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Fair · 04-23-2014, 11:01 AM

Project Update for April 21st, 2014: Time to play catch up on the build posts! We've done yet another event since USCA, this time an autocross with the Texas Region SCCA in their new "MAM" class - in addition to the TrackGuys event at TWS last month. I've written and posted two job listings here at Vorshlag this week. I've also written and posted the mega-sized Vorshlag Scion FR-S LSx Alpha Project build thread since my last S197 post, and I need to update the Alpha Miata LS1 thread as well, too. So before I get any further behind I'll try to catch up on Day 3 of the USCA/Optima Qualifier event held at TMS March 21-23rd, 2014. This is where things got... interesting.

A Brief Look: GTA @ TMS, Sept 2012

First, let's back up just a tick. If you've been reading this S197 build thread since we started (2010) you might remember that we ran our red 2011 GT at TMS on the infield road course back in 2012. That year was a turning point for this car: we had finally switched form running on 265mm street tires in SCCA's STX class to running 315mm R-compounds in SCCA's ESP autocross class and NASA TTS in time trial. The move out of STX was long overdue, as we fought badly for traction in this heavy (3440 pound at the time) car on those super skinny 265mm street tires. Every event was like driving on ICE. When we moved up to 315mm R-compound tires the Mustang CAME ALIVE, so we quickly did a single autocross test - where we made some set-up changes based on measured lap times - and took the Mustang to the SCCA Solo Nationals to run in ESP class against the best pony car autocrossers in the nation.

Left: Our brief foray into SCCA ESP class in 2012 was decent but under-developed. Right: Our NASA TTS set-up in 2012 also worked well enough in GTA

We did fairly well at that 2012 Nationals, scoring a 3rd out of 47 cars in ESP and winning ESP-Ladies, after almost no changes to the old STX suspension set-up. Looking back now we know this was a very compromised set of spring rates, among other items. The suspension then was still on AST 4150 singles with soft-ish 450F/175R rates, which worked great for street tires and daily driver use but left the car under-sprung for foot wide wheels and uber-grippy tires, in autocross and especially road course use. The car had LOTS of body roll that we couldn't tune out with the swaybars (we had the massive Whiteline bars at full stiff on both ends, which our one test day showed to be fastest).

We entered this Global Time Attack event at TMS a couple of weeks after the 2012 Solo Nationals on a lark, mostly to help bolster the entries for this event so the GTA series might come back in the future. We never hoped to beat the top cars prepped for this series or even get in the top 10. The turn-out by locals was somewhat poor, and even with a couple of dozen series regulars attending they couldn't afford to risk it on a low turn-out again and GTA has not returned to Texas. This is what prompted my series of calls to try to support the USCA event locally - we didn't want to lose a big event again. I'll talk about the SCCA Texas Pro Solo at the end of this post, because we need local entrants to sign up to this one, too!

Anyway, 2012 was our first year to dip into R-compound territory and we used the following winter to test a better suspension set-up for the wider tires that led to a string of wins in TT3 for 2013 - where we won 13 of 15 NASA races and set track records at every track on the NASA Texas schedule. We still had a relatively poor showing at NASA Nationals (3rd) due to a poor rear aero set-up for the speeds seen at Miller, but we finally have a better solution for that coming in the next week or so (see details in my next S197 build thread post!). So 2012 was a "building year" and the crude TTS/ESP set-up we had was somehow still good enough to win Unlimited RWD class at this GTA round in Texas and set the 5th fastest time of the event.

Some laps from GTA in 2012. Look at how much high speed understeer the car has! (with the old plastic LS front splitter)

Still, that event was riddled with mistakes: 1) I drove erratically (as usual) and was constantly over-driving the tires. 2) I forgot to plug-in the wired AMB transponder before the best track session on Sunday, when it was 78°F. That was a huge mistake, as the on-board AIM Solo lap timer showed several sub 40 second laps in an early Sunday session, with a best of a 39.8, but with our ghetto-wired transponder left unplugged it was all for naught (we have since added a lighted switch on the dash to show me when the transponder is on!).

I had to make up for that missed session of times by driving like a wild man in a nearly 100°F session late that afternoon, where I barely eeked a lone 39.975 second official lap time, using all of the track surface and then some. The 315mm Hoosier A6 tires were overheating but I kept pushing and found that time in the closing minutes of the event. It was nerve racking to know I left more time in the car, but it was all I could get in those circumstances. With our current aero and suspension set-up, plus the wider 335/345 Hoosiers, what would the Mustang run there now? No telling... but probably a good bit faster. We found 1.4 seconds just going from 315mm tires to the wider set at MSR this year, about one month apart. Bigger is better!

Anyway, at that event two years ago I logged two days of lapping on this 1.1 mile TMS road course, but on very different tires and a softer suspension set-up. It wouldn't hurt knowing the various corners and pavement sections of this track, of course.

USCA at TMS, Sunday March 23rd, 2014

So as you've read in my previous set of posts covering the USCA event above, we rolled into Day 3 of this weekend not knowing exactly where the Vorshlag Mustang was placed. We were doing somewhat OK after having scored a 2nd in the autox, a 3rd in the speed stop and a 4th in the Design challenge - but we didn't know any of that. I thought my ranking was about 4th in the autocross and 4th or 5th in the speed stop, with no idea of how the design challenge went, so I was a bit pessimistic about our chances at the win in the GT3K class. I really wanted that invite to the SEMA show/Optima Shootout, but at this point I just wanted to redeem myself and try to pull out the win at Sunday's BFG Hot Lap event. I had no idea that I still had a real shot at the overall win...

Event Results: http://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us...dds-four-more/

BFGoodrich Hot Lap Challenge

We got to the track Sunday morning early, cold and tired, but I was still looking forward to this Time Trial portion of the event. Even if I didn't have a snowballs' chance in hell of the overall win, I was damn sure going to try to win this ONE single event. Sure, I was down 500+ whp to some of the entrants and had NO idea how these guys would do on the road course, but I knew this track. That was my one advantage. Would it matter after each competitor had their 6 sessions of 15 minutes each? That's a lot of track time to learn and master this little 1.1 mile road course.

Maybe our "wild aero" - which did virtually nothing for the car at autocross speeds nor in the speed stop, except make the car wider and grab cones - would finally show it's worth on the TMS infield course? We ran the same APR rear wing (mounted higher) back in 2012 at GTA but then we had the much less effective plastic Laguna Seca OEM front splitter and none of the other tricks we've since added, such as: the front wheel spats/flares, ducted hood, blocked off upper grill, and full depth splitter. We also have nearly doubled the spring rates on the suspension on both ends, so maybe that could allow the BFG tires to stay flatter and work more efficiently? We had the same Whiteline bars, control arms and Watts link, then as now.

The question was: Could I approach that same 39 second GTA lap time on 200 treadwear street tires? I sure hoped so, because this group of Pro Touring competitors looked fierce and I knew that a 40 second lap wasn't likely to win it.

You can see the layout of the 1.1 mile, 7 turn road course above.

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Fair · 04-23-2014, 11:15 AM

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It looks fairly straight forward but there are actually some very tricky spots on this track. I've seen a few too many cars crashed out there, as this course is lined in concrete barrier walls in many places. A few corners also have some run-off areas that you don't want to get out into (Turn 1!). And while it looks totally flat, it is far from it - some corners have a tick of camber that works in your favor (Turn 1), but one corner is off camber (Turn 7) - especially if you go wide, like the textbook line would lead you to think - and others have lower grip asphalt, which makes for a very slippery situation.

Vorshlag event Photo and Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...te-Street-Car/

We had another driver's meeting that morning and the USCA organizers told us that there would be a yellow C7 Corvette "camera car" out in many of the sessions. We were told to "ignore this car as much as possible", as he would be making passes and/or pointing cars by to set up shots with both forward and rearward facing cameras. Turns out the driver was none other than local LGM business owner and former Pro racer Lou Gigliott. The C7 Corvette was one of his own test mules equipped with his coilovers, aero and headers, among other bits. That should be fast, especially in Lou's hands, and I mentally noted to be on the lookout for this Corvette - as I was always trying to ham it up for the camera! When you run a business you gotta get in the free marketing whenever you can, you know?

