Vorshlag Motorsports

Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build (STX?)

trhoppe — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:07:02 GMT

So what, so this forum could go back to being the dead non working POS that it usually is?

And I don't "shave", I "trim". It's like not pushing back....

Vorshlag E46 Alpha - BMW 330Ci LSx Build Thread

Fair — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:48:05 GMT

Quick Update for Feb 28, 2013: We have the third and hopefully final iteration of the production headers tested and they work! Finally, some progress.

I wanted to give a quick shout-out to a new forum, "LSMotorswap.com". We have copied all of our updates since 2011 onto this thread there. We are also updating the same threads concurrently on vorshlag, corner-carvers, bimmerforums and sccaforums.

Here's the final FINAL final production header, that took many more iterations and months of waiting then we had ever dreamed.

We've since pulled the headers, drivetrain and motor & transmission mounts out of the car and started making production fixtures. There are some new laser cut pieces that we have to draw and order, then we can get to work cutting tubing and welding up the mounts.

More soon,

Vorshlag ChumpCar '98 Firebird V6 Project

Fair — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:30:38 GMT

Project Update for February 22, 2013: Since my last update, several short work days were put in on the ChumpCar at my house over the past two months. Let's get caught up.

Aero Picture Examples

While I was looking for a picture from the 2008 GRM "Ultimate Track Car" event, I stumbled upon some good pictures for aero ideas on the F-Tird. With over 50K pictures uploaded, it is easy to forget some cars and pictures I've taken. I posted them in this Corner-Carvers thread about Heat Extractor Hoods, too:

This car was built with a lot of driver set-back (hence the floor mounted pedal cluster and extra long steering column shaft), which we will not even attempt to do. Too complicated to pull off on a "$500" car and driver changes would be much more difficult. Check out the front structure though - it allows for a forward radiator location. This car was unfinished and didn't have the ducted hood or the airdam, but you get the idea. The splitter was made of wood and what looked like aluminum tubing - likely what we'd use on the ChumpCar.

The AI car above is a more complete '98-02 Firebird with similar front aero, minus the ducted hood. We saw this car at the January 19-20th NASA MSR-Houston event.

Of course any major front aero mods are down the road, but I think it will really help cooling on our car as well as give us a little more front end grip. Don't know if we can pull it off under ChumpCar budgets and scrutiny, but it is on the wish list. And I wanted to point out now that every picture in this post can be clicked for an Extra Large resolution version. I make them "small" sized to fit within the confines of some forum layouts, but I hate not sharing them in larger sizes. I'll try to do this more often - just takes more time to write the posts to work that way. Oh, the links and many other features I use almost never works on my posts to SCCAForums - their forum software is just borked. Trying to work with them on the move to a new forum software.

Air Conditioning & Side Glass Removal

In early January we met and worked on removing the side glass from the doors and yanking the air conditioning components under the hood. Over the holidays my wife bought me a toolbox for the house garage (dedicated set of tools for the Vorshlag shop, the Vorshlag trailer and now the house) and I picked up a number of hand and air tools for use on the ChumpCar and anything else I might need to wrench on at home.

We needed the side glass out of this Firebird for cage installation as well as safety requirements for ChumpCar (only glass allowed is an OEM style windshield). The side windows were a bit tricky to remove and required drilling some rivets, removing all sorts of tracks and rollers, but eventually they came out. We removed the window crank mechanisms as well.

While the windows were coming out, we found out why the driver's side mirror was flopping around (we had to tape it in place at the ECR test event). Some joker had removed most of the hardware for the metal bracket that bolts to the door structure and the mirror. I put it back together and the mirror is secure once again. If anyone with a 4th Gen needs side glass or a manual regulator, let me know. Of course I won't ship this stuff, but I will bring it to the shop and you can come pick it up for free.

The A/C removal was pretty labor intensive. The front mounted condenser and lines came out easily enough, but the compressor was a bitch.

With the condenser, drier, and main lines out of the way, Paul and I attacked the compressor. That thing fought us for over an hour and a half... tried taking the bracket off, but the compressor would get stuck in the way. We finally put it all back together and got the compressor out of the way first, then the bracket. A $9 "A/C delete" bracket and pulley went back in place of the compressor and the original serpentine belt was re-used and everything has lots of belt wrap. Altogether... "some pounds" were removed (I don't have an accurate scale at my house).

Gas Pedal and Door Gutting

McCall spent an hour laying with his head under the dash and managed to get the foot pedal from the throttle pedal assembly swapped from this random GM unit that didn't fit this chassis (he tried to install it at ECR) swapped over onto the 4th Gen V6 pedal arm. Now it works. I don't know what he did... "magic".

Removing the "guts" from the massive 4th Gen doors proved easier than I had thought. After trying an electric Sawsall, a little reciprocating air saw, then an electric jig saw - the jig saw proved to be the right tool to remove the fiberglass composite door structures. and it ate that stuff up quickly.

I figured it would be hours of work removing the structure, but it was minutes. This cutting made some VERY nasty dust, so if you do this work use safety glasses and a respirator! We rolled the car outside on a windy day and tied a T-shirt around my face, which was unsafe but what we had. Then vacuumed white fiberglass dust out of the WHOLE interior. The real work came in removing the reinforcement beam that is bolted inside the door. I thought this would take seconds but it took nearly an hour.

After spending an inordinate amount of time unbolting the bar from the steel brackets at both the front and back of each side door (see below), and that took a LONG time (the access for a ratchet/socket is TERRIBLE), the now unbolted, heavy tubular bar... was stuck. Really stuck. We got so frustrated Paul starting cutting the bar in half. About 3/4 of the way thru the cut, the damn bar just fall out of the door.

It was the weirdest thing. So on the second door beam we spent a little more time wiggling it this way and that, then grabbed a hammer, and popped it out of the brackets. This door beam is very thick walled and HEAVY. this beam is being replaced with a proper roll cage, so it was redundant.

If the door skin wasn't on it would be a lot easier, but that is plastic and bonded onto the fiberglass door structure. The only metal in the door is the beam (removed) and the front and rear plates that are shown above. The hinges bolt to the front plate and the latches bolt to the rear plate, so they are staying in place. There are little stubs of brackets that held the beam in there, but cutting those out would take a long time for very small returns (1 or maybe 2 pounds total).

I used a 3" sanding disc on a 90° air die grinder to dress the cut edges of the fiberglass and made it nice, straight and smooth. And made a whole new mess of fiberglass dust. That we once again vacuumed out of the ENTIRE car. Good grief what a mess. I cut around the formed inset edge of the door and left some structure in the front corner to hold the metal bracket that the sideview mirrors bolt to. Otherwise it all came out.

Forgot to mention the inside door handle - that had to come out, naturally. It was held in place with a slide in bracket and one rivet, which I drilled the head off of. Then before I cut the door structure away I lined up the two oddly shaped holes the door handle pull slid into and marked it on the "upper structure" of the door that I left in place. I will go back and cut out these marked holes and slide the handle in there, then thru-bolt it in place (with a sheet metal backing) and re-hook the door latch pull rod and see if it works. I left the upper structure in the door, as it was multi-layer "trussed" fiberglass. It is lightweight and gives the door plenty of structure, for easy opening and closing. Even with all of the parts and beams removed, cut out and unbolted, the door opens and closes better than ever now.

Paul and I also removed the weather stripping and associated brackets from the side doors, then vacuumed up all of the dust once again. Then I cleaned up all of the mold and gunk under those things, and it looks tidy now.

We started removing a bunch of unnecessary brackets from the interior but ran out of time. A Blair spot weld cutter and a gentle touch with the drill took the spot welds out of the first bracket and it popped right out. The key is getting the right "feel" for when you cut through the outer layer (the bracket) and not cutting through the under layer (the floorpan); I only missed that once, on my very first spot weld. A lighter cordless drill would have helped. About 7 more brackets and we be done enough to get the cage installed.

Coil Pack Replacement & Cage Planning

At the ECR event we had what felt like a dying coil or coils, and while we started the day on 6 cylinders we ended it on what felt like 4. We already had brand new plug wires and spark plugs, and none of them were loose or arcing when we checked at the track, so it had to be the coils, right? Ignition based missed that worsened with heat. After we towed the car back to my place and it had cooled down for an hour, it fired right up and ran on all 6.

