Accepted into the 2012 Ultimate Track Car Challenge!!!

[TSiAWD666]

Thanks for the advice!

Had the first shakedown this weekend at VIR with the SVT Cobra Club. Holy mother of god, Andrew Brilliant's aero WORKS. Really really really really awesome stuff!!! I had the car de-tuned to maybe 330 whp, maybe even less, rarely WOT, really late throttle out of turns, and really early braking, and the car still could pull an easy 2:20 lap on VIR Full. I think if I can link a lap together it could pull a 2:10 right now on the street tires. Now that's not entirely impressive I know but I can tell there's a lot left in the car. Still needs some parts to really make some exciting laps (like a bigger turbo system, stiffer springs, cage) but so far so good.

If anyone's bored you can watch a lap in the car here. It really is not a good video for learning a proper line around VIR (I drove a better line in my EVO five years ago!) and certainly isn't a showcase for the car for the reasons I mention above, but it's fun. Btw, when you watch it if the dash is undulating that's because I was trying Youtube's de-shakifying effect and that really doesn't work. It's in the process of removing that but I don't know how long that process takes.

SVT Superfest May 25-27 2012 - Eclipse GSX - YouTube


I have another practice session with Trackdaze next weekend, and then will be at Hyperfest for more seat time and a tt license check with Felton. Still got a lot to do though with the car as I uncovered lots of issues at the track, but they're getting knocked out as I type this. I'll have to start a build/blog thread to cover this stuff if anyone cares. Definitely a lot of useful info for the road racers that I need to share.

If you work in Reston or are there at times we should definitely have lunch some time! I'll pm ya. I was at the town center that day as I had a haircut appointment, and it was such a nice day I felt like taking the Eclipse. The roads to the town center from my house are pothole/dip free so it's pretty safe for the car, as long as I park in one of the town center's outside lots that don't have speed bumps

 

[gprix1]

I wonder if FP could help you out with a turbo upgrade if you had their name on the side of your car for the competition? I'm thinking big orange letters in a downward angle. That would be some good advertising for them for sure.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Yeah I've already arranged all this with Felton. Since I hadn't been on track in a while despite my advanced hpde experience he wanted me to hit VIR Full a few times prior to the event. That's why I hit this one as soon as the car was together, and am doing the Trackdaze event only two weeks later. Though it wouldn't hurt for me to touch base with him and make sure he hasn't forgotten

Regarding Forced Performance, I actually did reach out to them in the last couple weeks. They got back to me yesterday, saying they would not support me at this time as I don't have enough (well, any) racing experience and no wins to speak of. The advertising potential must not be there relative to their other sponsorship opportunities. I guess they expect me to do this on my own and then reach out to them, which is funny because once I have bought and paid for a turbo system that works, and found my way to victory on my own, I'm not sure why I would reach out to them and give them free advertising, especially in light of their lack of support at this stage. I need their help to get there. Shrug. Regardless, I understand they must make money and I have to prove to be a good investment and they just don't trust in the potential yet. Perhaps I'll re-visit them when I have more to justify their support. Turbos can break so maybe I'll think differently down the line.

In light of their response I may move away from Forced Performance turbos as many other brands have some exciting options. Borg Warner EFR turbos are currently near the top of my list.

 

[Scott McIntyre]

I'll have to start a build/blog thread to cover this stuff if anyone cares. Definitely a lot of useful info for the road racers that I need to share.

Please do!

 

[arrowhead]

That is the way it works with sponsors, they will totally ignore you until they can see some positive results, do the best you can with what you have and go after smaller or friendlier places, but dont give up looking for them and some will come around, build a portfolio of your car with pictures not so much of the car but with good crowd around it, and detail the info as much as possible.

good luck.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Please do!

Haha c'mon you of all people probably know anything/everything I might share by now

 

[snowborder714]

I hope you have a cool suit setup for yourself. Last year it was 104 degrees ambient, 140 degrees measured off the pavement, literally melted some grid-workers shoes. Hopefully itll be nicer this year.

Out of curiosity (since I've never actually looked into this), what type of setup would you recommend?

I am also local to Reston, VA

All 3 of us need to get together sometime then! I'm working down here for a while and have met up with John a few times to chat. It's been a while since I met you and may be a while longer until I can get the car back out on the track.

I'll have to start a build/blog thread to cover this stuff if anyone cares. Definitely a lot of useful info for the road racers that I need to share.

Yes!

