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

[brembo12]

impressive stuff guys.......the best of luck to your team! good luck Matt.....a valued hired hand for sure

[saunupe1911]

Great thread and posts

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Project Update for Sept 23, 2013: When I started to finally write this last piece of the Miller event coverage, on Monday Sept 23rd, we had just gotten back from yet another NASA event (TWS), so I was already 2 weeks behind. And it took me a week to get all of this written down, after looking at results sheets and watching the in-car videos from 9 sessions I drove over the 4 days. In this installment I will talk about our actual racing experience that week at NASA Nationals... finally! I will start with how they do things at NASA's "big show" event, which differed ever so slightly from the dozens of regional NASA events I've done in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and California over the past six years. For the most part it was a bit more serious, but no less fun.

Impound Is Important

I'm going to talk about Nationals impound, as it had a bearing on my final finish placing. The way NASA runs their all of their road racing and Time Trial classes is pretty unique compared to other clubs, but I really like The NASA Way and I have said so many times. Sure, there are some quirks, but I learned a lot at this event and understand the various classes better than before.

One of the biggest differences in NASA is their proclivity to measure not just chassis weights but to also measure horsepower output in most cars & classes, with an actual chassis dyno. I have written letters to other clubs asking them to MEASURE HORSEPOWER instead of relying on some quaint "gentleman's agreement not to cheat" nonsense, and not rely on poorly written rules or very outdated displacement-to-weight formulas - that have been proven to be ineffective for 40+ years. Still, even with continuous dyno testing and weight checks, NASA is always investigating new ways to keep racers honest. Now they are even looking at GPS based data loggers going onto race cars - looking for spikes in acceleration past what the car can physically do at a given power and weight. They were testing a new black box data logger on a few cars which we've started to see in Professional Racing circles. Look for this to go into some of their race groups in the next season or two, hopefully. I totally support this type of active policing in racing... 'cause racers naturally will try to push the boundaries. This isn't the NSA or Big Brother, this is "let's keep everyone honest" type of thing. Good stuff.

Anyway, NASA's current techniques to police classing include 2 main components: weight checks on scales (virtually ALL classes) after qualifying and race sessions, and measuring horsepower on a chassis dyno for most classes. So many classes within NASA have some "power-to-weight" component that checking the cars on a dyno is common practice, and at Miller they didn't hold back. They must have checked hundreds of cars on the dyno that week. Qualifying races, random TT sessions, and the top 3 in almost every racing class got checked at least once. There were 3 dynos on site that week getting a steady stream of business (it was a constant background noise), but one "official" dyno was used for all NASA Impound checks (a trailer mounted DynoJet). The others were being used for tuning and verification before the final Championship races began. Most of the W2W classes had a big final race on Saturday or Sunday that determined the Champions, whereas raced over 4 days to get our one best lap (which was unique).



It seems like common sense to me; if you want to keep cars competitive and legal, you weigh them and dyno them often. NASA officials even had racers at this event put evidence tape on OBD and other computer ports or "any aftermarket switches within reach of the driver" to show that they haven't been tampering with power levels or tunes while on track, too. And for TT this is extra important, because we raced over FOUR DAYS and 9 sessions that counted (+ one Warm Up practice session on Thursday morning, used just for gridding purposes). We could make changes to chassis and aero set-up all week, but if we wanted to make computer/tuning changes we had to go to Tech and the TT Director to ask permission, first. I brought an SCT tuner with the ability to alter timing and RPM on our car but I never messed with it.

On the first day, I heard that 3 or 4 American Iron cars were popped for blowing dyno tests, and a few people were whining. But they warned us, every race group, that they would be dyno testing a lot of cars, and they did. And I'm GLAD they did. I wish this happened at more Regional TT events, too (I have seen race groups have the top 3 finishers dyno'd at a few NASA Texas Region events, just not ever in TT). Sure, dyno testing is a logistical hassle, especially for AWD cars, but it is a necessary tool to help keep everyone on a level playing field. The future black box real time monitoring could be even easier, when the technology gets good enough (and cheap enough).


