Vorshlag's E36 LS1 at the 2008 GRM UTCC!

[Faerus]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 CARDOMAIN site? - vote for UTCC!

Anyone interested in helping is more than welcome. We've got so many little things to do. Change oil, mount passenger seat, move battery, mount E30 driver's seat, swap springs, mount 12V plugs, etc.

If anyone is free this week at night we could use some help! Working till 2AM last night just wasn't cutting it apparently.

Give me a call. Tomorrow I will hopefully be building my motor and it's my birthday, but who knows as I keep running into small problems, took me 2 hours to finally find a place that sold the bolts I need bolt the engine to the engine stand and then I forgot that I need to go pick up the bar to pump the engine hoist. I should be available tonight, Thursday and Friday.

[cledbetter]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 CARDOMAIN site? - vote for UTCC!

I am free Wednesday or Thursday after 4pm and can help out. Give me a call if you want me to come out. 817-403-0774

[hancheyb]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 CARDOMAIN site? - vote for UTCC!

Yes yes, we owe people for Stage 1 stuff and if you called us last week, we probably didn't answer or not very often. Ronnie from AST was in town doing more advanced training, we got our shock dyno up and running.



Went over some new product ideas, went to MSR all day Friday and drove to TWS Saturday to get checked out for our NASA TT license for the GRM UTCC. We had a blast at MSR. Almost no one was there so there were several sessions where it was just us switching out and driving non stop. The car worked GREAT. We made some minor adjustments to compression settings, but other than that the car was pretty amazing.

Aside from the fact that neither Terry or myself have driven on road courses for sometime now, we quickly got back in the saddle. Terry was autocrossing every turn for a while, but ended up getting smoother and smoother throughout the day. Obviously the car has so much more in it, but this was the first day on track so we weren't acting crazy with it. Not to mention we haven't sent it to DP for the cage yet so there's minimal protection right now. So, no MSR "expert bench racer" comments please. We know we're not using the whole track, got it, noted.

Turn it up!
http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/gallery/...96857688_9eK4d

Saturday we got up and drove to TWS for a track day down there. Tons of people there we knew, some we'd talked to, never met face to face. TWS was running the 2.9 mile course and boy did it ever show off why this whole project started. The car wasn't pretty amazing, it was flat out incredible. The things we were getting away with were scaring our instructors but, again the car has so much more still. Both our instructors got out ready to sell their cars for an LS1 BMW. I can't really describe it. If you've ridden with us at an autocross, that doesn't show off half the potential of the car. By the end of the day I was allowed to run in the fast group pacing a modified ZO6 pretty much nose to tail for several laps till I ran out of gas. In capable hands, the car could do even more. What an awesome weekend. Sorry if we didn't answer vmails or emails, but if you drive this car, you'd understand our momentary lapse of sanity.

Again, the car was pretty much flawless all weekend. I'd bring it in after a 20 minute session and Fair would hop in and leave immediately with no cool down. Everyone wants big brakes? We have stock-sized brakes and never overheated them. The fact that it weighs 2490 doesn't hurt, but anyone that rides in it usually almost hits the windshield the first time you hit the brakes. Even FAIR can't overheat them. He's the latest braking human I've ever seen.

[DBeck]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 CARDOMAIN site? - vote for UTCC!

Wow that video from MSR is great to watch. The car sounds awesome and appears real stable. If you all need help this week in the evening let me know.

Dave-

I tried to find a smiley face to put in this reply but I couldn't find one for jealous since that's how I fell.....

[Fair!]

Vorshlag's thrash to get the E36 LS1 ready for UTCC

http://www.cardomain.com/MakeModel/a.../category%7C25 = looks like 96 cars were trying to get the invite to the UTCC, but only 36 showed up. And our entry fell down the list - wtf? More than half the cars in the top 20 user picks didn't show.

