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

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Another change we made was to remove the current "livery", which we've had on the car since 2012. The crazy stripes were Amy's idea, and the vendor decals were there to show what we have on the car that we sell. Some of the parts shown in decals are about to be removed (more on that in my next post) and almost all of the vendors we use aren't "Goodguys/USCA" sponsors, so they had to get toned down a bit.

Street Car, Race Car - What's The Definition? Who cares?

The number board, NASA decals and race numbers/class letters make this streetable car look more like a race car than it really is, and I didn't want to put the wrong impression for Goodguys or USCA - because this really is a very streetable car that we often drive around town for various events, unlike some cars that show up at those street car competitions. We have had a few folks complain publicly about how our Mustang is a "race car" showing up and beating "street cars" at NASA events, Goodguys, and other competitions, but I just chalk that up to internet whining. It is even funnier when folks with "street cars" that have gutted interiors, no radio or air con, built or boosted motors and/or wildly illegal emissions systems make these claims about our 2011 Mustang. This really is a full interior car (back seats are reinstalled as of last week), with the OEM air bags, big honkin' radio, touch screen sat NAV, a satellite radio subscription, air conditioning, power windows, all of the OEM glass, OEM seat belts, and a bone stock engine from throttle body to exhaust port. The suspension is refined for competition, but it's still quiet and uses bushings in most of the arms and links.




A ducted hood, splitter and big wing don't make a car a "race car" or really much less streetable than other cars - but these are visible exterior mods that look "racey" and some that don't understand the function of them would even say "ricey". And at the events we race in, this Mustang is usually the heaviest car at the entire event (3802 pounds) and almost always competing against much more radically prepped cars. Is it my fault if someone shows up to NASA TT in a bone stock car and gets beat? Should they expect to win in a totally stock vehicle? Sometimes a fairly stock-ish car can do well in NASA Time Trial, but most of the time these entrants are making significant modifications to otherwise OEM vehicles to be more competitive. When there are contingencies on the line (like free sets of tires for the winners) you better believe I'm going to look at the rules and do what I feel is most beneficial to lowering our lap times. At the 2013 NASA Nationals our car was one of the only ones on the TTU-TT1/2/3 grid that was a registered and inspected street car, and once again the heaviest car on grid.



Just know that everyone has their own definition of a "street car", and your's might not sync up with mine. You should see some of the street cars race in Hot Rod's Speed Week! The 80 mile road rally we have to drive on public roads this Friday at the USCA event will separate the street cars from the race cars, and I'm confident that I will have no problems on that drive. In fact I'll probably have the A/C on and playing Channel 51 on Sirius blasting through the 1000 watt stereo, burning 93 octane pump fuel and having fun.



Back to the decal removal. So we left the car out in the sun for a couple of hours to help soften the adhesives, then I started to yanked off the stripes and most of the decals myself. Kyle finished removing the decals and then washed the car. After that I removed the adhesive residue with the Goof Off Heavy Duty spray remover I like (not the Goof Off Industrial Strength, which can sometimes affect the paint - the "heavy duty" version is much safer). Finally, Ryan used his detailing skills and tools to buff and wax the paint. HE wasn't around when Brandon took this picture below, so I stood in for him and pretended to do real work, heh.



Some of those decals have been on there for about 2 years but luckily we use good vinyl and they came off well. Nothing was brittle and tore except for a few printed decals that came from vendors or race events. One of those left a HUGE glob of adhesive that took a bit of elbow grease to get off, but it all cleaned up well. Some of these stripes and decals went onto VERY fresh paint (due to time constraints) but Shiloh's paint work held up perfectly. Once it was all buffed and waxed it came out nice.



There's the old livery at left and the new "naked" look at right. We had planned on doing some simple black stripes and a few vendor decals but the weather started to turn and we ran out of time. That's going to happen soon, so it won't stay "naked" long. Yes yes, it looks better with a simple red paint job, but this car is a marketing tool for us and it has to show the parts on it that we sell, so they have to go back on at some point.


Goodguys Autocross - Sunday March 16th - TMS

A Goodguys weekend consists of 3 days of car shows, swap meets, and autocross competition. The typical customer for these shows is the 1972-older domestic car or truck owner, and they tailor most of their many events around these folks. The g-machine muscle car scene has taken a strong foothold over Goodguys and the Friday-Saturday autocross competition is chock full of these 1972-older American cars.

