last one...

Long story short, I drove like crap and wasn't well prepared for this event. Our 8 time ESP National Champion, Mark Madarash, was there in his flyweight Firebird and he schooled the entire ESP class, taking the win and setting Top PAX for the event as well, using only four of his allotted five runs. I fumbled my way through all five runs - getting lost, blowing corners, late into slaloms, DNF'd, double-apexing turns, and generally driving like a total ass hat. On my fifth run I almost put one together, but still lost the brake booster into two turns and blew my lines. Would I have caught Madarash with a miracle hero run? Probably wasn't going to happen, even with a better driver. Our Mustang is still 400 pounds too heavy and needs a lot more to keep up with that proven ESP winner.

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The issues we had were also too numerous to count. The brake booster assist failure cropped up for me on all five runs, so that lovely problem has returned. We have yet another replacement vacuum check valve coming from Ford (and another as a spare!) as this seemed to fix the problem after the Optima event in June, where it was a big hindrance.

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In-car from my 5th and fastest run is linked above. It is still terrible.

Might not seem like a big deal - losing the vacuum assist - but in this car when the booster goes away, suddenly it really throws you for a loop and blows your concentration. The pedal works fine, but after a long straight with high rpm usage it would intermittently lose assist and you felt like you were stepping on a brick, the pedal doesn't move, and the car won't stop. It wasn't consistent, but it did happen to me on every run.

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Looks like much less lean here than at Nationals thanks to the new, stiffer spring rates.

When this happened at the Optima Challenge I luckily had a dozen autocross runs to put one together, and many laps on track to adjust my braking zones. You have to press the brake pedal with both feet and PULL on the steering wheel to get enough pedal movement to stop. It was exhausting at ECR back in June, but after we replaced the check valve in the booster it went away completely at the next ECR event in late June. So... just like the S197 front wheel hubs (we're on the third set in two years), the vacuum booster check valve has become a wear item, with spares to be kept in the race trailer. Live and learn.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E.../AmyRun5-M.jpg
Amy's 5th and fastest run is linked above.

Amy had a pretty good day, finishing third in class and 25th out of 126 in PAX, but she was a solid 1.4 seconds back from me. Just not driving aggressively enough? She got caught out by the slick spots and slalom timing on her best run also, but as always she still looks a lot smoother and cleaner than my hack driving runs. She is adjusting from street tire to R compound grip, slowly but surely. We need to keep getting her more and more seat time - when we all ran in STU for years she would regularly be on the same half second as Brian and I.

I think I need to avoid racing on three consecutive 100 degree days. I never do well in that type of prolonged heat. By Sunday I was sporting a massive headache and muscle aches, which meant I was low on water and salts. Stupid mistakes were abundant. As well as I felt that I drove on Friday and Saturday, I more than made up for it on Sunday with terrible driving. I really wanted to run GTA and this SCCA event, but probably shouldn't have done both.

What's Next?

This weekend, October 6th-7th, is the annual NASA race weekend at Eagles Canyon Raceway - which is what I consider my "home track". We had planned on running the red 2011 GT in TTS and the blue BMW E46 330Ci in TTD, but alas, the painter was delayed and the E46 will not be ready in time. Sucks, because we had run times 3+ seconds quicker than the old record (set by Costas in this same BMW in 2010, on street tires) with the 285 Hoosier R6s we can run in that class. Oh well, we will run the black 2013 GT in TTB (and get slaughtered) and the red 2011 GT in TTS and just have fun. I could get lucky and beat the existing TTS record at ECR (1:58.2), as I ran almost that quick back in June on the old Kumho's with the steering shudder and the old clanking PHB, but who knows? If fast Corvettes show up or the existing 350Z record holder are there, I'm sure they will be shooting to beat that record, too.

After the NASA weekend is a SCCA Club Race and PDX event on October 13th-14th. We had entered both Mustangs for that HPDE-like event, but will likely run the 2011 and the blue BMW there instead. Once the blue BMW gets back from its fresh paint job and gets some on-track laps/video/data, we will put it up for sale. We never drive this car and with seven cars and only room for six at our home garage, we need to "reduce the fleet".

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I also have to get caught up on some pictures and text for the initial 2013 GT "ESP" thread. We have already done a lot of weighing and planning, parts are some coming, we have 18x10s on the car, and camber plates are going on today.

More soon!

Project Update for Oct 11, 2012: We drove both the 2011 and 2013 Mustang GT's at last weekend's NASA Time Trial event at Eagles canyon Raceway (ECR). I had planned to wait after this coming weekend's SCCA Club Race/PDX event but they cancelled it, so I will share what we have learned now instead. I'm still writing the 2013's first post in its own thread, but it is coming soon. We also did some dyno pulls on both Mustangs and the 2013 BRZ yesterday at True Street Motorsports, so I can share those as well.

Pre-Race Prep

As mentioned in my last post the '11 GT needed surprisingly little prep before this NASA race weekend. We had just run it at the Global Time Attack and a local autocross just 2 weeks prior and all of the then newly added Whiteline rear suspension bits were working perfectly - and with two weeks of silent street use we were all smiles. Other than two more new Kumho V710 tires, an oil/filter change, and the swap back to the winged trunk and race tires, it was an easy prep.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...30MG5195-M.jpg

That shot above shows all of the Whiteline goodies. These changes + the slight bump in spring rates are all that were different from the car in June when we ran ECR and I knocked off a 1:58.2 lap, using Hanchey's AIM Solo in-car lap timer. We were back to running Kumhos again, and otherwise on the same suspension (Motons + Vorshlag plates) and running the same power level (430 whp) and aero (our custom mega wing + LS splitter).

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The black '13 GT, however, needed much more track prep help - but we only had one day to do it, with the sudden change of schdule on our E46 BMW. While the '13 started out life 45 pounds lighter than the '11, it was much less equipped, and missing the much-loved 14" front Brembo brake package - which also includes wider wheels, and different shocks/bars/springs (we think). We had planned on taking our 2001 BMW E46 330Ci to run at ECR in the TTD class, but our painter needed more time so the car wasn't going to be ready, so we hurriedly put the 2013 GT into some sort of track-ready form.

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It was still bone stock, with the craptastic 235/50/18 all seasons, 18x8" wheels, stock non-Brembo brakes, stock pads/brake fluid, and stock base GT suspension (which I think is different than the shocks/bars that come on the Brembo equipped cars). I couldn't bare to run this car this stock, as it would shred the tires and be laughably slow, so we threw some parts at it on the Friday before the event. A set of Vorshlag camber plates took the front camber from 0 to -1.7° (with lowering springs the max negative number is closer to -2.8°), threw the old Eibach front bar from the 2011 on, and slapped on a set of our Vorshlag 18x10" wheels and that old set of 295/35/18 Nitto NT-05s that I ran at the Optima Challenge.

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As you can see, switching from the skinny 8" wide wheels and 235mm tires to the 10" wide D-Force wheels and 295mm Nittos actually helped the car lose over 27 pounds of unsprung weight/rotational inertia. That is a huge win, but the +60mm of tire should add more grip, too. The crew here tried to convince me to get a set of track-worthy pads for the '13, but I veto'd the idea, as we are chucking the whole stock brake set-up into the trash very soon and I didn't want to waste $300+ on track-worthy pads for a single event. I said "Hey, they are 13" front brakes, how bad could they be?!" I also blew off flushing out the stock brake fluid with some better Motul RBF600 that we stock and sell. Turns out those were two crucial errors in judgement on my part...

NASA @ ECR, Saturday Oct 6

We loaded up the '11 in the trailer Friday night. JasonM made new number and class graphics for both cars and we applied those at about 6 pm - right as the weather went from 80°F and sunny to COLD and overcast. Uh-oh... the forecast looked bleak but I towed the trailer out to ECR early Saturday morning, with Amy following me in the '13. Had to park in the gravel as the place was packed with NASA racers (something the SCCA club racers are sorely missing - more on that in a minute). The HPDE groups were loaded up, as was the Time Trial group, and three big W2W race groups. Pretty good, considering the crap weather and late event date in the year (over a month after the NASA Nationals).

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We quickly unloaded and fueled up the 2011 and got our butts to grid. Amy was the lucky driver of the 2011 on Saturday and she ran in the TTS class against a very well prepped C5 Z06, an S197 Mustang AI car with big aero on Hoosiers, and many other quick TT racers. I was the unlucky schlub in the 2013 GT for the day, woefully under-prepped for TTB class - running against TTB fiend KenO and his Vorshlag/AST sponsored E46 M3; he already owned the previous TTB ECR track record at a 1:59.8, which he reset this past weekend by over a second - and he drives the car to and from the track, with a full interior. Anything sub-2 minute is QUICK at this track, too.

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Let me back up a second - before the Saturday TT event even began I heard about a fellow TT competitor that crashed coming out of Turn 4 on Friday's practice event. A little tank slapper off into a 2000 pound hay bale that pretty much totaled the right side of this EVO X. So that's two totaled cars in two weeks from local Time Trial competitors - the Mustang at GTA and this EVO here. That sucks, but this is what can happen when you track a car at 10/10ths (or 11/10ths?) Don't forget the potential consequences, and don't short change your own personal safety. Luckily this driver also walked away unharmed, just lighter in the wallet. :(

Our Previous Lap Times at ECR

So back in early June I ran a 2:03.9 at the Optima Challenge on the 295mm NT-05 street tires, bitching about tires the entire time. The rears would overheat on the '11 within half a lap and I had to baby the throttle everywhere. That was with all of the same aero and the Moton Club Sports but an aftermarket PHB and the softer 450/175# spring rates. Then when we went back in June 23rd at the Five Star Ford track day I ran the big 315mm Kumho V710s, but otherwise the same suspension and aero, and turned a best lap of 1:58.2. Both June events had ambient temps exceeding 100°F. That 1:58 time in June was actually faster than the old track record for NASA TTS class, which was a 1:58.4, set in 2011. So we had thought all either Amy or I had to do was match or better that time from June and we could set a new track record in our street driven Mustang.

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Amy went out in the first session, and in the Texas NASA Region the 1st TT session on Saturday doesn't count for the competition, only for gridding the cars in order of speed for Session 2. Kind of weird, but we all know it. Normally the quickest times happen early in the day, like this first session, due to excessive track temps. But this day was COLD, and it only varied from 47-50°F during both days, so track temp wasn't a problem!
She went out and busted off a 2:01 in her first session, which wasn't bad. Then in the 2nd session (or the first one that counted for competition), with no changes other than driving she popped off a 1:58.8!

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Amy's best lap in TT session 2, at a 1:58.8

I was floored. She was leading TTS class over some other TTS drivers in real race cars, but in this overweight full street car. I asked her what she did different and she said "I pushed it a LOT harder!" She got out of the car shaking a little but with the BIGGEST smile I've ever seen. Oh man she was HOOKED on R compounds now. This was by far the fastest I've ever seen her run on a road course, and come to find out it was her very first time racing this car on R-compound tires on a road course (I kinda hogged the car at the previous events where we ran sticky tires). "I want some more..."

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After her second session we made some lunch, then she hit the track again in session 3, but she only managed a 1:59 lap. We talked to Mike Patterson at lunch about a ride-along for some pointers for her. Mike is a long time AI racer, NASA race director, and one of the gurus at Moton/AST-USA. They went out in an HPDE3 session right after TT session 3 with Mike riding shotgun, giving her advice.

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He knows pony cars and this track very well, and showed her a few places to tweak her line, where to track out farther, and some places to brake a tick later in the high speed braking zones. But overall he was impressed with her smoothness, ability to take advice and alter her driving quickly, and the car's lap times. He also raved at how well our 2011 GT soaked up some of the more notorious bumps at ECR, stating "That's the best handling street car I've ever ridden through turn 8 in at this track!" Gotta give credit to his own shop's custom Moton shocks (with DDP pistons + custom valving), and the new Whiteline S197 suspension bits.

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So after this 4th session for her that day she went back to the trailer and we fueled up the 2011 once again. She was ready to try some of the new tricks Mike taught her in TT session 4, and the weather was still chilly but otherwise conditions were unchanged. Her main rival in TTS for the day was in a yellow C5 Z06 Corvette had just busted off a 1:57.5 but she felt she still had some left and was going for it....

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During her warm-up lap I saw her arm go up, signaling "pit in", and she came into immediately to the hot pits. I went over to see what was up and she said the rear brakes were making a horrendous noise - and I looked at the rotors, and both were split! It probably happened between her 4th session on track while the car parked down at our trailer, sitting in the cold wind cooling down. We had heard a slight noise going up to grid in TT session 4, so I got out, walked next to the car, and listened... then it went away. Couldn't see anything. But as soon as she braked hard once on her warm-up lap the rotor splits opened up. Just a single half speed lap like this wiped out the nearly new rear Porterfield R4 pads, too.

• Saturday TT Results: http://www.nasatx.com/resultspoints/...aturday_TT.pdf
• Vorshlag Photo and Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...SA-ECR-100612/

We quickly put the car in the trailer and bombed back across town to Vorshlag. Ryan met us at the shop with a pair of new rear rotors he picked up at O'Reilys and he swapped those + some used Porterfield R4S pads we typically used for autocrossing/street use, just on the back. The front 14" brake rotors and pads looked fine. We reloaded the car and got some sleep.

How About the 2013 in TTB?

Yea, about that. Well we had nobody there shooting pictures for us all day Saturday, so I don't have any "action pics" in the '13, and with only one video camera we didn't get in in-car vids of the '13 either. That's probably all for the best, as it was pretty terrible on track. I cannot describe in words how awful this car turned and braked. It was rather remarkable. Sure, the 5.0 Coyote V8 made boatloads of power, and the NT-05 tires worked "OK" in these frigid conditions (finally didn't overheat!), but the brakes were atrocious and the handling is best described as "boat like".

ECR is a little bumpy. OK, it is a lot bumpy, but with good shocks on our various track cars (ASTs or Motons) we don't notice the surface humps, heaves and bumps at this track almost at all. This 2013 GT was on the OEM shocks, and I'd swear they were 200,000 mile blown shocks and struts if I hadn't seen the odometer reading 600 miles with my own eyes. The front end was porpoising up and down about a foot all down the back straight. Even the corner workers we talked to at lunch remarked at how bouncy and floaty the car looked. First session best time was only a 2:10, but that session doesn't count for times.

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Even with maxed out camber, which did help me from shredding the outside edges of the front tires, this car was a hot mess. Like driving a guided missile - all kinds of power, but with minimal turning and no way to stop. The handling was like this: it would turn in, then keep rolling, then bounce through the corners and flail around, seeing both top and bottom of suspension travel several times per corner. Just awful. The base GTs must have a set of noodle shocks and springs. And we even had an Eibach front bar set at full stiff, to try to fight this massive bodyroll. And big 295mm tires on the thing, up from 235s. It was all "lipstick on a pig" with the stock suspension, though. This car needs better shocks and springs BADLY.

By TT session 2 the base GT's 13.2" front brakes were going away quickly, and by that session I realized the brakes only had ONE hot lap in it at a time, then needed a really slow cool down lap to get the brakes to come back. I was braking the '13 a solid 50 to 100 feet sooner than in the '11 but it was still barely staying on track. And one time, it uh....didn't.

I was coming down the back straight in TT session 2 at what the (second, borrowed) AIM Solo later said was 115 mph. I go to brake for turn 7, down shifting from 5th to 3rd... but there were no brakes. Pumping madly, nothing happening. I could say I was still "getting a feel" for the stock pads and braking system but I was abusing the crap out of the car, to try to make better lap times due to the abysmal handling. It was too much and the front brakes just didn't have anything left. I won't blame the equipment, because I bought the car on purpose without the Brembos, then left the craptasic stock pads and fluid on there, then over-drove it; I have to blame myself for not having the forethought to replace these critical OEM bits + the extra abuse I was laying on the car.

So in TT session 2 on Saturday I went WAY off the end of the back straight, still doing about 80 mph, even though the entry speed is about 50 mph (according to the data I was doing 123 mph and slowing down to 51 mph in the '11 GT - lots of braking). The corner workers had a good laugh at lunch. "We thought that car would never stop!" I was a good 100 yards off in the dirt, but the tall and soft 4x4 stock suspension at least soaked the off-roading up well enough. Only evidence was a little stalk of grass in the grill, and otherwise zero damage. I got off lucky.

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Turns out the front brake pads were done by the end of TT session 3, as shown above. Went from brand new full depth OEM pads to a hair off the backing plates in three sessions. Half of the pad material seems to be sitting there inside the front wheels, where I parked after coming off track! Since we had no times in TT session 1, and I earned a big fat DSQ for TT session 2, I had to go out and nail down something in TT session 3. Surprisingly, with much attention paid to the quickly fading brakes, I nailed down three laps in the 2:07s with a best of 2:07.33. By then my nerves were as shot as the brakes and I changed my role for the rest of the day to "Amy's support crew". I finished 3rd out of 4 in class, well behind KenO's 1:58.678. Oh well, not very shocking... since the car had no shocks! :P

I am glad I got to experience the nearly bone stock '13 on track, so I can be better informed when I talk about how important suspension upgrades are for this S197 chassis. After running in the beautifully handling '11 GT all day, Amy had zero desire to drive the '13 on track for Sunday, so we drove it back to the shop, following the truck and trailer pulling the '11 in for rear rotor replacement.

NASA @ ECR, Sunday Oct 7

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Sunday TT Results: http://www.nasatx.com/resultspoints/..._Sunday_TT.pdf

Sunday we pulled up back at the track and quickly unloaded the '11 GT. I was driving it that day and Amy was support for the day - but secretly she hoped for a session or two in the car. She was still REALLY pumped after tracking it all day Saturday. We put in a little fuel and got to grid in time. The weather was again 47°F and warmed up to a balmy 50, with a little less wind than the day before - but still plenty cold. The schedule showed the same cars entered, with Michael Perkins TTS C5 Z06 the biggest threat, who won Saturday's TTS class with a best lap of 1:57.5. TTA was a good 2 seconds quicker that day, so I was worried that a certain EVO might jump up to TTS to reset the track record in this class - but they weren't listed in TTS (yet).

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I went out and pushed hard in Sunday's TT Session 1 and got a best lap of 1:57.354, and was the quickest TT car in the session. Out again in TT Session 2 and ran two nearly identical 1:57.14 laps, only a couple of tenths faster. Mike Perkins took his TTS Z06 to a 1:57.390, so it was close! I didn't know at the time (they didn't get his class right until session 3 results were posted) but Josh Dunn's TTA classed gutted EVO had jumped to TTS for Sunday and was already running a 1:56.471.

For TT Session 3 I pushed a bit harder in a few spots and managed two more 1:57.11's, with one of those watching the AIM having a Forecasted 1:55.8 lap, right until I put two tires off exiting corner 11 onto the front straight. GRR! I knew the car had a high 1:58 in it but I couldn't even break the 1:56s in three sessions, which was very frustrating. It was in this session that Josh Dunn had cinched the TTS class with a 1:55.326, and the results finally showed him in TTS, so I knew I was out of contention for the day. Oh well, I took to TT session 4 with a vengeance, determined to get that 1:56 lap, just to make that personal milestone.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...Session4-M.jpg
Click the image above to see in-car video of Terry's best lap of 1:56.33

So the two hot laps from TT session 4 in the video above were hectic. I passed 3 cars in traffic to a 1:56.9 lap, then had a semi-clear lap of a 1:56.343, with a car spinning off track in front of me (I lifted a bit there to make sure he wasn't coming back on track). I talked to the driver of the black TTS S197 Mustang, and it is a soon-to-be-AI car but he was running on Hoosiers, makes 400 whp with a 351W, and the car was about 200 pounds lighter than our '11. It looks like I was only catching him under braking, and most of that into turn 7.

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By the end of the weekend on Sunday Amy and I were both utterly exhausted, but we both felt really good about our lap times. She wanted one more shot at the car on Sunday but after seeing how close to a 1:56 I was she let me take all 4 sessions. For Sunday I finished 2nd place to the EVO, a full second back, oh well. I beat the old TTS track record by 2 full seconds, so damn the new record! :D A 1:56.3 is still pretty darned quick for a full weight street car with good suspension, some aero, and two engine bolt-ons, I feel. We have had a lot of racers tell us the same thing in the past week, too. Mark Smith reset the American Iron track record at ECR with a 1:59.848, in a Boss 302-S, for comparison. The best ECR lap I had run prior to this was way back in 2008 in the E36 LS1 Alpha car, with a 1:57.2 in a gutted 2500 pound BMW with the same 315mm R compounds. We discussed our lap times and any ways to improve them in this car over excellent TexMex food from Fuzzy's Taco Shop in Sanger, TX, located at the interstate outside of ECR. This is the perfect post-race meal!

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Explain The Gains

What made the 2 second improvement in this car since June 23rd? That is a BIG jump in time for a car that is otherwise unchanged, and one that we have driven so much at this track (I am not really "learning to drive the track better", having made many hundreds of laps here in the past five years). The only changes to the 2011 GT since our 1:58 laps were the slight bump in spring rates (which I detailed in my last post) and the addition of the full suite of Whiteline S197 components. I might sound like a broken record but this Whiteline stuff really has transformed the car, which we have noted at the Solo Nationals, GTA at TMS, and at NASA at ECR this past weekend. The Watts Link is the big game changer, but their swaybars, LCAs and rear relocation brackets helped, too. This stuff works, and more importantly, it doesn't make any racket on the street.

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I am very, very impressed with the Whiteline parts and apparently you guys are responding to our positive results, with a lot of Whiteline S197 (and BRZ!) sales in the past few weeks. Thanks.... because in the end, that helps us keep doing what we're doing: trying new products, designing our own parts, and racing on them to prove what works and what doesn't. :)

Dyno Testing

So on Wednesday of this week we took three of Vorshlag's project cars to True Street Motorsports in McKinney for some dyno testing.

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Nothing earth shattering here, just a routine "check-up" dyno pull on the 2011 GT and a first "Baseline" pull on the still stock 2013 GT and Matt's 2013 BRZ. Weather kind of sucked, with 100% humidity plus spitting rain, and even with SAE standardized corrections the 2011 tested a tick lower than the 430 whp pull on the same dyno back in Spring, but still pretty close at 424 whp.

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The 2013 also made exactly what I thought it would make at 376.9 whp - within 1 hp of the 2011 GT when it was in stock form (378.5 whp). Ford re-rated the Coyote 5.0 in 2012 with an additional 8 hp (412 -> 420) but it didn't show up on our dyno test. Me thinks it was marketing fluff.

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Still, 377 whp is nothing to sneeze at, and most of the reason why the 2013 was able to knock down that 2:07.3 lap at ECR. Like I stated above, the only thing it had on track was horsepower, as the brakes and handling were pretty much crap in stock form, in my view. It was a big floaty missile, that once you got it pointed in the right direction would gobble up straight-aways, but sometimes fly off the end of them. We were a solid 4 seconds faster on the exact same set of 295mm street tires with just better suspension/brakes in the '11 GT, and the 47 hp difference between these cars wasn't where we made up 4 seconds. Then we were fully 11 seconds faster with the tweaked '11 GT on slightly wider R compounds. And driving the '11 GT was much easier and confidence inspiring.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...2013-brz-M.jpg

The overlay dyno chart above is showing all three cars: the 2011 GT with headers and a cold air (plus a custom tune by True Street), the bone stock 2013 GT, and the bone stock 2013 Subaru BRZ. Look at the shapes of the dyno curves for the stock vs modded 5.0 GTs - they are remarkably similar. The big 1-7/8" Long Tube ARH headers and the Steeda cold air added torque and horsepower EVERYWHERE, with zero loss of torque at any RPM. In fact there is an extra "torque hump" on the '11 at the extreme low end (2500-3200), which is very noticeable street driving both cars back-to-back. For the 2013 GT's headers I am again going with the bigger of the two primary options on the ARH long tubes, as it is simply a win-win over the 1-3/4" primaries (as ARH told me, the 1-7/8" full length units "make more power everywhere" than the smaller primary option).

The little BRZ made 167 whp, which was more than I thought it would. About right for a car rated at 200 hp (meh, so it is about a 16% drivetrain loss). And yes, our 2013 GT stickered ($31K) almost the same as the BRZ ($27K), but the GT was actually purchased for several thousand dollars less (with that $1500 rebate, + it is domestic and therefor they deal). But you don't buy a BRZ or FR-S for horsepower, you get one because it is a nimble RWD chassis that weighs almost 800 pounds less than the solid axle GT. Completely different animal. You can read more about our exploits with the "FT86" chassis in this thread on VoMo forums, also located on NASIOC, 'Carvers, RRAX, and SCCAForums.

What's Next

I swear the 2013 is getting it's own thread very soon. We have been removing parts, weighing things and gathering all sorts of interesting data on this car, so the new thread will have some new information worth reading. Our 2011 GT project thread here will continue, as we plan to keep tracking and street driving the red car.

The next event for the '11 is the Five Star Ford track day on Nov 17th at ECR. Vorshlag will be there with our trailer and some of our race crew to help support the many Mustang drivers likely to attend. We can help check your alignment, help set tire pressures, and will be giving ride-alongs in the red car with me or Amy driving. That should be fun! :D

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The 2011 was back to street duty on Monday after a wheel swap. After we leaned on Wednesday that the SCCA PDX event was cancelled the crew here at Vorshlag swapped back to the stock trunk, too. The 2013 GT is badly in need of a bunch of suspension parts, to rid it of the 4x4 look and parade float handling. The uber-light brakes we will use are another three grand, and there's the LS back seat delete kit that is only another $900 more. Another set of custom Forgestars would be help, then we can get to cutting the fenders to make the big tires fit. I really need about five grand to build or buy what we need to get started. Hopefully my 2001 BMW E46 330 will sell for good money in the next couple of weeks (it just came back from the painter yesterday and looks flawless!) and I can use some of that cash to throw at the 2013.

