final piece...
Hankook Arrive & Drive
On Monday, the regional representative for Hankook Tires asked if I could come to their latest Arrive and Drive event (thanks Fabien!), which was about 30 miles from our shop. Any chance to thrash on somebody's cars and test new tires is always better than anything else I can think of on a regular work day, so I was in. Brandon went with me and shot some pictures of various attendees driving Hankook's Audi A3 and 2012 Mustang GT on Hankook tires. Super tight autocross course, no timers, just for fun.
Hankook always puts on a good show and if you can swing an invite, by all means check one of these events out. We took some autocross runs, had fun, snagged some Hankook swag, and headed back to the shop. I'm a big fan of the Hankook RS-3 tire, which is one of the fastest 140 treadwear tires around. Great for track use and autocrossers in the Street Touring class love them as well. The new 180 treadwear minimum in the SCCA "Road Tire" category will keep them out of there, at least until they can make a 180 TW replacement. We will see if that happens. I will also ask them about making some "big Mustang" R-S3 sizes - something like a 305/35/18 or 315/35/18 would be ideal on a 11" or 12" wide wheel. But for a more rational 10" wheel, Hankook is one of the few companies that does make a
285/35/18 size in the R-S3; this is a perfect fit with our 18x10" S197 D-Force/Vorshlag
wheels.
SCCA Jackets for Class Winners
As I mentioned in my last update, Vorshlag teamed up with Solo Performance Specialties to sponsor the Women of Solo Luncheon this year, which was a big success. Dave made the commemorative embroidered polo shirts for all attendees, with the Vorshlag logo on the sleeve, and the ladies really liked them. Dave also runs SCCAgear.com, which makes various shirts/clothing/National Champion jackets for the SCCA.
Dave saw me complaining about the new three entrant minimum rule for crowning National Champions in my last Mustang thread post here, and he knew that I've pointed out in the past the lengthy process
some new classes take to become recognized as a class at Nationals. So earlier this week he asked me to "put my money where my mouth is"... and I jumped at the chance.
SPS and Vorshlag have teamed up to provide a run of "SCCA Nationals Class Winner" jackets free of charge to all 2012 Solo Nationals winners who didn't get a National Championship jacket. They paid the same money, but only got half the swag. The recipients will include the winners in any of the unrecognized/provisional classes like "Road Tire" as well as some Ladies class winners who had fewer than three entrants. We made
this press release together and will contact these Class Winners about their jackets in the coming weeks (Dave will make these jackets with the same look and at the same time as the National Champion jackets).
I know minimum entrant numbers and provisional classing is a complex subject with a lot of good points one way or another and there is no magic answer. We just felt like recognizing these winners with a little something extra this year, since the 2012 Solo Nationals was the first time the new attendance rule kicked in. Anyone that won can opt out of the free jacket, of course.
GTA Event Prep
I finally remembered what I forgot to post in my pre-Nationals post. The steering shudder is completely and utterly gone now, thanks to this one little swap!
For one "easy" payment of $999, our electric steering rack issues are a thing of the past. It is simply a stock rack that has been reprogrammed to turn off all of the auto-nibble-correction silliness. No other way to get this new programming other than to buy the new FRPP rack, unfortunately (we tried). Well, it does come on a Boss 302-S. I recommend this FRPP rack to any 2011-2013 Mustang driver that is experiencing this steering shudder like what I have documented in the videos from our 2011 GT. If you are experiencing these issues, you can try to take it to your dealership for reproduction and hopeful replacement, but we didn't have much luck there... Here's a tip: the biggest common variable on cars with this shudder is an aftermarket front Lower Control Arm bushing. Change the bushings and be prepared for the shudder.
Other preparation for this weekend includes: new Kumho V710s, upped the spring rates to 550F/250R, added a new set of Porterfield R4 pads and new rotors all the way around (the last track set of rotors and pads were well and truly thrashed). The guys also reinstalled the front brake ducting for use at the GTA event.
What's Next?
We are loading the 2011 Mustang into our trailer now for the tow out to Texas Motor Speedway on Friday and Saturday for the Global Time Attack event. There will also be some XTC drift event running on the same course (separate heats, thankfully!) and the whole "Hot Import Nights" show/circus/scene going on. We are told to expect a big crowd for all of that and they will be doing a live webcast on the GTA website.
Sunday we are loading up and heading to the Dallas Dragway in Crandall, TX. This is the new, preferred autocross site that the Texas Region SCCA is using for Solo events. We can't wait carve some corners and dodge cones at this new concrete site. I will post a new update next week in this thread about the event.
Also, I will start a
whole new thread on our 2013 Mustang GT ESP build. Why a second thread? Well... we discussed it and the 2013 build will be a lot different from this 2011 build. The 2011 was a real test mule for us and we ran it in a variety of events and classes, from NASA TTB to TTS, and SCCA STX to ESP, as well as street driving and the Optima Challenge and more. I like the fact that the 2011 can do a little bit of everything pretty well, but I want to WIN the ESP class next year. That will take a completely different build, a different mindset, and a different car. It is also not really a "test mule" type of build, so it will get its own build thread.
What else... NASA has a race weekend at ECR on October 6-7th, where we will run the 2011 GT in TTS and the 2001 BMW 330Ci in TTD. Then there's another Five Star Ford of Plano sponsored open track day at ECR on November 11th, which we will be at in the 2011 GT.
Don't worry - the 2011 GT will continue on it's own adventures, chronicled in this thread. Meanwhile here's a taste of what we have in store for the 2013 GT:
The one-off flares above are no longer available... but we will make something similar for the 2013. Gotta clear those bigger Hoosiers!
Stay tuned!