The world's fastest tuned car battle, the "2011 World Time Attack Challenge" took place at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney, Australia over the August 5-6 weekend. Japanese entrants Revolution and their highly-modified RX-7 scored 3rd overall while compatriots Panspeed brought their RX-7 home in 7th place.

Being in the southern hemisphere, Australia is currently enjoying its winter. Although early morning and evening temperatures proved chilly at 15 degrees Celsius, daytimes were warm with temperatures of 25 degrees under clear skies.

The Revolution RX-7, which broke the lap record at Tsukuba circuit at the end of last year, had racing driver Mitsuhiro Kinoshita at the wheel. The Revolution RX-7 showed a strong performance for super lap, taking almost the same time as last year's winner. However, drive train trouble occurred on the 2nd day. The staff at Revolution worked feverishly to fix the problem and go for another time attack. However, they were unable to improve on their previously set best time and wound up third.

Meanwhile, the Dunlop-shod Panspeed RX-7 entered the time attack with Kota Sasaki behind the wheel. "My approach speed for the first corner was the fastest among all entrants," he said. The car showed top-level performance at some sections of the racetrack. However, it finished in 7th place as it just couldn't quite get to grips with the high-powered 4WD cars.

In the drift event, Mad Mike from New Zeeland entered with his 4-rotor RX-7. Spectators were inspired by his attractive drift action and the exaggerated backfires from his exhaust. Mazda Australia had a booth set up at the World Time Attack Challenge venue. On display were examples of the SA22C RX-7 and FD3S RX-7 that had won the Bathurst 1000km and 12-hour endurance race.

[Reference]Count Down to 2011 World Time Attack Challenge