Tag Archives: Stephan Verdier

Stephan Verdier at X Games 17

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This weekend Stephan Verdier will be driving his STi in X Games 17 in Rally and Rallycross competition.

Tune in to ESPN or ESPN3.com on Saturday from 1-3PM PST for Rally and 2-4PM PST on Sunday for RallyCross action.

Stephan’s car has undergone changes in preparation for X Games which includes a brand new Tarmac spec Gr.N damper. Our in-house engineer, Katsuma Nakai, has been on-hand to help setup and tune the suspension for the new X-Games street course. Stephan should be a force to be reckoned with. He has been  considered an underdog all year long as he is one of a few teams/ drivers which is not factory backed (big budget). Yet his Crawford powered STi can compete right alongside the factory Fords, Subarus and Hyundais. Stephan has been competing all year in the Global Rally Cross and currently sits 4th in the overall standings behind Foust, Gronholm and Jernberg.

Root for Stephan this weekend, we will be.

A little over a month ago Stephan drove the Zenkai Motorsports STi at Pikes Peak Hillclimb. He is featured in a video just released by Motul. The Zenkai STI is powered by a Crawford built motor and utilizes Super Racing coilovers.

Stephan unfortunately crashed about 2/3 rds up the hill. The heavy winds and road surface conditions change by the minute making Pikes Peak one of the most dangerous hill climbs in the world. We are glad Stephan walked away unscathed.

Pikes Peak Hillclimb is around the corner

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The 2011 Pikes Peak Hillclimb is just a little over a week away. There are a few big teams going out to the 89th running to break the unlimited class record. You might have already seen a bunch of the testing videos of Rhys Millen, Dallenbach Racing, Dancia Duster, etc… if not you might want to search on youtube. Some amazingly fast cars.

I love the unlimited cars for their technology and sheer craziness but I what is really interesting to me are cars that are modified production vehicle. Zenkai Motorsports’ STi is one of those cars. It has previously competed in Time Attack and Gymkhana. For PPHC it will be driven by Stephan Verdier. Stephan will actually be pulling double duty. Competing in Global Rallycross on June 17 and 18th, then attacking the mountain on June 24th.

Check out the serious front splitter. Not unusual for a Hill Climb car.

For the Rallycross Stephan will be behind the wheel of his STi equipped with TEIN Gr.N dampers. The following weekend he will be behind the wheel of the Zenkai STi which is has TEIN Super Racing dampers.

We wish Stephan the best of luck in both events.

Here are some videos from last year.

Tradin paint and fiberglass plus Big Air

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Rd. 2 of the Global Rallycross took place this past weekend at the Old Mill Adventure Park in Snoqualmie, WA (also home of the DirtFish rally school). The 2 day event is broken into two style of races. The first, held on Friday is SuperRally. Basically one on one battles with a bracket system finishing with an overall winner. In SuperRally, Stephan finished 3 overall but had an awesome battle with Dave Mirra in one of the rounds. Check out the video.

In case your wondering, Stephan went on to win a third and deciding race against Dave to advance.

In the Saturday RallyCross, Stephan qualified first and finished the AWD final in 4th due to a punctured tire. You can see the recap below.

The mixture of surfaces including wet tarmac, mud and gravel make for exciting racing where all competitors have a chance to take home a win. You can watch a rebroadcast of all the action on ESPN. Check you local listing for exact time and dates or check, www.global-rallycross.com

Image courtesy of Mr. Sean McDonough.

S. Verdier Podium Finish with Video

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A big congratulations goes to Stephan Verdier and his crew for the 3rd place podium finish at Rd.1 of the Global RallyCross Championship.

Stephan finished behind Marcus Gronholm and Tanner Foust in the Saturday final which is outstanding considering many of the other competitors have HUGE budgets and some are factory backed.

From watching the in-car videos it looks like Stephan had a lot of fun on the Irwindale Speedway course which featured a 70′ gap jump and 50/50 tarmac to gravel road surface.

Our own engineer, Mr. Katsuma Nakai, was on hand for suspension support. A few minor tweaks were made to the Gr.N dampers which performed flawlessly.

Check out the in-car video from MotoIQ and Saturday’s final.