I am almost done writing our "How To Build your 2011-2013+ Mustang for Track Use" article, too. Our entire crew is helping contribute to that one. We have had customers asking us for "the wish list" so we finally put it down on paper. Err... electronically. In that article we will finally list out which modifications we think help lower your track times the most, and in which order we recommend doing them in, with some budgetary numbers along the way. We also will list out what options to look for when ordering or buying a 2011-13 Mustang as well - "How to Buy a Mustang The Right Way".

More soon,

Project Update for Nov 16, 2012: Wow, has it been a month since my last update to this build thread? We've been buried and posting on our other build threads, but I neglected this one. We had an autocross two weeks ago (last one of the year) and have a track event tomorrow that we're loading up for. And the eBay auction on my 2001 BMW 330Ci is still going strong (ends Tuesday Nov 20th at noon!). Anyway - busy busy, so let's get caught up with a quick update.

SCCA Autocross, Crandall, Nov 4, 2012

Two weeks ago we had the last autocross for the year lined up. We had the 315/35/18 Kumho V710s still mounted to the Forgestar 18x11"/18x12" race wheels. Hmm, swap to the Hoosiers for this autocross or not? It was the last event of the year and I had the regional class championship wrapped up, so I blew off the extra work of swapping tires and had the guys here at Vorshlag leave those on the race wheels and the 315/30/18 Hoosier A6s stayed on the tire rack. If it was even remotely warm they would probably do all right, and I doubted Madarash would show up to two SCCA regional events in a row (my main ESP competition in this region - the reigning and 8 time ESP National Champion who is brutally fast every time).

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Well, I was wrong... he did show up, but didn't run his car. Opie Viets brought his '84 3rd gen Camaro down from his region and ran with Madarash co-driving. And they ran Street Mod, in an earlier heat. Opie's car was similar to Mark's in many ways, and even had Madarsh's old double-adjustable Konis and some other parts of the set-up were the same. But it wasn't Mark's actual 3rd gen, and he told me this past week that it still needed some work. So yea, "I beat Madarash", technically, but it wasn't a real victory - it wasn't his car, running in the same class or heat. But.... I never get to say that much, so I gotta sneak it in whenever I can! :D

• PAX Results: http://texasscca.org/2012_solo_results/tr12_9_pax.htm
• Overall Results: http://texasscca.org/2012_solo_resul..._final.htm#ESP
• Photo and video gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...andall-110412/

Strangely I did place 2nd out of 112 in PAX, which was a first for this car. It was frakkin working WELL on those Kumhos!?! So Amy and I drove together in ESP and ran in the last heat of the day. Temperatures were mild all day and there was water on two parts of the course for everyone's runs. It was there in the morning and kept seeping up through some cracks in the concrete pad, so we all had to deal with it. Oh well, could have been in worse spots.

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The course was the same as two months ago for the first 1/4, then it had some tight turn-arounds with short acceleration zones coming out, with lots of tight TIGHT transitions. Walking the course I feared losing to street tired Miatas in STR or the narrow slalom buggies in STX, but luckily that didn't happen. Putting 2.5 seconds on STR and 4.5 seconds on STX was unusual for us, but it felt gooood. Even with a lot of tight stuff the big S197 did all right. :)

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Everything seemed to work well that day, for once. The shocks worked brilliantly, as always, but so did the brakes. No "ice mode" or lack of power assist, like the last time we ran here (we put in the 2nd replacement brake booster vacuum hose grommet before the NASA event). The tires were pretty cool all day, but we finally got some heat in them after our 4th runs, which seemed to help. With the new stiffer spring rates we added after the Solo Nationals, and the stiffer swaybar settings that seemed to work best in our private test, the car corners flatter and transitions violently.

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A nice surprise was Amy getting interviewed by a camera crew shooting for "Mobil1 The Grid". The interviewer even rode through with Amy and was all smiles after hopping out. They interviewed a half dozen racers so it might not "make the cut", but she put on some good runs and did great on camera, and the car looked and sounded great. She was a tenth off of Madarash's time, and a second quicker than the 3rd place ESP entrant, also a Solo Nationals veteran. The Mustang was just stinkin' FAST that day. So ... we will know if she made the cut when the show airs on Speed (or FoxSports1?) next March, I guess.

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An old college buddy and my current engine builder (HKRacing Engines), Erik Koenig, was in town delivering two LS1 engines to Vorshlag, so he stuck around and came to the autocross. We watched some of the event from atop the drag race bleachers then he rode through with me on three of my runs. He taught me most of what I know about autocrossing back from our TAMSCC college racing days, and was the first person I ever rode through with in an autocross run with on race tires - which totally ruined me, and led me to go to college at Texas A&M University in the first place! He used to race well against Madarash in ESP in the early 1990s, so he got to talk to him again after being away from the sport for the past decade. It was good to see him out again and I hope he gets one of his Mustangs back into autocross worthy shape soon. Big shout out to my buddy Ed from Pirtek, who came out to "crew" for Amy's and my runs. When you're driving with two folks in a small heat, with numbers to change, tires to check, shocks to tweak, passengers on every run, and a TV crew shooting video of all of that, this really helps - so thanks!

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Above is the in-car video from my fifth and best run. It had a huge mistake in one of the tight 180° turn-arounds, and I blew off the run after that. The right rear started spinning after that flub and I just matted the throttle, pissed off at my mistake, and just drove like an idiot to the finish. And dropped almost 9 tenths?! I am still scratching my head over that one. I guess all of my other runs were worse - and they all did have mistakes. I never claimed to be a good driver, but sometimes I luck into a good run. I didn't hit a cone all day and Amy was also pretty clean with only one cone, and we were stepping on cone bases. She managed 2nd in class and 11th in PAX, also a good placing for her.

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This was our last autocross planned for the year. We have lots to work on over the winter to this car, mainly turning it into a more track-worthy car, with the compromises of running "autocross and track and street" down to just "track and street only", as the 2013 GT is getting closer to ESP set-up. We have another set of coilovers on hand for the '13 (AST 4200RR), as well as a Watts Link kit (Whiteline, of course), and some other bits and pieces that we will show in that build thread (I will link it from here when I start it).

Preparation for Five Star Ford track day

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So that was two weeks ago and today we're prepping the 2011 GT for another track event. This is an informal HPDE put on by the Five Star Ford of Plano dealership where we got our '13 GT, and the dealer we got that car from is setting this up (Corey White). This is the same group that did this back in June. Weather for tomorrow looks nice and we should have 40-50 cars. Amy will be driving the '11 GT and Matt will be in his BRZ (which got 255 Hankook R-S3s on the 17x9" wheels, Carbotech brake pads, and an oil change today, too).

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One of the biggest changes to the '11 GT was a height reduction on the rear wing element. After hearing from several aero experts about the poor placement of our APR 3D wing element ("it doesn't work above the roofline!") we finally got around to shortening our custom built wing uprights. Ryan took 5 inches out of the height and the element now sits below the roof line.

Ryan, and our new tech that started this week Olof, got the Mustang and BRZ cleaned up, inspected, tires swapped, brake pads swapped, and the red car is being loaded into the trailer now. We will be out at Eagles Canyon bright and early tomorrow morning to put in some solid laps in both cars.

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The differential in the 2011 GT is fried again, so we'll order another carbon clutch pack rebuild kit from Ford and get that installed in the coming weeks. The left rear outer axle seal is weeping a tiny bit of fluid, so that needs to be changed. The next event for this car is another ECR track event December 8th - the annual "Toy Run" event.

2012 Mustang Boss 302-S Prep

During the week of Nov 5-9th we worked on American Iron racer Mark Smith's Boss 302-S race car here at Vorshlag. Figured I'd show this car, as it has some pretty cool parts and capabilities as delivered from Ford. I will show more on this car in a future post, too.

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After setting a track record at ECR in October, he brought the car to Vorshlag for some more tweaks, updates, and repairs. We had discussed some weight saving items we could tackle for a good 75+ pound drop in weight. American Iron runs with a power:weight formula, and the 302-S can run a variety of restrictors to go up and down in power. With a lower weight he can run less power, then add ballast to use a larger restrictor for more power at bigger tracks. Flexibility...

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The big update we made was a new custom mandrel bent exhaust, to replace the nearly stock parts that these cars come with. We left the stock exhaust manifolds in place, as much as it pained me, and concentrated on a lightweight, high flow race exhaust that included 16 gauge Stainless Steel mandrel bends, two 4" round Magnaflow stainless mufflers, and a custom X-merge, all made in-house here by our fab guru Ryan. The new system stopped just below the rear axle and the car dropped about 45 pounds - and picked up a lot of power.

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The entire system is tucked above the bottom of the frame rails and shouldn't ever scrape anywhere, unless it runs over something off track that only hits under the middle of the car. Ryan added heat shielding to the tunnel near the tips, built custom hangers with poly mount bushings, and it looks and sounds amazing.

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With the stock air filter/box in place and the stock exhaust manifolds, power jumped from 365 to 420 whp! The old number had a home-brew air restrictor in place, which was changed for a proper restrictor in the throttle body. LG Motorsports dyno'd the car with three different size restrictors and now it has 365 whp again, but a lot more torque than before. He can also run the car at three different weights now and has the dyno charts and restrictors needed for each AI legal set-up.

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Ryan built a custom bracket for this sub-3 pound battery Mark wanted to try - and the dang thing works! It charges fast and will start the car at least 5 times in a row with the same charge. Dropped 30 more pounds with this battery, and the old one can be swapped in quickly to add ballast or if the new wiz-bang battery craps out. New front wheel bearings, a strut repair, lots of clean-up work, new fluids in the diff/cool and trans/cooler, and a sound test rounded out our work for the week. Mark was very pleased with the car, the exhaust still managed to only blow 95 dB, and he did well at two races at NOLA last weekend.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...nce%2002-M.jpg
Video of the drive-by in the 302-S with a sound meter at 50 feet.

A rear main seal leak (that we warned him about) became worse in those two races at NOLA and a slipping clutch ended his weekend early, after the second race. He managed to secure 2nd overall in AI for the year for NASA Texas, so he was happy with that (he only ran about half of the races). Next year - look out! I suspect Mark's 302-S will likely win even more AI races.

Anyway... this quick post grew a bit! I better sign off and help get the trailer loaded. Until next time!

Project Update for Nov 30th, 2012: We had a track event in the Mustang since our last update and Amy set her new personal best lap at ECR. We've also finally modified the 2013 GT with real suspension bits, but that will be covered in that car's own thread. And after a considerable wait we finally have AST 4150s in stock for the S197 Mustang (and Vorshlag bought the entire order)!

Five Star Ford HPDE, ECR, Nov 17th

In our last project thread installment, we were preparing the 2011 GT for a Ford-centric track day at Eagles Canyon, our local 2.5 mile road course that is bumpy, but fun. This is where we do a majority of our testing and where Five Star Ford (a local Ford dealership - and where we bought our 2013 GT) had their first HPDE event back in June. This track is a brake intensive track, as I have mentioned before, and Amy drove the car exclusively all day and took the rear brake pads down to the backing plates. The pads were marginal when we got there and she still managed to get three HARD track sessions in before they started making racket and she brought it in.

Vorshlag Picture/Video gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...ar-ECR-111712/

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Our photo guru Brandon went with us and took some great pictures, and Ed from Pirtek Plano South joined us out there as well. Matt brought his BRZ with our camber plates, some fresh 255/40/17 R-S3 tires and Carbotech brake pads and was tearing it up as well. I came out to watch, ride along and instruct, and to maybe take a few laps in one of our cars. In the picture above, I was riding through with Amy and it looks like I am yelling, but I'm probably saying "Gas! Gas! Gas!", to try to push her to faster lap times.

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Ed and I (above right) got Amy's and Matt's cars ready, plus helped a few racers adjust camber or fix some small issues. I rode along with a number of other racers, including Matt in his BRZ, another FR-S driver Stephen F, and Amy in the '11 Mustang. After my ride along with me that day, plus Mike Patterson's in-car instruction from the NASA event in October, and maybe with some help from the new (more effective?) rear wing location, Amy lopped a second off her previous best lap to the tune of a 1:57.7.

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Click above for in-car video from Amy's 1:57.7 lap.

This was again a pretty cold day (50s), very similar to the NASA event the month before, and she was pushing her braking zones and using more of the track on both corner entry and exit. She gave ride-alongs to Ed, me, and event organizer and Five Star Ford super dealer Corey White. Everyone had a blast riding along, the spectators loved watching/hearing her car on track, and she had the fastest car on track that day by a good bit. But as one onlooker said, "It ain't got that whistle!" :D

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Vorshlag/AST tester Ken O and another Vorshlag/AST customer Jason had their E46 M3s out there in the Advanced group with Amy, both running Continental road race slicks (made by Hoosier). Ken normally runs 1:57s on Hoosier A6s, but could only get a best of 2:01 on these Conti's. I went out in a session in Matt's BRZ and had a BLAST, getting a 2:10.5 best after getting blocked on one of my few laps (AIM Solo showed a 2:09.5 predictive before that). Matt knocked off a 2:11.0, which was still damned quick especially since he hasn't been on track in about two years! That light, little RWD coupe is fun, with tons of grip and lots of brakes, but just very little power.

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At the end of the day, the rear brakes were finally used up and it looked like we had a rear axle seal leaking a little (it melted), so we loaded up the Mustang and headed home. Amy had a grin from ear to ear and couldn't wait to get back out on track! I think we've created a monster - if I could convince her to let us build her a W2W car, I would love to get her out there mixing it up with the AI boys. The next day I unloaded the car at the shop and went to buy a (basket case) '97 M3, for parts, then unloaded that, so it turned into an all around busy weekend.

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Repairs from ECR

So at this event the Porterfield front and rear brakes got used up, and then some. We already had a compromised pad set-up on the car, as we wanted to get rid of all of the rest of the Porterfield pads we had on hand, and Amy took care of that. The rears were to the backing plates and the fronts weren't much better off at day's end, but they were worn to begin with. On Monday after the event we swapped on some street pads, turned the rotors, and bled the system.

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We have mentioned the Porterfields brake pads in the past, and we have had decent results from them, but when Ryan and the crew have switched from track (R4) to autocross/street (R4S) pads, the pads coming off tend to crumble and fall apart. This has happened to three sets of pads, which each had more than 50% pad life left... we pulled them out of the caliper and the friction material crumbled, fell off the backing plates, and were then junk. This was getting ridiculous and expensive, so we have now switched to another brand. We had even worse luck on Hawk brake pads. Not knocking these brands, just didn't work well on the Mustang.

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Carbotech pads going on the '13 BRZ

Before the November 17th ECR event, we ordered some Carbotech pads (XP12 front, XP8 rear compounds) for Matt's BRZ. The pads themselves LOOKED really good - and yes, you can see quality differences in brake pads. After driving the BRZ myself for a session at that event, beating on the brakes relentlessly, and then seeing the lap times and data I logged on this car under braking (1.4g!), I am a believer. The Carbotech pads didn't fall apart or wear the rotors funny either, like the Porterfields have been.

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I liked Carbotechs so much we have since become a dealer. Now we have ordered their track pads for the 2011 and 2013 Mustangs and we'll see how these do next weekend. XP20 front and XP10 rear for the '11 (race tires, Brembos, ducting) and for the non-Brembo equipped (ugh) '13 we got XP12 front and XP10 rear (street tires, small 13.2" front brakes, stock power). We will see the results soon enough but I've had several American Iron racers tell me Carbotech were the best pads they have ever used. After seeing the results on the BRZ, I believe them.

So the '11 GT's front Brembo calipers have been rebuilt already, as the dust seals had burned and melted mostly away. They lasted almost two years under abusive braking on this FAT ASS car, at a lot of track and autocross events. After the latest ECR event, Ryan noticed the rear dust seals were melted, along with the caliper guide pin dust boots and rear axle seals. The rear calipers and guide pin dust seals have all been replaced and the rear axle seals will be swapped out for new ones next week, when we rebuild the Traction Lok differential once again. We debated going to a better aftermarket differential in the '11, but decided to "punt" on this decision (we won't race again until late January or early February) and instead ordered another $110 FRPP carbon clutch pack replacement kit. The '13 GT will get the better differential first (likely a T2-R), as it is more important for autocross use than on track.

AST 4150 Coilovers for S197 in Stock

After almost a year of waiting, they are here! The 4150 is a new shock model from AST that is a single adjustable monotube coilover strut/shock combination that we have been waiting for since late 2011. I won't bore you with all of the details, but the development and then initial production took longer than expected; the first sets arrived yesterday. I also won't bury you with too much sales talk, as you can see more details about the 4150 at this link.

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There I go over the history of the 4100, the changes to the 4150, and explain how Vorshlag helped in our small way to both develop and get these made. It turns out that Vorshlag was the only AST dealer who was patient enough and who believed in this product enough to put in the orders, and we just received all of the 4150s likely to be delivered in 2012. We have a number of S197 and BMW E36 models in stock, ready to ship.

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To allow for the maximum amount of travel in the rear of the S197, we had AST make the rear shocks completely different for us than what they normally do. We've tested these rear shocks three different ways and the configuration we went with allows for maximum total stroke and no in-board wheel interference. We keep the (replacement, coilover style) spring in the stock location, use some AST supplied adjustable rear spring height platforms, and machine our own Nylon adapters to make these platforms fit the S197 chassis. We're making these adapters in house now (I made the pair in the above left picture on our lathe yesterday) and supplying them with each 4150 kit at no additional cost. It is highly unlikely that you will see another AST dealer selling AST S197 shocks made to the Vorshlag spec.

Again, you can ready more about them in this link.

Prizes and Kudos

Just found out moments ago that our red 2011 Mustang won 1st Prize ($400) for the Street Prepared category in the "Black Magic Shine Awards" at the 2012 SCCA Tire Rack Solo National Championships. And can you blame them? That Mustang looks GOOD. :P

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Also received all of the prizes from the Global Time Attack event at TMS. Ken O picked up my Ducati Limited edition Oakley Sunglasses, which are pretty sweet (below, left).

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We also won a $300 Whiteline product credit at GTA for the class win, which I put towards another Watts Link kit for my 2013 Mustang GT. They also made this video (click here or above, right) where they interviewed me at the GTA event, which they showed in their 2012 SEMA booth on a loop. Pretty cool surprise, even if I look like a bog dork on film.


What's Next?

We have another track event December 8th at Eagles Canyon Raceway once again, but this will certainly be our last track event of 2012. We are taking four cars out there this time: the 2011 GT, the 2013 GT (with a full "Stage 1" AST/Whiteline/Vorshlag suspension installed), Matt's 2013 Subaru BRZ and the 1998 Firebird ChumpCar for its maiden track voyage. This is their annual "Toy Run" event, which the owners of ECR hold in December of each year to raise money and get toys and foods for charity. It is also very very affordable for the racers: $50 + a $10 unwrapped toy + 2 canned food items. As you can expect, it brings out a LOT of people, and many of them are new to track events, or are autocrossers. We go to the Toy Run event every year and ALWAYS have a blast, seeing lots of friends that are track junkies and cone punchers alike. If you are in Dallas, come join in the fun!

MORE INFO........
Contact: Maggie Williams
Organization: Eagles Canyon Raceway
Link: www.eaglescanyon.com
e-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: 817-992-9774

We also have been modifying our 2013 Mustang GT with what we are calling our "Stage 1" track setup. This car is now equipped with all of the most important bits we recommend in our "S197 Mustang Handling Guide" (which will be published soon). See details below.

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Vorshlag S197 Stage 1 Suspension Set-up: AST monotube adjustable coilover dampers, stiffer rate coilover springs and a lower ride height; Vorshlag camber/caster plates and upper spring perches; Whiteline Watts Link kit; adjustable front sway bar; Vorshlag/D-Force lightweight 18x10" wheels mounted with 295/35/18 Nitto NT05 tires; Carbotech brake pads. All told this is about $6000 in parts, but it makes a HUGE difference in on-track performance. Ideally this car would have the 14" front Brembos but we are eventually turning this into an autocross-only car, so the big brakes were skipped on purpose. Anyone tracking an S197 would be FOOLISH to not get the 14" Brembos.

This set-up is 100% street friendly, with a great ride that should even get the "wife approved" status. Notice - we have made NO power mods to this Mustang at this stage. The 5.0L equipped S197s already makes 380 whp bone stock, so adding more power should not be in your first round of modifications to these cars. It will only make the car harder to drive until you step-up to larger R compound rubber. Ask me how I know this. Of course nobody listens to that, and modifies for more power first... Oiy! ;)

We will run my black 2013 GT equipped as shown above next weekend at ECR. With a data logger and on-board video we will see how much improvement (if any) we have made over the "baseline" set-up we ran in October (which was these wheels/tires + camber plates only, with a best of 2:07 laps). The Vorshlag crew is also going to be driving Cadillac CTS-Vs at COTA on December 7th - the new Formula 1 track in Austin - the day before the ECR event. Should be another fun weekend!

More soon,

Wow, those are some pretty extreme weight saving mods. Let me address them each in order:

• The K-member is not allowed in almost any SCCA racing class so we didn't look at this. I have installed tubular K-members on several Mustangs and they are not a perfect, no-compromise mod. The suspension geometry is often altered in these, and if the unit is built for weight savings (drag racing) it can even have more deflection under load than the stock steel piece. The road race versions are often only 10-20 pounds lighter, which isn't much considering their price, complexity, and time to install.
• A CF trunk is also a costly one, and wouldn't work at all with any sort of wing mounted to it like we run on track. You would then need to brace the wing all the way down to the frame, adding structure and weight along the way. And CF trunk wasn't legal for the racing class we used to run in this car (SCCA ESP) so we couldn't do it. Now we could, but it is a costly mod for the weight lost.
• CF Tunnel? What the.... you mean they cut out the stamped steel unibody floor and bolt or bond some CF replacement in there??? That sounds like a nightmare on many levels. First, you would lose all sorts of structural rigidity. I suspect this is for fully caged race cars only. That isn't at all what we have.
• Lighter axles would probably mean weaker, too. Sure, you can probably get a gun drilled axle as strong as stock, but at what cost?

Yes, the rear seat is under 28 pounds.

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Seat belt hardware is also around 8 for a total weight loss potential of 35 pounds. But removing the rear seat adds a TREMENDOUS amount of rear axle and road noise. It kind of sucks on a street driven car. Have been driving my 2013 GT like this for 2 months and it sucks.

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And mounting a tire to a narrower than optimal wheel is "possible", it isn't great for performance. Squeezed tires don't sit square on a narrow wheel, and the actual tread section gets cupped up on the ends, effectively making the tire narrower in use than it really is. The 315mm tire mounted to the 18x11" wheel (front) is even a bit squeezed compared to when it is mounted on the 18x12" wheel (rear).

Cheers,

Quick Update for Jan 18, 2013: I've been waiting for something to be published before I posted again, so I'll hold off on a big thread update for maybe another week or two. A lot has been going on in the background.

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NASA Time Trial classes had a bit of a shake-up for 2013 but it was only minor tweaks and things worked out in our favor, for a change. We've gone from TTS (now called TT2) essentially down one class to TTA (now TT3), and we can run now run this car at the limit of the power to weight ratio. No more "well, it was overweight/underpowered", it is maxed out. Apparently this new mix-up has made TT3 the most popular class, at least for this first NASA Texas event. We have 9 cars signed up in the TT3 class, so far.

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We're loading up the trailer right now to take the red 2011 Mustang down to the NASA Texas event at MSR-Houston later today for races on Saturday and Sunday. Amy and I are splitting up the driving duties over both days. Will post a much more detailed pre-/post-race report when we get back. Well, then I'm flying to New Orleans for a couple days to drive on some new BFGoodrich tires, so it might be late next week or the following. Hoping to get some good intel on this new "Rival" street tire they are making (for autocrossers and track guys that need a 200+ treadwear tire) as well as bend the ear of tire engineers about the R1 and R1-S race tires.

More soon,

Project Update for January 29, 2013 : We have a lot of ground to cover on the S197 Mustang thread. so look for several updates over the next week or two. Our last real S197 thread update was in November, and a LOT has happened behind the scenes since then - with respect to future competition in our 2011 and 2013 GT's in SCCA Solo ESP for 2013, plus several track events. We will also cover the new NASA TT3 classing and our first 2013 competition (with a track record + double-win), a track event in December with both of our S197s, the whole Watts Link/SCCA debacle, a new shock/spring set-up we've been testing on S197s, and then the BFGoodrich Rival tire launch event that I attended, where I got to test with four different types of cars and seven types of tires at the NOLA Motorsport park, including FR500S Mustangs (former Miller Cup cars). This set of updates will be broken up into multiple thread posts over the next several days, otherwise it will be too long and I won't get any sleep - and I've been on the road, racing various cars for four of the last five days, then sick with a stomach bug, so I'm beat. Let's back up and start with the preparation on the 2013 GT before the December track event first...

2013 GT Coilover Shock Install

The last time we took the 2013 Mustang to ECR, it was on the OEM shocks and springs and the handling was "frightening", to say the least. The car was hopping and flopping around, like a fish out of water. Lots of lean, roll, dive, and all that bad stuff we are used to on OEM sprung/damped S197s. Our long term plans at the time still included SCCA E-Street Prepared class preparations, but we would still do a track event or two before we got too far down the rabbit hole of autocross-only modifications.

