Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT + S197 Development Thread

[CO_VaporGT_09]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

You looked at the Metco third upper link?

http://www.metcomotorsports.com/prod...UC2005&cat=102



I have one, best I've had (have J&M and another brand sitting around, too), with no noise, no loosening, free articulation/rotation. Very heavy duty and well made.

Of course, took it off and went back to stock so I don't escape from NASA's TTB

Hopefully my Spec Iron build next year will make good use of it.

[CO_VaporGT_09]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Oh, and I think Steeda makes an axle-side spherical bearing:

http://www.steeda.com/store/steeda-s...d-mustang.html

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Project Update for May 17, 2013: I trying to keep this update "short and sweet" because the only thing to cover was the NASA @ NOLA weekend and some upcoming events. If you have been keeping track, we have run this 2011 Mustang in 3 NASA Texas race weekends in 2013, and so far had nailed 3 new TT3 track records and 5 of 6 class wins (each Saturday and Sunday is a new TT race). NOLA was another 2 day event on the NASA Texas calendar and we were hoping that the "heavy but powerful" TT3 Mustang would do well at this track, too. I knew it had one long straight (3360 feet) but it also had a lot of twisty bits, as you can see in the course map that we made, below. Could we "4-peat" with TT3 track records? Read below to find out...




Since I have complained publicly about the lack of track maps being available at many tracks and events before, and I feel that the lack of maps/corner numbers/pit lane routing has led to issues at some events, I put my money where my mouth is and we made the track map above. Brandon here at Vorshlag took an existing but very hard to read color track map from NOLA and created a line graphic shown, added legible corner numbers, and marked where NASA TT race director Ken Brewer wanted the TT group to bunch up on the out lap. All of the various alternate configurations were removed as well, to only show the course we were to be driving that weekend. We printed 70 of these and handed them out at the TT meeting as well as to our HPDE students. This went over so well we are going to do this for all upcoming NASA Texas events we go to in 2013.


NASA @ NOLA Motorsports Park, May 3-5, 2013

We had been anticipating this event for some time, as I got to take 4 laps around this 2.75 mile course back in January and I couldn't wait to go back and race my own car there. NASA Texas and NASA Mid-South teamed up to have this event on both of their schedules, but it was mostly run by Mid-South. NOLA Motorsports Park is a beautiful, even picturesque race track facility that I raved about in my January Rival review. Amy wanted to go to race and to see New Orleans, and with it being the annual Jazzfest weekend, we knew it would be packed and crazy in the French Quarter.



Palm trees, manicured lawns, a flawless track and paddock surface, and beautiful buildinds abound at NOLA

After a bit of a thrash to get the trailer adjusted to the new F-350 diesel dually, that arrived just a couple of days before, we got the Mustang and all of our gear loaded for the 9 hour tow from Dallas,TX down to New Orleans, LA, on Thursday afternoon. We ended up leaving more of less mid afternoon, with Amy and I driving and Ryan and Brandon along for the 3 days of racing. We brought rain gear, cold weather gear, and clothes for hot weather too - never know what to expect down on the Delta!

Vorshlag Photo and Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...-May-4-5-2013/

With 100 miles on the odometer the truck was sufficiently broken in and away we went! The truck performed ridiculously well, towing like a dream and stopping without any drama - it was as if the trailer wasn't even hooked up. These new adaptive/progressive/integrated trailer brake controllers that modern trucks come with are amazing. We arrived at our hotel at about 2 am and went to our rooms to crash Thursday night. It started raining on the way down and rained that night as well.

Friday May 3, NOLA Test-N-Tune


Left: Unloading Friday morning in the rain. Right: After we set up the trailer the car was switched to street tires for some rain dancing

We arrived at the track early on Friday morning and got set-up at the NE end of the paddock (nearest to the Events Center, Race Shop and Kart Lobby/Cafe buildings) and unloaded the car. It was pissing rain and didn't look to be letting up anytime soon, but the forecast for Saturday and Sunday was "70°F, sunny and clear". So the crew threw on the Bridgestone RE-11 street tires and D-Force wheels we had in the trailer and Amy and I started taking sessions on the very wet and still raining track.


Dark and gloomy skies in the morning, with rain finally diminishing...

Practice days on the Friday before a NASA weekend is common, but for us it was new - we used to just run a single NASA weekend day (2008-2011), and only in 2012 did we start running both Saturdays and Sundays. This track was so new to us, though, that we decided to pony up the $300 for the practice day and get in as many laps as we could - to learn this track layout. It is a tricky track, and with zero elevation change there are few reference markers to use to help you remember one corner from the next, and there are several that look identical. But with the rain it was tough to judge speeds and what our relative lap times in the dry might be. It rained for a couple of hours then finally... stopped.


Late morning Friday the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and the sun came out. It gets brighter and brighter...

Even with the rain no longer falling there were still significant puddles that covered the track at corners T8, T13, T16 and all down the front straight. I was short shifting 4th and 5th on the front straight to keep the tires from breaking loose at even the reduced speeds of 120+ mph we were seeing. The massive lake at T13 was DEEP and there was no way around it - you just had to slog through it. We named it the "sippy hole", and the lake at T16 wasn't abating much either. By the 3rd and 4th morning sessions we were the only ones brave (or fool) enough to be out on track and Amy and I pounded out dozens and dozens of laps each. Eventually we were just making laps to try to push water off the track, and each lap was making a difference - with water splashing 20' high at some "stream crossings". The interior of the car was pretty wet, but we cleaned it out during the lunch break. And that's when we noticed the NOLA crew go out in 3 track drying trucks, dragging massive air blowers, and they dried off the track! They did an awesome job for about a solid hour and it made a massive difference. Well, T16 was still wet and you had to tip-toe around that corner, but the rest of the track was completely dry. They again warned us after lunch "if you go off, you WILL get stuck", but we never dropped a single tire in the mud all morning during the rain, so we weren't too worried.


Off with the street tires ("poor man's wets") and on with the well abused A6 tires, late on Friday

We didn't shoot any video during our rain driving, as it was pretty slow, but it sure was entertaining! Probably should have got a few laps on video to show how wet it really was. You know its bad when NOBODY will go out on track with you, but we didn't care - we were learning the track layout, and that's what mattered most. During lunch we saw the track drying and swapped the car back to the Forgestars mounted with 1 weekend old Hoosier A6 tires we used at TWS (I will talk more about the RAPID wear rate of A6s at the bottom of this post), which had some tread left. Then we both took a full 20 minute session each in the dry. The times dropped from the 2:30-2:15 range in the wet to 1:53.8 in the dry for me and 1:57 for Amy.



During these afternoon dry sessions we would come in from the track to the hot pits, where Ryan was waiting to check/bleed down tire pressures and tire temps, while Brandon was shooting pictures from numerous locations. Ryan noted some tire temp issues and adjusted the camber and tire pressures to eventually get the temps even across each tire, and the performance felt better, too. It is always a big plus when we can have him at the track with us! He does track-side work with a World Challenge team (and is at COTA while I'm writing this) so this was nothing new for him, and in fact he said "this is the least work I've ever done at a race weekend. I like it when drivers don't crash or blow up!" And the pictures always look SO much better when Brandon can come along, as well.


Left: We used up 3 of the 4 scrubs on Friday. We had one "keeper" and the rest were junk. Right: New tires going on for Saturday

I sent Amy out again in the final session of the day to get some more laps under her belt, and she got all the life out of the tires, taking 3 of 4 down to cord (and they wore almost perfectly across the tread). The above left pictures shows one of the fronts, which was down to base rubber across the entire tread and just into some Nylon cord on the edge. We brought a set of sticker A6 tires (the winnings from the NASA @ TWS weekend) and pulled the wheels off late that afternoon and took all of it to the NOLA Race shop for mounting and balancing. They were slammed but promised us they could get the tires ready by 7 am the next day.



Throughout the day Friday we had a number of NOLA track members and NASA racers stop by, including Mark Council with his S197 autocross car (black Mustang in above left pic) and another guy with an FR500S clone / ex-Miller School car (top right pic, blue Mustang). We ended up working on Mark's car a little in our paddock area, replacing some missing hardware from his Vorshlag camber plates (we bring tons of spares in the trailer). Since we ran out of tires at the end of the day and were out of work to do, we decided to hit the French Quarter in New Orleans and have a night out on the town. Mark joined the 4 of us from Vorshlag and we tore it UP!



