dfw

**Jucostud** · 10-12-2013, 02:54 PM

In for the toy run!

Fair · 10-22-2013, 12:48 PM

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 · 10-22-2013, 12:54 PM

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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 · 10-22-2013, 12:55 PM

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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 · 10-22-2013, 12:57 PM

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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,

Fair · 10-30-2013, 06:43 PM

Project Update for Oct 30th, 2013: It is that day I have dreaded... the eBay auctions are live for both our TT3 prepped 2011 Mustang GT and our 2013 GT. Don't want to sell either car, especially the 2011, but the business craves cash. We're trying to get into a bigger building next year and I've got too much capital tied up in cars. The 2011 GT is obviously set-up for TT3 use, in likely its fastest iteration yet for the past 3+ years, but it is also street legal. The 2013 GT was taken back as close to stock as I care to get it, with more details shown in the eBay auctions for both cars.

I have spent close to 30 hours over the past week writing, laying out, editing and coding the auction pages for these two cars. I've read through these pages so many times my eyes are bugging out, so please don't point out any more of my spelling or grammar errors, heh. The guys at the shop did a great job cleaning up the cars, taking the pictures, and helping me edit these pages.

The eBay auction for the Vorshlag TT3 Mustang is now underway. This is one of the fastest street legal S197 Mustangs on track in the country. Please click the image above so get to the auction. You can come see this car in action one last time this weekend at Eagles Canyon Raceway, Friday-Sunday, where Amy and I will be racing with NASA and looking for track record #8 for the year. Auction duration is 7 days and ends on Nov 6th. The bidding action has been very steady today on this one...

If our TT3 prepped 2011 GT is too racey for you, Vorshlag is also selling our super clean and mostly stock 2013 GT in another eBay auction. This black on black 6-spd car has under 6K miles, is lowered on 5300-P springs, has a few Whiteline parts, and comes with the 14" Brembo front brakes and 19x9" OEM wheels. Take a look at the eBay auction which also began Oct 30th and also ends Nov 6th. Good number of bids on this car as well.

That's all I have for today. And before you ask (again) we are moving these two Mustangs out to make room for the upcoming "S550" 2015 Mustang GT, which we hope to have early next Spring. We are NOT abandoning the S197 chassis and might pick up another next year to use for continued development. We still have a LOT of items we will be creating for this chassis and we still work on 5-10 different S197s per week in our shop. I will be adding to this build thread for years to come, don't worry. I still have the TMS Road Course autocross to cover plus a bunch of new parts we have added to our website or are about to release. There will be more posts next week.

One quick request: if you liked reading about this 2011 and 2013 GTs, please go to the Vorshlag Facebook page (here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vorshlag/460717830112), like the page (almost at a "milestone" number), then find the two posts I made for these S197 eBay auctions and "like" those as well. If you could share either or both that really helps spread the word.

Thanks,

**03MachMe** · 10-30-2013, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by Fair

look at these sexy beasts!!!

Fair · 11-26-2013, 05:14 PM

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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Fair · 11-26-2013, 05:19 PM

continued from above

All day long Amy and I both gave ride-alongs on our autocross runs. Amy ran in the Women's class (so she could support the class which she kind of helped set-up a couple of years ago) and I again ran in the "X" pro class. I don't consider myself a "Pro" but rather I just run in this PAX factored "catch all" class when the heat schedule balances out. The PAX factor for StreetMod class (where this TT3 car happens to end up) is terrible and I had no illusions of winning this class, especially with as tight as this course is usually run, but I had hope that Amy could do well.

This was the first SCCA event we ran with the new splitter and flares. The Mustang had a huge crowd around it all day, with a line for ride-alongs

Event Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...tober-13-2013/
Event Class Results: http://www.texasscca.org/2013_solo_r...13_8_final.htm
Event PAX Results: http://www.texasscca.org/2013_solo_r...tr13_8_pax.htm

This event had some sketchy overcast weather with some spitting, misty rain off and on all day. It made for a slick surface, and in my in-car video where it looks like the front end is pushing out and the rear is loose, well, it was because it was always just a little bit wet. The tires we ran on that day were the old A6 Hoosiers that we well and truly used up at TWS with NASA TT (we can kill a set of new A6 tires at a NASA TT weekend in about 20-30 laps), and not what I'd even remotely call fresh. But for an event we were just running for fun, this was a perfect use for that last little bit of rubber.

As you know we have been concentrating on NASA finishes in 2013, so we've not taken SCCA autocross competition/tires/classing seriously at all, and as a result I've been a lot happier, heh. Honestly, for what we need to do with our test mules here at Vorshlag, running our cars around NASA's somewhat open TT ruleset allows us the freedom to build and test parts that more people will want to use, so we will likely stick to this plan in the future (that means: don't look for our 2015 Mustang to be running in ESP class). We also ran our normal Carbotech XP20 track duty pads, which do NOT work cold, so the first runs on cold brakes are pretty much throw-aways. Last excuse for the day: since I was running in "X" class, only my first 3 runs are counted (they DSQ all of the runs after the 3rd, just for this class), so my fastest run (4th) didn't count for the class or in the PAX results.

Left: Slaloms for Safety! Right: Coming into the finish

That is a shame, since I dropped some time on my 4th run, which would have PAXed about around 6th overall. Instead I was PAXed in 9th, kind of goofing around, on old junk tires and using the painful StreetMod PAX factor (.867). With ESP's .849 PAX factor (this car is a LOT closer to ESP than SMod) my clean 4th run would have been 3rd fastest PAX time out of 162 entries, but whatever... that's just bench racing. Yes, I have difficulty switching off that competition gene at SCCA events... I'm hoping over time I will care even less.

