1st place for RICA powered Niham Volvo C30 D5 in Dutch Touring Car Diesel Cup - June 2011

Resounding victory for RICA tuned Niham Volvo C30 D5 (Baars / Roeleveld) at Circuit Zandvoort. It's been a long wait, but with the Pentecostal Races at Zandvoort it finally came: a supreme victory in the Touring Car Diesel Cup Bas Baars (New Vennep) and Marcel Roelofs (The Hague) in their beautiful black, RICA tuned Volvo C30 D5. And only two days earlier, third place was achieved. With the experience of the Volvo C30, Peter Achterberg Bas Baars was always going to make progress, and he leaped forward with the racing Volvo dealer and his teammate Marcel Roelofs. At the beginning of the season the potential was there, but not the reliability. However, with the reliability now under control, there was no stopping him. The first battle was already won when Roeleveld the Volvo sat on pole position. Bas Baars took the start on his behalf but was overtaken by a faster start from some BMW drivers. Perch, however, was positioned in the leading group and then gave the wheel to his teammate, who immediately made great strides, but was suddenly saddled with 15 seconds penalty for going too fast!!! There are some strange rules in the Diesel Touring Car Cup. Because the cup organizers did not succeed in using power reduction, weight and ride heights to control the racing, another solution was introduced: if one lap is faster than 2 minutes 05 s, even if only by one tenth of one second, then the driver gets a warning with time penalties. Marcel Roelofs was a victim because his lap calculator was not working. "I also have problems with it. When racing you are driving as hard as possible! There are many cars and drivers that are sure to drive two seconds faster". So they had to settle for 3rd place with the 15 second penalty for going too fast. He started the next race from 3rd postition and soon drove the Volvo to the second place, after which a procession followed. Some gains were made during the pit stop and Bas Baars had a small lead as the first back on the track. He pulled away to a convincing victory, finishing with a stunning lead of 8.4 seconds. "Finally everything falls together. No bad luck, no collisions and a perfectly working car. What a great race for us", beamed Baars. Results Diesel Touring Car Cup Race 1 1. Thick (VW) 47 laps in 1 hour 40 minutes 18.813 s 2. Van Loan / Swart (BMW 120d) @ +2.728 s 3. Baars / Roeleveld (C30 D5) @ +15.400 s Results Diesel Touring Car Cup Race 2 1. Baars / Roeleveld 23 laps in 50 min 28.828 s 2. Morien / De Groot (VW Golf) @ +8.432 s 3. Carbon / Zumbrink (BMW 123d) @ +8.557 s

RICA Engineering are very proud to have been appointed as the official suppliers and scrutineers of ECM tuning software in the Dutch Touring Car Diesel Cup for the BMW and Volvo race diesel race cars in 2010. Dutch Power Pack, the organisation responsible for the cup, wanted to level the playing field by ensuring that all the cars are tuned to the same level and that no teams had an unfair advantage through non-approved tuning modifications. A target lap time of approximately 2:05 seconds was required for all the cars and any cars which were significantly faster would have to be scrutinised. RICA Engineering have long been established as leaders in performance diesel tuning both on the road and on the race track as well as being equipped with precise dyno measuring equipment (Maha LPS 3000) and specialist ECU software analysis capability. Dutch Power Pack therefore considered RICA Engineering to be the best company to fulfil this new role. All the BMW (120d and 123d) and Volvo race cars have RICA performance software installed, tuned to ensure that no team has any performance advantage. RICA Engineering are also responsible for dyno testing and examining the ECU software in any cars which require post-race scrutineering on request of the race officials. All the Touring Car Diesel Cup race events are held at Zandvoort and Assen in the Netherlands. RICA Engineering is very active in the motorsport field in Europe, providing various engine tuning and race preparation services to many teams and securing frequent podium finishes. RICA tunes many BMWs and Volvos for motorsport and specialises in diesel race car tuning. The knowledge and experience gained from such motorsport activity can then be used in the development of road car ECM upgrade technology. The pictures below are of the Volvo C30 D5 race car, owned by Dutch Volvo dealer Niham and tuned by RICA Engineering. For a period of time it ran with the NIRA engine management system in order to promote the NIRA system, but it now runs the factory Bosch management system with RICA ECM software in order to comply with the new regulations. This car was also used as the development and testing platform for the RICA Sports Tune ECM upgrades. The racing conditions during the endurance events are ideal for testing the engine and transmission reliability.

The pictures below show a Volvo S60 2.0T rally car, running a normal factory Bosch ME7 engine management system, remapped by RICA Engineering.

Pictured below is an ex-STCC Volvo S60 T5 2.3 turbo, entered in the Dutch Supercar Challenge, tuned by RICA Engineering to 310 hp and 430 Nm.

2006 champion Dutch Supercar Challenge Supersport II BMW 1 Series, tuned by RICA Engineering. Engine Specifications: BMW E46 3.2 M3 engine, MOTEC engine management system, 391 Bhp @ 7715rpm, 387Nm @ 4980 rpm.

2006 and 2009 champion Dutch Supercar Supersport II M3 E46 V8 GTR, tuned by RICA Engineering. Motec M800 engine management system, 483 hp, 598 Nm

LEFT: BMW M3 E46 V8 GTR, engine V8 5.0L, Motec M800 engine management system, 512 hp @ 7800 rpm, 538 nm @ 5700 rpm, tuned by RICA Engineering. RIGHT: Touringcar Diesel Cup. All the BMW 120 diesels in this cup were tuned by RICA Engineering, as well as the Volvo C30.