The 4 of us loaded up in the F-350 and Mark followed us in his Mustang and then we got out to walk the Quarter. After stopping for the prerequisite beignets at Cafe du Monde (a famous coffee stand that has been in business since 1862), we sauntered over to Bourbon Street "for a quick drink". Several rounds of Grenades later we sloshed our way to Mother's for some authentic Cajun food. And more drinking. The whole time we were talking with crazy cajun accents (since Brandon and I are both from Louisiana), after watching this SNL sketch (Maine Justice!) in the truck during our drive. Needless to say, there were hundreds of gator sightings that night in our walks down in the Quarter! We drank some fine beverages and ate some excellent cuisine and had a lot of fun that night. Amy was our designated driver and after doing some 4 wheel burnouts in the dually leaving our parking spot (she crazy!) we ended up at a Best Buy at 10 pm, where Brandon replaced his aging phone with a Samsung Galaxy S4 (which was so nice I got one myself a week later). We were all back at the hotel by 11 pm and up again to head to the track by 7 am.

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[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

continued from above...

Saturday May 4th - TT Race 1

We arrived at the track by 7 am, then we split into two groups. Ryan and Brandon went to the race shop to get the newly mounted tires, then they and Amy got that set of wheels mounted. At the same time I rushed off to 3 meetings: Instructors, Time Trial, then the HPDE 1&2 meeting to meet my student. I was signed up to instruct once again and had a brand new to HPDE student that owned this beautiful Parnelli Jones edition Saleen Mustang, shown below. Tracy and her boyfriend David were super nice and I worked with her for all 8 track sessions over the next 2 days, where she improved dramatically. Her supercharged Mustang sounded great and had excellent power, brakes, tires, and even a decent suspension - something I'm not used to in most new student's Mustangs! Brandon took more pics of this car located here, here and here.



After this quick round of meetings I ran back to our paddock spot and they had the Mustang ready to go out on track. The plan was for me to run all 4 sessions on Saturday and one TT session Sunday, then have Amy drive 3 of the 4 TT sessions on Sunday. It was our best shot at winning more tires, or so we presumed. It is always difficult sharing a car in any form of racing, and TT is especially hard, as there are only 4 sessions per day to drive. And on Saturday, the first session doesn't count except for grid position (the "Warm-up"), but all 4 count on Sunday. My transponder was turned on, the video camera fired up, and I got to grid with about 3 cars ahead of me.


Left: Bradon's Ruckus helped made sure I made it to grid for HPDE instruction! Right: Shane Umbarger was there; he bought the 18x9" WedsSport wheels I used in STX

Saturday TT Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...ay%20Final.pdf

As you can see we had 18 TT entrants on Saturday, with TT3 being the largest at 7 entrants, no TT2 cars, and 3 cars in TT1. So naturally the TT1 cars lined up first, and I was able to get gridded behind them. In the warm up session I passed two of the three TT1 cars pretty quickly and pounded out a 1:51.8 lap, which was 2nd fastest time for the session (this would become a recurring theme). The track was 100% dry now and I was working on learning the proper corner exit to Turn 16, but I had already picked up 2 seconds over Friday's best laps. I quickly found that the T13-T16 complex was crucial and when you strung those 4 turns together correctly your speeds on the long front straight were highest (data shows a peak of 141 mph for the Mustang).


Random Saturday Autocross Runs - Delta Region SCCA "Quatro de Mayo" Event!?!

As if instructing in HPDE, talking to the many people that came by to our paddock spot, and driving in TT3 wasn't enough for me on Saturday, I also snuck in a couple of fun runs at a nearby autocross, too. I blame Mark Council and Shane Umbarger, both of whom were running the Saturday Delta Region SCCA autocross event and were bad influences - they dared me to go take a few runs on the course that was only 100 yards from our paddock spot. This event was held on the same dedicated NOLA autocross pad that was used in one of the BFG Rival events, so I kinda knew the surface. And I was on A6s that we use in TT (more on that later). So, how bad could it be? Sure, the car was set-up and ballasted for TT3, and was on very hard compound race brake pads (XP20), and I didn't walk the course so I knew nothing about where to go, but it was just so close by... and Amy wasn't around to stop me!



After driving over to the still active autocross site with Mark, who had been running the autocross himself earlier that day and won in ESP (and Shane won STX and had 2nd fastest time of the day), I asked the Event Chairman if I could hop in line and make a couple of fun runs before my next TT session. He said "HELL YES! And tell any of the other NASA racers to stop by, too!" That sounded good to me, but I hadn't walked the course. After a quick glance it looked a bit complicated, fairly tight, and included FIVE turns of 180° or more. I asked Mark if he would ride shotgun and call out rally style navigation signals, which was met with another "HELL YES!" Man, everyone is so nice around here. We strapped in while someone put a GoPro vidcam on the roof, then we pulled up to the line and took the first run.



Mark was yelling out turn directions, slaloms and relative speeds and I was driving by the seat of my pants, on a course I had never seen, and going 10/10ths. We made it clean on our first run but I was leaving tons of time out there, and the stone cold XP20 Carbotech track brake pads meant that the car didn't want to stop at the first right-hander. Someone commented after my first run "Wow, you braked super deep and just nailed that turn!" to which I replied with "I crapped my pants when I forgot I had cold track pads, and barely stayed out of the fence!" The first fun run was a 48.0, which was close to the quickest time of the event that day. Of course we went back for one more try. We hopped back in line for another run, and by now Brandon had come by and was snapping pics and there was a crowd watching the big red Mustang with the giant wing and obnoxious graphics. I sort of knew where the track went by this run but asked Mark to navigate again. Then we put down this run:


Click the preview above to watch the on-car YouTube video of the 2nd fun run I took

The 2nd fun run we had a 46.6 sec time, a little more than a second quicker than FTD for the event (results), on my second blind run. It wasn't my "super driving", but instead a super easy to drive track car that amazingly still works very well for autocross use. I felt good about that, and it gave me hope that we could possibly do some more autocrossing with this car in 2013. After my 2nd fun run I hopped out, thanked Mark for navigating and the event folks for a well marked course and the two fun runs, BamaDave grabbed his GoPro, and I hustled back to the paddock. As I pulled up I was just in time to be rushed off to grid by Amy to take my final TT laps on Saturday. She was hoppin mad, "I've been looking for you for 10 minutes, where have you BEEN?!? Wait... did you just go run that autocross!!!" I had some 'splaining to do.

It had been nearly 6 months since my last autocross run and I missed it more than I wanted to admit. So much so that I signed up to autocross with the Texas Region SCCA for Sunday May 19th. Since my Watts Link is deemed illegal we signed up for StreetMod and I predicted we would be slaughtered by the several AWD turbo regulars that run in this class, but it would still be some cheap thrills on the last bits of these A6s we used at NOLA. Back to the Saturday TT runs...


Saturday Afternoon TT Sessions + NASA Party


This in-car video includes lots of high speed understeer and plenty of driver mistakes

So I ran the 1:51.097 lap above in the first official TT session on Saturday, which was the session after the Warm-Up. The AIM Solo was predicting a 1:50.5 best on the lap above, but I over-drove on T16 and botched the lap by a half second. An American Iron car oiled down the track in one of their races so the NOLA track crew had their hands full cleaning up that mess. Oil dry does not make for the best racing surface, so Mike Weathers (TT1) and I talked about it and we both decided to sit out TT session 2. Turns out that was a good idea, since nobody put down their best times in that session, and all of the cars made puffs of dust smoke going through the oil dry. By TT session 3 the track was clean and I went out again. I took 2 more laps but even during the first hot lap the A6s were getting too hot too quickly and I overdrove Turn 16, blowing the exit speeds and running some 1:51s - with predictive again showing a potential 1:50.0 lap, until I botched that last turn. By the 2nd hot lap the tires were too greasy and lap times were creeping up, so I brought it in.


The Vorshlag paddock became the "Home for wayward Mustangs" all weekend

One lap that isn't shown on video above, but is quite hilarious, is my first hot lap in TT session 1. This is the session where the video above was made, and my quickest time of the day happened, but not until on my 2nd hot lap. On my first lap I was in front of Mike Weather's TT1 car (we agreed to swap places on grid, putting me out in P1, since his best laps happen on Lap 2 or 3 with his dedicated racing slicks). I went out pretty wild and woolly on my first lap and dove deep into Turn 5, braked hard.... and put two left side tires in the mud. It was a pretty hairy ride and I barely kept it from a full 4-off. Mike told me later that it was a great show and we had a good laugh about it, but I crapped my pants for the second time that day. We still don't have proper tow hooks on this car and if it had gotten stuck, man, that would have been a tough extraction.



