ITM AUCKLAND SUPER400 VENUE CHANGE

For the first time since returning to Pukekohe Park Raceway back in 2013, the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship ITM Auckland Super400 has been shifted away from its traditional home. Organizers have confirmed that this year’s 24–26 April (Anzac weekend) incarnation will be hosted at Hampton Downs after they discovered that under the Auckland Unitary Plan, “any use of the track [Pukekohe] by motor vehicles, except for vehicles undertaking maintenance” was barred on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Anzac Day. Hampton Downs is situated in the Waikato, so it isn’t subject to the legislation.

According to Supercars CEO, Sean Seamer, nothing else is set to change: “Same date, same format, same plans for Anzac weekend. Still working obviously with the army here in Australia and New

Zealand, just a change of venue,” he said.

Kiwi Supercars driver Andre Heimgartner hopes a successful debut for the venue can inspire an increase to two annual rounds in New Zealand for future seasons. Shane van Gisbergen has also been vocal about the benefit a double dose of New Zealand action would bring to the sport. Heimgartner says that the forced switch could prove useful towards that case. “Obviously it’s disappointing that we can’t go to Pukekohe with the history that it’s got, but it’s always exciting going to a new destination and for the category to be at Hampton Downs I think is quite exciting. “It’s always good to do things like this and try something different and you never know, with any luck hopefully you might have two rounds in New Zealand on the calendar if this one goes well.”

Showing up on the scene back in 2018, this stallion was previously campaigned in the American series, Formula Drift, by Vaughn Gittin Jr. While the chassis is a work of art as far as drift cars go, it’s the Roush Yates Engines (RYE) ‘crate’ motor that’s got us talking. Known as the Roush Yates Engines RY45, it’s an all-aluminium 90-degree small block race engine through and through and shares the same basic block and head architecture as the current iron-block FR9 Nascar engine used by all Ford teams since 2009.

The RY is run in a wide variety of motorsports in its carb, injected, and boosted variants, including late-model dirt track (speedway) and off-road racing — basically any sport that does not require the iron block.

The amount of research and development that Roush poured into the project is astonishing, building upon the constant development of the factory-backed Nascar FR, and taking it to the next step. Every component is designed and analyzed extensively in-house, right down to the bearings and studs. The block itself is cast using high-quality T6 alloy, and, similar to the RY, it features a cast-in cam channel to avoid oil dropping on the crank.

It is also located much higher in the valley to keep the pushrod length short and minimize rod deflection and valve lift at high rpm.

There are internal oil galleries for piston and valve-spring squirters machined from billet. The coolant passengers have received considerable development to ensure that each piston is cooled equally, with the water entering low in the block and exiting via separate ports near each intake port (cross flow). The balancer is located behind the timing belt to bring weight further towards the crank centre, and therefore further back in the chassis.

Unlike the RYs, the dry-sump pan can be a fabricated item; Fanga’s is made in-house at RTR to suit the chassis and utilizes an Auto Verdi dry-sump pump. There is also extra oil baffling to ensure that the oil copes with the high G-loading unique to drifting.

While anyone can purchase RY45 components and build up a motor, especially with plenty of aftermarket support available, RTR Vehicles works with RYE to build, freshen, and tune in-house at RYE. It’s simply a ‘drop in and play’ situation for RTR, and now Fanga’s FDC Motorsport, with oil changes the only maintenance the boys are required to perform.

In case you’re wondering, it runs a water-like 0W-5 oil. Being similar spec to the dirt-track variants, Fanga’s sits at 14.1:1 compression, has four-inch stroke, and has the smaller of the two bore sizes available (105.4mm). This places capacity at 436ci. The heads are super lightweight 16-valve wedgeport Ford Performance castings and RYE has spent considerable time optimizing the valve-train angle. The valve train is what you would find in a Nascar vehicle, featuring a solid roller camshaft, titanium valves, and lightweight solid rockers. Uniquely, the engine runs Kinsler eight-stack injection and a

MoTec M8 ECU. The headers are RTR four-to-one units with minimal mufflers to give the engine the loud roar that you’d expect from a V8.

Run on C12 race fuel, the Mustang’s current power figures are posted at 850hp, but it’s the tyremelting torque that really makes the difference, and, with a power band that goes from 4500rpm right through to redline, it’s perfectly suited to the sport, in which minimum gear changes are ideal. Having campaigned two full seasons with the Mustang and now into the third, Dan tells us the only things that have changed are a retune to suit the fuelling, which netted an extra 30hp, the addition of a six-inch stock car–style block filter, and a rocker upgrade from RYE. The rocker upgrade was handled by Marsh Motorsport, which has a history of working with Roush products, and is also charged with refreshing the package at the end of each season.