USCA Rules: http://ultimatestreetcarassociation....Rules_v7-1.pdf

They had us split up into 3 types of run groups on Sunday based on previous road course experience levels: Novice, Advanced, and Expert. The differing groups had slightly different safety requirements as well, which are explained in the USCA rules. For the Expert group I was slotted into, we had to have the following bits of safety gear:

Helmet – SA2005 or better
Neck restraint – Hans style, or SFI certified neck collar
Properly mounted 4 or 5 point harness
SFI 3.2A/1 rated single layer fire suit or better
Nomex fire retardant gloves
Fire retardant shoes

A lot of the local entrants we motivated to sign up had to make some hasty purchases at a local circle track supply house (Smileys) - to get racing suits, Nomex gloves, fire proof shoes and neck collars. One such entrant that had to get "geared up" was Shannon (above right) and her mom and sister, who both also entered. But like I told them, some HPDE groups and tracks are starting to require a full driving suit to run their events; I know MSR Cresson requires that sort of gear for their member days and at any other weekday track session, so their new gear wasn't a wasted purchase. And as cold as it was Sunday at TMS most of us stayed in our suits all day and were glad to have the warmth. Luckily I had all of this safety gear already, except a HANs, so I used my $25 SFI neck collar. Maybe not the smartest choice, and my helmet is already set-up for a HANs (which I've borrowed for LeMons racing) but I have yet to use one and not limit my ability to see laterally, so I haven't pulled the trigger on a HANs system yet.

Please don't use my example of safety gear choices to influence your choices. But please DO realize that there is more to using and picking a HANs device than just "swiping your credit card". There are many variables involved in the various brands, sizes and model options, plus other things that need to be checked, like shoulder harness and seat compatibility, and tethers vs quick releases. Its not a "no-brainer" choice to pick a HANs device. On a race car with a limited door opening in the roll cage (see above), or especially with the door closed and a cumbersome window net added - try to get out THEN when you have a big HANs device strapped to your back, while the car is on fire. Many variables... but then again, ripping your spinal column out of your brain stem can also ruin your day (aka: end your life).

At this event I knew the track had lower speeds, and the fact that there was going to be a good bit of passing, so being able to turn my head fully was more important - this time. But yes, I know, it is more dangerous than w/o a HANs in a big crash. I'm going to reassess my own safety equipment later this year and at the very least step up to a better fire suit than the inexpensive off-the-shelf Simpson suit I have now (we're a dealer for Puma, Sparco, OMP, Momo and Alpinestars suits) as well as possibly adding a real neck restraint system of some sort.

They had us go out briefly before our official run groups began for a lead/follow teaching session where we all followed along single file, to "learn the line". I went out with Marc Sherrin and Jerry Cecco behind me and I drove the line I remembered from before, at about half speed behind the lead car. Those 8 or so slow laps didn't show me much, but we came back in and waited for everyone else to get their reconnaissance laps in. We next lined up in our proper run groups, but in a random order for the first session. There were more expert drivers so they split us into two sessions, for a total of 4 run groups.

For the first timed Expert session I got to grid after some other cars had lined up, so once on track I was stuck in traffic. I made several passes, but after 15 minutes on track I never had a single clear lap. We were also playing with shock and tire settings in the hot pits. In this session my AIM Solo lap timer would show a fast lap but would always get held up at some point. I tried building a gap on a few laps but the session was packed and there were a couple of cars that were well off the pace. Best time I could manage was a 41.325 second lap, passing someone on that lap.

The fastest car in that Advanced session was Ryan Matthews in the white, DSE-prepped 5th gen Camaro race car. Yes, I said race car, as this one had a full cage, gutted interior, big crazy motor, big aero and big tires. Nobody else would argue that term on this one. Not knocking their entry, just jealous.

Ryan (a former Pro NASCAR circuit driver) went out first in that session, and with clear track and clean air he knocked down a 40.990 second lap. He was the car everyone was talking about all morning as the car to beat, and one of his buddies saw me in the hot pits following this first session and said "You don't have a chance of beating him... you ain't got the power!" I smiled, agreed about not having a lot of power, and just waited until the next run group to see if I could get some clear laps.

While Ryan's 40.99 first session best lap was quicker than my 41.32, I had to deal with massive traffic throughout the first session. Amy and Jason were watching live timing via the Race Monitor app and I came in halfway through that session to check on everyone's times, while also trying to find a gap. I went back out and immediately got stuck caught in another pack. After the 15 minutes was up it felt good to only be 3 tenths back from the lead, considering I never got an unobstructed lap. The other Expert group then ran and was led by Marc Sherrin in his Z06 with a 40.336 and followed by Kyle Tucker with a 41.049 second lap, so I made sure to keep an eye on them as well. The Advanced and Novice groups ran, and while there were not any eye opening laps from those groups yet we still watched them all day.

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Fair · 04-23-2014, 11:16 AM

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Fellow TT racers Marc Sherrin (above) and Todd Earsley (below) were getting quicker all day, and we kept an eye on each other from our friendly NASA TT rivalries. Marc started out fast and lead everyone after the first sessions. He was on only 315mm wide Rivals in his TT1 prepped C6 Z06 (he normally runs a 345mm Hoosier) while Todd was on 265mm Hankook RS3s in his TT1 prepped EVO, and both of them knocked down very respectable laps. Todd has been practicing for this event this year, running NASA TT1 class on his RS-3 street tires just to work on his USCA set-up. That's dedication.

It was a long day, with laps from 10 am until 4:30 pm. Our Mustang struggled with rear grip all day and the car was very easy to step into power-on oversteer. And they had cameras out on course which of course encouraged me to drive like more of a jackass than normal. It felt a little like driving in the wet, but with 447 whp on street tires and a solid axle, what can you expect? I don't know how those guys with 700-1000 whp made do out there - this course definitely took some serious throttle restraint with 200 treadwear tires. Most of the corners were fairly low speed and we didn't have much aero advantage in those. The "switchback" (T2-T4) in the middle of the back section was maybe the only place where our little rear wing was working. Maybe also in the big high speed offset (T6-T7) just before the start/finish line as well.

Fly-by video from the start/finish area. The bark of the Magnaflow exhaust sounds good!

I guess this paid off with the highest trap speeds into the braking zone of turn 1, according to someone who told me they were checking speeds with a radar gun. You can see the cones on the apexes of each turn in the fly-by video above, and the USCA folks also laid cones down in walls to denote brake markers into the big high speed braking zones, of which there were several. They said we were entering T1 at 117 mph (our GPS data showed 114). The next fastest entry was Marc Sherrin's Z06 at 116 mph, also at a power deficit to at least a dozen cars in attendance. What's amazing is there were much more powerful cars in attendance not hitting the same terminal speeds as the two of us - and at least one competitor was SPRAYING NITROUS OXIDE on the straights. You heard that right - Nitrous is allowed in USCA. This is the only series I've ever run on a road course that allows that type of power adder. Crazy, and it gave me some really BAD ideas for future events!

Mike's stock motored Miata (left) didn't need nitrous to best his LSx powered GT2 class competitor on track (right) by 1.5 seconds

One of the tricks I had learned running here in 2012, and that I do regularly in Time Trial competition (and many W2W racers do in qualifying sessions) on certain tracks where it works, is where I would throw away every other lap by taking a very different line into the last corner. This would add distance but also allow for a super late apex which then helped set-up a faster corner exit into the next lap, and this paid off with a savings of a couple of tenths each time this was used. I also knew where to use the curbing, and how much - many competitors surprisingly kept a wide berth of the curbing, which was a "chopped" style of FIA curbing, but was still usable with decent dampers on the car. It didn't even touch my splitter, so the curbing serrations weren't that tall. The USCA was smart and set-up cones to denote the track limits, and we used the curbing to full effect where we could but I stayed out of the grass where they hadn't. I didn't want a corner worker to call in a DSQ after fighting with wiggling cones in the Speed Stop on Saturday.

