Clubman racer Scott builds rallycross Porsche

Rob Scott has been competing in rallycross for just a year, but by his own admission, he has been bitten by the bug and is in for the long haul. Scott made his debut at the BTRDA 75^th Anniversary Rallycross at Croft in November 2013, before embarking on a full campaign last season in the revived BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship. Clearly not one for following a crowd, Scott didn’t build a car that was commonly used, or indeed one that could be considered the ideal racing machine, but instead created a Toyota Paseo for the SuperModified category. In his near-standard car, Scott ran well in his debut season, and is now planning for a more powerful future.

“Last season was awesome. I absolutely love the driving, it’s so varied. The jump at Blyton is awesome, that feels like you could be racing with the big guys in the World Rallycross Championship, but on a budget. The Toyota’s been great. It’s basically totally standard, but we’ve been running in SuperModified. We’ve had a few little problems like the engine, but otherwise it’s been petty reliable. It takes a big beating. Now I want to do more, and go faster, so we’re building a Porsche Boxter, again for SuperModified. Really, we decided to go down a different route because we could develop the car we have and pour money into it, but at the end of the day it’s still an old Toyota. The alternative is that we build something that’s already fast and handles well in the first place – that’s why we went for the Porsche, that and that my mate works at a Porsche breakers (9-Apart Porsche Specialists) so that works pretty well.”

Scott says his decision to move into a Porsche wasn’t a hard one to come to, and has taken inspiration from a series of sucsessful Lotus’ that have raced in British Rallycross for a number of years. “I’ve always had VW’s, and I used to have a Porsche drag car, so I do like German cars. The Lotus’ obviously go very well, so I thought it would be good to have something that was mid-engine rear-wheel drive, that wasn’t a Lotus!”

Alongside his mechanic Hannah, Scott had originally targeted a debut of 2016 for the new car, but progress has been quick so far, thanks to Scott’s enthusiasm and determination. “Every night after work I go to the garage and get on with it, so it’s coming on really quick. A lot of the work has been on stuff you can’t see, but we’ve done a huge amount of changes already. We need to make it as light as possible. There’s quite a lot of rear weight bias on it. We are keeping the suspension turrets as standard but reinforcing them. We’ve done so many body mods to it, it’s crazy.” And, Scott is looking at a significant increase in power from his current standard Paseo too. “We are looking at a 2.7 twin turbo Audi engine, with about 350 to 400 horsepower, which should go quite well I think.”

While build progress is fast on the new Porsche, Scott is keen to do the job right, and won’t be rushed into racing it before it’s ready. “Our 2015 will be in the Toyota, no modifications or anything, we’ll just keep it as it is. It’ll be great. I will use the Porsche for British Championship and BTRDA in 2016. I’ve got to support the BTRDA because they’re the ones that got me into this and got me the bug. I’m always going to support the BTRDA no matter what. We want to do a few days testing this year, and I’d like to use the new car this year, but only when it’s ready. I’ve really got enthusiasm for it, the racing bug has bit me.”

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