Project Update for April 23, 2015: Over 6 weeks since my last post, and while I have been too busy to post an update, we have run our TT3 Mustang at a number of events (and I drove 2 other cars as well). As I posted last time in the "What's Next?" section, we did some "VIP ride-along" laps at COTA during the Pirelli World Challenge weekend, and showed the car in the Optima booth. Then Amy and I both ran the Mustang during the NASA @ MSR-Cresson race weekend, racking up another pair of wins (I also raced our C4 Corvette). The Goodguys event was rained out, but the following weekend Amy ran it at the Optima/USCA event at TMS (while I ran a C5 Corvette). I'll try to cover as much of that here, as quickly as possible, plus some work done to make the car legal for Optima. We have also done more work on some other Mustangs to show..
CNC Machines Roaring at Vorshlag
Much of why this update is so late is due to the fact that I've been feeding metal into our new CNC machines all day every day for the past 2 months. I have a laptop out there just to check emails, but with short cycle times and 3 machines to tend to I often don't have 30 seconds free every few minutes. Its crazy, but its part of the ramp-up needed to become more self-sufficient in our CNC parts supply, at least until we add more staff to cover this.
Not only have we made batches of S197 Mustang camber plates we are running most of the 20 other models we make as well. And we have to make the fixtures (tooling) to make the parts. And sometimes tools to make the tools to make the parts. And there are many weeks left before I get much relief - only reason I had a break to write this quick S197 update was we ran out of material last Friday, then had an autocross school we taught at on Saturday, but was free on Sunday for the first time in weeks. Whew!
During this whirlwind of activity, Vorshlag engineer Jason managed to design and machine our first set of S550 camber plates in 48 hours, from start of measurements, design work, final CAD drawings, CAM programming and machine work. We had some pieces laser cut overnight and Olof fabricated some parts as well. These went on Aaron Sockwell's 2015 GT from Dusold Designs and he ran the Optima event in this car with a podium finish the next weekend.
These are our prototype Vorshlag camber-caster plates for the 2015 "S550" chassis
We also installed the first MCS coilover kit for the S550 chassis on his car that same week, which was built from Vorshlag drawings by MCS in short order. This set of TT2s and the spring rates we chose, combined with the 18x11" wheels we helped spec and the camber plates we supplied, have transformed this already quick pony into something that can seriously compete with the best of the S197 Mustangs. Good stuff.
The first MCS coilovers for the S550 chassis were made from our drawings, fit great, handled awesome and rode perfectly.
We are working with MCS to make a batch of these S550 coilovers but we still need to complete the rear spring platforms, as well as make a batch of the S550 camber plates, then design the OEM spring perch solution for those. Lots to do...
Other Build Thread Updates (Corvettes!?)
I managed to sneak in an update on our TTC prepped 1992 Corvette (#DangerZone) since my last Mustang post, which shows the prep before the recent NASA @ MSR-C event. I will have a race report from this event below, covering this TTC car and our TT3 Mustang (I drove both).
Lots of cage and suspension work was done to this car, which is also detailed in this March 12th "This Week at Vorshlag" video.
Also kicked off a new project for Mark Council's 2002 Corvette which is now being built with an eye towards NASA TT2.
I raced Mark's C5 with almost no updates at the Optima TMS race, which I will cover... next time. The C5 build thread can be found here and we will post links there for other forums where we will update this one as well.
I'm really close to doing a build thread update on the Scion FR-S LS1 swap (shown above right), as it is almost done. We have also made some major headway on the much more comprehensive and complicated Miata LS1 swap (shown above left) as well. Will update those threads soon, if I can squeeze in an hour or two next week.
Driving around COTA during PWC race weekend with Optima, March 6-7
As much as I complain about the rules, I really do like the Optima "Ultimate Street Car" shootout and the USCA qualifier series they started last year to finally allow racers to WIN their way into the big show. We've done 4 or 5 of these qualifiers over the years now, as well as the the OUSCI shootout last November. And while I had some issues with that event, they took racers' feedback and made some big changes. So when they needed some former Optima racers at their booth during a World Challenge race weekend, Amy and I said we'd be there.
North Texas had some FREAKY weather the day before we left to go to this PWC event, as shown above. Snow, and lots of it, in March. I've lived here off and on since 1978 and I've never seen snow here in March. Made for an interesting drive to work in the truck and trailer, but the guys got the Mustang prepped and loaded as this mostly melted off before we blasted the 5 hours down to Austin Thursday afternoon.
- COTA event #Potatocam photo gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...e-COTA-030515/
Getting to take some laps around COTA is a good draw, as were the free pit passes. And no, this wasn't a "competition event" for our Mustang, more of a car show and a few fun laps around the F1 track.