Todd Earsley started out in his first session at 42.131 but ended up with fast laps in the 40.xx range for sessions 2-6 and easily outpaced his AWD class competitor in a GTR on the Hot Lap Challenge. His best was a 40.268 sec lap on the 6th and final session, and I got well out of his way on his fastest lap. He bested his AWD competitor in 2 of 3 driving competitions (Speed Stop and Hot Lap) but lost in the autocross and design competition, and ended up tying for the lead on points. USCA settles all ties with the design score, so he ended up in 2nd overall. He's not giving up and will be at another USCA qualifier to try to get that SEMA invite!

Full Event Results: http://ultimatestreetcarassociation....ll_Classes.pdf

Marc Sherrin ended the day in 2nd place in the Hot Lap challenge with a 40.236 second best, and that was after only taking laps in 3 of the 6 possible sessions due to a front rotor that came apart. It was a 2-piece StopTech rotor that got a little too thin and showed a massive crack and split apart in his 3rd session. Up until then he and I were battling for the Hot Lap lead in the GT3K class, after he led after the first session. If we would have been able to get him 335mm Rivals (which were on National backorder) and with more laps available he could have fought for top time. His strong showing in the Hot Lap challenge (20 points) and solid finishes in Speed Stop and Autocross (12 points each) led him to a 6th place finish overall in GT3K class, with 82 points. Not too shabby for an otherwise stock Z06 with a built LS7 motor!

So I mentioned that first session, where I was mired in traffic. Luckily they used our best times from that session and each successive session to grid us in order, just like we do in NASA TT. So I started in P2 behind Ryan Matthews for the 2nd session and after a couple of laps of dogging the big white Camaro he pulled offline and pointed me by. Then I laid down a series of 40.xx laps with a best of 40.115 seconds. The cool morning air was working for the rear tires, keeping them from overheating too quickly.

Terry playing around with Lou in the Camera Car C7 during Session 3

In Session 3 I got a little quicker before spending the latter half of that session goofing around with Lou Gigliotti and the camera car C7 Corvette. I had already banked a 40.052 lap but that boiled the rear tires, so after I came back out for the second half of the session I was 2-3 seconds off my previous pace when I was lapping with Lou. I spent time both in front of and behind the C7, trying to get some on-car camera time, and pushed the Mustang's very hot tires as hard as I dared - which you can see in the video above. Almost drove off track on two occasions and our lines were so different that I kept running up on the back of Lou in a couple of corners and had to back off. This is probably where I damaged the rear tires a bit, but like I've said, shove a camera in my face and I drive like an idiot, heh.

Left: This truck had some SQUAT in the rear on corner exit. Right: Doing some lead-follow with Lou's C7 camera car

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Fair · 04-23-2014, 11:17 AM

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The sun came out and drove up track temps in session 4 and I slowed down to a 40.166 best. Session 5 was much of the same but I got a hair quicker with a 40.026 best, only 3 hundredths quicker than session 3. I was beginning to think we'd never break out of the 40 second zone, but the AiM's predictive lap timer kept popping up with a 39.9 every once in a while, but then I'd blow it in Turn 5 - which was the toughest corner to master due to a lower grip surface and an off camber slope. I had to keep the rear from sliding too much in this corner, as oversteer would overheat the rears and they would then lose grip badly. I was also putting a lot of heat into the front brakes, but kept pushing my braking into Turn 1 later and later during each session.

I never stopped pushing until Ryan Matthews came off track for the last time - that Camaro was FAST

By session 6 somehow I was in the overall lead, but not by much. Ryan Matthews had laid down a blistering 40.119, and that was too close for comfort (I was in the 40.0 range by then). Thanks to my faster times I was gridded P1 and out first in sessions 2-6, which let me set the pace on the out lap and gave me clean air for my first several laps. We got into a pattern where where I'd take 4-5 hot laps, 1 cool down lap, then dive into the hot pits and park, check competitors' times and let my tires cool for a couple of minutes.

I would talk to Jason and Amy, they'd check the tire pressures, brake temps, tire temps, and then wait for a gap to send me back out in the second half of the session. Invariably a big portion of the field would quit early, about halfway through each session, then I could go out for more clear laps. This was a good strategy and with such a short lap time (40 seconds) the out lap and cool down laps didn't eat up substantial amounts of track time.

It seemed like the fastest 2nd gen Camaros in the world were all here this weekend!

I knew the car had a 39 second lap in it so I planned on trying to put in a flier on my first couple of laps in the last session of the day. The attrition had taken its toll by days' end so USCA combined the two Expert groups for our last session, but I was still gridded P1 and the first car out, and got my clear laps as planned.

Being this event was in my home town I had lots of friends there giving me advice all weekend

Jason and I talked strategy before the last session, and he and Amy both kept me calm and my mind clear all weekend. We had a plan to use a bluetooth phone call via MySync in the Mustang to set-up 2 way comms, like we have done before in TT events - but only if things got really close and I wasn't finding any time. I was ready to take that call, but it wasn't needed because I went out first in session 6 and laid down the only 39 second lap of the weekend.

In-car video of my fastest lap in the final Expert track session, session 6

Once I saw that 39.77 lap on the SOLO I knew our lap goal was met - faster than even the AiM had predicted. Man, I was PUMPED and Brandon had to bleep out my voice for the entire cool down lap when he edited the above video. The official lap time was 39.803 seconds, which was close enough. As soon as I saw that 39 lap I immediately took a cool down and dove into the hot pits to wait. Jason and Amy were high fiving me, but it wouldn't be over until we saw time expire and if nobody beat that time. If Ryan managed a faster lap time I was ready - strapped in, engine idling, tires cooling, and ready to go back out and look for more time. Where I could find it, I had no idea...

About 10 minutes into the 15 minute final session, after about 4 minutes of waiting in the hot pits, we saw Ryan Matthews' Camaro come into the hot pits.... and turn left into the garage area!!! Jason looked at me and yelled, "Its OVER! You won it!" WAAAHOOO! The rest of the field came in within the next lap as well, but there were still about four minutes left in the final session and a completely empty track. Amy said "put it in the garage", but I told her that it would be a shame to waste an empty track with TV cameras looking at nothing. I went back out and took some victory laps with the ass of the Mustang hanging out so much that it was good enough for the drift circuit. I was hooting and hollering, drifting and sliding around, so excited to have finally won ONE dang event that weekend!!! We cannot show this video at all because the audio would be one continuous censored BLEEP, hehe!

Each driver's fastest session times are shown in the chart above

Looking back in hindsight it appears that my best lap from all the way back in session 2 was just good enough for the Hot Lap overall win, but it wasn't at all obvious to us at the time, so we fought hard all day long to break into the 39s. I took close to 90 laps on Sunday hunting for that lap, but we see now that the fastest laps on these BFG Rivals were taken just like on the Hoosier A6s - they came within the first 2 laps of going out on track with cool tires, or within the first 2 laps after my regular mid-session break cool-downs.

Seems that the BFG tires liked to get their best time when semi-cool, yet the rear tires needed some "slip angle" to get the best out of them. It was tough to balance tire heat with the right amount of tire slip. We had dialed the final tire pressures in at 31psi front and 33 psi rear (hot) on our best laps and the rear wing was set at maximum AoA (about 12 degrees). We dumped the rear shocks' compression to help with corner exit and ran about -3° front camber. My driving technique was simple: keep pushing the braking zones, use all of the available track and curbing allowed, stay off the grass, don't EVER go off track or spin, and focus on keeping the rear tires on the limit of their friction circle.

The chart above shows our placing in the GT3K class, which was quicker than the GT2K and AWD classes. You will notice on the "per session" chart, two above, that Brian Hobaugh had only one session with lap times. This was because he shattered his driveshaft about 5 laps into session 1, miring his times at 7th fasted for the class (see below, right).

