ON THE ATTACK

B Racings GTR

As Told by Petr Beneš

Probably like every other car guy, I dreamed since childhood about creating my own design, one that would be both beautiful and fast. An original car that you could not buy at a dealer’s showroom, but still compete with the best exotics in the land.

As a young man, I went to a dealer showroom and bought a new, limited-edition sports car. For the first days I owned it, it was the only one on the road. I’m happy, I have a rare car. But as times goes on, I see many other owners of this same special car. What was once exclusive is now common, the fate of any limited-edition car that suddenly becomes popular. That’s why I have only one choice: building my own design.

Is it possible to fulfill this dream, I wondered? A question that would become an obsession. There was not a day when I stopped thinking about it. It simply could not get it out of my head.

But how to implement such a demanding process? Some glimmer of hope was in the construction of a kit project. My homeland, the Czech Republic, is a country with absolutely no kit car history. It’s a country where most people don´t know the meaning of those words, a country where most people think you’re crazy if you talk about building your own car. Almost daily I encountered sympathetic glances and smiles, and even doubts about my mental health. It was a big challenge to overcome.

An important milestone occurred in 2006 when I bought my first kit K-1 Attack from Dick Kvetnansky (of K-1 Styling and Tuning). It was followed by hundreds of hours of construction, modification, and improvement, trying to understand the philosophy of structures that are changed over time in new technical solutions.

My business relationship with Dick changed to friendship, and in 2011, I founded B-racing. With moral support from Dick, my company began production of the K-1 Attack after a few years absence, bringing it back to the foreign market.

Because I was still not happy with the design work on our new model, and time flies inexorably fast, I decided that my boyhood dream needed to be realized. Because the company B-racing is an owner license and has design rights for manufacturing and sale of kits K-1 Attack, I decided to use it as a base car for building the Attack GTR.

I did not want compromise, nor be constrained by regulations for using the car on the roads, so the racing area was a clear choice. I spoke to Dany Tmka from the Type-R team about my intentions. He was thrilled. Thanks to our many years of cooperation, and Dany’s rich experience of racing environment, plus our shared love of the Honda K20 engine, we agreed on the selection of the drive unit.

A few days later we began to think about how to turn ideas into reality. For maximum efficiency, we divided the project by specialization. B-racing addressed any problems about the Attack, while Dany handled engine management, transmission, brake and telemetry.

The first sketches were created in early 2013, which was a month later supported by calculations on torsional rigidity. The result is a secure, closed frame of thin-walled tubes, whose garrison part (cockpit subframe), simply said, is identical with a protecting frame of a racing car.

The rear section was remodeled for direct acceptance of the K20 engine, including the gearbox, to the frame. To save weight, we eliminated part of the axle originally from the Honda Accord and modified stabilizing elements that are mounted directly to the frame. The front section has undergone a technical point of view only, with relief and preparation for the new steeper steering.

To reduce the possibility of an extreme car (ride height 40 mm), we had to go through modification of the front and rear axles. Both axles are also adjustable in all directions, including reclining.

Based on last year’s testing of the cabrio version of the atmospheric K20A2 with regard to the need for precise driving characteristics, we have developed new dampers, a circuit version with external containers and adjustable height, bound and rebound.

Much of the work was carried out on the body kit modifications. The result is a closed design, with more space for the garrison area and the possibility of using two racing shells in XL size with head protection. The rear coupe design also serves as a cooling compressor to flow air through the roof chapel and expel warm air from the engine compartment.

Of course there are other functional aerodynamic elements such as the rear diffuser and wing, which take care of the downforce of the car at higher speeds. Through the use of special technology during production, we reduced weight by 57 percent compared with the standard body kit.

Already the first test on a closed circuit showed tremendous potential of the car. During the season of 2014 we held six tests on a closed circuit to focus on the optimal settings for geometry and aerodynamics. Testing will continue in the next season and we want to attend a sharp race.

We came to a lot of positive conclusions from testing the car. Thanks to this fact, in 2015 B-racing will start sales of the next-gen K-1 Attack GTR, built on the platform Honda Accord 7 Generation. More about this new model will be covered in upcoming issues of CAR BUILDER Magazine.

Looking back, I spent the last nine years of my life on K-1 Attack cars. Along the way, I worked with technical universities, racing teams, and private development centers. Now I have my own team.

As for those inescapable automotive dreams that I had as a young man and couldn’t get out of my head, they’re now being fulfilled. It doesn’t get any better that!