DSG paddock area.

Pierre was pushing hard on Saturday, and ended up going off causing irreparable damage to the oil cooler & radiator, putting him out for the weekend.

Saturday night the crew stayed at Tonys place in Woodstock and was able to enjoy a night filled with recreational vehicles and an amazing view of the night sky with complete view of the Milky Way galaxy.

Bill and Ron watching during rungroup A.

Tony on the attack.

Pleasure Evo on the attack as the fans cheer.

Ron at full attack.

Results

• Alex Grabau: 2nd place overall, 2nd in S1.
• Ron Adams: 4th place overall, 4th in S1.
• Tony Perry: 10th place overall, 1st in U1.
• Pierre: DNS. (crash in practice)

Read the full results here.

Video

Photos

The DSG crew headed down to New Jersey in a big way for this event with myself in the RASpec Impreza in Modified, Bill and Ramana handling the 240RS Maxi in Unlimited, Nick in the Honda Accord for street class and our friend Tony representing in the Evo X in Stock class. Nick L. also came down with his Integra to represent with a big DSG sticker. Matt came down to handle the ECU tuning, and Scot arrived to prepare the suspension setups. We shared our pits with Jeff, Rachel and crew from 240SXMotoring with their 240SX unlimited car. A small group of “Friends of DSG” also drove down for the event to hang out and provide support.

photo by Darien Nguyen

Anthony Perry did us proud at his very first track event. He won his class by 5 seconds, then took a 1 second penalty for tires that were wider than the mandated 255 width for stock class.  The Evo X has minimal modifications, springs, tune by DSG’s Matt Koestner and a cat-back exhaust. His times put him into mid-pack of the Modified class.

When “street class” really is street class… Nick Grabau at his first track day of the year breaks of the cobwebs and drives the 200k mile Accord to another great finish. Nick finished mid-pack of street class with about 200 less whp than any of the other competitors. There are several videos of him reeling in some big power Evos with the Accord. This was probably one of few “street” cars actually driven to the event.

With the hurricane off the coast, Saturday was a wash-out with the track closed half of the day. We had practice session whenever it wasn’t a total downpour.

The track was fairly short and tight compared to other tracks that Redline visits. It was also a fairly slippery surface due to the rain.

With Ramana at the wheel, Bill and Scot worked hard to tune the suspension for better handling most of Saturday.

Around noon, the track had collected a pond in the center, and the fans in the grandstands were growing impatient with the rain and bored by the lack of on-track action. The Redline staff, ever creative in their use of track time decided to coordinate a “TRUCK TOUGE BATTLE” with the tow-vehicles from the various race teams.

The participants were James from the Takata Time Attack Impreza, Sherif from Forged Performance and Bill from Dent Sport Garage at the helm of Rons Ford F350 Powerstroke Turbo Diesel. There were a few other “participants” but one was a cheater in a small SUV.

The rules for the TOUGE BATTLE were nebulous, but everyone went fast and drifted hard, especially Bill with the biggest drift angle of everyone.

On Sunday the practice sessions were wet, with the clouds clearing around noon for the time attack.

Overall, the time attack was fought hard, and there was more carnage than usual. The Element Tuning Impreza WRX STI blew an oil line with enough smoky drama to make a volcano proud, the Takata Time Attack car blew up 4th gear and possibly their 5th engine of the season, and the DSG 240RS Maxi broke a timing chain.

Later in the afternoon, spectators were treated with a time attack TOUGE BATTLE by the top teams. In this format, two cars would take to the track, first car would take 1st position and both cars would make 2 hotlaps with no passing allowed. This is followed by a lap in which they trade places for 2 more hot laps. An aggregate time is calculated to see who the winner is.

For this competition the PTuning Scion tC was pitted against the DSG / visual assault RASpec Impreza.

The RASpec took the initial lead position and was able to eek out a multiple car length lead on the PTuning Scion in the tighter back section of the course – where more grip was available to the AWD car.

They then swapped positions where the AWD DSG visual assault car was able to maintain its position on the rear bumper of the Scion around the course.

We didn’t stick around to see who won, but rumor has it that technically the math says the Scion won. We’re not sure who did the calculating or exactly how the rules work. We’re happy to say the fans enjoyed it.

Photos

Coverage

• Photos by Budski Photography
• Photos by Vincent Soohoo
• Photos by Andrew Jeon
• Photos by Darian Nguyen
• Photos by Tom
• Photos by Cliff
• Speedlounge

Video

Thursday began with Alex and myself loading the Old Mother Hubbard with the Pleasure Evo and our gear and my Ford F350 with trailer and the RASpec. Alex was preparing the trailer for the 240RS Maxi for an 8am departure while Bill continued to work on the blue spaceship, since the engine had arrived only days before.

By 4pm, our plans changed and we relocated the RASpec to Old Mother Hubbards’ trailer for a 22-hour ride to Chicago without Bill and his blue spaceship.

Along the way we listened to a 5-CD audio book of “World War Z” and a host of trip-hop, trance and rock music. We drove straight to Erie, PA where we stopped for a few hours sleep.

