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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:13 PM

continued from above

The Whiteline Watts kit is a 100% bolt-on affair, but it is still lightweight. Instead of being a giant stepladder bolted to the car, it is a slick, simple, beefy Watts unit that attaches in all the right places and uses the right materials. Because it is made with their well developed poly bushings it is SILENT in use, and it fit around our custom dual 3" exhaust with plenty of clearance. Will this bolt-on design hold up to the lateral forces of 315mm R compound tires? I was a bit skeptical, but these parts made it through roughly a year of autocross events (12 events x 4 runs) in a single day on 315 Rs, so I've got some confidence in their stuff now.

The front swaybar was a pretty straight forward upgrade, and we went with this new "4 hole" adjustable solid 33.5mm diameter Whiteline bar over the old "3 hole" adjustable hollow 35.5mm Eibach swaybar (the stock 2011 front bar was also 35.5mm hollow non-adjustable, at 12.7 lbs). Sure, there was a bit of a weight hit with the WL front bar, but I'm sure they had a reason for going with the solid bar, so we went with it. It doesn't have a dip in the middle like the other two, looking at the picture below.

Removing Suspension Noises

I haven't really spoken up about this but the last few months of street driving in the Mustang have sucked. After extensive testing, removing parts one at a time and replacing them with stock, we have finally isolated the noises to two components: the Spohn panhard and UCA parts + the UPR chassis mount we had on the Mustang have been making a lot of noise, starting just a couple of months after they were installed. Every bump was a rattle or bang, and it was not at all what I would consider streetable. It didn't happen right away, which was the mystery - they started off dead silent. We have re-tightened the UCA mount 5 or 6 times, which would quiet things down for a day or two, only to return and worsen with each iteration. The "Del-Sphere" joints that were supposed to be quiet were the opposite of that, at least on our car. The holes in the chassis mount did not match the holes in the Del-Sphere joints or bolt size, either, but even making custom bushings to fix that mismatch won't help. It seems to be in the joints.

In early August I had asked Ryan to pull the Spohn UCA to see if the noises would subside. The stock UCA with rubber bushing and the factory upper mounting bracket went back on and 50% of the noises went away. We still had the Del-Sphere equipped Panhard rod on - only wanting to change one variable at the time. My wife's daily commute in the Mustang is driven on super smooth concrete roads, but it was still banging and clanking over the tiniest ripple or seam, just not as loudly as before. When the Whiteline Watts link kit arrived (the Watts was delayed a bit but we kept hounding them and got an early release part - the first one outside of their own test car!) the Mustang got into our shop for that install + their rear swaybar.

Viola! With the last of the Del-Sphere joints removed ALL of the rear suspension noises were now gone. She street drove it like this last week and was very happy. Then one day this week the stock UCA with rubber bushing and the stock chassis bracket came back off and the Whiteline rear adjustable UCA + bracket and front swaybar went on. Again, it was 100% silent over bumps and articulation, which is exactly what you want on a street driven car.

So how do these parts work? So far the only thing I can say is "perfectly". We've pounded street miles on them for a week and then used all of it on the car at an autocross test yesterday with 38 laps of abuse. The new Watts Link kit came with a beautiful cast aluminum rear diff cover, which was a unique part to Whiteline kit. The bracket that holds Watts link "football" bolts to this new rear cover (which also has holes plumbed for a differential cooler), and the football mount can be adjusted up/down with 2 settings for rear roll center adjustment. Some kits have more settings, but I liked the compact nature of their kit.

With the new routing of the Whiteline rear swaybar installed the 18x12" Forgestar wheels can finally tuck inboard another 1/2" on each side and now we have no more tire rubbing swaybar. Woot! The swaybar is a big win in my book, because it lets us run bigger wheels. And this big car needs all the rubber on the road it can get.

Next up - Testing!

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:14 PM

Project Update for August 31, 2012: Before someone asks why we went to a Watts, hopefully I can explain this. I'll back up a bit and talk about the Fox and SN95 Mustang suspensions, the stock S197 suspensions, and then the differences between a Panhard rod and Watts link. Then I will cover the dedicated test day we did in the Mustang yesterday, to get the brand new Whiteline Watts link and bars dialed in, and then our last minute preparations and trailer loading for the 2012 Solo Nationals next week.

Why is a Watts Better?

There are several ways to laterally locate a solid rear axle assembly relative to the chassis in a RWD car like the S197 Mustang. The earlier Fox and SN95 generation Mustangs with solid axles used an opposing 4 link rear suspension that had the upper two control arms canted in at a severe angle, which made their intersecting arcs of travel automatically bind. The upper arms sort of worked to locate the axle, at least with a 4 to 5" window of lateral displacement (with R compounds we would commonly see that much movement!). If you put poly bushings in all control arm locations it would instantly bind up the rear suspension and eventually rip the mounts out of the car. Entire companies existed for a time replacing this car's terrible rear suspension with 3 links, Torque arms, Watts links and Panhard rod solutions. The IRS that came in the 1999 model year Mustang Cobra was a Big Hot Mess adapted from an earlier MN12 chassis (Thunderbird/Lincoln MarkVIII), with new toe links. It never really worked all that well, added weight tot he car (like IRS often does), and had pretty bad axle hop during straight line acceleration. And yes, a solid axle rear suspension is actually lighter than most IRS systems, but just more unsprung weight.

Left: The Fox and SN95 solid axle Mustangs has this opposed 4 link. Right: 1999 Cobra introduced this parts-bin IRS

Things changed for the better on the 20056 Mustang "S197" chassis. The two most common laterally locating solutions for solid axles in use today are a Watts linkage and Panhard rod. Both of these do essentially the same thing, but in different ways and with different levels of complexity and costs. They provide a linkage which connects the axle to the frame and gives positive lateral locations, while still allowing fluid up-down movement of the axle. The locating device must be free to move in other directions so it does not interfere with the intended motions of the axle. When Ford began the S197 chassis design they used a Panhard rod and a 3-link, with 2 lower control arms and a single upper arm that are pointing directly fore-aft. Much improved, but not perfect. The rear suspension in the Crown Vic of the day was actually more advanced, as it had a 3-link and a Watts.

The S197 Mustang had an all-new rear suspension design for 2005, with a 3 link and a Panhard rod

A Panhard rod is commonly used by factories that still build solid axle RWD cars because it is simple and cheap. A Panhard rod normally runs across the entire width of the car, with one end pivoted on the axle housing and the other end is pivoted on the frame. Ideally the Panhard rod should be horizontal with the car at the resting ride height position. A Panhard rod does not provide true vertical motion at the end attached to the axle because it arcs about the end pivoted on the frame and there is a slight sideways motion of the axle through suspension travel - this is the big limitation. If the bar is long, if it is horizontal at normal ride height, and if the axle vertical motion is small, then the sideways motion is minimized and not too important, which is the case for most racing cars.

On a road car with soft suspension and a fairly large amount of wheel travel, a Panhard rod has downsides. The lateral axle movement allowed by the rod gives a rear-axle steering effect when the wheels rise and fall over larger bump travel. The bar can flex, the rubber pivot bushings can deflect, and when the static ride height is lowered the axle will displace laterally at rest (our car's axle was moved 3/4" to one side) - this is why all lowered cars need an adjustable length Panhard rod, to re-center the axle. Aftermarket Panhard rods usually replace the rubber pivot bushings with Polyurethane, Metal rod ends or some sort of plastic rod ends. Metal rod ends have lots of noise and accelerated wear, and as we have seen the Delrin sphericals seem to suffer the same fate: noise and wear.

Left: The black "football" shaped part pivots at the axle cover. Right: The chassis "tower" that the left side Watts link mounts to.

A lateral locating device without these problems is the Watts linkage, which is much more common to see on a race car with a solid axle RWD set-up. This design is more complex (2x as many arms and a complicated pivoting axle bracket called a "football") and takes up more space than a Panhard rod, so it is not always the best factory solution - more cost, more difficult to package. The geometry is inherently better, though, and it should be considered on any competition vehicle if at all possible. A Watts linkage consists of the two parallel lateral links plus a vertical link connecting them. If the horizontal links are parallel and equal length they will have the same amount of lateral motion as the ends attached to the vertical link. Because each lateral motion is in a different direction, this rotates the vertical link (football) through some angle, but the center of the vertical link is not affected. This center point travels in a true vertical path, and that is where the axle is attached - thus the axle goes strictly up and down, without the lateral displacement associated with the arc of a Panhard rod.

A Watts linkage can consist of tubing for the lateral links, using spherical rod ends for pivots or polyurethane bushings. On a true race car you use rod ends but for a quieter, street-worthy set-up polyurethane is much preferred. The vertical links should be designed to carry bending loads and the center football pivot is usually a rigid bearing on a post so it can rotate but not pivot laterally, often connected to the rear axle differential cover (many Watts kits come with a new cast aluminum diff cover that has rigid holes cast into it for a bracket to mount the football). The attachment between the Watts linkage and the axle is difficult and it must be designed strong enough to carry the side loads in cornering. I've seen some that clamp onto the cover bolts, but the styles that have an all-new rigid cover are preferred.

The improvement a proper Watts Link makes over the Panhard design is the rear roll center is fixed at the football, and does not move up and down with ride height changes due to braking, acceleration, and road undulation. This creates more consistent tire loading, more predictable handling, and especially improved transitional response. So in short, you definitely want a Watts Link system if you are competing in any form of motorsports that involves changing lateral loads, like autocrossing or road course racing. The more changes in direction (slaloms or esses), the more a Watts link is desired.

continued below

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:15 PM

continued from above

August 30th Private Autocross Test Event

We had not autocrossed the Mustang since the late May "Spring Nationals" at Lincoln, so yesterday we did twelve autocrosses worth of runs at a private test event. With the 315/35/18 Kumho V710s still mounted on the Forgestar 18x11/12 wheels from the late June track day event, and located farther inboard by 1/2" from before, we loaded the Mustang onto the trailer and crammed in all of our gear. We brought more tools and equipment than we ever have, with a generator and air compressor, air tools, multiple floor jacks, extra springs, and all of our normal gear + our Farmtech timing system. We were loaded for war!

Like on our August 2nd Test in Brianne's Pikes Peak Subaru where I got to drive that beast around an improvised road course at 130+ mph, we rented the "Mineral Ring" once again. Getting this 62 acre paved site on a week day is a breeze if you know the right person to call, so we headed out yesterday with the Mustang and our gear. Its 2+ hours each way from our shop to this facility in Mineral Wells, TX, and it always ends up being a battle to miss traffic across Dallas and Ft. Worth along the route. We hit 8 am traffic leaving and 5 pm traffic coming back, but we got a lot accomplished in about 10 hours.

Once we arrived we set up the old "Hollis Test Course" that was painted on the site for the past 6 years or so. Laid out about 50 cones, set-up the timers, and unloaded the Mustang. Conditions for August in Texas were as perfect as they get: sunny and clear with 88°F tempts and a nice 10-15 mph breeze all day. It crept up to 98°F by 2 pm but it was still pretty comfortable, considering it wasn't 110°F with a dead calm.

