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

[Fair]

continued from above



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.

continued below

[Fair]

continued from above



That picture above is from the grid before Saturday's final TT run group, session 7, which began at 3:45 pm. As you can see the bad weather really rolled in and the rain was eminent, and we even felt a sprinkle or two in grid. I had no windshield wipers (pulled them for less drag!) so I applied two coats of RainX to the windshield prior to going out. I was hoping to drop another 2 seconds, to maybe "get in the hunt", but that was a bit optimistic. I had watched some previous in-car videos and noted several of my driving mistakes, so I tried to clean up my lines, and again - my first lap was going to be the most crucial.

I dropped back a bit on the out lap and tried to gap Nagel, but I caught and passed him again in the braking to Turn 1 on the first hot lap, which threw my line off for this high speed corner, and my entries into T2 and T3 were slower. Rest of the lap was relatively clear and was a 2:06.6, with a pass and several compromised corners. I went ahead and took a 2nd hot lap, where I caught and passed a TT1 Corvette on the main front straight, then got held up a little by a TT2 Subaru early braking into T1 (so many cars brake early there). He pulled ahead in Turns 2-4 but I caught him a bit in the heavy braking into Turn 6. For the rest of this lap he stayed ahead and pulled away on the main straight. Hot lap 2 was a 2:06.111. I had a little more gap to the TT2 Subie so I took a 3rd hot lap in the row.

Braked a little late into T1 (155 mph) and got a little sloppy, then borked the high speed Turn 4 a bit, too. Felt like the rear tires were getting greasy, and they were. I watched the predictive timing off and on through the lap, and and it was only showing a 2:06.3-2:06.4 towards the latter 1/4 of the lap. The rear tires were really overheating by Turn 12, car was getting too loose, so I bailed on this hot lap right before Pit In and came into Impound. The 2 tenths improvement was at least something but I was still a 1/2 second behind Nagel's previous 2:05.5 (he ran a 2:11.3 in this session).

I guess because of the weird weather, higher winds and darker visibility only 2 cars dropped time in our class - I ran a couple of tenths quicker at a 2:06.111 on my 2nd lap and Bezard dropped from the 2:08s down to a to a 2:07.5 in his E46 M3 to close up behind me in 5th place. Smith was slower at a 2:03.9 and Mayfield was a second slower at a 2:04.1. So on only my 2nd session on "sticker A6" tires I was still dropping time, but I still felt there was more left to drop still.


Click above and skip to 5:57, where they spend a minute on our Mustang

One difference from this year's NASA Nationals was the "SpeedcastTV" coverage. There were cameras up on man lifts at a number of corners around the track and they were showing video live online at www.speedcasttv.com/nasa. There were also two announcers giving color commentary on the live video feed. They had a director who would tell the cameramen to switch from car to car and they'd stay with them for 30 seconds or up to a minute. The linked video above shows some footage from TT session 7, and at the 5:57 mark they cover me driving the red Mustang. One of the announcers was even a follower of this very forum thread and a fan of the car (thanks!). They talked about the car for a minute, which was cool.

Saturday night was a lot more upbeat, as I was at least within a 3 seconds of the 2 drivers who were trading the class lead (closest I had been all week) and I was only 1/2 second out of a podium position. We had 2 more sessions to go on Sunday and anything was possible. But it started to rain as the sun fell and it rained pretty much all night. We knew this meant another green track (no rubber down) for Sunday, so it might all be over for fast laps in TT. We had no more tuning tricks left up our sleeves so it was all down to the track/weather conditions and my driving on Sunday. Great...

Day 4 - Sunday



It rained all Saturday night so we were treated to a wet first session on Sunday, with drops still coming down. Only 7 drivers from the entire H group of Time Trial racers took to the track, but they got some extra SpeedcastTV time, so kudos to them. I skipped that session, as I didn't bring any rains and didn't see a point, with 8 other dry session's worth of times to fall back on. Don't need to stuff the car off track, either. So we waited for the 9th and final TT session, which began at 2:45 pm, and it was the last race group to run the entire week of the 2013 NASA Nationals. The track was green but dry, temperatures were down to 79° after the rains had blown through, there was a good wind again (which dried off the track quickly), and it looked pretty much like the best conditions of the week.

In the last TT meeting before this session we were told by the TT Director, "If you go faster in this last session, be prepared to be dyno'd". The top 2 in TT3 had already been dyno tested more than once this week, but almost nobody else in our class had, including me. We had all been weighed many times, and as far as I know there were no under-weights. We were told if we weighed under, or dyno'd higher than our claimed numbers, we'd get a session DQ. They would then take our weight and divide by the power test number, and if our ratio was under what the class allowed, ALL times prior to that would be thrown out, back to our last legal dyno/weight check from this event.