Event website: https://www.good-guys.com/slsn-2014

Luckily they also welcome the "late model" 1973-newer American cars on the "All American Sunday Autocross", which we have entered once before (last October, where I got 2nd place by .02 seconds - and lost out on a free set tires from BFG!). Last October we went to the Goodguys event at Texas Motor Speedway for our first time and ran on a used set of 295/35/18 Nitto NT-05s and I was introduced to their autocross course layouts. I had heard they were tight, but this was an eye opener.

With 90% of the course run in 1st gear, several super tight 180° turn-arounds and running through major sections of the course multiple times, I'd really call this more of a gymkhana than an autocross, but that's how they set up all of their events and more power to 'em. Not knocking it - just different from your typical SCCA course, in case you attend one of these. And you should - it is fun and you get to see some serious machinery! I learned what to expect back in October (about the course as well as the unannounced goodies you win for first!) and so when the next Goodguys event was scheduled in Dallas (they do 2 events a year at TMS - Spring and Fall) I signed up. This time I was there for two reasons: first, to get practice for the following week's USCA event (more on that below) and second, to win the fat loots they give to the winner.


The prize package for the winner of the All American Sunday at a Goodguys event is no joke!

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Ya see, back in October I didn't take the Goodguys autocross that seriously because I didn't realize they had such good prizes for the winner. I lost that event by two hundredths and only after the event was over did I realize that there was a free set of BFGoodrich tires on the line. So for this March 2014 Goodguys I came better prepared, with a fresh set of BFGoodrich Rivals and more serious driving attitude.



We luckily knew the entire "Goodguys event" drill this time. Since we weren't allowed to bring our truck and trailer inside the Speedway on Sunday we got to the race hotel at 7:20 am to register (for the Sunday autocross event you have to sign up the day of, or become a Goodguys member and sign up about 3 weeks in advance), got to the TMS assigned trailer parking area outside the Speedway, and quickly unloaded the car from the trailer. Yes, it was on street tires and we still trailered the car, but mostly because we are trying to keep these BFG Rivals FRESH and avoid unnecessary heat cycles on them. The more times you drive on any set of tires - where they start out cold and then get hot and then cool off again - the more heat cycles they take. Heat cycles can "age out" a set of competitive tires before the tread is gone, even these Rivals. And at $1300 a set I'm going to SAVE THESE TIRES. Not to mention that Texas Motor Speedway is also about an hour away from our shop, and we had no spare tire.



The weather started out in the low 50s when we left the house, but a cold front had swept in the day before (and brought MASSIVE winds and rain that night), and temps were dropping into the lower 40s and the wind was BRUTAL. The winds was blowing so hard that everything was flying out of the trailer - pieces of wood (which we use with the trailer ramps), papers, and anything not bolted down. This did not bode well for the rest of the day. We bundled up in several coats, tossed our helmets (didn't need em!) plus an air gauge in the trunk, and we drove to the Speedway entrance. Once we got inside to the area where the autocross is held we got in line and I went to walk the course.



I realized quickly that this was the same course we ran in October. Exactly the same, really, but one of the Pro drivers (the Fri-day-Saturday group is broken up into groups and the shops and drivers that go to most of the Goodguys events and do well get assigned into the "Pro" category) said it was different by a couple of feet here and there. Regardless, having run this strange layout in October was a big help, since I knew I wouldn't get lost this time like so many did at that event. I walked it one time and got back into the Mustang to stay warm!



When the event finally got underway around 8 :30 am the Pro class drivers went first, which they are allowed to do. They park by the announcer and put on a good show for the crowd, but they aren't competing in that day's events. Many of the 1972-older domestics that ran Friday-Saturday also take runs throughout the Sunday, but they also aren't in competition - just making fun runs. A little frustrating for those of us that are competing in the All American Sunday (1973-newer) event, but they paid their money and they get their runs. It makes the day more interesting, as just late models autocrossing can be boring for this crowd of spectators - which was a surprisingly full crowd all day, considering the weather.



I had one of my student's from Sunday's SCCA Solo School where Amy and I instructed who was at this event, Lloyd in the red Boss302. His son was with him and he wanted to get a ride in our car, so I took a rider on my first run - and only on this run. Last October I took riders on all of my Goodguys runs, but when you lose by .02 seconds you begin to get paranoid. I knew this first run would suck, and it did. The BFG's still had visible decals and mold release and it felt like driving on ice. He had fun and I got that awful run out of the way. You can see in these pictures that we were wearing helmets, which I'm so used to doing, but nobody else was because it isn't required at Goodguys.



And while the course ran very near fences and concrete barriers it doesn't seem to phase anyone at these events, so I just went with the flow and drove my laps. My first lap was a 77 second run, which was terrible... but after the first round of runs it was in 1st place somehow. Then I made a second run of a 74.4 second run, which was painfully slow and I had wheelspin everywhere, and now I was 4 seconds in the lead. Huh?

