Project Update for October 4, 2012: I am a couple of weeks behind on updates, so let's catch up on the 2011 Mustang's latest racing events and changes.
New Suspension Parts & Tweaks
I talked about most of the pre-GTA weekend preparation in my last post (brake pads, rotors, tires) and showed pictures of more stuff, but forgot to talk about the other mods. Whiteline had sent us some additional products to test at Global Time Attack, namely their tubular and adjustable Lower Control Arms with Synthetic Elastomer bushings and a pair of their bolt-on LCA relocation brackets. The LCA relocation brackets are an attempt to fix the rear anti-squat geometry on lowered S197 Mustangs and we wanted to see how this worked in both track and autocross conditions. The Lower Control Arms themselves replace the stamped steel stock pieces, which have big smooshy rubber bushings. For GTA there were no real rules or points to worry about, so we figured we'd give it a try. Long term they will probably stay on the red 2011 Mustang, since we're building the black 2013 GT for dedicated ESP autocross use. For the NASA Time Trial class, we are running the red car in TTS, which means we no longer have to worry about tallying modification points. Pretty much the sky is the limit (TTS/R/U classes mostly revolve around power-to-weight ratios and tire compound).
The new parts are shown installed above. We are now working with the existing Whiteline Watts Link kit, Whiteline Upper Control Arm and Mount, and Whiteline Front and Rear Adjustable Sway Bars + End Links, for a package covering 100% of their S197 Whiteline catalog. We have recently updated
our S197 suspension products page page to show all of these items along with the Whiteline Adjustable Panhard Bar, and we already stock and have sold some of these at Vorshlag. A lot of these parts were just released this past month and they made it on our website as soon as pricing was available. We are really liking what they have and I'm glad we picked up the Whiteline dealership (that's the last of the sales-y stuff, I promise!)
Other changes for this weekend of racing include a switch back to Kumho V710 rubber from Hoosier A6. Most people know the Hoosier DOT tire line-up: The R6 is more suited to track use (can withstand longer stints and more heat) and the A6 is for autocross use (heat up quickly, but tend to overheat on longer stints). The V710 is sort of like an R6, so we picked up and mounted
two fresh Kumho's in 315/35/18 and ran two of our
old Kumho's that have seen a lot of autocross & track use. These
two older tires "looked" OK and I didn't want to drop $1600 on a whole new set of Kumho's after just getting back from Nationals and
dropping $1600 on that set of A6's (which still looked pretty good, too - definitely worth running at a few more autocrosses).
Lastly, we upgraded spring rates due to the excessive lean we were seeing on the A6's at the Solo Nationals on that grippy concrete. These pictures really amplified how softly we have the car sprung and how little experience we have with the car in ESP use. I think we had four months of ESP preparation before Nationals? Compared to the 1.5 years we spent in STX on street tires, where the old, softer rates worked very well.
In the front we went to 550#/in Hyperco springs, up from the previous 450#/in rates. To match this change up front, we stiffened the rear rates from 175#/in to 250#/in, also Hyperco springs. We adjusted the sway bar settings a bit as well, on a hunch. With the normal track preparation came the rear trunk swap, ridiculously tall rear wing, fluids, inspection, and all of that. We loaded up and were ready to head out to Texas Motor Speedway for early Friday morning, as the GTA event was Friday and Saturday.
Global Time Attack, 9/21 to 9/22, TMS
TMS Infield Course Map
We arrived at TMS at 7 am Friday morning, with Ryan and Brandon from the shop accompanying me for track-side support and event photography. It was a work day so we didn't expect too many spectators, but we saw a few hundred there - to watch the XTC drift guys...
There is a lot more like that in our picture gallery for this event, linked above, if this is your thing. After looking at what they have to do to these cars ... it is just too much for me to process. They are a unique animal with preparation all their own. I respect their car control and I will leave it at that. Well...
The drifters did spend a lot of time off track and drug all manner of dirt and crap onto the racing line that the Time Attack drivers had to deal with. Luckily the TMS track workers cleaned up pretty well after each XTC session, before GTA took to the track. Pretty well. I am glad XTC worked with GTA (and Hot Import Nights) to get this joint-event to happen. So that's all I'm going to talk about the drifting.
We grabbed a prime paddock spot for the trailer, unloaded the car, set up our sun shade, dragged out the compressor, generator, and cooler and put out half a dozen chairs. Then we aired up the tires and wired up the video camera and AIM SOLO. NASA New Mexico sanctioned this event, so already having a NASA Log Book and Annual TT Tech for the car helped me breeze through tech inspection.
KenO was there in his E46M3 "TTB" street car and he helped me set-up the AIM and get a beacon set for start/finish. We went to registration when the GTA guys arrived, picked up all of our stickers, and got to work getting the proper decals applied. Ken showed me a trick to "remove some stick" from the big number board decals, since they needed to come off Sunday for the SCCA Autocross. Stick it on and pull it off your shirt a few times, then stick it on the car. Worked great!
Left: KenO in the Enthusiast RWD winning E46 M3. Right: Me hand signaling Ken, "asking for a pass".
Ken was also a big help teaching me the proper line around this track, as he was the only driver entered who had ever run this 1.36 mile infield course (the "red" one in the track map below) in anger, driving in Corvettes at some driving school thing. I had run some of this course at a few Texas Region SCCA autocrosses, but that was MUCH slower, with slaloms on the main straight and weird offsets in all of the fast parts. After making a couple of recon laps, I realized my autocross experience on this layout helped me -0-. I did some lead follows behind Ken in the first day's second session and figured out where I was screwing up, royally. Then by the second day Ken's TTB E46 M3 on street tires was all kinds of in my way. :P
more below...