Final two Time Trial sessions were run on Sunday. Session 8 (at left) was raining but Session 9 (right) was dry and fast...

I went out on the same fresh-ish Hoosier A6 tires that we installed on Saturday morning (I saw more new sticker sets in this last Sunday session than in most others), with several heat cycles now acquired on them. I was sitting in 4th place out of 12 in class, 6 tenths behind Nagel in 3rd, with the two of us gridded side by side. We talked before going out and agreed to a point-by on lap 1 if I was closing down on him, like we had been doing most of the week, since he doesn't get tire heat until lap 4 or 5. He knew I was close to his times and was pushing to pick up some time cushion, too. He had a sizable crew with him including spotters with 2-way radios to communicate his and my times during the session. I really wished we had radios at this point, because I would have no way of knowing if he went faster. Amy and Ryan told me to STAY OUT THE ENTIRE SESSION, to make sure I got the most out of the car, but I knew my best lap would likely be my first. We fueled up heavy to give a bit more range and out I went.

Last TT SpeedcastTV video: http://www.speedcasttv.com/nasa/#/races/358

If you watch the above video it gives you some good action in TTU and TT3 during this session. The Godzilla GTR in TTU dropped 2 seconds in this final session and leaped into the lead by nearly 2 seconds over the Subaru powered Radical. That car's 1:55 lap times for a full bodied car were amazing. In the 9th TT session Nagel had dropped another tenth down to a 2:05.454, but spun it on course and on camera, late in the session - at approximately 21:20 on this 2nd linked Speedcast video, you can see him sitting crossed up and stopped on track. So that spin caused a session DQ and his new 0.1 second faster time was thrown out. So we have to look back at his previous best of a 2:05.562 from TT session 6 on Saturday. That was the mark I was looking for... mid 2:05s. So when I ran the lap below, I didn't know if I had beat him or not.

continued below

[Fair]

continued from above


In-car video from the final TT group, Session 9, where I ran my best lap of the week!

My best lap was my first hot lap, once again, with a 2:05.579 - or 17 thousandths of a second back from Nagel! I stayed out and ran 3 hot laps in a row, which you can see bits and pieces of in the Speedcast video or in my in-car video, above. Nagel gave me the point right before the start-finish and I got a mostly clear track ahead of me for my first lap. I caught the TT2 Subaru again in Turn 4, T5 and was maybe held up a tick braking into T6, but he started pulling away from me after Turn 7. Watching my lap I was talking to myself and yelling at the car the whole time, might have left a few tenths out there, but I was on the ragged edge and tracking out to the curbing on most corners. When my lap timer said 2:05.59 after my first hot lap it was too close to call. So I went out in lap 2 looking for a tenth. I keep saying that on the video, "I just need a tenth... I just need a tenth!"

Exiting Witchcraft I pushed it a bit too hard and took the S-curves (attitudes) with a bit more curb than the car could handle and got it very crossed up. Kept it on track, barely, then cooled down for a couple of corners and went straight into hot lap 3. Tires were getting greasy and loose at the high speed corners in T2/T3/T4. Predictive timing was only showing low 2:06s and I was getting very, very frustrated. I needed to push it hard to find that tenth but could not afford to have an off. After 3 hot laps, where I noticed lap times slowing on each successive attempt, I packed it in, assuming I was probably only hundreds of a second slower than 3rd place.

We all got into Impound and they started weighing and dyno'ing a selection of cars. I was eventually weighed and was still 40 pounds heavy. Before they could finish with all of us, were told to leave our cars and head to the trophy ceremony.




NASA did a great job and each podium finisher in every racing class got champagne, a trophy, pictures with the Toyo Girls, and many of the contingency winnings were handed out right there. GoPro 3 Black edition cameras (just for running stickers), cases of Royal Purple, driving suits, and on and on. Time Trial had some of the more lucrative payouts, surprisingly. Mayfield had arm fulls of goodies and he had a smile a mile wide. Big congrats to him for the win and TT3 track record at Miller in his first time to NASA Nationals. It was close, with his final TT session 9 time dropping to a 2:03.052, and Smith in second only 3 tenths back at a 2:03.328 from earlier in the week. Nagel rounded out the podium in 3rd.


Left: The Official TT Final Results. Right: Nagels car sitting in Impound awaiting a ruling, after blowing the dyno. Twice.