Check out the outside rear tire - looks like a lot of deformation, but remember: this is a 315mm tire stretched onto a 12" wheel

Overall the car was working pretty well and it was fairly easy to drive. The picture above (Brandon shot some great ones!) shows the car loaded up exiting Turn 16. The outside front tire still has a tick of negative camber with the car fully loaded up, which is what you want. Body roll is within the range we can accept, which with only 600# front springs and a 3800 pound car as raced, is remarkable. There still seemed to be a high speed push, which we feel is completely aero based. The rear APR wing is making far more downforce at speed than the front factory Boss302 Leguna Seca ABS plastic splitter. This was very apparent when taking Turn 8 deep into 5th gear (124-125 mph at corner entry, according to data) and after braking into Turn 1 (with peak speeds of 140-141 mph). Throughout the weekend I was edging up my courage and taking Turn 8 at Wide Open Throttle, then braking significantly for Turn 9 and downshifting mid-corner. Watch my Sunday lap video (in the section lap below) and you can see that it is understeering significantly when cornering at high speeds, as well as real time track speed pulled from the data logger.

NASA's Full Race Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N.../4%20NOLA_May/

I believe on Saturday I took a total of 5 hot laps, two of which were screwed up from me over-driving and one of which was salvageable. Having only the one track session on Friday in dry conditions, I guess I was still learning he track, but by day's end I wasn't improving much. Some of that was the increasing heat of the day fighting against the "it gets hot QUICKLY!" A6 tire compound. I was also feeling the effects from an evening in New Orleans that morning, but was feeling much better after a late lunch.


Left: Mike Patterson had the set-up nailed in his AI Camaro. Right: Mike Weathers' TT1 C6 Corvette was the fastest TT car all weekend

American Iron and CMC had some good battles, other than Mike Patterson dominating the entire field all weekend. He won 3 of 4 AI races and often put a straight-away long gap to 2nd place. He lost a tire in the first lap of Race 4 and had to watch from the sidelines, otherwise I suspect he would have made a clean sweep. Mike's car posted the fastest AI time of the weekend, with a best lap of 1:57.151. Sometimes Mike will pop over to the TT grid and run with us, but he was too busy that weekend, working as a Race Director for another race group. Mike Weathers put the hurt on the TT field with a 1:48.747 on Saturday and then low 1:49s on Sunday. He and I had fun sparring together, at least on my first lap when he was warming up his tires. By hot lap 2 he was usually leaving me behind at a rapid clip.



Saturday night after racing was done we stuck around for the traditional NASA Saturday night party, which from what we've seen at NASA Texas events is not to be missed. And this was in New Orleans, so we hoped for some good eats... and we were not disappointed! The party was held in the Events Center (above left), located 100 feet from our paddock spot. Food was amazing, as expected - seafood gumbo and some of the best jambalaya I've ever eaten - and I've eaten this a lot. When it comes to food, NOLA Motorsports Park doesn't mess around! The NASA Mid-South Region and the NOLA folks also had some "awards" for the various class winners - a medal in the shape of a Fleur-de-lis plus a gift card for $50, that we can use at the NOLA Cafe or NOLA Kart Track. Pretty cool, and the 2 free Hoosier tires for the TT3 win were also much appreciated.



The win on Saturday was with a 1.8 second margin, which was unexpected, especially with TT3 being largest in the TT class. John Roberts was catching up rapidly in his TT3 classed LS1 V8 Miata, and he kept switching tires in nearly every TT session on Saturday, which was messing with my head, heh! He started the day on NT-01s, then switched to Hoosier R6s and at the end of the day he had slapped on Hoosier A6s, like mine. I guess he had 3 sets of wheels - not a bad idea. He was dropping loads of time with each tire change and I had no idea if my time from the first TT session would hold up, so I went out in the last TT session to put in some laps - but went slower due to some driver mistakes and added track heat. The day started out in the 50s and windy, but ended up in the mid 70s and sunny. Beautiful weather really, especially when compared to Friday.

After the Saturday night NASA party and dinner we were all pretty tired and after a few beers back at the Vorshlag trailer we called it an early night and hit the hotel. My worries for Sunday ate at me all night - I'd only have one TT session to get in a good lap, as Amy was to drive TT sessions 2, 3 and 4. What if Roberts kept the A6 tires on all day and kept dropping lots of time? This could be a very short lived TT3 track record if he went faster, and/or if I screwed up my one allotted TT session on Sunday.

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[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Sunday May 5th - TT Race 2


Left: Ryan and I washed the Mustang Friday. Right: He also made a swaybar change on Mark's car for Sunday's Mirrorkhana autocross

So Sunday began early once again, but this time at least I wasn't hung over, so that was a huge plus. I was scheduled to go out in the Mustang in the very first TT session then hand over the keys to Amy for the rest of the day. She wanted some track time to make up for the missed Sunday TT session I was taking, so she was going to head out with the TT3/4 folks right after I ran. We added some fuel and I got to grid early, parking next to Mike Weathers' TT1 Corvette once again. Damn that LSx motor sounds GOOD at idle... you can hear that monster idling at the start of my two in-car videos, and it isn't the stock 5.0L V8 in my car, ha! Our A6s were still fresh but wearing quickly, and I wanted to leave plenty of tire left for Amy, so I told her and the guys I would only take ONE LAP. To keep from overheating the tires on the out lap I also did no scrubbing of the tires (rapid slalom motions) on the warm up lap, and just put-putted along, with just some warming of the brakes. I wanted the A6s nice and cool when my hot lap started. We get the green flag at Turn 13 on our warm up lap, and that's when I laid into it and actually nailed the Turn 13-16 complex correctly on the warm up lap. I was catching up to Mike's TT1 car coming onto the front straight so he let me by right as we took the start/finish on hot lap 1, as shown below...



The video above is my one and only TT hot lap on Sunday, and it was another 1/2 second quicker than my best on Saturday. Hot damn, that was rush! All of the stars were aligned and I didn't over-drive T13-T16 on the previous lap or my hot lap. The temperatures were the coolest of the day (59°F) and that always helps performance with the A6. Brandon was able to get the data from the AIM Solo meshed it to the on-board video this time, using the Dashware software we bought a while back (thanks for the tips, KenO!), but it brought the video quality down a tick in the process (we're working on that). Not much to show other than GPS speeds, a running lap timer clock and the track map. We're working on getting the lateral and fore-aft g readings shown on the next round of videos from a future track event.

Sunday TT Results: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/N...ay%20Final.pdf

This 1:50.535 reset the TT3 track record for the weekend and would hopefully stand up for the day. Amy finally got a chance to drive the car and kept dropping time all day, as she got more and more laps under her belt. She ran an HPDE3/4 session, TT session 2 and TT session 3. It was getting too warm to drop much more time and she stuck with her best lap of 1:54.1 in TT session 3. She skipped session 4 so we could get on the road sooner, and she, Ryan and Brandon loaded the car while I rode with my HPDE1 student on her 8th and final track session of the weekend, late on Sunday.



While Amy was running the rest of the day in TT, I was watching the Race Monitor app on our tablet for real time lap data during the TT run groups, always with a nervous eye on TT3 times. Eric "Trigger" Trigg (above left) dropped a lot of time on Sunday in his TT3 C5 Z06, which he drives to the track, and managed a 1:52.702 on Sunday - his new personal best at this, his home track, and good enough to take 2nd place in the class on Sunday (plus a free tire from Hoosier!). Dysen Pham got a 1:53.257 in his well prepped S2000 to take 3rd. John Roberts (below left) had a wheel bearing take a dump on Sunday and slowed down to a 1:53.930 to take 4th (he is building an all new LS1 Miata for the next event, so look out!). We had a total of 8 cars in TT3 on Sunday, again the biggest TT class, but Amy isn't shown in the TT results (yet). She would have placed 5th - eventually the T&S folks will get the results sorted out (her laps are shown in MyLaps but not the official results). We switch both the numbers on the car and run 2 different AMB transponders, so the data is there for them once they get a chance to sort it all out, but having 2 drivers driving the same car on the same day is always confusing.



By the end of Sunday my first lap mad dash held up and this was good enough for another win, new track record and 2 more tires from Hoosier. Which is a good thing, because we are eating through A6 tires like mad.



The GT1/Super Unlimited Mustang above is a real monster - 750 whp V8 in a wide bodied S197 with the same 355 Hoosier slicks we have in store for our E46 LS1 car. This Terlingua team always put on a good show and driver Mike Stacy didn't disappoint, with a 1:46.893 in Sunday's race. They are based out of Oklahoma and Hallett is their home track, so I'm sure we will see them again at the NASA @ Hallett event on June 22-23.

