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Deserved it, especially after last years disappointment.Interestingly, the V8 Commodore that finished 3rd overall is the first time a V8 has been on the outright podium at this race.
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Deserved it, especially after last years disappointment.https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/honda- ... son-buttonHonda Civic Type R sets Bathurst lap record with Jenson Button
FORMULA 1 world champion Jenson Button has driven a Honda Civic Type R to a new benchmark time at Mount Panorama during a secret test day over the Easter long weekend.
With a time of 2:35.2017, Button and Honda have set a yardstick for all other hot hatch manufacturers to measure themselves against.
Button was flown to Australia in secrecy, and given a single task – to pedal the Civic Type R as fast as possible around the country’s most prestigious circuit. The 6.213-kilometre Mount Panorama circuit uses public roads, includes 23 corners and rises 174-metres with gradients as steep as 16 percent.
The Type R used for the lap was identical to what can be bought in showrooms around Australia for $51,990. Honda says the car was in completely stock trim – including the Continental SportContact 6 tyres.
Honda’s hot hatch hero is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder that sends 228kW and 400Nm to the front wheels via a six-speed manual transmission. The official kerb weight is 1393kg.
Putting the stock Type R’s time into perspective, it would have been good enough to qualify second in class for this year’s Bathurst 6 Hour, held the day prior to the record attempt.
Button completed just 14 laps of the circuit, spread across a one hour session in the morning, and a 10 minute session in the afternoon.
“Anything you drive around Mount Panorama is pretty amazing. Up across the top of the mountain, the Type R is so fast through there, so once I got into a rhythm and got used to the speed you can carry, it was really good fun,” the 2009 Formula 1 champion said
“I think if it was cooler you could go a bit quicker, but I do feel like I got everything out of the car.”
The official outright production car record at Mount Panorama is a 2:16.5, set by Bernd Schneider in a Mercedes-AMG GT R in 2017.
Fittingly, Button also holds the unofficial outright quickest lap of Mount Panorama, setting a 1:48.8 time in a 2008-spec McLaren MP4-23 wearing 2011-spec Pirelli tyres during a sponsor event.
Brabham’s BT62 cut an unofficial 1:58.69 during demonstration laps at this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour, making it the quickest tin-top to lap the circuit, while Christopher Mies holds the outright official record at 1:59.291 set in a derestricted Audi R8 GT3 during the Challenge Bathurst event last year.
The Group 3E Series Production car record (ostensibly the racing production car category) of 2:25.802 was set by Chaz Mostert during the Bathurst 6 Hour in 2017 with a Ford Focus RS.
Button’s mission was part of Honda Australia’s year-long 50th birthday bash, and is the first leg of the Type R Challenge set outside Europe.
The Type R Challenge has seen the Japanese hot hatch flown to some of the world’s finest tracks to have a lash at various records. It has had five previous legs, with Button also setting a front-drive production car record at the Hungaroring grand prix circuit with a time of 2:10.19.
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/news ... -1920-2019'Britain's greatest test driver': Norman Dewis 1920-2019
9th June 2019
Norman Dewis, who developed the Jaguar C-type, D-type and E-type, has died. In his 33-year Jaguar career, he covered a quarter of a million miles at more than 100mph
Norman Dewis, Jaguar’s legendary test driver who developed disc brakes, the D-Type, and set a production car speed record of 172.4mph, has died aged 98.
His 33-year career, as chief development driver at the British manufacturer, gave him a pivotal role in the creation of 25 Jaguars, including the C-type, D-type and road-going models such as the E-type, Mk II and XJ saloon.
It’s thought that he covered a quarter of a million miles at more than 100mph.
Dewis served on Blenheim bombers in the war and competed in the Mille Miglia with Sir Stirling Moss.
He also raced in the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours with the Jaguar works team, and famously survived barrel-rolling an XJ13 at 135mph.
It was one of many high-speed accidents, which were sometimes deliberately provoked. In 2000, he told Motor Sport: “You need to know what happens when a tyre blows at a car's top speed. So the tyre blows and you just hold onto the car, hope it stays on the road. This is the job of a test driver. You have to do these things.”
