dfw

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:17 PM

continued from above

While I was standing outside the car trying to think, the AWD turbo Eclipse that was in our class was idling 15 feet away. With the wind blowing towards me, it was choking me with clouds of oil smoke. This car was a big hot mess, leaking oil from everywhere, covered in duct tape, and always trailing blue smoke. It actually won the ESP class at the ProSolo, launching incredibly well and eeking out the win over Mark Madarash. At the Solo Nationals, the two drivers only managed 13th and 27th spots. After its second runs on the West Course, it caught on fire.

I was looking right at this smoking mess, using my mind powers to try and will it to turn off, when I noticed some dancing lights under the car. The driver was leaning on the left side door, about to get burned. It took me a second but I realized it was on fire, so I yelled "Hey, your car is on fire!" He looked at me funny.... "Yes! YOUR. CAR. IS. ON. FIRE! WE NEED SOME FIRE BOTTLES HERE, RIGHT NOW!" Flames are now licking up the door and it's really blazing. Two people showed up with extinguishers within 10 seconds and used them both to put the flames out, which kept re-catching. I crawled under while they were hitting it with extinguisher and noticed fuel pouring out of the tank onto the exhaust. "Shut the car off!" It finally went out, but it was dumping fuel on the grid, so we pushed it back 40 feet, away from the other cars. Then they ran over my foot and set the parking brake - "Get it off my foot! Get it off my foot!" Once my foot was free I limped back to my car and got belted up - because grid worker was ready for me to drive. Oh boy...

(continued from above)

Click above to see the video from Terry's third and final run on the West Course (60.146+1).

Well my hero run was anything but that. It looked okay until I got to the section called "Flop, turn and river", where I got behind and pushed wide. Then I murdered the "wallom" section called "Five cone draw", double-turning into each offset. I could also smell tire smoke and something burning, which meant the rear tire rub was back. This really drove me nuts and I let it throw me off in the last slalom, "Six the easy way". Hey, I don't make these names up, just referencing the map. The run was junk and I knew it, even before I heard the time. The run was a solid 4 tenths slower and I hit a cone in the final slalom.

My runs on West course felt like my worst driving in a single day at Nationals in quite a while. I just could not seem to put a complete run together on what I felt was the simpler of the two courses. Mark got a tiny bit quicker on his third run, but the big mover was Tim Bergstrom, who dropped almost a full second on his last run and bumped me down to 5th place for the day. Now I desperately hoped the East course was going to help with my placing. It looked like a gigantic cluster-f*ck of a course, hard to see with weird cone markings, and I noticed corner workers picking up lots of cones all day. For whatever reason I seem to do better when the courses are uglier, so who knows?

After my runs I went into "helper" mode and got the car re-gridded for Amy's ESP-L runs in 5th heat. We hung out in the idling Dodge with the A/C blasting on Max because it was creeping up to 100°F outside and we were feeling the heat. With both of us working in a very long first heat, thrashing to get the car ready in the second heat, and running in the third heat with Amy assisting - we had forgotten to eat and had not been drinking enough water. After the heat and humidity of the long afternoon, we both felt like crap and were moving into the early stages of heat exhaustion. The tire rub issue? I was so over-heated I didn't even remember to fix this, other than a brief mention to Amy after my last run. We both sat in the truck for a solid hour trying to cool off, then Amy had to run...

Tuesday ESP-L Competition - West Course

Right before Amy got in the car to make her run, the skies opened up and it rained hard for about three minutes, it even dumped some hail. Only one driver made a full run in the hail and rain mess - Brianne Corn, the defending B Mod champion driving in an open car. The other driver's behind her got flagged off and had re-runs, because the hail was setting off the timers. Just look at this mess!

"Oh HAIL no!" ...Brianne Corn driving in adverse conditions

I am writing a letter about that because she was getting pelted by hail in an open car. I get that we "run in all weather" like rain, but they will stop the course when during lightning, high winds, or weather so bad that it stops the timers. I think hail should be an instant "lets hold off for a minute" break in an autocross. That's not asking too much, is it?

So Amy was feeling the pressure when the fifth heat finally rolled around and she was once again the very last car in the grid (just like at the Spring Nationals here in Lincoln).

Not many competitors in ESP-Ladies - you're looking at the entire class.

Amy has had very little seat time in this new set-up - Remember, we made major changes to the car just one week earlier and she was unable to join us during the private test we held. I made 38 runs at the Mineral Wells test and one more at the Nationals practice. She made three runs at the Nationals practice and was almost 3/4 of a second off my pace.

Click above to see the video from Amy's first run on the West Course (60.301).

