dfw

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:38 PM

continued from above

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

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

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

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

Sunday, Race Day One

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

continued below

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:38 PM

continued from above

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

Sunday, Race Day Two

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

Joe D's 2013 Mustang Boss 302 Leguna Seca.

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

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

I spent most of my time Sunday as Amy's "track b!tch", or so she named me.

It was nice to spectate a bit and I got to watch some insane American Iron and CMC battles in their race group. Mike Patterson was "super-sized" and ran in both Time Trial and American Iron, with a 3rd in TT3 on Sat and 4th on Sunday, plus a win in AI on Sunday as well. Not bad for his first event since he returned from some mid-season repairs last season - congrats!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's Next?

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

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

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

I just ordered a brand new tow vehicle from our buddy Corey White at Five Star Ford of Plano, a red 2013 Ford F350 Diesel 4x2 DRW, which should be here at the middle to end of March. I think I just sold my 2006 Dodge Cummins MegaCab 3500, so I might be truck-less for the NASA/Cresson event. If so, we'll have to drive the Mustang the two hours to the track and mount the Hoosiers there - oh, the horror!

I have two other posts started for this thread as well as the now very late BFG Rival review, so I need to stop here so I can get caught up. Going to work all weekend and write write write! With the shop closed and the phones ignored I can get a lot more done.

Thanks for reading,

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:39 PM

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:40 PM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by 2013 SCCA Solo Rules

15.I Solid axle suspension allowances:
1. Addition or replacement of suspension stabilizers (linkage connecting
the axle housing or De Dion to the chassis, which controls
lateral suspension location) is permitted.
2. Traction bars or torque arms may be added or replaced.
3. A panhard rod may be added or replaced.
4. The upper arm(s) may be removed, replaced, or modified and the
upper pickup points on the rear axle housing may be relocated.
5. The lower arms may not be altered, except as permitted under
Section 15.8.C, or relocated.
Methods of attachment and attachment points are unrestricted, but
may serve no other purpose (e.g., chassis stiffening). This does not
authorize removal of a welded-on part of a subframe or bodywork to
accommodate the installation.

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

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

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

Originally Posted by SCCA FasTrack, Feb, 2013

#9767 Watts Link Clarification
There is no allowance to replace the differential cover. Modifications to the original differential cover are permitted, but replacing the entire differential cover would be outside the scope of the current allowance, which is intended to permit any method of attachment, not wholesale replacement of parts to which the attachment is made.

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

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

Originally Posted by Feb 2013 FasTrack, Change Proposals

#9961 Differential Allowance
The SPAC and SEB would like member feedback as regards allowing alternate differential covers, either (1) for all cars via adding a new 15.10.CC: “Differential covers and attaching hardware may be replaced.” or (2) only for solid axle cars via adding a new 15.8.I.6: “Differential covers and attaching hardware may be replaced.”

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

continued below

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:41 PM

continued from above

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

continued below

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:41 PM

continued from above

Vorshlag Leaving SCCA Solo for 2013

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

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

SCCA class decals coming off 2013 Mustang GT - which we bought solely to prepare and race in ESP class.

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

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

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

Other Sports Beckon!

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

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

Click above to learn about the Texas Region SCCA Solo School, March 9th, 2013.

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

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:42 PM

continued from above

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

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

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

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

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

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

Possible Return to SCCA for 2014?

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

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

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

More 2015 Mustang renderings - no idea how accurate these are.

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

What's Next on our 2011 GT?

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

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

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

Let's Wrap This Up

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

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

Thanks for reading,

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:43 PM

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

Whiteline Updates + New Trans Bushing Insert

We finally had time to add the Whiteline transmission bushing insert to the stock Mustang trans mount. The factory rubber trans mount bushing has massive voids that don't help the stiffness of this bushing one bit (see the picture, below left). Air is a terrible bushing material.

Why does this matter? Well the Getrag MT-82 has a remote body mounted shifter, and the drivetrain is mounted on its own bushings. So when the transmission is loaded up (either with lateral g forces or under torque load) it moves relative to the body, and the shifter doesn't always then line up properly when you are trying to shift loaded up. This has been plaguing us for a while, and the "just add an aftermarket shifter" option doesn't fix the fact that the transmission is moving relative to the remote mounted shifter. At the NASA @ MSR-Houston event in January both Amy and I figured out quickly that we needed to shift earlier or later than we wanted to avoid shifting while in a high speed corner - because we would miss the shift every time. BONK! Frustrating.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Axle Housing Reinforcement + LCA Bracket Welding

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

Left: This picture shows the rusty axle in the first week of ownership, less than 50 miles on the car! Right: Visibly worse last week

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

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

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:44 PM

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Left: This is the rosette weld that holds the axle tubes in place. Right: Lots of time with the angle grinder/wire wheel cleaned it all up

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

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

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

Torsen T-2R Differential Upgrade

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

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

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

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

Damned Upper Control Arm Set-up, Test 4

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

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

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

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

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:45 PM

continued from above

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

Other Mods - Ballast Bracket and Lower Mesh Grill Guard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:45 PM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We both switched from R6 tires to A6s for TT session 4, and I was lined up right behind him on the formation lap.

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

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

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:46 PM

continued from above

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At this point I'm pretty mad at Amy for leaving me way less than the 3/4 tank we had agreed on for the start of each session. I guess I wasn't clear enough. Sharing a race car SUCKS, by the way.

I dejectedly head to the local gas station, still painfully in view of the lower corners in the 1.3 section. I wave at some of the drivers as the car guzzles 8 more gallons of 93 octane. By the time I'm back into the track they are on their final lap - I'd never get around in time to get in a hot lap, so I put all my hopes on the final 4th TT session, as Amy is driving next. At least I left her plenty of fuel! hehe....

I get back to our paddock spot, switch transponders, and get her helmet in the car. She waltzes back from somewhere... "Where you been? Why aren't you on track?" Oh that was the wrong thing to ask right then, as the TT field takes the checkered flag.

Somehow after arguing for a few minutes it ends up being my fault, don't ask me how ... I always lose these fights.

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

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

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

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

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

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:47 PM

continued from above

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

What's Next?

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

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

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

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

Epic Amount of Busy

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

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

Mobil1 The Grid

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

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

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:47 PM

last one...

SCCA - Making Progress in Solo?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to a two Mustang team?

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

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

Stay tuned until next time!

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:50 PM

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

Five Star Ford HPDE at Eagles Canyon Raceway - March 23

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eagles Canyon Track Experience - April 6th

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

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

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

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