martin_nj
czesc!
good job sharing that insert, i'm buying two =]
Vorshlag 2011 Mustang 5.0 GT - track/autocross/street Project
- Thread starter Vorshlag-Fair
- Start date
- Status
Napoleon85
forum member
Add me to the long list of people wanting that mount insert.
Mustang259
forum member
Interested in the tranny mount insert, I was wondering why I was missing shifts!!
Just wondering, did you get Spohn's 2011+ specific UCA?Damned Upper Control Arm Set-up, Test 4
So we've put 4 or 5 iterations of Rear Upper Control Arms (UCA) in this car and have been happy with none of them. No ter what brand or style we try it always eventually comes loose, then clanks and bangs around on any bump. Very frustrating. The various designs have also taken their toll on the axle-side UCA bushing, that is press-fit into the axle. Our techs noticed that this rubber OEM bushing was cracked and completely shot, so while the axle was being refurb'd they pressed it out and in went a fresh new one. Why not poly, you ask? Well this is one of those "terrible places for a poly bushing"... as it needs to both rotate and twist in 2 axis. Polyurethane rarely has the material properties for this task - it should be rubber or a spherical bushing.
After a quick glance we couldn't find a spherical set-up for the axle-side bushing (yet) so we just went back with the OEM rubber to replace the cracked and failed unit, for now. If you have an aftermarket UCA, especially if it is a poly bushing on the chassis side, check out the OEM rubber bushing in the axle at the top to see if it has cracked and failed. Click the high rez versions of the above two pics to see what to look for.
With that axle-side bushing replaced I wanted to look at the UCA itself. The Whiteline unit was fine but the adjustment method was a bit unusual and it wasn't exactly silent in use. Everything else they make for this car has been perfect, but I dunno.... I really wanted to keep the bushings able to rotate freely on the UCA, as both of these joints need to pivot smoothly when the car is loaded in corners. At first I wanted to attempt to go back to the "Del-sphere" bushed, adjustable length UCA we tried earlier from Spohn. That thing had some of the worst clanking and banging of any UCA we had tried but it did have the right style bushing at the foreward UCA mount... a Delrin-encased metal spehercial end, called "Del-Sphere". This is the right type of joint, I just didn't agree with the execution of the entire arm and mount.
We thought the problem was with the over-sized bushings that came in the Spohn UCA kit. The kit is made to work with the factory UCA bolt, which is a 14mm OD bolt. The ID of the Del-Spehre end is much larger, as were the holes in the UPR fabricated upper mount. It was as if these companies made something without checking the factory bolt diameter. What the...? So we upped the size of the UCA bolt to a 5/8" and made bushings to fit snug around the OD of the bolt and inside the ID of the Del-Sphere bushing. It took a little time on the lathe, some careful drilling, and some drilling of the UCA mount, but it all goes in and out smoothly now. No more slop to the bolt and hopefully no more banging around.
[IJuMG]http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects/Vorshlag-2011-Mustang-GT-build/i-T7mL4Cd/1/S/_DSF9002-S.jpg[/IMG]
Part 2 continued below
I have their poly/del-sphere panhard bar and it was very noisey until I tightened up the del-sphere up a good bit. It used to clunk anytime I hit any bump, hit uneven surace or when going side to side (think slalom). Now it only makes a thump noise on large bumps and uneven surfaces. I still want to try tightening it a little more.
Bmwguyw/mustang
Junior Member
You can count me in on one of those bushing inserts as well. I will take one the moment they are available.
Roadracer350
forum member
I just want a chunck of that material so I can machine my own mount for the 05-09 model.
Mustang259
forum member
Any news on the tranny mount insert from Whiteline?
19COBRA93
Ford Racing
I've had mine installed for years now with gobs of hp and all kinds of driving, including hard launches at the drag strip. I assure you, it works, and nothing will ever happen to your transmission ears. It really is one of the best mods I've ever done.
Philostang
Chrome Hater
824rwh/689rwt!!!!!
See, that's just sick. =)
I was going to say something, but with only (est.) 330 at the crank, I figured I had little authority on the matter with my experience. I'm not launching hard with tons of hp/tq. I do road race my car frequently though, and I've never had a problem or concern with the CHE torque struts. I removed the trans (for a T56 swap) after years of road racing with them on, years which included at least 30K commuting miles on top of it, and there were no signs of stress or damage otherwise.
The one end of each strut is bushed, so I suspect it's taking up a large amount of the peak force from really hard impacts. What the package does very well is just keep things in place with a direct hold of the entire engine/tranny assembly. Very secure = great shifts.
Best,
-j
See, that's just sick. =)
I was going to say something, but with only (est.) 330 at the crank, I figured I had little authority on the matter with my experience. I'm not launching hard with tons of hp/tq. I do road race my car frequently though, and I've never had a problem or concern with the CHE torque struts. I removed the trans (for a T56 swap) after years of road racing with them on, years which included at least 30K commuting miles on top of it, and there were no signs of stress or damage otherwise.
The one end of each strut is bushed, so I suspect it's taking up a large amount of the peak force from really hard impacts. What the package does very well is just keep things in place with a direct hold of the entire engine/tranny assembly. Very secure = great shifts.
Best,
-j
all of this. Really wanting one of these.
Also Updates on the UCA when you have some results. I need one of these for my car but don't want to buy a thing until you find a solution
Project Update for April 27, 2013: Has been 5 weeks since my last Mustang project thread update already? So I started writing this on April 27th and it took me until May 2nd to finish it and post it on all of the forum threads. I keep saying "We're so busy" here at Vorshlag but looking at the books it appears we had an all time record month in March. Then we broke that record again in April. We need about 4 times as much space as we have now, and I'm looking at much bigger commercial properties. So onto the Mustang work - we have been to 3 track events since my last post, a drag race, several new Mustang parts have been installed, and we are loading up the red car for the NASA @ NOLA Motorsports Park race this weekend. I better get to it...
Five Star Ford HPDE at Eagles Canyon Raceway - March 23
Corey White, who has sold us both the 2013 GT and now a custom-ordered 2013 F-350 Dually, is a dealer at a local Ford house. He sells a lot of Roush, SVT, Boss302, GT500 and regular Mustangs and Raptors to folks all over the country. Since he deals with a lot of Mustang folks he convinced the dealership to support both car shows and track events, like this one on March 23rd. We always try to come out and support his events so Amy entered this one in the red '11 Mustang, with Ed and me along for track support. Since my custom ordered F-350 wasn't built yet I borrowed Ed's Duramax dually and his open trailer, too. We could have driven to the track in the Mustang (well, 2 of us), but with the cold weather and rain in the forecast it is always nice to have a truck nearby to store your extra stuff in. And if (when?) something breaks it is handy to have that trailer there to get you home without a call for a flat bed. We have had incredibly good luck with this Mustang for almost 3 years now but eventually something is going to leave is stranded... (foreshadowing!)
Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/FSF-ECR-032313/
You sharp eyed readers will notice the 18x10" D-Force/Vorshlag wheels on the red car; that's because we kind of knew it might be raining, so we mounted that old set of 295/35/18 Nitto NT-05s (which we cannot seem to kill) onto a set of these 5-spokes for the event. It wasn't a timed event and even just on street tires this car is... well, usually pretty quick at these Mustang-centric events. The Nittos still had visible tread if it was wet, and if it was dry and I wanted to try to kill this cursed set of tires. I left the set of rain-friendly Bridgestone RE-11's on the other set of 18x10's at the shop, foolishly...
This event was like many other HPDE's: made up of a curious mix of sports and sporty cars including lots of Mustangs - from GTs to Boss302s to GT500s to a couple of old Fox AI cars - modern RX8, several Miatas, an STi, and some exotics - a Mercedes SL, a Ferrari 360, a Ford GT. The track was already wet from an early morning rain shower, and it was 45°F and windy (cold for Texas!), so they sent out the Advanced group in these treacherous conditions first to help "dry the track". Just for some slow laps to remove the dampness...
Well it was cold and it was wet and these Nittos excel in neither condition. In the first Red session there were cars slipping off track left and right (I think there were six or seven 4-offs) and even Amy (who prides herself in never having had a 4 off at any track - yet) had a quick 360° spin, but stayed on track, braking into the "canyon" after Turn 9. She said it just zipped around in a quick pirouette, was slick as snot out there, and of course she came in for a look. Never left pavement, nobody was even remotely close to her at the time (they were all going as slow or slower than she was), and no damage done - so no harm, no foul, and I sent her back out.
After that 20 minutes of slipping and sliding around it quit spitting rain, but it was still wet and plenty cold. So after a lengthy delay they sent the Novice group out with instructors, going ultra-slow and "testing the waters" as it were. More spins, offs and not a lot of fun.
