One Week until the 2013 Ultimate Track Car Challenge!

[Phil1320]

Good luck!

Car is wild

 

[lowell]

Updates?

 

[TSiAWD666]

I'm waiting on some pictures from various folks before posting anything.

 

[taz4432]

Been following you since day 1 of this build - love this car! Hoping you did well.

On a different note, Lowell and TSiAWD666, can you guys elaborate on your coolant swirl pot/pressure tank setup? Perhaps a schematic showing what hooks up to what?

 

[TSiAWD666]

Here's a post from another thread showing how my system's hooked up:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/roa...eddy-coolant-breather-tank.html#post152550092

If you have questions about go ahead and ask them in that thread.

 

[taz4432]

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. Not sure why I couldn't find it before...

 

[Black95TSIawd]

update? pics?

 

[TSiAWD666]

I'm still waiting on pics! sorry it's taking so long... I figure the write-up will be boring unless I have some pics to go with it.

 

[Atuca]

Looking forward to it John!

 

[Ludachris]

I'm still waiting on pics! sorry it's taking so long... I figure the write-up will be boring unless I have some pics to go with it.

Waiting!!!!

I need to quit focusing so much on "my discussions" and go back to browsing the forums randomly like I used to.

 

[Black95TSIawd]

Waiting!!!!

Ditto.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Again, sorry for the delays. I was waiting on pictures because I barely had time to take any, and then I was just kind of exhausted thinking about that weekend and kept putting off writing it up. A lot happened and it was actually tough to remember it all This took me over three hours to write, not including the brain storming I did before to try to remember all that had happened (and I'm sure I left some stuff out).

Not sure the best way to write this up, either as a story or a quick summary. If you just want results from the weekend, skip to the end. I'll go with the long story first...

To summarize last year, I was running 285 street tires (Nitto NT05), maybe 24psi on my tiny 50-trim translating to probably 400whp tops. First timed session the crank position sensor died. Spent all afternoon ripping one off a donor Eclipse to swap with my failed one (found the trigger plate was warped possibly during install, so bent it back into shape) and got out for the last session of the day. Ran a 2:11.4, my fastest, but pretty much the middle of the pack. I still got in the magazine unlike most of the cars

Over the year I made a few changes to hopefully better the car. I got a Venom intake manifold (which was a bi*** to find, but according to Andrew Brilliant was the best road course IM he ever tested), moved up to 315 Nitto NT01s (R-compound tires), got some experimental brake pads from Carbotech (because I'd asked for even MOAR stopping power), swapped my steering rack that had a huge dead zone with a brand spanking new OEM one, added some Friction Modifier to the rear diff to lessen its initial locking torque, and got a new ignition system from Spoolinup.

Prep for this year's trip was a bit of a scramble. Wednesday during the day I had to head to Mr. Spoiler, my local body guy, to pick up one of the front splitter winglets (those little vertical end pieces at the corners of the splitter) that had been damaged a few weeks earlier. I had been pulling into a lift being guided by the owner of my local rent-a-garage and he wasn't paying attention and the lift arm caught the winglet. Very lucky the fiberglass somehow wasn't really damaged (it was THAT close!). Peeled it back like a can opener about half its length. Yeah I was pissed. He said he "had a guy" that could fix it but of course when I got it back it was a shitty job, so I had to have Mr. Spoiler, the shop that did the original body install, fix it. On the way to the shop though the alternator decided "Hey, time to screw your evening!". I limped it home though running at like 12.2V. Wasn't enough that I had found that intake manifold earlier in the week that I had to scramble to get repaired (which... well, is relevant for later which is why i'm mentioning it...), the car just had to get one last failure in

This was a re-man'd Galant alternator from Advance Auto, one of those World Wide ones. Yay. So I picked up another re-man from Advance that day, an Eclipse one this time not that it matters (I noticed the Galant had a larger pulley making it a bi*** to install/remove) and installed it that evening. 13.6-13.8V most of the time, maybe dropping to 13.2 at night with lights and AC, so we're all good, right? Right?!