Wow... what a week last week. It was a total thrash to get everything done on the E36 LS1 Alpha car to get ready for the UTCC event. Car needed a cage and paint, new fuel regulator, new upper radiator hose, new numbers, bunch of AST/VoMo decals, plus lots of little odds and ends to be NASA TT legal. Well... the cage got a delayed start so paint ended up being "hit it with Krylon!" and it went out the door looking not quite show quality. It was worth the wait though... the cage looks GOOD!

The welds are beautiful and the fit-up between tubes was incredible. Taylor at DP is an artist. You couldn't fit a piece of paper between the tubes in any joint before being TIG welded! The X in the door gives ample side impact strength and LOTS of room to the driver. We added SFI foam padding on the upper bars track side but it wasn't needed, as it was several inches from your arm once in place. The aluminum 95 LTW M3 doors both have the factory door bar still in place so we didn't technically need a cage for running NASA TT.... but it just gives us good piece of mind. And after seeing so many "offs" at the UTCC it was worth the wait.

We didn't get everything done beforehand we needed so, so several things were finished on site including a new 6 point Sparco harness for the driver, installed a new I/O port camera mount, had vinyl numbers made on site, installed tons of decals, added roll cage padding, new rear tires mounted (Sunday) and various tweaks here and there. More soon on the actual UTCC event!

[Fair!]

Vorshlag's E36 LS1 a success at UTCC!

Vorshlag Motorsports LLC Successfully Completes Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge

We’re just getting back from the GRM UTCC event at Buttonwillow Raceway in Buttonwillow, California. This event is approximately 25 hours from our home base in Dallas, TX.

As with all well laid out schedules, they seldom do go as planned. April and May were set aside to get the car ready for UTCC. Cage work had to be done, new fender flares, and of course a shiny coat of paint for the cameras. Unfortunately the plan didn’t go so smoothly. The cage ended up being done at 2AM the Thursday we were leaving for California. And since the cage had to be done before the paint, you guessed it, no paint. But after all, this is a grassroots event right? The tubes were still hot as we rolled it onto the trailer.

We did an “iron-man” drive straight through to California, getting to Buttonwillow at 3PM on Friday. The event was Sunday. Luckily the track was open for practice so we unloaded the car and headed out to learn the 3.0 mile, #13 “Clockwise” configuration. We were a little tired after the journey but managed to stay out of the way of a few American Iron Extreme beasts, Formula cars and an LS7-powered Morgan.

Our car – our test mule E36 LS1 autocross/track car - felt great right out of the box. Of course we were in no condition to judge handling just getting a few laps in at speed. Best we could both do after a handful of laps each were 2:12 laps, which was certainly not the limit of the car. It was a tricky track that we need to concentrate as much seat time on quickly so Brian was tapped to drive the remainder of the weekend.

Saturday was a different day. The car sailed through tech with only a minor hiccup. We hadn’t done some of the harness-to-cage integration correctly so we adjusted the belts and got stickered. Everyone was rested and Brian ended up turning some 2:05 laps in one of the sessions, getting better. The car worked flawlessly. We did find some loose bolts so we decided to double check everything during one of the practices. The car seemed a little loose so we tightened the front bar a little bit which helped. Saturday was a practice day that ended before noon so that the 6 hour enduro could run. NASA was hosting the weekend which included this endurance race. We hung out and watched the 6 hour race and met lots of locals, which was great. Terry took many pictures we’ll post shortly.

Saturday evening rolled around and all the big UTCC heavy hardware showed up. CalClub regulars that knew the track with their RVs and toterhomes were coming in and setting up their tents. This should be interesting…hmm, a Radical with a V8, a few 700 hp AIX cars, OK, a half dozen Ariel Atoms, yes, don’t forget the Lotus 7s…and the list goes on. There was already a Morgan LS7, Porsche Cup Car, and other AIX cars there, now the list was growing. We turned to each other and said, next year will bring more power, so let’s focus on handling today - that’s it! We came with Hankook R compounds (no slicks), no aero, no turbos, no superchargers, so we were in for a treat!