Left: Ryan Matthews' DSE-prepped Camaro was 2nd quickest overall. Right: Hobaugh's driveshaft 'sploded during the first track session, which sucks

Danny Popp had no Hot Lap times, due to a CV failure from Saturday. Attrition played a part in the overall placements and worked in our favor. Tucker and Finch ended up 4th and 5th, a half second back from Matthews and Sherrin. This Hot Lap's final ranking ended up being a huge boost for me in the overall points battle for GT3K class, but we didn't realize that until later.

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Fair · 04-23-2014, 11:18 AM

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After I pulled in following my "victory laps" in the final Expert track session there was a camera crew in our garage. I apparently talked to those guys while adrenaline was still pouring through my veins, and I hope I was at least vaguely coherent. I remember nothing of this interview - these pictures don't bring back any memory whatsoever. None. I have no idea what they asked nor what I said! It was probably some Ricky Bobby "I felt like I was in a space ship" mumblings.

Here's pictures from an interview I have absolutely no memory of - thanks, adrenaline!

After we had finished with the Hot Lap battle we waited for the USCA folks to tally the scores after 3 days of competitions. I remember sitting with Jason in our garage and trying to calm down, and I remember Sofi showing up for a while. Amy and Jason and I tried to figure out how we placed, assuming I might have jumped into 2nd or 3rd overall, based on the guesses of where I ended up on Saturday's Autocross, Speed Stop and Design competitions. They purposefully don't show everyone the rankings for each event in real time, so we tried to have spotters watching times and keeping a running score as we went, as best we could.

While we waited Amy and Brandon set-up a group picture of the 8 Vorshlag entrants and cars, other than Marc's C6 which was already loaded up in the trailer for the tow home. This was the result, below - a great picture! Seven cars and eight local drivers who all had the times of their lives! Every one of them said they had a ton of fun at this event, even the folks not battling to win their class.

Michael Minor's nearly stock Miata did well and tied for 1st in the GT2K class. He lost the tie on the design award score - bummer! Shannon, Heather, Jan, Jon and Jerry were all fighting amongst themselves, and compared their times all weekend. Each of them are HPDE drivers that have since found a new reason to hone their autocross and track skills and each vowed to enter USCA events in the future. Jan, Shannon and Heather got the star treatment and we will likely see their many interviews when this episode of the TV show airs - more likely than we will see mine, heh. Marc was excited to have finished 3rd in the Hot Lap Challenge with a broken brake rotor and on skinnier tires than he wanted to show up on, too. My main regret of the weekend was not finding a car for Amy to enter, as she could have fought hard for a win in GT2K or AWD classes, with a bit of luck.

Event announcer Dennis asked to park all of the cars in front of the Optima trailer for a group picture, so after our Vorshlag group photo we motored on over and parked in a big grid. The crowd of entrants and spectators started to gather and we all anxiously awaited the final event & class results as well as the four coveted Optima/SEMA invites.

Jimi went over the closing announcements of the event and talked a bit about the TV series that would air on MAVTV covering the 10 USCA/Optima qualifiers plus the Vegas Optima Invitational. They gave out the spirit of the event award (1 invite of 4 to be awarded) and then they started the individual class awards (1st-3rd for each competition).

They did the GT2K and AWD classes, handing out winner certificates for each event: Autocross, Speed Stop, Design and Hot Lap. It was here that we found out that our friends Todd and Michael, who had both won 2 of 3 driving competitions in their classes, ended up both losing the overall class wins with TIES for 1st in class - due to their design award scores. Doh! That cost them both invites to SEMA, which was the suck. I figured my design score (which I had no idea of) wouldn't help my overall ranking either.

Next up came GT3K awards: 1st through 3rd place certificates for each event, and most of these were a shock to me. I was awarded 2nd fastest in the Autocross, when I thought I had only scored 4th. A 3rd in the Speed Stop was also a welcome surprise, and that got my hopes up a little. Maybe I will break into the top 3? Then our Design ranking of 4th, yet Hobaugh's badass Camaro wasn't in the top 3?? That was a shock. The BFG Hot Lap Challenge win was already pretty well known, as they had live Race Monitor times up all day. By now Amy, Jason and I were frantically redoing the math - where did we finish?!?!?! Maybe we got 2nd overall, which would be great! They started to call out the overall GT3K class winners.

They called off 3rd place: Brian Hobaugh.

Wait... what?!?! He was third. I figured he was the winner... How in the...

Then they called off 2nd place: Brian Finch.

What in the.... I stood up and looked around at Jason and Amy and silently mouthed, "WTF?" My mind was spinning - we hadn't done the math right. I thought that Hobaugh would be 1st and Finch was 2nd, but we got their order backwards and still left out the actual winner. Who in Hell did we miss?! Did I end up taking 4th here, or did I....

No.

NO WAY!

I looked at Jimi, he cracked a knowing smile, and the only possible conclusion now became clear.

They called the GT3K class winner: Terry Fair.

BOOM! I honestly nearly fell over in shock. This was such an unexpected surprise of epic proportions! I had only won the Hot Lap competition, how did I win the whole event?? I was hoping they wouldn't change their minds while I shoved my stuff into Todd's hands and headed up onto the Optima trailer.

continued below

Fair · 04-23-2014, 11:20 AM

continued from above

I was still in disbelief as I climbed the stairs. No way this is happening! Jimi Day congratulated me on the overall win and asked me if I'd be in SEMA in Novem... "OH HELL YES!" I didn't even let him finish the question. We would have a lot of work ahead of us to get the Mustang presentable for the SEMA show, tons of testing to fine tune the street tire set-up, and this meant I couldn't sell the car before November, but so be it. The weight of that huge chunk of billet aluminum that the folks at Ridetech CNC machined into the class winner trophies sure felt good in my hands. Its sitting in our lobby and I crack a wide smile every time I see it.

The overall lead was by 7 points, so I could have slipped down a spot in one event and still won. Four solid finishes with steady top 4 placings just added up for the win. The Design Challenge and Hot Lap Challenge scores saved me the most. People were congratulating me below the Optima trailer, but I was speechless. They shuffled the class winners over behind the trailer for more interviews with the TV show's host, Chad.

After a few takes (due to outside noises) we finally got this 20 second interview in the can and I stumbled back to the garage - to see the REAL star of this event, the big red Mustang! I cannot thank our crew here at Vorshlag enough for all of the hard work they put into this car over the past FOUR YEARS to get it where it is today. If a no-talent-hack like me can win against a field with this much talent and top dollar iron, then we must have made one helluva car!

We came up with a package of the right parts that was just easy enough to drive, with a touch of downforce when it mattered and just enough power from the stock 5.0 Coyote engine to get it done. This set-up isn't even remotely perfected for street tires, but I guess it was good enough this time. The Mustang was rock solid reliable all weekend, even when we dumped in E85 ethanol. The brakes worked through 3 days of abuse (after we replaced the very worn front rotors that I let slip by after the last track event), and the Carbotech XP20 compound just laughed at the abuse I threw at them. The stock clutch was solid, and the Vorshlag/Moton/Whiteline suspension handled everything we threw at it and did so with ease.

The most amazing thing was: these 200 treadwear BFG Rival street tires were fast enough that I beat my best GTA time from this track in 2012 when it was on 315mm Hoosiers! Even if you count my un-timed best 39.8 lap from 2012, we were still quicker on the BFG streets here. I guess we have refined the overall suspension and aero package THAT much to overcome a grip deficiency to gumball A6 compound Hoosier race tires. Wow. Sure, I did some damage to the outer tread blocks on the rear 335 Rivals, but most of that was done in the closing "victory" laps of the last session - where I kept the rear tires spinning through most of 3 laps, heh. We flipped these tires on the rear wheels and ran them at another event a few weeks later without a worry. Other than the outer tread wear the tread depth left over after 3 days of brutal abuse was remarkable and I won't bat an eye about using Rivals again at the Optima Invitational. Look for more street tire testing from Vorshlag soon!

