Wiborg Engineering is back for 2019 season! TANU RD1 recap!

Wiborg Engineering is back for 2019 season! TANU RD1 recap!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

TANU: Ring Knutstorp – ROUND 1 | May 10th and 11th

An amazing start to the 2019 season!

During the winter the Wiborg Engineering Evo had undergone a massive upgrade program featuring a new engine and turbo/IC setup. Weight saving of close to 50kg, implementation of carbon brakes and a completely new front end aero package.

The team knew beforehand that the first race weekend was going to be a real challenge with all the new bits and pieces on the car, no prior shakedown and a double race weekend that started in Norway and the Rudskogen track with NTA series on Friday and the weekend would be finished with TANU on Saturday at the Knutstop track in Sweden.

The team arrived early Friday morning at a rainy Rudskogen track in Norway, the car was unloaded and all the tools and equipment set up in the pit box. The first 3 outings on the track were spent on a fully wet track with a very busy shakedown program where the new brakes were bedded in, the new engine is broken in, the new boost control setup tuned and some fine tuning of the engine ECU and new aero package started.

After 3 heats on full wets, the track was beginning to dry up and with more rain scheduled for later in the afternoon the team new, this might be the only chance this day to go for the tintop track record that was the aim with this trip. The boost was still on a very low setting (2.0 bar) due to the limit time to set up the car. The track was judged to be dry enough to head out on slick tires. Slicks showed to be the correct choice but the track was still damp and very slippery but one attempt on a fast lap was done but it was impossible to get a good enough lap time in to brake the current record due to some of the corners still being fully wet. Despite this a time of 1:24:8 was but down only 3 seconds of the record before the heat was red flagged due to an accident.
The team hoped for the weather to stay dry for another 60 min for a chance of a run on a fully dry track but unfortunately, it started raining heavily again. The amount of water on the track meant the planned schedule also had to be canceled. The car was later in the afternoon sent out in the heavy rain for a run in the finals to secure the overall race win, the time set was good enough to win with almost 10 seconds and the team packed up quickly and prepared for the trip back to Sweden and Knutstorp where some sunny weather was forecasted. Although the record could not be broken the team was in very good spirits after a great event by NTA and the car seemed to be working perfectly so far.

Saturday morning after only a few hours of sleep the team again unloaded all the gear into a pit box this time at Knutstorp and the first race of TANU series. The weather for Saturday was perfect with sun forecasted for the entire day. The plan was to continue the aborted shakedown program during the first 3 heats and then go for the tin top record in the final (4th heat).
The 1st heat, however, did no go as planned as a fatigue failure on the OEM steering rack caused the car to go off track and hit a banked grass section with the splitter first. Mikael and the team managed to do some quick repairs of the failed rack and patch up the splitter that luckily only suffered cosmetic damages but for this meant another heat was lost which was a big issue due to the limited track time available.

For Q1 the car was sent out still running at the low 2.0 bar boost setting, after 3 laps a time of 57,9 was put down only 0.9 sec of the overall tin top record. For Q2 the boost was raised to 2.2 bar and some new Yokohama super soft compound slicks fitted and another 3 laps put in. The result was an impressive 56,2-sec lap a full 0.8 seconds faster than the current tin top lap record and the setup and balance was now spot on.

With the tin top record already broken the overall lap record seemed to be within reach standing at 55.5 seconds. a further 0.7 sec was needed and prior to the final, the boost was raised to last years max levels at 2.4 bar (2.8 bar is the intended race boost level for 2019). The car setup was absolutely spot on and after 2 attack laps, the clock showed an amazing time of 55.177 a new absolute track record with a 0.3-sec margin and a the tin-top record was now broken by 2 seconds. This meant the 10-year-old record overall track record had been broken and not by a formula car!

So to summarize the first weekend of 2019 it seems the changes done for the 2019 spec Evo performed exactly as intended and that there will fall a lot of records this summer.
For the next race, the last tuning on the boost control and engine ECU will also be finished to enable the max boost of 2.8 bar to release the last bit of speed.
A huge thank you to the team that consists of Mikael, Jimmy, Martin, Marcus and Lucas and of course all our partners that make this possible.

Frederik is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm all around in Race Bronze. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

The new KING OF MANTORP!!!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

Time Attack Festival at Mantorp Park

The new King of Mantorp!