BMW E46 M3s are becoming increasingly popular in TT3/ST3/GTS3 classes

So this isn't the official racing procedure verbatim, but what I observed on how this worked in the Time Trial group. First, we had to be on grid in your assigned spot before the first car went out on track. Late to grid? Too bad, you lost that session. Why? They didn't want people popping out of the hot pits into the fastest part of the track and messing up other people's laps. NASA Texas has started to do this, too, and it is a welcomed change. Next, if you came off track before the end of the session, you went to Impound. Period. No tweaking the car on the hot pits, no going back out to finish the session, nope. Same reasons as above - coming back out on track during a hot session was dangerous and interrupted the flow of the racers, who are gridded in the order of their lap times (fastest to slowest). Also, they split the large TT contingent into two race groups that never shared the track at the same time: The "Letter Classes" (TTB-TTE) ran in Race Group C and The "Numbered Classes" (TTU/1/2/3) ran in Race Group H. It was nice for the faster TT guys to not have to worry about catching the E cars on lap 2, which can happen when all of the TT classes run at once.

Once TT racers came off track we were held in Impound until a TT Director released us, usually not until the session was over and everyone was in. We couldn't jack with the cars in Impound AT ALL. The driver could stay in his car and have ONE helper CHECK tire pressures and tire temps -or- he could exit the vehicle and do it himself. That was it. No dropping tire pressures, fiddling under the hood, or any funny business. And if you wanted to check tire pressures you had to ask a NASA official first, and they observed. Why? We were told because some folks have gamed the system in the past and dumped tire pressures in Impound down to 10 psi or less, then if they were dyno'd... yep, the numbers would be much lower than normal. So if you were caught dropping tire pressures in Impound then they gave you a dyno chit, aired your drive tires up to 40 psi, and off to the dyno you go. Automatic dyno check. Another sensible measure and fewer chances for shenanigans.


"A dozen ways to skin a cat" - here are two very different approaches to a TT2/ST2 build

Over the week my car was weighed 5 times, which was about average, but never was quick enough to warrant a dyno check. I was sweating it all week, as was everyone. Many of the faster TT guys' cars saw the dyno 1, 2 or even 3 times that week. How they dyno'd TT cars was simple. First, a TT director called down to Impound with a list of cars to by dyno'd and/or weighed ("If you drop a lot of time and move up to the front of the pack, prepare to be dyno'd"). If you were called out to be Dyno'd you got a "chit". Every car getting dyno'd was weighed first, which was recorded, and if it was not greater than your stated weight you got a session DQ. Same for anyone just getting a weight check. The closest to minimum I got was 21 pounds (3791 lbs with driver on a 3770 lb stated minimum) but I was often 50-60 pounds over, depending on fuel load. I saw some competitors get within 1-2 pounds, and several go under. We all were issued a decal that had to be posted on the side of the car with our declared minimum weight, max torque and max hp numbers, as shown below. Many of us made changes to this after we talked with TT officials, too.

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Left: After conferring with TT officials, instead of assuming my car would dyno low at altitude, I revised it to the latest tested number

So if you got a dyno chit, you went straight from the scales to the dyno, 50 feet away. Nobody could touch the car but the driver, and you couldn't open the hood or do anything else. Once it was your turn the dyno operators took the car from you, used an elaborate series of ramps to get it up onto their mobile Dynojet trailer, strapped it to the rollers, and got some fans going on the radiator and opened the hood. Once the engine was up to speed in the 1:1 transmission gear they asked about redline RPMs or rev limiters, then did three back-to-back dyno pulls. Vrooom.... vroom.... vroom. Didn't take 60 seconds. Then if your car made more than your claimed dyno number ("popped dyno" or "blew dyno"), even by 1 a hp, you got a session DQ. Then the NASA TT directors would calculate your latest dyno and weight number, and if that ratio was over your class minimum, ALL of your previous sessions times back to your last successful dyno/weight check were thrown out. This matters for later, so keep this in mind.

