Vorshlag 2011 Mustang 5.0 GT - track/autocross/street Project

[bird_dog0347]

I wish I'd known about the '13 for sale before I bought my '14... Either way, I love all your posts too. If your shop performs the work with half the diligence that your posts contain, you will be successful for a LONG time!

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Project Update for Oct 10th, 2013: In this update we will pick up coverage of the TT3 Mustang's preparations and updates after we returned from the 2013 NASA Nationals, at Miller Motorsport Park. That work started about Sept 10th. Then I will cover the NASA event at TWS Sept 21-22 and what we have coming up next.

Pre-TWS Updates and Prep

There was less than 2 weeks between our return from Miller (Sept 10th) to the next NASA event (Sept 21st), and I wasn't about to go back to another track with high speed corners with this aero imbalance. So we made a list of changes to make and got to work on them quickly, between customer service and race prep jobs. And the shop was BUSY for those 2 weeks, and the work came down to the wire.

We started by leaving the Mustang in the trailer from the return trip from Miller and taking it straight to the painter. The guys at Heritage Collision wanted a little more time to finish the detail work, as we rushed them picking up the car before they had a chance to wet sand and buff the hood. They removed the vinyl stripes and decals and got to work. When we picked it up on Thursday the hood looked as perfect as the painted front bumper cover and fenders, but we never got around to re-striping the hood before the NASA event (ran out of time). Never rush your painter with an insane deadline, BTW.



After we got the trailer back to Vorshlag's shop we played musical chairs, moving cars back and forth from my home shop to Vorshlag. Mustang came out and stayed, our white Alpha E46 LS1 BMW went to my house for a few weeks while the "ST2/TT2 Build" E36 LS1 BMW came to the shop for its turn at some race prep work (it is now stripped down to the bare chassis and squeaky clean). Then another car was picked up at Heritage and delivered for one of my employees. Man, we need a bigger shop, and a bigger trailer. Growth problems.



When the car was back from the painter the custom made front bumper beam (which I personally weighed at almost exactly 10 pounds) was removed, the ends were capped and welded, and a few more stitch welds were added to the ducting tabs. Then it was scuffed, cleaned and painted. We spray bombed it the same Race Red as the exterior... just because. I hate leaving anything unpainted in bare steel, even on a "race car". And I knew we might be selling this car soon, so it was a loose end to wrap up.

Next up was something that has been on my "to do list" for a long time. We finally did the rear "bump-stop-bracket-ectimy". See, there is a little angled bracket spot welded to the body which has an integral hook slot for (I guess) transatlantic tie-downs (?) and that also has a flat spot above the axle-mounted bump stop to whack into. Well we removed that axle-mounted bump stop ages ago, and with a 12" wide wheel mounted the T-slot is completely inaccessible. This bracket serves no purpose for us now. It does, however, get in the way of the inside barrel when the 12" wide wheels are put down at full suspension droop. We've been doing this crazy multi-step wheel removal process every time it goes up in the air on our 2-post lift or for wheel removal at the track.



First, we drive the rear wheels up on some wood blocks or ramps, so we can then slide a long floor jack way under the axle pumpkin. Next we can jack up the rear of the car (to put the rear suspension loaded in bump direction), then we can remove the wheels, THEN we can allow the car to be raised on the lift and the rear suspension can go to full droop without letting the inner barrels of the rear wheels hang up on this useless bracket. Whew... it is a lot of words to describe, and it is an even bigger hassle to do each time the car goes on the lift. This is one of those special restrictions that go along with a 12" wide rear wheel (but not 10" or even 11" wheels - they are well clear of this bracket). You can work around the brackets with 12s, like we have for 2 seasons... or you can remove the damned things and no longer worry about the wheel hanging up on the bracket at max droop. This never once is an issue in any sort of driving, on the street or on the track track, but only comes int play at EXTREME droop (aka: only when the car is going on a 2-post body lift or being jacked up at the rear NOT by the axle).



It is even more fun to put the car up in the air for inspections or work track-side, as you have to either put jackstands under the axle tubes (as shown above) or yank the wheels first before it goes up onto jackstands. Nine spot welds later, the brackets fall off. If you use a spot weld cutter properly you only cut through the bracket itself (and not the tub). Then clean and paint the part of the inner fender area behind the bracket (otherwise it will be that green-grey primer) in a matching color you will never be able to tell it was ever there. Olof painted this area but we didn't get a picture of it all matching and pretty this time, oh well.



What idiot suggested making a set of race wheels and having them powder coated in white?! Oh, yea... that was me. Err... Oops. Looked cool in the very first pictures, but they were stained worse in each successive session at Miller. We tried cleaning them between sessions but it was hopeless. I showed my powder coater what they looked like after we got back and he suggested some polish. We tried that, and it worked OK in some small spots, but it just wouldn't cut the brake dust everywhere. We broke out the Mothers Power Ball and all kinds of waxes, cleaner wax, paint polish, aluminum polish... burned an hour... no help. They sort of almost tried to clean up, but these will have to be stripped (glass bead blasted) and recoated in grey or black if we use them in the future. They look bad.



