| MANUFACTURER
NEWS: Borland Racing Developments launches new Spectrum
22 March 2010:
Borland Racing Developments is proud to release the first public
photographs of its latest Formula Ford, the Spectrum 012. The 12th
evolution of the marque represents a significant investment of
resources by the Melbourne company, including a revision to its
Spectrum logo.
"This is
without doubt the most development effort that has gone into a new
model," said the car's designer, Michael Borland. "We
have reviewed literally every aspect of the previous model in
bringing the Spectrum 012 to market. Anything that could be done
to reduce weight, lower the centre of gravity or minimise the
polar moment has been explored. Even the new logo is lighter and
printed on thinner vinyl."
The 012 is the
culmination of more than two years of research and development,
which has included chassis rig testing and draws on the results of
wind tunnel analysis carried out in the UK. All of the changes and
modifications have been verified by rigorous real world trials
before being incorporated into the final design.
"From a sales
perspective, it would have been nice to have the car out for the
Christmas buying spree!" joked BRD's sales and marketing
consultant, Paul Zsidy. "But the plan with the 012 was to
maximise the development phase, which meant that right up to
Christmas we were conducting track testing. Since the completion
of the 2009 season at Surfers' in late October, we have logged a
combined total of more than 30 test days across five cars and
drivers and four circuits. That represents around 10,000 kms of
running," he explained.
The enthusiasm
within BRD for the 012 project spread to one of its long standing,
key technical partners in Penske Racing Shocks. Latest
developments from the USA have been sent to Australia for
evaluation, with Penske staff attending test days to assist with
tuning and developing the damper package.
Whilst pre season
testing has yielded very pleasing results, the factory team is
well aware that the Australian Formula Ford Championship is one of
the most competitive racing series anywhere in the World. They
know they face quality opposition and hard work in the season
ahead, but with the Spectrum 012 they are quietly confident of
strong results. |