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I had a local detailer wash/wax the car Thursday morning because I just didn't have time to do it myself. Gotta be pretty for the magazine photographers! Car hadn't really been detailed since the year before so it was due. They were local guys, only two miles from my home which was nice. I dropped it off and picked up about three hours later. Detail was ok, but I won't go back as I do a better job by hand and their price sucked. THey also used my NRG steering wheel to get out of the car and bent it to crap. How they didn't notice this I don't know because it was immediately obvious when I got in. I didn't have time to deal with it and just did my best then to re-shape it. Over the next few days I kept fudging with it and it's for the most part back in shape (though I can still notice the slightest deformation). For those steering wheel snobs the NRG works terrifically for driving, but you can't use it to brace yourself to get in and out of the car as it deforms under forward/backward force.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

WillRaceForBeer graciously offered to crew for me on the weekend. He did the same thing last year, and after all the shit that happened then I'm surprised he still talks to me He headed over to my house early afternoon Thursday. On the way he strongly pushed that we get a spare MAF and alternator. I was already bringing tons of other spare parts like a stock ignition system, CAS and CPS, power steering reservoir to name a few due to past failures. He pushed the MAF because of how we fried one last year (from my in the dark reversing of polarity of jumper cables), and alternator was because of how shitty a reputation reman'd alternators have. I figured he was being way too careful but he said he'd go get them while I finished out my work day so I left him to it. Ended up being a very smart buy as you'll read shortly.

WillRaceForBeer and I head down to Virginia International Raceway Thursday afternoon. I had already packed up my car with some of the gear, and also my girlfriend's Subarua hatchback which WillRaceForBeer would be driving with the 315 R-Compounds and other random stuff. I pretty much had every spare part I had and every tool from my garage to avoid the bullshit we had from last year After the 4.5 hour drive we made it down to VIR at around 11:30pm. Got our info packet from the gate and went to the nice garage I'd rented for the weekend right off the main straight.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

So our garage... I had asked to be as close to the grid and the facilities as possible so I had less room to walk to go to food, bathroom, and anything else, but also be able to hear announcements better. Guy on the phone had said "sure! no one's reserving those so #1 is yours!". I ended up with #14. WTF! However, when we get on there... AIR CONDITIONING! At some point VIR added air conditioning to some of the garage units! #1 did not have a/c haha. I don't know if it was dumb luck or the reservation agent hooked me up, but the complaints about location certainly ended there Anyway the garages are awesome, with a huge tool bench for your stuff, tons of room (you can fit two cars in one bay if you really wanted), paper towel dispensers, and windows onto the main straight. You share with two other bays which is great for socializing (and borrowing tools).

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

So unpacked, we took the Subaru and went back to rest at the motel and got back to the track I think around 6:30am. I headed over to tech, happened to have a Grassroots Motorsports staffer snag this pic of me there and put it on the GRM facebook page:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

So we're here. There were lots of cool cars this year, and they let in prototypes so the times were going to be FAST. Last year's fastest lap was a 1:54 IIRC, driven by a C6 Z06 with a pro driver (Mike Skeen if you want to look him up). After seeing what was here this year I expected that to easily be broken. Here are some pics of a few of the cooler cars:

Element Tuning's turbo'd FR-S. I think 335whp but on slicks.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

This was the winning car from the event, a prototype from VIPER, an engineering group that is on-track at VIR and I believe part of Old Dominion University, or at least somehow affiliated with it. More on them later..

