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

[DirtyD]

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

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

[bird_dog0347]

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

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

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

[DirtyD]

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

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

[JPC]

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

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

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

[Jucostud]

In for the toy run!

[Fair]

Project Update for October 22, 2013: We've been to 3 more events in the red TT3 Mustang since the last update, and in this post we will cover 2 of those. I have written a lot more than that but I'm too far behind to finish the rest today, so let's go with what we have. I will have another post in this thread later this week.

Camaro vs Mustang Battle - Autocross - Oct 5th, 2013



So a local tuning/engine shop we recommend heavily is called True Street Motorsports. They decided to put on a big "Camaro vs Mustang" event at Texas Motorplex and enlisted Vorshlag to run the autocross portion of the event. There was drag racing, there was a car show, and there was an autocross, with 638 entrants signed up beforehand we were ready for a huge event, expecting at least 150 cars at the autocross.



We worked with some folks in the Texas Region SCCA to bring out their trailer, cones, and timing equipment. I had Vorshlag team members plus friends that volunteered to help us set-up and run the event. We had been to the Motorplex weeks before and inspected all of their parking lots, measured them for courses, marked obstacles, and were ready for a killer event!



Amy and I got there at 7 am, as the sun came up, and I was the first vehicle in the gate for the day with Brad driving the SCCA trailer in right behind me. With the help of the Vorshlag crew, we moved a bunch of barrels and "Caution taped" off the confines of the lot we were using. Brad and Gary from the SCCA set-up the trailer and timers while Amy and I laid out a course. I pre-drove the course in the 2013 GT and Brad made some suggestions, which we went with. Lots of helpers marked the cones and I chalked the outsides of the course.



On the day of the event there was nearly a 100% chance of precipitation in the forecast. With mostly drag racers signed up for this event, attendance really suffered due to the rain. Less than 100 people showed up by 10 am, and we had a total of 20 run the autocross event. Oh well, the sponsors all had already paid for the site and such, so we pressed on. It was overcast when we set-up but we managed to get a good course built for the small-ish lot we had available (350 x 375 feet). I still had hopes that more folks would continue to arrive, because autocross events run rain or shine. But the main draw for the event was the drag racing, and those guys don't run in the rain, obviously. We were hoping for a portion of the drag racers to come try autocross for the first time for only $10 more. And for the most part, the folks who did run the autocross were drag racers, except for a handful of Vorshlag customers that came just for this autocross.


"I'd like some Brake Dive with a side of wheelspin, please..."

This was the first autocross course I have set-up in ... maybe 15 years? But its like riding a bike - you never forget. Amy and I had set-up probably 80 autocross courses when we were part of the TAMSCC club in college (and after), down in College Station. The course we came up with ended up being pretty fun, and was all 2nd gear in all of the cars that ran (no 1st gear portions, thankyouverymuch!) with about a 26 second bogey time.



All of the Camaros were 5th generation models and all but one of the Mustangs were S197s (with one SN95 thrown in), and the Mustangs out numbered the Camaros by more than 3 to 1. We had some dry runs from 9:30 until about 11:30, then the looming cold front blew in and the course had to be shut down due to excessive winds for a few minutes. It went from humid and 85°F to a very breezy 55°F in a matter of about 15 seconds. The skies darkened and the winds blew over most of the barrels lining the edge of the course area, and blew over a dozen cones. I went scrambling out on course in one of our bikes to chase down runaway barrels before they made it over to some parked cars. We got that cleaned up, the winds calmed down, and we got back to drivers taking runs shortly after.



