The Japanese Touring Car Championship is a former touring car series that was run from the late 1960's until 1998. In it's final year most of the works teams backed out, leaving just Toyota and their Corona and Chaser, essentially making it a 1 make race, however SYMS Racing (A Subaru Tuner) fielded 2 Impreza Wagons that year. With its apparently superior low center of gravity attributed to the flat four EJ20 engine, the GF8 was seen as a true rival to the very successful ST202 Corona Exiv. The 2.0L quad-cam 16 valve EJ20 produced 300hp and 32.0kg/m which was instantly recognizable with its truly massive carbon fiber airbox drawing air through the GC8 Impreza’s signature bonnet scoop. Regulations stipulated that only naturally aspirated 2.0L engines could be used, thus limiting reliable power to around the 300ps mark. If anything, the wagon was chosen for its greater visibility rather than any aerodynamic advantage, in much the same way as the Volvo 850 Estate was fielded in the British Touring Car Championship in 1994, although the GF8 Impreza wagon’s design allowed for a proper rear wing to be used, hence keeping it competitive… or so it seemed. The SYMS Impreza only entered the first 3 races (consisting of 2 rounds each) of the 1998 JTCC season, finishing last in the first two races and not even managing to start at the 5th round at Sugo. Japanese ace driver Hideshi Matsuda and team mate Sebastian Martino had a hard time keeping up with the vastly more experienced Toyota factory teams, and as a result SYMS pulled the plug on their JTCC campaign after the second round of the 3rd race at Sportsland Sugo. Nevertheless, much knowledge was gained from their JTCC racing endeavours which eventually filtered down into SYMS Racing Team products made available to consumers, just as they intended.
http://www.supertouringregister.com/series/239/
Best Lap Times
Track | | Livery | Driver | Best Lap |
NO LAP TIMES HAVE BEEN SET IN THIS CAR! |