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Doug Wind's Modern Performance SRT-4. ~650whp. Was in the event last year but had lots of issues.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Some prototype that the owner refers to as "The Wolf". Any owner that refers to their track car with "the" in front is an ass in my opinion and a bit full of themselves. To add to the nonsense they had a pro driver in this, some guy named Max Papis who I guess drove in F1 for a bit as well as CART? I forget. The guy had a bikini-clad umbrella holder as he sat in the grid.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Couple of the prototype cars. Actually the one in back is a converted stock car that has a really funky front wing setup.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

A Chump Car MR2. I dunno much about it but it has seen lots of track time as I have seen it at track events a lot. While beaten the aero looks to have good ideas behind it, at least to my untrained eye.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[TSiAWD666]

A Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT? SRT-8? i dunno. I couldn't believe this thing was out there. Apparently neither could the driver because he spun in his first session off the track Wasn't very fast but it was pretty neat seeing it go around the track.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Some super Lamborghini. I dunno what this is, but it's a full blown race car, like turn-key from the factory I think. For all of its looks though it wasn't even close to the fastest which was a bit of a let down:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Obviously there were a lot more cars, but I can't fill this whole post with those pics. There's a link at the end to my Facebook album if folks want to see more. Back to story time!

We did a bit of cleaning in the morning (that's what WillRaceForBeer is doing in the above pic) to get the bugs off the front that I'd collected on the trip down since I knew they'd be baking on my black paint in the hot weather, and then we waited for the first warm-up session. First warm-up went generally well but I could tell the car didn't feel as strong as it should. The car though was feeling great in the turns and I was going wide open throttle at 125-130mph up the uphill esses where I couldn't do that with confidence last year, as well as WAY earlier in some high speed corners (like going WOT well before the Apex as opposed to at or after) so that felt awesome! However, WRFB (I'm tired of typing his whole username) was timing me and said I had been running 2:11s. That did not make me feel very good. According to time sheets the fastest lap I had in warm-up was a 2:11.1. So a bit faster than last year and I wasn't really pushing the car and was in traffic a lot, but still something felt off power-wise as it felt laggy and slow on the top end. I know my car very well and it felt like I was down a lot of horsepower, like down in the 320-350whp range. It felt like the car was great in the turns now, but terrible on power, and I guess it all evened out and netted me zero lap time change.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Went out for what was supposed to be the first timed session next, but last minute they told us timing was disabled due to issues so it was just another warm-up so I didn't really think about pushing it. Turns out this wasn't true and they did have timing! Ugh, if only I'd known. I had room though on track so I was looking to get back into the groove and set some better times, maybe a 2:09 or 2:08. Before I could get started though on my first hot lap right after turn 1 my Contour GPS decided it had enough of my driving and jumped off my windshield and out my driver's window! We actually found it later but it stopped functioning, and sadly the video from its escape was corrupted . I ended up disassembling it at home after the weekend and managed to solder some wires and reconnect some things and get it working again, but here's what it looked like after it's adventure:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Anyway back to the driving. Car still felt slow and then mid session my power steering started cutting out intermittently. This is scary as shit at speed mid-turn, let me tell you! It was so tough with these huge tires to steer I actually thought my steering linkage had broken or my suspension had broken somewhere preventing me from turning. I calmed myself down and found with great effort I could actually steer at which point I realized it was just my power steering not working, rather than steering entirely. To add to the fun my car started driving like it was on less than four cylinders! I limped her back in I think about 2/3rds of a session in. Lap sheets later would show I ran a 2:11.6. Not good :-\

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

In the garage we checked things out. Quick summary:
- One ignition coil was dead. Thank goodness I brought two replacements! Was brand new, so either this was bad luck or a bad sign for this setup.
- Wasn't really sure about power steering as the pump rotated fine, the belt felt fine (intact and tight), and there was plenty of fluid. To make things more confusing, after we let the car "rest" for a bit I took it around the paddock and the power steering was back! Hmm....
- Still no idea about why the car was down on power. Car wasn't really knocking, or overheating, and all indicators that I had from gauges looked ok.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I suspected the issue was the power steering pump, so we scrambled to find one, calling every store around Danville. After tons of calls one place could get one but no earlier than 5pm, which was too late. We ended up missing the first timed session (session 3 for the day) with this and the ignition mess. We had only one session left to make a time. Since the power steering seemed to magically fix itself (haha yeah right) I said fck it I'm going out for the last session and setting a time even if the power steering cuts out and kills me So off I went into session four!