Hiya Todd and the NZV8 crew, its been a while so I thought I’d say hi and send you a crazy update on one part of life! It’s a goodie!

Rewind 2.5-ish years ago, Mr Wolf — husband (mechanic extraordinaire), daughter (topped Yr 12 Automotive Engineering — winner winner!), and I are heading to the car parts shop (of course) 4.45pm-ish — the busiest time of the day in the Onehunga area — sigh! Anyone who knows the Onehunga/Penrose area in the late afternoon on a Friday, you avoid it like the plague! Struggling to not lose my nut at crappy drivers, we hit the intersection at Church and Selwyn Streets right next to Countdown. Opposite us was one broken down tiny MG — the cool old kind, even mustard orange coloured — looking like a sitting duck waiting to get collected by a truck! Dead battery — repeat problem — an accident waiting to happen! Me: Errrrr well that’s gonna go bad … let’s go push. Husband: Car shop is nearly closing, can we go quick then see if he’s still stuck after? Me: !&@&@^#^##&$*, hurry up then! Husband: Fastest visit to car shop ever. Ten minutes later, back to that intersection, the little MG and sittingduck driver had been pushed around the corner into an even worse position for truck traffic! Holy *@&#! Alongside us at the lights was a big truck with a No. 8 lucky eight ball on the side curtain. Jason tapped on the MG’s window and told him [that] that’s not a great place to park (couldn’t resist a good wind up!), then daughter steered the MG while myself, Jason, and MG driver Vernon pushed his wheels into a car park spot and we waited for Vernon’s dad to arrive (reminded us both so much of my own late father it was eerie and cool). We swapped Facebook details and well … now we kind of have an extra kid. The universe really does create a turn of events that can go one way or another. Vernon has a massive love of cars, he’s young, handsome, and turns out ridiculously strong. His other set of wheels was his ’65 Mustang. Now, this kid was throwing off my ‘age guessing’ skills by a mile! His Thai/European genetics blessed him with a baby face but so mature — no clue. Plus the fact when we first met he wore cut trackpants covered in paint and the fav. worn-out weekend T-shirt. He’s since sold off the MG to focus on the next car fix — Skylines and Silvias — but the Mustang will remain his number one.

Fast forward 2.5 years and Vernon was a groomsman for our wedding at Meremere strip, 18.08.2018 (Gary — best dam day ever!). Vernon drove his Mustang, delivering husband on the day and it took pride of place in our best wedding pictures. Sadly, we now have that same beautiful car parked in our garage, on blocks waiting for a buyer! The car was T-boned on a trip back from Tauranga. The blessing was Vernon, a New Zealand and world junior champion weightlifter, was not injured in this accident. The Mustang was written off by insurance — check your project car insurance value people! Vernon took a big hit on this for being undervalued and while the agreement was that the vehicle would be returned, we discovered it up on Trade Me for $1 reserve auction three days after the payout deal was made! The universe twist I hear you ponder?

Jason is now the tutor in the new car project build of Vernon’s Silvia. It will be one amazing piece of machinery, different to our normal slice of car style, however, that is the beauty of cars and well, Jason is a gifted car guru, a natural-born engineer so any tinkering to make something better, faster, louder is all good! What we had no clue about was [that] Warick, Vernon’s dad, is in property investment and we now are so stoked to be renting one of his best big houses — his family home where Vernon spent his childhood years. Our poor neighbours at our previous house hated us and all our cars! Now we have a backyard complete with a purpose-built workshop and so much car park space!

So the twist — be kind and offer help when/ wherever it’s needed. You never know where it may lead. I now have a new appreciation of other types of cars, Jason is in his element with the Wolf Pack Garage home business, and at last count, just our immediate family cars was 18 — and with our blended family of seven crazy, gorgeous kids — we had added our lucky No. 8, Vernon.

Sadly the Mustang is now up for grabs. While our plan was to try to rebuild it so Jason could drive Vernon to his own wedding one day, it’s one part of our story that has a different ending. We hope it heads off to a good home where it will be adored and reused for someone else’s dream. Thanks for letting me indulge in my finders keepers story of our extra kid. Daughter asked one night, “Mum — did you really find him broken down on the side of the road?” … while looking at Vernon, peeled out on our couch, eating Nutella sandwiches between the grandkids ... lol! Merry Christmas and happy New Year, Todd, thanks for an epic bunch of reading this year and look forward to 2020! See you at the next car show! Love Shelby and the Wolf Pack Garage crew!

Now that is an interesting one. Good on you guys for stopping to help him out, especially when we know an MG isn’t really your type of car! We’re sure with you guys at his side, it won’t be long before he’s back in another Mustang too! Thanks for taking the time to share the story with us.

Todd