We started with a quick alignment check, setting front camber to -3.6° and toe to +1/8" out. Ride heights were already set fairly high, as we cannot lower the car as much as we like without knocking the rear geometry all to crap (those $100 relocation brackets work wonders, if only Street Prepared would allow them). Tire pressures were set at 35 psi front, 32 psi rear and the Moton ClubSport 2-way shocks were set at the middle rebound and compression settings front and rear. The Whiteline swaybars were set in their middle settings front and rear as well. Blue tape was placed on sections where we thought the tires could rub, the video camera was installed, and the new AIM Solo timing display was set-up for this course. Then I started taking laps....

Some early and some late test laps in the Mustang - click for video

This is a course I have driven hundreds of times so it usually doesn't take long before I am familiar with the course layout and my times stabilize within a tenth. Then we can make adjustments and check times - I let the clocks by the guide and not my "impressions". The AIM Solo was within hundredths of the Farmtek timers so I could see my laps real time. I took 2 hot laps at a time going clockwise on a course with a single start-stop line. In the video above you can hear me keeping notes, but Jason kept a full log of adjustments and lap times throughout the 3 hours of test driving I did. Ryan was busy all day making set-up changes to the bars, shocks, alignment and tire pressures. Plus we had one unexpected delay - a flat tire.

A flat out at the Mineral Ring it shouldn't be much of a surprise, as we got a flat in Brianne's Subaru at the same site a month ago (which shut down our testing early that day), but this time we were prepared. Theoretically we are always learning from our past mistakes, right? So I had just gone out for a two lap blast but after the 2nd slalom cone I new something was "off". The car wouldn't turn right the the left front tire was howling under load - I waived off the lap quickly and got back to the trailer for a look. Yep, there was a pin hole in the left front and it was deflating fast. With a plug in the tire, the generator fired up and the compressor buzzing along, the tire was fixed, aired up, and I was back on course in about 3 minutes.

Over 3 hours of testing I made a total of 38 laps, and finished with blisters on my hands and a shoulder injury that was howling from some violent corrections I had to make using some of the wackier settings we tried, but we made it through the full sweep of component adjustments we wanted to attack. The new bars worked great and had more adjustments than many others out there with 4 holes per side. The rear tires were no longer rubbing and tucked inboard for a 1" narrower track than before. The Mustang was handling better than ever, especially in slaloms, where I could violently throw it back and forth. The pictures show that the lateral axle movement is much reduced from before (when we had a Panhard rod), and it was easier to drive. We had fixed some other long standing issue, too, but I forget what that was at the moment? It will come back to me.

After 3 hours in the car I was pretty hot, sweaty, sore and tired; so were Jason and Ryan, who did most of the heavy lifting with the test adjustments. My driving was starting to get sloppy by about lap 30, where I could only do 1 clean lap out of 2. The temps were climbing towards 100°F so we called it a day. After we loaded back up, grabbed a late lunch, we headed back to the shop in Plano and made it back by 5:45 pm. We have a lot of new cut vinyl graphics and decals to install today that Jason has been working on for the past few days. The graphic design is all Amy's doing, and not at all my thing. If you see the car and have any comments, direct them to her!

We are mounting up a sticker set of 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires, and I hope this is the right tire choice. I know that 335's would rub the fenders almost as badly as the 345s did, so I am staying safe with the 315s all around. It will likely always pushed with a non-square set-up anyway (it sure did with 315/345s!).

So now its Friday and we have to leave for the 2012 SCCA Solo Nationals on Sunday night to make it the 12 hours north to Nebraska by mid-day Monday. Might sneak out to Cars&Coffee Dallas on Saturday morning, as the Pikes PEak car will be on display. Amy and I are going to this Women of Solo Luncheon that Vorshlag sponsored on Monday, celebrating 50 years of Women in Solo. Then she and I race Tuesday and Wednesday, drive back Thursday and are back to work on Friday.

This is how the Mustang currently sits, ready for a fresh set of graphics and tires over the next few hours....

SportsCar magazine picked Amy to win ESP-L, and I hope they are right. In the past when she had a halfway decent car she has pulled off Nationals wins (2 times), and almost pulled it off in a super-heavy EVO X with a transmission going berserk in STU-L in 2009 (losing by .07 sec). This is the best prepared car we've ever taken to the Solo Nats, so who knows? We still don't have proper rain tires, as they just were not in the budget. We will bring some STX wheels and full tread street tires along for a Hail Mary if it rains, but it is a big gamble - I will just hope that it doesn't rain, and know that if it does it is our fault for not spending the $$$ on Hoosier H2Wets. The ESP open class is packed with well prepped cars and lots of talent, so I will just put in my best effort and see how I do.

I will give a post-event update on this thread, of course. You can "like" our "Vorshlag" Facebook page for live updates from Lincoln, and of course SoloLive will have results for the 1200 competitors all week.

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:16 PM

Project Update for September 8, 2012: We are back from the 2012 SCCA Solo National Championship and we have two new trophies with us. Amy took 1st place in ESP-Ladies and I managed 4th place in ESP open. I'm very happy with that result, especially after seeing how serious the competition was in the 33 car ESP class. Sadly, our daily driven car didn't look too serious among this crowd, but I kind of expected that.

New Graphics and Switch to Hoosier Tires

I really liked the 315mm Kumho V710 tires we have been running in ESP and for some track use, both because of the taller height (315/35/18) and better wear they give over the shorter lifespan Hoosier. The V710s fared pretty well at the Mineral Wells ProSolo in April, then we ran them at TWS with NASA, an ECR track day, and at some autocrosses. These tires still looked pretty good after all of this abuse, but our test event the week before Nationals tore the crap out of the front tires.

At the May Lincoln Pro and Tour events, we ran the gigantic 345/35/18 A6 Hoosiers in the rear and the 315/30/18 A6 Hoosiers up front. The rear tires rubbed everywhere (inside and out) and the fronts were almost completely destroyed after those two events (we brought these fronts to Nationals as "emergency spares"). The car pushed badly with the big front-to-rear grip imbalance as well. So whatever we chose for Nationals would be a "square" set-up with 315s mounted all the way around. We were more comfortable with this after the switch to the Whiteline rear sway bar, which gave us better rear tire clearance.

I thought about sticking with the Kumho V710 tire, but looking at event results proved that it really is no longer competitive against the latest gumball "DOT" Rs (Hoosier or Goodyear), so we begrudgingly made the jump to 315/30/18 A6 Hoosiers. It was the lessor of two evils: I know the A6 is very fast, but wears poorly. I also know the Goodyears wear terribly, but I was not convinced it could be as quick after seeing them at the April Mineral Wells ProSolo and the May Lincoln events. This Solo Nationals would answer that, as the Goodyears won in AStock and placed 3rd in ESP.

Amy has been bugging for some damned stripes on the car for the past two years. She fell in love with the dual stripes she saw on some early Mustang Challenge entries and worked with JasonM here at Vorshlag. They came up with what you see below.

I thought this new graphic layout "was a bit loud", but surprisingly we had dozens of people come up to us and complement the new graphics at Nationals. I'll give the credit for this design to Amy and Jason, as I was against this new look from the start. It's starting to grow on me and I like the car without any graphics better, but we have to sell parts and this kind of look helps people know who we are. After street driving the car these few days after Nationals, the new look definitely attracts more attention from random people on the street than driving naked in a convertible. I don't know if that is good or bad, heh.

Once the graphics were finished being applied (wet) on Friday (Aug 31st), we left them to dry overnight and I came up to the shop on Saturday to finish up. I peeled the backing off and it looked... pretty good. I loaded the car in the trailer and got everything strapped down, then took the truck and trailer home to wait. After watching the crazy Belgium F1 race Sunday morning and getting packed for the week in Lincoln, we pulled out of Dallas at about 4:45 pm. We drove 10 hours north to Lincoln, arriving a little before 3 am on Monday. The 10 hour tow was completely uneventful, just like I like it. We made food on the way, never stopped for more than 10 minutes to refuel, and made great time.

Left: Setting up our trailer in paddock. Right: I had to move the crapper, which was sitting dead center in our paddock spot

Once we got to the event site we parked in our paddock spot, slept for a few of hours, then set-up the trailer and unloaded at about 6:45 am. Grabbed the event decals we needed, applied those, and took the car through Tech. We then bought somebody's Test course entry ($45 for four 30 second runs = ouch) for 1 pm and headed over to the Test Course.

Monday - Nationals Practice

It is always a good idea to take at least a couple of practice runs on the same surface as the courses before a National Championship event, to get the car adjusted for the new surface and conditions. We had also switched tires from Kumho to Hoosier, so a few runs could hopefully help us see any potential problems. Amy had never driven the Mustang on this "new Whiteline set-up", with the new Whiteline Watts link, UCA + mount, and front and rear sway bars. We happened to end up in the grid at the same time as Tim Bergstrom, a Vorshlag customer on AST shocks and Vorshlag camber plates who has a yellow 2007 GT (see above). He was running in ESP (with co-driver Britt Dollmeyer who eventually finished 2nd in ESP), and also in grid were two other ESP racers in a Boss 302, as well as Amy's lone ESP-L competitor. So at least we could see how she fared against some ESP competition - always a bonus!

Click above to see the video from Amy's third run on the Test Course (30.5) - you can still see the Hoosier stickers on the tires in this picture.

Amy took three runs and I rode through with her twice to try and push her a bit. She was quick, running both 30.5 to 30.6 sec runs, which was exactly what the yellow GT was running and a bit quicker than the Boss302 and some others we saw in ESP cars. She felt good after three runs and let me take her fourth run, so I strapped in and pulled to the line, as the rain started to fall. Oh great! It wasn't that bad, but raining enough that I had to run the wipers a bit. The car felt GREAT and the timers showed a 29.7 second run, which was quicker than anyone in ESP was running that we could see. The run felt good. Dave Ogburn (ESP racer who finished 3rd, on Goodyears, in Sam Strano's old ESP Camaro) later told me he was running mid 30 second practice runs also, so I was running what I needed to in practice.

Click above to see the video from Terry's first and only run on the Test Course (29.7).

But looking back, I've "won a lot of Nationals" by looking at times from the Nationals practice courses, yet sadly these have never translated into actual Nationals wins, hehe.

Women of Solo Luncheon

After the practice event we parked at our paddock spot and got ready for the Women of Solo Luncheon, for which Vorshlag was the title sponsor. I couldn't go (women only), but Amy was there and Brianne Corn went as well. They had over 130 attendees at this two hour gathering, talking about the various contributors to women racing in SCCA Solo for the past 40 years.

Left: Women of Solo Luncheon. Right: One week in Lincoln + copious amounts of beer + lots of boring rental golf carts = StreetModGolfCart!

