LESS IS MOREGO - BBR GTi.

More documents

Recommendations

Info

BBR GTi, or Brodie Britain Racing and GTi Engineering are names that are steeped in motorsport history and, as such, the company boasts a very impressive CV indeed. Along with its former touring car credentials (David Brodie held the lap record at Thruxton for many years in a Sierra RS500), BBR GTi has a wealth of experience tuning and building cars, and not just Fords either. Everything from MINIs and numerous Golf GTIs have passed through its doors, not to mention 1000bhp Astons, a 365bhp Lotus Elise built for non other than Adrian Newey, plus a factory- approved turbo kit for Mazda MX5s to name just a few. Of course, with such a strong background in racing the iconic RS500, BBR has always had a special interest with Fords, and especially the Mk2 Focus. The company began developing the ST in 2005 and, not long after, it produced a range of upgrade packages, starting with a 280 and 290 kit that consisted of an exhaust, filter swap, custom remap and its most extreme 360 package that incorporated a bigger turbo and fabricated manifold. A great RS-beater for sure, but by BBR’s own admission it is a rather expensive conversion! To fill the gap in ST conversions by modifying the standard turbo, BBR then offered a 330 kit as a more cost-effective upgrade for 300bhp plus. When the new RS started to appear, and with many ST owners wishing to trade up to the greater performance it offered as standard, BBR once again turned its attention to a range of power upgrades. After 18 months of extensive R&D, it now offers four different tuning options; from the Phase One ECU remap that boosts power to 342bhp and 369lb ft of torqe, to the Phase Four BBR RS400 which produces 404bhp and 408lb ft of torque thanks to a hybrid turbo, high flow fuel pump, high flow injectors, intercooler, air filter, full exhaust and remap. While the RS400 conversion is aimed at customers that want supercar-beating performance from their Focus, BBR is convinced that its Phase Three upgrade, which is without the expensive turbo replacement but still offers a healthy 382bhp and 388lb ft of torque, is more than enough for those who like to use their car on a regular basis. So, in the interests of science, we asked if we could borrow BBR’s RS380 demonstrator to see just how well it performed against the clock and to see if it measured up to BBR’s claims that it works well on everyday roads as well. First up though, were the performance tests, and with a foggy, but otherwise deserted Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground at our disposal, we fired up our trusty Racelogic timing gear and set about chasing some 0-60mph times. Actually, we were more interested in the 0-100mph and top speed times because if there’s one thing we’ve learnt about the Mk2 Focus RS so far, it’s that there’s a limit to how quickly you can get it off the line on standard road tyres – even with the Quaife ATB diff doing its best to keep the front wheels in order. The first few runs proved promising, with consistent 5.6-5.7-second sprints to 60mph and a low 12secs to 100mph, being the order of the day. We tried several methods of getting BBR’s RS off the line, including a second gear start (which amazingly only proved to be a few tenths slower!) then eventually resigned ourselves to the fact that the tyres were only going to give us so much. If we had a set of sticky track rubber we would have no doubt taken a big chunk out of the sprint times, but then at least these figures are a good representation of what the RS380 is capable of in the real world. And let’s face it, hitting the ton in just over 12 seconds from a standing start in a heavy front wheel drive car is not to be sniffed at. With the sprint times clarified, we moved our attention to the vMax tests, for which we would have to use the full length of Bruntingthorpe’s near two-mile runway. Our realistic aim here was to crack the 160mph barrier, and, after a couple of practice runs that clocked 156 and 158 we wound back the door mirrors, took a couple of brave pills and nailed the throttle for a final attempt – only to run out of runway with 159.9mph registered on the timing gear! With maybe another mile or so of asphalt to 047
gti focus rs play with we’re pretty confident that we could have squeezed out at least another three of four mph. Still, anything that can achieve these kind of speeds, while still being fully decked out with leather, sat nav and reversing camera is good enough for us. So, the BBR380 is clearly a quick car, and the BBR400 would no doubt be faster still, but for BBR the extra power is only part of the story. “In our opinion, one of the RS’ biggest failings is its ride quality,” explains BBR’s Neil McKay. “Our bespoke damper and spring kit transforms the ride of the car, and is more adapt at soaking up the potholes and uneven surfaces of UK A and B roads.” If this sounds like BBR is being soft, then don’t be fooled into thinking that this is just about comfort. A car with rock hard suspension might handle a bit better on the smooth surfaces of a track, but over the lumps and bumps of your favourite back road there’s a good chance it will skip and slide all over the place when you put your foot down. BBR decided straight away that the standard dampers on the RS were too hard, and after dyno testing them back-to-back with the ST suspension, claim that they were producing maximum damping very early on under compression. In short, they were too stiff. BBR’s solution was to develop its own springs matched to a set of BBR/Koni-developed adjustable dampers – a combination that offers a gentle reduction in ride height, and a much more effective overall suspension setup on the road. According to Neil, “the suspension is somewhere between the ST and RS in terms of stiffness,” so it’s still firm, but much more forgiving when the going gets rough. The exact difference between this and the standard RS setup is hard to gauge unless you were to drive both cars back-to-back, but after heading out on to the tight and twisty lanes that surround Bruntingthorpe, we can confirm that the RS380 felt 100% planted on even the most undulating tarmac. Confidence-inspiring is probably the best way to describe it; being able to absolutely nail it around corners and roundabouts safe in the knowledge that the car is going to continue in the direction that you’re pointing it, rather than fidgeting around and trying to make a break for freedom. Given that the adjustable dampers allow you to stiffen things up if you fancy heading out onto a track day, we reckon that the BBR setup really does offer a best of both worlds solution for the RS. If there’s one criticism though, it’s that there might be a danger that you’d soon get used to the RS380’s performance. Don’t get us wrong, this is a fast bit of kit and one that could be enjoyed everyday, whether crawling along in the morning commute or at full chat on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The problem is that it’s all just too easy, especially with BBR’s excellent suspension setup, so if you’re anything like us then there’s a danger that you might find yourself hankering after even more power. Still, if and when that happens, we guess you just need to save a few more pennies and go back to BBR for the full fat RS400 ■ Contact BBR GTi www.morego.co.uk 048
Page 1 and 2: gti focus rs LESS IS MOREGO BBR GTi
Page 3: 046

LESS IS MOREGO - BBR GTi.

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?