Amy's first run looked pretty good. She came out of the box swinging and was six tenths off of my best time for the West course. Her second run was a hair slower with an almost identical time to her first run (60.301 then 60.381). She was overshooting some braking zones and she knew it, so on her third run she tried to dial those back a bit and nail a quicker time.

Click above to see the video from Amy's third run on the West Course (60.044).

Her third run (60.044) looked pretty darn good and she dropped three tenths, finishing up only three tenths off of my best time. This was probably one of her best drives all year. She was disappointed that it wasn't in the 59 second range, but a 60.044 run was quite respectable even in the ESP open class (would have been in the trophies for day one). Especially so considering the higher ambient temperature in the fifth heat compared to when ESP open ran (third heat) and her almost complete lack of experience with this new suspension set-up.

It was a long day. The East course had been wrapped up for a while before Amy's first run on the West course began, which the video camera shows was at 5:27 pm. It was 5:54 pm on her second run, 6:22 pm when she made her third, and 6:45 pm before they were released from grid. To say that West course was running late was an understatement! We were taking our first walk of the East course after sunset - what a long ass day.

Changes After Day One

One delay that kept us from walking the East course before dark was about 30 minutes we spent back at our paddock spot doing some repairs. Amy and I had both noticed the smell of tire rub on our Day One runs. I took a peek after one of my runs and yep, the tire was rubbing in the rear once more. We brought the 18x12" wheels inboard quite a bit after the switch to the Whiteline Watts link and re-routed rear sway bar.

As you can see in the pictures above, the Hoosiers were rubbing through the rubberized insulation/liner at the rear and were getting into the painted part of the chassis as well. Even saw some rubber deposited on the FRPP upper shock mounts. This wasn't a problem with the same spacer/wheel set-up at our Mineral Wells test a week earlier, but the added grip of the fresh Hoosier A6s and the grippier concrete of Lincoln over the asphalt at Mineral Wells must have been enough to allow a tad more axle displacement under load. The West course featured a LOT of looooong sweepers, too. The tires themselves only showed some wear at the extended "rim protector" part of the bead - it was barely scuffed.

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:18 PM

continued from above

In order to fix this, we pulled off the pair of thin spacers and put on some that were an 1/8" wider. A minimal change to the track width and feel of the car, but it was apparently enough as we didn't have any more tire rub on Day Two.

Also, while the car was in the air we verified the rebound settings on the Moton Club Sports, which have to be adjusted with this little tool with the tires off. Then we used our RocksOff tire scraper to get the pebbles off the sticky A6 rubber. We didn't have a problem with "OPR" pickup, other than a few strands I could peel off with my hands. I guess the ESP car was heavy enough to scrub off the fronts and powerful enough to keep the rears clear of rubber pickup. I saw lots of stock class guys madly scraping their tires between runs with cordless cutting tools and at night with torches and scrapers.

(continued from above)

Wednesday ESP Competition - East Course

Click image above for a larger version of the Roger Johnson designed East Course.

After a late night walking the East course and an awesome meal at a place called "Toast", we hit the ground running at 6:30 am Wednesday morning. We walked the course at dawn, then unloaded the car to get it ready. We worked the East course in the first heat at a real cluster-f*ck corner where we shagged upwards of 40 cones. This "ring of fire" section was a real visual mess and lots of people took out 1-4 cones at a time in this section. I'm not knocking the course - it did exactly what Roger intended... caught people out and "separated the men from the boys".

Once we got to grid in the third heat, it wasn't quite as hot and I was hoping some ESP drivers would fall for the many visual traps on Roger's course - and that I would not. Being in 5th place was not where I wanted to start the day, but I was hopeful that I could move up one or two places if I nailed this course.

Left: Wednesday's 33 car ESP Grid. Right: Mark's racing secret Activia yogurt is kicking in!

The plan was to go out and try to lay down a FAST first run, which I did... and promptly murdered the very last cone on course, in the very section where I worked the course!!!

Click above to see the video from Terry's first run on the East Course (69.034 +1).

Grr, I was so pissed at myself. The run time was great and it would have moved me right up into 2nd place according to the announcer, but then he heard the cone call. That "simple constant radius turn" in the "ring of fire" section of the East course was the hardest corner of the event, bar none. There were all sorts of visual tricks, the camber of the surface changed as you went around the corner, and you came into it all kinds of crossed up. I worked on this section all day, and after getting it mostly right on my first run I promptly got LOST in this section on my second run. FFS...

Click above to see the video from Terry's second run (69.802).