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I guess these big, powerful, heavy cars can just get the brakes too dang hot and the harsh XP20 Carbotech pad material we are using is embedding itself into the top layer of the clear coat on these wheels. Wouldn't be a problem on a street car or with most street compound brake pads, but this is the reason why so many race cars use grey, black or silver wheels. Live and learn... race wheels need to be some shade of "brake dust color", just to be safe. The other "flat grey" set of 18x12's we have looks excellent and has seen much more track time, of course.



So the lower grill opening got yet another screen, this time back in the stainless 1/4" spacing mesh we used before. Ryan and I talked about the Kevlar radiator screen and the few hotter than normal sessions we saw at Miller (and once at ECR) with that installed, so he fabricated another mesh screen surround frame & insert for the CS Lower Fascia. It was something to test again, we verified to be better at TWS, but there were other restrictions that happen when you "mow the grass" off track. I'll talk about that in my TWS race write-up, heh. We would have put the old screen back in but a customer with a 2012 Boss really wanted to buy that first screen from us, so it was sold off about a month ago. This now "screens" all incoming air to the radiator and air filter, since the upper grill is blocked off.


We made a new splitter for testing and use TWS (at left) that was approx. 4" shorter than the splitter we used at Miller (at right)

The big job I asked our fab crew to tackle before TWS was MAKE ME A NEW SPLITTER! Yes, it seems like a lot of work, and it was, but it paid off with a balanced car at speed (more on that below). The 10.25" splitter we used at Miller was a big too aggressive, and too much of a good thing (front downforce) turned into a loose car at speed. I'm really more surprised than anything that this worked... because "all of the textbooks" say that a splitter stalls past 6" in length. Well, this one sure didn't, and the 10.25" length unit just kept on pushing down on the front wheels. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we ducted the hood, added the waterfall deflector, and blocked the upper grill, but the "long" splitter was overpowering the rear downforce. Ideally I would have liked to keep the long version and tried a wider 2D wing element with a longer chord (and possibly a more efficient design with more downforce at a lower AoA) on the rear, but the budget for a new wing just wasn't there, either in time or money.



Luckily we had made 2 identical water jet aluminum splitter elements before we went to Nationals, so Ryan and the crew cut down the "spare" unit by 4" in length and made a 2nd full splitter. Still the same width, and still much larger than the surface area of the '12 Leguna splitter, and much stiffer. Since we might want to test this original 10 incher again later (on this car or another S197), I had them keep the old splitter intact and make a completely new unit from the spare piece. The new 6" unit has a new 1" square tube lower spacer, new strut mounting tabs welded in place (closer to the leading edge), new pin mounts at the back, everything. And we painted this one black, too.



Of course we learned some lessons from building the last splitter and this version one went a lot faster, and mounts faster/easier/better, too. Subtle tweaks here and there. And even though this 6" long unit is as low as the 10" long splitter before, the shorter front length makes it able to load the car into the trailer with the front end attached again. We still have to use a lot of ramps, but it works without scraping. Much. Huge time and hassle savings, though.



Now that we have a fully functional, remote controlled winch we can pull it in or out of the trailer with ease. And as you can see in the picture above, we have re-installed the OEM side view mirrors. Why? Well it can't really be called a street car without these. We pulled these off for the high speed track at Miller, as we were looking for every way to reduce drag. For that one event, where there wasn't any "leaving/returning" to a hot track, it almost made sense. At any other Time Trial or HPDE, where there is more passing.... not so much. If it was a pure race car we would install a multi-element rearview mirror at the top of the windshield (like a Wink mirror) plus a "school bus" convex side mirror on the driver's side, mounted to a roll cage just inside the car.



Another upgrade we did to our TT3 Mustang before Miller but finally got around to getting pictures of was an improved set of front brake backing plates for cooling air ducting. These finally match what we've been making for our customers for months and replaced the first versions we made 2 years ago. The original set for this car was a bit compromised and we have since made about a dozen sets for customers using the 14" front Brembos. Now we're finally making a production batch and will have them for sale soon in our Mustang S197 Brakes section of the Vorshlag website.



We did a lot of suspension, safety and other track prep work to another Boss 302 Leguna Seca last week (shown here) and Brandon got some good pics of the improved ducting plates we made for his car, too (check out the ghosted composite image, above). We also added a Whiteline Watts, rear control arms and brackets, Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro suspension, 5300-K springs, and more before he heads off to do the Big Bend Open Road high speed event.

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These latest Vorshlag backing plates are somewhat unique in that they have the best aspects from several aftermarket designs we've seen - but they are made from OEM backing plates, so they fit tighter to the rotor face than other brands. Instead of starting with a (less costly) flat laser cut sheet, we use the OEM stamped/formed backing plates, which allow for these closer tolerances. We cut away most of the outer ring section that normally covers the rotor face (blocking the rotor from rain but also holding in heat) but we leave the section near the tie rod end (to protect the ball joint from rotor heat). Then we add the properly sized tubing to fit inside a 3" ducting hose (virtually every kit we've seen uses 3" diameter, which is too large to fit inside 3" hose). The tube is then cut to fit and TIG welded in place so that it pushes air inside the rotor face. This way the ducted air can be sucked through the vanes of the rotor, like an air pump. Nothing revolutionary, but just has the best features from all of the best kits we've seen and installed.