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Obviously a big improvement we could tackle that worked for both autocross and track use was to add our normal monotube adjustable coilover upgrade. Since Vorshlag sells AST and Moton monotubes, plus some others, we had several options that would work. We picked up some AST double adjustable coilovers with remote reservoirs for an S197 (AST 4200-RR), a custom test set made by AST-USA for a former employee. These were built with racing style "eye-to-eye" rear shocks, just like the Motons on our 2011 GT. On this car, however, I wanted to keep them "pin" style on top, to allow for the rebound knob to be located in the trunk for easy rebound changes (see above, left). An eye-to-eye shock tends to have the rebound knob located under the trunk floor and, like in the case of our Moton CS shocks on the 2011 GT, we have to remove a rear wheel to adjust rebound. It is a hassle, and that adjustment almost never gets tweaked. so we end up using the same setting for street and track use (which is a shame). So we asked AST-USA to re-work the rear shock shafts to have a traditional top pin and used it with the OEM style shock mount. They swapped out the shafts and adjusters to our favored eye lower/pin upper style and now the rebound knob is easy to access.

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Once these were built to our liking, Vorshlag fabricator Ryan fashioned some reservoir mounts for the rear shocks, and cut holes in the trunk floor "spare tire well" to route the reservoirs through without disconnecting the hoses (which is a PITA) - just like on the 2011 GT. I asked him to tweak the angle of the reservoirs to be able to see the knobs easier from behind, which he did. The reservoirs were mounted into the spare tire well using the 2-piece "Seals-It" brand grommets to make this hole water tight. He mocked-up the seals with temporary Clecos, then used small machine bolts and nuts to hold them in place. If the shocks need to be removed from the car, the 2-piece grommets can be unbolted then the reservoir can slide right through the now open hole... no mess, no fuss. The other mounting/routing option for shock reservoir hoses is to drill much smaller holes/grommets and add (very costly) quick-disconnects on each shock line. Even then you still have to bleed off the Nitrogen charge before disconnecting the hoses, and re-fill the N2 when reinstalling. We feel this "big hole/2-piece grommet" arrangement is easier to deal with in the long run, and it is less expensive - but there are a dozen ways to skin this cat.

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The front struts were not that unusual, being a typical non-inverted 22mm shaft monotube with rebound knobs on the strut shaft top and the compression knobs on the remote reservoirs (just like the rears). The hoses were long enough to route underneath the inner fender structure and mount the reservoirs just about anywhere in the engine bay. Ryan made some additional reservoir brackets for the front struts, but unlike our 2011 GT this car still had the factory airbox in place (everything is still bone stock under hood, for the lower 380 whp output). This meant we couldn't mount the reservoirs in the same place as on the '11 (which was blocked on this car by the giant OEM airbox), so we thought about it and placed them vertically in the airstream behind the headlights.

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Shock reservoirs need to shed heat when they are working (they turn motion into heat), so we always try to keep them cool. Mounting them so that they get cool air from the front end seemed like the best idea. This location doesn't "show them off" as well as elsewhere, but so be it. I've seen some racers place remote shock reservoirs near the worst sources of under hood heat - like above a turbocharger (I've even done this myself) - but you really have to think about where you mount these things to keep them cool. A boiling hot reservoir will not allow the shock to perform nearly as well as one that stays closer to ambient temperature.

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As you can see in the "Before and After" shots above, the ride height on the 2013 GT is significantly lowered, with the front dropping 1.25" and the rear dropping nearly 1.75". This gets ride of the huge front-down rake these cars come with and lowers the CG significantly. The spring rates we used were somewhat mild, with 450#/in in front and 225 #/in in the rear. This makes for a very decent ride on the street, but still a sizable bump in spring rates over stock, for better track handling (well, at least the front rates). See the updated spring charts below for the base 2013 GT OEM springs, the 2011 "Brembo GT" OEM springs, and the '07-08 Shelby GT spring rates (equipped with the FRPP M-5300-P springs).


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Click the charts above for larger image... LEFT: 2013 Base GT. CENTER: 2011 "Brembo" GT. RIGHT: M-5300-P/'07-08 Shelby GT.

Since I first posted several OEM S197 Mustang spring rate tests, we noted two problems: first, we weren't compressing the springs nearly far enough. We were barely getting them compressed enough to even approach static ride height. So we upgraded our digital spring rater to a new "ram" to allow for 15" of spring compression vs the 4.5" it came with, which let us test over a wider range. These newly tested Mustang spring rates then become much more linear as we tested them over a wider displacement range. Second there was an error in our calculations for "rate at compressed height" that has also been fixed in our default spreadsheet. The measured force numbers never changed, just how we were showing them (rate of rate change vs rate at position). Sorry for the confusion.

So as you can see, we've upped the front spring rate considerably more than the rear on this car once again, which we have found - from a lot of coilover testing - works better with an S197, both on track and on the street. The bigger rate increase up front cuts down on brake dive, body roll and camber loss under cornering forces. It also reduces understeer caused by bottoming out of the front suspension. This 450#/in spring also makes the car transition much faster than with the ~100 #/in rates. Luckily the adjustable AST monotubes do a fine job of managing the 4.5 times increase in front rate. You won't see OEM-lowering springs in this spring rate range because the typical shocks these are used on (OEM style) cannot deal with those spring rates.

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ECR Toy Run - Dec 8th, 2012

People sometimes wonder why we are based in Texas... "Your summers are so hot!", they say. And while we DO have 2-3 months of a little heat (okay, a lot of heat), we have 12 months of racing every year. This allows us to race and test every month, and we don't have an "off season" huddled away from the cold with nothing to drive. Sure, we had a couple of snow days around the holidays, but nothing that prevented us from missing a track day or autocross.

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Vorshlag picture gallery for ECR Toy Run - http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...un-ECR-120812/

So, we were racing in December and back on track again a few weeks later in January, like we do every year. I wrote about the December 8th ECR "Toy Run" event twice already: in part three of my December 28th post in the BRZ Project Thread and in my December 20th update on our Firebird ChumpCar project thread - some of which I have re-inserted here. All of us at Vorshlag had gone down to Austin and driven Cadillac CTS-Vs all day the previous day (Friday) at the new Circuit of the Americas F1 track. That event was a TOTAL BLAST, but when we finished we bombed back up to Dallas, grabbed the Vorshlag race trailer, grabbed McCall's truck and trailer to tow the ChumpCar, and drove two more cars to Eagles Canon Raceway before dawn for Saturday's annual "Toy Run" open track event. We got there and stacked our trucks, trailers and cars in a big clump and set up shop.

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With four cars on hand we were a little busy - luckily we had Pirtek Ed there to help "crew chief" all of us (shown above talking to me in the black '13). He wrangled the five drivers and four cars and kept us all going all day, so... thanks Ed! Matt brought his BRZ, we brought the 2011 Mustang and Amy drove it all day, and I drove our 2013 GT on the new AST 4200-RR coilovers. Two of my racing buddies (McCall and Magyar) and I are also building a ChumpCar using a V6 4th gen Firebird and we ran it for the first time that day. Since this was a charity event, they asked the instructors to take passengers for ride-alongs at $5 a pop, and for $10 donated we would ride-along with anyone and "instruct". Between me and about 7 other instructors we raised an extra $600 that was given to a local food shelter, and we gave some kick ass rides to people in some quick-ass cars. I lost count of how many times I went out on track in the '13 and the ChumpCar, or in other people's cars (I drove a GT500 Mustang at one point), but it was a LONG and busy day. Too much fun!

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Our 1998 Firebird V6 has been dubbed "F-Turd"... luckily it ran great.

The ambient temps were much colder than the November lapping day and Amy's and some others' lap times were a solid 1-1.5 seconds off their times at the Ford event, when the weather was a bit more favorable. Still, our black 2013 GT, which we base-lined in November, was a solid FOUR SECONDS faster with nothing changed other than the coilover shocks & springs (which were still pretty damned soft at 450F/225R). The same Vorshlag camber plates, same D-Force 18x10" wheels and 295mm Nitto NT-05 street tires, and same bloke behind the wheel (me). I have taken many hundreds of laps at this track since 2008 and wasn't "learning the line", but instead felt like I was wringing every millisecond out of this car. We went from a 2:07.7 to a 2:03.3. A keen observer will note that this 2013 GT, with no aero, bone stock power and the exact same set of wheels/tires, was faster than our 2011 GT was in June at the Optima Challenge event. A lot of that is probably the difference in temperature, but a lot of it was the fact that the car was easier to drive with less power. These Coyote 5.0 engines have plenty of go in stock form, so we would suggest upgrading the suspension, tires, wheels and brakes long before you start throwing more power at your track Mustang. Nobody listens to that, of course. ;)

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This was a pretty good suspension test, in my opinion. We know this track well and we ran this same car with the same set-up minus the shocks/springs a month earlier. Not only did we drop four seconds on a two minute lap, but we took the car from a bucking, portly pig that was rolling and brake diving and porpoising around this somewhat bumpy track and turned it into a calm, flat cornering car that was nothing like the OEM suspension'd Mustang any longer. I cannot repeat this enough: a bump in spring rate along with proper monotube adjustable coilovers will completely TRANSFORM these cars. The shocks that Ford installs are equivalent to $50/corner Autozone specials. Even the "adjustable" shocks that come on the Boss 302 LS are not good at all - Tokico adjustables are only a small step above the Autozone fare that comes on the GT's. The longer you run on track the more the performance in twin tube shock degrades in handling, as well.

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Of course I couldn't resist a little hooning for the cameras... with the stock 380 whp, it's just too easy!

It isn't so much about how many adjustments the shocks have, or the reservoirs, but the type of damper being used. Monotubes are technically superior to twin tubes in every performance measurement, and their MUCH larger pistons can react to bumps much more rapidly and effectively. They tend to have more of an adjustment range and can deal with a wider spectrum of spring rates. We didn't make this a gut busting, over-sprung race car set-up (450F/225R), but instead mildly improved the front rates and kept the rear rates nearly stock. At the same time we lowered the car 1.25" or more at each corner, for a flatter "stance" and a lower Center of Gravity - which directly improves cornering grip. The lower ride height added negative camber, as it always does on McPherson strut cars, and this also helped improve front grip and lower front tire wear.

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Andy Hollis giving the point-by from his OLOA race prepped CRX to Amy's '11 Mustang GT.

Amy had fun in the red Mustang and ran a bunch of 1:58 laps, sometimes with a string of 3 or 4 in a row within two tenths. Just couldn't get back down to the 1:57's she ran at the ECR event in November. These old Hoosier tires are just dead, and have "compounded out". We used and abused these for GTA, lots of autocrossing, and multiple track days. They still have tread left, and the wear is perfectly flat across the tread, but they are just getting ... slower. :( And we still used these same tires at the NASA event at MSR-Houston in January. Just like most folks, we have a fixed racing budget that isn't unlimited, so sometimes we gotta win some tires to get new ones. The rest of the car was flawless and the Carbotech brakes were phenomenal once again. The twice-rebuilt TractionLok differential is utterly gone but again, we need the budget to recover before dropping $700+ on a Torsen T2-R. Meh, we can deal with some imperfection - this is a stick axle pony car after all. :)

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Matt had an uneventful, but fun day in the BRZ. We luckily didn't have anything explode, fall off or catch on fire in the ChumpCar Firebird. It was a big hot mess, and we uncovered some new issues in this fiurst track outing, but we made it through five sessions and three drivers and still drove it onto the trailer for the ride home. The 2013 GT suspension test was great and the 2011 GT was flawless all day. Overall, this ECR Toy Run event was a lot of fun and a very informative test. I have to thank the ECR track owners for putting this much-discounted event on for the 5th year in a row, and thanks also to Brad Flak for corralling the drivers and instructors. As usual, the Toy Run's ultra-low price tag attracted many first time track enthusiasts, including many local autocrossers. Hopefully this exposure to road course driving gets them a little more hooked on doing HPDE events. This worked in the past for myself and many other fellow (and many former-) SCCA autocrossers, like Vorshlag tester KenO - who was a blur around the track all day (above right and below left).

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Another Vorshlag tester, and BMWCCA LSR president MarkW, was also on hand in his 1M (above, right), pushing his Vorshlag 1M camber plates and finally wearing front tires flat instead of chunking the shoulders. You 1M owners can thank Mark for the Vorshlag 1M camber plates. His constant stream of camera phone pics showing torn up front tire edges spurred the production of the OEM perches that make this fitment possible.

D-Force 18x10" S197 Wheel In Stock

Back by popular demand is the 5x114.3 bolt circle 18x10" D-Force Racing lightweight wheel. This ET43 offset wheel fits both the S197 Mustang and GR chassis Subaru STI without spacers. There are dozens of sets in stock in both Silver and Flat Black colors. These may not last too long, like last time, and will probably sell out before the next batch arrives. If you want a set, you can of course order them through Vorshlag. Thanks!

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That's all we have on this December ECR event and the prep leading up to it, but I have a lot more writing to do to get caught up on this S197 thread. We have several more posts for this thread coming soon, so stay tuned for more.

Project Update for February 2, 2013: This thread update covers the first 2013 NASA Texas race weekend we attended in the red Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT. This January event is always held down south of Houston, but is sometimes plagued by poor weather (rain or cold). I was going to skip this event, but peer pressure worked and pushed both me and Amy to attend. I'm glad we did - the weather turned out to be extremely nice and we had a total BLAST running the red 2011 GT in the new TT3 class.

I will back up a bit and talk in more detail about the classing tweaks that NASA made for 2013, which I hinted at in an earlier post in this thread. This is the first significant classing change that I have noticed in TT since we started running this series in 2008. It looks bigger than it really is, as most of the changes were mostly to the class letters/nomenclature, but there were some substantial changes to TTA (now TT3).


2013 NASA TT Class Updates - Letter vs Number Classes

None of what is written below is official or approved by NASA, just our overview and interpretation of their rules. Don't take our word for it - read the rules yourself if you want to learn how to class your car for NASA TT. These rules only span 54 pages and only parts of that will even apply to a given entry. If you get mired up in the classing though, don't worry - we're here to help. Matt and I at Vorshlag have helped class hundreds of new folks into NASA TT. We have our own "class configurator" that is normally more up-to-date than the one's NASA makes. Shoot us an e-mail and we can help get your car classed, free of charge: info (at) vorshlag (dot) com, with a subject of "Help with NASA TT Classing". We can help with SCCA Solo classing as well, but that might involve substantially more tortured logic. ;)

2013 NASA Time Trial Rules: http://www.nasaproracing.com/rules/time_trial_rules.pdf

NASA classes each Time Trial car into a "base class" and gives it a "base race weight with driver". Each base class has a "base tire width". Some cars have handicap points in their base class, denoted by one or two "stars". One star = +7 penalty points and two stars = +14 penalty points. Then modifications each cost "points", and you get 19 points to play with before you bump up a class. Running below your base race weight costs points (but heavier gains you points back). Running more tire width than your base size costs you points (but narrower gains you points back). The points for parts eats up most of your allotment, but whatever you change you can never violate the power-to-weight limit for a class. It sounds confusing, and it kind of is... but only because it is so unconventional. But this type of classing is also liberating, fun to explore, and competitors can "bench race" set-ups with different mods to play with their 19 points in class. Or you can go buck-wild and use more than 19 points and bump up a class... then you get a total of 39 points (or more) to play with. Make sense? You can keep adding mods or lowering weight or adding power to keep your car at the competitive limit for each up-class jump you make. This is how the new "letter" classes work (TTB-TTF)

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Vorshlag built entries for NASA TTD and TTA classes.

Our Intro to NASA Time Trial article, circa 2008: http://www.vorshlag.com/tech_timetrials.php

This means you can have a Miata with wild aero, sticky Hoosiers, and a supercharger racing against a nearly stock E46 M3. And oddly enough, it works, as there is always the power-to-weight element... measured horsepower and measured weight reign everyone in. There are not "categories" to jump up, and anything can eventually be classed with almost anything else, if a given car gets modified radically enough.

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In 2012, beyond TTA were the top three classes which were always strictly power to weight based, with no more points to play with. I now call these the "number classes", but in 2012 they were TTS, TTU, and TTR. There are "modifiers" you can exploit, to get you a little more power or a little less weight, if you have say... a 4 door vs a 2 door, or use a 275mm or narrower tire, etc. Otherwise it is strictly power to weight based. When we first started racing our 2011 Mustang in TT (see above), it was in TTB, but since it came with the Brembo brakes (+2), no decklid spoiler (+4), and the CS front lip (+3), we had very few points left to use. If we had added R compound tires and any exhaust mods the car would be easily into TTA and then even into TTS on points alone, due to the SCCA class allowances and rules we were focusing on (STX then ESP). We ran a few TT events with our STX set-up and it was difficult to manage the the narrow-ish street tires (just like it was in autocross!), but our ESP set-up with 315mm Hoosiers or Kuhmo race tires worked pretty well, but bumped us clear up into TTS. We almost won the November ECR TTS class, until a TTU car bumped down their power and ran quicker and beat us. Oh well, we were still too heavy and/or underpowered for TTS, nowhere near the power to weight limit. It was what it was... we were building our car around SCCA rules and letting the TT classing fall where it may. Other than adding the transponder, a brake pad and rear aero change, our Mustang was still set-up around ESP autocross rules for most of the 2012, even when run at NASA events.

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Let's look at the old vs new classes in NASA TT, of which there are still 9 classes total. Nine classes, not 427 classes, like in SCCA Solo. Just sayin'. Anyway, most classes had little to no change other than a more clear naming style (numbered classes are power to weight only, letter classes are still points based). Here are the changes from 2012 to 2013, mostly affecting just one class...

NASA TT Classing - Name and Ratio Changes
2012 ... 2013
TTR -> TTU (Unlimited Wt/Hp)
TTU -> TT1 (5.50:1 Wt/Hp)
TTS -> TT2 (Was 8.70:1 Wt/Hp but went to 8.00:1 Wt/Hp)
TTA -> TT3 (Was 8.70:1 Wt/Hp but went to 9.00:1 Wt/Hp) For TT3 only, non-OEM Aero is a 0.5 modifier (in effect requiring 9.50:1 Wt/Hp).
TTB - 10.25:1 Wt/Hp
TTC - 12.00:1 Wt/Hp
TTD - 14.25:1 Wt/Hp
TTE - 16.50:1 Wt/Hp
TTF - 19.50:1 Wt/Hp

As you can see, before there was some overlap with TTS and TTA both having the same 8.7:1 power to weight ratio. But TTA - TTF were still all "points" based as well as power to weight, whereas TTS was only power to weight. Modifications in TTS were relatively unlimited, with those modifiers for certain limitations. So in reality TTS and TTA had very similar on-track performance. Now with the new TT2 and TT3 ratios and the removal of points based modifiers, they have effectively made the difference between TT2 and TT3 more significant and it creates more places to run your car, and more time difference between the two classes.

In order to keep it interesting in TT3, they also let you choose between a 9:1 and a 9.5:1 ratio. If you keep "stock aerodynamics" you can go with the more attractive 9:1 ratio, but if you want wings, splitters or other aero changes you get the 9.5:1. Still lots of room to tweak and play ... and bench race. And since we are in TT3 now, we get to strategize and play with more aero vs more power. Kind of looking forward to testing this.

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As you saw in my last "mini-post", we went with TT3 and we chose the 9.5:1 ratio with alternate aero. Hard to give up the big rear wing and front splitter after you've tried it. We had to add a few pounds, but with our most recent dyno of 424 whp, and the +.6 modifier for running over 3750 pounds with driver, we were able to get a race weight of 3775 lbs, with driver. Here's the math.

3775 lbs / 424 whp = 8.903 pounds per hp... +.6 modifier (for running over 3750 lbs) = 9.503:1

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So we were ready for TT3 and maxed out on the power-to-weight. How would we fare at MSR-Houston? Honestly, I didn't have high hopes. We would be running heavier than ever, and I don't know that track well. I've driven it twice before, but once was in the rain on street tires at stock power levels and the second time was last year at TX2K12, where we had massive tire problems (some used Hoosiers I brought kept popping internal cords and coming apart) and still nowhere near the preparation level the car had in mid-2012 to now. There were nine people signed up in TT3, the biggest TT class so far, and I was hoping to crack the top three if I put in a good run. The old TTA track record for MSR-H CW was a 1:44.3, but I couldn't remember what we ran there before going this direction. The tires we were taking were dead though, so I was very unsure of the performance potential. We were also going to share the car, with me driving one day and Amy the next, so we would only get about four sessions each. Time would tell...


NASA @ MSR-Houston, January 19-20th, 2013

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NASA ran MSR-Houston's 2.38 mile course Clockwise this race weekend.

After making some new number and sponsor/product graphics for the 2011 Mustang GT, we loaded up the trailer and Brandon (Vorshlag's uber-photographer), Amy, and I left Dallas on Friday afternoon and towed 5 hours to the south end of Houston. We arrived at the track late, unhooked the trailer in the pitch dark, and headed to the hotel a solid 20 miles away.

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Sunday, Race Day One

Next morning we got in before dawn, unloaded the Mustang and went to tech to get our 2013 Annual Tech sticker and renew our logbook ($10 for the year). We had NASA decals to apply, two transponders to mount and test, and a hundred other things. It was quite chilly, with temps in the low 40s, but the weather outlook was warming for the afternoon and predicted to be warmer still on Sunday.

Vorshlag photo gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...ouston-011913/

The guys from Evo-Dynamics brought four EVOs and a GTR down from Dallas and hung out with us at the Vorshlag trailer all weekend (see our "foggy paddock" above). We had shade, lots of chairs, and lots to drink. Lots of fun was had with these guys all weekend, both on track and off. That's half the fun of a NASA race weekend - hanging out with fellow competitors and friends between race sessions, shooting the bull, bench racing, talking a little smack, and having fun.

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The morning was pretty hectic for me, as I was both competing in Time Trial as well as instructing, which meant I had to go to three meetings that morning: instructors (missed it!), Time Trial and HPDE, to meet my students. I had an HPDE2 student driving in a beautiful and well prepped Porsche Cayman S. I rode along with her for three sessions then picked up a 2nd student later that day and Sunday.

I was so rushed that morning that I forgot to turn on my transponder in my first TT session, which meant I got no time. Normally that's not a big deal, as the first TT session on Saturday in NASA Texas doesn't count for competition, just for gridding. So this meant I was at the back of the grid, mired in slower traffic, for all of TT session two. Never got even a remotely a clear lap, but was quick enough to move up to grid position 10 out of 44, based on those session two times. Then in TT session three I was quickest of the group, which was mainly because the TT1 guys sat out, which moved me up to P2 in TT session four. So surely now I could get a clean lap or two without traffic...

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Click above to watch in-car video of two laps in TT session four, in 1080P.

So TT session four wound up being perfect for getting fast laps, eventually. After chasing John Gross' TT1 C6 Z06 for part of the first lap, I watched him take the "agricultural line" into the Diamond's Edge corner, while I was giving Josh's TT2 car a point-by. Diamond's Edge is a tricky, fast corner where I enter in 5th gear, tap the brakes at the brake markers, turn in, let the car corner hard, then get back on the gas and brake for the tight 2nd gear corner at the end of the sequence. Then you touch three curbs through a wiggle at the end and accelerate back down another long straight. There is a lot of time to be made or lost into the braking zone in this corner sequence and John just got a little overzealous. He wasn't the only one using more than the track allowed that weekend, but luckily I didn't add my name to that list.

Saturday Results: http://www.nasatx.com/resultspoints/...aturday_TT.pdf

Old track records for MSR-H (CW is slower than CCW): http://www.nasa-tt.com/Texas_Track_R...6_articleid/11

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Of course, there was no contact or crashes of any kind in any TT session (there never is), and the only real carnage was John's ZR1 splitter (now a "6 piece unit") and a couple EVO motors were served up to the Gods of Boost. Some dirt and grass was killed, but nothing bad. There were a lot of E46 M3s in TTB (and one that got bumped to TT3), with KenO leading the pack once again, but winning by a mere tenth of a second over Allan Page. Three of these M3 racers all run the same AST 4200/Vorshlag camber plate set-up and a 4th entrant has our plates - and he wants shocks. All of these M3's are driven to the track and are still street cars. Very cool.

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So my fourth session went well and I got a couple of clean laps, finally. After chasing Josh for two laps, I busted off a 1:42.1 and 1:41.5 laps, then caught the back of the field and came in after four laps. The tires were DONE and I didn't want to risk a spin and get a DSQ for the session. So when I came off track I was told to head to the tech shed for a weighing. No problem, I should be fine. Errr... the fuel level was lower than I had planned and I missed weight. Damn! That DSQ'd the session, but my times from previous sessions (1:42.0) were still fast enough for a class win, still with a nice margin and new track record. We went and re-weighed a few times that afternoon and added enough extra ballast in the car to be legal for Amy on Sunday. We overshot by 50 extra pounds, "just in case".

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Josh Dunn was fast in his EVO running in TT2, and he and I swapped best times with each other all day on Saturday, with Josh's TT2 drive edging me out by tenths at the end of the first day (and he went faster still on Sunday). At the end of the day's racing, there was a great banquet by the NASA folks and everyone stuck around to eat, drink, and hang out. There were trophies presented to last year's regional class champions, based on points earned over the 2012 season. Then we hit the hotel and crashed.

Sunday, Race Day Two

Each new day on a NASA weekend makes for a new Time Trial competition event, so all of our times on Saturday were now thrown out (except for grid placement in session one) and we had to start the day anew. Four more TT sessions were available to shoot for our best lap time in class. Amy was to drive the Mustang in three of those four sessions, under her new car number "197" this day (S197... 197... get it?), so I made sure her transponder was charged and mounted, and my wired unit was turned OFF during her sessions. To make sure there were a minimum of seven drivers in TT3 class for Sunday (to help "make the class" for better contingency payouts) I was going to hop in for one TT session, unless she was really on fire and wanted the car all to herself.

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Joe D's 2013 Mustang Boss 302 Leguna Seca.

