MMP Tooele Utah

FWD MOD Class
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Second place, not bad but only 3 cars in class, tight fight with the 3rd place car, may of been contending for first today but the second trophy is a bit costly and did not allow me to run the race.

I need a whole new engine, a chunk of rod cap was laying on my headers and you can see the piston jammed sideways in the cylinder

This was my first ever blown engine at a track event and I did it right. Looks like it may of been an oil pump failure as the piece laying on my desk right now was bone dry.

I was running the TRD SC, 9.5 pulley, good size intercooler and oil cooler, max oil temp was 225, water temp was barely above the normal gauge mark(have not had time to hook up the water temp or oil pressure gauge(pretty much useless except for watching on corners, idiot lights can be better for oil pressure)

I did however down shift a bit early a couple of times so I may of damaged things, not horribly over revved though and have had it happen on many other engines over the years with no problems.

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I had quite a talk with a couple of well respected engineers that both seemed to know a lot about race TC engines and or the builders of the, best, what they have done, power, reliability, etc. I am not going to spend a ton of money but from what I know I do not have to.


I also have a very long discussion about chassis setup, brakes, etc, with Steve Ruiz(founder of Stoptech) He also had quite a bit of knowledge of the tC race cars out there

We talked a lot about Vette setup(his car is incredibly fast on track) and it ends up he has close ties with a very cool engineer that has been helping me out, did the setup on Danny Popps Vette(Danny has been breaking track records back east for classes of race cars that should be much faster than his and he is flying out to help dial on the suspension on the Vette once my is together

Rob(Robispec) and I talked a great deal about the tC setup which he knows indepth as well and has two different ways to drop the car a great deal more and improve the geometry while doing so. We are going to talk about this more and he is going to refer me (at least for advice, the Rado's engine builder(mucho power from our engines)

The Cobb guys, which I know most all of them, were really cool about the car, one of their engineer/tuners is going to help me tune the car, he is going to research all the options and see if their race spec Access Port can be used on it as well(I have owned two units, they are most excellent) They have been able to do some work on other Toyota vehicles and have a power/economy unit for the new Tundra, I just have to get one of those

I met a very cool guy from Montana, of all places, that brought a four car team, they took 3 first(I beat him though) and he is just starting a pro ride in the Koni Challenge Really cool thing was the very close quarters dicing we did for a few laps though we were supposed to be practicing not racing. Open passing allowed, I got him on the outside of a pretty difficult double apex corner and I was half off the track straddling the curbing and I did not lift I told him thanks for letting me by when I was out there and he said he did not let me by, I got by We both agreed it was the best track time we had all weekend!

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I went to visit my Solo buddies and the asked if I wanted to run the course, I did four times, spun the first time(only spun 3 times ever in an autocross and I have done many of them) I posted some decent numbers for a road race setup and tires.

I took my youngest daughter, Anna, over and she made 6 runs, slow as L the first couple, I got out and told her to go faster, soother, lessons she learned a year ago at here only other event, she came to within 1.5 seconds of my best time and several of the local drivers made very nice comments about her sudden progress(2 of them are national champs) That kid is going to be fast but may need surgery to reduce the perma grin!!!!

She cannot wait until I let her start HPDE's!!

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All in all I had an incredible time and the 400 or so hours and $$$$$ I spent in the last 6 weeks was worth it!

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The tC got allot of attention, lots of questions asked about it, very nice comments, etc.......

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After this weekend I have decided to really take my time on the Vette and take the tC to an even higher level(it is not slow on the track now;)

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NO PICS, only a few hours of sleep a night the past week, left an important bag at home, camera was in it

But, there will be some coming but not until I talk to a few mag editors;)

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Note: Every body I talked to knew a great deal about what Dan Gardener has been doing, seems he is stirring up a lot of interest, curiosity, etc

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Blown engine and all, I had one heck of a great time this weekend!

Other than the engine my quick release on the steering hub got loose once and I banged a big curb hard enough to move the rear camber on one wheel, 15 minute fix, so the car wanted to spin on all left corners. It was easy to fix and no issues at all with the results.

No leaks, no brake problems, no heat problems, totally happy I could get the car this good this fast


Rick

 

That is nice man. I hope to enter Redline next season (not ready this season). Not sure what class I would be classified in though.

Will you be down to the Nashville, TN Redline time attack event? Nashville is where I am from. I live in Murfreesboro, TN which is about 15mins away from where the Redline event will be held.

 

Good stuff Rick. Definitely keep us up to date on everything.

On the Vette side you are in good hands with Danny Popp. He is an amazing driver and great guy. He has even spent a little time behind the wheel of my tC at a Evolution School a couple of years ago.

 

Nashville is just to far for me to travel, it will be hard enough to just get out of Utah a few times a year due to ever growing business volume, up over 80% this year already!!!

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I cannot go at this all day long but if I could I would have a killer new suspension setup(modified, even better yet swapped and modified knuckles, much lower ride height, much better geometry, I have a pretty good plan of attack, just not enough time to go after it as hard as I wish I could.)

At least I will have a bit more power, custom tune and an accusump before I run it again.

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Anything I learn will be passed along as well;)

Rick

I am trying to get to Cal Speedway this month but a really tough one to do, trying to work out a schedule, etc.

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I agree, Danny is very fast, really knows setup well, working with some exceptional people on suspension engineering, etc, lots of good stuff going on with him and those involved with and I am getting the benefits of it