Actually I got lost in two places on that run, after getting through fairly quickly and easily on my first attempt. I let my "coned" first run mess with my head. On my second run, getting lost slowed me down eight tenths and moved me all the way down to 10th place in class. The car felt fine, but I just lost my way and really psyched myself out. After being in 4th place almost the entire first day, I was mired down in 10th place going into my last run of Nationals?! Oh man, was I sweating. It was "hero run time"...

Click above to see the video from Terry's third run (68.735).

I nailed my last run - Hot diggidy DAMN! I knew the run was good before I heard the time or placing, and I got out of the car shaking. Man that felt good! It was really only about 3 tenths quicker than my first run, but it didn't have the cone penalty. This run moved me from 10th place (outside of the trophies) into a solid 4th place overall, only .058 behind 3rd place. After watching some second drivers improve but not bump me lower, I stayed in 4th place. Dave Ogburn pulled off a quick last run and increased his lead over me to 4 tenths in 3rd place.

I was so glad to be done and to have moved into the trophies. I normally wouldn't be so happy with a 4th place finish, but after seeing the car builds and drivers in the top 10, I think I was pretty lucky to have done this well in an emissions-legal street car with A/C, navigation, big stereo, untouched fenders, and all that. And for as heavy as our car ended up being (more on that below). Here is a small sampling of the ESP competitors.

Left: Eight time ESP National Champion Mark Madarash's '88 Firebird (on ASTs). Right: Second place finisher Britt Dollmeyer in Tim Bergstrom's '06 Mustang GT (on ASTs).

Left: Dave Ogburn's third place '01 Camaro on Goodyears. Right: Opie Viets' 3rd Gen '84 Camaro.

Left: Fifth place finisher David Feighner's '95 Cobra R. Right: David Gushwa's Mustang Boss 302.

Left: Twelfth place finisher Mark Foley's '99 Firebird. Right: Dave Heinrich's Mustang Boss 302 finished in the trophies in seventh place.

Left: Tye "Colossus" Jackson's '01 Camaro. Right: Sixth place Jonathan Newcombe trophied driving James Darden's '97 LT4 Z28.

Darden actually tied Brad Owen for the 9th and final trophy spot, down to the .001 second, so they looked at their next fastest times to break the tie, which supposedly went to Owen (but the official results show Darden in 9th?). They brought this up at the awards banquet and gave a free set of BFG tires in the size and model of his choice to Darden, to ease the pain. Pretty cool condolence prize!

During the ESP Impound, we all talked and joked around and nobody even hinted at being upset or protesting anyone or anything like that. The ESP group here at Nationals, many of whom I met at the Mineral Welss ProSolo or the Lincoln Pro/Tour in May, really is one of the nicest, most helpful, greatest group of racers I've run with in my 24 years running in SCCA Solo. We had 33 fierce competitors, but as we saw when the hood smashed into our windshield at the May event (against much of the same group) and again when the Talon caught fire, they are all quick to jump in and lend a hand to any fellow ESP competitor in need. Good stuff - thanks for being so welcoming to this ESP noobie this year, guys!

Wednesday ESP-L Competition - East Course

Texas Region racer and friend Wayne Atkins had pointed out that after my second East course run the left spoiler upright was coming loose. I didn't have tools in grid to fix it and they convinced me to stop worrying about it... it eventually came completely loose on my third run, for an unintended "DRS" spoiler effect (F1's "drag reduction system").

more below

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:19 PM

last one...

Before the fifth heat I motored back to the trailer, grabbed some tools, and came back to re-assemble the uprights. I can't blame anyone else, as I was the one that bolted it together last time. Doh!

When the fifth heat finally rolled around we had Amy gridded up and the spoiler was back into the "fixed" configuration. She had a healthy 3+ second lead coming from Day One, so I wanted her to concentrate and try to get as close to my times as she could. Her first run was a mess, with a clean but off pace 72.333 run. She admitted to getting lost in several places and having trouble seeing past Roger's course's visual tricks. I had her look at the map and sit in the truck until her second run.

Click above to see the video from Amy's second run (71.007).

This run was an improvement thanks to finding her marks better, but she still under-braked into one section, which pushed her off line going into another section and messed up her rhythm. It was a clean run, but still 2.3 seconds off my last run. I tried to get her psyched up for a final "all out" run to drop more time, but she slowed down nine tenths and hit a cone (70.901 +1), but still managed to win.

Looking at her times compared to ESP open, she would have still placed 15th which was better than mid-pack. Her times on the West course were a lot more competitive, but these "visually challenging" courses seem to catch her out. It's something we need to work on for next year if she is going to run in ESP open.