Officially we gave each car 4 timed runs but due to the low turnout we allowed unlimited fun runs after their 4th, yet still ranked drivers on their first 4 runs. Most of the entrants took between 10-15 runs, with several over 25 and one Boss302 driver (Brian S, shown above) who took 37 runs! The surface was somewhat abrasive and grippy. Even in the misting precipitation that was present for about an hour, the run times didn't slow down all that much. Nobody was running for a short bit so I took our red Mustang out for 5 runs on a set of R6 tires in the wet, then Ryan swapped on the 18x10s and 295 Nitto street tires and I took another 4 runs on those, setting fast times on both set-ups, but I didn't take part in the competition. Kind of silly to enter an event we were setting up and sponsoring. I took riders on every fun run in this car, including in the video below.



Note to self - put the windshield wipers back on! We had them off for Miller but forgot to reinstall them for this event. Ryan managed to dry the windshield before every fun run we took. Our Mustang ran flawlessly and handled exceptionally well, rotating perfectly in these damp conditions. I was testing the old set of NT-05s (that we ran at Optima in June 2012 and on several track events and autocrosses on the 2013 GT since then) which we had to use for the Goodguys autocross the next day (Sunday). I dunno... felt OK, but again, it was wet.



Mark Council had his black 2012 GT at Vorshlag getting worked on the previous day (Friday), where we installed a new Cobra Suzuka GT seat, with a slider, harness bar and 6-point harness, using our new custom S197 seat bracket (I'll show that below). He also picked up his new 18x11" Forgestar wheels, which we had built using our custom offsets. We mounted a set of fat 315/35/18 Kumho V710 race tires to these wheels and he ended up setting the fastest time of the day with a 23.944 second lap, leading "Team Mustang" by a solid 9 tenths. The top time in a Camaro was a 26.337, Matt Coate driving in a 2011 Camaro SS on street tires. The results for the Mustang vs Camaro event are below.


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[Fair]

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• Event Results Sheet: Click here
• Vorshlag Picture Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...ustang-100513/

After a short 30 minute break for lunch at noon we started back up at 12:30 and had a steady stream of cars on course. By 1 pm we'd had the last few stragglers arrive, get teched by Vorshlag's Ryan, take their 4 official runs plus several fun runs, and had their picture taken on course by Vorshlag's Brandon. So after a 20 minute heads up we wrapped things up at 2 pm, then took another hour picking up the course, taking down the timers/display, and loading the SCCA trailer. Big thanks to the SCCA folks for joining us in this event, that we thought would bring in some new autocrossers. And even with only 20 entrants we had some good "newbie retention", with several of these first timers showing up at the next SCCA autocross (which I will cover below).


In-car video spliced with some external video of the TT3 Mustang running this course in the wet

Sure, it was a short course (23-26 second times) but it was very easy to see, it was fun and flowed well, we had no DNFs and very few cones were hit - even though we used a LOT of cones for the size of the lot and length of course. We did have a few folks that walked the course early on, but due to the nature of the event (drag racers would come over in waves after they made some 1/4 mile passes, so most did NOT walk the course) we needed an easy to see course. We also had to make the course route around 2 big light poles, a number of dips and bumps on the surface, and a building in the corner of the lot, but it was still super safe and everyone seemed to have a ball. When you get people taking 10-30+ fun runs I think you can say they liked it.



One thing that was different about this event, other than the massive number of fun runs, was that competitors did not have to work, which is normally a part of most autocross events. The entrants become volunteers, mostly used to shag cones during run heats they are not racing. But we had it covered, with the two folks from SCCA and the four of us from Vorshlag. We had Amy as the starter, one and sometimes two corner workers (and used a bicycle to get cones too far away), a guy teching cars all day, an announcer, timing operator, and a floater. We had a few friends help with set-up and tear down, but for the most part these 6 people did the bulk of the set-up and run the event. It was a lot of hard work, of course, but I'm glad we didn't have to resort to getting competitors to work corners and all of that. Trying to wrangle corner worker is like trying to herd cats - nobody likes to do it, and these folks had other things going on that day (drag racing + car show stuff). I suspect the next autocross some of these first timers go to after this will be like, "Wait, I have to WORK, too?"

