Vorshlag 2011 Mustang 5.0 GT - track/autocross/street Project

[19COBRA93]

The spring base at the axle is about 34" between spring centers, this by my own measurements (I can re-check this tomorrow if it isn't raining and the driveway isn't too wet). I didn't try to get the distance between the centers of the upper spring seats.

I just double checked my measurements, and I'm coming up with 38" at the spring mount center to center on the axle housing. It may even be slightly more. I would guess centers of the upper spring mounts are the same or very close to the same.

 

[DTL]

Thanks for the spring rate opinions guys. I think I'll start at the recommended rates I got from my chassis guy, then adjust from there. I *almost* feel bad that we're dragging Terry's thread all over the place, but, then again, there's a LOT of great tech. and discussion here!

 

[Philostang]

I just double checked my measurements, and I'm coming up with 38" at the spring mount center to center on the axle housing. It may even be slightly more. I would guess centers of the upper spring mounts are the same or very close to the same.

I got 39" at the spring mount center, but admittedly it was a bit of a rough measurement (i.e. I didn't drop plumb lines or do something more precise).

For comparison, I took the centers of the lower shock mount where the coilover set up would mount and got 52.5" on center with about 10 deg of incline. The difference between these distances in roll is pretty dramatic.

Best,
-j

 

[SoundGuyDave]

To avoid shitting up Terry's MOST EXCELLENT thread, I've spun of a condensed version of the recent discussion HERE. Let's try to keep any and all discussion of the inboard/outboard debate there, if we can.

 

[Vorshlag-Fair]

Project Update for March 18, 2013: I started writing this post two weeks ago but we have been so busy at Vorshlag it took several attempts to finish it (finally posted on April 2nd!). In the end it got pretty big and turned into a four part post. This is because we've done several repairs, updates and testing of new parts and tires on the 2011 Mustang GT since the last thread update. We also ran the red Mustang at another NASA Texas weekend March 16-17th, with another win and a new track record in TT3. As always, any picture in this thread post can be clicked for an "Extra large" high resolution version, so if you see something you like, click it. Let's start with some new Whiteline parts to test.


Whiteline Updates + New Trans Bushing Insert

We finally had time to add the Whiteline transmission bushing insert to the stock Mustang trans mount. The factory rubber trans mount bushing has massive voids that don't help the stiffness of this bushing one bit (see the picture, below left). Air is a terrible bushing material. Why does this matter? Well the Getrag MT-82 has a remote body mounted shifter, and the drivetrain is mounted on its own bushings. So when the transmission is loaded up (either with lateral g forces or under torque load) it moves relative to the body, and the shifter doesn't always then line up properly when you are trying to shift loaded up. This has been plaguing us for a while, and the "just add an aftermarket shifter" option doesn't fix the fact that the transmission is moving relative to the remote mounted shifter. At the NASA @ MSR-Houston event in January both Amy and I figured out quickly that we needed to shift earlier or later than we wanted to avoid shifting while in a high speed corner - because we would miss the shift every time. BONK! Frustrating.



Whiteline sent us the first prototype for this brand new KDT928 part, which is similar to other bushing "void inserts" they make for other cars. They were waiting for our feedback before they went to production - we gave them a big "yes, please!". This is an elastomer bushing insert that just pops into place and fills the air gap in the factory rubber bushing. We don't have official pricing yet but I was told the price "should be about the same as similar inserts we make", (so about $35). I have an open order for more, because this thing just flat-out works. Super easy to install (no tools, no effort!) and it firms up the transmission mounting nicely. Now installing this will add a little extra NVH (noise-vibration-harshness), just in case you are wondering.

Amy picked up the Mustang after we installed the insert and immediately came back after leaving the parking lot and said "Hey, something is different here...?" It isn't bad at all, just a little more NVH, and nothing like going to a full poly trans mount bushing would be. It just removes some of the air gap and firms the mount up a good bit. We should have these in stock before too long and I will post up in this thread when they are ready.



And while I teased the multiple shifter bushings/housings that we acquired and durometer tested last time, we didn't get time to install these before this NASA event. We will have it in this before this coming weekend's Five Star Ford / ECR track event (April 6th). The Whiteline transmission bushing insert alone already made big improvements by itself, but when you squeeze the factory mush bushing in this shifter mount location it just begs for an upgrade.



The other new Whiteline part we tested was a revised set of mounting brackets for their rear swaybars. We had one of the earliest production Whiteline rear swaybars, and as you know if you have been following our build for this S197 Mustang, it mounts very differently than the OEM rear swaybar. Instead of mounting the bar to the body and the endlinks to the axle they swapped it around - the bar mounts to the axle and the endlinks mount to the chassis. Some folks poo-poo this mounting method on the WL bar, but it is in fact a very common method for mounting of factory rear swaybars on solid axle RWD cars. The side benefit on the S197 is that it opens up a lot of inboard wheel room for wider rear wheels... this is part of how we are able to fit 12" wide wheels under the rear fenders (for a race set-up only - this is not a streetable size, due to some clearance issues in extreme droop situations with a wheel this far inboard).

Anyway they have now revised the height of the mounting brackets to space it away from the axle slightly, to free up room elsewhere. We installed these new parts and it works great.



Last but not least we inspected the elastomer bushings in the Whiteline Watts Link propeller, which looks flawless after 8 months of hard use. Some new grease and back in it goes. Why did we have the Watts Link off? Read below to see...