Then they put in a 2 hour delay, waiting to see if another storm cell was going to hit, and hoping for sunny weather with some track drying winds. Ed and I had a feeling, and smart phones with radar apps, so we quickly loaded up the Mustang when Amy wasn't looking, before the skies opened up again. Just in case. We told her we could quickly unload it if the sun popped out. While we were all warming up in the clubhouse eating food provided by 5-Star Ford, and cooked by Corey himself at the grill, the skies opened up... rain, thunder, then some light hail. Well, that sent the owners of beautiful Mustangs and Ford GTs scrambling to get the more costly machinery under cover of the ECR garages.
The hail made quite a racket on the metal roof of the clubhouse, and while it was not serious enough to cause any damage to delicate sheet metal, it put an end to the day early. The other big storm cell was coming, so they called the event off (it rained for most of the rest of the day) and gave everyone "a mulligan", with free entry to another ECR track event in 2 weeks...
Eagles Canyon Track Experience - April 6th
This HPDE was already scheduled but became the make-up event for everyone that paid for the March 23rd track day. This was another low stress HPDE, put on again by the folks that own the Eagles Canyon Raceway track north of Dallas, with help from some local racers ("The Two Brians") to organize and promote the events. Amy entered and again drove in the Advanced group, but this time I popped in for one of her sessions, too.
We still had full depth brake pads, left over from the previous and much shortened March 23rd event. Since we didn't win any tires at the MSR 3.1 NASA TT event (not enough TT3 entrants on Day 2), we had to save the freshest Hoosier A6s, so we rummaged through the old junk tire pile and found 8 very abused Kumho V710s in my favorite 315/35/18 size. We picked the best 4 and I had Olof mount them "inside out", opposite of how they are marked (not directional but they do have inside and outside marked sidewalls). These tires were long past their prime but had some usable rubber left, if we ran the inside tread mounted out. How bad could it be, right? (hint hint...)
Once again I borrowed Ed's Duarmax diesel crew cab dually, but this time I sprung for a gooseneck hitch (installed by Kurt at Janco Fab, where I store the trailer) in his truck, so it could tow our enclosed race trailer. Ed was all for the idea, as now he can tow my gooseneck trailer with this truck for his own race car, from time to time (like April 28th, when we went drag racing with his car). Having the Mustang stuck on an open trailer in a hail storm two weeks earlier taught us to not skimp on the trailer, even with a borrowed truck - bringing the enclosed trailer brings shelter for the car and people, as well as a LOT more of our tools, gear, spares and food.
Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/ECR-040613/
Left: world famous top fuel drag racer Eddie Hill was racing in an Ariel Atom. Right: Mark Boothe in his Grand Sport C6, a NASA TT1 driver
So this day had a LOT better weather, with cool temps and sunny skies. Perfect "Spring in Texas" weather, without the hail storms. There were a lot more cars at this event, both from from the mulligan entries two weeks earlier as well as a few more entrants that heard about the now more regular "ECR run events", with The Two Brians in charge of running the day.
Amy was quick along with a handful of others in Red group this time, putting in some fast-ish ~2 minute flat laps on these godawful tires. She complained bitterly about the twitchiness of the car, wondering "What new parts are on it now?!" And while we rarely give here the same parts set-up twice (always trying new things!) the issues sounded like they were from the "flipped" Kumhos. Well I needed to see how bad they were, so I stole the keys and one of her track sessions...
My 1:58 lap was a handful with the tires flipped and HORRIFIC traffic
The video above shows a lot of bad habits in the first few laps, both from a "rolling roadblock" driver in front of a train of faster cars, and from some frustrated drivers held up behind him, myself included. This was in the Advanced group now, so supposedly not full of noobs. There was a GTR driver blocking a line of cars 9 deep for 3+ laps. Poor Eddie Hill was stuck behind him the longest, and I got held up in the train behind Eddie's Arial. Problem was neither the Atom nor our Mustang had enough extra power to pull by this modified GTR on the straights, but OMFG we were both held up badly in the corners. Guy was braking 300-500 feet early, coasting through the corners, then blasting out and blocking us on the straights. At this event we were supposed to wait for a point-by to pass, but this guy's arm was apparently broken, and his mirrors were blocked.
So after a lap and a half of of this nonsense I gave up - I only had one session to run the car that day and I really wanted to push for one lap - to try to see how much the tires were affecting the car's performance, if any. Eventually the guy nearly spun off track into Turn 4, where Eddie pointed me by, and into Turn 6 I passed him in his ridiculously early braking procedure. Apparently he had almost the entire Advanced group ready to kill him by day's end, so I wasn't alone. "Time for the Green group, pal"...
As I say many times in the video, the tires felt terrible beyond words. Flipping these Kumho's inside-out made for super twitchy car under braking, and mid-corner the car would swing wildly from under- to oversteer. So yea, don't ever flip a Kumho V710 inside-out! This isn't always the case on asymmetric marked tires, but Kumho MEANT it. Lesson learned - always try to learn something when we are at the track, even if it is a little thing about a certain tire brand's "mounting limitations".
Amy was back in the car for sessions 3 and 4 and having a good time. Her parents and her uncle arrived mid-day and were cheering here on and watching her drive on track. For the 4th session she asked and was allowed to take a passenger, her out-of-town uncle (above), who was all smiles in the right seat. She went out to take some ~8/10ths laps in the final Red session, and somewhere in Turn 2 on her first hot lap something broke...
Click for in-car video of the transmission going "BOOM!"
As you can hear in the video above, Amy knew something broke in the transmission and she even figured out that the other gears still worked and managed to get the car back around to the pits. Once she got back I took it for a quick spin around the paddock and realized that, yep, 3rd gear was GONE. All other gears worked and the transmission functioned silently, just minus one gear. Hmm....
It was the end of the day and we drove it into the trailer for a diagnosis back at Vorshlag. This ECR track day was still a lot of fun, with good cool weather and some quick-ish laps, other than the traffic in my session and the whole "trans go boom" issue.
See more below...
Five Star Ford HPDE at Eagles Canyon Raceway - March 23
Corey White, who has sold us both the 2013 GT and now a custom-ordered 2013 F-350 Dually, is a dealer at a local Ford house. He sells a lot of Roush, SVT, Boss302, GT500 and regular Mustangs and Raptors to folks all over the country. Since he deals with a lot of Mustang folks he convinced the dealership to support both car shows and track events, like this one on March 23rd. We always try to come out and support his events so Amy entered this one in the red '11 Mustang, with Ed and me along for track support. Since my custom ordered F-350 wasn't built yet I borrowed Ed's Duramax dually and his open trailer, too. We could have driven to the track in the Mustang (well, 2 of us), but with the cold weather and rain in the forecast it is always nice to have a truck nearby to store your extra stuff in. And if (when?) something breaks it is handy to have that trailer there to get you home without a call for a flat bed. We have had incredibly good luck with this Mustang for almost 3 years now but eventually something is going to leave is stranded... (foreshadowing!)
Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/FSF-ECR-032313/
You sharp eyed readers will notice the 18x10" D-Force/Vorshlag wheels on the red car; that's because we kind of knew it might be raining, so we mounted that old set of 295/35/18 Nitto NT-05s (which we cannot seem to kill) onto a set of these 5-spokes for the event. It wasn't a timed event and even just on street tires this car is... well, usually pretty quick at these Mustang-centric events. The Nittos still had visible tread if it was wet, and if it was dry and I wanted to try to kill this cursed set of tires. I left the set of rain-friendly Bridgestone RE-11's on the other set of 18x10's at the shop, foolishly...
This event was like many other HPDE's: made up of a curious mix of sports and sporty cars including lots of Mustangs - from GTs to Boss302s to GT500s to a couple of old Fox AI cars - modern RX8, several Miatas, an STi, and some exotics - a Mercedes SL, a Ferrari 360, a Ford GT. The track was already wet from an early morning rain shower, and it was 45°F and windy (cold for Texas!), so they sent out the Advanced group in these treacherous conditions first to help "dry the track". Just for some slow laps to remove the dampness...
Well it was cold and it was wet and these Nittos excel in neither condition. In the first Red session there were cars slipping off track left and right (I think there were six or seven 4-offs) and even Amy (who prides herself in never having had a 4 off at any track - yet) had a quick 360° spin, but stayed on track, braking into the "canyon" after Turn 9. She said it just zipped around in a quick pirouette, was slick as snot out there, and of course she came in for a look. Never left pavement, nobody was even remotely close to her at the time (they were all going as slow or slower than she was), and no damage done - so no harm, no foul, and I sent her back out.
After that 20 minutes of slipping and sliding around it quit spitting rain, but it was still wet and plenty cold. So after a lengthy delay they sent the Novice group out with instructors, going ultra-slow and "testing the waters" as it were. More spins, offs and not a lot of fun.