Since I wasn't racing for most of the day I took on another student and worked with a customer/friend of ours in his 302 Leguna Seca. He made big strides and we bumped him up to HPDE3 by day's end, with HPDE4/TT probably only a couple of weekends away. In order to show the line to another student, I took the Mustang out in an HPDE3 session and made some 8/10ths laps, which he enjoyed immensely. Amy was struggling with grip and was mired in the 1:45s all day, with most of her laps only tenths of a second different from each other.

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Mike P taking it 2-wide into Turn 17 during an AI race.

I spent most of my time Sunday as Amy's "track b!tch", or so she named me. ;) It was nice to spectate a bit and I got to watch some insane American Iron and CMC battles in their race group. Mike Patterson was "super-sized" and ran in both Time Trial and American Iron, with a 3rd in TT3 on Sat and 4th on Sunday, plus a win in AI on Sunday as well. Not bad for his first event since he returned from some mid-season repairs last season - congrats!

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Sean Farrah (above left) was having a ball in his Scion FR-S, running in TTE (he normally races in a TT2 classed 350Z) with the new Enkei 17x9" wheels and some mild suspension tweaks. He placed a respectable 4th in TTE in his relatively stock FT86, only a couple of seconds back from class leader Ken Brewer. It was good to also see Pranav Patel (above right) in his LT1 powered 4th gen Camaro for the first time on track. This future CMC car did well that day and he was working on getting his comp license, running in HDE3.

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Left: We were quick enough to be gridded in P1 in a number of TT sessions. Right: Taking Amy for some recon laps on Saturday morning.

Like I said, Amy was struggling with learning the track and kept complaining about low grip. So when I went out in TT session three, I quickly found out what she meant - the tires, which had already seen a long hard life, had really degraded on Day Two. My best lap was a 1:42.536, fully 1 second slower than Saturday. I had clear track and felt like I had put in a good lap, but the car just wouldn't corner in the higher speed sweepers (Turns 2, 6 and 7) or transitional sections (Turns 8 through 13). Oh well, we got our money's worth and then some out of this set of tires.

Sunday TT Results: http://www.nasatx.com/resultspoints/..._Sunday_TT.pdf

Still managed a class win with 7 entrants on Sunday, which should be good enough for two more tires, for a total of four Hoosiers for the weekend. Can't wait to get these mounted up before MSR-Cresson event March 16-17th, where I think we are running the 3.1 mile course again (which merges the 1.7 and 1.3 mile courses for a big, technical course with a bunch of turns). And I just made a deal on a pair of 31 spline Torsen differentials - a new Torsen T2-R and new T2. So we'll have a real differential in the car for March, finally!

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We wrapped up after the final HPDE sessions and before we loaded the Mustang into the trailer, Brandon took a few more pictures against a backdrop of a field with some electrical towers... Mmmm.

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We said goodbye to our friends and competitors and hit the road for a long drive back to Dallas, stopping in north Houston for some damn fine Cajun food at a Pappadaux. Great weekend, lots of fun, but a bit hectic with the instructing and talking to folks stopping by to look at the Mustang. We had a few from the W2W groups stop by, after seeing the times we were running (again outpacing our American Iron race group, with the same power-to-weight ratios and carrying about 500 extra pounds). Most everyone remarked how little safety equipment we have in this car, and I agree - so we're pulling the trigger next week on a 4-point roll bar kit from Maximum Motorsports. This will provide a more secure cross bar to hang the shoulder straps from and give us some roll-over protection, "just in case". I am not a fan of full roll cages in street cars, and Amy doesn't like me cutting on her street car, so this will have to suffice.

What's Next?

After we got back to Dallas on Tuesday morning, I flew out to New Orleans for two days of fun at NOLA Motorsports Park, testing tires at the BFGoodrich Rival tire launch. I will post about that in my next thread update. We have the T2-R to install, the roll bar, and a few other suspension goodies that I will show once they are installed. We might have some new transmission mounts as well, if the prototypes show up in time. These could hopefully cure the shifting issues we're seeing, due to the body mounted shifter. When the drivetrain is loaded up mid-corner, it is sometimes impossible to make a clean shift. Amy and I both noticed we were early shifting or holding a gear longer, to avoid these mid-corner up-shifts. Just isn't possible for the drivetrain and shifter assemblies to synch up sometimes, when the big heavy motor + trans are loaded up and under power.

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This was the weight with me in it, as we unloaded it from the trailer... with WAY too much hastily added ballast in the trunk. Needs to be 3775.

We are also going to work on a trunk-mounted, easy to adjust ballast system, so we can get the car closer to the 3775 pound minimum weight for our TT3 set-up, and swap known ballast amounts between Amy and I, since I outweigh her by a good bit. To get some additional rear bias, we are thinking of moving the small 14 pound engine-bay mounted battery to the trunk, and replacing it with a more sizable Optima Red Top. We are at 53% front weight bias (and 49.9% cross) in the picture above, but that is with a LOT of extra ballast in the trunk. We over-shot the minimum weight to be safe for both drivers using the same ballast. The roll bar structure will likely add 60 pounds mostly to the rear, and then the larger battery relocation, then whatever weight plates we need to make minimum will be in the trunk. Oh, check out the "motion capture" photo of the '11 GT that Brandon shot, using the new modular camera rig that he and Olof built. Pretty cool.

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I just ordered a brand new tow vehicle from our buddy Corey White at Five Star Ford of Plano, a red 2013 Ford F350 Diesel 4x2 DRW, which should be here at the middle to end of March. I think I just sold my 2006 Dodge Cummins MegaCab 3500, so I might be truck-less for the NASA/Cresson event. If so, we'll have to drive the Mustang the two hours to the track and mount the Hoosiers there - oh, the horror! ;) I have two other posts started for this thread as well as the now very late BFG Rival review, so I need to stop here so I can get caught up. Going to work all weekend and write write write! With the shop closed and the phones ignored I can get a lot more done.

Thanks for reading,

Just wanted to post the link to the Vorshlag BFG Rival Tire review. Took almost 2 weeks to write and edit this monster, and it'll take you a bit to read it. I go into a lot more than just the 2 days I spent in New Orleans driving this tire.

Start reading here: http://www.vorshlag.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8209

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We drove a lot of different BFG models (above) as well as tires from Hankook, Falken, and Toyo. There was even a secret test of the Dunlop Direzza ZII.

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Thanks for reading.

Project Update for February 21, 2013: I've been dreading this update for more than two months, but I have to write it one last time here and then we can move on. I'm only putting this in the thread to explain why we are leaving SCCA competition for 2013, since that has been a part of this build since 2010 (and has been a part of my life since 1987). Once this is posted I am not going to "re-argue" this whole mess again - since I have already done that in other threads/forums. Please don't crap up the thread with more questions about why we are leaving the SCCA, or suggestions how we can get around the new, borked rule re-write that has now banned 80% of the Watts Links on the market for SCCA use. You can send me PMs or emails, but I won't likely get into it further. We've already been over this dozens of times with other folks inside and outside of the SCCA, and have wasted enough time trying to find a work-around. It doesn't exist - there is simply no way for us to race any of our S197s in SCCA Solo for 2013. Their ruling is final and nothing is going to change the SCCA's ways, other than continued membership attrition.

That first half of my thread update is pretty negative, but there's no way to dress it up nicely. Luckily the second half of this thread update is a bit more positive - we cover the current and future status of our 2013 Mustang GT, touch on a new letter we have written to the SEB about moving the S197 to STU class for Street Touring use, introduce some potentially big news for Mustangs and hopefully Vorshlag for 2014, and briefly discuss the next few mods we have in store for our 2011 GT in the coming weeks.

Let's get this first half over with. If you already know this story, feel free to skip to the second half. :)


SCCA SPAC/SEB Bans Alternate Differential Covers (and most Watts Link Kits) in Solo

As many of you reading this know, Vorshlag was one of Whiteline's first testers for their S197 Watts Link kit. We talked about their products in this build thread, installed and tested their Watts Link in August 2012, and then used it at the 2012 Solo Nationals and all competition events and street driving since. We have had excellent results with this kit and have been selling many of them since it went into production. Rock solid unit. One of the only units on the market that doesn't have metal rod ends, which gives this the Whiteline Watts kit a silent, street friendly function - but it still works extremely well in autocross and track competition with big 315mm R compounds and aero.

So after the 2012 Solo Nationals, someone with some pull in the SCCA piped up online and said "that Watts Link is illegal because it changes the differential cover!". Ludicrous, I said. The mounting is unrestricted and the most common mounting for any Watts Link propeller is to the differential cover. This is the way most factory units are installed and the vast majority of aftermarket units as well. It is the most logical way to mount the point on the axle that attaches to the lateral links and chassis for the Watts Link.

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We didn't hear a single ESP competitor complain about any potential Watts Link illegalities at the 2012 Solo Nationals.

To clear this up before we spent upwards of $50K building our 2013 GT for ESP class and getting a silly protest at a National event in 2013, we asked the Solo Events Board (SEB) for a clarification. Big, big mistake. You see I felt like this was just a formality, because this style of Watts Link mounting is by far the most prevalent and has been in use for decades in SCCA Street Prepared. Logic would prevail, the clarification would be simple, and the obvious answer would remove any doubt about the legality of the Whiteline Watts link and the other seven brands for the S197 (Cortex, Griggs, etc) that also relied on an alternate differential cover for their kits. These units had many years of precedent in ESP class without issue.

But this is the SCCA, and logic often has nothing to do with their decisions.

This is the same group that argued about removing 0.5 ounce badges from cars, for two years. So I should probably not have been surprised when a 8+ week discussion took place within the Street Prepared Advisory Committee (SPAC) and then the SEB. And they finally ruled, "you know, we don't think the original rule writers meant that..." and they changed the rule, banned our preferred Watts Link kits (plus many other brands), and our next S197 ESP project was doomed.

To get a clear sense of the history of this rule and how this re-write went down, let's look at the original Street Prepared "solid axle" extra rule set that we felt clearly showed this and many other a Watts Link kits were legal:

That bit there about unrestricted mounting for lateral locating devices, to me and many others we have spoken with, meant unrestricted. You can weld, fabricate, unbolt and do pretty much anything necessary to make the Watts Link fit a solid axle car. UNRESTRICTED is a pretty damned forgiving term, and that wording has been in place for many years. Since the rule, as written, called out that you couldn't remove welded on part of the subframe or bodywork, then a bolt-on differential cover seemed like fair game. Remember - we had unrestricted mounting boundaries. And we had spoken with several competitors in ESP class at Nationals that themselves had alternate diff covers, simply because this rule so clearly allowed it. This has been the working interpretation by competitors for this class for ages. It wasn't like we were trying to sneak a Corvette in under this solid axle allowance, just use the most common sense, most prevalent mounting method for aftermarket Watts Link kits. Nobody actually running in ESP class has ever said a thing to me about our Watts Link mounting. It has, as far as we can find, NEVER been an issue of protest in this class at any level. And of course, it offers no competitive advantage over other methods of attachment.

Until a certain someone, who sells a competing Watts Link brand and therefore has a business reason to block the Whiteline unit, made a public prolongation that "that brand isn't legal!". And this someone is on an SCCA Solo rules advisory committee.

So here was the long awaited, much debated re-write of the rule (linked here.)

Wow, that is some tortured logic. They just redefined what unrestricted means. Somebody call Merriam Webster and tell them their definition is all wrong.

But then, immediately after making this ruling, the SEB/SPAC proposed a "fix", an all new rule proposal to allow these alternate differential covers and then make these common Watts Link mounting styles legal once again. This was printed in the very same FasTrack publication:

That's great, and I agree heartily with this change... but due to the obtuse and excruciatingly slow way the SCCA works most times, this new rule will take A MINIMUM OF ONE YEAR to undo the damage their clarification has done. That is what I have a big problem with: they chose to do this the SLOW way. These committees could have fixed this in one single technical bulletin clarification, with no year long sentence of "illegality" for eight brands of Watts Links.

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Left: The now-illegal differential cover. Right: The complete Whiteline S197 Watts Link kit.

There were many reasons to be disappointed by the SEB ruling on the Watts Link allowances. Some are selfish - as Vorshlag recommends and sells the Whiteline Watts Link that is directly affected by this ruling (which should be once again legal by 2014). Others are a general disappointment that our friends in the SCCA rules making hierarchy can re-interpret the rules the way they did. It makes us feel that either logic has failed, or there are other, commercial considerations that have swayed their decision. This move just makes no sense. This is a problem they created 100% in committee, by using tortured logic and nit-picky interpretations of previously "unrestricted" boundaries.

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After this ruling was made, an argument was put forth by SEB members on public forums that the alternate cover was banned because it provided "unintended advantages", such as longer bearing life, additional oil capacity or increased differential cooling ability. We argued then that this simply wasn't the case.

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What they ignored, of course, is that for the S197 chassis in question, there are multiple factory equipped differential covers that we can legally use from update/backdate allowances, including the cast aluminum covers shown above, and even one with a factory equipped differential cooling system. Which would, logically, allow for even cooler rear differential fluid than the Whiteline cover theoretically/supposedly could. Not that any of this amounts to any performance advantage when driving around in a parking lot for 60 seconds, though.

An internal argument was supposedly made during the early stages of the lengthy SPAC/SEB deliberations on this issue that allowing differential cover swaps would provide "unintended consequences" to other IRS cars in Street Prepared. It appears the committees were debating the issue before even familiarizing themselves with the rules, and apparently whoever made this argument was not aware that stick-axle cars in Street Prepared had a set of additional allowances over the IRS cars with regard to the rear suspension and lateral locating devices.

And just for a similar example, when similar clarifications in the past were brought up for the Miata chassis, they ruled to allow the broadest possible reading of the given allowances. Specifically the reading of the Stock Class swaybar allowance, which uses wording that is not as open as the SP wording, allowing competitors with Miatas to cut off welded chassis brackets in order to install alternate swaybars. In a Stock class. But we cannot unbolt a part in SP? That seems backwards.

In the case of the SP solid axle lateral locating devices, the SEB used the tightest possible reading of the rule to disallow multiple brands of Watts Link kits that require alternate differential covers, but in the same instance used the widest possible reading of the rule to allow the alternate style that uses a giant girder bolted across the rear frame member - which is a violation of a Street Prepared wording that forbids "chassis stiffening" from these lateral locating parts. They over-analyzed this rule, glossed over the actual specifics, ignored the common aftermarket solutions, inflated the "What ifs?" to ludicrous proportions, and kicked out the most logical methods of attachment for Watts Link kits.

This is particularly galling because even a casual read of the section of the rulebook that gives additional allowances to stick-axle cars in Street Prepared leads the reader to believe that the original rules makers who came up with them (a completely different set of volunteers than those serving now) thought the stick-axle cars were at such huge deficit compared to other suspension types in Street Prepared that they gave these cars many extra allowances for rear suspension correction devices, and wrote them as to be unrestrained by minute restrictions.

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Someone from the SEB even suggested on a forum after the ruling came out that there was an "easy fix" we could do and make this system legal. If we would just fabricate a huge plate steel structure to bolt on around the factory differential cover, to take the place of the compact cast diff cover that Whiteline spent a good deal of engineering time and money producing, then the rest of the Whiteline Watts Link kit could be used. Never mind the fact that bolting on a giant plate steel welded structure would likely end up inside the trunk, as the space between the rear axle and the spare tire well was very tight. There are also many hundreds of pounds of suspension loads passing through this diff cover, and it is beefed up to handle those loads. Could a bolt-on ding-dong work as well, without having to gain a lot of weight or space? No. There were even spit-balled CAD prints posted and everything. Was an enormous contraption that Rube Goldberg himself would be proud of. I dubbed this monstrosity the "SCCA Clusterf**k Cover 9000", which made even the SEB member who posted it laugh.

In the end, we would have to chuck the entire Whiteline kit and start from scratch, burn dozens of hours fabricating, machining, measuring, and testing an all new system - or buy one of the two competing brands that was now the only legal option. This isn't uncommon - the SCCA often completely ignores common, bolt-on, aftermarket solutions available for most cars and just expects autocrossers to have to make custom-fabricated-anything to work around the tortured rulings (and clarifications) that they come up with. This is a fundamental problem with the rule making process within this club - they are either ignorant of or willfully ignore "what is out there" for their members to buy and use for autocrossing.

The SCCA Solo's often stated motto of "Make it Easy, Make it Fun" was trashed by reading this rule in the tightest possible way, then turning around in the same breath and suggesting the rule was too restrictive and then offered up additional allowances should be written into the rulebook to correct this issue for next year. But this could have all been fixed in one fell swoop - the SEB has shown in the past that it has the ability and the will to correct minor issues like this by issuing a "Technical Bulletin" when the rules have some leeway, like the rules did here. This allows the SEB to either tighten up the allowances, or relax the restrictions because the rules don't say exactly what they thought they should say. But they failed to do this, threw out eight brands of off the shelf Watts Link options for the 2013 race season, and lost at least two competitors and a regular SCCA sponsor in the process (and a new manufacturer).

If reading this text above makes me seem bitter and angry, then it isn't half as angry and let down as I feel. But it goes back for decades - it is just one more botched SCCA ruling among hundreds of such mishaps over the past 25 years that I have witnessed. Jason M here at Vorshlag is just as disappointed about this, and has also been let down as often as me over the same time period of his racing in SCCA Solo. This "banned year" for a product and company we had worked hard with in 2012 was just the last straw, for us. We are done for 2013.

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Vorshlag Leaving SCCA Solo for 2013

More bad news, but then it gets better below, I promise. Since we've got no place to race our S197 Mustangs in SCCA Solo for 2013, we're going to run our 2011 GT elsewhere and scuttle the 2013 GT project entirely. Yep, as in "sell the 2013". I will post a link to the ad for it in this thread soon (with the 18x10" wheels/tires, AST 4200RRs, and 2500 miles). While this seems drastic - "Why not just sit and wait for a year?" some have asked - we don't have time to wait for the painfully slow process, the glacial-like pace that SCCA rules changes always seem to take. It took them eight years to limit class jumping in ST, so of course it takes one year to properly clarify a single word within an existing rule. A solid year long wait to use the parts we have already used in Solo, openly and without protest, and that we feel have always been legal.

But as a manufacturer of suspension products, we have many other chassis that we need to work with, and "waiting a year" to work on an outgoing chassis that has seen many years in production already (2005-2014), that is about to be replaced with a new version, just doesn't make business sense for us.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8650-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8645-S.jpg
SCCA class decals coming off 2013 Mustang GT - which we bought solely to prepare and race in ESP class.

Leaving the SCCA for 2013 sucks and we're NOT happy about it, but it is a decision we've been discussing since this rule re-write was dumped on us from these committees. Now that the only "legal" Watts Link options we have are to use only a Fays2 or Steeda Watts Link, neither of which I sell (or care to), I opted for Option 2 - leave the class, and leave the sport. By the time this mess is undone, we will have an all new chassis to play with in mid-2014 (see my last section in this post).

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSC0581-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSC0602-S.jpg

Remember, I'm losing a lot in this ruling and decision to leave the sport for 2013: in late 2012 I bought a brand new car just to build for SCCA ESP class. Onto this new 2013 GT we have already dumped many thousands of dollars in parts and labor. We have installed high end monotube double adjustable coilovers with remotes (AST 4200RR), an adjustable front sway bar, our camber plates, built custom remote reservoir brackets, cut the trunk for reservoir routing, yanked the rear seats (in preparation for 2012 Leguna Seca seat delete), and already started testing. There was still a LOT of work left to do: we were about to cut and flare the fenders to fit the monstrously large wheels and tires we were going to run (335F/345R), yank the radio and A/C, swap in a Boss302 motor, build the custom exhaust, test several intake manifolds and throttle bodies, and make this into a real, dedicated, no-holds-barred ESP autocross Mustang. But now... there's just no point to all of this extensive, expensive work we have left - especially considering what is coming in mid-2014.

To some folks, our "I'm going elsewhere" statement sounds petty or petulant, but in the end it is just business. We've been running SCCA Solo for more than 25 years, but for the past 7+ years it was no longer "just for fun" or just for "competition reasons", but to test and showcase parts we make and/or sell. Since I can no longer race in a class where the rules makers choose to completely ignore the common aftermarket solutions and have decided to ban some brands of parts that had previously been legal for decades, but allow others which have no real functional differences, we need to step away.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...copy%203-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...DSC_2022-S.jpg
Other Sports Beckon!

We have too many other motorsports series out there for us to test our cars and parts in - from NASA to Optima and GTA to Goodguys. We don't need to race in SCCA Solo to showcase or sell plenty of Whiteline Watts Links... the S197 Mustang owners just don't seem to care what the SCCA autocross rule makers say or do. Because, well, SCCA Solo is such a tiny draw to the typical S197 chassis owner right now (but it could be - more on that below).

So we're out of ESP class for 2013 and I won't give any more money to the SCCA National office (no more entry fees, no more sponsorship), but we will still support SCCA racers, our local SCCA Region (Texas Region), and will even compete in a few of our regional SCCA events in 2013 - just not in either of our Mustangs (I don't even think our 2011 GT is legal for Street Modified anymore). We are hosting the Annual Tech day at Vorshlag this Saturday (Feb 23, 2013 - see the FB invite) for our SCCA region and have even agreed to once again sponsor the welcome party at the Texas ProSolo in 2013. So we're not cutting all ties to this club, its members, or the regions. We just don't agree with some decisions made at the top levels within the SCCA of late, and have decided to step away for a bit to see if or how we can return to this sport at the National level.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...x-school-S.jpg
Click above to learn about the Texas Region SCCA Solo School, March 9th, 2013.

Amy and I will also be instructing at the March 9th "beginners autocross school" hosted by the Texas Region SCCA, like we do every year. Come out to drive and learn with experienced autocrossers in the right seat with you all day. This isn't a sport or skill set you can teach yourself, you need both seat time and first-hand instruction to get better. Entry into the Solo School gets you a free entry into the autocross on March 10th. You can read more about it and register here. We may or may not have something to race in Solo by the March 10th event, depends on some outside factors, but we will be there March 9th.

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My Open Letter to the SEB: Move the S197 to STU + Tire Size Bump?

Even as displeased as I am personally with the SCCA rules makers right now, I still regularly send in letters to ask for new parts, rules and classing changes that I see that are ineffective or potentially chasing away competitors to the sport. I can't say much good ever comes of it, but I still send in my suggestions or reply when they ask for "member comment" on a suggested rules change. I've talked about our trials and tribulations in STX class with our 2011 Mustang in this very thread, if you go back to the 2010-2011 posts. We were even racing in STX class in this big boat as late as April 2012. I suspect we probably had the most serious, most tested, most documented STX entry with a 2011-2013 Mustang GT to date?

Read Our SEB Letter Here: http://www.vorshlag.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8215

This 5.0L Mustang was a total mess in STX class, frankly, and I feel it was mostly down to the maximum 9" wide wheel and 265mm tire that this class requires for 2WD cars (4WD cars are limited to an 8" wheel and 245mm tire). The main problem we noted in this class was that the "maximum tire width" doesn't "scale up" in any ST* class with increasing chassis weight. I feel that the "curb weight per mm of tire width" is a key factor in handling performance, especially on street tires. And especially when you can make well over 400 whp in STX legal trim, like we did. Until January 1st 2012, we had the option to run this car in either STX or STU, and we did run in STU a bit and the car was MUCH better on wider wheels and tires. But to prevent the Civics from class jumping the lightest ST* car into "faster classes" like STX and STU (which they handily won, quite often), they locked down all eligible cars into a single ST* class.

This was one of the few things I agreed with when it comes to SEB changes lately. It was about four years too late, but it needed to happen. The unforeseen problem we noted was that this now locked the heavy, powerful Mustang into STX class but most other heavy V8 RWD cars (above 5.0L) went into STU class, which has unlimited wheel width and a 285mm max tire for 2WD cars. As we saw first hand, this car was much better suited with STU width wheels and tires (if not much more competitive in class), and that maybe it could even do better with a +10 to +30 mm bump over the max STU tire width, due to the much higher curb weight of these and similar RWD solid axle cars already classed in STU.

Anyway - read my "S197 to STU" proposal in this forum post. If you agree with it and are an SCCA member, please take a moment and write a letter to the SEB/STAC at this link and ask for these changes. My single voice doesn't carry far at all with this group, but if more people join in the conversation, we can make positive changes to the various SCCA classes and finally find a home in Street Touring for heavier, RWD cars like the S197 Mustang. Thanks.


Possible Return to SCCA for 2014?

The good news is Vorshlag plans on coming back to SCCA Solo competition in 2014, if everything gets unscrewed and they don't botch any other major rules. If so, it could be in a car that looks like this and hopefully classed in ESP...

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...L/NoWing-L.jpg

As many of you know, there is a new Mustang coming in the 2015 model year (or 2014.5). This car is being "designed for a world market" and will be lighter and might have a proper Independent Rear Suspension (IRS), maybe from the Australian Ford Falcon chassis. Engine lineup is rumored to include a turbo 4 cylinder, an ecoboost V6 and the 5.0L V8, maybe with direct injection. In order to be a better European export, it is supposed to be "200-300 pounds lighter", which will be a welcome improvement. Very soon we will start seeing more and more renderings and spy shots that look closer to the actual production cars. These could arrive as early as a "2014-1/2" model, to mark the 50th anniversary for the Mustang, so this is going to be interesting.

Read here to learn more about the 2015 Mustang: http://jalopnik.com/5949026/the-2014...ything-we-know

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...ndering1-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...ndering2-S.jpg
More 2015 Mustang renderings - no idea how accurate these are.