Like I said in my last post, new coils were a whopping $14.XX each, so we got 3. During one of the work days over the past 2 months we yanked the coilpack out and unbolted one coil, came right off. Now that the replacements came in we went to pull the other 2 and... no luck. One bolt snapped off into the aluminum heat sink base and the head of another rounded off. Little bitty 5.5mm hex heads with the bottom of the bolts exposed to engine heat and rain. Yuck.

We brought the coilpack back to the Vorshlag shop and I'll drill out the busted bolt and cut the head off the other then get it back in the car. But... we might relocate this away from the OEM location, right above the left exhaust manifold, and move it to a better spot. It will be 10-12 wires to extend, and likely custom length plug wires, but I think it will be worth it.

Left: A Mustang cage with fairly low NASCAR door bars. Right: Our car with some tape mock-ups (all wrong)

During the same day we cut the door structures out I also played with some masking tape and lined up some door bar locations. There is not a lot of room vertically and placing the FIA bar up front is going to be a compromise. We are using 2 horizintal "NASCAR" bars that will go all the way into the doors and touch the outer skins, for lots of lateral room.

Left: BlaineFab door bars on a CMC Firebird. Right: Mike Patterson's AI Camaro.

The door bars we make will be some combination of the above four examples: two main horizontal NASCAR bars, some rear triangulation to the main hoop and side roof bars, and additional front "roof crush" strength added with an "FIA bar" - but all of this with enough room to get all of our drivers in and out of the door opening quickly. Since this is a 4th Gen F-body, we ordered the hard parts from the 4th Gen cage master, Alan Blaine. The main hoop and down bars are coming from http://blainefab.com/ soon - he sells these in 1.75 x .120 wall DOM for $550, so if you want a pre-cut cage kit for your 4th Gen, give him a shout. Our cage will look as much like these from him that we can make them.

Wrapped Up Until Cage Install

Feels good to get to this point - the car is finally ready for the cage. Once the main hoop and side down bars arrive, we'll put the coil pack back in, fire it up, load it onto a trailer, and bring the car back to Vorshlag. Once here, our fabricator Ryan will cut the dash bars and rear down bars, as well as the door bars. We will tack-up most of the cage and then put our drivers in the car and see where we can put the FIA and door bars to fit everyone. We need to get rid of the rear hatch glass for safety reasons, but we have some ideas for a cheap replacement.

More soon,

Terry Fair - Vorshlag

Vorshlag E46 330 Coupe (former DSP car) - FOR SALE

Fair — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 23:01:23 GMT

Project Update for Feb 12, 2013: It has been three months since my last update and we have been steadily improving this car and making it more street friendly along the way.

Other than a lot of little tweaks and parts replacements to the interior and such, most of what we've done has been centered around the exhaust system. Since the November update, the weather turned a bit frosty here in Texas. In the cold weather the reflashed (to the latest stock tune by BMW) DME kept throwing a Check Engine Light, with the stainless steel headers and custom exhaust we had built for it. So we chased O2 sensors and replaced all of them, did this, did that - to no avail. After 2-3 days of driving it would throw a CEL, every time.

Vorshlag is not a "tuner shop", we are a suspension shop with some work on our V8 swaps and various BMW service work thrown in for good measure. ;) And nobody else in Dallas can seem to tune a factory BMW DME worth a damn anymore, either (the old shop that used to tune this car, when it was a DSP/TT car, has since gone out of business). I couldn't get anyone to pull the trigger on this beautiful car with a CEL on the dash, so...

We got a set of stock exhaust manifolds + cats + entire rear exhaust from a 2005 BMW 330Ci and pulled the lightweight "race" exhaust and headers, then put in these OEM parts. It took a few hours, but when it was done the car was much quieter when driving, still plenty fast, and ... no more CEL. I have been daily driving the car for the past two weeks in both warm and COLD weather without any issues. Got a fresh state inspection sticker last week, too. So now the car is really ready to sell...

New Classified Ad: http://www.vorshlag.com/cars-e46-01-3...

Brandon took this "motion rig" picture last week, which came out pretty slick. We have the race headers/exhaust that can go with the car for a small fee, as can the extra set of 18x10" D-Force wheels and Hoosier R6 tires, or you can just take the car as-is and have fun driving it. The 285/30/18 Yokohama AD08 street tires that come on the 330Ci are fresh 180 UTQG "extreme performance tires" that do a very good job on the track or at an autocross, and are still excellent on the street in the rain or dry.

The car looks amazing, rides well on the AST 4200 coilovers, can be street, track or autocross driven - and do so pretty damned quickly - and has so many new parts that it should provide many years of reliable service. Everything under the hood is new - the motor, all of the sensors, the exhaust, the entire cooling system - all fresh. All of the suspension is new (bushings, control arms, shocks, etc), as is the clutch/pressure plate/light flywheel, and rear OS Giken LSD and differential. The interior is very sharp, the sound is now well muffled, the unique roof/fenders/giant wheels make this car look more like an M3 than a 330, and the Lapis Blue paint is absolutely flawless.

Somebody is going to get a very cool car, once I get the word out. Just had one person call about it while I was writing this, and he's coming by for a look tomorrow, and the new classified ad hasn't even been published yet. That's a good sign.

Cheers,

Terry Fair @ Vorshlag

Vorshlag BRZ Project Build Thread

Fair — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:48:05 GMT

(continued from above)

GRM Photoshoot

We got a call from someone that writes for Grassroots Motorsports asking for a pictures of an FT86. They were looking for some action shots with typical autocross classing/sponsor stickers shown mid-corner or in a slalom. They had a tight deadline and nobody had any pictures of an STX prepped FR-S or BRZ they could find. We love working with magazines and especially the folks at GRM, so we made it happen.

Olof washed and detailed Matt's car, Jason cut some class/number/sponsor decals, and Olof and I slapped on the numbers and some GRM decals. I asked Jason to make the numbers big, but dang - you can see these from space! :P Then we went in search for a parking lot that would work for the photo shoot. Once there, we set up a slalom and Brandon got his camera gear ready. I got in, strapped on a helmet, and hooned around the cones - while keeping an eye out for the law. This was an unsanctioned operation...

The parking lot we picked was a local movie theater across the highway from Vorshlag, and by a large helping of dumb luck we just happened to see my 2013 Mustang GT parked in the same portion of the giant parking lot. Apparently my wife had snuck off to watch some sparkly vampire movie - on a vacation day she took from work that she "needed" in order to get ready for a Thanksgiving party we were throwing the next day. Sneaky. What she didn't know was that I had an extra key to this car... so we moved it to another lot about a half mile away and I waited for her panicked call. :)

It didn't take long - half an hour later I got the call, "The Mustang is stolen! Either that... or.... YOU took it!" She knows me too well. I told her where the car was parked and she hung up on me. Later that day she admitted it was a good practical joke, heh. We laughed about it for days!

The photos came out well and you should see one of the above shots in an upcoming GRM issue.

Two FT86 Track Tests @ ECR

At the end of my October post we had three track days in the works for October and November. Matt was out of town for the NASA event, where we ran two of the other Vorshlag shop cars and set some new personal best lap times (in our 2011 and and 2013 Mustang GTs). Then the SCCA Club Race/PDX event was cancelled (they had all of 37 people sign up...and we were 3 of those. Club racing in our region is virtually dead), but the Five Star Ford track day event was the first one where we had some FT86 content.

Vorshlag Picture Gallery - 5 Star Ford ECR Track Day - http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Ev...

This November 17th event was an HPDE hosted by Five Star Ford of Plano at Eagles Canyon Raceway. We had fun at their event back in June so we signed up three more cars for their November 17th event. Amy drove the red Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT to her new personal best at this track (1:57.70!) and Matt drove his 2013 Subaru BRZ (2:11.0). I was there for track-side help and in-car instruction, Ed was there to help with the three cars, and Vorshlag's photographer Brandon was on hand and took some great track pictures of many of the cars in attendance. Perfect weather, well run event, and we had about 63 cars in attendance, so we got a LOT of track time. Big thanks to Corey White for setting this event up!

Left: Matt's BRZ on course. Right: Britney and her FR-S.

Being a Ford dealership sponsored event there were a crap ton of Mustangs in attendance, and I will go into more of that in our next Mustang project thread post. Having two FT86s there was a treat - and in fact there was a third one, but it was still on the stock tires and had no lap timer (we ended up doing track preparation work to that car at Vorshlag in December).

