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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.
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.
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.
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?
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...
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.
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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