Now that I know how this works I would have ASKED for a dyno earlier in the week. Because a successful dyno/weight check means your times up to that point are SAFE. Just like when we come in from a TT session early, to "bank" our times. Why? Because if you have a 4-off or a spin during a TT session, you lose ALL of your times in that session (session DQ). It has happened to me twice in the past 6 years (spin or off during TT), and it sucks. So when you know you have a good lap time in the books (from watching your onboard lap timer), most of us come the hell in! Again, this matters for later.

They had similar procedures for virtually every NASA race group, but I'm sure there were small differences I don't know about. In any Championship W2W race, for instance, if a driver blew minimum weight or blew the dyno, they were DQ'd and everyone moves up a space in the standings. So everyone was watching the dyno all week. And yes, even at 4500 feet of elevation, they use an SAE correction factor to correct for that. And it was huge, close to a 20% correction! I'm used to seeing 0-2% corrections here in Texas, sometimes even negative 1-2% for SAE. So you couldn't just rely on "the elevation will soften my numbers", no sir. You have to factor that in. I was a FOOL for not getting a dyno check before the event started and for not ASKING for a dyno during the event. I got lucky, I guess, but if you were in the top 3 during the week you saw the dyno, trust me. I wasn't in the top three until.... well, the very end. I'll get to that.

Race Coverage - Day By Day

I don't know if I mentioned this earlier but the course being run for the week of Nationals for ALL race groups was the 3.0 mile "Outer Loop" CCW, and there were no HPDE groups running at Nationals. This 3 mile course is the fastest configuration of the 4 possible track layouts at Miller, and has many high speed turns and a LONG 3500' front straight. There is some elevation change in a couple of corners, but for the most part it was like most other desert tracks I've run: flat and with few visual markers. This meant many corners looked identical, which confused me a bit. I have never run this track before and struggled all week, learning the layout. And we fought all week to find balance with the set-up...



Like we do for every NASA TT event, we made our own maps in case they didn't hand any out. They had great maps, though

I will break up my "race coverage" into the 4 days we had to get our best lap time. Every session from all 4 days of Nationals counted for TT, and you only had to bag one fast lap in one of the 9 official sessions (the Warm-up session was the first of 10, really, but it didn't count towards times). Some days we had 3 sessions and some days we had 2, which I will explain below.

Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...Championships/ (TT3 was in Group H)

I missed one session due to rain and another where we had to work on the car, but ran every other one and thankfully had no DSQs (a spin or 4 off will net you a DSQ). I had some close calls, and came in early to "bank" a good lap time when I noted a decent time on my AIM Solo display (which was extremely accurate all week, matching the official transponder times usually to the hundredth place).

Day 1 - Thursday

TT had our first mandatory meeting of the week at 8:30 am this day (one of 9 meetings we had that week), where we went over the basics, then TT1/2/3/U (Group H) had our first "Warm Up" session at 10:30 am (TTB-TTF ran in a separate run group all week - Group C). I went out in this session on those well worn R6 tires we brought on the grey wheels and fumbled my way around the track. Car was LOOSE at speed! Aero balance felt terrible, and any corners over 80 mph the car wanted to be sideways. The slow speed corners felt fine, but it was a complete handful everywhere else. I thought we had this sorted at our ECR test, but that track's fastest corners are probably sub-65 mph. Some of the corners here at Miller I was entering at 100-150+ mph. Scary fast, and I was working on my lines and my "testicular fortitude" in every session. I stayed out in the Warm Up for the entire time and had a best lap of 2:10.804 on Lap 5, and a 2:10.9 on the lap before, neither of which was fast. The quickest TT3 car in this session was a red E36 325is, which had an S54 3.2L M3 engine swap and good aero, driven by an old autocross buddy Chris Mayfield. He ran a 2:06.448, so he was fast right out of the gate. Ken Smith in the yellow ST3/TT3 C5 Z06 ran a 2:09.306 in that session (and was broken down on the side of the front straight, then came on the hook), with two faster TT3 cars between him and Mayfield. The Miller track crew did an excellent job and was doing "hot tows" all week (towing cars in with rolling local yellows, while keeping the racers going). I was only 5th fastest out of the 11 cars running in the TT3 class (at this point - we saw 12 different TT3 cars by week's end), and well over 5 seconds back... yikes. TT3 was the largest TT class of the event, by a good margin over any other (here's group C).