This Leguna also received a Corbeau bolt-in S197 harness bar (we are a Corbeau dealer now - with a demo seat in our lobby) and a set of the 6-point Schroth Profi ii harnesses. Submarine straps were special ordered to work with his Boss Recaro seats, since there is no lower harness hole in the bottom of those OEM seats. You can see these and many more options in the Mustang Seats and Safety section. A lot of people don't know we are dealers for many of the brands we have added in 2013.


These red painted marks are there to see when a bolt has loosened up, on future inspections (this is the Whiteline Watts on David' H's Leguna)

The rest of the pre-TWS prep work to our TT3 Mustang was pretty basic - A set of well used R6s (from the Miller Hoosier trash pile) were mounted to the grey wheels, for use in early sessions on Saturday. Some fluids were changed and some Motul RBF600 was pushed through the brake system. We did or normal "NASA Track Inspection) and checked all of the suspension hardware paint marks to make sure nothing had moved. I cleaned the rubber marks off of the body, from the tons of klag hits we took at Miller. The Carbotech brake pads installed before Miller still look great, even after 4 days of abuse at the highest speed track we've seen all year. The guys loaded everything up into the trailer and Amy and I left for the 3 hour tow from Dallas to College Station at Friday around 5 pm. Nice timing - now we hit all sorts of Friday rush hour traffic, yay.

We arrived at the track around 8:30 pm, paid $5 at the gate for the track's "maintenance fund", came in and scoped out a spot to drop the trailer. Showing up on a Friday also incurs a "$35 trailer drop fee". If we would have showed up Saturday or Sunday, no fee for that. Saw some NASA racer buddies and said hi, and then we rolled out in the F-350 to head to our friend, Costas' place. Most of the hotel rooms in College Station were booked, as it was a home football game weekend - Beat the Hella Outta SMU! (and we did). NASA Texas set their race schedule then A&M moved their game weekend, poof, it was the perfect storm for hotel hell. Anyway.... Johnny Football! Sorry... back to the race.

NASA @ TWS, Sept 21-22, 2013

This NASA Texas event was scheduled only 2 weeks after NASA Nationals, and I was dreading this race weekend. Why? Several reasons: first, I was simply tired after the mega-haul to and from Miller and the week we spent there. Once we got back from that 8 day trek I was way behind at work, and had been working crazy late hours playing catch-up. We looked back and realized that Amy and I had only taken a single day off in the past 3 months (we almost always work 7 days a week), so we were both wiped out. Next, the weather forecast looked pretty bleak for the upcoming TWS race weekend, and it ended up raining Friday during the NASA endurance race they held from 6-9pm and looked to continue into Saturday. And I had no rain tires. That 24+ hours of rain also meant the infield grass areas would be a mud bog if anyone went off, and it is TWS... where there are usually big messy offs.

I was also worried about doing damage to the car here more than at any other track on the NASA Texas circuit or Miller. See, this track was built in 1969, in the age before even the RUSH movie was told. And it was made to be a super speedway, first and foremost, with a road course thrown in later for good measure. In 24 years of doing track events I've only ever damaged my cars at this track, and have seen many accidents happen here - the higher speeds, the rougher infield sections, one chicane that isn't needed, and nearby walls were all factors. The harsh impact coming off the banking into Turn 1 is also very jarring and eats RF wheel bearings. So I was more than a a little worried about damaging a car which I might be selling soon, and because of other events leading up to this weekend I was just a little less than cheery when we loaded up and headed down to College Station.


Left: One of the CMC cars that slid off into the muck at TWS on this race weekend. Right: A crashed TT car from April

The facilities at this track have also been somewhat neglected for the past 20 years, which I guess everyone is just used to. From my point of view, there hasn't been much spent on repairs, updates or upgrades to the track since it was built (other than a brief stint in the mid 1990s, when it was purchased by a Japanese investment group who dumped a lot of money into the track hoping to get NASCAR and some other big pro series to run there, unsuccessfully). I worked at this track off and on for a few years back then and have noticed a steady decline, as have many others. I know, a race track's surface should be more important than the bathrooms or parking areas, but it all plays a factor in the overall "Track Weekend Experience".

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Vorshlag Picture Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...SA-TWS-092113/

I do have a lot of good history at TWS other than as a recent NASA Time Trial racer: as an employee during an oil company test that spanned two years driving (of all things) 5.0L Mustangs around the oval for 50,000 miles. As a corner worker with PCA in the 1980s-90s, as a volunteer track worker during a few Pro races they did manage to hold in the 1990s, as an HPDE driver at many events in the 1980s-1990s, and as an officer in the Texas A&M Sports Car Club (TAMSCC) when we rented the track 3 times in the early 1990s. I have driven many hundreds of laps here on virtually all of the various configurations since my first track event there in 1989. I guess it a love-hate relationship, because as good as this track is in some ways (the higher speeds, unique layouts, central location for Texas) the facilities and track have declined for a couple of decades. And you know me, I am not "politically sensitive" and usually say what's on my mind...