This last session the power steering felt initially fine and functioning. Very puzzling, but this only lasted like 3/4 of a lap and then it started intermittently cutting out! I was going to come in but I said "screw it, it's my last session and I can try to muscle it out" Well, it made driving a real bi*** At least this time I could expect it to cut out in turns so I was prepared with my death grip on the wheel and my forearms tensed and ready To make things worse the car was missing occasionally, and to top it off only after like five laps the alternator died! I limped the car around the track and back to the garage on battery power! I ended up with a 2:14.6 this session

And that was the UTCC. The winner was the VIPER all carbon-fiber ~885lbs prototype driven by a Hyabusa engine with only like 225hp output with a 1:49 Our fastest officially timed lap of 2:11.6 ended up being .2 seconds slower than last year which was very frustrating and puzzling. More on that in a bit. We looked over the other times and we realized we looked to somehow be the fastest AWD car! Thinking we might actually win something we went to the awards ceremony for the free drinks and food, crossing our fingers. NOPE They somehow left the Fastest AWD class out this year! This despite having all these other ridiculous categories to cover everyone else like Fastest FWD, Fastest RWD, Fastest Privateer BMW, Fastest Subaru, Fastest White Car with Blue Stripes (kidding)... aaargh. Sigh. I was a bit pissed seeing as last year I thought we were a shoe-in for the Fastest Street Car being the easily the fastest car to have driven to the track, on actual street tires, with air conditioning and a stereo, and registered with legit plates... only to get beaten by a pure track driven gutted R35 GTR with a roll cage on Hoosier A6 tires that happened to still have legal plates from running One-lap before getting turned into a track only machine. Ok so you can tell I was/am bitter haha. Anyway, I will get into the November issue of Grassroots Motorsports Magazine as they say every car will have coverage this year, so at least I get that bit of a consolation.

Here are some lap times that I remember:
- Fancy white Lamborghini race car: 1:59 (5 slower than the supposedly near stock z06 from last year!)
- Modern Performance SRT-4: 2:05 (I'm sure I can beat this even with 200 less whp, but in his defense he did this without power steering as his pulley fell off!)
- Element Tuning FR-S: 2:07.1
- M1 sponsored by RRT Racing: 2:06.5 (what the hell was in this thing... I'm gonna have to ask the RRT guys...)
- Max Papis driven "Wolf": 1:51.9 (as Clarkson would say with an L on his forehead "LOOOOOOOOOOOSEEEEEEEEEEEEEER")
- A stock car I think run by university students: 1:53?

Oh btw, that turbo'd FR-S ran alright in the first timed session until this happened:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Short story I believe was they threw a rod, and then lit the oil on fire and the rest was history. They actually put it on youtube. Makes me glad I have my fire gear!
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhbi7EE2H3o]Element Tuning FRS Bursts Into Flames at Ultimate Track Car Challenge - YouTube[/ame]

 

[TSiAWD666]

So back to the weekend. We still had NASA Time Trials to run. We had three things to figure out: power steering, alternator, and why the hell is the car slow!! So Friday night WRFB goes to pick up the power steering pump and materials for a ghettofied Home Depot Racing boost leak tester, and I get to pulling the pump and the alternator. I had a theory about the pump and ripped it apart to discover I'd been right. Remember the pressure mod I'd mentioned earlier? Well the mod involves unscrewing a cap for the pressure relief valve and removing a couple shims. The shims put preload on a spring and that ultimately controls the peak pressure for the rack. What had happened was the screw had backed out a few threads, and this was basically dropping my peak pressure way down to the point where the rack had no assist. Joy. So that was an easy fix. WRFB comes back with the alternator and I get the pump and alternator back in. We assemble the BLT and... I have a damned leak at the same place I had the weekend before, right at the front side of the intake manifold. AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGH

We're exhausted, so we call it a night. We get back to the track and are wondering what to do, do we race like this or try to fix it, and how the hell do we get a cracked IM fixed on the track? Well, during the driver's meeting I hear there's some guy named Carlos that will do free welding on track for folks. I spend like 45 minutes trying to track him down to find I actually KNOW Carlos haha. He's the guy who helped fix some shoddy fabrication on the front of my car early last year. So Carlos says he can tig weld, but he didn't bring his with because it's huge, so he says if we can somehow find one at the track he can help. He says the "Viper" guys (remember I mentioned them earlier?) might have one. I have no idea who he's talking about and thinking it's some Dodge Viper racing team or something, but I follow his lead. He takes me to this building in the paddock that has this big sign with VIPER on it, which is an acronym for something including Engineering and Research that I've forgotten. We walk in and no one's around but all the doors are unlocked. He says let's just look for a Tig and then hope someone shows up today and we can ask them if we can use it. As we brazenly wander around the shop full of prototypes we find a Tig in the back corner! Yahoo! So I leave a note on the front door asking whoever shows up to give me a call if I can use the Tig 30 minutes later a guy shows up to our garage and says we can definitely use it! Anyway, here are some prototypes from the shop:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Does that last one look familiar? Yes, that's the winning car and I had no idea haha. I was asking the VIPER guy about it while Carlos was setting up the welder and he casually says "Do you know what the UTCC is? This was the winning car from it yesterday." I hadn't even seen the massive trophy sitting right on top of it while I had been gawking at it earlier. I of course had no idea it won because I had zero time the day before to watch or pay attention to any of the other cars on track with all my flailing about.

We pull the intake manifold off the car and I remove some of the expensive aerospace grade heat tape from it. Here's a pic of the crack... right through the bracing and all:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

So Carlos learns the TIG is only a 200amp, and he doubts it will be enough for the crack. He tries, but he says the best he can get is a bit on the surface and is really doubtful it will hold. Suggest maybe we put some JB Weld on it as a back up and just run it, but we know that won't set in time to run today. We then head over to the Pro Shop on track to see if they have JB Quik Weld, which we plan to slap on top of the welding and just hope it holds. Unfortunately, seems the pro shop was just bought by some new guys named TMI Autotech, and they are still figuring out what they should stock and they don't have Quik Weld. Owner, named Mark, asks me what it's for and I tell him the story. He says some of his guys are at their shop and they might be willing to help out! I'm skeptical but I think it can't hurt. So he gets in his car and leads us down the road towards the exit of the track. I'm thinking we're heading all the way back to town...

Nope! We end up at this huge warehouse looking building just off the track (still on the track grounds). I'm very puzzled as to how they could have such a facility on the track. We walk in and we see this:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Anyone recognize this? Perhaps from an episode of Top Gear? It's the V8 Ariel Atom. I shit you not, we're at the Ariel Atom factory floor! If this isn't cool to you go find the Top Gear episode where Clarkson's face is nearly ripped off as he raves about this thing on the track So Mark, OWNER of TMI Autotech that manufactures the Ariel Atom, intros us to one of his fabricators, Luke, who happened to be there that day working on a Chump Car for a friend. He takes the manifold off our hands and gets to fixing the many cracks (as one was fixed more would show up). The head flange was no longer flat and our suspicion is that when it's clamped down it's pulling the #4 runner away from the plenum and causing the cracking. Why that happened is beyond us, but not something we can fix now. So he does his best to fix everything. In the meantime, Mark takes us on a tour of the factory floor.

V8 atom in progress:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

This is how they store their spec racers for customers! Fork lift the damned things up onto shelves. NUTS!

