Hey Nathan, congrats on your first race and your new help. Unless you have the time, ability and resources to do everything by yourself, youre definitely going to need a shop thats close to you. It might be relatively easy at first but the more you race the more it will eventually drain you. Glad to hear you have some help thats closer now. Good luck moving forward and keep us updated as things unfold.

 

Plans for front weight removal? (thats gonna be my winter project on my car)

 

17.6 lbs - Front crash beam and the 2 side connections
13 lbs - Both front headlights (found headlight deletes finally)

Every bit helps. I know my AMS FMIC is about 10 lbs heavier than the stock one. And my Mishimoto radiator is slightly larger than stock so there's extra weight on the nose there. A/C is out; small battery is in but still in the front. That's about it under the hood.

 

The pic above happened at my May event - and I feel it was collateral damage from the previous April event where I had the caliper failure on the opposite side. Anyways, for June I slapped on a replacement rotor that I had on the car previously and had saved for a backup. That set made it through my 2 races in my June event w/o issue. But I felt it was time to switch them out as there was a decent amount of spider-cracking (always is) and I wanted to switch in new pads anyway.

So, new DBA rotors will be on the car for the next event. Thanks to Ken @ KNS Brakes for his recommendation in trying these out. Ken also shipped me out my first set of Hawk DTC70's as well which will be on the car.

Previously I've been running PowerSlot rotors which have done fairly well. I've probably ran 5 sets of these and the 1 issue with the big crack was my only major crack I found.

Either way, I took Ken's advice to try out something from DBA. They also have some paint on the top of the rotor itself that will turn a different color once a certain temperature is achieved. Information like this helps you figure out if you're running the right brake pad compound as well as if your cooling is sufficient. I'll be sure to report back after my first event with them!

 

Finally - new rubber!

Got some new rubber to be mounted up for this weekend's event at Mid Ohio. Going to try out the BFG R1 tire, both because they're cheaper than Hoosier and they're race contingency is a lot better (Hoosier upped the min starters to 5 this year).

Since my car is at GP Racing between events, I had everything shipped there for mounting. Check out the pic below with Ryan being probably forced to be the photo model here.
Now let's just hope they fit with minimal rubbing/scraping as they seem to be helli-wide...

 

Updates on the Evo from GP Racing. Most noticeable are the headlights deletes that I had to scavenge around to find. Also in work are a new set of DBA rotors and the brake cooling updates as well as new rubber in the background.

The corner balance should come tomorrow, can't wait to see how much better we can get it.

 

Tell me more about the headlight deletes???? I am still shopping around for mine.

 

I found them used, so I got lucky. I'm probably going to cut NACA ducts into them for additional cooling too, so it's nice to not have paid a fortune for them if I'm going to hack them up. Fit well though; I believe their fiberglass.

Only a few spots I found anywhere that currently sell this stuff.
1) Carbon Trix for $350 or something and you're on your own to install.
2) Siebon sells just a driver's side replacement with a built-in airduct; $300 something
3) Found some on Muellers website at the bottom, pricing says $300 for CF; $200 for fiberglass. They're always slow to respond and seem to never have anything in stock but: http://www.muellerized.com/products_evo89.html (scroll to bottom)

 

Don't do NACA ducts on the headlight deletes. You want a ram duct (i.e., large round hole tapering down) since it's forward facing.

Can't wait to hear your impressions of the R1s vs. the Hoosiers. I love the R1s for track days, but have never driven Hoosiers, so can't compare.

l8r)

 

I'm not following you on a 'ram duct'.
Unless you're talking about doing something like what Seibon offers (1st pic). But that doesn't seem a whole lot different than our idea for dual NACA ducts slotted into the headlights:




or

 

Are those the headlight deletes Matt contacted you about on Facebook? If not I am going to buy his, he was saving them for you.

 

The first, clear one is a NACA duct. Would go on the side of the car with air flowing across the front of it, not directly into it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NACA_duct

The second, black one is more like what Ludikraut meant by ram-air duct. It would go on the front of the car or a surface where airflow was flowing directly into it, not across it.

I like that black one - good find!

 

Yeps, they were from Matt! MINE!

 

I heard the Evo made it to Mid Ohio about 4 hours ago. I'll be there in like 14 hours; after work today and a 7.5hr drive there.

Brake ducting has been updated, corner-balanced and a few other little things including new tires, new rotors and new pads. Hope everything feels good this weekend, runs well and we figure out a few adjustments to make it better yet.

I'm still debating a bit if I should pack the rains. Updated forecast:

• Sat - 90 and 40% chance of scattered afternoon storms
• Sun - 88 and 30% chance of Isolated storms

Updated pic of headlight update with brake duct routing:

 

Good new from Day 1 (Saturday) of the race weekend. It was busy and a bit hectic early but all turned out well with a hardfought back-and-back race with crazy closing speeds that was downright dangerous at times! I'll have a writeup with VIDEO as soon as I can.

I'll leave ya with a pic of the car when I seen it at nearly midnight Friday night when I finally made it to the track: