THE ESSENTIAI.MONORSPORT MONTHLY.UIIRITTEN BYTHE RAGERSFORTHE RAGERS T'frFA CT< A 'VD CFA CE a LOWCOST TRACKrocosrTESTING THE CHEAPESTMOTOR,,SPORT CI"ASSWITHTHE CI.,OSESTRACING IN THE IJI( ffiPffi ffi'K-f WWWW&wwww Ww&wwwmsx the world much as S6.5 million and beyond. ard this feature. Ater all it is very watching their WATCH The reason these supersonic tin easy to mistake them as being shoddy, permies in these ONTINE tops demanded such extravagant so I suppose'affordable' is a much usettlingtimes budgets was fundamentally chargeable more fitting and complimentary. But of financial to the complex technology hidden whatever I pluck from the dictionary uncertainty I suppose this featue on away underneath an irmocent looking the truth is these two RML built Nissan these ludicrously outrageous Super production road car shell. Ifwe were able Super Tourers were in their day a very Touring cars may on the face of it seem to virtually peei back the modest looking very erq>ensive comrnodity indeed. shortsighted. If we couJd step back in Iffi.tcmagazine.com bodywork, staring back would essentially Wirurers of the 1998 and 1999 BTCC time to the era when these detailed be a space-frame chassis,hordes of ManuJactu.rers Championship, the tourers were competing successfitlly in carbon fibre and a lughly complex Drivers Championship in 1999 while the British Touring Car Championship eng'ine which was also positioned so beating the likes of the well funded Ford, @TCC) and youd be right, in fact these deep and Iow into the bu.lldread it was Renault andVauxhall outfits. It was also two cars alone wor:ld have probably cost barely recognisable. These may have followed up by an Independents Drivers in the region of just under !I million of been tagged Super Touers but they Championship in the hands of the lofty your hard-earned to buy them as a pair. were more like thoroughly modern Matt Nea.lin 1999 and 2000. So rather Even more staggering was the funds Ttrundersaloons, albeit ones with fittingly our two feature cars recorded required to run a team for a season which power rururing through the fuont drive- some of Nissan's finest achienements. started at arourd !4 million. .. Renault shafts. Thanldully today, udike the (who employedWilliams FI to build Ttrundersaloons of yesteryears, ex-BTCC THE HISTORY them a car) was rumoured to spend as Belry:This 1999 cars swamp the second hand market.. , TYacing the steps to Nissan's 1999 NissanPtimeE ffis driren bV the and they're cheap. Championship white-wash with the great David late, the best of words trrimera really does take us on a wild Leslie to second Cheap isn't exactly in lhat seasonts to use when describing the two cars roller-coaster ride.It a.llkicked off with BTCG Ddver Ghanpionshit'... we've got splashed across the cover JanSpeed Racing back in I99I. These early Nissan's were built byJiinos 6dor of happened if it wasn't for Nissan WATCH for the 1997 season, especia.lly when (founded and team manager of the Motorsport Europe (NME) for the ONTINE controlled by the exceptionally talented JarSpeed racing team) with his late son collaboration with Ray Mallock Ltd (or Mark Busfield (now team manager for Kieth 6dor as its number one driver now loown as RML Group, RML), the RIML'sChevroletWTCC team). Nissan's a.longside such tearrunates as Julian formidable yet quiet motorsport g'iant. first season showed huge potential but it Bailey, Andy Middlehurst, JamesWeave! Ttris combination wouJd prwe to be wasn't urtil 1998 that the cars started to Win Percy,TUf Needell and fic van de priceless for the second generation take shape, claiming the Manufacturer's Poele. fhe highest placed was 6dor Primera (or lcnorn as the PI l) and title, followed by the faultless season who managed to bring the car home in this was partly due to NME'S General w.trcmgdinecom in'99, not orily was the Manufacturer's sixth in the Drivers Championship but Manager, Alex Poole. NME"s boss was crown retained but the drivers also these cars weren't competitive enough once a B?CC champ himself (winning finished in first (Lawent Aiello) and second @avid Leslie). That year Nissan hissww's"first se{,s{}fitifs€.tw,ed kulle psteilti{i! f}ut it w{tstl'f ut'tti{ 1998tle&t ilee {:{tn startedto take shape,claiming the Manfficturer's title, tota.lly dominated and RIvIL racked up the '9$ most wins, poles, podiums, fastest laps fulf*ruert'fu' tkefiiw se&sstciut wkewit t*trk tke dawh{e and laps lead. and the JarSpeed program came to the 1969 One-Litre Championship in a That same season also brought