Britney and Stephen also brought her FR-S to this event, and you can see me riding along with Stephen in the Asphalt Gray FR-S, below right. NASA Time Trial racer KenO took some hot laps in her FR-S during a later session, and I took some hot laps in Matt's BRZ at the same time (below left). We both had lap timers/data loggers on board, but unfortunately we didn't get any in-car video in either car that day. Still, we did get some good pictures and data.

The data showed what we felt in the BRZ - the new brake pads were working VERY WELL and I saw some braking data that I couldn't quite believe (1.5g peak braking?!). The harder I pushed the brakes, the deeper it would brake. This was just with Motul fluid, our SS brake lines and the Carbotech XP12 front / XP8 rear pads! No brake ducting, but we never saw any fade - and I pushed the brakes hard for about 4-5 laps. Lateral grip was also extremely impressive, showing sections of corners with sustained 1.3-1.4g lateral?!

Again, I have to see more data to believe this, but the fat R-S3's were making mountains of grip. Like I said before, the track width on these 17x9" wheels is 71", which is WIDE. By comparison our Mustang, which is a giant 3600 pound car, on the mega-wide 18x12" wheels is 73.5" wide - a mere 2.5" wider than the 2750 pound BRZ. So you can see where some of the massive grip is coming from on the FT86. This chassis has a "wide stance" and as we know, track width adds lateral grip. The OEM shocks were a bit floaty in bumpy sections of the track, and it bottomed the fronts a few times a lap, so it will be much better with real monotube dampers. In a handful of laps with Matt riding along, I managed a 2:10.5 lap in heavy traffic, after seeing a 2:09.5 indicated on this same lap. So given a few more laps and no passenger it is a 2:08-2:09 car at ECR as it sits, which ain't half bad. I was making Matt nervous sliding the car around, but he hopped in for the second half of this session and dropped two seconds following the same lines, and pushing the braking points deeper like I had, to manage his 2:11.0 lap.

Left: We set-up a table showing off some Vorshlag and Whiteline parts. Right: Vorshlag/AST tester KenO in his E46 M3.

KenO took the 215mm R-S3 equipped FR-S to a best lap of 2:11.5, which was quite good considering it had Hawk HPS pads and only 7" wide wheels. We both had passengers on our laps, and in a 2750 pound car an extra 150-200 pounds matters. I hope we can get these FT86 twins back out to ECR soon and really open them up. I haven't had this much fun tracking a sub-200 whp car... EVER. :)

Yes, I will admit that driving the BRZ on track with these minor mods was a lot of fun. And I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to track cars, normally driving something with nearly three times this power level, which says a lot about the "fun factor" of the FT86. The car did everything so well - turning, stopping, shifting, corner exit. The pedals are placed perfectly for heel-toe down shifting, the brake and steering feel is superb, the shift throw is short, and the stock seats mostly keep you in place on sticky street tires. Sure, a proper harness and race seat would help driver confidence considerably, but it was a great overall package with just the added negative camber, fat and sticky street tires, and good brake pads/fluid/lines. The prototype Swift springs were a bit on the soft side, and we're about to swap in the production units next, along with shortened bump stops. That should keep the front suspension from bottoming on the bumpy bits at ECR and should help drop lap times too. We'll be back!

Vorshlag picture gallery for ECR Toy Run - http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Ev...

We were back at ECR once again a few weeks later, on December 8th, and Matt again brought his BRZ with zero changes from the November event. It was a much colder day and lap times were a solid 1-1.5 seconds off our times at the Ford event, when the weather was a bit more favorable. This time Matt took a lot more laps and got more acquainted with his car. I was busy driving my 2013 GT with new AST double adjustable shocks and Vorshlag camber plates, and Amy was in her 2011 GT again. Also, two of my buddies and I were doing our first track laps in our future ChumpCar, so it was a very busy day. It was so busy, in fact, that nobody got any pictures of Matt's BRZ on track! Doh. It looked so purdy with all of the decals... oh well.

He did get a little in-car video with his new GoPro Hero3. Not the best audio, but you can get some idea of what this car looks like on track.

For NASA TTD competition (the NASA class we are building it for), it needs to run closer to a 2:05, but with coilovers and some other tweaks we think that is doable on these R-S3's. For SCCA we're building it around STX class, which allows up to a 265mm tires. I don't think that will fit as it sits, but with their poorly written rules concerning fender contours and lip rolling, "anything is possible". :)

What's Next?

Coilovers are the next obvious modification, but we don't have anything to install yet - still waiting on his AST 4150's. For now we will go ahead and install the production Swift lowering springs and confirm the data we have seen on Mark's car (1" drop, great ride). There are some additional Whiteline FT86 bushings that have made it to market (rear UCA bushings) and more are promised in late January - as are their adjustable FT86 sway bars. No power mods will be done until there is a proper tuning solution, so 167 whp is where it will stay for a while.

We don't have any autocross or track events until February, but if we get in some parts before then we'll post up again. Sorry for the long update today, bu we had almost three months to cover. I will try to be more prompt in my updates in the future.

Cheers,

Terry Fair @ Vorshlag Motorsports

AST 4150 Shocks Have Arrived At Vorshlag

Fair — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 01:56:47 GMT

In this post I want to talk about some of the history behind one of the 4150 models we have in stock now, and the part we played in helping get them built the way they are.

History of AST Dampers on the S197 Mustang

The first iteration of AST coilovers that were tested on a 2006 Mustang GT back in 2008 are shown below. The S197 generation Mustang covers all models from 2005-2013. Vorshlag owns two S197 Mustangs and has worked on countless others. We know this chassis well and feel that the AST 4150 is the best shock option for the money, and provides the best combination of performance and ride quality in one package.

The four pictures above show the first set of 4200/4100 coilovers on AST-USA's first S197 test mule. We all learned a lot from this initial install, and went back and adjusted front strut lengths and learned that we needed to add a ride height adjuster and a different spring length out back. This set was tweaked a bit and works great, and is still being raced on this ESP classed '06 GT. We also tested the first iteration of the S197 Vorshlag camber/caster plate on this car, with two major changes made from what we learned.

On the next version of the 4100, shown in the next four pictures above, AST went with an inverted rear shock. This moved the rebound adjuster to the bottom of the shock instead of being in the trunk, but it also made for a bit less travel in the rear shock. With this set-up, we perfected the AST ride height adjuster and Vorshlag chassis adapter, and tweaked spring lengths to fit.

The third major round of changes are shown in the four pictures above. This was when Vorshlag took the above set of 4100s, went to AST-USA and found a new rear shock body/length/layout, and switched back to a "non-inverted" rear shock. This all new shock needed various adapter bushings to fit the chassis, but the non-inverted design made for easy access to the rebound knob once again and additional bump travel.

AST Holland made the pre-production AST 4150 S197 shocks with an inverted rear shock, packaging it as a coilover only with the spring mounted to the rear shock. We did not order them this way, as it limits wheel room inboard, changes the motion ratio of the spring in roll, and applies full suspension/spring loads to the shock tower and upper shock mount. We feel that keeping the rear spring in the stock "divorced" location limits the loads to the shock tower (which was only ever designed to take damper loads, not suspension loading) and frees up room for bigger wheels out back. This is part of our solution to running an 18x12" rear in the back under unmodified stock fenders.

Specific Changes to S197 Mustang AST 4150s

As we said above, Vorshlag has been playing with AST shocks on various S197 Mustangs since 2008, when we installed the first test set. We have worked with AST-USA to tweak the 4100/4200 shocks through several iterations of lengths, shock layout (inverted and non), and rear spring location (divorced and coilover). Now that the 4150 has arrived, Vorshlag asked AST to build them for us with a specific length rear shock in a non-inverted style. We use an AST ride height adjuster and our own chassis adapter. You can see our chassis adapter for the AST ride height platform being machined at Vorshlag, above.

We keep the (replacement, coilover style, 2.25" inner diameter) rear spring in the stock location, use AST supplied adjustable rear spring height platforms, and machine our own Nylon adapters to make these platforms fit the S197 chassis. We're making these adapters in house and supplying them with each AST 4150 kit we sell at no additional cost. It is very unlikely you will see another AST dealer selling AST S197 shocks made to the Vorshlag spec.

Another extra step we take is providing new upper shock mount rubber, which would normally have to be cut/modified from the stock pieces. This way they come to you without needing modification and can just be bolted on the car with minimal fuss.

