March 4-6, 2011: Ed Nazarian racing @ ACS Roval (Season Opener)
Ed is completely changing his tire setup this year going to full race slicks. Between this and changing the downforce setup with the added front splitter, this will be a learning year for Ed. He wont be going to the national championships because of some family obligations he has.
Saturday was mostly a disaster dealing with the new tires and pressures. Ed was busy again on Sunday getting his corded tires flipped/mounted/balanced, so he was late to grid again. He didn’t have enough time between his qualifying session and the race to get everything done quickly enough to make it to the grid on time. He had to start in the back again.
At the start the cars in front of him looked confused. Ed was able to capitalize on that and passed 3 out of class cars, and a fellow ST2 racer. He set his fastest lap of the entire weekend in lap 2 with a 1:48.622. Unfortunately, his tires started cording again during this race also, but this time it was far worse than Saturday’s race.
Ed’s Full War Story:
The 2011 season opener was at ACS Roval on March 4-6. Up until last year our season opener has been at Big Willow in February, but NASA decided to cancel that event this year. It’s really unfortunate because I love Big Willow.
Before anything I want to say a quick thank you to Mike Welch (owner of RRE), KC from APR, and Art from RRE. Due to some personal challenges in the off season, I didn’t have time to get ready for our season opener in a timely manner. I literally prepped my car a few days before leaving for ACS. Mike, as usual, was extremely helpful and generous. He even made the time to get my car on the dyno in the midst of a busy schedule to see how things were looking. KC from APR went out of his way by driving out to ACS on Friday to hand deliver a set of risers, that he installed himself. Since I had used the GTC-200 wing without the risers, I could feel they made enough of a difference. As for Art, he was there that weekend crewing for someone else but made time to check up on me. I was doing some work on my RF fender and had him come over to give me his opinion. He ended up doing some work on the fender also.
Earlier I said that since I had some personal challenges in the off season I couldn’t get ready in a timely manner. The major factor I didn’t have time to sort out was getting my alignment adjusted for this event. And Robi (owner of Robispec) was going to be out of town during this event, so we couldn’t make adjustments at the track like we usually do. I knew it wasn’t ideal but I figured it was close enough from when I did a test day in November, so I decided I was willing to race as-is. Besides, I figured it would be a good learning experience.
SATURDAY
Saturday was a day full of incidents before and during the race. I qualified P2 with a 1:48.745, but after qualifying I realized I was cording my RF and RR tires. Since our drivers meeting was after our qualifying session I didn’t have enough time to get my tires flipped, get ready, and make it to grid on time.
For Saturday’s race our group had 2 rolling starts. Super Touring was with the 1st start, while GTS had the 2nd start. When I entered the track both groups were long gone. By the time I was approaching T9 the first group had already taken their start and the leaders were entering T3. A few seconds later GTS took their start. My only chance at that point was if there was an incident that entailed a full course double-yellow, or a pace car to collect the field. Due to a pretty serious incident, that’s exactly what happened. As I crossed start/finish to start my 1st lap there was a yellow issued before T3 due to an incident in T3. As I started my 2nd lap the pace car was entering T1 with a full course double-yellow. What are the odds? I had to do over 2 laps to catch the pack behind the pace car. It was unfortunate that incident happened, but it gave me what seemed like a one in a million scenario. I was in the very back of the pack, but at least I was with the pack.
The race then restarted on lap 5. After 4 laps I closed in on one of my competitors, but there was another incident at the start of lap 9 which caused another full course double-yellow. The pace car was deployed again to collect the field, and our race ended as-is with the pace car. I have in-car footage of this race but there is no point in posting it.
SUNDAY
Sunday was nearly a repeat of Saturday. I corded my tires again during qualifying and was busy after that rushing to get my tires flipped in time for the race. This time I just barely made it to grid in time, but as I was pulling in they were rolling out, so I had to start in the back. But at least this time I was able to start the race with everyone else.
At the start the cars in front of me looked confused, so I was able to capitalize on that and passed 3 out of class cars, and a fellow ST2 racer. I then passed another Super Unlimited American Stock Car on the outside of T4 totaling 5 cars I passed by T5. So I started off pretty strong, and set my fastest lap of the entire weekend in lap 2 with a 1:48.622. I got into a decent groove and was ready to gradually push it a little harder, but I quickly realized something didn’t feel right with my RF tire. So after lap 2 I focused on trying to maintain consistent and decently fast laps. Unfortunately, little did I know that my tires were starting to cord, but this time it was far worse than Saturday. If my tires didn’t cord, I was on pace to run 1:47s all day from start to finish. And if I had the luxury of having [forum-restricted] there with me, I think 1:46s were within reach. At least now I know what I’m capable of doing in a race with my new setup. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until next years March event to see what I can do at ACS Roval. Here’s a breakdown of my lap times illustrating how badly my tires corded:
Consistent and decently fast laps in the beginning:
Lap 1: 1:54.130
Lap 2: 1:48.622 (Fastest lap of my weekend)
Lap 3: 1:48.747
Lap 4: 1:49.094
Lap 5: 1:49.022Since my tires started cording I tried to maintain consistent yet somewhat fast laps:
Lap 6: 1:51.451
Lap 7: 1:51.376
Lap 8: 1:51.518I could no longer maintain those lap times because my tires were cording severely:
Lap 9: 1:53.155
Lap 10: 1:54.272
Lap 11: 1:55.658
Lap 12: 1:57.688
Lap 13: 1:57.187
Lap 14: 1:58.173
Coco Zurita – Redline Time Attack – Auto Club Speedway – Nov 2010
We were at the Redline Time Attack World Finals this last weekend and we came across BMX big air star Coco Zurita in the pits with his brakes on fire. He is getting into Time Attack and has a mostly stock EVO X that is running pretty fast. A bit too fast for his stock brakes anyways.
So we dug through our spares and got him some Stoptech Sport pads to replace his crumbling pads that he had in there. We then also flushed out the brake hydraulic system with fresh Stoptech STR 600 brake fluid and got him back on the track.
Here is a video he made from the weekend.