Friday June 19th, 2009

Dawn broke, and we were off again to Joliet, IL. We arrived by 4:30pm, gates opened at 5pm and we were unloaded, pit setup by 6pm, showering in the hotel at 7pm and dinner by 8.

Back at the hotel at 10, Alex headed to his room to wait for our guest Burak Tuglu from BTM Sport who was arriving at the airport while myself and our photographer/mechanic Q decided to crash a wedding reception in the hotel ball room and patio.

Saturday June 20th, 2009

Woke up a bit late and rushed over to Autobahn Country Club for the 8am drivers meeting by Chris of the Redline Time Attack staff.

The track is a series of mid-speed straights linked by tight chicanes, so its a horsepower/braking track. Me and Alex got familiar with the racing line and worked through a few minor mechanical issues. The RASpec blew out 2 couplers in back-to-back sessions in the afternoon. One replacement was found in our spare bin and another from a take-off from Crawford Performance Ken Block Gymkhana 2 Subaru GRB courtesy of Quirt Crawford. She also had overheating issues all day, reaching 110c in the second lap, causing a rev-limit of 6800 – limiting horsepower and changing my shift points. The Pleasure Evo had a problem with the shifter that was easily fixed.

The team retired around 4:30 to head into Chicago with our local host David White for dinner in Wicker Park.

Sunday June 21st, 2009

The day went surprisingly fast and easy despite the overheating problems with the RASpec. I tried to take the warmup lap more conservatively to keep temps low, then go full attack on the 1st hot lap, pitting early for the other laps. This strategy had limited success as the engine would still hit 110c and cut revs in the middle of my hot lap.

We exited stage left around 4:15pm to make an early 22 hour get-away for Boston before the awards ceremony. Both of us with a list of ToDo items for round 4.

Video

The RASpec Impreza makes an appearance at: 1:52, 9:25,

Gallery

As it was the first event of the season, my main goals were to shakedown the car for the Redline Time Attack June 20-21st. Finding and fixing any foreseeable problems would be key for success in Chicago.

The caravan to Canada included myself, David Yu (2005 Impreza WRX STI) and some other guy…, both students of Dent Sport University.

The trip started Saturday with last minute preparation, loading the truck and trailer with all the gear.

Pit team

A subset of the group enjoyed dinner in town, followed by a trip to “le Faucon Bleu”, a local full-contact strip club that is a mandatory trip while at Mont Tremblant. Lap-dances are $15. There was 4 ladies on rotation duty. No photos of this are available.

Monday morning we arrived at track and headed to registration and tech inspection. Some people voiced alarm at my straight pipe exhaust and the 92dB sound limit. I hit the track at around 10am for the first of 4 practice sessions.

RASpec

Around 17 minutes into the session, I noticed the black flag pointed in my direction and headed into the pits. The pit chief let me know the sound level was 92dB and my car registered 92.5dB. I would have to pit in and make changes. I would be given another chance before getting kicked off track for the day.

In the pits I gassed up and looked at my options: Look for a slip-on turn down pipe, head into town and buy some hardware, or try and look for the sound meter guy and try again. I asked around for turn-downs, but they were all in use.

I had a quick snack and relaxed a bit in the truck prior to heading out to session 2. Session 2 had fewer people on track, so I was able to push the car a bit more. I had hoped to get some timed laps, but nobody was available in the pits to help out (I’ve been slacking and haven’t yet replaced my broken lap timer). I found the sound guy in corner 7, and managed to keep off the throttle enough to keep in the session until he moved to turn 9 and registered a 92.2dB on the meter, enough to end my session again and end the day. I would be missing 2 more sessions.

I headed back to the pits, put the car on jackstands and checked the car over. There was a small amount of smoke coming out of the engine bay from a possible oil leak, and I located an area around the oil dipstick guide as the source. It would be a quick fix and fairly unimportant. I checked the oil level, tire pressures and took a once over of the car, she was fine.

Monday evening I had a great steak dinner in Town and the guys had some food on the grill at the condo.

Tuesday was gray and overcast with rain all day. It was time to make a strategic decision, I would run the car in the morning practice session to get a feel for the car in wet conditions and then try to run the time trial without breaking the sound limit.

Practice session was interesting, with rivulets of water running across track in places. I decided on a rough line to take to avoid the water. I increased tire pressures to 36psi cold from 32 to achieve a 38/39 hot. I then decided I wouldn’t push the car because I didn’t want to risk it on its first debut outing, in a car i wasn’t comfortable in, with another event so soon.

I did the the time trials before lunch, and had a great time. I realized it wasn’t as fast as I expected, but still enjoyed it.

After time trials, there was an hour of open track time. That other guy (who caravaned with us) took his car out and ended up putting it into a wall. Severe damage to the passenger side suspension, but it looks very fixable. It would need to be towed home as he didn’t bring a trailer, but thats a story for another time.

Awards Ceremony, I took 2nd place (of 2) in Street Prepared B. Nothing to be proud of.

We had a leisurely evening and headed into Boston the next day.