This upcoming new Mustang is why Vorshlag isn't going to "sit and wait a year" for the SCCA to get their rules fixed for ESP class or the outgoing S197 model, because by this time next year we will have likely sold our 2011 Mustang GT and will have a new chassis 2015 Mustang on order. Or maybe a 2015 Camaro. Or a 2015 Baracuda. You see, all three of the Domestic Automakers have brand new Pony Cars coming in 2014-15, and all of them are rumored to be "smaller, lighter, and IRS". Something might go wrong with one or two of these new designs - delays, extra weight, poor powertrain choices - who knows? But at least one of these won't suck, and will be all new and lighter - maybe even the already best-of-the-three Mustang? We will get our hands on the "best new pony car" as quickly as we can, then start developing suspension products both in-house with Vorshlag products as well as with our manufacturing partners.


What's Next on our 2011 GT?

We aren't scuttling both of our S197 cars, as our red 2011 GT will continue to be raced and developed until the next round of Pony Cars arrives, so for at least another year. We have a gaggle of new parts here, ready to install and test before our March 16-17th NASA Time Trial event at MSR-Cresson. Whiteline sent us updated parts for the rear sway bar, the prototype transmission mount bushings showed up today, and we're working on more endlink options from them.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Product-...3%20copy-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8354-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...g%20copy-S.jpg

We made about a dozen of the black T-shirts above, showing a Mustang on the bottom and a Vorshlag logo up top. We can make these to order, next day turn-around, in a variety of sizes. You can find these shirts for sale on our merchandise page located here. We also picked up two Torsen T-2 differentials for 31-spline Ford 8.8" axles, including a T-2R (4:1 ratio) for the 2011 Mustang, shown above. I can't wait to get that in the car before the next track event! And the winnings from the January NASA TT event arrived - one brand new set of 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires. Finally - my first ever track event on a fresh set of A6s! No more old tire excuses for a NASA event (the last two NASA events were run on a sets of tires with over 13 months of autocross and track abuse - excuses, I has 'em!).

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8426-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8451-S.jpg

There are also several shifter bushings/housings we have accumulated and have now durometer tested (including the squishy soft stock rubber unit) and we will be putting one or more in the 2011 GT before the next track event. And if the Maximum 4-point roll bar arrives in time it will go in as well. There is also a new set of S197 monotubes/springs/Vorshlag plates we've been torture testing on a local guy's 2012 GT for a couple of months that will finally be going on our website to sell, along with several new monotube coilover brands that we will soon be selling.

Let's Wrap This Up

I'm sorry that I had to write such a nasty diatribe about this situation and the SCCA rules making committees, but I feel strongly that they got this clarification wrong, and it directly affects me both as a business owner and as a competitor. And it is one of hundreds in a long line of similar rulings, showing how out of touch some of the rules makers are, in my opinion. Waiting a year for the "rules fix" to trickle down isn't an option for us, as we have other chassis that we need to work with each year and by 2014-ish we will likely be in the new Mustang chassis (or Camaro or Barracuda). Stepping away from SCCA Solo for a year will probably do me a lot of good - by 2014 I will have forgotten how screwed up most of it is. ;)

But it wasn't all venom and poison in this post, as we've put forth a good faith proposal to ask that the S197 be moved from STX to STU, after our two years of dismal results showed it was badly outclassed on the skinny STX tire and wheel widths. We even asked for a bit of extra tire for the big Pony Cars in that class, too. And we are still working with our SCCA region in many ways, including sponsoring the welcome dinner at a ProSolo in our backyard. And while we are selling our 2013 GT and killing the planned ESP project it was purchased for, we still have some tricks in store for our 2011 GT and at least another full year of racing it in NASA TT and with other groups.

Thanks for reading,

Project Update for March 18, 2013: I started writing this post two weeks ago but we have been so busy at Vorshlag it took several attempts to finish it (finally posted on April 2nd!). In the end it got pretty big and turned into a four part post. This is because we've done several repairs, updates and testing of new parts and tires on the 2011 Mustang GT since the last thread update. We also ran the red Mustang at another NASA Texas weekend March 16-17th, with another win and a new track record in TT3. As always, any picture in this thread post can be clicked for an "Extra large" high resolution version, so if you see something you like, click it. Let's start with some new Whiteline parts to test.


Whiteline Updates + New Trans Bushing Insert

We finally had time to add the Whiteline transmission bushing insert to the stock Mustang trans mount. The factory rubber trans mount bushing has massive voids that don't help the stiffness of this bushing one bit (see the picture, below left). Air is a terrible bushing material. ;) Why does this matter? Well the Getrag MT-82 has a remote body mounted shifter, and the drivetrain is mounted on its own bushings. So when the transmission is loaded up (either with lateral g forces or under torque load) it moves relative to the body, and the shifter doesn't always then line up properly when you are trying to shift loaded up. This has been plaguing us for a while, and the "just add an aftermarket shifter" option doesn't fix the fact that the transmission is moving relative to the remote mounted shifter. At the NASA @ MSR-Houston event in January both Amy and I figured out quickly that we needed to shift earlier or later than we wanted to avoid shifting while in a high speed corner - because we would miss the shift every time. BONK! Frustrating.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_6718-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_6725-S.jpg

Whiteline sent us the first prototype for this brand new KDT928 part, which is similar to other bushing "void inserts" they make for other cars. They were waiting for our feedback before they went to production - we gave them a big "yes, please!". This is an elastomer bushing insert that just pops into place and fills the air gap in the factory rubber bushing. We don't have official pricing yet but I was told the price "should be about the same as similar inserts we make", (so about $35). I have an open order for more, because this thing just flat-out works. Super easy to install (no tools, no effort!) and it firms up the transmission mounting nicely. Now installing this will add a little extra NVH (noise-vibration-harshness), just in case you are wondering.

Amy picked up the Mustang after we installed the insert and immediately came back after leaving the parking lot and said "Hey, something is different here...?" It isn't bad at all, just a little more NVH, and nothing like going to a full poly trans mount bushing would be. It just removes some of the air gap and firms the mount up a good bit. We should have these in stock before too long and I will post up in this thread when they are ready.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Product-..._DSF8852-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8451-S.jpg

And while I teased the multiple shifter bushings/housings that we acquired and durometer tested last time, we didn't get time to install these before this NASA event. We will have it in this before this coming weekend's Five Star Ford / ECR track event (April 6th). The Whiteline transmission bushing insert alone already made big improvements by itself, but when you squeeze the factory mush bushing in this shifter mount location it just begs for an upgrade.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8928-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8919-S.jpg

The other new Whiteline part we tested was a revised set of mounting brackets for their rear swaybars. We had one of the earliest production Whiteline rear swaybars, and as you know if you have been following our build for this S197 Mustang, it mounts very differently than the OEM rear swaybar. Instead of mounting the bar to the body and the endlinks to the axle they swapped it around - the bar mounts to the axle and the endlinks mount to the chassis. Some folks poo-poo this mounting method on the WL bar, but it is in fact a very common method for mounting of factory rear swaybars on solid axle RWD cars. The side benefit on the S197 is that it opens up a lot of inboard wheel room for wider rear wheels... this is part of how we are able to fit 12" wide wheels under the rear fenders (for a race set-up only - this is not a streetable size, due to some clearance issues in extreme droop situations with a wheel this far inboard).

Anyway they have now revised the height of the mounting brackets to space it away from the axle slightly, to free up room elsewhere. We installed these new parts and it works great.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_6736-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_6730-S.jpg

Last but not least we inspected the elastomer bushings in the Whiteline Watts Link propeller, which looks flawless after 8 months of hard use. Some new grease and back in it goes. Why did we have the Watts Link off? Read below to see...


Axle Housing Reinforcement + LCA Bracket Welding

So the 8.8" Ford rear axle housing came from the factory in bare steel, and that quickly rusts - even here in Texas. This always bugged me and I wanted to paint the bare metal earlier, but we never had time to yank the whole rearend and do it right. Now, though, we had an excuse... we were doing a differential change (Torsen T-2R), welding the axle tubes and welding the LCA relocation brackets. This made it the perfect time to yank the entire rearend housing, pull out all of the guts, and clean up the surface rust before the welding started.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_5523-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_6731-S.jpg
Left: This picture shows the rusty axle in the first week of ownership, less than 50 miles on the car! Right: Visibly worse last week

The proposed welding of the axle tubes caused a bit of controversy when I "teased" these pictures early on Corner-Carvers. Do the axle tubes even need to be welded to the center section?, some asked. And if so, what procedure do we use to weld them without causing any added stress? Should there be fixtures, could we "warp" the housing welding these ends? There were force diagrams and equations bantered about... but I just don't think it is all that complicated. It did not warp and we have raced the car since and nothing exploded from added stresses. This welding procedure is common prep on thousands of drag race cars, autocross cars, and even road race/track cars, and I think it is just a small bit of insurance against axle tube movement.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8955-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8964-S.jpg

We've been paint-marking the tubes for a while, as they are only held in by a press fit + two small rosette welds on each tube. You look at almost any race-prepped or fabricated housing and the tubes are always welded in place. I'm fairly confident we haven't added some uber-stress riser that will likely crack and make the axle fall apart. It made it through a NASA race weekend, another ECR track day (March 23), and weeks of street driving already without any cracks or issues, but we will keep an eye on the weld, just in case. If the axle somehow explodes from the stresses added by this weld I guess I will have to eat crow. Do all of you need to do this to your S197? Of course not. But with the added lateral loads from 315 mm A6 Hoosiers, the ballasted up 3800+ pounds we race with in TT3, and the lap times we are running now, we felt it was worth the effort.

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http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_6746-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_6757-S.jpg
Left: This is the rosette weld that holds the axle tubes in place. Right: Lots of time with the angle grinder/wire wheel cleaned it all up

So our guys cleaned the rust off, which it took more time than I care to admit. With power tools it goes pretty quickly, but it makes a huge mess and you probably shouldn't breathe the "rust dust".

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8968-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8974-S.jpg

With all of the steel bracketry cleaned of any rust and grease, our fabricator Ryan then welded the Whiteline LCA relocation brackets to the housing. This is common to do, even when the designs are made to be a "bolt-on". There are a lot of forces going through these brackets and welding them on is another piece of "insurance". This was purely steel-to-steel plate welding, and TIG'd with ER-70 rod, so nothing too controversial.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8978-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8979-S.jpg

Once all the welding was done, Olof cleaned the housing again with degreaser and got to painting. He used a semi-flat black engine paint in spray enamel, which is holding up well after two track weekends and loading onto trailers with axle straps. Once the paint was dry (overnight) it went back into the car.


Torsen T-2R Differential Upgrade

With the rearend housing back in the car (no, it wasn't weighed - we forgot, by damn!) it was re-attached to the various control arms and the swaybar was reinstalled with the new Whiteline brackets. Now it was time to install the new Torsen T-2R differential with the original 3.31:1 gearset, as the rebuilt TractionLok LSD wasn't lasting 2-3 track days with the current power level and high grip tires, even with the carbon clutch disc upgrade.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF8354-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF9016-S.jpg

The Torsen LSD design doesn't use any internal clutches. Therefore it doesn't have some of the negative handling interactions that a clutch-style differential has from somewhat locking the inside and outside wheels together under all circumstances (push on corner entry, loose on corner exit), but it doesn't work if one of the driven tires becomes airborne. How it works is more complicated - it involves worm gears, thrust forces and... some form of black magic. Read the links below to learn more:

• Torsen FAQ : http://www.torsen.com/general/general_faq.htm
• And some on the T-2R: http://www.torsen.com/products/T-2R.htm

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_6740-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF9012-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_6738-S.jpg

One thing to note was that the Torsen units (both the T-2 and T-2R we purchased for this and another project) weigh a solid 5 pounds more than the OEM diff. If you see them side by side (middle pic above) you can see why, as the Torsen is full of worm gears and not an "S-spring" and a bunch of air in the middle. Our guys set-up the gears, backlash and installed new bearings on the Torsen and the old 3.31 gearset. It went in and works very quietly, with only some normal "Torsen noise" in a tight parking lot turn.


Damned Upper Control Arm Set-up, Test 4

So we've put 4 or 5 iterations of Rear Upper Control Arms (UCA) in this car and have been happy with none of them. No matter what brand or style we try it always eventually comes loose, then clanks and bangs around on any bump. Very frustrating. The various designs have also taken their toll on the axle-side UCA bushing, that is press-fit into the axle. Our techs noticed that this rubber OEM bushing was cracked and completely shot, so while the axle was being refurb'd they pressed it out and in went a fresh new one. Why not poly, you ask? Well this is one of those "terrible places for a poly bushing"... as it needs to both rotate and twist in 2 axis. Polyurethane rarely has the material properties for this task - it should be rubber or a spherical bushing.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects...DSC_6752-S.jpg http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects..._DSF9001-S.jpg

After a quick glance we couldn't find a spherical set-up for the axle-side bushing (yet) so we just went back with the OEM rubber to replace the cracked and failed unit, for now. If you have an aftermarket UCA, especially if it is a poly bushing on the chassis side, check out the OEM rubber bushing in the axle at the top to see if it has cracked and failed. Click the high rez versions of the above two pics to see what to look for.

With that axle-side bushing replaced I wanted to look at the UCA itself. The Whiteline unit was fine but the adjustment method was a bit unusual and it wasn't exactly silent in use. Everything else they make for this car has been perfect, but I dunno.... I really wanted to keep the bushings able to rotate freely on the UCA, as both of these joints need to pivot smoothly when the car is loaded in corners. At first I wanted to attempt to go back to the "Del-sphere" bushed, adjustable length UCA we tried earlier from Spohn. That thing had some of the worst clanking and banging of any UCA we had tried but it did have the right style bushing at the foreward UCA mount... a Delrin-encased metal spehercial end, called "Del-Sphere". This is the right type of joint, I just didn't agree with the execution of the entire arm and mount.

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We thought the problem was with the over-sized bushings that came in the Spohn UCA kit. The kit is made to work with the factory UCA bolt, which is a 14mm OD bolt. The ID of the Del-Spehre end is much larger, as were the holes in the UPR fabricated upper mount. It was as if these companies made something without checking the factory bolt diameter. What the...? So we upped the size of the UCA bolt to a 5/8" and made bushings to fit snug around the OD of the bolt and inside the ID of the Del-Sphere bushing. It took a little time on the lathe, some careful drilling, and some drilling of the UCA mount, but it all goes in and out smoothly now. No more slop to the bolt and hopefully no more banging around.

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Well, of course I cannot find a picture of this newly configured UCA and joint set-up actually installed. Oh well, will shoot it next time the car is in the air (this Friday). And driving it... well, it is a little quieter now but is far from "noise-free". We checked it after the NASA event and it was all still tight, so at least this isn't getting loose and slipping every time it is inspected. We will keep trying to come up with a proper UCA solution using aftermarket parts or we will have to make something on our own. We purchased a complete Boss 302-S UCA set-up last week and will try that next, in either the 2011 GT or the 2013 GT.


Other Mods - Ballast Bracket and Lower Mesh Grill Guard

I asked Ryan to make another stainless steel mesh "grill guard" to cover the big opening at the bottom of the CS lower fascia (the optional lower grill insert that works with the Leguna Seca splitter on the 2011). Hits from various grasshoppers and tire klag have done a number on the A/C condenser hanging out in front of the radiator. I hoped that another mesh covering could minimize future fin damage. The grills he made for the fog light openings have saved the bits behind them from tire marbles and bug and hits.

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The lower mesh grill came out nicely, and once it was painted black and fit snugly in the opening, it looked factory. Next up was a rushed attempt at making a "ballast box". This was a bolted-in bracket made to hold Olympic style weights to use as ballast. At the January NASA event at MSR-H we had to hastily load ballast into the trunk and it was "less than idea". This way it would be properly bolted down and hold the weights securely.

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It isn't the prettiest fabrication but it was done at the last minute, right before the car was loaded onto the trailer to go to MSR-C. You can pick the back of the car up by pulling up on the weights, and it bolts in place with many bolts. We over-shot the weight a bit, as the car weighed 3812 with me in it and 3/4 tank of fuel at the NASA event. This way we would be safe with Amy driving and even with a lower fuel load. Before the next NASA event it will be welded up a bit tidier and then cleaned and painted.


Tire Test - 295/40/18 Hoosier R6 on 18x10" Wheel?

The last thing we had in store for the NASA MSR-C event was to test out a new tire. See they were running the Time Trial group on the unfamiliar (to me and Amy) 3.1 mile course, which she had never driven and I had only a handful of laps on in 2011. So we wanted to save the sticker set of 315mm A6s for the later sessions and run something more "cost effective" in the first sessions on Saturday. We were also hoping to find a cheaper, longer lasting tire to use at HPDE and other "fun track days", where eeeking out the last tenth wasn't important.

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Many of you already know about this 295/40/18 Hoosier that was on close-out at ridiculously low prices (look it up). They had a lot of R6 and A6 compounds in this unusual size that were about 1.5 years old, and Hoosier blows out slow movers or excessive inventory after a certain amount of time. We picked up a set to test on our 18x10 ET43 wheels on our red Mustang. We figured, hey, if they fit... they are so cheap, how bad could they be? If I liked the way it looked I could by several sets for a fraction of the price of new R6 or A6 tires. It wasn't an ideal size, but how bad could it be?

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The fat 295 mounted well on the 18x10" wheel. It might have been a tick better with an 18x10.5" but it was by no means squeezed on the ten. So that was encouraging. Then we bolted them to the car...

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Here's where is gets tricky. See, this 295/40/18 has a big sidewall, which makes for a lot of section width. Hoosier calls it an 11.5" section width, which is a lot for this 18x10" wheel with an ET43 offset on the rear. And it... well.... kind of pokes out a bit past the rear fenders. It fit fine up front with the Moton 2-Way coilovers, however, and we didn't need a spacer or anything. Would it rub the fender on the rear? Only a proper track test could show us this.


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The heights of the 315/30 and 295/40 couldn't have been more different. These side-by-side (craptastic) iPhone pictures above show a lot (it helps if you click on the higher rez versions). The heights of the two tires are DRASTICALLY different, which changes both ride height, CG height, and steering feel from the vastly different sidewall styles. The 295/40/18 tire is a solid 1.7" taller than the 315/30/18, which raises the CG by .85" and adds that same amount in sidewall height. The shorter tire makes the car harder to load onto a trailer, but I suspected turn-in would feel better (and boy, was it ever!). I couldn't open the door and clear the fender on the borrowed flat bed trailer shown on the 315s, for instance, but could easily load the car on the 295s. And no, this isn't the normal Vorshlag 36' enclosed gooseneck trailer, which sits patiently awaiting the arrival of my custom ordered F-350, that is now very late. Big thanks to SCCA racer Matt Lucas for loaning me not only his truck but his trailer as well.

On track the front ended up fitting fine, but the rear tire rubbed slightly on the outer fender lip in heavy cornering. Enough to make me uncomfortable, but others might have no problem with that. And no, there isn't any "fender rolling" that will help, as the OEM rear fenders are pinched completely flat on the lip sections there. Unless you physically moved the fender lip outward a solid 1/2" or so. This is just... a fat-assed tire for a 10" wide wheel with a +43 offset in back. With a bit more backspacing it would work fine, but then you couldn't rotate the wheel front to back, which is the whole point of our 18x10 ET43 wheels (both the D-Force and Forgestar) - ease of rotation front to back.

Again, I wish I had better pictures to show of these mounted onto the car, which would make this all make sense, but in our rush to load the car on Friday the only pictures we have of the 295/40s mounted were two I took at the shop and some iPhone pics. These tires have since been dismounted and will be sold, cheaply.

So with the 295s mounted and the ballast brace welds still cooling, the car was hastily loaded on Friday March 15th and Amy and I blasted outta Vorshlag on the way to MSR-Cresson. We stopped and looked at a car on the way - a thoroughly hail-damaged 740iL which was a complete waste of time - and made it to MSR-Cresson by 7:45 pm, as the light was quickly fading...

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NASA Time Trial event at MSR-Cresson - 3.1 mile course

Amy and I had both signed up to drive in TT3 in the same car, once again. Sharing a car and racing it in the same class sucks, by the way. We are NOT going to do this again, because neither of us are getting enough seat time to learn the ever changing set-ups and/or familiarize ourselves with new tracks. More on that later in this post. So we arrived at MSR on Friday around 7:30 pm, quickly unloaded the car and then unhooked the trailer. By then it was pitch dark and we installed the rear wing using a flashlight, since I was worried about towing the car on an open trailer and adding excessive drag with the wing on (wasted effort - we towed on the way back with the wing installed and didn't see a dip at all in the borrowed V10 Ford F-250 truck's horrendous MPG, heh).

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Note: All of these pics are from Sunday, as we didn't take any pics with our own camera on Saturday and Vorshlag's own Brandon arrived about 10 am Sunday and snapped the good ones from the event.

Vorshlag NASA @ MSR-C Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...A-MSRC-031613/
Saturday NASA TT Results: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...-031613-X2.jpg
Sunday NASA TT Results: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...-031713-X2.jpg

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The Time Trial group in our region has gotten too big and crowded to run on the smaller 1.7 mile road course that the NASA events are usually held on. So they put just the TT group out on the large 3.1 mile course... which is made up of the normal 1.7 mile course (which every other race and HPDE group drove all weekend) and the hyper-tight 1.3 mile course, joined together. Amy had driven the 1.3 mile course once, and the 1.7 mile course a couple of times, but joined into the 3.1 it is a different animal altogether... and it get's pretty complicated to remember, and the line changes dramatically, with a LOT of turns and transitions. They call it "16 turns" but that is just not even remotely correct - the 3.1 mile course is closer to 26 turns when you actually count the times you have to change direction. Not many 26 turn courses are easy to learn quickly, and MUCH more difficult to remember than the 11 turn 1.7 mile course most people normally run there. And what these 2D maps don't show are the massive elevation changes, the many blind corners, and off camber sections just waiting to bite you and send you 4 off.

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Ignore the "passing in green zone" stuff, that is for HPDE; TT has open passing. And this course is closer to 26 turns, not 16

So Saturday we had 4 TT sessions to run in, but the 1st one on Saturday doesn't count for times, only for grid position. So we had 3 real timed TT sessions between 2 drivers to fight over. That left us 3 actual timed sessions to figure out the 3.1 mile course and get a good lap time in. Sure, we could hop into an HPDE session for more seat time, and we both did, but it would be on the 1.7 mile course only. Since I had driven this 3.1 mile course briefly back in 2011 (in our GRM E30 V8 - where I promptly exploded another T5 going over a rough patch in the transition from the 1.7 to the 1.3 course), Amy and I agreed that I would go out in the first "practice" session and she would ride along, which would normally DSQ my times in TT - but they don't count anyway. I tried to show her the line, what little I could remember of it, and failed miserably. She tried not to throw up as I slung the car around this unfamiliar course, and barely succeeded. Eventually she just closed her eyes and said "OK, enough!"

We started the day on a sticker set of 295/40/18 Hoosier R6 tires and planned to switch to the sticker 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 tures if.... 1) we were getting beat or 2) if the 295s felt funky. By TT session 2, our first timed session I was out again on the 295s and Amy had done one HPDE session on the 1.7 course. Neither of us liked the feel of the 295s but I wanted to give them a little more time to show their stuff. I was also instructing a student in HPDE1 so I was running ragged that day, with our paddock spot a long way away from the grid. I was briefly in the TT3 lead on the 295s, but Amy and I agreed that the 295s weren't cutting it. They felt... very slow to react compared to the 315/30/18 Hoosiers and 315/35/18 Kumho V710s we had raced on for much of last year at various track events.

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Left: Borrowed truck and trailer were handy, but left us without a lot of our tools. Right: Getting ready to go out on 315s

By 10:30 Olof had arrived at the track and the three of us quickly swapped wheels and tires for the wider Forgestar 18x11/12" wheels and shorter/wider 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires. Two sticker sets of Hoosiers in one day - nucking futs! Amy quickly went out for a few laps in another HPDE session to get a feel for the shorter A6s and she really liked it, but still had no idea what line to take on the 3.1 course. She finally took to the 3.1 mile course in TT Session 3, but there was a little "incident" that shortened the session to one lone hot lap (hence her abysmal 2:31 time followed by a 4:09, which was during the red flagged lap). This incident was some inadvertent "car-to-car" contact, which I have never seen in a Time Trial session in our region in the past 6 years. I don't want to get into it any more than to say that one TT driver was completely lost, was driving the wrong course, and turned into another car.

Anyway, during that very brief session another TT3 driver had slipped into the lead ahead of me, just barely. Amy had one hot lap in a timed TT session for the day. I felt bad about it, since she only got one real timed lap in a TT session on Saturday, and offered up session 4 to her... but she agreed to let me go out in TT session 4 on the A6s, to try for the win, as I was a good bit faster than her, on this course which I knew a little better. We just had enough in class (5 cars) to pay out 2 tires to 1st place, if I could get back into the lead.

The TT3 class lead was razor thin - I was less than a tenth back with a 2:26 lap - but I had a feeling that the then 1st placed car, an LS1 powered Miata with big Hoosiers and aero, would pick up time in TT session 4. I had my secret weapon - switching to the 315 A6s would surely drop some major time! What I didn't know was - he was doing the same damn thing!! Oh, the irony. :D We both switched from R6 tires to A6s for TT session 4, and I was lined up right behind him on the formation lap.

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Partial hot lap from Saturday (Day 1) TT session 4, before the camera shifted...

You can see part of TT session 4 in the video above, right until the camera shifted and pointed at the ceiling (ruining video for the rest of the weekend). So I go out, try to learn the feel of the very short/sticky A6 tires in this lone session, and quickly realize I'm catching the LS1 Miata hard on many turns of the 1st hot lap, so I back off and build a gap. That's where the video stops.