Time Trial Tires: Hoosier A6 vs R6 or Kumho V710?

We did a lot of damage to a new "sticker set" of Hoosier A6 tires at this weekend, once again. We also did a lot of damage to new sets at TWS, MSR-H and MSR-C. Sometimes we can stretch a set for 2 weekends, but usually it is more like 1-1/2. We are not alone in our tire wear woes - but ask ANY racer and they will likely complain about tire costs, right? But tracking a Hoosier A6 - a tire designed and built for super short heat-up times, for autocrossing - is kind of an unusual thing, but it has become the norm at the pointy end of the grid in TT. We have dubbed it the "TT Arms Race", which has escalated from running NT-01s to R6s to A6s... if you bring a sticker set of A6s then your competitors will likely do so at the next event, too.



A Hoosier R6 has a much longer lifespan on track, as it was designed to shed heat over may laps, and not just "OMFG heat up right now!" for an autocross run like the A6. Since autocross runs usually only lasts 30-60 seconds a tire made for that needs to heat up VERY quickly. Running an A6 on track can be done but they have severe limitations, and I'm not sure it is worth it if you aren't winning the tires. We are currently testing and "learning new tracks" using A6s, which isn't a smart use of tires. We should be testing and learning the track on a better wearing tire like an R6 or the Kumho V710, so we have another set of wheels on order for that very use (hopefully we will have them by the Hallett event). And another set of wheels for dedicated Hoosier Wets would be nice - so we have some Wets tires coming that we will mount to a set of D-Force 18x10s. John Robert's tire management was much better than ours at the NOLA event and we've got to be more mindful of the limited lifespan of the A6, because we won't win 4 new tires every weekend.

Other Challenges and Development

The Mustang is hardly maxed out for TT3 - far from it. This is still mostly a street car, with many of the parts on it from our ESP autocross set-up, but I am pushing Amy to let us develop it into a bit more of dedicated TT3 build. It still has A/C, touch screen Navigation, is 100% emissions legal, bone stock engine, stock clutch/pp/flywheel, stock driveshaft, stock cooling system and stock brakes (with just pads/fluid/front ducting). There are many MANY aspects we can maximize and improve, and most of those are to deal with existing issues we uncover as the car gets faster.



We didn't make substantial parts changes to the car before this event, for once, but that doesn't mean we didn't work on the set-up. As I wrote above, Ryan and Brandon helped take tire pressures and temps all weekend, with changes made to the tire pressures and front camber to get the temps looking better. Brake temperatures were also VERY high in the rear, so we are looking at going with a larger rear brake rotor and adding rear brake cooling. A wider tire would help with mechanical grip, so we're exploring a wider wheel up front (currently 18x11") to possibly match the 18x12" wide rear. And the aero set-up needs a lot of help.

It is apparent when you drive the car that the rear is making more downforce than the front, which turns into a high speed push. Very noticeable at NOLA in turns T2, T8, T9, and T10. To add substantial front downforce will take a lot of work, but we are looking into it. It would be nice to pull some weight off of the front axle as well, but this is also easier said than done.

There are some more things in the works but it is too early to discuss them. Oh, and all of you asking about the Whiteline transmission insert for the Getrag 6-spd on the 2011-2014 GT and Boss302s, we are still waiting on the production order we placed many weeks ago, and I was just told it is about 90 days out - sorry. If you have called or e-mailed us we have you on our waiting list. Thanks for your patience.

The next NASA event we plan on attending is the June 22-23 at Hallett in Oklahoma, then there is another Five Star Ford sponsored track event at ECR June 29. It is getting HOT in Texas so hopefully that is all we do for that month, but we do get pulled into events at the last minute sometimes. We have actually entered and competed in two more events since NOLA (Five Star Ford car show May 18th and SCCA Autocross May 19th), but I don't have time to do the event write-ups just yet so I will save those until next time. We have been busy working on some Vorshlag shop vehicles (like the BMW 740iL and GMC 1500 Parts Runner, the 2013 BRZ, as well as big leaps forward on a few LS1 BMW swaps and the Miata LS1 prototype. I will also cover more on the 2013 GT in the next update, which has undergone a beauty make-over and I am picking it up tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Project Update for June 4, 2013: So in my last project thread update above I talked about two more events we had run but that I didn't have time to cover, as well as some new products and developments that we weren't ready to talk about now. Since my autocross write-up ran long I'm going to start with that first, then jump to part 2 to cover a car show we were at the day before, and move on to "what's next" at the end.


SCCA Autocross at TMS Bus Lot, May 19, 2013

Amy and I took the Vorshlag TT3 prepped 2011 Mustang and ran it in the 3rd autocross of the year for the Texas Region SCCA, the day after we went to a car show on Saturday the 18th (see below). After not autocrossing for 6 months (other than my 2 fun runs at NOLA), we were both a bit rusty and wanted to go support our local region and have some fun carving cones. After signing up the first hurdle was: "What class do we enter"?



As you probably know, the Whiteline Watts Link we used before the 2012 Solo Nationals later didn't meet the SPAC/SEB's definition of a legal Watts Link for Street Prepared class, not for performance reasons but for semantics reasons, so that part now pushed us out of the class we ran in 2012, ESP. After that happened we added a few more popular but "illegal for SP" parts, shown below.



The limitations from the the various Solo classes we ran in 2010-2012 (STX, STU and ESP) were also hurting the competitiveness of this "multi-use" car in other motorsports events such as Optima Challenge, NASA Time Trial, GTA, etc. In late 2012 we focused this car solely around NASA's TT3 class - which gave us the freedom to add some of the more common rear suspension upgrades done to these cars by tens of thousands of S197 users. This included the rear wing we had previously swapped on for Time Trials, as well as aftermarket rear Lower Control Arms + LCA relocation brackets from Whiteline, shown below.



These two rear suspension upgrades are very common mods for solid axle RWD car owners, and don't cost a lot of money. The 4130 tubular steel Whiteline LCAs ($269.99) and Whiteline LCA relocation brackets ($107.99) total $378. That's almost exactly what one of our 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 race tires costs, but these suspension parts can fix a lot of problems with the rear geometry on these Mustangs. Consequently, they are two very popular S197 rear suspension mods.



The biggest improvement of all is in the lowest cost mod here: the bolt-on relocation brackets, which move the pick-up point on the axle-side of the rear LCAs down about 2". This changes the anti-squat geometry on these cars, which gets wrecked when you lower the rear ride height on this (and almost all) solid axle RWD chassis. These brackets are inexpensive and similar designs work on virtually all solid axle 3-link cars rather well, and many thousands of racers use them - but they just haven't made it into the SCCA Solo lexicon for ST or SP. I was curious how the car would respond with these two simple updates in an autocross environment, which were added after we left ESP class. And the Torsen T-2R differential we added after leaving Solo in this car as well. This autocross event would be a good test for all of these new bits. I try to see any event, even ones where we are poorly classed, as a possible test.


Left: Mike Simanyi's beautiful E36 M3, SM winner in 2009, was chock-full of AST/Vorshlag parts. Right: Blue tape classing!

We ended up running in Street Modified, or "SM". This refers to a category of 3 classes: SM, SSM and SMF. SM is for 4 seat cars, SSM is for 2 seat cars, and SMF is for FWD cars. The category was created in the 1990s, which is modern by SCCA terms, so it is much more up to date (and more modern aftermarket component friendly) than the older categories like Prepared, Street Prepared or Stock classes. Unfortunately this class is significantly more unlimited than ST or SP (it is a pretty big jump in the last step from ST to SP to SM), and allows some pretty major changes to the chassis, drivetrain, body and more.

Summary of the SMod Rules: http://www.moutons.org/sccasolo/Rule..._modified.html (actual 2013 Solo rules here)

Street Modified – The top of the “street” categories, Street Modified allows anything from Stock, Street Touring, and Street Prepared and just about any engine and drivetrain configuration as long as the engine manufacturer matches the body manufacturer (see Solo Rules for details). Four-seaters (BMW, Corolla, Civic, Integra, Neon, Supra, Talon, VW, etc.) run in SM and two-seat sports cars (Corvette, CRX, M Roadster, Miata, RX-7, MR2, etc.) compete in SSM. Carbon-fiber hoods, cams, turbo/supercharger kits, etc are welcome, too.