Print-outs showing results from Day 1's 3 TT sessions: The TT Warm up, TT Session 1 and TT session 2

In that Thursday Warm-Up session I ran so many consecutive hot laps that I saw some warmer than anticipated engine temps on lap 6, even with the lowest ambient temps of the day (high 70s). On Lap 6 the temp gauge shot up to maybe 3/4 of the range from "C" to "H", which is warmer than we ever see in this car. It was not that warm outside yet, so I chalked it up to the thin air here at 4500 feet of altitude and maybe still having an air bubble passing through the newly set-up cooling system (I added some distilled water in the pits after this). Talking to other drivers they were seeing the occasional warm temp readings, too, and I was told by many "high altitude racers" to be on the watch for this at Miller. I took a cool down lap and stayed well out of people's way while coming in, and with a 3 mile course the cool down laps can take a while. Within 30 seconds the engine temps came back to the "middle" of the range. This happened two more times during the week, saw a warm temp after too many hot laps that was corrected in the first cool down lap..



Navigating the "Attitudes", 3 S-curves right in a row with some wide, tall and nasty curbing

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So, as with all NASA TT events, the times from this first "Warm Up" session on the first day only count towards our grid positions for the first "official" TT session, session 1. We checked air pressures hot and they were WAY higher than I thought they'd get up to, so we bled off 8-10 psi from each tire, from hot. We had an 11:10 am TT meeting where we did roll calls and listened to Greg give us the latest session DQs for spins, offs, weights or dyno (which were not printed on the individual session time sheets, strangely enough). Someone in the group also asked "what is a 4 off here", as there are some rather WIDE curbs at Miller - in some places more than 25 feet of paved but painted curbing. The biggest section of track in question was the "Attitudes", Turns 8/9/10, which are S-curves in rapid succession that also fall down a hill. Apparently this section was a bit controversial, and some race groups were seeing a handful of drivers really pounding over the curbs, some catching 4 wheels in the air and short cutting Turn 9 altogether (just going straight over the curbs/gravel and leaving the track). After some discussion it was ruled that the white painted line was to be considered the edge of the track and as long as 2 wheels were still "touching the paint", that was allowed. Tons of latitude but no more "cutting a corner". If we were 4 wheels over the paint it would be a "4 off" and a session DQ.


Above photos by Brian Smyer

I was staying off the curbing in almost all corners, as the bumps were making the already very loose car even more twitchy. Like the picture above, where my car is already sideways after just touching two outside wheels on the paint, is what would happen. So I stayed off the curbs on almost every lap. I tried to take a bit more on the last day, with some negative consequences (video of that in a lower section). Other drivers were a lot more liberal with their curbing, though. And it likely helped their times - I just couldn't see jumping them like that and doing the "4 wheels in the air" thing. I would have ripped the splitter off and done all sorts of damage to our car. In the AI circles I heard one driver admit that cutting Turn 9 was worth a full second on his lap times, and there were a few of those guys really getting a lot of time using the curbs. Amy was there and if I would have broken the car on the curbing she would have KILLED me!