Wednesday Awards Banquet

As usual the fifth heat on our side finished hours after fifth heat on the opposite course. After impound we still had to load the car into the trailer before heading to the Awards Banquet, which started at 5:30 pm. Once the car was in the trailer (in record time) it was after 5:30 pm, so we just drove straight there and skipped going to the hotel to shower and change, unlike most attendees. Of course we got there way early and none of the award stuff started until about 7 pm, so we should have stopped and cleaned up.

We sat with our fellow Texas Region racers and waited for the trophy presentation. And waited. And waited. Lots of non-competition awards and presentations, delays, and the banquet stretched on for a total of four hours, ending at 9:30 pm. During the ESP awards, which were very late into the banquet, people had started wandering off and looking at professional photographer's pictures and such. Then they forgot to announce to our group beforehand to "get on deck" and the first half of the trophy recipients never heard their names and didn't walk across the stage, including myself. I walked up and grabbed my plastic 4th place trophy that I don't want to think about how much money went into earning.

We figured out who was on stage and calculated when ESP-L would be called so Amy was there to get her "Class Winner" trophy, but she won't get another National Championship jacket or name in the rule book. Yay, this is the new "three car minimum" requirement in action, and the beginning of the end of Ladies classes.

After that marathon banquet we crashed out at the hotel, got up late, and hooked up the trailer. Then we blasted back to Texas on Thursday, getting home by 9 pm and ready for work on Friday. We would have loved to have stayed all week, but we both needed to work the next day. On the drive home we both bench raced some ideas and I calculated what I thought we would need to do if we wanted to be more competitive in ESP in 2013. Being 1.6 seconds back from the class winner was a huge gap to make up, and more than I think I can get with just chassis tuning and driving improvements. I had a feeling we were one of the heaviest cars in the top 10, but I had no idea how much so until we got back.

Mustang on the Scales & the Big Surprise

I didn't weigh the car at Nationals because we were pretty busy both days of competition and I hate being "that guy" that wants to weigh his car on the SCCA scales needed for Impound weight verification. I have scales at our shop and we had weighed it numerous times in the past, so I "knew what it weighed". Just for grins I had the guys throw it on the scales right out of the trailer, at the exact fuel load and race weight we ran at Nationals. Then I looked at the readout and did a double-take...

3540 pounds!?! WTF! I went to my computer and found all of the weights we had taken of this car, all the way back to when it was brand new (3563 lbs). Holy crap - the car had gained 72 pounds since our last weighing at the Mineral Wells ProSolo earlier this year (3467 lbs), and now it was within 20 pounds of bone stock! The lowest it ever weighed was 3442 lbs, back in December 2011 when we ran it in STU form on 18x10's and 275mm Bridgestone tires.

Wow, this was an eye opener. We weigh it often, but let this 72 pounds kind of creep into the car without notice. I knew that Mark's winning '88 Firebird was about 3100 lbs and Tim's 2nd place '07 GT was 3260 lbs. This 3540 pound weight was way high. Now we know what to concentrate on - WEIGHT! We have since weighed some cars, pulled some parts and scaled them, and have a pretty good idea where all of the lard is. I will expand on this GREATLY in future posts.

Photo Credits and Car Impressions

About 95% of the pictures in our 2012 SCCA Solo Nationals Photo Gallery were taken by me or Amy, with our Nikon D90, and a few with our iPhones. I also got a few from C Prepared racer Jeff Stroh, two from gotcone.com, and a few from Tom Reynolds. Thanks to all of you! I need these pictures to help me remember what happened & to better explain this crazy sport and these events. I can't say autocrossing is the most exciting sport to observe, but it is competitive and very intense. The pictures also help me see what our car is doing, what other's are doing, and they point to areas we can hopefully improve. Like this one Stroh took:

The Lean Machine

One thing that I noticed (and many other people pointed out!) looking at the pictures of our car vs the other top ESP drivers' cars is that our Mustang has a lot more LEAN, which also kind of crept up on us. The updates we made with the Whiteline bars, UCA and especially their Watts Link Kit added a lot of lateral stability and more grip, and the switch to Hoosiers from Kumho added grip, as did the concrete surface over our test site.

So yes, we are going to raise the spring rates from the current soft set-up (450F/175R) to a firmer set of rates (550F/250R). The soft set-up worked great for both road course and autocross events when we were dealing with other issues like lower grip tires (street tires all the way up to the V710s), the steering shudder (yes, which is gone), and a clunky Panhard rod set-up. These new springs are going on the car next week.

We also noticed that our car was sitting higher in the rear than most S197s, so we will test a lower rear ride height separately. Once we have the stiffer springs on it will be tested at the current ride height, then lowered and tested again. After watching the videos, the car seems to have a good bit of steady state push which we need to work on too. So we have a lot of work to do for next year.

What's Next?

