Race report: Toyota 86 getting points in D1GP Rd.2 Suzuka

No doubt the biggest attribution from Toyota 86 to racing and motorsports is the D1 Grand Prix series drifting championship. As expected for a new car chassis there are lots of problems and quirks to discover, not to mention that drivers need to get used to a new car. So far neither of three D1 participants has won a podium with the 86, but they`re slowly getting closer.

The biggest drawback of the new Toyota 86 is the power, of course. The engine bay is very low, so either it requires a boxer engine or a well constructed engine support position and compact addons like oil pan (dry system) and boltons for inline or V-type engine swap. Currently Manabu "MAX" Orido Toyota 86 features V8 (2UR-GSE) engine from Lexus IS-F, Tetsuya Hibino Toyota 86 runs Cosworth CS600 boxer and Nobuteru Taniguchi 86 runs the stock FA20 engine but modified by HKS with supercharged setup. Orido has lots of problems with the V8 engine because of direct injection which was switched off. Because of lack of fuel flow the injectors got hot and detonated, melting a piston on Rd.1 first day and melting the injector itself on Rd.1 3rd day in Odaiba. While Tetsuya Hibino's Cosworth engine is good almost out of the box, Hibino crashed on qualifying run in Odaiba. Nob switched to Toyota 86 only in 2nd round. This was the biggest higlight of the second round, because HKS team is using the factory engine which is supercharged - the first aftermarket forced induction FA20. Nob blew the engine on first day in Suzuka though. We already wrote that Toyota 86 drivers had a rough time on first day. Hibino crashed his Toyota86 in Suzuka again. How did they go?

Tetsuya Hibino

 

Tetsuya Hibino running Toyota 86 by "Team UPGARAGE with DRoo-P" had great runs at qualifying getting the 3rd best result and getting 18 solo run points. While Tetsuya Hibino has crashed his 86 in each round of 2012 D1, check out the video how much speed and angle Hibino puts out in the new car! He definitely is pushing the limits!
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVOPXqJCJrk autoplay:0]
In tandem runs he lost to Teruyoshi Iwai and got 10th place earning 8 championship points:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFjZr78Wmi0 autoplay:0]

Manabu "Max" Orido

Manabu Orido had problems with the Toyota 86 by "DRIVE M7 ADVAN MAX ORIDO RACING" even prior to arrival at Suzuka. Barely passing the qualifying run in with 13th result and earning 4 solo points, Max Orido got to final 8, but lost to Daigo Saito, obviosly there is power difference almost 2 times, since the V8 is still NA. Manabu got in 6th place earning himself 13 championship points.
Video of Manabu Orido drifting at Suzuka (full digest):
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k27otUP_KxQ autoplay:0]

Nobuteru Taniguchi

NOB with his HKS Racing Performer 86 got 7th qualifying result but had probelms and his team had to pull the engine during the night. Here are the onboard videos of solo run:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdoiMM5BiJE autoplay:0] 

With the 86 fixed Nob joined the challenge and in tandem runs he had to fight against his Super GT team driver - Tatsuya Kataoka. Taniguchi won this battle:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyAR0ysef1I autoplay:0] 

another angle:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-lbseqt0z8 autoplay:0]

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGITfTR2K84 autoplay:0] 

Unfortunately Nob lost next battle against Kuniaki Takahashi, staying in 5th place.

Rankings

D1GP second round Suzuka results for Toyota 86 participants:

• #5 Nobuteru Taniguchi - 14pts
• #6 Manabu Orido - 13pts
• #10 Tetsuya Hibino - 8pts

D1GP 2012 overall ranking for Toyota 86 participants:

• #7 Nobuteru Taniguchi - 19pts *
• #12 Manabu Orido - 13pts
• #17 Tetsuya Hibino - 9pts

* Nobuteru Taniguchi earned five points in first round of D1 but was driving Toyota Altezza RS200 (SXE10) 
Did we mention that more than 30 of Toyota 86 / Subaru BRZ arrived together at the Suzuka event? Check out the video: 

FT86 invasion at D1GP