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Re: Vorshlag/AST begin Evo build!
Project Update for April 6th, 2009: What a weekend or maybe an entire week. We had plans to go to the Houston SCCA National Tour and participate in the STU class. That all started going "haywire" a week earlier.
We had originally hoped to run the new Yokohama AD08 at the event only to find out at the last minute that wouldn't be possible, but we'd have the tires "next week"....*just* not in time for the Tour. So, we really didn't see the point in buying another set of tires at $1000 for one event, surely our old Dunlops could make one last run right? Surely the well setup Evo could muster a competitive placement even on old tires right?
At the last minute we decided to go ahead and install a Cobb downpipe and cat "test" pipe. On Thursday I headed over to Cobb Plano to get our STU and TT maps updated before leaving at 4AM Friday for Houston. I'm driving down there when all of the sudden, out of nowhere comes a heavy duty tie down (think bulldozer "come along") into view as I change lanes to exit. The giant BANG and almost immediate left tug of the wheel told me that this was "not good". I pulled on the shoulder to find the sidewall cut into shreds and our new Enkei wheel with a gash in it. Luckily Fair was following me, but of course, we had put 17mm lug nuts and the factory was 21mm. After going to Stett Performance to borrow a socket we had the spare on. Fair drove to the shop, picked up the Dunlops and drove back to Cobb since you can't really dyno on a spare. While out, he mounted a 3 year old Advan AD07 (matching brand/size as the other three tires from our NASA TT setup, except bald and MUCH older) on the Enkei as a "back up" for the Tour, and to run at the Friday practice. This was a tire our friend and former STU competitor Mike Simanyi threw away and sent to us for fitment testing. Basically it was junk. But we wouldn't need it right? I mean we couldn't even drive on the street with it since it was below the tread bars and the others were new, with the AWD you know.
Tuning wrapped up, we loaded the car with the Enkeis on it to practice Friday since the Dunlops were already beyond their usable life. Remember the Enkeis have 265 tires on them, not legal for STU. So the trip down was without incident. We had a trailer tire blowout a week ago so we bought 4 new ones. It was an expensive week.
More on this later.
We started the practice on the Advans with the bad Mike Simanyi tire on the left front. I helped Paul Magyar with his STI's setup while Terry and Amy drove the Evo. I drove the Evo and it didn't feel right to me, but obviously pushed with the "bad" AD07 on the front. Still the car was faster than other guys practicing by 0.5s on a 30s course. We went to lunch, came back and mounted the Dunlops. Terry's first run was 0.75s slower than the AD07s. That was a shocker. Well, we weren't going to come all that way to come in last in STU just because we had a last minute snafu on tires. Buying another set at 3PM on Friday having zero testing on Bridgestones or Toyos didn't make sense. We still want to try the Yoks when they are out. We decided to "punt" and sign up for BSP on the 265s. Since the car pushed a little we decided to put the bad tire on the back and we called it a night. Certainly disappointed. We didn't bring a BSP car to the event after all.
Saturday morning we're ready to go. BSP was in the same run group as STU so at least we could compare times with STU drivers. Terry makes his first run and the car is terrible, unlike any time we've ever run it. It oversteers like it is on ice. I'm not much better wagging the tail out everywhere and taking cones or just DNFs since I was so off track. Terry actually puts a mid 60.6 run down with plenty of drifting, but hits the last cone on course. The fastest STU driver was a 61.6. OK, so even with the poor handling the car is "in the hunt". We're disappointed, but hey, the car is capable.
Amy runs after us in Heat 2, Grid B. We drive the car over after asking our competitors if they care. They didn't so we leave. More on this later. Amy takes one run and says the car is undriveable. We knew this already, but we were hoping she'd be OK. We decide to swap the bad tire back to the front. Amy makes her second run and drops 2 seconds, getting a clean 61.1 - BEATING the boys in STU Open. Now, most will argue the course was cleaner, conditions were better, etc. Anything NOT to let a Ladies class driver beat them. BTW, she did the same at Nationals one year. Gulf Greyhound Park actually gets WORSE as the day goes on. It comes apart and makes so much gravel there becomes one line and if you deviate you're in the marbles and its all over. So we leave Saturday excited that the car seems to be better even if we're basically on 3 tires, obviously slightly bigger tires with a junk tire. The course was reversed Sunday so we swapped the bad one to the right for the Sunday runs. There were really only two left hand turns so we picked the lesser of two evils.