Just watched my TT session 1 video, which began on Thursday at 2 pm, and it was 20 degrees hotter than the TT Warm Up. At least this time we were gridded better, but I still had to deal with several passes, and the car was SUPER loose in the first 2 laps. I was finally figuring out where to shift, what gear to be in for each corner, pushing some still-early braking points, and just beginning to get a feel for where I was and where the apexes should be. I took a good number of laps in this session and dropped down to a 2:09.039, with my fastest lap on Lap 1. I spent the rest of the session trying different lines, braking points, etc. In Session 1 Ken Smith really picked up the pace and moved into the lead with a 2:05.099, with Mayfield right on his tail at a 2:05.753 time. Steve Nagel found a lot of time and dropped to a 2:07.284 and 3rd place in his white E36 M3 with aero and a claimed 310 whp, nearly 2 seconds quicker than my times.



The third and final TT session for Thrusday was TT session 2, we started at about 5:30 pm (about 30 minutes behind schedule) and ambient temps were up to 94 °F when we started. It was so delayed and so hot that attendance was pretty sparse by the time we finally got released from grid. After 2 false starts for this session we finally heard the reason for problem - Mark Baer had a pretty bad crash in his GTS BMW going into The Tooele Turn, T11, and they had to air flight him to the hospital for observation, tow the car in, and do some quick repairs to the armco.


Smith (left) and Mayfield (right) traded the TT3 lead all week, but nobody else could seem to catch them

As I recalled after watching my video of this session, I was still pretty lost on 2nd half of the track after Turn 7, where I was confusing Turn 11 with Turn 13, and I still couldn't get the entry speeds up into Turn 7 (Witchcraft) or my line right into Turns 8/9/10. Really struggling to grasp this track layout, and there was a lot of gravel on the track from people going off and on at various corners. In my video I noted that the car was using about 5 gallons per session, and I was seeing "155 mph" on the speedo (probably more like 150mph) as I was braking into Turn 1. The car was still a loose mess at speed, and Amy and I were running out of things to change (tire pressures, wing angle, and some other things). I nearly looped the car going into Turn 3 on my 2nd hot lap, so took a cool-down lap and then another hot lap on the now well worn R6s. Just touching one of these monster curbs was setting the car into bump-steer convulsions. My best lap was again my 1st lap out, and nearly matched my previous session at a 2:09.054. Mayfield slowed down to a 2:05.574 and Ken Smith was in the 2:05.927 range, with Nagel slowing down to a 2:10.5. The higher ambient temps were hurting everyone and I was 4.5 seconds back from the class leader, not making up any ground.

My outlook was pretty bleak that night, but we had our lone good meal in Tooele (The Brewhouse) with Doug and Stuart Maxcy of Maxcyspeed. I drank away my sorrows and dreamed all night about turns like Witchcraft and the Attitudes, that were straight up kicking my ass.


Day 2 - Friday

After some dismal driving on Thursday I had planned on doing some work early Friday morning to the car and going out on the R6s again in the first session with some set-up improvements. Then Ryan and Brandon missed their very early flight, so it was just me and Amy again, and with too much to fix we skipped the first TT session of the day. During that time we replaced a leaking caliper bleed screw, dialed in 2 degrees more angle of attack on the rear wing, re-tightened the splitter mounting screws (several had loosened up), reset air pressures, and went out in session 2. Turns out we neglected to add enough fuel, so I was worried about fuel starvation. The left side tires were more abused than the right, which surprised me as there are more left hand turns than rights... but a lot of the high speed turns are right handers, and those tore up the appropriate side.


Left: Grey wheels = old R6s. Right: The fastest AI car was a World Challenge Boss 302R, which ran a 2:07.860 in the final race

At this point we had been weighed twice. 3791 lbs was the lightest and as high as 3836 lbs with a lot of fuel. Brakes looked good - the Carbotechs were wearing very well for the abuse I was throwing at them. I have never braked this car this hard, from these speeds, this many times in a row. Some say our upgraded GT500 14" rear brakes "are worthless" compared to the stock 11.5" rear discs, but I disagree strongly. This car was the heaviest in the TT3 class, had one of the highest terminal speeds into Turn 1, yet I could brake as late or later than anyone else. In some cases I was braking nearly 100 feet later than some TT2 and TT3 cars. The brakes just flat worked, flawlessly, all week.

Just watched my TT session 4 video and I was pushing hard yet only managed another 1/2 second gain, down to a best of 2:08.537. Heavy cross winds made for major buffeting in the car on the higher speed sections, and the high ambient heat (2 pm, high 90s again) baked the track, overheated tires, and made for generally slower lap times. Only five TT3 cars went out this time, with Mayfield and Smith skipping the session entirely. Nagel went out in the white E36 and put in a best of 2:08.324, which was over a second slower than his best time from the first official TT session on Thursday. I was within 2 tenths of Nagel, everyone was slower, but I had found another half second, so that was at least a little encouraging. The R6s felt really awful and the car was still very loose at speed, and once the tires got hot after my 1st lap it was loose everywhere. I pounded out 5 laps (3 hot laps + 2 cool downs), well after almost everyone else had come in, and saw another 2:08.8 lap in the closing lap, but my first lap was again my fastest.

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TT session 3, Session 4 and session 5 time sheets from Friday

For the Friday's final TT session (TT session 5) we we removed the Grey Forgestar 18x12's with the well worn R6s and slapped on the white Forgestar set with the the used set of Hoosier A6 tires. Clouds were rolling in, temperatures were dropping, and at the beginning of this late afternoon session it was down to 88°F. Amy and I had to swap wheels without any power tools, so it took a while and we barely made it to grid in time. Then we had another long delay on grid, as had been the case several times previously.




During this grid delay Brian Smyer shot the pictures above, as well as several others that he put into his blog post. "I fell in love with this mustang from Vorshlag so thought I would share a few images from Miller Motorsports Park" Brian also got some great images out on track, which I have scattered through this post (anything without the Vorshlag watermark was taken by him). Good stuff. After he took the above two pics the clouds rolled in and it started to look like rain again. Winds picked up, and many of the cars went out on sticker tires in this session, thinking it might be one of our last dry times for a bit (storms were predicted to roll in hard for Friday night/Saturday).

I left a gap to the rest of the field on the out lap, because I had been catching several cars gridded higher than me on the 1st and 2nd laps out, time and again. This session looked like the best conditions we had seen all week, and I had what I thought would be faster tires and some clear track ahead. I got a good run out of the last turn and pushed the revs in 5th gear down the front straight. With the higher AoA on the wing I only saw an indicated 150 mph into the braking zone (down from 155), but it seemed to stop fine. As I'm rolling into the throttle exiting Turn 1... the rear tires washed out, lots of counter steer, no help. I put 2 wheels off on the exit of T1 at 100+ mph and blew the lap. Took a cool down lap and tried to set up to try again.

After my 2 off I had let about 6 cars that were behind me go by, after I had gathered it up. So my next hot laps involved getting held up by virtually all of these cars as I re-passed them. The tires quickly felt greasy and the car was oversteering more than it had all week. My 2nd lap was only a 2:09.031, on the A6 tires. I knew I was in trouble and took another cool down lap, where I let a few of the same cars back around me, trying not to impede their laps. Started another hot lap, it was looking better on predictive timing, then exiting Turn 6 and I got blocked by two of the SAME cars that I had pointed by on my cool down, including one of the same cars that had blocked me on my previous hot lap. Very frustrating, my session was blown, the A6 tires were now overheated, so I threw in the towel and came into the pits. In that session Mayfield was 1.5 seconds quicker than his previous best, down to a blistering 2:04.170. Nagel ran a 2:07.808 as well, so it was a good session to get a fast lap in. My 2 off and subsequent blocked laps blew the session for me, but the tires never felt very good anyways.