We didn't get a chance to take part in the other activities going on at this "Battle" event, as we were working the autocross all day, but the drag racing portion ran for a couple of hours off and on. We would look up and see/hear the cars blasting down the 1/4 mile strip off and on that day, with big breaks during the two small bouts of misting rain. I believe I saw 3 cars in the car show area when we went by at lunch, too. I think this entire event might have a rain date for a total re-do, but I'm not sure when it is yet (mid November, maybe?). We've got enough events going on during the rest of this year where we won't likely be able to sponsor the autocross again, but maybe next year. It would help everyone involved if they had paid pre-registrations (fewer folks will skip the event that way, relative 500+ Facebook invite "yes" acknowledgements that bailed) and boost attendance, and maybe hold it at a facility that has a better autocross lot (Crandall!). If so, maybe we can be a part of this Camaro vs Mustang event again? We'll see how it looks if they do another one in 2014.

Goodguys All American Sunday Autocross - October 6th at TMS

The very next day that same weekend we had another autocross we wanted to attend. This was the 21st Lone Star Nationals put on by Goodguys, October 4-6, at Texas Motor Speedway. These weekends are really tailored to the hot rod/street rod/car show crowd, with all sorts of car shows, a swap meet, and much more. But in the past few years there has been a big push to include some sort of competition events for the hopped up muscle cars called "G-machines". Most of the places they hold Goodguys weekends don't have the capacity to do road courses, and the speeds and safety issues are higher in that form of competition, so they have adopted a form of autocrossing at most of their events.

Now I use that word loosely, as the Goodguys autocrosses are unlike any other I have ever seen in the 25+ years I have been competing in these events. Goodguys events are usually run on much smaller parking lots and the courses are notoriously TIGHT. They are closer to a gymkhana than anything else, but its all good. This time I at least knew what to expect, unlike at 2012's Hot Rod Power Tour "Optima Challenge" event, when I was shocked to do the entire autocross event there in 1st gear in our Mustang. But I won that event, and this particular Goodguys weekend was the 8th and final Optima Challenge Qualifier for 2013 - and it was right in our back yard - so we had to go.



Not complaining about the course design, just want anyone that goes to these events to know what to expect - tight, ultra low speed events with a LOT of cones, and a different level of competitiveness than the typical SCCA type of autocross. Number of runs might vary, cone rules can vary from run to run, etc. It isn't really about the competition, per se, but more about showing that these muscle cars and hot rods aren't trailer queens - they are driven, and driven hard. Which is VERY cool and I applaud the event organizers for making these autocross events part of their weekends.

The other good part of a Goodguys autocross - the participants don't have to work course. Just like at the event we put on the day before. Racers notoriously HATE working and running to shag cones on course, by the way. Many folks would much rather pay more to NOT have to be an event volunteer at their competition events. I've participated in hundreds of autocross events over the years but I can count the events where racers DIDN'T have to work at the event on one hand, and I remember each one vividly. Kind of speaks for itself that those stick out in my mind, doesn't it? Competitors don't have to work at HPDE, Time Trial and W2W events, either. Just sayin...


Left: The LS1 powered Genesis Coupe Blanton Payne ran on Sunday. Right: The Mini that Blanton drove Fri-Sat, and he and 2 other drivers also drove on Sunday

Anyway, so Ryan swapped the 200 treadwear 295mm tires and wheels onto our Mustang at the end of the Mustang vs Camaro event, reloaded the trailer, and we drove out to Texas Motor Speedway early on Sunday. We couldn't pre-register, so we had to go to the "race hotel" nearby and register between 7 am and noon. We got there at 7 (after dodging some wacky road construction detours) and we tried to sign up with 2 drivers, to better our chances. The Goodguys weekends don't allow anything newer than 1972 model cars to compete in the autocross events held all 3 days of their event weekends... except on Sunday, in an event specifically for 1973-newer American cars or American powered cars. Entry fee is $40, and we were prepared to pay $80 to get both drivers entered, but they said "that isn't needed, just take turns driving". Huh? Really? We both want to race... "No, you're fine, just enter once". OK.

