A Rollercoaster week of Time Attacks with GST Motorsports

[GST Mike]

It all started on Tuesday night at the shop as we all loaded the L into the trailer for the Super Lap Battle at Buttonwillow. For those of you that are not familiar with this event, it is a Time Attack put on by the Primedia Group for the fastest Time Attack cars and is an invite only event.

In the two weeks leading up to this event, our partners at Calculated Risk had put in some serious work on the chassis which included lowering the car another 1.8” and some more aero tweaks. While this was happening, we took what we learned from our competition previously this season and set about developing a new power plant for the setup (we had been running a lower compression Cosworth motor with GT30r) and built a high compression Cosworth motor mated to a custom GT35r courtesy of Forced Performance. This package gained us a 100whp improvement over our previous setup with no loss in low-end.

Upon arriving at Buttonwillow on Wednesday morning and unloading the car, we were greeted with some of the fastest Time Attack cars in the world. If you have not seen the HKS EVO you should check it out; that is one serious car!!

Moving into our first hot lap, we had the car on its low boost setting with our driver Brian Lock of GOTO:Racing. It was set at a 6,000rpm limit for the first couple of laps we were out on track. The car was looking very unsettled through the bus stop and our morning would get more eventful within the next 2-3 turns as Brian fought the less than setup chassis and took the car off at roughly 110mph at Talladega.

Bringing the car in we found the front end was a mess. The splitter was toast on the passenger side and we had bent the fender, lost a side marker and the whole front bumper had lowered itself about an inch causing some rubbing issues on the front tires.

While Brian downloaded the data and worked with his brother Mike Lock (his partner in Calculated Risk) the rest of the team led by our chief mechanic Tommy Wu set about getting the front end back together.

As we worked throughout the day on the chassis setup, we managed to get the car to a setup that Brian could drive enough to put down a 1:49.1x which while leaving a lot on the table the team felt happy with the potential the car was starting to show (given some more setup time we feel the car has a lot more in it).

Moving on to Thursday morning, the team was now back in the shop and discussing what to do for the Redline Time Attack finals on Saturday. The decision was made to remove the high compression motor for our smaller turbo setup so we could try and make the 92db limit (the high compression GT35r was simply not breathing through the muffler setup we were trying to use).

I think we tested 3 or 4 exhaust configs until late in the night on Friday when the decision was finally made not to run the Redline event due to tuning issues with the exhaust. This was a decision that was not easy to make given the thrashing of all the employees and partners such as GOTO:Racing, Calculated Risk and all of our sponsors.

Given that we had tuned both the Calculated Risk Street AWD car and the ESX Unlimited AWD car, we decided to attend the event in full force to support our friends.

A subdued and somber air was around the rig on Saturday morning as we watched the competitors take the track. At the end of the first Modified session our good friend Christian Miller of 034 Motorsports came up to us and said “Mike, you need to go get the L mate, I got hit at 84db and my car is louder than your race setup”. We were all dumbfounded and the decision was made to rush back to the shop and stick on a couple of resonators and a turn away so away we drove.

First to leave the track was the Calculated Risk team of Brian and Mike Lock accompanied by GST Motorsports Greg Simpson and a friend of the Calculated Risk crew Dave, who thrashed back to get the car off the dyno where we had left it and fabricate a new exhaust setup less restrictive than what we were testing but with the necessary turn downs and resonators to pass sound. I followed after the second practice session so I could get data from the ESX STI prior to my departure.

By the time I arrived at the shop the team had managed to finish the welding work and were getting ready for me to tune the car on the dyno. With the car strapped down I started to get to work on the map, first a low boost (21psi) map. As I got to work on the mapping, I noticed a slight miss at higher rpms, as I got more and more into the tune the miss got worse and worse. We decided it was not worth risking the motor to rush and get the car back to the track to turn a lap to be eligible for the Subaru Tsukuba portion of the event, so we went about swapping the plugs, coil packs and changing a ground. With this work completed, the car pulled to redline with no issues and I proceeded to map the car from 21psi up to 26psi which we decided, while not at the end of the turbo’s efficiency would be asking as much as we could out of the setup given the less than ideal exhaust setup we were running.

