It's been a week but I'm starting to catch up with things here and on my sleep. Here is my little write up of the events.

Thank to everyone involved! In no particular order, here it goes. My guys at AMS, for all the hard work the put it! For Justin who doesn't know the meaning of 'relax' during our racing adventures. To Paul who had such valuable chassis input and of course his great driving skills. Not to mention he hung in there when we were wrenching on the car untill 4am! A big thank you to Alfred and the crew at Tuning Technologies (you too Tom!) for opening up your shop to us and helping with the car.

Here it goes!

We took off on our 2100 mile journey from Chicago to Sonoma, CA. Justin and I drove straight through with no stops (except for gas) in 35 hours. We stay with a friend in Vacaville who graciously accommodates us for the next few days.


BEAUTIFUL VIEW FROM THE ROAD


SUNRISE IN VACAVILLE




Upon arrival at the track we setup at a parking area just outside of turn 7 at Infineon and roll out the EVO. Justin starts setting up the scale pads & alignment equipment. This is a crucial piece of equipment as we change alignment settings and dial in the suspension. Paul starts off by taking the EVO for a few laps to get a feel of the car and warm things up. BFGoodridge Tires is working with us and has graciously provided us with their new R1 Tire. The 285’s have terrific grip and we spend most of the day doing short test sessions followed by brainstorming and mild changes. With so many variables it’s important to keep track of what improves or slows the car down. At the end of our day Paul pulls in with a complaint with the clutch pedal. After a quick inspection we find the hard clutch line leaking at the connection to the slave cylinder. Our hopes of a nice warm dinner are soon replaced with a mad scramble for a clutch line. We wind up driving to Sunnyvale and my Friend Todd Champarino comes through with a clutch line.

After a long night we get the car back together and ready for the next day of testing. Unfortunately our second day of testing is ruined by heavy rain. We pack it up and start heading down to Fontana for the Redline Time attack.
Alfred and crew at Tuning Technologies let us use their shop so Justin can do some last minute alignment changes on the car. I meet Smogrunner for the first time and he hands me a Newcastle which I take down without hesitation. During an inspection Alfred noticed a potential problem that could turn into something major down the line. Away we go tearing a bunch of stuff apart to fix the problem. As the hours go by, the newcastle stash grows smaller but we finally get her buttoned up around 4am.

A hotel room and 4 hours of sleep seem like heaven but as luck would have it our rooms where given away even though I told them that we'd be arriving late. Note to self, never stay at another Amer-suite!, those bastards. They get us another room at another hotel but getting there proves to be a challenge. I fall asleep at a stoplight and we get lost! Two hours later we climb into our beds for a light 1 hour nap.

On Saturday we get some great practice and start off with a 1:10.7 lap time with lots of room for improvements. Unfortunately we’re having issues with our brakes and it’s keeping Paul from braking when he needs to. After our Saturday practice we decide to change brakes and contact Martin Meade at Girodisc for some help. Without hesitation he drops what he’s doing and comes out to the track to help us out. He brings with him a set of his two piece trick rotors for the front and rear of our EVO. We complete the brake swap and are confident for our next day of times sessions.


CHILLIN' IN THE GARAGE


Sunday morning brings rain. It looks bleak but the forecast calls for clearing skies around noon. Thankfully things do clear up and the track is mostly dry for timed runs. Paul tears it up with 1:09.X in the first round and immediately compliments the tremendous braking power and balance. A few more tweaks between rounds and my special “kill mode” tune goes in. Paul wants more power and I ask when will it be enough? He responds with “When the tires are spinning in 5th gear down the straightaway!” With 31psi of boost and 620 wheel horsepower he heads out for the final round of racing.

The car rips down the straight-aways and the clocks get him at a blistering 1:08.861. We’ve had a close battle so far with the GMG racing World Challenge GT Porsche and the JIC Magic S15. It comes down to a photo finish and we come in 2nd place just .2 seconds behind the GMG Porsche. A close finish but we know that there a literally seconds left in just fine tuning the chassis. We capture the 1st place prize for the Unlimited AWD category and head home with an overall 2nd place finish. On the long journey home we have plenty of time to brainstorm and start working on a plan to get the car faster and faster. Look for us at our next race in the GT LIVE Track Attack at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

 

looks like its time to add another finish to your sig Martin

Eric

 

620hp well done boys.... Now how much power is that GT3 making is the Aero situation on this car getting any other revamping?

Scorke

 

Way to compete, good job on the 2nd place finish. Can't wait to see what happens once this car is completely dialed in.

 

Looks like it's going to be another great year for you guys.

 

WC GT3s make 450 crank and weight about 2750 (without ballast). Seems like we should smoke it huh!?! They get through the corners so efficiently (especially a well driven well set-up car like the GMG effort) that they go quicker than it seems they should (it's the least powerful car in WC GT but they win all the time). After the next round of suspension tweaks we should be in front of that car (and hopefully all others ).

Hey Martin so much for me hanging on till 4am...I slinked away and slept in the van from about 12:30am on

 

GT Live is such a great event. This is a cool write up. I wish more vendors would write their day to day ops on race days or race weeks.

 

Paul is it not also the rear weight bias and its advantage on the brakes, I was under the impression since so much weight shifts to the front under braking having a fat *** was a huge asset while on the brakes, and one of the main positive aspects of the Porsche. If it's really just the handling then i must own a 997 gt3 before i die...

Scorke

 

Holy crap that thing is awesome!!! And congrats!!!! I'd love to see it just for fun make a 1/4 pass... Maybe make the top 15 list as a time attack car!

 

i am sure the 1/4 mile would be around 10.5 seconds.

 

Great writeup! And congrats!!

l8r)

 

Great writeup Martin. Here is a "money" shot:

 

oh no your right it's the combination of all of it plus they're supper slippery on top of it all so when you'd think they'd run out of power they keep pulling because of the low drag. If you could ever get GT3 jump on it they're amazing (even the 996 GT3 though the 997 version is better still).

The other thing they can do is come off a slow corner well, I remember chasing them in the Volvo at the Denver WC race. I thought I'd have a real advantage with AWD on the tight slippery streets of Denver but they were able to come off the corners as well as the Volvo (nothing else was close there). Funny enough I could close on them under braking which was an unexpected surprise I think due to the extra tire we had and some real tweaking to master cylinder size that gave the Volvo great brake feel that we did just before the race.

 

sick...that thing has really come along nicely...

 

Sweet, I used to race karts with that kid Jameson Riley I don't know if you knew him personally but man he was horrible, I used to kick his ***, I made him cry once hahah. How were those volvo's?

How far is the Tatoo's Aero going to be pushed as it seems this is one area where the Aero has a distinct disadvantage? Outragous under body? Chopped top? The lip and rear wing on this car are already outragous compaired to most setups domestically no?

Scorke