Sadly it was decided that 2012 would be the first year at Nationals (in 40 years of running) where a minimum of three entries are needed to crown a "National Champion" for any class. This affected several Ladies classes that had only two entries, including Amy's win in ESP-Ladies. Mark my words: this three car minimum will be the end of Ladies classes. It definitely will be the end of Amy running in Ladies class, as we have decided to avoid this nonsense for 2013. We actually tried to move her into ESP open class on race day, but at 7:30 am Tuesday morning (when we finally found the new "three car minimum" note, buried in the event's supplemental rules) she was told "it was too late" to switch classes... even though late registration was still open until 8:30 am. Was it just lazy registration people or a legitimate restriction? Who knows. It doesn't matter - we should have known about this change to the minimum entrant rule beforehand.

continued below

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:16 PM

continued from above

SCCA Town Hall Meeting + Welcome Party

After the Women's luncheon, we both walked the West course a bunch of times and attended the SCCA Town Hall Meeting. This meeting, traditionally held on the Monday of Solo Nationals week, is where actual members get to talk face-to-face with SEB (Solo Events Board) and various category and class Advisory Committee members. I always go to this meeting if I am at the Solo Nationals to listen, to learn, and to ask questions (and since I write dozens of letters a year to the SEB, "they know me"... if not in a good way). The SEB opened with introductions for the five members in attendance. Then they began a lot of talk about the new 180 minimum treadwear rule for Road Tire class, as well as the plan to replace all Stock classes with RT classes in the future. I think it is a great idea - Hoosier A6 tire costs and the radical differences in performance from "real" street tires to R compounds make Stock class an expensive place to race, and not at all the "entry level class" this category was intended to be.

The SEB members had argued around 140, 180 and 200 treadwear minimums, but 180 was chosen for: more tire choices and a "progressive level of grip" from RT -> ST -> SP. After hearing their arguments, I agreed with their thinking and do hope the RT class continues to grow and eventually replaces the R compounds in Stock class altogether. I'm sure this will anger about three dozen people within the Stock class Solo community, but make hundreds of people happier.

Annnnd then on Thursday there was another open meeting about "the future of Road Tire", where I heard that Howard Duncan back-tracked everything the SEB had stated about the intention of RT classes (such as this was always a test with the goal to eventually replace Stock classes, Stock class moving away from R compounds in a few years, etc). So yeah, they caved to pressure from the loudest minority within Stock class. Hopefully this was just hot air and the SEB sticks by their guns.

The other big topic at the Town Hall meeting was the lack of ST classing for the new FT86 Subaru/Toyota chassis, but the unusual fact that it was classed in C Stock. The SEB said it will be classed right after Nationals - I and strongly suspect it will be placed in STR, and they basically confirmed that without actually confirming that. And were quick to say that it could then be moved to STX or elsewhere within 12 months or something. Personally I think this was a cop-out, and put in my two cents about this subject in our BRZ Project thread and privately to SEB and STAC members. Next, the theme of the meeting shifted to "we have too many classes" in Solo, where I again agree. That open "question and answer" portion gobbled up an hour so they broke up into groups, and Amy and I sat in and chatted with the SPAC (Street Prepared Advisory Committee).

I learned a lot about what the SPAC is thinking, with some members asking for more allowances and some asking for "SP-Light", with no fender cutting and emissions rules of ST. Another nugget was the fact that the RX8 is going to be moved to DSP "very soon". Interesting stuff. I have begun a big letter about my thoughts on the age old problems in SP (some extremely dated rules) and the weird overlap between ST, SP, SM and XP. I will talk more on this in a future post.

After the Town Hall meeting and some more course walks, we went off site to the Solo Welcome Party, where the food was once again awful. Your choice was a single soggy Sam's Club burger patty or a single dried-and-burnt hot dog, plus some beans and a cookie. And I knew better than to go there expecting decent food, as it's always sponsored, so it ends up being cheap food whenever it's a free welcome party like this. I don't mean to be a hater - Vorshlag has sponsored a number of these welcome parties at SCCA Tours and Pros, it can get expensive, and we haven't done a whole lot better. So I can't complain, but I can warn people

. On the way out we saw some fellow Texas Region racers and convinced them to skip this free-food-fest, and we all had some great local beers and better food in the Haymarket area in downtown Lincoln. This is where we usually end up when eating in Lincoln, as there is a great variety of restaurants there.

Tuesday ESP Competition - West Course

Results: http://scca.cdn.racersites.com/prod/...%20Results.pdf

Vorshlag Picture and Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...CCA-Solo-Nats/

Click above for a larger version of the West Course map.

After working a hot and lengthy two hour and ten minute heat one (blame all goes to the "special needs" and slow response in grid from the junior karts), it was time for heat three where ESP ran. We lined up with 33 cars in our class, the largest Street Prepared class at the event. My first run started right about 1:15 pm where it was warm at 79°F, and it only got hotter as the day progressed. The west course was set-up nicely by Karen Babb, with big sweepers and some faster sections, and frankly I thought this one would play to the strengths of the Mustang - some room to stretch the legs of this Coyote 5.0 motor. I also feared a shift to 3rd for many competitors. I was dead wrong on all counts...

Click above to see the video from Terry's first run on the West Course (59.803). The front looks like positive camber?!

Well that run was a bit of a mess. The course was easy to see and flowed well, but the large number of 90°, 180°, and 270° sweepers were not what the 3540 pound Mustang excelled at when compared to the many 3100-3300 pound competitors - almost all of whom were on the same 315/30/18 Hoosier tires. I didn't get lost or hit anything, but the course just "drove a lot slower than it walked" and I wasn't anywhere near topping out 2nd gear like I thought. I also made some errors in judgement about braking and under-drove the course a bit.

I was way off on the slalom timing, especially the final few before the finish. Some of my friends were watching the run and said it looked like I was coasting around the showcase turn (big 270° left-hander in front of the crowd) and that I was leaving two feet to the cones at the big offset gates in "double-down". The course had a LOT of left turns and the right side tires got HOT! I was kind of glad I didn't have a second driver. The car's orientation when parked in grid also kept the right side tires in the burning sun, so we sprayed those two tires after every run. My time of 59.803 was a solid second behind class leader Mark Madarash, but I was still in 4th place after the first runs were completed. I decided to push it harder in my second run by tightening up on the cones, focusing on getting on the throttle earlier, and try to stay ahead on the slalom cones.

Click above to see the video from Terry's second run on the West Course (59.727).

Well my second run was sloppier than my first, now over-driven instead of under-driven. I was much more aggressive on throttle which made for some pushy corners, but I still managed to pick up a tenth of a second (59.727). It was quickly getting hotter and I was the only driver in the top 5 to improve on the second set of runs, with 2nd and 3rd place slowing down considerably and Madarash almost matching his first run. This gave me hope that maybe I could move up if everyone else stayed about the same. I usually run quickest on my 3rd run, so I had some hope. With so many mistakes on that second run, I knew there was more time in the car. I had the car crossed up hard in two places on course that I knew were costing me time. I was going to go for a hero run on my last shot at the course.

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:17 PM

continued from above

While I was standing outside the car trying to think, the AWD turbo Eclipse that was in our class was idling 15 feet away. With the wind blowing towards me, it was choking me with clouds of oil smoke. This car was a big hot mess, leaking oil from everywhere, covered in duct tape, and always trailing blue smoke. It actually won the ESP class at the ProSolo, launching incredibly well and eeking out the win over Mark Madarash. At the Solo Nationals, the two drivers only managed 13th and 27th spots. After its second runs on the West Course, it caught on fire.

I was looking right at this smoking mess, using my mind powers to try and will it to turn off, when I noticed some dancing lights under the car. The driver was leaning on the left side door, about to get burned. It took me a second but I realized it was on fire, so I yelled "Hey, your car is on fire!" He looked at me funny.... "Yes! YOUR. CAR. IS. ON. FIRE! WE NEED SOME FIRE BOTTLES HERE, RIGHT NOW!" Flames are now licking up the door and it's really blazing. Two people showed up with extinguishers within 10 seconds and used them both to put the flames out, which kept re-catching. I crawled under while they were hitting it with extinguisher and noticed fuel pouring out of the tank onto the exhaust. "Shut the car off!" It finally went out, but it was dumping fuel on the grid, so we pushed it back 40 feet, away from the other cars. Then they ran over my foot and set the parking brake - "Get it off my foot! Get it off my foot!" Once my foot was free I limped back to my car and got belted up - because grid worker was ready for me to drive. Oh boy...

(continued from above)

Click above to see the video from Terry's third and final run on the West Course (60.146+1).

Well my hero run was anything but that. It looked okay until I got to the section called "Flop, turn and river", where I got behind and pushed wide. Then I murdered the "wallom" section called "Five cone draw", double-turning into each offset. I could also smell tire smoke and something burning, which meant the rear tire rub was back. This really drove me nuts and I let it throw me off in the last slalom, "Six the easy way". Hey, I don't make these names up, just referencing the map. The run was junk and I knew it, even before I heard the time. The run was a solid 4 tenths slower and I hit a cone in the final slalom.

My runs on West course felt like my worst driving in a single day at Nationals in quite a while. I just could not seem to put a complete run together on what I felt was the simpler of the two courses. Mark got a tiny bit quicker on his third run, but the big mover was Tim Bergstrom, who dropped almost a full second on his last run and bumped me down to 5th place for the day. Now I desperately hoped the East course was going to help with my placing. It looked like a gigantic cluster-f*ck of a course, hard to see with weird cone markings, and I noticed corner workers picking up lots of cones all day. For whatever reason I seem to do better when the courses are uglier, so who knows?

After my runs I went into "helper" mode and got the car re-gridded for Amy's ESP-L runs in 5th heat. We hung out in the idling Dodge with the A/C blasting on Max because it was creeping up to 100°F outside and we were feeling the heat. With both of us working in a very long first heat, thrashing to get the car ready in the second heat, and running in the third heat with Amy assisting - we had forgotten to eat and had not been drinking enough water. After the heat and humidity of the long afternoon, we both felt like crap and were moving into the early stages of heat exhaustion. The tire rub issue? I was so over-heated I didn't even remember to fix this, other than a brief mention to Amy after my last run. We both sat in the truck for a solid hour trying to cool off, then Amy had to run...

Tuesday ESP-L Competition - West Course

Right before Amy got in the car to make her run, the skies opened up and it rained hard for about three minutes, it even dumped some hail. Only one driver made a full run in the hail and rain mess - Brianne Corn, the defending B Mod champion driving in an open car. The other driver's behind her got flagged off and had re-runs, because the hail was setting off the timers. Just look at this mess!

"Oh HAIL no!" ...Brianne Corn driving in adverse conditions

I am writing a letter about that because she was getting pelted by hail in an open car. I get that we "run in all weather" like rain, but they will stop the course when during lightning, high winds, or weather so bad that it stops the timers. I think hail should be an instant "lets hold off for a minute" break in an autocross. That's not asking too much, is it?