With the car packed up we set about heading back to the track to arrive at a damp raining Laguna at around 8pm. Rumors were flying around the track of several teams having motor related issues and this would prove to be true as our friends at PDX Tuning had removed some serious weight from the front end of their car and were awaiting a new motor at some point in the evening/early morning. Man, this was turning into the 25hrs of Thunderhill all over again 

Sunday morning came around way to soon for all of us I think and the track was drying fast. With the help of Steve Lock of GOTO:Racing as well as the various people who came out to help us (way to many to name you all but you know who you are and we owe you all everything for all the help!) the car was setup and ready to go out for the first unlimited practice session. With some chassis tweaks from our previous event on Wednesday, Brian was able to manage the car a lot easier and reported back to us that the car was close to being where it needed to be for him to get some decent times; I believe we ran low 1:34’s within his first 2 laps.

With some changes made to the cars chassis setup for the first timed unlimited session, Brian made his way out to the grid. The changes worked with Brian managing a fast time of 1:32.48 putting us 2 tenths behind the blisteringly fast AMS EVO which was fighting sound all weekend.

Brian reported back that he blew a couple of corners and that the car should run a low 1:31 perhaps even a high 1:30 as it stood so we felt comfortable with the setup and upped the boost a little for the final session.

As we prepared for the final session, we learned our friends from ESX had blown their tranny in the final practice session so we set about locating a spare for them. Up stepped Evan who drives the Calculated Risk/GOTO:Racing Subaru STI in Street AWD as he had broken his clutch the session before that. With everyone thrashing at the last minute the tranny was not able to be removed from the ESX car due to the splitter placement and no easy way to jack the motor. The crew thrashed and got the car back together sans 5th gear.

Back on track with the GST jalopy, Brian was heading our first for the final session, his first lap was a mid 1:32, second a 1:32 flat (or there about) with the third being a 1:31.85. We sat and waited for the AMS Evo to go out and knew their car had more in it than previous times showed. On their second lap they ran a 1:32 flat and got black flagged for sound, none of us at GST can say we’re happy with taking the AWD unlimited win in this way as the guys from AMS are a great bunch who traveled across the country only to thrash all weekend to pass sound then fail, then pass then fail..

GST Motorsports would like to thank all of those that came out to the track and supported/helped us all weekend; we could and would not do this without you all.

We would also like to thank our sponsors for their support this season and hope that we have helped represent there companies to our fullest ability this year.

Cosworth
Cusco
Whiteline
Prodrive
Stasis Engineering
Forced Performance
Element Tuning
I-Club.com
Subydude
Vfiber
Endless USA
KW Automotive
Nitto Tires
GOTO:Racing
Calculated Risk
TEC Engineering

Without your products and support we would not be able to campaign this car, Thank you all so much!!

Lastly we would like to thank Brian Lock for piloting the L this past year, you sir are without doubt the link that makes this all work and we look forward to developing the car to it’s potential so you can have a car worthy of you driving talents to continue pushing the envelope next year.

GST Motorsports, Inc.
__________________
GST Motorsports
2439 Industrial Pkwy. West Suite A
Hayward, CA 94545
510-264-9049
FAX 510-264-9740
sales@gstmotorsports.com

http://www.gstmotorsports.com/

[GST Mike]

Here's the in-car!!!

First the off at Buttonwillow

http://www.gstmotorsports.com/host/video/bwoff.wmv

Then the final session where we ran a bunch of 1:49.xxx and 1:50.xxx

http://www.gstmotorsports.com/host/video/bwfinal.wmv

Moving onto Laguna Seca where we ran a 1:32.5x followed by a 1:32 falt then a 1:31.85x

http://www.gstmotorsports.com/host/v...agunafinal.wmv

Enjoy!

Mike

[MattR]

Wow! Congrats guys! Excellent write-up.

[Joeyy]

Much thanks for the great videos. The wife was watching me lean in the corners to help things out. Maybe I should start wearing my helmet to protect if I fall out of my chair.

[sperry]

Congrats on the win at Seca! Too bad about it coming via the sound limit violation of the competition, but don't feel too bad, as that's part of the game there... you guys were in fact the fastest car under the sound limit no? You could have certainly been faster if you were allowed to be noisier, right?

[Forgotten]

Congrats! I really enjoy the updates and the videos. I can't wait for next season already.