Images taken from MotoIQ, Urban Racer and Subie-Life.com. Video taken from MotoIQ and XGames.

RallyCross or NFS SoCal Meet

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Living in Southern California has its perks. This weekend locals have two events they can attend

Global RallyCross Championship at Irwindale Speedway

or

Need for Speed SoCal Meet at the Source Interlink offices in El Segundo

Preparing for GRCC Rd.1

Stephan Verdier is putting the finishing touches on his STi for RallyCross competition. Stephan and his crew have been hard at work preparing his car and it is looking GOOD.

We loaned Stephan a set of our Gr.N dampers which have been proven in Rally competition.

To see more of Stephan’s car visit MotoIQ which has a great writeup by Mike Kojima. Click HERE

Preparing for NFS SoCal Meet

On the other end of the spectrum I am preparing my EVO 9 for display at NFS SoCal meet. My car is in no way a show car but I do like the occasional meet with the relaxed atmosphere. Plus the Source Interlink offices are pimp, fully loaded garage with full bar. If you did not know Source Interlink is the publisher for Super Street, Import Tuner, Modified, Euro Tuner and a bunch of other automotive related magazines.

I have not started my car in over 3 months so a little work needed to be done. Oiled the valvetrain/ head, replaced the spark plugs, had my RC injectors tested and cleaned and installed a C-West hood.

Updated pics of the car coming soon.

Check back here next week for some event coverage.

SuperRally at X Games 16

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This past weekend was X Games 16. New for this year was SuperRally where four cars compete bumper to bumper on a dirt course. TEIN sponsored professional drifter, Stephan Verdier, driving his Subaru STi. The vehicle is actually Stephan’s drift car converted back to AWD and tuned for rally. Changes included a different motor and transmission package from Crawford (must use turbo restrictor plate per the rules), rally suspension, gravel tires and a host of other parts.

Being that Ford and Subaru had multiple cars entered into SuperRally I think it was safe to say that Stephan was a big underdog. However practice times showed that Stephan was one of the quickest competitors. His Crawford powered STi showed it easily had the power to compete with the high power and light weight Fiestas from Ford which are purpose built for Rally Cross competition.

During morning practice Stephan made contact with the wall and damaged both the front and rear of his car. His car arrived back to the pits with a motor trouble, suspension damage and body damage. It took his skillful and dedicated crew hours to get his car patched up enough to compete. TEIN engineer, Mr. Nakai was on hand to help with suspension tuning and witnessed the team fix a broken cam sprocket, pull the chassis with a truck, replace suspension components and repair the bodywork. At this point he was lucky to even make it to the starting line.

In the first round Stephan faced Dave Mirra, Ken Block and ACP.

Stephan blasted off the line and held his lead for the entire race earning the win and entrance into the final round.

In the final round Stephan faced Tanner Foust, Brian Deegan and Sam Hubinette. This time the Fiestas blasted off the line and Stephan used his Crawford power to gain third position.

Through aggressive driving he moved into second behind Foust but relinquished the position to Deegan 3 laps later.

300 meters before the finish Stephan slowed from a damaged intercooler pipe which allowed Hubinette to pass him for third. The Gr.N suspension worked flawlessly throughout practice and competition. The coilovers provided Stephan with good traction for the Crawford power plant, high cornering speed and smooth landings.

It was an exciting race no matter the outcome and I cannot wait to see this event again in 2011.

Special thanks to Gordon Ting of 0-60 magazine for the X Games pass and the images.

New England Forest Rally VIDEO

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0-60 magazine just posted their video from the 2010 New England Forest Rally featuring their project Rally xD. Check out the soft landing at the 55 second mark. The HG dampers worked well under the especially harsh conditions of this rally and took the abuse of multiple jumps. Note: this car weighs in at over 3000 lbs. so it is in no way a light weight vehicle.

If you love rally racing, cars flying through the car and crashes check out this weekends X Games 16.  TEIN sponsored driver Stephan Verdier will be competing in his STi which is using TEIN Gr.N dampers.

Video courtesy of 0-60 Magazine and photo courtesy of Gordon Ting (0-60 Magazine).