Take a drive with Steve Jones in the Metropolis Fabcar Evo 9 MR.

There’s a great field of cars entered for this weekend’s rally – spanning classic sports cars to the latest high tech road warriors. To illustrate the variety, entries include examples of Porsche, Fiat, Toyota, Mitsubishi, BMW, Lotus, Birkin, Alfa Romeo and Ford. A full list of entries is available on www.classicrally.com.au

Ross Hamilton will be representing the Fabcar Racing team, in the Fabcar/McDonalds backed Mitsubishi Evo 8 MR. Both car and driver have proven to be very competitive in the past, finish 4th out right in this year’s Targa West, Ross will be one to watch. Steve Jones will miss the opportunity to win 3 back to back Fabcar Classics as he is over east competing in AUZRUN.

Spectator stages. In the morning spectators car visit the Start and first stage being held at the Speed Dome in Midvale. After that cars will travel to other morning locations which are not suitable for spectators and then all the afternoon stages will be held at the Kwinana Motorplex.

Spectators are welcome to attend the Motorplex, but please note that we will not be using the usual Pits area. Parking for spectators will be to the right of the main entrance, in the usual spectator parking area, not in the Pits.

Free entry to all spectator locations. Spectator viewing areas will be restricted at all locations. Please follow instructions of officials.

Then event will be run on the short circuit so Steve has opted to taken the LF23R over the usual RX7 sport sedan, believing the Evo will be more suit to the short circuit.

Steve will have his work set out for him with 3 V8 Supercars competing in the same class which should make for some spectacular racing.

For the first time the Supertrucks will be under lights with qualifying on Friday night and racing on Saturday afternoon and evening with a fireworks display to cap off the night.

The event is also unique in the aspect that it is one of the few events which allows driver and co-driver to share the driving duties between each other at their discretion.

The entry fee is just $625 per car (for 2 people) which covers Scrutineering, all competition stages, the Roadbook, lunches, the Awards Presentation Night, trophies, car door number stickers and much more. A $70 fee per-car is applied by AASA, the event regulators and insurers.

More info on the event can be found at www.classicrally.com.au

Stay tuned for an announcement for the FABCAR Racing team for this event.

Steve Jones has been kind enough to give the customers of Fabcar the chance to get up close and personal with his LF23R. The vehicle is on display for a limited time in our showroom in Cannington. Feel free to drop past check the Evo out and have a browse of the other great cars we have on display.

The LF23R is said to be “The Ultimate Evo” which is a testimate to the R&D Steve has put into the car for the last 3 years.

Below are some of the vehicles achievements and Steve’s results;

1st place Autotrader State Sprint Championship 2010, Round 3
1st place No Limits Event Sprint May 2010 (New Event Record 52.0964)
1st place Autotrader State Sprint Championship 2010, Round 2
1st place Busselton Foreshore Sprint 2010
1st place No Limits Event Sprint March 2010 (New Event Record 52.8110)
1st place Autotrader State Sprint Championship 2010, Round 1
1st place Speed Aware Twilight Rally Sprint 2010
1st place MC Motorsport Targa Time Attack Round 2 2010
1st place Fabcar One-Day Classic 2009
1st place K-Tec Twilight Rally Sprint 2009
1st Outright Driver Australian Dutton Rally Series 2008

Quit Targa West hit the roads of Perth, Kalumanda, and Toodyay on the weekend some exciting rally action. The Fabcar team consisted of two time winner Steve Jones and Ben Searcy (R35 GTR), 2009 Modern Challenge winners Mark and Andy Conacher (R35 GTR), 3 time competitors Ross Hamilton and Tony Robson (Evo 8 MR), and late addition to the team David Heaton and Lisa White (TMR Evo 10).

Disaster hit the team on Special Stage 1 at Whiteman Park when Steve Jones experienced engine troubles with his GTR forcing him to bow out of the event, which allowed front runners Jim Richards and Peter Major to breathe a little easier as Jones was out of contention.