Then they put in a 2 hour delay, waiting to see if another storm cell was going to hit, and hoping for sunny weather with some track drying winds. Ed and I had a feeling, and smart phones with radar apps, so we quickly loaded up the Mustang when Amy wasn't looking, before the skies opened up again. Just in case. We told her we could quickly unload it if the sun popped out. While we were all warming up in the clubhouse eating food provided by 5-Star Ford, and cooked by Corey himself at the grill, the skies opened up... rain, thunder, then some light hail. Well, that sent the owners of beautiful Mustangs and Ford GTs scrambling to get the more costly machinery under cover of the ECR garages.
The hail made quite a racket on the metal roof of the clubhouse, and while it was not serious enough to cause any damage to delicate sheet metal, it put an end to the day early. The other big storm cell was coming, so they called the event off (it rained for most of the rest of the day) and gave everyone "a mulligan", with free entry to another ECR track event in 2 weeks...
Eagles Canyon Track Experience - April 6th
This HPDE was already scheduled but became the make-up event for everyone that paid for the March 23rd track day. This was another low stress HPDE, put on again by the folks that own the Eagles Canyon Raceway track north of Dallas, with help from some local racers ("The Two Brians") to organize and promote the events. Amy entered and again drove in the Advanced group, but this time I popped in for one of her sessions, too.
We still had full depth brake pads, left over from the previous and much shortened March 23rd event. Since we didn't win any tires at the MSR 3.1 NASA TT event (not enough TT3 entrants on Day 2), we had to save the freshest Hoosier A6s, so we rummaged through the old junk tire pile and found 8 very abused Kumho V710s in my favorite 315/35/18 size. We picked the best 4 and I had Olof mount them "inside out", opposite of how they are marked (not directional but they do have inside and outside marked sidewalls). These tires were long past their prime but had some usable rubber left, if we ran the inside tread mounted out. How bad could it be, right? (hint hint...)
Once again I borrowed Ed's Duarmax diesel crew cab dually, but this time I sprung for a gooseneck hitch (installed by Kurt at Janco Fab, where I store the trailer) in his truck, so it could tow our enclosed race trailer. Ed was all for the idea, as now he can tow my gooseneck trailer with this truck for his own race car, from time to time (like April 28th, when we went drag racing with his car). Having the Mustang stuck on an open trailer in a hail storm two weeks earlier taught us to not skimp on the trailer, even with a borrowed truck - bringing the enclosed trailer brings shelter for the car and people, as well as a LOT more of our tools, gear, spares and food.
Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/ECR-040613/
Left: world famous top fuel drag racer Eddie Hill was racing in an Ariel Atom. Right: Mark Boothe in his Grand Sport C6, a NASA TT1 driver
So this day had a LOT better weather, with cool temps and sunny skies. Perfect "Spring in Texas" weather, without the hail storms. There were a lot more cars at this event, both from from the mulligan entries two weeks earlier as well as a few more entrants that heard about the now more regular "ECR run events", with The Two Brians in charge of running the day.
Amy was quick along with a handful of others in Red group this time, putting in some fast-ish ~2 minute flat laps on these godawful tires. She complained bitterly about the twitchiness of the car, wondering "What new parts are on it now?!" And while we rarely give here the same parts set-up twice (always trying new things!) the issues sounded like they were from the "flipped" Kumhos. Well I needed to see how bad they were, so I stole the keys and one of her track sessions...
My 1:58 lap was a handful with the tires flipped and HORRIFIC traffic
The video above shows a lot of bad habits in the first few laps, both from a "rolling roadblock" driver in front of a train of faster cars, and from some frustrated drivers held up behind him, myself included. This was in the Advanced group now, so supposedly not full of noobs. There was a GTR driver blocking a line of cars 9 deep for 3+ laps. Poor Eddie Hill was stuck behind him the longest, and I got held up in the train behind Eddie's Arial. Problem was neither the Atom nor our Mustang had enough extra power to pull by this modified GTR on the straights, but OMFG we were both held up badly in the corners. Guy was braking 300-500 feet early, coasting through the corners, then blasting out and blocking us on the straights. At this event we were supposed to wait for a point-by to pass, but this guy's arm was apparently broken, and his mirrors were blocked.
So after a lap and a half of of this nonsense I gave up - I only had one session to run the car that day and I really wanted to push for one lap - to try to see how much the tires were affecting the car's performance, if any. Eventually the guy nearly spun off track into Turn 4, where Eddie pointed me by, and into Turn 6 I passed him in his ridiculously early braking procedure. Apparently he had almost the entire Advanced group ready to kill him by day's end, so I wasn't alone. "Time for the Green group, pal"...
As I say many times in the video, the tires felt terrible beyond words. Flipping these Kumho's inside-out made for super twitchy car under braking, and mid-corner the car would swing wildly from under- to oversteer. So yea, don't ever flip a Kumho V710 inside-out! This isn't always the case on asymmetric marked tires, but Kumho MEANT it. Lesson learned - always try to learn something when we are at the track, even if it is a little thing about a certain tire brand's "mounting limitations".
Amy was back in the car for sessions 3 and 4 and having a good time. Her parents and her uncle arrived mid-day and were cheering here on and watching her drive on track. For the 4th session she asked and was allowed to take a passenger, her out-of-town uncle (above), who was all smiles in the right seat. She went out to take some ~8/10ths laps in the final Red session, and somewhere in Turn 2 on her first hot lap something broke...
Click for in-car video of the transmission going "BOOM!"
As you can hear in the video above, Amy knew something broke in the transmission and she even figured out that the other gears still worked and managed to get the car back around to the pits. Once she got back I took it for a quick spin around the paddock and realized that, yep, 3rd gear was GONE. All other gears worked and the transmission functioned silently, just minus one gear. Hmm....
It was the end of the day and we drove it into the trailer for a diagnosis back at Vorshlag. This ECR track day was still a lot of fun, with good cool weather and some quick-ish laps, other than the traffic in my session and the whole "trans go boom" issue.
See more below...
Last edited:
Continued from above...
Some Repair Work + Upgrades
So I'm not going to talk about the transmission repair, other than "the entire 3rd gear was blue" and it failed due to heat, not poor shifting or a bent shift fork, like I had assumed (many others have broken shift forks in these cars). It was fixed within 5 days, and I will leave it at that.
Now how it failed is still unusual. Amy and I are not ham-fisted, speed shifting Neanderthals... we both shift smoothly and quickly, but delicately. Three fingers to pull the shift ball back, a light palm to push upwards in the pattern, ala: the Bob Bonderaunt school/book/instruction. She and I both noted a little "snick" from the 2-3 upshift in a few early laps that day, but that was the only pre-failure warning; this and the wonky inside-out tire twitchiness were the only out of the ordinary things with the car at ECR that day. The trans fluid was at the proper level and is checked regularly, and is synthetic.
Again, we were told it was heat that fatigued the gear, and 3rd gear was a different shade than all of the rest - which were inspected and given a clean bill of health (Ford is awesome, by the way). We took 4 sessions in the car that day (and only completed 3 of them) and the ambient temps barely got to 70°F, but we think the damage was cumulative and from previous heavy heat days. We have used Redline synthetic fluids in this Getrag MT-82 from day one and it amassed 17,000 miles before 3rd let go. We had the OEM shifter and few issues shifting, unless the transmission was loaded up under power, when the body-mounted shifter was easy to mis-align with the transmission. No, we don't have pictures of the old parts, and I didn't see them. I won't and can't speak further on the transmission repair.
Red Mustang in for a check-up after TWS. Note the impact (tire klag? rock?) that the LF fog light grill took
Sure, we have put a lot of track and autocross miles on this car in the past 3 years and some sort of driveline failure was bound to happen, I guess. We still have a 100% stock engine, cooling system, and clutch. The rear axle has had heat issues already (melted axle seals, burned up stock differentials) as have the brakes (we've quit replacing the caliper dust shields, which I can melt and/or catch on fire in one session... sometimes in one lap). The Tremec TR-6060 has provisions for an internal pump and external cooler, which the World Challenge and other endurance racers utilize, and this is something we are exploring for the Getrag, to prevent this from happening again. We will have to use an external pump, though.
Joe D from Tremec is also working with us to get a Tremec T56 Magnum 6-spd swap kit together for 5.0L S197 Mustangs, which a lot of people would like to see. There have been a few swaps but this will be a more comprehensive swap, with a driveshaft, clutch/pp, and proper shifter. The TR-6060 is a body-mounted shifter but the T56 Magnum is a direct mounted shifter, so driveline-to-body movements won't cause a mis-alignment. We are doing the T56 swap on his 2013 Boss302 Leguna Seca very soon - I will show the swap in this thread once it is complete, of course.
Other things we noticed and worked on included the brakes. After this entire day of racing the new Carbotech XP22 pads looked brand new. Normally we can see a sizable amount of wear in one day of racing, and neither Amy nor I are "easy on brakes", but they still looked very good. And even after the next TWS event (which I'll talk about next) they still showed very little wear. Finally - a brake pad we cannot kill in 2 days! This 3800 pound car (ballasted up for TT3, w/ driver) normally chews through pads at a rapid clip, so this is good news.