The minimum weight in SM for a 5.0L naturally aspirated OHC motor like ours is 2200 pounds, which is about 1300 pounds lighter than our car is, without driver. You can have metal bushings/sphericals in all suspension pick-up points, custom spindles, virtually unlimited brakes and engine mods (even motor swaps within the same make), custom control arms, add aftermarket turbos/superchargers, composite body panels (hood and trunk), massive aero, remove all emissions, yank the back seats, and more. It is often compared to StreetPrepared, except you should always add "on crack" to the end, heh. I actually really like SM and have raced in it before, but to compete in this category at the top levels takes a purpose built car... way beyond what we have done to our Mustang. Radically lighter, more aero, more tire, and more power. Most of the SM winners at the Solo Nationals are in very light RWD cars with boosted engines or very well prepped AWD cars with boosted engines.



Our region has some fast SM drivers, almost all of whom are in AWD Subaru Imprezas with heavily worked engines and turbos - each one prepped beyond ASP class limits. We've even worked on some of them here at Vorshlag, and I raced against a lot of these guys in STU class for several years, from 2004-2009. SMod is also the "catch-all" class for cars too radical for ST or SP, so we get a lot of that, too. Kind of why we were classed there.



So that's the class we ran, and my pre-made list of excuses... always have to cover the bases in case we lose badly; Glad I got those in there. We were in SMod and were prepared for a whipping. No worries, we were there "just to have fun" and to support our local region, plus to test the new bits added since our last autocross in 2012 - comparing times to classes like SS, ESP and other similar classes. If either of us got beat in SM too badly we could always compare our PAX times to other classes, using the old ESP PAX factor.

The Texas Region SCCA folks gave Amy and I our usual work assignments: she worked Control (radio) and I was the Announcer in the 2nd heat (of 4). In the 2nd heat we worked we got to watch an epic battle in the "X" pro class (full of our regions National Champions and other uber-competitive drivers), which only counts the first 3 runs and is ranked via PAX. Then we had another break for heat 3, and finally got to run in heat 4 at the very end of the day. It was sunny and into the mid 90°F range by then, with temps 20+ degrees hotter than the earlier runs (where we usually find the best grip on A6s). But the course was cleaner with more cars running before us, so that evened things out a tick. By the 4th heat it was just getting so hot that the A6s might have trouble. Having been gone from Solo for 6+ months, I forgot to load the tire sprayer in the trailer - a stupid mistake.



The Mustang was already sporting a used set of 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires, left over from the NASA @ NOLA TT event, and I had another set of Hoosier tire winnings on order for our next TT event, so... we just left those old ones on for this autocross. We left everything on the car identical to the last NASA TT event, actually, except it was extra clean from the Five Star Ford Car Show the day before. Same track pads (Carbotech XP20 front/XP16 rear), too. This was the least prep we've ever done to a car for an autocross as we used to have to swap brake pads and rotors, the rear wing for a spoiler, and more to go from NASA TTS to SCCA ESP. Once we got to grid I bled down the tires (30 psi front and 27 psi rear, cold), fiddled with a shock setting, and slapped on some blue tape numbers. An old racing buddy of mine (and owner of the Alpha Miata LS1 project we are building, slowly but surely), Jason Toth, was on hand to ride shotgun with me on my runs. He saw on FB that we were racing in his back yard so he popped over. He was also kind enough to drive us to lunch in heat 3, so we could leave the truck connected to the trailer and not drive the Mustang on A6s on the street to lunch (always a bad idea).


The above two pictures are courtesy Channel Z Photography

So all of my autocross runs are with the car at TT3 weight (3775) with me in it, plus about 175 lbs for Toth, plus a whole lot of fuel (more than we'd normally run for autox). Plenty of road hugging weight! I was running as the first driver in the car, and we were gridded in the 2-driver line, with Amy running 2nd (also with passengers on most of her runs, just to give people rides). We switched out drivers for each run and managed to get all of our runs in proper class order. The run heat was a little on the small side so it was a frantic rush to swap drivers, seating and wheel positions, change numbers, bleed tires, cool the engine (hood up), set the vidcam, and and get everything reset between runs. We had about 5-6 minutes between each run, so it was tight, even with Toth helping on each run. And it was hot. I was also shooting pics when Amy was running throughout the 4th heat, as well in heats 1 & 3.

• Picture Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...us-Lot-051913/
• Street Mod Results: http://texasscca.org/2013_solo_resul...3_final.htm#SM
• PAX Results: http://texasscca.org/2013_solo_results/tr13_3_pax.htm

As you can see in the results above, we got 5 runs each, and I managed all of them clean. I sometimes can find a little time after my 3rd run, but this time we had a rapidly overheating set of tires and no water to spray them with. It was 92°F when we started running (hottest day of the year, to date - still in May) and the Hoosiers were too hot to touch after my 3rd run. The course was all 2nd gear for us (touching 7200 rpm at one point), with no big "gotchas" other than some oddly spaced slaloms that got increasingly tighter. The big long run from east to west was quite fun and there was a lot of room in the next left-hander (big 180° turn) to make up your own line. The end was pretty pinched off, too, but that's nothing new.



My first run (39.544) was on dead cold tires and cold brakes, and after our first runs I was in 2nd place, behind Henry Lin in his '04 Subaru STi. My second run finally had some heat in the A6 tires and the 38.665 run put me in the lead, and then I put in my quickest lap on my 3rd run, a 38.065 second run (see video, below).


Click above for in-car video. You can set options for resolution (up to 1080P) and go full screen

Great video by Brandon - funny comments he added, color correction, 1080P resolution; we're starting to figure this stuff out. Next time we autox we'll try to get data from the Aim SOLO and merge that also. By my 3rd run the tires had quit "growing" in pressure but they kept getting hotter and hotter. If I would have thought to bring the water sprayer I would have been water cooling them after my 2nd runs on. Tim Bergen (Henry's co-driver) put in some hot runs, and even managed a quicker 38.011, but coned it away. His 38.255 sec 5th run put him in 2nd, with Henry having cone trouble in 3rd. Amy was struggling all day, hitting cones on her first 3 runs, but put in a good 39.301 sec run on her 5th attempt, only .020 back from 3rd. We borrowed a water sprayer from a fellow competitor and drenched the tires before Amy's 5th run, the final run for the car, which seemed to help a lot (she dropped 1/2 sec from her previous best). This region has extras timers for split sector times, and my quickest S1 and S2 times came on my 4th and 5th runs, where the tires were boiling. But even then it was only a composite 37.942 run... so there wasn't much left, on the super heated tires. Sure wished I would have sprayed the tires on my last two runs, tho.




This was a great event overall, with solid competition in the SMod class that gave us a serious run for the money. The course was well marked and flowed well, and there were no major DNF or spin problems, which is always a good sign. The Texas Region SCCA folks put on a very good show, and the event ran smoothly all day - even with the new 4 heat format being tested for the first time. The weather was nice overall, and the 135 entrants all seemed to have a great time, with at least 50 people sticking around for trophies. You can see more events from this club and many other Dallas/Ft/ Worth autox events, at www.dfwautocross.com. With the temperate weather here in Texas we have autocross events virtually every Saturday and Sunday from February to December, and sometimes even January.

continued below...

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Continued from above...


Every win feels like this - even an autocross!

I definitely felt the Torsen T-2R differential's added benefit in this tight, autocross environment. This diff hooks up on road courses, it works in uber-tight autocrosses (2nd time I've got to carve cones with this thing), it is silent and doesn't overheat like the clutch style unit. The tires worked great, for old heat cycled scrubs, and once I got some heat into the brakes, they stopped well enough. Might have run more AoA on the rear wing, but the car felt hooked up in the high speed left hander. There was a serious push (understeer) condition all day, which is evident from my videos. We didn't have time between runs to adjust swaybar settings, or I would have set the rear bar much firmer.


There was so much bodyroll the front struts were running out of droop!

It looks like we are still seeing some major bodyroll, even with the stiffer 600#/in front and 250 #/in rears we went to after the 2012 Solo Nats (450F/175R before), on these 315mm A6 tires. For a serious autox car on these or even bigger gumball tires I could see the need for 800-1000# front springs and much stiffer rear rates (to get the pig to rotate), but yea, it would ride like a dump truck at those rates.