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Honda engines for the four cylinder Atom models. These happened to be supercharged but others aren't.:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

So we get the manifold back on the car, and test drive things. Oh I think we found the air conditioner belt (yes, laugh at the race car with air conditioning...) was half off and we had to fix that. Our "new" reman'd alternator isn't charging at idle, shocker. Pieces of shit! At least it charges above idle. Power steering is fine. Car isn't feeling laggy but for some reason it was initially missing a ton but this went away after a bit. Very puzzling. Found the fuel pressure base was low, like at 40.5, so I raised it back to stock. We didn't see an indication of failure but just in case I put in a brand new cam angle sensor. WRFB doesn't like some quirks of my tune and makes lots of changes (to which I wouldn't understand as I'm an idiot with tuning nor do I remember). So we're planning to make the LAST session of the day and... a damned freak thunderstorm rolls in. 20 minutes later it's gone, but due to the lightning they cancel the rest of the sessions. Sigh... So we track down yet another alternator since this one's not charging at idle (but good enough to race on) so we hopefully have a fully working one for the drive home. This time we ask for a brand new one, and while not OEM at least it's not re-man'd.

I forgot to mention that the third party to our joint garage showed up today. A Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. I didn't talk with the group of folks with it too much as we were busy but here's what I learned:
- Being coached by a BMW driver in ALMS, who happens to have the lap record for ALMS at THIS TRACK
- says he traps like 165mph on the back straight (I was only trapping like 145mph tops!)
- Was loud as FCK! Had straight pipes and my god when it turned on it sounded like constant thunder right next to your ear. I don't know if there were any other mods. Oh, it was on r-compounds.
I think the guy's wife was driving an Audi R8. Rich folks! More on this car later...

 

[TSiAWD666]

Oh that afternoon a friend of mine, Spencer Pankiewicz, that I'd met earlier this year at a Summit Point HPDE where he actually recognized my car from Modified Magazine (which I can't lie was pretty awesome haha) drove four hours along with his brother just to take pictures of my car. They're both budding photographers and do amazing stuff! Find him on facebook if you're an east coast guy and want sick shots of your car! I really wanted him to get some shots of the car on track as did they. While I was occupied (I don't remember how at the moment) WRFB took him out for a photo shoot around track as it was getting close to dusk which is a great time for shooting cars. Here are a few of the shots:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Due to the last session cancellation he wasn't able to get any on track shots but we convinced him to stay the night and take shots the next day.

Another friend that showed up was Angelo Mcartney. Angelo's a student at Virginia Tech and an Eclipse owner that I'd met at last year's UTCC when he showed up hearing my car would be there. We ended up dragging him into last year's debacle as he ended up bringing an emergency ECU and MAF during the weekend which saved our asses, as well as helping me crew over the weekend. This year Angelo came out with his family to try to see my car on track (as well as get some track time for he and his brother) but also missed us due to the last session cancellation. We convinced him too to stay to the next day

So next day with all our issues we're debating whether we should be running at all but with my friends staying over just to see my car out there I had to drive So we did. Angelo's family is dragging and misses this session but Spencer and his brother James got some great shots So I got out there in session one and... UGH. Car is missing like crazy, knocking like crazy, and EGTs are through the roof. I couldn't get more than half throttle without the car sounding like a machine gun. I had trouble passing a Miata on the straight!! I ran a 2:18.8. That was pretty sad. I come in after maybe 5 laps.

We come back in and try a bunch of stuff. We yanked the prototype COP entirely and go with a surefire OEM ignition (fortunately we made the COP plug-n-play). WRFB plays a lot more with the tune. Don't really have any other ideas. We go out for session 2.

The car feels a LOT better! However, there are still issues. It's randomly missing, the top-end still isn't really there (but low-end torque is, so that's a huge plus), and my EGTs are still going through the roof (like 1000 deg C) which makes me short shift 3rd to 4th and 4th to 5th. However, with all that I run a 2:09.5 So a nice two second improvement over last year, and with lots of problems, leaving me for a lot of hope in the potential left in the car! I'm not jumping for joy here, but seeing as I wasn't really pushing the car and had issues, it's nice to see some improvement.

Angelo LAST minute, literally down to the last second, did show up to the track and ran to the grid with his GoPro and slapped it onto my windshield to record my new fastest lap He's lucky though his GoPro didn't follow my Contour because he didn't actually lock the suction cup haha. Thanks to Angelo for this, here's the lap!
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu9B467K3Ok]Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX - NASA TT - VIR Full 7-21-2013 - YouTube[/ame]

After about five laps guess what? My alternator crapped out. That's right, it lasted TWO sessions. What the crap. So I again limped around the track to cool things down on battery power. Came in and called it a day, swapping in the last new alternator that actually charged at idle thankfully and got me home

Oh, remember our garage-mate Lambo?