Friday saw Leg 1 hit the roads of Kalamunda with some great stages – John Forrest, Kalumanda and Zig Zags to name a few. The Conacher’s took charge in their GTR claim the lead for the leg over Robert Darrington in another GTR. The Evo 8 MR of Hamilton and Robson took hold of 4^th position after some issues were sorted out with their Evo.

Leg 2 and 3 where based out of Toodyay with the Killarnie City of Perth Super Stage finishing off the event on the roads of the Swan River.

The Hamilton/Robson Evo had put in consistant times over the two legs to come across the line in 4^th place in Modern Competition behind Peter Major (R35 GTR), Jim Richards/Barry Oliver (Porsche GT2), and Peter Rullo/Simon Iseppi (R35 GTR). The Conacher’s took back to back victories in the Modern Challenge category, holding off the GTR of Darrington. Long time Fabcar friends – Tolley Challis and Greg Flood took top honours in Classic Competition.

The Fabcar team had a very successful rally and would like to thank all our partner sponsors McDonalds, and LF Performance, Live Fitness, Greenline, GT Graphics, and Xspeed and sponsors Caffi Logistics, Bassendean Hotel, Café Nocello, and the Environmental Printing Company. We would also like to thanks David Heaton from Metropolis Fremantle for jumping behind the wheel in his first Targa West event, the boys from Fabcar were happy to help Dave out and look forward to working with him closely in the future.

The Fabcar Racing Crew 2010

Congratulations - Modern Challenge winners 'Back to Back' - Mark and Andy Conacher

Ross Hamilton and Tony Robson - Awesome drive in 2004 Evo 8 MR

Dave Heaton and Lisa White - Metropolis Fremantle Evo X with Fabcar's Andre and Matt

Motorsport eNews Review - T Challis and R Hamilton

Thanks to Corbin Hurst for his pics over the weekend and also for his work on Fabcar Racing poster.

Yesterday saw the three Fabcar LF sponsored cars complete some final testing at RAC centre. On hand was Bob Arnette from Nine Sport and Media Liaison from Targa West.

We wish all the boys the best of luck and thank them for their support of Fabcar.

Steve Jones & Ben Searcy – Nissan GT-R

Ross Hamilton & Tony Robson – Mitsubishi Evo 8 MR

Mark Conacher & Andy Conacher – Nissan GT-R

Spectator information is available here.

Thankyou to all the sponsors for their support, including Fabcar, LF Engineering, Live Fitness, McDonalds, The Bassendean Hotel, X-Speed.

The Tech 9 Tyres crew once again put an amazing display on which ‘Wowed” spectators and cleaned up multiple awards including King of Autosalon for Luke’s HI PSI 2JZ power 180SX. Fabcar teamed up with the Tech 9 crew to supply a number of vehicles including David’s JAP CRAP R34 GTR, which won the Tough as Nails award, as well as a US-styled V36 Sedan.

Check out this video wrap by Mighty Car Mods

Fabcar also took the Best Mitsubishi award with Steve Jones LF23R on display. The Fabcar team would like the thank Scott and Rob from Tech 9 Tyres for supplying all the rims and tyres for all our vehicles on display and the opportunity to join the great display.

Fabcar proudly sponsor Chassis Build No.1 of the LF Performance built MItsubishi Evolution – designed in conjunction with Steve Jones.

The LF23R Evolution is a purpose built Tarmac Rally/Hillclimb/Time Attack/Motorkhana car, designed and built in-house from a standard Mitsubishi Evo 9 road car for use in racing events around Australia.

After years of development and racing, the experienced team at LF Performance Products in conjunction with Steve Jones have built the ultimate Evo.

This product is available as a package or a complete vehicle ‘ready-to-race’ primarily for Tarmac Rally in Australia. The package requires purchase or delivery of a Mitsubishi Evo 9 (with an un-damaged body history as a minimum requirement) prior to further assessment by the team at LFP.

Click here to download the LF23R Evolution brochure.