars, highlighted by:

• an excellent 6th place in Pro Class by Mark Berry in The Tuners Group sponsored Advan / Hi Octane Racing R34 GT-R,


• Stephen Kakavas improving on his 2010 WTAC lap time in his Open class Evo by a massive 5.97 seconds, and


• the Clubsprint class win by Marek Tomaszewski in the Tomaszewski R35 GT-R from a very strong Clubsprint class field of 34 cars from all over the country.

The event also saw the competition debut of two amazing Pro Class R35 GT-R's ... the GT Auto Garage / HKS Australia R35 GT-R and the Mercury Motorsport / Q-Scan R35 GT-R.

Click on the link below to read about how the cars did, the highlights of the event for us from an engineering perspective, and some of our favourite photos from the event ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/wtac_2011_wrapup.html

created on 2011-08-09 by TTG.

Hints of an ARC International comeback at 2011 World Time Attack Challenge

As The Tuners Group is of only 10 authorised overseas distributors worldwide for ARC listed on the ARC International website, we are very pleased to bring you a couple of photos of something that was there in plain view at the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge today, but which you had to look closely to spot ...

On the side of the Garage Revolution RX-7 today was an ARC sticker, which is not surprising since according to the article about the car on ImportTuner.com, the car runs "ARC V-mounted intercooler and radiator, oil cooler, differential cooler". You can see the sticker in the photo above and photo below just forward of the door ...

But if you look closely at the ARC sticker on the car, this is what it says ...

We couldn't be happier to see this. ARC is an iconic company in the automotive industry, and the sticker beckons very well for the future of ARC.

We love comebacks, and you simply can't keep a great company like ARC down.

We spoke to the crew of the Garage Revolution RX-7 about the sticker, and without pre-empting anything or giving anything away, all we can say is stay tuned to our blog for further updates as soon as we have an official statement from the ARC factory in Japan.

More info on our range of ARC products is here ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/Products/results.html?q=arc

created on 2011-08-06 by TTG.

World Time Attack Challenge 2011 is this Friday and Saturday (5 and 6 August 2011) at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney

It's been a while since our last blog post, as we have been busy with preparations for the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge and have also completed our move to new larger premises.

So this post is just a reminder to everyone that the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge is on this Friday 5 August and Saturday 6 August at Eastern Creek International Raceway in Sydney Australia.

Project S14A will not be at this event as the build is still in progress, but Mark Berry's Advan / Hi Octane Racing R34 GT-R and the Kakavas Racing Evo have both entered the event.

So if you're in Sydney, get out to the track on Friday and Saturday to see an amazing line up of incredible time attack machines from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the US.

The promo video for the event is here ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/Videos/wtac_2011.html

More info on the event is here ...

http://www.worldtimeattack.com/

Ticket info is here ...

http://www.worldtimeattack.com/index.php/info/tickets/

created on 2011-08-03 by adamr.