That touches on the physical aspects that have changed from the first AST 4100 models made for the S197 Mustang to the latest AST 4150 version we sell here at Vorshlag. No other AST dealer customizes these coilovers to this extent, because no other dealer has the experience with AST's that we have here at Vorshlag.

Thanks,Terry Fair @ Vorshlag

Vorshlag Miata LS1 Alpha Project

sm2dan — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:07:37 GMT

I"m in!

Brianne Corn's Pike's Peak Subaru STi

Fair — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:54:39 GMT

Project Update for September 18, 2012: Sorry for the month long delay in writing our "post-race report" update with the details of how the actual event went down for Brianne. We've been busy with other projects, preparing for and attending/competing in the 2012 SCCA Solo National Championships, buying some cars, and more.

Vorshlag Race Photo gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Ev...

I was only at this event for a little over three days and in this post I cover the Friday practice and Sunday race day from my point of view as a spectator/sponsor/race day supporter for the Brianne Corn Racing entry at the 2012 PPIHC event. No more talking about the event, rules, crashes, or other distractions - this is what I saw that related to Brianne's event.

2009 PPIHC Interview with Brianne Corn

Before you read about our race write-up, you should watch the video interview linked below. I had never seen this until today and actually found it while searching for the race day video from 2012. This interview was made at Pikes Peak in 2009, when Brianne first raced a motorcycle up the mountain. Great stuff, as it let's you see the history of her racing and her passion from 2004 to 2009. She talks about the moment she knew she had to become a racing driver (an accidental mountain road drive in a rental Golf, following some caged rally cars in Italy). Her start in autocrossing, her move to land speed racing in 2007, then to an experience in the Baja 1000 (Class 3 truck), onto rally, then to Pikes Peak. Great stuff!

Click the image above to watch this 2009 interview with Brianne Corn.

Excellent interview. You must watch this if you follow Brianne in her racing endeavors. Also, make sure to follow Brianne Corn Racing on Facebook, where you can keep up with all of her racing efforts.

Friday: Practice

Amy, Matt, his girlfriend, and I all flew into Colorado Springs LATE on Thursday night (at our hotel by 1:30 am). Then Amy, Matt and I got up at 4 am Friday morning to meet the team that had been here all week (including Ryan and Jason from Vorshlag) up on the mountain. Friday was the last day of practice and it took place on the middle stage of the mountain (qualifying was on Thursday on the bottom stage). It was a total CF once we arrived in tow with the crew, as there was no room for us to park at the start area. We made a split second call and drove our rental Impala to the top of Devil's Playground at 12,780 feet elevation, which was the finish area for that days practice runs. We were going to help with taking tire pressures, getting IR temperatures of key components, and snapping pictures as they came into this section and finished each run.

Two excellent pictures of the Subaru during practice - click either for a larger view

We hopped out of the rental car at 5 am, which was wheezing and detonating like mad going up at this altitude, wearing our shorts and t-shirts (it was warm at the hotel!) and we were freezing our butts off. Oh DAMN it was cold!!! 40°F and a wicked breeze that went right through you. I had like three raincoats on and was barely able to stand it. Matt hiked down the mountain a bit and took pictures near the finish area and I stayed up top to talk to Brianne and Jeremy as they made each of their three runs up the mountain.

With air this thin, shivering, and working on no sleep I was a wreck. Can't.... breathe.... ack! I was in a daze all morning trying to acclimate to the altitude. Much of this has been relayed to me, as I was only semi-conscious during the practice runs. On her first Friday run up the the mountain she was feeling the car out and getting used to the road on this middle practice stage in this car. The suspension was sorted and had been tested at PPIR the previous afternoon. Brianne and Jeremy were getting their notes synced up and just taking it easy. The second run up showed some minor boost leaks that Keith at AWD Tuning fixed. These leaks were causing part throttle lag, that went away ones the leaks were fixed. With these issues sorted they made fast on their third run for Friday.

Click the image above for in-car video from Friday's practice (on dry weather 285 width Hoosier R6s).

The "roof cam" video shown above is from their third and final run up the mountain on Friday, which was also their best time for the day.

At right you can see Brianne's "race dog" Meadow - who was stealing water bottles and burying them in the woods all week! Cracked us up.

Now they had some other issues on Thursday, which was the practice day when final qualifying occurred (even though they had another day of practice on Friday). A pressurized turbo hose popped off on the only serious practice run that day and she lost power on the 2nd sector, limping the car to the finish. That made for a 10th place qualifying spot, which didn't really show the true performance of the car (other practice times were 4th or so). Brianne was confident she could finish much higher than 10th and hoped to get a clean, dry run on race day, even buried halfway down the starting order. She also knew that running less than a third of the mountain in practice runs is nothing compared to running the entire, grueling course length in anger on race day. She was well acclimated to the altitude, had trained for this for four years, and the "last minute thrash built" car was finally sorted and fast.

Friday: Fan Fest (Car Show)

FanFest is a big car show and meet-and-greet with the drivers, held on Friday night in downtown Colorado Springs. They shut down the roads from ~4 pm to 10 pm and the top qualifiers from each class are required to attend and a big chunk of the other racers volunteer to bring their race cars out to this event as well. If you ever go to the PPIHC, you have to make sure not to miss this thing!

There are SO many cool photos from FanFest that I can only show a few here. If you start here in the Vorshlag photo gallery you'll see a bunch of the pics from FanFest that Brandon took. There was some incredible machinery gathered here for everyone to see - in a more concentrated area and easier to view than on race day or during practice.

Left: The crazy LoveFab "NSX" which ran in Unlimited class. Right: Dave Kern's beautiful and FAST EVO, which placed 2nd in the Time Attack class.

This year's FanFest had a giant RedBull show with motorcycles doing jumps, interviews with drivers, crazy stunts on bikes, and a huge carnival-like atmosphere. Later in the night, they had two stunt parachuters drop out of a plane and fly down onto the motorcycle ramp. We had a ball and the entire Vorshlag crew ate at a great pizza joint right on the main drag, during a break in the meet-and-greet period.

Above you can see some of the Vorshlag folks and Brianne herself hanging around the car. She was talking to hundreds of fans, signing autographs on the free "team poster" she was handing out, and saying "Hi" to old friends and racers that stopped by. Excellent PR there and she made a lot of new fans that day. This is a good opportunity for people to get up close to the cars and teams even whether they do or don't attend the actual event on race day.

Saturday: Race Preparation

The entire crew spent most of Saturday doing a more through version of their normal check list. This includes going over every system in the car, including some repairs to the cooling system, removal of the splitter and front bumper to check all of the brake cooling and oil plumbing hoses underneath, verify the alignment and a complete "nut and bolt" of the suspension and drivetrain. The main radiator cap was bypassing at lower than normal pressures, allowing some water loss from the bypass line at the radiator. This bypass line was blocked off and the over-pressure bypass for the entire coolant system was then handled by the second radiator cap at the remote reservoir we added. This second cap worked fine and the car didn't lose a drop during race day.

]

This was all done in the motel parking lot, which is common for Pikes Peak teams during off days or outside of the designated practice times on Wednesday-Friday of race week. Lots of fans stopped by the makeshift "garage" to inquire about the car, the event and the teams' history.

An excellent pre-dawn picture of Brianne and Jeremy taking the finish line at the Peak, during practice runs.

Most teams bring two trailers to the event, just like our crew. The main enclosed trailer stays at the hotel and a small open trailer goes with the team up the mountain for each day of testing. Why? Navigating the switchbacks with a big enclosed trailer is a nightmare, and parking in the woods (aka: paddock) on race day is impossible with a big trailer. So plan on having two trailers for race week at PPIHC, if you ever go. The team was originally going to rent a trailer in Colorado Springs, but JasonM managed to borrow an open trailer from another driver who's car broke earlier during practice (thanks Dave C!), and the Vorshlag trailer was used as the home base with lots of spares and more tools at the motel (shown above).

Sunday: Race Day Weather Fiasco

Here's some external video from several of the Time Attack class cars on race day, taken from Gilly's Corner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzZMPF...

In order to avoid any of the brand new 285/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires getting a puncture while driving through the woods (paddock area) to the starting line, they left the R6s on that were used during practice. Once the car was on the paved road area at the back of the starting grid, we hand carried the A6s down with the help of Bill Caswell (1/4 mile away) and mounted them under Mike Ryan's tent, a fellow PPIHC racer who drove the crazy Freightliner (see below). These A6s were driven about 50 feet and then were pulled off...

