Project Update for March 5, 2015: We have been crazy busy here at Vorshlag for the past month and I'm way behind in all of my forum build thread updates, including this S197 thread. Spent last weekend working on this update a little, between working on other stuff I'm behind on. It has been over a month since my last S197 update here, and it was a pretty short and sour post. We have worked on a number of S197s in the shop since then, plus we have some events lined up for our 2011 GT in March, so here goes.
Mustang Didn't Sell (Again) + Mustang "Treason"?
The eBay auction for our 2011 GT from last month had a lot of traffic (6600 views) and shout-outs from two websites for "best eBay ad of the week" kind of things, but ultimately the auction ended without a winner. So I decided to keep the car and had planned another class to race it in... then I got my hopes up again when another buyer called all hot and bothered, arranged to come look at it a couple of weeks ago. Then.... *poof*, he disappeared.
So I guess we will start racing it again, while keeping it for sale. Racing in NASA TT3 is what it was made for. In 2015 both the USCA and SCCA CAM classes banned virtually all aero (more on that below), so it cannot compete in those "unlimited" series without changes now. But I suspect it could still tear up TT3 class - so it will see some NASA events again this year.
The number of cars I currently own (above) now borders on ridiculous, so the Mustang won't be the primary race car - but it will get raced. Amy is going to run it at upcoming local Goodguys (AAS), USCA (GT) and SCCA (CP) events, and we're both driving it at COTA this weekend, with a few changes (mainly just removing the wing).
Look for this car at the 2nd USCA round for 2015 - with Amy driving!
Its a shame that we let it sit out of NASA events since June of last year, but we thought it was sold back then. And while I'm not going to try to preserve some perfect paint job, we will get a clear film paint protectant added to key areas. This Mustang has been a LOT of fun to build and race, but selling it has been a real head scratcher (it is still listed
for sale here). I'm just not willing to give it away for pennies on the dollar.
Two Corvette Builds + One BMW Build
Since we
thought the Mustang was sold, we have moved onto other builds. I have apparently irked some die-hard Mustang folks after we built the C4 Corvette in January (above), but the truth is I'm just not car model or brand loyal, and never really have been. I have never kept a car as long as this Mustang before, and my need to create an all new car(s) has been growing. Vorshlag covers a lot of car markets and just as some folks don't like that we're building non-Mustangs, others are tired of seeing just Mustangs, too. Just like with our V8 swap kits - we will use whatever brand parts fit the need: the 1999 Miata LS1 kit we're building has a Mazda chassis, GM and Ford uprights and brakes, a GM V8, a Mexican built Tremec T56 Magnum, and a Ford IRS differential. Blind brand loyalty only ensures higher costs or a very limited selection of choices.
As I noted in my last post, we already selected another TT car to race this season - you can read more about Project #DANGERZONE
here, but in short: its a base model 1992 Corvette 6-spd we hastily built, and I talked a decent amount of trash before its race debut. Luckily we won both days on its first race weekend, reset the TTC track record at MSR-Houston by 7 seconds, and have more left to develop (we've barely scratched the surface). Its probably going to be re-classed next year, though...
Building the cage on the 1992 Corvette this week required cutting the roof off - temporarily
For as stock as the C4 was at the January NASA event, it was still very fun to drive. We've been working on it again this past couple of weeks, with Ryan finishing the cage (above) and doing some other tweaks in time for the next NASA event at MSR-Cresson March 14-15. And to make my "Mustang treason" even worse - we're preparing Mark Council's track-oriented C5 Corvette (below) and I'm racing it at the Texas round of USCA events at the end of March. Like they say - if you can't beat em, join em!
Mark's 2002 Corvette is has a lot of upgrades - and we're taking it a step further this month
Last but not least, we have a brand new Vorshlag project that just kicked off this past weekend -our "Team Vorshlag" endurance BMW build,
Project VorshlaggenWagen. This '99 E46 328i is going to be a race car that everyone that works at Vorshlag builds, drives and crews. We'll be covering this build on various forums (listed at
this link) and running it in NASA GTS2, WRL GP2, and some other wheel to wheel classes and series.
Since these pictures were taken we have removed 435 pounds from this car - in two hours (much of the interior)
Yes, We are Running Optima Series Again + 2015 USCA Rules Changes
So I've had some time to cool off after our rather frustrating experience at the big Optima event in Vegas last November. Sure, there were some big mistakes made but they have gone to great lengths to fix them. The biggest issue I had were timing and scoring problems, but the report for many racers that ran the first 2015 USCA event at Thunderhill was very, very good. Timers worked flawlessly, they posted times after every run, and had printed times posted at the end of each day. They even had the official, final results posted online within minutes of the trophy presentation. Huge, huge improvements here and in other aspects.
I've also spoken with several folks from USCA and Optima about the Vegas issues and they took our feedback well, even when I was being an ass. They obviously have infinite patience to take my kind of feedback, heh. So I'm going to give them another shot by entering the March USCA/Optima event here in Texas. And to help them gain some exposure for the Optima series in front of a bunch of race fans, I'm going to drive our Mustang at COTA this weekend during the Pirelli World Challenge race weekend, taking VIPs around for laps on the F1 circuit between race sessions. We leave today (Thursday March 5th) for Austin and the guys are finishing the prep on the red Mustang now - should be fun!