When we went to go pull the Mustang back in the trailer after the USCA event on Sunday night the battery to the winch was dead (someone left the interior lights on overnight) so we had to push it up the ramps and a series of moving wood planks we use to keep the splitter from dragging (thanks for the help guys). We've since upgraded to a set of 2-piece foam Race Ramps that are twice as long as before, so the car drives into our rather tallish trailer easily now.

After we were all loaded up the whole Vorshlag contingent of 15+ people met for dinner and Amy and I headed home, utterly exhausted yet elated. There were more events coming up and we had to get ready for them both. We had a new focus for the rest of this year, other than just doing well in NASA TT3: we had to get a second set-up tested and perfected for street tire use in USCA... because we were going to the big Optima Invitational! That is going to be SO much fun. Amy has already reserved a condo with multiple rooms for the week of SEMA and the weekend after. Lots of mods to do, lots to test.

continued below

Fair · 04-23-2014, 11:21 AM

continued from above - last one!

Upcoming Competition Events YOU Can Enter!

Our next events are fast approaching, and some are crucial for testing our TT3 set-up and/or for developing new parts to sell. Click on the links for the events below (in the dates) to see about coming out to watch, or better yet - to enter your own car!

NASA @ Texas World Speedway April 26-27th. This could be one of the last ever TWS events, as this speedway is slated to be parceled off into residential home plots. We have this NASA event TWS in April and another on October 10-11th to set and lock down TT3 track records for TWS - possibly forever. This track's high speeds are also good testing ground for NASA Nationals at Road Atlanta in August. It will be a BATTLE as we already have a record SEVEN entries in TT3 class! I sure hope that new wing helps...
GTA at Road Atlanta, May 9-10th. We loved running with the GTA guys in 2012 at TMS and this is the first time we will have had a chance to run with them again, at this East Coast GTA Pro / Drift event. We will be testing a new aero set-up and learning this new-to-me track for NASA Nationals while also trying to win the Unlimited RWD class at the GTA event. There are some serious GTA cars attending so we might be lucky to get into the top 3, who knows?
SCCA Texas Pro Solo at Mineral Wells, May 2-4. Due to a conflict (below) we cannot be there one day so we did not enter this event, but Vorshlag is hosting the Friday Night Welcome Party. Amy and I will be manning the grill and talking to local and out of state autocrossers that show up for this drag-race-start, side-by-side two day autocross event. If you are local, and even if you're not, PLEASE sign up for this one at the link here.
24th Dallas Spring Nationals Classic Car Show hosted by the Sam Pack Ford Auto Group, May 3rd at the Sam Pack Car Museum in Famers Branch, TX. We will be at this event with our Mustang - yes, we're missing a Pro Solo for a car show. BUT... there will be a 2015 Mustang at this show, and we've been promised "a closer look" since we'll be an event sponsor there. This is a recon mission, pure and simple! Come out and see the show, and enter for only $25. More details at this link.

What's Next?

That was a big event post, so thanks for sticking with me on that massive post-race recap. It was the biggest competition win of my life to date, so that might explain the length, heh. Again, we should see the TV episode covering this event around August 15th on MAVTV, and I'll share the YouTube link for the show after its released. I'm STILL pumped about this one...

The new MCS doubles are on and have been run at 2 events already. We also have a new rear wing in the works that we will show at the end of our next update, a massive 14" chord x 72" wide carbon fiber wing made by AJ Hartman Racing (formerly known as Fulcrum Aeroworks). Vorshlag is now a dealer for AJ Hartman aero products and we will be developing wing mounting packages for a number of new cars - starting with the 2010-14 Mustang of course. The set of our S197 Moton Club Sport remote reservoir doubles is also still for sale, and I've lowered the priced a couple hundred bucks. Had some solid bites but nobody took the plunge yet. We've also now got a new rear adjustable height spring platform solution to work for the S197 Mustangs, which can go with this set of Moton shocks or anything from MCS. And yes, the old APR GTC-300 wing and uprights we built will be for sale in our Clearance page soon - I'll post it up when it is ready to be for sale, so stop PMing me about it already!

Tune in next time when I cover the Track Guys HPDE event at TWS, where Amy drove the Mustang over two days. We also competed in a local SCCA autocross on street tires... in a down pour. Lots of splashing and sliding around. And I'll briefly talk about Vorshlag Kart Fight 3 - a karting challenge we hosted recently with 38 entrants one night at Dallas Karting Complex. It was a tough fight for the coveted Kart Fight trophy, but it went to a deserving winner and fellow NASA TT racer.

Until next time,

**El_Tortuga** · 04-23-2014, 02:00 PM

Congrats.

Have you decided where you are mounting the blue bottle? Spray and pray!!!

**Crimson600+HP** · 04-23-2014, 04:18 PM

I love that GT. If I had more money, I would buy that car as a track toy...but then again...I am poor.

Fair · 05-15-2014, 03:39 PM

Project Update for May 15th, 2014: I am way behind on this build thread - 5 events behind and counting - and cannot seem to catch up. Instead of one MASSIVE post I'm going to break it up into smaller chunks. When I first started writing this, a week ago, we were loading up the car to head to Road Atlanta to race with Global Time Attack. That event was... memorable. Long story short: I overcooked the brakes, had a 150 mph shunt, the car and my back were a little banged up, but I will cover all of that in a forum post next week. In this installation we show the new set of MCS double adjustable shocks added and detail one track event where we tested these at (TrackGuys at TWS).

MCS RR2 Dampers Added

Due to supply problems from Moton we haven't been selling these in 2014. My goals with this 2011 Mustang include to "race what we sell" and to "actively test the parts we recommend", and until that brand comes back online (maybe by July 2014?) we needed to make a shock change. So we called up the guys at Motion Control Suspension in Georgia and had a set of remote reservoir double adjustable monotube shocks built for our S197, which we call the RR2.

After these arrived we had Stuart of Maxcyspeed & Co dyno test them. I wanted to see how close they were to the custom valved Moton Club Sport remote doubles that were coming off (shown above) and possibly have Stuart re-valve them. Stuart was the one that had valved our Moton doubles two years ago, and that set-up was working VERY well. That set of Moton dampers has sold, but we hung onto them long enough to make sure we were happy with the MCS set. He added some rear rebound before we installed them and I'm glad he did - the car feels mostly unchanged from before, which is exactly what I wanted.

These two brands look remarkably similar, and they should - the same principles that ran Moton-USA for a dozen years now run MCS, so the products from both companies share many characteristics. Both are monotube dampers with remote canisters, both are rebound and compression adjustable, and both have similar piston sizes, housing wall thicknesses and construction. But there are some notable improvements to the MCS models.

Left: The old set of Moton Club Sport 2-ways with remotes. Right: The new MCS RR2 2-ways with remotes

First, the rear shocks are NOT eye-to-eye shocks on the MCS set we ordered (although you can order them that way) like the Motons were, so they don't require a special rear shock mount adapter to fit the back of the S197 chassis. It might seem "cool" to have eye-to-eye shocks but on a street car with OEM upper sheet metal mounts it has downsides. Two reasons: First, the added height of the eye-to-pin shock mount adapter eats up shock stroke. Second, the rebound adjustment on the eye-to-eye shock is only accessed underneath the car via a special tool. For the past two years if I wanted to adjust rear rebound I had to jack up the car, remove a rear wheel, insert a small pin drive tool into a hole on the shock and rotate the adjuster. PITA.

Adjusting the rear shocks is now just opening the trunk and turning a knob. Remotes are compression, rebound on the shock tops

Now, with the MCS RR2 rear shocks I can just pop the trunk, pull the trunk liner out of the way, and rotate the adjuster knob that stays on the top of the shock. That adjustment just got a whole lot easier. I've never been a fan of removable knobs or special tools needed to adjust your shocks, and the Moton needed that at both ends. The problem is the special knob or pin tool is always hard to find when you need it most.

