Darrian GTR – 1.6L EcoBoost
Mark competed in the Harry Flatters Rally at Epynt on 28th July 2019, he was delighted to finish 3rd Overall, 1st 2WD, 1st Darrian & 1st in Class.
For a full report, please see his Moose Speed Race & Rally Facebook page
Pictures below courtesy of Black Mountains Media
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Mark competed in the Brands Hatch Winter Stages Rally on 19th January 2019, his report is as follows:
The EcoBoosted Darrian had a very encouraging first outing of 2019. On a day where the low temperatures suited the engine, but not the tyres, we set out to test a few aspects of the engine and some new ratios in the gearbox, whilst also getting a feel for the recently rebuilt and softened Reiger dampers. We were pleased to be able to keep with the 2.5L Millingtons along the main straight, and ended up finishing =5th overall, which would have been 4th had it not been for 10 seconds lost with a low pressure fuel pump issue on Stage 1.
Mark at the Brands Hatch Winter Stages Rally.
Picture courtesy of Andrew Manston, M&H Photography
Corbeau Claction Closed Road Rally, April 2018
Mark Straker finished 4th Overall and 1st in Class in the first ever Closed Road Rally at Clacton yesterday in 1.6L SBD EcoBoost powered Darrian GTR. He has spent the last 2 years converting the Darrian and this is his first rally with the new set up in the fully re-built car. He was only beaten 3 WRC rally cars; 1 Subaru Impreza and 2 Fiesta WRCs, there was also quite a few behind him. Mark was really pleased with the result on his first outing.
Photograph courtesy of Thomas Cogley
Update April 2018
After 2 years in building, Mark has converted his Darrian GTR to run the 1.6L EcoBoost engine, which has to run a 34mm restrictor to limit the engine’s peak horsepower for rallying. A huge amount of development work has been carried out on DTW dyno and software written by Chris at MBE with special control strategies to optimise the engine’s performance when using the restrictor. A special turbo has been designed though extensive testing, the engine now produces between 280 – 300 bhp depending on whether you are using pump fuel or MSA approved competition fuel. Mark has the choice of 3 boost levels, which he can vary depending on road conditions and a choice of 7 different power delivery modes, which are all adjustable from within the cockpit. We spent a day testing at Llandow to fine tune the strategies and to optimise them to Mark’s preferred driving style. We have also currently limited the peak torque to 320lbft due to the limits of the gearbox, but Steve reckons that with our torque delivery control, which can reduce the torque at lower road speeds, that the torque can be increased to over 350lbft but this won’t be done until Mark has carried out a few rallies and inspected the transmission. We will then gradually increase the peak torque.
The testing went perfectly and we had no issues throughout the day, the exhaust measured 93 decibels and on track all you can hear is the air rushing past the car and the tyre noise, you cannot hear the engine at all, in fact Mark initially couldn’t get a gauge of speed because of the lack of noise so at one point we removed the silencer system all together and it still only recorded 99db, but the sound of the engine without the exhaust was not a good sound, so Mark will experiment in the future with smaller exhaust boxes in order to achieve something for the spectators to enjoy!