So if you've read this thread from the beginning you know we've tried a number of rear Upper Control Arms (UCA) on the 2011 GT here and the last iteration (Spohn arm, UPS upper mount, with custom Vorshlag bushings and new, larger mounting bolt) worked out pretty well, but still had some noticeable clunking. When a friend PM'd me about a Boss 302-S UCA set-up for sale on a Boss302 forum, new in box, I jumped on it.
This set-up is made by MultiMatic out of Canada and costs over $700 USD. It is based on OEM upper mount and UCA assembly, strangely enough, but it is heavily modified. Gone is the rubber mount in the UCA itself, as it looks like the lop off the rubber bushing end and weld their custom machined spherical bearing holder end in place. The also reinforce the factory upper chassis mount and machine their own bushings to actually fit their own spherical and the bolt - wow, what a concept, right?! That's what we did with the Spohn arm and UPR mount piece, neither of which fit each other or the factory bolt. This is a very nicely made set-up and we put this in the car before the TWS event. We don't sell this set-up, and there's of course a few little things we'd change, but overall it is a great unit... for a race car. Most folks will see the $700 price tag and laugh. But if you saw the parts in person, felt the fit between the components compared to most of the stuff out there... you'd likely understand. Very, very nice parts.
Another nice set of parts made by another company is the Maximum Motorsports 4-point roll bar we ordered and received for the red car. Wow, this is a nicely made piece of kit! Sure, it is 1.75 x .134" wall DOM and not the normal .120" wall tubing you see in most road racing cages, but it is stout and put together with very fine tolerances. The MIG welding is great and the Laser cut, CNC bent, and welded lower platforms are amazingly well done. Just click on the images below, and look at the factory stamped steel bits they replace.
Ryan spent about 5 hours fitting, installing, and tack welding the bar in the car before it came out for final welding. The rear bars are shipped loose, with stubs welded in place for final fitting. This way the entire unit ships flat for big cost savings, and it likely makes for a much better, custom fit to the car this way. I think he said he had it in and out of the car 4 or 5 times but that is normal - patience is your friend, as you don't want to rush a roll bar or roll cage install if you want it to fit well and base safe, or scratch up interior bits. They include great instructions and a "fit-up bar" made of PVC for marking the side panels that have to be trimmed and a hole cut, to fit around the rear downbars.
Due to time conflicts with other customer work and an upcoming race we left the bar in raw steel and hooked up the harnesses and reinstalled the Cobra seats for the TWS event at NASA. This bar mounts right onto the back seat "shelf" so it is behind your head, for 100% safe use in street driving. Having steel tubing near your head (roll cage or a closely mounted B-pillar main hoop) is just asking for major head trauma in a street crash, sans racing helmet. But in the two pictures above (taken in the past 48 hours) you can see that we have since removed the bar, powder coated all 5 pieces (bar + 4 mounting plates) and weighed it all at 63 pounds (which is almost exactly what I predicted it would weigh, and nearly identical to the Kirk Racing 4-point bars we've installed in BMW E30. E36 and E46 cars). The gloss black powder coated roll bar is going back into the car as I write this, with the back seat, rear interior panels, and the Cobra seats are going back in.
Speaking of Cobra seats...
Continued below...
Some Repair Work + Upgrades
So I'm not going to talk about the transmission repair, other than "the entire 3rd gear was blue" and it failed due to heat, not poor shifting or a bent shift fork, like I had assumed (many others have broken shift forks in these cars). It was fixed within 5 days, and I will leave it at that.
Now how it failed is still unusual. Amy and I are not ham-fisted, speed shifting Neanderthals... we both shift smoothly and quickly, but delicately. Three fingers to pull the shift ball back, a light palm to push upwards in the pattern, ala: the Bob Bonderaunt school/book/instruction. She and I both noted a little "snick" from the 2-3 upshift in a few early laps that day, but that was the only pre-failure warning; this and the wonky inside-out tire twitchiness were the only out of the ordinary things with the car at ECR that day. The trans fluid was at the proper level and is checked regularly, and is synthetic.
Again, we were told it was heat that fatigued the gear, and 3rd gear was a different shade than all of the rest - which were inspected and given a clean bill of health (Ford is awesome, by the way). We took 4 sessions in the car that day (and only completed 3 of them) and the ambient temps barely got to 70°F, but we think the damage was cumulative and from previous heavy heat days. We have used Redline synthetic fluids in this Getrag MT-82 from day one and it amassed 17,000 miles before 3rd let go. We had the OEM shifter and few issues shifting, unless the transmission was loaded up under power, when the body-mounted shifter was easy to mis-align with the transmission. No, we don't have pictures of the old parts, and I didn't see them. I won't and can't speak further on the transmission repair.
Red Mustang in for a check-up after TWS. Note the impact (tire klag? rock?) that the LF fog light grill took
Sure, we have put a lot of track and autocross miles on this car in the past 3 years and some sort of driveline failure was bound to happen, I guess. We still have a 100% stock engine, cooling system, and clutch. The rear axle has had heat issues already (melted axle seals, burned up stock differentials) as have the brakes (we've quit replacing the caliper dust shields, which I can melt and/or catch on fire in one session... sometimes in one lap). The Tremec TR-6060 has provisions for an internal pump and external cooler, which the World Challenge and other endurance racers utilize, and this is something we are exploring for the Getrag, to prevent this from happening again. We will have to use an external pump, though.
Joe D from Tremec is also working with us to get a Tremec T56 Magnum 6-spd swap kit together for 5.0L S197 Mustangs, which a lot of people would like to see. There have been a few swaps but this will be a more comprehensive swap, with a driveshaft, clutch/pp, and proper shifter. The TR-6060 is a body-mounted shifter but the T56 Magnum is a direct mounted shifter, so driveline-to-body movements won't cause a mis-alignment. We are doing the T56 swap on his 2013 Boss302 Leguna Seca very soon - I will show the swap in this thread once it is complete, of course.
Other things we noticed and worked on included the brakes. After this entire day of racing the new Carbotech XP22 pads looked brand new. Normally we can see a sizable amount of wear in one day of racing, and neither Amy nor I are "easy on brakes", but they still looked very good. And even after the next TWS event (which I'll talk about next) they still showed very little wear. Finally - a brake pad we cannot kill in 2 days! This 3800 pound car (ballasted up for TT3, w/ driver) normally chews through pads at a rapid clip, so this is good news.
So if you've read this thread from the beginning you know we've tried a number of rear Upper Control Arms (UCA) on the 2011 GT here and the last iteration (Spohn arm, UPS upper mount, with custom Vorshlag bushings and new, larger mounting bolt) worked out pretty well, but still had some noticeable clunking. When a friend PM'd me about a Boss 302-S UCA set-up for sale on a Boss302 forum, new in box, I jumped on it.
This set-up is made by MultiMatic out of Canada and costs over $700 USD. It is based on OEM upper mount and UCA assembly, strangely enough, but it is heavily modified. Gone is the rubber mount in the UCA itself, as it looks like the lop off the rubber bushing end and weld their custom machined spherical bearing holder end in place. The also reinforce the factory upper chassis mount and machine their own bushings to actually fit their own spherical and the bolt - wow, what a concept, right?! That's what we did with the Spohn arm and UPR mount piece, neither of which fit each other or the factory bolt. This is a very nicely made set-up and we put this in the car before the TWS event. We don't sell this set-up, and there's of course a few little things we'd change, but overall it is a great unit... for a race car. Most folks will see the $700 price tag and laugh. But if you saw the parts in person, felt the fit between the components compared to most of the stuff out there... you'd likely understand. Very, very nice parts.
Another nice set of parts made by another company is the Maximum Motorsports 4-point roll bar we ordered and received for the red car. Wow, this is a nicely made piece of kit! Sure, it is 1.75 x .134" wall DOM and not the normal .120" wall tubing you see in most road racing cages, but it is stout and put together with very fine tolerances. The MIG welding is great and the Laser cut, CNC bent, and welded lower platforms are amazingly well done. Just click on the images below, and look at the factory stamped steel bits they replace.
Ryan spent about 5 hours fitting, installing, and tack welding the bar in the car before it came out for final welding. The rear bars are shipped loose, with stubs welded in place for final fitting. This way the entire unit ships flat for big cost savings, and it likely makes for a much better, custom fit to the car this way. I think he said he had it in and out of the car 4 or 5 times but that is normal - patience is your friend, as you don't want to rush a roll bar or roll cage install if you want it to fit well and base safe, or scratch up interior bits. They include great instructions and a "fit-up bar" made of PVC for marking the side panels that have to be trimmed and a hole cut, to fit around the rear downbars.