The lines were heavy and growing all day and it was taking about an hour between runs, but I was used to this from the October event. By the time I got to the line for my third run it was around 11 am, and they said they'd pick the fastest time run by 11:30 and call them the winner. I pulled up to stage and the guy is plastering decals on the car for "Autocross Winner", and I hadn't even made my last run. "Nobody is close" he said, and then I was told to report to the timing tent after my last run, shown below.



That run felt a little better, and I made all of my 1st gear downshifts shifts smoothly. The wheelspin was more controlled than my other two runs but there was still VERY little grip on this still wet asphalt in these crazy cold conditions. The BFG Rivals apparently don't do as well as the Falkens in cold temps, and Brian Hobaugh was stupid fast on Falkens in his gorgeous orange 2nd gen Camaro, running several seconds quicker that day than me. But he and the rest of the Pro class drivers were in the 1972-older series and luckily their runs didn't get compared or counted with ours'. Next weekend at USCA those cars are in the same class as me, so I am hoping with warmer temps and better driving I can get closer.

AAS...Terry Fair............2011 Ford Mustang............74.124
AAS...Bryan Mills...........1994 Ford Mustang............76.059
AAS...Lloyd Collins.........2012 Ford Mustang............76.684
AAS...Greg Scherer........2002 Pontiac Firehawk........77.788

I copied the first 4 results from the 23 entered in the "AAS" class and it turns out there were two driver's that improved a lot on their last runs and got within 2 seconds of my final time, including my student from the Solo school the day before (nice driving, Lloyd!). Didn't know until the results were posted earlier today.

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So after I won the autocross I was told to park in the Winner's Circle area with all of the car show class winners and previous day's autocross SM and PRO class winners. Lots of people came by to shoot pics of the big red Mustang, which was fun but weird to watch. Honestly the this car had so little to do with the win, at least within this class - it was mostly about getting through a painfully tight course as cleanly and close to the cones as possible. I think I could have done as well or better in a rental automatic Mustang, and I got beat last year by one of the Pro driver's in his wife's automatic and stock 5th gen Camaro convertible. These Goodguys courses are super tricky and don't emphasize the car's performance all that much.



Amy and I parked the car in the car show area and ran into the Fuzzy's Taco Shop that is inside TMS. We ate some good Tex Mex and warmed up, then went around and talked to some friends we saw also parked in Winner's Circle area, like Stuart in his GT500 SuperSnake and Wade in his 32 Ford. They told us the whole awards presentation was moved up an hour due to the weather, so we hopped in the car and got in line, then drove past the bleachers and announcer tent to get our winnings.

Official Results: https://www.good-guys.com/slsn-ac-14
Vorshlag Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...ocross-at-TMS/


Left: Amy was not pleased when I took this picture while she was thawing out from the cold. Right: The Goodguys goodie bag was immense!

A nice trophy accompanied the awards packet (linked at the beginning of this section). Free set of tires from BFG and gift cards and deeply discounted certificates from other sponsors - nice! Can't get Rivals with this but it will help ease the pain of that $1300 set of tires (again - ouch!) that we got to run this and the USCA event. After that we followed the mass exodus leaving speedway, loaded up in the trailer, and headed home by 1 pm - which has to be a record early end time for us at any given autocross. The other event we would have been at if not for Goodguys, the Texas Region SCCA Solo #1, had 193 entrants and ran for most of the day in these same miserable conditions, so we lucked out on our early departure that day!

Some Random Mustang Work

We work on a lot of cars in our service and race prep shop, and one of those recently was Vorshlag Tester Mark Council's 2012 Mustang GT, who is also the OKC Region SCCA Autocross Chairman. We've already swapped his car from 3.55 to 3.31 gears, which he really enjoys for autocross and track use (no 2-3 shifts in parking lots and fewer shifts on track as well). This car has Forgestar F14 18x11s, AST 4150s w/550F/250R springs, Vorshlag plates, Whiteline swaybars, and a Torsen T2R.



We had installed a Cobra Suzuka GT kevlar racing seat into his car a while back, using the custom S197 bracket we make to go with the Cobra slider and Cobra side mount brackets. He loved the new Corbeau S197 Harness Bar, new seat and 6-point harnesses and raved about how much more control he had gained with this seat. He drives the car to events from as far as 5 hours away, and does a lot of track and autocrossing in the car, on both street tires (295/35/18 BFG Rivals) and R compounds (315mm Kumho V710s).