Last week saw the biggest event of the year for time-attack, the Time Attack Festival and King of Mantorp event in Sweden. The lineup for this years event was the best ever seen with 17 entries for the fastest Unlimited class, among those 17 was some of Europes fastest Time-attack teams including the King of Mantorp 2014 and 2016 European champion Valtonen Motorsport leading the Finnish teams assult, also featured was SMR Porschen that hold the tintop record for 4 years until it was broken by us at the last TANU round.

In between TANU Round 3 and the Time Attack Festival the car saw an upgrade package being launched including new bigger D2 front brake discs following the overheating issues seen at Rd3, new front knuckles with lower weight and further adjusted geometry. The rake angle and overall ride height was changed as well as some minor aero updates. Also a late decision was made to scrap the current boost control strategy that had seen issues all the way from round 1 and never worked to ouor satisfaction. The new boost control Strategy/setup and wastegate settings where implemented on friday/saturday before the race and the car loaded and shipped of to Mantorp.

Sunday – Race day
The warmup was used to fine tune the new boost control at a lower boost setting, after a few visits to the pitlane it was all working fine. For Q1 the boost level was increased to normal setting and some fine tuning was done also here. It was now time for Q2 (3 qualifying rounds in total and then the top 5 would advance to a superlap final deciding the winner). In Q2 the goal was to set 2 quick laps and then do some fine adjustment for Q3 where the record attempt would take place. Due to some incidents on track a full lap on attack could not be completed but at least it was enough to get a feel for the setup.
Coming in to Q3 the boost was raised to the “lap-record” setting new tires where fitted and the car left the pitlane for a 1 lap shootout for a new record. The lap was put down and coming to the line the clock showed 1:13.4 a new lap record by 0.15 se and by far the quickest time of the day so far. However the goal was to go sub 1:13 and the car was much quicker this time around then at Rd3 when the 1:13.5 record was put down. When reviewing the logs from the lap compared with the old record it was obvious that the extreme headwinds down the long Mantorp straight was the cause, the top speed had decreased by 25km/h and almost a second was lost over the straight alone.
Time for the superlap final. At the courtesy of being quickest in qualifying we were the last car to go out on track. Due to a runoff in the lower class before the Unlimited class the finals were running late and the 2 warm up laps where shortened to only 1, also the headwind was still super bad although slightly better than in Q3.
The lap was started and by the first sector the delta showed -0,1 sec. Coming to the end of the long straight the headwind was obviously less and the delta showed -0.4 sec. Coming to the braking after the long straight the wind gusts had been causing issues all day with some big aero instabilities during braking so some margin was left for the hard braking zone not to risk throwing the overall victory away. Entering the final sector the delta showed a estimated laptime of -0.35 sec (1:13.2) when coming up to the line the timing showed a laptime of 1:12.6 crushing our own record by 0.9 sec after a mega last sector. The time also meant we won the overall event by almost a 2 second margin.

The feeling after the final was great, this was the first event when the car performed 100% without any issues all day, also the boost control was now working perfect and the upgrade package launched before the event did what was intended. All in all a perfect race day (disregarding the windy conditions).

It´s now two races left this season and we dare to promise two more lap records if the weather is on our side.

Frederik is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm all around in Matte Grey. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

Wiborg recaps TANU RD 3 at Mantorp Park!!!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

TANU: Kinnekulle Ring – ROUND 3 | June 29th and 30th

The Big Lap Record!

This weekend it was time for round 3 of TANU this time at the most legendary track in Scandinavia, Mantorp Park.

The team headed up to the track early on Friday morning after working late on Thursday to get the car ready (late arrival of parts for the new silencer setup). Having found and fixed the boost/missfire issue from Rd2 the team had big hopes for the weekend. Going out in practice session 1 the car felt good and the engine was running very nicely at full boost with no issues at all. However the joy was short as on the 3rd lap at full boost in 5th gear there was a huge boom noise and the engine lost all power. Coming into the pits it was found out that it was not to bad as it was only the pressure hose from the outlet of the turbo that had simply burst under the boost pressure. A new pressure hose was fitted and the team headed out for practice 3. However during the first full throttle run on the straight the same boom and boost pressure was gone again. This time however the hose hadn´t burst but simply slid of the pipe. The problem with the spare hose was that it was slightly shorter then the original hose that was secured by double clamps at each end. However this was not possible with the shorter hose. The team tried some different solution to fix it for practice 4 but to no affect so it was simply to pack it up for the day. Meanwhile in our hometown Street Performance had already prepared and delivered a big box of all different kind of premium pressure hoses from their shop for the team to bring with us on Saturday morning.