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The key to doing well in Time Trial is to not get stuck in traffic. So by hot lap 2 I had backed off enough to build a nice 200 yard gap to John's LS1 Miata ahead and still had plenty of distance to a TT1 Corvette behind me so as to not impede him. Then I put the hammer down and started making up track distance to John. I want after at it for 3 hot laps, catching the V8 Miata little by little on laps 2, 3 and 4. But what I didn't realize was, John had already put in his fastest time on lap 1, when I was bunching up in his mirrors and backed off. In the end we both dropped 2 full seconds, but John came away with the win with a 2:24.643 to my 2:27.787 lap. So the win, 2 tires, and a track record went to John on Day 1, and I congratulated him after.

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The LS1 Miata of John Roberts was a tick faster on Day 1 than the Mustang

I cannot emphasize this enough: The differences in the two tires were dramatic - sidewall height, overall height, compound, tread width, and steering feel. My excuse is that the changes were too drastic for me to learn with in a mere 4 laps, and I just couldn't put the right lap together. I wasn't "getting the line" right at all all day, either. I felt like I needed one more lap, but by the 4th hot lap in that last session of the day I noticed my lap times were really slowing down. The Hoosier A6 is fast, but you need to put in your fast lap or two in early, then they need to cool down.

Basically, I drove for crap. I pondered my many mistakes that night at the NASA catered party / St. Paddy's Day celebration, where I was given evil, potent shots of some green alcohol... I was blitzed out of my mind by 7:30 pm and Amy had to take me outta there and go get some food in me, to sober up!

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Sunday was a new day, and I vowed was going to put a solid fast lap in on this b!tch of a course, by damn. Amy promised to do the same, if she "could get more than one hot lap all day!". There were 4 full TT sessions to get times in for Day 2, so Amy and I split them 50-50. She went in TT sessions 1 and 3, I took sessions 2 and 4. Did I mention that 2 people driving the same car and getting half the seat time sucks??? She put in a good number of laps in TT session 1 and brought the car in while I sprinted to the grid to instruct with my student.

What she didn't do was add fuel to the car, which we were doing after every other session, to both make weight and make sure the fuel pick-up didn't get starved. When we ran the car on track with street tires it wasn't ever a concern but I noticed some fuel starve in higher speed left handers at MSR-Houston with less than a 1/2 tank of fuel, and didn't want to repeat that.

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I barely made it back to the car in time to grid up for TT session 2... and it showed to have just a tick above half a tank. Err... will this work??? No time to leave the grid and get more fuel, so I had to hope it was enough for a few laps. Again, I felt like I had the track figured out in my head, and I just needed one traffic-free lap, early, to get a good time in.

This wasn't enough fuel for ONE hot lap, actually. After we got through the end of the warm-up lap the front of the field was speeding up and I had a perfect gap ahead and behind for some traffic-free laps. I am building speed through turns 14-15-16 of the 1.7 section of the course, which are well into 4th gear, pushing the big car hard through this high-g series of corners right before the green flag... and the motor starts to stall. No... noNoNONONO! It clears up towards the entrance to Turn 1 (Big Bend), I dig in the brakes hard and lay into the throttle before the apex, letting the car push wide.... engine stalls again. NO! This is NOT HAPPENING! The gauge shows half a tank!?! But now, on 315mm A6s, with the wing set at a high AOA, in these high speed corners it is simply fuel starving. I throw up a fist and quickly dive into Pit In, not wanting to suffer through another 3.1 mile lap of fuel starvation and holding up the entire TT field.

At this point I'm pretty mad at Amy for leaving me way less than the 3/4 tank we had agreed on for the start of each session. I guess I wasn't clear enough. Sharing a race car SUCKS, by the way. ;) I dejectedly head to the local gas station, still painfully in view of the lower corners in the 1.3 section. I wave at some of the drivers as the car guzzles 8 more gallons of 93 octane. By the time I'm back into the track they are on their final lap - I'd never get around in time to get in a hot lap, so I put all my hopes on the final 4th TT session, as Amy is driving next. At least I left her plenty of fuel! hehe....

I get back to our paddock spot, switch transponders, and get her helmet in the car. She waltzes back from somewhere... "Where you been? Why aren't you on track?" Oh that was the wrong thing to ask right then, as the TT field takes the checkered flag. ;) Somehow after arguing for a few minutes it ends up being my fault, don't ask me how ... I always lose these fights. :p

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So Amy goes out in Session 3 on Sunday and gets a couple of hot laps. and drops a second from Saturday, which put her ahead of a Ferrari 355 Challenge car running in TT3, so she was happy with that. There is a great sequence of pics starting here showing her hounding this F355, then sticking a door inside of him "for a look", backing off, and getting a hast point by. She was all smiles after that small victory. The rest of her session was spent in traffic, moving up through the field, with a best lap of a 2:30.8.

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Amy getting a look at then passing a Ferrari F355 Challenge racer

Amy said she never felt like she had the right line on the 3.1, and complained about a lack of seat time - which I agree with. But now it was my turn to go in TT session 4, still with zero timed laps for the day. It was the end of the day, end of the weekend, and there were very few TT racers left. All of the faster TT1 and TT2 cars had bailed, so I was at the head of the grid. John's Miata had blown up a halfshaft in TT session 2 and left him stranded mid-track when I was off getting fuel, so he was out (they had to black flag the session to get him out of the way, so I never would have made it back for a hot lap after fueling, in any case). I still needed to get a good lap in, as John's early 2:27 lap was still leading the TT3 class. I wanted more than the 2:24 I had from Day 1, and knew it was in the car, if only I could get some clear track and put a lap or two together.

Luckily, with being in the number 1 grid spot and setting the pace on the out lap, bunching up the field, I had 100% traffic free session. I only took two hot laps in TT session 4, and both of them were fast enough to win and reset the TT3 track record. I managed a 2:22.753 and a 2:22.798, both laps a solid 2 seconds ahead of my Day 1 times (which shows how poorly I drove on Saturday). After seeing those laps I called it a day, knowing that the A6 tires were likely going to slow down significantly for lap 3. We had only 4 entrants in TT3 on Day 2 so there were no tires for the winner, oh well. Should have put one of these laps together on Day 1 - my own fault for jacking around with 2 very different sets of tires, and sharing a car for the same class, limiting our seat time.

NASA Texas Lap Records (only updated "semi-annually") http://www.nasa-tt.com/Texas_Track_R...6_articleid/11 - this doesn't even have the January 2013 event updated yet, so of course the March event isn't in the books.

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After my TT session was done I worked with my HPDE1 student one more time and signed her off for solo in HPDE2 in her S197 5.0 Mustang. This was the mother of two daughters who are also HPDE drivers, one in a 2013 Camaro and another in a second S197 5.0, with the father of the clan running HPDE in his Miata. Like they say, a family that races together... sees each other more on race weekends? Cool family.

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What's Next?

The next event for the 2011 GT was on Saturday March 23rd at Eagles Canyon Raceway. Amy ran there for one session, but it rained and hailed like mad, so they rescheduled for April 6th. I'll talk about both of those events in my next update. If you would like to join us for an informal ECR track day on April 6th you can learn more at the link below. We also have a NASA event coming up at Texas World Speedway April 20-21st. Again, see the link below to sign up or learn more. And in between those two weekends is the SCCA ProSolo in our back yard. Friday night of the ProSolo weekend there’s a Welcome Party and dinner, “Grilling on the Barbi” on site, sponsored by Vorshlag Motorsports. All food is free of charge & of course FREE beer from a little town in Texas called Shiner. I will be speaking in an Australian accent and working the grill myself.

• Eagles Canyon Track Experience - April 6: https://www.facebook.com/events/480654921999822/
• NASA Texas April 19-21, 2013 - Texas World Speedway: http://nasaproracing.com/event/1618
• SCCA Mineral Wells ProSolo, April 12-14, 2013: http://www.scca.com/events/index.cfm?eid=5464

We missed the College Station SCCA National Tour, which was the same weekend as the rained out ECR Track Event. Damned shame. During the NASA MSR-C weekend we killed the brake pads and the rotors didn't have enough thickness to turn again. The pads lasted a few events but these rotors have been on for a long time, first as a dedicated "street set", then turned and used for many track weekends.

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To prepare for the March 23rd ECR next track event we replaced the Carbotech race brake pads and rotors with fresh units. We went with the aggressive/hard XP20 front compound again (they were out of the new XP22) but stepped up from the XP10 rears to the XP12. Rotors were again Brembo rear rotors and the OEM replacement fronts we have had good luck with. Once we get caught up we will add all of that to our shopping cart - did I mention we were insanely slammed, and have been buried in work for the last 3 months?

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Epic Amount of Busy

Vorshlag has been trying to grow to keep up with demand of our products, both the ones we design and build and those of the other companies we partner with. We are now getting through a bit of a backlog of camber plate backorders, due to an unexpected surge of orders and beyond-record-sales, and are now stocking more of the popular S197 Whiteline Watts Links and LCA brackets, both of which are selling very well. We are sold out of AST 4150 coilovers for the S197 chassis at the moment, but they assure us we will see more "soon". Please call or e-mail if you want to know more and thanks for your patience.

The call volume is what is killing us, and we are all working 10-12 hour days trying to keep up (we quit answering the phone at 6 "when we close" but end up working until 9 or 10 trying to answer emails and build orders). It got so bad that I posted an ad for an inside sales person during the middle of writing this post, and have since filled that position. I posted it to the Vorshlag Facebook page for those of you lamenting the timing.

Mobil1 The Grid

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Amy was one of several Texas Region SCCA Solo drivers featured in the Mobil1 The Grid episode that aired March 23rd, 2013. You can see the 4:11 clip from the episode during the "Grassroots" portion, that features the autocross event coverage in this link. She did great on camera and was interviewed multiple times the day they shot the video, and ended up in two on-air clips, plus a few scenes of her driving the red Mustang on course. The best part was how she called me her tire warmer, heh. Big thanks to Joanna of Sunset+Vine studios in London for spending so much time with Amy that day, and getting some great video for this clip.


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Ironically enough this was from the last SCCA autocross we did in that car, back in Nov 4, 2012 (covered in this Nov 16th project update). At the time when I made this video from my last run that day, where I took the win and 2nd in PAX overall, I had no idea it would likely be our last autocross event with SCCA. Or was it?

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last one...


SCCA - Making Progress in Solo?

There have been some very positive developments in the SCCA Solo world in the past few weeks, specifically the introduction of a radical set of changes for the entry level autocross "Stock" class, now to be called "Street". Gone are the custom remote reservoir double adjustable shocks and pricy Hoosier gumball R compound tires. In their place were added the much needed camber plates/adjustment provision (this pays for itself in tire wear savings, ten fold) and a 2nd optional swaybar provision, up from the previous one. And 200 treadwear tires are to be mandated in these "Street" classes by 2015, like much of the rest of the motorsport world has done to their entry level classes.

Read this for more explanation: http://www.solomatters.com/2013/03/s...sal-explained/

It wasn't like "Stock" was even remotely like factory stock, and with these proposals that have taken some of the big $$$ mods and really lowered the tire budgets in this entry-level category. Now with the BFG Rival, Dunlop Z2 and Bridgestone RE-11A all sporting 200 treadwear - and better wear rates than before - this is a smart, progressive, and necessary part of the category update. These are changes that we here at Vorshlag and other competitive racers have been asking to be implemented for years. We sell the custom shocks that are allowed under the old ruleset and it gets a little crazy - the things we can legally do for Stock class racers. I personally wholeheartedly agree with every Street class provision of these proposed changes to "Stock" classes, and it still baffles me that this is the same group that made the Watts Link change. I just hope enough people write-in to the SEB to support these changes (use this link!) and I hope the same "let's get out of the 1970s rules!" mentality can find its way to Street Prepared and Prepared, both of which categories are badly mired in the past.

These "Stock-to-Street" changes are "out for member review", should likely pass (but don't ask me, as I cannot predict a damned thing) and could become the new entry level class for Solo by 2014, with some final aspects phased in by 2015. Read more here. Again, the irony is that the Solo Events Board (who made the Watts Link change I so vehemently disagreed with) is the group made these radical but much-needed Stock-to-Street class proposals, against the wishes of the Stock Advisory Committee, some members of which are getting shut out for fighting the changes and not getting this much needed update done sooner. So now I find myself agreeing with and even publicly defending the same group of 7 people (SEB) that I felt made a bad call in January.

Their bold move here prompted me to not only renew my SCCA membership, which I had let lapse in disgust, but to also sponsor the ProSolo welcome party next month. The world is a crazy place sometimes - right as I had given up hope on this club they make the boldest proposal in 40 years, completely restructuring an entire category. I just hope they don't lose any steam and quit making these much needed updates to the oldest of classes.

Oh, and please don't clutter up this Mustang build thread with more "Street class" proposal banter - there are lots of forums blowing up with discussion of this set of changes. Just look for any forum that talks about SCCA Solo and you'll find a massive thread where you can chime in. Or if you are a member on the Vorshlag forum, feel free to chime in to this thread. Thanks!


Sharing a Race Car Sucks! (new Daily Drivers Added)

So I dropped the above line in this thread update several times, because it is true. Every time Amy and I have had to share a car for a track weekend it makes for two problems: 1) we don't get as much seat time individually and 2) it is very hard on the car, if we take extra track sessions. This isn't at all like autocrossing, where two drivers often benefit from driving together, and you have only 3-4 minutes of driving per day. We're putting 80+ minutes of track abuse on the car each and every track day. We've also both been complaining about daily driving our two S197 Mustangs, Amy in the 2011 Mustang (which has been getting a bit more radical over the past year) and me in the 2013 GT (which I've been using to commute in as well as pick up/drop off parts with various Vorshlag vendors). I put nearly 2000 miles on my '13 in the past 5 weeks, too, nearly doubling the odometer reading. Both cars were also already pretty stiffly sprung and have only gotten stiffer springs and worse ride characteristics as the on-track competitiveness has ratcheted up.

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"new" Daily Drivers for Amy (BMW 740iL) and me (GMC Sierra 1500 "shop truck")

In the past two weeks we have added two more "daily drivers" to our fleet of cars and trucks. We have actually been looking for good examples of the above two vehicles for quite some time, and it was just luck that we happened upon two great deals/examples, mere days apart. Amy is now daily driving in in a silver on black 2001 BMW 740iL, which is a really clean V8 Baviarian cruiser. Now we finally have an actual 4 door vehicle that we real adults can ride in the back seat with - craziness. And since my custom ordered 2013 F-350 diesel dually isn't here, which I don't want to use it for commuting/parts deliveries anyway, and I sold my Dodge diesel tow rig in late January, I picked up this fine example of the GMT800 chassis. This 1999 GMC Sierra 1500 has the short bed, regular cab, 2WD, and a 5.3L V8 under hood. A previous owner even added some ugly 20" wheels and leaking headers, but those will be removed and replaced soon. This truck will be our shop "parts runner" so we can finally pick up pallets of parts again, and I can quit pounding needless miles on my 2013 GT filling the role of a truck, and the tow vehicle dually can just stay a tow vehicle. Both of these recent purchases will be covered in this sub-forum[/URL], with their own build threads, linked to in this paragraph.

So now that have two more functional, comfy daily drivers, what to do with the Mustangs? First thought - Make them faster. Yes, in the last thread update I said I was going to sell the 2013 GT but that was 6 weeks ago! I thought about it and now, I don't think so. The 2013 GT was just so cheap to buy new that I can't make myself get rid of it. And I need something of mine to race, without Amy's squeamish limitations that are imposed on "her" red 2011 GT. My 2001 BMW 330 LS1 race car is still months away from being race ready, and I don't want to "share" her Mustang with her for the bulk of the 2013 season.

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Back to a two Mustang team?

Amy suggested, without any prodding or Jedi mind tricks from me, that I "should just race the 2013 GT" myself. So before she realizes how much I'll likely spend modding this one, we're going to quickly prep it for TT3 use, and do ALL the things we wanted to do to this car when we bought it for ESP use: wider wheels, flared fenders, more power, less weight, no back seat, etc. We just won't have as many tortured rules to limit us that we originally had in our ESP build plan. We've already picked up 14" Brembos and have some other cool bits arriving soon as well. This car has remote reservoir coilover monotube doubles (AST 4200RR) installed, and we will put even more suspension goodies on this car than the 2011 GT has. Since NASA TT3 class has two optional Power-to-Weight formulas to choose from (9.5:1 for non-stock aero and 9:1 for OEM aero), we'll go with a lighter set-up on the 2013 GT to see how it stacks up against the 2011 GT's winged/splittered set-up. My hope is to have both cars at the NASA @ NOLA event, May 4-5th. We should have our new truck by then and hopefully the GMC "shop truck" will be more trailer capable by then as well.

Sorry this update got so long, but we have a lot going on, and more coming up. By my next update there will be some bombshells and hopefully progress from the 2013 GT build.

Stay tuned until next time!

Project Update for April 27, 2013: Has been 5 weeks since my last Mustang project thread update already? So I started writing this on April 27th and it took me until May 2nd to finish it and post it on all of the forum threads. I keep saying "We're so busy" here at Vorshlag but looking at the books it appears we had an all time record month in March. Then we broke that record again in April. Wee need about 4 times as much space as we have now, and 'm looking at much bigger commercial properties. So onto the Mustang work - we have been to 3 track events since my last post, a drag race, several new Mustang parts have been installed, and we are loading up the red car for the NASA @ NOLA Motorsports Park race this weekend. I better get to it...

Five Star Ford HPDE at Eagles Canyon Raceway - March 23

Corey White, who has sold us both the 2013 GT and now a custom-ordered 2013 F-350 Dually, is a dealer at a local Ford house. He sells a lot of Roush, SVT and, Boss302, GT500 and regular Mustangs and Raptors to folks all over the country. Since he deals with a lot of Mustang folks he convinced the dealership to support both car shows and track events, like this one on March 23rd. We always try to come out and support his events so Amy entered this one in the red '11 Mustang, with Ed and me along for track support. Since my custom ordered F-350 wasn't built yet I borrowed Ed's Duramax dually and his open trailer, too. We could have driven to the track in the Mustang (well, 2 of us), but with the cold weather and rain in the forecast it is always nice to have a truck nearby to store your extra stuff in. And if (when?) something breaks it is handy to have that trailer there to get you home without a call for a flat bed. We have had incredibly good luck with this Mustang for almost 3 years now but eventually something is going to leave is stranded... (foreshadowing!) :D

Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...SF-ECR-032313/

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You sharp eyed readers will notice the 18x10" D-Force/Vorshlag wheels on the red car; that's because we kind of knew it might be raining, so we mounted that old set of 295/35/18 Nitto NT-05s (which we cannot seem to kill) onto a set of these 5-spokes for the event. It wasn't a timed event and even just on street tires this car is... well, usually pretty quick at these Mustang-centric events. The Nittos still had visible tread if it was wet, and if it was dry and I wanted to try to kill this cursed set of tires. I left the set of rain-friendly Bridgestone RE-11's on the other set of 18x10's at the shop, foolishly...

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This event was like many other HPDE's: made up of a curious mix of sports and sport cars including lots of Mustangs - from GTs to Boss302s to GT500s to a couple of old Fox AI cars - modern RX8, several Miatas, an STi, and some exotics - a Mercedes SL, a Ferrari 360, a Ford GT. The track was already wet from an early morning rain shower, and it was 45° and windy (cold for Texas!), so they sent out the Advanced group in these treacherous conditions first to help "dry the track". Just for some slow laps to remove the dampness...

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Well it was cold and it was wet and these Nittos excel in either condition. In the first Red session there were cars slipping off track left and right (I think there were six or seven 4-offs) and even Amy (who prides herself in never having had a 4 off at any track - yet) had a quick 360° spin, but stayed on track, braking into the "canyon" after Turn 9. She said it just zipped around in a quick pirouette, was slick as snot out there, and of course she came in for a look. Never left pavement, nobody was even remotely close to her at the time (they were all going as slow or slower than she was), and no damage done - so no harm, no foul, and I sent her back out.

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After that 20 minutes of slipping and sliding around it quit spitting rain, but it was still wet and plenty cold. So after a lengthy delay they sent the Novice group out with instructors, going ultra-slow and "testing the waters" as it were. More spins, offs and not a lot of fun.

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Then they put in a 2 hour delay, waiting to see if another storm cell was going to hit, and hoping for sunny weather with some track drying winds. Ed and I had a feeling, and smart phones with radar apps, so we quickly loaded up the Mustang when Amy wasn't looking, before the skies opened up again. Just in case. We told her we could quickly unload it if the sun popped out. While we were all warming up in the clubhouse eating food provided by 5-Star Ford, and cooked by Corey himself at the grill, the skies opened up... rain, thunder, then some light hail. Well, that sent the owners of beautiful Mustangs and Ford GTs scrambling to get the more costly machinery under cover of the ECR garages.

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The hail made quite a racket on the metal roof of the clubhouse, and while it was not serious enough to cause any damage to delicate sheet metal, it put an end to the day early. The other big storm cell was coming, so they called the event off (it rained for most of the rest of the day) and gave everyone "a mulligan", with free entry to another ECR track event in 2 weeks...


Eagles Canyon Track Experience - April 6th

This HPDE was already scheduled but became the make-up event for everyone that paid for the March 23rd track day. This was another low stress HPDE, put on again by the folks that own the Eagles Canyon Raceway track north of Dallas, with help from some local racers ("The Two Brians") to organize and promote the events. Amy entered and again drove in the Advanced group, but this time I popped in for one of her sessions, too.

We still had full depth brake pads, left over from the previous and much shortened March 23rd event. Since we didn't win any tires at the MSR 3.1 NASA TT event (not enough TT3 entrants on Day 2), we had to save the freshest Hoosier A6s, so we rummaged through the old junk tire pile and found 8 very abused Kumho V710s in my favorite 315/35/18 size. We picked the best 4 and I had Olof mount them "inside out", opposite of how they are marked (not directional but they do have inside and outside marked sidewalls). These tires were long past their prime but had some usable rubber left, if we ran the inside tread mounted out. How bad could it be, right? (hint hint...)

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Once again I borrowed Ed's Duarmax diesel crew cab dually, but this time I sprung for a gooseneck hitch (installed by Kurt at Janco Fab, where I store the trailer) in his truck, so it could tow our enclosed race trailer. Ed was all for the idea, as now he can tow my gooseneck trailer with this truck for his own race car, from time to time (like April 28th, when we went drag racing with his car). Having the Mustang stuck on an open trailer in a hail storm two weeks earlier taught us to not skimp on the trailer, even with a borrowed truck - bringing the enclosed trailer brings shelter for the car and people, as well as a LOT more of our tools, gear, spares and food.

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Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/ECR-040613/

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Left: world famous top fuel drag racer Eddie Hill was racing in an Ariel Atom. Right: Mark Boothe in his Grand Sport C6, a NASA TT1 driver

So this day had a LOT better weather, with cool temps and sunny skies. Perfect "Spring in Texas" weather, without the hail storms. There were a lot more cars at this event, both from from the mulligan entries two weeks earlier as well as a few more entrants that heard about the now more regular "ECR run events", with The Two Brians in charge of running the day.

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Amy was quick along with a handful of others in Red group this time, putting in some fast-ish ~2 minute flat laps on these godawful tires. She complained bitterly about the twitchiness of the car, wondering "What new parts are on it now?!" And while we rarely give here the same parts set-up twice (always trying new things!) the issues sounded like they were from the "flipped" Kumhos. Well I needed to see how bad they were, so I stole the keys and one of her track sessions...

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My 1:58 lap was a handful with the tires flipped and HORRIFIC traffic

The video above shows a lot of bad habits in the first few laps, both from a "rolling roadblock" driver in front of a train of faster cars, and from some frustrated drivers held up behind him, myself included. This was in the Advanced group now, so supposedly not full of noobs. There was a GTR driver blocking a line of cars 9 deep for 3+ laps. Poor Eddie Hill was stuck behind him the longest, and I got held up in the train behind Eddie's Arial. Problem was neither the Atom nor our Mustang had enough extra power to pull by this modified GTR on the straights, but OMFG we were both held up badly in the corners. Guy was braking 300-500 feet early, coasting through the corners, then blasting out and blocking us on the straights. At this event we were supposed to wait for a point-by to pass, but this guy's arm was apparently broken, and his mirrors were blocked.

So after a lap and a half of of this nonsense I gave up - I only had one session to run the car that day and I really wanted to push for one lap - to try to see how much the tires were affecting the car's performance, if any. Eventually the guy nearly spun off track into Turn 4, where Eddie pointed me by, and into Turn 6 I passed him in his ridiculously early braking procedure. Apparently he had almost the entire Advanced group ready to kill him by day's end, so I wasn't alone. "Time for the Green group, pal"...

As I say many times in the video, the tires felt terrible beyond words. Flipping these Kumho's inside-out made for super twitchy car under braking, and mid-corner the car would swing wildly from under- to oversteer. So yea, don't ever flip a Kumho V710 inside-out! This isn't always the case on asymmetric marked tires, but Kumho MEANT it. Lesson learned - always try to learn something when we are at the track, even if it is a little thing about a certain tire brand's "mounting limitations".

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Amy was back in the car for sessions 3 and 4 and having a good time. Her parents and her uncle arrived mid-day and were cheering here on and watching her drive on track. For the 4th session she asked and was allowed to take a passenger, her out-of-town uncle (above), who was all smiles in the right seat. She went out to take some ~8/10ths laps in the final Red session, and somewhere in Turn 2 on her first hot lap something broke...

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Click for in-car video of the transmission going "BOOM!"

As you can hear in the video above, Amy knew something broke in the transmission and she even figured out that the other gears still worked and managed to get the car back around to the pits. Once she got back I took it for a quick spin around the paddock and realized that, yep, 3rd gear was GONE. All other gears worked and the transmission functioned silently, just minus one gear. Hmm....