What I'm saying is, it doesn't take a keen eye or 24 years of history here to know that this track has seen better days. When you look at the bathrooms, garages, grand stands, the vehicle tunnels under the track, the man tunnels under the track (which have spent years being flooded), and the TWS scoreboard above (picture was shot in April) that looks like it should have a post-apocalyptic Charlton Heston standing under it yelling, "You damned dirty apes!"

This is the lone track that is on the NASA Texas schedule twice in each year, too, and in my humble opinion there are newer, safer tracks we could race at twice a year, all of which have been built in the last 13 years and have nicer facilities. So basically TWS is not my favorite track, because of the added dangers there and the generally declining facilities, but I still enjoy the once a year or so race there.



So that was my list of reservations about another race weekend at TWS, and this weekend in particular (with the Nationals 2 weeks earlier + bad weather). If this race wasn't on the schedule I would have stayed at home and slept, a lot, at least for one day. But I made a promise last year to compete in every NASA Texas race weekend in 2013, and I'm going to stick to it. I have also been trying to bag every TT3 track record this year, and already had the TWS record for the Clockwise 2.9 mile track back in April. Amy was ready to sign up at the event in TT3 if we didn't have 5 in class, to help somebody win Hoosiers, but she was tired enough herself that she wouldn't mind sitting this one out and just helping me that weekend. So likely I would run both days and we'd concentrate on getting me as much track time on this Counter Clockwise 2.9 mile course as possible to put in our best lap time for TT3 track record attempt number 7 for the year.

Last year, in April 2012 when I ran the Mustang at the same 2.9 mile CCW NASA race weekend, we had car problems from the word "go". The high G left turn off the banking and into Corner 1, coming off the high banks at 150+ mph, was causing oil to sling from the axle vent onto the right rear tire. The higher speeds seen here were overworking the plate style limited slip and apparently boiling the diff fluid. The lube was at first just spitting out of the right side axle vent, but later turned into a steady spray of oil. Going into a 150 mph corner with diff fluid spraying onto the loaded outside rear tire is NOT FUN. After fighting massive high speed oversteer for a handful of sessions on the first day, and a failed attempt at a track side fix, we packed up and headed home Saturday afternoon before ruining the weekend for someone else. All I could manage on some fresh 315mm Kumho V710s was a lousy 1:56.7 lap (nearly 4 seconds slower than the AI record), and it was a slip-sliding, scary mess.


Our TWS 2.9 CCW race weekend in April 2012 was a dud, with gear oil pouring on the back tire and slow times

We learned a lot from that event, and have since made 3 revisions of a custom rear diff fluid catch can system on the car, with the current version being ready to turn into a production kit (when we get time to do that). The aero package on the car is also much better now, the suspension more sorted, the tire strategy is better, there's a Torsen T-2R diff in the car now, the Watts link over the previous Panhard rod, and the car is better classed in TT3 vs the TTS class we ran last year. So I was hoping I could stay ahead of the growing TT3 field that seems to be steadily getting faster, and maybe, just maybe, redeem my poor showing on this 2.9 CCW TWS configuration from last year. I had to beat that high 1:56.7 time, for sure, and was hoping to scoot in between the two closest records to TT3 on the books (TT2's record of a 1:50.2 and AI's record of a 1:52.9).

Saturday - Day 1

We got to the track early and it was still spitting rain, so the first few scheduled morning sessions were wet. Amy and I unloaded the car and got everything ready, we went to the TT meeting and handed out the Vorshlag created TT maps (below) but when the first TT Warm Up was scheduled it was still spitting rain. Like at Miller, with no wet tires I wasn't going to risk going out, so I stayed in the paddock. In hindsight, this was a mistake, which I will explain.


At the behest of the TT Director Vorshlag makes a TT Track Map for each NASA Texas race showing the bunch up and "go green" spots

When the next and first "official" timed TT session was scheduled, the track was mostly dried out, so I pulled into grid - at the back, since I didn't have a previous time from the Warm-up to rely on. Again, the Warm Up is mostly run just to get the cars some times to use for gridding purposes for the upcoming "official" TT sessions. So I was stuck in the back for TT session 1 and figured I'd need to make several passes in this session to be able to get a time good enough to move me up on grid for TT session 2. By my rough estimation our Mustang should be about 2nd quickest of the 31 TT cars entered, but I was gridded about 20th. Oh well, how bad could it be?


I was gridded poorly for the 2nd TT session (first official session), due to missing the Warm Up

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As you can see in the video below, pretty damned bad, actually. The tires we were using in these early Saturday sessions were some of the 315mm Hoosier R6 scrubs I picked up at Miller from the Hoosier trash pile, and all 4 had a LOT of klag (balled up rubber) glued to the carcasses. So on my warm up "out lap" I was aggressively trying to get the rubber off by slaloming hard on the straights. Most of the time on a TT out lap we're doing about 50 mph, and until we get to the "bunch up" zone (marked on the map) we can swerve and brake and do what we need to get tire heat, brake heat, oil heat, and scrub off klag like on my set of tires. I thought I had done enough... but no.