Moton rear shock shown with "divorced spring" in OEM position w/ ride height adjuster

The MCS RR2 rear shock and spring was left as a "divorced" set-up, just like the stock rear dampers and the old Moton set. This means the spring stays in the OEM location, not converted to be a "coil over spring" mounted over the shock. Why? Three reasons. The first is losing inboard rear wheel room with a shock mounted spring, and with 18x11 or 12" wheels we have to use every trick possible to stuff the wheels inside the stock rear fenders. Even with our new rear flares we use all that room near the rear shock to clear the big 345/35/18 Hoosier tires. We have shown time and again that you can never have too much tire on the back of an S197. As we have moved this car up from 255-345mm rear tires the lap times have dropped every single step of the way. The car gets easier to drive as rear traction increases.

An advantage to divorced springs is ease of rear spring replacement. We can a pair of rear swap springs track side in under 5 minutes. With a coilover spring mounting it is a lot more work, and the shocks have to come off and be partially disassembled. The final downside by moving the spring onto the rear shock is the suspension loads are now moved to the OEM sheet metal upper shock mount. Ford designed this car to have suspension (spring) loads going through a different load path (in the factory "divorced" rear spring location), and only damping loads were designed to pass through the upper shock mount. The only time we recommend gong to a coilover spring on these cars out back is when you have a roll cage tied into a reinforced shock mount. Even then there is very little upside to doing all of that work... it would have a tiny bit more spring rate in roll relative to the divorced location. That's it. But less inboard wheel/tire room. No thanks!

Up front the MCS front strut is very similar to the Moton unit that came off. The MCS units do have a slightly different lower bracket but we keep the slots pulled out to increase front wheel room. Every time we've seen someone use "crash bolts" or slotted strut brackets on a McStrut to increase front camber they lose front wheel room, which again - is a huge draw back. We use every trick in the book to squeeze an 18x11" wheel under a stock front fender, and even with our custom front flares on this car it is tight fit with our 18x12" wheel and big 335/30/18 front tire. A shorter-than-stock Whiteline adjustable endlink and Hyperco 800#/in spring (same as we used before) wraps up the front end. As you can see getting to the front shock adjusters is as easy as out back - open the hood and turn a knob. No need for removable tools or knobs that can be lost. We already had brackets to mount the remote shock reservoirs and just re-used them for the MCS units.

I was happy with the install and the guys here at Vorshlag had it knocked out in only a few hours. They re-cross-weighed and balanced the car and got the two crosses to 50/50 with me in the driver's seat + the TT3 ballast in the trunk, with a 1/2 tank of fuel (as low as we dare run it in road course use with the stock tank/slosh issues). The only other substantial change was moving from a 350 #/in rear spring down to a softer 250#/in spring, to try to increase rear bite. We wanted to test these new springs at an event that didn't affect our preferred competition series record for the year (NASA TT3), so we signed up for this...

TrackGuys HPDE at TWS, March 29, 2014

see below

Fair · 05-15-2014, 03:40 PM

Amy and I motored down to TWS for the weekend of March 29-30th to do a little testing before the NASA event a few weeks later. This HPDE club was running the 2.9 mile course in the counter clockwise (CCW) direction and the next NASA event there in a month would be running CW, but no matter. We just needed a higher speed track event to test the new MCS dampers and softer rear spring rates at, so this event worked well for that. We signed up with Amy as the only driver, since she hasn't taken as many laps at TWS and needed more seat time at these speeds.

Amy drove the Mustang for two days, 7 sessions on track totaling and about 3.5 hours of seat time this weekend, burning up a lot of fuel and completely used up a set of Continental DP tires in the process. She got a lot more familiar with the TWS 2.9 mile course and the higher speeds seen here after that many hours on track. The brakes did great with this much abuse, but she used up a good bit of the brake pads. American Iron Camaro racer Mike Patterson rode with her and even drove our Mustang with her in the right seat for a few laps, giving her some excellent instruction. Amy picked up a lot from Mike and she ran some 1:59 laps afterwards, dropping 3 seconds almost immediately - this is a sport that is very difficult to "self-teach".

The TrackGuys crew had a record number of entrants for this TWS event and ended up being just barely short on instructors, so I filled in for an instructor that had trailer trouble on Saturday and arrived several hours late. I rode shotgun with two Mustang students for a couple of sessions each - one was in a '04 Cobra street car making 550 whp, yikes! Lucky for me they both did great. Since I instructed this allowed me to take a few laps in an instructor only session using our car, and I took exactly 3 laps both days. The Conti slicks felt OK but I was definitely slower than my previous laps on 315mm Hoosier A6 tires, with a best of a 1:56.2 lap with a student riding along.

Left: Mike Patterson's AI Camaro was quick. Right: Amy in grid for the red group

We ran this event on the same set of 320/650/18 Continental DP slicks we ran briefly at ECR on Dec 28th, back when it was so cold we couldn't get any heat in the tires. These tires were now used with the above mentioned new set of MCS RR2 shocks and 250 #/in rear springs, but the rest was the same from previous events this year. We ran the hot pressures in the mid 30 psi range and they felt much better in these warmer ambient temps, and didn't have the funky feel from December.

Matt White (at left) was quick in his ST1 classed 5.0 Coyote powered Mustang and Misty White (at right) was moving in her ST2 Camaro

According to our previous lap time data these tires were about 5.5 seconds slower than the 315 Hoosier A6 (previous best at TWS 2.9 CCW last September was 1:50.675, which was a new TT3 track record then). That seems like a lot, and maybe it is, but the A6 is a one or two lap "sprint only" type of tire and this Conti DP slick is made to go for many hours - which it did.

Looking at the pictures of the tire wear we definitely got our money's worth on this set, ha! The fronts might have had a tick too much negative camber, as the insides are worn more than the outsides. We actually took these a into the cords and could have easily suffered a blowout - not a pretty sight at 150+ mph. We saw a Corvette do that (pop a front tire at high speeds) during this TWS weekend, and it destroyed the front bodywork and some other bits.

Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...-TWS-March-29/

Amy and I took pictures so they aren't as good as what Brandon would have shot, obviously. We took video during each session but its pretty boring stuff so I'm not going to bother editing and posting up a lap.

There were Mustangs from all eras and types: race cars, street cars, and everything in between

This TrackGuys group put on a good event, but a handful of the drivers were a bit reluctant to give point-bys in the faster run groups. Amy got stuck behind a couple of Corvettes for too many laps in a couple of run sessions - she was held up in some corners, but they had enough power on the straights to prevent a clean pass. Oh well, it happens. She doesn't push cars in front of her hard enough to really "get the point across", but she's always safe and calm on track.

This C6 Corvette had an off in the wildflowers and we cleaned his grill, heh

Amy had fun and I got a few laps in: enough to know that the Continental DP slicks aren't going to be replacing our A6s any time soon, and also to know that the new MCS RR2 dampers feel as good or better than the customized Moton doubles we had on the car before. The new softer rear spring also seemed to put down power a bit better on corner exit as well.

The rear definitely has some more roll, as shown in the picture above, so we might look at bumping up the Whiteline rear anti-roll bar settings. But we've driven the car several times since this and it actually feels great. Having the ability to quickly and easily adjust the rear rebound settings of the MCS shocks is a welcome change, and it allows for more shock adjustments to be made.

What's Next?

I'm already working on write-ups for these events, which have come and gone:

The crash at Road Atlanta was pretty bad - but it is all fixable

More soon,

Fair · 05-21-2014, 08:01 PM

Project Update for May 21st, 2014: So where were we? Ah, yes... April events and development work on the 2011 Mustang. First we ran an SCCA autocross in April on street tires - and all of our runs were during a downpour, so that was fun. There was an informal kart shoot-out we hosted the next week, then we created a new mount for a massive new (AJ Hartman) rear wing. Let's play catch up!

Texas Region SCCA Solo at TMS Bus Lot, April 13th, 2014

So there was a Texas Region SCCA event in April that we wanted to use for dry weather BFG Rival autocross testing with the new MCS coilovers. Amy and I co-drove in the 2011 Mustang on this rainy Sunday in April. We both ran in the first heat, in a steady rain that left little grip on for the BFG Rival 200 treadwear street tires. We both raced in the local "MAM" class (Modern American Muscle - a supplemental class to the new "CAM" Classic American Muscle class).

