Paul Cresswell goes 10.7 on a stock engine

We are pleased to announce that Paul Cresswell ran a highly impressive 10.7 second pass at the PTM Show at Santa Pod on 15th May. Paul has a TOTALLY STOCK engine fitted with a CPL Racing Gen1 Turbo kit.

Below is the timing ticket from this record-breaking run.

Congratulations to Paul !!!!

Here are a few words from owner of CPL Racing, Guy Chamberlain, of how Paul got there..............

"I thought it would be good to share with you the achievements of one of our customers, as often the higher-powered cars overshadow what can be done on a modest race budget.
Just over four years ago, one of our customers came to us with a mildly modified EP3 for a CPL Racing Gen 1 turbo kit. At the time the car was an every-day road car, but was also used for the odd track day and RWYB at Santa Pod. After many miles of beating the car up in the pursuit of fun, and with the formation of the HKS Drag series FWD class, he decided that he would like to take drag racing a little more seriously. He very quickly pushed his ¼ mile times forward into the high 11 second region, and at the beginning of 2010 came to CPL Racing asking us to push his stock engine to a power level which, to be honest, we were not overly comfortable with, but he had an open mind that if the engine gave way he would put it down to experience. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say.
In the middle of 2010 CPL were invited by Redline magazine to attend Santa Pod for a ‘Fun’ day with a few other cars, so we invited our customer with his turbocharged EP3 to come along. He eagerly accepted the invitation. Another of our customers, Neil Knight, who is also an HKS drag series competitor kindly came along as well to support us on the day, as he always does (thank you Neil).
This was the first opportunity to really test the customers car following the re-tune, but after a couple of runs with his new found power he very quickly got to the 11.2 second ¼ mile territory. This in itself was an amazing achievement given this car had just a stock engine. During the lunch-break of the “Fun” day, Neil, the customer and myself retired to the Santa Pod Café and discussed the possibility of whether it would be possible to run a 10 sec ¼ on a stock engine. Although we were not sure whether a 10 second pass was actually possible, or if we were just dreaming. The customer was all for attempting a 10 even though it would mean expecting even more from his stock engine. So I was handed my laptop and I got to work on a few adjustments to the calibration.
The customer later flew up the drag strip once more and netted an 11.1 – so we were even closer to a 10 second ¼ mile.
The day was quickly drawing to an end so I was handed my laptop again and made a few further tweaks. With one last run available it was going to be tight to achieve our goal.
The customer got into the car again and Neil and I saw him into the water. He staged, his foot went to the floor and this looked like it could be the one………………..and YES he’d done it, there it was on the scoreboard at the top of the track - 10.95 @ 125 mph. To say we were all very pleased was an understatement, what a great end to the day, a 10 second ¼ mile pass on an internally stock K20 engine.
The customer continued racing during 2010 in the HKS Series, and even suffering the bad luck of breaking his windscreen in the first round didn’t stop him coming runner up in the 2010 championship and achieving some wins in the rounds too.
But it doesn’t end there.
After suffering gear-change problems intermittently (the car still has a stock gearbox) the customer refreshed his box ready for last weekend’s PTM show. Straight off the trailer he ran a 10.88 and then on the next run an incredible


10.73

Again on a totally stock K20 engine. This gained him number one qualifying position.

Unfortunately the customer had further gearbox problems after setting the number one qualifying time so had to retire, maybe his poor old car just needed to recover from all that excitement. But I just want to say……………

Cressie you are a hero!

Not only are you a great driver, prepared to take a few risks, and a great bloke to have around; but you spend your working day in a highly pressurized environment defending our country."