It was the end of the day and we drove it into the trailer for a diagnosis back at Vorshlag. This ECR track day was still a lot of fun, with good cool weather and some quick-ish laps, other than the traffic in my session and the whole "trans go boom" issue.

Some Repair Work + Upgrades

So I'm not going to talk about the transmission repair, other than "the entire 3rd gear was blue" and it failed due to heat, not poor shifting or a bent shift fork, like I had assumed (many others have broken shift forks in these cars). It was fixed within 5 days, and I will leave it at that.

Now how it failed is still unusual. Amy and I are not ham-fisted, speed shifting Neanderthals... we both shift smoothly and quickly, but delicately. Three fingers to pull the shift ball back, a light palm to push upwards in the pattern, ala: the Bob Bonderaunt school/book/instruction. She and I both noted a little "snick" from the 2-3 upshift in a few early laps that day, but that was the only pre-failure warning; this and the wonky inside-out tire twitchiness were the only out of the ordinary things with the car at ECR that day. The trans fluid was at the proper level and is checked regularly, and is synthetic.

Again, we were told it was heat that fatigued the gear, and 3rd gear was a different shade than all of the rest - which were inspected and given a clean bill of health (Ford is awesome, by the way). We took 4 sessions in the car that day (and only completed 3 of them) and the ambient temps barely got to 70°F, but we think the damage was cumulative and from previous heavy heat days. We have used Redline synthetic fluids in this Getrag MT-82 from day one and it amassed 17,000 miles before 3rd let go. We had the OEM shifter and few issues shifting, unless the transmission was loaded up under power, when the body-mounted shifter was easy to mis-align with the transmission. No, we don't have pictures of the old parts, and I didn't see them. I won't and can't speak further on the transmission repair.

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Red Mustang in for a check-up after TWS. Note the impact (tire klag? rock?) that the LF fog light grill took

Sure, we have put a lot of track and autocross miles on this car in the past 3 years and some sort of driveline failure was bound to happen, I guess. We still have a 100% stock engine, cooling system, and clutch. The rear axle has had heat issues already (melted axle seals, burned up stock differentials) as have the brakes (we've quit replacing the caliper dust shields, which I can melt and/or catch on fire in one session... sometimes in one lap). The Tremec TR-6060 has provisions for an internal pump and external cooler, which the World Challenge and other endurance racers utilize, and this is something we are exploring for the Getrag, to prevent this from happening again. We will have to use an external pump, though.

Joe D from Tremec is also working with us to get a Tremec T56 Magnum 6-spd swap kit together for 5.0L S197 Mustangs, which a lot of people would like to see. There have been a few swaps but this will be a more comprehensive swap, with a driveshaft, clutch/pp, and proper shifter. The TR-6060 is a body-mounted shifter but the T56 Magnum is a direct mounted shifter, so driveline-to-body movements won't cause a mis-alignment. We are doing the T56 swap on his 2013 Boss302 Leguna Seca very soon - I will show the swap in this thread once it is complete, of course.

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Other things we noticed and worked on included the brakes. After this entire day of racing the new Carbotech XP22 pads looked brand new. Normally we can see a sizable amount of wear in one day of racing, and neither Amy nor I are "easy on brakes", but they still looked very good. And even after the next TWS event (which I'll talk about next) they still showed very little wear. Finally - a brake pad we cannot kill in 2 days! This 3800 pound car (ballasted up for TT3, w/ driver) normally chews through pads at a rapid clip, so this is good news.

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So if you've read this thread from the beginning you know we've tried a number of rear Upper Control Arms (UCA) on the 2011 GT here and the last iteration (Spohn arm, UPS upper mount, with custom Vorshlag bushings and new, larger mounting bolt) worked out pretty well, but still had some noticeable clunking. When a friend PM'd me about a Boss 302-S UCA set-up for sale on a Boss302 forum, new in box, I jumped on it.

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This set-up is made by MultiMatic out of Canada and costs over $700 USD. It is based on OEM upper mount and UCA assembly, strangely enough, but it is heavily modified. Gone is the rubber mount in the UCA itself, as it looks like the lop off the rubber bushing end and weld their custom machined spherical bearing holder end in place. The also reinforce the factory upper chassis mount and machine their own bushings to actually fit their own spherical and the bolt - wow, what a concept, right?! That's what we did with the Spohn arm and UPR mount piece, neither of which fit each other or the factory bolt. This is a very nicely made set-up and we put this in the car before the TWS event. We don't sell this set-up, and there's of course a few little things we'd change, but overall it is a great unit... for a race car. Most folks will see the $700 price tag and laugh. But if you saw the parts in person, felt the fit between the components compared to most of the stuff out there... you'd likely understand. Very, very nice parts.

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Another nice set of parts made by another company is the Maximum Motorsports 4-point roll bar we ordered and received for the red car. Wow, this is a nicely made piece of kit! Sure, it is 1.75 x .134" wall DOM and not the normal .120" wall tubing you see in most road racing cages, but it is stout and put together with very fine tolerances. The MIG welding is great and the Laser cut, CNC bent, and welded lower platforms are amazingly well done. Just click on the images below, and look at the factory stamped steel bits they replace.

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Ryan spent about 5 hours fitting, installing, and tack welding the bar in the car before it came out for final welding. The rear bars are shipped loose, with stubs welded in place for final fitting. This way the entire unit ships flat for big cost savings, and it likely makes for a much better, custom fit to the car this way. I think he said he had it in and out of the car 4 or 5 times but that is normal - patience is your friend, as you don't want to rush a roll bar or roll cage install if you want it to fit well and base safe, or scratch up interior bits. They include great instructions and a "fit-up bar" made of PVC for marking the side panels that have to be trimmed and a hole cut, to fit around the rear downbars.

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Due to time conflicts with other customer work and an upcoming race we left the bar in raw steel and hooked up the harnesses and reinstalled the Cobra seats for the TWS event at NASA. This bar mounts right onto the back seat "shelf" so it is behind your head, for 100% safe use in street driving. Having steel tubing near your head (roll cage or a closely mounted B-pillar main hoop) is just asking for major head trauma in a street crash, sans racing helmet. But in the two pictures above (taken in the past 48 hours) you can see that we have since removed the bar, powder coated all 5 pieces (bar + 4 mounting plates) and weighed it all at 63 pounds (which is almost exactly what I predicted it would weigh, and nearly identical to the Kirk Racing 4-point bars we've installed in BMW E30. E36 and E46 cars). The gloss black powder coated roll bar is going back into the car as I write this, with the back seat, rear interior panels, and the Cobra seats are going back in.

Speaking of Cobra seats...


Vorshlag now Authorized Cobra Stocking Dealer

We bit the bullet and made a big WD buy-in for Cobra seats. We have needed to become a dealer for this brand for years, as we have used their seats in too many of our own builds, not to mention installed customers' Cobra seats. That buy-in also gave us access to Puma, Aplinestars, OMP, Sparco, Momo, Schroth, Bell, Arai, Peltor, and much more. We're still sorting through this big shipment of Cobra Suzuka, Sebring, Evolution, and Imola seats and do have plenty of inventory.

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Installation of Cobra Suzuka Pro GT Kevlar seats, custom sliders, Schroth harnesses, and Sharkworks harness bars into a C6 ZR1 at Vorshlag

Ryan is going to build some display stands for a few models of Cobra seats that we want to keep on hand, so pretty soon you will be able to stop by and test out various Cobra models in the Vorshlag lobby. We already have two different Cobra Suzuka sizes in the 2011 Mustang GT, which stays up at the shop now almost all of the time, too. Two more will go into the BMW E46 Alpha car, also kept here at Vorshlag. And we are making better chassis bracket solutions for several cars as well, and hopefully can make produciton runs of these soon. I have yet to see an Off The Shelf bracket solution that fits a given car without putting the seat into the roof. Look for more info about these various seating products on our website soon.


SCCA ProSolo at Mineral Wells, TX - April 13-14th

Now we didn't enter this event (the car was still being repaired, and it isn't legal for pretty much any SCCA Solo class), but Vorshlag sponsored the welcome party on Friday. We bought and cooked food for 150+ people, with Amy and me at the grill for about 3 hours. Glad we were there, as we got to talk to a lot of friends, fellow racers, and even chatted up some SEB members. Some encouraging hints at the changes to Stock/Street class for 2014-15 and beyond. Can't wait for the next FasTrack to be published...

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Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro Suspension Kit

Word has gotten out about this strut/shock/spring/camber plate set-up we've put together for the S197, and tested for many months. We have been exploring and testing various Bilstein and Bilstein motorsports shocks since we became a dealer last June.

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In late December we ordered and received a "Bilstein BTS" shock/spring kit, then tested the spring rates of the matched "BTS" springs these inverted Bilstein B6 non-adjustable monotubes. These struts and shocks have 36 mm pistons (huge compared to any twin tube), and as such, they react to damping forces at much lower shaft velocities. The nicest thing about the B6 strut is that it is shorter than stock, so it is made to work well at lower ride heights...

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So after we received the kit we worked with a Vorshlag test pilot Tyler Rogers, and planned to put this set-up on this car in early January of this year. Since a handful of haters have said that the S197 Bilstein monotube rides poorly, I wanted to do some before and after testing with the "BTS" lowering spring. I made this lengthy before-after video (see below), and found the ride of the Bilsteins to not only be acceptable, but exceptionally good. And it was better than the stock noodle springs and $30 OEM struts could ever hope to provide.

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Another interesting side effect of the inverted 40mm shaft Bilstein is that it is 2 pounds lighter than the OEM twin tube junk, per strut. So it is strong, will have less flex under load or at full extension, but you shed some pounds as well.

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Once we had a handle on the various lowering spring rates and picked the Bilstein BTS springs for this car, we scheduled Tyler's 2012 Mustang GT Brembo car into the shop. We measured the OEM ride heights, camber, and I took the "before" test drive around our pre-set "test loop". Then we got it onto a lift and took off the OEM bits...

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While the stock struts and shocks were off we measured the lengths relative to the Bilstein B6 bits, then rated this OEM springs. The new parts all went on and functioned perfectly. The quality of everything we've received from Bilstein has been second to none. The rear shocks came with new top mount bushings and the springs were made to go with the OEM top mounts.

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Of course we cannot leave anything alone and instead of using the OEM or even a GT500 top mount we paired the front struts with the Vorshlag S197 camber plate and our OEM upper spring perch / sealed radial bearing solution.

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We have since run these with various aftermarket lowering springs and they work very well, wihtout the bottoming you tend to see with stock length struts and shocks (OEM, some Koni, Tokico, etc). We now put the Bilstein shock/struts together, with your choice of 5 different lowering springs, and assemble it all with the Vorshlag camber plate and call it our "StreetPro" suspension kit.

The end result is a really nice suspension kit that is complete and READY TO INSTALL, right out of the box from Vorshlag. There is no need to borrow a spring compressor to remove your upper spring perch/top mount to reinstall on the new bits, as we include the Vorshlag camber plates and pre-install the springs you have chosen, and ship it all to you ready to go. This makes the install take 1/2 the time as most spring/shock installs. And at a hair under $1500 this is a track worthy, street friendly kit that works very well, has a "lifetime warranty" on the struts/shocks, you can alter the camber quickly track-side with the Vorshlag camber plates, and includes inverted monotube shocks with shortened strut/shock bodies, for more bump travel at lower ride heights. Good stuff.

Link to our Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro product page: http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info...roducts_id=559

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Before and After ride heights on a 2012 Brembo GT, with OEM then Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro suspensions

This animated gif above shows the before and after ride heights with the BTS springs. The 5300-K and 5300-P springs are a tick lower. With the BTS springs the car was lowered by 15mm up front (close to 0.75" installed) and 38mm in back (close to 1.5" installed) for a level stance that dramatically improves the look of any S197. This set-up is popular because it offers good ground clearance and a favorable ride. The optional lowering spring kits shown below offer even more aggressive ride heights and spring rates. Tyler and his wife both love the look and ride with this spring and shock combo, and the quality at this pricepoint is impossible to beat.


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And don't forget, Vorshlag sells the full range of Bilstein shock models. They make a lot of adjustable and non-adjustable monotubes for all sorts of sports cars, and we're adding them to our website as quickly as we can test, measure and photograph new sets we get in. The Bilstein PSS9 single adjustable, monotube, inverted struts shown above are for a GD Subaru STi, shown with Vorshlag camber plates.

Anyway, let's get to the next track event: TWS!


NASA at Texas World Speedway 2.9 mi CW - April 19-20th

I was admittedly nervous about running this April event with NASA. Even though I started doing track events at TWS back in the late 1980s, I couldn't remember running the 2.9 mile course "backwards" (clockwise) in the thousands of laps I have running this road course in various configurations and directions. When people ask I will say ECR is my home track, and I know it best, but TWS was my first track, and one I will likely have the most laps on for a good long time yet. I had some folks saying the terminal speeds off the main, banked straight and into the Turn 15 corner would be "well in excess of 150 mph", which is different from any other road course in Texas - all the rest of which involve fairly low peak speeds (>125 mph). ECR, MSR-C, MSR-H, GSS, HHR, TMS.... all of our other tracks are much slower than TWS, and the TWS 2.9 CW is the quickest of them all.

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And all I needed to do was have a "4-off" into T15 at 160+ mph... where my room mate in college went off, flipped 4 times, and totaled his car. Of course this was unlikely, but who knows - all I'm saying was this CW 2.9 mile course was just a tick out of my comfort zone, mostly from lack of experience running it this way.

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We loaded up on Friday, once again borrowing Ed's Duramax dually, then Amy and I bombed down to College Station, TX, leaving at about 7 pm and hitting massive Friday downtown Dallas traffic. We arrived about 11:30 and managed to stick the truck + enclosed trailer into the hotel parking lot (not always an easy job), got a few hours sleep, then towed out to TWS early Saturday morning, hoping to get a decent paddock spot. BZZZ! Wrong. The place was packed and we were stuck out in a grassy parking lot, well outside of the normal garage area. Oh well - gotta rent a garage or get their early to guarantee a good paddock spot.

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No worries - we had the entire lot to ourselves and it proved to be a great spot to watch the racing (very near Turn 3), and the weather was so perfect we didn't even roll out the shade awning. We got the car ready for Time Trial and Amy and I helped fellow racer Joe D change over to some Vorshlag/D-Force 18x10" wheels and Continental slicks on his 2013 Boss302 Leguna Seca.

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When we entered, I registered for Saturday only and Amy was signed up to drive Sunday, but we noticed that some of the eight TT3 cars didn't arrive on Saturday, so I paid the difference and signed up to run TT both days, so we could make sure we had at least 5 in class both days - in the hopes that somebody could win some tires (minimum 5 cars in class to pay out for Hoosier). I ran the first Saturday session with Amy riding along, since the times don't count on that session (but do count for gridding in TT session 2). I was pretty apprehensive and put in some 1:55 laps before Amy said "Enough!" and I came in after 4 laps. She is a terrible passenger... or I am a bad enough driver that she can't ride with me, one of the two. :D There was all sorts of mayhem in the first session, with a Mazda2 spinning in front of us going into Turn 15, a Porsche went off Turn 7 on the next lap, then another car was off, and by lap 4 a Corvette not only went off track but was on fire before Turn 4 (not much damage). Wow, what a mess. They called the session early and we all "had a talk" about driving wild in TT. ;)

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When I went out for TT session 2 I was gridded a bit better and got some quicker times, into the 1:51s with a best of a 1:51.749, which put me in front of TT3 by a good bit. See video below...

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Click above to see in-car video from the TT3 winning/lap record setting 1:51.7 lap in session 2

Saturday TT Final Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...ay%20Final.pdf

I went out again in session 3 but the temps were rising and I didn't get any quicker, with a 1:51.9. I didn't bother to go out in session 4, as the temps were on the rise and I didn't feel like there was much left in the car, at least with me driving it... a few tenths maybe? The Hoosier A6 tires always seem to put in their best laps on the FIRST hot lap, and work best in the FIRST sessions of the day (coolest temps), so I was on a steep learning curve - trying to learn this course and put in my best flier in my first lap of each day, heh. ;)

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It looks like TT3 ended up having 7 in class for Saturday with a C5 Z06 Corvette taking 2nd with a 1:54.057, with Jerry Khoury's ST2/TT2 Corvette somehow sneaking into TT3 for 3rd (he is going to get a new tune to become TT3 legal soon, but I didn't mind, as it gave us more TT3 entries) and a Super Touring Ferrari F355 Challenge car in 4th. Looking at the results I was very happy to be ahead of the class that day, with so little seat time on this "backwards" 2.9 mile configuration.

Eventually the memory of this course came back to me during my first session Saturday, from when I ran it this way sometime back in the 1990s, but the speeds on the main straight "never got dull". The factory speedometer in the car was buried (at 160 mph) at the start/finish, hundreds of yards before I braked into T15. I calculated that I was really only doing 165mph into T15, but then I really had to ABUSE the brakes to haul it down for T14, where I got on the gas again, then braked again for T13.

My 2nd laps in each session were always hairier than the first, as the tires would get hot and the car would get LOOSE. Coming through Turn 2 at 100+, often about 10-15° sideways, was a bit unnerving. I left the rear wing at almost full AoA to keep it planted in the T2 to T1 complex, to get as much speed up for the front straight. Aero is your friend when you have more power than you have tire. I've got to get this car off of these little 315s! If she'd just let us cut and flare the car for 335s we could run less wing...

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Sunday was supposed to be Amy's TT day for all 4 sessions, but we had a lighter attendance than we thought... and since I was able to pull out the win Saturday I went ahead and signed up for Sunday, and agreed with Amy to only take one TT session, the second. Sharing a car sucks. So she went out in TT session 1, but felt she wasn't getting enough seat time so she went out again with HPDE3, after her first TT session. I rode with her, trying to get her to learn the course and push the braking and acceleration zones, which were holding back her times all day.

NASA @ TWS Photo & Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...il-20-21-2013/

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Anyway, since I was the quickest car to show up for grid on Sunday 's session 2 grid, I lined up P1, which makes for a nice, traffic-free session - well, for at least 2 laps, until you catch the back of the field.
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Here's the best lap on Sunday

Luckily I was able to find a tiny bit more time and my first lap 1:51.530 time was a new lap record and took the lead in TT3. But not by much! Jerry Khory slapped on a new set of Pirelli slicks and dropped FOUR seconds, nipping at my heels by less than a tenth of a second. GAH! I didn't see that coming. Now his ST2/TT2 car running in TT3 gave me a bit more reason to be concerned, but Jerry was cool and agreed to be re-classed if he beat me in a later session. In the end I held onto the TT3 win by .071 sec and scored another lap record and 2 more Hoosier tires; 4 tires for the weekend. That was a smidge quicker than the newly set AI qualifying (1:52.9) and race lap records (1:53.8), set by Mike Patterson on the way to four wins in American Iron over the weekend, in his AST equipped 4th gen LS1. So that's 3 lap records for TT3 at the 3 NASA Texas events so far this year. :)

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Amy was struggling a bit but managed to get down to a 1:59.721 in her last session, just eeking under the 2 minute mark. The high speeds were a bit more intimidating to her, but with more seat time I'm sure she'd find the time that was in the car.

Sunday TT Final Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...ay%20Final.pdf

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There was a heated battle in TTB among several Vorshlag/AST equipped E46 M3s, with Allen Page taking the win. And KenO got his car's right side damage all fixed up, from the TT incident at MSR-C. Sadly there was another TT incident this event, and more meetings other changes in TT will follow.

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The red E36 above has a PlastiDip spray paint job, which was interesting to talk about, too. And while I didn't instruct at this event I was definitely busy, working on a number of people's cars who had issues, including the OEM splitter that decided to come off at 145mph on a Leguna Seca, another stranded car we helped get towed and repaired in town, wheel changes, and other various "hey, come take a look at this" requests. But it is all good, as this is why we come to these events - to meet folks and try to help out. And sometimes, just maybe, win a set of tires. :)

We didn't leave the TWS site until 7 pm Sunday, and ate dinner with Costas and several other friends in town, so we got home about 2 am. Long day, long weekend, but Vorshlag was slammed on Monday and I had to hit the ground running. Because the shop was packed, orders overflowing, and in less than 2 weeks we had another NASA event to prep for...


Drag Racing at North Star Dragway, April 28, 2013

Just to show how little time off we actually get from racing, this last Sunday I went drag racing with my friend Ed - who has helped us at countless events over the past few years. It was my pleasure to go help him at the track for a change! Amy, Ed and I towed out to this 1/8th mile strip in Denton, TX and spent the day sorting out his 4th gen LT1 powered, 275mm Drag Radial Firebird.

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This was the first time he had this car out in 4.5 years, and a lot of the recent work on the rear suspension and exhaust has been done at Vorshlag. Used to run 5.30s in the 1/8th, so it isn't slow.

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Anyway, had a good time and I learned a lot about the "Texas 275" and "Extreme 275" classes of drag racing. Good stuff.


What's Next?

As I write this we are thrashing to load up and head out to New Orleans for the NASA @ NOLA, May 4-5th. The newly won set of Hoosier A6 tires just arrived, as did our new tire machine, new Vorshlag jackets (just in time for a cold snap today) and new Vorshlag embroidered track chairs. We signed up for the Friday test-n-tune day to try to learn this new track, which I took all of 4 laps on in January when I was there for the BFG Rival test event. Amy and I are both driving again and we hope to continue the TT3 streak... fingers crossed!

My new F-350 Ford Powerstroke dually finally arrived and we hooked up the enclosed trailer yesterday at Janco, tweaking the heights and getting it all set-up right. It tows SO WELL I cannot believe it took me this long to buy a dually. And for once we are racing the Mustang with almost no changes - 2 events the same in a row. Granted, we only had 2 weeks between events, but still... doesn't happen often.

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And we also got some good quotes and pictures of the red Mustang in the latest issue of NASA SPEED NEWS in an aero article written by ThinkFAST author (great racing book!) and aero guru Neil Roberts. The article is linked here and the entire May issue is here.

We have lots of shocks and springs in stock at the moment for the S197 Mustang. The Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro kits are here along with a number of M-5300 lowering spring options. The AST 4150s are in stock and shipping out for this chassis as well as BMW E36 and Subaru GD STi 4150 models. And we have even more new products coming, as we are working furiously to catch up with this new level of parts demand from Vorshlag. If you have a back-ordered camber plate - thank you for your patience, as we now have every camber plate car model shipping except one, which is due next week. We are also making production batches of both E36 and E46 BMW LS1 kits, with headers and mounts coming together quickly.

Check back in a "week or two" for my write-up after NOLA, and for some other exciting S197 suspension development news.

Cheers!

Project Update for May 17, 2013: I trying to keep this update "short and sweet" because the only thing to cover was the NASA @ NOLA weekend and some upcoming events. If you have been keeping track, we have run this 2011 Mustang in 3 NASA Texas race weekends in 2013, and so far had nailed 3 new TT3 track records and 5 of 6 class wins (each Saturday and Sunday is a new TT race). NOLA was another 2 day event on the NASA Texas calendar and we were hoping that the "heavy but powerful" TT3 Mustang would do well at this track, too. I knew it had one long straight (3360 feet) but it also had a lot of twisty bits, as you can see in the course map that we made, below. Could we "4-peat" with TT3 track records? Read below to find out...


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Since I have complained publicly about the lack of track maps being available at many tracks and events before, and I feel that the lack of maps/corner numbers/pit lane routing has led to issues at some events, I put my money where my mouth is and we made the track map above. Brandon here at Vorshlag took an existing but very hard to read color track map from NOLA and created a line graphic shown, added legible corner numbers, and marked where NASA TT race director Ken Brewer wanted the TT group to bunch up on the out lap. All of the various alternate configurations were removed as well, to only show the course we were to be driving that weekend. We printed 70 of these and handed them out at the TT meeting as well as to our HPDE students. This went over so well we are going to do this for all upcoming NASA Texas events we go to in 2013.


NASA @ NOLA Motorsports Park, May 3-5, 2013

We had been anticipating this event for some time, as I got to take 4 laps around this 2.75 mile course back in January and I couldn't wait to go back and race my own car there. NASA Texas and NASA Mid-South teamed up to have this event on both of their schedules, but it was mostly run by Mid-South. NOLA Motorsports Park is a beautiful, even picturesque race track facility that I raved about in my January Rival review. Amy wanted to go to race and to see New Orleans, and with it being the annual Jazzfest weekend, we knew it would be packed and crazy in the French Quarter.


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Palm trees, manicured lawns, a flawless track and paddock surface, and beautiful buildinds abound at NOLA

After a bit of a thrash to get the trailer adjusted to the new F-350 diesel dually, that arrived just a couple of days before, we got the Mustang and all of our gear loaded for the 9 hour tow from Dallas,TX down to New Orleans, LA, on Thursday afternoon. We ended up leaving more of less mid afternoon, with Amy and I driving and Ryan and Brandon along for the 3 days of racing. We brought rain gear, cold weather gear, and clothes for hot weather too - never know what to expect down on the Delta!

Vorshlag Photo and Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...-May-4-5-2013/

With 100 miles on the odometer the truck was sufficiently broken in and away we went! The truck performed ridiculously well, towing like a dream and stopping without any drama - it was as if the trailer wasn't even hooked up. These new adaptive/progressive/integrated trailer brake controllers that modern trucks come with are amazing. We arrived at our hotel at about 2 am and went to our rooms to crash Thursday night. It started raining on the way down and rained that night as well.

