The wide diversity of cars and clients we are fortunate to spend time with at Total Car Control give me great pleasure, and in just the last couple of weeks we have helped clients in cars ranging from a 12 year old Cooper S to a new AMG C63, by way of a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and a Porsche 944 Turbo. And not just any 944 Turbo either, this one modified to the hilt and purportedly running 500 bhp.
This is the result (so far) of one man’s obsession with his car over the last 10 years, and is still ‘work in progress’. The list of alterations is almost endless, and the money spent a little eye-watering, but just look at that engine bay…
So frequently, modifications ruin a good car, but we’ve been fortunate. Looking back, the very first course booked this year, on New Year’s Day, was a client with a stunning Aston Martin V12 Vantage, with custom-made ceramic coated exhaust headers, ultra-light billet aluminium wheels and after-market ‘racing’ shocks and springs. The car looked terrific and sounded epic, but the surprise was how communicative yet refined the suspension set up was; being compliant enough for realistic everyday use on public roads whilst also offering tremendous handling ‘on track’ at Millbrook. Quite clearly, the company responsible went to significant lengths to calibrate everything to suit both the vehicle and the customer’s intended use.
A very different perspective and, I think, one of the performance bargains of the year, was a 20 year old Toyota MR2; a clean and tidy standard shell with a tuned Lexus V6 engine shoe-horned in to the engine bay, complemented by uprated brakes to cope with the 350+ bhp on tap. Mid-engined, reasonably small and lightweight, running standard size wheels and tyres, and with no ABS or Traction Control, this car was hugely entertaining. For a total cost of £10,000, it was one of the least expensive cars we have worked with, yet also one of the most fun: merely looking at it was nearly enough to make it want to go sideways, and the owner sought us out to gain the techniques and confidence to keep it facing the right way whilst safely enjoying track day excursions.
Whatever your sports car, modified or as the manufacturer intended, enjoy it to the full. It’s been an interesting year, so a huge thank you to our many and varied customers that make our TCC courses so very rewarding. Season’s greetings to all and we wish you a great 2016.
