After a hectic 2011 season and in the winter season ahead of 2012 rallying, we met one of the Lebanon expert rally drivers and Kazan Performance Tuning Garage, Philipe Kazan and chatted with him a bit on last year’s happenings and an insight on the new season.
How do you evaluate last season and out of your driver who were you impressed with the most?
Well we had a good season last year, and in general all the new guys are very good. The main problem is that they cannot find a good sponsor to cover their whole championship and improve quickly since they need to practice a lot. Tony Helou and Rabih Ayoub will be very good if they continue. Ziad Feghali was good last year too. The year before we had only one car but we were able to increase the number last year and in the coming year we hope to be increasing the number more.
Last year you prepared a prototype EVO 7 for the Hill Climb championship expecting the car to get good results, but you ended up claiming 2nd in the 3 participations last year. What do you tell us about the car?
The car was not fully ready in terms of setup in the first race and even until now, its readiness will come when the driver would give you his bets insight on the suspension setup. The car scored some good times but in general its needs a lot of practice. After all you are racing Abdo Feghali and Abdo and his car are one package, he knows the car very well and the car doesn’t need anything since he has been driving it for the past 7 years. If you need the car to beat Abdo horse power is not enough, you need practice and you need the driver to give more. As you know the car has no sponsors yet so practicing and preparing are hampered by this issue.
What drives you to do such an investment which costs big amounts of money without having any sponsor?
I consider that I am paying on my hobby. I cannot drive myself so somebody else would drive the car. Maybe someone pays 50000 or 60000 or even 100000$ on a certain hobby, well I’m paying on the car and it’s my hobby. Anyway even if it’s a hobby you would like to get closer to the front. I am not sure that I will be putting this car into action next year, since there is no point in coming second every time, by a couple of seconds. I can tell you that I have built a car that does not exist in Lebanon so far, and a car that is very well done in all the areas.
How much is the fact that you cannot drive now affecting the development of your cars, that driver that you work with and the work on suspension?
There is a very defining point which is the work on the suspension. It is taking us more time to develop it. I am being obliged to sit next to the drivers and try to understand what they need and reflect this into performance. If this problem doesn’t exist then things will be much easier. You when the new drivers find an experienced driver or a test driver helping them by driving their car they will be feeling much better, and this is an area where I am losing ground against my competitors.
How are your preparations for the new season and what’s clear until now and what’s not?
Thank God last year we were very good we did not have mechanical failures in general. Our drivers were very happy and satisfied. I hope next year will be the same, but I also hope the drivers will be able to get sponsors early on in order to commit to a full season, so that they can practice much more and get well prepared.
Any last message?
Well as I said earlier I hope we have another good year. We will be have a new EVO 10, I am not sure if it will be a group N or R4 car, but we will see ahead of the season.