Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build
continued from above
March 17 - TX2K11 (Mustang)
Amy and I left north Dallas at around 8 pm Wednesday night and made it to downtown Houston before midnight. Some serious traffic there on I-45 considering the hour, and we had no less than 6 vehicles pass us at 100+ mph near downtown, with two different trucks at different times drifting across 3 lanes and nearly taking the front of my truck off. Somehow we survived that parade of death race entrants and got to the middle of nowhere, 30 miles south of Houston, at 12:30. We arrived at nearby Grandsport Speedway Thursday morning at 7:30 AM and prepared to run the TX2K11 Time Attack event. This event was part of a 4 day festival of speed that started 10+ years ago mostly as a big Supra meet, and has grown to include a number of other imports, Vipers, Corvettes, Lotus Elises and other cars. People come from all over the country, even other countries, to enter TX2K events. Thursday was their track event (HPDE + Time Attack), Friday was the dyno day, and Sat-Sunday were the drag race portions of the event. We only entered the Time Attack, as we had the SCCA National Tour event to enter on Sat-Sunday, and a test-n-tune to run on Friday.
This TX2K event was on our calendar months in advance and I had planned to run the E30 and Amy the Mustang, with Costas running his GT-1 Camaro as well. Since the E30 was down, I switched entries to the Mustang and Amy and I both ran it in alternating sessions, and all 3 of us instructed as well. It was a very busy day! The track was 1.3 miles of twists and turns on super smooth asphalt, with gentle curbing and good places to pass on the front and back straights.
The new DTC-60 brake pads up front REALLY helped - I could brake later/deeper than almost anything in my session (only one GT-R and the GT2 Porsche could stop with the Mustang). I fared well early on, and I took the 3rd fastest times in the morning A1 session, but ending up with only a slightly quicker 1:06.3 best lap time after my three 30 minute on-track sessions, which was 9th fastest at the end of the day (using a rented Westhold transponder). Amy also ran 3 sessions in the same car and knocked down a 1:07.3 lap time, 10th fastest overall (we had the same transponder so she isn't listed separately, but we tracked her laps after her session). Not too bad considering the 100% stock power and somewhat narrow street tires - against a gaggle of 500-900hp GT-Rs and Supras, Vipers, Corvettes, an Aerial Atom, and a 911 GT2. Costas drove in only 2 sessions and nabbed FTD and the win with a 58.9 second lap. The GT-1 car was brutally fast and was a handful to drive on the smallish road course - he only used 2nd and 3rd gears, and only part throttle.
With a serious array of high-powered and exotic hardware on hand for this event, the 40 or so entrant's skill levels were all over the place. There were some very good drivers there, even some SCCA + NASA racers, but plenty of lots of noobs that needed in-car guidance, and even some of the proverbial "That's how I drive - flat out!" folks. My student was totally new - a complete first timer on track - but went from spinning twice on his first lap to confident and quicker by day's end, as did Amy's two students and Costas' as well. They needed more instructors than they had on hand, really. Being new is fine, but being a squirrel driving over your head is frustrating and dangerous. I saw some on-track issues that would have had many drivers booted from most HPDE events. Anyway, nobody was killed, so I guess that's good. I'll get off my soap box and just keep this all in mind in mind before entering again.
We eventually ended the day a session early due to "some exuberant driving by one individual" (it had to do with one of those "driving Flat Out" people), so they called the event to an end early at 3:30 PM and had a trophy presentation for Costas at our trailers - with 2 photographers, a videographer, and an on-camera interview. That was pretty cool. We then broke down Costas' massive covered paddock structure, loaded up both cars & trailers, and headed out by 5:30 pm... only to sit in Houston traffic for 3+ hours, just trying to make it 60 miles north to my friend's shop to retrieve the Toyos. After stopping for a quick bite hoping traffic would subside, we got there at 9:30 pm, but only 2 tires were delivered. Frantic calls to Matt here at Vorshlag and some investigations on his end showed that 4 tires had indeed delivered, but the genius FedEx driver dropped off 2 at some random address clear across Houston, and they were now closed. This is one more reason why Vorshlag NEVER SHIPS FEDEX.
