it is important to get at least 50 or so street starts on the clutch before you try doing any 6000rpm launches. if it's not bedded in properly it will overheat and warp the pressure plate. ...ask me how i know.

 

It doesn't need to slow down

 

I just saw that you ran in the Toledo pro. How'd you like it? What did your hack co driver (sarcasm) think about the car?

 

Hey Marshall,


Both Tom and I felt the car was behaving really well. I didn't make any changes to the car since the beginning of the season, other than some shock adjustments, and neither of us felt any need to make changes. I asked Tom constantly if he wanted anything changed (to the point where he probably wanted to just tell me to shut up ) and he always said the car felt fine.


Our only real issues were that I couldn't connect my laptop to the ecu to raise the 2step, so we were constantly bogging off the line. Our 60 ft times are artificially low for that reason (if you looked). We also had some minor overheating issues Saturday morning when Tom was basically hot lapping because grid only sent 3 SPA cars to staging.


On the positive: Despite being down on power (still on 93) and probably overweight (3035 lbs at the NJ Tour), the car obviously has the raw pace. Tom had the pace to keep up with SSP on a power course that had us deep into 3rd gear and was just off of Panda in SM. Keep in mind, he had never driven the car before Saturday morning runs.


For the two Wilmington events I may try upping the spring rates just to try. Right now I'm at 13k front and 900 rear. I can always go back to the current setup if it doesn't work. Also will try putting some 100 oct in to get rid of some of the knocking issues I've been having. Not sure if I'm going to go E85 at all or play with aero this late in the season. Those may be Year 2 things.


Looking forward to the Wilmington Pro as the Millers are registered. Will be nice to see how my car stacks up against the reigning ASP Champ.


Justin

 

Sounds like the car has lots of speed left in it. E85 is a very worthy investment. Big power gains and much better tolerance to the heat. I've ran my old car in the hottest texas summers with two drivers and never once had an issue.

We noticed a dramatic increase in stability with both front and rear aero. I have no doubt it makes the car faster. But never did any back to back testing.

 

Thanks for the input Jeremy. I could see myself adding aero sooner than the switch to E85. The main issue being the car still gets driven to local events and E85 is relatively hard to come by around here. Maybe for Nationals, but I think I'd go back to 93 afterwards until I can find a more permanent solution. (Although I think Marshall suggested just switching at events via the drain plug on the fuel tank).

 

What about CAM2 option? 110 octane will greatly improve your power levels and you can just bring it with you to every event. You would still need to do the draining part, though.

 

glad to hear you're enjoying the car. If only all the STU guys knew how awesome an ASP evo was.

Racing on 93 oct is really risky. The head gaskets are not at all knock resistant, and things can go from OK to overheated to stuck piston/busted ring land in the duration of one run if you don't catch it. E85 is worth the hassle of finding it and carrying it with you. at the very least you should be running high octane race gas, which you still will have to source and carry with you...at 4x the cost of e85 (minimum).

when we switched to e85 there were a total of 3 stations in the greater LA area that sold it. had to drive 50 miles each way to get it. ...totally worth it.

 

My codriver at the Devens Match Tour has an STU EVO and I think he hates his car now. Lol

Thanks for the advise. I think you and Jeremy have twisted my arm. I've reached out to my tuner to schedule an E85 session.


You and Tom are still aero-less, correct?

 

I gave in to the lemming effect and we installed a rear spoiler.

 

Justin, if you want to use E85, let me know, I can bring you E85 if it comes to it. I used to bring in bulk for Martin Valent, Steve Seguis and myself to events last year. It is $3.06 a gallon and always tests out to 83-86 right out of the pump. Believe it or not, Martin Valent drives out here ever month or two and stocks up now (it's 4 hours away from his house!).

 

As far as aero, in my testing the car is within margin of error in terms of overall pace with and without it. The biggest difference is it is "easier" to get those fast times with the aero. Of course some of that is set-up, but I can usually get to a point of the car going faster and robo-run times close to that with the aero. Without it, the car is a real handful and not easy to replicate those fast times. A lot more big moments. Again, probably mostly set-up, though.

 

Good input Mike re: aero.


If I do end up going to E85 it would be nice to have a source, especially at events. I'll let you know.

 

Mike delivering alcohol like we are in prohibition, lol!

My local E85 station stopped selling because their tank started leaking. I had it 10 min down the road. Now I buy it 35 gal at a time from a place that is 25 min from work (about an hour from home). The security guards at work gave me a funny look last week when they did a vehicle inspection. Had 7 fuel cans in the back of my truck. Guard made a joke that my truck must really get bad gas mileage

 

Not to derail. But this is the most important one IMHO. In the last season, I set my car up super loose. And while it was good fun. It wasn't any faster than the overly understeering setup we had.

What rear aero allows you to do is 2 parted:

Maintain or increase throttle input WHILE maintaining a high slip angle. (case in point, mineral wells pro, there was a HUGE sweeper in the middle. Coming into it the back end would get light and instead of having to work the car to keep it straight. I just added throttle and the rear spoiler kept it from going too far)

Increase stability in high-g transitions. (case in point threading the needle at 60+mph normally requires a light touch and "creative inputs" to keep the back end in the back. With the spoiler, you can take elements like this basically flat out, ie, nats course last year leading into a 3rd gear sweeper)

My experience with the front is that it too helped keep the front planted. Actually allowing less front slip angle. And adding to the overall stability. I'm not sure if it was indeed faster. And I'll be the 1st to admit my car was not setup ideally.