So Amy was feeling the pressure when the fifth heat finally rolled around and she was once again the very last car in the grid (just like at the Spring Nationals here in Lincoln).

Not many competitors in ESP-Ladies - you're looking at the entire class.

Amy has had very little seat time in this new set-up - Remember, we made major changes to the car just one week earlier and she was unable to join us during the private test we held. I made 38 runs at the Mineral Wells test and one more at the Nationals practice. She made three runs at the Nationals practice and was almost 3/4 of a second off my pace.

Click above to see the video from Amy's first run on the West Course (60.301).

Amy's first run looked pretty good. She came out of the box swinging and was six tenths off of my best time for the West course. Her second run was a hair slower with an almost identical time to her first run (60.301 then 60.381). She was overshooting some braking zones and she knew it, so on her third run she tried to dial those back a bit and nail a quicker time.

Click above to see the video from Amy's third run on the West Course (60.044).

Her third run (60.044) looked pretty darn good and she dropped three tenths, finishing up only three tenths off of my best time. This was probably one of her best drives all year. She was disappointed that it wasn't in the 59 second range, but a 60.044 run was quite respectable even in the ESP open class (would have been in the trophies for day one). Especially so considering the higher ambient temperature in the fifth heat compared to when ESP open ran (third heat) and her almost complete lack of experience with this new suspension set-up.

It was a long day. The East course had been wrapped up for a while before Amy's first run on the West course began, which the video camera shows was at 5:27 pm. It was 5:54 pm on her second run, 6:22 pm when she made her third, and 6:45 pm before they were released from grid. To say that West course was running late was an understatement! We were taking our first walk of the East course after sunset - what a long ass day.

Changes After Day One

One delay that kept us from walking the East course before dark was about 30 minutes we spent back at our paddock spot doing some repairs. Amy and I had both noticed the smell of tire rub on our Day One runs. I took a peek after one of my runs and yep, the tire was rubbing in the rear once more. We brought the 18x12" wheels inboard quite a bit after the switch to the Whiteline Watts link and re-routed rear sway bar.

As you can see in the pictures above, the Hoosiers were rubbing through the rubberized insulation/liner at the rear and were getting into the painted part of the chassis as well. Even saw some rubber deposited on the FRPP upper shock mounts. This wasn't a problem with the same spacer/wheel set-up at our Mineral Wells test a week earlier, but the added grip of the fresh Hoosier A6s and the grippier concrete of Lincoln over the asphalt at Mineral Wells must have been enough to allow a tad more axle displacement under load. The West course featured a LOT of looooong sweepers, too. The tires themselves only showed some wear at the extended "rim protector" part of the bead - it was barely scuffed.

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:18 PM

continued from above

In order to fix this, we pulled off the pair of thin spacers and put on some that were an 1/8" wider. A minimal change to the track width and feel of the car, but it was apparently enough as we didn't have any more tire rub on Day Two.

Also, while the car was in the air we verified the rebound settings on the Moton Club Sports, which have to be adjusted with this little tool with the tires off. Then we used our RocksOff tire scraper to get the pebbles off the sticky A6 rubber. We didn't have a problem with "OPR" pickup, other than a few strands I could peel off with my hands. I guess the ESP car was heavy enough to scrub off the fronts and powerful enough to keep the rears clear of rubber pickup. I saw lots of stock class guys madly scraping their tires between runs with cordless cutting tools and at night with torches and scrapers.

(continued from above)

Wednesday ESP Competition - East Course

Click image above for a larger version of the Roger Johnson designed East Course.

After a late night walking the East course and an awesome meal at a place called "Toast", we hit the ground running at 6:30 am Wednesday morning. We walked the course at dawn, then unloaded the car to get it ready. We worked the East course in the first heat at a real cluster-f*ck corner where we shagged upwards of 40 cones. This "ring of fire" section was a real visual mess and lots of people took out 1-4 cones at a time in this section. I'm not knocking the course - it did exactly what Roger intended... caught people out and "separated the men from the boys".

Once we got to grid in the third heat, it wasn't quite as hot and I was hoping some ESP drivers would fall for the many visual traps on Roger's course - and that I would not. Being in 5th place was not where I wanted to start the day, but I was hopeful that I could move up one or two places if I nailed this course.

Left: Wednesday's 33 car ESP Grid. Right: Mark's racing secret Activia yogurt is kicking in!

The plan was to go out and try to lay down a FAST first run, which I did... and promptly murdered the very last cone on course, in the very section where I worked the course!!!

Click above to see the video from Terry's first run on the East Course (69.034 +1).

Grr, I was so pissed at myself. The run time was great and it would have moved me right up into 2nd place according to the announcer, but then he heard the cone call. That "simple constant radius turn" in the "ring of fire" section of the East course was the hardest corner of the event, bar none. There were all sorts of visual tricks, the camber of the surface changed as you went around the corner, and you came into it all kinds of crossed up. I worked on this section all day, and after getting it mostly right on my first run I promptly got LOST in this section on my second run. FFS...

Click above to see the video from Terry's second run (69.802).

Actually I got lost in two places on that run, after getting through fairly quickly and easily on my first attempt. I let my "coned" first run mess with my head. On my second run, getting lost slowed me down eight tenths and moved me all the way down to 10th place in class. The car felt fine, but I just lost my way and really psyched myself out. After being in 4th place almost the entire first day, I was mired down in 10th place going into my last run of Nationals?! Oh man, was I sweating. It was "hero run time"...

Click above to see the video from Terry's third run (68.735).

I nailed my last run - Hot diggidy DAMN! I knew the run was good before I heard the time or placing, and I got out of the car shaking. Man that felt good! It was really only about 3 tenths quicker than my first run, but it didn't have the cone penalty. This run moved me from 10th place (outside of the trophies) into a solid 4th place overall, only .058 behind 3rd place. After watching some second drivers improve but not bump me lower, I stayed in 4th place. Dave Ogburn pulled off a quick last run and increased his lead over me to 4 tenths in 3rd place.

I was so glad to be done and to have moved into the trophies. I normally wouldn't be so happy with a 4th place finish, but after seeing the car builds and drivers in the top 10, I think I was pretty lucky to have done this well in an emissions-legal street car with A/C, navigation, big stereo, untouched fenders, and all that. And for as heavy as our car ended up being (more on that below). Here is a small sampling of the ESP competitors.

Left: Eight time ESP National Champion Mark Madarash's '88 Firebird (on ASTs). Right: Second place finisher Britt Dollmeyer in Tim Bergstrom's '06 Mustang GT (on ASTs).

Left: Dave Ogburn's third place '01 Camaro on Goodyears. Right: Opie Viets' 3rd Gen '84 Camaro.

Left: Fifth place finisher David Feighner's '95 Cobra R. Right: David Gushwa's Mustang Boss 302.

Left: Twelfth place finisher Mark Foley's '99 Firebird. Right: Dave Heinrich's Mustang Boss 302 finished in the trophies in seventh place.

Left: Tye "Colossus" Jackson's '01 Camaro. Right: Sixth place Jonathan Newcombe trophied driving James Darden's '97 LT4 Z28.

Darden actually tied Brad Owen for the 9th and final trophy spot, down to the .001 second, so they looked at their next fastest times to break the tie, which supposedly went to Owen (but the official results show Darden in 9th?). They brought this up at the awards banquet and gave a free set of BFG tires in the size and model of his choice to Darden, to ease the pain. Pretty cool condolence prize!

During the ESP Impound, we all talked and joked around and nobody even hinted at being upset or protesting anyone or anything like that. The ESP group here at Nationals, many of whom I met at the Mineral Welss ProSolo or the Lincoln Pro/Tour in May, really is one of the nicest, most helpful, greatest group of racers I've run with in my 24 years running in SCCA Solo. We had 33 fierce competitors, but as we saw when the hood smashed into our windshield at the May event (against much of the same group) and again when the Talon caught fire, they are all quick to jump in and lend a hand to any fellow ESP competitor in need. Good stuff - thanks for being so welcoming to this ESP noobie this year, guys!

Wednesday ESP-L Competition - East Course

Texas Region racer and friend Wayne Atkins had pointed out that after my second East course run the left spoiler upright was coming loose. I didn't have tools in grid to fix it and they convinced me to stop worrying about it... it eventually came completely loose on my third run, for an unintended "DRS" spoiler effect (F1's "drag reduction system").

more below

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:19 PM

last one...

Before the fifth heat I motored back to the trailer, grabbed some tools, and came back to re-assemble the uprights. I can't blame anyone else, as I was the one that bolted it together last time. Doh!

When the fifth heat finally rolled around we had Amy gridded up and the spoiler was back into the "fixed" configuration. She had a healthy 3+ second lead coming from Day One, so I wanted her to concentrate and try to get as close to my times as she could. Her first run was a mess, with a clean but off pace 72.333 run. She admitted to getting lost in several places and having trouble seeing past Roger's course's visual tricks. I had her look at the map and sit in the truck until her second run.

Click above to see the video from Amy's second run (71.007).

This run was an improvement thanks to finding her marks better, but she still under-braked into one section, which pushed her off line going into another section and messed up her rhythm. It was a clean run, but still 2.3 seconds off my last run. I tried to get her psyched up for a final "all out" run to drop more time, but she slowed down nine tenths and hit a cone (70.901 +1), but still managed to win.

Looking at her times compared to ESP open, she would have still placed 15th which was better than mid-pack. Her times on the West course were a lot more competitive, but these "visually challenging" courses seem to catch her out. It's something we need to work on for next year if she is going to run in ESP open.

Wednesday Awards Banquet

As usual the fifth heat on our side finished hours after fifth heat on the opposite course. After impound we still had to load the car into the trailer before heading to the Awards Banquet, which started at 5:30 pm. Once the car was in the trailer (in record time) it was after 5:30 pm, so we just drove straight there and skipped going to the hotel to shower and change, unlike most attendees. Of course we got there way early and none of the award stuff started until about 7 pm, so we should have stopped and cleaned up.

We sat with our fellow Texas Region racers and waited for the trophy presentation. And waited. And waited. Lots of non-competition awards and presentations, delays, and the banquet stretched on for a total of four hours, ending at 9:30 pm. During the ESP awards, which were very late into the banquet, people had started wandering off and looking at professional photographer's pictures and such. Then they forgot to announce to our group beforehand to "get on deck" and the first half of the trophy recipients never heard their names and didn't walk across the stage, including myself. I walked up and grabbed my plastic 4th place trophy that I don't want to think about how much money went into earning.

We figured out who was on stage and calculated when ESP-L would be called so Amy was there to get her "Class Winner" trophy, but she won't get another National Championship jacket or name in the rule book. Yay, this is the new "three car minimum" requirement in action, and the beginning of the end of Ladies classes.