So we ate a second dinner with our friend then blasted back across Houston with the trailer all the way to Baytown, arriving there around midnight, exhausted from a long day racing, standing in the sun, and Houston traffic.
March 18 - SCCA Test-N-Tune (Mustang)
Friday was the registration / set-up / test day for the National Tour weekend, which included a test session where you could buy laps for about $4 each. We had planned on doing DL-1 data logged runs on the Yokohama AD08s then running out and swapping the wheels to the Toyos, but the second 2 tires were still MIA by mid-day, as was our co-driver and his data logger. So we just made 5 runs each runs on the Yokohamas, testing tire pressures and shock settings, and getting a feel for the new brakes. It felt OK, and the brakes seemed to be a LOT better at this lower speed event. The practice lap times were close to the STX cars I could see, but who knows if they were making good runs on the times I saw? We had set up our vendor table, unpacked the car, and finished our laps by 3:30 pm, when we finally had word that FedEx had picked up and redelivered our missing two Toyo tires, so we dropped everything and raced 70 miles across town again to our friend's shop. We got there by 4:30, then drove to a Discount tire and paid an enormous amount of money to have 4 tires mounted and balanced (grumble... crooks!... grumble). Trying to stay ahead of Friday 5 pm traffic we somehow managed to get back all the way to Baytown by 6:30, and grabbed 5 gallons of 93 octane on the way. The car was on jack stands so we mounted the wheels with the fresh Toyos on them, put in the gasoline, and had the car ready to race by 6:45 pm. The past several hours of frantic driving at 85 mph in Houston traffic behind us.
The welcome party that Vorshlag had sponsored was going until 7 pm, and people were walking the course for tomorrow's event... we showed up in time but they had run out of food literally 5 minutes before we found the caterer. While we were looking all over the paddock for the food, the Saturday autocross course was also quickly taken down. Wait, what??? Well we found out that it was because there was a drag race event that night here at the HRP facility, like every Friday night, and they needed the parking lot for the racers starting to show up. Oh well, at least the concession stands were open and had hot burgers for sale. For cash only - and I had a whopping $2 on me. Amy had pocket change. WTF?! I had like $200 the day before, but somehow burned it all on transponder rentals and track food at Grandsport, and bags of ice and snacks along the way. Our luck was failing miserably today.
So we walked to the SCCA trailer and checked in for the National Tour event, drove the Mustang into town to scrub the new R1R tires in, and got some cash - and dinner. Went back out to HRP, found some friends and saw that several autocrossers were entering the Friday night drag racing...
Friday evening - Houston Raceway Park drag racing (Mustang)
For only another $20 cash we could run down the fastest dragstrip in the USA from now until midnight. Hell yes! I've run down this dragstrip hundreds of times in the past, and always seem to get my best times here (good surface + sea level track = fast). We still needed to scrub in these new 265/35/18 Toyo R1R tires anyway - with burnouts and launches! So I made two quick passes right off the highway drive in from town and cracked off two 12.96 second runs at 109+ mph, and on that 2nd pass I accidentally stayed on the rev limiter in 3rd gear for at least 2-3 tenths of a second. Oh damn, if I could clean up my shifts that would mean that a mid 12 second ET was in store?? I was also checking the on-board data logger I had just picked up - a new G-Tech Pro RR - against the track's clocks. It was spot-on at 60', 1/4 mile ETs and trap speeds. It has g meters and a GPS sensor, graphic LCD display, SD memory, windshield mount, with a built in lap timer, segment timer, and predictive lap timer. Neat little $300 gizmo I'll talk about more in future posts.