In my humble opinion, the course designers use too many cones when they do their road course autocross event at TMS, and they make some of the "slow down" elements EXTREMELY tight. I guess to make it "safe", but the black helicopters make me think it is to keep higher powered/track worthy cars from PAXing well, ha! There were some of the same "Miata straights" that I had to come to a stop in (where a narrow car can take almost flat out), and there were plenty of slaloms and typical "chicanes for safety" course design elements, which inadvertently ends up allowing cars to have spins that can seldom (but predictably) lead into concrete walls. Which happened again, like clockwork. I'm not just saying this to be a complainer, but to offer up some alternatives. "Speed doesn't kill". What causes incidents are big changes in direction in higher speed sections near immobile elements. Whenever I see slaloms or huge offsets into a finish or near a fence or wall, a red flag goes off in my brain. And when they try to slow down cars with big offsets on a straight away near a concrete wall, I can predict with nearly 100% accuracy that somebody is gonna smack it.

This element was entered at nearly 80 mph, after a super tight offset, into this super tight box. Which wrecks the flow of this road course

Sure, it is easy to "Monday Morning Quarterback" this difficult and unusual event they hold each year, but I am actually going to try help do something about it. A few of us are working on a possible new/different road course to procure for 2014 or 2015, for this annual autocross. Why? Because I've set up about a dozen of these super high speed autocross events in the past, have set up over 80 autocross courses in total, and have run on virtually every road course in Texas for dozens to hundreds of laps on each. With some other like minded autocross/time trial racers I think we can ferret out something that is safe for an autocross yet still keeps the flow and flavor of a road course. More on that as things develop.

I ran in the 1st heat, Amy ran in the 3rd heat, and we both worked in the timing trailer in 2nd heat. I was announcer, trying to give the spectators a good show, and Amy worked the timing computer. When I got the car to grid I aired up the tires - I finally brought an air tank to an autocross event and used it, so my first run I actually had enough tire pressure for once. We had walked this 1.4 mile course once and I knew it would drive tight, but this was a new level of tight. Almost every year that they have run this course there has been a small "incident" or two, so the next year they just make the elements tighter and nastier, to the point where it was this year where I could barely fit through some gates. I clipped a cone on run 1 and set-up to make a clean "Safety" pass for run 2, which is shown below with in-car video.

click image above for in-car video of Terry's 2nd 46.286 second run

There are some mistakes in that run, as always, but it was mostly decent and had no cones. Again, it was a bit damp and slippery all day, and with nearly bald A6s, driving the car was a constant dance on the head of a pin. I had a first-time-spectator riding along, who had an absolute blast. The last section before the finish is super tight and I had to downshift to 2nd gear to get the car to rotate enough to make the finish. It led to some significant wheelspin, but it was controllable.

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Fair · 11-26-2013, 05:20 PM

continued from above

My 3rd run was much of the same, and was quicker up to the finish area, but the self-induced wheelspin was a bit much and I let it get a bit too sideways... so I took a little off-course excursion to avoid hitting the finish lights or any cones. Again, violent changes in direction right at a finish is a sure fire way to have some car collect the timing lights, which happens more than people think. I knew the car was heading for the lights so when it was sideways and beyond the point of staying off the cones/lights, I cranked in more steering to keep it out of harm's way, avoiding even a cone smack but touching the dirt with two tires. Oh well.

A little induced oversteer was used to navigate the super tight finish section. Twin stripes of rubber can be seen behind the car

After I got the inner hoonigan out of my system I took a more controlled 4th run, which doesn't count in X class. This time I didn't do any stupid "downshift at the finish" and jut let the motor bog in 3rd gear, and of course it was clean and 3 tenths faster than my 2nd run, even with a tick more moisture coming down. While I got pummeled in the PAX factored X class (6th of 13) my 2nd run time as still 9th in PAX overall, like I said above. I had fun but felt the extreme tightness of the elements on this course was unnecessary. I do hope local autocrossers who go to this event that have never done an HPDE or track event don't equate this course to how track events really feel. And I don't complain just to complain - I honestly think this type of autocross event could be held at a better road course venue and not need anywhere near as many cones to stay safe.

I got to ride along with Melinda in the BSP C4 Corvette above. Wow, that thing was FAST. This is a dedicated BSP autocross car that won BSP at Nationals in back in like 2005 or so? It uses 315/335mm Hoosier A6s and has an LT4 swap. Total grip machine with more than enough power. We're building a C4 Corvette track car for a customer at the shop right now, and these models are a real bargain at the moment - if you don't mind working on 25+ year old cars. Sadly, this circa-1984 Corvette suspension is light years ahead of the McStrut/stick axle Mustangs.

Even though I barely edged out Jason McCall (Melinda's husband and a good friend of mine) in X class (due to his cone trouble), his raw times were a good bit faster. I've owned and raced C4 Corvettes in the past and these C4s make terrible street cars, in case you were wondering.

Amy ran in the 3rd of 4 heats, and she was pretty dang close on my heels with a 46.337 sec 3rd run (only a tenth back from my official fastest run), also taking passengers each time. Well, if you ignore my clean 4th run of a 45.968 (no good for X class), which was a little quicker. Still, she managed to wring a lot out of the car with very little autocross seat time in the past couple of months. She won the "W" class, and either of us would have won StreetMod by 2 seconds or ESP by 4 seconds. She ran "W" simply to support the regional class she helped create a couple of years ago. I normally have to beg her to run in a "Ladies class".

After removing the AST remote reservoir double adjustable shocks from the 2013 GT we made some new fliers and brought it to the TMS event to show off to potential buyers, before the auction started. Hundreds of people drove by this car but we were never there to answer any questions. I think 2 fliers were taken, yay...