After that marathon banquet we crashed out at the hotel, got up late, and hooked up the trailer. Then we blasted back to Texas on Thursday, getting home by 9 pm and ready for work on Friday. We would have loved to have stayed all week, but we both needed to work the next day. On the drive home we both bench raced some ideas and I calculated what I thought we would need to do if we wanted to be more competitive in ESP in 2013. Being 1.6 seconds back from the class winner was a huge gap to make up, and more than I think I can get with just chassis tuning and driving improvements. I had a feeling we were one of the heaviest cars in the top 10, but I had no idea how much so until we got back.

Mustang on the Scales & the Big Surprise

I didn't weigh the car at Nationals because we were pretty busy both days of competition and I hate being "that guy" that wants to weigh his car on the SCCA scales needed for Impound weight verification. I have scales at our shop and we had weighed it numerous times in the past, so I "knew what it weighed". Just for grins I had the guys throw it on the scales right out of the trailer, at the exact fuel load and race weight we ran at Nationals. Then I looked at the readout and did a double-take...

3540 pounds!?! WTF! I went to my computer and found all of the weights we had taken of this car, all the way back to when it was brand new (3563 lbs). Holy crap - the car had gained 72 pounds since our last weighing at the Mineral Wells ProSolo earlier this year (3467 lbs), and now it was within 20 pounds of bone stock! The lowest it ever weighed was 3442 lbs, back in December 2011 when we ran it in STU form on 18x10's and 275mm Bridgestone tires.

Wow, this was an eye opener. We weigh it often, but let this 72 pounds kind of creep into the car without notice. I knew that Mark's winning '88 Firebird was about 3100 lbs and Tim's 2nd place '07 GT was 3260 lbs. This 3540 pound weight was way high. Now we know what to concentrate on - WEIGHT! We have since weighed some cars, pulled some parts and scaled them, and have a pretty good idea where all of the lard is. I will expand on this GREATLY in future posts.

Photo Credits and Car Impressions

About 95% of the pictures in our 2012 SCCA Solo Nationals Photo Gallery were taken by me or Amy, with our Nikon D90, and a few with our iPhones. I also got a few from C Prepared racer Jeff Stroh, two from gotcone.com, and a few from Tom Reynolds. Thanks to all of you! I need these pictures to help me remember what happened & to better explain this crazy sport and these events. I can't say autocrossing is the most exciting sport to observe, but it is competitive and very intense. The pictures also help me see what our car is doing, what other's are doing, and they point to areas we can hopefully improve. Like this one Stroh took:

The Lean Machine

One thing that I noticed (and many other people pointed out!) looking at the pictures of our car vs the other top ESP drivers' cars is that our Mustang has a lot more LEAN, which also kind of crept up on us. The updates we made with the Whiteline bars, UCA and especially their Watts Link Kit added a lot of lateral stability and more grip, and the switch to Hoosiers from Kumho added grip, as did the concrete surface over our test site.

So yes, we are going to raise the spring rates from the current soft set-up (450F/175R) to a firmer set of rates (550F/250R). The soft set-up worked great for both road course and autocross events when we were dealing with other issues like lower grip tires (street tires all the way up to the V710s), the steering shudder (yes, which is gone), and a clunky Panhard rod set-up. These new springs are going on the car next week.

We also noticed that our car was sitting higher in the rear than most S197s, so we will test a lower rear ride height separately. Once we have the stiffer springs on it will be tested at the current ride height, then lowered and tested again. After watching the videos, the car seems to have a good bit of steady state push which we need to work on too. So we have a lot of work to do for next year.

What's Next?

In the short term we have a Global Time Attack event we will run in this Mustang on September 22nd at Texas Motor Speedway. We just ordered some fresh V710s that we will use for that event. The spoiler is staying on because my big APR GTC300 wing is still on Brianne's Pikes Peak car, which we will hopefully bring to the GTA event as well. The very next day we are autocrossing the Mustang with the Texas Region SCCA at a new concrete site in Crandall, TX, which is closer to the shop than any other Dallas/Ft. Worth autocross site. This concrete parking lot could become my new favorite site to autocross in Dallas, and I am asking them about renting it for private test events as well.

There's also a NASA Texas race weekend at Eagles Canyon Raceway on October 6-7th, where I will run the Mustang one day and the E46 330Ci the next, if everything lines up perfectly. After that... well, we have some surprises in store. We will be concentrating on a much more purpose-built ESP autocross-only Mustang for the 2013 season. Less weight, more tire, more power. Don't know a lot yet, but we have made budgets, parts lists, and extensive plans, but that's all I know for sure right now: more tire, less weight, more power. I'm not going to improve my driving enough to beat these guys, so I have to get more serious about the car!

Thanks for reading my epic 2012 Nationals post. I will post again after the GTA event and autocross in two weeks. Ciao!

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:21 PM

Project Update for September 20, 2012: This build thread entry might seem a bit premature since we have two events coming up this weekend that I will have to cover in another update next week (GTA and SCCA). But there have been a lot of things happening with regards to our S197 Project that we felt it was time for another update. Some of you that follow Vorshlag on Facebook already know about a lot of this, but there's new information in here as well.

Getting 4th place in ESP was a great accomplishment considering the many concessions we have made to this car so that it can still be a nice street car, stay emissions legal, and do fairly well on a road course. This car really is a jack-of-all trades, running in all sorts of events, and we even drag race it a little. We ended up with a great street car with all of the creature comforts, but this has led to some weight gain and compromises that don't help the ESP autocross performance one bit. It's also my wife Amy's car and she refuses to let me cut on it. That means no wheel flares allowed, which has led to a lot of work to make the 18x12" wheels and 315s fit out back. There is no way to run any wider tires front or back without cutting the fenders, but I do feel the car will be faster with more tire (every other tire size increase has always improved performance).

All that said about 4th place is great and all, but as a competitor I would much rather win in the ESP autocross class. I know now that this is going to take a dedicated autocross-only effort, like the cars in the first three places at Nationals this year, as well as many places below us in the finishing order. The air conditioning has to come out (weight), as does the radio and speakers (weight), and many cars are (cut and) flared to fit larger tires than we ran (315s are the small tire in grid - many ESP cars had 335mm rears). Others are also using the Update/Backdate rules to maximize performance.

Thinking, Planning, Scheming, Plotting...

What will it take? Like I said in my last post... less weight, more power, more tire. If we can maximize these three aspects and sort the handling, someone with my driving skills (or lack thereof) should be able to place higher than 4th. I can't buy driving talent, but I can build/tune/buy the rest!

After coming back from the 2012 SCCA Solo Nationals and weighing our car right off the trailer, I became fixated on lowering the weight on next year's ESP entry. At 3539 pounds, our red 2011 GT was 300-400 pounds overweight compared to the top 10 or so in the ESP class grid. That much weight is a massive deficit to overcome. JasonM and I stayed late several nights that next week doing research, weighing cars and parts, and just brain storming and bench racing ideas. Both of us have been autocrossing now for 25 years and we kind of knew that winning this class was going to take a serious, serious effort. We have had these discussions for the last 8 months, ever since we moved this car from STX (maximum of 265mm street tires) to ESP (unlimited width R compounds). With several National level events in 2012 under our belts, we had more data to work with and can better understand what we think it will take to win.

First day back from Nationals we borrowed and weighed a bone stock 2006 GT (thanks, StuartM!) for comparison, and then found accurate weights on the 4.6 3V vs 5.0 4V motors and transmissions. I posted about this on S197forum this week, and learned even more there. What we found out was the Ford 4.6L 3V motor weighs almost the same as a new 5.0L 4V motor.

5.0 Coyote motor weight - Fully dressed (minus the A/C compressor) and filled with oil, the new engine weighs in at 430 pounds.
Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/12/28/d...ll-new-5-0-v8/
5.0 Coyote motor weight - Shipping Weight 430 pounds, includes water pump
Source: http://www.mustang50magazine.com/tec...ech_specs.html
2005 Mustang Spec PDF - 4.6L 3V MOD motor weight - 421lbs dressed engine weight (dry).
Source: We found this on a Ford PDF, but the link no longer works. The FRPP catalog page for the old 2005 crate motor shows 435lbs dressed (see the S197forum post above for the page).

We will get a picture of the actual weight of the 5.0L from our 2013 GT when we pull it out over the winter. Uh-oh, Spoiler Alert! Keep reading, heh. The Getrag MT-82 is also shown to be very similar in weight to the Tremec 3450, from what we can find online. Again, we will weigh the 2013's 6-speed Getrag transmission when it is out for a clutch/pressure plate/flywheel combination or out for the engine work.

This S197 drivetrain weight research was to see if we could take an early S197 Mustang (2005-2007 or so), swap in the 5.0L, keep the 5-spd, use the smaller, early brakes, and maximize the update/backdate allowances of Street Prepared. We were hoping to find a magic 300 pounds somewhere just in the 5.0L motor and 2005 chassis swap, but this doesn't seem to be the case here. The SCCA's "UD/BD" rules are a little complicated if you come from outside the SCCA Solo world, but we understand them well. It allows racers to use "the best of the breed", usually putting engines and transmissions and major components from models within the same generation all together into one car. Nobody has built this "hybrid S197" yet, but it was discussed at length in the ESP grid and at the awards banquet at the 2012 Nationals. It has been on our short list all year for the 2013 ESP effort.

In the SCCA Appendix for ESP, all 2005-2013 Mustangs are "on the same line" for Street Prepared, so we can use some parts from the Mustang V6, GT parts from 2005-2010 or 2011-2013, Boss 302 and Leguna Seca parts (that's why it's legal to use the LS front splitter), and even GT500 parts (not that we would put the heavy, heavy supercharged V8 from that car into a lightweight ESP car; we already make plenty of power at 430 whp). As long as it is swapped as a complete component (like a complete engine - it's all detailed in the rules) and no cutting/drilling/welding is needed, then it is a legal swap in Street Prepared.

This UD/BD rule allows us to potentially make a lighter, more powerful S197 than anyone has done in the E Street Prepared class before. We were competitive in the 3540 pound car, but how would we do in a 3100 pound version making the same power and on the same tires? The first place ESP car is one of these "hybrid" builds with a Corvette-based motor from a 1992 Firehawk, a transmission from a 5.0L 5-speed Firebird, all in a 1988 Firebird shell. There's a bunch of these UD/BD builds in Street Prepared that have all the best parts from one generation, making a car that was "never really offered", but that uses factory drivetrain combinations that are unique.

Stuart's stock 2006 Mustang GT 5-speed with minimal fuel load weighed 3442 lbs. Of course we took the trunk junk out for that weight.

As you can see, this 2006 GT weighs 3442 with no trunk junk and low fuel. That is a 121 pounds lighter than our 2011 GT was when it was bone stock (3563 lbs, no trunk junk, same minimal fuel load) and 97 pounds lighter than our car was in ESP form at the 2012 Nationals (3539 lbs). The questions is - where does this ~100 pound weight difference come from?