Amy wanted to make some passes so she got in and made some 13.5 second runs while me and a dozen of the SCCA entrants for the weekend taunted our fellow autocrossers trying to make 1/4 mile passes. Amy handed the keys back to me and I made 2 more runs, and I left the hood up between them as the staging lane started to get backed up - the locals don't really show up until after 9-10 pm. I cracked off a 13.1 second run and on my last run I was paired up with a 4th gen LS1 Firebird with some work done. I had pushed it to the line hood up for 15 minutes, letting the engine cool all the while. This helped and I got to the line with a nice cool motor. We lined up and the Firebird tree'd me, and in my haste to catch up I spun a little in 1st gear (2.1 sixty), but managed to nail my shifts and ran him down and passed him, and the clocks showed a 110.2 mph trap speed - the best ever in the car. Pretty good for 100% bone stock drivetrain! Gotta take the little victories where I can.
March 19-20 - SCCA Houston National Tour (Mustang)
Saturday and Sunday was the National Tour event, and Amy ran in STXL while Costas and I ran in STX. We started the day with overcast skies and cooler temps, which the Toyos supposedly favor. STX had 7 entrants and I started "off the pace", and in my 3 runs never really strung a good one together. Times were erratic and I ev3en DNF'd; I was driving very poorly. The event was all erratically paced slaloms (and "wall-oms") with one big turn around at the end of the lot, none of which were the strong suit for this car. The brakes at least worked better, but we struggled in the slaloms and the car pushed heavily in the turn-around, costing us time. Acceleration was just an exercise in wheelspin. Strangely we all got a 4th run, which was timed but not scored (a "fun run"), and it was then that I pulled my head out and put a good run together (proper slalom timing), running a solid 1.2 seconds faster and finally closer to the faster cars in STX class. Costas had similar trouble on his first 3, and also a fast 4th. Amy ran later in the day, after the sun was out, and ran times a tick quicker than both of to us, and also much faster in her 4th (unscored) run. The tires felt grippier than the AD08s, but with no data collected on the AD08s Friday we couldn't tell by how much.
Sunday was more of the same (almost identical course, with 2 small changes), but at least we drove better. All 3 of my runs were within a tenth of a second and they all felt a lot smoother - I didn't get so behind on the many slaloms. Costas had prior event he had to help run and couldn't race on Day 2. Amy was about 1 second off my times this day. She was running lower tire pressures than I recommended and it didn't help at all - I was working on course and couldn't help her when she ran, either.
We learned several things at this event: Don't ship FedEx. Houston traffic sucks no matter the time of day. The Mustang isn't putting power down well. Or turning all that well. Slaloms are a mess. I put the seat to far back for my co-drivers. This car needs much more development. Oh well, this event offered up 28 more autocross runs between us - more testing never hurts with a new car, even if its losing badly at an SCCA National Tour.
So we bombed 300 miles back to Dallas and somehow logged 1000 miles for the weekend - meaning we drove just inside the Houston city limits for a solid 400 miles. Did I mention I hate Houston traffic? Monday we unloaded and prepared for yet another short week and a 3 day weekend of racing, this time at the SCCA ProSolo in Mineral Wells, TX. Before this event we slapped on the rear DTC-60 brake pads that arrived and bled the system with Motul 600 fluid. We had been testing an all new, non-inverted single adjustable rear shocks were found over at AST-USA that we wanted to run, and they had been working great the past week. With some custom machined bushings out back they fit the S197 very well - adding more bump travel. AST now wanted us to try some new super-digressive pistons in the rear shocks that sounded like what we needed to control the excessive brake dive/rear axle rise. We also re-mounted the seat forward 2 inches and it fit Amy and Costas much better - no pillows needed! Since Mineral Wells just chews up race tires and street tires like a meat grinder, I had the still new Toyo R1Rs removed from the 18x9" wheels and mounted the Yokohama AD08s again. Cleaned up everything, reorganized the trailer completely, and loaded up for a Friday morning tow out to the event site 2 hours across Dallas and Ft. Worth (somehow this is still a local event for us).