Due to time conflicts with other customer work and an upcoming race we left the bar in raw steel and hooked up the harnesses and reinstalled the Cobra seats for the TWS event at NASA. This bar mounts right onto the back seat "shelf" so it is behind your head, for 100% safe use in street driving. Having steel tubing near your head (roll cage or a closely mounted B-pillar main hoop) is just asking for major head trauma in a street crash, sans racing helmet. But in the two pictures above (taken in the past 48 hours) you can see that we have since removed the bar, powder coated all 5 pieces (bar + 4 mounting plates) and weighed it all at 63 pounds (which is almost exactly what I predicted it would weigh, and nearly identical to the Kirk Racing 4-point bars we've installed in BMW E30. E36 and E46 cars). The gloss black powder coated roll bar is going back into the car as I write this, with the back seat, rear interior panels, and the Cobra seats are going back in.
Speaking of Cobra seats...
Continued below...
continued from above...
Vorshlag now Authorized Cobra Stocking Dealer
We bit the bullet and made a big WD buy-in for Cobra seats. We have needed to become a dealer for this brand for years, as we have used their seats in too many of our own builds, not to mention installed customers' Cobra seats. That buy-in also gave us access to Puma, Aplinestars, OMP, Sparco, Momo, Schroth, Bell, Arai, Peltor, and much more. We're still sorting through this big shipment of Cobra Suzuka, Sebring, Evolution, and Imola seats and do have plenty of inventory.
Installation of Cobra Suzuka Pro GT Kevlar seats, custom sliders, Schroth harnesses, and Sharkworks harness bars into a C6 ZR1 at Vorshlag
Ryan is going to build some display stands for a few models of Cobra seats that we want to keep on hand, so pretty soon you will be able to stop by and test out various Cobra models in the Vorshlag lobby. We already have two different Cobra Suzuka sizes in the 2011 Mustang GT, which stays up at the shop now almost all of the time, too. Two more will go into the BMW E46 Alpha car, also kept here at Vorshlag. And we are making better chassis bracket solutions for several cars as well, and hopefully can make produciton runs of these soon. I have yet to see an Off The Shelf bracket solution that fits a given car without putting the seat into the roof. Look for more info about these various seating products on our website soon.
SCCA ProSolo at Mineral Wells, TX - April 13-14th
Now we didn't enter this event (the car was still being repaired, and it isn't legal for pretty much any SCCA Solo class), but Vorshlag sponsored the welcome party on Friday. We bought and cooked food for 150+ people, with Amy and me at the grill for about 3 hours. Glad we were there, as we got to talk to a lot of friends, fellow racers, and even chatted up some SEB members. Some encouraging hints at the changes to Stock/Street class for 2014-15 and beyond. Can't wait for the next FasTrack to be published...
Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro Suspension Kit
Word has gotten out about this strut/shock/spring/camber plate set-up we've put together for the S197, and tested for many months. We have been exploring and testing various Bilstein and Bilstein motorsports shocks since we became a dealer last June.
In late December we ordered and received a "Bilstein BTS" shock/spring kit, then tested the spring rates of the matched "BTS" springs these inverted Bilstein B6 non-adjustable monotubes. These struts and shocks have 36 mm pistons (huge compared to any twin tube), and as such, they react to damping forces at much lower shaft velocities. The nicest thing about the B6 strut is that it is shorter than stock, so it is made to work well at lower ride heights...
So after we received the kit we worked with a Vorshlag test pilot Tyler Rogers, and planned to put this set-up on this car in early January of this year. Since a handful of haters have said that the S197 Bilstein monotube rides poorly, I wanted to do some before and after testing with the "BTS" lowering spring. I made this lengthy before-after video (see below), and found the ride of the Bilsteins to not only be acceptable, but exceptionally good. And it was better than the stock noodle springs and $30 OEM struts could ever hope to provide.
Another interesting side effect of the inverted 40mm shaft Bilstein is that it is 2 pounds lighter than the OEM twin tube junk, per strut. So it is strong, will have less flex under load or at full extension, but you shed some pounds as well.
Once we had a handle on the various lowering spring rates and picked the Bilstein BTS springs for this car, we scheduled Tyler's 2012 Mustang GT Brembo car into the shop. We measured the OEM ride heights, camber, and I took the "before" test drive around our pre-set "test loop". Then we got it onto a lift and took off the OEM bits...
While the stock struts and shocks were off we measured the lengths relative to the Bilstein B6 bits, then rated this OEM springs. The new parts all went on and functioned perfectly. The quality of everything we've received from Bilstein has been second to none. The rear shocks came with new top mount bushings and the springs were made to go with the OEM top mounts.
Of course we cannot leave anything alone and instead of using the OEM or even a GT500 top mount we paired the front struts with the Vorshlag S197 camber plate and our OEM upper spring perch / sealed radial bearing solution.
We have since run these with various aftermarket lowering springs and they work very well, wihtout the bottoming you tend to see with stock length struts and shocks (OEM, some Koni, Tokico, etc). We now put the Bilstein shock/struts together, with your choice of 5 different lowering springs, and assemble it all with the Vorshlag camber plate and call it our "StreetPro" suspension kit.
The end result is a really nice suspension kit that is complete and READY TO INSTALL, right out of the box from Vorshlag. There is no need to borrow a spring compressor to remove your upper spring perch/top mount to reinstall on the new bits, as we include the Vorshlag camber plates and pre-install the springs you have chosen, and ship it all to you ready to go. This makes the install take 1/2 the time as most spring/shock installs. And at a hair under $1500 this is a track worthy, street friendly kit that works very well, has a "lifetime warranty" on the struts/shocks, you can alter the camber quickly track-side with the Vorshlag camber plates, and includes inverted monotube shocks with shortened strut/shock bodies, for more bump travel at lower ride heights. Good stuff.
Link to our Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro product page: http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info.php?cPath=141_142_179&products_id=559
Before and After ride heights on a 2012 Brembo GT, with OEM then Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro suspensions
This animated gif above shows the before and after ride heights with the BTS springs. The 5300-K and 5300-P springs are a tick lower. With the BTS springs the car was lowered by 15mm up front (close to 0.75" installed) and 38mm in back (close to 1.5" installed) for a level stance that dramatically improves the look of any S197. This set-up is popular because it offers good ground clearance and a favorable ride. The optional lowering spring kits shown below offer even more aggressive ride heights and spring rates. Tyler and his wife both love the look and ride with this spring and shock combo, and the quality at this pricepoint is impossible to beat.
And don't forget, Vorshlag sells the full range of Bilstein shock models. They make a lot of adjustable and non-adjustable monotubes for all sorts of sports cars, and we're adding them to our website as quickly as we can test, measure and photograph new sets we get in. The Bilstein PSS9 single adjustable, monotube, inverted struts shown above are for a GD Subaru STi, shown with Vorshlag camber plates.
Anyway, let's get to the next track event: TWS!
Continued below...
Vorshlag now Authorized Cobra Stocking Dealer
We bit the bullet and made a big WD buy-in for Cobra seats. We have needed to become a dealer for this brand for years, as we have used their seats in too many of our own builds, not to mention installed customers' Cobra seats. That buy-in also gave us access to Puma, Aplinestars, OMP, Sparco, Momo, Schroth, Bell, Arai, Peltor, and much more. We're still sorting through this big shipment of Cobra Suzuka, Sebring, Evolution, and Imola seats and do have plenty of inventory.
Installation of Cobra Suzuka Pro GT Kevlar seats, custom sliders, Schroth harnesses, and Sharkworks harness bars into a C6 ZR1 at Vorshlag
Ryan is going to build some display stands for a few models of Cobra seats that we want to keep on hand, so pretty soon you will be able to stop by and test out various Cobra models in the Vorshlag lobby. We already have two different Cobra Suzuka sizes in the 2011 Mustang GT, which stays up at the shop now almost all of the time, too. Two more will go into the BMW E46 Alpha car, also kept here at Vorshlag. And we are making better chassis bracket solutions for several cars as well, and hopefully can make produciton runs of these soon. I have yet to see an Off The Shelf bracket solution that fits a given car without putting the seat into the roof. Look for more info about these various seating products on our website soon.
SCCA ProSolo at Mineral Wells, TX - April 13-14th
Now we didn't enter this event (the car was still being repaired, and it isn't legal for pretty much any SCCA Solo class), but Vorshlag sponsored the welcome party on Friday. We bought and cooked food for 150+ people, with Amy and me at the grill for about 3 hours. Glad we were there, as we got to talk to a lot of friends, fellow racers, and even chatted up some SEB members. Some encouraging hints at the changes to Stock/Street class for 2014-15 and beyond. Can't wait for the next FasTrack to be published...
Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro Suspension Kit
Word has gotten out about this strut/shock/spring/camber plate set-up we've put together for the S197, and tested for many months. We have been exploring and testing various Bilstein and Bilstein motorsports shocks since we became a dealer last June.
