Project Update for Nov 30th, 2012: We had a track event in the Mustang since our last update and Amy set her new personal best lap at ECR. We've also finally modified the 2013 GT with real suspension bits, but that will be covered in that car's own thread. And after a considerable wait we finally have AST 4150s in stock for the S197 Mustang (and Vorshlag bought the entire order)!
Five Star Ford HPDE, ECR, Nov 17th
In our last project thread installment, we were preparing the 2011 GT for a Ford-centric track day at Eagles Canyon, our local 2.5 mile road course that is bumpy, but fun. This is where we do a majority of our testing and where Five Star Ford (a local Ford dealership - and where we bought our 2013 GT) had their first HPDE event back in June. This track is a brake intensive track, as I have mentioned before, and Amy drove the car exclusively all day and took the rear brake pads down to the backing plates. The pads were marginal when we got there and she still managed to get three HARD track sessions in before they started making racket and she brought it in.
Vorshlag Picture/Video gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/Five-Star-ECR-111712/
Our photo guru Brandon went with us and took some great pictures, and Ed from Pirtek Plano South joined us out there as well. Matt brought his BRZ with our camber plates, some fresh 255/40/17 R-S3 tires and Carbotech brake pads and was tearing it up as well. I came out to watch, ride along and instruct, and to maybe take a few laps in one of our cars. In the picture above, I was riding through with Amy and it looks like I am yelling, but I'm probably saying "Gas! Gas! Gas!", to try to push her to faster lap times.
Ed and I (above right) got Amy's and Matt's cars ready, plus helped a few racers adjust camber or fix some small issues. I rode along with a number of other racers, including Matt in his BRZ, another FR-S driver Stephen F, and Amy in the '11 Mustang. After my ride along with me that day, plus Mike Patterson's in-car instruction from the NASA event in October, and maybe with some help from the new (more effective?) rear wing location, Amy lopped a second off her previous best lap to the tune of a 1:57.7.
Click above for in-car video from Amy's 1:57.7 lap.
This was again a pretty cold day (50s), very similar to the NASA event the month before, and she was pushing her braking zones and using more of the track on both corner entry and exit. She gave ride-alongs to Ed, me, and event organizer and Five Star Ford super dealer Corey White. Everyone had a blast riding along, the spectators loved watching/hearing her car on track, and she had the fastest car on track that day by a good bit. But as one onlooker said,
"It ain't got that whistle!"
Vorshlag/AST tester Ken O and another Vorshlag/AST customer Jason had their E46 M3s out there in the Advanced group with Amy, both running Continental road race slicks (made by Hoosier). Ken normally runs 1:57s on Hoosier A6s, but could only get a best of 2:01 on these Conti's. I went out in a session in Matt's BRZ and had a BLAST, getting a 2:10.5 best after getting blocked on one of my few laps (AIM Solo showed a 2:09.5 predictive before that). Matt knocked off a 2:11.0, which was still damned quick especially since he hasn't been on track in about two years! That light, little RWD coupe is fun, with tons of grip and lots of brakes, but just very little power.
At the end of the day, the rear brakes were finally used up and it looked like we had a rear axle seal leaking a little (it melted), so we loaded up the Mustang and headed home. Amy had a grin from ear to ear and couldn't wait to get back out on track! I think we've created a monster - if I could convince her to let us build her a W2W car, I would love to get her out there mixing it up with the AI boys. The next day I unloaded the car at the shop and went to buy a (basket case) '97 M3, for parts, then unloaded that, so it turned into an all around busy weekend.
Repairs from ECR
So at this event the Porterfield front and rear brakes got used up, and then some. We already had a compromised pad set-up on the car, as we wanted to get rid of all of the rest of the Porterfield pads we had on hand, and Amy took care of that. The rears were to the backing plates and the fronts weren't much better off at day's end, but they were worn to begin with. On Monday after the event we swapped on some street pads, turned the rotors, and bled the system.
We have mentioned the Porterfields brake pads in the past, and we have had
decent results from them, but when Ryan and the crew have switched from track (R4) to autocross/street (R4S) pads, the pads coming off tend to crumble and fall apart. This has happened to three sets of pads, which each had more than 50% pad life left... we pulled them out of the caliper and the friction material crumbled, fell off the backing plates, and were then junk. This was getting ridiculous and expensive, so we have now switched to another brand. We had even worse luck on Hawk brake pads. Not knocking these brands, just didn't work well on the Mustang.
Carbotech pads going on the '13 BRZ
Before the November 17th ECR event, we ordered some Carbotech pads (XP12 front, XP8 rear compounds) for Matt's BRZ. The pads themselves LOOKED really good - and yes, you can
see quality differences in brake pads. After driving the BRZ myself for a session at that event, beating on the brakes relentlessly, and then seeing the lap times and data I logged on this car under braking (1.4g!),
I am a believer. The Carbotech pads
didn't fall apart or wear the rotors funny either, like the Porterfields have been.
I liked Carbotechs so much we have since become a dealer. Now we have ordered their track pads for the 2011 and 2013 Mustangs and we'll see how these do next weekend. XP20 front and XP10 rear for the '11 (race tires, Brembos, ducting) and for the non-Brembo equipped (ugh) '13 we got XP12 front and XP10 rear (street tires, small 13.2" front brakes, stock power). We will see the results soon enough but I've had several American Iron racers tell me Carbotech were the best pads they have ever used. After seeing the results on the BRZ, I believe them.
