Hey Chris, yeah there seems to be a lot of activity on new tracks - kind of bucks the trend of our current economy huh? I think the private track concept is fine - if that's what it takes to get tracks built so be it... the rest of us can enjoy them for the years it takes to create full membership... also, Chuckwalla and some of the other private courses are planning a series of projects... Chuckwalla for example is planning two other world class road courses next to this one so it is going to be a while before they start shutting down the facility to outsiders... in fact right now they are working hard to recruit clubs to hold more events there... NASA-Arizona is going in a few months... Arizona is definitely a good place to be if you like spending time at the race track... here's the run down:

- Local... Phoenix Intl Raceway 1.6 mi roadcourse
- Local... Firebird Intl Racway... 4 roadcourses that can be combined
- Local... Arizona Motorsports Park AMP (RE-OPENED AFTER SEVERAL YEARS)
- 1 hour south... Inde Motorsports Ranch (NEW)
- 2.5 hours west... Chuckwalla (NEW)
- 5 hours southeast... Demming NM
- 5.5 hours north... Spring Mountain (NEW-ISH)
- 5.5 hours north... LV Motor Speedway
- 6-12 hours... Socal tracks

while I have no video for the weekend, a photographer-driver I know created this video... you can get a good look at the track and will see my car buzzing by at 1:18 mark... I think my car is starting to sound like a star wars speeder bike! haha

haha you smoked all those mustangs...

yeah, at first we took it easy on them b/c they were on street tires and we heard they were new drivers trying to race qualify... were later told they were "pros" and of course then they became mobile chicane units haha

MCU's.. I'm officially trademarking that.. LOLOL :icon18: :bowrofl: :roflpuke2: :inoutroflpuke:

Have you seen that "Why We Race" show? They followed the Mustang Challenge/Miller cup guys last year... It was interesting since it seemed like a large portion of the grid had never seen a track before they started racing.

All yours! needs an entry on urban dictionary, lol

Interesting - never saw the show... I'm a fan of any amateur / pro-am racing, but not surprised this one hasn't done well. They're canceling the series right??? If so, probably some mustang racecars available at a good price!

Car porn time! Sorry, but you have to click!

First, here are some of the cars I ran with at my event last weekend

http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=758213
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=758267
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=758304
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=758421
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=758429

And here's the Z and a good look at the new fascia and rear diffuser

http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=755905
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=756104
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=755909
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=755906
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=755304
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=756931
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=756986
http://www.caliphotography.com/photo...ewImage=757150

I want to buy that rear diffuser, pm me details if possible

I think it was basically anyone that had enough money could buy their way into the series. The problem was with no real interest besides a bunch of wealthy guys driving around it didn't really stick.

Travis, the new aero is sweet. Too bad you have to share the track with the MCUs... I'd say at your skill level you shouldn't have to share the track with any of the lower class drivers! :tup:

I like the second to last picture of your car travis. Looks awesome!

Hows that new fascia working out?

see reply on other thread

thanks. but I know my place in the world of racing... on a scale from maggot to whatever, I'm a grub worm. haha...

thanks. front fascia is terrific... i'll be moving the brake ducts to the side holes. not using the stillen supplied brake duct vents that take the place of the 'fangs' the diameter is 0.5 inch smaller than the ducting i use. the fascia fits well and is definitely an upgrade over stock. only downside I see is adding a few pounds of weight on the nose.

Great! Looks like it came out well with the splitter too! You should hook those brake ducts to some velocity stacks and get a shroud around the oil cooler to concentrate as much air through it as possible.

I am loving pics 755905 and 755906. Wish I could get them w/o the watermarks....

The last shot is MEAN!

as it turns out, working on the shroud now... hoping it provides another 10-20F of cooling...

thanks guys!

Josh, how about spending some stillen money to buy shots showing off fascia? then we can use on blog post... might make sense to split the $69 for full day session

pics of the shroud when done please :)

pics seem to have been removed

Im getting the same message when I try to open the links.

they're back on line now

The link seems valid, but I don't seem to be getting the picture I think I should. Very anxious to see the diffuser.

I'll post the track pics directly here this week... shroud will be another week or two

Had mixed success at track today... Firebird east... last time i was there was shortly after I bought the car and was still on street tires... ran a 1:06.5... today I was running about that time maybe half second less... a bit frustrating and a sign of the problems I am having with my brakes... had three offs today that were a result of setup issues and me trying to pass cars on 'dirty lines' - or braking zones with debris / silt... if you haven't tried tracking this car with ABS off, you should! ABS masks a lot of problems with the car, or at least my setup... we ended up running a softer front suspension with a few clicks out of the front suspension and -2 PSI on front vs rear in an attempt to get the front end to bite better under braking. The setup changes got me 50% of the way "there", but I'm not dialed in yet...

Ironically I dropped the rear when I had ABS to keep the ABS from going into ice mode, but finding that the drop is too much now - given ABS is off - because it doesn't transfer enough weight to front... ABS off, keep rear high, ABS on, drop rear down low as possible

The pads I'm running are mintex F3R front and mintex xtreme rear... I've decided that the F3Rs may be too much brake for me as a driver, and perhaps for this car... the coeff of friction is just too high and it comes on strong too fast to be practical for me on a short track with lots of stop and go (and ABS off)... not to mention the track I was running today has lots of brake zone transitions/ bumps... If i had ABS today, would have prob worked out okay, but without I was locking up when the front wheels hopped over transitions and missing turns

Other things I may try before I ditch these pads... go from 18K front / 16K rear springs to 16/16... increase rear pads from mintex xtreme to ferodo ds3000's... increase rear ride height 1/4" to 1/2"... restore ABS

I should also mention that one of my front rotors is warped due to excessive heat (before I added brake cooling). It is possible that some of my brake lock up is coming on due to the warped rotor.

Will begin work on the shroud this WED and will prob take a week after that... now that we're down to 1 oil cooler core, temps are getting back to 255F in Arizona winter ambient temps... so the shroud is going to be very necessary

Will add a couple points to the weight reduction thread

Sorry to hear that Travis, sounds like that track is pretty tough without ABS. I was planning on switching to the F3R, now I have second thoughts. I was also wondering if a full floating rotor would be more resistant to warping, more room for even heat expansion right? At least one of my fronts is badly warped as well, I need to get some cooling.

IMO the way to solve the brake problem is to add cooling and keep things as simple as possible... I'm good on brake cooling now, so I would be surprised if I end up warping another set of rotors...

In addition to replacing warped front rotors, there are three things getting in the way of me effectively braking this car with ABS off...

1) IMO F3R's are not a "pedal feel" kind of pad, they'd prob be good for a driver with ABS that is constantly going into ABS anyways... and they'd prob be good for a driver that is used to a pad like this and running tracks with lots of long, straight, smooth braking zones... I look forward to trying them out in different conditions and providing more input later... I did run them at Chuckwalla last week and I turned the quickest time I have ever run there - although that track is all about high speed transitions and smooth surface / relatively straight braking zones

2) ride height, tire psi, and suspension setup... with ABS off I'm finally beginning to realize how important this element is in braking... dropping 2psi front (relative to rear) and playing around with damper settings made a HUGE difference... I think for guys with a lot of seat time and test/tune time this will come as no surprise... for me, I was amazed how a few clicks on the dampers etc changed braking performance - particular the braking in response to a brake zone bump and the initial bite when first applying brakes...

3) rear compound that is a match for these F3Rs on the front... during hard braking, my front tires were losing traction first, so once I address #2 above, I'm going to also switch to a stiffer rear compound (the ferodos) to see if I can balance out the F3Rs a bit

Hope this helps... I'm sure there are applications where the F3Rs make a lot of sense - and if there's anyone else reading this that has experience with these pads, would welcome more input

I'll let AP Chris step in with his insights, but Travis I think you're coming into your own as a driver, and getting in the thick of things, which is fantastic to see.

Another point is you're to the level where not every pad, suspension, tire pressure setup is the same for each track. You will have better results on certain tracks with certain setups, which will include brake pad selection. Good part is there is a myriad of options, but at your level in ability and build, doubt there is going to be a 'magic' setup that will perform as what you want on each track, as you're noting they can vary significantly on your expectations of the car.

Knowing what each change does to the feel of the car, and how you drive will have a lasting impact on how to set the car up for each type of track.

Great info, and thanks for the continual updates..

Thanks. I think you are right about the need for different setups at different tracks under different conditions... unfortunately I'm lacking the seat time and tuning experience to sort through all that right now! So everyone gets to see the whole ugly learning process along with me here on the forum... haha

Would be appreciative if Chris dropped by here to share some sage advice

Finally got the high res images from my recent visit to Chuckwalla... thanks CaliPhoto... let me know what you think

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_4194.jpg
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_4235.jpg
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_4276.jpg
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_4327.jpg
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_4510.jpg
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_3374.jpg
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_3249.jpg
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_3169.jpg
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_3252.jpg
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_3172.jpg

That diffuser is sick!! I want one...Great job with the diffuser and the Stillen fascia...

sick pics man!

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/ROB_4510.jpg

Oh man! So Sick!

sorry wasn't following your build journal, and I just noticed you needed your center console back, or atleast did. Wouldn't have helped anyways as I was, and still am deployed, so I wouldn't have been able to send you it :<

Sorry for setting you back Travis

I ended up removing jsut the cover for this canister for my GTM 3" dual exhaust to clear

thanks but no worries, lou fusz hooked me up with a new one! :tup:

we did that as well... thinking about dropping it all together... will probably do that at the track this weekend and see what happens

All, I have a set of Hoosier 100 series race slicks on order... going to fit them to my 10" front and 11" rear wheels and see if I can turn a really fast time at PIR... fingers crossed!

good luck man!

Thanks Raul!

Hey, take a look at this google maps... is that a racetrack? should I buy it??? Did I mention that I'm moving to Florida?

14567 Fruitville Rd, Sarasota, FL, 34240 - Google Maps

This property sits on 55 acres and Zillow says the price is within reason... hmmm

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u...avisjb/lot.jpg

^haha, nice.

I'm dying to know what that is... maybe they just wanted their driveway to look that way???

BTW, UVA '01 here... how's Cville? :)

Zooming in, it looks like there's a couple houses off of it. Probably a "neigborhood".


Cville's great. 3 months away from finishing up at UVA, but staying down here to keep working after.

Wahoowa!

Wahoowa brotha!!

upon closer inspection, you're prob right... the 55 acres for that particular house extends west - does not encompass the 'race track'... darnit!!! going to need another dozen racers to buy up the whole thing! lol