Axle Housing Reinforcement + LCA Bracket Welding

So the 8.8" Ford rear axle housing came from the factory in bare steel, and that quickly rusts - even here in Texas. This always bugged me and I wanted to paint the bare metal earlier, but we never had time to yank the whole rearend and do it right. Now, though, we had an excuse... we were doing a differential change (Torsen T-2R), welding the axle tubes and welding the LCA relocation brackets. This made it the perfect time to yank the entire rearend housing, pull out all of the guts, and clean up the surface rust before the welding started.


Left: This picture shows the rusty axle in the first week of ownership, less than 50 miles on the car! Right: Visibly worse last week

The proposed welding of the axle tubes caused a bit of controversy when I "teased" these pictures early on Corner-Carvers. Do the axle tubes even need to be welded to the center section?, some asked. And if so, what procedure do we use to weld them without causing any added stress? Should there be fixtures, could we "warp" the housing welding these ends? There were force diagrams and equations bantered about... but I just don't think it is all that complicated. It did not warp and we have raced the car since and nothing exploded from added stresses. This welding procedure is common prep on thousands of drag race cars, autocross cars, and even road race/track cars, and I think it is just a small bit of insurance against axle tube movement.



We've been paint-marking the tubes for a while, as they are only held in by a press fit + two small rosette welds on each tube. You look at almost any race-prepped or fabricated housing and the tubes are always welded in place. I'm fairly confident we haven't added some uber-stress riser that will likely crack and make the axle fall apart. It made it through a NASA race weekend, another ECR track day (March 23), and weeks of street driving already without any cracks or issues, but we will keep an eye on the weld, just in case. If the axle somehow explodes from the stresses added by this weld I guess I will have to eat crow. Do all of you need to do this to your S197? Of course not. But with the added lateral loads from 315 mm A6 Hoosiers, the ballasted up 3800+ pounds we race with in TT3, and the lap times we are running now, we felt it was worth the effort.


Left: This is the rosette weld that holds the axle tubes in place. Right: Lots of time with the angle grinder/wire wheel cleaned it all up

So our guys cleaned the rust off, which it took more time than I care to admit. With power tools it goes pretty quickly, but it makes a huge mess and you probably shouldn't breathe the "rust dust".



With all of the steel bracketry cleaned of any rust and grease, our fabricator Ryan then welded the Whiteline LCA relocation brackets to the housing. This is common to do, even when the designs are made to be a "bolt-on". There are a lot of forces going through these brackets and welding them on is another piece of "insurance". This was purely steel-to-steel plate welding, and TIG'd with ER-70 rod, so nothing too controversial.



Once all the welding was done, Olof cleaned the housing again with degreaser and got to painting. He used a semi-flat black engine paint in spray enamel, which is holding up well after two track weekends and loading onto trailers with axle straps. Once the paint was dry (overnight) it went back into the car.


...

 

[Vorshlag-Fair]

Torsen T-2R Differential Upgrade

With the rearend housing back in the car (no, it wasn't weighed - we forgot, by damn!) it was re-attached to the various control arms and the swaybar was reinstalled with the new Whiteline brackets. Now it was time to install the new Torsen T-2R differential with the original 3.31:1 gearset, as the rebuilt TractionLok LSD wasn't lasting 2-3 track days with the current power level and high grip tires, even with the carbon clutch disc upgrade.



The Torsen LSD design doesn't use any internal clutches. Therefore it doesn't have some of the negative handling interactions that a clutch-style differential has from somewhat locking the inside and outside wheels together under all circumstances (push on corner entry, loose on corner exit), but it doesn't work if one of the driven tires becomes airborne. How it works is more complicated - it involves worm gears, thrust forces and... some form of black magic. Read the links below to learn more:

• Torsen FAQ : http://www.torsen.com/general/general_faq.htm
• And some on the T-2R: http://www.torsen.com/products/T-2R.htm

One thing to note was that the Torsen units (both the T-2 and T-2R we purchased for this and another project) weigh a solid 5 pounds more than the OEM diff. If you see them side by side (middle pic above) you can see why, as the Torsen is full of worm gears and not an "S-spring" and a bunch of air in the middle. Our guys set-up the gears, backlash and installed new bearings on the Torsen and the old 3.31 gearset. It went in and works very quietly, with only some normal "Torsen noise" in a tight parking lot turn.


Damned Upper Control Arm Set-up, Test 4

So we've put 4 or 5 iterations of Rear Upper Control Arms (UCA) in this car and have been happy with none of them. No matter what brand or style we try it always eventually comes loose, then clanks and bangs around on any bump. Very frustrating. The various designs have also taken their toll on the axle-side UCA bushing, that is press-fit into the axle. Our techs noticed that this rubber OEM bushing was cracked and completely shot, so while the axle was being refurb'd they pressed it out and in went a fresh new one. Why not poly, you ask? Well this is one of those "terrible places for a poly bushing"... as it needs to both rotate and twist in 2 axis. Polyurethane rarely has the material properties for this task - it should be rubber or a spherical bushing.



After a quick glance we couldn't find a spherical set-up for the axle-side bushing (yet) so we just went back with the OEM rubber to replace the cracked and failed unit, for now. If you have an aftermarket UCA, especially if it is a poly bushing on the chassis side, check out the OEM rubber bushing in the axle at the top to see if it has cracked and failed. Click the high rez versions of the above two pics to see what to look for.

With that axle-side bushing replaced I wanted to look at the UCA itself. The Whiteline unit was fine but the adjustment method was a bit unusual and it wasn't exactly silent in use. Everything else they make for this car has been perfect, but I dunno.... I really wanted to keep the bushings able to rotate freely on the UCA, as both of these joints need to pivot smoothly when the car is loaded in corners. At first I wanted to attempt to go back to the "Del-sphere" bushed, adjustable length UCA we tried earlier from Spohn. That thing had some of the worst clanking and banging of any UCA we had tried but it did have the right style bushing at the foreward UCA mount... a Delrin-encased metal spehercial end, called "Del-Sphere". This is the right type of joint, I just didn't agree with the execution of the entire arm and mount.