In late December we ordered and received a "Bilstein BTS" shock/spring kit, then tested the spring rates of the matched "BTS" springs these inverted Bilstein B6 non-adjustable monotubes. These struts and shocks have 36 mm pistons (huge compared to any twin tube), and as such, they react to damping forces at much lower shaft velocities. The nicest thing about the B6 strut is that it is shorter than stock, so it is made to work well at lower ride heights...
So after we received the kit we worked with a Vorshlag test pilot Tyler Rogers, and planned to put this set-up on this car in early January of this year. Since a handful of haters have said that the S197 Bilstein monotube rides poorly, I wanted to do some before and after testing with the "BTS" lowering spring. I made this lengthy before-after video (see below), and found the ride of the Bilsteins to not only be acceptable, but exceptionally good. And it was better than the stock noodle springs and $30 OEM struts could ever hope to provide.
Another interesting side effect of the inverted 40mm shaft Bilstein is that it is 2 pounds lighter than the OEM twin tube junk, per strut. So it is strong, will have less flex under load or at full extension, but you shed some pounds as well.
Once we had a handle on the various lowering spring rates and picked the Bilstein BTS springs for this car, we scheduled Tyler's 2012 Mustang GT Brembo car into the shop. We measured the OEM ride heights, camber, and I took the "before" test drive around our pre-set "test loop". Then we got it onto a lift and took off the OEM bits...
While the stock struts and shocks were off we measured the lengths relative to the Bilstein B6 bits, then rated this OEM springs. The new parts all went on and functioned perfectly. The quality of everything we've received from Bilstein has been second to none. The rear shocks came with new top mount bushings and the springs were made to go with the OEM top mounts.
Of course we cannot leave anything alone and instead of using the OEM or even a GT500 top mount we paired the front struts with the Vorshlag S197 camber plate and our OEM upper spring perch / sealed radial bearing solution.
We have since run these with various aftermarket lowering springs and they work very well, wihtout the bottoming you tend to see with stock length struts and shocks (OEM, some Koni, Tokico, etc). We now put the Bilstein shock/struts together, with your choice of 5 different lowering springs, and assemble it all with the Vorshlag camber plate and call it our "StreetPro" suspension kit.
The end result is a really nice suspension kit that is complete and READY TO INSTALL, right out of the box from Vorshlag. There is no need to borrow a spring compressor to remove your upper spring perch/top mount to reinstall on the new bits, as we include the Vorshlag camber plates and pre-install the springs you have chosen, and ship it all to you ready to go. This makes the install take 1/2 the time as most spring/shock installs. And at a hair under $1500 this is a track worthy, street friendly kit that works very well, has a "lifetime warranty" on the struts/shocks, you can alter the camber quickly track-side with the Vorshlag camber plates, and includes inverted monotube shocks with shortened strut/shock bodies, for more bump travel at lower ride heights. Good stuff.
Link to our Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro product page: http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info.php?cPath=141_142_179&products_id=559
Before and After ride heights on a 2012 Brembo GT, with OEM then Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro suspensions
This animated gif above shows the before and after ride heights with the BTS springs. The 5300-K and 5300-P springs are a tick lower. With the BTS springs the car was lowered by 15mm up front (close to 0.75" installed) and 38mm in back (close to 1.5" installed) for a level stance that dramatically improves the look of any S197. This set-up is popular because it offers good ground clearance and a favorable ride. The optional lowering spring kits shown below offer even more aggressive ride heights and spring rates. Tyler and his wife both love the look and ride with this spring and shock combo, and the quality at this pricepoint is impossible to beat.
And don't forget, Vorshlag sells the full range of Bilstein shock models. They make a lot of adjustable and non-adjustable monotubes for all sorts of sports cars, and we're adding them to our website as quickly as we can test, measure and photograph new sets we get in. The Bilstein PSS9 single adjustable, monotube, inverted struts shown above are for a GD Subaru STi, shown with Vorshlag camber plates.
Anyway, let's get to the next track event: TWS!
Continued below...
Continued from above...
NASA at Texas World Speedway 2.9 mi CW - April 19-20th
I was admittedly nervous about running this April event with NASA. Even though I started doing track events at TWS back in the late 1980s, I couldn't remember running the 2.9 mile course "backwards" (clockwise) in the thousands of laps I have running this road course in various configurations and directions. When people ask I will say ECR is my home track, and I know it best, but TWS was my first track, and one I will likely have the most laps on for a good long time yet. I had some folks saying the terminal speeds off the main, banked straight and into the Turn 15 corner would be "well in excess of 150 mph", which is different from any other road course in Texas - all the rest of which involve fairly low peak speeds (>125 mph). ECR, MSR-C, MSR-H, GSS, HHR, TMS.... all of our other tracks are much slower than TWS, and the TWS 2.9 CW is the quickest of them all.
And all I needed to do was have a "4-off" into T15 at 160+ mph... where my room mate in college went off, flipped 4 times, and totaled his car. Of course this was unlikely, but who knows - all I'm saying was this CW 2.9 mile course was just a tick out of my comfort zone, mostly from lack of experience running it this way.
We loaded up on Friday, once again borrowing Ed's Duramax dually, then Amy and I bombed down to College Station, TX, leaving at about 7 pm and hitting massive Friday downtown Dallas traffic. We arrived about 11:30 and managed to stick the truck + enclosed trailer into the hotel parking lot (not always an easy job), got a few hours sleep, then towed out to TWS early Saturday morning, hoping to get a decent paddock spot. BZZZ! Wrong. The place was packed and we were stuck out in a grassy parking lot, well outside of the normal garage area. Oh well - gotta rent a garage or get their early to guarantee a good paddock spot.
No worries - we had the entire lot to ourselves and it proved to be a great spot to watch the racing (very near Turn 3), and the weather was so perfect we didn't even roll out the shade awning. We got the car ready for Time Trial and Amy and I helped fellow racer Joe D change over to some Vorshlag/D-Force 18x10" wheels and Continental slicks on his 2013 Boss302 Leguna Seca.
When we entered, I registered for Saturday only and Amy was signed up to drive Sunday, but we noticed that some of the eight TT3 cars didn't arrive on Saturday, so I paid the difference and signed up to run TT both days, so we could make sure we had at least 5 in class both days - in the hopes that somebody could win some tires (minimum 5 cars in class to pay out for Hoosier). I ran the first Saturday session with Amy riding along, since the times don't count on that session (but do count for gridding in TT session 2). I was pretty apprehensive and put in some 1:55 laps before Amy said "Enough!" and I came in after 4 laps. She is a terrible passenger... or I am a bad enough driver that she can't ride with me, one of the two. There was all sorts of mayhem in the first session, with a Mazda2 spinning in front of us going into Turn 15, a Porsche went off Turn 7 on the next lap, then another car was off, and by lap 4 a Corvette not only went off track but was on fire before Turn 4 (not much damage). Wow, what a mess. They called the session early and we all "had a talk" about driving wild in TT.
When I went out for TT session 2 I was gridded a bit better and got some quicker times, into the 1:51s with a best of a 1:51.749, which put me in front of TT3 by a good bit. See video below...
Click above to see in-car video from the TT3 winning/lap record setting 1:51.7 lap in session 2
Saturday TT Final Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/...WS_April_2013/April 20 TT Saturday Final.pdf
I went out again in session 3 but the temps were rising and I didn't get any quicker, with a 1:51.9. I didn't bother to go out in session 4, as the temps were on the rise and I didn't feel like there was much left in the car, at least with me driving it... a few tenths maybe? The Hoosier A6 tires always seem to put in their best laps on the FIRST hot lap, and work best in the FIRST sessions of the day (coolest temps), so I was on a steep learning curve - trying to learn this course and put in my best flier in my first lap of each day, heh.
It looks like TT3 ended up having 7 in class for Saturday with a C5 Z06 Corvette taking 2nd with a 1:54.057, with Jerry Khoury's ST2/TT2 Corvette somehow sneaking into TT3 for 3rd (he is going to get a new tune to become TT3 legal soon, but I didn't mind, as it gave us more TT3 entries) and a Super Touring Ferrari F355 Challenge car in 4th. Looking at the results I was very happy to be ahead of the class that day, with so little seat time on this "backwards" 2.9 mile configuration.
Continued below...
NASA at Texas World Speedway 2.9 mi CW - April 19-20th
I was admittedly nervous about running this April event with NASA. Even though I started doing track events at TWS back in the late 1980s, I couldn't remember running the 2.9 mile course "backwards" (clockwise) in the thousands of laps I have running this road course in various configurations and directions. When people ask I will say ECR is my home track, and I know it best, but TWS was my first track, and one I will likely have the most laps on for a good long time yet. I had some folks saying the terminal speeds off the main, banked straight and into the Turn 15 corner would be "well in excess of 150 mph", which is different from any other road course in Texas - all the rest of which involve fairly low peak speeds (>125 mph). ECR, MSR-C, MSR-H, GSS, HHR, TMS.... all of our other tracks are much slower than TWS, and the TWS 2.9 CW is the quickest of them all.