That's my first hot lap and yes, I had an off at Turn 6. The car was very loose exiting Turn 3 so I should have been ready for anything, but it was calmed down in Turns 4 and 5, so I started turning it up by Corner 6. I did my normal turn in for T6 and the rear washed out VERY QUICKLY. When it did I think the right rear tire caught some of the still damp track surface off line and it REALLY stepped out some more. I like to think I have pretty fast hands, and can usually catch a spin like this fast enough. Nope, not this time. I got into a classic tank slapper and shot straight off the exit of Corner 6 like a bullet. I could have gone of sideways but figured "go off straight" was the wise choice.


The times from Saturday's TT Warm-Up (left, which I skipped) and TT Session 1 (right, where I had an "off" and a subsequent DQ)

The "off" didn't do anything bad to the car, as the stiff aluminum plate splitter just mowed the grass - you could clearly see the path I took in the outfield. I felt like I should go back and do the edging, since I did so much mowing. Luckily I didn't go very far off track and missed any ruts or big bumps while in the dirt. I slowed down, waited for a gap, and got back on track when it was safe. Once back on track (in between a safe gap of cars) I immediately pulled off line (track left) on the straight and waved several more cars behind me by, until I could check the gauges, brakes and tires to see if I could get back up to speed. Once I was up to Turn 7 the car felt and looked fine, so I sped up and started planning for a hot lap on lap 2. I knew that now this TT session 1 was was going to be a DQ (offs or spins = automatic session DQ in Time Trial), but my times should still count towards gridding for TT session 2. And I needed to move up the grid more than I needed to worry about my fastest official TT time at this point. I took 2 more hot laps with lots of traffic (mostly passing cars I let by when I had the "off"), and got down to a 1:55.564 in traffic, then noticed engine temps shooting up so I took a cool down and came in. Turns out the new mesh grill we added to the lower fascia opening was PACKED FULL OF GRASS, so no air was getting to the radiator. But it still took 2 laps to get hot, so I guess the ducted hood was still pulling some air through the rad, somehow. I wiped away the tall grass clippings that I had mowed and got the car ready for TT session 2, after lunch.


These grey wheels have the R6 tires, and were only used in TT session 1 on Saturday

I went up to check the grid sheet after lunch before TT session 2 was to begin and they had me gridded in... 26th. Huh?? There was apparently some mistake in T&S and they hadn't gridded me by my Session 1 time, which they should have. Oiy, what a mess. But hey, weird stuff can happen when you DQ a session, which was my own damned fault. Since we only had 2 sessions left on Saturday and we all knew it was only going to get hotter, and I had some fast TT3 drivers already breathing down my neck, I went ahead and made the call - switch to A6s now. I was hoping to wait until Sunday morning to make the A6 move, but I wasn't going to risk losing on Saturday by leaving the fast tires in the trailer. So I ran the scrub R6 tires for all of one session, and they never felt very good, but I was buried in traffic the whole time so who knows?


I switched wheels to run the the A6 tires for Saturday's TT Session 2, with help from Brian Matteucci (striped shirt)

By now my old college racing buddy and former roommate Brian Matteucci had arrived and he helped me and Amy swap the tires over - and because of the swarm of people coming by, we needed the help. With a freakishy good paddock spot and the "hard to miss" changes to the car, we had 100+ people come by on Saturday and ask questions about the hood, splitter and flares, as this was the first NASA Texas event where anyone had seen the front aero mods. But we don't mind talking to folks - that's why we're here. Matteucci was here to watch a NASA event, as he is building a top secret TT car that should debut next month at the NASA @ ECR event (Nov 2-3).


Getting gridded up for TT session 2 took some "wheelin and dealin"

My lap time from the DQ'd session should have put me in 5th place on the grid, but the official sheet showed me way back at the back again. After telling the nice grid workers my story about the mistake on the grid sheets, and talking to some competitors gridded ahead of my, I begged my way into 10th place on the grid (most of the folks didn't want "the big red Mustang that just drove off track" right behind them, heh) and I was ready for Session 2.

So in that session I started in 10th and got some passes done in the first few laps and finally got in a quick, mostly traffic free run on hot lap 4. The best time I ran on this 4th hot lap was a 1:54.369, which was the 3rd quickest time in the session. Vorshlag customer Allen Page was on fire in this session and cut a 1:53.893 in his TTB car, the quickest car out there this time! Mike Weather's was 2nd quickest in his TT1 car, still clearly in the TT1 lead but he wasn't even running his good tires yet (didn't until Sunday).


Allan Page (left) was the quickest in TT session 2 in his TTB E46 M3, while Mike Weathers was fastest of the day, running a 1:50.480 in TT Session 1

My lap time was still way slower than I wanted to see, but was good enough to move me up to P3 on the grid for the final TT session , TT Session 3. Mike was clearly in the TT1 lead and didn't want to bother with the added heat of the last session of the day, as was Allan in TTB, so I ended up leading the pack out for the last TT session. More importantly, I finally had the first bit of clear track all day, and what I thought was a full battery on the vidcam and lap timer. So here we go, in the video below...



As you can see if you watch that video (up to 1080P rez available) there were a few video and timing equipment faults. First, the data logger got all out of sync and we lost data about halfway down the straight away for my first hot lap. Brandon has been trying to coax the TrackMate software to work with the native output of my Sony HD video camera. Long story, but the data was borked so we cannot see speeds or the g-meter data on my hot lap. He has finally figured out how to sync this stuff, when the data isn't corrupt, so we'll keep trying. Next, the battery on the vidcam died about 3/4 of the way through my first hot lap.