Hailed by Jaguar as Britain's greatest test driver, Dewis retired in 1985 but remained in the public eye until recently. He drove at the Goodwood Revival, acted as an ambassador for Jaguar and gave sharp-witted talks of a life lived at full pace.
The extraordinary life of Norman Dewis, a hero
Norman Dewis was born in Coventry on 3 August 1920 and won a scholarship to art school, but didn’t take up the place, after his father died suddenly when Norman was aged 14.
As the family breadwinner, Dewis went out to work as a grocer’s delivery boy, but soon began working at the Humber car factory, which was on his street.
Dewis moved to Armstrong-Siddeley, aged 15, as an apprentice but his career was interrupted in 1939 by the war. He joined the RAF and was a gunner in the centre turret of a Blenheim bomber.
After the war he started at Lea-Frances and was then recruited by Bill Heynes, Jaguar’s engineering boss in 1951, joining the company as development test driver. It was a role that put him in close contact with Sir William Lyons, the company founder.
Norman Dewis and Stirling Moss at the 1952 Mille Miglia
Dewis introduced standardised test procedures, to improve the quality of production cars, and began developing the disc brake concept. The technology was fitted to Stirling Moss' Jaguar C-type in the 1952 Mille Miglia, and Dewis accompanied him as a passenger. They were third overall, and 100 miles from the end, when a collision with a rock ended their race.
A year later, Dewis was in the driving seat for an attempt at the production car speed record, on a closed stretch of Autoroute in Jabbeke, Belgium. His XK120 had been modified with a full-length undertray and perspex canopy. "We were so stupid," he said. "When I got in, they screwed the perspex down from the outside. [Aerodynamicist] Malcolm Sayer said the car would start to take off at 160mph. And there I was bolted into it." Dewis set a production car speed record of 172.4mph.
He raced at the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours, reaching 192mph on the Mulsanne Straight in a D-type, which he had tested extensively.
Much of Dewis' time was spent at the high-speed MIRA track in Warwickshire, where he would regularly cover 500 miles a day at 130-140mph, seven days a week. “Everything had to be recorded by the driver," he said. "You'd have to memorise so many things at a time, so you might do 20 laps at 140mph, come in and a guy would say 'gearbox temperature' and you'd tell him; 'water temperature' and so on. If there was a problem with any of the numbers, a change would be made and you'd go out again."
Norman Dewis and Jaguar XJR13
Dewis put in weeks of testing to ensure that the Jaguar E-type would achieve the goal of a 150mph top speed, then drove a car overnight to the Geneva Motor Show for its public debut.
He secured permission to spend his weekends developing the XJ13 – after receiving a dressing down from Sir William Lyons for secretly testing the car after the project was cancelled.
It was in the XJ13 that Dewis suffered his dramatic crash. “I know she caught me out, but she's still a lovely thing,” he said. "I was high on the banking at about 135mph when the offside rear wheel broke. It spun down the banking onto the infield, dug in, did two cartwheels and then a series of barrel-rolls. I wasn't strapped in, but while it was all going on I managed to wedge myself under the scuttle. The wreck ended up on its wheels, and I got myself out."
After a hospital check-up, and with no broken bones, Dewis returned home, telling his wife, Nan, that he needed an early night after a busy day. The full story soon emerged, however, thanks to a headline on the front page of the Coventry Evening Telegraph: ‘Mr Norman Dewis crashes experimental vehicle at 140mph'
After retiring in 1985, Dewis continued to work with Jaguar, taking part in D-type drives to Le Mans, and demonstration laps of the car at Goodwood. He and Moss took the start of the 2012 Mille Miglia in a C-type to mark the 60th anniversary of their initial entry. In 2015, he was awarded an OBE for services to the motor industry.
Earlier this year, at the age of 98, he was still involved with Jaguar, helping to promote the electric I-Pace.
Motor Sport extends its condolences to the family and friends of Norman