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,