We thought the problem was with the over-sized bushings that came in the Spohn UCA kit. The kit is made to work with the factory UCA bolt, which is a 14mm OD bolt. The ID of the Del-Spehre end is much larger, as were the holes in the UPR fabricated upper mount. It was as if these companies made something without checking the factory bolt diameter. What the...? So we upped the size of the UCA bolt to a 5/8" and made bushings to fit snug around the OD of the bolt and inside the ID of the Del-Sphere bushing. It took a little time on the lathe, some careful drilling, and some drilling of the UCA mount, but it all goes in and out smoothly now. No more slop to the bolt and hopefully no more banging around.



Part 2 continued below

 

[Vorshlag-Fair]

(Part 2, continued from above)

Well, of course I cannot find a picture of this newly configured UCA and joint set-up actually installed. Oh well, will shoot it next time the car is in the air (this Friday). And driving it... well, it is a little quieter now but is far from "noise-free". We checked it after the NASA event and it was all still tight, so at least this isn't getting loose and slipping every time it is inspected. We will keep trying to come up with a proper UCA solution using aftermarket parts or we will have to make something on our own. We purchased a complete Boss 302-S UCA set-up last week and will try that next, in either the 2011 GT or the 2013 GT.


Other Mods - Ballast Bracket and Lower Mesh Grill Guard

I asked Ryan to make another stainless steel mesh "grill guard" to cover the big opening at the bottom of the CS lower fascia (the optional lower grill insert that works with the Leguna Seca splitter on the 2011). Hits from various grasshoppers and tire klag have done a number on the A/C condenser hanging out in front of the radiator. I hoped that another mesh covering could minimize future fin damage. The grills he made for the fog light openings have saved the bits behind them from tire marbles and bug and hits.



The lower mesh grill came out nicely, and once it was painted black and fit snugly in the opening, it looked factory. Next up was a rushed attempt at making a "ballast box". This was a bolted-in bracket made to hold Olympic style weights to use as ballast. At the January NASA event at MSR-H we had to hastily load ballast into the trunk and it was "less than idea". This way it would be properly bolted down and hold the weights securely.



It isn't the prettiest fabrication but it was done at the last minute, right before the car was loaded onto the trailer to go to MSR-C. You can pick the back of the car up by pulling up on the weights, and it bolts in place with many bolts. We over-shot the weight a bit, as the car weighed 3812 with me in it and 3/4 tank of fuel at the NASA event. This way we would be safe with Amy driving and even with a lower fuel load. Before the next NASA event it will be welded up a bit tidier and then cleaned and painted.


Tire Test - 295/40/18 Hoosier R6 on 18x10" Wheel?

The last thing we had in store for the NASA MSR-C event was to test out a new tire. See they were running the Time Trial group on the unfamiliar (to me and Amy) 3.1 mile course, which she had never driven and I had only a handful of laps on in 2011. So we wanted to save the sticker set of 315mm A6s for the later sessions and run something more "cost effective" in the first sessions on Saturday. We were also hoping to find a cheaper, longer lasting tire to use at HPDE and other "fun track days", where eeeking out the last tenth wasn't important.



Many of you already know about this 295/40/18 Hoosier that was on close-out at ridiculously low prices (look it up). They had a lot of R6 and A6 compounds in this unusual size that were about 1.5 years old, and Hoosier blows out slow movers or excessive inventory after a certain amount of time. We picked up a set to test on our 18x10 ET43 wheels on our red Mustang. We figured, hey, if they fit... they are so cheap, how bad could they be? If I liked the way it looked I could by several sets for a fraction of the price of new R6 or A6 tires. It wasn't an ideal size, but how bad could it be?



The fat 295 mounted well on the 18x10" wheel. It might have been a tick better with an 18x10.5" but it was by no means squeezed on the ten. So that was encouraging. Then we bolted them to the car...

Here's where is gets tricky. See, this 295/40/18 has a big sidewall, which makes for a lot of section width. Hoosier calls it an 11.5" section width, which is a lot for this 18x10" wheel with an ET43 offset on the rear. And it... well.... kind of pokes out a bit past the rear fenders. It fit fine up front with the Moton 2-Way coilovers, however, and we didn't need a spacer or anything. Would it rub the fender on the rear? Only a proper track test could show us this.




The heights of the 315/30 and 295/40 couldn't have been more different. These side-by-side (craptastic) iPhone pictures above show a lot (it helps if you click on the higher rez versions). The heights of the two tires are DRASTICALLY different, which changes both ride height, CG height, and steering feel from the vastly different sidewall styles. The 295/40/18 tire is a solid 1.7" taller than the 315/30/18, which raises the CG by .85" and adds that same amount in sidewall height. The shorter tire makes the car harder to load onto a trailer, but I suspected turn-in would feel better (and boy, was it ever!). I couldn't open the door and clear the fender on the borrowed flat bed trailer shown on the 315s, for instance, but could easily load the car on the 295s. And no, this isn't the normal Vorshlag 36' enclosed gooseneck trailer, which sits patiently awaiting the arrival of my custom ordered F-350, that is now very late. Big thanks to SCCA racer Matt Lucas for loaning me not only his truck but his trailer as well.