Size and weight specs on the three main front disc brakes for the S197 Mustang GT: 12.43" diameter, 13.22" front, and 13.96" (Brembo).

We think this weight differential is from a few sources, including the smaller front brakes (12.4" fronts vs Brembo 14"), 2-piston vs 4-piston calipers, a theoretically lighter insulation package, and some other bits that we will confirm as we go. After making spread sheets and doing multiple builds on paper with an early car and the late motor, it looked like a total nightmare - and offered almost no weight or cost savings over starting with a 2011-2013 5.0 GT. JasonM here at Vorshlag said it best, in a discussion on 'carvers...

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:22 PM

continued from above

Originally Posted by JasonM

I'm probably stealing Terry's thunder, but we looked at both the 4.6 and the 5.0 chassis as a home for a 5.0 powered ESP Mustang. The cost, weight and "unknown technical solutions" all pointed to starting with a Coyote chassis. The big worry was weight. Were we going to be saddled with some weight in the 5.0 chassis that the 4.6 chassis could get rid of? We sketched out two simple spreadsheets on the weights and the costs. The weights look like a draw and the costs look like an advantage for the 5.0 chassis. We'll see how it actually pans out, but I'm expecting to have this car up and running much quicker and without having to buy multiple wrecked donors to source all the parts we need for the UD/BD stuff that has to be done. There are also technical issues with trying to get the EPAS rack working with a non-EPAS harness that make it look like a full harness and switchgear swap would be necessary.

We also look like ballers building a brand new car into a dedicated no-compromises competition car.

LOL

The wiring harness challenges necessary to remain ESP legal were extensive and daunting, and I cannot overstate this factor. I don't want to discourage readers from doing an early S197 car 5.0L swap, but I have read some builds already and it is much harder to pull off than you think. And to do it and stay SCCA SP legal would be much harder than the swaps we have seen done online, too.

So since we can't cut on or sell our red 2011, we started looking for another 2011 GT with an affordable price, but they just don't seem to exist. These cars are holding their value strangely well - as are many used late-model cars for the past 12-24 months (which is itself a long, complex subject). Even clean 2005-06 GTs were going to cost $12-15K (these were $25K new!) unless we wanted to start with a 150K mile beat-to-hell junker, which still cost in the neighborhood of $9-10K. Then we would need to also buy a totaled/rear hit 2011 GT salvage car to get the engine, trans, complete wiring harness, and the entire front sheet metal/hood/bumper cover/doghouse (to be able to legally use the 2012 Boss 302 LS splitter). The numbers just didn't add up - it would be cheaper and FAR easier to start with a new car.

Let's Buy A Brand New Mustang... And Cut It Up!

So I started looking for 2012 GTs still sitting on dealer lots, hoping to find a smokin' deal. Not much left other than weird option packages, convertibles, and automatics. They blew the remaining '12 inventory out months ago. I really wanted to start with a BASE model GT, without the $4000 Premium package and options so many dealers order. This means no navigation, no power seats, no rear view cameras, no wings or doo-dads - no budget or scale busting upgrades that would end up removed from the car anyways. We found jack and squat.

We spotted this 2013 black beauty at Five Star.

I called a buddy Corey White, who is a big Mustang dealer at Five Star Ford in Plano. Corey is who I should have bought the 2011 GT from two years ago, but I didn't know about him back then. He organizes car shows and track days for Dallas/Ft. Worth Mustang owners, including the ECR event we went to in June (and another we're going to November 17th, also at ECR). Great guy, knows the cars very well, and people fly in from across the country to buy Mustangs GTs, Boss 302s and Raptors from him.

We had a hail storm a few weeks ago that only affected a tiny portion of our DFW Metroplex, and part of that was this dealership. Corey said there were some 2013 GTs they had not repaired yet and they were willing to deal...

Left: It is as stripper as they come! One option (3.55 gears) and a $31,490 MSRP. Right: One of many hail dents visible in the vented hood.

Last Friday afternoon, I was about to lose my mind looking at 2011-12 GTs and early 2005-2007 GTs and having zero luck finding the car we wanted. I was tired of theorizing and wanted to move quickly if we were to have a hope of being ready for the Spring 2013 National level Solo events. So Amy and I went to see Corey and within five minutes we were test driving the black car above. I pressed the magic button for five seconds to get into the "AdvanceTrac Off" mode and left the parking lot in a cloud of tire smoke.

This rental-fleet special was missing all of the leather coverings, lighted door sills, auto climate control, fancy shift knobs, navigation system, and integrated Sync. It had cloth seats with all manual adjustments, the base AM/FM/CD radio, the "small" 13.2" front brakes, skinny 18x8" wheels and little bitty 235mm all season Pirellis. OMFG these tires would spin for a city block! Absolutely atrocious for performance, but a riot for a test drive. I performed some of the most juvenile stunt driving maneuvers in this car, with Amy riding shotgun and laughing so hard she was crying! The stock marshmallow suspension was hilariously mushy and entertaining. She said at one point - "well we can't let anyone else have this car after what you just did on that test drive!" I couldn't argue with that logic.

(continued from above)

We went back and talked numbers with Corey. A $1500 rebate, big discount for the hail issues, and some more just because he rocks. In the end, the number was so low we couldn't NOT buy it. I felt like I needed a ski mask and gloves after the deal we got. Corey got the paperwork started and that was the quickest new car purchase I have ever seen. He had a Roush supercharged 2013 Raptor F150 warmed up and waiting for a test drive while the Mustang was being "make readied" for us, so we proceeded to go on the 2nd most hilarious test drive of my life, both of which were on the same day. I won't give away his crafty sales tactics, but after that ten minute test drive, all done by Corey, we both were AMAZED at the Raptor's off road capability and wanted one of these trucks. That's all I am allowed to say without giving Corey's trick away, but with 558 whp, Fox shocks, crackin' exhaust, and a suspension that can blow your mind... DAAAAMN that truck is a BEAST!

After that hilarious Raptor test drive that Matt here at Vorshlag joined us on (the back seat is absolutely massive, BTW), the 2013 GT was fueled up and ready to go. We hit the streets in both the 2011 and 2013 GTs, with a light drizzle starting to come down. I was really psyched about the new car we just stole and continued my jackassery, then proceeded to whip Amy 2-0 in wet drag races from stop lights.

The next morning I was still in shock from adding the 9th car to my fleet of sports car and got to washing off the previous night's rain. PaulM joined me with his 2011 GT and we washed both, then went with McCall and bought yet another car - something for a ChumpCar build, that I will start to chronicle next week (not a Vorshlag build, but we will make the roll cage). What a weekend!

more below...

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:22 PM

more from above

On Monday I brought the car to the shop to weigh it, but with a full tank of fuel it was still a few pounds heavier than the 2011 GT was (with no fuel). I have calculated the low-fuel weight to be about 60 pounds lighter than the '11, stock for stock, both without the trunk junk. The 18" skinny spare in the 2013 is pretty slick and if we can find another it will make for a great drag race set of front runners (no "temporary use" or slow max speed listed). For those of you asking, I doubt this will fit over the 14" brakes, but we can try it. When I get a free moment, I will do an all-new thread on the 2013 GT ESP build and share even more. We've already begun ripping and tearing...

Whiteline S197 Parts Now Available

The North American Sales Manager for Whiteline USA, Reid Yoken, came by Vorshlag yesterday. He is in town for the Global Time Attack event this weekend and of course is stopping by to check up with all of his Whiteline dealers. He ended up staying for two hours and we discussed all sorts of new products coming for the S197 Mustang, the BRZ/FR-S, Subarus, BMWs, Miatas, and more. He promised to send us a few more new/pre-production parts for our Mustang and also our BRZ build, which was unexpected, but very cool.

Earlier this week the pricing was published for the new Whiteline Watts Link kit, which we have listed on our website now. Unlike some drop ship/resale operations that listed this and every other part known to man, we have actually used this Whiteline kit and know all of the tricks and tips for installation, tuning and use. We also stock some of their other S197 parts, like the Whiteline Panhard Bar kit (with the optional support brace) and some of their bushings. These Watts Link kits, Whiteline sway bars, and additional parts are available now. We will have another whole batch of S197 Whiteline parts coming for our 2013 GT soon.

Whiteline S197 Watts Link kit shown above, now available from Vorshlag

Our $899 price on the Watts Link kit's ($999 MSRP) is very reasonable considering all of the custom parts it comes with - a gorgeous cast aluminum differential cover with integral bearing loading studs, the bracket for the Watts "Football" mount, the cover's inlet/outlet ports for a differential cooler, and the various arms, brackets and hardware needed to mount all of this. It also comes with a unique cross-chassis brace, which is an optional piece on most PHB kits.

The OEM parts removed and replaced with the Watts Links kit installed.

We had Whiteline send us the production weight for their S197 Watts Link kit: "The entire Watts Link kit is 29 lbs, which includes 8.4 lbs from the differential cover and the associated hardware." Some of that weight is a wash, as you are removing a stock (or aftermarket) PHB, the stock cross-chassis brace (which is replaced in the Whiteline kit), and swapping the stock steel differential cover for their cast aluminum piece. We just weighed all of these stock parts we pulled off when installing the Watts on our 2011 and it all came in at 13.3 pounds. So in the end there's only a net ~15.7 pound increase for this Whiteline Watts Link kit. Not bad at all. In our upcoming 2013 GT purpose-built ESP build we will verify this to the tenth of a pound... and maybe look for ways to pull some weight out of the off-the-shelf Whiteline Watts kit, for those fanatics like us looking to save every ounce.

I discussed this on another forum earlier this week, but I want to make sure people who are racing the S197 realize how complete and high quality this Watts Link kit is. It works GREAT on a street car as well, without the banging and clanging of rod ends to drive you nuts. I will ask them if they want to make a rod end version, but if not we might modify their existing kit with rod ends for dedicated race car builds - we have already been asked. This always adds noise and new wear items, of course. Unprotected metal rod ends that are in high exposure areas are subjected to lots of salt, grime and road debris spray and should be given lots of thought before being installed on a street car.

Left: OEM rear sway bar routing ends very close to the rear tire. Right: Whiteline sway bar runs opposite of stock routing and has 6"+ to tire face (click to enlarge).

Another thing S197 racers should remember is that the Whiteline "axle mount" rear sway bar frees up a lot of inboard room for wider wheels and tires. This is unique to the S197 sway bar aftermarket and is one that cannot be overlooked. If you want to run more than a 10" rear wheel without cutting the fenders, you are going to need the Whiteline rear sway bar. Sure, you can buy it from us (we would appreciate it!), but whoever your Whiteline dealer is, this bar is the way to go for more tire room. Drag racers looking to run 15" or 16" diameter wheels can also look to this unique Whiteline sway bar style for the room they need to fit these smaller wheels. So much win!

last bit below...

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:23 PM

final piece...