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[Fair]

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Couple of Ride Tech Pro class cars, including the Factory Five replica 32 Ford monster and a beastly truck bodied racer

But they wouldn't let us in with our truck and enclosed trailer, crap. ALL of our autocross and track gear is loaded in there, and we had a giant cooler full of drinks, tools, chairs, sunscreen, rain gear, etc. We found the remote parking lot we were supposed to park the truck and trailer in, located outside of the track. Then we unloaded the car and tried to stash as much of our gear in the trunk and back seat of the Mustang, then drove in to the autocross lot way in the back of the infield paddock area.



It was being held in a smallish, fenced in parking lot I didn't even know existed at TMS, and I've raced inside there many times. We parked and went to walk the course. It was as I expected - SUPER TIGHT, with concrete barriers less than 10 feet from the edge of the course in several places. Knife fight in a phone booth. The lot and layout would give SCCA Safety Chiefs spasms and fits, but its normal for a Goodguys autocross. You are expected to drive in control, and if you don't, you are responsible for the damage. We had some rain overnight and it was seeping up between cracks in the asphalt, but I expected it to dry. As soon as we walked it Amy said "No way, YOU are driving all of the runs."

We were unsure how the event would run, so I asked some folks there that I knew. Turns out we knew a bunch of people who were either competing in the "All American Challenge" or that were just making runs in the cars that competed on Friday and Saturday. Yes, they let anyone that was paid up for the autocross from any of the 3 days make runs, which meant the Sunday competitors would be getting fewer runs. I was told the competition would be from about 9:30 or 10 am until 12:30, then they'd stop the competition but continue to take fun runs until about 2 pm. If Amy were to drive with our single entry, we'd have to split our runs, as the cars are run through in order, and make one run, then you park and wait your next turn. It seemed like the competition part was almost secondary, and I was really just hoping for an Optima invite - which doesn't necessarily go to the fastest cars at any Optima Qualifier, as we noticed last year.



Amy and I took a couple of walk-thrus and tried to memorize the somewhat complicated course, much of which was run twice in a given run, with 2 different "changes in course" portions that you had to remember to do in the right order. The video below might explain the course better. In this, my 2nd of 3 total runs, you can see how many times I shift from 2nd back to 1st (3 times per run), and how little traction I had with the year old Nitto NT-05 tires. I had planned on bringing the Mustang on a fresh set of 315/30/18 BFG Rivals, but my racing budget just didn't allow for it, and I kind of figured that winning wouldn't really matter much.



My first run was tough, as the width of the splitter barely fit through some sections of the course, and I kicked a cone with the splitter on one of the 1st gear turn-arounds. My second run (video above) still felt pretty rough to me, and was riddled with mistakes, but it was at least clean. The car felt so wide and there was ZERO traction leaving the line, plus the front end was pushing HORRIBLY in the higher speed (35 mph in 2nd gear) super tight right-hander that I had to navigate twice per run. Had to crawl around the course, super conservative, to keep from mowing down the tight bits.

Somehow that 2nd run put me in the lead, with a 71.82 sec time. That made the on rush of people stopping by step up even more, with tons of questions about the racey bits they could see. I kept reiterating that this was a street car, with A/C, interior, emissions, and tags. There were several of the muscle car "Pros" running that had mega prepped engines and even one re-bodied NASCAR chassis, but the Mustang looked more like a race car, even though it really wasn't all that fast on this crazy tight course.


No helmet? No problem. Concrete barriers? Fences a little close? Don't hit 'em.

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[Fair]

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My 3rd run came around and I had another passenger (took riders on runs 1 and 3), and somehow I managed to go into THIRD gear on one run, meaning to grab 1st. That run was cleaner and faster, up until that point, and I lost a lot of time re-shifting the car once I figured out the problem. It was a hair slower than my 2nd, with the mega-screw-up in there. And sure enough, someone who had been driving all 3 days snuck in a quicker run on the 3rd and final run group, driving his wife's Camaro ZL-1 automatic convertible. Beat me by .01 seconds, oh well.