In the short term we have a Global Time Attack event we will run in this Mustang on September 22nd at Texas Motor Speedway. We just ordered some fresh V710s that we will use for that event. The spoiler is staying on because my big APR GTC300 wing is still on Brianne's Pikes Peak car, which we will hopefully bring to the GTA event as well. The very next day we are autocrossing the Mustang with the Texas Region SCCA at a new concrete site in Crandall, TX, which is closer to the shop than any other Dallas/Ft. Worth autocross site. This concrete parking lot could become my new favorite site to autocross in Dallas, and I am asking them about renting it for private test events as well.

There's also a NASA Texas race weekend at Eagles Canyon Raceway on October 6-7th, where I will run the Mustang one day and the E46 330Ci the next, if everything lines up perfectly. After that... well, we have some surprises in store. We will be concentrating on a much more purpose-built ESP autocross-only Mustang for the 2013 season. Less weight, more tire, more power. Don't know a lot yet, but we have made budgets, parts lists, and extensive plans, but that's all I know for sure right now: more tire, less weight, more power. I'm not going to improve my driving enough to beat these guys, so I have to get more serious about the car!

Thanks for reading my epic 2012 Nationals post. I will post again after the GTA event and autocross in two weeks. Ciao!

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:21 PM

Project Update for September 20, 2012: This build thread entry might seem a bit premature since we have two events coming up this weekend that I will have to cover in another update next week (GTA and SCCA). But there have been a lot of things happening with regards to our S197 Project that we felt it was time for another update. Some of you that follow Vorshlag on Facebook already know about a lot of this, but there's new information in here as well.

Getting 4th place in ESP was a great accomplishment considering the many concessions we have made to this car so that it can still be a nice street car, stay emissions legal, and do fairly well on a road course. This car really is a jack-of-all trades, running in all sorts of events, and we even drag race it a little. We ended up with a great street car with all of the creature comforts, but this has led to some weight gain and compromises that don't help the ESP autocross performance one bit. It's also my wife Amy's car and she refuses to let me cut on it. That means no wheel flares allowed, which has led to a lot of work to make the 18x12" wheels and 315s fit out back. There is no way to run any wider tires front or back without cutting the fenders, but I do feel the car will be faster with more tire (every other tire size increase has always improved performance).

All that said about 4th place is great and all, but as a competitor I would much rather win in the ESP autocross class. I know now that this is going to take a dedicated autocross-only effort, like the cars in the first three places at Nationals this year, as well as many places below us in the finishing order. The air conditioning has to come out (weight), as does the radio and speakers (weight), and many cars are (cut and) flared to fit larger tires than we ran (315s are the small tire in grid - many ESP cars had 335mm rears). Others are also using the Update/Backdate rules to maximize performance.

Thinking, Planning, Scheming, Plotting...

What will it take? Like I said in my last post... less weight, more power, more tire. If we can maximize these three aspects and sort the handling, someone with my driving skills (or lack thereof) should be able to place higher than 4th. I can't buy driving talent, but I can build/tune/buy the rest!

After coming back from the 2012 SCCA Solo Nationals and weighing our car right off the trailer, I became fixated on lowering the weight on next year's ESP entry. At 3539 pounds, our red 2011 GT was 300-400 pounds overweight compared to the top 10 or so in the ESP class grid. That much weight is a massive deficit to overcome. JasonM and I stayed late several nights that next week doing research, weighing cars and parts, and just brain storming and bench racing ideas. Both of us have been autocrossing now for 25 years and we kind of knew that winning this class was going to take a serious, serious effort. We have had these discussions for the last 8 months, ever since we moved this car from STX (maximum of 265mm street tires) to ESP (unlimited width R compounds). With several National level events in 2012 under our belts, we had more data to work with and can better understand what we think it will take to win.

First day back from Nationals we borrowed and weighed a bone stock 2006 GT (thanks, StuartM!) for comparison, and then found accurate weights on the 4.6 3V vs 5.0 4V motors and transmissions. I posted about this on S197forum this week, and learned even more there. What we found out was the Ford 4.6L 3V motor weighs almost the same as a new 5.0L 4V motor.

5.0 Coyote motor weight - Fully dressed (minus the A/C compressor) and filled with oil, the new engine weighs in at 430 pounds.
Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/12/28/d...ll-new-5-0-v8/
5.0 Coyote motor weight - Shipping Weight 430 pounds, includes water pump
Source: http://www.mustang50magazine.com/tec...ech_specs.html
2005 Mustang Spec PDF - 4.6L 3V MOD motor weight - 421lbs dressed engine weight (dry).
Source: We found this on a Ford PDF, but the link no longer works. The FRPP catalog page for the old 2005 crate motor shows 435lbs dressed (see the S197forum post above for the page).