We start Sunday with Terry's first run. Terry pulls out a 57.2. Most STU cars at this point were in the 59s and high 58s all dirty. Terry had a cone as well. I get in and run a clean 57.5. The best STU car is a 58.0 from Wiggy in an Evo RS. A great run no doubt. Good enough to move him into first place. Terry never could get clean and both of us slowed after this first fast run. We were within 0.5s of it though. Looking at the data the lateral acceleration numbers decreased on every run. We were spraying the tires, but I think the dead AD07 was just getting worse and worse. No biggie, the car is proving it's potential besting STU by 0.5s each day even if not by the same driver.
We move the car as we did the day before to let Amy run. Unfortunately the tires were getting worse and worse. Her lateral numbers were going down. She eeked out a 58.5. Her combined times would have given her 2nd place in STU Open. Her last run looked great but was 2 seconds slower! Again, looking at the data, the car just got worse and worse. We end the day excited. The car is a blast to drive on the track and at the autocross. With the new cat it sounds so mean when it shifts. We love it!
Vorshlag drivers in other classes did great too. Gerry T won E Stock with AST 4100s by 3 seconds, ASTs were on a C6 ZO6 that got 3rd behind nationals level drivers. 0.5s out of first. This was his second event on shocks! The ST Civic we help with won overall, Matt Lucas too, and many other strong finishes. Our STU drivers had some cone troubles but had good raw times. Roger Johnson courses are evil, I'll leave it at that. Can't forget Stuart Maxcy and his A Stock win. This AST 5200s will be on the car in a few weeks!
We pack things up during a break, complete our work assignment then head for Dallas at about 2PM. I check the results from the car and we were DSQ'd today? What the heck? Since we were so far back, we never checked the times. We call Gerry Terranova who checks for us. Apparently we didn't "dot our I's" when we moved the car for Amy's runs and the Impound Chief got us DSQ'd. We were standing 50 yards from the grid. Why didn't anyone ASK us why we moved or where we were? Oh, no, just DSQ them even though the car stayed in grid. For the record, we're aware of the rule of not leaving grid and would never do so, but we also had to get a car ready for the next driver. This happens all the time at Nationals where you have to DRIVE distances to other spots not even staying in the same area. We were just baffled at a Tour that someone would assume the worst. Whatever, we're calling today to argue the case and frankly discuss other concerns we had at the event.
We get into the heart of South Houston (a lovely place btw) and I hear a strange noise from the trailer. Terry looks back and smoke is bellowing out from the passenger side fender. Great! A blowout on a new tire? Amy as calm and collected as she always is pulls off the highway into a Bail Bonds parking lot. You get the picture where we are? Terry and I inspect the trailer to find the leaf spring broken (and missing parts) on the rear axle. The tire was lodged in the fender which made for the smoke. We call in the soldiers.
Before you know it, we have an army of people surrounding us which is good in this part of town. Jason McCall, Paul Magyar, Matt Lucas, Chris Ledbetter, Kurt Janish (Mr. Tools), Greg Piper show up along with Gerry Terranova. It was a party in South H! Terry and Jason run to Northern Tools and buy a leaf spring and new hardware. Kurt, me and everyone else work at breaking all the rusted bolts off. We broke one bolt so Terry and Gerry had to run back to the store. We had everything ready to go once they got back and we were off again. Only a two hour delay. Thanks again for everyone and their help. I wasn't too excited about leaving the Evo to go get parts. It definitely would have been missing wheels at a minimum.
We made it back in one piece around 10PM, a LONG weekend for sure. While we didn't get to compete in STU we're pretty happy with the car. It really handles well. I can't wait to see what it does with four equal, current generation ST tires. Should be interesting!