The conditions in the hour or so before her run were terrible, with rain and hail covering most of the mountain. What is it with Brianne and hail? Much to my chagrin, the team switched to the skinny 245mm Hoosier rain tires moments before her run, right at the starting line. The team was prepared for potential bad weather and was ready for the switch. This was highly recommended by the race organizers, as the handful of competitors before her were sliding off the wet and hail covered mountain road left and right in the late afternoon. Seeing those skinny rains go on the car caused me physical PAIN, after the days of work Ryan and our crew put into making the steel wide body fenders clear the 10" wheels, but it was the only logical choice given the horrible weather conditions.

Brianne and co-driver Jeremy blasted up the hill with a vengeance, rain be damned. Without windshield wipers or a defroster/heater, she couldn't see squat, but she never let up! Amazingly, she was only five seconds off in these wet conditions than she was in her 2011 AWD Time Attack class winning run, which was run under dry conditions in the same car.

Click the image above to watch the Race Day run in the Brianne Corn Racing Subaru STi. She ended up 5th in class with a 12:01 run in the wet.

The time of 12:01 placed her 5th out of the original 25 entrants in the Time Attack class, with the first three in her class running in the dry hours earlier (the class was delayed several times for crashes). Oh well, can't complain - should have qualified better to run towards the front of the pack with Rhys Millen and the others. After the event, Brianne was given the "Queen of the Mountain" award (a massive custom trophy belt buckle) which was pretty cool.

Comments from Brianne about this run: "I think there were four life flights that day. One crash caused a 90 minute delay which caused us to run in the rain. In fact, it was our friends that crashed and when we left the line the rumors were flying around the start line as to the extent of their injuries. I think (co-driver) Jeremy was a little shaken up by the situation.

The weather turned at the last minute and we were told to swap to our rain tires by the race officials. We were sitting at the line and had no opportunity to scrub them in. It was a very interesting ride and one of the best times I have had in the drivers seat in a while.

That is until the windshield fogged up. This was also compounded by the fact that I was experiencing slightly blurred vision from an allergic reaction to something in the air below the tree line."

That was a hairy run towards the top and she was looking out the side window and going by the pace notes and road feel for much of that last quarter of the course. Yikes!

After our crew got back from Colorado Springs, they were all still recovering from a long week of 3 am mornings and late nights. The entire crew (both of our guys, the folks from AWD Tuning, and Brianne's other volunteers) put in one helluva effort, and Brianne had the best race car she's ever had at Pikes Peak. I'm very proud of their work and her driving, and it's a shame the weather played such a prominent role in the results for part of the Time Attack class and all of the Open Wheel and Super Stock Car classes. The weather conditions were so poor that the race organizers eventually had the racers run a shortened course that ended at Glen Cove (11,440 feet), which is about half way through the full course.

What's Next?

I don't know Brianne's plans for next year or the future of this particular car. We had planned to support this car and Brianne at the Global Time Attack this weekend at TMS, but she could not go for a number of reasons. There are no plans to race it again in 2012 and certain parts have to be removed and returned to their owners, as they were on loan. What a shame - this was a potent little package that was only driven once in anger, in the rain on skinny tires. Bummer! Who knows - she could be at Pikes Peak in it again in 2013. I hope so!

Brianne's Subaru was recently used in a photoshoot to help promote the Cupcake Meet's Cupcakin' For Cancer car meet.

Click the image to enlarge.

If and when this car runs again, and if Vorshlag has anything to do with future work on this car, I will post again in this thread.

Thanks for following our work,

Terry @ Vorshlag

Vorshlag $2010 GRM Challenge car: BMW E30 V8

Fair — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 03:47:31 GMT

Project Update for July 31, 2012: The eBay auction ended last Sunday at noon, finally. It was a nerve wracking week of waiting (luckily we were insanely busy on another project, which kept us preoccupied), with over 6000 views of the auction, nearly 100 watchers, and 34 bids. When the dust cleared and seven days were up, the E30 had met reserve, selling for $18,000.

To some of you that might seem like a lot for a "$2011" budget car, but in reality that's a fair price for what you get. It could have gone for more, but I'm not complaining. Remember, we had a LOT of labor hours in this car (say... a thousand+) and in 2012 upgraded major components that were originally purchased under the old $2011 budget, swapping them for proper parts that were well beyond that price cap. The new owner will be bombing around road courses in California soon, which is a perfect use for this car. Already paid for, title already sent out, transporter coming soon.

The E30 has been sitting in our shop behind the Brianne Corn Racing 2005 Subaru STi Hill Climb car (under a car cover), waiting to be sold. We've been thrashing on this Subaru for two straight weeks doing way more work than should be possible in that time frame. You can read more about that project here.

A couple of days before the auction ended I was surprised to see the eBay auction and a write-up on Bring-A-Trailer, where vintage and/or race car featured on their site. There were some funny comments on there, of course, like: "This thing looks like it just drove through a herd of My Pretty Ponies. And hit every single one." Cracked me up! :D

Epic E30 Picture

Here's a nice picture taken of the E30 today, that our new photo/media guy whipped up for fun during lunch. Wow. Yea, Brandon has skills (he took some of the most memorable pics of the E30 previously, like this one, and that one). We'll try to get him to take a few more shots of it before the car is gone. You can get a full sized copy of this picture above, if you want a desktop background. Great, great shot... was a composite image of 6 or so individual shots with unique spot lighting on each. Expect more amazing photographs on Vorshlag project builds, race event coverage, and product pictures than you've ever seen before. He's going to Pikes Peak for the week and we will have those photos to show later in August.

Its going to be a sad day when this little E30 goes away - just like when we sold our silver STU-prepped 1997 M3 in February, or the E36 Alpha car in 2009. Having spent so much time working on this car, testing, tuning, upgrading, repairing - its always hard to let these long term, big effort projects go. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into this build. An extremely frustrating 2010 showing, then the amazing 2011 victory, and a rebirth with all new wheels/tires/brakes/suspension/drivetrain in 2012. I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone here who read the build thread, made suggestions + helped guide us through this project, who cheered us on, played "guess the engine" (you were good sports!), and to all of those that chipped in volunteer labor. We're going to have a party for the volunteers once this car is gone, too.

Thanks!

Vorshlag BMW E46: DSP Auto-x Project

Fair — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:36:52 GMT

Once again I have to spend 10 minutes cleaning up a post that worked fine on half a dozen other forums. I have to go into HTML mode and add line breaks manually on every single post I put on this forum. My patience with the broken UBB code on SCCA Forums is wearing thin... its a big hot mess.

Project Update for Dec 15, 2011: Wow, long time no update here. Last entry was July!? That was right before we started de/reconstruction on our new shop here in Plano, TX. That gobbled up a few months of time, as did the wait for the new balancer we wanted to produce.

Long story there, but a prototype balancer was going to got thousands so the car sat for a bit. Around November we checked some of our new OEM supply sources and found a stock replacement balancer for a very good price - less than half of what BMW wanted.

So we got the balancer, it looks great, and we put it on once the E46 was brought to the new shop. Fit great. AJ changed all the fluids in the car and we put in the normal Mobil1 sythetics into the "new" 2005 M54 motor for the first fire fire-up. Mobil1 and most synthetics is super detergent and tend to clean out any built-up junk that may have been in the motor sat at a junkyard the past year or two (car it came from had a great CarFax with regular maintenance at a local BMW dealer so I wasn't worried). Motor turned over by hand nicely, so I figured it would start right up - which it did. So we fired it up and it sounded like sh!t! Listen to this mess...

click for video of first start-up of "new" 2005 motor

We let it warm up and run for several minutes before I couldn't take it anymore - "Shut it down!" . I know BMW motors can have a cam follower tick when they are super hot and/or you don't overfill the oil level at track/autocross events (I usually run +1.5 qts of oil in 20W50 synthetic for hot summer races and it never ticks). So I sent this video to a few other BMW gearheads and one drag racing friend (Ed). He recommended putting a bottle of Lucas Oil Treatment into the motor to clean up the sticky cam follower. He said he had seen race shops put this stuff in $80K race motors and swear by it.

I was of course VERY skeptical of this or any other "magic in a bottle" substance, and made lots of "snake oil" jokes. Still, I was not going to rip open this motor I had paid good money for without at least trying this trick.New Motor is Fine I'll be damned. We poured in the bottle and within 30 seconds the noise was COMPLETELY gone. I was laughing so hard I was crying! Never in a million years would I have thought this would work. I drove it around for weeks on the street and it never once has made a peep. Bizarre.