On track the front ended up fitting fine, but the rear tire rubbed slightly on the outer fender lip in heavy cornering. Enough to make me uncomfortable, but others might have no problem with that. And no, there isn't any "fender rolling" that will help, as the OEM rear fenders are pinched completely flat on the lip sections there. Unless you physically moved the fender lip outward a solid 1/2" or so. This is just... a fat-assed tire for a 10" wide wheel with a +43 offset in back. With a bit more backspacing it would work fine, but then you couldn't rotate the wheel front to back, which is the whole point of our 18x10 ET43 wheels (both the D-Force and Forgestar) - ease of rotation front to back.

Again, I wish I had better pictures to show of these mounted onto the car, which would make this all make sense, but in our rush to load the car on Friday the only pictures we have of the 295/40s mounted were two I took at the shop and some iPhone pics. These tires have since been dismounted and will be sold, cheaply.

So with the 295s mounted and the ballast brace welds still cooling, the car was hastily loaded on Friday March 15th and Amy and I blasted outta Vorshlag on the way to MSR-Cresson. We stopped and looked at a car on the way - a thoroughly hail-damaged 740iL which was a complete waste of time - and made it to MSR-Cresson by 7:45 pm, as the light was quickly fading...


NASA Time Trial event at MSR-Cresson - 3.1 mile course

Amy and I had both signed up to drive in TT3 in the same car, once again. Sharing a car and racing it in the same class sucks, by the way. We are NOT going to do this again, because neither of us are getting enough seat time to learn the ever changing set-ups and/or familiarize ourselves with new tracks. More on that later in this post. So we arrived at MSR on Friday around 7:30 pm, quickly unloaded the car and then unhooked the trailer. By then it was pitch dark and we installed the rear wing using a flashlight, since I was worried about towing the car on an open trailer and adding excessive drag with the wing on (wasted effort - we towed on the way back with the wing installed and didn't see a dip at all in the borrowed V10 Ford F-250 truck's horrendous MPG, heh).



Note: All of these pics are from Sunday, as we didn't take any pics with our own camera on Saturday and Vorshlag's own Brandon arrived about 10 am Sunday and snapped the good ones from the event.

Vorshlag NASA @ MSR-C Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/NASA-MSRC-031613/
Saturday NASA TT Results: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-...-h8c9P5j/0/X2/MSR-C-TTEndofDay1-031613-X2.jpg
Sunday NASA TT Results: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-...-V8H8QRm/0/X2/MSC-C-TTEndofDay2-031713-X2.jpg



The Time Trial group in our region has gotten too big and crowded to run on the smaller 1.7 mile road course that the NASA events are usually held on. So they put just the TT group out on the large 3.1 mile course... which is made up of the normal 1.7 mile course (which every other race and HPDE group drove all weekend) and the hyper-tight 1.3 mile course, joined together. Amy had driven the 1.3 mile course once, and the 1.7 mile course a couple of times, but joined into the 3.1 it is a different animal altogether... and it get's pretty complicated to remember, and the line changes dramatically, with a LOT of turns and transitions. They call it "16 turns" but that is just not even remotely correct - the 3.1 mile course is closer to 26 turns when you actually count the times you have to change direction. Not many 26 turn courses are easy to learn quickly, and MUCH more difficult to remember than the 11 turn 1.7 mile course most people normally run there. And what these 2D maps don't show are the massive elevation changes, the many blind corners, and off camber sections just waiting to bite you and send you 4 off.


Ignore the "passing in green zone" stuff, that is for HPDE; TT has open passing. And this course is closer to 26 turns, not 16

So Saturday we had 4 TT sessions to run in, but the 1st one on Saturday doesn't count for times, only for grid position. So we had 3 real timed TT sessions between 2 drivers to fight over. That left us 3 actual timed sessions to figure out the 3.1 mile course and get a good lap time in. Sure, we could hop into an HPDE session for more seat time, and we both did, but it would be on the 1.7 mile course only. Since I had driven this 3.1 mile course briefly back in 2011 (in our GRM E30 V8 - where I promptly exploded another T5 going over a rough patch in the transition from the 1.7 to the 1.3 course), Amy and I agreed that I would go out in the first "practice" session and she would ride along, which would normally DSQ my times in TT - but they don't count anyway. I tried to show her the line, what little I could remember of it, and failed miserably. She tried not to throw up as I slung the car around this unfamiliar course, and barely succeeded. Eventually she just closed her eyes and said "OK, enough!"

Part 3, continued below

 

[Vorshlag-Fair]

(part 3, continued from above)

We started the day on a sticker set of 295/40/18 Hoosier R6 tires and planned to switch to the sticker 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 tures if.... 1) we were getting beat or 2) if the 295s felt funky. By TT session 2, our first timed session I was out again on the 295s and Amy had done one HPDE session on the 1.7 course. Neither of us liked the feel of the 295s but I wanted to give them a little more time to show their stuff. I was also instructing a student in HPDE1 so I was running ragged that day, with our paddock spot a long way away from the grid. I was briefly in the TT3 lead on the 295s, but Amy and I agreed that the 295s weren't cutting it. They felt... very slow to react compared to the 315/30/18 Hoosiers and 315/35/18 Kumho V710s we had raced on for much of last year at various track events.


Left: Borrowed truck and trailer were handy, but left us without a lot of our tools. Right: Getting ready to go out on 315s

By 10:30 Olof had arrived at the track and the three of us quickly swapped wheels and tires for the wider Forgestar 18x11/12" wheels and shorter/wider 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires. Two sticker sets of Hoosiers in one day - nucking futs! Amy quickly went out for a few laps in another HPDE session to get a feel for the shorter A6s and she really liked it, but still had no idea what line to take on the 3.1 course. She finally took to the 3.1 mile course in TT Session 3, but there was a little "incident" that shortened the session to one lone hot lap (hence her abysmal 2:31 time followed by a 4:09, which was during the red flagged lap). This incident was some inadvertent "car-to-car" contact, which I have never seen in a Time Trial session in our region in the past 6 years. I don't want to get into it any more than to say that one TT driver was completely lost, was driving the wrong course, and turned into another car.