So the '11 GT's front Brembo calipers have been rebuilt already, as the dust seals had burned and melted mostly away. They lasted almost two years under abusive braking on this FAT ASS car, at a lot of track and autocross events. After the latest ECR event, Ryan noticed the rear dust seals were melted, along with the caliper guide pin dust boots and rear axle seals. The rear calipers and guide pin dust seals have all been replaced and the rear axle seals will be swapped out for new ones next week, when we rebuild the Traction Lok differential once again. We debated going to a better aftermarket differential in the '11, but decided to "punt" on this decision (we won't race again until late January or early February) and instead ordered another $110 FRPP carbon clutch pack replacement kit. The '13 GT will get the better differential first (likely a T2-R), as it is more important for autocross use than on track.
AST 4150 Coilovers for S197 in Stock
After almost a year of waiting, they are here! The 4150 is a new shock model from AST that is a single adjustable monotube coilover strut/shock combination that we have been waiting for since late 2011. I won't bore you with all of the details, but the development and then initial production took longer than expected; the first sets arrived yesterday. I also won't bury you with too much sales talk, as you can see more details about the 4150
at this link.
There I go over the history of the 4100, the changes to the 4150, and explain how Vorshlag helped in our small way to both develop and get these made. It turns out that Vorshlag was the only AST dealer who was patient enough and who believed in this product enough to put in the orders, and we just received all of the 4150s likely to be delivered in 2012. We have a number of S197 and BMW E36 models in stock, ready to ship.
To allow for the maximum amount of travel in the rear of the S197, we had AST make the rear shocks completely different for us than what they normally do. We've tested these rear shocks three different ways and the configuration we went with allows for maximum total stroke and no in-board wheel interference. We keep the (replacement, coilover style) spring in the stock location, use some AST supplied adjustable rear spring height platforms, and machine our own Nylon adapters to make these platforms fit the S197 chassis. We're making these adapters in house now (I made the pair in the above left picture on our lathe yesterday) and supplying them with each 4150 kit at no additional cost. It is highly unlikely that you will see another AST dealer selling AST S197 shocks made to the Vorshlag spec.
Again, you can ready more about them in
this link.
Prizes and Kudos
Just found out moments ago that our red 2011 Mustang won 1st Prize ($400) for the Street Prepared category in the
"Black Magic Shine Awards" at the 2012 SCCA Tire Rack Solo National Championships. And can you blame them? That Mustang looks GOOD.
Also received all of the prizes from the Global Time Attack event at TMS. Ken O picked up my
Ducati Limited edition Oakley Sunglasses, which are pretty sweet.
We also won a $300 Whiteline product credit at GTA for the class win, which I put towards another Watts Link kit for my 2013 Mustang GT. They also made this video (
click here or above, right) where they interviewed me at the GTA event, which they showed in their 2012 SEMA booth on a loop. Pretty cool surprise, even if I look like a bog dork on film.
What's Next?
We have another track event December 8th at Eagles Canyon Raceway once again, but this will certainly be our last track event of 2012. We are taking four cars out there this time: the 2011 GT, the 2013 GT (with a full "Stage 1" AST/Whiteline/Vorshlag suspension installed), Matt's
2013 Subaru BRZ and the
1998 Firebird ChumpCar for its maiden track voyage. This is their annual "Toy Run" event, which the owners of ECR hold in December of each year to raise money and get toys and foods for charity. It is also very very affordable for the racers: $50 + a $10 unwrapped toy + 2 canned food items. As you can expect, it brings out a LOT of people, and many of them are new to track events, or are autocrossers. We go to the Toy Run event every year and ALWAYS have a blast, seeing lots of friends that are track junkies and cone punchers alike. If you are in Dallas, come join in the fun!
MORE INFO........
Contact: Maggie Williams
Organization: Eagles Canyon Raceway
Link:
www.eaglescanyon.com
e-Mail:
[email protected]
Phone: 817-992-9774
We also have been modifying our 2013 Mustang GT with what we are calling our "Stage 1" track setup. This car is now equipped with all of the most important bits we recommend in our "S197 Mustang Handling Guide" (which will be published soon). See details below.
Vorshlag S197 Stage 1 Suspension Set-up: AST monotube adjustable coilover dampers, stiffer rate coilover springs and a lower ride height; Vorshlag camber/caster plates and upper spring perches; Whiteline Watts Link kit; adjustable front sway bar; Vorshlag/D-Force lightweight 18x10" wheels mounted with 295/35/18 Nitto NT05 tires; Carbotech brake pads. All told this is about $6000 in parts, but it makes a HUGE difference in on-track performance. Ideally this car would have the 14" front Brembos but we are eventually turning this into an autocross-only car, so the big brakes were skipped on purpose. Anyone tracking an S197 would be FOOLISH to not get the 14" Brembos.
This set-up is 100% street friendly, with a great ride that should even get the "wife approved" status. Notice - we have made NO power mods to this Mustang at this stage. The 5.0L equipped S197s already makes 380 whp bone stock, so adding more power should
not be in your first round of modifications to these cars. It will only make the car harder to drive until you step-up to larger R compound rubber. Ask me how I know this. Of course nobody listens to that, and modifies for more power
first... Oiy!
We will run my black 2013 GT equipped as shown above next weekend at ECR. With a data logger and on-board video we will see how much improvement (if any) we have made over the "baseline" set-up we ran in October (which was these wheels/tires + camber plates only, with a best of 2:07 laps). The Vorshlag crew is also going to be driving Cadillac CTS-Vs at COTA on December 7th - the new Formula 1 track in Austin - the day before the ECR event. Should be another fun weekend!
More soon,