All told, it was a great event. The car handled great with the new Stance suspension, and it makes serious power. We have a ToDo list of things to improve before Chicago, but nothing major. She is almost ready. Needless to say I can’t wait to get lots more seat-time and feel more comfortable with her handling capabilities.

Video

Some laps of the circuit during practice.

Gallery

]]> http://www.dentsport.com/2009/06/12/successful-shakedown-for-the-raspec-at-mont-tremblant/feed/ 4 http://www.dentsport.com/2009/02/08/video-dent-sport-university-rrm102/ http://www.dentsport.com/2009/02/08/video-dent-sport-university-rrm102/#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:36:29 +0000 Ron /?p=1280 DSU – Tuning & Preparation

Dent sport hosts the second in our seminar series on “Road Racing Motorsports”. The seminar is designed to build a community of track and motorsports competitors who can support one another at various events.

This seminar covered local organizations offering track days and competitive events, pre-event logistics and budgeting, day-of event preparation and strategy.

It also went into suspension tuning, modifying to a specific racing class, maintenance and performance tuning strategy.

We had dyno pulls from Andrew in his FC3S RX-7, Danas’ Audi A4, Donnys’ Ford Mustang and Austins’ Acura RSX.

The FC was able to pull 206.1hp, the RSX-S managed a 151.9 with a catback and cold-air intake. Glad you guys had fun, tell your friends!.

Gallery

Video

Checkout their dyno pull videos over on YouTube

Angelo brought his new 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI over for some power upgrades

DSG first tested the car on the dyno in stock form to see what the car was capable of. The engine produced 150 ft/lbs at 3000 rpm and a peak torque number of 240 ft/lbs at 5200rpm. (Initial torque in red. Post-install torque in black)

We installed an Invidia downpipe, Invidia cat-back exhaust with an HKS drop-in filter and Omori boost gauge.

After installing pre-ordered parts supplied by DSG, Matt finishes off the job tuning the car on the dyno. The car picked up another 150ft/lbs at 3350rpm, with maximum peak torque at 320ft/lbs and horsepower at 280.9. (Post-exhaust + tune torque in dotted black, HP in solid black)

Video

Gallery

Warm up laps at the 2008 GT Live / Redline Time Attack at Virginia International Raceway in the Dent Sport Garage Visual Assault RASpec Impreza.

Post-event wrap-up

Wednesday 9-24-2008 8pm
Ron drove down to the shop to drop off his track equipment in order to be loaded into Old Mother Hubbard (OMH). Nick was busy finishing up the DCCDpro wiring on the RASpec Impreza, and Bill had the 240RS Maxi on the dyno. Afterwards Nick, Scot and Bill aligned the RS Maxi and got home late around 12:30/1am.

Thursday 9-25-2008 4:45am
Mitsuru picked up Ron and Quy at 4:45am in order to rendezvous will Bill and OMH.

Thursday 9-25-2008 5am
Dunkin Donuts.

Thursday 9-25-2008 7:45am
We arrive at the track, and begin unloading the equipment and vehicles.

RASpec Impreza

The RASpec Impreza is a new beast to be reckoned with. Out of the paddock, I spent two laps to warm the tires up and get a feel for the new handling characteristics of the car.

Power-wise, the car feels amazing. The first time the wastegate opened, and the true engine scream was released with full boost, my heart almost skipped a beat. The power onset is much more aggressive compared to the TD04 (obviously). The engine is also much more revv happy, it loves to stay above 5000k to 8200rpm. Spinning all-4 tires on power into turn 11 was a jaw dropping experince. The shift points are now vastly different with the 6-speed transmission. The rear differential makes the car turn in a lot different, and I love it. Its more aggressive to handle, but more fun.

The car was amazingly reliable, despite the complicated nature of the changes made. She had a very very minor oil leak from the drain plug crush washer and a CV boot leak, which got grease all over the insides of the brand new Enkei RC-T4s. We did however have a minor power issue. Under full load, the car occasionally cut power briefly and abruptly, similar in feel to fuel starvation. It was intermittent and preventable with throttle control. This is most likely due to a limitation with the ECU and MAF sensor, so we’ll put her back on the dyno and try to ferret out this issue.

Overall the day was amazingly successful and fun.

I give big thanks and appreciation to Nick for putting in the extra hours to install the DCCDpro controller at the last minute. Top-notch installation! You guys are awesome.

Photos

Visit the gallery for the full section of photos

Video

RASpec Impreza – first lap from Ron Adams on Vimeo.

Initial Impression – The RASpec Impreza from Ron Adams on Vimeo.

We got her to pull 345.9 wheel horse power at 20psi revving to 8300rpm. At that point we started to run out of resolution with the factory 2004 WRX ECU/MAF sensor, so we left it at that. Eventually I’ll use an Autronic ECU with speed/density. From there I expect to pull in the 425-450whp range.

I’m quite happy about the power levels. Double the power i had in January, with tons of potential for next season. I’m also super excited to hit the track on thursday. 345 whp is DOUBLE what my previous engine made for power. It should be interesting at the track, with my new black beast and Bills Baby Blue spaceship.

Photos

Video