As much as I have complained about the pinched and erratic course design used on this road course, which I'm sure the Safety Stewards are dictating much of at this point, this event was still a LOT of fun. The Texas Region folks ran everything like clockwork and even with 162 entrants and 4 runs each the entire event was wrapped up by 4:30 pm.

Since Amy and had worked early and both had our runs over after the 3rd heat, we loaded up the Red Mustang, stowed our gear in the trailer and were on the road out by 3:30 pm. It was a fun day and normally I would have stuck around to watch 4th heat, but the weather was just so "blah", and we were tired from working the past 3 weeks in our normal "7 days a week" schedule at the shop, so we headed out during the 4th heat. We ate some good lunch with the McCall's at a California Pizza Kitchen on the way home, then crashed out for the rest of the day.

From Auctions To Classified Ads

So it has been a couple of weeks since both of the eBay auctions ended on our black 2013 GT and the red TT3 prepped 2011 GT. Neither car made reserve but I think it was mostly timing. November is a terrible month traditionally in the aftermarket, and it is known by "Slowvember". I should have known better trying to auction cars this month, heh. Anyway, we've relaunched both auctions to regular classified ads, linked below. I've actually "sold" the black 2013 GT four times over, but due to flaky buyers the deals have all fallen through. Don't get me started...

Anyone that is looking for either type of car, please call us at the shop (972-422-7170). I'm not desperate to sell them at some fire sale price, and please refrain from asking for us to part them out - we're not to that point yet, and hopefully won't get there. I would like to move both of these by the end of the year, of course.

What's Next?

I am going to stop there, as there's still a lot to cover on the TT3 car (and I have a lot more written) but I've waited too long since my last post. In my next thread update we will cover the NASA race weekend at Eagles Canyon Raceway Nov 2-3rd, which went well but was also a bit frustrating in a few ways (which I will explain in detail) for the TT3 car. Double win, new personal best, new track record, and 4 tires won... but the class was fierce (biggest TT class both days) and 2nd place was closer than ever!

I also got to finally drive an S197 Mustang on track with MCS TT1 singles, which were amazing. This customer daily drives her car and tracks it 2+ times a month, and this damper set-up was amazing. I drove her car previously on the stock shocks with camber plates and this was a night and day difference. I got to take about 6 laps at speed at ECR with the owner riding along, and there is video with data and timing on it we are going to try to share. We've also made some progress and updated our ST2 BMW E36 LS1 built thread (and added it to the NASA forums), which is going to be our "tweener" race car after this TT3 2011 Mustang and before the 2015 Mustang arrives.

We are going to run the TT3 Mustang on track one more time, to test a fix to the throttle body circuit (which I will explain in my next post - the guys are swapping out throttle bodies today). So if you are in or near Dallas/Ft. Worth and want a ride in a 1:55 car at ECR - and especially if you are interested in buying this car - come out to the ECR Toy Run December 7th (see details here). This is also the least expensive track day of the year, and all proceeds benefit two good causes, so come out, bring something with 4 wheels, and join in the fun!

Thanks for reading,

Fair · 12-03-2013, 01:14 PM

Project Update for December 2nd, 2013: After the October TMS road course autocross the next event on our race schedule wasn't for three whole weeks. The gaps between race weekends are getting longer as the season winds down. Of course I had something going on every weekend day between these events, but at least not any races. We were wrapping up the last of the work on the 2011 GT, both for this season ending NASA weekend at ECR as well as before the car would (hopefully) be sold an upcoming eBay auction (it wasn't). We were slammed at the shop during this 3 week break but we made time to finish the pre-race prep a few days before the Nov 2-3 race weekend, where we pick up below.

While the shop was working on getting the car ready, Brandon made the new TT race map for ECR, shown above. We took the satellite image and found that the old 2008 track map we had been using for years was not drawn to scale. Our new ECR track map (above right) is not perfect but a lot closer to reality than the old map. We marked the "bunch up" and "go" green zones and marked the corner numbers the same as always, then made 40+ copies for the Time Trial racers to use in our meetings.

Pre-ECR Race Prep

This was the last NASA competition event we had planned for this car, so we worked hard to wrap up any unfinished projects and upgrades before we went to ECR. This included tweaks to the flares, brakes, and rear diff catch can system.

Jason worked on the flares, wrapping our black ABS work in red vinyl that matched the factory Race Red paint. Then he cut new stripes fore the sides and with Brandon's help they re-applied the strips to the flare section. This made them look less ugly than they did before, and was something we should have made time to do before going to Miller or TWS in the last few months.

Ryan re-routed the lines for the oil catch can/vacuum recovery system after seeing the hoses keep flattening out from a high vacuum condition. We've been chasing the correct routing for this system for months, and the way some Ford guys told us to do it wasn't working (they set-up these cars simply as an external breather, but we wanted to pull a slight vacuum on the crankcase). The vacuum source we were using was too strong, though, and sucking the hoses flat. We punted and temporarily just turned this system into a vented catch can system without vacuum (which we fixed after this race weekend; I will show that in my next post).

As I mentioned at Miller, the front Brembo calipers on this car have seen at least 100 cycles on and off the car. We used to swap rotors and pads between a street/autocross set-up and the track-only stuff. So some of the threaded mounting holes were starting to wear and had to be repaired (helicoil). We had picked up a spare set of new Brembo calipers to have on hand "just in case", and the Thursday before this weekend's events the guys in our shop were bleeding a little fluid through the calipers when one of the threaded hole for the banjo bolt/brake hose finally stripped. It was time to replace the front calipers (we had replaced the rears when we went to the 13.8" GT500 rotors out back), so they put on the new set and stuck the old ones in the "spares" pile to be rebuilt (for the 3rd time) and to have the stripped hole re-tapped and helicoiled.

