Damn rookies

 

The Volvo looked AWESOME! BUT.... it never hit the track once the entire weekend. Nor did the Aston Martin DB9's. Actually.... i never even saw the DB9 in the pits the whole weekend!

Read it again. Its updated. Here is the link for just friday's Easy Street Motorsports Vehicle: (56k=NO!) (my server is fast though)

http://www.kalionzes.com/grandprix20...reetSubaruSTi/

After three days, 800+ photos taken with my SLR Rebel XT and 75-300mm lens.... i have a lot of removal of blurred images and some post-processing to do.

I would have had more up that first night not only was I tired as hell.... i ended up spending the rest of the evening at a friends place working on my buddies 56 Ford F-100 show truck.

Here it is a few months back.... its still in the works....



More images here: http://www.kalionzes.com/56_ford_F100/


Man!!! Thats what happened? If i knew that was you I would have come by to say hi instead of snapping photos of your sweet volvo. I was all over the pits usually by the Subaru between races wearing a red button down shirt (Street Trucks, Drag Racer Magazine, and Import Racer Magazine.... and a red and black Penske Hat with some other logos on it. I was also lugging around all my camera gear.

I have some shots of your Volvo in the pits. I'll post them up in a bit.

 

All of Friday's photos are being resized so I can upload them to my server. Be patient. ITs another 200 shots after i weeded out the crappy ones. Should be up in about 20 minutes. I'll update the Original Post on this thread as well as add the link in this post.



(Saturday and sunday will be probably tomorrow. I've got probably 3.5gb (6-8mb each) of 8 megapixel SLR photos to weed through. I'll be making galleries and updating my site so they can also be accessable through my cheeze-ball website www.kalionzes.com (I also need to update the sites links and homepage photo.... )

 

Ok... as i edited in my original post, I've updated the photos with ALL of Friday's photos. 200 in all.

http://www.kalionzes.com/grandprix2006/Friday_Gallery/

 

that's exactly how I feel

and yes Smoggy I'm physically fine (thanks for asking)

 

 

That looks like the APR STI widebody kit ? that thing is nice ! I saw at LBGP, too bad they have to turned down the boost !

 

Yep. Less boost, skinnier tires (than the skyline who was also AWD), and they had to be 200lbs heavier than just about everyone else.

I think SpeedGT will change some regulations after their good showing in this first event for the team.

 

Not sure on how the SCCA will deal with the Skyline & STI - they don't have the $$$$$ like GM/Daddy????

Paul - At Speed has the time & money to get this car together for the next race?
Glad that you're alright - you may want to reconsider that voodoo Trailbraking

 

^^^ You are right. Only like three teams in the Speed GT class this past weekend were lacking million dollar budgets. I know Subaru didn't. I'd guess the Volvo car didn't either.


I just found out that the Subaru in the main race had an issue with the master cylinder and Sheehan had barely any braking. Considering this problem, they did amazing.

 

I hope that's true, but reality we had to race and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we needed a less restrictive VTS (vehicle technical specifications, each type of car has it's own VTS). Not just one race either it was a whole year in our case (2004). Then we were able to built the car pictured above which, despite my best efforts , is a competitive car. I brought Ali and Marshall Pruitt (Owner and Crew Chief of ESX) over and gave them a tour of the Volvo and they were stunned at the complexity and development of that car.

In simple terms they brought a knife to a gun fight (and they knew it). They brought a time attack car to a WC event.

They need to do a lot of testing and chop many seconds off there lap times (they were seven seconds off pole). The car looked too low and too soft for instance. I know it was a last minute deal so this is not criticism it is mere observation (Heck at least they ran, I messed up and wrecked so I should be the last one talking right!?!).

When we started in 2004 we were about four seconds off pole and we shaved it to about two with the 2004 car by the end of the year. The 2005 car is close now depending on the track. It take time and money (that's all!)

It be a heck of a lot easier in an EVO. If you want an example I was on track with Tommy Archer at Second Creek Raceway (RIP) last year in my street evo on pump gas, 255 RA1s, stock turbo (etc, etc you've heard it all before) and I was just over three seconds slower than Tommy's best lap. I truly think that my street car was faster that our 2004 spec Volvo, it is nowhere near as fast as the 2005/2006 spec car.

 

I never even got a chance to "Voodoo Trailbrake"
Not only are we going to put it back togeather but we are also going to fix several known issues and do at least 3-5 days of testing befor Mid-Ohio. It is obvious to the team that we have not been prepared so we'll take a step back and make sure we're ready when we get to the track for change

Come to Mid-Ohio ok!?!

 

Your Evo was 3 seconds slower than Archer's Viper (last year)?

Mid-Ohio - Hmmm

 

Yep, three seconds, he was running 1:10s and I was in the 1:13s. 3503lbs with me in it. Pretty funny huh?

2900lbs a 3037 on 100oct and 275s it wold be right there. Mind you it was a smallish tight track but still...

BTW I was suggesting you trek out to Mid-Ohio next month for the Volvo's next race. I should be doing a bunch of days at Summit Point at the end of this month as well

 

Thanks for the info. I really don't know much about this type of racing but now i'm hooked. Marshall invited me up with the crew to an upcoming race at Laguna Seca and perhaps Sears Point. He was a chill guy and knows a heck of a lot about cars. Ali was good people as well.

They definitely have a ways to go. But I really do respect them for jumping in the bear pit like they did this weekend at such a big race.

I was impressed during friday and saturday training though. I timed them through turn 9, 10, and 11 with a stop watch and compared them to Pilgrim, Fellows, one of the top blue Porsches, and the black vette with flames off the front and a yellow rear end. (i forget whose cars they were...) And to my suprise, their car had the top times in practice in turn 9 and 11. They weren't so fast in 10 probably due to traction and their suspension setup.


I need to give the regulations for Speed GT class a read when i get some time.


Btw.. your Volvo was the first car I gravitated towards when i walked into the pit area. It was definitely one sick machine. I wish i knew it was an evom members car, i would have loved to check it out from closer than 8 feet away.