He loved the new driver's seat so much he went ahead and sprung for a passenger seat upgrade, which any track instructors or passengers will greatly appreciate. If you do one seat you really should do the other side as well. To save a bit he went with the steel framed fixed back Cobra Monoco seat on the passenger's side, which was about half the cost of the kevlar Suzuka. It only has about a 2 pound penalty in weight over the composite seats, and being a Cobra product, it still looks great and has very high quality construction and materials (I ordered some more of these seats for inventory). He skipped the slider on the passenger side and we just mounted the seat fixed to the bracket, fairly far back and lower than it would have been with a slider - which is what we often do on the right side seat.



Another change he had in mind was a new rear Upper Control Arm assembly. After reading what we had to say about poly bushings, Del-Sphere and all of the other variations on the upper arm and mounts he went with some brand new "ultimate" UCA from BMR, shown below. The instillation was straightforward, but still time consuming. You need a lift, removal of the back seat, and a BIG torque wrench for the main bolt (which should be torqued to 250-300 ft-lbs, depending on the brand - see your manufacturer's instructions) to tighten the mount to the chassis. The pinion angle also has to be adjusted, and there is even a second set of holes in the chassis mount for potential geometry changes.



The upper control arm is one of those places where a spherical seems like the right choice, as this bushing has to pivot much more than the LCA bushings do. And to match the new upper arm's spherical he went with a Steeda spherical bushing replacement on the axle side of the UCA arm axis also, per our suggestions.



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Getting the OEM rubber bushing out of the axle side is a real B!TCH of a job. The instructions say to cut out the old bushing, but if you make a tool to press it out you can re-use that to press in the new Steeda assembly. Then when you go to tighten the 58mm (?!) hex nut for the new spherical you might need to make a tool for that as well...



After finding a massive 58mm socket for around $35 we had to chuck it up in the lathe to machine the outer diameter down for clearance, otherwise it would not fit in the space between the axle housing and the bushing mount. Really fun job, that one, heh. After all of this work was done I drove this car around our Test Loop (bumpy road we use to listen for creaks, pops and noises plus to test ride quality) with Mark in the car and we both agreed that it makes a LOT more noise inside now. We had previously rebuilt his entire axle with all new bearings when we did the 3.31 gear swap, and the rearend was silent as a church mouse just hours before, but after the double spherical UCA set-up was installed it was much LOUDER inside the car - and he still has the back seat installed. Just know that this particular UCA set-up adds a lot more NVH than you might expect - you will hear all sorts of noises from the rearend that were masked before. Mark said he likes the feel of the new set-up but needs more seat time to give a full review. You can read his build thread on s197forums here and he talks about the new seat and the BMR UCA in post #262.

Another Vorshlag Tester is Jan Maher, who was the first S197 Mustang owner on MCS TT1 coilovers. We've installed all sorts of goodies on her 2012 GT including the reclining Corbeau seats, shown below.



At the recent Texas Region SCCA Solo school, Jan had entered in her 2012 GT, while one of her two daughters that race, Shannon entered in her 2011 GT. They were both brushing up on some autocross skills to use in the many track events they enter - always a good idea to learn things like car control and LFBraking in a parking lot, where the only thing to hit are cones. Amy and I both worked with Jan that day, and while Amy was instructing in her car I happened to be riding with another student and noticed a broken wheel stud on course. I'm sort of OCD about finding and removing "FOD" on an autocross course so I hopped out of this car, stopped the course, and ran out to pick it up. It was a broken OEM wheel stud with what I recognized as one of our Vorshlag lug nuts on it. That narrowed it down to about a half dozen potential cars at the event, and I quickly found a missing stud on Jan's front wheel.



I took her the broken part and let her know the bad news - she wasn't racing in Sunday's autocross with a busted wheel stud, so she co-drove in Shannon's GT instead. With over 50K miles on Jan's car and lots of track miles it was probably a good idea to replace the front wheel bearings anyway (they are a known wear item - usually they make noises and clunking when they are bad), so we brought in a pair of new hubs using the M-1104-A Ford Racing kit, which come pre-installed with "longer and stronger" (insert joke here) ARP front wheel studs, are pre-greased on the hub face, and include two new spindle retaining nuts.



We've installed these FR hubs before (our 2011 GT is on the 3rd pair in 4 years - again, the hubs take a beating from lateral load and brake heat, and it is a known wear item), but noticed that this M-1104-A kit now comes with new front hub retaining nuts, which we used to order separately. This monster spindle nut has to be torqued to 250 ft-lbs and is a "torque to yield", one-time-use piece of hardware. Make sure you have a torque wrench big enough and rated high enough for this torque level - it took all of my weight plus a lot of arm strength to get these nuts torqued today. After a brake pad swap, some new brake fluid bled, and a full HPDE tech inspection at our shop Jan's car is fixed up and ready for USCA this weekend.

Getting Ready for USCA

We're running at full throttle around here getting our car and 5 others ready for the Ultimate Street Car Association event this weekend. We have multiple sets of tires to mount (Rivals, Rivals and more Rivals!), the hubs and pads on Jan's car, some brake repairs on Shannon's car, and much more to do. My Mustang is finally getting Schroth harnesses installed today before we load it onto the trailer. One of our customers has a couple of Miatas and he is bringing one of them to compete int he "under 3000 pound" class, with Rivals.



And at the end of the day today we have a company dinner at a German place where we will get together and raise a glass to toast Ryan, our head fabricator who is leaving us in about a month to go back to school full time. Really sad about that, like losing a member of the family... but he has great things ahead and we wish him the best. I've already hired a new shop foreman (Texas Region Solo RE, Brad Maxcy!) and we'll have a listing up on our jobs page soon for the fabricator position that opened up. If you have lots of automotive race prep and fab experience, love long hours and low pay, this could be the opportunity for you! Please send your resumes to [email protected], thanks.


Hoosier tire winnings from this weekend stacked up next to a new set of 225/45/15 BFG Rivals for Mike M's Miata. Wow.

This weekend's 3 day USCA competition is looming heavy and I'm hoping more people will sign up at the last minute. Once again the Dallas area racers seem to find nothing but excuses when a big event like this rolls into town and I fear that we might not get another one if the attendance stays low. We lost the GTA event in Dallas after a dismal local turnout in 2012 and I've been calling people all week to try to get them to enter USCA this weekend. I worked out a deal with the organizers for a HALF PRICE entry ($250 vs $500). Use the word "SCCA" in the order notes and you will receive a $250 refund on your entry fee. Please feel free to call me at Vorshlag today if you are interested in going but have questions: 972-422-7170. I'm not associated with the USCA and neither is the SCCA, this was just a discount code hoping to grab local areas SCCA autocross racers and Time Trial entrants.




I'm pretty excited about this event. Rolling out there tomorrow at 11 am to set up the trailer, get their event decals installed, and start the 80 mile road rally. We have our car inspected, tagged, and all legal-like for street use, so I'm not worried about the Friday street drive. The weather looks good for the weekend so I'm hoping we can have another strong showing in the autocross, a better showing than last time in the speed stop (fingers crossed that the new ABS unit works!) and of hoping I do well on the "1.04 mile" (aka: 1.36 mile) TMS infield road course on Sunday.

Until next time...

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Project Update for April 2, 2014: This post covers the first day of the 3 day Optima Street Car/USCA event at Texas Motor Speedway March 21-23. We ran on 315/335 BFG Rival 200 treadwear tires on our 2011 Mustang as well as tested the Ford Racing M-2353-CA "Boss 302R" ABS/TC module, but left our existing Hoosier A6 suspension parts and settings untouched from the last TT3 event and Goodguys. I will split the event write-up over three different days.

What is the Ultimate Street Car Association?

The USCA was only created late last year and announced at SEMA. I hinted at it in my October post after Goodguys. Basically this is the new series created for the qualifier events for the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational, held every year the weekend after SEMA in Las Vegas. This series includes 3 days of competition in streetable cars on 200+ treadwear tires. Drivers go head-to-head in autocross, Speed Stop and road course time trials. You also have to prove the street worthiness by driving your car for 50-100 miles on an assigned route. The last part of the scored competition includes a Design and Engineering segment where 5 or more judges score each car with a number of categories that include various street equipment, craftsmanship, and creativity.



The video above is a good preview of what the series is about. This was a promo for a show that covers the 2013 Optima Invitational event, which is airing on MAVTV now. Getting an invite to this event is a big deal for most shops and amateur racers like ourselves and guarantees you a spot in the SEMA show the week before as well.

If you have been reading this build thread for a while you know that we have entered 3 of these Optima qualifiers before. The first Optima qualifier was an ASCS "Run To The Alamo" in Feb 2012. That event was supposed to be a 3 day/3 event format with autocross, speed stop and road course times. They didn't check to see that this track (Harris Hill) didn't have a paddock or parking area big enough for the speed stop and autocross, so those 2 events were cancelled. During the road course event they had timer problems but I ran all day, in the pouring rain. We left after about 6 hours, soaking wet, about 30 minutes before they were supposed to stop running. I was in the lead. They ended up keeping the track open until dark, the rain cleared, the track dried off, I got beat, and didn't get an invite.