Once the new Brembo front calipers were swapped on (along with new brake pad pins and clips + the existing Carbotech pads that we used at Miller & TWS), the rest of the car was "nut and bolted" and inspected closely. One change was made to the routing of the diff vent tube overflow line and that system was buttoned up. The "AGM" style, 14 pound Odyssey PC680 battery was charged up (its starting to get tired after 3 years of street and track use, so we will finally replace it after this next race weekend) and the car went into the trailer with all of our gear. We loaded the car on a well worn set of 315/30/18 Hoosier R6 tires but a fresh sticker set of A6s were mounted and balanced onto the "white" showcar wheels and those were loaded in the trailer, to hopefully be installed Friday night at the end of our planned test day.

ECR Test Day, Friday Nov 1st, 2013 - Day 1 of 3

With the trailer loaded I picked up Ryan at the shop at 7 am on Friday morning and we towed the 70 miles out to ECR, in heavy morning commute traffic. The plan was to get there around 8, find a good paddock spot for the weekend, unload the car, unhook the trailer, run some laps and tweak the set-up for a few hours, then swap on the A6 tire set at the end of the day, stuff the car back inside the trailer for the night, and head back to the shop in the truck. If all went well we'd come attack the NASA weekend on Saturday morning in TT3, already set-up and with me "mentally ready" to put in my best laps in an early session. Getting there Friday would also ensure we had a better paddock space for the weekend. I took a few (crappy) pictures with camera phone, and had the Nikon ready for use by Ryan, but there is not much photo coverage of this Friday test day.... because everything went pear shaped.

We actually got there by 8:30am (morning traffic was murder) but the weather was absolutely beautiful (the area had gotten 3 inches of rain the two days previous, though, so it was very muddy off track!); low 60s with plenty of sun and breeze. We unloaded the Mustang and I noticed that the fuel gauge was almost on "E". Hmm, that was a mistake at the shop. :/ Should have fueled it up before it was loaded. We looked in the trailer and only had one spare fuel jug, which was of course empty, for mistake number two. Oh well, no worries - the track has 4 grades of fuel at their pumps... right?

Wrong. The pumps were completely out. Great! (they got a fuel delivery late that afternoon). I quickly went out on track briefly at the end of the first track session and made one test lap but the car ran very poorly, bucking and popping like it was misfiring badly. Zero power and very worrying, so I immediately came in and talked with Ryan. We thought that with such a low fuel load maybe it was fuel starving EVERYWHERE? Weird. So let's resolve that by getting fuel before I fret too much.

Our next task was a hunt for fuel jugs. We went asking around in paddock and borrowed 5 empty fuel jugs from an American Iron racer, then took that plus our single empty jug we had brought and drove 15 miles to the nearest gas station. We filled up with 30 gallons of 93 octane fuel, put 10 of that into the Mustang and kept our 5 gallon jug filled for use later in the day. The AI racer gave us some cash for the 15 gallons we got for him, and we could finally get started for the day. So I went out a second time with more than enough fuel now and made another lap. No better - motor was still running very badly, misfiring, bucking, and popping, at both part throttle and WOT. Immediately came in since I didn't want to hurt anything.

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Fair · 12-03-2013, 01:18 PM

continued from above

Investigations began looking for the poor running issue

At this point I'm freaking out while Ryan was calmly diagnosing things, checking for any visible issues, but couldn't find anything obviously wrong. He would find something small, fix it, and we would go blast down the highway or take another lap, and the car always ran like crap. Re-routted vacuum lines, fixed a chafed wire, pulled the spark plugs, checked a lot of things, and looked at any engine codes each time. Finally traced it down to a recurring code showing "Bank 1 lean", all the time. Kept resetting, going back out on track or on the highway. Bank 1 Lean, Bank 1 Lean, kept popping up. Nothing we tried worked. Ryan spoke with Sean at True Street, who thought that it had to be sensor or something electrical, and told us to look at the O2 sensors first.

Meanwhile we had a lot of other customers out at ECR that day also, some of whom needed a hand with this or that, or came by to talk with us, so it was a very hectic day. Long story short by 4 pm we were out of ideas and the car was still running poorly. I felt like crap (hadn't slept in over 2 days), had just got some bad news at the shop the night before (our new Ops Manager had turned in his notice!), and the prospect of racing this car in this final NASA Texas weekend looked slim. My 2013 goal of setting every TT3 lap record on the Texas schedule would be squashed. Damn it! I was really pessimistic but Ryan thought it must have a fouled O2 sensor. He made some calls and we found that the closest Oxygen sensor was at a Ford dealer 50 miles away (they only had one!), so we made the call - lets head back to the shop.

Of course we had ALL of our gear unloaded and the trailer set-up for the upcoming race weekend: chairs, coolers, tables, parts displays, wheels/tires, tools, and we had a perfect paddock spot. Grrr... so we loaded everything back up, loaded the car, rehooked up the trailer, and we left the track by 4 pm. I called Brandon at our shop and had him run to the Ford dealer to get this O2 sensor (about $130, since it is a wide band) then run by my house to also get our stock 2013 Mustang GT. We were going to pull parts off that car and swap sensors over until we found the issue, if we had to - I wasn't missing this last race of the year, not at my home track!