So that's my 30 second Lucas testimonial, which you won't hear on a late night infomercial.Yes, we're still working on a better BMW balancer solution that meets SFI standards, and I met a few companies at PRI that we will try to work with - I'll update this thread if it goes anywhere, or if the previous prototype design ever gets built (it looked incredible).Other Repairs We had planned on making the November ECR event but w had too much going on at the shop and didn't get the E46 "de-bugged" in time. I was street driving the car for a few weeks and we found a few things wrong, from the car sitting for over a year and from from me buying a crappy set of lower control arms from eBay 2 years ago. At the time we didn't have a good source for OEM replacement parts so I "cheaped-out" and got these no-name control arms:

These eBay LCAs have sh!t the bed after only one season of autocross use! They were half the price of good Meyle or Lemforder LCAs, and just like your grandfather says - I got what I paid for. Lesson learned, Grandpa. The front outer ball joints were both SHOT. Banging around like mad on street drives. We tried to press them out of the old arms but they snapped in two, like the cheap Chinese junk that they were. No name garbage OEM replacement parts, so not much of a surprise here. We now have commercial accounts with the major OEM parts replacement distributors, which we didn't have back then, and 30 minutes later a pair of brand new Meyle HD aluminum LCAs arrive. Oh so pretty - and once installed the suspension clunk is gone .

These Meyle arms look much beefier in the ball joint areas (more aluminum there) than the previous pair and feature Meyle's "Heavy Duty", metal-encased, replaceable ball joints. These arms should last more than one season, but if they do ever wear out we can press in new ball joints. The same old Powerflex 2-piece bushings still look great after 2 years; they were re-greased and re-installed onto the new LCAs.

Track Test Time

So last week we mounted up the new 18x10 wheels and new Hoosier R6s to the car, loaded up the E46 into the trailer and towed out to Eagles Canyon Raceway for their annual "Toy Run" track day. Amy followed in the Mustang. Every December this track hosts a "$50 + unwrapped toy" track event, to raise a boatload of toys for local kids in need and give lots of people the chance to drive/ride at a track day on an otherwise unused track weekend.

The ECR folks always put on a good show, the event ran flawlessly, and we had a blast. I drove the E46 in Red Group (once) and Amy drove our 2011 Mustang GT in Red all day as well, making all sorts of noise with the new dual 3" mandrel bent 304 stainless exhaust our fabricator just built for this car. Oh the Mustang sounds NICE, and with 430 whp it goes like stink. This Coyote 5.0L V8 motor will RUIN you to all BMWs, even the BMW V8 powered kind.

The E46 was making some nice noises too, and I managed to make one whole session on track in the car before I broke it....

click for hi-def in-car video from the BMW E46 at ECR (about 9 minutes worth)

Begin Excuse Mode

This initial 20 minutes on track was to be a shake-down run for the E46 - it was the first time it had been driven on track since May 2010, and the first time driven in anger since the old motor expired in Oct 2010. I just wanted to get some early laps on this "new" 3.0L M54 motor, come in, check over everything , then go out and push it harder and get some quick laps in it as the day warmed up (it got into the mid 50°F range that afternoon). We had 5 sessions each to drive, so it was a miracle that I even had the video running in that first outing.

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Ev... = more pics and video from this track event

As you see in the video, I only had one lap without traffic, and that lap had two stupendous driving mistakes and it was a 2:07.9 lap, meh. I'm not happy with these lap times, but I never intended to run my quickest laps in the first session in this car. It was the first session of the day and was VERY cold (34°F), there was moisture on the track from the previous night, the brand new "sticker" Hoosiers were still being scrubbed in, and brakes never really felt great (I found out later we had HP+ pads on there - WTF?). Still, that's 3 seconds faster than its previous best lap at ECR, which was a TTD record. So, its a start.

/Excuse Mode

Other than the mediocre lap times in that first session, the car felt great. Motor was crisp, turn in was perfect, the AST 4200s soaked up the bumpiest parts of that track with ease, the OS Giken diff made it easy to drive out of corners, but the brakes got a little warm. Unfortunately I didn't make another session in the BMW because it developed a coolant leak, which didn't start until I was already in the pits after this track session. A local racer (thanks, Kwan!) spotted a small trail of steam coming out of the front grill when I pulled into our paddock spot, as I was running up to the hot pits to switch cars and lead some lead-follow green group drivers. I stopped and popped the hood - Hmm, that's odd... just a tiny waft of steam.

We looked around, then he saw a tiny stream of water coming out of the bottom of the stock coolant reservoir. CRAP.The reservoir had moved under load, we think, and rubbed against a drive pulley - so it was done for the day after this one session. Oh darn... I had to drive the Mustang! Amy and I both doubled-up on sessions in it, running in Yellow and Red, and I even did lead-follows for Green group several times in it. By days' end we had put two tanks of fuel through the Mustang and had a blast.

Repair Track Issues

Right: Last time the 330 and M3 are parked side-by-side... the M3 has gone to a new home in California

So we get the E46 back to the shop and Monday our tech AJ pulled the whole radiator/bracket/reservoir assembly out and apart and did indeed see some flex in the mounting. The reservoir and its mounting bracket were replaced with new items from BMW, less than $100, so no big deal. Everything was triple-checked and reinstalled and now, no flex. There's only about 1/2" clearance from this reservoir to the pulley, and with Hoosiers + the old bracket + enough cornering power I guess it was enough to let it move around and touch. Now we can yank on it and get no movement - something we'll check E46s for from now on.

What's Next?

Just picked up a set of 285/30/18 Yokohama AD08s (see below, left), from someone's aborted E46 M3 STU build, that have a whopping 4 autocross runs on them. We'll put these on the 2nd set of D-Force 18x10s, for street use on this car. Its got room for 285s so it might as well use 285s, for track and street. The old 265/35/18 Yokohama A032s on that set of wheels are long since worn smooth, and driving the BMW on the street with these worn out tires in the rain yesterday was "a one way trip to Hoonville".

We're also going to re-do the exhaust and add a 3" high-flow catalyst to it, then get it re-inspected and put some street miles on this car. With the stock seats and steering wheel back in it is once again fun bombing around back and forth to work in (on my 6 mile commute) for Amy or me. It needs to be painted one color again, too.

The only other casualty at the track were a couple of center caps that melted (see above, right). Lost one on the E46 front and two more on the Mustang, both of which I was pushing the brakes on pretty good.

We had worked up a KILLER new build-sheet for TTD that included massive aero (+6 for "real" big front splitter and +4 for huge rear wing), with the switch to the uber-ringer 255/35/18 Hoosier R6 (-9) and swapping the stock airbox back on (-1). This tire was known to be as wide as the 275mm Hoosier, but was marked a 255. Tons of people built entire cars around this very tire, but 2 years later NASA finally made a ruling on this one specific Hoosier size and now its considered a 275mm tire, like it should be. So... damn! No big aero for this car in TTD. Oh well, at least I can keep the home-built cold air filter on there (and yes, I've asked my fab guy to finally make a real heat shield and better mount for it).

I had Hanchey drive the E46 when we were diagnosing the suspension clunk (which ended up being the bad LCAs) and he noted that the 2005 motor felt a lot peppier than the 211 whp plot would otherwise indicate, which was a number from the old 100K mile 2001 M54. Amy said the same thing, "This car is making more power than the M3!" (which puts down 224 whp) Maybe they are right... it does feel a bit more spirited than the old motor, but its been so long ago since I drove it with the previous M54, and I'm pretty ruined from driving the Mustang a lot (more than double the M54 power), so maybe I'll get another dyno pull done and see? This motor did have half the miles of the old one.

That's all for now... more soon

Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

Fair — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:29:19 GMT

Project Update for Nov 4, 2011: We are one step closer to building the ultimate BMW E46 V8! Just a quick update, but it is an important milestone. In the week since my last update the guys in our shop have been working on the E46 Alpha car, between other projects. They have finished the motor mounts, with everything fully TIG welded by our fabricator Ryan, and the LS1/T56 drivetrain is securely in position.