Turns out there was a FREE SET OF BFG TIRES on the line for the winner, which I didn't learn about until after my 3rd run. What?! Knowing this up front I would have taken the day a WHOLE lot more seriously - with no passengers, more walk-thrus, and maybe even ponied up for real tires. These old Nittos were shot, and I knew it before I got there. Stupid, stupid, stupid...



I should have known about the potential tire winnings, because as it turns out that was all I had the hope of winning - as I had zero chance of getting the Optima Invite. I talked to the Optima rep who was there picking the one car (he picked this Ford Maverick for the final 2013 qualifier before the 10 picks he will get from the floor at SEMA), and he said "the Mustang just looks too much like a race car". The wing and front aero along with the stripes and graphics were just too much. So the chances of going to the Optima Shootout after SEMA for this car were squashed, but he did tell me what they are looking for. I'll try to build our E46 LS1 Alpha car more explicitly for this type of event in 2014, now that I know what to do and what NOT to do to a car.

After our 3rd runs the line for the drivers wanting to get on course got really long, as more and more drivers from Friday and Saturday kept pouring in all day to take fun runs. And the Pro drivers kept hopping back in line, over and over, so this meant the competition for the All American Sunday event would end with 3 runs. We could have stuck around for fun runs, but I was so pissed at myself for throwing away a free set of tires by blowing a shift, Amy grabbed me and made me walk around the car show areas to blow off steam. And we found out later that if Amy would have paid for that second entry (like we tried to do) that we could have hopped back into rotation twice as many times as I drove. It was... kind of a free for all, but that's how they do their events, so I'm not going to knock it. Just wish I had done a bit more research and prep (pulling the splitter off would have cut 8" of width from the front of the car!) before signing up.


Mike Dusold's very well built twin turbo LS1 '67 Camaro was brutally fast on 315mm Rivals

We walked the swap meet area very briefly, and not seeing anything we could want moved to the car show area. There were some beautiful cars there, and several kick ass 60s/70s muscle cars that I can relate to, but mostly things I cannot comprehend or understand. Air bags and 30" wheels and acres of chrome. By now it was getting towards 1:30 pm and we were starving, so we went back to the autocross area and packed up all of our junk and headed for the tunnel leaving the track. Before we left I talked to some friends, congratulated Mike Dusold for winning the day before in his twin turbo LS1 '67 Camaro and snagging the invite to the Scottsdale Goodguys Nationals, and away we went. We were already exhausted from the event the day before and really wanted to get home and rest before heading to work early Monday morning.


Left: The Mustang drew a fairly large crowd all day. Right: SCCA autocrosser Norm snapped a pic of me and Amy

All in all, the Goodguys weekends are pretty cool, and there is some amazing machinery there, but their Sunday autocross deal is not really targeted to people like me. The autocross format is too different than what I'm used to; the safety requirements (no helmets, course barriers) and course layout were so far removed from a "normal" SCCA autocross that it became a distraction. But they had a good announcer talking up the competitors, a big crowd watching and cheering all day, and it was still fun.

Results: https://good-guys.com/lsn-ac-13 (note: all other class results were from different days)
Photo gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...ys-TMS-100613/

After missing out on winning a set of tires by .01 seconds, due to some stupid driving mistakes and showing up on absolute crap tires (when will I ever learn?!), plus the "no chance" for an Optima invite, I was in a foul mood. But even a bad day racing beats a good day at work, right? At this event I did find out that Amy really likes the looks and lines of the old muscle cars and she wants us to build a g-machine from an old Mustang fastback "some day". I'm definitely down with that. I grew up building muscle cars when I was a wee lad back in high school, so these cars are already part of my past. One thing I might suggest for anyone thinking about entering and/or building a car for these Goodguys events - don't skimp on tires (build around a 315mm BFG Rival), gear the car for 10-35 mph events, and add some extra steering lock for navigating SUPER tight turns. Keep the car narrow and keep the car light.