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I asked him later what his lap times were. 2:12.5 he said. With 165mph traps. So I'm three seconds faster than a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. I'll take that

Looking back over the results we somehow were third in our TTU (Unlimited) class though it was a pretty thin field. However, with my hp being EASILY down in the 320-350whp range I actually could have been classed in TT2... and I actually would have won that day by over two seconds, and been second place on Saturday So that's something! I may actually keep the engine tuned for less HP and stay in TT2 for a while, especially since I don't have the turbo to get me the HP to really compete with the TTU boys (some of which are running in the 1:58 range).

Lessons Learned:
- Sheet Metal Intake Manifolds really need strong bracing at all seams, and make sure they aren't warped and pulling themselves apart!
- Put loctite on your power steering parts you idiot so you don't die.
- Re-man'd alternators sucks. Gotta find a way to make them last longer. I'll be trying a heat shield shortly.
- still continue to bring spare parts of damned near everything!! and the tools to match.
- Prius coils might have issues wired straight to the ECU. Will be investigating a CDI. I suspect a dwell mismatch but I really know little about ignitions.
- I didn't mention this above, but I was overheating after five laps. Not enough to boil, but to pull timing. Need to pull pusher a/c fan and perhaps trigger other fan at a lower temp like 190 deg F. Gotta make sure there's no pressure leak in the radiator from last year's hole.
- My race boots make it REALLY hard to heel/toe (err toe/side-of-foot) because of how small their soles are. Time to get rid of the stock pedals and get some wider ones. This caused me to miss a lot of downshifts under braking.

Thanks a TON to my sponsors for making this happen, as I couldn't have done it without them:
Carbotech Performance Brakes - for my experimental XP24 brake pads which are f'ing AWESOME! Cat's out of the bag now!
RRT Racing - for the great corner balancing and alignment, and of course general fabrication support!
Spoolinup - We'll keep working on the COP. Next stop might be a CDI!
Meguiar's - Thanks for keeping for the awesome products keeping the car nice and clean.
Mr. Spoiler - for the great body work that's holding up amazingly well to the trials of racing

Most importantly, thanks to WillRaceForBeer! You are an awesome friend and I can't thank you enough for dedicating your weekend to getting my car around the track AND back home. Thanks man!!! Looking forward to getting yours back out there and being crew for you next time

Here are some more pics from the event that might interest folks.

More of the fancy Lambo bits

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Mach V's Subaru 2.5RS actually won fastest Subaru with a 2:14!

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I know this thing won fastest something but I can't remember what... Fastest SUV?

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

A Porsche that I thought was running 2:10s and I was very excited to pass, only to learn later I confused him with another car and he was only running like 2:12s... doh!

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

THIS Porsche was incredibly fast! Ran a 1:57.8

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Panorama of our garage:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Taken by Spencer Pankiewicz (or possibly his brother James):

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Taken by Mach V Dan

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Taken by Flim Flam Media:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Quick Summary:
UTCC 2013 was MUCH better than last year but still painful with new failures to learn from. With the power output WAY down we ran a 2:11.6, .2 seconds slower than last year but this means the handling related changes worked greatly. Time Trials were better and after fixing things ran a leisurely 2:09.5, which put us third in TTU, and if we were classed properly into TT2 would have given us first by two seconds. Was three seconds faster than a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. Look for the car in the November issue of Grassroots Motorsports Magazine!

The entire picture album can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/john.freun...0200484276495978.1073741829.1429266581&type=3

 

[Black95TSIawd]

Now that is a summary worth waiting for!

What a weekend. Sounds like you still enjoyed it. Amazing what your car can do with all the troubles. I'm sure you'll be back better than ever. (get rid of the AC condenser and i'm sure your coolant temp issues will go away!)

 

[Atuca]

Loved that story! Too bad you had all those problems, but it only makes you try harder next time right?

 

[greengoblin]

Great job John and way to push on!

 

[Ludachris]

So funny, this sounds like how most of my events would usually go. If it's not one thing it's another. Have you swapped out the crappy OEM alternator with the higher output Saturn version? I'm definitely going to do that before the GSX hits the track again. Don't know that they'll be more reliable, but hey, cheaper is good when you're planning on having spares. Keep it up John, it will be worth it at those events when everything just goes off without a hitch and you have a blast doing it. Nice write up too. Makes me miss the days of Greg Collier.

Oh yeah, and "Mad" Max Papis is probably best known for his drives in the ALMS with Corvette and World Challenge with Cadillac, and most recently in the Rolex series. I watched him run with the factory Cadillacs in World Challenge some years back and dominate. He's pretty good He was pre-Mike Skeen in WC.

Oh yeah, and I think you're missing a key good luck charm on the car - a DSMtuners decal! Gotta represent for us road racers here on the site trying to make a push with this platform.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Seeing how long my original OEM lasted I'm not entirely sure I agree that they are crappy I had one of those on track many many times before losing it after 10+ years at which point I went into re-man hell. This is moot though as you can't get them anymore new. Bummer.

I haven't tried a Saturn yet. I know AB has one but he told me he has very little drive time on it so he's not sure if it's the solution to failing alternators. He switched to it after re-man hell as well, but only time will tell if it was a good choice. Like you said at least they are cheap. They are also simpler, right? Needing only one wire? That certainly interests me. It will be my next stop if this "new" alternator doesn't hold out.

For now I'm trying this to see if it's heat, or perhaps errant power steering fluid, so I just built a shield which I'll be installing this weekend.

Here's the first version:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

and here's Mark II:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Yeah I read up on him on wikipedia. Still thought the pretentiousness of the car owner and Max was a bit much. I mean, Max had a bikini-clad women hovering over him with an umbrella on his way to the grid (which btw, he didn't even drive there, he had someone take the car up there for him), and then he had this fairy looking umbrella he held over his head while he sat in the car in the grid. And c'mon, "The Wolf"? and it got beat by some university's car.

As for stickers... sure, if you bump my pm and photo limits

 

[CrashGNX]

Awesome job man! it takes ALOT of trial and error to build a solid race car and even then you have failures. I'd love to see your car in person someday to get some ideas for getting my 1g into NASA Time trials. for now i'll just settle with Auto-X while I hammer out the track demons. Please keep us updated on your overheating situation and what actually fixes it. I'm going to get to wrapping the turbo, exhaust, header and putting some radiant heat barrier on the coolant pipe running behind the turbo then see what I can do before it overheats. I think there are only 2 more races this year for mid south NASA-X and my budget is way past gone so hopefully this winter ill get back to R&D on mine.

 

[turbosax2]

Too bad you ran into so many troubles, but it looks like the weekend was overall a blast! A+ writeup Let me know early for next years event and I'll come pit for you, too

 

[snowborder714]

Great write up John! Sucks that so many things failed, but at least they sounded (for the most part) like easy swaps.

Why do you keep going back to COP setups when you always end up back on stock coils and the car running better?

I agree with the above comment about removing the A/C will help your cooling issues

Hopefully Eric and I can make it down next year to help out and take pictures.

 

[TSiAWD666]

COPs are simpler and lighter! I hate plug wires that arc and the bulky stock coil pack cluttering up my engine bay

Obviously the a/c is a huge limiting factor, but unless you wanna lend me your truck and trailer all the time it has to stay for now . I'm going to see though how things behave with the 10" pusher fan I had in front of the a/c condenser removed. I always suspected it might be an issue and the fellow who made my radiator at Ron Davis Radiators made a big point with me on the phone the other day to remove it while keeping the large puller on the back that I have as well as running that one at an initially lower temp like 190 deg F. I'll be trying that out.

I'll definitely be reminding you of your offers next year