But the fat lady hadn't sung her song just yet. After the trophy ceremony we headed back to Impound and the cars awaiting dyno runs and weight checks stuck around until our cars were released. Mayfield's BMW dyno'd clean and went to load up. Nagel's white M3 got weighed and dyno'd since he was in the top 3, which was apparently that car's first trip onto the rollers all week. But it blew the claimed maximum power number on the dyno by nearly 10 whp. They did the 3 pulls and then his team argued about the shape of the dyno graph on one of the first pulls. So they pulled it around in line, got it up on the trailer, strapped it down and dyno'd it again, 3 more pulls. Ryan watched the second set of pulls and it failed again. Meanwhile I'm drinking a few beers and just hanging out at Impound, awaiting the outcome. Several TT directors met, they checked his most recent weight and dyno numbers, recalculated his class ratio, and it was also over the limit. Hmm....

The National TT Director Greg Greenbaum was busy with a protest and an appeal from another class entry (Super Touring Corvette) that took over an hour. After that was decided (it went all the way to an Executive Appeal and a NASA Board of Directors), he came to decide what to do with Nagel's dyno issues. Apparently since it blew both the dyno and ratio, all times back to a previous good dyno were to be thrown out. And since he didn't volunteer or have another a clean dyno earlier in the week, there was nothing to fall back on that was legal, so all of his times were tossed. If the ratio had still been good (power to weight) it would have just been a session DQ, which was already a DQ for the spin anyway, and he would have held onto 3rd. Greenbaum said "yep, he's DQ'd for the entire week, you are now 3rd place". Yep, just like that.

I talked to Nagel, and he was rather cool about it "Hey, I don't tune it, I just drive it". We shook hands, he congratulated me, then he went and got the 3rd place trophy out of his trailer and handed it to me. Man, that was rough - I felt so bad for him.... but not bad enough that I didn't take that trophy! Does an inherited win feel as good? Heck yes, when the cars were thousandths of a second apart and the other car didn't make dyno. We worked our asses off all year, and built a heck of a good TT3 car, that was both quick and legal. It was also a street legal car, with A/C, emissions, tags, interior, NAV/radio, the works. Weren't too many (any?) of those on the podium that week in any TT class. Probably for a reason!


Left: One of the TT Directors congratulates me on 3rd place. Right: It wasn't a podium ceremony, but I'll take it,

While I was awaiting the Impound ruling, Amy, Ryan and Brandon had pulled the front end off, loaded up the car, got the 21 tires with only a qualifying run I scavenged from Hoosier's trash pile secured, and we rolled out for our 2 day/25 hour return trip around 6 pm, with Ryan and Brandon with us for the return trip. These Hoosier scrubs will keep us in R compounds for HPDE and test laps for months to come!



Wanted to give a shout out to our paddock mates from Minnesota. These guys are part of a ChumpCar team that were at Nationals to support one of their driver's, who ran some World Challenge races in the past and was now running a Honda Challenge Civic in PTC (should have been PTD - long story). These guys have been friends for years and were having a lot of fun. Photographer Brian Smyer was hanging around with this crew, too.


At right is the Best Team Photo.. EVAR!

continued below

[Fair]

continued from above

What Did We Learn At Nationals?

Reflecting back on this Nationals week, heck, this last year of running TT in NASA, we have learned a lot of lessons, and I'm sure we have many more to still learn. The experience of going to NASA Nationals was both informative and fun for our entire crew - and even the guys at the shop who didn't join us there. Coming home with a trophy was a good feeling, especially after starting the week off so slow and so far back (the car got 5.3 seconds faster from Thursday to Sunday).



Here are some of the little bits of wisdom that I humbly share with you after this Nationals experience:

• The power to weight ratios in TT's numbered classes are better explained in the ST rules. Most people were cheating themselves, running too much weight or too little power until the TT directors got us straightened out. Yes, even at Nationals, mistakes were often made on classing sheets.
• Don't run 40-60 pounds heavy for your class then complain if you lose by .017 seconds. In NASA, the power and weight matter a lot.
• Don't fear the dyno - get a dyno test done AT Nationals on the OFFICIAL dyno early in the week. Ask for a weight check early and often, too. You will want to have a good "tested legal" date to fall back on, in case a later test is blown.
• High altitude tracks can produce funky dyno numbers - be prepared to have to de-tune or add weight when the conditions are very different from your home track.
• There is no substitute for fresh race tires. Ever. The normal tire strategies we use at Regional NASA events (R6s for most of the laps, A6 for a single session and faster hot lap) can work well, but at Nationals we needed more sticker sets. Showing up on used or worn tires was a big mistake, as we were partially tuning around bad tires. Neal Roberts had taught us this. Economics got the better of us.
• Making huge changes to the car or set-up right before Nationals is a bad idea. Pick a time period a month or two before Nationals and LOCK DOWN YOUR SET-UP. Don't count on the 4 days of TT sessions to help fine tune the set-up, either.
• Don't skimp on your trailer tires. On an enclosed 2 or 3 axle trailer, bring two mounted spares plus at least a third unmounted spare trailer tire. Keep one spare + the axle lift ramp + a proper lug wrench right next to the trailer side door for easy access.
• Towing over the Rocky Mountains is the suck, no matter what vehicle you are using. Going "around" the mountains is easier than going over the worst passes. Plan your route accordingly. On the return trip we heard of some folks seeing ice on the roads on the difficult passes.
• If you are going to Nationals and have never run the track before, get there at least a day early to practice. Budget for this with time and tires.
• If you have doubts about fuel availability or quality at the track, bring your own fuel. We spent a small fortune on 100 octane race fuel to mix with the 91 octane "Premium" they use in Utah.
• When it comes to numbered TT classes (TTU/1/2/3), don't skimp on the aero. EVERY SINGLE top TT3 car had excellent wings, splitters, and low drag tricks. Nobody in TT3 used the "better" 9:1 optional ratio for using stock aero... every fast car took the weight hit to use aftermarket aero.
• Too much front downforce can be a bad thing (we've since made a 2nd splitter that is 4" shorter - see my next event write-up on how that worked).
• Don't do your aero set-up testing at a track that only has low speed corners (duh).
• High speed tracks require SERIOUS braking systems. Don't skimp, and "bigger is better" applies.
• Don't bring a street car to run in the top TT classes at Nationals and expect to win. It might work at a Region level, and it might have worked at Nationals in the past, but the top guys show up to Nationals in serious race cars.

I hope our mistakes and experiences can help you make the right choices for your TT build, if and when you decide to try your hand at this sport. And I hope reading our posts encourages that goal for most HPDE folks. Why? Because after a while just "running a DE" can get boring. There are not rules, times, or competition to drive you. Just "driving around a track" doesn't teach you much, once you have gone through instruction and are Solo'd. We've seen a lot of HPDE drivers moving towards TT, and I think that is great. But don't assume you have to go W2W racing after you get to TT. Many of us don't want or need the added risks, costs and damage potential that W2W racing has. If you can afford to write off your car after some asshat punts you off track and destroys your car, and that won't upset you too badly, then by all means... go right ahead. Because that can and does happen in W2W, but not in TT.


Hard Choices - Selling BOTH Mustangs?

Unfortunately we still need to sell the 2013 GT, and it has taken so long now that I'm forced to put the 2011 GT up for sale now, too. I know, that sucks - trust me, I don't want to do this. We had planned on selling the 2011 at the end of this year or in the Spring of 2014, to make room for the all new 2015 Mustang we want to buy, prep and race in 2014. That is still happening, but with so much $$$ tied up in both Mustangs, I need to move them sooner rather than later. We had hoped we could keep the red car for a while longer, but expanding the business needs cash right now and both of our S197 projects are going on the auction block. Look for an updated ad for the 2013 GT and a new for sale ad for the 2011 GT soon.



continued below

[Fair]

continued from above

Since nobody made a serious offer on it, our black 2013 GT is getting taken back to stock very soon and will likely be sold on CraigsList to some random schmuck, as the "track ready" set-up didn't get me any legit buyers (just a couple of fast talking con men and a few low ball pranksters). Our red 2011 GT will be posted up as it sits in TT3 trim now, with the aero front end and one set of 18x12" wheels and tires. If that is a bust we'll put it back to nearly stock and sell it that way, too. Don't PM me about parts off of either car just yet, as I will ignore those straight off. When/if these cars have parts pulled off they will go for sale all at once and I'll post an ad here.


What's Next?

There are still a lot of events we might be able to squeeze in with the red 2011 GT. And who knows? Maybe the 2013 GT will sell and some other things will fall into place and we won't have to sell the red GT right away, and I can make all of these events (fingers crossed!). Here's what is on the race schedule for the next few weeks.