And all I needed to do was have a "4-off" into T15 at 160+ mph... where my room mate in college went off, flipped 4 times, and totaled his car. Of course this was unlikely, but who knows - all I'm saying was this CW 2.9 mile course was just a tick out of my comfort zone, mostly from lack of experience running it this way.
We loaded up on Friday, once again borrowing Ed's Duramax dually, then Amy and I bombed down to College Station, TX, leaving at about 7 pm and hitting massive Friday downtown Dallas traffic. We arrived about 11:30 and managed to stick the truck + enclosed trailer into the hotel parking lot (not always an easy job), got a few hours sleep, then towed out to TWS early Saturday morning, hoping to get a decent paddock spot. BZZZ! Wrong. The place was packed and we were stuck out in a grassy parking lot, well outside of the normal garage area. Oh well - gotta rent a garage or get their early to guarantee a good paddock spot.
No worries - we had the entire lot to ourselves and it proved to be a great spot to watch the racing (very near Turn 3), and the weather was so perfect we didn't even roll out the shade awning. We got the car ready for Time Trial and Amy and I helped fellow racer Joe D change over to some Vorshlag/D-Force 18x10" wheels and Continental slicks on his 2013 Boss302 Leguna Seca.
When we entered, I registered for Saturday only and Amy was signed up to drive Sunday, but we noticed that some of the eight TT3 cars didn't arrive on Saturday, so I paid the difference and signed up to run TT both days, so we could make sure we had at least 5 in class both days - in the hopes that somebody could win some tires (minimum 5 cars in class to pay out for Hoosier). I ran the first Saturday session with Amy riding along, since the times don't count on that session (but do count for gridding in TT session 2). I was pretty apprehensive and put in some 1:55 laps before Amy said "Enough!" and I came in after 4 laps. She is a terrible passenger... or I am a bad enough driver that she can't ride with me, one of the two.
There was all sorts of mayhem in the first session, with a Mazda2 spinning in front of us going into Turn 15, a Porsche went off Turn 7 on the next lap, then another car was off, and by lap 4 a Corvette not only went off track but was on fire before Turn 4 (not much damage). Wow, what a mess. They called the session early and we all "had a talk" about driving wild in TT. 
When I went out for TT session 2 I was gridded a bit better and got some quicker times, into the 1:51s with a best of a 1:51.749, which put me in front of TT3 by a good bit. See video below...
Click above to see in-car video from the TT3 winning/lap record setting 1:51.7 lap in session 2
Saturday TT Final Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/...WS_April_2013/April 20 TT Saturday Final.pdf
I went out again in session 3 but the temps were rising and I didn't get any quicker, with a 1:51.9. I didn't bother to go out in session 4, as the temps were on the rise and I didn't feel like there was much left in the car, at least with me driving it... a few tenths maybe? The Hoosier A6 tires always seem to put in their best laps on the FIRST hot lap, and work best in the FIRST sessions of the day (coolest temps), so I was on a steep learning curve - trying to learn this course and put in my best flier in my first lap of each day, heh.
It looks like TT3 ended up having 7 in class for Saturday with a C5 Z06 Corvette taking 2nd with a 1:54.057, with Jerry Khoury's ST2/TT2 Corvette somehow sneaking into TT3 for 3rd (he is going to get a new tune to become TT3 legal soon, but I didn't mind, as it gave us more TT3 entries) and a Super Touring Ferrari F355 Challenge car in 4th. Looking at the results I was very happy to be ahead of the class that day, with so little seat time on this "backwards" 2.9 mile configuration.
Continued below...
Continued from above...
Eventually the memory of this course came back to me during my first session Saturday, from when I ran it this way sometime back in the 1990s, but the speeds on the main straight "never got dull". The factory speedometer in the car was buried (at 160 mph) at the start/finish, hundreds of yards before I braked into T15. I calculated that I was really only doing 165mph into T15, but then I really had to ABUSE the brakes to haul it down for T14, where I got on the gas again, then braked again for T13.
My 2nd laps in each session were always hairier than the first, as the tires would get hot and the car would get LOOSE. Coming through Turn 2 at 100+, often about 10-15° sideways, was a bit unnerving. I left the rear wing at almost full AoA to keep it planted in the T2 to T1 complex, to get as much speed up for the front straight. Aero is your friend when you have more power than you have tire. I've got to get this car off of these little 315s! If she'd just let us cut and flare the car for 335s we could run less wing...
Sunday was supposed to be Amy's TT day for all 4 sessions, but we had a lighter attendance than we thought... and since I was able to pull out the win Saturday I went ahead and signed up for Sunday, and agreed with Amy to only take one TT session, the second. Sharing a car sucks. So she went out in TT session 1, but felt she wasn't getting enough seat time so she went out again with HPDE3, after her first TT session. I rode with her, trying to get her to learn the course and push the braking and acceleration zones, which were holding back her times all day.
NASA @ TWS Photo & Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/NASA-at-TWS-April-20-21-2013/
Anyway, since I was the quickest car to show up for grid on Sunday 's session 2 grid, I lined up P1, which makes for a nice, traffic-free session - well, for at least 2 laps, until you catch the back of the field.
Luckily I was able to find a tiny bit more time and my first lap 1:51.530 time was a new lap record and took the lead in TT3. But not by much! Jerry Khory slapped on a new set of Pirelli slicks and dropped FOUR seconds, nipping at my heels by less than a tenth of a second. GAH! I didn't see that coming. Now his ST2/TT2 car running in TT3 gave me a bit more reason to be concerned, but Jerry was cool and agreed to be re-classed if he beat me in a later session. In the end I held onto the TT3 win by .071 sec and scored another lap record and 2 more Hoosier tires; 4 tires for the weekend. That was a smidge quicker than the newly set AI qualifying (1:52.9) and race lap records (1:53.8), set by Mike Patterson on the way to four wins in American Iron over the weekend, in his AST equipped 4th gen LS1. So that's 3 lap records for TT3 at the 3 NASA Texas events so far this year.
Amy was struggling a bit but managed to get down to a 1:59.721 in her last session, just eeking under the 2 minute mark. The high speeds were a bit more intimidating to her, but with more seat time I'm sure she'd find the time that was in the car.
Sunday TT Final Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/...s/TWS_April_2013/April 21 TT Sunday Final.pdf
There was a heated battle in TTB among several Vorshlag/AST equipped E46 M3s, with Allen Page taking the win. And KenO got his car's right side damage all fixed up, from the TT incident at MSR-C. Sadly there was another TT incident this event, and more meetings other changes in TT will follow.
The red E36 above has a PlastiDip spray paint job, which was interesting to talk about, too. And while I didn't instruct at this event I was definitely busy, working on a number of people's cars who had issues, including the OEM splitter that decided to come off at 145mph on a Leguna Seca, another stranded car we helped get towed and repaired in town, wheel changes, and other various "hey, come take a look at this" requests. But it is all good, as this is why we come to these events - to meet folks and try to help out. And sometimes, just maybe, win a set of tires.
We didn't leave the TWS site until 7 pm Sunday, and ate dinner with Costas and several other friends in town, so we got home about 2 am. Long day, long weekend, but Vorshlag was slammed on Monday and I had to hit the ground running. Because the shop was packed, orders overflowing, and in less than 2 weeks we had another NASA event to prep for...
Drag Racing at North Star Dragway, April 28, 2013
Just to show how little time off we actually get from racing, this last Sunday I went drag racing with my friend Ed - who has helped us at countless events over the past few years. It was my pleasure to go help him at the track for a change! Amy, Ed and I towed out to this 1/8th mile strip in Denton, TX and spent the day sorting out his 4th gen LT1 powered, 275mm Drag Radial Firebird.
This was the first time he had this car out in 4.5 years, and a lot of the recent work on the rear suspension and exhaust has been done at Vorshlag. Used to run 5.30s in the 1/8th, so it isn't slow.
Anyway, had a good time and I learned a lot about the "Texas 275" and "Extreme 275" classes of drag racing. Good stuff.
What's Next?
As I write this we are thrashing to load up and head out to New Orleans for the NASA @ NOLA, May 4-5th. The newly won set of Hoosier A6 tires just arrived, as did our new tire machine, new Vorshlag jackets (just in time for a cold snap today) and new Vorshlag embroidered track chairs. We signed up for the Friday test-n-tune day to try to learn this new track, which I took all of 4 laps on in January when I was there for the BFG Rival test event. Amy and I are both driving again and we hope to continue the TT3 streak... fingers crossed!
My new F-350 Ford Powerstroke dually finally arrived and we hooked up the enclosed trailer yesterday at Janco, tweaking the heights and getting it all set-up right. It tows SO WELL I cannot believe it took me this long to buy a dually. And for once we are racing the Mustang with almost no changes - 2 events the same in a row. Granted, we only had 2 weeks between events, but still... doesn't happen often.