We did have fun there on that Friday and Saturday of the Pirelli World Challenge weekend and met a lot of new folks there who follow this build thread. We helped round up three other cars for the Optima trailer display in the PWC paddock area (thanks Tim and Costas!), after some car owners flaked out at the last minute.
I'm glad we went to this, as it gave us a chance to talk with more of the Optima folks, as well as meet some other great vendors like the Recaro people and others. I happened to give the head of Recaro a ride around COTA in our 2011 Mustang, on street tires with NO REAR WING, and it was a handful. Amy drove the car Friday during the lunch break and I took laps both days; on Saturday I was in our car and on Friday I borrowed a racer's 2005 Mustang for some laps.
I have video of both days but these were more "80% pace" fast-ish parade laps and not as entertaining as a full-tilt video I would normally share. Such a beautiful track, and I wish more groups could afford to race here, but the track rental costs are still just way too high. When/if NASA ever has a race weekend here, then I'll come back and run this in anger.
The lack of rear downforce (Optima asked us to take the wing off to better represent what their 2015 rules allow) was abundantly clear, and I decided then and there that we needed to make a rear spoiler for this car if we were going to run it in the Optima at the TMS event. Having the car get LOOOOOSE mid-corner at 100+ is not fun! The car was also running pretty rough when I drove it, and Amy mentioned the same thing. Would clear up at WOT but part throttle was bad. Hmm.
We had hundreds of folks stop by and gawk at the Mustang, and it looked good sitting still as well as blasting down the back straight at "whatever we did" (not admitting to the speeds we drove when out of eyesight of the pace car). The PWC classes were also fun to watch practice, qualify and race, especially GT3 and GT4. The 2 minute video below shows the variety and awesomeness of the big GT3 class.
Turn up the volume for this bridge fly-by video of the GT3 cars
With virtually no spectators we could go anywhere and see everything, even on the bridges. I had friends racing in TC and several racing in B-Spec, and the hot pit passes Optima provided gave us full access to everything and everywhere. The B-Spec race race was... well, strangely entertaining? These are THE slowest pro race cars I have ever witnessed but they all seemed to be having a good time.
Sunday's weather was predicted HARD rain all day (which it did), so the Optima folks told all 5 of the folks showing cars at their trailer area that if we wanted to bail before Sunday, they didn't mind. So we packed up Saturday evening and headed back to Dallas. The tow home was less eventful than our tow down on Thursday afternoon, thankfully.
We watched some great pro racing, met a lot of cool people, took some fun laps around this track, the weather was reasonably calm and cool while we were there, and the Optima folks treated us great. We had free food all weekend in the PWC hospitality tent, which was REALLY good.
Mustang Prep Before NASA @ MSR-C
The shop was so busy working on customer cars and our 1992 Corvette that the 2011 Mustang got very little attention prior to MSR-C. We didn't even decide to enter TT3 until just 5 days before the event, after some things I had seen on the Corvette, so we had to scramble a bit to get the car ready.
I got 99 problems and.... not having enough tire storage tires is one of them.
Tires were a problem. The last set of four Hoosier tires I won in 2014 got botched and we received 4 rears (345) but no fronts (335). That was long after we had "sold" the car so I didn't worry about it, but when the sale fell through (3 different times) and we had this event pop-up, we had to go for a used set of fronts and some fresh A6 rears. Fronts came from last year's April TWS event, where we had a hard weekend with 2 drivers beating on the tires. We had another a new pair of 345 A7 rears, but with nothing but worn 335s for the front, I didn't want to make that big of a grip imbalance.
Fresh fluids went in, including 15W50 Mobil1 oil (not 10W30 as shown!) and Motul RBF660 brake fluid
I almost went with scrubs out back as well, but we are going to move to A7s soon so I wanted to use up the last of the sticker A6s. This car is also a real bear to drive with no rear grip, so we went with old fronts + new A6 rears, knowing it would probably make the car understeer or "push" a little bit - which it did. Calculated risk. Pads/rotors looked good so our guys changed the oil and pushed some fresh Motul 660 through the brake system. MSR-C is easy on brakes.
The wing went back on, of course, and Jon made some new TT3/197 decals for the side and Hoosier decals for the fenders. Other than that, this was the same set-up we ran at Optima back last November with almost no changes other than the tires. Since we would be running Optima soon, I had them keep the 2nd set of 18x12" Forgestars mounted with the BFG Rivals mounted on that. We brought a spare front and a rear (used) Hoosier tire along in case we had one go down on us and figured we could have it changed at the track.
The funky engine running issues were thought to be fouled spark plugs, as we haven't really driven the car in many months other than to move it out of the shop to work during the day. A new set of Bosch Iridium spark plugs were installed and it seemed to run fine, so maybe that was all it needed? Amy cut some red vinyl sheet and placed it in front of the fender flares at all four corners, to protect the new paint. Need some clear PPF applied....
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