The left picture above was pretty cool - we didn't stage that, I just looked up and noticed... "hmmm, that's 3 generations of BMWs with Vorshlag LS1 swaps lined up there". And in that same picture there's an E36 LS1 swap underway (black 1995 M3), and behind the Z3 is another E36 LS1 swap about to be kicked off (1992 325is). So we have... 5 LS1 swaps built or on-going in our shop at the moment. Kinda crazy.

Look how low that aluminum LS1 block sits in the chassis! And with 6 of the 8 cylinders located behind the front axle centerline, that's good for lower CG and better fore:aft weight balance than the long & tall straight BMW 6. That gave me an idea, and I took these pictures to show how different the LS1 motor length and installed location is compared to the stock M54 motor:

And fore:aft location of other Vorshlag V8 swaps, the E30 and E36/Z3 (can you see why I'm not a fan of E30 LS1 swaps? ):

Its not easy to measure the Center of Gravity of a motor in a chassis, but in these two front shots you can see the outline of the heavy cast aluminum block/heads (ignoring the plastic intake manifolds and covers) of the LS1 and he M54 in the E46 chassis, and it gives you an idea of which drivetrain has the higher CG (M54):

Here are some close-ups of the motor mounts, which are easier to see with the heads off:

Once the prototype headers and driveshaft are finalized we will go back and make production fixtures for the finished motor mounts and trans crossmember, then we can start making those in production batches. The plan is to be at that point by December, unless the shop gets buried in customer fab/race prep/suspension work.We located another LS1 starter to use for mock-up yesterday, and Ryan will attack the header fabrication next.

There is one piece of tack-welded sheet metal on the driver's side (that forms the base of a heat shield around the ABS module) that will have to be removed to clear the full length headers, but we will make a new heat shield to go back in its place. We are NOT removing or relocating the ABS or brake booster components. Most of the handful of completed E46 LS1 swaps I've seen do away with the ABS completely, which I feel is a huge mistake, and detracts from one of the best parts of the BMW E46.

The E46 LS1 prototype full-length header construction will be a huge amount of fabrication work, but it always is painful on that first set. This is where our economies of scale come in: Since we plan to make these headers and kits in quantities more than 1 , the typical high cost for one-off custom headers and mounts won't hit our E46 LS1 swap kit customers in the wallet.

We have all of the bends/collectors/flanges/supplies on-hand and I'll show an update as the prototype headers are coming together. Remember - we don't work on this car every day, but I am scheduling more fab time on it as we get freed up from other customer jobs. Once we have one set of headers built, they will be sent off to our header manufacturer for volume production.

More soon!

AST Suspension buys Moton Suspension

Fair — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:13:41 GMT

Here is the press release from AST Suspension about the Moton Suspension Technology asset acquisition.

Also posted on their blog. http://ast-usa.com/blog/2011/05/25/as...

Quote:

AST Suspension is proud to announce the acquisition of all Moton Suspension Technology B.V. assets. AST Suspension and Moton Suspension Technology will continue to be produced as two separate brands using two different design philosophies.

“Combining the strength of AST’s street/track business with Moton’s premium racing business creates a range of products unequaled in the performance shock industry,” says Brian Hanchey, President of AST Suspension - USA.

Since 2000, Moton has been a powerhouse brand for performance dampers in the racing business. “We believe Moton is one of the most recognized brands in professional motorsports and we plan to keep it this way,” said Hanchey. “Moton is, and will continue to be, an exclusive brand for customers that demand the best.”

AST will keep Moton headquarters in Uden, Netherlands. North American service and sales will move from Cumming, GA to AST USA’s headquarters in Plano, TX over the next few weeks. Production will ramp up immediately with Moton inventory coming stateside in six to eight weeks.

Further information about the acquisition of Moton assets will be made available in the near future. Information will be made available on the AST - USA website located at www.ast-usa.com and the soon to be created www.moton-usa.com website.

Left: The AST factory in Holland. Right: The picture of the door (taken by yours truly, today) at the AST-USA headquarters says it all

Good stuff.

Terry @ Vorshlag

November 2010/SEMA 10% off AST sale!

Fair — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:40:20 GMT

For November, to celebrate AST's first year exhibiting at SEMA, there's a sale on select shock models that are in stock at AST-USA! This 10% off sale also represents a 15-20% savings to the customer when comparing to upcoming 2011 prices, which are projected to rise slightly (due to factors such as poor Euro/Dollar exchange rates). The 10% off is reflected on the following AST models (10% off reflects the base price of the Shocks Only). There are no other models on sale at this time, and these sale prices are effective from Nov 3-Nov 30th, 2010, only. The links below redirect to the proper model listing on the Vorshlag website.

[SIZE="3"][B]AST 4100[/B][/SIZE]

[I]Left: AST 4100 kit for BMW E30 w/ optional Vorshlag plates. Right: [/I]

[LIST]
[*]BMW E30 4100 - [URL="http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_17_159&products_id=228"]AVS- B1501S[/URL] - Regularly $1999 with Hyperco springs, now [B]$1849![/B]
[*]BMW E36 4100 - [URL="http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_4_155&products_id=222"]AVS-B1005S[/URL] - Regularly $1899 with Hyperco springs, now [B]$1730![/B]
[*]BMW E46 4100 - [URL="http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_8_162&products_id=230"]AVS-B1101S[/URL] - Regularly $1899 with Hyperco springs, now [B]$1730![/B]
[*]BMW E90/E82 4100 - [URL="http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_79_170&products_id=232"]AVS-B1601S[/URL] - Regularly $1899 with Swift springs, now [B]$1730![/B]
[/LIST]

[I]Left: AST 4100 for BMW E90/E82 with Swift springs. Right: Subaru GD 4100s w/ optional Vorshlag plates.[/I]
[LIST]
[*]Subaru GD 4100 - [URL="http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info.php?cPath=66_98_199&products_id=210"]AVS-S6203S[/URL] - Regularly $1999 with Hyperco springs, now [B]$1820![/B]
[*]Subaru GD STI 4100 - [URL="http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info.php?cPath=66_98_199&products_id=210"]AVS-S6204S [/URL]- Regularly $1999 with Hyperco springs, now [B]$1820![/B]
[/LIST]

[SIZE="3"][B]AST 4200[/B][/SIZE]

[I]Left: AST 4200 kit for BMW E36 w/ optional Vorshlag plates. Right: AST 4200 kit for BMW E46 w/ optional Vorshlag plates.[/I]

[LIST]
[*]BMW E36 4200 - [URL="http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_4_155&products_id=223"]ACD-B1005S[/URL] - Regularly $2899 with Hyperco springs, now [B]$2629![/B]
[*]BMW E36 4200 - [URL="http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_8_162&products_id=231"]ACD-B1005S[/URL] - Regularly $2899 with Hyperco springs, now [B]$2629![/B]
[/LIST]

Pricing for optional items like camber plates, shock mounts and springs will be sold at normal pricing. NOTE: This offer can not be used in conjunction with the Contingency programs.

We've got many of these AST coilover kits already in stock here at Vorshlag and the rest are in stock at AST-USA, just 4 miles down the road form our facility. We've also got Hyperco springs and Vorshlag camber plates for all of these, of course. Some kits available with Swift springs as well. Please go to the [URL="http://www.vorshlag.com/"]Vorshlag.com[/URL] website to see sale pricing, which is now updated and reflects the 10% off (of the shock price) on all of the entries above. Good through Nov 30th, then the prices roll back. And Jan 1st, there's a slight bump coming. Don't wait! [:)]

Thanks!

Vorshlag Tester Paul M's SMOD '93 Subaru Impreza Project

Fair — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:57:32 GMT

[U][B]Update for August 25, 2010:[/B][/U] Stopped by Paul's last Sunday to grab some fire sleeve from him for the E30 project and took a few pics of the latest progress on his '07 STi drivetrain swap into his '95 FWD 2-door Impreza. One of these days the motor might go in and the rest of the suspension and brakes might go on!

First off, the rear brake rotors are on. Well, one corner. Paul bought "the cheapest rotors money could buy" for the back, just to get the damn thing rolling and to help move things forward. Sure, there's probably some super secret JDM rotor that is .02 pounds lighter, or made from Unobtanium, but "why slow down to get every silly whiz-bang part?" I keep asking him? "Get it running and fine tune this little stuff later!" I remind him weekly. :)

Paul found some longer ARP wheel studs and replaced the stock length wheel studs, along with Vorshlag M12-1.25 lug nuts. Of course he had to re-machine the studs a bit to allow for installaiton in the rear without removing the rear wheel bearings. There's a wheel speed sensor hole in the rear brake backing plate that is just a hair too small, but with a .015" removed from the OD of the head of the stud, it slides thru. He machined 10 of them using our lathe in about an hour. Removing a sensor ring from the drive flange allows the old studs to be pushed (hammered) out and the new, long ARP studs to go in. The front didn't take this amount of work, luckily, but he hadn't gotten to that yet.