Matt an end in 1994.A missed year in 1995 Mini) and lcrew only too well what was Neal some silverware in the way of his saw a comeback in 1996 by the (often required for Nissar to lift the crorrn. So Independent Championship courtesy forgotten) Rouse Sport Nissan Primera using his Irish charm he stole RIVILaway of Team Dynamics (in an RML Nissan Team but the real change came in I99?. ftom Nissan's main rival, blagging "we're Primera) and again the following year Although wilder versions of the a better bet thanVauxhall", Beld:...but, in 2000.With Nissan pulling,the plug alternatively, this Primera came in the shape of foru- Together with Stewart Ayling @ML t98 er-Matt Neal PdmeEhell'ed wheel drive (forTeam Rosberg's entry Engineer) and Richard Dwilla (I\IME scoop him Ore into the German Super Touriag Series Desigrner) the project was given an Isdel'ende[ts trct'hy that sane in 1997 and 1998) these would never ifiunediate (and much needed) boost '99 season "&,Lrdl ffiWffiWWf W W"W&wwww"Ww&wmwwmm on the works team (along with the Abwe left to tiglrt: models. So the outcome was a far stiffer into their keyboards and the fina.l Special steering majority of the key maaufacturers) Nea.l's EGk sits above shell which was also somewhat stonger. creation was not only solid but also as the engine.Tlre just possibly Team Dynamic Primera was to be low slung Nissan With the shell covered it was time lightweight as they could go one of the two remaining Nissan's that SRzO poweFplant for the NME ard RIML design boffins while maintaining high levels of driver prcduced in ran in (sadly) this Iast year of Super excess of 3oobhl' to concentrate on developing the most safety.Visually it's reminiscent of a al SsOOrpm.Sean part Touring cars. The second Nissan was welds demanded integral of the Primera; the salety monkey encloswe, a brace of complex the Champiorship wiruring car of Aiello 1OOO fril houE of cell. Driver safety was paramount, criss-cross tubes eng-ulfthe cockpit ard labour. Flatshifls and,like Nea.l,it was ruruung among were cal'able naturally, but overall an ingenious roll resemlcles that space-ftame chassis when united with the Independent teams but under the tlre Pectel EGU. cage would add wera.ll integrity and look I mentioned at the sta.rtof this steering Eridance of Colin Blair and Garbon crash box stifhess once welded to the already taut story The suspersion loads are fed around thedriveE rur (and still ovmed) by Derek Palmer feet. Engine shell. fhe ones inside the RML Primeras into the outermost corners of the roll- position pushed Engineering. the dtivcr back as were comDuter-aided via finite element cage structures v'dth the cockpit tu-bing far as the driver's '{b door pillar t*tzvittt:u,:*x{*{lt't*:.rt: t?'t*d{.:tlt}tt.elL l* llzi*k *lkr:*tist: f$ *er:iarfitrrw 3l$u tft/tf THE CHASSIS the highly complexRML shells would take 125 man-days I think you'll agrree that our cover cars aren't your average ciubman tin top race cars, To convince any of those mad analysis (FEA) in a bid to optimise the reaching out to the top of the damper enough to think otherwrise let me idorm tubular steel cage by creating a tLuee- mounting points, both front and rear. you that each of the luglily complex dimensional virtual model rnto wluch While we're on the subject of the RML shells wonld take I25 man-days simr:lated loads were fed and stilfrress four corners the original 1997 Rl/lL to prepare. That's 1000,grueling, man- values predicted. Sounds expersive but I cars (as demonstrated by our ex-Matt hows. Mind-boggling stuff, you may suppose havrng Williams F I trarsform:ng Neal example) were blessed with some want to sit down and just thirk about that. a RenauJt Lagnrna into a championship usefi:l origina.l equipment hardware. The painstaking time is occupied by the winning car certaidy didn't allovr any The rulebook in the late nineties arduous task of seam-welding the entire breathing space for the competition... required the origina.l suspersion layout shell, a process which over-stitches the Nissar certahly weren't holding back. to foilow the road version and Nissan's factory spot welds with longer, stronger Hundreds of simu.lations were done, GT model, of its Pl I Primera road car, welds which are spaced out by literally changing the shape and size of the came with multi-link front wishlcones inches rather than the traditiona.l wider tubing was just a couple of factors and coilwer dampers on the nose and berths set out by the production line the white coated engineers punched tail of the chassis.