We will get a picture of the actual weight of the 5.0L from our 2013 GT when we pull it out over the winter. Uh-oh, Spoiler Alert! Keep reading, heh. The Getrag MT-82 is also shown to be very similar in weight to the Tremec 3450, from what we can find online. Again, we will weigh the 2013's 6-speed Getrag transmission when it is out for a clutch/pressure plate/flywheel combination or out for the engine work.

This S197 drivetrain weight research was to see if we could take an early S197 Mustang (2005-2007 or so), swap in the 5.0L, keep the 5-spd, use the smaller, early brakes, and maximize the update/backdate allowances of Street Prepared. We were hoping to find a magic 300 pounds somewhere just in the 5.0L motor and 2005 chassis swap, but this doesn't seem to be the case here. The SCCA's "UD/BD" rules are a little complicated if you come from outside the SCCA Solo world, but we understand them well. It allows racers to use "the best of the breed", usually putting engines and transmissions and major components from models within the same generation all together into one car. Nobody has built this "hybrid S197" yet, but it was discussed at length in the ESP grid and at the awards banquet at the 2012 Nationals. It has been on our short list all year for the 2013 ESP effort.

In the SCCA Appendix for ESP, all 2005-2013 Mustangs are "on the same line" for Street Prepared, so we can use some parts from the Mustang V6, GT parts from 2005-2010 or 2011-2013, Boss 302 and Leguna Seca parts (that's why it's legal to use the LS front splitter), and even GT500 parts (not that we would put the heavy, heavy supercharged V8 from that car into a lightweight ESP car; we already make plenty of power at 430 whp). As long as it is swapped as a complete component (like a complete engine - it's all detailed in the rules) and no cutting/drilling/welding is needed, then it is a legal swap in Street Prepared.

This UD/BD rule allows us to potentially make a lighter, more powerful S197 than anyone has done in the E Street Prepared class before. We were competitive in the 3540 pound car, but how would we do in a 3100 pound version making the same power and on the same tires? The first place ESP car is one of these "hybrid" builds with a Corvette-based motor from a 1992 Firehawk, a transmission from a 5.0L 5-speed Firebird, all in a 1988 Firebird shell. There's a bunch of these UD/BD builds in Street Prepared that have all the best parts from one generation, making a car that was "never really offered", but that uses factory drivetrain combinations that are unique.

Stuart's stock 2006 Mustang GT 5-speed with minimal fuel load weighed 3442 lbs. Of course we took the trunk junk out for that weight.

As you can see, this 2006 GT weighs 3442 with no trunk junk and low fuel. That is a 121 pounds lighter than our 2011 GT was when it was bone stock (3563 lbs, no trunk junk, same minimal fuel load) and 97 pounds lighter than our car was in ESP form at the 2012 Nationals (3539 lbs). The questions is - where does this ~100 pound weight difference come from?

Size and weight specs on the three main front disc brakes for the S197 Mustang GT: 12.43" diameter, 13.22" front, and 13.96" (Brembo).

We think this weight differential is from a few sources, including the smaller front brakes (12.4" fronts vs Brembo 14"), 2-piston vs 4-piston calipers, a theoretically lighter insulation package, and some other bits that we will confirm as we go. After making spread sheets and doing multiple builds on paper with an early car and the late motor, it looked like a total nightmare - and offered almost no weight or cost savings over starting with a 2011-2013 5.0 GT. JasonM here at Vorshlag said it best, in a discussion on 'carvers...

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Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:22 PM

continued from above

Originally Posted by JasonM

I'm probably stealing Terry's thunder, but we looked at both the 4.6 and the 5.0 chassis as a home for a 5.0 powered ESP Mustang. The cost, weight and "unknown technical solutions" all pointed to starting with a Coyote chassis. The big worry was weight. Were we going to be saddled with some weight in the 5.0 chassis that the 4.6 chassis could get rid of? We sketched out two simple spreadsheets on the weights and the costs. The weights look like a draw and the costs look like an advantage for the 5.0 chassis. We'll see how it actually pans out, but I'm expecting to have this car up and running much quicker and without having to buy multiple wrecked donors to source all the parts we need for the UD/BD stuff that has to be done. There are also technical issues with trying to get the EPAS rack working with a non-EPAS harness that make it look like a full harness and switchgear swap would be necessary.

We also look like ballers building a brand new car into a dedicated no-compromises competition car.

LOL

The wiring harness challenges necessary to remain ESP legal were extensive and daunting, and I cannot overstate this factor. I don't want to discourage readers from doing an early S197 car 5.0L swap, but I have read some builds already and it is much harder to pull off than you think. And to do it and stay SCCA SP legal would be much harder than the swaps we have seen done online, too.