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March 17 - TX2K11 (Mustang)
Amy and I left north Dallas at around 8 pm Wednesday night and made it to downtown Houston before midnight. Some serious traffic there on I-45 considering the hour, and we had no less than 6 vehicles pass us at 100+ mph near downtown, with two different trucks at different times drifting across 3 lanes and nearly taking the front of my truck off. Somehow we survived that parade of death race entrants and got to the middle of nowhere, 30 miles south of Houston, at 12:30. We arrived at nearby Grandsport Speedway Thursday morning at 7:30 AM and prepared to run the TX2K11 Time Attack event. This event was part of a 4 day festival of speed that started 10+ years ago mostly as a big Supra meet, and has grown to include a number of other imports, Vipers, Corvettes, Lotus Elises and other cars. People come from all over the country, even other countries, to enter TX2K events. Thursday was their track event (HPDE + Time Attack), Friday was the dyno day, and Sat-Sunday were the drag race portions of the event. We only entered the Time Attack, as we had the SCCA National Tour event to enter on Sat-Sunday, and a test-n-tune to run on Friday.
This TX2K event was on our calendar months in advance and I had planned to run the E30 and Amy the Mustang, with Costas running his GT-1 Camaro as well. Since the E30 was down, I switched entries to the Mustang and Amy and I both ran it in alternating sessions, and all 3 of us instructed as well. It was a very busy day! The track was 1.3 miles of twists and turns on super smooth asphalt, with gentle curbing and good places to pass on the front and back straights.
- Pictures: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...dsport-031711/
- Results: Who knows? this is the best I can find
The new DTC-60 brake pads up front REALLY helped - I could brake later/deeper than almost anything in my session (only one GT-R and the GT2 Porsche could stop with the Mustang). I fared well early on, and I took the 3rd fastest times in the morning A1 session, but ending up with only a slightly quicker 1:06.3 best lap time after my three 30 minute on-track sessions, which was 9th fastest at the end of the day (using a rented Westhold transponder). Amy also ran 3 sessions in the same car and knocked down a 1:07.3 lap time, 10th fastest overall (we had the same transponder so she isn't listed separately, but we tracked her laps after her session). Not too bad considering the 100% stock power and somewhat narrow street tires - against a gaggle of 500-900hp GT-Rs and Supras, Vipers, Corvettes, an Aerial Atom, and a 911 GT2. Costas drove in only 2 sessions and nabbed FTD and the win with a 58.9 second lap. The GT-1 car was brutally fast and was a handful to drive on the smallish road course - he only used 2nd and 3rd gears, and only part throttle.
With a serious array of high-powered and exotic hardware on hand for this event, the 40 or so entrant's skill levels were all over the place. There were some very good drivers there, even some SCCA + NASA racers, but plenty of lots of noobs that needed in-car guidance, and even some of the proverbial "That's how I drive - flat out!" folks. My student was totally new - a complete first timer on track - but went from spinning twice on his first lap to confident and quicker by day's end, as did Amy's two students and Costas' as well. They needed more instructors than they had on hand, really. Being new is fine, but being a squirrel driving over your head is frustrating and dangerous. I saw some on-track issues that would have had many drivers booted from most HPDE events. Anyway, nobody was killed, so I guess that's good. I'll get off my soap box and just keep this all in mind in mind before entering again.
We eventually ended the day a session early due to "some exuberant driving by one individual" (it had to do with one of those "driving Flat Out" people), so they called the event to an end early at 3:30 PM and had a trophy presentation for Costas at our trailers - with 2 photographers, a videographer, and an on-camera interview. That was pretty cool. We then broke down Costas' massive covered paddock structure, loaded up both cars & trailers, and headed out by 5:30 pm... only to sit in Houston traffic for 3+ hours, just trying to make it 60 miles north to my friend's shop to retrieve the Toyos. After stopping for a quick bite hoping traffic would subside, we got there at 9:30 pm, but only 2 tires were delivered. Frantic calls to Matt here at Vorshlag and some investigations on his end showed that 4 tires had indeed delivered, but the genius FedEx driver dropped off 2 at some random address clear across Houston, and they were now closed. This is one more reason why Vorshlag NEVER SHIPS FEDEX.