Hankook Arrive & Drive

On Monday, the regional representative for Hankook Tires asked if I could come to their latest Arrive and Drive event (thanks Fabien!), which was about 30 miles from our shop. Any chance to thrash on somebody's cars and test new tires is always better than anything else I can think of on a regular work day, so I was in. Brandon went with me and shot some pictures of various attendees driving Hankook's Audi A3 and 2012 Mustang GT on Hankook tires. Super tight autocross course, no timers, just for fun.

Hankook always puts on a good show and if you can swing an invite, by all means check one of these events out. We took some autocross runs, had fun, snagged some Hankook swag, and headed back to the shop. I'm a big fan of the Hankook RS-3 tire, which is one of the fastest 140 treadwear tires around. Great for track use and autocrossers in the Street Touring class love them as well. The new 180 treadwear minimum in the SCCA "Road Tire" category will keep them out of there, at least until they can make a 180 TW replacement. We will see if that happens. I will also ask them about making some "big Mustang" R-S3 sizes - something like a 305/35/18 or 315/35/18 would be ideal on a 11" or 12" wide wheel. But for a more rational 10" wheel, Hankook is one of the few companies that does make a 285/35/18 size in the R-S3; this is a perfect fit with our 18x10" S197 D-Force/Vorshlag wheels.

SCCA Jackets for Class Winners

As I mentioned in my last update, Vorshlag teamed up with Solo Performance Specialties to sponsor the Women of Solo Luncheon this year, which was a big success. Dave made the commemorative embroidered polo shirts for all attendees, with the Vorshlag logo on the sleeve, and the ladies really liked them. Dave also runs SCCAgear.com, which makes various shirts/clothing/National Champion jackets for the SCCA.

Dave saw me complaining about the new three entrant minimum rule for crowning National Champions in my last Mustang thread post here, and he knew that I've pointed out in the past the lengthy process some new classes take to become recognized as a class at Nationals. So earlier this week he asked me to "put my money where my mouth is"... and I jumped at the chance.

SPS and Vorshlag have teamed up to provide a run of "SCCA Nationals Class Winner" jackets free of charge to all 2012 Solo Nationals winners who didn't get a National Championship jacket. They paid the same money, but only got half the swag. The recipients will include the winners in any of the unrecognized/provisional classes like "Road Tire" as well as some Ladies class winners who had fewer than three entrants. We made this press release together and will contact these Class Winners about their jackets in the coming weeks (Dave will make these jackets with the same look and at the same time as the National Champion jackets).

I know minimum entrant numbers and provisional classing is a complex subject with a lot of good points one way or another and there is no magic answer. We just felt like recognizing these winners with a little something extra this year, since the 2012 Solo Nationals was the first time the new attendance rule kicked in. Anyone that won can opt out of the free jacket, of course.

GTA Event Prep

I finally remembered what I forgot to post in my pre-Nationals post. The steering shudder is completely and utterly gone now, thanks to this one little swap!

For one "easy" payment of $999, our electric steering rack issues are a thing of the past. It is simply a stock rack that has been reprogrammed to turn off all of the auto-nibble-correction silliness. No other way to get this new programming other than to buy the new FRPP rack, unfortunately (we tried). Well, it does come on a Boss 302-S. I recommend this FRPP rack to any 2011-2013 Mustang driver that is experiencing this steering shudder like what I have documented in the videos from our 2011 GT. If you are experiencing these issues, you can try to take it to your dealership for reproduction and hopeful replacement, but we didn't have much luck there... Here's a tip: the biggest common variable on cars with this shudder is an aftermarket front Lower Control Arm bushing. Change the bushings and be prepared for the shudder.

Other preparation for this weekend includes: new Kumho V710s, upped the spring rates to 550F/250R, added a new set of Porterfield R4 pads and new rotors all the way around (the last track set of rotors and pads were well and truly thrashed). The guys also reinstalled the front brake ducting for use at the GTA event.

What's Next?

We are loading the 2011 Mustang into our trailer now for the tow out to Texas Motor Speedway on Friday and Saturday for the Global Time Attack event. There will also be some XTC drift event running on the same course (separate heats, thankfully!) and the whole "Hot Import Nights" show/circus/scene going on. We are told to expect a big crowd for all of that and they will be doing a live webcast on the GTA website.

Sunday we are loading up and heading to the Dallas Dragway in Crandall, TX. This is the new, preferred autocross site that the Texas Region SCCA is using for Solo events. We can't wait carve some corners and dodge cones at this new concrete site. I will post a new update next week in this thread about the event.

Also, I will start a whole new thread on our 2013 Mustang GT ESP build. Why a second thread? Well... we discussed it and the 2013 build will be a lot different from this 2011 build. The 2011 was a real test mule for us and we ran it in a variety of events and classes, from NASA TTB to TTS, and SCCA STX to ESP, as well as street driving and the Optima Challenge and more. I like the fact that the 2011 can do a little bit of everything pretty well, but I want to WIN the ESP class next year. That will take a completely different build, a different mindset, and a different car. It is also not really a "test mule" type of build, so it will get its own build thread.

What else... NASA has a race weekend at ECR on October 6-7th, where we will run the 2011 GT in TTS and the 2001 BMW 330Ci in TTD. Then there's another Five Star Ford of Plano sponsored open track day at ECR on November 11th, which we will be at in the 2011 GT.

Don't worry - the 2011 GT will continue on it's own adventures, chronicled in this thread. Meanwhile here's a taste of what we have in store for the 2013 GT:

The one-off flares above are no longer available... but we will make something similar for the 2013. Gotta clear those bigger Hoosiers!

Stay tuned!

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:24 PM

Project Update for October 4, 2012: I am a couple of weeks behind on updates, so let's catch up on the 2011 Mustang's latest racing events and changes.

New Suspension Parts & Tweaks

I talked about most of the pre-GTA weekend preparation in my last post (brake pads, rotors, tires) and showed pictures of more stuff, but forgot to talk about the other mods. Whiteline had sent us some additional products to test at Global Time Attack, namely their tubular and adjustable Lower Control Arms with Synthetic Elastomer bushings and a pair of their bolt-on LCA relocation brackets. The LCA relocation brackets are an attempt to fix the rear anti-squat geometry on lowered S197 Mustangs and we wanted to see how this worked in both track and autocross conditions. The Lower Control Arms themselves replace the stamped steel stock pieces, which have big smooshy rubber bushings. For GTA there were no real rules or points to worry about, so we figured we'd give it a try. Long term they will probably stay on the red 2011 Mustang, since we're building the black 2013 GT for dedicated ESP autocross use. For the NASA Time Trial class, we are running the red car in TTS, which means we no longer have to worry about tallying modification points. Pretty much the sky is the limit (TTS/R/U classes mostly revolve around power-to-weight ratios and tire compound).

The new parts are shown installed above. We are now working with the existing Whiteline Watts Link kit, Whiteline Upper Control Arm and Mount, and Whiteline Front and Rear Adjustable Sway Bars + End Links, for a package covering 100% of their S197 Whiteline catalog. We have recently updated our S197 suspension products page page to show all of these items along with the Whiteline Adjustable Panhard Bar, and we already stock and have sold some of these at Vorshlag. A lot of these parts were just released this past month and they made it on our website as soon as pricing was available. We are really liking what they have and I'm glad we picked up the Whiteline dealership (that's the last of the sales-y stuff, I promise!)

Other changes for this weekend of racing include a switch back to Kumho V710 rubber from Hoosier A6. Most people know the Hoosier DOT tire line-up: The R6 is more suited to track use (can withstand longer stints and more heat) and the A6 is for autocross use (heat up quickly, but tend to overheat on longer stints). The V710 is sort of like an R6, so we picked up and mounted two fresh Kumho's in 315/35/18 and ran two of our old Kumho's that have seen a lot of autocross & track use. These two older tires "looked" OK and I didn't want to drop $1600 on a whole new set of Kumho's after just getting back from Nationals and dropping $1600 on that set of A6's (which still looked pretty good, too - definitely worth running at a few more autocrosses).

Lastly, we upgraded spring rates due to the excessive lean we were seeing on the A6's at the Solo Nationals on that grippy concrete. These pictures really amplified how softly we have the car sprung and how little experience we have with the car in ESP use. I think we had four months of ESP preparation before Nationals? Compared to the 1.5 years we spent in STX on street tires, where the old, softer rates worked very well.

In the front we went to 550#/in Hyperco springs, up from the previous 450#/in rates. To match this change up front, we stiffened the rear rates from 175#/in to 250#/in, also Hyperco springs. We adjusted the sway bar settings a bit as well, on a hunch. With the normal track preparation came the rear trunk swap, ridiculously tall rear wing, fluids, inspection, and all of that. We loaded up and were ready to head out to Texas Motor Speedway for early Friday morning, as the GTA event was Friday and Saturday.

Global Time Attack, 9/21 to 9/22, TMS

TMS Infield Course Map

Results: http://www.globaltimeattack.com/2012...ep-21-22-2012/
Picture and Video gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...ck-TMS-092112/
Moto-IQ Write-up: http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_artic...s-edition.aspx

We arrived at TMS at 7 am Friday morning, with Ryan and Brandon from the shop accompanying me for track-side support and event photography. It was a work day so we didn't expect too many spectators, but we saw a few hundred there - to watch the XTC drift guys...

There is a lot more like that in our picture gallery for this event, linked above, if this is your thing. After looking at what they have to do to these cars ... it is just too much for me to process. They are a unique animal with preparation all their own. I respect their car control and I will leave it at that. Well...

The drifters did spend a lot of time off track and drug all manner of dirt and crap onto the racing line that the Time Attack drivers had to deal with. Luckily the TMS track workers cleaned up pretty well after each XTC session, before GTA took to the track. Pretty well. I am glad XTC worked with GTA (and Hot Import Nights) to get this joint-event to happen. So that's all I'm going to talk about the drifting.

We grabbed a prime paddock spot for the trailer, unloaded the car, set up our sun shade, dragged out the compressor, generator, and cooler and put out half a dozen chairs. Then we aired up the tires and wired up the video camera and AIM SOLO. NASA New Mexico sanctioned this event, so already having a NASA Log Book and Annual TT Tech for the car helped me breeze through tech inspection.

KenO was there in his E46M3 "TTB" street car and he helped me set-up the AIM and get a beacon set for start/finish. We went to registration when the GTA guys arrived, picked up all of our stickers, and got to work getting the proper decals applied. Ken showed me a trick to "remove some stick" from the big number board decals, since they needed to come off Sunday for the SCCA Autocross. Stick it on and pull it off your shirt a few times, then stick it on the car. Worked great!

Left: KenO in the Enthusiast RWD winning E46 M3. Right: Me hand signaling Ken, "asking for a pass".

Ken was also a big help teaching me the proper line around this track, as he was the only driver entered who had ever run this 1.36 mile infield course (the "red" one in the track map below) in anger, driving in Corvettes at some driving school thing. I had run some of this course at a few Texas Region SCCA autocrosses, but that was MUCH slower, with slaloms on the main straight and weird offsets in all of the fast parts. After making a couple of recon laps, I realized my autocross experience on this layout helped me -0-. I did some lead follows behind Ken in the first day's second session and figured out where I was screwing up, royally. Then by the second day Ken's TTB E46 M3 on street tires was all kinds of in my way. :P

more below...