Even with only a handful of laps the mesh grill was packed with grasshoppers

So we kept talking ourselves into this issue being a bad O2 (pre-cat), and I knew it wasn't mechanical. The engine has been rock solid reliable for over 3 years and it ran perfectly when we loaded it into the trailer after the last event in October. Had to be electrical in nature...right? So we hauled ass across town, through more murderous 5 o'clock Friday traffic and got back to the shop around 6 pm.

At this point Ryan was coming down with a cold and I was so tired I couldn't see straight, so Olof and Kyle did most of the wrenching at the shop. Kyle has a better scan tool here that also data logs and it was pointing to a bad Oxygen sensor. Amy brought everyone some food (Ryan and I had skipped breakfast and lunch out at the track, since it was such a thrash). They got both pre-cat O2 sensors pulled and, lo and behold... Bank 1 O2 was blacker than midnight. The Bank 2 sensor looked fine (tan), so we swapped in the ONE new sensor we could buy in town that day and fired it up. The 2013 GT was still there in case we needed to rob another one, but we hoped this lone sensor would do it. Fired right up, cleared the codes, and I took the car around on a drive of our test loop with Ryan riding shotgun again. All of the problems cleared up before we left the parking lot. Woo! No more bucking, hiccups, nothing. Well, I noticed one or two small hiccups at part throttle tip-in, but we chalked that up to fouled spark plugs.

We got back after our 2 mile street drive, I did a few donuts in the parking lot, and pulled it right into the trailer. Man, that was a huge relief! Ryan was still wrenching on the car inside the trailer, but everything was buttoned up and ready for transport by 8 pm, after a long 13 hour day. We ended up leaving the R6 set on the car for use in the first "Warm Up" session Saturday, since those times wouldn't count (this was a mistake, in hindsight). I finally went home with the truck and trailer to try to get some much needed sleep, where I promptly passed out.

NASA at ECR, Saturday, Nov 2nd, 2013 - Day 2 of 3

After a ridiculously early start Amy and I got out to ECR again before dawn, looked around and settled on a less desirable paddock spot at the bottom of the hill, out in the dirt (but hey, that's why you show up on a Friday for the NASA weekend at Eagles). We quickly unloaded the car from the trailer, unhooked the trailer, unloaded our gear for the day, and got ready for the TT warm up session. It was pretty dang cold (42°F!) and I got to grid on this worn set of Hoosier R6 tires. We had a huge class in TT3 (7 cars), with a bunch of new cars and drivers I wasn't familiar with. No idea what to expect for the class today! It was still very cold, and in heavy traffic with plenty of blocking (a recurring theme all weekend) I only managed a 1:58.100 lap, slipping and sliding around. The time was crap but still good enough to start grid 4th on the grid out of 35 TT cars for the next session (which is the first official TT session). Looking back I should have been out there on sticker A6s and qualified in about 2nd place on grid, which would have saved me a lot of traffic grief in the next session. Qualifying is key!

After the TT Warm-Up we had a small break, when Kyle from our shop had arrived at the track. We did a quick wheel and tire change and mounted the sticker set of Hoosier A6s to the Mustang plus worked on some other customers' cars. It had warmed up into the mid 50s and I went out hopeful that this could be my fastest session of the day, which would also make it my last session to drive. The plan was to let Amy drive in the last 2 TT sessions of Saturday, if I could get my best lap in this session.

What you don't see in the video below are the painful first 2 hot laps where Corey Wells' TT1 ZR1 Corvette and I are stuck behind another TT1 car, who is known to "take a bit of time to get up to speed" and accidentally holds up the front of the pack. Very, very frustrating. Mike Weather's TT1 Z06 had some issues and waved everyone by on the first hot lap, and in the middle of the 3rd hot lap Corey and I finally pushed our way past the slower TT1 car. By then I had gotten all 4 Hoosiers and brakes truly overheated and almost blew off the session, but I knew it wouldn't be this cool again all day plus I wanted to let Amy drive the last two TT sessions, so I took an unprecedented 3rd hot lap in a row. Always a bad idea on A6s...

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Fair · 12-03-2013, 01:21 PM

continued from above

In-car video of 1:55.250 lap, on hot lap 3, TT Session 1

Well that video lap above was just a big hot mess, but it ended up being my fastest lap of the weekend. I watch that and just laugh - that's the best I could do?! On this lap I ran out of brakes twice - first going into the downhill Turn 9 and almost went off mid-corner. Before that point the AIM Solo predictive timer is showing high 1:54 lap times, so I gathered it up while cursing traffic and pushed on. The predictive timer was still showing a 1:55.1 time, so I kept in it. Then in the very next braking zone I had brake fade again, entering Turn 11. Barely kept it on track. I guess this should be expected, after 3 complete bonsai TT laps in a row - you simply cannot push a TT car 10/10ths every single lap and maintain the tires and brakes. I normally try to get my best lap in on my very first lap of a session, or at worst on the 2nd lap. And the first lap on a set of sticker A6 tires are their best, too. But when you are held up behind a slower driver in front for 2+ laps that just wasn't possible. And with more fast TT drivers right behind me, I didn't dare back off and let them pass, to only get held up when I caught them (which always happens). By the 4th lap I'm usually catching the back of the field and the chances of getting a clear lap approach 0%, so I had to take that lap when I did.

So this double-brake faded 1:55.250 lap ended up being my best all day, was third fastest of the TT session, and it was enough for the new TT3 track record and class win. In that session the next quickest TT time was a solid 3 seconds back, in the 1:58s. Most racers went faster in the 2nd timed session, after I had handed the keys off to Amy.