Anyway, during that very brief session another TT3 driver had slipped into the lead ahead of me, just barely. Amy had one hot lap in a timed TT session for the day. I felt bad about it, since she only got one real timed lap in a TT session on Saturday, and offered up session 4 to her... but she agreed to let me go out in TT session 4 on the A6s, to try for the win, as I was a good bit faster than her, on this course which I knew a little better. We just had enough in class (5 cars) to pay out 2 tires to 1st place, if I could get back into the lead.

The TT3 class lead was razor thin - I was less than a tenth back with a 2:26 lap - but I had a feeling that the then 1st placed car, an LS1 powered Miata with big Hoosiers and aero, would pick up time in TT session 4. I had my secret weapon - switching to the 315 A6s would surely drop some major time! What I didn't know was - he was doing the same damn thing!! Oh, the irony. We both switched from R6 tires to A6s for TT session 4, and I was lined up right behind him on the formation lap.


Partial hot lap from Saturday (Day 1) TT session 4, before the camera shifted...

You can see part of TT session 4 in the video above, right until the camera shifted and pointed at the ceiling (ruining video for the rest of the weekend). So I go out, try to learn the feel of the very short/sticky A6 tires in this lone session, and quickly realize I'm catching the LS1 Miata hard on many turns of the 1st hot lap, so I back off and build a gap. That's where the video stops.

The key to doing well in Time Trial is to not get stuck in traffic. So by hot lap 2 I had backed off enough to build a nice 200 yard gap to John's LS1 Miata ahead and still had plenty of distance to a TT1 Corvette behind me so as to not impede him. Then I put the hammer down and started making up track distance to John. I want after at it for 3 hot laps, catching the V8 Miata little by little on laps 2, 3 and 4. But what I didn't realize was, John had already put in his fastest time on lap 1, when I was bunching up in his mirrors and backed off. In the end we both dropped 2 full seconds, but John came away with the win with a 2:24.643 to my 2:27.787 lap. So the win, 2 tires, and a track record went to John on Day 1, and I congratulated him after.


The LS1 Miata of John Roberts was a tick faster on Day 1 than the Mustang

I cannot emphasize this enough: The differences in the two tires were dramatic - sidewall height, overall height, compound, tread width, and steering feel. My excuse is that the changes were too drastic for me to learn with in a mere 4 laps, and I just couldn't put the right lap together. I wasn't "getting the line" right at all all day, either. I felt like I needed one more lap, but by the 4th hot lap in that last session of the day I noticed my lap times were really slowing down. The Hoosier A6 is fast, but you need to put in your fast lap or two in early, then they need to cool down.

Basically, I drove for crap. I pondered my many mistakes that night at the NASA catered party / St. Paddy's Day celebration, where I was given evil, potent shots of some green alcohol... I was blitzed out of my mind by 7:30 pm and Amy had to take me outta there and go get some food in me, to sober up!



Sunday was a new day, and I vowed was going to put a solid fast lap in on this b!tch of a course, by damn. Amy promised to do the same, if she "could get more than one hot lap all day!". There were 4 full TT sessions to get times in for Day 2, so Amy and I split them 50-50. She went in TT sessions 1 and 3, I took sessions 2 and 4. Did I mention that 2 people driving the same car and getting half the seat time sucks??? She put in a good number of laps in TT session 1 and brought the car in while I sprinted to the grid to instruct with my student.

What she didn't do was add fuel to the car, which we were doing after every other session, to both make weight and make sure the fuel pick-up didn't get starved. When we ran the car on track with street tires it wasn't ever a concern but I noticed some fuel starve in higher speed left handers at MSR-Houston with less than a 1/2 tank of fuel, and didn't want to repeat that.



I barely made it back to the car in time to grid up for TT session 2... and it showed to have just a tick above half a tank. Err... will this work??? No time to leave the grid and get more fuel, so I had to hope it was enough for a few laps. Again, I felt like I had the track figured out in my head, and I just needed one traffic-free lap, early, to get a good time in.

This wasn't enough fuel for ONE hot lap, actually. After we got through the end of the warm-up lap the front of the field was speeding up and I had a perfect gap ahead and behind for some traffic-free laps. I am building speed through turns 14-15-16 of the 1.7 section of the course, which are well into 4th gear, pushing the big car hard through this high-g series of corners right before the green flag... and the motor starts to stall. No... noNoNONONO! It clears up towards the entrance to Turn 1 (Big Bend), I dig in the brakes hard and lay into the throttle before the apex, letting the car push wide.... engine stalls again. NO! This is NOT HAPPENING! The gauge shows half a tank!?! But now, on 315mm A6s, with the wing set at a high AOA, in these high speed corners it is simply fuel starving. I throw up a fist and quickly dive into Pit In, not wanting to suffer through another 3.1 mile lap of fuel starvation and holding up the entire TT field.

At this point I'm pretty mad at Amy for leaving me way less than the 3/4 tank we had agreed on for the start of each session. I guess I wasn't clear enough. Sharing a race car SUCKS, by the way. I dejectedly head to the local gas station, still painfully in view of the lower corners in the 1.3 section. I wave at some of the drivers as the car guzzles 8 more gallons of 93 octane. By the time I'm back into the track they are on their final lap - I'd never get around in time to get in a hot lap, so I put all my hopes on the final 4th TT session, as Amy is driving next. At least I left her plenty of fuel! hehe....