[GST Mike]

Originally Posted by sperry

Congrats on the win at Seca! Too bad about it coming via the sound limit violation of the competition, but don't feel too bad, as that's part of the game there... you guys were in fact the fastest car under the sound limit no? You could have certainly been faster if you were allowed to be noisier, right?

I would think so, we swapped our race motor out as I could not tune the high compression motor with the back pressure of the 3 mufflers. We ran Laguna at 380whp vs 505whp we ran at Buttonwillow only 3 days prior.

Mike

[GST Mike]

Anyone for watching our new drift car??

http://www.gstmotorsports.com/host/v...napractice.wmv

Mike

[sperry]

Originally Posted by GST Mike

I would think so, we swapped our race motor out as I could not tune the high compression motor with the back pressure of the 3 mufflers. We ran Laguna at 380whp vs 505whp we ran at Buttonwillow only 3 days prior.

Mike

505awhp!?!



Can you even use all that power?

[MPREZIV]

Great stuff! Congrats on a good showing, despite the setbacks!

[GST Mike]

Originally Posted by sperry

505awhp!?!



Can you even use all that power?

Not with our suspension setup at Buttonwillow that track was way too bumpy for our spring rates. At Laguna with no sound limit the car would have been insanely quick!.

We tested at Thunderhill on the race motor at low boost making 440whp and on our only lap with no traffic on cold tires Brian went 1:54 flat over the top (no bypass) short shifting the motor at 6500rpms.

Mike

[sperry]

What's the setup on the motor (if you don't mind me asking... if you'd rather not let the competition in on the build, I understand)? You say it's a higher compression, and a 35r turbo... is the whole block Cosworth? What's the base compression, 9.5:1?

I'm asking 'cause I have to rebuild my motor this winter and I'm turbo shopping. Since I'm doing similar racing as you guys with the L, I'm curious about your setup. But I'm only looking for 350-375 whp but with a really wide powerband so I'm not sure about the turbo to pick...

I'm leaning towards the Perrin GT30R kit... but I'd like to know waht sort of lag you're seeing with the 35R on a higher compression motor. If my pistons are shot, I'll have the option of going higher compressions as well.

[GST Mike]

Originally Posted by sperry

What's the setup on the motor (if you don't mind me asking... if you'd rather not let the competition in on the build, I understand)? You say it's a higher compression, and a 35r turbo... is the whole block Cosworth? What's the base compression, 9.5:1?

I'm asking 'cause I have to rebuild my motor this winter and I'm turbo shopping. Since I'm doing similar racing as you guys with the L, I'm curious about your setup. But I'm only looking for 350-375 whp but with a really wide powerband so I'm not sure about the turbo to pick...

I'm leaning towards the Perrin GT30R kit... but I'd like to know waht sort of lag you're seeing with the 35R on a higher compression motor. If my pistons are shot, I'll have the option of going higher compressions as well.

The full race motor uses Cosworth heads and cams, the bottom end is ours running 10:1 compression.

We see full boost at 4200rpm, as of yet we have only ran it up to 24.5psi on 116 octane gas.

Mike

[sperry]

Originally Posted by GST Mike

The full race motor uses Cosworth heads and cams, the bottom end is ours running 10:1 compression.

We see full boost at 4200rpm, as of yet we have only ran it up to 24.5psi on 116 octane gas.

Mike

Damn... 10:1... I guess 116 becomes pretty necessary at that base compression.

Since I'm planning on 100 octane, and since I don't want to do cams, I'm probably best of sticking w/ the normal base compression and the smaller turbo... I bet that 35R would be too laggy on my motor, so even if I was making 400+ whp out of it, the smaller 30R would actually be faster around the track.

How much boost are you planning on running in a "high boost" scenario on the L? Would you be able to get to 2 bar? Also, are you running a high red line to make use of those heads?

[GST Mike]

Originally Posted by sperry

Damn... 10:1... I guess 116 becomes pretty necessary at that base compression.

Since I'm planning on 100 octane, and since I don't want to do cams, I'm probably best of sticking w/ the normal base compression and the smaller turbo... I bet that 35R would be too laggy on my motor, so even if I was making 400+ whp out of it, the smaller 30R would actually be faster around the track.

How much boost are you planning on running in a "high boost" scenario on the L? Would you be able to get to 2 bar? Also, are you running a high red line to make use of those heads?

I would recommend if your changing your pistons to run 9:1 for your goals on 100 octane, should help with the powerband and more importantly the shift onset response.

I plan to do some stress testing on what we're calling "the developement motor" over the winter and would imagine we'll see it getting up to 2 bar.

Currently we run the car to 7600rpms, we have tested it out to 8500rpms but I have a gremlin in my wiring causing some miss issues up top (going to rewire the whole car over the next couple of weeks when I am done with the 25hr race).

We also run the new soon to be released Cosworth oil pan and baffle which helps with the oiling and high rpms (you can run an additional 2qts of oil with it)

Mike

[Libila]

Regardless if the win was by noise you guys did some amazing work. Congrats!

Also, I'd like to know if "thrash" was the word of the weekend

[sperry]

Originally Posted by GST Mike

I would recommend if your changing your pistons to run 9:1 for your goals on 100 octane, should help with the powerband and more importantly the shift onset response.

I plan to do some stress testing on what we're calling "the developement motor" over the winter and would imagine we'll see it getting up to 2 bar.

Currently we run the car to 7600rpms, we have tested it out to 8500rpms but I have a gremlin in my wiring causing some miss issues up top (going to rewire the whole car over the next couple of weeks when I am done with the 25hr race).

We also run the new soon to be released Cosworth oil pan and baffle which helps with the oiling and high rpms (you can run an additional 2qts of oil with it)

Mike

Let me know the instant you can order those oil pans! After tearing the motor apart, I'm 99% sure all my heat issues are oil starvation related due to the g-forces (I'm sustaining 1.2G lateral according to the telemetry, and peaking around 2G) and my long oil cooler plumbing (probably 10ft of -8 with 4 90deg fittings along the way = bad news). I could really use some more oil capacity to go along with the new oil cooler setup I'm building.

As far as the base compression... I've got some minor (to my untrained eye) scoring on cylinders #1 and #3 in the block, but my pistons look good. I'm hoping I can just hone the cylinders and slap new rings on the pistons and call it good. But if I need to bore the cylinders, that means new pistons, or sleeves to match my existing pistons. If I have to go with new pistons, I could certainly customize the base compression... but ultimately, I'd like to be able to use the JE's that are already in there just to save some cost.

[GST Mike]

Originally Posted by Libila

Regardless if the win was by noise you guys did some amazing work. Congrats!

Also, I'd like to know if "thrash" was the word of the weekend

Yea in fairness to the noise debate, it was the same for everyone we even swapped a motor so we could run a less aggressive setup to make sound leaving a serious amount on the table.

Mike

[GST Mike]

Originally Posted by sperry

Let me know the instant you can order those oil pans! After tearing the motor apart, I'm 99% sure all my heat issues are oil starvation related due to the g-forces (I'm sustaining 1.2G lateral according to the telemetry, and peaking around 2G) and my long oil cooler plumbing (probably 10ft of -8 with 4 90deg fittings along the way = bad news). I could really use some more oil capacity to go along with the new oil cooler setup I'm building.

As far as the base compression... I've got some minor (to my untrained eye) scoring on cylinders #1 and #3 in the block, but my pistons look good. I'm hoping I can just hone the cylinders and slap new rings on the pistons and call it good. But if I need to bore the cylinders, that means new pistons, or sleeves to match my existing pistons. If I have to go with new pistons, I could certainly customize the base compression... but ultimately, I'd like to be able to use the JE's that are already in there just to save some cost.

Drop us a line we'll get you a pan and baffle at our cost mate, least we can do!

Mike

[JonnydaJibba]

What an exciting weekend.

[Forgotten]

This picture is just amazing.

[GST Mike]

Results from the Superstreet event have been posted.

[sybir]

Mike, it's great to see what you guys are accomplishing with that car. I know how much work it is, but it looks like the bugs are getting ironed out and that thing is getting more and more impressive by the event.

[GST Mike]

Originally Posted by sybir

Mike, it's great to see what you guys are accomplishing with that car. I know how much work it is, but it looks like the bugs are getting ironed out and that thing is getting more and more impressive by the event.

Thank you sir, we wish we didn't have the chassis setup all wrong for Buttonwillow as the car probably has 2 seconds in it as it stands but 4th overall given the compitition is a pretty solid result.

Mike

[Libila]

Wow, congrats again Mike!

Man, that HKS Evo is fast.