If you’re not familiar with the format, UTCC is a Time Trial event – it’s all about getting your single fastest lap. There is a qualifying session in the morning to set up the split of competitors into two groups (A&B), then the driver gets three 20 minute sessions, one in the morning and two in the afternoon. The qualifying session determined if you ran in the Group A or Group B session, faster being Group A. We took the car out and it was just loose everywhere managing a 2:04 for qualifying putting us at 15th slot for the fast A group. The cars mentioned above were running mostly 1:50-1:55 sec laps. Our goal was to use our Hankooks to get the car ready and run UTCC on them in the 2 months previous to this event. It appears they didn’t quite make it to Sunday with so much abuse. The rears were completely shot after qualifying. Brian couldn’t accelerate out of any of the corners without considerable restraint. Luckily we thought to bring two Kumho 710s with us. We rolled them over to the tire store, which has the coolest automated tire mounting machine on the planet. It was almost completely “no touch”.

With the fresh rear tires on Brian went out for the morning qualifying session. These runs do count. As the egos flared, the cars began to spin. First lap, there goes the Radical, most of the top cars had “offs” at one point or another. Buttonwillow is all sand, so any off kicks up dust like you wouldn’t believe. It looked like bombs had gone off there was so many clouds of dust.

The Alpha car got exactly what it needed, new rear tires! The car was noticeably faster just coming out of the pits, no more feathering the throttle. Brian drops down to a 2:00 with rears alone. That will teach us the valuable lesson of tires….again. We try to push tires as far as possible, but that’s what you get. 2:00 puts us 12th on the grid. Keep in mind there were two cars between 1:58 and 2:00, the rest were the fast cars down in the 1:47-1:50 range.

At day’s end almost every car with a faster time was damaged in some way, mostly from “offs”, but the Alpha ran flawlessly all weekend. The only glitch: the 15 year old ignition key tumbler got stuck just as Brian was about to head out for one session. After 5 frantic minutes of investigation, Fair put “The Fonz” on it (punched it) and the car started. No lie, it was funny. An easy fix for sure. The car never overheated, never lost brakes, never stalled, and never went off. We ran all the sessions without incident; we just put gas in it. Not bad for a junkyard motor that has never had the valve covers off. As the day got hotter and hotter Brian moved up farther in each session’s standings. While we didn’t improve on our 2:00 morning lap, we moved up to 4th fastest for the last session with a 2:01 in 95 degree heat. Cars that would pass and leave us in earlier sessions weren’t leaving us anymore, or were being passed by the budget built Bimmer. Not bad for a couple of autocrossers from Texas having never driven Buttonwillow. We would have broken the 2 minute barrier if conditions were better, for sure.

If you ever get a chance to go to Buttonwillow, do it! This course is a blast, but you’ll need huge man parts. It is fast. One of the corners is floored at the top of 5th gear, its fast. Did I mention it is fast? Average speed is 90 mph.

We couldn't be more thrilled with the UTCC event outing. Would we like to win? Sure, but our budget didn’t factor in spending $100k on the Alpha. We have about $15,000 in it and we proved we can haul it across the country, unload it, run 3 days and almost break a 2 minute lap at BW without having seen the track. The car is that easy to drive. We have some external video of the car and the event (including a huge spin that happened right in front of Hanchey, that Fair filmed from 50 feet away!) to show - we will post it soon. Of course the in-car camera decides to flake out half way through the weekend. Of course!

Thanks to GRM for hosting the event and taking time to talk to us about the car. Also, kudos to NASA’s CalClub for a smoothly run, fun weekend of events.

[Miatamoto]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 at the 2008 GRM UTCC!

Good to hear things went well! Can't wait to see the video.

[hancheyb]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 at the 2008 GRM UTCC!

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/gallery/5139258_kbeEe = picture gallery!

[hancheyb]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 at the 2008 GRM UTCC!

As a side note, I found the R&T article where the GTR, C6 ZO6 and 911T ran against each other at Buttonwillow on #13 CW.

ZO6: 2:02
911: 2:02
GTR: 1:56

So the Alpha car beats two outta three out of the box.

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 at the 2008 GRM UTCC!

More pictures from the GRM UTCC....