The second qualifier we entered was the OPTIMA FACEOFF AT HOT ROD POWER TOUR in June of 2012. We fared a little better at this televised and much more organized 3 day event, winning the autocross and coming in 3rd in the road course portion, but I got 14th place in the speed stop. I finished 3rd overall and didn't get an invite. At some of these Optima qualifiers they weren't even inviting the overall winner, but instead just picking people for their "spirit of the event" to invite to SEMA, as happened here. They later came back and offered an invite late in the year to the winner of the June event, local NASA TT racer Todd Earsley in his then yellow EVO.

Last but not least was the GOODGUY'S ALL AMERICAN SUNDAY autocross at TMS in October of 2013. This was an Optima Qualifier but only had the autocross, and was one of Goodguys super tight "gymkhana" courses. I got 3 runs, was in the lead, so I was taking riders... ended up losing that event by .02 seconds - stupid mistake. They picked another car that didn't even place for the SEMA invite anyway.



I learned a lot about these Optima qualifiers over the past three years. Most qualifiers were being hosted in different series, sometimes with wildly varying competitions - some road course only, some autocross only, some had 3 day Optima style events, and others were random things like High Speed Open Road events. Not a consistent format. The event we did at Hot Rod Power Tour was more like the Optima Invitational, but we didn't take the event seriously enough and showed up on the WRONG tires: 295/35/18 Nitto NT-05s. What I quickly found out was THESE TIRES ARE NOT GOOD, and we quickly overheated them in the road course event. We also arrived at that event with a poor brake pad selection (Hawk DTC-70) that were too hard for slow speed use, and a leaking power brake booster fitting that killed the vacuum assist. I used the same set of 295 Nittos last October at Goodguys, and that didn't help my chances.

USCA Rules: http://ultimatestreetcarassociation.com/usca-rules/

Probably due to the old Optima qualifier inconsistencies, USCA was created to host consistent and competition based events, and all 10 of their events on the 2014 calendar are hosted at notable road courses which can hold all 3 driving formats: autocross, speed stop and road course. They are run by the same group of people that host the Optima Invitational in Vegas, so the events are more representative of the "big show" held after SEMA. For 2014 the USCA has kept one "spirit of the event" selection per event but offers an Optima invite to the winner of each of THREE different classes: 3000+ pound 2WD, under 3000 pound 2WD and AWD. This means 4 invites go out at each event, and 3 of them are going to be somewhat serious competitors that won out over a class of entrants. I like that - awarding the winners instead of mostly "spirit selections" made at previous events. Good move. The three class format also separates the lightweight and AWD cars from the traditional heavy RWD pony cars, which meant we might have a better shot in our 3550 pound Mustang.




Last but not least, they have a TV contract for all of the USCA events. The Optima Invitational has been filmed and aired almost every year since its inception but the qualifiers rarely were. In 2012 about half a dozen of the qualifiers were televised, and we got some TV exposure at the June 2012 event. All ten of the 2014 USCA qualifiers will be televised, starting around August 8th on MAVTV. So you get 3 days of racing, good food, some swag, television time, and 4 people from each event get invites to Optima/SEMA? That's a lot of value for the money! Yes, the entry fee is higher now than at some past events... but let me tell you now: IT WAS WORTH IT!

We had SO much fun at this USCA event that I can barely put it into words. And anyone can enter... it doesn't take a "pro" driver or a $200K car to win this thing - I'm living proof of that: I'm admittedly a hack autocrosser in a heavy Mustang with a stock motor and still won an invite to Optima Invitational! with the overall win. We are super excited about that, and want you readers to really think about finding a USCA event nearby and checking it out. At least go out to WATCH, but if you have a streetable car and 200 treadwear tires, you should ENTER. This three day event was the most fun I've EVER had with my clothes on!

USCA at TMS, Friday March 21st, 2014

Before we get started, a note about the pictures: There's a LOT of them. Some of these were copied from other people's posts on Facebook and are credited. Anything with a Vorshlag watermark is something that either Amy or I shot with our Nikon, or one of our cell phones, or that Brandon shot with his gear. If it is a GOOD picture, just assume Brandon took it.




Brandon took some of the best pictures from one of our events we attended... ever. That means this series of posts is very heavy on the photos, and each one with a Vorshlag watermark can be clicked for a higher rez version. Sadly he was only able to come out on Sunday (road course and final awards), so all of the autocross, speed stop and road rally pics were ones that Amy and I took. There's over 530 pictures from this event in the gallery linked below - I can't show them all, but many are worth looking at!