Strangely, my best run (with a passenger) ended up as the 5th fastest run of the overall event, and 10th out of 135 in PAX using the SMod PAX. The faster cars were EVOs in ASP and FP, and one of the SS Corvettes in the X-pro class just edged me out. Just for grins I ran the numbers using the ESP PAX, a class the car is much closer prepared to... and it would have placed 1st in overall PAX. Oh well, I can "calculate" myself into an F1 Championship, if I try hard enough, heh! Felt good to pull out this squeaker of a win in SMod, in any case. And it was a lot of fun for only thirty bucks - autocrossing entry fees are so cheap!


Five Star Ford of Plano Auto Show, May 18, 2013

The car show was actually the day before the autocross (for another double-header, busy weekend). This was hosted by Five Star Ford of Plano, Texas. Corey White, the dealer we buy our Fords from and send others to get theirs, sets up cars shows and track days, so we try to go out and support his events. The proceeds from this car show went to a local charity they support, too. We were so buried that day and never broke out the Nikon, so all of the pictures taken at this event were using my camera phone (Galaxy S4 set to 5 MP).

Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Car-Show...d-Show-051813/

Corey said we could bring out our race trailer, a bunch of demo parts, and our TT3 Mustang if we were a sponsor. The guys at the shop washed the car and loaded up for the car show and autocross, and away we went. Got to the dealership at about 7:15 am, set-up our trailer and then unloaded. With a nice donation to the charity we were now official event sponsors and an entrant into the "pro street" car show class as well.

Amy and I have shown cars at shows in the past, and brought out samples of our parts, but never really had a lot of people stop by. I don't know why, but the folks at this car show responded very well and we had 100+ people come by and look at the car and the shiny suspension bits we showed off.



I spent about an hour detailing the car after we unloaded it. Like most cars that see a lot of track use, our Mustang was covered from front to back with "rubber". Rolled up bits of "klag" litter most race tracks and when a car in front drives over this stuff it kicks back onto the car behind, which leaves a big blob of rubber transfer on the paint. Our car also kicks up plenty of klag on its own, which gets deposited along the sides behind all 4 wheels, too. The white vinyl stripes were covered in this stuff and the XPEL clear paint protection film was covered, too. You can use some aggressive hydrocarbon based cleaners and get the stuff off of the paint, but these chemicals almost always damage clear PPF or cut vinyl graphics (leaving them discolored, yellowed, or worse). So we just wash the car and live with the black marks.

This time I tried a new product, "Goof Off 2" or "Goof Off Heavy Duty". This stuff is finally safe for automotive finishes, vinyl, clothes, etc. As opposed to "Goof Off Professional Strength", which is a good bit harsher and not safe on films and vinyls. We have used the latter for years on really stubborn tar and grease stains on paint, but always followed it up with fresh coat of wax. The new "safer" stuff still works great and doesn't damage or yellow PPF; the rubber marks just wiped right off. I spent a solid 30-45 minutes making the car cleaner than it has been in years, and followed that up with a quick spray and wipe down with Meguiars Quick Detail - a spray detail & wax product I've used for years.



Once the outside was clean, I opened the hood and it was also dirty. It wasn't really "dirty", just not as clean as I like my cars' engine bays to be. I normally use a whole bag of tricks and tools to detail engines, none of which I had with me, so I just spent 30 minutes and used just a bunch of Armor All and elbow grease. Hand detailed every surface, and it came out pretty well, as you can see above.



The other cars were arriving by the time I got the car cleaned up, and Amy had set-up our display table with all sorts of goodies. We had S197 Mustang shocks from Bilstein, AST and MCS. Vorshlag camber plates, Whiteline LCA relocation brackets and a Watts Link kit, fluids, brake parts, COBRA seats, and more. The pull out shade on the trailer was popular, so we set up about 8 chairs and rolled out our cooler full of drinks, and it became a regular party. I think we stayed busy talking to folks for about 7 or 8 straight hours, stopping only briefly to grab some of the free burgers and dogs that the Ford folks cooked up.



Towards the end of the day I broke away for a bit to look at the other cars at the show, most of which were S197 Mustangs. There was some vintage muscle car iron there, like the yellow 1969 Mustang Boss 302 shown above. This was a 1 owner car who's son was parked next to him with his yellow 2013 Boss 302. Pretty cool. Lots of folks we see at track events were there, like Jerry and Brian with their Boss 302s (who both help organize and run some ECR track events), and the Meher family (husband, wife and 2 daughters all track their cars, including two S197s and a 5th gen Camaro), among others. Even my neighbors the Stewarts, who own five beautiful S197 Mustangs, were there. It was a good sized show and at the end of the day were pleasantly surprised to see that the car won its car show class? I guess all that cleaning didn't go to waste, heh.



The dealership a real S197 Cobra Jet out on display, as well as a number of Roush Mustangs and Raptors. Met a lot of really nice folks, and twisted a few arms to get hopefully a few of the car-show-only folks to come out to the June 29th ECR track event, put on by this same dealership. It made for a long day but we got to talk to a lot of people and show off some cool new suspension options for the S197 chassis. Speaking of that...


Vorshlag is now an MCS Shock Dealer

Everyone reading this probably knows that Vorshlag is a dealer for AST, Moton, Bilstein and Bilstein Motorsports shocks. What you might not know is that several months ago we became a stocking dealer for Motion Control Suspensions, a maker of high end monotube racing dampers. The principles of this company were the same folks who ran Moton for 15 years, with links back to JRZ and earlier companies, so they are no strangers to monotubes. They make double and triple adjustable, remote reservoir racing shocks (RR2 and RR3) like other high end brands, but now they have introduced two models that might appeal to the dual-use driver: non-remote reservoir coilover monotube racing shocks with single (TT1) or double adjustments (TT2).

MCS Internal Singles (TT1), Coilover Shocks for S197 Mustang: http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info...roducts_id=582



I won't bore you with too much "salesy stuff" here, as you can go to the link above to learn more about these singles. But I gotta mention a few things. MCS shocks are all built and assembled in the USA, and made from parts sourced from Western Europe or the USA. Very robustly built, with a feature that allows the single adjustables to be converted to double or triple adjustables with remotes, or even double-adjustable "internal" shocks, with just some parts changes (housings are interchangeable). This makes for a truly upgradable shock family. Vorshlag is stocking several car models in the MCS TT1 shocks and has ordered the new TT2 models for a few cars as well. You can read more about the various shock brands and models we sell here on our Vorshlag Shock Page, linked on our website.


Further Mustang Development

We have some more changes in store for our 2011 GT, as I have hinted at on Facebook and in some forum posts. Our current tire package barely fits the OEM fender contours, but I want more mechanical grip for this high weight / high power package we run in TT3 (we are at the higher end of the class 9.5:1 weight to power ratio). The 315/30/18 is a bit squeezed on the 18x11" front but fits very well, and is slightly stretched on the 18x12" rear. Ideally I'd like to have more tire width.


The Hoosier 315mm front, 345mm rear looks like it fits, but it rubbed terribly out back

The goal is to use the 335/30/18 front and 345/34/18 rear. I've tried the 345 Hoosier on the rear before, on the 18x12" rear wheels we have now (see above), but it rubbed inside and outside. Now this was before we had the Watts Link and the Whiteline rerouted swaybar, so those later updates might help out back. But up front, we are simply out of "fender real estate". The front 18x11's already poke out just a hair... and there's not 3mm of inside wheel room left, and we already run -3.5° of camber up front to help with tire to fender clearance.

We also want to to be able to run two tire compounds in a given NASA TT weekend, with the harder Hoosier R6 used for a majority of the laps for a given weekend (to learn the track, get base settings dialed in, just to "have more fun" and get more seat time!) and then switch to the A6 tires for one magic lap per day... but only if needed. Remember that TT Arms Race I talked about in my last post? We need to get away from running on the A6 compound. Right now we're just not getting many laps out of a set of A6 tires, but they are worth some extra time - once you know the track. These super short lived tires are a poor choice for learning a new track or to test with, as they fall off quickly. To get more laps we've switched to a 315/30/18 Hoosier R6. That's the set that arrived today, and what we will use at Hallett...



To be able to run both compounds in the same day without a frantic and expensive trackside tire dismount/mount/balance, we've ordered another set of 18x12" Forgestar F14s. They were able to make them in less than a week (they like us!) and we are having them powder coated in Dallas, to make our June 22nd event deadline. We ordered 18x12" wheels for the front, too. Yes, all of the extra width is outboard, so this will widen our front track as well as make the tires "poke" out past the fenders by a huge amount.