That is the way it works with sponsors, they will totally ignore you until they can see some positive results, do the best you can with what you have and go after smaller or friendlier places, but dont give up looking for them and some will come around, build a portfolio of your car with pictures not so much of the car but with good crowd around it, and detail the info as much as possible.

good luck.

Exactly. It's sad how the process works.

 

[Alex7747]

Please do!

x2!!

 

[TSiAWD666]

I'll have to keep trying with the sponsors.

I should have mentioned I did secure a Meguiar's sponsorship last week. They sent me a ton of their products! Very cool as I love their stuff and use it exclusively to wax my black cars. I now have so much Quik Detailer that I don't know what to do with it I guess I will have to keep the car clean while I wear their stickers

I also just got a small sponsorship with Carbotech Brakes! They're sending me some pads to cover the events leading to the UTCC and the UTCC itself, and will give me a discount on future orders which may be improved if I can start showing some success. Very cool!

 

[gprix1]

I understand the "normal" process of sponsorship but this is not your typical situation. This is garanteed media coverage for them since your car will be in a magazine viewed by their target audience. FP isn't the only turbo vendor out there. I'd bet some of our other vendors like MAP might be interested in having there name and website on your car for this.

 

[greengoblin]

Building relationships, showing results, working hard, luck and just being out there are all needed to bring in sponsorships. They don't want to send you a nice turbo, tranny, engine, uber dinger ETC. Only to have you do one event or worse yet a test run go wrong and then part out all their free or discounted stuff. It happens all the time and I'm sure it gets old for them.

I'm just a guy who builds stuff in his garage and I have seen this happen with people I know who I given discounts too. "Hey give me a good price and I'll give you feedback" (good or bad) or maybe I just want a good photo of the part on a car. Months go by and nothing. It suck.

John you have picked up people already then you are doing well. Just keep at it.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Which reminds me, your fender braces seem to be kicking ass. The front end feels a lot more firm mid-corner than it ever did before. It's all subjective and not back to back in any way, but hey, I'm pretty happy with my braces, so thanks a ton man!

 

[greengoblin]

Which reminds me, your fender braces seem to be kicking ass. The front end feels a lot more firm mid-corner than it ever did before. It's all subjective and not back to back in any way, but hey, I'm pretty happy with my braces, so thanks a ton man!

I hope you know that my comment was not in anyway directed at you. It was merely to point out what vendors go through and why they can seem standoffish or unhelpful. When people get turned down they get so upset. I think instead the best method of attack is thanks the vendor or person for taking the time to replying back . Then either do what they asked you to do and then ask again or look else where. Or do both!


Kevin

 

[Chrispy0530]

...Subscribed. Really looking forward to this! Good luck man!

 

[Diamond Star Werks]

Subscribed!! Watching this as I hope to be it there with you in time! Start a build thread! Wanna know as much as possible.

 

[importracr317]

I hope you know that my comment was not in anyway directed at you. It was merely to point out what vendors go through and why they can seem standoffish or unhelpful. When people get turned down they get so upset. I think instead the best method of attack is thanks the vendor or person for taking the time to replying back . Then either do what they asked you to do and then ask again or look else where. Or do both!


Kevin

This...there are very few business minded automotive enthusiasts out there and given the demographic patroning this platform, I completely understand companies simply telling people looking for sponsorships "no".

TSiAWD - as mentioned, if you have Mequires and Carbotech already, you're doing fine. Your car looks the part and should perform just as well. Now it's about track time, being professional and doing what you can to promote your sponsors. Do that and you should continue to gather interest.

As far as racing suits go...give Simpson a call maybe? It's a hard decision - the fire proof stuff doesn't breathe well and the perforated stuff isn't fire proof. Hope it's not to terribly hot the day of the event.

My only advice is to regurgitate what's already been said - make sure your car is dialed in well in advance. You don't want to be scrambling the night before.

Best of luck with the event.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Thanks very much to everyone for the advice, insight, interest and well wishes! I very much appreciate it!

I'll just have to keep trying with sponsors. I figured the guaranteed magazine coverage would garner some support from the few I've contacted but I don't know their side of the business. Many in conversation have said they just don't ever see the returns even from magazine coverage. Ah well, hopefully at some point I'll be able to help them justify helping me

 

[D_Eclipse9916]

As far as coolsuit, I actually built one of my own, but I would suggest contacting OG Racing there in Sterling, VA for options.

ORrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr if you are a racer on a budget like I am, I bought a DonJoy Ice Pak system from ebay for $30, bought a "coolshirt" for $100, and it all clicks together, for literally half/third the price of an "official" coolsuit system.