So since we can't cut on or sell our red 2011, we started looking for another 2011 GT with an affordable price, but they just don't seem to exist. These cars are holding their value strangely well - as are many used late-model cars for the past 12-24 months (which is itself a long, complex subject). Even clean 2005-06 GTs were going to cost $12-15K (these were $25K new!) unless we wanted to start with a 150K mile beat-to-hell junker, which still cost in the neighborhood of $9-10K. Then we would need to also buy a totaled/rear hit 2011 GT salvage car to get the engine, trans, complete wiring harness, and the entire front sheet metal/hood/bumper cover/doghouse (to be able to legally use the 2012 Boss 302 LS splitter). The numbers just didn't add up - it would be cheaper and FAR easier to start with a new car.

Let's Buy A Brand New Mustang... And Cut It Up!

So I started looking for 2012 GTs still sitting on dealer lots, hoping to find a smokin' deal. Not much left other than weird option packages, convertibles, and automatics. They blew the remaining '12 inventory out months ago. I really wanted to start with a BASE model GT, without the $4000 Premium package and options so many dealers order. This means no navigation, no power seats, no rear view cameras, no wings or doo-dads - no budget or scale busting upgrades that would end up removed from the car anyways. We found jack and squat.

We spotted this 2013 black beauty at Five Star.

I called a buddy Corey White, who is a big Mustang dealer at Five Star Ford in Plano. Corey is who I should have bought the 2011 GT from two years ago, but I didn't know about him back then. He organizes car shows and track days for Dallas/Ft. Worth Mustang owners, including the ECR event we went to in June (and another we're going to November 17th, also at ECR). Great guy, knows the cars very well, and people fly in from across the country to buy Mustangs GTs, Boss 302s and Raptors from him.

We had a hail storm a few weeks ago that only affected a tiny portion of our DFW Metroplex, and part of that was this dealership. Corey said there were some 2013 GTs they had not repaired yet and they were willing to deal...

Left: It is as stripper as they come! One option (3.55 gears) and a $31,490 MSRP. Right: One of many hail dents visible in the vented hood.

Last Friday afternoon, I was about to lose my mind looking at 2011-12 GTs and early 2005-2007 GTs and having zero luck finding the car we wanted. I was tired of theorizing and wanted to move quickly if we were to have a hope of being ready for the Spring 2013 National level Solo events. So Amy and I went to see Corey and within five minutes we were test driving the black car above. I pressed the magic button for five seconds to get into the "AdvanceTrac Off" mode and left the parking lot in a cloud of tire smoke.

This rental-fleet special was missing all of the leather coverings, lighted door sills, auto climate control, fancy shift knobs, navigation system, and integrated Sync. It had cloth seats with all manual adjustments, the base AM/FM/CD radio, the "small" 13.2" front brakes, skinny 18x8" wheels and little bitty 235mm all season Pirellis. OMFG these tires would spin for a city block! Absolutely atrocious for performance, but a riot for a test drive. I performed some of the most juvenile stunt driving maneuvers in this car, with Amy riding shotgun and laughing so hard she was crying! The stock marshmallow suspension was hilariously mushy and entertaining. She said at one point - "well we can't let anyone else have this car after what you just did on that test drive!" I couldn't argue with that logic.

(continued from above)

We went back and talked numbers with Corey. A $1500 rebate, big discount for the hail issues, and some more just because he rocks. In the end, the number was so low we couldn't NOT buy it. I felt like I needed a ski mask and gloves after the deal we got. Corey got the paperwork started and that was the quickest new car purchase I have ever seen. He had a Roush supercharged 2013 Raptor F150 warmed up and waiting for a test drive while the Mustang was being "make readied" for us, so we proceeded to go on the 2nd most hilarious test drive of my life, both of which were on the same day. I won't give away his crafty sales tactics, but after that ten minute test drive, all done by Corey, we both were AMAZED at the Raptor's off road capability and wanted one of these trucks. That's all I am allowed to say without giving Corey's trick away, but with 558 whp, Fox shocks, crackin' exhaust, and a suspension that can blow your mind... DAAAAMN that truck is a BEAST!

After that hilarious Raptor test drive that Matt here at Vorshlag joined us on (the back seat is absolutely massive, BTW), the 2013 GT was fueled up and ready to go. We hit the streets in both the 2011 and 2013 GTs, with a light drizzle starting to come down. I was really psyched about the new car we just stole and continued my jackassery, then proceeded to whip Amy 2-0 in wet drag races from stop lights.

