Yesterday I went to the Redline Time Attack! at California Speedway in Fontana, California. I love this track because it’s a NASCAR track with proper garages, indoor toilets, real grandstands, etc. It’s a nice track overall. Fontucky, as it is known to us LA boys, is hotter than hell in the summer usually, but we lucked out with the temperatures in the high 80’s. There were more people than ever this year so it appears that time attack is growing in both spectators and entries. There was also a vendor row and even a car show for the show fags. You gotta have a place for the Supras to compete since drag racing is virtually dead right? There were plenty of people and EVEN GIRLS. I never thought there would be the day where you could go to a road racing event and stare at ass, but the day has come.
I went to hang out with the Design Craft, C-West, and BC guys and their S2000. Gary who runs Design Craft does all of the car prep, C-West supplied the car, and BC supplies the engine parts. The S2k has winning and setting records on the time attack circuit pretty much non stop this year. Until this past weekend at least. I have known Gary for a long ass time and it when it comes to cage and chassis fabrication, I take all of my cars (and XS cars) to Design Craft. He is one smart Filipino, but you just have to make sure you bring him the Heineken to get him to work. Anyhow, I figured I would go and hang out and help if necessary. Most people at time attacks are really cool and it’s good to see them and shoot the shit too. Basically everybody at a time attack is a serious car nut and its one of the few times you can chat without taking time out of your normal everyday schedule.
This year Redline ran the full course configuration that utilizes nearly 1/2 of the oval portion of the track. This increases speeds significantly. I think the M-Workz 350Z hit close to 180mph. Billy Johnson, who was driving the car on Sunday, was flat out on the throttle the whole way around the oval exit flat out. It was fucking cool listening to the Cosworth VQ35 pegging 8500rpm on the banked oval. I think Steve needs to make that exhaust even BIGGER. One of these days XS will bring out the BNR32 and let the world hear how fucking pissed off a 850whp RB26 sounds like at 9500rpm on the banked oval. Damn that would sound good…I’m getting excited just writing about it. Everybody was asking me, “Where’s the XS R32? You guys would have fucked everybody up on the oval!!” The front suspension is currently in 40 pieces is why the car wasn’t there. We figured out why the front suspension geometry is jacked so XS is redoing it all at the moment. Anyhow, the S2k was pitting in the paddocks right next to the other unlimited cars like the GST GC8 Impreza, the Crawford new type STi, and M-Workz 350z so I was knee deep in unlimitedness. Sorry man, but the modified and street classes don’t excite me so I didn’t pay attention to the times. There was some drama with Hankook and some of the cars going way faster at the last session, but all I need to report are the final lap times because in the end it’s all that matters at a time attack.
Place: Car, Driver, Tire, Horsepower & Engine, laptime
1st: GST GC8 Impreza, Gary Sheehan, Hankook Z214X C91, 540whp Cosworth EJ257 2.6L, 1:38.395
2nd: C-west/BC/Design Craft S2000, Tyler McQuarrie, Hankook Z214X C91, 300whp BC F20C 2.5L, 1:41.621
3rd: M-Workz 350Z, Billy Johnson, Hankook Z214X C91, 470whp Cosworth VQ35DE 3.5L, 1:42:321
4th: Crawford GR Impreza, Tanner Foust, Hankook Z214X C91, 550whp Crawford EJ257 2.8L, 1:42.327
What do you see in common here? Yes, the tire to use is the Hankook Z214X C91. This tire is rocking the shit out of the BFGoodrich R1, but nobody was running Hoosiers to get a true A/B comparison. The XS GT-R runs the Hoosier A compound, but Hankook doesn’t have a size big enough for the GT-R. The biggest size Hankook currently makes is a 275. My buddy Paul at Hankook says larger should be available very soon though.
The S2k was a little down on power due to tuning complications, but I think it would have given the GST Impreza a good run if it had the planned horsepower (450whp). On the other hand, the boys at GST had their shit together and deserved the win. Good job and congrats to GST. Gary should have drank more Heineken, but I’m sure the Design Craft/C-West/BC S2k will be back with at least another 100whp for another battle, another day.
Underhood of the Design Craft/C-West/BC S2k.It’s not even close to a bolt on S2000 kit, but it uses a Greddy T618Z turbo.
Better believe that the Hankook Z214X C91 is the tire to use at the moment.
Tanner said the car was suffering from brake bias issues, but is pretty damn fast regardless.
Carbon everywhere. I wish I had an autoclave to make my own dry carbon parts.
The Cobb R35 is nearly stock with approximately +70whp and still uses the stock shocks. On Toyo Proxes R888 tires, the car was running 1:50.xx which is impressive for a nearly stock 3800lb. car. It smoked the previous post mentioned yellow BNR34 in the Live Sockets battle.
The S2000’s Endless brakes weren’t so endless after all. While Tyler said the pads work great (so would anything else on a 2300lb. car), they wear like a motherfucker and cracked the rotors. It is a race car that sees extreme conditions though.
The S2k seemed to brake later and power out earlier than everybody that day. Life is wonderful when the car weighs only 2300lbs. (Tracksyde Photography)
The M-Workz 350z went about 5 seconds faster on the Hankooks. Tires are important! (Tracksyde Photography)
Cosworth power is in the house. The winner of the day and new time attack (on the big track) record holder is GST. The XS BNR32 and Tarzan holds the track record for the infield track by over 1.3 seconds. No big bad $400k Porsche 997 GT3 cup car could even come close. Speaking of which, the GMG guys were lurking around the S2k this past weekend. Maybe they are planning to bring out another overpriced 997 to try to compete with cars somewhere between 1/4 to 1/8 the price again.
Here’s Mike from D-Sport interviewing Tyler with his Hankook umbrella girls.
From the back.
From the back again. (Tracksyde Photography)
From the back one more time. (Tracksyde Photography). Told ya there was ass.