After posting the big "roll call" picture above, of the nearly 100 entrants from the 2014 Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge to Facebook - asking for folks to think about signing up for the Texas event, a big comment sh!tstorm started. It was only about 3 folks that got really worked up about the series rules, car requirements, and sometimes the exclusion of their personal race cars. And yes, this series is fairly unlimited but some aspects are very tightly controlled - like the tires, aero, and such.
As many of you know,
defining what a "street car" is a very tricky proposition. The 2015 USCA rules changes help better define that and to exclude some radical race cars and/or aero buggies like our Mustang. And I get that. I was part of a group that created a regional autocross class in 1990 for "street tire" street driven cars and we had a total of 5 rules. It was a simple class idea that was nearly all-inclusive to all street cars, and yet fairly unlimited. When compared against the messy set of SCCA Solo classes at the time it quickly became THE most popular class in our region and often had 1/5th or more of the autocross entrants
in this one class (and 25 years later - it still is the most popular class at that autocross club). Of course it got out of hand and we had to MAKE MORE RULES in upcoming years to keep purpose-built race cars from dominating.
Left: No longer USCA legal. Right: Frumpy butt version is totally legal - even with the splitter
That's what happens to ALL series that start with a simple set of rules - if they get popular, racers dream up wacky things to make an advantage, there is some general push back from the majority, and the rule book grows. It happened in NASA, it happened in ChumpCar, it happened in WRL, and it happened in the GRM Challenge. The USCA and Optima have done that as well, with the banning of tube framed kit cars a few years back (which I applauded) and with some additional rules updates in 2015 to reduce the "Raciness" of some entrants. My own Mustang had its "wings clipped" this year, and I was none too happy with that change - but I understand why it needed to happen, and in the long run I think it will be better for the series. Unless you write some very tight rules around aero (meaning: pages of rules), racers will find a way to sneak in ALL SORTS of downforce enhancing tricks.
The USCA series keeps
almost everything else in check with the 200 treadwear rule - which was the same as our number one rule in our 1990 class called Super Street Modified. You can't USE a lot of horsepower without grippy tires OR without big downforce. Now they have both under control so it becomes a little more of a drivers series (well, other than AWD - which is SUPER emphasized in their standing start events like Speed Stop and Autocross, but don't get me started on that).
As for our 2011 Mustang GT, once the rear wing is removed it really does look like more of a street car - which it still is. It has a full interior, Air Con, sat nav, stereo, 8 airbags, and all of the factory interior panels and carpet. Sure, we're giving up some weight to more purpose built Optima cars, but that's OK. Sure, some folks with dedicated W2W race cars sometimes "drive on them the street", too, but there are limits. And some folks show up with gutted interiors to USCA events - and they get punished in the "scored" design and engineering segment. There are points automatically deducted for missing side windows, missing carpet, missing radio, etc. And they say they are not going to let some of the troll-ish street car aspects slide like last year - such as plugging a jam box into the dash and calling it "your radio" or sticking some floor mats in and calling it your "carpeted interior".
Anyway, if you get a chance check the schedule for USCA this year and if there's an event near you, enter and drive. If you are in Texas, sign up for the Texas Motor Speedway event. This is a somewhat unusual road course venue for some locals around here (not our traditional" road course tracks like MSR-C or ECR) but it is also the only place in Dallas/Ft. Worth that can house an event with this many competitions. In 2014 the autocross and the speed stop events ran simultaneously on Saturday, and the road course was held on Sunday. There's also a ChumpCar race at almost every stop on the USCA calendar during the same weekend. Makes for a lot of fun racing to watch and enter!
I said it last year and I'll say it again - the USCA qualifier events are the best bang per buck in motorsports, in my view. Two days of racing, 5 categories, lots of swag, only $250 for first timers, and
almost anything that is street driven is eligible. OK, so how to save: There are some DISCOUNT CODES to use. Enter "FIRST" in the order notes to get a 50% refund on your entry fee, for first time USCA entrants. It takes a few days but it will be refunded. Next, if you are coming to the Texas event, please enter VORSHLAG in the order notes for a 20% price reduction (does not add to the 50% off tho). This applies to other USCA events as well - with 3 or more people signing up using the same shop name in the order notes, the 20% kicks in and applies. Again, its a refund after you enter.
We can park in the NASCAR garages for the TMS event, which is super convenient (climate controlled, electricity, well lit, etc). The Optima folks are super friendly and really try to make sure everyone is having a good time. Again, I'll be racing Mark's 2002 C5 Corvette and Amy racing will be in our 2011 Mustang with these folks at TMS in March. We have about 10 customers and friends signing up as well. Should be fun - come join us! And if you are at the World Challenge race at COTA this weekend, look for our red Mustang motoring around with OPTIMA decals all down the side. Gotta help spread the word.
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