SUTTON TAMESA

The factory Subaru team, which is operated by Team BMR, is headed up by Warren Scott. When he decided to take a step down from driving to focus on his role as team principal, he decided to take his competitive instincts to a whole new discipline: British

eally, really shocked. That was my first impression. The Subaru Levorg I raced in the British Touring Car Championship last season has just under 400 horsepower, and that’s enough for when you’re racing up close. But to suddenly have another 200 plus under your right foot was definitely an eye opener.

This was my first time driving at Lydden Hill. I’ve been to the track a few times as a guest of LD Motorsports to watch Warren [Scott, Team BMR boss] compete in the British Rallycross Championship, but it was nice to see the other side and get behind the wheel.

Along with the power and the aggressive anti-lag, the four-wheeldrive of the Citroen DS 3 Supercar was something else that I had to get used to. As a whole, even though there’s loads and loads of power, it actually shocked me how much grip there was, and my first three laps in the car were definitely interesting. The traction that the fourwheel-drive produces is phenomenal.

Being inside the DS 3 was actually relaxing. It’s quite nice in there and a lot of effort has been put into getting everything in the right place, like any top racing car. When you’re driving, it’s very smooth inside, even on the loose stuff. There’s a bit of vibration but at the end of the day you’re going off road and there’s all sorts of stuff hitting the bottom of the car, but overall I was really impressed with how comfy and homely it was. I didn’t expect that.

The loose was the biggest difference from what I’m used to. This was my first ever time on gravel (well, on purpose anyway) and I really noticed how much earlier you have to pre-empt what’s coming. Obviously everything underneath you is moving around and you’ve got to add that into your inputs. You’ve got to turn a bit earlier to allow that to all come into effect by the time you actually get to the corner. The car moves a lot more underneath you and it’s really fun to get going sideways. That’s the big thing, you’ve just got to get the car set up in the direction you want you to be going, before you hit the loud pedal again.

I thought I’d be able to hear the noise of the gravel more when you are on the loose surfaces, but because it’s so brutal and noisy inside, you don’t notice it much at all. It is very similar to the BTCC car with the noise of the engine being so loud. When you’re in the touring car and have a slight bit of contact, you can’t hear it and I feel that would be very much the same in a rallycross car; the engine noise overpowers everything else.

Compared to the touring car, the Supercar is designed for a totally different environment. For example, the touring car is a bit more responsive to inputs but less forgiving, it will catch you out a lot, lot more. The Supercar is a bit more forgiving because it’s much softer in its set-up. The two are similar in a way too, though. I was surprised that the lines and braking points were all very similar despite the cars being so different, it’s just the fact that they’ve got their own characteristics.

Apart from the Supercar having a much softer set-up and a lot more suspension travel to be able to cope with the different surfaces, the tyres are a big difference that effect how the cars feel. The touring car is very stiff anyway, but the sidewall of our Dunlop tyre is a bit stiffer than the crossply Cooper, which is like a moulded cut slick, they use on the DS 3. You haven’t got anywhere near as much tyre roll in the touring car as what you’ve got in the Supercar.

When it’s a bit wet and greasy, in the touring car we would use a full-wet tyre, but those conditions are not enough for the rallycross full wets because the movement in the chassis gets more heat into the tyres, so that’s pretty interesting.

I drove the British RX specification DS 3 in the morning, that Nathan Heathcote used to win the championship and that was good. But then in the afternoon I got to drive the car that Warren raced last season, which is in World RX specification with the latest spec engine [from Julian Godfrey Engineering]. That was like I’d stepped up another gear completely. It’s mental how different that car was, the responsiveness and everything. Suddenly that was a bit more like the touring car in the way it responds. I thought the British RX version was fast, but that thing was unreal.

Racing in rallycross would be interesting. I’m used to the bumper-tobumper elbows-out racing in touring cars, so it’s not going to be a million miles away from what I know, it’s just going to be happening a lot, lot quicker.

The loose was different, but I found when I was on the Tarmac, you can kind of just forget that you’re in a rallycross car and drive it as you would a race car. It’s just the transition, being able to switch your mindset that as soon as you touch the loose you’ve got to be able to change your driving style to being more like you’re in a rally car, then reverse that again when you get back onto the Tarmac. I like that, I’ve been quick at adapting to different conditions in touring cars and I think that would play a big part if I ever got the chance to get behind the wheel for a race in a Supercar.

Racing in rallycross is something I’ve always looked at doing on the side and we’ll wait and see what can happen in the future. I only did a few laps at Lydden Hill, so it would be nice to get at least half a day behind the wheel so you can nip away at it, to see how you progress towards the end. Really it’s just time in the car. Andrew [Jordan] has done a few World RX races so has had a bit more time in a car than any of us that’s tried going from touring cars to rallycross. If I had a few days in the car I’d be up to scratch and ready to race. I’d love to give it a go. ■