• NASA @ TWS on Sept 21-22 - we've completed this event and I will have the write-up shortly.
• Camaro Vs Mustang Battle on Oct 5 @ Texas Motorplex - sign up here. Vorshlag is putting together the autocross portion, so if you have a GM or Ford powered vehicle, please come out and join us. Only $45 to both autocross and drag race, and we will make sure it is going to be fun!
• Goodguys Lone Star Nationals Oct 4-6th @ TMS - We will go to this on Sunday Oct 6th for the Autocross (the last Optima Qualifier for 2013) in the red car on whatever street tires we can scrounge up. Any American built or American powered vehicle is eligible.
• SCCA Autocross @ TMS Road Course Oct 13 - if we still have the red Mustang by then we will run this event in that car. This is their once-a-year "road course" event, with the infield road course at Texas Motor Speedway lined with some cones and packed with a bunch of autocrossers. Walls beware!
• NASA @ ECR Nov 2-3 - Again, assuming we still have a TT3 car to race by then, we will be there trying to finish out the NASA Texas calendar with a 100% track record sweep in TT3 for 2013. We're 7 for 7 so far....

2015 Mustang for 2014 in... TT2?

So to recap a few of our 2014 plans, we plan on buying one of the all-new 2015 Mustang GT's as soon as it is available. From talking to a few key people that have sources at Ford, we think the new S550 chassis is going to be at least 100 pounds lighter. The Coyote 5.0 engine choice is assumed to carry over, and if it is like previous "chassis changes" it will likely have a small power bump, too. We will get the V8, manual transmission, and likely red again - but that's it. I'm not letting Amy pimp this one out with a bunch of options. So this means it will be even lighter and more powerful than the 2011 GT which we have been playing with in TT3, so we'd have to cork up the engine and/or slap on a bunch of extra weight to stay within the 9.5:1 pounds per hp ratio of TT3 class "with aero".

The next class up the Time Trials ladder is TT2, which has an 8:1 ratio. We have extrapolated that this S550 will likely end up there, once we upgrade the suspension, wheels/tires, and aero like we have the 2011 (and that will happen quickly). So TT2 is what we are shooting to run next year, again with a goal of developing new parts for this new Mustang chassis (S550), and hopefully racking up a few more NASA TT track records along the way. We haven't found a better venue to test new products for a car than the competition that NASA Time Trial provides. Unfortunately the NASA Texas the season starts in January, and the new car might not be out until April or May... and we had the TT3 regional championship for 2013 wrapped up by May of this year, so we can't wait that long to get a race car built.



Some of you may already know that Vorshlag is a lot more than just a "Mustang suspension shop". One of the many series of products we have developed over the years is our LS1 V8 swaps into various BMW chassis. We've done E30, E36, E46, Z3 BMW swaps and have kits for most of those, plus a V8 Miata kit that is under development. Our service shop has been cranking out a lot of BMW V8 swaps of late and I have a couple of E36 donor chassis at my house right now, without a clear purpose. So....

Vorshlag TT2/ST2 E36 Build Thread: http://www.vorshlag.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8254

Over the winter we will be building a TT2/ST2 BMW E36 LS1. The chassis is a white 1992 325is "E36 Coupe", with a tired motor and interior. This will be stripped down, caged, flared, painted and built into a W2W race car. We might briefly run it in TT2 before we sell it, too - that's my goal if we do end up selling the red 2011 GT before the new 2015 GT arrives.


Above: Our TT2/ST2 build is already underway with the BMW E36 chassis being stripped and readied for a cage

I know, its not a Mustang, but it will allow us to at least get in the class with something while we await the S550's introduction. We will also be building our E46 LS1 Alpha car with a 5.7L motor around TT1 class rules, also over the winter, which we plan to race and develop that kit with as well. The Alpha LS1 Miata that is moving forward (customer car), among other builds in our shop.



Don't worry - we're not done developing S197 parts, not hardly. Lots of S197 Mustang race prep, development and upgrades are still going on at Vorshlag on a daily basis. And we might be able to hang onto the red GT for a while, or if it is sold in "near stock form" I will look for a front damaged '11-14 GT as soon as we can and transfer over the front sheet metal and aero updates from this car, as well as some new shock and suspension options we are working on for this chassis.



So I hope this last series of posts wasn't too long and boring, and I apologize that my "Nationals Event Coverage" spanned so many days and too many words. I've already started my write-up for the TWS event on Sept 21-22nd, where the car again did very well. There was a host of updates done to the car before we took it to Texas World Speedway for this NASA race weekend, including a new "shorter" splitter which balanced out the aero imbalance we had at Miller. Our painter also reworked the hood and it looks top notch, but we lost the vinyl stripes in the process. I'll get that update posted shortly. Until next time...

Thanks for reading,