Left: The grid for TT session 2 was a mess. Right: This looks more like it

Amy drove in TT sessions 2 and 3, and put in a 1:57.449 in session 2. She was still working up her nerve in both sessions (plus she put in an HPDE4 session) and looked to pick up time on Sunday. She stayed out of everyone's way while she got up to speed, waving others by on the first lap or moving herself down the grid beforehand - which a good racer should do. I wish every TT driver would be so courteous.

By day's end nobody was getting all that close in TT3, so I had Amy take the 4th session as well. My session 1 lap time of 1:55.250, even as compromised as it was, still compared very well with the AI times that day, the quickest of which was about 5 seconds back. In one of the AI races that day there was a crash into Turn 11 when a Mustang racer lost his brakes, which I was the first on the scene to check out (I was standing at pit wall). Then Mike Patterson lost his brakes on his AI Camaro moments later and he went off in Turn 11, about 100 feet away. Crazy! One thing to point out was the TT1 ZR1 of Corey Wells, one of our customers. This nearly stock, street driven 2010 ZR1 ran a 1:50.449 lap on Michelin slicks, winning TT1 and approaching the TT1 record. You should watch this lap on youtube... its is amazing.

Another TT record fell that day, in TTB. Our friend/customer/tester KenO beat the old TTB record handily with his E46 M3. He moved some TT points around in his build and made changes to his set-up and it paid off with a 1:57.955 lap on Saturday, beating the old TTB record of 01:58.678, which he had set in 2012. Ken dropped the record further to a 1:57.603 on Sunday. We ended up building a new exhaust system with a 3.5" in/out MagnaFlow muffler for Ken a couple of weeks later, which dropped his car's ear splitting 105 dB sound level to an amazing 85 dB while picking up flow, ground clearance and power. Custom exhaust work is one of the fabrication services we provide to a number of competitors.

For competitive reasons Ken asked us not to show any more of the exhaust than this. We made a new system from the headers-back

Amy put in some good laps in the Mustang, getting faster each session out and getting down to a 1:57.449, nearing her personal best at this track. But she felt like she could find more on Sunday, so we planned on doing the same strategy - letting me go out in the 1st session then she'd take the rest, unless I got into some traffic again and needed to take the 2nd session also, to try for the class win. I also wanted to get that 1:54 lap that the timer said was in the car, and which I felt was in the set-up with some clear track. Unfortunately, the TT1 car that had held me (and others on the grid) up in the earlier sessions Saturday was just fast enough to get ahead of me on grid final session on Saturday. Oh great.

Time Trial Results: for Nov 2nd: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...e%20Trials.pdf

I should have been happy with the 1:55.250 lap in TT3, as this was a new personal best at this track by over a second, plus beat the old TTS and TT2 lap records (which were set in the same TT2 car in 2012). It says "TTA" below but that car should have said TTS, as I was there running in TTS that weekend and remember it all too well. Second place in class on Saturday was a solid 1.5 seconds back (Jeff Tan) and 3rd was 2.5 seconds back (Amy), so why should I worry? (ha! Wait until Sunday...)

The existing NASA Eagles Canyon Track Records before this weekend
TTU.....John Page..........Chevy Corvette.....01:55.879.....Oct-10
TT1.....Troy Messer........Chevy Corvette.....01:50.105.....Oct-12
TT2.....Josh Dunn..........Mitsubishi Evo.....01:55.326.....Oct-12
TTA.....Josh Dunn..........Mitsubishi Evo.....01:55.629.....Oct-12
TTB.....Ken Orgeron........BMW M3.............01:58.678.....Oct-12
TTC.....Eric Foss..........Mazdaspeed 3.......02:03.814.....Oct-12
TTD.....Zachary Parker.....BMW M3.............02:05.336.....Oct-12
TTE.....Josh Price.........Acura Integra......02:11.133.....Oct-09
TTF.....Ken Brewer.........Toyota MR2.........02:15.810.....Oct-10

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Fair · 12-03-2013, 01:22 PM

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I need to note here that the Mustang was running much better Saturday than it did on Friday, but it still wasn't 100% right. There were some stumbling issues I could feel at part throttle, something that was very noticeable to me but Amy said it felt fine to her. The new Oxygen sensor had seemed to clear up the wild bucking and popping issues, but maybe the fouled sensor was a result of another issue, not the cause of it? Kyle checked the codes on the car throughout the day and kept seeing (and clearing) O2 Bank 1 issues... now showing stuck full Rich. We would end up monitoring this closely all weekend.

Left: On the scales, where I got within 9 pounds of my 3770 lb minimum, running with the "low fuel" light on! Right: Adding more ballast (aka: fuel)

Two of our customer's had some car troubles that kept us busy, too. One of them broke a rear control arm and the other had a motor issue that led to lots of black smoke. We diagnosed the UCA failure and had the customer ride with us to the shop, where his ride picked him up. We had a new UCA at our shop we would install the next morning. And the 2nd customer's car was loaded into our trailer for a tow to their house, and later to a Ford dealer for diagnosis. So after unhooking our trailer and unloading all of our gear... we had to load everything back up, load up the customer's broken car, and leave our TT3 Mustang sitting in the paddock overnight (along with another friend's car who crashed out at our place that night and rode back and forth to the track with us). Dropping their broken car off and then taking the other customer to our shop for pickup made for a long night, but we finally made it home by 10 pm.

NASA at ECR, Saturday, Nov 2nd, 2013 - Day 2 of 3

Sunday was a new day and I was determined to find that elusive sub 1:55 lap time if I could get a clear lap. Today we had Olof (technician) and Brandon (photographer) from Vorshlag joining us, and they stayed just as busy as Kyle did on Saturday and Ryan did on Friday. This is the point where the pictures started to get a lot better, as it was Brandon using his talent and gear to shoot them and not me or Amy shooting with our Nikon or camera phones. I slid in a couple of Brandon shots from Sunday in the Saturday post above, too, because they are so much better than ours'.