Some of the cars from the show car area included some of the Pro class autocross crowd

After we left we were both so tired we just wanted to go home and sleep. Which we did for most of the afternoon. Luckily TMS is less than an hour from our house so we were home by 3 pm. Just wanted to mention that the track itself was very nice, with clean bathrooms, good food, and friendly staff directing us at the gate and inside.

More Soon

I've got several more posts written but I need to stop here to post. I should have another post on Friday, with coverage of an SCCA autocross held on the TMS Infield Road Course and hopefully a link to the auction for the Mustang. One more big event on the schedule for the TT3 Mustang, NASA @ ECR, Nov 2-3. Then both Mustangs will be likely sold.

More soon,

[03MachMe]

Originally Posted by Fair

look at these sexy beasts!!!

[Fair]

Project Update for November 25, 2013: Wow, really got swamped for the past few weeks and haven't made an update to this thread, and a lot has gone on in the background. We were short 3 people during the week of SEMA, hired a new Ops Manager, and got swamped in service jobs and orders in the past week. So please excuse the tardy updates. Let's see... I will talk about our last autocross in the red 2011 GT, which was the annual "TMS Road Course" autocross event. I will then touch on the eBay auctions on both S197 test mules and what's next.

SCCA @ TMS Road Course Autocross - Oct 13th

Before this autocross event in October we had about 3 weeks of busy time at the shop. The Mustang did so well at TWS all we did was change the oil (which we do after every other event) and do a typical "pre-race inspection". The guys ended up leaving the brakes, wheels, tires and other systems untouched.

For whatever reason the racing schedule was pretty light in October this year. There was no NASA event this month (but two in September, with Miller Nats and TWS), so Amy and I signed up for this SCCA Solo event on the 13th in the TT3 Mustang. This was no run of the mill autocross but instead the annual "road course autocross" event this region runs inside the super speedway at Texas Motor Speedway, on the infield road course (see image below).


Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, Texas, has a NASCAR/IndyCar super speedway plus an itty bitty infield road course.

If you've been reading this build thread for a while you might remember that I ran this road course in our Mustang in September of 2012 with Global Time Attack. The course we ran with GTA was the same basic 1.56 mile layout (the red course in that link) as this autocross followed, but it was done at MUCH faster speeds with GTA, because they didn't add elements to this flat road course to slow us down. That GTA event was a lot of fun, and we met a lot of cool racers and saw some amazing cars. We were all sorely disappointed that GTA couldn't come back to TMS in 2013. A few local shops are working with us to try to get Jason Dienhart and his GTA circus to come back through Texas next year, and we even have proposed a "GTA" type class to run in NASA Texas TT, as a provisional/regional class. More on that in a later post.


Running this road course.... as a road course, in Sept 2012 with GTA

So with GTA I ran a 39.87 second lap (with my transponder off) and an official 39.975 lap to win Unlimited RWD class, but this autocross set-up would not be a complete lap of the 1.56 mile road course. It would instead have a separate Start and Finish gates that chopped off about a 1/4 mile of track, to allow for a braking area after the finish lights. And at GTA I was topping out 4th gear going into turn 1 (about 120 mph) and using only 3rd and 4th gears. To keep it from being a 25 second long autocross course with speeds much higher than SCCA allows, there were a few (hundred) cones added. But we knew what to expect, as Amy and I have run this event with the Texas Region SCCA many times over the past 7 or 8 years.