The club had 122 registered entrants, which was pretty dang good for a day everyone knew would have rain. We got there and it was still dry, unloaded the car and applied the hastily made "MAM" class letters that I hand cut the night before. I had Olof mount the same set of 315/335mm BFG Rivals that we used at the USCA/Optima event weeks before. The tires still looked good but the rears were flipped and run inside mount, since I kind of mauled the outer tread blocks on the right rear in my 90+ laps on track at the USCA event.

Results: http://texasscca.org/2014_solo_resul..._final.htm#MAM
PAX: http://texasscca.org/2014_solo_results/tr14_2_pax.htm
Photo and video gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...CA-TMS-041314/

We had 5 runs each and Amy took 4 of hers first, then I took a couple of runs, then she took her last, and then I took my final 3. The rain was pretty hard at the beginning of the 1st of 4 heats and we still had to run the wipers on our last runs in the heat. It rained even into heat 2, stopped raining finally sometime in heat 3 and by heat 4 it dried up completely and times dropped by 10 or more seconds.

I worked in the trailer in heat 2, announcing, and took lunch with 2nd place MAM finisher Jay Payson from HP Tuners. He was in town for business and rented a Penske Mustang GT, which he enjoyed running in MAM. Since we left the rain gear box at the shop I still goat soaking wet, while taking pictures of Amy while she drove in heat 1.

Just a sample of the results showing how slow MAM was running in the wet compared to CAM that ran in the dry

I ended up getting fast time in the 4 car MAM class with the rental Penske 5.0 Mustang in 2nd place and Amy in 3rd. The Penske car had fresh Goodyear 220 treadwear tires and Jay said it was remarkably easy to drive. He normally races an M5 in FStreet class but he said liked the Mustang a lot and we discussed the merits of an E92 M3 and an S550 2015 Mustang for F Street at lunch.

Normally I -love- racing in the rain but as usual, the conditions varried too much to compare with other classes/run groups. And at this particular event we were definitely at a disadvantage here, with too much power and tires with too much width. See, in the rain it actually helps to have more pressure on the tires, just like in the snow, so you want a narrower tire with deep tread voids - which we definitely did not have on the well worn 315/335 Rivals. The new, deep tread, 255mm tires on the rental car were what you wanted in this instance, as strange as that sounds.

And Jay almost whipped me in a car he had never driven, so I felt lucky to come out ahead. Everyone else in the class ran their fastest run on their 5th and final attempt, except me. I was 3 tenths quicker on run 5 but stepped on a cone, so I had to settle with my 4th run. I had to drive on my best behavior in these conditions, which was driving me nuts, but I managed to "throttle" my normal tendency to over-drive and just did the rain dance. Tip-toeing on the gas and smoothing out my inputs as much as possible. We also ran a tick more tire pressure than normal, and dumped the compression damping on all 4 shocks to zero.

This was the slow in-car video from my 5th run. Its not very impressive, trust me.

The rain lessened all day and by the 4th heat we heard it was completely dry and times dropped dramatically, so the PAX results aren't very representative for everyone. Heck, the only group I'd want to compare any times with was the first heat, of which I think there was one car quicker than us in the 59.8 second range (STS winner JJ). It got progressively drier in heat 2 and 3 but by heat 4 it turned into a beautiful day and was fully a dry weather autocross. That would have been fun to make a few blasts around the course, but you run in the heat you are assigned. Oh well.

continued below

Fair · 05-21-2014, 08:02 PM

continued from above

Left: We got to slog it out in deep puddles while... Right: The 4th run group had completely dry runs by day's end

Overall this event was a bust for testing with the Rivals. Why? Well we're only testing these with tires to use at the Optima Ultimate Street Car shootout in November, which is held in Vegas. The chances of rain for the ENTIRE day of that event in Las Vegas are virtually ZERO, so wet weather testing does us no good for that series. I will say the Rivals have surprisingly good grip for as wide and as bald as they were on this day.

Oh well, we got to see a lot of old friends and drive around really slowly. At least we didn't have any tire wear, ha!

Vorshlag Kart Fight 3

We are lucky to have a world class outdoor karting facility on the East side of Dallas called Dallas Karting Complex (DKC). Virtually all of the track, autocross, time trial and karting racers in DFW know about this place and have driven their rental karts before. We had a couple of Vorshlag sponsored Kart Challenges in 2011 and I was on a team of 4 in the first DKC 4 hour enduro in December of that same year. We got really busy in 2012 and 2013 and didn't have another Vorshlag-sanctioned karting competition for those two years, but I drove rental karts there many many times.

Instead of the structured, all day Saturday, 3-round shootouts we held in 2011, this time Vorshlag just held an informal night competition event at DKC on April 17th, 2014. This was a Thursday night and we posted up a Facebook event on our main Vorshlag page a few days beforehand just telling people, "hey, come join us from 6-9 pm, run a few races, turn in your time sheets, and the fastest time of the night gets a trophy".

We called it the Vorshlag Kart Fight 3, as this was out 3rd karting competition event since 2011. For something kind of thrown together at the last minute we had a surprising number of racers show up. By the end of the night we had nearly 40 people who came out to fight for the VKF trophy.

Kyle and Olof built this awesome trophy out of some broken Subaru drivetrain parts, TIG welded together and bolted to a base. The competition format was simple: show up, pay $15 a race (each race is about 10-12 minutes in length), and your best times run that night from 6-9 pm in the regular We had some swag and gift certificates for 1st through 3rd places. We also used NASA TT rules for offs and spins: if you put 4 wheels off or spun 180 degrees or more on track ALL times from that session were voided for that driver. We all spotted for each other.

Left: I went over the driving line, as I run it, with anyone who'd listen. Right: Fastest time of the night went to Alpha LS1 Miata tester Jason Toth!

I kept getting the same slug of a kart all night (excuses - I has em!) and while I had an early lead, I never improved on my first session times and could only manage 2nd quickest time of the night, a couple of tenths back from 1st. NASA TT racer Jason Toth was the winner, and (taking myself out of the running) 2nd place went to Billy Jack Smith and 3rd place swag went to NASA TT racer Jefri Tan (who runs in TT3 with me in a red EVO). We had one guy flip his kart (no injuries) and another NASA racer who put his kart so far off track he ended up in the sippy hole, and went home sopping wet. But no injuries and everyone had smiles on their faces.

"Helmet-Cam" Video from Marc Sherrin

NASA TT1 racer Marc Sherrin took the video above with a Go Pro strapped to his helmet, which is a compilation from about 3 sessions. As you can see we started off in daylight but it quickly got dark, and the track cooled off. They have excellent night lighting, so that made for extra fun NIGHT RACING! He even caught a glimpse of the kart that flipped in his video. We had 6 NASA TT racers, a lot of SCCA autocrossers, and various other local gear heads in attendance.

Vorshlag Kart Fight Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...-Kart-Fight-3/

Five people from Vorshlag were there and Brandon managed to snap some pics while we were there. Thanks to everyone that came out to join us - we'll do it again soon!

New Massive Rear Wing on Mustang!

Let me first start off saying: I am not an aerodynamics guru. I have a mechanical engineering background/degree, and I understand some basic concepts of aero, but Jason here at Vorshlag studied hydrodynamics in college and I rely on his expertise. I also know other people are aero gurus that I listen to, and read from. So I will try to cover rear wings in this section without butchering the science of it too badly.

We have had an APR GTC-300 "3D" wing on our 2011 Mustang for the past 2, almost 3 years? This was supposed to be a temporary fix until we found a better 2D wing, from APR or another source. At the time APR was only making 3D wings, but have since come out with their own carbon 2D design. I initially bought this 67" wide GTC-300 carbon fiber wing element to use on another car, and we actually did use it on Brianne's Pikes Peak Subaru in 2012 for the PPIHC event that year. It is a good low speed wing (PPIHC is fairly low speed, as are many of our Texas tracks like ECR, MSR-C, MSR-H, HHR, TMS and others) but is somewhat "draggy" at higher speeds, and never was meant to work at the heights we ran it with on our car.