Vorshlag Event Picture Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...CR-Nov-110213/

Amy and I got back out to the track at 7:30 am towing the now empty trailer. We set our paddock back up, unloaded our gear for the 3rd time this weekend, and got ready for TT session 1. Olof worked on our customer's Mustang and installed the new and improved Whiteline UCA and mount (KTA141-A). This job was a little tricky doing it parked in the paddock on jack stands, but he got it done. This customer was able to get his HPDE sessions later that day without issue, which made him very happy.

Jamie's Forgestar/AST/Vorshlag/Whiteline equipped car getting some trackside repairs and heading back out for more laps

The first TT session was at 8 am, so we were a bit rushed checking tire pressures, fuel level, and getting everything ready before heading out on track. Well, with all of the frantic work going on in the paddock and people stopping by to talk I spaced out and forgot to plug in my damned transponder. You see, Amy and I have separate AMB transponders for our separate, individual TT3 entries, and we swap on her battery powered unit and unplug my wired unit when she races. Well her battery powered unit was off the car but we didn't plug mine in, GRR!

Left: Out on track in my "timeless" session. Right: Hitting the scales again after another session stuck behind "the blocker"

I was oblivious and went out on track, which was still pretty cold at 44°F, sitting in a good grid spot and hoping to get a good lap in... then I was black flagged on the first hot lap. WTF? Apparently Amy had been watching the Race Timer app and noticed that my first hot lap time never triggered, she immediately knew what had happened, asked the NASA folks to black flag me, which they did during my 2nd hot lap - so I came in. She waved me over in the hot pits, explained the issue, opened the hood and hooked up my transponder and sent me back out about 30 seconds later. I knew time in this session might be running a little short so I took a warm up lap at full speed and right as I came around to the start/finish to get a timed lap... the flagger at the stand whipped out the checkers, 13 minutes into the session. NOOOOO! Apparently they shortened all of our TT sessions from 20 minutes down to 15 minutes, but gave us 5 sessions on Sunday instead of the typical 4. Normally this would be welcomed news, as I only want to take 1 or 2 hot laps, but in this case that 5 minute (really, 7 minute) shorter session left me without a single hot lap. My whole session was blown and I never got a timed lap. It was so cold that I only saw an indicated 1:56 lap (on Lap 1) on my AIM Solo anyway, and nobody else set a fast time in this session, so that wasn't likely going to be the time for that golden lap to happen.

So that first session was wasted and totally my fault, but this happens sometimes. I have had an item on our build list all year to get a dash-mounted switch for the 2nd transponder, with an indicator light, but we just never got around to it. One of several sessions that were blown this year for the same stupid reason - no transponder. Switching beween two transponders for two drivers is highly unusual and takes an extra effort, but apparently too much for my old, feeble brain to remember, heh. Next year Amy and I are racing as "Team Vorshlag" so we can use the same car and ONE transponder (and pay one entry fee), so hopefully this won't happen again. I will have them set the TT2 car up with a single, wired transponder that is always on when the engine is running, so I cannot forget!

Long story short, Amy let me drive again in TT session 2, where I was gridded 5th in line, right behind the TT1 car that I've been having trouble get held up behind all weekend (and pretty much all year), so I was worried I would get blocked again. Even with a big gap on the Warm Up lap, where I held back for an entire straightaway before Turn 11, he also held WAY back and I caught him by the start/finish line line on hot lap 1. Then I followed about 1 car length off his bumper through Turns 1, 2, 3 and 4, to let him know I was there ("Hi!") and obviously getting held up. Right where you normally accelerate between turns 4 and 5 he freagin brake checked me! I came so close to crashing into the back of his car and taking us both out I cannot describe it. It was a very close call, an absolutely insane move, and totally caught me off guard. I braked so hard going down the hill into Turn 5 that there couldn't have been inches between us. There was a lot of speed differential, too, and the incident could have totaled both cars - not a good place to brake check someone.

Left: Out on track. Right: Coming in after a brief off track excursion with grass in the grill

So that Near Miss really spooked me, and I backed way way off and let the train of three cars held up behind me go by (who were also held up by the slow poke in front) while I let loose a stream of expletives. I took another brisk cool down lap, trying to build up a gap ahead while not holding up more drivers behind, so as not to ruin anyone else's session.

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Fair · 12-03-2013, 01:26 PM

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On the very next lap I turned up the heat and re-caught one of the TT2 cars I had let by me after the near accident, in the same spot entering Turn 5. I was trying to get a good run up this hill on this Corvette and had a bit of wheelspin through uphill Turn 5. Any wheelspin quickly overheats A6 Hoosiers, so I backed off knowing this lap was blown, which turned into some off-throttle oversteer. I cranked in full opposite lock and got back into the throttle to hopefully transfer some weight to the rear... but it was too late. I had a little tank slapper and when I caught it the car wanted to go a bit wider than the track surface allowed for, heh. Instead of chancing a sideways off I straightened up and barely took all 4 wheels off, track right. It was 4 off, though, which of automatically DSQd any of times from that session, so I immediately came in and waited in the hot pits, trying to cool down. I was spitting mad, and eventually had some words with the TT1 driver that nearly crashed us both when he came in - telling him that his brake check move was utterly insane and that his constant blocking was getting old. His response was a lame "I never saw you..." Sure, since this giant red Mustang swerving and flashing bright lights parked 5 feet aft of your back bumper is so hard to miss. Good grief...