Saturday – Race day
With new (better) hoses fitted and secured the team headed out for the warmup, Unfortunately one of the Pro cars in the heat before had a engine failure and poured out oil on the track. The Xtreme Rescue Team that TANU uses during their events did a great and quick job (as usual) to fix the track but unfortunately the delay meant only 1 warmup lap could be done. At least it was enough to see that the hoses stayed on at full boost.
Now it was time for Q1.

Coming out to Q1 not a single complete lap had been run at full attack but fearing that more issues could occur there was no gambling and a fast lap was to be put down directly. Two warmup laps where done and then the first attack lap was started. The car felt amazing and coming over the finish line the dash showed the time 1.14.49 beating the old track record of 1.14,6. A second lap was started but in the second corner however the next issue arrived as the brake fluid boiled and all brake performance was gone. It was simply the fact that at the fast Mantorp and running at the higher power the front discs was simply to small to handle the engery put in and thus boiling the brake fluid (to much weight savings). The entire team was quite shocked that the (supposedly hardest to beat) record had been broken on the first attack lap. It was now time to crush it….

The car was pitted and prepared for Q2. Knowing we only had 1 lap to put in a good time the tire pressures was adjusted accordingly. However the troubles was not over as during the warmup lap something in the front suspension broke in a right hand corner. After coming back into the pit it was found out that the wheel bearing hub had split into two. The team went to work to get the car ready for the Final and it was rolled out of the garage just 5 min before the closing of check in.
Winning the race was ofcourse of big importance so to not risk it the brakes was not used at all during the warmup lap thus having cold tires starting the attack lap (impossible to get enough heat in the front racing slicks without braking). It was a full attack lap and coming up on half lap distance the time was almost exactly the same as the record lap from Q1. During the second half of the lap the tire temp came up and the lap could be finished of almost 1 second quicker meaning a new lap record of 1.13.525 destroying the old record. The second lap was started but in the last corner before the long straight the brake fluid boiled again and the lap had to be aborted. The time up on the previous lap in the first sector? A whopping 0.8 seconds.

The team is super happy with another win and to crush the overall tintop track record. Regards to the what could of been lap, don´t worry in 5 weeks time it´s time for the biggest event of the year at TANUs time attack festival at, you guessed it Mantorp Park.

So if you want to see a new track record be sure to save the date, also the rumors says an update package is being fitted for the time attack festival. Don´t miss it!

#UltimateEVO #No1 #TANU2018

A big thank you to all the amazing people involved in this Ultimate EVO build, without you this would not be possible!!!

Frederik is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm all around in Matte Grey. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

Wiborg breaks record at TANU RD2!!!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

TANU: Kinnekulle Ring – ROUND 2 | June 9th and 10th

Win and a track record at Kinnekulle

This weekend it was time for round 2 of the TANU series at Kinnekulle ring. The team came in to the round with one goal, to break the track record (currently held by a DTM car). The car was rolled of the trailer Saturday morning and with the new EPAS solution installed as well some replaced parts to fix the boost pressure issue that also haunted the team at round 1 it was now time to see the true potential of the Evo.

However during the Saturdays early practice heats the boost pressure issues from Knutstorp was still there and the boost pressure did not go above 1.1-1.2 bar (should be 2.0) leaving the car with 150-200hp less power. For the 5th and final heat the issue was finally found, however the joy was very short since running at full boost now caused the engine to misfire.
Returning for race day on Sunday we thought the problem with misfires was resolved after we found that the connection between the ignition coils and ignition cables was not perfect. However during the warm-up this was found not to be the case. To make matters worse the car now did not run on low boost either. So before Q1 more or less all cables and parts around the ignition system was replaced as well as the spark plugs and injectors. However the car still suffered badly from misfires as soon as the boost pressure increased. The team figured out it was bad sparks causing the misfire and with no real fix available a last shot was to decrease the spark plug gaps to improve the sparks slightly. Although not solving the issue it made it good enough to run low boost settings at 1.1-1.2 bar boost pressure.