This requires another solution: front flares. And wider front bumper cover. We're going to try to get as much of this done before Hallett as we can, then finish the other front aero mods we have planned over the summer (there aren't any NASA Texas events in July-August). Once these tires are gone we'll order up the 335F/345 rear, and likely flare the rear fenders as well. Shh... don't tell Amy, who doesn't want us to cut the rear fenders! The front fenders can un-bolt so we can "save" her OEM front bumper cover and front fenders. There's a lot more in store, but I don't want to spoil all of the surprises.


Above are the weights for the GT500 rear 13.77" dia rotor (left) and caliper (right)

The rear brakes on the 2011 GT are getting upgraded. We're going from the OEM 11.81" diameter rear rotors to the 13.77" rears (and calipers and brackets) from the 2013-14 GT500. Hopefully this will add a little more brake bite. We will test it at Hallett and report back. We also have some mods planned for my black 2013 GT, which just came back from the paint shop (Heritage Collision in Sherman, TX). All of the hail damage that came on this car is now repaired, and it looks 100% perfect. Every panel was touched, and the aluminum hood had to be repainted, but you can't tell anything was ever dinged before. The same set of D-Force 18x10" wheels we used on this car briefly are going back on with some 295mm street tires, then we're going to upgrade the wimpy 13.2" front brakes to 14" Brembos (see below), using a kit we're putting together (see below) with the best parts we can source and/or make.


Upcoming Vorshlag S197 front brake upgrade kit, shown with the unmodified OEM dust shields

This front brake upgrade kit will consist of new OEM Ford Brembo calipers, a choice of Carbotech brake pads, Vorshlag brake lines, Centric 14" rotors, Vorshlag brake duct/backing plates made for 3" brake hose (using the proper tubing size for actual 3" hose, so you don't have to cut it open the hose - like on most kits - not yet shown), and all new OEM bolts and mounting hardware. Will post up more when that kit is done.



That's a 2011+ Mustang Brembo 4 piston caliper next to a Gen I Cadillac CTS-V Brembo 4 piston caliper. Massive difference in size and weight. Just wanted to show that "not all 4 piston Brembos are the same", and that the OEM 4 piston caliper used on the S197 Mustang is one big mutha! The added size and heft (8 pounds vs 5 pounds) give the Mustang caliper more stability, more heat capacity, and uses both larger pistons and a larger brake pad. The "V" caliper is going on a 4th gen Camaro in our shop, and it just happened to be here for comparison at the same time as the Mustang unit. These are both dwarfed by the 6-piston Gen II CTS-V caliper we have coming for another project, though.

As a teaser, here's the list of new Vorshlag products for the S197 that are currently in development:

• 14" Brembo Front brake upgrade kit with cooling ducts
• 14" GT500 Rear brake upgrade kit
• A proper oil/air seperator kit for the S197 5.0L Coyote
• A diff fluid catch can kit for 8.8" S197 Mustangs
• A bolt-in S197 seat bracket with slider and harness mounts for various Cobra side-mount seats
• Tremec Magnum XL 6-spd swap kit for S197 5.0L Coyote
• Production run of stainless braided/Teflon lined/Brake Quip sourced, better brake flex lines for the S197

Will talk more about each item as it is completed and released.


Next Events?

The next NASA Time Trial event scheduled for the 2011 is at Hallett in Oklahoma June 22-23. Then the following Saturday the 29th we have another Five Star Ford ECR Track Day planned, where Amy is driving the 2011 and I should be driving the 2013 GT. Trying to continue our testing that we've done at this track using the 2013 GT, where we went from "nearly bone stock" (just on 18x10" wheels and 295/35/18 NT-05s) and ran a 2:07, then added AST double adjustable coilovers (4200RR) and some Carbotech pads and dropped a whopping 4 seconds to run 2:03 laps... on the exact same wheels and tires. Now we'll have the same suspension and tires but just an upgrade to the 14" Brembos + ducting... will be interesting to see if we can go any quicker, or if this just allows more hot laps before we have brake fade. I will post up the results after June 29th. The 2013 GT will likely be sold immediately following that ECR event, which I will post about here, of course.

This update already went way too long, so that's all for now...

[zeroescape]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Any idea what the non brembo GT caliper weighs? Ive heard 11 Lbs, i have it almost off the car but i dont want to bleed brakes just to weigh it.

[Arnie A.]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Hi Terry and Crew, I'm building up my 2011 GT, as a daily driver, but have been invited on Porsche runs, so I have to up grade the " floppy suspension" as You so aptly put it. I ordered your assembled Vorshlag Bilstein caster/camber plate combos, much to the delight of my Porsche owner friends. I will also be putting on White Line sway bars and upper/lower control arms which should make for a great handling mustang. If it was up to me, I would be putting on the AST dampers ( double adjustable) but I'm married, soooo, a balancing act is in order. This will also be my auto-x car against said Porsches, fortunately not a formal classification format, just a " friendly " auto-x. Keep up the great work.

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Any idea what the non brembo GT caliper weighs? Ive heard 11 Lbs, i have it almost off the car but i dont want to bleed brakes just to weigh it.

Good question... we're going to swap the 13.2" brakes on our '13 GT for the 14" Brembos, so we will have both sets of S197 front brake parts off to weigh soon.

Hi Terry and Crew, I'm building up my 2011 GT, as a daily driver, but have been invited on Porsche runs, so I have to up grade the " floppy suspension" as You so aptly put it. I ordered your assembled Vorshlag Bilstein caster/camber plate combos, much to the delight of my Porsche owner friends. I will also be putting on White Line sway bars and upper/lower control arms which should make for a great handling mustang. If it was up to me, I would be putting on the AST dampers ( double adjustable) but I'm married, soooo, a balancing act is in order. This will also be my auto-x car against said Porsches, fortunately not a formal classification format, just a " friendly " auto-x. Keep up the great work.

Thanks, and best of luck to ya! The Bilsteins are a GREAT dual-purpose street/track damper and you won't be disappointed. The inverted 40mm strut shafts have a lot less deflection under cornering loads than the little 22mm twin tube struts do. It all helps.

[Arnie A.]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Terry is it possible to get a price on a set of 18x11 inch forgestar wheels for my 2011 mustang? Arnie A.

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Terry is it possible to get a price on a set of 18x11 inch forgestar wheels for my 2011 mustang? Arnie A.

Arnie,

The best way to contact us about quotes is to e-mail us to info@vorshlag.com.

Thanks

[A-pex]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Any updates on the Whiteline Trans Bushing?

[twistedneck]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Nice Whiteline brackets. Can you explain how the anti squat helped? did you have reduced front end dive from it also? I have an issue now where my upper link smacks the underbody when I hit second using drag radials, there is a huge amount of rear end squat and I think the rear end wraps up and back I also have lowering springs and no re-lo brackets. wondering if that may reduce rear end squat by x amount.

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build

Project Update for July 22, 2013: Dang, has it been six weeks since my last post in this thread? So much going on at the shop, been to the track 3 different times, lots of new S197 Development, our production E46 LS1 swap launched, and I got behind again. I started writing this post several weeks ago, then two of my guys went to support a racer at Pikes Peak and that put the picture and video processing from recent racing events behind schedule, and I put off finishing my post. But the longer I wait the more it keeps snowballing, so I am going to break this up over several smaller posts and just get started.

More Race Prep for the Vorshlag TT3 2011 Mustang GT

We almost never run the car the same way twice, as we're always trying to develop new parts to make the car faster. Hopefully some of them turn out to be parts we can sell - which is always a driving force in any of our Vorshlag project cars. Anyway, before the NASA event at Hallett, June 22-23, I wanted to work on a few front grip improvements. One thing I keep complaining about as we run at faster and faster tracks is a front end push in high speed corners. That 125mph entry into Turn 8 at NOLA was pretty hairy, and had significant understeer. The rear wing seems to be producing plenty of downforce, but the ABS plastic, OEM front Leguna Seca splitter isn't keeping up on the opposite end.

We didn't get to fix any of that aero imbalance just yet (we will have more on this in a future update this summer), but I've suspected that we have had a mechanical grip imbalance on the car for a while. This could be from a number of factors, such as a track width difference front to rear, as well as a wheel width deficiency on the front axle. As most folks know, even with the same tire width, the width of the wheel that the tire is mounted to can affect usable grip at the road surface. And while the 12" wide wheel on the back of our car seems to some as a bit of a stretch for the 315mm tires we run, the same 315 on the 11" wide front wheel looks a bit pinched. The shoulders of the front tire tread are significantly more curved when you look at them closely, when mounted. And I don't want to stick with 315mm tires forever, either - every time we've increased tire width the car gets faster.