Ed Nazarian racing at 2010 NASA National Championship (Super Touring Evo 9)
Ed Nazarian racing his RRE Evo 9 at the 2010 NASA National Championship in Super Touring 2 at Miller Motorsports Park (MMP), in Utah. This is in-car footage of the National Championship race. ST2 had about 26 entries, but a few of them broke down before or during the National Championship race. There were 19 ST2 cars listed for the National Championship race, and Ed was in P10 for the start.
Ed was battling with 5 of his competitors during most of this race. They exchanged positions several times. After Ed took the lead amongst that pack, his brake pedal fell nearly on the floor. Because of that he had to let 2 of his competitors pass him. Ed had to back off a bit and continued the race one corner at a time. He had to pump his pedal several times before every braking zone to make sure his pedal would holdup. One of his competitors he let by was Scott Howard, driver of the white 1st gen Mazda RX7, who went on to take 2nd place. Major congrats to Scott considering the troubles he’s had the last 2 years at Nationals. The other was Jim Wagaman, driver of the yellow Mazda GT. After letting Jim by, Ed was able to keep him within reach. Unfortunately, NASA ended the race a bit short due to excessive oil spills. If it wasn’t for that Ed would have had a chance to battle for 5th. Beyond that, if Ed had an optimal brake pedal, he would have been in a position to battle for a podium, but that’s racing. As always, a certain amount of good/bad fortune plays a factor for everyone. Ed ended up in 7th place, so it was a successful finish considering the circumstances.
Ed’s Full Story:
The 2010 NASA National Championship was September 14-19 at Miller Motorsports Park (MMP), in Utah. We were racing on the Outer course again this year, which is listed at 3.06 miles. I was there racing my RRE Evo 9 in Super Touring 2. Last year was the first time I had raced at MMP, let alone driven the track. And I left MMP with not much interest in the track. It just wasn’t a track that thrilled or interested me. I’m really not sure what happened this year, but I left with the exact opposite experience. I really enjoyed the track this year and left wanting more of it.
The competition this year was fierce and diverse. There were around 3 times as many ST2 entries this year. I don’t know how many ST2 racecars were there, but from what I recall there were around 26. However, we lost a few by the final National Championship race on Sunday. And iirc, 4 people didn’t finish the National Championship race. NASA’s Nationals is brutal because on top of it being our National Championship, it’s 3 days of racing. And the National Championship race is 45 minutes long. So NASA’s National Championship is more like a marathon of races, as opposed to 1 race. Despite trying to be well prepared, you really have to be somewhat lucky because anything can and will happen, especially with 3 days of racing.
Last year I was the first to be racing an Evo at MMP for NASA’s National Championship. This year I wasn’t alone. A Socal Honda Challenge racer was racing in H2 with his Integra, and ST2 with his Evo 9. There was also a guy racing an Evo in ST1, who I think is a MMP local. Although, I barely saw them on track. I think both of them were having some sort of issues.
As for me, I didn’t have any major challenges. I started and finished all 3 races. The only major challenge I had was trying to get used to my new aero on a track that I have very limited seat time on. As I noted in my previous thread, my new aero consists of an APR splitter that’s coupled with an APR GTC-200 wing. KC from APR set me up with the splitter. As for the wing, to help me minimize my expenses for Nationals, my friend Sean Bradley gave me his APR GTC-200 wing off of his STi. My friend Scott Pennock gave me his GTC-300 wing off of his Evo also, but I ended up only using Sean’s 200 wing. Sean’s wing is slightly different than the Evo version, but we made it work thanks to Mike Welch, owner of RRE. The dimensions of the wing are identical, only differences are the size/shape of the end plates, and the location of the wings mounting brackets.
Before anything else I want to thank all my sponsors, RRE, [forum-restricted]spec, Girodisc, South Coast Mitsubishi, and APR. Without their support I would not be able to do all of this. My racecars home away from home is at RRE. I’ve spent many long nights at RRE prepping under Mike’s wing. For instance, Mike spent a great deal of time fabricating and installing my splitter and wing. It was a great deal of meticulous work, but he made it enjoyable. I can’t say enough good things about Mike and his crew. He is such a genuinely good person. I truly enjoy working by his side. More than anything because he is patient, and has the capacity to explain just about anything in the simplest way. I didn’t grow up around cars, so I’m the furthest thing from a gearhead/grease monkey. Not everyone has the capacity to teach, but Mike is one of those rare people. Not only has he been around, but he also has the capacity/wisdom/patience to teach without coming across as arrogant/condescending.
So, did my new aero and brake ducting help? Yes. But I’m not sure by how much because I don’t have a comparable reference point for MMP. I’ll know better when I run ACS in Socal. I can say that my car feels different with the aero. And I can tell that my new brake ducting is helping, but it has its limit. With my experience, I can now say that if I want to maintain faster lap times in a race, I can’t do it with the OEM calipers. I have proven that the Girodisc rotors work, but they can only do so much.
The dyno situation:
There was 1 factor that put me at a disadvantage compared to everyone else. NASA couldn’t get an AWD dyno this year either. Last year they found a MMP local with an AWD dyno. And I went last year to test on that dyno, but it was malfunctioning. That dyno was malfunctioning this year also so NASA tried locating another one. They tried, but they couldn’t get anyone to commit. So while everyone else (RWD, FWD) had the opportunity to check their power at MMP and to tune their car on the 2WD dyno, I couldn’t.
NASA did however have GPS units that they used to monitor a lot of people, including me. I requested that they monitor me all day Thursday so I knew where I was at. That way, if I was down on power I could at least take ballast out of my car. Problem was that they were busy and fell behind, so they didn’t get a GPS unit on my car until Friday. That hurt me even more because I pretty much lost any chance I had on Thursday to adjust my weight. So I basically went into the 2nd day without any real progress on my setup. Although, they sincerely apologized, and went out of their way to help me out.
They finally got some data of me on Friday, and that’s when I found out that I was down on power. They told me by roughly how much I was down on power, however, it didn’t really help me because they weren’t allowed to tell me what my actual numbers were with whatever other math they needed to apply to that data. So I knew I was down on power, but I didn’t know exactly by how much. Therefore, I didn’t know exactly how much ballast I could remove. Best case scenario, I figured I could have been close enough to making the power I needed with their calculations, but there could have been something funky happening in my powerband. Keep in mind that my car was tuned in Socal, so maybe at MMP’s elevation, around 4,400 ft., my powerband wasn’t as efficient as it could have been. It’s not a comforting feeling knowing my car is potentially down on power by enough of a margin, and I can’t really do anything about it because there isn’t an AWD dyno. Meanwhile, my competitors have the opportunity to tune their cars at MMP on the 2WD dyno.