I would be up for meeting for lunch, and if you want to stop by and take a look at my coolshirt setup, you are more than welcome. If you will be at hyperfest, come on by for some beers/water/food. Ill be paddocked next to the classroom with my car.

For Time Trials, you are not required to have a real race suit, but with the speeds youll be attaining, in a heavily modified vehicle, I would have one. Then again, I would also have a full cage, halo seat, and window nets, and trust me its not fun smacking into a wall at high speeds. And just like motorcycles, its not "if" its "when" you hit a wall if you are pushing it properly; otherwise you are always going to be a backmarker, and probably hit the wall anyway.

 

[canada4g63]

Your car is sick! hope you kick some ass when your out there.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Here's a video of my fastest lap from last weekend. A 2:15 flat on VIR Full. Ho nestly though probably a pretty boring watch for everyone as it's not markedly different from the prior video

Trackdaze VIR Full June 9-10 2012 - Eclipse GSX - YouTube

Only real change between this event and last was that I had a 3G master cylinder put in, which helped my brake pressure a lot. I don't think it improved my times at all as I still had full brake pressure before, I just had to go deep in the pedal for it which really just made me feel uneasy. A bit of mental comfort behind the seat while on track goes a long way so I'm still quite happy I made the upgrade. Oh, I'm a little down on power relative to last event due to a wastegate or boost controller issue, but only by like 1-2 psi so maybe 10-20 hp.

For comparison I found a Porsche Cayman R doing laps at around 2:18, and a Porsche GT3 doing something similar, but at the moment I don't know what tires they were on. So at least I know I'm in the right ballpark for now. With the car probably only at the 360-370hp at the engine (so says my buttometer) I'm ok with beating those cars

I can see definite room for improvement in my braking zones (being more firm in them, plus braking later to compress a few sections from two to one zone), and I'm very slow between changing throttle/brake inputs so that should gain me a little too. I'm also still a chicken shit coming down the roller coaster (the long series of downhill turns towards the end) and I think I could save more time by enter hogpen (the bottom of that section just before the front straight) a little hotter. I think I have a lot more grip thanks to the aero than I am ready to trust. I think with cleaner driving in this setup the car could do a 2:13. With the horsepower turned up to my current max... maybe a 2:11? With r-compounds... who knows maybe a 2:07. If I had the horsepower I ultimately want for track events plus the r-compounds... I think something close to the 2 minute mark is do-able. Might need lots of weight reduction for that though, who knows. Time will tell

Anyway I go to Summit Point Raceway next week for Hyperfest. I'll be testing for my TT license. I won't change anything in the setup much except adding a bit more camber to the front as my mechanical front grip is still quite lacking in lower speed corners. High speed is still quite amazing (thank you Andrew Brilliant!). After this the car will get a number of upgrades prior to the UTCC like the new diffs, the new transmission (which will let me safely boost my power back to max), and perhaps a few other small things depending on money/sponsors. I'm asking the UTCC folks if there will be street tire classes as I only currently have street tires, and me trying now to switch to r-compounds could completely throw the car off and I would rather not do that before the event.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Carbotech pads arrived! Sponsors are awesome Xp20 pads for the front and a set of xp10 for the rear (though I already have the xp10 on the rear now). Going to try them out this weekend. I don't think I can get my 2-piece rotors turned anywhere so I had to pick up a small sander to manually take of the Pagid Orange pad material they have right now. Will not enjoy that process I'm sure but I gotta do it so I can get some track time on the xp20s this weekend (I've only ever used the xp16 pads and it was on my Evo, not the Eclipse). Looking forward to better braking since the 285 tires are not letting me lock up the brakes.

Also, Sparktech is going to offer me a sponsorship as well! They'll be setting me up with a more durable and stronger ignition system that I won't necessarily need right now, but will when I move to a larger turbo setup. Craig@Sparktech is working out the details and will be sending me them soon.

 

[Scott McIntyre]

Nice! I run XP16/XP12 on a TCE big brake kit and love them. Much better than the Wilwood pads I started out with.

For the street / autox I run AX6.

 

[Bo0sTdTsI]

Wow congrats on the sponsors man nice vids to me. Keep it up i bet youll surprise yourself.

 

[99OZDSM]

Subscribed. Good luck man, tear em up! I'm sure you will definitely surprise a bunch of people.

 

[RipperXX]

All I have to say is HELL YES! Looks like you got a killer car that's well prepared. Do us proud!