Encouraging start for SVP's rental rally car

Independent Porsche experts Specialist Vehicle Preparations (SVP) enjoyed an encouraging start to this year's BTRDA Rally season with its rental rally car, a Subaru Impreza. Although the car, driven by up-and-coming Welsh rally star Tom Cave, didn't finish the event as it was withdrawn by the team, it ran well and gave the team valuable information ahead of its next outing.

SVP is run by Dominic Delaney, himself an accomplished competitor and with three decades' of experience in rallying, including forming part of the team which delivered four driver and one manufacturer WRC titles to Mitsubishi.

It sourced the Subaru Impreza rally car to rent to drivers who want world-class service and support but without the commitment of buying and running a car themselves.

The Wyedean Rally, the first round of this year's BTRDA Rally Series, was based in Chepstow and the car, originally scheduled to be driven by Delaney himself, was eventually put in the hands of Cave, since Delaney was taken ill. Cave knows Delaney as he has been asked to provide tuition to Delaney's son Tom, who himself is embarking on a rally career in the Formula1000 series, aged just 15.

Cave adopted a cautious start in the car, which had only been delivered to SVP the day before the rally and hence, had minimal preparation work with the team, which would have preferred more time. However, it soon became clear that the car had several existing issues, including a persistent turbo boost pressure leak that the team was unable to rectify satisfactorily on the event.

Therefore, it chose to withdraw the car from the rally to prevent any further damage and allow the best chance to re-prepare for its next outing.

Commenting, Delaney said; "It's a shame we weren't able to finish the event but we simply couldn't fix the boost leak at the rally, so we chose to withdraw the car so it wasn't damaged any further.

"Once we get back to the workshop, we'll get the car stripped and re-prepared for the next outing and of course, resolve the issues with it.

"It's a shame we couldn't go any further for Tom as well, as he was looking forward to being back in a four-wheel drive car. But he did a great job, hinting at what the car can do and making sure he brought it back to us without any further damage. I hope that we can give him another, trouble-free run later in the year."


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