Project Update for April 6th, 2009: What a weekend or maybe an entire week. We had plans to go to the Houston SCCA National Tour and participate in the STU class. That all started going "haywire" a week earlier.
We had originally hoped to run the new Yokohama AD08 at the event only to find out at the last minute that wouldn't be possible, but we'd have the tires "next week"....*just* not in time for the Tour. So, we really didn't see the point in buying another set of tires at $1000 for one event, surely our old Dunlops could make one last run right? Surely the well setup Evo could muster a competitive placement even on old tires right?
At the last minute we decided to go ahead and install a Cobb downpipe and cat "test" pipe. On Thursday I headed over to Cobb Plano to get our STU and TT maps updated before leaving at 4AM Friday for Houston. I'm driving down there when all of the sudden, out of nowhere comes a heavy duty tie down (think bulldozer "come along") into view as I change lanes to exit. The giant BANG and almost immediate left tug of the wheel told me that this was "not good". I pulled on the shoulder to find the sidewall cut into shreds and our new Enkei wheel with a gash in it. Luckily Fair was following me, but of course, we had put 17mm lug nuts and the factory was 21mm. After going to Stett Performance to borrow a socket we had the spare on. Fair drove to the shop, picked up the Dunlops and drove back to Cobb since you can't really dyno on a spare. While out, he mounted a 3 year old Advan AD07 (matching brand/size as the other three tires from our NASA TT setup, except bald and MUCH older) on the Enkei as a "back up" for the Tour, and to run at the Friday practice. This was a tire our friend and former STU competitor Mike Simanyi threw away and sent to us for fitment testing. Basically it was junk. But we wouldn't need it right? I mean we couldn't even drive on the street with it since it was below the tread bars and the others were new, with the AWD you know.
Tuning wrapped up, we loaded the car with the Enkeis on it to practice Friday since the Dunlops were already beyond their usable life. Remember the Enkeis have 265 tires on them, not legal for STU. So the trip down was without incident. We had a trailer tire blowout a week ago so we bought 4 new ones. It was an expensive week.
More on this later. We started the practice on the Advans with the bad Mike Simanyi tire on the left front. I helped Paul Magyar with his STI's setup while Terry and Amy drove the Evo. I drove the Evo and it didn't feel right to me, but obviously pushed with the "bad" AD07 on the front. Still the car was faster than other guys practicing by 0.5s on a 30s course. We went to lunch, came back and mounted the Dunlops. Terry's first run was 0.75s slower than the AD07s. That was a shocker. Well, we weren't going to come all that way to come in last in STU just because we had a last minute snafu on tires. Buying another set at 3PM on Friday having zero testing on Bridgestones or Toyos didn't make sense. We still want to try the Yoks when they are out. We decided to "punt" and sign up for BSP on the 265s. Since the car pushed a little we decided to put the bad tire on the back and we called it a night. Certainly disappointed. We didn't bring a BSP car to the event after all.
Saturday morning we're ready to go. BSP was in the same run group as STU so at least we could compare times with STU drivers. Terry makes his first run and the car is terrible, unlike any time we've ever run it. It oversteers like it is on ice. I'm not much better wagging the tail out everywhere and taking cones or just DNFs since I was so off track. Terry actually puts a mid 60.6 run down with plenty of drifting, but hits the last cone on course. The fastest STU driver was a 61.6. OK, so even with the poor handling the car is "in the hunt". We're disappointed, but hey, the car is capable.
Amy runs after us in Heat 2, Grid B. We drive the car over after asking our competitors if they care. They didn't so we leave. More on this later.
Amy takes one run and says the car is undriveable. We knew this already, but we were hoping she'd be OK. We decide to swap the bad tire back to the front. Amy makes her second run and drops 2 seconds, getting a clean 61.1 - BEATING the boys in STU Open. Now, most will argue the course was cleaner, conditions were better, etc. Anything NOT to let a Ladies class driver beat them. BTW, she did the same at Nationals one year. Gulf Greyhound Park actually gets WORSE as the day goes on. It comes apart and makes so much gravel there becomes one line and if you deviate you're in the marbles and its all over. So we leave Saturday excited that the car seems to be better even if we're basically on 3 tires, obviously slightly bigger tires with a junk tire. The course was reversed Sunday so we swapped the bad one to the right for the Sunday runs. There were really only two left hand turns so we picked the lesser of two evils.We start Sunday with Terry's first run. Terry pulls out a 57.2. Most STU cars at this point were in the 59s and high 58s all dirty. Terry had a cone as well. I get in and run a clean 57.5. The best STU car is a 58.0 from Wiggy in an Evo RS. A great run no doubt. Good enough to move him into first place. Terry never could get clean and both of us slowed after this first fast run. We were within 0.5s of it though. Looking at the data the lateral acceleration numbers decreased on every run. We were spraying the tires, but I think the dead AD07 was just getting worse and worse. No biggie, the car is proving it's potential besting STU by 0.5s each day even if not by the same driver.
We move the car as we did the day before to let Amy run. Unfortunately the tires were getting worse and worse. Her lateral numbers were going down. She eeked out a 58.5. Her combined times would have given her 2nd place in STU Open. Her last run looked great but was 2 seconds slower! Again, looking at the data, the car just got worse and worse. We end the day excited. The car is a blast to drive on the track and at the autocross. With the new cat it sounds so mean when it shifts. We love it!
Vorshlag drivers in other classes did great too. Gerry T won E Stock with AST 4100s by 3 seconds, ASTs were on a C6 ZO6 that got 3rd behind nationals level drivers. 0.5s out of first. This was his second event on shocks! The ST Civic we help with won overall, Matt Lucas too, and many other strong finishes. Our STU drivers had some cone troubles but had good raw times. Roger Johnson courses are evil, I'll leave it at that. Can't forget Stuart Maxcy and his A Stock win. This AST 5200s will be on the car in a few weeks!
We pack things up during a break, complete our work assignment then head for Dallas at about 2PM. I check the results from the car and we were DSQ'd today? What the heck? Since we were so far back, we never checked the times. We call Gerry Terranova who checks for us. Apparently we didn't "dot our I's" when we moved the car for Amy's runs and the Impound Chief got us DSQ'd. We were standing 50 yards from the grid. Why didn't anyone ASK us why we moved or where we were? Oh, no, just DSQ them even though the car stayed in grid. For the record, we're aware of the rule of not leaving grid and would never do so, but we also had to get a car ready for the next driver. This happens all the time at Nationals where you have to DRIVE distances to other spots not even staying in the same area. We were just baffled at a Tour that someone would assume the worst. Whatever, we're calling today to argue the case and frankly discuss other concerns we had at the event.
We get into the heart of South Houston (a lovely place btw) and I hear a strange noise from the trailer. Terry looks back and smoke is bellowing out from the passenger side fender. Great! A blowout on a new tire? Amy as calm and collected as she always is pulls off the highway into a Bail Bonds parking lot. You get the picture where we are? Terry and I inspect the trailer to find the leaf spring broken (and missing parts) on the rear axle. The tire was lodged in the fender which made for the smoke. We call in the soldiers.
Before you know it, we have an army of people surrounding us which is good in this part of town. Jason McCall, Paul Magyar, Matt Lucas, Chris Ledbetter, Kurt Janish (Mr. Tools), Greg Piper show up along with Gerry Terranova. It was a party in South H! Terry and Jason run to Northern Tools and buy a leaf spring and new hardware. Kurt, me and everyone else work at breaking all the rusted bolts off. We broke one bolt so Terry and Gerry had to run back to the store. We had everything ready to go once they got back and we were off again. Only a two hour delay. Thanks again for everyone and their help. I wasn't too excited about leaving the Evo to go get parts. It definitely would have been missing wheels at a minimum.
We made it back in one piece around 10PM, a LONG weekend for sure. While we didn't get to compete in STU we're pretty happy with the car. It really handles well. I can't wait to see what it does with four equal, current generation ST tires. Should be interesting!
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