Thomas Zürcher: Waiting instead of starting 🎥

On Saturday, April 4, the 2020 Swiss Slalom Championship was to begin at the Interlaken airfield. The external conditions would have been ideal - and the battle for the day's victory would also have been exciting. Because the two usual suspects Philip Egli and Marcel Maurer would have been joined by Thomas "Tom" Zürcher with his newly built Tatuus F4 LRM Turbo.

Devastating accident in the rain
Flashback: After a few top results in slaloms with the standard Abarth turbo engine in the rear of the Tatuus F4, Zürcher competed for the first time in July 2019 at the Ayent-Anzère hill climb with the LRM turbo engine in the rear, which had been downsized to 1170 cubic capacity. Unfortunately, the 49-year-old from Berne had a serious accident in the rain during the first race run.

Tom was lucky, however, that he did not sustain any injuries and the monocoque remained virtually undamaged. However, many of the add-on parts that were torn off were no longer usable. Zürcher then returned to the Classic Cup with a rented Renault Clio III.

Challenging task for Jenzer
Zürcher spent months of spare time rebuilding his race car at Jenzer Motorsport in Lyss. Andreas Jenzer contributed a great deal, so that the Tatuus is in better shape than ever.

For the team boss, who is always open to his national compatriots, this is a task that offers a change of pace.

Andreas Jenzer: "FIA Formula 3 and Formula 4 are one-size-fits-all formulas where everything is technically predetermined. With a Bergrennennwagen, you can bring in your own ideas and find solutions. That's a challenge for me, too."

Like reportsJenzer also looks after the GP3 race cars of Yves Hängärtner and Markus Bosshard, which he prepares for the hillclimb races. So it is not least thanks to him that Swiss hillclimb racing is being enriched.

Potent engine
Zürcher is also happy about this cooperation.

Thomas Zürcher: "I am grateful for this opportunity. Ändu is very interested, and I can learn a lot in the process. He always comes up with ideas that he wants to implement."

For example, in terms of aerodynamics or the engine environment. The Abarth racing engine was further modified at LRM Motors in Novara (I). It received a twin-scroll turbocharger and a matching new exhaust system.

Around 340 to 350 hp can be extracted - not a bad figure for a car that fits into the two-liter class with a turbo factor of 1.7. To get used to the car, however, the power is still limited to around 280 hp.

Even with this, the five-time Clio Cup champion still compares favorably with the competition. The currently most powerful naturally aspirated Honda 2.0 engines, for example in Christian Balmer's Tatuus FM, produce around 330 hp. The drivability of this turbo race car is important to Jenzer, Zürcher and LRM, which is why emphasis was placed on developing power over a wider rev range.

Small audio and visual sample of the new LRM-Abarth turbo engine.

Second car for Joel Burgermeister
This potent little race car would have been ready just at the start of the season - but Covid-19 has now thrown a spanner in the works. This also affects Joel Burgermeister, for whom practically a copy of the Tatuus LRM has been made in the Jenzer Hall.

After Zürcher had already completed test drives with the production engine in the repaired and aerodynamically modified Tatuus F4 in Italy during the winter ("the feeling in the formula car was very good again"), he is now waiting for the first available opportunity to try out the monoposto with the new LRM powerplant on some test track. After that, a slalom start would be quite good before heading back to the mountain.

Zürcher is deliberately keeping his expectations low.

Thomas Zürcher: "First of all, I'm eager to test how drivable the car is now. If it works as well in practice as it does in theory, then I expect a lot in the two-liter class. And since this is more or less a pilot project, we're hoping for more customers after that."

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