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Of course I didn't realize this until Sunday, so I don't have any Sunday video, either. And that's when I found 2 more seconds. Anyway, the final TT session Saturday went well enough, and I dropped down to a 1:52.616 on my 2nd hot lap (I made some driving mistakes on my first lap - the car was very twitchy and loose, and it took a lap to get the tires up to temp and settled down). And I'm glad I went out, because another TT3 driver slapped on some sticker Hoosiers in this session and dropped to a 1:53.330, for 2nd place. We had TEN cars in the TT3 class by day's end, out of 31 cars, so it was the biggest TT class of the day.


NASA time sheets for TT Session 2 (left), TT session 3 (middle) and End of Day Saturday Results (right)

I still didn't think the time was where I should have been running in this car, as the American Iron lap record was a 1:52.9 and I was barely beating that. The track was green from the recent rains, and the fastest AI car that day was in the 1:53s (Mike P's 4th gen Camaro), but that was still too close. I was hoping the first session on Sunday would seal the deal and we could push the TT3 record into the 1:49s or 1:50 flat range.



The best part of the weekend was still to come - the Saturday night NASA party! This time, instead of cooking the food themselves, the NASA region folks had the TWS food service crew cook the food, who did a stupendous job. Fajitas and drinks and beer for everyone there, entrants, friends, volunteers and everyone. That's how NASA does it - everyone is invited. We heard a short speech from Dave Baligant, who announced all of the NASA Texas folks who went to the NASA National Championships at Miller. He noted that I was the only TT racer from our region who went, trying to push more of our group to go next year. We ate, we drank, and had a good time conversing with other racers, friends and other shops from our area (like the guys from Texas Track Works and Evolution Dynamics). I also had great burger at lunch both days and breakfast tacos Sunday from the same TWS cafe, too. For such an old looking building they worked out of, that crew cooked up some damned good food.



After the party we went back to Costas' place and I talked about my laps with Paul. He has a lot more time on this track than I do lately, running his tube framed "GT-1-esque" Camaro in the 1:43-1:45 range. He had some pointers and I thought about these as I drifted off to sleep with the beginnings of a headache.

Sunday - Day 2

I didn't sleep well (woke up with that headache) and Amy and I woke up early and watched the start and first few laps of the F1 race with Costas, then got ready to go to the track at around 7:15... when I started feeling even more sick. We got out in his front yard, were getting into the F-350 to head back to TWS, and I felt very very nauseous ... double over for a ten count and almost puked. Head was POUNDING and I felt terrible. Brushed it off and we got fuel in the truck, ice for the coolers and headed out for an 8:30 TT session 1. This massive headache and stomach thing was with me all day and I was far from 100%, but I tried to push it out of my head and wanted to get in my first 2 early TT sessions, when I knew the conditions would be most favorable.


Mike was seen installing some sticker Hoosier A6 tires for sunday's TT Session 1

Luckily my first session went well and I didn't puke in the car! That was my biggest concern, because my stomach was telling me that whatever I ate the night before was going to come up. I went out on the same A6s from the end of the day before (which was the same set we used at Miller), and the temps were ideal in that first session. I went out right behind Mike Weathers in his TT1 Corvette, who was gridded P1, and I was P2 for the rest of the weekend. On paper my times were within 2 seconds of Mike, but I knew he had a lot left in the tank. And sure enough, Mike had a sticker set of A6 Hoosiers mounted Sunday morning and he said his first lap was going to be his best - and I told him I was on the same tire strategy and would follow right behind him. So we both went out with minimal tire scrubbing and looking to put in our best shot on hot lap 1, then cool down and come right in on Lap 2. That's the A6 tire game in TT and we both knew it well.



Well something happened to change that; one of the instructors was delayed getting from his student's car to grid in his new F30 3 series BMW (gorgeous car, BTW!), got released from grid late, made a wrong turn in the pits, and long story short... he was almost 3/4 of a lap behind the field we we went green. Just bad luck for everyone, and not his fault - instructing is a lot fo work and makes it extra tough if you are competing or trying to get some track time in your own car. Mike's C6 Z06 was setting a BLISTERING pace (he said his predictive timer showed a 1:44 lap!) and I pushed as hard as I dared, trying to simply keep him in sight. My timer was showing a 1:49 predictive, far better than I've ever run in any car at TWS over the years, in any car I've owned, even the E36 LS1 Alpha car. These two lap times were not to be, however, as Mike caught the F30 BMW in Turn 10 and I caught him in Turn 12, and we both had to scrub our first laps getting around him.

It wasn't a huge deal, and he did his best to get out of our way, but we just got unlucky and caught him in bad places to try to pass and had to back off. So Mike took a 2nd hot lap and so did I, with him getting down to the 1:45.680 and me getting a 1:50.744. I knew there was more in it so I took a 2nd hot lap (lap 3) and managed a nearly identical 1:50.75X, pushing even harder. The car was already sloppy and only got worse after that, as the tires had been overheating after the first lap. So I took a cool down and came in. Turns out I could have put it in the trailer then for the day, but I had no idea how anyone else was running, yet.