The shifter was still half-installed from last month, so Paul could hunt down some "missing" parts. That he purchased, and when he went to go put them on they were attached... to the shifter. :D The fancy competition type transmission mount assembly he bought from Japan was sitting on the workbench, so I snapped a pic of that. The stock type Subaru trans and motor mounts are a HIDEOUS JOKE, with large amounts of foamy rubber that has the stiffness of a Stay Puff Marshmallow, so these are a huge step up. It's made me look more closely at making Subaru driveline mounts - the choices are extremely limited (with "harder rubber" versions being the commonly used but [I]still terrible [/I]option).

Those are... uhhh... Subaru motor pictures. Paul has been chasing down some hard to find doo-dads for weeks and months, some of which are epically expensive aftermarket parts that are now out of production, which will replace some poorly designed factory piece here or there. Most of it, to me, looks like simple fabricated tubing or whatnot. But apparently these rare JDM parts are the hotness, and help the 2.5L boosted engines make more power.

Above are more of the same... at left is the US Market "turbulence generators" or flux capacitors or whatever its called. Its not individual throttle bodies, its a way to add turbulence/swirl to the intake port (facepalm!) that supposedly helps with exhaust emissions. Oh gawd... those old tricks rarely work, and always cost power. At right are some "JDM" Subaru parts without the throttle blades, which are hard to get and add power. Looks like the same parts with the throttles/shafts removed to me, but what do I know?

All I know is that finding these rare gems and JDM pieces is slowing down this build immensely. But with our E30 V8 swap creeping into week 40+, and with the pace never slowing down much below 4 nights a week, I can't throw stones from my glass house. :D

[I]JDM, YO![/I]

Keep at it, Paul.

Vorshlag and AST Suspension Evo X project with Edmunds.com

Chiketkd — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:16:34 GMT

Here's a link to the full article: [url]http://www.insideline.com/mitsubishi/lancer-evolution/2008/project-evo-mission-improbable.html[/url]

Considering the MSRP for a 2010 GTR is $80790, and the MSRP for a 2008 Evo X GSR is 33K, I'm impressed. For ~50% of the price of a GTR they built a very sweet dual purpose car. While the Evo X MR is more money, I wonder if the twin clutch transmission would have been even faster...

AST Suspension Track Day Feeler

hancheyb — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:48:04 GMT

Alrighty. This is starting to look exciting. I can't really name what is going to be at this test, but we could have some heavy hitters trialing new stuff.

Here's what I know so far:

1. So far it is looking like Eagles Canyon on Monday, November 30th
2. We'll have access to the garage there for working on cars
3. Price will not exceed $200 and is possibly more around $175 (if we get 20 cars)
4. If we have slots, I'd like to open this up to anyone thinking about new shocks as well. You'll get the entire track day, plus one ride with AST and they'll adjust your shocks regardless of brand and comment on the valving. Of course you'll get the chance to ride in several cars with ASTs as well.

More as it comes in.

Vorshlag 550hp BMW E36 LS2 Race Car FOR SALE

Mrsideways — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:29:59 GMT

Fair wrote:
[SIZE="5 wrote:
Vorshlag 550hp BMW E36 LS2 Race Car FOR SALE[/SIZE]

Well the day has come to finally sell the Alpha car. Its not something I really want to do, but its necessary to make room in the shop (and the budget!) to build the next Vorshlag race car(s). I spent some time this past weekend doing some last minute cleaning, polishing and detailing and took a [URL="http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects/BMW-E36-LS1-Alpha-car/2885831_EHDDh#686302723_R8zn9 wrote:
bunch of new pictures[/URL] yesterday.

The looks, sounds and performance of this race car are like nothing else. Legal for SCCA Solo XP class and NASA TTU time trial class, with a NASA logbook issued in 2009. The [URL="http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320438297161 wrote:
eBay auction for this car[/URL] began moments ago and runs until Oct 30th. Please take a look at the extensive list of parts, pictures, and videos on the auction site: [url]http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320438297161[/url]

The Alpha car was essentially reborn this year with the new 550hp, 7500 rpm 7.0 liter V8 installed in July 2009 and the Tremec TR-6060 6-spd going in back in August 2009. The Hoosiers R6 tires are brand new, as is the SPA fire system, harnesses, Accusump, oil cooler/plumbing, and many other parts. Of course it has the full Vorshlag/Dallas Performance LS1 swap kit, and everything is finished to our exacting standards. A roll cage and exhaust were custom fabricated built by Dallas Performance, with custom steel fender flares added by Vorshlag.

These and many more details can be found on the [URL="http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320438297161 wrote:
eBay auction site[/URL]. I hope the car goes to a good home - and keeps setting track records in the hands of the new owner.

Happy bidding!

God I wish I was in the market.

OEM style lower perches - use with AST shocks for SCCA Stock class!

mykr — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:08:30 GMT

Fair wrote:

AST makes high end 1/2/3 way monotube struts and shocks for most Asian, European and Domestic built automobiles. As with other high end shock makers, AST focuses on coilover style struts and threaded body shocks, and doesn't have a line of shocks made for SCCA Stock class racers - where the OEM style springs have to always be used. This prevents many Stock class racers from having good options for high end shocks - and the rules allow for two way, remote reservoir monotubes.

Vorshlag has the solution... custom lower spring perches made for OEM style spring ends and diameters:

BMW E90 3 series setup for FStock

Perches for 05-07 Subaru STI

AST 4200/5200 setup for 08+ Subaru STI

Vorshlag has been hand-making lower perches for a number of models for use with the OEM springs, as shown above. This has allowed customers with a number of cars to run AST 4200 or 5200 shocks in stock class including Subarus, EVOs, and BMWs. Shown below are our latest CNC perches for use on Mazda MX5s and RX8s.

This new CNC aluminum lower perch has a provision for a set screw to lock the perch at the OEM height. If an AST customer uses these with the stock springs but later wants to move to another class that allows a true coilover spring, the normal AST threaded lower perch can be substituted and 60mm or 2.5" ID springs can then be used.

i know i won't be able to afford a set of AST coilovers for my MX5 but how much would they run? i love the idea of using stock springs if i stay in stock class.

Vorshlag Motorsports Evo X MR Build (STU, TTB, One Lap?)

hancheyb — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:48:02 GMT

I figured I'd provide an update for the Evo. Now that the season is winding down, the Evo will be used as a test platform for new products, product revisions, and general street and track testing. I'll be publishing our results on the AST [URL="http://ast-usa.blogspot.com/"]blog[/URL] (third entry down) hopefully on a monthly basis. My first addition is [URL="http://www.ast-usa.com/resources/Test%20Vehicle%20Update%20Oct2009.pdf"]here[/URL] and includes a link to one of the faster laps that day.

These results are from the NASA event at Eagle's Canyon last weekend. I ran TTA. NASA TX is a little slow on the results, but I think I won for the day. Hard to say, but I was fastest and then it started raining so I'm pretty sure the time wasn't beat. Keep in mind this is my daily driven street car. I drove it to the event with a tool box, jack, and a cooler. :) It has very few mods besides the suspension and Cobb AP. I was running Yokohama AD07s and the competition weight of the car is around 3700 pounds with driver and safety gear. We have to run it full of gas of course.

The car's peak lateral g's was 1.33, sustained was 1.2g. Not bad for such a porker! It ran a 2:03.7 as well. That's on par with 2600 pound Prepared class BMWs on Hoosiers. Again, not bad! Car still has some push steady state that we'll continue to work on, but it was a blast to drive!

Special thanks to Cobb Tuning Plano for all the help prepping the car. Cobb aligned it and flushed the brakes the day before. The car never overheated, never detonated, and provided nothing but 320 whp all day long!

New Camber Plate and Perch Designs including HC1 High Caster Series!

wrx8xb — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:16:41 GMT

Just installed a set of your Standard plates into my GD Impreza (TiC/AST SST Coilovers).

Is it possible to get just the HC1 plate since I've already got the bearings and such?

Thanks,

Drew