Now being into Q2 we went out on the track and started to step up the pace, after only 2 laps on attack we got a technical flag due to sound levels being over the regulation 95dB and we had to abort Q2.

So for the final an extra silencer was fitted and we headed out again, although running on low boost the record was still within reach and on the first full attack lap a time of 49.768 was put down beating the old record with 0,15 sec and winning the round.

The team now has 3 weeks to solve the engine issues as well as implementing some other small improvements for round 3 on Mantorp Park. .

Also big thanks to everyone joining up and helping out during the weekend, without you we wouldn’t have made it this time.

Now it’s time to go brake some more records….

Frederik is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm all around in Matte Grey. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

Federik Wiborg recap of TANU RD1 at Ring Knutstorp in Sweden!!!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

TANU: Ring Knutstorp – ROUND 1 | May 11th and 12th

After pulling of somewhat of a miracle the team lead by Mikael W managed to have the car finished and engine started for the first time after returning from the dyno at 20:00 on Thursday evening, this came after working more or less 24/7 for 3 months to catch up to the first round.
So on friday 05:00 the team headed towards Knutstorp to take on round 1 of the 2018 TANU championship.

Knowing that the car was more or less completely new there was for sure gonna be issues during Friday free practice, amazingly during the first heat cruising around for 3 laps everything seemed to be working flawlessly, all systems were running ok and the car seemed to behave as supposed. After going over everything the team headed out for free practice nr 2, on just the second lap upping up the phase the power steering went down, the coming 4 heats where just about trying to figure out why the power steering did not work. After the Friday practice and only running 10 laps at cruising speed the power steering issue was still not solved.

Entering Saturday and race day all hoses, pump reservoir had been exchanged, rerouted and the pump reservoir had a bigger return valve welded on. However this still did not fix the issue and the warmup was aborted after just 1 lap. Coming in to Q1 help arrived after JapTuning and Stefan Påhlsson had brought a backup power steering pump, pump reservoir and hoses. Although replacing all this parts the power steering was still not working so Q1 was aborted with no real time set. Coming in to Q2 the team started to realize there where probably no issues with the power steering system itself, the issues was more due to the steering forces on the rack being to high this year causing the belt to slip on the pump demanding to much pressure. So as a last attempt to at least make it better a new “to short” belt was forced on causing higher tension on the belt then intended by the belt-tensioner.

However going out in Q2 it was soon obvious this wasn’t working either. So knowing there was nothing else to do for the final it was just to accept the situation and deal with it best possible. After only runing 15-20 laps at cruising speed and without a working power steering it was just about trying to get a time set. Although not having driven the car on attack and having to roll through the quick section and overall struggling to turn the car a 59:0 time was set taking the overall win and being less then 0.5 sec slower then current Time Attack track record, showed som real potential in the car. Now the team has 3,5 weeks to fix some small issues and most importantly fix the power steering issues before round 2 at Kinnekulle. I would like to take the opportunity to thank some people involved in this build making it possible to do what we are doing.

Mikael Wiborg – The mastermind (and most likely Swedens no 1 chassis manufacturer) behind putting this incredibly vehicle together, putting almost every free second for the last 8 months into building this beast from scratch. Not only is it incredibly light and strong and fast but if you have the chance to take a look at the car in real life. Make sure to pay attention to all the small details and amazing solutions to shave of a few grams here and there.

Stefan at KBM Racing Engines – Amazing work in making the engine mapping during the winter and the support for the 2018 season.

Patrik at Street Performance – Our first sponsor on board this project supplying us with great parts from D2 and AEM.

Scott at Konig Wheels USA – For providing us with some amazingly light and strong racing wheels.

Pelle at Würth Svenska AB – Tools, bolts, machines, glue, paint whatever you might need in the garage there is nothing Wurth can´t solve.

Stefan at JapTuning – Although not been a partner of Wiborg Engineering Stefan always helps out when in need of spares or just having questions regarding the Japanese tuner engines.

Not to forget is, Martin, Jimmy, Lucas, David, Adam, Marcus, Helge and Peter helping out in the garage.

See you at Kinnekulle in 3.5 weeks.

Frederik is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm all around in Matte Grey. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.