Friday May 3, NOLA Test-N-Tune

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Left: Unloading Friday morning in the rain. Right: After we set up the trailer the car was switched to street tires for some rain dancing

We arrived at the track early on Friday morning and got set-up at the NE end of the paddock (nearest to the Events Center, Race Shop and Kart Lobby/Cafe buildings) and unloaded the car. It was pissing rain and didn't look to be letting up anytime soon, but the forecast for Saturday and Sunday was "70°F, sunny and clear". So the crew threw on the Bridgestone RE-11 street tires and D-Force wheels we had in the trailer and Amy and I started taking sessions on the very wet and still raining track.

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Dark and gloomy skies in the morning, with rain finally diminishing...

Practice days on the Friday before a NASA weekend is common, but for us it was new - we used to just run a single NASA weekend day (2008-2011), and only in 2012 did we start running both Saturdays and Sundays. This track was so new to us, though, that we decided to pony up the $300 for the practice day and get in as many laps as we could - to learn this track layout. It is a tricky track, and with zero elevation change there are few reference markers to use to help you remember one corner from the next, and there are several that look identical. But with the rain it was tough to judge speeds and what our relative lap times in the dry might be. It rained for a couple of hours then finally... stopped.

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Late morning Friday the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and the sun came out. It gets brighter and brighter...

Even with the rain no longer falling there were still significant puddles that covered the track at corners T8, T13, T16 and all down the front straight. I was short shifting 4th and 5th on the front straight to keep the tires from breaking loose at even the reduced speeds of 120+ mph we were seeing. The massive lake at T13 was DEEP and there was no way around it - you just had to slog through it. We named it the "sippy hole", and the lake at T16 wasn't abating much either. By the 3rd and 4th morning sessions we were the only ones brave (or fool) enough to be out on track and Amy and I pounded out dozens and dozens of laps each. Eventually we were just making laps to try to push water off the track, and each lap was making a difference - with water splashing 20' high at some "stream crossings". The interior of the car was pretty wet, but we cleaned it out during the lunch break. And that's when we noticed the NOLA crew go out in 3 track drying trucks, dragging massive air blowers, and they dried off the track! They did an awesome job for about a solid hour and it made a massive difference. Well, T16 was still wet and you had to tip-toe around that corner, but the rest of the track was completely dry. They again warned us after lunch "if you go off, you WILL get stuck", but we never dropped a single tire in the mud all morning during the rain, so we weren't too worried.

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Off with the street tires ("poor man's wets") and on with the well abused A6 tires, late on Friday

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We didn't shoot any video during our rain driving, as it was pretty slow, but it sure was entertaining! Probably should have got a few laps on video to show how wet it really was. You know its bad when NOBODY will go out on track with you, but we didn't care - we were learning the track layout, and that's what mattered most. During lunch we saw the track drying and swapped the car back to the Forgestars mounted with 1 weekend old Hoosier A6 tires we used at TWS (I will talk more about the RAPID wear rate of A6s at the bottom of this post), which had some tread left. Then we both took a full 20 minute session each in the dry. The times dropped from the 2:30-2:15 range in the wet to 1:53.8 in the dry for me and 1:57 for Amy.

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During these afternoon dry sessions we would come in from the track to the hot pits, where Ryan was waiting to check/bleed down tire pressures and tire temps, while Brandon was shooting pictures from numerous locations. Ryan noted some tire temp issues and adjusted the camber and tire pressures to eventually get the temps even across each tire, and the performance felt better, too. It is always a big plus when we can have him at the track with us! He does track-side work with a World Challenge team (and is at COTA while I'm writing this) so this was nothing new for him, and in fact he said "this is the least work I've ever done at a race weekend. I like it when drivers don't crash or blow up!" And the pictures always look SO much better when Brandon can come along, as well.

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Left: We used up 3 of the 4 scrubs on Friday. We had one "keeper" and the rest were junk. Right: New tires going on for Saturday

I sent Amy out again in the final session of the day to get some more laps under her belt, and she got all the life out of the tires, taking 3 of 4 down to cord (and they wore almost perfectly across the tread). The above left pictures shows one of the fronts, which was down to base rubber across the entire tread and just into some Nylon cord on the edge. We brought a set of sticker A6 tires (the winnings from the NASA @ TWS weekend) and pulled the wheels off late that afternoon and took all of it to the NOLA Race shop for mounting and balancing. They were slammed but promised us they could get the tires ready by 7 am the next day.

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Throughout the day Friday we had a number of NOLA track members and NASA racers stop by, including Mark Council with his S197 autocross car (black Mustang in above left pic) and another guy with an FR500S clone / ex-Miller School car (top right pic, blue Mustang). We ended up working on Mark's car a little in our paddock area, replacing some missing hardware from his Vorshlag camber plates (we bring tons of spares in the trailer). Since we ran out of tires at the end of the day and were out of work to do, we decided to hit the French Quarter in New Orleans and have a night out on the town. Mark joined the 4 of us from Vorshlag and we tore it UP!

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The 4 of us loaded up in the F-350 and Mark followed us in his Mustang and then we got out to walk the Quarter. After stopping for the prerequisite beignets at Cafe du Monde (a famous coffee stand that has been in business since 1862), we sauntered over to Bourbon Street "for a quick drink". Several rounds of Grenades later we sloshed our way to Mother's for some authentic Cajun food. And more drinking. The whole time we were talking with crazy cajun accents (since Brandon and I are both from Louisiana), after watching this SNL sketch (Maine Justice!) in the truck during our drive. Needless to say, there were hundreds of gator sightings that night in our walks down in the Quarter! :D We drank some fine beverages and ate some excellent cuisine and had a lot of fun that night. Amy was our designated driver and after doing some 4 wheel burnouts in the dually leaving our parking spot (she crazy!) we ended up at a Best Buy at 10 pm, where Brandon replaced his aging phone with a Samsung Galaxy S4 (which was so nice I got one myself a week later). We were all back at the hotel by 11 pm and up again to head to the track by 7 am.

Saturday May 4th - TT Race 1

We arrived at the track by 7 am, then we split into two groups. Ryan and Brandon went to the race shop to get the newly mounted tires, then they and Amy got that set of wheels mounted. At the same time I rushed off to 3 meetings: Instructors, Time Trial, then the HPDE 1&2 meeting to meet my student. I was signed up to instruct once again and had a brand new to HPDE student that owned this beautiful Parnelli Jones edition Saleen Mustang, shown below. Tracy and her boyfriend David were super nice and I worked with her for all 8 track sessions over the next 2 days, where she improved dramatically. Her supercharged Mustang sounded great and had excellent power, brakes, tires, and even a decent suspension - something I'm not used to in most new student's Mustangs! Brandon took more pics of this car located here, here and here.

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After this quick round of meetings I ran back to our paddock spot and they had the Mustang ready to go out on track. The plan was for me to run all 4 sessions on Saturday and one TT session Sunday, then have Amy drive 3 of the 4 TT sessions on Sunday. It was our best shot at winning more tires, or so we presumed. It is always difficult sharing a car in any form of racing, and TT is especially hard, as there are only 4 sessions per day to drive. And on Saturday, the first session doesn't count except for grid position (the "Warm-up"), but all 4 count on Sunday. My transponder was turned on, the video camera fired up, and I got to grid with about 3 cars ahead of me.

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Left: Bradon's Ruckus helped made sure I made it to grid for HPDE instruction! Right: Shane Umbarger was there; he bought the 18x9" WedsSport wheels I used in STX

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Saturday TT Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...ay%20Final.pdf

As you can see we had 18 TT entrants on Saturday, with TT3 being the largest at 7 entrants, no TT2 cars, and 3 cars in TT1. So naturally the TT1 cars lined up first, and I was able to get gridded behind them. In the warm up session I passed two of the three TT1 cars pretty quickly and pounded out a 1:51.8 lap, which was 2nd fastest time for the session (this would become a recurring theme). The track was 100% dry now and I was working on learning the proper corner exit to Turn 16, but I had already picked up 2 seconds over Friday's best laps. I quickly found that the T13-T16 complex was crucial and when you strung those 4 turns together correctly your speeds on the long front straight were highest (data shows a peak of 141 mph for the Mustang).


Random Saturday Autocross Runs - Delta Region SCCA "Quatro de Mayo" Event!?!

As if instructing in HPDE, talking to the many people that came by to our paddock spot, and driving in TT3 wasn't enough for me on Saturday, I also snuck in a couple of fun runs at a nearby autocross, too. I blame Mark Council and Shane Umbarger, both of whom were running the Saturday Delta Region SCCA autocross event and were bad influences - they dared me to go take a few runs on the course that was only 100 yards from our paddock spot. This event was held on the same dedicated NOLA autocross pad that was used in one of the BFG Rival events, so I kinda knew the surface. And I was on A6s that we use in TT (more on that later). So, how bad could it be? Sure, the car was set-up and ballasted for TT3, and was on very hard compound race brake pads (XP20), and I didn't walk the course so I knew nothing about where to go, but it was just so close by... and Amy wasn't around to stop me!

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After driving over to the still active autocross site with Mark, who had been running the autocross himself earlier that day and won in ESP (and Shane won STX and had 2nd fastest time of the day), I asked the Event Chairman if I could hop in line and make a couple of fun runs before my next TT session. He said "HELL YES! And tell any of the other NASA racers to stop by, too!" That sounded good to me, but I hadn't walked the course. After a quick glance it looked a bit complicated, fairly tight, and included FIVE turns of 180° or more. I asked Mark if he would ride shotgun and call out rally style navigation signals, which was met with another "HELL YES!" Man, everyone is so nice around here. We strapped in while someone put a GoPro vidcam on the roof, then we pulled up to the line and took the first run.

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Mark was yelling out turn directions, slaloms and relative speeds and I was driving by the seat of my pants, on a course I had never seen, and going 10/10ths. We made it clean on our first run but I was leaving tons of time out there, and the stone cold XP20 Carbotech track brake pads meant that the car didn't want to stop at the first right-hander. Someone commented after my first run "Wow, you braked super deep and just nailed that turn!" to which I replied with "I crapped my pants when I forgot I had cold track pads, and barely stayed out of the fence!" The first fun run was a 48.0, which was close to the quickest time of the event that day. Of course we went back for one more try. We hopped back in line for another run, and by now Brandon had come by and was snapping pics and there was a crowd watching the big red Mustang with the giant wing and obnoxious graphics. I sort of knew where the track went by this run but asked Mark to navigate again. Then we put down this run:

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Click the preview above to watch the on-car YouTube video of the 2nd fun run I took

The 2nd fun run we had a 46.6 sec time, a little more than a second quicker than FTD for the event (results), on my second blind run. It wasn't my "super driving", but instead a super easy to drive track car that amazingly still works very well for autocross use. I felt good about that, and it gave me hope that we could possibly do some more autocrossing with this car in 2013. After my 2nd fun run I hopped out, thanked Mark for navigating and the event folks for a well marked course and the two fun runs, BamaDave grabbed his GoPro, and I hustled back to the paddock. As I pulled up I was just in time to be rushed off to grid by Amy to take my final TT laps on Saturday. She was hoppin mad, "I've been looking for you for 10 minutes, where have you BEEN?!? Wait... did you just go run that autocross!!!" I had some 'splaining to do. :D

It had been nearly 6 months since my last autocross run and I missed it more than I wanted to admit. So much so that I signed up to autocross with the Texas Region SCCA for Sunday May 19th. Since my Watts Link is deemed illegal we signed up for StreetMod and I predicted we would be slaughtered by the several AWD turbo regulars that run in this class, but it would still be some cheap thrills on the last bits of these A6s we used at NOLA. Back to the Saturday TT runs...


Saturday Afternoon TT Sessions + NASA Party

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This in-car video includes lots of high speed understeer and plenty of driver mistakes

So I ran the 1:51.097 lap above in the first official TT session on Saturday, which was the session after the Warm-Up. The AIM Solo was predicting a 1:50.5 best on the lap above, but I over-drove on T16 and botched the lap by a half second. An American Iron car oiled down the track in one of their races so the NOLA track crew had their hands full cleaning up that mess. Oil dry does not make for the best racing surface, so Mike Weathers (TT1) and I talked about it and we both decided to sit out TT session 2. Turns out that was a good idea, since nobody put down their best times in that session, and all of the cars made puffs of dust smoke going through the oil dry. By TT session 3 the track was clean and I went out again. I took 2 more laps but even during the first hot lap the A6s were getting too hot too quickly and I overdrove Turn 16, blowing the exit speeds and running some 1:51s - with predictive again showing a potential 1:50.0 lap, until I botched that last turn. By the 2nd hot lap the tires were too greasy and lap times were creeping up, so I brought it in.

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The Vorshlag paddock became the "Home for wayward Mustangs" all weekend

One lap that isn't shown on video above, but is quite hilarious, is my first hot lap in TT session 1. This is the session where the video above was made, and my quickest time of the day happened, but not until on my 2nd hot lap. On my first lap I was in front of Mike Weather's TT1 car (we agreed to swap places on grid, putting me out in P1, since his best laps happen on Lap 2 or 3 with his dedicated racing slicks). I went out pretty wild and woolly on my first lap and dove deep into Turn 5, braked hard.... and put two left side tires in the mud. It was a pretty hairy ride and I barely kept it from a full 4-off. Mike told me later that it was a great show and we had a good laugh about it, but I crapped my pants for the second time that day. We still don't have proper tow hooks on this car and if it had gotten stuck, man, that would have been a tough extraction.

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Check out the outside rear tire - looks like a lot of deformation, but remember: this is a 315mm tire stretched onto a 12" wheel

Overall the car was working pretty well and it was fairly easy to drive. The picture above (Brandon shot some great ones!) shows the car loaded up exiting Turn 16. The outside front tire still has a tick of negative camber with the car fully loaded up, which is what you want. Body roll is within the range we can accept, which with only 600# front springs and a 3800 pound car as raced, is remarkable. There still seemed to be a high speed push, which we feel is completely aero based. The rear APR wing is making far more downforce at speed than the front factory Boss302 Leguna Seca ABS plastic splitter. This was very apparent when taking Turn 8 deep into 5th gear (124-125 mph at corner entry, according to data) and after braking into Turn 1 (with peak speeds of 140-141 mph). Throughout the weekend I was edging up my courage and taking Turn 8 at Wide Open Throttle, then braking significantly for Turn 9 and downshifting mid-corner. Watch my Sunday lap video (in the section lap below) and you can see that it is understeering significantly when cornering at high speeds, as well as real time track speed pulled from the data logger.

NASA's Full Race Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N.../4%20NOLA_May/

I believe on Saturday I took a total of 5 hot laps, two of which were screwed up from me over-driving and one of which was salvageable. Having only the one track session on Friday in dry conditions, I guess I was still learning he track, but by day's end I wasn't improving much. Some of that was the increasing heat of the day fighting against the "it gets hot QUICKLY!" A6 tire compound. I was also feeling the effects from an evening in New Orleans that morning, but was feeling much better after a late lunch.

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Left: Mike Patterson had the set-up nailed in his AI Camaro. Right: Mike Weathers' TT1 C6 Corvette was the fastest TT car all weekend

American Iron and CMC had some good battles, other than Mike Patterson dominating the entire field all weekend. He won 3 of 4 AI races and often put a straight-away long gap to 2nd place. He lost a tire in the first lap of Race 4 and had to watch from the sidelines, otherwise I suspect he would have made a clean sweep. Mike's car posted the fastest AI time of the weekend, with a best lap of 1:57.151. Sometimes Mike will pop over to the TT grid and run with us, but he was too busy that weekend, working as a Race Director for another race group. Mike Weathers put the hurt on the TT field with a 1:48.747 on Saturday and then low 1:49s on Sunday. He and I had fun sparring together, at least on my first lap when he was warming up his tires. By hot lap 2 he was usually leaving me behind at a rapid clip.

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Saturday night after racing was done we stuck around for the traditional NASA Saturday night party, which from what we've seen at NASA Texas events is not to be missed. And this was in New Orleans, so we hoped for some good eats... and we were not disappointed! The party was held in the Events Center (above left), located 100 feet from our paddock spot. Food was amazing, as expected - seafood gumbo and some of the best jambalaya I've ever eaten - and I've eaten this a lot. When it comes to food, NOLA Motorsports Park doesn't mess around! The NASA Mid-South Region and the NOLA folks also had some "awards" for the various class winners - a medal in the shape of a Fleur-de-lis plus a gift card for $50, that we can use at the NOLA Cafe or NOLA Kart Track. Pretty cool, and the 2 free Hoosier tires for the TT3 win were also much appreciated. :)

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The win on Saturday was with a 1.8 second margin, which was unexpected, especially with TT3 being largest in the TT class. John Roberts was catching up rapidly in his TT3 classed LS1 V8 Miata, and he kept switching tires in nearly every TT session on Saturday, which was messing with my head, heh! He started the day on NT-01s, then switched to Hoosier R6s and at the end of the day he had slapped on Hoosier A6s, like mine. I guess he had 3 sets of wheels - not a bad idea. He was dropping loads of time with each tire change and I had no idea if my time from the first TT session would hold up, so I went out in the last TT session to put in some laps - but went slower due to some driver mistakes and added track heat. The day started out in the 50s and windy, but ended up in the mid 70s and sunny. Beautiful weather really, especially when compared to Friday.

After the Saturday night NASA party and dinner we were all pretty tired and after a few beers back at the Vorshlag trailer we called it an early night and hit the hotel. My worries for Sunday ate at me all night - I'd only have one TT session to get in a good lap, as Amy was to drive TT sessions 2, 3 and 4. What if Roberts kept the A6 tires on all day and kept dropping lots of time? This could be a very short lived TT3 track record if he went faster, and/or if I screwed up my one allotted TT session on Sunday.

Sunday May 5th - TT Race 2

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Left: Ryan and I washed the Mustang Friday. Right: He also made a swaybar change on Mark's car for Sunday's Mirrorkhana autocross

So Sunday began early once again, but this time at least I wasn't hung over, so that was a huge plus. I was scheduled to go out in the Mustang in the very first TT session then hand over the keys to Amy for the rest of the day. She wanted some track time to make up for the missed Sunday TT session I was taking, so she was going to head out with the TT3/4 folks right after I ran. We added some fuel and I got to grid early, parking next to Mike Weathers' TT1 Corvette once again. Damn that LSx motor sounds GOOD at idle... you can hear that monster idling at the start of my two in-car videos, and it isn't the stock 5.0L V8 in my car, ha! Our A6s were still fresh but wearing quickly, and I wanted to leave plenty of tire left for Amy, so I told her and the guys I would only take ONE LAP. To keep from overheating the tires on the out lap I also did no scrubbing of the tires (rapid slalom motions) on the warm up lap, and just put-putted along, with just some warming of the brakes. I wanted the A6s nice and cool when my hot lap started. We get the green flag at Turn 13 on our warm up lap, and that's when I laid into it and actually nailed the Turn 13-16 complex correctly on the warm up lap. I was catching up to Mike's TT1 car coming onto the front straight so he let me by right as we took the start/finish on hot lap 1, as shown below...

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The video above is my one and only TT hot lap on Sunday, and it was another 1/2 second quicker than my best on Saturday. Hot damn, that was rush! All of the stars were aligned and I didn't over-drive T13-T16 on the previous lap or my hot lap. The temperatures were the coolest of the day (59°F) and that always helps performance with the A6. Brandon was able to get the data from the AIM Solo meshed it to the on-board video this time, using the Dashware software we bought a while back (thanks for the tips, KenO!), but it brought the video quality down a tick in the process (we're working on that). Not much to show other than GPS speeds, a running lap timer clock and the track map. We're working on getting the lateral and fore-aft g readings shown on the next round of videos from a future track event.

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Sunday TT Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...ay%20Final.pdf

This 1:50.535 reset the TT3 track record for the weekend and would hopefully stand up for the day. Amy finally got a chance to drive the car and kept dropping time all day, as she got more and more laps under her belt. She ran an HPDE3/4 session, TT session 2 and TT session 3. It was getting too warm to drop much more time and she stuck with her best lap of 1:54.1 in TT session 3. She skipped session 4 so we could get on the road sooner, and she, Ryan and Brandon loaded the car while I rode with my HPDE1 student on her 8th and final track session of the weekend, late on Sunday.

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While Amy was running the rest of the day in TT, I was watching the Race Monitor app on our tablet for real time lap data during the TT run groups, always with a nervous eye on TT3 times. Eric "Trigger" Trigg (above left) dropped a lot of time on Sunday in his TT3 C5 Z06, which he drives to the track, and managed a 1:52.702 on Sunday - his new personal best at this, his home track, and good enough to take 2nd place in the class on Sunday (plus a free tire from Hoosier!). Dysen Pham got a 1:53.257 in his well prepped S2000 to take 3rd. John Roberts (below left) had a wheel bearing take a dump on Sunday and slowed down to a 1:53.930 to take 4th (he is building an all new LS1 Miata for the next event, so look out!). We had a total of 8 cars in TT3 on Sunday, again the biggest TT class, but Amy isn't shown in the TT results (yet). She would have placed 5th - eventually the T&S folks will get the results sorted out (her laps are shown in MyLaps but not the official results). We switch both the numbers on the car and run 2 different AMB transponders, so the data is there for them once they get a chance to sort it all out, but having 2 drivers driving the same car on the same day is always confusing.

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By the end of Sunday my first lap mad dash held up and this was good enough for another win, new track record and 2 more tires from Hoosier. Which is a good thing, because we are eating through A6 tires like mad.

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The GT1/Super Unlimited Mustang above is a real monster - 750 whp V8 in a wide bodied S197 with the same 355 Hoosier slicks we have in store for our E46 LS1 car. This Terlingua team always put on a good show and driver Mike Stacy didn't disappoint, with a 1:46.893 in Sunday's race. They are based out of Oklahoma and Hallett is their home track, so I'm sure we will see them again at the NASA @ Hallett event on June 22-23.

Time Trial Tires: Hoosier A6 vs R6 or Kumho V710?

We did a lot of damage to a new "sticker set" of Hoosier A6 tires at this weekend, once again. We also did a lot of damage to new sets at TWS, MSR-H and MSR-C. Sometimes we can stretch a set for 2 weekends, but usually it is more like 1-1/2. We are not alone in our tire wear woes - but ask ANY racer and they will likely complain about tire costs, right? But tracking a Hoosier A6 - a tire designed and built for super short heat-up times, for autocrossing - is kind of an unusual thing, but it has become the norm at the pointy end of the grid in TT. We have dubbed it the "TT Arms Race", which has escalated from running NT-01s to R6s to A6s... if you bring a sticker set of A6s then your competitors will likely do so at the next event, too.

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A Hoosier R6 has a much longer lifespan on track, as it was designed to shed heat over may laps, and not just "OMFG heat up right now!" for an autocross run like the A6. Since autocross runs usually only lasts 30-60 seconds a tire made for that needs to heat up VERY quickly. Running an A6 on track can be done but they have severe limitations, and I'm not sure it is worth it if you aren't winning the tires. We are currently testing and "learning new tracks" using A6s, which isn't a smart use of tires. We should be testing and learning the track on a better wearing tire like an R6 or the Kumho V710, so we have another set of wheels on order for that very use (hopefully we will have them by the Hallett event). And another set of wheels for dedicated Hoosier Wets would be nice - so we have some Wets tires coming that we will mount to a set of D-Force 18x10s. John Robert's tire management was much better than ours at the NOLA event and we've got to be more mindful of the limited lifespan of the A6, because we won't win 4 new tires every weekend.

Other Challenges and Development

The Mustang is hardly maxed out for TT3 - far from it. This is still mostly a street car, with many of the parts on it from our ESP autocross set-up, but I am pushing Amy to let us develop it into a bit more of dedicated TT3 build. It still has A/C, touch screen Navigation, is 100% emissions legal, bone stock engine, stock clutch/pp/flywheel, stock driveshaft, stock cooling system and stock brakes (with just pads/fluid/front ducting). There are many MANY aspects we can maximize and improve, and most of those are to deal with existing issues we uncover as the car gets faster.

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We didn't make substantial parts changes to the car before this event, for once, but that doesn't mean we didn't work on the set-up. As I wrote above, Ryan and Brandon helped take tire pressures and temps all weekend, with changes made to the tire pressures and front camber to get the temps looking better. Brake temperatures were also VERY high in the rear, so we are looking at going with a larger rear brake rotor and adding rear brake cooling. A wider tire would help with mechanical grip, so we're exploring a wider wheel up front (currently 18x11") to possibly match the 18x12" wide rear. And the aero set-up needs a lot of help.

It is apparent when you drive the car that the rear is making more downforce than the front, which turns into a high speed push. Very noticeable at NOLA in turns T2, T8, T9, and T10. To add substantial front downforce will take a lot of work, but we are looking into it. It would be nice to pull some weight off of the front axle as well, but this is also easier said than done.

There are some more things in the works but it is too early to discuss them. Oh, and all of you asking about the Whiteline transmission insert for the Getrag 6-spd on the 2011-2014 GT and Boss302s, we are still waiting on the production order we placed many weeks ago, and I was just told it is about 90 days out - sorry. If you have called or e-mailed us we have you on our waiting list. Thanks for your patience.

The next NASA event we plan on attending is the June 22-23 at Hallett in Oklahoma, then there is another Five Star Ford sponsored track event at ECR June 29. It is getting HOT in Texas so hopefully that is all we do for that month, but we do get pulled into events at the last minute sometimes. We have actually entered and competed in two more events since NOLA (Five Star Ford car show May 18th and SCCA Autocross May 19th), but I don't have time to do the event write-ups just yet so I will save those until next time. We have been busy working on some Vorshlag shop vehicles (like the BMW 740iL and GMC 1500 Parts Runner, the 2013 BRZ, as well as big leaps forward on a few LS1 BMW swaps and the Miata LS1 prototype. I will also cover more on the 2013 GT in the next update, which has undergone a beauty make-over and I am picking it up tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,