Amy pulls up to the start line, which just before the "crossover" and the start/finish line we used in GTA

This "TMS road course autocross" event is always lots of fun for area autocrossers, and they have to cap the entries at about 165. This event gives autocross racers a place to run outside of the normal parking lot confines, and on a real live road course at that. Autocrossing on a road course might seem alien to some, but I started out in an autocross club (TAMSCC) that regularly held high speed autocrosses on road courses (TWS "Aggiecross", Riverside Annex Firecracker 1.4, Riverside 4-10 split "Police Course", etc). Then running with Spokes down in Houston (Heritage Center!) or SCCA in Houston (at the Blimp Base, now known as GrandSport Speedway) I was exposed to even more road course autocrosses. So I was event chairman for these "road course" events multiple times and made hundreds of runs on autocrosses where we regularly used 4th gear, so it only seems natural to me to autocross on the biggest, fastest sites and road courses you can find. This is why I cringe so hard when I run needlessly tight autocross events, like what Goodguys holds (1st gear only). That stuff is what is alien to me.


Giant, open, fast autocrosses run on road course sized layouts are what I grew up on. My ESP '87 Mustang back in 1992

Sure, this TMS event has a little extra speed (high 70s/low 80s for the faster cars), but it is still nowhere near what the unrestricted course would let them see (I only used 1st-2nd-3rd gears on this course in autocross form). And it is still relatively safe, as autocrosses go. I wish more SCCA autocross regions tried this type of road course event once a year or so, to help bridge the MASSIVE gap that there seems to be between autocrossers and club racers. We constantly hear that the SCCA is hemorrhaging members and much of that is from their dwindling numbers of club racers, as there seems to be very little new blood coming into their ranks. The PDX series (SCCA version of HPDE + Time Trial) is one such bridge between these two competitive groups within SCCA, but it seems that the rules makers have made it extremely difficult (read: expensive) to do PDX events, requiring the same safety gear ($$$) as club racing in many classes. I've begged our SCCA region's officers to come join us at a NASA race weekend to see how that club has made the switch from HPDE to TT to Club Racing so seamless and painless... but that's a different discussion for a different time.


Amy (at left) ran in W class in the Mustang, battling her best friend Melinda in her BSP C4 Corvette (at right)

Anyway, this TMS road course autocross is always on our calendar, and considering our plans for 2014 and the upcoming auction of this TT3 Mustang, we had planned to make this our last autocross in the red car. Looking back over the past 3 and a half years of racing in this Mustang, from where we started out (with our initial plans just to autocross this car in STX, where it floundered) to where it ended up (built for and around NASA TT rules, where it flourished), having our last autocross in it at a road course seems strangely appropriate.

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[El_Tortuga]

If the NASA formula is all about lb/peak hp, why not do a custom tune to pull a little power back just at the peak rpm? I.e build a flatter power curve that would allow you to run a lower weight car and still have all the ponies in all the other rpms.

[El_Tortuga]

Originally Posted by El_Tortuga If the NASA formula is all about lb/peak hp, why not do a custom tune to pull a little power back just at the peak rpm? I.e build a flatter power curve that would allow you to run a lower weight car and still have all the ponies in all the other rpms.

Not just pulling timing, but Coyote motor could play with cam timing too

[modernbeat]

Originally Posted by El_Tortuga If the NASA formula is all about lb/peak hp, why not do a custom tune to pull a little power back just at the peak rpm? I.e build a flatter power curve that would allow you to run a lower weight car and still have all the ponies in all the other rpms.

We've considered it. And we did something like that when we autocrossed the car in an attempt to reduce rear wheelspin. But, if you look at our current dyno charts you will see the power is not very peaky and we use everything we have. NASA also has a corollary that prevents diesel style power curves with huge amounts of torque and low horsepower.

[csamsh]

Originally Posted by modernbeat We've considered it. And we did something like that when we autocrossed the car in an attempt to reduce rear wheelspin. But, if you look at our current dyno charts you will see the power is not very peaky and we use everything we have. NASA also has a corollary that prevents diesel style power curves with huge amounts of torque and low horsepower.

Do the Evo's know this? Ha.