Well the 2020 contingencies FINALLY arrived: https://prizes.drivenasa.com/

It seems BFG decided to step back this year which is a bummer, but that just solidifies that everyone and their mother will be running the purple crack.

 

First Event, Nasa Southeast Race for the PI.

A ton changed during the winter break. To mate with the SSB front spindles we mounted SSB rear spindles with new hubs. New Ti exhaust and UICP's, new blitz IC, all of this in the name of weight savings which equaled to about 50lbs. We also attempted to upgrade to Alcon rear race brakes provided by ROSS but quickly found an issue during installation that they offset the brakes too much to be even driveable. This was primarily due to the idiots who designed the kit clearly to be used without parking brake provisions, provisioning the bracket as if the parking brake was still in there.....ya. Dallas to the rescue as usual. He sent me some narly looking waterjet'd parts which are 1.5mm while we wait on the 2mm parts to be made. It was JUST enough to make the brakes function knowing that the uneven pad ware wasn't an issue at this time. Went in for alignment 5 days before the race and prepared for testing.

Started out as a 3 day event. Friday practice, Saturday qualify/race, Sunday qualify/race. Friday I dealt with tire fitment issues all day trying to get 295's on 11" wheels to clear the fenders without the extensions I had not installed yet. I don't normally order tires until the car itself is ready to go. I came prepared with the compressor and air-saw under the 10x20 ez-up and set to work. We also got screwed by TireRack in that they were late on my hoosier shipments so they tires did not get to the Atlanta warehouse even until Friday afternoon. I managed to go out in the last session Friday only to find our original trim/weld job on the rear fenders wasn't high enough with the SSB parts and it ended up cutting 1/8" into the tire. So, luckily at our events we have a hoosier tire vendor who happen to have 285 hoosiers which are about 1/2" shorter then 295's. I set to work getting them mounted while the wife was on her way back with the rains/295's so I could make the qualifying Saturday morning.

Come Saturday morning I find that my 429,389th revision to using a catch can on the back port was a bust yet again. Oil everywhere out of the filter/vented port. Ok going from 6an to 10an on that port made things worse, not better. I can only imaging at this point how much oil the Recirculating setup sucks into the intake... Even with a MUCH better designed can. So clearly the port is the issue, F it, so lets plug that. I set about digging into my AN stash to rig up a short hose with plug about 5" long off of the STM 10an fitting. RTV'd and banged it in about 1.5 hours before our first session. On top of this I put a metric ton of 5min LocTite epoxy on the outside just because. Come to the session, get all geared up and go to grid, all readings normal. First lap felt great as it would right it's your first one since last year feeling the Boooooost. Come around the 3rd lap slowly increasing speed on the 285's I smell oil....badly. I ignored it at first because I wanted to see what she'd do. About 3/4 of the way around Road Atlanta I lock up the front left tire coming into 10a, puzzled wtf comments here. Not knowing if it's the RX7 in front of me dropping oil or me, I pitted next time around and was shocked to find the whole DAMN THING was missing. fitting, hose, the works. Somehow it blew out on track. I go back to the dash panel and see the ABS light is on....great.

Over the next 4 hours I manage to run home, find a spare ABS sensor (not knowing which one it was) and ALL of my spare bolts. The wife set about disconnecting the front left sensor while I chose the Trans Fill Bolt as my temp plug/replacement for the back port due to it's size/flange/fit. I have my abs wrapped in fire sleeve due to lots of exp frying them before. Back on the plug Same drill, copper RTV and 2+hours to grid. Focusing back on the ABS she finds that the ground wire is severed at the top plug. Awesome, I have the spare part this must be it. Plug, tie, test and light goes away. W00t. Qualifying on R7's instead of A7's isn't ideal but it's what I have that fits atm, so we go for it. I managed to run 4 tenths faster then I've ever ran before on A tires going slower then normal because guess what I smelled around lap 2, moar oil. This was entirely due to the transformation SSBadass gives to the grip capability However this was still 3 seconds behind 1st on fresh A tires. No biggie I'm qualified 4th of 6 lets get this done. Come into the pit and the smell is worse. Open the hood and yes another big hole, another part missing on track, oil everywhere again. I'm down to my last 2 brake cleaner cans at this point of a 6pak. F*k. The only option is to let it cure I thought. This meant missing the Saturday race when it counted for trophies and such, in the damp, it was a shoe in win... To quote TopGun'ish, "better to retire, save the car, then push a bad position causing an oil spill or a blown engine." So I used my trans bolt off my spare transmission, RTV, let it cure overnight because the STM fitting stayed in there until I messed with it.