The Results:
As I noted before, this year I was able to start and finish all 3 races (Thursday, Friday, and Sunday). My focus was to make it to Sunday, so my plan was to progressively get up to speed. We started off with around 26 cars in ST2, but a bunch of them had some sort of issue from the first day. Conversely, everything worked out well enough for me on Thursday. I qualified in 13th place, and finished the race in 11th. I also improved my time in the race by about 1.5 seconds. I was basically on track with my plan of attack. Only issue was that after the race I found out that one of my rear brake pad pins and the clip was missing. It was a first time for me. I called Mike at RRE and he immediately shipped me replacement pins and a clip overnight.
Friday started off well in Qualifying, because I improved my time from Thursdays Qualifying session. I also improved 2 spots by starting the race in 11th, but my race didn’t go as well. PTA was mixed in with us, but they only had 3 entries. However, only 2 of them were competitive. One of the PTA cars, I think it was a turbo Miata, dive bombed a few of us. He was clearly a fast driver with a really fast Miata. Since my goal was to make it to Sunday, I didn’t want to tangle with him, or anybody else for that matter. On the other hand, it didn’t seem like he had the same plan, so a couple of us got stuck behind him. He was clearly trying to use us to put some distance between himself and the other PTA driver. We were all bunched up so I kept my distance and didn’t really bother trying to pass anyone.
Saturday was our groups day off, so I spent pretty much the entire day relaxing and getting ready for Sunday. Everything went smoothly and I was ready to go. Sunday’s race was a great deal of fun. I was in P10 out of 19 ST2 cars listed. For me, it was intense from start to finish. Since I was hit last year at the start of the National Championship race, which ended my race, I wasn’t sure what to expect out of a 45min race. All my other races thus far have been 35min races. You can see how it all went down because I have in-car footage of the entire National Championship race.
What basically ended up happening is that my brake pedal fell nearly on the floor. In the meantime I was battling with about 6 other ST2 cars. We exchanged positions several times throughout the race. I finally took the lead amongst our pack, but my brake pedal didn’t have the capacity to allow me to stay competitive, so I let 2 of my competitors pass me. One of them was my friend Scott Howard, racing his White 1st gen Mazda RX7. Scott went on to take 2nd place. Major Congrats to Scott, especially considering the issues he’s had the last 2 years at Nationals. The other driver was Jim Wagaman, driver of the Yellow Mazda GT. After letting Scott pass me, I thought about ending my race, but decided to stay on for a bit longer.
I had to back off and focus on taking it one corner at a time. The only way I was able to do that was to pump my pedal several times before every braking zone. For the longer straights I actually had to pump my pedal in 2 sets. Around 3/4 way down every long straight I’d apply 1-2 pumps to make sure my pedal still had the capacity to rise. Then before the braking zone I’d start pumping again to prepare the pedal. All the while I was able to keep Jim within reach, and with about 2-3 laps to finish we closed the gap on Josh Carroll, driver of the Bronze Mazda GT. Josh clearly had some sort of issue also. However, NASA ended our race a bit short. We were told it was due to oil spills. I remember hearing of 2 cars specifically that dumped a bunch of oil all over the track. If our race wasn’t cut short, both Jim and I would have passed Josh in that lap. And since Jim wasn’t pulling away from me, I’m confident that if I had the entire race I would have had an opportunity to pass him again. Furthermore, if I had an optimal brake pedal, I was in a position to battle for a podium. Either way I’m happy with 7th place given the circumstances. If you watch my entire race you will see how busy my left leg gets pumping my pedal before every corner and down the long straights. It was another great experience.
Beyond all that, a certain amount of good/bad fortune pretty much always plays a factor also. Here are some examples of people I know of who weren’t fortunate. Ryan Cashin blew his engine on the first day and never got to race. Oli Thordarson had a puncture in his oil filter during the National Championship Race and had to pull off on the warmup lap. John Gordon was dominating all week by winning both Qualifying Races, and also set the fastest lap times. However, John’s car broke down in the National Championship Race. I’m not sure but I think it was due to a blown engine. Basically, anything can and will happen in a race because despite trying to be well prepared, a certain amount of good/bad fortune always comes into play.
Link to the Results of the National Championship Race:
– Group D Race Results (SU, ST1, ST2, PTA)
In-car footage of my National Championship Race:
– 2010 National Championship Race in-carThe SU/ST1/ST2 National Championship race is now online at SpeedCastTV.com:
– SU, ST1, ST2 National Championship Race
Thanks again to all my sponsors:
– RRE: Mike Welch and the entire RRE crew for everything from tuning, to maintenance, to everything in between.
– Robispec: Robert Fuller, aka Robispec, and his crew for providing me trackside suspension tuning.
– Girodisc: Martin Meade for providing me phenomenal 2pc rotors and Raybestos brake pads.
– South Coast Mitsubishi: Rigo, Sam, Abbas and everyone else for all their support.
– APR: KC for setting me up with a splitter and all the other little things.
– Friends: Sean Bradley for giving me his APR GTC-200 wing off of his STi. Scott Pennock for giving me his APR GTC-300 wing off of his Evo. And also a thanks to Matt Dennison and Sean Sisco for going out of their way to help me out.
Russ Taylor – EVOX – AEM Meth Injection – Failsafe Test
Using the Tephra Mod V-1 ECU mod, we used an added pressure switch to the AEM Meth injection kit to switch maps. Once the AEM controller switches on the meth pump, pressure builds in the line and closes the switch. The switch activates the second map that is stored in the ECU. This second map pulls fuel and adds timing and boost.
For more info on the Tephra ROM hack and payment info, see here:
http://forums.evolutionm.net/evo-x-engine-management-tuning-forums/497325-tep…
We ran a dyno pull with the meth injection off (red line). Then a couple pulls with meth on as normal (green adn blue lines) Then the next three pulls are with Sam in the trunk pulling the fuse for the meth pump in the middle of the run.
Mitsubishi Owner’s Day 2010
by, James Singer – RRE Conscript
MOD 2010 was my first Mitsubishi Owner’s Day working for RRE. I was a bit overwhelmed working MOD. I had been there for the 2009 show and kind of stumbled around but this year I woke up at 6am on a Saturday to drive from LA down behind the Orange Curtain to MMNA HQ in Cypress, CA. When I got to the Mitsubishi HQ Cypress campus, I was blown away that the lot was already full. My car was relegated to EVO parking in a far corner away from the main booths.
The RRE shop race cars set up and on display.
I rushed over to the RRE booth to find the RRE crew already there setting up even though I was a half hour early. I was put in charge of the 2 extremely hot import models Natalia Marie and Nikita Esco. I was also given a few bags of RRE lanyards, placards, stickers, license plate frames and flyers to give away to people.
However, Natalia and Nikita and I were not the main attraction at the RRE booth much to my surprise. The main attraction was the DYNO SHOOTOUT!! (scream that all caps part in your head while reading it again). DYNO SHOOTOUT!! (good). The popularity of the DYNO SHOOTOUT!! kind of blew my mind.
Think about this for a second, there are 2 really attractive girls dressed in clothes that might be NSFW status and ME handing out free stuff but people were more in to seeing EVOs and DSMs belt out some runs on the dyno. If we were at Import Hot Showoff, there would be at least 100 creepy creepers lurking all over me and these ladies but instead, I was left lurking all alone.
I don’t know if you guys know this but the dyno is ON at RRE almost every day and night but people were jumping over the models, the free stuff and each other in the hot hot July heat to get a chance to check out cars on the dyno, which is also further from the shade. At some point, I let Natalia and Nikita take over giving out free stuff for a minute to check out the dyno runs and I saw why people were jostling around and screaming over the sounds of open exhausts blowing ear drums.
[Winner at MOD. Brian Ford’s EVO VIII. AEM EMS tuned by Scot Gray @ RRE. I need to get a full mod list for this car. E-85 insanity].
This is a chart from a 700 and change dyno run. I got my EVO tuned on the Dynapack at RRE. I thought it was pretty bad ass. I was ready to lay down some numbers! I think I peaked out at 321 or so. I remember making sure to wear the RRE ear goggles that night as they tuned my car. Even then I felt like it was a bit rowdy through the ear goggles and through my RRE stealth exhaust. Now imagine +2x that amount of HP through a seemingly open exhaust with a bunch of people standing a couple feet away in hot July So. Cal weather and you can understand the spectacle of a DYNO SHOOTOUT!! (good job yelling it in your head still BTW).
[Notice how less people are standing behind the car.]
Some other honorable mentions from the day were:
Mr. Boster’s white GVR4. 18 years old and kicking 640 whp in a car that looks like a taxi cab!!
Kieth Boster's "The Boz" GVR4 on the RRE AWD Dynapack
Check out his boost chart!!
That was the big attraction. Hot models, Meh. Free In-N-Out, whateverrrrr. Rowdy Roddy Dynopack, Hells Yes!! DYNO SHOOTOUT!!
Got video? LA DSM knows how to represent!
Video highlights: Christ bothering models, SAM being grumpy and ART too busy eating a burger to cover his other ear.
Check us out next year at MOD 2011!!
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- Kieth Boster’s “The Boz” GVR4 on the RRE AWD Dynapack
Kerryann De La Cruz Interviews Rob Tallini Interview OwleTV
Ed Nazarian @ Buttonwillow Raceway April17-18 2010 – NASA Super Touring 2
Ed Nazarian racing his RRE Super Touring EVO 9 at Buttonwillow #13CW, on Saturday April 17, 2010. At this weekend event Super Touring was mixed with a bunch of lower classed cars. Typically ST2 is mixed with SU, ST1, ASC, GTS, AIX and AI. This time around GTS was in a separate group with BMWCCA, so a bunch of lower classed cars were mixed with them instead. Ed’s group consisted of Super Unlimited, Super Touring, Honda Challenge, Performance Touring, and Spec E30. Basically, most of the cars in his group were significantly slower. On top of that they had a really big group, nearly 50 racecars. So maneuvering through traffic played a significant role that weekend, which resulted in slow lap times. Ed was also held up quite a bit by a Super Unlimited FFR GTM-R prototype when he was battling one of the Mazda GTs. By the time Ed got around that SU racecar he ran out of time. Ed got 6th place on Saturday out of 10 ST2 racecars.
Unfortunately we couldn’t get the camera to record on Sunday so this race from Saturday is all we have to show. It’s really unfortunate because this Saturday race fails in comparison to how intense Sunday’s race was. On Sunday Ed and one of the Mazda GTs were battling intensely. They exchanged positions many times throughout that race, while maneuvering through traffic. Ed was able to pass that Mazda GT towards the end, and ended up passing another Mazda GT in the meantime. He caught up to the leaders and had them in sight, but ran out of time. He ended up getting 5th place on Sunday out of 10 ST2 racecars.
Ed’s Full War Story:
We were racing at BRP last weekend, April 17-18, on configuration #13CW. The last time we were racing at BRP was this same event in 2009, so it’s been a year since the last time I raced there. I felt rusty at BRP and never really got into a groove, but at least I wasn’t busy this time fixing/wrenching on my racecar like I was at ACS because my front end didn’t get coned this time. Even though I’ve driven ACS significantly less than BRP, things seemed to click better at ACS. We rolled with the punches and finished 2 more 35min races totaling 6 that we have finished this season, with a total of 14 races since our last years debut.
Before I proceed with the results, I want to say thank you to a few people. Thanks to Mike Welch and his guys at RRE for helping fix the damage my car sustained from ACS. New Griffin IC, lip, undertray, fixed my side skirt and front bumper. A few months ago Mike also sourced some Carbontrix CF replacement headlights. Mike installed those also. Yes, Mike actually works on my racecar. Want to thank Martin Meade from Girodisc for shipping me some ST43 brake pads. Also want to thank Robert Fuller, aka Robi from RobiSpec for providing me trackside suspension tuning for both races.
This weekend I set some blisteringly fast lap times in my ST2 races, and qualifying sessions…not. The BMWCCA was racing with us this weekend, so the groups were changed up a bit. Typically, the group we race in consists of SU, ST, ASC, GTS, AIX, and AI racecars. This time GTS was in a separate group with BMWCCA, and the AIX/AI drivers skipped this event because they have their own West Coast schedule. Therefore, our group this time consisted of SU, ST, and they added HC, PT, and Spec E30 with us. Basically, most of the racecars in our group were significantly slower. On top of that, we had a really big group, nearly 50 racecars. So maneuvering through traffic played a significant role that weekend. Other than that you just needed to get lucky. The weather was a little on the warm side also, but we managed.
Saturday Qualifying
I couldn’t set a fast lap in qualifying if my life depended on it. Just way too many lower classed cars out there. Drivers usually cooperate in a race, for the most part, but the Qualifying sessions seem to always be every driver to himself. Everyone is trying to set a fast lap, and since there were nearly 50 racecars out there you’re basically hitting traffic pretty much every other corner. And sometimes one corner to the next.
Saturday Race
Out of the 10 ST2 racecars, I qualified P8 and finished the race in P6 for ST2. I thought since we had 10 ST2 racecars, we would get our own rolling start. But we didn’t. Instead, we were mixed together with SU, ST1, and a solo Orange AIX Mustang. So given our mixed rolling start, I was in P15. Mixing us with those other classes ruined the ST2 race. Because instead of having the opportunity to battle with other ST2 drivers as a whole from start to finish, we ended up getting scattered all over the track because we had SU and ST1 drivers in between us. And on top of that, we had to deal with traffic, which scattered us even more. I was pretty upset with that because as a higher class series, ST2 had the biggest field that weekend. And we had the potential to have a really close and exciting race from start to finish. I think it was such a big time waste to have not given us our own rolling start.
As for the race, I’m not sure what happened at the start, but something appeared to get mixed up because I was supposed to be on the left side when we were in formation, but I ended up on the right side. Beyond that, since we got scattered I only had the opportunity to battle one of the Mazda GTs, Mark Montoya. Unfortunately, a Super Unlimited driver in a FFR GTM-R prototype held us up quite a bit. At one point Mark passed him, but I got stuck behind that SU prototype. Not sure why he wouldn’t just let me by because he was by himself. I finally got close enough to him at the buttonhook and made a move on him. I took the inside line and was around his RR. I was gradually pulling on him and at one point he for whatever reason turned into me a bit and almost drove me off track to the right. I decided it was now or never so I kept my foot in it and maintained my position. I passed him at the entry to cotton corners. You can watch my in-car from Saturdays race to see it all unfold. Mark then had an off after the bus-stop and I passed him. If he didn’t have that off I may have never caught him again because that SU prototype had held me up too much.
Sunday Qualifying
It was the same deal as Saturday. I was a bit more lucky with traffic, but still couldn’t set a fast lap.
Sunday Race
For Sundays race, out of 10 ST2 racecars, I qualified P6 in ST2, and was P12 for our rolling start. I finished the race in P5 for ST2. Sundays race is probably my most exciting race thus far because I was having a major battle with one of the Mazda GTs, Thorpe logemann. We exchanged positions I don’t know how many times. But what kills me is that I couldn’t get my GoPro camera to start recording. Pretty ironic when I think about it. It’s really upsetting to not have that footage. And unfortunately, Thorpe doesn’t have any in-car either. There were many incidents in the race, so on top of trying to deal with traffic, we were also trying to deal with yellows, and double yellows. At one point I thought the race was going to end under double yellow, but it finally restarted. At one point I passed Thorpe around the buttonhook and I got lucky with traffic while he got left behind. In the meantime we passed another Mazda GT. I caught up to the leaders towards the end, and had them in sight, but I ran out of time. My in-car from Saturdays race fails in comparison to how exciting this race was. In fact, if I had in-car from this race, it would have been at the top of my list.
Saturday Qualifying times:
1. 1:54.474 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2. 1:55.123 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
3. 1:55.557 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
4. 1:57.001 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:00.879 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT
6. 2:01.225 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT
7. 2:02.970 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
8. 2:03.781 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
9. 2:05.787 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GTSaturday Race results:
1. 1:57.059 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
2. 1:56.183 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
3. 1:57.122 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
4. 1:59.024 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:01.333 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT
6. 2:02.241 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
7. 2:03.594 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT
8. 2:02.180 – Mark Montoya #50 Mazda GT
9. 2:04.318 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
10. 2:08.885 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GTSunday Qualifying times:
1. 1:54.575 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2. 1:56.350 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
3. 1:56.596 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
4. 1:57.349 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:00.739 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT
6. 2:01.596 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
7. 2:08.111 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT
8. DQ – 2:01.724 – Mark Montoya #50 Mazda GT
9. DQ – 2:02.603 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GTSunday Race results:
1. 1:56.538 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
2. 1:55.877 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
3. 1:57.852 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
4. 1:59.194 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:00.536 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
6. 2:01.518 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT
7. 2:00.800 – Mark Montoya #50 Mazda GT
8. 2:08.655 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT
9. 2:02.502 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT
10. 2:04.062 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
The Smoking Tire – Russ Taylor – EVO X
A nice video production by the guys at The Smoking Tire of Russ Taylor in his RRE Powered EVO X tearing up the track and an unsuspecting BMW as he learns to try to handle 460 whp of 4B11 power. Only one BMW was injured during the filming of this video on a NASA weekend.
Modified Magazine Project EVO X – Dyno Tuning Video
Modified Magazine put up a youtube video of the dyno session from when we did some dyno tuning on the RRE AWD Dynapack dyno…
RRE EVO 8/9 Stealth Exhaust Dyno Test
The RRE Stealth Exhaust for the EVO 8/9 occasionally gets picked on by haters for being restrictive. Threads come and go with speculation. The standard RRE Stealth cat back uses straight through perforated core resonators. These do not restrict anything. We use very mild angle mandrel bends and a large straight through Magnaflow stainless steel muffler. There are a few people out there that ask for the more restrictive louvered core resonators that would cost you a few hp depending on how much hp you are making.
In this thread I threw down the gauntlet.
http://www.socalevo.net/forum/index.php?topic=80224.0
———————Quote from: sxe_davexxx on June 22, 2009, 06:09:58 PMThe RRE stealth exhaust is overrated… Its super heavy, you’ll loose power significantly, and it is not that quiet.You should try the Cobb exhaust or the——————–Quote from: Mike W on June 22, 2009, 05:54:22 PMWould you like to prove what you are saying? I will help you.Back it up or take it back.mike@roadraceengineering.comI will give you my cell phone number and we can work out the details of “significant” and when and how to dyno your car at no charge to you.
MiKe W
——————–Quote from: sxe_davexxx on June 21, 2009, 12:03:55 PMEmailed, awaiting your reply =)
Sexy Dave was nice enough to volunteer his car and his buddies and he did the parts swapping on the dyno. He has a nice running stock turbo EVO 9 tuned by Bryan @ GST on E-85. The car us using ECU boost control. His exhaust is an RSR X-Mag. It is very loud and growly no resonators and a straight through small body muffler.
Dave brought his car by on a Saturday afternoon and we did some baseline runs.
Not bad at all, especially for how stock he has things looking under the hood. Boost was smooth with a peak of 27 psi and finishing at 20 psi at redline. The first run was a little peaky with the hp, with the car warmed up hp stabilized at 388-389 hp and ~370 ft pounds of torque.
Then Dave and friends swapped out the loud RSR exhaust for the RRE Stealth.
We went to make some pulls on the RRE system.
Again the first pull was a little choppy. But once warmed up it was making consistently higher hp pulls.
Over 400 hp now and peak torque was up too. Boost was a little choppy but not surprising considering that it was tuned for the other exhaust system. Interesting was that boost dropped off with it making more hp. Shows that the RRE exhaust actually flowed better than the RSR :-P
So here is the RSR (thin lines) vs. RRE Stealth (thick lines)
Boost, again RSR (thin lines) vs. RRE Stealth (thick lines)
And for fun the two wild card first runs of each exhaust, RSR thin lines, RRE Stealth thick lines.
Here is a video of the two dyno runs. IT just further prooves how internet sound clips are totally worthless. The little cameras we all use to make these has self adjusting/limiting microphones. You can hear the idle difference in the RSR. But at WOT they sound essentially the same. In real life the RSR was ear splitting on the dyno. The RRE was just loud.
Any questions?
New Tuner @ RRE
Bryce has been tuning for a while here @ RRE. He is just now up on all the latest XML for Little Tikes, Fisher Price and Step-2 vehicles. Hit him up if you want to set up an appointment. Afternoons are out for naptime of course. Here is a video of him getting the last power out of the Cozy Coupe. The Dynapack lets him check part throttle and get the fuel trims all dialed in nicely.
RRE @ Mitsubishi Owner’s Day – July 2009 – Videos!
Sam tuned Hugo’s (from LA DSM) 1990 GSX to 530 whp for 2nd Place in the dyno contest:
AMS did a couple demo pulls with their big hp drag EVO.
Mitsubishi’s Video:
AMS Drag EVO on the RRE Dynapack @ MOD 2009
At the MOD/RRE Dyno Shootout this year AMS put their drag EVO 8 on the RRE AWD Dynapack chassis dyno for a couple exhibition runs.
They had previously run 1130 whp on a Mustang dyno limited by wheel spin. Martin Musial from AMS did a couple warm up runs at low (37 psi) boost and only hit 900 whp :-/ Then with it all ready to go and a rev limit set at a low 9,500 rpm he did a full pull. Here is a video from it:
The external wastegate blows straight down. In the video you can see everyone running and jumping from the molten asphalt blast debris. The car blew a crater in the parking lot running 1180 whp at 770 ft lbs of torque!
The dyno chart at low boost and high boost:
And for a little perspective… here is the 1180 hp run laid up against a nice running Cosworth 2.2 with a GT35R turbo:
Suddenly 600 whp looks… well kind of sad. For really sad here is 1180 vs a stock EVO:
Congratulations Martin, nice work!
Lydia’s Crown Vic vs The RRE Dynapack
Lydia’s 85 Ford Crown Victoria was on its way to the crusher. It had led a long and productive life taking grandmas to the market and was continually needing one more $500 repair to this otherwise ok condition $500 car. Gas prices being at $4.00 a galon too didnt help.
After considerable thought, we held a raffle/pool on So Cal EVO to guess the time it would live at full throttle with no oil and no coolant on the dyno. Winning time 7 minutes and 29 seconds!
RRE and Friends Racing in Tijuana on Univision
A short story for Univision in Mexico on the road racing border series that we often run in. Mike W in the #37 Eclipse GST and Jason Steiinhart in the #15 Eclipse GSX get some good screeentime. Incar footage in Mike’s Eclipse.
Mitsubishi Commercial Shoot @ RRE
MMSA asked us to sponsor a So Cal EVO and Eclipse club meet here at the shop. On a Saturday we blocked off the cul-de-sac and had pretty large gathering. They shot real film, got some cool group shots and working on some cars. The above commercial is what came of it. You can also see what they shot @ Irwindale’s 1/8 mile drag strip at night.
RRE – Rob Rallini -Tecate Grand Prix 2001
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCBiZAUubQ
After our triumph in Vegas, we headed south of the border to Tecate. This event is entirely different from races we do in the U.S. The track is a temporary street course approximately 1.9 miles in length. It is rough, dusty, and unforgiving. We again brought our 1G Eclipse. Many other gringos from the Porsche Owner’s Club, Touring Car Club, and NASA joined us. Having previously dominating our Group A class in the Border series, we were nicely “invited” to run our car in Open Class from now on. Open Class is just that, anything goes.
The primary change we made to the car was all new JIC shocks and springs. Our old suspension had a lot of mileage and it was time to upgrade to something more current. The weather was mild by comparison to Vegas so we felt confident with the engine as it was set up. Suspension tuning was our primary concern.
Tallini went out for practice and returned shaking his head. The track was so rough and the springs we were given so stiff, it made the car undrivable on what was effectively a paved rally course. “The car is always off the ground!” Tallini said. Literally, as there were two “yumps” on the front straight away. We worked frantically to soften up sway bars and tire pressures in order to minimize this problem before qualifying. Since we weren’t the only ones dealing with the rough track, all the teams were busy dealing with suspension set up.
Qualifying was uneventful. We did our usual routine of hiding from the competition, laying down a few fast laps, and then sneaking up behind them in order to size them up. Tallini came back with second overall fastest time. One of the POC Porsches, Dino Casamasima, had put down a time a whole second faster than us. We felt like we had a little more car left but we were afraid we might break something in the driveline. We thought it was prudent to save the car for the race on Sunday.
Warm ups in the morning should have been uneventful, but after 3 laps Tallini pitted with smoke pouring out from under the hood. We broke the turbo oil return line (rally style) and fortunately had a spare in one of the rally boxes. No problem.
Before the race we discussed how to handle our pole sitting Porsche. We decided, go for the win or break trying. Standing starts usually work to our advantage. On the outside of a staggered front row, Tallini launched hard on the Porsche and beat him into the first turn. Nose to tail for laps, the Porsche kept taking stabs at us and even got past in the braking zone at the end of the front straight. Tallini immediately worked him over and retook the lead. The race was turning into a gladiator match. Unfortunately for Porsche, we hired a meaner Italian and the gladiator match was over. After squeezing each other in the braking zone, Dino ran wide, clipped a curb and developed a leaking right rear tire and he slowed. SET, MATCH, GAME!
We smoothly sailed home to victory. With thousands of spectators lining the track. Tallini took Welch for a victory lap and saw first hand just how rough it really was. They love us in Mexico!! Fan clubs, Tecate girls, appreciative people, Mexico has it all. We can’t wait to go back.
Our friends from Open Track Ryan Flagharty and Gus Heredia also ran their 4AG Corollas in the Group B class. Gus won Group B.
RRE- Rob Tallini – Las Vegas Motor Speedway 8/2001
We couldn’t resist the opportunity to run with NASA and the PRO Racing Series on the American Le Mans Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Unfortunately, August in Las Vegas means triple digit temperatures. We went for it anyway in our 1G FWD Mitsubishi Eclipse.
There were quite a few Porsches and BMWs in attendance as well as a variety of American muscle cars. Cars ranged from Porsche 996 and 993 ALMS cars to Southwest Tour Cars. We ran in the under 3.0 liter anything goes class.
Practice and Qualifying were quite the challenge due to the heat. Our driver Robert Tallini had never driven this track so he paid close attention to finding the fast way around the oval. We played with sway bars and tire pressures in order to optimize the temperature in our Toyo tires. We slowly dialed in suspension while at the same time, data logging engine vitals.
The 110+ temps in Vegas made dialing the engine in even more important than suspension. Qualifying went well and we had the pole in under 3.0 liter class (7th overall). Closest were a pair of BMW M3s. We were happy with that but Tallini knew there was more left in the car. We made a few more adjustments and prepped the car for the race.
Inside the 4th row the start proved to be a revelation. When the green flagged dropped, Tallini passed 3 cars into the first chicane. Typically we get good starts but we were amazed at the couple hundred thousand dollars worth of German hardware we passed. All race, three Porsches (a 996, 993 and a RS2) chomped at our heels.
Tallini said he spent more time looking backwards than forward. Every lap we thought we would get out powered down the straight. Not the case. Every lap we thought we would get out braked at the end of the straight. Never happened. For a half hour all eyes were on us. People couldn¹t believe a Mitsubishi could beat up all these purpose built race cars with double the horsepower and big slicks!
As the race wore on, Tallini kept us leading our class by 12-15 seconds and battled for the overall podium. Near the end of the race, tire temps soared and the car got harder and harder to drive. After a series of tight turns in the infield section our new German friends got within striking range and one struck. In the entry to the hairpin he got in under us and pushed Tallini out to the grass. With 2 wheels in the grass we lost the drive out of the corner and the Porsches slipped by.
Fortunately, a couple of DNFs in front of us allowed us to finish 4th overall and of course we won our class by 14 seconds. Tire wheel temps were so hot that the valve stem caps were melted to the valve stems. We were pretty stoked afterwards and more than a couple of German car owners actually came up to shake hands. They were impressed with our Mitsubishi Eclipse and perhaps a bit embarrassed by us.
The Crew
Left to right: new mechanics @ RRE Christian and Bobby, Driver Rob Tallini and honda Robert
Rob Tallini – RRE Eclipse GST – Tecate, Mexico 2000
The track was pretty cool for a street course. It was in a hilly area based on a divided highway through a slight valley right by the Tecate Brewery. One side of the road went up and curved back down the side of a hill, then to a short straight with a long dip, 90 right, hair pin right, sweeping left back on to the wide road through the valley that curved slightly. Since it took you at a pretty high speed (110-120) down to another hair pin right back onto the front straight, they built a chicane out of tires to slow things down before the hairpin. This tire barrier would get regularly rearranged from cars blasting through them.
Practice
Rob Tallini was driving our 1G FWD this weekend. On Saturday Morning, the car started running a little hot. We found one of the flat fans had died, melted solid inside the fan motor. Scot Gray went on a tour of down town Tecate looking for some kind of universal flat fan. Not in Mexico. Lucky for us, our number one race fan in Mexico Pedro Kim volunteered to drive to Pep Boys in San Diego to get one for us. He lives in Tijuana and had driven all the way to Tecate to see us. He has been to every Mexican race we have run and even drove up to watch the LA Street Race. Pure devotion. We just turned the boost down to 1.0 bar and it ran cool enough till we got the fan installed.
Qualifying
We qualified fastest in Group A on Saturday but were a little slower than the faster open class cars. Power seemed a little off even for 1.0 bar and there was a little dark smoke when the car came on full boost. We went looking for a boost leak and found one, one of the Allen bolts to the compressor outlet flange was a millimeter too long and wasn’t tightening the flange down enough. Fixed that up Saturday after the sessions and were ready for the Sunday morning warm up.