Mike Weathers' TT1 Corvette and I were always next to each other on grid all year, but communicated well and never impeded each other

Based on the repetitive blocking I encountered this year from this one TT driver I am going to run a completely different TT warm-up/gridding/out lap strategy next year to avoid getting anywhere near drivers like this, and I am going to publicly call out these games in every TT meeting we have.

Amy took the keys for TT session 3 while I tried to cool down. She went out and ran a 1:56.934, which was her personal best at ECR by over a second. That was good news, and she came in all smiles and super pumped up! If you don't know this track, a 1:56 lap is really flying, and would be a record in any of the lettered TT classes and was still 3+ seconds faster than American Iron was running. Many of the TT drivers congratulated her on her new best lap time, as only 5 other TT drivers ran quicker than her on Sunday.

Jeff Tan's ST3/TT3 prepped, EVO-D tuned EVO put up a hellva fight, taking 2nd in TT3 both days

Amy's 1:56 would have been 2nd place but Jeff Tan also had a fast session 3. After slapping on a set of 275mm Hoosier A6s for the first time he dropped to a 1:56.7, and I felt like he might go faster still in the 2 remaining sessions. This is a gutted and race prepped ST3 EVO with an Evolution Dynamics tuned motor that makes a big flat power curve... where they tweak the boost levels to make the same flat 380 whp across the entire rev range. It is a TT trick you can do in a turbo car, and they've used this tuning strategy plus good driving to notch up a number of TT lap records in Texas. Well I was worried Jeff might go out and find more time in TT session 4, which he eventually did in a BIG way

After 3 TT sessions were in the books I still didn't have a time yet, so I went out in TT session 4. There were 6 cars in TT3 class on Sunday so 2 more contingency tires on the line for anyone on Hoosiers, plus I was worried that my track record from Saturday was a little soft - since I had two major driving errors on that 1:55.250 lap Saturday. It was up to 65°F, a little warm for that ideal A6 lap time, but it was still possible. This time I gapped the road blocker in front of me by a HUGE amount, holding up the rest of the field on the Warm Up lap, but I wasn't going to catch him into the first turn again, by damn.

The bulk of the NASA Texas TT competitors are great about giving point-buys and making room for others during cool down laps

Luckily I had a fairly clear first hot lap with Jeff Tan glued to my tail. He was chasing the rabbit (me) and barely kept a handful of car lengths between us. I slowly pulled a little bit on him and when I saw the 1:55.279 time at the start/finish after hot lap one I knew he had to be in the 1:55s as well, but I felt like our gap was increasing ever so slightly. I found out later that Jeff had run a 1:55.872 right behind me, his fastest ever by a large margin. He got really close to my time - which made me nervous! - and this was the closest gap in TT3 that we had all year (other than the one loss at MSR-C). Lap one was good but I wanted more, so I went ahead with Hot Lap 2. This lap was feeling better, where I put even more distance on Tan, and I had an indicated 1:54.6 through most of the lap... but I was slowly catching that same TT1 car again. I can't get away from this guy...

I looked up when I was coming up the canyon out of Turn 10 that the TT1 driver had his fist in the air, indicating that he'd be going into the pits. Great! He was waaaay up there, and surely he saw me closing in and would give me room on his cool down lap. But instead of looking in his mirrors, seeing me closing fast on him (I don't think he owns a rearview mirror) he instead lollygagged for the last few hundreds of yards of his lap and I caught right him in the middle of Turn 11. I had to back way off to avoid hitting him, almost coming to stop mid corner, which of course blew my 1:54 lap down to a 1:55.9. I tried to take another lap but by now the A6s were overheated and I was catching the back of the TT field going into Turn 3, so I took a cool down and came into the pits.

The weather was getting warmer, and I was exhausted from constantly getting pissed off at the blocker, so Amy went out in TT session 5. She took one of our customers (who had the engine troubles the day before) riding shotgun, letting many of the other TT drivers by her on the first lap, cleanly and safely. She took several laps at a 1:59 pace, just having fun on the ride-along; taking riders in TT DSQ'd her session, of course, but she never impeded anyone. Probably her last day driving this car in competition, so she made the most of it.

While Amy came in from that session I went out in in the very next HPDE4 session driving one of our tester's Mustangs, who is running our first set of S197 MCS TT1 singles on her car. This was the very first set of S197 MCS TT1s ever built, where we helped them calculate shock lengths and such. We knew the car rode beautifully on the street (daily driven) but I needed to drive this car to make sure all was well on this bumpy, tricky track.

Jan's Mustang on MCS TT1 coilovers was a lot of fun to drive

This '12 Mustang GT was on the stock 19x9" wheels and some worn out 255mm Nitto Invo tires, Carbotech XP16 pads, Vorshlag plates, MCS TT1s, a CG lock on the stock belt, and that's it. Totally stock engine, tune, airbox, and those skinny street tires that had seen better days. We went out with several instructors in HPDE4 and I pushed it about 8-9 tenths, running as quick as a 2:07.5 lap in traffic on these very low grip tires. Watching that video (which is only posted on my personal Facebook page at the moment) I had to brake 200 feet early into Turn 6, while coasting and waiting for a point by, so the car should run closer to a 2:05 lap. She took some video and data with her phone (Tom's Lap Timer), which we will try to get ahold of and post later. Jan had a blast riding along as I talked her through my lines, braking points, and described the different phases of "tire feedback" on 4 laps, always in some traffic. This car was a joy to drive, easy to put anywhere, and soaked up the ECR bumps effortlessly. Only complaint was the stock seats! Seriously, once you run laps with a dedicated fixed back racing seat, nothing else compares. I was sore later on, after trying to hang on for 4 laps while I slid around on the flat leather seats.

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