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:24 PM

continued from above

In-car video from Day 1, Session 3 laps... best of 40.66 seconds.

The track layout looked simple enough - eight turns and very little camber change, but with the ample rumble strips and high speed offsets it was pretty tricky. Many GTA drivers had offs and there was even one pretty good sized crash (Mustang lost brakes and backed into a tire barrier, totaling the car). Ken and I were pounding out 15-20+ laps in each twenty minute GTA session, whereas the other Time Attack series regulars would take three lap stints and call it quits (warm up, hot lap, cool down). And when you see the insane turbo cars that GTA caters to, it kind of makes sense. In their unusual categories they have Enthusiast, Street, Limited, and Unlimited, with further FWD/AWD/RWD segregation in each class.

The Unlimited AWD and Overall winner, GST's "Subaru" with 670 whp and 2500 pounds with a composite body and lots of aero.

Showing the GST's rear mounted radiator and diffuser, plus the massive driver & controls setback.

So what moves you up a class? Your tires. Almost 100% of the rules revolved around tire treadwear, something I have never seen before. That meant that the even the lowest preparation level Street & Enthusiast cars running on 140+ treadwear tires still had 600whp or more. I'm not making this up - these GTA cars are no joke when it comes to power. There isn't much difference in preparation/power from there to Limited and Unlimited, just the tire compounds. Limited was 60-140 TW and Unlimited was 0-60 TW. What did I bring? 40 treadwear Kumho V710s, which moved me all the way to Unlimited RWD. In a street car that weighs 3540 pounds... oh boy.

Well nobody else showed in Unlimited RWD, so I had a class to myself. But that meant there would be no payout for a win either. Still, I wanted to compare my times to the overall fastest, if I could be close. Surprisingly Ken and I weren't doing half bad on the first day, with the 2nd and 3rd fastest times in the earlier sessions (we ran more laps per session and I guess figured the course out sooner?). By the end of day one, I had fallen to 4th quickest time overall. The Mustang was VERY loose on all corners and I was chasing the set-up all day. Turns out all of these handling complications were from the tires. Two new tires up front overpowering the very worn out rears. I'm such a dummy... I know better than to run old tires with new tires!

After a big delay getting into the gate at TMS (they wanted to keep us out until 10 am!), we finally got back inside by 9:15am for the Saturday portion of the GTA event. I had stopped by the shop and grabbed the used 315/30/18 Hoosier A6's that Amy and I had run at the Solo Nationals a couple of weeks earlier. They were half gone, but still in better shape than the rear Kumho's, and laughably the A6's had a higher treadwear than the V710's! (using treadwear as an indicator of grip is a mistake, IMHO). So we were going to ask the "tire guys" that follow the GTA circuit to swap tires on the Forgestar wheels for us, but their machine would have trashed the lips.

Ed and JasomM instead took the wheels to a local Discount Tire, swapped the V710's for the A6's, and made it back with six minutes to go before our first session of the day. With air tools, two jacks, and many hands we got the wheels bolted on and took to the track in time to get in some quick laps.

I made three laps, came into the hot pits for a tire bleed... nobody was there. Crap! Drove into the paddock, bled the tires down, then had to wait in line to get back on track (since I left the hot pits). I finally made it back out and within a few laps I had busted off some 39 second runs. Woo! That was my goal - break into the 39's and I did it in the first session. I did another four or five 39 second laps just to make sure, then I came in. My original goal was once I ducked under a 40 second lap, I was going to stop for the day and try to preserve these semi-fresh A6's for some additional autocross use later this year, before we switch to the 2013 GT for our ESP thrills.

I felt great and was thinking I was sitting in 3rd place overall, against some crazy ass race cars. The GTA crew didn't have the official times displayed for another hour and right before session two was about to start, the printout was displayed for session one... and my name was nowhere to be found. WTF?!

In-car video from my Day 2, Session 1B runs... which don't count, because the transponder was tuned off!

Oh no.... (lightbulb) Oh no! I quickly ran to the car, opened the hood, and immediately realized that I screwed up and left the wired AMB transponder turned off for the entire first session! GRRR! I was so mad at myself and had wasted the only cool track session on the A6's we would have that day. You see I had turned the transponder off overnight, while the car was parked in the trailer, to save the car battery. So none of my 39 second runs were timed by the GTA folks and I only had my in-car AIM Solo to go by. Well crap.

Then the transponder switch, which is backlit when "On", started flickering. Then it went off right before my eyes. I tapped it and it came back on. Tapped it again and it went off. The switch was dying?! So Ed quickly hot-wired the transponder literally seconds before the second session started. I got at the front of the line and waited. And waited. After 10 minutes they told us that a car had gone off and hit a tire barrier, and the flat bed was bringing it in.

Yeeesh, that looked ugly. The driver was fine, but the car was toast. The clean-up took the entire 20 minutes and the second session was cancelled. Meanwhile the temperatures climbed from the high 70's into the high 90's and we had our 1.5 hour lunch break. The whole crew piled into the MegaCab and we got some food a few exits down the highway. I was fit to be tied as I watched the temperatures climb. Matching that 39 second time seemed impossible as the track temps crept up past 120°F, but I was bound and determined to get a sub 40 second lap. We got back from eating and I went out in session three and started using every inch of the track. Here's some of the last laps in that session, where I finally cracked off two 39 second laps! This was after three previous sets of three laps that resulted in a best of only 40.12 seconds. Whew!

That took everything I had and as you can see in the video, I was using the "Green Line" - with the inside two tires over the lipstick stripe and maybe even a tiny bit on the grass. Hey, we asked in the driver's meeting and they said "only one wheel has to be inside the lipstick", so I keep eeking wider and making my line at the start/finish offset straighter, and wasn't using as much "green" as one particular driver who shall remain nameless (cough... Ken... cough). I never got all four off (which would result in a DSQ for the entire session) and managed to squeak a couple of high 39 second laps in, with the results showing a best lap of 39.975 seconds. It wasn't as quick as I ran in the morning, even when I was taking no chances and barely touching the lipstick, but it was sub-40 and I was happy with that. The ambient temperatures were 100°F and I knew I wasn't going to find more than a tenth better lap than that, with as overheated as I and the tires were both getting.

continued below

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:26 PM

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We came in and let the car cool off and the crew started breaking down the trailer equipment while I walked the Hot Import Nights car show area quickly. Wow... I cannot describe this scene at all. I felt like I was on another planet. Cars with 15 degrees of negative camber, "poking" and "tucking" and "thumping". I don't "get it", none of it, so I guess that means I am getting too old. I did see the local Enkei rep and got to talk about upcoming new wheels for the FR-S/BRZ twins, which was cool. By the time I had made a lap of the HIN show, the Mustang had the spoiler installed in place of the wing, was loaded in the trailer, and the sun shade was rolled up. I talked briefly with the Mustang driver that wrecked and had the worst kind of day, then we rolled out by 3:30pm. I wish I would have stuck around for the 7pm awards ceremony, complete with video/pictures/champagne, but Amy and I had another day of racing on Sunday and we needed to go home and collapse. We used that saved 3.5 hours to catch some ZZZZs.

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Overall, the GTA event was intense and a lot of fun. We had a crowd watching and cheering, which is rare at any track event, even if they were mostly there to see the drifters (and I gave them some of that on Friday). I got to meet some cool racers, talked face-to-face with more of the Whiteline folks, did a video interview for them, and just had a great time. Before this event I was worried that I would be super slow and way off the pace, but the big 3500 pound Mustang did all right, placing 5th fastest overall and one of only five cars to break the 40 second lap barrier.

For the "class of one win" I banked $300 of Whiteline product credit, a pair of Oakley Sunglasses from FIAT, and get to go down in the record books as the Unlimited RWD track record holder for TMS (shrug). Congrats to AST/Vorshlag Tester KenO for his big win in Enthusiast RWD (he banked $800 in contingencies and the free sunglasses, too). Another local NASA TT racer with Vorshlag camber plates, Jeff Tan, managed to win Enthusiast AWD in his EVO X, also netting $800 in contingencies. I gotta give a big thanks to all the folks who came out to help crew - Ryan and Brandon on Friday, and Amy, Ed, Jason and PaulM on Saturday. The car was rock solid and had zero drama, doing nothing more than eating fuel and gobbling up more track miles.

SCCA Autocross, Dallas Raceway, 9/23

After two days of brutal heat (99°F), we were now supposed to spend a third day in the same heat at an autocross. These three day race weekends never work well for me and this time was no exception. Because we were already fried, we left the house late and arrived behind schedule, limiting us to one quick walk-through on a very complicated, busy, poorly flowing course (sorry JJ!) on a brand new event site that we were unfamiliar with. The site has drainage down the middle that fills with water and then algae, and this section is SLICKER THAN SNOT. The course that day crossed this section on the outside of a corner in an acceleration zone, which made for tail-happy driftoro. Then it got into it again during a heavy braking zone at the start of a tight slalom, which caught me out again many times.

Results: http://texasscca.org/2012_solo_resul..._final.htm#ESP
PAX results: http://texasscca.org/2012_solo_resul..._final.htm#ESP
Picture & Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...andall-092312/

Can you tell I'm setting this up with low expectations? After the wing was swapped for the spoiler (end of day Saturday at TMS), we kept the now well abused A6's on the car and just ran it in ESP as-is. Barely had time to adjust tire pressures and then we had to work first heat. I was the announcer and Amy worked the computer, which tends to run a bit long. We had to run over and grab the car and our gear, then hustle to get into the "two driver lane" in the very compressed grid area. By the time we pulled up they wanted us to run, so I hopped in and took a run. And promptly DNF'd.

OMG it was slick and the course was very ... quirky. Nothing flowed well, you came into turns all crossed up and pointing the wrong way, and the slaloms were tight. The 180° turn-arounds were also tight tight tight for this big car and I was fighting the course and the car all day. The "slick patches" also caught me out badly on four of my five runs. On my first run, the car got so crossed up that when it hooked up, it kicked the steering wheel back FAST. My thumb hooked on a spoke and when the wheel kicked back it ripped my hand so hard it damn near broke my left wrist. Two weeks later and it still hurts. So I finished my first run one handed and favored my right hand all day for driving. Excuses ... I gots em!

In-car video of my 3rd run is linked above, with ample mistakes.

We also had to rush rush rush to get the driver & numbers switched and barely had time to check tire pressures and spray them a bit to cool them off (it was HOT). Luckily Ed from Pirtek was there and helped us after every run. And who else was running at this event? None other than Jason McCall and his BMW Z3M LS1, which made its debut race at this event!

Jason McCall's Z3M LS1 - It Lives!!!!

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