The next morning I was still in shock from adding the 9th car to my fleet of sports car and got to washing off the previous night's rain. PaulM joined me with his 2011 GT and we washed both, then went with McCall and bought yet another car - something for a ChumpCar build, that I will start to chronicle next week (not a Vorshlag build, but we will make the roll cage). What a weekend!

more below...

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:22 PM

more from above

On Monday I brought the car to the shop to weigh it, but with a full tank of fuel it was still a few pounds heavier than the 2011 GT was (with no fuel). I have calculated the low-fuel weight to be about 60 pounds lighter than the '11, stock for stock, both without the trunk junk. The 18" skinny spare in the 2013 is pretty slick and if we can find another it will make for a great drag race set of front runners (no "temporary use" or slow max speed listed). For those of you asking, I doubt this will fit over the 14" brakes, but we can try it. When I get a free moment, I will do an all-new thread on the 2013 GT ESP build and share even more. We've already begun ripping and tearing...

Whiteline S197 Parts Now Available

The North American Sales Manager for Whiteline USA, Reid Yoken, came by Vorshlag yesterday. He is in town for the Global Time Attack event this weekend and of course is stopping by to check up with all of his Whiteline dealers. He ended up staying for two hours and we discussed all sorts of new products coming for the S197 Mustang, the BRZ/FR-S, Subarus, BMWs, Miatas, and more. He promised to send us a few more new/pre-production parts for our Mustang and also our BRZ build, which was unexpected, but very cool.

Earlier this week the pricing was published for the new Whiteline Watts Link kit, which we have listed on our website now. Unlike some drop ship/resale operations that listed this and every other part known to man, we have actually used this Whiteline kit and know all of the tricks and tips for installation, tuning and use. We also stock some of their other S197 parts, like the Whiteline Panhard Bar kit (with the optional support brace) and some of their bushings. These Watts Link kits, Whiteline sway bars, and additional parts are available now. We will have another whole batch of S197 Whiteline parts coming for our 2013 GT soon.

Whiteline S197 Watts Link kit shown above, now available from Vorshlag

Our $899 price on the Watts Link kit's ($999 MSRP) is very reasonable considering all of the custom parts it comes with - a gorgeous cast aluminum differential cover with integral bearing loading studs, the bracket for the Watts "Football" mount, the cover's inlet/outlet ports for a differential cooler, and the various arms, brackets and hardware needed to mount all of this. It also comes with a unique cross-chassis brace, which is an optional piece on most PHB kits.

The OEM parts removed and replaced with the Watts Links kit installed.

We had Whiteline send us the production weight for their S197 Watts Link kit: "The entire Watts Link kit is 29 lbs, which includes 8.4 lbs from the differential cover and the associated hardware." Some of that weight is a wash, as you are removing a stock (or aftermarket) PHB, the stock cross-chassis brace (which is replaced in the Whiteline kit), and swapping the stock steel differential cover for their cast aluminum piece. We just weighed all of these stock parts we pulled off when installing the Watts on our 2011 and it all came in at 13.3 pounds. So in the end there's only a net ~15.7 pound increase for this Whiteline Watts Link kit. Not bad at all. In our upcoming 2013 GT purpose-built ESP build we will verify this to the tenth of a pound... and maybe look for ways to pull some weight out of the off-the-shelf Whiteline Watts kit, for those fanatics like us looking to save every ounce.

I discussed this on another forum earlier this week, but I want to make sure people who are racing the S197 realize how complete and high quality this Watts Link kit is. It works GREAT on a street car as well, without the banging and clanging of rod ends to drive you nuts. I will ask them if they want to make a rod end version, but if not we might modify their existing kit with rod ends for dedicated race car builds - we have already been asked. This always adds noise and new wear items, of course. Unprotected metal rod ends that are in high exposure areas are subjected to lots of salt, grime and road debris spray and should be given lots of thought before being installed on a street car.

Left: OEM rear sway bar routing ends very close to the rear tire. Right: Whiteline sway bar runs opposite of stock routing and has 6"+ to tire face (click to enlarge).

Another thing S197 racers should remember is that the Whiteline "axle mount" rear sway bar frees up a lot of inboard room for wider wheels and tires. This is unique to the S197 sway bar aftermarket and is one that cannot be overlooked. If you want to run more than a 10" rear wheel without cutting the fenders, you are going to need the Whiteline rear sway bar. Sure, you can buy it from us (we would appreciate it!), but whoever your Whiteline dealer is, this bar is the way to go for more tire room. Drag racers looking to run 15" or 16" diameter wheels can also look to this unique Whiteline sway bar style for the room they need to fit these smaller wheels. So much win!

last bit below...

Fair · 08-16-2013, 04:23 PM

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!