XDC Dallas September 2011

So, XDC was the cars first event in almost 1 year! (I killed 1 pair of tires during this time as a final farewell, that was about it) The car had undergone a complete makeover, cooling was to be addressed, HANDLING was to be addressed, wiring was to be addressed, insufficient oem fuel system was to be addressed, and so on and so forth! Fast forward to Sept. 22, the night it finally moved under its own power (lol yes, night before the event). It literally all came down to the wire but worked smoothly. Its very nice to have every single thing work perfectly immediately after rewiring and practically rebuilding the whole chassis.

Got it aligned on Thursday and these were the specs it laid down…

camber: -5.25 front, -1 rear
toe: 1/16 total in front/rear
caster: 8

since my FLCA are finally adjustable it was nice to not have to do those settings with my plates maxed in which i’m used to normally having to do.

We went to XDC for practice feeling real confident about the car and went straight out on to the. On the 2nd lap out I blew my last remaining Driveshaft Shop 600HP axle, whoops. It was a good thing we rebuilt 3 for spares that day, 5 minutes later itwas back out on track. We had been diagnosing some braking issues all weekend and here’s what we discovered: the BMC was leaking from reservoir to cylinder (front gasket) so we ziptied it down to the cylinder and brakes felt great, I had zero e-brake at a track that requires some e-brake out back for adjustments in the final horseshoe. I quickly decided I wasn’t going to waste all of practice trying to fix the e-brake so I opted to drive around it. We then ended up having a GREAT day of practice! Tandems with Aaron, Will, Robert, George, Rapper Dan, Angerman, etc. It was FUN to drive like this again with all those cool dudes. I think that was some of Aaron and I’s most exciting tandem possibly ever? The car was simply amazing. 15 hotlaps in a row got it up to…90C! My SR couldn’t even dream of temps that cold! The motor runs SO cold now! Round 1 of practice felt a little slow so we bumped tire pressures down, 32psi cold fronts and 20-22psi cold rears. At that point it literally came alive. So much more grip than its ever had, I couldn’t believe it was my own car. It could be placed wherever you wanted it, it was absolutely amazing. We called it a day after Friday practices and came back Saturday morning for what we anticipated to be a really really great day…until the car lost 3rd gear. I think I bent a shift fork following Nick (3-4 fork). So now, there was no e-brake for the horseshoe turn adjustment and no 3rd gear for the horseshoe downshift. I said sorry to my Exedy, this ones gonna hurt! In qualifying I gave that thing the kicking of its life and netted 13th spot, which I’m not ashamed of necessarily given all the problems the car had. I ended up going against Rapper dan and I think I beat myself because I transitioned into the horseshoe a tad early and, though I finished close, it was because I cut the turn off (couldn’t extend out really without an e-brake). Also I heard he had a great follow, you looked killer that weekend dude!

So, in general, this sums up my mumbled posts and thoughts…

-My car does not overheat, George had a lot to do with this as he helped me set up my rad/cooling setup and I can’t thank you enough dude!
-My car finally has front brakes that do NOT overpower the car, the Sentra Brembos are amazing even on stock pads! Again, George, thanks buddy!
-My car finally has grip! As long as the front tires are good, it doesn’t sail anymore, it grabs. It doesn’t overshoot anymore, it bites in. It digs under throttle, it feels fantastic!
-My car has no wiring issues!
-It no longer spits up diff fluid, it no longer has oil leaks everywhere, it no longer leaks fuel out of the tank

I could not be more proud of the final product. And I’m not patting myself on the back either, a lot of people helped me setup the car and pick a correct slew of parts. Without those people I definitely could’ve ended up going the wrong direction with everything. Thanks George, Al, Jake, Drew, Lovis, Aubre, etc. You guys are rad for helping out so much!