PAUL DOWDALL RESETS SPORT MOD RECORD

Paul Dowdall has been getting some serious seat time this season in the NZ Performance RX-8, and it’s clearly paying off. At the recent IHRA/NZDRA Masterton comp meet he reset the National Sport Mod record and the National index, and walked away with a new PB. “The track was freaking awesome, it only got stickier and stickier through the weekend, and we just kept putting more and more power into it [RX-8] and it still bogged off the line,” Paul told NZPC. While the trap speed is there, it’s in that first 60 feet that the RX-8 has been struggling, so this is the area the team has focussed on improving this season. The last pass on Saturday saw the car go 8.09 at 268kph (167mph), before backing it up Sunday with a 8.25 at 268kph (167mph) and 8.28 at 273kph (170mph) to finish the day with a round win in Super Street.

Paul tells us that the 60-foot times are still not where he wants them to be, which is around 1.25, and on the 8.09 PB run the car 60-footed at 1.31, so there is still plenty of room to move, and he hopes eventually to push the car into the NZPC seven-second club.