We turned the boost up to 1.2 with the overtake boost set at 1.3 for 6 seconds (one of the few working PRofec A’s in captivity) and with new Porterfield R4-E’s the car was pretty much dialed in. We played a little with tire pressures and were ready to race. This time they combined the three fastest groups so we got to play with the faster open class cars. The two fastest were VW Rabbits running 2.2 liter 16 valve motors (one turbo and one supercharged) and weighing 1800 lbs. Power to weight we were about the same and they had a lot less weight for their brakes to slow down.
Race
They started the race groups separately in their qualifying order. We were at the pole position of the second group, standing start. Rob got a good launch on El Coyote in the Mustang (pronounced “Moose-estang” in Mexico) and just squeezed in front of him heading up the hill. As soon as the open class cars disappear over the hill and as Rob is approaching the crest of the hill, we see a huge dust cloud rocketing along the side of the hill and down to the center of the little valley. Red flag all corners, everyone back to the start. One of the open class cars (a 1500 lb Pinto with a XR4Ti turbo motor) was the victim of a little too much enthusiasm on cold tires and cold brakes.
Restart
Re start is a replay of the first one. Rob worked his way through the remaining open cars and up to the back bumper of the lead bunny. They played with each other up to about the 1/2 way point, Rob was a little faster but since they weren’t racing for actual position tried to be nice. He got a little bored and started working on a pass but the Rabbit started blocking, on one drive out of the last turn Rob ended up giving a little “assist” for the Rabbit up the front straight. The car gets hot with no air flow when following close so he let the Rabbit have a little space.
Then bwaaa…pop. It just started misfiring and sputtering. No juice race over. The alternator kicked the bucket. Rob coasted in to the pits. Arturo in the red rabbit went on unchallenged to finish first.
After our strong showing in the last two races we were politely asked if we “wanted” to move our Group A car over to their Open Class. No problem.
How Not To Take A Fly-Over
By Mitch McCullough
Mike Welch, my crew chief, is a master fabricator. A real body man. A regular McGyver. Maybe that was in the back of my mind. Or maybe I was frustrated at dealing with the big D. Or maybe I just like to show off – that’s what rallying is all about, after all.
Whatever it was, I had decided to take the jump flat out.
The physics of the situation seemed to have eluded me: Glen Helen Off-Road Vehicle Park just north of San Bernardino had been designed for off-road buggies and trucks, race cars with suspension travel measured in feet. I was sitting in a Mazda 323 GTX, a cheap econobox. That it had a turbo, four-wheel drive and a fantastic factory rally suspension was of no consequence on the big hump I was about to attack.
While walking around the course, I foolishly came to the conclusion that the big hump could be taken without braking. I mean, that’s what Rod Millen would do, right? Or am I thinking about Rod Hall? Anyway, the closed circuit took only five minutes or so to complete and it was a hoot. We’d be topped out in third gear on a straightaway, brake hard for a 180-degree turn, slide sideways through a 70-mph sweeper, then brake hard for the big hump. The rest of the course went considerably farther, but I would not be exploring the rest of it that day.
I sat in line, peering through my helmet as each rally car took its turn. The suspension of the first car got light as it went over the hump. “Whoa” went the crowd in the stands. The next car caught a little air, maybe six inches. “Yes!” shouted the crowd. As I watched, I thought: “Why are they braking so hard for that jump?” Beside me was co-driver Scott Webb, who had some sort of misplaced, irrational, idiotic faith in my driving abilities.
We pulled up to the start line. On cue, the starter draped a green flag over the front of the windshield and shouted, “Five! Four! Three! Two! One!” Then he yanked the flag up and quickly stepped back from the car. “Go!”
I stood on it and all four knobby Michelins twisted in the dirt. I grinded it on the upshift to second, but otherwise it was a good launch. I braked for the 180-degree turn and slid around a giant earth-moving tire. We slid to the outside as I accelerated out of the turn, but I stayed with it opening up the steering wheel to keep the speed coming on. As we approached the sweeper, I lifted, turned in and got back on the throttle. The car pivoted and slid around the corner, all four wheels slinging dirt. “This is going to be a good run,” I thought.
As we approached the jump, I lifted off the throttle where most people had been braking. We were doing about 65 mph. A cry crackled in my intercom: “Oh shit!” I stepped on the throttle again as we crested the top of the jump, thinking that would keep the nose up.
The little GTX jumped toward the heavens. Observers said there was at least 12 feet between the bottoms of the tires and Mother Earth. From inside the car, it seemed like the sky darkened as we crested the upper edge of the atmosphere. Our poorly designed rocket hit its apogee, then began the long ascent back to earth. When the ground loomed directly ahead I began to realize I may have overdriven just a bit. “Oh!” the crowded shouted. “What was he THINKING?”
It was a tremendous impact. The car landed on the front bumper. The radiator ripped in half, the hood crumpled, the bell housing cracked, the front wheels bent and most of the front clip was destroyed. Instead of going end over end, the car came to an abrupt halt and bounced back onto its wheels.
I looked to the right as the dust settled. “Are you okay?” “Ooof” was the only sound that came from the other seat. “Ooof.” Scott felt like he suddenly had a mouthful of sand. It was later determined that that was the enamel from all of his teeth. The emergency crew loaded us up on stretchers and carted us to the hospital where we spent a long, boring, humiliating day getting X-rays. We had stiff necks, I had bruised pride and Scott spent a fortune on dental work that year. Mike filmed the whole incident and later had the audacity to put it on his Web site, but the view from inside the car felt far more dramatic than the video portrays.
Mike quickly rebuilt the car in the Road/Race facility, replacing or repairing everything ahead of the windshield. We went on to win the California Rally Series championship that year. It was 1993 and we each earned Rookie of the Year titles. The following season, I drove off a 500-foot cliff in Arizona, rolling five times and stopping against a bush 100 feet down. The car looked destroyed, but we winched it to the top of the mountain and Mike had it back in the rally the following morning. We went on to win the 1994 SCCA PRO Rally Southern Pacific Division Championship in Open Class.
But that’s another story.
McCullough is a contributing correspondent to Field & Stream, AutoWeek, Sport Compact Car and European Car. He edits a car-buyer’s guide that can be seen at www.newcartestdrive.com. He now brakes for fly-overs.
Coming soon, the Co-Driver’s Version:
“It wasn’t my fault”