I get back to our paddock spot, switch transponders, and get her helmet in the car. She waltzes back from somewhere... "Where you been? Why aren't you on track?" Oh that was the wrong thing to ask right then, as the TT field takes the checkered flag. Somehow after arguing for a few minutes it ends up being my fault, don't ask me how ... I always lose these fights.



So Amy goes out in Session 3 on Sunday and gets a couple of hot laps. and drops a second from Saturday, which put her ahead of a Ferrari 355 Challenge car running in TT3, so she was happy with that. There is a great sequence of pics starting here showing her hounding this F355, then sticking a door inside of him "for a look", backing off, and getting a hast point by. She was all smiles after that small victory. The rest of her session was spent in traffic, moving up through the field, with a best lap of a 2:30.8.


Amy getting a look at then passing a Ferrari F355 Challenge racer

Amy said she never felt like she had the right line on the 3.1, and complained about a lack of seat time - which I agree with. But now it was my turn to go in TT session 4, still with zero timed laps for the day. It was the end of the day, end of the weekend, and there were very few TT racers left. All of the faster TT1 and TT2 cars had bailed, so I was at the head of the grid. John's Miata had blown up a halfshaft in TT session 2 and left him stranded mid-track when I was off getting fuel, so he was out (they had to black flag the session to get him out of the way, so I never would have made it back for a hot lap after fueling, in any case). I still needed to get a good lap in, as John's early 2:27 lap was still leading the TT3 class. I wanted more than the 2:24 I had from Day 1, and knew it was in the car, if only I could get some clear track and put a lap or two together.

Luckily, with being in the number 1 grid spot and setting the pace on the out lap, bunching up the field, I had 100% traffic free session. I only took two hot laps in TT session 4, and both of them were fast enough to win and reset the TT3 track record. I managed a 2:22.753 and a 2:22.798, both laps a solid 2 seconds ahead of my Day 1 times (which shows how poorly I drove on Saturday). After seeing those laps I called it a day, knowing that the A6 tires were likely going to slow down significantly for lap 3. We had only 4 entrants in TT3 on Day 2 so there were no tires for the winner, oh well. Should have put one of these laps together on Day 1 - my own fault for jacking around with 2 very different sets of tires, and sharing a car for the same class, limiting our seat time.

NASA Texas Lap Records (only updated "semi-annually") http://www.nasa-tt.com/Texas_Track_Records/p2046_articleid/11 - this doesn't even have the January 2013 event updated yet, so of course the March event isn't in the books.

After my TT session was done I worked with my HPDE1 student one more time and signed her off for solo in HPDE2 in her S197 5.0 Mustang. This was the mother of two daughters who are also HPDE drivers, one in a 2013 Camaro and another in a second S197 5.0, with the father of the clan running HPDE in his Miata. Like they say, a family that races together... sees each other more on race weekends? Cool family.



(Part 4, continued below)

 

[Vorshlag-Fair]

(Part 4, continued from above)

What's Next?

The next event for the 2011 GT was on Saturday March 23rd at Eagles Canyon Raceway. Amy ran there for one session, but it rained and hailed like mad, so they rescheduled for April 6th. I'll talk about both of those events in my next update. If you would like to join us for an informal ECR track day on April 6th you can learn more at the link below. We also have a NASA event coming up at Texas World Speedway April 20-21st. Again, see the link below to sign up or learn more. And in between those two weekends is the SCCA ProSolo in our back yard. Friday night of the ProSolo weekend there’s a Welcome Party and dinner, “Grilling on the Barbi” on site, sponsored by Vorshlag Motorsports. All food is free of charge & of course FREE beer from a little town in Texas called Shiner. I will be speaking in an Australian accent and working the grill myself.

• Eagles Canyon Track Experience - April 6: https://www.facebook.com/events/480654921999822/
• NASA Texas April 19-21, 2013 - Texas World Speedway: http://nasaproracing.com/event/1618
• SCCA Mineral Wells ProSolo, April 12-14, 2013: http://www.scca.com/events/index.cfm?eid=5464

We missed the College Station SCCA National Tour, which was the same weekend as the rained out ECR Track Event. Damned shame. During the NASA MSR-C weekend we killed the brake pads and the rotors didn't have enough thickness to turn again. The pads lasted a few events but these rotors have been on for a long time, first as a dedicated "street set", then turned and used for many track weekends.



To prepare for the March 23rd ECR next track event we replaced the Carbotech race brake pads and rotors with fresh units. We went with the aggressive/hard XP20 front compound again (they were out of the new XP22) but stepped up from the XP10 rears to the XP12. Rotors were again Brembo rear rotors and the OEM replacement fronts we have had good luck with. Once we get caught up we will add all of that to our shopping cart - did I mention we were insanely slammed, and have been buried in work for the last 3 months?



Epic Amount of Busy

Vorshlag has been trying to grow to keep up with demand of our products, both the ones we design and build and those of the other companies we partner with. We are now getting through a bit of a backlog of camber plate backorders, due to an unexpected surge of orders and beyond-record-sales, and are now stocking more of the popular S197 Whiteline Watts Links and LCA brackets, both of which are selling very well. We are sold out of AST 4150 coilovers for the S197 chassis at the moment, but they assure us we will see more "soon". Please call or e-mail if you want to know more and thanks for your patience.

The call volume is what is killing us, and we are all working 10-12 hour days trying to keep up (we quit answering the phone at 6 "when we close" but end up working until 9 or 10 trying to answer emails and build orders). It got so bad that I posted an ad for an inside sales person during the middle of writing this post, and have since filled that position. I posted it to the Vorshlag Facebook page for those of you lamenting the timing.