Qualifying Sunday. Everything looks good, suit up and qualify at 9:40am. This time I was sending it because I couldn't stand the thought of backing out at this point with such little time left and this Virus BS shutting things down. I told the wife "either we're getting a good lap in or we're blowing an engine." Of course she understood....ya right lol. Went out in a damp session on the R7's and somehow managed to qualify P1 in class by 1 second. Fearing the worst due to yet more smell, we open the hood annnnd guess what's missing. *@*#@& #&*$*$*(($T(R$T($)*@#($*#@$&@#$@*#&$@#(*$&@#($*&@# (*$&@(#*%!!!!!. I'm not missing this race, no way in hell. Knowing at this point it was pressure, combined with the weight of the bolt, the non-tight fit, and the uncured/weak RTV it was time for the Home Depot racing department. I manage to find another trans bolt in the oem bag and set about for round 3.




This time this suma bish is not coming out. I manage to just make it to the racer meeting to discover I'm pole position for the mixed class race. No pressure lol. However I'm happy to report after ALL this drama which doesn't include the puppies I was babysitting while the folks were at my uncles funeral, the Virus bs, the 5:30am wake up alarms, keeping sane and #nevergivingup, we blew the bloody doors off of the entire field. Behind us was a Porsche GT4, a World Challenge Mustang, etc etc. Evo + Hoosier H20's + calm attitude = unstoppable in the rain. In the sessions leading to mine we lost mustangs, camaro's, 1 911, bmw's but you can't let that persuade you. Who are you, why are you here.

 

WOW What a story.
Exciting premise
Intrigue
Hero dodging failure and dishonor (dishonor of Evo reign)
Last battle center piece
Win and total dominance of factory race steeds (GT4 Clubsport?)
Hero is crowned


Can you spell out the car's spec, and which Nasa class you run, what are basic requirements, to get a feel for the wonderful accomplishment.

 

Haha, ya club racing isn't all that fancy lol. So Nasa's Super Touring 3 class is a power:weight class at 10:1. So at 10:00 that's like saying 3000 lbs and 300hp. In our case however we take .3 points for AWD so we're about 7hp down on the others at all typically LONG back straight tracks here in the Southeast. I can't give out my exact settings but if you PM me i'll fill you in. But in the rain like that the HP means nothing if you can't put it down

Basically you're running all high endurance parts, full TRE drivetrain, CurtBrown head and block, 71HTA turbo, MCS 2ways, SSB suspension links, Essex front and Alcon rear brakes 372/343mm, full ABS, tuned ACD, and VP 100 octane. Trying to work my way up to 315's, on 295/285 and 275 rains for now.

 

Damn dude, that was a hell of a hussle. And I know the hussle you put in before you ever even went to the track. Way to make it all pay off!

 

Thank YOU for getting us the spacers in time. Any word on the finished ones?

 

Great story, and great results. Sorry you had to sacrifice tires and transmission bolts to get there.

I'm very interested to see how you fit 295s on 11s under vaguely stock-resembling fenders.

 

Nothing stock about those, Regular Voltex fenders and even then they poked at the front by a good 15mm. I'm attaching the Voltex over fender extensions to those now mated with their canards so it'll look quite a bit better. The 11"s are +15 so that they cleared brakes and everything without needing much spacer. I'm also moving to 5" springs up front to see if I can clear the perch and maybe use no spacers. If so I'll likely wanna sell my Eneki's and get TC105's all around to match. Those details later..

 

Incredible story and efforts Sir!

 

Please, post some pics of the car, during these sad shelter in place days.

Thank you,

 

Yes, shes stuck at the shop atm but once I get it back next week I'll show you guys the new wheel/fender setup.

 

So, after TONS of hacking. 295's on 11 +15 TC105's at your service. This is with a 12mm spacer up front, 10mm in rear to see. However, after putting 5" springs up front I can now go inboard enough to run 0 spacer front and rear. So, as you can see now 315's are a reality unless Dallas comes in and says 11's are for losers and you need 12's lol. Damn I can't wait to get it wrapped. Should start a competition for the graphics/wrap and the winner gets a some racing parts.....

 

Can we get a bulk discount on the design? I need to wrap my car in something more interesting than just its plain black.

 

Seriously. Cheapest I've found is around 1800. Reality for someone who's good is around 2100.

 

Looks great!!! What ride height are you at compared to stock?