Our 2011 GT with 18x11" front and 18x12" rears - can't fit much more without flares

As I have discussed in previous updates, we are running a set of Forgestar F14s in 18x11" front and 18x12" rear this season and part of the last, with the 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 (and R6) or Kumho V710 in 315/35/18 tires at both ends. As you can see in the picture above, those are extreme fitments on the S197 chassis, without fender mods. Any more wheel or tire width up front and the wheel would poke outside the fenders. Same for the rear, which is pretty much maxed out. But I still felt we could gain some front grip (and potentially room for more front tire) if we went with 18x12" wheels up front, but only if we were then willing to cut and flare the fenders. Well, that time has come. We also needed a second set of wheels for race weekends, so we could test and learn the track on a more cost effective, durable tire than the Hoosier A6 (super sticky autocross tire) and then mount the A6 set for one session (hopefully) of faster laps. So Jason, Ryan and I took some measurements and we ordered up a set of 4 more custom 18x12" wheels, again, with different front and rear offsets. We tweaked the rear wheel backspacing but essentially kept the front backspacing the same as the old 11's.


Originally we had this 18x12" wheel built to fit a 345/45/18 Hoosier, but sadly this 13" wide tire rubbed like mad out back. Someday...

To fit this rather large 18x12" out back on a Mustang under the stock fenders takes a lot of parts and some compromises, and I think for the more extreme S197 racers an 18x11" would be better fit at both ends. For that wheel width I think the optimum tire size would be something in a 295-305mm width, as the 315mm tire is a bit squeezed. Not a lot of R compound tires to choose from in that size, but we ran across some 305/650/18 racing slicks and bought a bunch of them recently. I will discuss a potential "mounted and balanced" race tire/wheel set in one of my next posts. We've got a set of 18x11's coming in here next week and we will confirm our sizing measurements on my 2013 GT (which is for sale, here - more on that in a bit). For most track guys the 18x10" wheel is an even better solution, as this wheel can work without spacers and still rotate front to back.


New set of 18x12" Forgestar F14 wheels in gunmetal with a "flat clear" + a new set of Hoosier R6 "practice tires" (winnings from NOLA weekend)

Forgestar was able to quickly build the new 18x12" set for us to our new specifications, but they were backed up a couple of weeks in powder coating so we had the set sent to us in the raw machined form. I took the raw wheels to our local powder coater, who does lots of wheels and knows the temperatures that you must stay under to avoid ruining the heat treat of the alloy (which we confirmed with Forgestar). He showed me some sample boards and then convinced me to try a new clear coat finish called a "flat clear". So on this set we kept the same gunmetal gray color code that Forgestar used on the first set of F14s, but went with this new flat clear coat final finish, which came out pretty damned good. This is different than a typical "flat" powder coat finish, which is flat in the base coat and doesn't have a clear coat at all. Those finishes can stain more easily but since this set-up has a separate clear coat (just one that has a flat finish) it should hold up better. Pretty slick, looks cool, and we'll see how it holds up to the heat and stresses of track abuse (2 events on them so far, and it looks perfect).



I knew all along we would have to trim the front fenders to clear these now 1" wider wheels, as the entire extra inch of wheel width is all outboard (we already had the wheels tucked right up to within 3mm of the strut on the inside). This increases the front track by 2" total now, and also means the tire is going to poke past the fenders about 1" per side. More front track generally adds more grip at that end, too. All part of the plan.


Left: The original fender is now "wall art". Right: Sometimes these crazy ideas do involve alcohol

We searched and found a slightly lower cost fender for the '10-12 Mustang online, but once you factored in shipping it was cheaper to get two new fenders from Ford. Fine with me, as I like to use factory sheet metal whenever I can. After those arrived in black e-coat, it was time to measure and cut up the brand new fenders. First we pulled off the OEM fenders (which Amy wanted to keep unmolested, and are now Wall Art - soon to be joined by the OEM hood and front bumper cover), pulled off a front spring, installed the new wheel/tire combo, reassembled the front suspension, loosely attached the new fenders, and compressed the wheel and tire up to full bump travel on the Moton struts. Then we marked this spot (the loose fenders were pulled out of the way of the compressed tire), transferred this mark to the new fenders and cut a 1/4" above that. The plastic fender liner was trimmed to the new outer fender contour as well.


This fender cutting is an ugly, temporary measure - we will make some proper flares when we have more time, over the next few months

This fender is now cut "beyond safe", as the tire cannot physically get to that point without the struts exploding. We checked for clearance with the front wheels turned in both directions at full lock, while compressed at full bump and dropped at full droop, as well. This amount of fender clearance and testing might seem like overkill to some, especially the Stance/VIP crowd (who strangely LIKE it when their wheels rub their fenders?!) but I've seen too many racers cut brand new tires on under-trimmed fenders. I don't want to end a race weekend over something we can prevent with proper preparation and testing (I'd rather hit a curb on track and end a day early that way, ugh!). Ryan cut the offending portions off of both fenders with an air nibbler and a cut off wheel, then swapped in a stiffer front spring (we went from 60mm x 7" x 550#/in spring to an 800 #/in rate up front now) and firmly attached the now cut and very ghetto looking "new" fenders. Once on the ground I asked the guys to lower the front ride height by 1", which I've been wanting to do for a LONG time.


Left: Even with -3.4° front camber we have some "poke" on the new 18x12s. Right: Running to get a tank of 93 octane and ice before Hallett

Rear Spring and Ride Height Changes

Out back we lowered the rear ride height an inch, to match the front. Finally, the car is at the proper ride height. Yes, we've been running the car a bit higher than we wanted for a while now, simply to keep the 315s from rubbing on the front fenders in a big bump. I'm paranoid as I've ruined front fenders before getting them too close to a new wide tire and wheel combo. The rear fenders already cleared the 12" wide rears at lower ride heights, and we had the rear LCA relocation brackets since last Fall (to fix any geometry issues on the very lowered rear heights), but the fronts were a worry.

No, fender rolling wouldn't have been enough - not even close. The 11's were already pushing the limits, and could have rubbed at a lower ride height. The 12" wheels were 1" out past the old 11's, so it would have been deep inside the sheet metal. Now that we have finally cut the front fenders, the overall ride height could drop. This will allow the front splitter to be more effective (the closer to the ground it is, the better it works) as well as lower the CG of the entire car by an inch - always a plus. We quickly found that loading the car onto our trailer just got a LOT harder, though. Doh! Oh well, nothing some longer ramps cannot handle (until we make the front end removable - later this summer, hopefully).



While the guys were working on the rear ride height, they swapped out the 250 #/in springs we had been running to a stiffer 350 #/in rate Hyperco spring, to match with the front spring rate bump. Why more spring rate? Well we had been noticing a lot more bodyroll than we liked in pictures of late. As grip and aero forces increase, spring rates need to rise as well. The Mustang is now truly "uncomfortably stiff" on the street (with the valving set for track use), but it isn't as bad as some cars I've driven over the years.

The custom valved Motons (using AST-USA's DDP digressive pistons) can be turned down a lot and it isn't as miserable as you'd think... but I'd still recommend lower rates for any dual-purpose car. If you are moving up to AST/Moton/MCS/Bilstein or another brand of monotube shocks we carry you can see them all compared on our revamped shock intro page. If you have any valving or spring rate questions beyond that, please feel free to call or e-mail us. Suspension is still the meat of our business.



A-ha! Finally remembered this one. I meant to put these rear control arm weights somewhere in this thread many months ago. We added these Whiteline rear Lower Control arms (LCA) in the Fall of 2012, after we left the SCCA's classing behind for this car (STU and ESP doesn't doesn't allow aftermarket rear LCAs, relocation brackets, and all sorts of other common aftermarket parts available for these cars - "its the SCCA", what can I say?). These lower control arms are adjustable in length, tubular steel, stiffer yet slightly lighter than stock, and filled with Whiteline's famous elastomer bushings. These things have worked very well on our Mustang (track, street and autocross), make no noise, and don't have the deflection of the SUPER SOFT rubber that are in the OEM arms (as well as the Roush billet aluminum arms with OEM bushings - an odd item, that we recently installed for a customer). OEM stamped steel arms were 6.0 pounds vs the Whiteline arms at 5.3 pounds. I wouldn't have thought that the flexy, stock stamped steel arms would be heavier than the thick walled, tubular, alloy steel, adjustable length WL arms, but the scale doesn't lie. I hate it when I talk about a particular part and forget to weigh the dang things, and the OEM part it replaces. So this is just a catch-up to previous posts. Trying to stay consistent.

(Continued below)