FEATURE
“ That made it quite easy to swap bits over, so I took the engine, transmission, turbocharger and driveshafts and put them in. I had people doing the mapping and tuning but when it came to removing the engine and transmission, I learned it all myself using forums, online information and a Haynes manual. You learn from your mistakes, and I made plenty!”
While competing in Sprints, Bradley had been reading about the Time Attack Championship in his Japanese performance magazines. He was in awe of the level of tuning and capability of some of the cars and recalls:“ I thought it would be amazing to get involved in one day, but it always felt like it was out of reach.
“ Then one of my friends who was competing in the UK was forced to miss the Silverstone round. At that time, you could sell your space rather than forfeiting it, so I decided to buy in and up my game. In the space of three weeks, I did my ARDS test, got my competition licence and made the car legal for competition – and that’ s where it all started.”
Bradley’ s entry was for the Club Pro class, a higher level than he would have liked, but he ended up finishing third. At this point, the car still had the 2-litre Impreza engine and transmission, with an exhaust and suspension from eBay and a roll cage that he’ d had to fit in order to compete in Time Attack.
The engine did not last long at that performance level, however, and when the time came for another change, Bradley chose to make another upgrade. This time, he opted to follow an approach used on other high-performance Subarus around the world and fitted a 2.35-litre unit, developed from an original American 2.2-litre powerplant.
“ From that point onwards, there was continual development,” he continues.“ There were engine improvements, different turbo chargers, suspension tweaks, damper changes, and when things started getting quite serious in 2013, I went to an event to speak to Steven Darley, who I’ d read about as being the guru of the Subaru tuning world.
“ He agreed to support me in the Time Attack Championship, which was a big thing because at the time I felt like I was in the deep end and he helped me learn a lot, working on the car with me. My best friend and mapper Simon Roe also played a huge part in running the car until he sadly lost his fight against skin cancer in 2014.”
Into the Hills
After a few seasons of success in the Time Attack Championship, Bradley took a chance trip to Scotland to see Darley taking part in a Hill Climb at Doune – one of the most testing venues in the UK, and certainly, you would have thought, not a venue that would inspire someone to give it a go.
Bradley recalls“ physically shaking” when he watched his friend power up the course, yet he somehow got convinced.“ Doune is bonkers and as he drove past me, I remember thinking‘ this is absolutely nuts’,” he recounts.“ Why would anybody want to do the likes of this? There’ s no run-off. It was terrifying – but I was also thinking‘ is this where I go next?’
“ I’ m good at getting to grips with how a car feels very quickly, but while others continue to get quicker and quicker, I reach my peak quite early and then plateau. That’ s actually a perfect fit for Hill Climbing, because you only get three practice runs before getting straight into it, so Steven encouraged me to give it a go.
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Damien joined Team GB for the European Hill Climb Masters in 2021
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Revolution- June 2025