Mobil1 The Grid



Amy was one of several Texas Region SCCA Solo drivers featured in the Mobil1 The Grid episode that aired March 23rd, 2013. You can see the 4:11 clip from the episode during the "Grassroots" portion, that features the autocross event coverage in this link. She did great on camera and was interviewed multiple times the day they shot the video, and ended up in two on-air clips, plus a few scenes of her driving the red Mustang on course. The best part was how she called me her tire warmer, heh. Big thanks to Joanna of Sunset+Vine studios in London for spending so much time with Amy that day, and getting some great video for this clip.




Ironically enough this was from the last SCCA autocross we did in that car, back in Nov 4, 2012 (covered in this Nov 16th project update). At the time when I made this video from my last run that day, where I took the win and 2nd in PAX overall, I had no idea it would likely be our last autocross event with SCCA. Or was it?


SCCA - Making Progress in Solo?

There have been some very positive developments in the SCCA Solo world in the past few weeks, specifically the introduction of a radical set of changes for the entry level autocross "Stock" class, now to be called "Street". Gone are the custom remote reservoir double adjustable shocks and pricy Hoosier gumball R compound tires. In their place were added the much needed camber plates/adjustment provision (this pays for itself in tire wear savings, ten fold) and a 2nd optional swaybar provision, up from the previous one. And 200 treadwear tires are to be mandated in these "Street" classes by 2015, like much of the rest of the motorsport world has done to their entry level classes.

Read this for more explanation: http://www.solomatters.com/2013/03/street-catagory-proposal-explained/

It wasn't like "Stock" was even remotely like factory stock, and with these proposals that have taken some of the big $$$ mods and really lowered the tire budgets in this entry-level category. Now with the BFG Rival, Dunlop Z2 and Bridgestone RE-11A all sporting 200 treadwear - and better wear rates than before - this is a smart, progressive, and necessary part of the category update. These are changes that we here at Vorshlag and other competitive racers have been asking to be implemented for years. We sell the custom shocks that are allowed under the old ruleset and it gets a little crazy - the things we can legally do for Stock class racers. I personally wholeheartedly agree with every Street class provision of these proposed changes to "Stock" classes, and it still baffles me that this is the same group that made the Watts Link change. I just hope enough people write-in to the SEB to support these changes (use this link!) and I hope the same "let's get out of the 1970s rules!" mentality can find its way to Street Prepared and Prepared, both of which categories are badly mired in the past.

These "Stock-to-Street" changes are "out for member review", should likely pass (but don't ask me, as I cannot predict a damned thing) and could become the new entry level class for Solo by 2014, with some final aspects phased in by 2015. Read more here. Again, the irony is that the Solo Events Board (who made the Watts Link change I so vehemently disagreed with) is the group made these radical but much-needed Stock-to-Street class proposals, against the wishes of the Stock Advisory Committee, some members of which are getting shut out for fighting the changes and not getting this much needed update done sooner. So now I find myself agreeing with and even publicly defending the same group of 7 people (SEB) that I felt made a bad call in January.

Their bold move here prompted me to not only renew my SCCA membership, which I had let lapse in disgust, but to also sponsor the ProSolo welcome party next month. The world is a crazy place sometimes - right as I had given up hope on this club they make the boldest proposal in 40 years, completely restructuring an entire category. I just hope they don't lose any steam and quit making these much needed updates to the oldest of classes.

Oh, and please don't clutter up this Mustang build thread with more "Street class" proposal banter - there are lots of forums blowing up with discussion of this set of changes. Just look for any forum that talks about SCCA Solo and you'll find a massive thread where you can chime in. Or if you are a member on the Vorshlag forum, feel free to chime in to this thread. Thanks!


Sharing a Race Car Sucks! (new Daily Drivers Added)

So I dropped the above line in this thread update several times, because it is true. Every time Amy and I have had to share a car for a track weekend it makes for two problems: 1) we don't get as much seat time individually and 2) it is very hard on the car, if we take extra track sessions. This isn't at all like autocrossing, where two drivers often benefit from driving together, and you have only 3-4 minutes of driving per day. We're putting 80+ minutes of track abuse on the car each and every track day. We've also both been complaining about daily driving our two S197 Mustangs, Amy in the 2011 Mustang (which has been getting a bit more radical over the past year) and me in the 2013 GT (which I've been using to commute in as well as pick up/drop off parts with various Vorshlag vendors). I put nearly 2000 miles on my '13 in the past 5 weeks, too, nearly doubling the odometer reading. Both cars were also already pretty stiffly sprung and have only gotten stiffer springs and worse ride characteristics as the on-track competitiveness has ratcheted up.


"new" Daily Drivers for Amy (BMW 740iL) and me (GMC Sierra 1500 "shop truck")

In the past two weeks we have added two more "daily drivers" to our fleet of cars and trucks. We have actually been looking for good examples of the above two vehicles for quite some time, and it was just luck that we happened upon two great deals/examples, mere days apart. Amy is now daily driving in in a silver on black 2001 BMW 740iL, which is a really clean V8 Baviarian cruiser. Now we finally have an actual 4 door vehicle that we real adults can ride in the back seat with - craziness. And since my custom ordered 2013 F-350 diesel dually isn't here, which I don't want to use it for commuting/parts deliveries anyway, and I sold my Dodge diesel tow rig in late January, I picked up this fine example of the GMT800 chassis. This 1999 GMC Sierra 1500 has the short bed, regular cab, 2WD, and a 5.3L V8 under hood. A previous owner even added some ugly 20" wheels and leaking headers, but those will be removed and replaced soon. This truck will be our shop "parts runner" so we can finally pick up pallets of parts again, and I can quit pounding needless miles on my 2013 GT filling the role of a truck, and the tow vehicle dually can just stay a tow vehicle. Both of these recent purchases will be covered in this sub-forum[/URL], with their own build threads, linked to in this paragraph.