Sunday's TT Session 1 (left) and TT Session 2 (middle) were the only 2 I ran that day. Sunday End of Day times at right

continued below

[Fair]

continued from above

We had beautiful, sunny weather on Sunday, which meant that Session 1 might have been the golden attempt. Ambient temps and track temps were up in TT Session 2, so Mike blew off going out in this one (he knew he had already seen the fastest session of the day). This meant I was gridded in P1, so I set the pace on the out lap at about 50 mph, and we had some stragglers but they finally caught up. I got in a good first lap and dropped a whopping tenth, down to a 1:50.675, for the new TT3 lap record (TT2 is a 1:50.2, but I couldn't get there in the growing heat). The car felt better than that, but the ambient temps were rising and times were slowing down to match. It is common for many TT racers on gumball tires set their fastest runs on the first Sunday TT sessions, once they have learned the track, as this can be the best track and tire temperatures. I tried another hot lap after my first but it slowed down a lot, then I started catching the back of the field. I took a cool down and came in.

Today my times were closer to where they needed to be. This 1:50.675 ended up being the winning time in class and the new TT3 track record, but I wouldn't know that until the end of the day. I felt like total crap so we loaded the car up before the 3rd TT session (after lunch) and headed back to Dallas by 2 pm. With the splitting migraine and other symptoms, I felt like I was coming down with something and didn't want to be out on track with my body nowhere near 100%. Leaving early put us home by 5:30 pm and we took a relaxing evening to eat, rest and catch up on TV shows and the like. We did, however, watch the MyLaps Race Monitor app during the TT session 3 and 4 on our drive back to Dallas, and as the temperatures rose the lap times did indeed slow down, and my time was safe. Whew!



New TT3 racer Jeremy Johnson (E46 M3 shown above) was fast and he is one to watch in 2014 in this class in Texas, as is John Robert's LS1 Miata (he's supposed to have his newest chassis built and ready for ECR). This was Jeremy's first weekend in TT, after his check ride on Saturday, and I'm sure he will get faster once he learns the "TT tricks". He still can add aero, A6s and more. Very clean car, well done cage, Motion Control double adjustable dampers with remotes, etc.

Aero Improvements Worked

The ease at which the car cornered at the handful of higher speed corners (T1, T2, T7 and T12) at TWS means that the aero changes we made after Miller worked. Lopping four inches off the front of the splitter brought the front to rear downforce balance to a perfect feel, once I got the car onto decent tires. The brakes, tires, motor, trans, and everything else worked perfectly. This was the car's 7th TT3 track record for the year, but I could have driven better both days and felt like I left that 1:49 lap out there.



Big thanks to Amy for coming and supporting me and the car on this race weekend, and to Matteucci for helping lend a hand on Saturday. I didn't ask Ryan or Brandon or any of our crew to come down to TWS, due to the lack of hotel rooms and recent haul to SLC for the big race. So the pictures are just ones Amy shot with our Nikon, and not Brandon's normal high end photo work. We also lacked the tuning help of Ryan, but I fumbled along well enough for the win.

Once I woke up that next Monday morning I was showing all of the symptoms of the flu-like thing that had been going around, and I was sick for a solid week, but luckily not enough to miss any work. This bug went around our shop and I was one of the last ones to finally get it. Everyone that went to Miller from Vorshlag got sick, so that explains the weird headache and nausea on Sunday. I did manage to take a day off the following Sunday, not going to the shop once, and took care of some long overdue home improvement projects and a bit of a lazy afternoon. With the racing season starting to wind down I can hopefully recharge my batteries for next season, which starts in January. Well, after about 3 more autocrosses, one more NASA Texas race weekend, and a couple of HPDE events planned in November and December.

For some of you that know me and/or are from NASA Texas specifically, there is a big topic stemming from events after this TWS that is obviously missing from this write-up, which I have written but decided to keep out of this build thread. It involves the track management at TWS, but I'm saving that for another time - this thread doesn't need any more drama. I'm hoping some people come to their senses, act like adults, and these issues can be resolved privately.

What's Next?

We're still trying to sell the 2013 GT, and have removed the AST 4200RR coilover remote reservoir shocks and the 18x10" wheels. And before you ask, THE SHOCKS ARE ALREADY SOLD. Removing these two "big ticket" parts makes it a more affordable Mustang, but it still has the upgraded 14" front Brembo brakes, the custom front brake ducting, the Whiteline adjustable Panhard Bar, and Whiteline rear relocation brackets. We've re-installed the OEM shocks and top mounts but added Ford Racing 5300-K lowering springs, and installed the OEM 19x9" wheels and Pirelli tires from our red 2011 GT, since the stock 18x8" wheels won't fit over the bigger front brakes. The price dropped from $35K to $29.5K, and the ad is linked below.

• Updated CraigsList ad: http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/cto/4114930040.html

FFS, somebody please buy this car. If we can move this one I might be able to keep the red 2011 GT, which we would continue to use to develop more S197 parts. There's still a long list of parts we'd like to tackle, which having a car on hand would help with. I really need your help here, so please spread the word. Beautiful car, low miles, some covert track upgrades, great price. Thanks.

