2008 The End and The Beginning

2008 marks the end of a significant chapter in Open Road Motorsports history and opens the door for a new direction with our team.

For the past 5 Targa's Open Road has competed in our trusty Porsche 911. During that time, the car underwent significant development to make it one of the quickest and most consistent cars in the event. The car's crowning achievement came in 2006 when it powered the team to overall victory. We have decided to temporarily retire the Porsche from competition so it can undergo a complete restoration.

Speaking of retirement, Evan Gamblin has also decided to retire from Targa competition. Evan has competed in all 6 Targa Newfoundland events acheiving many podiums and the overall win in 2006. Evan's contribution to Open Road's competitive success will be sorely missed. Evan will remain involved with Open Road and will continue to pass on his experience to all who will listen at the Targa Schools.

2008 marks the start of a new beginning for Open Road. We are joining forces with Island Rally Racing to contest the 2008 Targa.

The new team will consist of:
Driver: Glen Clarke
Navigator: Andy Proudfoot

Vehicle: 1991 Subaru Legacy

Andy has four Targa Newfoundland finishes to his credit, including an overall first place finish in Grand Touring in 2006 and acquiring a Targa Plate his first year competing in the Targa Class.

Andy lives in Gander Newfoundland and works as an Air Traffic Controller at the fabled Gander International Airport (remember all the aircraft on 9/11)

Andy's 1991 Subaru Legacy is a celebrity, originally built as part of the television show War of the Wheels hosted by Andrew Comrie-Picard on Global Television.

Sourced from a used car lot, over the course of three days the Subaru was transformed from grocery getter to Rally Racer by some of the top professionals in Canadian Rally today. The team included Dan Sprongle, Ben Dagenais, Mark Moore and Elise Racette.  During the car’s transformation on TV it received DMS shocks, ECUTEK ECU, a 4.44 JDM Gearbox, STI Four Piston Brakes, Compomotive Rally Wheels, roof vent, TerraTrip computer and Terraphone communications system. 

Andy purchased the Subaru on EBay just two weeks before it won the Touring Competition in 2006.  The car is currently in Ottawa at Open Road's shop for further modifications, tuning & testing.

Open Road Motorsports successfully ran the sister car from the TV show in the 2007 Tall Pines

“Island Rally welcomes the opportunity to join the Open Road Motorsports Team. OpenRoad has challenged for the top ten each of the 5 years they have entered Targa. Glen’s driving skills as well as knowledge of car set up are second to none. “I look forward to working with Glen both in setting up the Subaru as well as challenging my navigational abilities throughout the week.”

Targa Newfoundland 2008 is scheduled for September 13 to 19. For more information visit www.targanewfoundland.com.

We still have quite a bit of work to do before Targa, but we should be in good shape for the event.

Thank you to everyone who is helping us prepare. 

Glen Clarke    Andy Proudfoot
Car #801
Subaru Legacy

Special Thanks to our 2008 Sponsors:

• The Burnt Squirrel
• K&B Auto
• VimX Ignition
• Darlington Media Works
• RS Designs
• Help 4 Home
• Professional Tire

The team is also pleased to represent the Meningitis Reseach Foundation of Canada at the 2008 Targa Event.

Click here for 2008 Entry List

Developing a new car for competition is always a challenge. Although the Legacy has been prepped for safety there is a lot of room to improve the car's overall performance. You have to remember that the Legacy was designed to be a family sedan, not a rally car.

Creating a car that can compete for the overall win on pure pace in the dry is a challenge and is probably not something that we can acheive for 2008. When comparing the Legacy with our 2006 winning Porsche, the Legacy is heavier, less powerful and has much smaller tires. The transmission, suspension, brakes and aerodynamics are also much less developed than the Porsche. The Legacy's advantage over the Porsche is it's 4 wheel drive configuration.

4 wheel drive is an advantage in the wet but a disadvantage in the dry. In dry conditions a rear wheel drive vehicle should beat the 4 wheel drive every time. However, in the wet, 2 wheel drive forward acceleration should always lose out to a 4 wheel drive car.

So the reality is: We won't be competive with the top cars in the dry conditions but we could be competitive in the wet. So we are going to take a bit of a gamble and hope for 5 days of rain at Newfoundland this year. It has never rained on all 5 days of competition but there is always a first time.

To help achieve a wet set up we are focusing on three aspects of the cars performance. Tires, Weight and Power. Brakes, Suspension, Transmission and Aerodynamics will have to wait for future years.

Tires

In the past two Targas, the Legacy has competed on a 185-65R15 street tire with 15" x 6" rims. Although this is a relatively good tire size for gravel competition it is quite narrow to support the side loads we need to carry through the paved corners of Newfoundlands roads. For 2008 we intend to increase the tire size to 225-40R17. Tire type and compound are still being evaluated, however we are leaning towards the Michelin Pilot Sport provided by Professional Tire. This tire will not provide the dry grip levels of the Toyo Proxes RA1s that most of the front runners will be using but it should provide superior wet weather traction and hydroplaning resistance.

To support these wider tires we are going to use Rota 17"x7.5" rims.

An added complication is the narrowness of the Subaru's wheel well. The car has not been designed to handle a tire larger than a 195-60R15 tire so we expect to need to widen the fender flairs to accept the wider tire. This can be done within the Targa rule book so long as the overall look of the car is maintained.

185 Fuzion on Left, 225 Michelin Pilot Sports on Right. Although the Michelin looks taller, it actually has the same overall diameter as the Fuzion.

Weight

Weight is always a huge issue in any competition. Testing has shown that 10lbs of weight is equivalent to 0.1s per km of competitive stage. When you look at the past Targa results you can see that over the 500km of competition stages the margin of victory is measured in seconds. Shaving 10lbs off a cars weight could mean 50 seconds of stage time. An enormous amount that should move us towards the front of the field.

When the Subaru arrived at our shop it weighed in at 3073lbs with a full tank of fuel. With 55liters of fuel in the tank we estimate that the car would be 2950lbs dry. (more than 700lbs heavier than our 2006 winning Porsche) This is a fair bit above the minimum weight allowed by the Targa rules. So we are putting the car on a diet and expect to get its dry weight down to 2800lbs. A significant improvement.

Engine

The engine in the Subaru is a stock 91 Legacy that produces around 180hp. When you think that the top flight cars in the event have a power to weight ratio better than 10lbs/hp, we have a lot of work to do to catch up.

The good thing working in our favour is that the Subaru engine is very versatile and can be upgraded with relative ease. We will let you know how we progress.

Open Road Motorsports is hosting the Targa School and a Test and Tune Day at Bell Island. This promises to be a great opportunity for teams to hone their skills and set up their car prior to start of Targa on Sunday. Click here for more information on the School/Test Day and Bell Island.