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You can get the "original" rez pics from there and save them for things like PC background wallpapers. And no, I won't even pretend to think that our Mustang was the most photogenic at this event, ha! There were some seriously cool machines there and he took some amazing pics of them. Several folks that attended this event have gotten in touch with Brandon about getting some enlargements and poster sized prints: you can reach him through his website brandonlajoie.com.



Vorshlag Photo and Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...te-Street-Car/

The Ultimate Street Car Association held it's 2nd event for 2014 at the Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, Texas. By Friday morning they already had all of their big sponsors on hand already set-up and ready, including the massive "Optima Prime" trailer that the picture above was shot from. This massive 3 story trailer expands out like a Transformer and was their HQ for the weekend as well as the awards stand and announcer perch.



We got to the track with our trailer and car around 11:30 am and was told we could pick any garage spot we wanted. Yep, the NASCAR garages were open for our use and at no additional cost, so we all got an unexpectedly nice upgrade for the weekend. With the winds and weird weather we saw, this was a welcomed surprise!


Some of our Vorshlag testers will be featured in a "women of USCA" segment (left) and more Vorshlag folks parked in the garage

We didn't take over the whole garage but a good quarter of it was Vorshlag folks. The event was a bit under-attended by local drivers, due to a few factors: 1) Not many folks knew what USCA was or knew the rules/classes. 2) The entry fee was a little steep. 3) There were several other racing events going on that same weekend that drew potential entrants away, including: inaugural WRL race at MSR-Houston, Texas Mile, and BMWCCA at COTA. I got a call from one of the USCA principles a week before the event and we worked out an even better deal where local folks could get $250 off their entry fee + I threw in $100 service credit at Vorshlag for a $350 in savings. I then made a number of phone calls to customers, got another 7 folks to join us, ordered several sets of BFG Rivals, and then there was a flurry of safety gear outfitting at Smiley's that week. All told we had 8 entrants that had "Vorshlag" on their order form, out of the 38 signed up, and I'd like to thank ALL OF THOSE FOLKS for stepping up: Jerry, Jan, Shannon, Heather, Michael, Jon, and Marc!


7 of the 8 Vorshlag customer entries at the TMS round of USCA

38 doesn't sound like a huge number, but considering the early date for the season (Texas Region SCCA had just kicked off their season the weekend before) and a long drive for many of the Pro Touring "regulars", that wasn't bad. I hope that next year we can help them get 100 entrants in Texas - and after you read my post, I hope YOU will get the bug and want to join these folks at another event in 2014 (see the ten 2014 dates here). It only takes 200+ treadwear street tires, some safety gear, and a car that has some nominal street car provisions.

I've been telling my other racer friends that missed the TMS event about the new USCA/Optima series - how it includes multiple driving competitions, how all of the events are held at renowned road courses that also have parking lots big enough for a proper autocross pad, about how there are 3 classes this year and ALL of the class winners get an invite to SEMA/Vegas Optima Shootout - and now have half a dozen folks BUILDING THEIR CARS for this series! Yes, it was THAT much fun, is infectious, and it is accessible to virtually anyone with a car with street tires. I'll cover more of the classing, tips and tricks to doing well in this 3 day event as we go.



We arrived Friday and we had a naked red Mustang (see above) - and yes, I prefer it that way as well. We were going to try to "tone down" the Vorshlag and race car graphics a bit, but they still had a gaggle of event and sponsor decals for us to add, so Amy got to work.



As our other Vorshlag customers and friends arrived Amy was drafted to install many of the bigger "event decals" as well. And then someone wanted big Vorshlag decals, which we had a limited supply in our trailer, so those started going on cars ... including our own.



Amy also showed some folks how she installs big decals, both wet and dry, and passed along some knowledge. Once Shannon saw Amy's decal tricks she started helping her sister and mom with installs on their cars, too. Yep, two sisters and a mother all entered this event in their 3 track cars - they all did well and snagged a lot of camera time, with about 4 special interviews sessions. Look for a side story about Jan, Heather, Shannon, and "the women of USCA" in the episode that will air for this Optima Challenge event! (sometime around August 15th on MAVTV, the Lucas Oil channel)

I was reluctant to "over-Vorshlag" our Mustang, as this event was about street cars and I wanted it to look the part - well, as much as possible with a giant wing, flares and splitter. So we put some simple black Vorshlag decals on the rear flanks, which are much smaller than we normally run. We also kept the white Vorshlag.com windshield banner, and added some small decals for our main products: Whiteline, Forgestar, MagnaFlow and Maxcyspeed.