And we also got some good quotes and pictures of the red Mustang in the latest issue of NASA SPEED NEWS in an aero article written by ThinkFAST author (great racing book!) and aero guru Neil Roberts. The article is linked here and the entire May issue is here.
We have lots of shocks and springs in stock at the moment for the S197 Mustang. The Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro kits are here along with a number of M-5300 lowering spring options. The AST 4150s are in stock and shipping out for this chassis as well as BMW E36 and Subaru GD STi 4150 models. And we have even more new products coming, as we are working furiously to catch up with this new level of parts demand from Vorshlag. If you have a back-ordered camber plate - thank you for your patience, as we now have every camber plate car model shipping except one, which is due next week. We are also making production batches of both E36 and E46 BMW LS1 kits, with headers and mounts coming together quickly.
Check back in a "week or two" for my write-up after NOLA, and for some other exciting S197 suspension development news.
Cheers!
Eventually the memory of this course came back to me during my first session Saturday, from when I ran it this way sometime back in the 1990s, but the speeds on the main straight "never got dull". The factory speedometer in the car was buried (at 160 mph) at the start/finish, hundreds of yards before I braked into T15. I calculated that I was really only doing 165mph into T15, but then I really had to ABUSE the brakes to haul it down for T14, where I got on the gas again, then braked again for T13.
My 2nd laps in each session were always hairier than the first, as the tires would get hot and the car would get LOOSE. Coming through Turn 2 at 100+, often about 10-15° sideways, was a bit unnerving. I left the rear wing at almost full AoA to keep it planted in the T2 to T1 complex, to get as much speed up for the front straight. Aero is your friend when you have more power than you have tire. I've got to get this car off of these little 315s! If she'd just let us cut and flare the car for 335s we could run less wing...
Sunday was supposed to be Amy's TT day for all 4 sessions, but we had a lighter attendance than we thought... and since I was able to pull out the win Saturday I went ahead and signed up for Sunday, and agreed with Amy to only take one TT session, the second. Sharing a car sucks. So she went out in TT session 1, but felt she wasn't getting enough seat time so she went out again with HPDE3, after her first TT session. I rode with her, trying to get her to learn the course and push the braking and acceleration zones, which were holding back her times all day.
NASA @ TWS Photo & Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/NASA-at-TWS-April-20-21-2013/
Anyway, since I was the quickest car to show up for grid on Sunday 's session 2 grid, I lined up P1, which makes for a nice, traffic-free session - well, for at least 2 laps, until you catch the back of the field.
Luckily I was able to find a tiny bit more time and my first lap 1:51.530 time was a new lap record and took the lead in TT3. But not by much! Jerry Khory slapped on a new set of Pirelli slicks and dropped FOUR seconds, nipping at my heels by less than a tenth of a second. GAH! I didn't see that coming. Now his ST2/TT2 car running in TT3 gave me a bit more reason to be concerned, but Jerry was cool and agreed to be re-classed if he beat me in a later session. In the end I held onto the TT3 win by .071 sec and scored another lap record and 2 more Hoosier tires; 4 tires for the weekend. That was a smidge quicker than the newly set AI qualifying (1:52.9) and race lap records (1:53.8), set by Mike Patterson on the way to four wins in American Iron over the weekend, in his AST equipped 4th gen LS1. So that's 3 lap records for TT3 at the 3 NASA Texas events so far this year.
Amy was struggling a bit but managed to get down to a 1:59.721 in her last session, just eeking under the 2 minute mark. The high speeds were a bit more intimidating to her, but with more seat time I'm sure she'd find the time that was in the car.
Sunday TT Final Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/...s/TWS_April_2013/April 21 TT Sunday Final.pdf
There was a heated battle in TTB among several Vorshlag/AST equipped E46 M3s, with Allen Page taking the win. And KenO got his car's right side damage all fixed up, from the TT incident at MSR-C. Sadly there was another TT incident this event, and more meetings other changes in TT will follow.
The red E36 above has a PlastiDip spray paint job, which was interesting to talk about, too. And while I didn't instruct at this event I was definitely busy, working on a number of people's cars who had issues, including the OEM splitter that decided to come off at 145mph on a Leguna Seca, another stranded car we helped get towed and repaired in town, wheel changes, and other various "hey, come take a look at this" requests. But it is all good, as this is why we come to these events - to meet folks and try to help out. And sometimes, just maybe, win a set of tires.
We didn't leave the TWS site until 7 pm Sunday, and ate dinner with Costas and several other friends in town, so we got home about 2 am. Long day, long weekend, but Vorshlag was slammed on Monday and I had to hit the ground running. Because the shop was packed, orders overflowing, and in less than 2 weeks we had another NASA event to prep for...
Drag Racing at North Star Dragway, April 28, 2013
Just to show how little time off we actually get from racing, this last Sunday I went drag racing with my friend Ed - who has helped us at countless events over the past few years. It was my pleasure to go help him at the track for a change! Amy, Ed and I towed out to this 1/8th mile strip in Denton, TX and spent the day sorting out his 4th gen LT1 powered, 275mm Drag Radial Firebird.
This was the first time he had this car out in 4.5 years, and a lot of the recent work on the rear suspension and exhaust has been done at Vorshlag. Used to run 5.30s in the 1/8th, so it isn't slow.
Anyway, had a good time and I learned a lot about the "Texas 275" and "Extreme 275" classes of drag racing. Good stuff.
What's Next?
As I write this we are thrashing to load up and head out to New Orleans for the NASA @ NOLA, May 4-5th. The newly won set of Hoosier A6 tires just arrived, as did our new tire machine, new Vorshlag jackets (just in time for a cold snap today) and new Vorshlag embroidered track chairs. We signed up for the Friday test-n-tune day to try to learn this new track, which I took all of 4 laps on in January when I was there for the BFG Rival test event. Amy and I are both driving again and we hope to continue the TT3 streak... fingers crossed!
My new F-350 Ford Powerstroke dually finally arrived and we hooked up the enclosed trailer yesterday at Janco, tweaking the heights and getting it all set-up right. It tows SO WELL I cannot believe it took me this long to buy a dually. And for once we are racing the Mustang with almost no changes - 2 events the same in a row. Granted, we only had 2 weeks between events, but still... doesn't happen often.
And we also got some good quotes and pictures of the red Mustang in the latest issue of NASA SPEED NEWS in an aero article written by ThinkFAST author (great racing book!) and aero guru Neil Roberts. The article is linked here and the entire May issue is here.
We have lots of shocks and springs in stock at the moment for the S197 Mustang. The Vorshlag/Bilstein StreetPro kits are here along with a number of M-5300 lowering spring options. The AST 4150s are in stock and shipping out for this chassis as well as BMW E36 and Subaru GD STi 4150 models. And we have even more new products coming, as we are working furiously to catch up with this new level of parts demand from Vorshlag. If you have a back-ordered camber plate - thank you for your patience, as we now have every camber plate car model shipping except one, which is due next week. We are also making production batches of both E36 and E46 BMW LS1 kits, with headers and mounts coming together quickly.
Check back in a "week or two" for my write-up after NOLA, and for some other exciting S197 suspension development news.
Cheers!
Roadracer350
forum member
Awsome write up!!!
Napoleon85
forum member
Awesome write up as always.
I know this is a bit off-topic ... but I swear you said someone was running a Mazda2 in TT. I have one of those for a daily driver, but can't imagine taking it to the track. It's SO SLOW (but it is fun to drive).
I know this is a bit off-topic ... but I swear you said someone was running a Mazda2 in TT. I have one of those for a daily driver, but can't imagine taking it to the track. It's SO SLOW (but it is fun to drive).
Roadracer350
forum member
Terry do you guys still have any decent used 295s or 305s left?
Oh yes - it is painfully slow! Rolling road block, heh. Almost as slow as the rental Fiat 500 that ran in TT3 (!?), but when your main car is broken and you need season points sometimes "you do what you gotta do"
Hmm... Not anything in those sizes. 305 race tire options are scarce to nonexistent, 295 has a couple more options but still not über popular, in 18" sizes. You can easily find scrubs in 275/35/18 (Continental Grand Am take offs), and then there are much faster slicks from Pirelli in slightly larger sizes, I believe. The main problem on the S197 is finding used race tires with the right height... 26-27" tall, with 27" diameters being the better size.
Ever since leaving 265mm street tire restrictions in late 2011 we have been using 315-345mm R compound DOT race tires almost exclusively, with our current Hoosiers being 315/30/18 and Kumho V710s in a more favorable height of 315/35/18. Those need 11" wide wheels or more but some folks will squeeze them on an 18x10.5" wheel. Most of what I have left over are used up or damn near, heh. I've got a fresh set of stickers in the trailer for Saturday tho... Will mount them at NOLA Friday night.
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