Brian Hanchey driving our LS1 powered BMW E36 autocross car


Rich Noguera and his 2007 STi TTS car - he drove solo to and from Dallas to this event in the car!


Just your ordinary average Grassroots entries: At left, the V8 powered Radical, and right, the V8 Lister (and a non turbo Lancer, which was pretty dang quick)


Left: Spec Renault and Electric Scion xB (both dangerously slow). Right: An LS1 powered GTM kit car


Another local "grassroots" effort team: the LS7 Morgan, a turbocharged AIX car, and a GT3 Cup Car


Left: One of Griggs Racing's 3 Mustangs. Right: A "700hp" EVO that had more fans than anyone else. Like some high powered cars at the event, it was kind of slow through the corners but was a rocket on the straights. It caught on fire late on Sunday.


A street driven Mini and an LS7 Morgan.


LS1 powered 240Z and a "Kelly Cup" tube framed race car (Trans Am car)


Left: I captured this green AIX car on video spinning into the dust on the very next lap, right in front of me. Right: This little Honda was quick - cornering speeds were high.


This was from the GRM photoshoot we were invited to attend at the end. Hopefully we'll get some ink? Who knows.

[DBeck]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 at the 2008 GRM UTCC!

Brian, just to add to that I bet they had pro drivers in the cars who have prior experience on the course for that R&T challenge not a converted autox driver. (No offense to your driving intended )

[hancheyb]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 at the 2008 GRM UTCC!

Brian, just to add to that I bet they had pro drivers in the cars who have prior experience on the course for that R&T challenge not a converted autox driver. (No offense to your driving intended )

No worries. It was STEVE MILLEN driving them. hahah

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 at the 2008 GRM UTCC!

Some cage pictures from the thrash before we left for the UTCC. Taylor and co at Dallas Performance did an amazing job in a very compressed timeframe. Artwork!

Picture gallery


Taylor's tubing fit-up is beyond perfect. You can't slide a sheet of paper into this joint before TIG welding!



Welding the door X bar. The finished X.


The finished cage at 2 am! The left side X leaves tons of room for the driver and all 4 tubes are within .10" of the semi-gutted door opening.

As for the inevitable cage expert comments on other forums... this is an autocross and Time Trial car, so the cage was built accordingly (neither competition requires a cage in NASA or SCCA). Also, the doors are still intact where it matters - the OEM door bars are still in both sides - and no wheel-to-wheel racing will be done with this car. No, it doesn't have a an elaborate Finite Element Analysis (giggle) done to it nor does it have any unnecessary tubes or wasted steel. And no, it doesn't have "gusset tubes" at every junction because unlike 90% of the cages seen on bf, the tubes are actually 100% perimeter welded (gusset tubes are usually a sign that the welder didn't weld the top of the tubes on the roof- or chassis-side - I've stuck my hand on top of many a road racer's cages and felt unwelded seams or even air gaps). Light, strong, and functional. The material is 1.75" dia DOM .095" wall and we've added padding near heads and doors. Passenger side has a single down bar at the door, but we don't plan to "instruct" or take passengers on death defying road course rides.

Keyboard cowboys aside, when real racers checked out this cage at the track we had all favorable comments, such as "Holy sh!t! Those joints are beautiful!" and "Don't you dare paint this cage. Clear coat it!". The welding looks that good. Fit from tubes to chassis is as tight as you can get. Cage sailed through tech inspection. We might go back and add some rear shock tower bracing at some point so we can run our 4300 rear shocks as full coilovers, but we didn't have the time to do it before the UTCC. I'm an engineer and pretty picky, and I feel safe in it.



Anyway... the Alpha car has a DP cage.

[DBeck]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 at the 2008 GRM UTCC!

Terry, kinda curious (hell what do I know)....the diagonal on the main hoop behind the seats (where belts are mounted) is not intersected with the cross, bar it is back a little. I don't know if I have seen that before.

[John in Houston]

Re: Vorshlag's E36 LS1 at the 2008 GRM UTCC!

I'm an engineer and pretty picky, and I feel safe in it.

Snicker... did you just say that? Snicker!