So we ate a second dinner with our friend then blasted back across Houston with the trailer all the way to Baytown, arriving there around midnight, exhausted from a long day racing, standing in the sun, and Houston traffic.
March 18 - SCCA Test-N-Tune (Mustang)
Friday was the registration / set-up / test day for the National Tour weekend, which included a test session where you could buy laps for about $4 each. We had planned on doing DL-1 data logged runs on the Yokohama AD08s then running out and swapping the wheels to the Toyos, but the second 2 tires were still MIA by mid-day, as was our co-driver and his data logger. So we just made 5 runs each runs on the Yokohamas, testing tire pressures and shock settings, and getting a feel for the new brakes. It felt OK, and the brakes seemed to be a LOT better at this lower speed event. The practice lap times were close to the STX cars I could see, but who knows if they were making good runs on the times I saw? We had set up our vendor table, unpacked the car, and finished our laps by 3:30 pm, when we finally had word that FedEx had picked up and redelivered our missing two Toyo tires, so we dropped everything and raced 70 miles across town again to our friend's shop. We got there by 4:30, then drove to a Discount tire and paid an enormous amount of money to have 4 tires mounted and balanced (grumble... crooks!... grumble). Trying to stay ahead of Friday 5 pm traffic we somehow managed to get back all the way to Baytown by 6:30, and grabbed 5 gallons of 93 octane on the way. The car was on jack stands so we mounted the wheels with the fresh Toyos on them, put in the gasoline, and had the car ready to race by 6:45 pm. The past several hours of frantic driving at 85 mph in Houston traffic behind us.
The welcome party that Vorshlag had sponsored was going until 7 pm, and people were walking the course for tomorrow's event... we showed up in time but they had run out of food literally 5 minutes before we found the caterer. While we were looking all over the paddock for the food, the Saturday autocross course was also quickly taken down. Wait, what??? Well we found out that it was because there was a drag race event that night here at the HRP facility, like every Friday night, and they needed the parking lot for the racers starting to show up. Oh well, at least the concession stands were open and had hot burgers for sale. For cash only - and I had a whopping $2 on me. Amy had pocket change. WTF?! I had like $200 the day before, but somehow burned it all on transponder rentals and track food at Grandsport, and bags of ice and snacks along the way. Our luck was failing miserably today.
So we walked to the SCCA trailer and checked in for the National Tour event, drove the Mustang into town to scrub the new R1R tires in, and got some cash - and dinner. Went back out to HRP, found some friends and saw that several autocrossers were entering the Friday night drag racing...
Friday evening - Houston Raceway Park drag racing (Mustang)
For only another $20 cash we could run down the fastest dragstrip in the USA from now until midnight. Hell yes! I've run down this dragstrip hundreds of times in the past, and always seem to get my best times here (good surface + sea level track = fast). We still needed to scrub in these new 265/35/18 Toyo R1R tires anyway - with burnouts and launches! So I made two quick passes right off the highway drive in from town and cracked off two 12.96 second runs at 109+ mph, and on that 2nd pass I accidentally stayed on the rev limiter in 3rd gear for at least 2-3 tenths of a second. Oh damn, if I could clean up my shifts that would mean that a mid 12 second ET was in store?? I was also checking the on-board data logger I had just picked up - a new G-Tech Pro RR - against the track's clocks. It was spot-on at 60', 1/4 mile ETs and trap speeds. It has g meters and a GPS sensor, graphic LCD display, SD memory, windshield mount, with a built in lap timer, segment timer, and predictive lap timer. Neat little $300 gizmo I'll talk about more in future posts.