Other events that are upcoming (some already completed) include:

• Camaro vs Mustang Battle Autocross - this was the event we put on October 5th, and my write-up is coming soon.
• Goodguys All American Sunday Autocross - October 6th at TMS, also working on this write-up
• SCCA @ TMS Road Course Autocross - Oct 13th. Amy and I are signed up and will be racing the TT3 Mustang in this annual "road course" autocross event. Lots of fun, and we'll be giving rides on every run
• NASA @ ECR - Nov 2-3. I am already signed up and Amy will drive as well. This is our home track and I am hoping to clinch our final track record of the year here, but it won't be easy! TT3 clas sis hugely popular and it is anyone's guess who will win that class on this weekend. We have a ton of new TT and new to HPDE drivers we've prodded into entering this event, so it should be a blast.

Stay tuned and we'll have more racing action coverage of the TT3 Mustang soon, more S197 parts development, and other interesting bits chronicled in this thread.

Thanks for reading,

[03MachMe]

ugh that road course racing looks like so much fun! I need some upgrades so I get in on that stuff

[DirtyD]

I just read all of this. It was great.

I'm really trying to tell myself to get out there and start doing this stuff. It looks like a blast.

Also, I didn't realize that the NASA event was that weekend. I was there for my sister's ring dunk on Saturday, and my dad and I heard y'all from the RV park just south of William D Fitch Pkwy. Had I know I would've come out. Haha

Also, I think I may have passed y'all Sunday afternoon, but I may not have. I don't remember when I left CS, but I know I passed several trailers.

[Fair]

For anyone who reads these posts and wants to check out track events, come to a NASA weekend! It is free to get in and watch (except at TWS, where the track charges you a gate fee). Or better yet, sign up for HPDE and come give it a try in your car! If its your first time sign up for HPDE1, where you will get an instructor in the right seat all weekend. They will help teach you the track driving skills and safety that you cannot learn on your own.

http://nasaproracing.com/event/1620

The next NASA event is Nov 2-3 at Eagles Canyon Raceway north of Dallas/Ft. Worth. The link is right above this paragraph. The entire Vorshlag crew will be there and you can see the red TT3 Mustang going for its 8th track record of the year that weekend. Tons of Mustangs run in NASA, so you won't be alone.


hooning at the 2012 ECR Toy Run


There are also several more ECR events coming up, including the annual Toy Run on Dec 7th. This is the lowest cost track event you will ever do, and it is also the most laid back event of the year. For $50 + an unwrapped toy worth $10 or more you get a full day of driving at Eagles Canyon. This is a very popular event and a great place for n00bs to come check it out on the cheap.

ECR Toy Run for Cars. Sat, December 7, 2013, 9am – 5pm


2012 Toy Run was so much fun - I brought 4 cars!

I will keep posting up more info about additional track days at ECR, MCS-C and anything else in the DFW area. We are lucky - we have THREE road course tracks here in town (MSR, ECR, TMS), which is more than any other city in Texas. If you want to get into track events there is no better place to try it. If you are nervous about taking your car out, Vorshlag is a NASA approved track inspection facility. If we see anything that we feel isn't safe, we'll let you know and/or fix it.


Miata drivers come out in droves for the toy run - and always find the dirt!

[DirtyD]

I am interested in the Toy Run. But would I need to upgrade some things to my car before making the trip there and around the track?

I would assume new, better brake pads, some DOT5 or Modul 600 fluid would be ideal, right? Or do you generally not run that hard in the Toy Run?

[bird_dog0347]

Originally Posted by DirtyD I am interested in the Toy Run. But would I need to upgrade some things to my car before making the trip there and around the track? I would assume new, better brake pads, some DOT5 or Modul 600 fluid would be ideal, right? Or do you generally not run that hard in the Toy Run?

I'd do a minimum of brake flush, ECR is hard on brakes on a motorcycle, I would imagine it'll be worse in a car 10x heavier. I might do the toy run in my GT, I've done 3 of them on my bike and it's great!

Not sure if there's instructors though. But I know the track really well so it'll just be learning to drive a car around it.

[DirtyD]

Originally Posted by bird_dog0347 I'd do a minimum of brake flush, ECR is hard on brakes on a motorcycle, I would imagine it'll be worse in a car 10x heavier. I might do the toy run in my GT, I've done 3 of them on my bike and it's great! Not sure if there's instructors though. But I know the track really well so it'll just be learning to drive a car around it.

I planned on doing a full amsoil fluid swap next oil change, as well as new brake fluid/flush. I think that should occur before then.

[JPC]

Originally Posted by DirtyD I am interested in the Toy Run. But would I need to upgrade some things to my car before making the trip there and around the track? I would assume new, better brake pads, some DOT5 or Modul 600 fluid would be ideal, right? Or do you generally not run that hard in the Toy Run?

I'm an instructor at Eagles Canyon Raceway and I drive a 2012 Boss 302.
ECR can be hard on brakes, I run a Carbotech race pads and Motul 600 brake fluid.

I would recommend you run the Motul 600 or similar brake fluid and a better pad at any track day. I have never heard anyone say "damn I have too much braking power"