So now that have two more functional, comfy daily drivers, what to do with the Mustangs? First thought - Make them faster. Yes, in the last thread update I said I was going to sell the 2013 GT but that was 6 weeks ago! I thought about it and now, I don't think so. The 2013 GT was just so cheap to buy new that I can't make myself get rid of it. And I need something of mine to race, without Amy's squeamish limitations that are imposed on "her" red 2011 GT. My 2001 BMW 330 LS1 race car is still months away from being race ready, and I don't want to "share" her Mustang with her for the bulk of the 2013 season.

Back to a two Mustang team?

Amy suggested, without any prodding or Jedi mind tricks from me, that I "should just race the 2013 GT" myself. So before she realizes how much I'll likely spend modding this one, we're going to quickly prep it for TT3 use, and do ALL the things we wanted to do to this car when we bought it for ESP use: wider wheels, flared fenders, more power, less weight, no back seat, etc. We just won't have as many tortured rules to limit us that we originally had in our ESP build plan. We've already picked up 14" Brembos and have some other cool bits arriving soon as well. This car has remote reservoir coilover monotube doubles (AST 4200RR) installed, and we will put even more suspension goodies on this car than the 2011 GT has. Since NASA TT3 class has two optional Power-to-Weight formulas to choose from (9.5:1 for non-stock aero and 9:1 for OEM aero), we'll go with a lighter set-up on the 2013 GT to see how it stacks up against the 2011 GT's winged/splittered set-up. My hope is to have both cars at the NASA @ NOLA event, May 4-5th. We should have our new truck by then and hopefully the GMC "shop truck" will be more trailer capable by then as well.

Sorry this update got so long, but we have a lot going on, and more coming up. By my next update there will be some bombshells and hopefully progress from the 2013 GT build.

Stay tuned until next time!

 

[Norm Peterson]

Damned Upper Control Arm Set-up, Test 4

So we've put 4 or 5 iterations of Rear Upper Control Arms (UCA) in this car and have been happy with none of them. No matter what brand or style we try it always eventually comes loose, then clanks and bangs around on any bump. Very frustrating. The various designs have also taken their toll on the axle-side UCA bushing, that is press-fit into the axle. Our techs noticed that this rubber OEM bushing was cracked and completely shot, so while the axle was being refurb'd they pressed it out and in went a fresh new one. Why not poly, you ask? Well this is one of those "terrible places for a poly bushing"... as it needs to both rotate and twist in 2 axis. Polyurethane rarely has the material properties for this task - it should be rubber or a spherical bushing.



After a quick glance we couldn't find a spherical set-up for the axle-side bushing (yet)

Looking for these?

http://www.steeda.com/store/steeda-spherical-bearing-for-2005-and-up-ford-mustang.html


Or possibly these?

http://www.uprproducts.com/mustang-8-inch-bushings-05.html


FWIW, if in any of the previous iterations the inner sleeves were left shorter than the bushing material, that's a major root cause for clunking. Any torque/clamp load that goes into compressing the "resilient material" is wasted as far as joint tightness/resistance to slippage is concerned - the resulting noise when the joint comes up hard putting the bolt directly in shear being proof that the joint "slipped".


Norm

 

[Dreadknought]

You know, Seeing as how I live in central texas, I should really get off my lazy ass, hop in my stang, and come see you guys at a few of these events. And keep these updates coming!!! I eat em up!

 

[DTL]

Nice write-up! I NEEEED that trans. bushing insert!!

 

[sholzer]

Nice write-up! I NEEEED that trans. bushing insert!!

+1

Love seeing the updates on your build as well. Although this one has me worrying that I'm going to destroy my rear fenders now with the 295/40 hooisers haha

 

[zquez]

Nice write-up! I NEEEED that trans. bushing insert!!

Now they just need to make one for the TR-6060 and 3650. Even with poly motor mounts, and an MGW shifter, shifting is still a chore at high rpm.

 

[B2B]

That explains why I was reaching all the way over to the passenger seat when trying to shift into 5th on the banking at TWS... Looking forward to trying the transmission bushing.

 

[neema]

kudos to whiteline for making a piece of cake insert. they should sell like hotcakes. sign me up

 

[Kobie]

I've been wanting to improve that mounting point for some time now. Sign me up too!!

 

[Philostang]

Now they just need to make one for the TR-6060 and 3650. Even with poly motor mounts, and an MGW shifter, shifting is still a chore at high rpm.

If you're having this much trouble with tranny movement, you might want to look into the CHE K-member brace with strut supports. They tie the bellhousing into the K-member brace. Simple and super effective. Bit more hassle to install than the Whiteline bushing though. I ran one for years on my 2006 (regular street duty and track duty), and I loved the difference it made.

Best,
-j

 

[ArizonaGT]

do want trans bushing kthxbye

 

[zquez]

If you're having this much trouble with tranny movement, you might want to look into the CHE K-member brace with strut supports. They tie the bellhousing into the K-member brace. Simple and super effective. Bit more hassle to install than the Whiteline bushing though. I ran one for years on my 2006 (regular street duty and track duty), and I loved the difference it made.

Best,
-j

I have thought about that, but I didn't like the stress it would put on the bellhousing ears. I'll be draining the crap ford fluid out and putting some Amsoil ATF in soon so hopefully that makes as big a difference as the GT500 guys say it does. Otherwise I'll be fabbing my own poly mount, which will be no fun.