Amy wanted to make some passes so she got in and made some 13.5 second runs while me and a dozen of the SCCA entrants for the weekend taunted our fellow autocrossers trying to make 1/4 mile passes. Amy handed the keys back to me and I made 2 more runs, and I left the hood up between them as the staging lane started to get backed up - the locals don't really show up until after 9-10 pm. I cracked off a 13.1 second run and on my last run I was paired up with a 4th gen LS1 Firebird with some work done. I had pushed it to the line hood up for 15 minutes, letting the engine cool all the while. This helped and I got to the line with a nice cool motor. We lined up and the Firebird tree'd me, and in my haste to catch up I spun a little in 1st gear (2.1 sixty), but managed to nail my shifts and ran him down and passed him, and the clocks showed a 110.2 mph trap speed - the best ever in the car. Pretty good for 100% bone stock drivetrain! Gotta take the little victories where I can.
March 19-20 - SCCA Houston National Tour (Mustang)
Saturday and Sunday was the National Tour event, and Amy ran in STXL while Costas and I ran in STX. We started the day with overcast skies and cooler temps, which the Toyos supposedly favor. STX had 7 entrants and I started "off the pace", and in my 3 runs never really strung a good one together. Times were erratic and I ev3en DNF'd; I was driving very poorly. The event was all erratically paced slaloms (and "wall-oms") with one big turn around at the end of the lot, none of which were the strong suit for this car. The brakes at least worked better, but we struggled in the slaloms and the car pushed heavily in the turn-around, costing us time. Acceleration was just an exercise in wheelspin. Strangely we all got a 4th run, which was timed but not scored (a "fun run"), and it was then that I pulled my head out and put a good run together (proper slalom timing), running a solid 1.2 seconds faster and finally closer to the faster cars in STX class. Costas had similar trouble on his first 3, and also a fast 4th. Amy ran later in the day, after the sun was out, and ran times a tick quicker than both of to us, and also much faster in her 4th (unscored) run. The tires felt grippier than the AD08s, but with no data collected on the AD08s Friday we couldn't tell by how much.
Sunday was more of the same (almost identical course, with 2 small changes), but at least we drove better. All 3 of my runs were within a tenth of a second and they all felt a lot smoother - I didn't get so behind on the many slaloms. Costas had prior event he had to help run and couldn't race on Day 2. Amy was about 1 second off my times this day. She was running lower tire pressures than I recommended and it didn't help at all - I was working on course and couldn't help her when she ran, either.
We learned several things at this event: Don't ship FedEx. Houston traffic sucks no matter the time of day. The Mustang isn't putting power down well. Or turning all that well. Slaloms are a mess. I put the seat to far back for my co-drivers. This car needs much more development. Oh well, this event offered up 28 more autocross runs between us - more testing never hurts with a new car, even if its losing badly at an SCCA National Tour.
- Results: http://www.scca.com/popup/raceresult...7098&file=1278
- Pictures: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...n-Tour-031811/
So we bombed 300 miles back to Dallas and somehow logged 1000 miles for the weekend - meaning we drove just inside the Houston city limits for a solid 400 miles. Did I mention I hate Houston traffic? Monday we unloaded and prepared for yet another short week and a 3 day weekend of racing, this time at the SCCA ProSolo in Mineral Wells, TX. Before this event we slapped on the rear DTC-60 brake pads that arrived and bled the system with Motul 600 fluid. We had been testing an all new, non-inverted single adjustable rear shocks were found over at AST-USA that we wanted to run, and they had been working great the past week. With some custom machined bushings out back they fit the S197 very well - adding more bump travel. AST now wanted us to try some new super-digressive pistons in the rear shocks that sounded like what we needed to control the excessive brake dive/rear axle rise. We also re-mounted the seat forward 2 inches and it fit Amy and Costas much better - no pillows needed! Since Mineral Wells just chews up race tires and street tires like a meat grinder, I had the still new Toyo R1Rs removed from the 18x9" wheels and mounted the Yokohama AD08s again. Cleaned up everything, reorganized the trailer completely, and loaded up for a Friday morning tow out to the event site 2 hours across Dallas and Ft. Worth (somehow this is still a local event for us).
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