Video: The Worlds Quickest Time Attack Car. In the World!

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Any time attack fanboi worth his salt can tell you that the car to beat, the mack daddy, who’s your daddy, big daddy is the HKS CT230R JDM Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. The car, driven by Nobuteru “No One Better” Taniguchi, has been wrecking clocks all over Japan owning tuning car records at all of the top tracks, most notably the Tsukuba circuit. At this, the World’s most legendary time attack circuit NOB put up a record-setting 53.589-second lap a few years back that still stands to this day.

In 2007 HKS took its show on the road and tripped on over to the USDM side of the Pac rim; more specifically, Buttonwillow Raceway Park’s Race #13 configuration in a clockwise fashion. Think of Buttonwillow as Tsukuba’s much less attractive soul sister, only with better BBQ. Once again, HKS plus NOB equaled time attack dominance and their 1:43.523 put the North American tuner record well out of reach. Or we should say well out of reach for anyone whose name is not Dennis Kottke. Who is Dennis Kottke? Today he is the owner of the world’s quickest time attack machine, oddly enough this title is nowhere near good enough for him. Hit the jump to find out why.

We don’t know much about Dennis except that he’s hella flush (not his wheels, but his wallet). He’s a successful businessman with a penchant for motorsports. In fact his Sierra Sierra Enterprises team counts two Atlantic Championships to its credit. Dennis also likes fast cars and a strange twist of fate put him behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. After this he was hooked on the marque sending the car to Buschur for a 700-plus hp build. Since he ran Atlantics Dennis was also familiar with Buttonwillow. He came out to one of the early time attacks and was appalled that the Japanese teams (specifically HKS) were crushing the ‘Mericans. And while Dennis has nothing but the highest respect for how HKS came to Buttonwillow sight unseen and laid down such an astonishing number, he vowed to beat them at their own game.

And on Sunday, March 28 David Empringham did just that, driving the Sierra Sierra Enterprises Mitsu Lan Evo 8 to a 1:43.34 a scant nine hundredths of a second faster than the HKS Evo. In the wake of this time the debate rages as to the legitimacy of the record. But to us a record is a record is a record. The Hankook Ventus Z214 tires used by Sierra Sierra are the same type of DOT R-compounds as the Yokohama A048Rs used by HKS. And in Japan there is a wide-variety of timing equipment used at Tsukuba. But no matter the equipment, the clock does not recognize any such thing as practice. End of controversy.

Aside from the Hankook tires the Sierra Sierra Evo 8 rocks 18-inch Advan RZ wheels. You can see the meaty Brembo brakes in this shot and less evident are the Dynamics dampers and Eibach springs.

The aero and livery on this Evo are both menacing and lust worthy. Like some sort of superhot dominatrix. You know she’s going to hurt you but you can’t help asking for more. What? Sorry, we digress. Kaminari supplies the carbon fiber front and rear bumpers, front lip spoiler, side skirts, rear diffuser, and the Seibon doors, front fenders and trunk lid are also made from the exotic weave, finally it’s all topped off by an APR wing and mirrors.

ALFA Livery Design designed the actual graphics and the look is quite refreshing sans obligatory rice boy roll call. This is mainly because Dennis is footing the bill here. The pictures don’t show it but the graphics have actually been cleared over. Nice attention to detail. Norris Auto Body in Minden, Nevada did the paint and Sierra Sierra Enterprises did all of the bodywork, including the FIA GT3-spec cage inside. The team doesn’t mind the additional weight as driver safety is paramount to them (unlike those wild and crazy Japanese tuners).

Here’s the motivation. A Cosworth built 560hp, 2.2L stroked 4G63 featuring a Cosworth crank and fully deburred block. The cams are Cosworth M3 280-degree intake and 272-degree exhaust off the shelf units held in place by a Cosworth Ultra High Rev Dual Spring kit. The head is treated to Cosworth’s Big Valve CNC port work fitted with a Cosworth 87mm, 1.3mm thick metal stopper gasket. An HKS Kansai intake controls the intake, while a Full Race exhaust manifold supports the Garrett GT35R turbo. A Cosworth Pectel SQ6 engine control unit package controls the works. The Stock Mitsu five-speed box is fitted with Quaife internals and the gearing is Group N rally spec with a Tilton Carbon clutch. But the trickest bit of drivetrain kit is the Cosworth Pectel EDC, which controls the center differential electronically. From what we can gather it’s some sort of traction control tied into the ECU. Sick stuff.

While all of this may look good on your monitor the team struggled with overheating issues throughout the day. This makes their record-breaking time that much more impressive. And perplexing. We’ve seen daily-driven Evos make 560-plus hp without even breaking a sweat (or a head gasket for that matter). We know this Evo has a lot more in it, which is what frustrates Dennis so. In fact he affectionately refers to his Evo as Christine. According to the team’s Twitter account the car is still committed to attend the World Time Attack Challenge in Australia in May where it will go head-to-head against infamous Cyber Evo and the Tomei Cusco Impreza. Once Sierra Sierra has taken all there is to be had from Christine she’ll be retired in favor of an Evo X with an even more potent 4B11. We love the fact that it’s not enough to break a record, they have to crush it into a million little pieces.

Check out this StreetFire video documenting Sierra Sierra taking the Buttonwillow time attack record.

The Fastest Time Attack Car in The World