After this session we buttoned up the trailer, left the Mustang out in the rain, and headed to the airport through a sandstorm to pick up Ryan and Brandon, who finally made it to SLC by about 4:30 pm. This was the night we switched hotels and the better accommodations, free drinks at the bar, and a good meal in SLC raised our spirits.

Day 3 - Saturday

We arrived at the track at 7 am and got to work on the car. We had a new game plan - don't wait until Sunday to put the sticker tires on, as the weather was too unpredictable and any of the next 4 sessions might be our last chance at a dry track. So Ryan and Brandon had the scrub A6 tires dismounted and the lone set of brand new "sticker" 315/30/18 A6 tires went on ($130 mounting charge from the Hoosier guys, ouch). Ryan tweaked the front swaybar, dialed some wing back DOWN, and I went out on track. It was 71 degrees, still very windy, but sunny and dry. Track was green from rains the night before, but I went out and pushed it hard anyway.

I was gridded behind Nagel and gapped him hugely on the out lap, so I wouldn't catch him on the first lap. Since he was running Yokohama slicks that took several laps to heat up he was a good bit slower for the first 3-4 laps in every session, and I still caught him by Turn 6 on the first hot lap. Got a little held up into T6 but took the pass on the exit. What freaked me out was his brake lights didn't work almost the entire week (they were operational by Sunday), so I had to gauge at when he got on the brakes, which was a bit earlier than me into T5 and T6. After I got around him it put me on a bad trajectory into T7 (Whitchcraft) and I got a little bit of curb into T8, and again into T11, which really caused the car to bumpsteer hard. I knew the pass and both subsequent curb touches had cost me some time, but I still managed a 2:06.6 on my first hot lap with the new A6 tires. Dropped two full seconds on my first lap on stickers, with tons of mistakes and delays... man, I was regretting only bringing that one set of new tires! The previous 2 days felt like a big waste of time, now.



Time Trial Results for TT session 6 and 7 on Saturday

On my second hot lap in this session I was on a flyer when my foot slipped off the brake pedal downshifitng and braking into T6, and I almost had an off. I managed to gather it up, with the left front tire getting way out onto the outside curbing mid-corner, and of course that lap was blown. At that point I wanted to "bank" the first 2:06 lap and started a cool down to then come into the pits... but I changed my mind at the last second and went ahead and took a 3rd hot lap. I had already turned off the video so I don't have details but apparently I got fairly clean track and managed to drop 3 more tenths and put in a 2:06.356. Considering that these were A6 tires, with which I almost always put in my best laps on the 1st lap and they fall off a cliff after that, I knew the car had more in it. After that 2nd 2:06 lap I came in to bank it. This new time briefly pushed me into 3rd place in TT3, ahead of Nagel. Most everyone was faster in that session and Nagel dropped a good bit of time on his 5th lap, and jumped back ahead of me back into 3rd with a 2:05.562. Mayfield dropped another 9 tenths to a 2:03.170 and finally jumped ahead of Ken Smith (who had a 2:03.3 from TT session 3) for the TT3 lead. In this session Smith had put in a 2:04.110, with the rest of the class was 2 seconds behind me in 4th position. The two tight battles in TT3 were between Mayfield and Smith for 1st in the 2:03s and Nagel and me for 3rd in the 2:05-2:06 range.

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[Bearded Banger]

I love your write ups!

[bird_dog0347]

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

[Fair]

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

Pre-TWS Updates and Prep

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

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



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



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

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



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



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



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



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



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


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

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



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



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



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



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



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

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



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


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

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

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

NASA @ TWS, Sept 21-22, 2013

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

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


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

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

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

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



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

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



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

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


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

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

Saturday - Day 1

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


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

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


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

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[03MachMe]

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

[DirtyD]

I just read all of this. It was great.

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

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

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

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

http://nasaproracing.com/event/1620

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


hooning at the 2012 ECR Toy Run


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

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


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

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


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