To show BFGoodrich some love we got a BIG Rival "R" decal from the BFG rep on site. This was added to the hood and two small "R" decals went on the front flares. Marc followed suit in his red C6 Z06, and we all added the Optima windshield banner, Redline oil rear window banner, the giant Optima door panel decals, the numbers we were assigned, and the tall strip of sponsor decals for the sides.



Doing that many decals on 8+ cars carefully enough to avoid bubbles, wrinkles and tears took Amy and everyone else a few hours, and we cleaned up some exteriors as we went also (some folks still bring a dirty car to an event that is televised, ha!). We all got registered, teched, had all of our safety gear checked (more on that in the Sunday Road Course section), and met a bunch of cool folks who were also arriving.

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We saw Todd Earsley again from MyShopAssist, which is the customer service work software we use here at Vorshlag. Todd entered his NASA TT prepped EVO, which he added an interior to for these events. He also brought out his dog Violet, the sweetest puppy you'll ever meet. She quickly became the event mascot. Mike from Dusold Designs in Lewisville was entered as well, and his twin turbo 7.0L LSx making 1000 whp was a LOT of fun to watch - and he's been kicking butt in the Goodguys events, too.


Left: Todd and Violet are regulars on the NASA Texas TT circuit. Right: Marc Sherrin is a NASA Texas TT1 racer and a real character!

There were also lots of famous folks from the Pro Class of Goodguys and Optima Street Car events. Kyle and Stacy Tucker from Detroit Speed and Engineering had their transporter full of cars and they both entered. Infamous autocrosser and road racer Danny Popp entered in a wild 5th gen Camaro prepped by Lingenfelter. Bret Voelkel from RideTech was there in his Camaro, and autocrosser Cheryl Herrick from JetHot had a Nova that was absolutely beautiful inside and out. Ryan Mathews, a former NASCAR truck series driver, was entered in a race prepped 5th gen Camaro from DSE that had big aero, no interior and a full cage. Last but not least, 2013 Optima Challenge winner Brian Hobaugh was there in a really beautiful and monstrous 2nd gen Camaro built by Maier Racing - who builds epic autocross cars from Detroit iron.



There were so many AMAZING cars! Detroit Speed had several that most people would give a right arm for. So did Ride Tech, and many other Pro Touring shops from around the nation. It helped to have the Goodguys event the weekend before, so many of these shops that normally wouldn't have made the trek to Texas brought big transporters full of cars and ran Goodguys, flew home for a week, then came back for the USCA 3 day event.



Dallas area's Aaron Kaufman from Gas Monkey Garage was entered in his 1963 Falcon (which he is taking to Pike's Peak this year), but he only ran on Sunday in the road course event. From what I heard there might be a conflict with his Discovery channel TV contract, so he and his car probably won't be shown on the episode that was filmed at this event. Too bad, the car looked great - but Brandon got a lot of good pics of his car.



We spoke again at this event with Aaron and a couple of the guys from the GMG shop - all super nice folks. Marc even tried to get Aaron to co-drive with his team in a ChumpCar race at Daytona in May, in his "Poorvette" C4 Corvette that we caged. That car is a riot!

Detroit Speed Road Rally

The only "competition" on the Friday of this 3 day weekend was the Detroit Speed sponsored Road Rally, which was to be a 90 mile street drive "poker run" event, used to prove the street worthiness of the entrants. To show that you made all 90 miles of the drive each car was given a playing card at each of 5 checkpoint stops, and our hand was turned in at the end for some extra door prizes (based on your poker hand). We had a driver's meeting around noon and Jimi and Dennis of the USCA introduced us to the series, outlined that day's events, and handed everyone their Rally notes and maps.



This was the only portion where all entrants that completed every stage (5) of this competition could get the full 25 points towards their overall score - the other 4 competitions were to be weighted scores based on finishing order, with the winner getting 25, 2nd got 22, 3rd got 20, then 18, 16, 15, 14, etc. So all we had to do was make each checkpoint and finish, but not everyone did. A few folks skipped this event due to work obligations on Friday (and got 0 points), and someone missed one checkpoint and only got 20 points, but everyone else got the full 25. It was more of a "Pass/Fail" sort of deal.



I wasn't worried about the street drive in our car, as we've been driving it on the street for years, it is street legal and everything worked. The weather on Friday was exceptionally nice, sunny and warm. By 1:30 pm we were told to stage outside of the garages and given a heads up that we would be making some laps of the 1.5 mile, 24° banked oval, driving in single file, to start the rally. This wasn't originally in the plan but we were glad it was added. We drove at "mostly highway speeds" and had a good time chasing Marc Sherrin's C6 Z06 Corvette in front of us.

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