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Fair · 05-21-2014, 08:02 PM

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We designed and water jet cut that original wing mounting set-up very quickly, over the course of a few of days. The goal was to re-use these uprights with a 2D wing to be installed later that year, which never materialized. Because we had planned to use a 2D wing with these, and from my insistence, the APR 3D airfoil was mounted about 6 inches above the roof line - against the wishes of Ryan and Jason. At this height about half of the GTC-300 wing was doing nothing but generating drag.

Testing at both high and low speed tracks showed we were faster at max AoA on the APR wing: 12 degrees at the center

After we kept this GTC-300 wing on the car for a year, and after constant advice from aero folks, Jason and others, we eventually cut down these uprights by about half to lower the 3D wing element below the roofline. It seemed to work a little better at this lower height - which is the opposite of what you normally want to do with an airfoil.

Moving this 3D airfoil lower actually helped, due to the curved center shape of the wing

Why is this rear wring shaped this way? Answer: To meet certain class rules. This "3D" wing profile was made to help improve downforce when used in some racing classes on sedan-shaped cars that limited the mounting height of the wing element at 6" to 8" above the rear trunk lid height. This rule was made to limit rear downforce and slow cars down, so aero engineers came up with a way to trick these low mounted wings into producing more downforce at this low height by tilting part of the airfoil element upwards by 10-15 degrees right behind the greenhouse (aka: the bubble of glass and steel above the shoulder line of a car that houses the passenger compartment).

I always look at the C5R, C6R and C7R Corvette race cars for some of the latest aero tricks - not ashamed to admit that!

So the center section of this type of wing is angled upwards compared to the outer edges, to grab more airflow coming down over the roof and following the rear window. It really only works well when mounted low, and should only be used when class rules mandate a low wing mounting height. But this became so widespread in professional GT racing and looked so "high tech" that they caught on with racers who didn't need to mount them low.

CFD data shown on GT2 classed Corvette C6R race car (at left) and a striated smoke wind tunnel picture on a 911 GT2 at right

I've even heard other racers try to tell me that this type of 3D wing is better than a high mounted 2D wing. Which is wrong. Don't confuse popular solutions for another set of rules to mean that there isn't something better for your class. It is always worth looking at the "why" of a design.

Here is a chart of Drag (HP), downforce (pounds) and AoA for the 14" x 72" AJ Hartman Racing wing run through CFD software

You can see the CFD data on the GTC-300 airfoil at this link. And remember to look at the same units - the APR data is shown with speed in MPH (SAE) but force is shown in Newtons (metric), so you have to divide that Force data by 4 to see it pounds of force. The AJ Hartman wing just has better data, as you can see when comparing the two.

When to use a 2D vs 3D airfoil: http://www.aprperformance.com/index....sk=view&id=176

Even APR admits as such in the article above, and now that they make a 2D wing again they are pushing that design. And yes, we could have picked up a carbon APR wing, but when we were looking for one last summer they were having supply and manufacturing problems. Its no secret where their airfoils come from, and I would rather have a U.S. built carbon wing than one from an overseas factory. So we started looking at different wing manufacturers...

After a lot of phone calls, emails, investigations, spreadsheets, data investigations and personal inspection of various brands of U.S. made carbon fiber wings we honed in on two brands. The final decision was a close one but we picked the wing with the biggest span and chord available: AJ Hartman Racing. Their 14" chord length (the front-to-back size of the wing) and the massive 72" max width were simply unmatched by anything in this category for anywhere near this cost.

The Fulcrum wings are super popular here in Texas and I see them used to great effect on ST, AI, and other race cars

This hand laid carbon fiber wing is molded by AJ at his shop in New Jersey. He installs the saddles (bonded and riveted) to the wing at your specified widths, trims the span to your specs and the final wing just looks amazing. They weigh 9 pounds, total, and his wings can support the weight of a full sized adult. You may not know the AJ Hartman Racing name now, but the original airfoil design and molds were purchased from Fulcrum Aeroworks, which was a company formerly based right here in Dallas/Ft. Worth.

The retail price for this AJH wing is only $1300, which is insanely low (this airfoil easily compares to $2500-4000 U.S.-made wings), and now Vorshlag is their first ever dealer. AJ didn't yet have a wing mounting kit for the 2010-2014 Mustang trunk shape so we started designing one as soon as our first 14x72" AJH wing arrived.

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Fair · 05-21-2014, 08:03 PM

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In NASA Time Trial we are only limited on wing mounting to a height of up to 8" above the roof, which is WAAAAAY up there, and FEET higher than what the 3D wings were really designed to be used at. A 2D wing is simply more efficient than a 3D wing, when mounted above the roof. This means: they produce more downforce (negative lift) and less drag at a given speed and angle.

I spent most of a day on 4/19/14 making cardboard mock-ups for the 6 mounting pads, then making the trunk profile for the uprights

Since we weren't restricted on mounting the wing anywhere close to the rear trunk lid, we figured we would see more downforce with a 2D wing mounted at or near the upper limits for NASA TT. The higher you can mount the wing, and the farther behind the car, the less turbulent the air will be that is going over and (especially) under the wing. We had originally looked at making a wing that met NASA American Iron and NASA TT/ST rules, but they were conflicting. TT specified a maximum height but AI specified a maximum of 1.5" behind the car.

I transferred the cardboard to thin sheets of wood, cut those out for prototype templates and then bolted up the wing

My first mockups (above) were both AI/TT legal, shown above in wood. After staring at it for a while it just didn't... look right to my engineering eyeball. It was too vertical and not swept back enough.

If we see any trunk deformation at high speeds we will add tubing to brace to these two plates (at right) from the ballast weight bracket

So when I gave the upright layout to Jason I told him to just centrate on the trunk shape and approximate height (we pushed it up to around 6" above the roof, within 2" of the TT max height). He transferred the trunk shape into SolidWorks then moved the actual upper wing mounting portion rearward about 8 inches, which put the wing too far behind the back plane of the car to be AI legal. I kind of knew this first aluminum unit we made would be a prototype that we would later need to tweak, so we will go back and make "production pretty" wing mounting kits for AI and another for TT/ST use on the 2010-14 Mustang trunk.

Check out the video above showing the CNC plasma cutter making a wing upright in about half a minute

After Jason had turned the trunk shape into a CAD drawing I ran to our metal supplier and picked up some aluminum plate in two thicknesses, then rushed over to Friction Circle Fabrications in Lewisville. There Todd Earsley used his brand new CNC plasma machine (see video above) to cut the aluminum I brought into the shapes from the files we sent to him. He cut the six mounting plates and two uprights in less than 35 minutes on his machine, and I was loaded up and racing back across town with the parts still hot.

Once we got to Vorshlag the crew cleaned up the edges and started mocking up the mounting plates. We were super busy that week on customer cars and it wasn't until Friday afternoon that everything was finished, welded, painted and bolted together. We set-up the upper mounting holes with 3 initial Angle of Attack (AoA) positions: 6, 10 and 12 degrees from level. We left the wing at the lowest angle setting we made, 6 degrees, for our first TWS laps with NASA.

Me (at left), AJ (middle) and Jason (right) posing for a quick pic with the new wing when AJ Hartman stopped by Vorshlag

A couple of weeks after we built this wing, just after our TWS race, AJ Hartman happened to be flying through Dallas after a test with a customer down at CoTA. He stopped by the Vorshlag shop to check out our prototype mounting for our first AJH wing. He pointed out a few things we could tweak to make it better, but overall he liked the set-up. We showed him two more cars in the Vorshlag shop that need to get AJH wings, and he is making those for us now.

That's all we have time for in this installment. Tune in next time when we cover the NASA TT race at TWS with this new wing installed. This Saturday is Five Star Ford at ECR - see ya there!